How We Got Our Scriptures Part 1: The Hebrew Tanakh

This article is part of a series on the history of the Bible. This article will examine the Hebrew texts that form the Tanakh or "Old Testament" of our Scriptures. 

The oldest known verifiable Hebrew writing dates to about 1000 BCE. It was found inscribed onto clay and ceramic shards. There is also what is called the Gezer calendar, a limestone tablet dated to about the same time as the above mentioned shard. Beyond small inscriptions and things of that nature, we do not have many Biblical writings that have survived passed that. This is approximately what is called the Monarchic Period, because it roughly includes the reign of Kings David and Solomon. 

Most writings dated to this time period are what is commonly called the "Paleo-Hebrew" script (as shown in the image above). This script is virtually the same as the Canaanite script, also called the Phoenician script. It looked similar to the photo here:

Now then, I say "verifiable" because there is quite a bit of evidence to suggest that a script older than the "Paleo" (Phoenician) script was used, and that this script was actually a type of pictographic language. Numerous areas around the Sinai Peninsula, roughly near where Mount Sinai is thought to be located, contain carvings and inscriptions of this pictographic script. Here is an example of the script (notice what appears to be a man with both arms raised on the left in the middle, and an ox head on the top right):

After the deportation to Babylon, the script began to change. It began to morph into what more closely resembled the Aramaic script. Today, this script is the most commonly used, and was used in the Masoretic Hebrew Text discussed below. This is called the Ashuri script. Ashuri is the word for "Assyrian" in Hebrew, as this script was taken from them. Here is this script:

At any rate the oldest fragmented manuscripts of the Tanakh (OT) that we have are actually in the Paleo-Hebrew (Phoenician) script, and there were quite a few that were found at Khirbet Qumran, near the coast of the Dead Sea. These are part of the collection called the "Dead Sea Scrolls." The oldest known Biblical text actually dates to about 600 BCE, and is written on two small silver scrolls. The text is a fragmented and paraphrased version of the Aaronic Benediction (Priestly Blessing) from Numbers 6. Beyond that most of the older Hebrew Tanakh fragments are from the Dead Sea Scrolls.

The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of close to 1,000 texts uncovered between 1946 and 1956. They were found in 11 caves around Khirbet Qumran, in the West Bank; this is on the western side of the Dead Sea (Salt Sea). Of the scrolls that were discovered, less than 30% of them are copies of Biblical texts. {1} The rest are composed of commentaries, sectarian writings, and extra-Biblical (Apocryphal) books. {2} Copies of all books found in the Tanakh were found at Qumran, of various lengths (sometimes less than one full verse), except for the book of Esther. {3} The exact reason why Esther seems to have been omitted is not fully known, though that is not the focus of this article.

In addition to the Hebrew Dead Sea Scrolls, we also have access to what is called the Samaritan Pentateuch (Torah). This is a copy of the Torah written in the Samaritan alphabet, which is a descendant of the Paleo-Hebrew script. {4}

There are some rather fascinating variants in the SP. In Exodus 20, at the giving of the Ten Words (Commandments), in verse 17, an entire paragraph is present in the SP that is absent from all other sources, both Hebrew and translations. This paragraph, essentially, states that Mount Gerizim is the place where the Temple should be built, not Jerusalem. This was most likely a later addition, as the Samaritans believe that Mount Gerizim was the place of worship, not Jerusalem. We this played out in John 4, where the woman at the well tells Yeshua that, "our fathers worshiped in THIS MOUNTAIN, but you Jews say that Jerusalem is the place of worship." Yeshua then tells the woman that they worship what they do not know. It is my opinion that the reason He said this, was because the Samaritans, even to this day (as there is a community still living on Mount Gerizim of less than 1,000 people), have rejected all other books as Scripture. Not just the NT, but all of the prophets and the writings. They consider only the Torah to be authoritative.

The SP differs from the Hebrew Masoretic Text (discussed below) in close to 6,000 places. Of those 6,000, the majority are spelling, grammar, word order, etc. {5} The Greek Septuagint (discussed in Part 2) agrees with the SP in nearly 2,000 of these differences. {6} 

Though the Dead Sea Scrolls and Samaritan Torah provide great information and make for a wonderful Critical Text, there is a set of Hebrew manuscripts that is far greater in size, reputation, and notoriety. These are called the Masoretic Texts.

Today, almost all major Bible translations have their Tanakh (OT) portion translated from the Masoretic Text. The word "Masoretic" comes from the Hebrew word מסרת (masoret) meaning "bond" or "fetter." It appears once in the Scriptures in Ezekiel 20:37, and refers to the "bond of the covenant." However, it later became associated with the phrase "to hand down tradition" (in the sense of being "bound" to it) and thus refers to the scribal process of copying. The group known as the Masoretes are those responsible for the Hebrew text we have today, as well as the standardization of the Tiberian vowel system. We'll look at the vowels in a moment.

There were two primary families that produced scribes: the Naphtali family and the Asher family (though both families were of Jewish descent, not the individual tribes of Naphtali and Asher). These two families were well-known for their scribal accuracy, and even went about and corrected the readings of other Hebrew manuscripts of their day. Rabbi Moshe ben Maim (also known as Maimonides or RaMBaM) highly admired the Asher family's work.

Between ca. 850 CE and 1100 CE these two families produced an untold number of Masoretic Hebrew texts, all (reportedly) in agreement. Though through analysis today, we know they do in fact possess a handful of variations. Sadly, many of these text are no longer extant today. There are, however, two manuscripts that are reported to have been amended by Aaron ben Moses ben Asher (the grandson and "heir" to the Asher family) himself. These are known as the Aleppo Codex, as it was found in Aleppo Syria, and the Leningrad Codex, as it was housed in Leningrad, Russia (known today as St. Petersburg). Much to the sorrow of modern scholars, the Aleppo Codex, which is the older and presumably superior text, was damaged in a fire in the mid-20th century. Nearly all of the Torah was destroyed from the Aleppo Codex, and some of the later portions were as well. This left the Leningrad Codex to become the supreme authority for the content of the Tanakh. Indeed, nearly all printed editions today (Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, Biblia Hebraica Quinta, and most Hebrew study Bibles) are based on the Leningrad Codex.

What makes the Masoretic Texts so incredible is how little they differ from one another. While the thousands of Greek New Testament manuscripts show hundreds of thousands of variations in their texts (to be discussed in a later article), the Masoretic Texts differ a tiny fraction from one another. Part of the process of the Masoretes was called the "Numerical Masorah." This included the scribe counting each letter value in each line. 

In Hebrew, every letter of the alphabet (alef-bet) has a number value. Alef = 1 , Bet = 2, and so on, up to Tav = 400. When the letters are combined to form words, the numerical value of each letter is added together to form a total number value for that word. Then, all the values of each word can be added together to reach the value of a line. This allowed the scribe to know how many lines he had written (and could therefore get paid accordingly) AND know exactly how many words and letters were in each line. This was also used to allow the Masorete scribes to know what the value SHOULD be for every line of text. For example, the numerical value for the Hebrew text of Genesis 1:1 (the single line) is 2,701. Therefore, if I copy the words of Genesis 1:1 in Hebrew and add up all the number values and get something OTHER than 2,701, I know there's an error in the text. This is one of the ways the scribes kept careful track not to add or subtract a single letter, let alone a verse. Which brings us to the next little fact about the Masoretic Text: marginal notes.

For the most part, the Masorete scribes were very, VERY reverent towards the text. They refused to add to or subtract from the text at all, except in the cases of verifiably known errors. In most cases, however, they much preferred a system known as qere-ketiv. The word qere is Aramaic and means "read." The word ketiv likewise means "written." An example of this is found in Deut. 33:9, where in Hebrew we read, "לֹ֣א הִכִּ֔יר וְאֶת־ בָּנֹו בָּנָ֖יו ק" meaning "nor did he acknowledge his own sons." Well in the Masoretic manuscripts, the word בָּנֹו (ban'oh), meaning "his son" (singular) has a marginal note attached to it. This marginal note reads בָּנָ֖יו (ba'naw) meaning "his sons" (plural). In many texts, this is written in sentence form as follows: (לֹ֣א הִכִּ֔יר וְאֶת־ [בָּנֹו כ] (בָּנָ֖יו ק. Notice the [brackets] around banoh, followed by the single letter kaf (כ). This kaf stands for the ketiv. Then, in (parentheses) we have the word banaw followed by a single letter qof (ק). This qof stands for qere.

So what happened here, is that when the scribes wrote the word, they wrote it as banoh, the singular form meaning "his son;" later, however, the Masoretes came along and corrected it to the plural form banaw. Rather than edit the text (by adding the extra missing letter yod [י]) the Masoretes utilized the qere-ketiv system. That way, when reading the text, you "qere" (read) it as "his sons" but you ketiv (write) it as "his son." This kept them from having to alter the text itself, and retained all the numerical values.

Now, back to the vowel system. Hebrew is what is known as a tri-consonantal language. {7} This means that it is based on three-consonant root words. These three letters are words themselves, but are also modified to create other words with similar meanings. The issue, however, is with vowels. For instance, the first word of Scripture spelled בראשית. This is equivalent to the English B-R-'-SH-Y-T. How do you pronounce that? It could be Bereshiyt (as it is), though it could be Barashayt, or Beresheyt, or Boroshoyt, or any combination. It would be like writing the name Nathan without vowels, giving you NTHN. Is it Nothin? Nethan? Nithon? How do you know which one is correct? The vowels. Prior to the Masoretes, there was no standard of vowels. The words were learned verbally and recited by memory, not by reading. There are, of course, other vowel systems that differ by group and culture, such as the Ashkenazi (European Jews), Sephardi (Spanish Jews), and Yemenite (Jews from…well…Yemen). However, the standard vowel system for the Masoretic Text is the Tiberian vowel system. It utilizes a system of dots and dashes below (and occasionally above) the letters to show which sound that particular letter makes.  These dots and dashes are called niqqudot (plural) or niqqud (singular). This allowed for a standardized practice of vocalization and pronunciation. 

This then, brings us to the Biblia Hebraica. A man by the name of Rudolf Kittel compiled and edited three Critical Editions of the Hebrew text. These were published in 1906, 1913, and 1937. The first and second editions, printed in 1906 and 1913 respectively, were based on Daniel Bomberg's Mikraot Gedalot, published in Venice, Italy, in 1524. This Mikraot Gedalot, from which the King James Version's Old Testament was translated, includes the Hebrew text of the Tanakh as well as numerous Targums (covered in Part 3 of this series) and commentaries. While the Mikraot Gedalot (Hebrew for "Great Scriptures") is, for the most part, faithful to the Masoretic Text, it contained numerous typographical and copyist errors. This led to a rather heated dispute among the Jews, who also objected to Daniel Bomberg's edition, as he converted to Christianity.

The third edition of the Biblia Hebraica, however, was no longer based on the Mikraot Gedalot, as its errors had been recognized; rather, the third edition was based on the Leningrad Codex as mentioned earlier. This edition is considered superior due to its superior text base, improved footnotes, and vastly improved critical apparatus (appendix in the back featuring alternative readings). Sadly, some of the manuscripts referenced in that apparatus were destroyed with the bombing of Leipzig during WWII. 

The successor of the Biblia Hebraica is known as the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Whereas Biblia Hebraica is Latin for "Hebrew Bible" the word Stuttgartensia refers to the city of Stuttgart, the capitol of Baden-Württemberg, Germany, the city where it was produced. The Biblia Hebraic Stuttgartensia (BHS) is the basis of Tanakh translation for versions such as the NASB, NKJV, and ESV. 

So this brings us nearly up to date. Today, the German Bible Society in Stuttgart are preparing the Biblia Hebraica Quinta, or "Fifth Hebrew Bible." Currently, the Song of Songs, the Book of Ruth, the Book of Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and the Book of Esther are all complete, as are Ezra, Nehemiah, Deuteronomy, Proverbs, the 12 Minor Prophets, and Judges. The rest of the books are still being worked on, with an estimated completion of 2020. This version of the BH will feature not only the text of the Leningrad Codex, but also all the important variations that are contained in the Dead Sea Scrolls and other variations in texts that have since been discovered.

In Part 2, we will examine the direct descendant translations of the Hebrew text: the Greek Septuagint (LXX), the Latin Vulgate, and the Syriac Peshitta. 

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Be Berean. Shalom. ​

Updated 2/4/2016

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Bibliography 

{1} Abegg, Jr., Martin, Peter Flint, and Eugene Ulrich, The Dead Sea Scrolls Bible: The Oldest Known Bible Translated for the First Time into English, San Francisco: Harper, 2002.
{2} ibid.
​{3} Fagan, Brian M., and Charlotte Beck, The Oxford Companion to Archeology, entry on the "Dead sea scrolls", Oxford University Press, 1996.
{4} "Samaritan Language and Literature". Catholic Encyclopedia. New York: Robert Appleton Company. 1913.
{5} Hjelm, Ingrid. The Samaritans and Early Judaism: A Literary Analysis. Continuum International Publishing Group. 2000.
{6} Buttrick, George Arthur and board, eds. (1952). The Interpreter's Bible, Vol. 1. Nashville, Tennessee: Abingdon Press. P. 35.
{7} Agmon, Noam (2010), "Materials and Language: Pre-Semitic Root Structure Change Concomitant with Transition to Agriculture" (PDF), Brill’s Annual of Afroasiatic Languages and Linguistics 2: 23–79