They also provide a helpful comparative resource for the Masoretic text, creating a fascinating area of research into the original text of the Old Testament.įinally, the existence of the OT MSS in both Greek and Hebrew is a testament to the preserving activity of God in the time before and after Christ. Second, the early OT MSS, especially the DSS, present a rich picture of Jewish understandings of their authoritative and ancient Scriptures in the period before the advent of Christ. These differences provide rich content for biblical scholars to analyze, and they add to our understanding of ancient Jewish practices.

There are large portions of Jeremiah, for instance, that are present in the LXX but not in the Hebrew Masoretic text. First, both the correspondence and difference of the text in its Greek and Hebrew forms is a fascinating area of study for textual critics and linguists. The OT MSS are significant for biblical studies in at least three specific ways. Codex Leningradensis is a complete Hebrew Bible that dates a century later than the Aleppo Codex. The Aleppo Codex is the earliest available evidence of the vowel pointing and cantillation marks, dating from the early tenth century. While there are numerous codices (books) that are included in the OT MSS, two of the most prominent are the Aleppo Codex and Codex Leningradensis. The Masoretes also filled the margins of their copies with various “cantillation notes” and indicators concerning the number of words in each book to help other scribes with accuracy in copying. The late OT MSS with Hebrew script begin to emerge around the tenth century, but in contrast to the DSS and other early examples, they now contain vowel pointings and vocalization indicators. Thirteen LXX manuscripts have been dated to before the first century, with 100 more falling in the period of the first to fourth century. Indeed, while the earliest examples of late OT MSS containing Hebrew are dated from the tenth and eleventh century, manuscripts of the OT in Greek translation (i.e., the Septuagint ) have been dated as early as the second century BC. The later OT MSS include texts in both Hebrew and Greek. As with the Nash Papyrus (and presumably every lost OT MSS), the DSS contain no vowel pointings. The various scrolls are usually dated anywhere from mid-second century BC to the first century AD. These scrolls, discovered in the Qumran caves in the Dead Sea region, contain examples of every book in the Hebrew Bible except for Esther. The other early OT MSS example is the DSS. The Nash Papyrus is likely an excerpt of a liturgical text, as it contains only the Shema (Deut 6:5) preceded by a portion of the Ten Commandments. These manuscripts are written in an ancient Hebrew script without the vowel pointing present in later Masoretic texts. The early OT MSS include the Nash Papyrus and the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS). Old Testament manuscripts fall into two basic categories: early and late.

Old manuscripts