Masoretica — Genesis 1:1 in the Penn CAJS Halper 33 (non-consecutive Job Genizah leaves)

MasoreticaBiblical Manuscript Explorer

CompareExod. 31:2 1 Sam. 1:5 Num. 36:13 Job 14:9 Isa. 51:3 Nah. 1:1 Ps. 42:2 Ps. 149:9 Zeph. 3:14 Zech. 1:1 Song 7:1

ManuscriptPenn CAJS Halper 33 (non-consecutive Job Genizah leaves)

Contents

Two non-consecutive parchment leaves photographed on all four sides, preserving mapped locations in Job 2:4–3:3, 3:7–26, 7:8–19, and 8:8–22. The catalogue title stops the second passage at 8:21, while its detailed note identifies a surviving fragment of 8:22. Physical loss along the lower edges removes 3:4–6, 7:20–8:7, and later stretches; mapped boundaries do not assert that every verse survives completely. The intended layout is two columns of about 20 ruled lines: the prose of chapter 2 runs through the columns consecutively, while each poetic verse is divided between the columns. The Oriental square Hebrew text has Tiberian vowels and cantillation. There is no conventional Masora parva or Masora magna. The parchment is stained, creased, and translucent, with tears, holes, and extensive losses concentrated along the lower edges

More info

Mapped biblical scope60 mapped verse locations · 4 mapped spans in canonical order

Vocalization: The Job text is pointed with Tiberian vowel signs and cantillation accents on all four photographed sides. The signs are clearest on the better-preserved upper areas and are locally faint or physically lost where the parchment is stained, abraded, torn, or missing.
Layout: The intended layout is two biblical columns of about 20 ruled lines on each side. In the prose section of Job 2 the columns read consecutively; in the poetic passages each verse is divided between paired columns. The writing adjusts to the parchment’s uneven cut rather than imposing a perfectly rectangular column.
Masorah parva / magna: Separate visual checks of all four complete master photographs and a separate review of the OPenn catalogue found no conventional Masora parva beside the Job columns and no Masora magna in the surviving upper or lower margins.
Script: Job is written in a formal Oriental square Hebrew book hand. “Oriental square” is the OPenn catalogue’s verified technical classification; in plain language, the upright letters were carefully formed for sustained reading.
Chapter 3 text break: OPenn identifies the only deliberately marked text break after Job 3:1, where Job’s speech begins. The break organizes the transition into the lament; it is distinct from the accidental gaps caused by missing parchment.
Disjoint surviving text: The catalogue’s broad contents are Job 2:4–3:26 and 7:8–8:21; its detailed note also identifies a fragment of 8:22. Lower-edge loss removes Job 3:4–6 between the two sides of catalogued leaf 2 and Job 7:20–8:7 between the two sides of leaf 1. The same loss removes the latter part of Job 3:24 through the chapter end and material after Job 8:22, approximately Job 9:1–11.
Preservation: Both non-consecutive parchment leaves are stained, creased, and translucent, with ink showing through from the opposite side. Large irregular tears and missing lower portions remove many complete lines; smaller holes, edge splits, abrasion, and dark stains interrupt letters elsewhere. The damage is concentrated along the lower edges and directly causes the documented biblical lacunae.
Date and origin: OPenn dates the copy broadly to the 11th or 12th century (1000–1199) and identifies only the broad region “Orient,” not a more precise copying place.
Provenance: The leaves came from the Cairo Genizah, passed through the Sulzberger collection and the Dropsie College Library, and are now held by the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Advanced Judaic Studies Library.
Physical extent: Two non-consecutive parchment leaves survive, each photographed recto and verso. The OPenn description gives an extent of about 22.2 × 21.2 cm and publishes four complete master photographs in the physical order 1r, 1v, 2r, 2v.
Mapped images: Full-surface BiblIA/Kraken recognition covers all four complete OPenn master frames—two at 5,457 × 5,352 pixels and two at 5,505 × 5,352—and all 158 detected line regions. All four sides pass validation; 33 exact Hebrew anchors constrain 60 mapped verse locations, with 33 direct highlights (55.0%) in 43 full-scan rectangles. Recognition uses the complete frames at 5,500 pixels wide and constrains each side to its independently catalogued Job span, preventing reverse-side show-through or the nonconsecutive leaf order from creating false anchors.

Review sources: Catalogue or project record · University of Pennsylvania OPenn manuscript record, TEI description, master images, and Public Domain Mark · University of Pennsylvania Franklin catalogue identifier · Kennicott critical-edition manuscript key (no exact Halper 33 card found)

Date

11th or 12th century (?) (1000–1199 CE)

Origin

Copying place not identified; the catalogue gives the broad region “Orient”; from the Cairo Genizah through the Sulzberger collection and Dropsie College Library to Penn’s CAJS collection

Rights

Public Domain Mark 1.0

Catalogue record ↗

AvailabilityGenesis 1:1 is not included.Next available verseJob 2:4

Passage unavailable

Genesis 1:1 is not included in Penn CAJS Halper 33 (non-consecutive Job Genizah leaves).

This manuscript includes: Two non-consecutive parchment leaves photographed on all four sides, preserving mapped locations in Job 2:4–3:3, 3:7–26, 7:8–19, and 8:8–22. The catalogue title stops the second passage at 8:21, while its detailed note identifies a surviving fragment of 8:22. Physical loss along the lower edges removes 3:4–6, 7:20–8:7, and later stretches; mapped boundaries do not assert that every verse survives completely. The intended layout is two columns of about 20 ruled lines: the prose of chapter 2 runs through the columns consecutively, while each poetic verse is divided between the columns. The Oriental square Hebrew text has Tiberian vowels and cantillation. There is no conventional Masora parva or Masora magna. The parchment is stained, creased, and translucent, with tears, holes, and extensive losses concentrated along the lower edges.

Next available verseJob 2:4

About Masoretica

Sources & method.

Manuscript images and metadata come from the holding institutions and digitisation projects listed below. Text and versification data come from UXLC, MAM, BIMA / Corpus Masoreticum, the Codex Sinaiticus Project, the DT-UCPH Samaritan Pentateuch, lxx-morph, and STEPBible. The viewer identifies the source used for each manuscript.

Page mapping and text recognition combine repository indexes, OCR, and transcriptions with kraken, Party, BiblIA, and other specialised HTR models. OpenAI Codex is used in developing the site and in running and reviewing this workflow.

Full source, credit, and licence links appear below.

Sources and licences

UXLC Leningrad index Leningrad scan Leningrad photography credit Aleppo page index Aleppo facsimile Codex Sassoon 1053 page index Sassoon scan Sassoon catalogue Rylands Samaritan scan Rylands Samaritan MS 2 scan Rylands Samaritan MS 4 scan Gaster Samaritan MS 1133 scan Gaster Trilingual Samaritan MS 814 scan Gaster Samaritan MS Add 1 scan Gaster Samaritan MS 1858 scan Bodley Or. 699 Samaritan scan Bodley Or. 23 Isaiah scan Kennicott 1 scan Kennicott 2 scan Kennicott 3 scan Kennicott 4 scan Kennicott 5 scan Kennicott 6 scan Kennicott 7 scan Kennicott 8 scan kraken OCR and HTR toolkit Party multilingual HTR model used for Alexandrinus BiblIA medieval Hebrew model Samaritan kraken model Greek minuscule kraken model Sinaiticus line-segmentation model Miqra according to the Masorah text BIMA / Corpus Masoreticum manuscript transcriptions · CC BY-SA 4.0 Samaritan Pentateuch reference text Alexandrinus facsimile Rahlfs 82 catalogue Rahlfs 82 digitization Vaticanus facsimile Sinaiticus edition Sinaiticus electronic transcription Septuagint reference text Greek–Hebrew verse-number crosswalk Keter Aram Tsova typeface

For scholarly use

How to cite.

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Preferred citation

Dershowitz, Idan. “Masoretica: Manuscript Explorer.” Accessed 16 August 2026. https://www.masoretica.org/.

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