MASORETIC TEXT: The Traditional Hebrew Text Behind Most Modern Translations of the Old Testament

The group of manuscripts known as the Masoretic Text developed over an extended period of time, beginning in the second century AD (Ashby, Go Out and Meet God, 5). It received its final form in the 10th century AD under Aaron Ben Asher of the Tiberian Masoretes (Tov, Textual Criticism, 24.) It is currently best represented in the Leningrad Codex, which is the base text for the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) and the ongoing work of the Biblia Hebraica Quinta.

April 12, 2021 0

Modern Scholarship Claims that the Shapira Scroll Is Actually the Oldest-Known Copy of the Hebrew Scriptures (c. 957 B.C.E.)

The Shapira Scroll (also known as the Shapira Strips) was a manuscript written in Paleo-Hebrew script. It was presented by Moses Shapira in 1883 as an ancient Biblical artifact and was the focus of a major archaeological controversy. Modern scholars are saying that it is 700 years older than the oldest Dead Sea Scrolls that date to about 250 B.C.E.

March 11, 2021 1

The Complutensian Polyglot—A Historic Translation Tool

The Complutensian Polyglot Bible is the name given to the first printed polyglot of the entire Bible, initiated and financed by Cardinal Francisco Jiménez de Cisneros (1436–1517) and published by Complutense University.

February 11, 2021 0

CHRISTIANS: Why Are Textual Footnotes In Your Bible Important?

There are many textual variants in the Hebrew Old Testament and the Greek New Testament. What are textual variants? And how well do our modern translations inform their readers about these variants?

December 22, 2020 1

What is the Greek Septuagint (LXX)?

The Greek Old Testament, or Septuagint, is the earliest extant Koine Greek translation of books from the Hebrew Bible, various biblical apocrypha, and deuterocanonical books.

December 7, 2020 1

Emanuel Tov On the Nature of the Samaritan Pentateuch

The Samaritan Pentateuch, also known as the Samaritan Torah is a text of the first five books of the Hebrew Bible, written in the Samaritan alphabet and used as ...

December 6, 2020 0

OTTC GENESIS 38:25: When Should the Translator Abandon the Hebrew Masoretic Text?

The Masoretic Text (MT) is or primary text and should be abandoned only when the weightiest evidence stands against it. Genesis 38:25 would be an example of this.

December 3, 2020 3

Papyrus Rylands 458: The Oldest Copy of the Greek Septuagint

Papyrus Rylands 458 is a copy of the Pentateuch in a Greek version of the Hebrew Bible known as the Septuagint.

September 8, 2020 0

ORIGEN’S HEXAPLA: A Sixfold Text in Parallel Columns of the Old Testament

At the end of the second century, there were (at least) four competing Greek versions of the OT. Origen, one of the most important theologians in the Eastern church, was born in Alexandria, Egypt, and was active in the middle of the third century CE. Aware of differences between the Greek and Hebrew texts, he set out to bring order and understanding to the confusing array of competing textual witnesses and to produce an edition that would account for those variations.

May 29, 2020 1

Introduction to the Dead Sea Scrolls

The earliest MS evidence available for the OT text is also the most recently discovered. Since 1947 thousands of fragments of MSS, both biblical and nonbiblical, have come to light in the Dead Sea region.

April 24, 2020 1

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