What is the original reading: (1) “you may devote yourselves to prayer” or the longer (2) “you may devote yourselves to fasting and to prayer”?
NTTC: 1 Corinthians 7:5 “you may devote yourselves to prayer”
The Hebrew Old Testament Texts and Versions
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 DEAD SEA SCROLLS: The Oldest Known Bible
Surveys the biblical manuscripts found in the caves around Qumran. The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the Judaean Desert has in many ways revolutionized the study of the Hebrew Scriptures as well as recent understanding of the Bible and canon.
OTTC 1 SAMUEL 1:24: “And the boy was a boy”?
MT “and the boy was a boy” LXX “and the boy was with them” VG “the boy was yet an infant” The ESV reads "And the child was young." (NASB, LEB, CSB similar) The UASV has "And the boy was a boy."
OTTC RUTH 3:15 DILEMMA: “Then he/she went into the city? Was It Boaz or Ruth?
"Most Hebrew manuscripts have “he went into the city” in place of “she went into the city,” which is the reading supported by the Syr., Vg., and other Hebrew manuscripts." - Rick Brannan and Israel Loken.
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?
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.
Papyrus Fouad 266 Is a Greek Septuagint Copy of the Pentateuch
Papyrus Fouad 266 is a copy of the Pentateuch in the Greek version of the Hebrew Bible known as the Septuagint. It is a papyrus manuscript in scroll form. The manuscript has been assigned palaeographically to the second or the first-century B.C.E.
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.
THE BASICS of 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.