Original Fifth-Century Codex of Latin Moses

This page illustrates a reconstruction of the partially-preserved fifth-century copy of Latin Moses, which contained two works associated with Moses, namely what scholars today call Jubilees (the only copy in Latin) and The Testament of Moses, also called the Assumption of Moses (the only copy anywhere). In the eighth century the original codex from the fifth century was disbound and erased. The bifolios were rearranged and combined with bifolios from another manuscript, an Arian Commentary on Luke. The palimpsest was used to copy Eugippius’ excerpts from Augustine. The palimpsest was subsequently split in two. One half is now lost, and the other is now preserved at the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan. An additional quire was subsequently lost. As a result, only about a third of Latin Moses remains, but by identifying quire numbers and comparing with the Ethiopic recension it is possible to reconstruct the original fifth-century codex of Latin Moses. The boxes below are gray if they represent a reconstruction, and white if they are preserved today. The four numbers separated by hyphens are the quire number, bifolio number, folio number, and page number.

The boxes illustrate the structure of a quire-based codex, as can be clearly visualized using the zoom features of a web browser (hold down control and use the mouse wheel or plus and minus keys to zoom in and out). If one zooms out until sixteen boxes appear in a row then each row represents a quire, and similarly if a row is eight pages across then two rows represent a quire, and so forth. The symmetry of the white boxes illustrates that if a page is preserved then the other side of the folio is also preserved, as is the other folio of the bifolio.

1-1-1-1

Blank

1-1-1-2

Blank

1-2-2-3

Jub Prologue-1:3

1-2-2-4

Jub 1:4-7

1-3-3-5

Jub 1:7-11

1-3-3-6

Jub 1:11-15

1-4-4-7

Jub 1:15-21

1-4-4-8

Jub 1:21-25

1-4-5-9

Jub 1:26-29

1-4-5-10

Jub 1:29-2:2

1-3-6-11

Jub 2:2-6

1-3-6-12

Jub 2:6-10

1-2-7-13

Jub 2:11-15

1-2-7-14

Jub 2:16-21

1-1-8-15

Jub 2:21-25

1-1-8-16

Jub 2:25-29

2-5-9-17

Jub 2:29-3:1

2-5-9-18

Jub 3:1-6

2-6-10-19

Jub 3:6-10

2-6-10-20

Jub 3:10-16

2-7-11-21

Jub 3:16-19

2-7-11-22

Jub 3:20-25

2-8-12-23

Jub 3:25-31

2-8-12-24

Jub 3:31-4:4

2-8-13-25

Jub 4:4-8

2-8-13-26

Jub 4:8-15

2-7-14-27

Jub 4:15-18

2-7-14-28

Jub 4:18-22

2-6-15-29

Jub 4:22-26

2-6-15-30

Jub 4:27-30

2-5-16-31

Jub 4:30-33

2-5-16-32

Jub 4:33-5:4

3-9-17-33

Jub 5:4-10

3-9-17-34

Jub 5:10-16

3-10-18-35

Jub 5:16-21

3-10-18-36

Jub 5:21-28

3-11-19-37

Jub 5:28-6:3

3-11-19-38

Jub 6:3-6

3-12-20-39

Jub 6:6-12

3-12-20-40

Jub 6:12-16

3-12-21-41

Jub 6:16-21

3-12-21-42

Jub 6:21-26

3-11-22-43

Jub 6:26-32

3-11-22-44

Jub 6:32-36

3-10-23-45

Jub 6:36-7:1

3-10-23-46

Jub 7:1-6

3-9-24-47

Jub 7:6-13

3-9-24-48

Jub 7:13-20

4-13-25-49

Jub 7:20-24

4-13-25-50

Jub 7:24-29

4-14-26-51

Jub 7:29-33

4-14-26-52

Jub 7:34-38

4-15-27-53

Jub 7:38-8:4

4-15-27-54

Jub 8:4-8

4-16-28-55

Jub 8:8-12

4-16-28-56

Jub 8:12-16

4-16-29-57

Jub 8:17-21

4-16-29-58

Jub 8:21-23

4-15-30-59

Jub 8:24-29

4-15-30-60

Jub 8:29-9:4

4-14-31-61

Jub 9:4-10

4-14-31-62

Jub 9:10-15

4-13-32-63

Jub 9:15-10:4

4-13-32-64

Jub 10:5-10

5-17-33-65

Jub 10:10-17

5-17-33-66

Jub 10:17-20

5-18-34-67

Jub 10:20-25

5-18-34-68

Jub 10:25-31

5-19-35-69

Jub 10:31-11:1

5-19-35-70

Jub 11:1-5

5-20-36-71

Jub 11:5-9

5-20-36-72

Jub 11:9-15

5-20-37-73

Jub 11:15-19

5-20-37-74

Jub 11:20-12:1

5-19-38-75

Jub 12:1-7

5-19-38-76

Jub 12:7-15

5-18-39-77

Jub 12:15-19

5-18-39-78

Jub 12:19-22

5-17-40-79

Jub 12:22-27

5-17-40-80

Jub 12:28-31

6-21-41-81

Jub 13:1-6

6-21-41-82

Jub 13:6-10

6-22-42-83

Jub 13:10-15