The oldest known Jewish book, the Afghan Liturgical Codex, dated to about 700 A.D., was presented in New York City. The manuscript is on display at the library of the Jewish Theological Seminary as part of the exhibition Sacred Words: Uncovering the Earliest Jewish Book, which opened on 19 March and will run until 17 July.
The term “codex” refers to a form of ancient book consisting of folded and bound sheets of parchment or paper, as opposed to traditional scrolls. In this case, it refers to an early Jewish prayer book containing texts recorded in the form of a book, rather than on separate scrolls.
Also known as the Afghan Sidur, this small five-by-five-inch prayer book contains prayers, poems, and the oldest fragments of the Easter Haggadah ever discovered, which were mysteriously written upside down.
The manuscript was found in 1997 by a member of the Afghan Hazara ethnic minority in a cave near one of the ancient Buddha monuments in Bamiyan, which was destroyed by the Taliban in 2001. The book later became part of the collection of the Green family from Oklahoma, owners of the Hobby Lobby chain of stores, and became part of the exposition of the Museum of the Bible in Washington.
Previously, it was believed that the book was created in Egypt around 900 AD, but radiocarbon analysis in 2019 showed that it was several centuries older, which came as a surprise to researchers. Before that, older Hebrew texts were known, but only on scrolls – the most famous are the Dead Sea Scrolls, which are over 2000 years old. The dating proved that the Afghan Liturgical Codex is the earliest known complete Jewish prayer book, surpassing all other known examples by more than a century.
The exhibition at the Jewish Theological Seminary is organised in cooperation with the Museum of the Bible and with the support of the Afghan Jewish Foundation, the American Sephardic Federation and Congregation Anshei Shalom of Jamaica Estates, Queens.
Sharon Lieberman Mintz, curator of Jewish art at the Jewish Theological Seminary, noted that the Afghan Liturgical Codex provides a unique opportunity to learn about Jewish prayers that predate any known siddur, revealing a rich liturgical tradition that goes back more than a millennium.
