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  • From: "Ishinan" <ishinan AT comcast.net>
  • To: "B-Hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Oldest MSS for creation account?
  • Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2009 21:53:19 -0500

James Christian wrote:

...does anybody know which manuscript or fragment is the oldest that contains the creation account in Hebrew (and any other languages for that matter)?

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Dear James,

Your best bet would be the following sources:

The Aleppo Codex was written in the 10th century CE. It is considered the most authoritative document in the masorah. It is especially valuable witness to the early Masoretic textual tradition associated with Rabbi Aaron Ben Asher, a famous grammarian and scribe of the tenth century. It was written around A.D. 920 in Palestine, probably in the vicinity of Tiberias. It is seen as the most authoritative source document for both the original biblical text and its vocalization.

In this respect, you can consult: The Aleppo Codex Online homepage (which is at times erratic, therefore requires some patience, but the pictures are worth the aggravation)

http://www.aleppocodex.org/


See also Moshe H. Goshen-Gottstein, ed., The Aleppo Codex. Jerusalem: Hebrew University Bible Project, 1976. Photographic facsimile edited by Moshe H. Goshen-Gottstein, Introduction in Hebrew and English.

And Mordechai Breuer et al., Jerusalem Crown. The Bible of the Hebrew University of Jerusalem. Pentateuch, Prophets and Writings, According to the Text and Masorah of the Aleppo Codex and Related Manuscripts, Following the Methods of Rabbi Mordechai Breuer. Basel, Switzerland: Karger, 2000


Last, but not least, I highly recommend Saadia Gaon's (Sa?id bin Yusuf al-Fayyumiy b. Egypt 882/892, d. Baghdad 942) Commentary on the Book of Creation.

Background:

In the 10th century AD Saadia Gaon wrote a Tafsir, an Arabic translation of the Tanakh with a lengthy commentary. These were written in Hebrew characters (Judaeo-Arabic).. Unfortunately, because of its size, it has not come down to us in complete form. Professor Moshe Zucker spent many thousands of hours searching for fragments of this lost work among the hundreds of thousands of torn pages of the Cairo Geniza, and published a large part of the Gaon's commentary on Genesis, both in Judaeo-Arabic and in Hebrew translation.

It has fallen to Michael Linetsky, to undertake the task of presenting this commentary in English.

See Rabbi Saadiah Gaon's Commentary on the Book of Creation by Saadia Gaon, Saadia, Michael Linetsky (Translator) . ISBN-13: 9780300044904


http://www.barnesandnoble.com/booksearch/noresults.asp?PT=BK&UID=EO1z0UbKnb&CRVSIZE=5&CRVSTART=1&ISBN=9780765760876&ERN=210


Michael Linetsky was born in the former USSR and came to the United States in 1978. He resides in New Jersey and attends Yeshiva University.

His work is the first comprehensive translation into English of Rabbi Saadia's commentary on a significant portion of the Book of Genesis.


Good luck with your research.

Best regards

Ishinan Ishibashi




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