Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

The text of the OT or Hebrew Bible has a history of more than 2200 years of repeated copying and editing. Scholars differ over whether the transmission history of the text actually began when the text was fully completed and fixed or with the earliest written forms of the text. Clearly, older compositions such as the Pentateuch reached their final form much earlier and therefore have a longer transmission history than younger compositions such as the book of Daniel (perhaps 2nd century b.c.e.). Each composition in the biblical collection comes from a different period and has its own history of editing and copying. At different points in time, depending on the material in question, compositions were associated with each other (e.g., the “books” of the Pentateuch), and the transmission history of each individual composition becomes identical with that of the collection. The same is true of other collections, such as the 12 Minor Prophets which were probably transmitted as a single collection on a single scroll perhaps as early as the 5th century.

Copying and Transmission

Texts were copied on scrolls usually made from the skins of animals such as goats or gazelles. Usually only one side was smoothed and prepared to receive writing. If a composition was too long for a single piece of leather, the copyist or scribe would sew pieces of leather together to make a scroll long enough. The scribe might also impress onto the leather dry lines to guide the writing and to delineate the edges of columns. Various scribal signs were sometimes used to indicate corrections or passages of special interest. The biblical manuscripts from Qumran provide excellent examples of scribal practices from as early as 275 b.c.e. to ca. 68 c.e. Biblical manuscripts were usually prepared carefully, although apparently no established standards were applied in the copying until perhaps the end of the 1st century c.e. Usually semiformal or formal scripts were used for biblical manuscripts, although several from Qumran were copied in semicursive scripts. The biblical manuscripts from Qumran and elsewhere in the Judean desert show widespread variation in scribal practices in the last three centuries b.c.e. By the 1st century c.e. scribal practice in copying biblical manuscripts became standardized. Those rules are preserved in the Babylonian Talmud and the treatises Masseket Sefer Torah and Masseket Soferim, the latter compiled in the 9th century c.e.

Compositions which were thought to belong together such as the “books” of the Pentateuch could be copied on a single long scroll. The scroll format was dominant until after the adoption of the codex or book format by Christians for the NT. Thereafter, Christians used the codex format for the text of the OT as well. Within Judaism, the codex was only slowly adopted for texts not used in the liturgy. Liturgical texts, especially the Torah, continued in scroll format. The Torah continues in unvocalized and unaccented scroll format still today. The first Jewish codices appear between 600-700.

The form of the Hebrew alphabet used to copy the text has also changed over the centuries. The most ancient form of the Hebrew alphabet, derived from the Phoenician script, is attested in only a few documents (e.g., silver scrolls). In the Persian period (538-36) a form of the alphabet derived from the Aramaic script used by the Persians was generally used and developed different styles. Only between 500-700 were new graphic symbols developed and added to nonliturgical texts to indicate vowels and syntax (punctuation). More than one such vocalization system developed, but two dominated: the Tiberian (named after the city of Tiberias) and the Babylonian. Eventually, the Tiberian system was accepted by most communities, but only slowly.

Ancient Manuscripts

Qumran and Judean Desert

From the Judean desert and especially Qumran, a treasure trove of biblical manuscripts and commentaries (pesharim) have survived. Also, numerous paraphrases or rewritten biblical texts which are not strictly categorized as biblical manuscripts provide important evidence for the centrality of biblical material for Palestinian Judaism in the Greco-Roman period; the history of the interpretation of biblical compositions; and, occasionally, variant forms of the Hebrew textual tradition.

Qumran. The biblical manuscripts from Qumran range from the middle of the 3rd century b.c.e. until ca. 68 c.e. Every book of the Hebrew Bible has been found with the exception of Esther. An enormous amount of secondary literature exists on the biblical manuscripts. Of the 11 caves at Qumran, the most extensive group of manuscripts, biblical and nonbiblical, come from Cave 4. Some of the more significant manuscripts, such as 4QSama and 4QJerb, have established that variant forms of the Hebrew text were known and used in Palestine and Qumran from the 3rd century b.c.e. to the 1st century c.e.; and many of these Hebrew manuscripts which vary from the received Hebrew text (the MT, medieval in date) are identical to or at least closely related to the Hebrew Vorlage of the Greek LXX and/or the Samaritan Pentateuch. The biblical manuscripts from Qumran seem to indicate a greater textual diversity than had been suspected prior to the first discoveries of these manuscripts beginning in 1947. Emmanuel Tov has argued that although textual diversity existed, the majority of the biblical manuscripts from Qumran are proto-Masoretic in textual type and thus closely related to the consonantal text of the MT. He has also argued that the proto-Masoretic manuscripts found at Qumran were usually more carefully copied with fewer scribal corrections than manuscripts of other textual types. There is not yet consensus on these two points. The Qumran biblical manuscripts are enormously important for understanding the development of the Hebrew textual traditions and the relationship to the Greek textual traditions and the transmission of the text in both languages in the Greco-Roman period. Thanks to the Dead Sea Scrolls, we have verified the antiquity of the consonantal component of the MT, now understood to have been only one of many textual traditions during this period. The proto-Masoretic text (the consonantal text without vocalization, accents, or masora) is the Hebrew text of the OT which survived to the end of the period and became, eventually, the canonical text.

Judean Desert. Among biblical texts from the Judean desert (excluding Qumran) are those from Masada, the Naḥal µever, and the Wadi Murabbaʾāt. Their importance for knowledge of the OT text and its history goes beyond their obvious antiquity. With one possible exception, the text of the Hebrew manuscripts from these sites corresponds almost exactly to the text of the proto-MT. The data seem to indicate that the textual diversity attested at Qumran, and presumably also throughout Palestine, disappears from the evidence by the time of the Second Jewish Revolt against Rome (132-135 c.e.). The evidence from Masada is not as clear, but all of the biblical fragments from Murabbaʾāt agree with proto-MT including the Minor Prophets scroll dating to the second half of the 1st century c.e. (i.e., between the two Jewish wars, ca. 70-132). Finally, the great manuscript of the Minor Prophets in Greek from Naḥal µever reflects a recension (a conscious revision) of the older Greek translation (the LXX) to bring it closer to a Hebrew text of the Twelve which is usually described as not quite identical to proto-MT. 8 µev XIIgr is clear evidence of recensional activity in the 1st century b.c.e., which may be taken as evidence of an awareness of obvious differences between the Greek and Hebrew textual traditions and of the preference for the Hebrew text as authoritative in form. It may reflect the abandonment of the older LXX translation at an earlier period than its adoption by Christian communities in the 1st century.

Printed Bibles

Between the Jewish wars with Rome, and probably by the beginning of the Second War (132 c.e.), the text of the Hebrew Bible seems to have been stabilized. This is indicated in particular by the evidence from the Judean desert, especially Wadi Murabbaʿāt. The Hebrew Minor Prophets scroll (second half of the 1st century c.e.) shows hardly any disagreement from the proto-MT. Attested at Qumran as one of many forms of the Hebrew text, the proto-MT is by the time of the Second War virtually the only form of the Hebrew text which survives. It is unclear how this particular textual tradition became the dominant text form. Usually it is conjectured that this was somehow due to the activity of the Pharisees and later rabbis, but there is no conclusive evidence. From the 2nd century c.e. until the early Middle Ages (ca. 896 for the Cairo Codex of the Prophets), we have no manuscript evidence. From the 9th century to the first printed Hebrew Bible is less than 500 years.

The first complete printed Hebrew Bible was produced by the Soncino brothers in 1488. This was followed in 1491-93 by the Naples Bible, also produced by Soncino. In 1495 Gershom Soncino produced an improved version of the 1488 Bible, printed in a small octavo (“pocket”) format, easier for Jews to transport when fleeing persecution than the folio size. This edition was used by Martin Luther for his translation of the OT. In 1514-17 the first Polyglot Bible was printed at Alcala de Henares (Lat. Complutum) under the patronage of Cardinal Ximenes de Cisneros. The first printed Bible produced in Spain, it was authorized by Pope Leo X only in 1520, three years after the death of Cardinal Cisneros. This first Polyglot Bible was issued in a facsimile edition beginning in 1983. Slightly later (1516-17) Daniel Bomberg, a Christian merchant who settled in Venice, hired Felix Pratensis to edit the first Great Rabbinic Bible. This was published in four volumes and included the Targums and commentaries. In 1524-25 Bomberg produced the Second Great Rabbinic Bible. Edited by Jacob ben Hayyim ibn Adonijah, it became the standard text of printed forms of the Hebrew Bible for nearly 400 years. It was issued in four volumes and included the Targums and the commentaries of Rashi, Ibn Ezra, David and Moses Kimhi, and Levi ben Gershom. The first break from this tradition came in 1611 when Johan Buxtorf produced a small format edition which, unlike previous editions, was based partially on Sephardic manuscripts. This served as the basis of the first critical edition of Johann Heinrich Michaelis in 1720, using 19 printed editions as well as five manuscripts from Erfurt.

From 1905-1906 the first edition of Rudolf Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica was produced. The basis of the first and second editions was the 1524-25 edition of Bomberg with certain variations and additions. In 1937 for the third edition the Firkowitch I. B19a (Leningradensis [L]) manuscript was used because it represented the oldest complete Ben Asher Masoretic manuscript known at that time. Beginning in 1967 the next edition of BH (Stuttgartensia) began to appear (1967-77) which also included the masora of L. Another revision, Biblia Hebraica Quinta, is in process, with the assistance of the United Bible Societies.

The Hebrew University Bible Project uses the Aleppo Codex (ca. 925) where it is extant as the basis for a diplomatic critical edition. Isaiah and Jeremiah have appeared, and Ezekiel is in an advanced state of preparation. Both the Hebrew University Bible Project and the Biblia Hebraica Quinta continue the tradition of diplomatic critical editions. The text which is offered as the base text is that of a single manuscript. BHQ, as did the earlier editions, will offer suggested emendations in the apparatus. Currently there is interest for an edition which would offer as the base text an emended, eclectic text with discussion of the basis for the emendations in the apparatus.

Ancient Versions

Greek Versions

The oldest translation of the Hebrew Bible is the Greek Septuagint (LXX), “the translation of the Seventy.” The name was originally applied only to a translation of the Pentateuch which was begun in Alexandria, Egypt, probably during the reign of the Greek ruler Ptolemy II Philadelphus (285-247 b.c.e.). Gradually, the name was extended to the Greek translation of the Prophets and Writings as well. The LXX was probably complete by the time of Ben Sira (ca. 190). Since it was done over more than half a century, the translation was the work of many translators, and thus the style and quality of the translation varies from book to book. Some sections were certainly the work of a single translator (e.g., the Minor Prophets), others the work of several. This translation was probably undertaken by the Jewish community of Alexandria because of the need for the Scriptures in what had become the everyday language. In addition to the books of the Hebrew Bible, the LXX contains the Apocrypha. Although made by the Greek-speaking Jewish community in Egypt, eventually it fell out of use within Judaism, probably for two major reasons. First, there was an awareness of differences between the text of the LXX and that of the contemporary Hebrew Bible. It was probably assumed that the translation was inaccurate, not that the text of the Hebrew Bible had continued to evolve after the time of the translation. This dissatisfaction is reflected in early recensions of the LXX to produce Greek versions corresponding closely to the contemporary Hebrew text (e.g., the Greek Minor Prophets scroll from Naḥal µever, second half of the 1st century b.c.e.). Second, Jewish communities abandoned the LXX because of its early adoption by Greek-speaking Christians. This probably motivated in part the production of the later Jewish revisions of the LXX, those of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion in the 2nd century c.e. In the 3rd century Origen created a revision of the LXX as column five in his Hexapla. This revision, based on comparison to the proto-Masoretic Hebrew text extant at this time, was recopied, frequently without the accompanying diacritical marks which Origen used in the Hexapla to indicate places where the Greek and Hebrew texts differed and where he had changed the LXX to bring it into conformance with the Hebrew text.

Latin Versions

In the West, Latin-speaking Christians probably began translations of the LXX into Latin as early as the 2nd century c.e. There was apparently no single “Old Latin” translation of the entire OT. In the 4th century Pope Damasus commissioned Jerome to produce a single Latin version of the Bible for common use — the Vulgate. He began ca. 392 with Psalms, initially using Origen’s revised LXX text as the basis for his work. Jerome’s first version of the Psalter, known as the Gallican Psalter, became quite popular. For the rest of the OT he became convinced that it was necessary to create a new translation directly from the Hebrew. This process took ca. 15 years. Jerome’s work was not widely accepted until ca. the 6th century, first being mixed with the older Latin translations which were circulating.

Targums

Targums (translations of a composition or compositions in the Hebrew Bible into Aramaic) exist for every book in the Hebrew Bible except Ezra, Nehemiah, and Daniel. Targums became important perhaps as early as the late Persian period, when Biblical Hebrew was not easily understood by most of the people. There are official rabbinic targums for the Pentateuch (Targum Onkelos) and the Prophets (Targum Pseudo-Jonathan). There is no official targum for the Writings, although numerous targums do exist. Recently discovered targums include Targum Neofiti, a Palestinian targum to the Pentateuch discovered in 1957 in the Vatican Library, and the Fragment Targum.

Samaritan Pentateuch

Although not strictly speaking one of the ancient versions, the Samaritan Pentateuch is usually discussed along with them. The canonical scripture of the Samaritan community which survives to this day, it was “discovered” by scholars in the 19th century and immediately engendered discussions concerning its antiquity and relationship to the proto-MT and the LXX. Since the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls it has become clear that there existed a “proto-Samaritan” text type with similar sorts of expansions which exist in the Samaritan Pentateuch. Apparently the biblical manuscripts from Qumran which are proto-Samaritan texts (e.g., 4QNum) provide evidence for the early history of the text type which the Samaritans chose for their Pentateuch and to which they added unique expansions which do not exist in the proto-Samaritan manuscripts from Qumran.

Textual Criticism

Any text, ancient or modern, suffers corruption in its transmission. This has always been true, although with electronic transmission of texts it is less likely to occur. The removal of errors, either accidental or deliberate, which were introduced into the text during the period of its transmission is the focus of the textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible. In this task the ancient versions and the Qumran biblical manuscripts may offer an incorrupt reading which would allow correction of an error in the Hebrew text. The versions, of course, do not exist simply to be mined for incorrupt or variant readings, but are important and independent forms of the text in their own right. But if the focus is the Hebrew text, they may provide the means to correct errors that have developed during the transmission of the Hebrew text.

Some scholars hold that the proper goal of the textual critic should be the recovery or reconstruction of the oldest form of the text it is possible to reconstruct on the basis of the evidence. This is similar to the view of textual criticism in other disciplines, such as the study of Greek or Latin literature. With the availability of biblical manuscripts from Qumran, it may be possible to reconstruct a form of the Hebrew text far earlier than what we now have. Other textual critics feel that the proper goal of the textual criticism is to produce as error-free an edition of the MT as possible. Yet others think that the proper goal is to reconstruct the proto-MT, the consonantal form of the text when it became canonical for Judaism at the end of the 1st century c.e. and subsequently for many Protestants.

Bibliography. F. M. Cross, The Ancient Library of Qumran, 3rd ed. (Minneapolis, 1995); M. J. Mulder, “The Transmission of the Biblical Text,” in Mikra. CRINT 2/1 (Philadelphia, 1988), 87-135; L. H. Schiffman, Reclaiming the Dead Sea Scrolls (Philadelphia, 1994); N. H. Snaith, “Printed Editions (Hebrew)” in “Bible,” EncJud 4:835-41; E. Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis, 1992); E. Ulrich, “Multiple Literary Editions: Reflections Toward a Theory of the History of the Biblical Text,” in Current Research and Technological Developments on the Dead Sea Scrolls, ed. D. W. Parry and S. D. Ricks. STDJ 20 (Leiden, 1996), 78-105; repr. in The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Origins of the Bible (Grand Rapids, 1999), 99-120; I. Yeivin, Introduction to the Tiberian Masorah. SBLMasS 5 (Missoula, 1980).

Russell T. Fuller

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)