Cairo Codex: Colophon

The Masorete Moses Ben Asher wrote this colophon (the closing statement by the scribe at the end of a manuscript) for a magnificent Hebrew Bible codex. While the colophon states that this work was written in 895, it has been shown using carbon dating and other techniques that the manuscript is actually a copy of that written by Moses Ben Asher and likely dates to the eleventh century. Moses’ work drew on an already-long tradition of analysis and careful transmission of scriptural works. In several places, this text deviates from what is known to have been the Tiberian tradition of biblical pointing and signs. This manuscript remained in the Cairo Karaite community for centuries, having originally been copied for a Jerusalem-based Karaite, Ya‘bets ben Solomon.