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Old Testament Manuscripts

The Original Hebrew and Aramaic

The Old Testament was orginially written over a period of about 1,000 years from about 1450 BC to about 450 BC. The original languages of the Old Testament are Hebrew (or Old Hebrew) and Aramaic. Aramaic is a related language - almost a dialect of Hebrew, and the change came with the Babylonian captivity. The Hebrew language has no vowels (originally) and is read from right to left..

The Aramaic Content - Eight books which were written entirely in Aramaic are Zechariah, Haggai, Nehemiah, Esther, 1 & 2 Chronicles, and Malachi. Three books of the Old Testement have sections written in Aramaic, these are Daniel 2:4-7:28, Ezra 4:8-6:18, 7:12-26, and Jeremiah 10:11. The other 28 books of the Old Testament were originally written in Hebrew.

The Masoretic Text Manuscripts

The Masoretes (also Massoretes) were a Jewish body who (around the 10th century AD) defined what they considered to be the pure Hebrew (and Aramaic) text, to which they added vowel and accent points, and meticulously maintained.

The Manuscripts

Prior to the existance of the Masoretes, Jerome used one or more unidentified Hebrew texts for the Old Testament of his Latin Vulgate, around AD 400, which was used by Wycliffe for his English Old Testament in AD 1382.

The oldest extent manuscript of Masoretic text is the AD 826 Aleppo Codex, but it is partially burned. Another important Masoretic Text is the AD 1008 Leningrad Codex, which the primary basis for both the Biblia Hebraica and the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (criticial OT texts used by modern translations). Other major editions of the Masoretic text include the Mikraot Gedolot (Rabbinic Bibles), one of which is the Ben Chayyim Rabbinic Bible (1525), which is the OT source for the King James Version.

Manuscripts Comparisons: With the exception of paragraph deliniations, vowel points, and margin notes, there are only nine textual differences betweent the contents of the Leningrad Codex (CT) and the Ben Chayyim Rabbinic Bible (KJV). The passages which vary are 1 Kings 20:38; Proverbs 8:16; Isaiah 10:16; Isaiah 27:2; Isaiah 38:14; Jeremiah 34:1; Ezekiel 30:18; Zephaniah 3:15; and Malachi 1:12.

Interlinear: The classic Green's Interlinear Bible uses the Masoretic OT and the Textus Receptus NT, with Strong's numbers.

The Greek Septuagint Text Manuscripts

The Septuagint is a Greek translation of the whole Old Testament, with at least the Pentateuch being originally written no later than 246 BC

The Legend: The name Septuagint is from the Latin septuaginta, which means 70. Also the abbreviation for the Septuagint is LXX, 70 in Roman numerals. The name is based on the legend which follows:

Ptolemy II Philadelphus (Egyptian King 283-246 BC) commisioned the work for his prestigious library of Alexandria. To achieve this, he requested the high priest of Jerusalem to send him a group of scholars who were well-versed in Hebrew and Greek. The priest sent six Hebrew scholars from each tribe for the translation work. These seventy-two scholars were allegedly put to work in separate cells, each translating the entire Hebrew Bible into Greek. Despite working independently, all the scholars miraculously produced word-for-word identical Greek versions of the text, and did so in exactly 72 days. The exactly identical translations, in the very short time period of identical duration, with days matching the number of translators, is held to be miraculous testiment of divine authority.

The Letter of Aristaes is one of the earliest sources for the story of the Septuagint, believed to be written between 200-100 BC. This source, however does not separate the scholars into cells and refers only to the Pentateuch, not the entire Old Testament.

Dating and Manuscripts: The oldest extant manuscript of LXX is the Rylands Papyri which also (like the Letter of Aristaes) dates from the 200-100 BC. The most important/well known manuscripts of LXX are from the Codexes Vaticanus (4th Century AD), Sinaiticus (4th Century AD), and Alexandrinus (5th Century AD). Modern critical texts for LXX include the "Gottingen Septuagint" and the "Septuaginta: Editio altera." The Thomas Nelson Orthodox Study Bible which I own uses the "St. Anthanasius Academy Septuagint" text.

Use by Jesus and the Disciples: Almost all of the OT quotations given in Gospels (most prominantly, Matthew) are demonstriably quoted from the Septuagint. Paul also quoted from the Septuagint in his writings. This is not uniform throughout the whole New Testament, as various authors seem to be quoting from the Masoretic, the Septuagint, or from some other divergent source, or potentially simply paraphrasing broadly. It should be noted that at the time of Christ, Aramaeic was the commonly spoken language in Israel, Greek was the commonly spoken language in the Western World, by Hellenistic Jews, and was the language of the educated. Meanwhile, Hebrew had not been commonly used outside of scriptural studies for over 400 years.

Use by the Orthodox Church: The (Greek, Russian, Oriental) Orthodox Churches have always used the Septuagint (and Apocrypha) for the Old Testament, and to this day Bibles printed for Othodox use have Old Testaments translated from the Septuagint.

Interlinear: The classic Brenton's Interlinear Bible is "The Septuagint with Apocrypha: Greek and English," by Sir Lancealot C. L. Brenton (1851). It does not include the New Testament.