Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus (or The Petersburg Codex of the Prophets), designated by V^p, is an old Masoretic 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 The Babylonian vocalization, also known as Babylonian supralinear punctuation, or Babylonian pointing or Babylonian niqqud Hebrew: ) is a system of diacritics (niqqud) and vowel symbols assigned above the text and devised by the Masoretes of B ...

. 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 "th ...

, Jeremiah,

Ezekiel Ezekiel (; he, יְחֶזְקֵאל ''Yəḥezqēʾl'' ; in the Septuagint written in grc-koi, Ἰεζεκιήλ ) is the central protagonist of the Book of Ezekiel in the Hebrew Bible. In Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, Ezekiel is ackn ...

, 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 The Masoretic Text (MT or 𝕸; he, נֻסָּח הַמָּסוֹרָה, Nūssāḥ Hammāsōrā, Literal translation, lit. 'Text of the Tradition') is the authoritative Biblical Hebrew, Hebrew and Biblical Aramaic, Aramaic text of the 24 b ...

are placed in the lower margin of each page, whereas the Masorah Parva 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 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 p ...

. It is currently housed at the

National Library of Russia The National Library of Russia (NLR, russian: Российская национальная библиотека}), located in Saint Petersburg, is the first, and one of three national public libraries in Russia. The NLR is currently ranked amo ...

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 H is the eighth letter of the Latin alphabet. H may also refer to: Musical symbols * H number, Harry Halbreich reference mechanism for music by Honegger and Martinů * H, B (musical note) * H, B major People * H. (noble) (died after 12 ...

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