Leningrad Codex

Creator

Files

Document Type

Photographic reproduction

Keywords

Bible, Hebrew Bible, Leningrad Codex

Brief Description

Photographic copy of the original. This is the oldest complete codex of the Hebrew Bible.

Context

The Leningrad Codex is the world's oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible that has been preserved to the present time. It is housed in the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg (formerly Leningrad), and thus it has become known simply as the Leningrad Codex. The manuscript also at times goes by the name of the Cairo Codex, because Cairo, Egypt is the original place of the copying of the text in the early 11th century. The manuscript first came to scholarly attention in 1845, and it was subsequently acquired in 1863 for what was then the Imperial Public Library in St. Petersburg. Some have suggested that this Codex is the single most important manuscript of the Bible, for it established the text of the most critical editions of the Hebrew Bible.

Country or Place of Origin

Cairo, Egypt

Language

Hebrew

Publication Date of the Original

1008

Publisher of the Reproduction

W.B. Eerdmans, Brill Academic

City

Grand Rapids, MI; New York

Date

1998