Biblical Manuscripts · Old Testament
Old Testament Manuscripts
The Hebrew Bible has reached the present through scrolls and codices, ancient versions and printed editions. This page arranges the principal witnesses chronologically and outlines the significance of each for the study of the text.
Overview
A Chronology of the Old Testament Text
The dates below follow the prevailing scholarly consensus. Dates based on palaeography, radiocarbon analysis or colophons vary among scholars.
- Late 7th – early 6th c. BC
The Ketef Hinnom silver scrolls
Two small silver amulets recovered from a burial cave in Jerusalem. They bear wording very close to the priestly blessing of Numbers 6:24–26 and are regarded as the earliest extant textual witness corresponding to a biblical passage.
- 3rd c. BC
Translation of the Septuagint Pentateuch
The Pentateuch was translated into Greek in Alexandria. The remaining books were translated over approximately the following two centuries.
- c. 3rd c. BC – 1st c. AD
Copying of the Dead Sea Scrolls
The period in which the biblical manuscripts found at Qumran and its vicinity were copied: Hebrew witnesses roughly a millennium older than the Masoretic codices.
- c. 2nd – 1st c. BC
The Nash Papyrus
A single Hebrew papyrus sheet containing the Decalogue and the Shema. Until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls it was the oldest known Hebrew biblical text.
- 1st – 2nd c. AD
Predominance of the proto-Masoretic text
The biblical manuscripts from Masada (before 73/74) and from Wadi Murabba‘at and Nahal Hever (before 135) agree almost entirely with the later Masoretic consonantal text.
- 2nd – 3rd c.
Greek revisions and the Hexapla
The revisions of Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion appeared, and Origen compiled the six-column Hexapla at Caesarea (c. mid-3rd century).
- c. 390 – 405
Jerome’s Vulgate
Jerome translated most of the Old Testament directly from Hebrew into Latin.
- c. 6th – 10th c.
The work of the Masoretes
Vowel signs, accents and Masoretic notes were systematised. The tradition of the Ben Asher family of Tiberias became the standard.
- 895 (colophon) · c. 930 · 1008
The principal Masoretic codices
The Cairo Codex of the Prophets (date of its colophon), the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex were produced in succession.
- 1524 – 1525
The Second Rabbinic Bible
Published in Venice by Daniel Bomberg under the editorship of Jacob ben Hayyim. It served as the standard printed Hebrew Bible for several centuries.
- 1896 – 1897
Removal of the Cairo Genizah materials
Solomon Schechter transferred the Genizah documents of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Cairo to Cambridge, transforming the study of the medieval Hebrew Bible.
- 1937
Biblia Hebraica (BHK), third edition
The first printed critical edition to adopt the Leningrad Codex as its base text (issued in fascicles from 1929).
- 1947 – 1956
Discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls
Fragments of approximately 900 manuscripts, biblical manuscripts among them, were recovered from eleven caves at Qumran.
- 1967 – 1977 · 2004 –
BHS and BHQ
Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) was published, and its successor, Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ), has been issued in fascicles since 2004. Both are based on the Leningrad Codex.
The Core of the Masoretic Text
A Consonantal Text Transmitted with Its Reading
The ancient Hebrew Bible was written in consonants alone. Without altering a single letter of that consonantal text, the Masoretes surrounded it with vowels, accents and notes, and so fixed in writing the tradition of reading long practised in the synagogue.
The grass withers, the flower fades; but the word of our God shall stand forever.Isaiah 40:8 · Yeshua Literal Version
The Masoretes and the Tiberian Tradition
Apparatus for the Preservation of the Text
The Masoretes (ba‘alei ha-masorah) were tradents of the text active in Palestine and Babylonia from approximately the 6th to the 10th century. Of their work, the tradition of Tiberias on the Sea of Galilee shaped the Hebrew Bible as it is read today.
Qere and Ketiv
כְּתִיב (ketiv, “what is written”) is the form in the consonantal text; קְרֵי (qere, “what is read”) is the form read aloud. Without altering the consonants, the Masoretes attached the vowels of the qere to the consonants of the ketiv and recorded the consonants of the qere in the margin. Depending on the method of counting, such cases number from approximately 850 to more than 1,500.
| Type | Ketiv (written) | Qere (read) | Remarks |
|---|---|---|---|
| Perpetual qere | יְהוָה | אֲדֹנָי | The divine name is always read as “Adonai” or similar, without a marginal note. |
| Perpetual qere | יְרוּשָׁלִַם | Yerushalayim | Read with the vowel of a yod absent from the consonants. |
| Perpetual qere | הִוא (Pentateuch) | הִיא | The feminine pronoun is frequently written thus in the Pentateuch. |
| Psalm 100:3 | וְלֹא אֲנַחְנוּ | וְלוֹ אֲנַחְנוּ | “And not we” and “and we are his.” The Yeshua Literal Version follows the qere: “and we are his.” |
Marks of the Scribal Tradition
- Tiqqune soferim (scribal corrections) — traditionally eighteen, although the lists vary (e.g. Genesis 18:22).
- Extraordinary points (puncta extraordinaria) — dots placed over words in fifteen passages to signal doubt or caution.
- Inverted nun (׆) — a mark placed before and after Numbers 10:35–36, among other places.
- Paragraph divisions — open paragraphs beginning on a new line (petuhah, פ) and closed paragraphs marked by a space within the line (setumah, ס) represent an ancient tradition already attested in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Medieval Masoretic Codices
The Manuscripts Underlying the Modern Hebrew Bible
Unlike scrolls, codices (books) record vowels, accents and Masoretic notes together. The following manuscripts are the principal witnesses to the Tiberian Ben Asher tradition.
The Aleppo Codex · Keter Aram Tzova
The Masoretic Codex Jewish Tradition Has Held Most Accurate
The Aleppo Codex is the representative codex of the Tiberian Ben Asher tradition and is regarded in Jewish tradition as the most authoritative Masoretic manuscript. According to the tradition of its colophon, Shlomo ben Buya‘a wrote the consonants and Aaron ben Asher supplied the vowels, accents and Masorah. “Keter” (crown) is a title of honour; “Aram Tzova” reflects the medieval Jewish identification of Aleppo with the biblical Aram-zobah.
The codex, however, does not survive complete. The damage of 1947 cost it a substantial portion, including most of the Torah. For this reason the complete Leningrad Codex is widely used today as the base of critical editions and electronic texts.
The Journey of the Aleppo Codex
From Tiberias by Way of Jerusalem, Cairo and Aleppo
Several of the dates below rest on the dedicatory notes attached to the codex and on later tradition, and scholars give the precise years differently.
- c. 930
Completed in Tiberias
According to tradition, Shlomo ben Buya‘a wrote the consonantal text and Aaron ben Asher added the vowels, accents and Masoretic notes. The colophon page no longer survives; its content is known from transcriptions made earlier.
- c. 11th c.
Dedicated to the Karaite community of Jerusalem
According to its dedicatory note, the codex was given to the Karaite community of Jerusalem and brought out before the congregation at the festivals for the verification of the text.
- After 1099
To Egypt (Fustat)
Tradition relates that, after being plundered when the Crusaders took Jerusalem, the codex was ransomed by the Jewish community of Egypt and brought to Fustat (Old Cairo).
- Late 12th c.
The judgement of Maimonides
In the Laws of the Torah Scroll of his Mishneh Torah (Hilchot Sefer Torah, chapter 8), Maimonides states that he followed, for the paragraphing and layout of the Torah scroll, the codex of the twenty-four books in Egypt that Ben Asher had corrected and on which all relied. Scholars generally identify that codex with the Aleppo Codex.
- c. late 14th c.
To Aleppo
Brought to Aleppo, it was kept in the city’s Central Synagogue for some six centuries. The community guarded it closely, and access by outside scholars was very limited.
- December 1947
Riots and damage
In the riots in Aleppo that followed the United Nations partition resolution (29 November 1947), the synagogue was burned. For a time the codex was reported to have been entirely destroyed, but a large part survived and was hidden.
- 1957 – 1958
To Israel
Secretly taken out of Syria, it was delivered in January 1958 to Yitzhak Ben-Zvi, President of Israel, and entrusted to the Ben-Zvi Institute. Approximately 294 leaves remained at that time.
- 1976 · today
Facsimile and display
A facsimile edition was published in 1976, making the codex widely available for textual study. A few leaves have since been recovered separately, and the codex is now displayed in the Shrine of the Book of the Israel Museum.
The Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex
| Aspect | Aleppo Codex | Leningrad Codex (B19ᴬ) |
|---|---|---|
| Date · Place | c. 930 · Tiberias | 1008 (1009 by one colophon reckoning) · Cairo (Fustat) |
| Relation to Ben Asher | Vowels and Masorah traditionally supplied by Aaron ben Asher himself | Colophon states it was copied by Samuel ben Jacob and corrected according to Ben Asher manuscripts |
| Present state | c. 294 – 295 leaves · most of the Torah and part of the Writings lost | 491 folios · the complete Hebrew Bible |
| Holding | Ben-Zvi Institute · Israel Museum | National Library of Russia, St Petersburg |
| Editions based on it | Hebrew University Bible Project (HUBP) · the text reconstructed by Mordechai Breuer from the Aleppo Codex and related manuscripts · the Jerusalem Crown (Keter Yerushalayim) · Bar-Ilan University’s Mikraot Gedolot HaKeter | BHK³ · BHS · BHQ · WLC → OSHB → Yeshua Literal Version |
Both codices belong to the Tiberian Ben Asher tradition; their consonantal texts are very close, and their differences lie mostly in details of vocalisation, accentuation and Masoretic notes. The Aleppo Codex is earlier and more authoritative but does not survive complete; the Leningrad Codex is the oldest manuscript of the Hebrew Bible to survive complete. The Yeshua Literal Version Old Testament uses as its source text the WLC and OSHB, which are based on the Leningrad Codex.
The Cairo Genizah
A Repository of Discarded Texts
A גְּנִיזָה (genizah) is a storeroom in which worn documents bearing the name of God were kept rather than destroyed. The Genizah of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Old Cairo (Fustat) yielded some 300,000 to 400,000 fragments (counts vary by method), now divided among several institutions, above all the Taylor-Schechter Collection of Cambridge University Library.
The Dead Sea Scrolls
The Eleven Caves of Qumran
Between 1947 and 1956, fragments of approximately 900 manuscripts were recovered from eleven caves around Qumran, north-west of the Dead Sea. Some 200 or more of these are biblical manuscripts, representing every book of the Hebrew Bible except Esther (counting Ezra–Nehemiah as one book). The books attested in the largest number of copies are Psalms (c. 36), Deuteronomy (c. 30) and Isaiah (c. 21).
| Siglum | Cave · Date | Contents and significance |
|---|---|---|
| 1QIsaᵃ Great Isaiah Scroll | Cave 1 · late 2nd c. BC (c. 125 BC) | The whole of Isaiah 1–66. 54 columns, approx. 7.3 m long. It shows many differences of full (plene) spelling and language, yet its content agrees in general with the Masoretic Text. Shrine of the Book, Israel Museum. |
| 1QIsaᵇ | Cave 1 · c. Herodian period | Portions of Isaiah. Closer to the Masoretic Text than 1QIsaᵃ. |
| 4QSamᵃ | Cave 4 · c. 1st c. BC | Samuel. In many places it agrees with the Hebrew source of the Septuagint, and it contains an additional paragraph concerning Nahash king of Ammon between 1 Samuel 10:27 and 11:1 (a passage also known to Josephus). |
| 4QJerᵇ · ᵈ | Cave 4 | Attest a short form of the text like that of the Septuagint Jeremiah, which is approximately one-seventh shorter than the Masoretic Text and differs in arrangement. |
| 4QpaleoExodᵐ | Cave 4 · palaeo-Hebrew script | A “pre-Samaritan” text with the same harmonising expansions as the Samaritan Pentateuch. |
| 4QDeutʲ | Cave 4 | Reads בני אלוהים (“sons of God”) in Deuteronomy 32:8. |
| 11QPsᵃ | Cave 11 · c. early 1st c. AD | A different order of psalms, including compositions absent from the Masoretic Psalter, such as Psalm 151. |
Several manuscripts write the divine name separately in palaeo-Hebrew script (e.g. 11QPsᵃ). Cave 4 (discovered in 1952) yielded the largest number of manuscripts. The Qumran manuscripts are generally dated from the mid-3rd century BC to c. AD 68.
The Character of the Qumran Texts
Several Textual Forms Existed Side by Side
The Dead Sea Scrolls confirm the antiquity of the Masoretic Text and at the same time show that several textual forms coexisted in the pre-Christian period. Emanuel Tov has classified the Qumran biblical manuscripts as follows.
This classification represents one view. Eugene Ulrich and others describe the same book as developing through successive literary editions, and the criteria and proportions of such classifications remain under scholarly discussion.
Other Ancient Hebrew Witnesses
Witnesses Earlier than Qumran and Beyond Qumran
The Samaritan Pentateuch
The Torah of the Community of Mount Gerizim
The Samaritan community accepts only the Pentateuch as Scripture and has transmitted it in the Samaritan script, a development of the palaeo-Hebrew script. It became known in Europe when Pietro della Valle acquired a manuscript in 1616, and it was first printed in the Paris Polyglot (completed 1645).
The Ancient Versions
The Hebrew Text Seen through Translation
The ancient versions bear indirect witness to the Hebrew text their translators used. Because translation technique and transmission history must also be taken into account, the retroversion of Hebrew readings from the versions requires caution.
In addition there are the Old Latin (Vetus Latina), Coptic, Ethiopic and Armenian versions, translated from the Septuagint, and the Arabic version of Saadia Gaon (10th century), translated from the Hebrew.
Manuscripts and Revisions of the Septuagint
Uncial Codices and Early Papyri
| Manuscript | Date | Location · Features |
|---|---|---|
| Codex Vaticanus (B) | 4th c. | Vatican Library (Vat. gr. 1209). Although portions such as the beginning of Genesis are lacking, it contains most of the Old Testament. In many books its text is regarded as close to the pre-revisional form. |
| Codex Sinaiticus (א or S) | 4th c. | Chiefly in the British Library, with portions in Leipzig, St Catherine’s Monastery at Sinai and the National Library of Russia. Much of its Old Testament has been lost. |
| Codex Alexandrinus (A) | 5th c. | British Library. It contains nearly the entire Old Testament; some books show the influence of the Hexaplaric revision. |
| Papyrus Rylands 458 | c. 2nd c. BC | Fragments of Deuteronomy; among the oldest extant manuscripts of the Septuagint. |
| Papyrus Fouad 266 | c. 1st c. BC | Fragments of Deuteronomy, writing the divine name in Hebrew characters within the Greek text. |
Revisions and Comparative Editions
- The kaige revision (c. 1st c. BC) — a revision bringing the Septuagint closer to the contemporary Hebrew text; the Nahal Hever Minor Prophets scroll is its principal witness.
- Aquila, Symmachus and Theodotion (2nd c.) — Aquila is known for an extreme literalism that renders Hebrew word by word.
- The Hexapla (c. mid-3rd c.) — a six-column synopsis: the Hebrew text, its transliteration in Greek letters, Aquila, Symmachus, the Septuagint and Theodotion.
- The Lucianic (Antiochene) recension (c. early 4th c.) — of particular importance for the study of the historical books.
- Modern critical editions — the edition of Rahlfs (1935; revised by Hanhart, 2006) and the Göttingen edition, in progress since 1931.
Textual Variants in Practice
Where the Witnesses Diverge
Throughout most of the Old Testament, the Masoretic Text, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the ancient versions agree. Where they differ, textual criticism weighs the evidence for each reading and the changes that may arise in the course of copying.
The base text of the Yeshua Literal Version Old Testament is the Masoretic Text of the Leningrad Codex. In the passages below, the translation follows the Masoretic Text in several places and agrees with the reading of other witnesses in others. The translation of each verse is quoted verbatim.
| Passage (Masoretic numbering) | Masoretic Text | Other witnesses | Yeshua Literal Version |
|---|---|---|---|
| Genesis 4:8 | וַיֹּאמֶר קַיִן אֶל־הֶבֶל אָחִיו — no content of the speech | Samaritan Pentateuch נלכה השדה · LXX Διέλθωμεν εἰς τὸ πεδίον · Peshitta · Vulgate: “Let us go out to the field” | Agrees with the Masoretic Text |
| Deuteronomy 27:4 | בְּהַר עֵיבָל Mount Ebal | Samaritan Pentateuch: “Mount Gerizim” | Agrees with the Masoretic Text |
| Deuteronomy 32:8 | בְּנֵי יִשְׂרָאֵל sons of Israel | 4QDeutʲ בני אלוהים · LXX ἀγγέλων θεοῦ (some MSS υἱῶν θεοῦ) | “the sons of God” — agrees with 4QDeutʲ |
| 1 Samuel 10:27 | No Nahash paragraph | 4QSamᵃ contains a paragraph concerning Nahash | Agrees with the Masoretic Text |
| Psalm 22:17 | כָּאֲרִי יָדַי וְרַגְלָי “like a lion, my hands and my feet” | LXX ὤρυξαν (“they dug/pierced”) · Peshitta · some Hebrew MSS כארו | “they pierced” — in line with the LXX and Peshitta |
| Isaiah 53:11 | יִרְאֶה יִשְׂבָּע “he shall see, he shall be satisfied” | 1QIsaᵃ · 1QIsaᵇ · 4QIsaᵈ יראה אור · LXX φῶς: “he shall see light” | “he shall see light” — agrees with the Dead Sea Scrolls and the LXX |
Deuteronomy 32:8
When the Most High (Elyon) gave the nations their inheritance, when he separated the sons of Adam, he set the boundaries of the peoples according to the number of the sons of God.
Deuteronomy 32:8 · Yeshua Literal VersionPsalm 22:17
Because the Masoretic Text counts the superscription as verse 1, Psalm 22:16 in many English and Korean Bibles is 22:17 in Masoretic numbering. The reading and interpretation of כָּאֲרִי remain under scholarly discussion, and the reading of the corresponding word in the Nahal Hever Psalms manuscript (5/6ḤevPs) is likewise disputed.
For dogs have surrounded me; a company of evildoers has encircled me; they pierced my hands and my feet.
Psalm 22:17 · Yeshua Literal VersionIsaiah 53:11
After the toil of his soul (nephesh) he shall see light and be satisfied; by his knowledge (daat) my righteous servant shall make many righteous, and he himself shall bear their iniquities.
Isaiah 53:11 · Yeshua Literal VersionPrinted and Critical Editions
The Lineage of the Printed Hebrew Bible
Modern critical editions fall into two broad types: the diplomatic edition, which reproduces a single manuscript and gathers variants in the critical apparatus, and the eclectic edition, which reconstructs the text by selecting readings from several witnesses.
| Edition | Publication | Base text · Features |
|---|---|---|
| Soncino edition | 1488 | The first complete printed Hebrew Bible. |
| First Rabbinic Bible | 1516–1517, Venice | Edited by Felix Pratensis, published by Daniel Bomberg, with Targumim and rabbinic commentaries. |
| Second Rabbinic Bible | 1524–1525, Venice | Edited by Jacob ben Hayyim. It presented the Masorah systematically and served for several centuries as the de facto standard text. Base text of BHK editions 1 and 2. |
| BHK (Biblia Hebraica, Kittel) | 1906 · 1913 · 1937 | Edited by Rudolf Kittel. From the third edition (with Paul Kahle) the Leningrad Codex became the base text. |
| BHS (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia) | 1967–1977 | Edited by Karl Elliger and Wilhelm Rudolph, with the Masorah by Gérard Weil. A diplomatic edition of the Leningrad Codex that became the standard scholarly text. |
| BHQ (Biblia Hebraica Quinta) | In fascicles since 2004 | Based on the Leningrad Codex. It incorporates the Dead Sea Scrolls systematically and sets out its judgements on variants, with their grounds, in a commentary. |
| HUBP (Hebrew University Bible Project) | Isaiah (1995) · Jeremiah (1997) · Ezekiel (2004), among others | Based on the Aleppo Codex. It provides several apparatuses arranged by type of witness. |
| HBCE (The Hebrew Bible: A Critical Edition) | In progress | Formerly the Oxford Hebrew Bible. An eclectic edition that reconstructs the text by selecting readings from several witnesses. |
| WLC · OSHB | Electronic texts | Electronic texts of the Leningrad Codex, discussed below under “The Base Text of the Yeshua Literal Version.” |
The Base Text of the Yeshua Literal Version
From the Leningrad Codex to the Yeshua Literal Version
The Yeshua Literal Version Old Testament uses the Open Scriptures Hebrew Bible (OSHB) as its Hebrew source text. The OSHB is based on the Westminster Leningrad Codex (WLC), that is, the Masoretic Text of the Leningrad Codex.
Masoretic Versification
Why the Same Verse Bears Different Numbers
Verse boundaries rest on the Masoretic sof pasuq (׃), but the chapter divisions derive from the medieval Latin Bible (attributed to Stephen Langton in the 13th century), and the numbering of chapters and verses was added in the age of print. As a result, the numbering of the Hebrew Bible differs in several places from that of many translations. The Yeshua Literal Version follows the Masoretic numbering.
- Psalm superscriptions — the Masoretic Text counts the superscription as verse 1. Psalm 22:17 (MT) = 22:16 (most English and Korean Bibles).
- Joel — 3:1–5 (MT) = 2:28–32; chapter 4 (MT) = chapter 3.
- Malachi — 3:19–24 (MT) = 4:1–6. Malachi has three chapters in the Masoretic Text.
- Genesis — 32:1 (MT) = 31:55.
Further Reading