The 'Codex Sassoon' bible is displayed at Sotheby's in New York on February 15, 2023. - According to Sotheby's the Codex Sassoon is the earliest and most complete Hebrew Bible ever discovered and will be offered for auction with an estimate of 30-50 million US dollars, making it the most valuable printed text or historical document ever offered. (Photo by Ed JONES / AFP) (Photo by ED JONES/AFP via Getty Images)
The world's oldest known Hebrew Bible is set to go on the auction block and is expected to fetch millions.
Sotheby's London will showcase the Codex Sassoon, which dates back more than 1,000 years to the late 9th or early 10th century, from February 22 through February 28, and will then transfer it to New York for auction. The ancient text also has a scheduled stop in Jerusalem before it will be sold off.
The artifact is described as the earliest example of an almost complete Hebrew Bible by Sotheby's with only 12 pages missing from the centuries-old codex.
"This represents the first time the text appears in the form where we can really read and understand it," Sharon Liberman Mintz, Sotheby's senior Judaica consultant, told the New York Times.
The text was originally written by just one scribe in what is present day Israel or Syria on 400 sheets of parchment paper. It eventually found its way to a synagogue in northeastern Syria that was eventually destroyed during the 13th or 14th century and would remain unseen for nearly 600 years until David Solomon Sassoon purchased it in 1929.
"You have seven centuries of nothing," Mint said. "And then you have this entire authoritative, standardized, accurate text of the Hebrew Bible."
Note: Sotheby's owner Patrick Drahi is Chairman of Altice USA, parent company of Cheddar News.
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