World's oldest Hebrew Bible sells for $38 million

The ancient leather-bound manuscript, dating from around AD 900, “contains nearly the entire Hebrew Bible,” making it the most complete early copy in existence, according to Sotheby's.

The world's oldest Buddhist scriptures are sold for 38 million USD, picture 1 — Sotheby's New York announced the auction of the Codex Sassoon in February 2023. It just sold for $38 million. Photo: AP

It is known as the Sassoon Codex – named after its former owner, David Solomon Sassoon, a collector who amassed a substantial collection of Judaica and Hebraica manuscripts in the 20th century.

It was sold last week after a 10-minute bidding period to Alfred Moses - an American lawyer and former ambassador, who will donate it to the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, Israel.

The amount is a record for a manuscript, The Financial Times reports, surpassing the $31 million that billionaire Bill Gates paid for Da Vinci's Codex Leicester in 1994.

The Sassoon Codex was written by a master scribe over a two-year period, according to the website of Southern Methodist University in Dallas, which has put the Bible on display.

A second scholar added a note to it in the 13th century when it was housed in a synagogue in Syria. Due to the war, a member of the Jewish community hid it for safekeeping and returned it when it was rebuilt.

The Codex was officially lost for 600 years until it resurfaced in 1929 and was purchased by David Sassoon.

The only near-complete Hebrew Bible in existence from the 10th century is called the Aleppo Codex, which was created around AD 930, according to Sotheby’s. However, about two-fifths of the manuscript was lost between the late 1940s and late 1950s under what the auction house described as “mysterious circumstances.”

The auction house said the nearly 800-page Sassoon Codex was “undoubtedly the most important early biblical manuscript in private hands.” Sharon Liberman Mintz, a Sotheby’s Jewish expert, said the high price of $38 million “reflects the power, influence and profound significance of the Hebrew Bible…”

Mai Anh (according to SCMP, AP)

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