Mysterious Book: Codex Gigas
A huge mysterious medieval book, penned by a Benedictine monk on animal skin with bizarre devilish illustration and incantation. But who has the missing pages, and why?
Codex Gigas – literally translated means “Giant Book”, photograph below, with a box of matches resting on it, gives an idea of the scale of the almost metre long text, it takes two people to lift it, which makes it the largest medieval manuscript in the world.
The book can be found in the National library in Stockholm – it has 600 pages – all made from animal (donkey) skin, the front and back page have been constructed from leather bound wood, adorned with carved metal.
In terms of intrinsic value, when the book was last moved, it was insured for over £ 15 million.
Author of the Codex Gigas
The book was thought to have been in the early 13th century in the Bohemian Benedictine monastery near Chrudim – in the Czech Republic. The identity of the author remains a mystery. Handwriting tests however, reveal that the entire book has a consistency of lettering and illustration which confirm that one single author – showing no signs of fatigue or even mood change (which is unusual) wrote/drew the entire main body of text.
Contents of the Codex Gigas
The book is written in Latin and contains a full version of both the Old and New Testaments (Excluding the Book of Acts and Revelation).
Along-side the bible, is a transcript of Isodore of Seville’e encyclopaedia “Etymologiae”– a summary of universal knowledge which contained some ground-breaking (but not widely accepted) information – including his idea that the world was a round, rather than a flat disc.
Image source – Isoldore of Seville Image source
The book also contains a copy of the “Antiquities of the Jews” and “The Jewish Wars” – originally written by Flavius Josephus in around 93AD – and is a slightly amended version of the Hebrew Bible Books.
There is a copy of the “Chronicle of Bohemia” written by the Cosmas of Prague, who was a Bohemian Priest who lived between 1045BC and 1125BC
Along with these texts were lists of people and dates, a calendar and inserts by various owners of the book.
Mystery and Legend
The legend surrounding the Codex is that one of the monks from the Bohemian Benedictine Monastery had committed a terrible sin and was facing the ultimate punishment from the monastery…… to be walled up alive in is cell. To redeem himself from a terrible slow death, the monk offered a deal to the monastery leaders…..if he were to write the biggest book that the world had ever seen, in one single night, then he should be allowed to live.
The deal was agreed and the monk set to work, at about midnight, the monk realised that he could not achieve his goal, and in desperation, he summoned the devil to assist him, the devil agreed and the monk included an illustration of the devil within the codex in appreciation.
The largest book the world had ever seen was completed in one night and the monk was allowed to live, however, the legend reveals that the monks life thereafter was plagued with misfortune and unhappiness.
It is also worthy of note that seven (or eight according to some sources) of the pages of the book are missing, removed to retain an ancient secret.
Many texts reveal that the Codex Gigas is reputed to be cursed and bring death or great misfortune to those who own it (let us hope that the National library in Stockholm carries a good insurance policy).
Image source – codex gigas image by charlesdean03 on Photobucket
Depictions of Heaven and Hell: “The Devil’s Bible”
It is mainly because of the illustration, pictured above, that Codex Gigas was given the name – “The Devils Bible”. Preceding the image of the beast is a “conjuration” – a spell which when uttered can enable the speaker to command spirits, demonic entities.
The horned beast is shown crouching in a void between two towers, two serpents (forked tongue) emerging from his mouth, wearing a loincloth of ermine – a fabric traditionally worn by royalty…..he is therefore referred to as…“the Prince of Darkness”- (and bears only a vague resemblance to Ozzy Osbourne!)
Like most people, when I hear/see “two towers”, the tragic, evil event of the demolition of the world trade centre twin towers springs to mind – the famous photograph above is of one of the many evil, devilish faces which appeared and were photographed in smoke billowing from the burning buildings prior to the collapse……perhaps a supernatural apparition summoned by an evil act…hell on earth.
On the opposite page to the devil is a depiction of heaven, the heavenly city – not an image of clouds and angels, but is shown as two towers, with ten tiers in-between, indicative of levels of spiritual ascent leading up to heaven.
This image is reminiscent of that found on the unusual carvings on a set of seven ancient megaliths found in Axum, Ethiopia – erected approximately 2000 years ago. I wrote about these in an article – Five Mysterious Ancient Megalithswhere their appearance was described as that of a modern tiered tower-block, (which seemed odd and unlikely) however, a tiered heavenly city, akin to the illustration in the Codex Gigas (both depicting ten tiers) would be a far more logical explanation of the rational for these ancient monuments – but one that I could not find in any text regarding the Axum site.
The “Jacobs ladder” imagery is derived from the Old Testament – Genesis 28:11-19
“Jacob left Beersheba, and went toward Haran. He came to the place and stayed there that night, because the sun had set. Taking one of the stones of the place, he put it under his head and lay down in that place to sleep. And he dreamed that there was a ladder set up on the earth, and the top of it reached to heaven; and behold, the angels of God were ascending and descending on it!”
Michael Lukas Leopold Willmann William Blake
The concept of a tower reaching towards heaven could also have relevance in respect of the Old Testament story of the Tower of Babel – the tower being a metaphor for an unknown method of raising the individual to a heavenly plane.
Genesis 11:4
“And they said, Go to, let us build a city and a tower, whose top may reach into heaven; and let us make us a name, lest we be scattered abroad upon the face of the whole Earth”
The Codex Gigas is certainly an interesting and intriguing book but the title – “The Devils Bible” conjures up ideas of an occult, unholy book – this seems very unfair based purely upon the odd illustration and incantations (after all, many modern priests are involved in exorcisms) – when in fact the illustrations could have deep spiritual significance.
There are many ways to view the illustrations….If you view the void between the two towers as the human mind or soul, when it is empty and devoid of any attempt of spiritual attainment, evil may reside, however, with spiritual achievement, and positive human experience, the soul can be raised up to a heavenly plane.
Equally, the tiers may represent human society, rather than the individual, and the ascent could represent the advancement of human knowledge, technology, collective spirituality or even physiological and cognitive evolution – eventually achieving a heavenly plane on earth. Unfortunately, if this is the case, perhaps the photograph of the demon in the smoke of the twin towers more accurately reflects where our society is headed (being led).
Read more:
The Tower of Babel, Confusion of Tongues: Fact or Parable?
Amen!
Ancient Symbols: The Swastika
The UFO-Religion Connection
10 Amazing Coincidences
Liked it
User Comments
Louie Jerome
On July 6, 2009 at 5:17 am
Very interesting article. The missing pages intrigue me. I recently read a novel called ‘The End of Mr Y’ where a student finds an old book that is said to have magical powers. Pages have been removed from it and she goes in search of the secret. I wonder if the author knew about this book.
Unofre Pili
On July 6, 2009 at 6:10 am
Very interesting indeed. I have came across this, and thought of sharing it at Triond, but I doubt if I could have came up with an article as nice as you did it.
R J Evans
On July 6, 2009 at 7:52 am
Spooky! This sent a chill down my spine at one point! Blogegd at webphemera.
Yark
On July 6, 2009 at 10:35 am
1200BC?
I think they mean AD.
s hayes
On July 6, 2009 at 10:50 am
Hi Yark – well spotted, a fix has been submitted and a correction is pending x
ttees
On July 6, 2009 at 2:32 pm
if you notice… the drawing of “the devil” is on the direct opposite page of “The Kingdom of heaven”.
which is meant to symbolize the choice between Good and Evil.
There was a documentary on the National Geographic about this.
Patrick Bernauw
On July 6, 2009 at 3:35 pm
What a fascinated article! I love all those damned books… but I never heard of this one!
lindalulu
On July 6, 2009 at 6:34 pm
Interesting article indeed!
Lauren Axelrod
On July 6, 2009 at 7:01 pm
Wow, interesting story Sean.
Stephen J. Ardent
On July 6, 2009 at 9:36 pm
How can the book have been written in 1200BC and include all the writing that it supposedly contains?
Andrew Davies
On July 6, 2009 at 9:49 pm
Very interesting topic, I love history.
Emily Ashley
On July 6, 2009 at 10:25 pm
I wish you had even more info. I missed this last night, except for the last 15 mins! Grrrr!
Stacey T Pollock
On July 7, 2009 at 4:59 am
Fascinating article!
melchizadec
On July 7, 2009 at 6:21 am
To my knowledge, no one has a book of “Revelations”. This is just another article from someone who doesn’t know The Holy Bible at all.
melchizadec
On July 7, 2009 at 6:23 am
One more thing. The animal skin “may” be that old but that doesn’t mean the writing or inscriptions are that old.
Mike Franklin
On July 7, 2009 at 1:35 pm
I am writing this with a heavy heart because in this age of open content and the voice of the user being free to speak to the speaker, many comments here have disappeared… including my own
And for what sin have we seen this? Have we cursed or vexed the holder of this domain… or the author, applying vulgarisms and obscenities? No, we merely pointed out inaccuracies in dating… BC and AD to be exact, mistakes that most would have already detected anyway.
Socyberty does not exhibit any goodwill to its readers by doing this and while still yet allowing the same inaccuracies to stand in the article in question.
In other words, we were booted without so much as a ‘thank you’ for the corrections.
Best
richard reed
On July 7, 2009 at 2:51 pm
as always you give us a blessing with another amazing piece..stay blessed my friend,..your fan..Rich
George
On July 7, 2009 at 8:13 pm
I would like to have heard more about these jewish wars, were they profit driven blood baths?
Mike
On July 7, 2009 at 10:00 pm
Informational with a very deep meaning for the Jewish religion.
valli
On July 8, 2009 at 3:29 am
Very interesting.
rizzei
On July 8, 2009 at 7:20 am
i’ve never seen anything like it:) nice read
eminemgrl123
On July 8, 2009 at 7:31 am
What did that last quip about the twin towers have to do with the rest of the piece? Still, good write. Very informative.
Brian
On July 8, 2009 at 9:25 am
For those with “heavy hearts”, you really need to take yourself less seriously. If, as you said, posts about the BC error were removed, I for one appreciate not having to read through multiple posts stating the same obvious correction. The error was noted early on, and the author responded. Enough said.
Rachel
On July 8, 2009 at 11:58 am
Wow this amazing and so informing. Kinda makes me want to become a historian.
jhonny 2 by five
On July 8, 2009 at 2:35 pm
ya it defly was a story, can has you halp me with mine?
Francy
On July 8, 2009 at 2:41 pm
very informative article.
keep sharing
CzA
On July 8, 2009 at 3:14 pm
The JEWS…..
THEY did this.
!
godsworker
On July 8, 2009 at 8:25 pm
##discovering!!!##
Purnomosidhi
On July 8, 2009 at 8:52 pm
Interesting.. It attracts people curiousity
tahirkhalil
On July 9, 2009 at 12:11 am
well done sean…very intresting story
pvpmaster1
On July 9, 2009 at 12:42 pm
wtf! i am scared. who is that? that smoke with a face
Athlyn Green
On July 9, 2009 at 6:02 pm
Wow! That’s quite the face in the smoke at the Twin Towers. What a strange occurance. This is an intriguing article. Bookmarked.
Lucas Dié
On July 10, 2009 at 5:57 am
great article! I think you are on the right track on the pillars of Actum, most original link!
Beth Suess
On July 10, 2009 at 8:52 am
great article! Very informative, I wish you had even more info.
Jackie118
On July 10, 2009 at 11:41 am
This is incredible and extremely eerie!!! Glad I didn’t read the article just before I went to bed!
James DeVere
On July 10, 2009 at 8:46 pm
Ms. Hayes, you are the jewel of Triond! Great finding a writer that you cling to each word. Nice work. In light of the oldest bible being now placed on-line, this is a fascinating read. Thank-you . j
Will Gray
On September 5, 2009 at 5:07 pm
Fantastic article! I have been investigating this book for some time and the mystery is quite fascinating.
Ruby Hawk
On September 13, 2009 at 9:22 pm
I hadn’t heard of the book but I will do some investigating, very interesting.
Mike Thomas
On September 16, 2009 at 6:43 am
Extremely informative and entertaining! Great content!
Post Comment