An Israeli museum on Thursday unveiled what it says in the oldest known Jewish prayer book in the world, dating back to the 9th century A.D.
The prayer book, about 10 centimeters (four inches) long and seven centimeters wide, is written in Hebrew, contains about 50 pages, and is still in its original binding. It was donated to the Bible Lands Museum in Jerusalem by Oklahoma businessman Steve Green, a devout Christian and owner of one of the largest collections of rare biblical artifacts in the world.
Green’s family controls the Hobby Lobby crafts store chain, which won a closely watched U.S. Supreme Court ruling in June that allows it to assert religious beliefs to avoid covering contraceptives in employee health plans.
Green told The Associated Press that the book originated in the Middle East and that three experts, working independently, had carbon-dated it to 820 A.D.
Haggai Ben Shammai, the academic director of Israel’s National Library, agreed that the prayer book could be the most ancient Hebrew codex known to exist, though he said there is another contender in Germany.
A codex is a manuscript bound in book form with writing on both sides of page. Until the 5th or 6th century, Hebrew documents were written on parchment scrolls, so a codex represents a big step forward in the history of manuscripts… Read More
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