Tenth Century Torah Was Penned By Famed Jewish Scribe
Graphic by Angelie Zaslavsky
By Ari Feldman July 7, 2017
Researchers from Cambridge have identified the author of an 10th century collection of biblical scriptures: Samuel ben Jacob, the same scribe who penned the Leningrad Codex. The Codex is the main Hebrew copy of the bible on which most modern translations are based.
The manuscript contains sections from Prophets, Judges and Kings, and was likely written around the year 975, researchers concluded. They used digital images of the manuscript, which is kept in the Russian National Library, to find “little flourishes and little symbols, jots and tittles on the manuscript” that mirrored those in the Leningrad Codex.
Researchers are not sure if the discovery will entail any changes to modern translations. Professor Gary Rendsburg, Laurie Chair in Jewish History at Rutgers University, said the differences may be as small as replacing “hair” with “hairs.”
“These scribes are like our heroes who have given us these texts,” Professor Rendsburg told Religion News Service. “Because they wrote with such devotion, such dedication and such accuracy. … For me, the excitement is to bring to life this person about whom we just knew a name, essentially.”
Contact Ari Feldman at [email protected] or on Twitter @aefeldman.
This is a moment of great uncertainty. Here’s what you can do about it.
We hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, we’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s independent Jewish news this Passover. All donations are being matched by the Forward Board - up to $100,000.
This is a moment of great uncertainty for the news media, for the Jewish people, and for our sacred democracy. It is a time of confusion and declining trust in public institutions. An era in which we need humans to report facts, conduct investigations that hold power to account, tell stories that matter and share honest discourse on all that divides us.
With no paywall or subscriptions, the Forward is entirely supported by readers like you. Every dollar you give this Passover is invested in the future of the Forward — and telling the American Jewish story fully and fairly.
The Forward doesn’t rely on funding from institutions like governments or your local Jewish federation. There are thousands of readers like you who give us $18 or $36 or $100 each month or year.
Support our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.
