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The New York Public Library, Manuscripts and Archives Division
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Samaritan Hebrew Bible (MS, Nablus, 1232).
The oldest manuscript in America of the Samaritan text of the Hebrew Bible is dated in a cryptogram, embedded in the first 16 pages of Deuteronomy, that reads: "I, Abraham son of Israel son of Ephraim son of Joseph the Prince, King of Israel, wrote this copy of the holy Torah myself for the sake of my children in the year 629 of the dominion of Ishmael, corresponding to the 3,200th year that the children of Israel have lived in the land of Canaan and the 5,939th year since the creation of the world. This marks the completion of the 74th torah that I have written during the sixty years of my life [in this incarnation?]. I praise God and ask him to prolong their life until their children and grandchildren study from it."
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