Oldest Bible manuscript to go on display in Tel Aviv at ANU museum

The Codex Sassoon, a complete manuscript of the Old Testament will go on display at Tel Aviv’s ANU – Museum of the Jewish People from March 23-29, according to a joint press release from ANU and Sotheby’s fine art brokerage company.

The Codex Sassoon is named after the previous owner David Solomon Sassoon, who acquired the Bible in 1929 and assembled one of the most significant private collections of Judaica and Hebraica manuscripts in the 20th century. The document offers a critical link bridging Jewish oral tradition to the modern Hebrew Bible.

It was not until recently that the current owner, collector Jacqui Safra, had the Codex Sassoon carbon dated, confirming it was older than the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex, two other major early Hebrew Bibles, according to Sotheby’s.

The ancient history of the Codex Sassoon

Sotheby’s said the Codex Sassoon had been dated to either the late 9th or early 10th century on both scientific and paleographic grounds and contains almost the entirety of the Bible. The oldest copies of Biblical text ever found were the Dead Sea Scrolls which were discovered in caves in 1947.

In light of the significance of the Codex Sassoon’s arrival in Israel, the ANU Museum will present the ancient manuscript to the public free of charge with early registration between March 23-29, 2023. (credit: COURTESY SOTHEBY’S)

Per its website, the ANU museum is allowing the public to reserve tickets to see the manuscript for free. These free tickets do not include general admission and allow participants one hour at the Codex Sassoon display. The price for general admission tickets along with the manuscript viewing cost NIS 52 for children and adults and NIS 26 for Israeli senior citizens.

Could this be the world’s most valuable manuscript? 

The manuscript’s impending auction was announced in mid-February. Since then, it has been on display at Sotheby’s in London and from there is coming to Tel Aviv. It will also be shown in Dallas and Los Angeles before reaching its final destination at Sotheby’s in New York in May.

The Codex Sassoon will be on display in New York for nine days before its live auction on May 16 at 10 a.m. EDT.

According to a statement from Sotheby’s, the company estimates that the manuscript may be sold for as much as $50 million, which would make it the most valuable manuscript ever to be auctioned. The current holder of that record is a first-edition copy of the US constitution, which was also sold by Sotheby’s to American billionaire Kenneth Griffin.

Reuters contributed to this report.