Category: Articles

by Susan Adams, 06.26.09. Sotheby's hopes an ancient biblical manuscript will fetch $1 million. Sotheby's might want to send a bidding paddle to Da Vinci Code author Dan Brown. In its July 7 London manuscripts sale, the auction house is offering a 1,500-year-old biblical document that includes layers of text and meaning--in three languages.

Known as the Codex Climaci Rescriptus, the piece was written over the span of three centuries and stowed in a sacred monastery until landing in the hands of a pair of British twins by way of local Egyptian dealers. Now an English college is cannibalizing its library and cashing out, to pay for some building renovations. The ancient manuscript could sell for close to $1 million, according to Sotheby's estimate.

The codex (Latin for "book") dates to the sixth century, when Christian Palestinian scribes wrote down the words of Christ in Aramaic, the ancient language that is believed to have been close to the dialect spoken by the messiah himself. It includes the despairing plea Jesus was said to have uttered on the cross: "Eli Eli, lema sabachthani [My God, My God, why have you forsaken me?] "However, many scholars believe the translation would be "My God, My God, thou has not forsaken me."

The sixth-century text includes chunks of the Old and New Testaments in both Aramaic and Greek. Each of the 137 leaves on auction is vellum made of sheepskin. "It feels like stiff leather," says Sotheby's medieval manuscript specialist Timothy Bolton...MORE...

Read the Full Story Here