Transmitting the Hebrew Scriptures to You

The Hebrew Scriptures, also known as the Old Testament, is a section of the Holy Bible that is written primarily in Hebrew, with a few chapters and isolated verses written in Aramaic. This collection of texts was completed over 2,400 years ago, and many people question the accuracy of modern copies in comparison to the original texts.

HOW WE GOT THE HEBREW OLD TESTAMENT: From the Days of Ezra to the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia

The Hebrew Old Testament, also known as the Tanakh or Hebrew Bible, is the collection of thirty-nine sacred texts that are central to Judaism and are also accepted by many Christian denominations as part of their canon of scripture. The Hebrew Old Testament includes the Torah (also known as the Pentateuch or the Five Books of Moses), the Prophets, and the Writings. It is the authoritative text of the Old Testament by Jews and many Christian scholars.

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.

THE MASORETES AND THE MASORETIC TEXT—A Basic Overview

The Masoretes were groups of Jewish scribe-scholars who worked between the 6th and 10th centuries CE, based primarily in early medieval Palestine in the cities of Tiberias and Jerusalem, as well as in Iraq.

The Masoretic Text[a] (MT or 𝕸) is the authoritative Hebrew and Aramaic text of the 24 books of Tanakh for Rabbinic Judaism.

It was primarily copied, edited and distributed by a group of Jews known as the Masoretes between the 7th and 10th centuries of the Common Era (CE). It is the text behind all of our Bible translations.

Manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures

The first list of the Old Testament manuscripts in Hebrew, made by Benjamin Kennicott (1776–1780) and published by Oxford, listed 615 manuscripts from libraries in England and on the Continent. Giovanni de Rossi (1784–1788) published a list of 731 manuscripts. The main manuscript discoveries in modern times are those of the Cairo Geniza (c. 1890)... Continue Reading →

Jacob ben Chayyim (c. 1470 – c. 1538) Old Testament Textual Criticism Scholar

The first rabbinic Bible—i.e., the Hebrew text furnished with full vowel points and accents, accompanied by the Aramaic Targums and the major medieval Jewish commentaries—was edited by Felix Pratensis and published by Daniel Bomberg (Venice, 1516/17). The second edition, edited by Jacob ben Hayyim ibn Adonijah and issued by Bomberg in four volumes (Venice, 1524/25), became the prototype of future Hebrew Bibles down to the 20th century.

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