SELECTIONS

MUSEUMCOLLECTION

from the

presented by

Cover image: Codex Valmadonna I

“GC” items on loan courtesy of the Green Collection

Selections from the Museum Collection Herschel A. Hepler, Exhibition Curator,Associate Curator of Hebrew ManuscriptsHerschel A. Hepler and Karen S. York, AuthorsStacey L. Douglas, EditorAlex Waldo, Graphic DesignerAll rights reserved. © Museum of the Bible, 2016.

CASE 1Early Jewish Codices

and Pro-Jewish Papal Bull

CASE 1

Proto-Jewish Prayer Book FacsimileInk on parchmentMiddle East800sMOTB.FAC.000143

This 9th-century codex is the earliest example of a siddur-like manuscript. It predates Amram Gaon’s and Sa’adia Gaon’s standardizing of the prayer book. It contains various liturgical texts, including daily prayers, psalms, an allegorical poem of the Song of Songs, and a Passover Seder section that was written upside down. It is likely the oldest, complete Hebrew codex known to exist.

MIDDLE EASTRome

Emigrated1070

MIDDLE EASTRome

Emigrated1070

Image of the original Proto-Jewish Prayer Book (GC.MS.000764)

CASE 1

Codex Valmadonna IInk on parchmentEnglandJuly 1189GC.MS.000858

Codex Valmadonna I is the only dated Hebrew codex whose English provenance can be verified, making it the sole surviving text from the Jews of Norman England (1070–1290). It contains major portions of the Hebrew Bible—Torah, Haftaroth, and Megilloth—with various Targumim. The codex survives from a turbulent time in England. It was completed just months before the coronation of Richard “The Lionheart” in 1189 and the anti-Semitic massacres that followed in York, London, and elsewhere in England in 1190. Codex Valmadonna I survives as a reminder of this small Jewish community (5,000 at its height) and its brief settlement in England.

Expulsed1290

Emigrated1070

Expulsed1290

Emigrated1070

CASE 1

Pope Sixtus V Papal BullInk on parchmentRome (Italy)October 22, 1586GC.MS.000859

This papal bul l , issued by Pope Sixtus V, represents a change in Catholic and Jewish relations in Rome. Sixtus V granted Jews ful l civic rights in this bul l , al lowing them to establish their own schools and synagogues while reducing their taxes and pardoning many of various crimes. Considering the harsh treatment by many prior Renaissance popes, this bul l represents a posit ive movement in history when a pope stepped out against anti-Semitism, and promoted many rights for Jews under Roman Catholicism.

Rome

Rome

CASE 2The Samaritan Torah

CASE 2

Samaritan Torah ScrollInk on parchmentIsraelca. 1160sGC.SCR.004821

For over 2,500 years the Samaritans, a Jewish sect that emerged in the Second Temple period, have venerated the Torah and used Torah scrolls in liturgical worship. Sometimes called the Samaritan Pentateuch, it contains the text of the Torah, the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, written in paleo-Hebrew script. This scroll has been attributed to the scribe Shalmah Ben Abraham writing in the 1160s.

JerusalemMt. Gerizim

SAMARIA

JerusalemMt. Gerizim

SAMARIA

CASE 3Jewish Written

and Oral Law

CASE 3

Ashkenazic Torah ScrollInk on parchmentNorthern Europe and Germany1200sGC.SCR.004820

This scroll is one of the few complete Sefer Torah scrolls surviving from the medieval period. Based on its script style and physical features scholars have been able to tentatively determine the scroll’s origin. It was likely written in the Jewish Ashkenaz region (Rhine river valley) during the 13th century.

ASHKENAZ

ASHKENAZ

CASE 3

Mishnah, with Commentary of MaimonidesPaperNaples (Italy)May 8, 1492GC.INC.000163.1

The Mishnah is a vital collection of rabbinic oral law. Here it is paired with Maimonides’ Commentary on the Mishnah , the first of his major religious works completed at the age of thirty in 1168. This first edition of the Mishnah with Maimonides’s Commentary was printed in the late 1400s by Joshua Solomon Soncino, an important Jewish printer in Italy.

Naples

Naples

Museum of the Bible

In the fall of 2017, Museum of the Bible opens its eight floor, 430,000-square-foot museum in Washington, DC. Under construction, it is conveniently located two blocks south of the National Mall and three blocks southwest of the Capitol.

Museum of the Bible is a place where people can engage with the Bible—its history, narratives, and impact—in their own way through in-depth explorations and interactive media and technologies. The museum and its traveling exhibitions display ancient Near Eastern, Jewish, and Christian artifacts and documents from the museum’s collection. These irreplaceable historical items help tell various stories involving the Bible—as a historical and cultural item as well as a sacred text. The museum seeks to create an atmosphere of wonder and exploration, of reflection and contemplation, inviting all people to look at the Bible anew.

As of 2016, Museum of the Bible traveling exhibits have been on display in several U.S. cities and in five other countries: The Vatican, Rome, Italy; Bible Lands Museum Jerusalem, Israel; Pontificia Universidad Católica Argentina, Buenos Aires, Argentina; Ulmer Museum, Ulm, Germany; and S.M.I. Catedral de La Habana, Havana, and Catedral de Nuestra Señora de la Asunción, Santiago, Cuba. More traveling exhibits are being planned and new locations sought to increase access to the museum’s artifacts and to invite all people to engage with the Bible.