Codex Sarravianus-Colbertinus: A Hexaplaric Greek Octateuch
A large but dispersed Greek parchment manuscript of the Pentateuch, Joshua, and Judges, now in Leiden, Paris, and St. Petersburg. One of the oldest surviving Greek Octateuch witnesses and a key manuscript for Septuagint and Hexaplaric textual history.
- Artifact date
- 4th-5th century AD
- Findspot
- Eastern Mediterranean provenance is proposed; the codex later entered European collections
- Current location
- Leiden University Libraries, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and National Library of Russia
What archaeologists can actually examine
A large but dispersed Greek parchment manuscript of the Pentateuch, Joshua, and Judges, now in Leiden, Paris, and St. Petersburg. The object or complex is catalogued under the names Rahlfs G, Codex Sarravianus, Codex Colbertinus. 153 surviving large-format parchment leaves from a Greek Octateuch once numbering roughly 454 leaves. Its evidentiary force is specific: One of the oldest surviving Greek Octateuch witnesses and a key manuscript for Septuagint and Hexaplaric textual history. The cited collection records and scholarly treatments agree on the identity of the evidence while allowing normal differences over date, reconstruction, and interpretation. This dossier therefore distinguishes the observable artifact, the historical reconstruction built from it, and the biblical comparison made on the site. It does not ask the object to prove claims beyond the text, image, context, or manuscript leaves that actually survive.
A specifically identified archaeological record
The evidence is tied to Rahlfs G, Codex Sarravianus, Codex Colbertinus and distinguished from similarly themed records by its own physical identity, custody, and scholarly catalog history.
The physical evidence defines the claim
The surviving evidence consists of 153 surviving large-format parchment leaves from a Greek Octateuch once numbering roughly 454 leaves, so conclusions are limited to what that material directly preserves.
Its historical setting is explicit
The dossier places the evidence in 4th-5th century AD and separates that context from any earlier event or person remembered by it.
A calibrated biblical connection
One of the oldest surviving Greek Octateuch witnesses and a key manuscript for Septuagint and Hexaplaric textual history.
Uncertainty remains visible
Only 153 of the original roughly 454 leaves survive, and the Hexaplaric signs require specialist interpretation. The manuscript is incomplete and dispersed. Hexaplaric signs are evidence of editorial activity, not a mechanical key to recovering a single original Greek Old Testament.
Follow the evidence from discovery to debate
Move through the find in a deliberate order: establish its provenance, examine the surviving object, place it in time, and then weigh the scholarly interpretation.
How the find came to light
Codex Sarravianus-Colbertinus: A Hexaplaric Greek Octateuch entered modern study through the recovery, cataloguing, or excavation history reflected in its institutional records. The relevant place is Eastern Mediterranean provenance is proposed; the codex later entered European collections, while the evidence is now associated with Leiden University Libraries, Bibliothèque nationale de France, and National Library of Russia. Modern catalog names—including Rahlfs G, Codex Sarravianus, Codex Colbertinus—can obscure the fact that the dossier concerns one physical object, one dispersed manuscript, or one closely defined archaeological complex. Scholars established its identity by combining find information, material examination, script or inscriptional study, comparison with related evidence, and collection history. Because modern custody and ancient context are not the same thing, this record states both separately. Where the exact ancient findspot, chain of ownership, or original architectural position is uncertain, that uncertainty remains part of the record rather than being filled with a confident story.
What you are looking at
153 surviving large-format parchment leaves from a Greek Octateuch once numbering roughly 454 leaves. The description begins with what can be examined rather than with the conclusion a reader might want it to prove. Its date is conventionally expressed as 4th-5th century AD. Names and catalog identifiers—Rahlfs G, Codex Sarravianus, Codex Colbertinus—link publications and collection systems, but they do not create additional independent evidence. The surviving format, language, imagery, or inscription determines what questions the object can answer. In manuscript cases, a leaf or codex directly witnesses only the passages that survive; in monumental and burial cases, architecture, find context, lettering, and associated decoration must be read together. The physical evidence is therefore substantial but bounded. Damage, dispersal, reuse, loss, restoration, and later movement into a museum or archive all affect how confidently the ancient whole can be reconstructed.
Where it belongs in history
Codex Sarravianus-Colbertinus: A Hexaplaric Greek Octateuch belongs to 4th-5th century AD. Its biblical text spans portions of the Pentateuch, Joshua, and Judges and retains critical signs associated with comparison of Greek and Hebrew textual forms. Dates in this collection distinguish a securely dated inscription or archaeological horizon from a broader palaeographic or stylistic estimate. The stated range should not be narrowed merely for narrative neatness. Historical context helps explain why the evidence exists: manuscripts reflect copying and reading communities; royal monuments communicate political claims; synagogue art frames communal memory; and funerary inscriptions preserve identities and hopes in the setting of burial. Context also guards against anachronism. A later witness may preserve an earlier text or memory without becoming contemporary evidence for the original event. The dossier uses the artifact to illuminate the period to which it actually belongs and labels any connection to an earlier biblical person, text, or episode as transmission, reception, background, or direct attestation as appropriate.
Consensus, questions, and debate
The manuscript is incomplete and dispersed. Hexaplaric signs are evidence of editorial activity, not a mechanical key to recovering a single original Greek Old Testament. The main interpretive problem is not whether the evidence exists, but how far it can responsibly be carried. Cataloguers, excavators, epigraphers, palaeographers, textual critics, and historians may emphasize different features or propose different reconstructions. This record follows the most conservative claim shared by the cited evidence and then identifies the stronger proposals as interpretations. Only 153 of the original roughly 454 leaves survive, and the Hexaplaric signs require specialist interpretation. Disagreement is especially important where wording is damaged, fragments are dispersed, iconography is multivalent, or a later object is compared with an earlier biblical setting. The result is neither dismissal nor overstatement: the artifact retains its value while the reader can see which conclusions are direct, which are probable, and which remain contested.
The biblical record beside the artifact
One of the oldest surviving Greek Octateuch witnesses and a key manuscript for Septuagint and Hexaplaric textual history. The linked passages are Genesis; Exodus; Leviticus; Numbers; Deuteronomy; Joshua; Judges. These citations are selected because they name the text transmitted, provide the historical comparison, or preserve the biblical tradition later represented by the artifact. They do not imply that every object is contemporary with the passage. Its biblical text spans portions of the Pentateuch, Joshua, and Judges and retains critical signs associated with comparison of Greek and Hebrew textual forms. Readers should therefore use the connection at the correct level: direct textual witness for surviving manuscript verses; political or geographic background for royal monuments; and reception history for later inscriptions, mosaics, or burials. That calibrated connection makes the artifact genuinely useful without turning resemblance, shared vocabulary, or later commemoration into proof of an event the evidence does not independently document.
Exodus 40:1–38
1And the LORD spake unto Moses, saying,
2On the first day of the first month shalt thou set up the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.
3And thou shalt put therein the ark of the testimony, and cover the ark with the vail.
4And thou shalt bring in the table, and set in order the things that are to be set in order upon it; and thou shalt bring in the candlestick, and light the lamps thereof.
5And thou shalt set the altar of gold for the incense before the ark of the testimony, and put the hanging of the door to the tabernacle.
6And thou shalt set the altar of the burnt offering before the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation.
7And thou shalt set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and shalt put water therein.
8And thou shalt set up the court round about, and hang up the hanging at the court gate.
9And thou shalt take the anointing oil, and anoint the tabernacle, and all that [is] therein, and shalt hallow it, and all the vessels thereof: and it shall be holy.
10And thou shalt anoint the altar of the burnt offering, and all his vessels, and sanctify the altar: and it shall be an altar most holy.
11And thou shalt anoint the laver and his foot, and sanctify it.
12And thou shalt bring Aaron and his sons unto the door of the tabernacle of the congregation, and wash them with water.
13And thou shalt put upon Aaron the holy garments, and anoint him, and sanctify him; that he may minister unto me in the priest’s office.
14And thou shalt bring his sons, and clothe them with coats:
15And thou shalt anoint them, as thou didst anoint their father, that they may minister unto me in the priest’s office: for their anointing shall surely be an everlasting priesthood throughout their generations.
16Thus did Moses: according to all that the LORD commanded him, so did he.
17¶ And it came to pass in the first month in the second year, on the first [day] of the month, [that] the tabernacle was reared up.
18And Moses reared up the tabernacle, and fastened his sockets, and set up the boards thereof, and put in the bars thereof, and reared up his pillars.
19And he spread abroad the tent over the tabernacle, and put the covering of the tent above upon it; as the LORD commanded Moses.
20¶ And he took and put the testimony into the ark, and set the staves on the ark, and put the mercy seat above upon the ark:
21And he brought the ark into the tabernacle, and set up the vail of the covering, and covered the ark of the testimony; as the LORD commanded Moses.
22¶ And he put the table in the tent of the congregation, upon the side of the tabernacle northward, without the vail.
23And he set the bread in order upon it before the LORD; as the LORD had commanded Moses.
24¶ And he put the candlestick in the tent of the congregation, over against the table, on the side of the tabernacle southward.
25And he lighted the lamps before the LORD; as the LORD commanded Moses.
26¶ And he put the golden altar in the tent of the congregation before the vail:
27And he burnt sweet incense thereon; as the LORD commanded Moses.
28¶ And he set up the hanging [at] the door of the tabernacle.
29And he put the altar of burnt offering [by] the door of the tabernacle of the tent of the congregation, and offered upon it the burnt offering and the meat offering; as the LORD commanded Moses.
30¶ And he set the laver between the tent of the congregation and the altar, and put water there, to wash [withal].
31And Moses and Aaron and his sons washed their hands and their feet thereat:
32When they went into the tent of the congregation, and when they came near unto the altar, they washed; as the LORD commanded Moses.
33And he reared up the court round about the tabernacle and the altar, and set up the hanging of the court gate. So Moses finished the work.
34¶ Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
35And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the LORD filled the tabernacle.
36And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys:
37But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up.
38For the cloud of the LORD [was] upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys.
Joshua 10:1–15
1Now it came to pass, when Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem had heard how Joshua had taken Ai, and had utterly destroyed it; as he had done to Jericho and her king, so he had done to Ai and her king; and how the inhabitants of Gibeon had made peace with Israel, and were among them;
2That they feared greatly, because Gibeon [was] a great city, as one of the royal cities, and because it [was] greater than Ai, and all the men thereof [were] mighty.
3Wherefore Adoni-zedek king of Jerusalem sent unto Hoham king of Hebron, and unto Piram king of Jarmuth, and unto Japhia king of Lachish, and unto Debir king of Eglon, saying,
4Come up unto me, and help me, that we may smite Gibeon: for it hath made peace with Joshua and with the children of Israel.
5Therefore the five kings of the Amorites, the king of Jerusalem, the king of Hebron, the king of Jarmuth, the king of Lachish, the king of Eglon, gathered themselves together, and went up, they and all their hosts, and encamped before Gibeon, and made war against it.
6¶ And the men of Gibeon sent unto Joshua to the camp to Gilgal, saying, Slack not thy hand from thy servants; come up to us quickly, and save us, and help us: for all the kings of the Amorites that dwell in the mountains are gathered together against us.
7So Joshua ascended from Gilgal, he, and all the people of war with him, and all the mighty men of valour.
8¶ And the LORD said unto Joshua, Fear them not: for I have delivered them into thine hand; there shall not a man of them stand before thee.
9Joshua therefore came unto them suddenly, [and] went up from Gilgal all night.
10And the LORD discomfited them before Israel, and slew them with a great slaughter at Gibeon, and chased them along the way that goeth up to Beth-horon, and smote them to Azekah, and unto Makkedah.
11And it came to pass, as they fled from before Israel, [and] were in the going down to Beth-horon, that the LORD cast down great stones from heaven upon them unto Azekah, and they died: [they were] more which died with hailstones than [they] whom the children of Israel slew with the sword.
12¶ Then spake Joshua to the LORD in the day when the LORD delivered up the Amorites before the children of Israel, and he said in the sight of Israel, Sun, stand thou still upon Gibeon; and thou, Moon, in the valley of Ajalon.
13And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had avenged themselves upon their enemies. [Is] not this written in the book of Jasher? So the sun stood still in the midst of heaven, and hasted not to go down about a whole day.
14And there was no day like that before it or after it, that the LORD hearkened unto the voice of a man: for the LORD fought for Israel.
15¶ And Joshua returned, and all Israel with him, unto the camp to Gilgal.
A responsible historical conclusion
One of the oldest surviving Greek Octateuch witnesses and a key manuscript for Septuagint and Hexaplaric textual history. The evidence matters because it gives material form to a world otherwise encountered mainly through transmitted texts. It lets readers ask precise questions about writing materials, language, political geography, communal worship, burial, memory, and the movement of biblical traditions. The object’s value does not depend on claiming that archaeology can prove theology. Instead, it shows where surviving evidence intersects with named places, passages, people, textual transmission, or later reception. The distinction is particularly important in an extensive database: this dossier contributes a defined object and claim rather than repeating a broader record already present. Its relevance is strongest when read alongside its explicit limitations and the primary sources linked below.
Authoritative sources
Institutional catalogs, excavation reports, and academic publications let you examine the evidence beyond this summary.
Göttingen Septuagint: Codex Sarravianus-Colbertinus: A Hexaplaric Greek Octateuch
Göttingen SeptuagintThe collection or project record used to identify Codex Sarravianus-Colbertinus: A Hexaplaric Greek Octateuch, its catalog designation, physical form, present custody, and documented contents.
Pinakes / IRHT-CNRS: Codex Sarravianus-Colbertinus: A Hexaplaric Greek Octateuch
Pinakes / IRHT-CNRSA scholarly or institutional treatment used for the date, provenance, textual or archaeological context, and the principal interpretive cautions surrounding Codex Sarravianus-Colbertinus: A Hexaplaric Greek Octateuch.
British Library: Codex Sarravianus-Colbertinus: A Hexaplaric Greek Octateuch
British LibraryA separate catalog, edition, or research publication used to check the surviving evidence, historical setting, and limits assigned to Codex Sarravianus-Colbertinus: A Hexaplaric Greek Octateuch.