Codex Cairensis

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Codex Cairensis as facsimile (PDF)

The Codex Cairensis (also Codex Prophetarum Cairensis , Cairo Prophet's Code , Sigel C or M C ) is considered to be one of the oldest Hebrew manuscripts containing the full text of the Old Testament prophets .

history

The Cairo Code of the Prophets was long considered the oldest known Bible manuscript. It has according to an appended colophon (. = 895 n. BC) "at the end of 827 of the destruction of the second temple" by Moshe Ben Ascher in Tiberias written and punctuation provided. As further colophones report, it was then given to the Karaite community in Jerusalem and confiscated there by the Crusaders in 1099 . Later it came into the possession of the Karaite community of Cairo , which still keeps it today. The well-preserved model code was never bound as a book. Together with Codex Firkovich B19a , it is now kept in a box in Cairo as a loose-leaf collection.

In the course of the Hebrew University Bible Project (Malachi Beit-Arie et al., 1997) the Codex Cairensis was probably dated to the 11th century; thus the Petersburg code of prophets from 916 AD is older.

content

The Codex includes the Nevi'im ( Hebrew נְבִיאִים, Prophets). These are the books Joshua , Judges , Samuel and Kings , which, according to Jewish terminology, belong to the "fore prophets". Also included are the "rear prophets", i.e. the books of Isaiah , Jeremiah , Ezekiel and the Book of the Twelve Prophets . In Judaism, the book of Daniel does not become the prophets, but the ketuvim ( Hebrew כְּתוּבִים, Writings) are counted. It is therefore not included in this Codex.

After the list of the 24 books of the Jewish Bible with the number of the respective verses, the Codex also contains three appendices written by Moshe ben Ascher:

  1. Chapter on the three orders of the Bible (Torah, Neviim, Ketuvim);
  2. List of prophets;
  3. Colophon.

The content of the first appendix largely corresponds to a chapter from the grammar Diqduqe ha-ṭe'amim . In it, Ben Ascher explains his Karaic understanding of the Holy Scriptures. Moses and the prophets accordingly received the revelation together with its authentic written form and its correct pronunciation. The copyists and Masoretes handed down this material.

Scientific evaluation

According to observations by Lazar Lipschütz and others, the Codex is closer to Ben Naftali than Ben Ascher within the Masoretic tradition , although according to Kolophon it comes from a member of the Ben Ascher family . While this is an argument against its authenticity for some, it is explained by Moshe Goshen-Gottstein by saying that Ben Naftali adhered more faithfully to the system of Moshe Ben Ascher than his own son Aaron ben Moshe ben Ascher , the corrector and puncturer of the Codex of Aleppo .

Text editions

  • David Samuel Loewinger (Ed.): Codex Cairo of the Bible from the Karaite Synagogue at Abbasiya . Makor Publishing, Jerusalem 1971. ( digitized ) facsimile edition in a limited edition of 160 copies; with an introduction by the then head of the Manuscripts Department at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem , David Samuel Loewinger.
  • F. Pérez Castro et alia (eds.): El Códice de Profetas de El Cairo , Textos y Estudios "Cardenal Cisneros", CSIC, 8 volumes, Madrid 1979-1992. Critical edition.

literature

  • Malachi Beit-Arié, Colette Sirat, Mordecai Glatzer: Codices hebraicis litteris exarati quo tempore scripti fuerint exhibentes (= Monumenta Paleographica Medii Aevi: Series Hebraica . Volume 1: Jusqu 'á 1020 ). Brepols, Turnhout / CNRS Paris / Israeli Academy of Sciences and Humanities Jerusalem 1997.
  • Lazar Lipschütz: Ben Ašer - Ben Naftali. The Bible text of the Tiberian Masoretes. A treatise by Mishael ben 'Uzziel, published and studied . Inaugural dissertation, Bonn 1935.
  • Adrian Schenker : The doctrine of the origin of the biblical writing and pronunciation system in the Cairo Code of Prophets and the Karaean confession of Moshe Ben Ascher . In: Ders., Text and Meaning in the Old Testament: Textual History and Biblical Theological Studies (= Orbis biblicus et orientalis . Volume 103). Universitätsverlag, Freiburg / CH and Vandenhoeck & Ruprecht, Göttingen 1991, pp. 236–246. ISBN 3-7278-0730-X . ( PDF )
  • Ernst Würthwein : The text of the Old Testament. An introduction to the Biblia Hebraica. 4th expanded edition. Württemberg Bible Institute, Stuttgart 1974, ISBN 3-438-06006-X .

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ernst Würthwein: The text of the Old Testament. An introduction to the Biblia Hebraica. 2nd Edition. Württemberg Biblical Institute, Stuttgart 1963, p. 150.
  2. ^ Adrian Schenker: The doctrine of the origin of the biblical writing and pronunciation system in the Cairo code of prophets and the Karaean confession of Moshe Ben Ascher , Göttingen 1991, p. 239.
  3. ↑ a b Ernst Würthwein: The text of the Old Testament. An introduction to the Biblia Hebraica. 2nd Edition. Württemberg Biblical Institute, Stuttgart 1963, p. 38.
  4. ↑ Hanna Liss : A Pentateuch like any other? The reading secrets of the Regensburg Pentateuch . In: Friedrich-Emanuel Focken, Michael R. Ott (Eds.): Metatexte (= Materiale Textkulturen . Volume 15). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston / Munich 2015, pp. 299–334, here p. 301.
  5. ↑ Ernst Würthwein: The text of the Old Testament. An introduction to the Biblia Hebraica. 2nd Edition. Württemberg Bible Institute, Stuttgart 1963, p. 38 f.
  6. ↑ Hanna Liss : A Pentateuch like any other? The reading secrets of the Regensburg Pentateuch . In: Friedrich-Emanuel Focken, Michael R. Ott (Eds.): Metatexte (= Materiale Textkulturen . Volume 15). Walter de Gruyter, Berlin / Boston / Munich 2015, pp. 299–334, here p. 303, note 21.
  7. ↑ Heinz-Josef Fabry : The text and its history . In: Christian Frevel (ed.): Introduction to the Old Testament , 9th updated edition, Kohlhammer, Stuttgart 2016, pp. 37–66, here p. 40. See: The Hebrew University Bible Project: The Book of Ezekiel , p.xli, footnote 116 (translated from English): “It has recently been conclusively proven that the writer and 'naqdan' (vocalizer) of the Cairo Code of Prophets cannot be identified as Moshe ben Ascher and cannot be dated to the year 895, but rather in the 11th century. See M. Beit-Arié et al., Codices Hebraicis litteris exarati quo tempore scripti fuerint exhibentes (Monumenta palaeographica medii aevi. Series Hebraica; Paris / Jerusalem: Brepols, 1997) 25-29; D. Lyons, The Cumulative Masora: Text, Form and Transmission (Beer-Sheva: Ben-Gurion University Press, 1999 [4] -7 (Hebrew)) ”.
  8. ^ A b Adrian Schenker: The doctrine of the origin of the biblical writing and pronunciation system in the Cairo code of prophets and the Karaean confession of Moshe Ben Ascher , Göttingen 1991, p. 236.
  9. ^ Adrian Schenker: The doctrine of the origin of the biblical writing and pronunciation system in the Cairo code of prophets and the Karaean confession of Moshe Ben Ascher , Göttingen 1991, p. 243.

See also