Leningrad Codex

Overview

The Leningrad Codex (Latin: Codex Leningradensis) is a medieval manuscript containing the entire Hebrew Old Testament. It is known as the oldest surviving manuscript of the Masoretic Text in which the whole Old Testament is preserved intact. As a codex, it is made of bound leaves in book form rather than written on a scroll. The name refers to the manuscript itself and does not appear in the biblical text.

Production and Transmission

According to the scribal note (colophon) at the end of the manuscript, a scribe named Samuel ben Jacob wrote it on parchment in Cairo around 1008 or 1009. The colophon also states that it was copied from manuscripts corrected according to the text of Aaron ben Moses ben Asher, a Masorete of Tiberias. In addition to the consonantal text, the manuscript contains:

• Vowel points and accent marks
• Masoretic notes in the margins
• Decorated pages with ornamental designs

In the nineteenth century the manuscript entered what is now the National Library of Russia as part of the collection of the Karaite Jewish collector Abraham Firkovich. Its name became established because it came to wide scholarly attention while the city was called Leningrad. Although the city was renamed Saint Petersburg in 1991, the manuscript has kept its name.

Arrangement of the Books

The manuscript follows the traditional order of the Hebrew Bible: the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. In this respect it differs from the order of the thirty-nine books of the Protestant Old Testament, which follows the tradition of the Septuagint and the Vulgate. It also places 1 Chronicles and 2 Chronicles at the beginning of the Writings, and so differs as well from printed Hebrew Bibles, which commonly place Chronicles at the very end.

Significance for Textual Study

The Leningrad Codex is the base text of the Biblia Hebraica series, the critical editions of the Hebrew Bible widely used by scholars. The third edition, completed in the 1930s, and the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) were based on this manuscript, as is the successor edition now in progress. The manuscript, however, is a copy rather than an original. Denominations and theologians who confess biblical inerrancy generally hold that inerrancy applies to the original autographs, and they explain that the original text can be approached through the comparison of multiple manuscripts (textual criticism).

Points of Discussion

• Relationship to the Aleppo Codex: Many scholars regard the Aleppo Codex, copied in the tenth century, as a more accurate witness to the Ben Asher tradition. Since the mid-twentieth century, however, a substantial portion of it has been lost, and it is no longer complete. For this reason the complete Leningrad Codex serves as the base text of critical editions.
• Comparison with other textual traditions: The codex is generally in agreement with the much earlier Dead Sea Scrolls and with the Septuagint, though there are some differences. Scholars' judgments vary from passage to passage as to which reading is closer to the original.
• A common misconception: The codex is sometimes described as "the oldest Hebrew Bible," but this is inaccurate. It is the oldest complete Masoretic manuscript; some fragmentary manuscripts are older.