Indian Link To The World’s Oldest Complete Bible, The Codex Sassoon
Photo: ANU
India-West News Desk
The world’s oldest complete Hebrew Bible, the Codex Sassoon, recently unveiled at the Anu–Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv, carries a direct connection to India through its namesake, David Solomon Sassoon. This 1,100-year-old manuscript, dating back to around 900 CE, was acquired for $38.1 million at Sotheby’s New York and donated by Ambassador Alfred Moses. It contains all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible, written in Biblical Hebrew on parchment, and is nearly complete, offering a rare, continuous version of the sacred texts unlike the older, fragmentary Dead Sea Scrolls.
David Solomon Sassoon
The story of the Codex Sassoon is intimately tied to David Solomon Sassoon, the renowned bibliophile from whose private collection the manuscript originally hailed. David Solomon Sassoon was born in Bombay (Mumbai), India, an heir to a Baghdadi family of merchants and bankers with a global reach. His father, Solomon Sassoon, ran the family’s international trading firm, while his mother, Farha (Flora) Sassoon, was recognized as a trailblazing woman, a Torah scholar, and a skilled businesswoman. When David was young, his father died, and his mother took charge of his education, hiring private tutors. This is when he discovered his love of books. As an adult, David devoted himself to collecting and studying ancient Jewish manuscripts from around the world. He amassed the most valuable private collection of Hebrew manuscripts, which he both made available to scholars and studied himself.
It was in 1929 that David Sassoon received an offer to purchase a Tanakh manuscript claimed to be among the oldest known. This very manuscript, which would ultimately be named the Codex Sassoon, was at that time in private hands in Ankara, Turkey. Sassoon inspected the manuscript and, after some bargaining, bought it for £350. He subsequently had it rebound and assigned it the shelf mark 1053, which is still stamped on its spine. Following further examination, Sassoon averred that the codex was written in the 10th century CE.
The Codex Sassoon’s Journey
After being part of David Solomon Sassoon’s prized collection, the Codex Sassoon continued its notable journey. During the 1970s, Sassoon’s descendants sold off part of his collection. In 1978, the British Rail Pension Fund acquired the Codex Sassoon as part of its strategy of investment in artistic and cultural assets. The codex was deposited with the British Library in London, where it was publicly displayed only once, in late 1982, at an exhibition devoted to Hebrew manuscripts from the Sassoon Collection.
In 1989, the codex was again put up for sale, achieving the highest price ever for a Hebrew manuscript at the time, and the second highest price for any manuscript. It became part of the collection of Jacob (Jacqui) Safra of Geneva, Switzerland, a businessman and investor from a banking family that originated in Aleppo, Syria. Most recently, in 2023, the codex was acquired by Ambassador Alfred H. Moses for $38.1 million, and gifted to the collection of ANU – Museum of the Jewish People, to safeguard it for the entire Jewish people.
