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Explore our Old Testament Textual Criticism Sources Articles. Expand your knowledge on the sources used in Old Testament textual criticism.
Origins, revisions, Origen’s Hexapla, Lucianic text, great codices, and how the Septuagint serves the Hebrew text with disciplined, evidence-based analysis.
Explore the fascinating world of The Leningrad Codex—a Precious Bible Treasure of Leningrad. Discover its rich history, its role as the faithful representative of the Masoretic Text, its unique artistic embellishments, and its unparalleled importance in modern biblical studies. Join us as we unlock the secrets of this ancient manuscript that continues to be an indispensable resource for scholars, theologians, and anyone interested in the Hebrew Bible.
The Dead Sea Scrolls serve as a pivotal link to the past, revealing new depths to Old Testament texts. From creation to prophecy, these ancient documents shed light on the mysteries of the Bible, providing a richer understanding of the Scriptures and reaffirming their timeless truths.
The Damascus Pentateuch, also known as the Codex Sassoon 507, is a 10th-century Hebrew Bible codex that is regarded as one of the most important and valuable manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. This article provides an overview of the significance, history, and physical characteristics of the manuscript, including its importance in Jewish and biblical studies, the Masoretic Text, and the illuminated decorations.
After the deportation of inhabitants of Samaria and the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel by Assyria in the middle of the 8th century B.C.E., pagans from other territories of the Assyrian Empire were settled there by Assyria. (2 Ki. 17:22-33) In time they came to be called “Samaritans.” They accepted the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures and in about the fourth century B.C.E. they produced the Samaritan Pentateuch, not really a translation of the original Hebrew Pentateuch, but a transliteration of its text into Samaritan characters, mixed with Samaritan idioms. Few of the extant manuscripts of the Samaritan Pentateuch are older than the thirteenth century C.E. Of about 6,000 differences between the Samaritan and the Hebrew texts, by far the majority are unimportant. One variation of interest appears in Exodus 12:40, where the Samaritan Pentateuch corresponds to the Septuagint.
Texts and versions provide the raw materials for the discipline known as textual criticism. The ultimate aim is to provide a text in the form intended by its author. Generally speaking, the greater the age of a document, the greater is its authority.
The Habakkuk Commentary or Pesher Habakkuk, labeled 1QpHab (Cave 1, Qumran, pesher, Habakkuk), was among the original seven Dead Sea Scrolls discovered in 1947 and published in 1951.
The Isaiah Scroll, designated 1QIsaa and also known as the Great Isaiah Scroll, is one of the seven Dead Sea Scrolls that were first discovered by Bedouin shepherds in 1946 from Qumran Cave 1.
The Old Testament, the inspired Word of God, how was it copied, maintained as to the textual reliability, and handed down throughout the past three thousand five hundred years?
The Dead Sea Scrolls are perhaps the greatest archaeological discovery of the present century. The seven scrolls were found by a Bedouin in a cave near the northwestern shore of the Dead Sea, in 1947.
