Auction of 'earliest most complete Hebrew Bible' might bring as much as $50M

March 22 (UPI) -- Sotheby's is auctioning what it describes as "the earliest most complete Hebrew Bible" in May. The item is expected to attract between $30 million and $50 million.

The Codex Sassoon is named after collector David Solomon Sassoon, who owned the largest private collection of Hebrew manuscripts in the world before his death in 1942.

The Codex Sassoon is believed to have been created around 900 A.D. in modern-day Israel or Syria. The Codex vanished for centuries before resurfacing in 1929, when it was acquired by Sassoon.

"Codex Sassoon, created circa 900, is the earliest surviving example of a single codex containing all the books of the Hebrew Bible with their punctuation, vowels, and accents," Sotheby's said in a press release.

The Codex is nearly complete, only missing a few pages. That's a historical rarity for such an old Hebrew text, especially because many of the stories and narratives were passed down through the ages orally.

The Codex Sassoon will be on display at the Museum of the Jewish People in Tel Aviv from March 23 to March 29.