World’s oldest near-complete Hebrew Bible heads to auction

A Hebrew Bible more than 1,000 years old is set to be sold at auction in New York for up to an estimated $50 million, Sotheby’s announced Wednesday.

The Codex Sassoon -- which dates to the late ninth to early tenth century -- is the earliest, most complete Hebrew Bible ever discovered. It will become the most expensive historical document or manuscript to ever go under the hammer when Sotheby’s puts it up for auction in May.

“(It) is undeniably one of the most important and singular texts in human history,” said Richard Austin, Sotheby’s global head of books and manuscripts.

The Codex Sassoon is one of only two codices, or manuscripts, containing all 24 books of the Hebrew Bible to have survived into the modern era.

It is substantially more complete than the Aleppo Codex and older than the Leningrad Codex, two other famous early Hebrew Bibles, Sotheby’s said. The manuscript bridges the Dead Sea Scrolls and modernly accepted form of the Hebrew Bible.