Leningrad Codex

Overview

The Leningrad Codex is not a term found in the biblical text. It is the name of a medieval manuscript containing the entire Hebrew Old Testament. Its Latin name is Codex Leningradensis. A codex is a manuscript made of bound leaves in book form rather than a scroll. The manuscript is known as the oldest surviving manuscript of the Masoretic Text in which the entire Old Testament is preserved intact.

Production and Transmission

According to the scribal note (colophon) at the end of the manuscript, it was written on parchment in Cairo around 1008 or 1009 by a scribe named Samuel ben Jacob. 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 the following:

• Vowel points and accent marks
• Masoretic notes written 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. The name took hold because the manuscript became widely known to scholars while the city was called Leningrad. Although the city was renamed Saint Petersburg in 1991, the manuscript has retained 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 thus 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 being published. The manuscript, however, is not the original but a copy. Denominations and theologians who confess biblical inerrancy generally hold that inerrancy applies to the original autographs. They further 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. However, a substantial portion of it has been lost since the mid-twentieth century, and it is no longer complete. For this reason the Leningrad Codex, which is complete, is used as the base text of critical editions.
• Comparison with other textual traditions: The codex is in general 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.

In the Korean Church

The BHS, which is based on this manuscript, is commonly used in Hebrew courses at Korean theological seminaries and in Old Testament exegetical studies. Korean Bible translations are also understood to have consulted such critical editions as the source text for the Old Testament.