codex · Hebrew · OT

Aleppo Codex

Also known as: Keter Aram Tzova

AD 920 – AD 930 (~AD 925) · dated by colophon

Evidence card

A quick read on the physical object before the interpretive summary.

2 sources

Artifact

codex · Hebrew

Date basis

AD 920 – AD 930 (~AD 925) · colophon

Survival

~60% physically present

Contents

tanakh All 24 books (originally); ~60% surviving after 1947 Aleppo riot

Artifact/map cue

Held at Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem · Discovery: Long held in Aleppo, Syria; smuggled to Israel 1958

Date

AD 920 – AD 930 (~AD 925)

Passage represented

tanakh All 24 books (originally); ~60% surviving after 1947 Aleppo riot

Fragmentary or partial witness

How much survives

~60% of the claimed text is physically present

Why it matters

The most authoritative Masoretic manuscript — vocalised and accented by Aaron ben Asher, the master Masorete. Maimonides used it as his exemplar. Tragically, the Torah portion (Genesis through most of Deuteronomy) was lost or destroyed in the 1947 anti-Jewish riot in Aleppo.

What it contains

tanakh — All 24 books (originally); ~60% surviving after 1947 Aleppo riot (partial)

~60% of the claimed text is physically present.

Where & when

Held at: Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum, Jerusalem
Discovery: Long held in Aleppo, Syria; smuggled to Israel 1958

Source trail

Named catalogues, editions, libraries, or scholarship used for this manuscript page.