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Asher Manuscript

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This Hebrew codex is called after its author, Rabbi Aaron ben-Mose ben- Asher, who flourished about A.D. 900 at Tiberias. Asher was the most accomplished scholar and representative of the Tiberian system of vocalization and accentuation, and his model codex of the Bible (ספר בן אשר ), furnished with the points and according to the Western school, became the standard text of our present Hebrew Bibles. Of this codex Moses Maimonides (q.v.), who lived in the 12th century, writes thus: " The copy which we have followed is the famous codex of Egypt which contains the twenty-four books, and which has been at Jerusalem for many years, in order that other codices might be corrected by its text; and all followed it because ben-Asher had minutely revised it for many years and corrected it many times" (Yad ha-Chazaka, Seph. Thora, 8:4). This codex, which for centuries had not been seen, is said to be still preserved at Aleppo. See Strack, Prolegomena Critica, p. 44 sq.; Bar and Strack, Dikduke ha- Tamim, p. 14 sq. (B. P.)