Codex Sassoon: 1,100 year-old Hebrew Bible sells for £30m at public sale and heads to Israel

A duplicate of the Hebrew Bible, regarded as 1,100 years outdated and one of many world’s oldest intact books, has been bought at public sale for $38m (£30m).

The Codex Sassoon, a leather-bound, handwritten parchment quantity, was purchased by Alfred H Moses, a former US ambassador to Romania, in New York on Wednesday.

It is assumed to have been made someday between 880CE (AD) and 960CE (AD).

A codex is outlined as “an ancient manuscript text in book form” by Oxford Languages.

Mr Moses, who was representing the American Friends of ANU, donated it to the ANU Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, auctioneers Sotheby’s mentioned in a press release.

Anu means “we” in Hebrew, in response to the organisation’s web site.

The Bible, which was displayed on the museum in March as a part of a worldwide tour, will be a part of the gathering there.

The Codex Sassoon received its identify when it was purchased in 1929 by David Solomon Sassoon, the son of an Iraqi Jewish enterprise magnate who had a house in London that he full of a set of Jewish manuscripts.

The Bible was later owned by the British Rail pension fund till it was purchased by the present vendor, Swiss-Lebanese-Syrian billionaire Jacqui Safra, in 1989 for $3.19m (£2.5m).

Hebrew Bibles are just like the Christian Old Testament, however differ in varied methods.

Sotheby’s Judaica specialist, Sharon Liberman Mintz, mentioned the value, one of many highest for a manuscript bought at public sale, “reflects the profound power, influence, and significance of the Hebrew Bible, which is an indispensable pillar of humanity”.

In 2021, a uncommon copy of the US Constitution bought for $43m (£34m).

Bill Gates paid $31m (£25m) for Leonardo da Vinci’s Codex Leicester, in 1994.

Ms Mintz mentioned she was “absolutely delighted” by the sale and that the “Codex Sassoon will shortly be making its grand and permanent return to Israel, on display for the world to see”.

While the Codex Sassoon is the earliest surviving instance of a single manuscript of the Hebrew Bible – containing all 24 books with punctuation, vowels and accents – there are older examples which can be incomplete, together with the Dead Sea Scrolls, fragments of that are from the Hebrew Bible and date to earlier than and simply after the time of Christ, in response to the Biblical Archaeology Society.

Other older Christian Bibles in existence embrace the Codex Sinaiticus, a part of which is within the British Library and the Codex Vaticanus, within the Vatican – each of which date from the 4th century, and the Codex Alexandrinus, which can be within the British Library and dates from the fifth century.

The St Cuthbert’s Gospel, which is simply the Gospel of St John within the New Testament, can be within the British Museum and dates from eighth or seventh century.