Likewise, ancient Biblical manuscripts-such as the Dead Sea Scrolls-may contain no indication as to how the Torah portions and the prophetic readings should be chanted in the synagogue.Ĭodices such as the Leningrad Codex and the Aleppo Codex contain vowel markings ( nekkudot) in the form of subscripts and superscripts. Ancient Biblical manuscripts written in Hebrew are largely without vowels, so even if there is no question regarding the letters of a given text, there still may be a question as to how a particular word should be pronounced and what it means. Photo: Bruce and Kenneth Zuckerman, West Semitic Research, in Collaboration with the Ancient Biblical Manuscript Center, Courtesy Russian National Library.Īlthough there are many ancient Biblical manuscripts, the importance of the Leningrad Codex and the Aleppo Codex, codices created by the Masoretic scholars, lies in the annotations that the texts contain.
In this photo, verses extolling the sanctity of the Biblical text run through the Leningrad Codex’s “carpet page,” a page of geometric designs often included in the illumination of ancient Biblical manuscripts.
