Damascus Codex

The Damascus Pentateuch (Hebrew: כֶּתֶר דַּמֶּשֶׂק Keter Dameseq or Crown of Damascus) is a 10th-century Hebrew Bible codex, consisting of the almost complete Pentateuch, the Five Books of Moses. The codex was copied by an unknown scribe, replete with Masoretic annotations. The manuscript is defective in its beginning, as it starts with Genesis 9:26, and Exodus 18:1–23 is also missing. In 1975 it was acquired by the Jewish National and University Library, Jerusalem, which in 2008 changed its name to "National Library of Israel". The codex was published in a large, two-volume facsimile edition in 1978. It should not be confused with another manuscript, the Damascus Crown (Damascus Keter) of medieval Spanish origin, containing 24 canonical books.