Gospel in Art: You will realize that I am he

The Codex Sassoon, The Earliest Most Complete Hebrew Bible, late 9th or early 10th century

Source: Christian Art

Gospel of 28 March 2023
John 8:21-30

Again he said to them, 'I am going away, and you will search for me, but you will die in your sin. Where I am going, you cannot come.'

Then the Jews said, 'Is he going to kill himself? Is that what he means by saying, "Where I am going, you cannot come"?' He said to them, 'You are from below, I am from above; you are of this world, I am not of this world. I told you that you would die in your sins, for you will die in your sins unless you believe that I am he.'

They said to him, 'Who are you?' Jesus said to them, 'Why do I speak to you at all? I have much to say about you and much to condemn; but the one who sent me is true, and I declare to the world what I have heard from him.' They did not understand that he was speaking to them about the Father.

So Jesus said, 'When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will realize that I am he, and that I do nothing on my own, but I speak these things as the Father instructed me. And the one who sent me is with me; he has not left me alone, for I always do what is pleasing to him.' As he was saying these things, many believed in him.

Reflection on the Hebrew Codex

Jesus is telling us today 'When you have lifted up the Son of Man, then you will know that I am He'. He is referring to what was described and foretold in the Old Testament, and that he is the Messiah.

The mention of the Old Testament reminds me to share with you an exciting event that will take place at Sotheby's in a few weeks' time (16 May 2023). Sotheby's will offer the Codex Sassoon for auction. This codex is more than 1,000 years old, and is the world's earliest near-complete Hebrew Bible. Soon, it could also become the "most valuable historical document ever sold at auction," according to a statement from Sotheby's. In May, the auction house expects to sell it for between $30 and $50 million. Historians who have closely analysed the work say that a scribe wrote out the text on roughly 400 sheets of parchment in the late ninth or early tenth century. Eventually, the book landed at a synagogue in present-day Syria, which was then destroyed in the 13th or 14th century. Codex Sassoon contains the 24 books of the Hebrew Bible - missing only 12 leaves - and precedes the earliest entirely complete Hebrew Bible, the Leningrad Codex, by nearly a century.

Codex Sassoon has long held a "revered and fabled place in the pantheon of surviving historic documents and is undeniably one of the most important and singular texts in human history," says my Sotheby's ex-colleague Richard Austin, who is Sotheby's global head of books and manuscripts.

You can watch a video, see more photographs and find a more extensive write up directly on the Sotheby's website: Go to link, click HERE

LINKS

Gospel in Art: https://christian.art/
Today's reflection: https://christian.art/daily-gospel-reading/john-8-21-30-2023/