Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus (or The Petersburg Codex of the Prophets), designated by V^p, is an old

Masoretic The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

manuscript of

Hebrew Bible The Hebrew Bible or Tanakh (;"Tanach"
''Random House Webster's Unabridged Dictionary''. Hebrew: ''Tān ...

, especially the Latter Prophets, using Babylonian vocalization. This

codex The codex (plural codices ) was the historical ancestor of the modern book. Instead of being composed of sheets of paper, it used sheets of vellum, papyrus, or other materials. The term ''codex'' is often used for ancient manuscript books, with ...

contains the books of

Isaiah Isaiah ( or ; he, , ''Yəšaʿyāhū'', "God is Salvation"), also known as Isaias, was the 8th-century BC Israelite prophet after whom the Book of Isaiah is named. Within the text of the Book of Isaiah, Isaiah himself is referred to as "the ...

Jeremiah Jeremiah, Modern: , Tiberian: ; el, Ἰερεμίας, Ieremíās; meaning " Yah shall raise" (c. 650 – c. 570 BC), also called Jeremias or the "weeping prophet", was one of the major prophets of the Hebrew Bible. According to Jewish ...

, Ezekiel, and the Minor Prophets, with both the small and the large Masora.

Description

The codex consists of 225 folios, with each folio divided lengthwise into two columns with 21 lines in each column, except in folio 1a and folio 224a-b, which exhibit epigraphs. Two lines of Masorah Magna are placed in the lower margin of each page, whereas the

Masorah Parva The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh) in Rabbinic Judaism. ...

appear in the center space between the columns. The vowel-points are superlinear following the so-called Babylonian system. The characters are square, written with a reed using 'thick and shiny' ink.Margoliouth, G
"The Oldest MS. of the Hebrew Bible"
''The Academy''. April 2, 1892, No. 1039, pp. 328-329. The left side of a column is irregular, as the scribe didn't use elongated letters. The scribe provides the verse divisions using two perpendicular dots. It was discovered in 1839 by Abraham Firkowitsch, who claimed to find it in the synagogue of

Chufut-Kale __NOTOC__ Chufut-Kale ( crh, Çufut Qale, italic=yes ; Russian and Ukrainian: Чуфут-Кале - ''Chufut-Kale''; Karaim: Кала - קלעה - ''Kala'') is a medieval city-fortress in the Crimean Mountains that now lies in ruins. It is a nati ...

in the

Crimea Crimea, crh, Къырым, Qırım, grc, Κιμμερία / Ταυρική, translit=Kimmería / Taurikḗ ( ) is a peninsula in Ukraine, on the northern coast of the Black Sea, that has been occupied by Russia since 2014. It has a pop ...

. It is currently housed at the National Library of Russia in

Saint Petersburg Saint Petersburg ( rus, links=no, Санкт-Петербург, a=Ru-Sankt Peterburg Leningrad Petrograd Piter.ogg, r=Sankt-Peterburg, p=ˈsankt pʲɪtʲɪrˈburk), formerly known as Petrograd (1914–1924) and later Leningrad (1924–1991), i ...

. The date of the manuscript (A.D. 916) appears in the colophon. This manuscript is valuable not only due to its age (as one of the oldest Hebrew Bible manuscripts), but also because it is an important witness to the Babylonian pointing system, which was unknown to scholars for centuries until its discovery. Comparative studies with contemporary manuscripts showed that the codex uses the Eastern signs yet actually "follows the Western tradition in its consonantal text and its pointing." It is first published by H. L. Strack in 1876 (in a facsimile edition) and annotated for print editions, among others, in 1971 (hardcover). Strack, Hermann L. (Editor). "The Hebrew Bible — Latter Prophets: The Babylonian Codex of Petrograd". Edited with Preface and Critical Annotations. Prolegomenon by P. Wernberg-Møller. ''Ktav Publishing House'', 1971. . In Hebrew.

References

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External links

Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus (St. Petersburg, Russian National Library, Evr. I. B 3)
Published in 1876 by Hermann Strack in St Petersburg, Russia. The 1876 edition was photographed by Nehemia Gordon in 2017.
Prophetarum posteriorum Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus
Hermann Leberecht Strack; Rossiĭskaia natsionalnaia biblioteka. Publisher: Petropoli : Editio Bibliothecae Publicae Imperialis, 1876. OCLC Number: 233912085. 10th-century biblical manuscripts Hebrew Bible manuscripts

Description

See also

References

External links