Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-76fb5796d-dfsvx Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-04-28T00:12:05.633Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

I - The Old Testament: Manuscripts, Text and Versions

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  28 March 2008

By
Bleddyn J. Roberts
Edited by
G. W. H. Lampe
Bleddyn J. Roberts
Affiliation:
University College of North Wales, Bangor
Get access

Summary

The Old Testament textualist is today more concerned with the story of the textual transmission up to the middle ages than ever before. It is from its manuscripts that he derives both the text itself and the variants for his apparatus criticus, and his interpretation of the medieval transmission controls, to a large extent, his choice of readings. Consequently, the relevance of the present survey of the medieval transmission lies not so much in providing information about textual activities but in an appraisal of their use in the contemporary textual situation. The topic as a whole falls into two fairly exclusive sections, namely the Hebrew (Massoretic) text, and the Versions.

THE HEBREW (MASSORETIC) TEXT

The traditional view of the Hebrew transmission was that the textual minutiae of the Law as the most significant part of the Scriptures were fixed for all time under the influence of Rabbi Aqiba (c. A.D. 55–137), and the standardization of the remainder followed soon afterwards, to produce the official Massoretic text. From that time onward all manuscripts were scrupulously transcribed according to the archetype, and scrutinized by official scribes, so that a correct transmission was assured. Rabbinic evidence, it was said, supported this reconstruction.

On four occasions in rabbinic writings we are told, with a few variations, that three scrolls of the Law, with minor textual divergences, were deposited in the Temple court, and in each case of divergence it was ruled that the majority reading was authoritative. The fact that the legend is set in the Temple area shows that discussion about text standardization goes back at least to the time before A.D. 70, the date of the sack of Jerusalem.

Type
Chapter
Information
The Cambridge History of the Bible , pp. 1 - 26
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 1969

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Barthélemy, J. D., Les devanciers d'Aquila (1963).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Baumstark, A., Geschichte der syrischen Literatur (1922).Google Scholar
Bea, A., Die neue lateinische Psalmenübersetzung (1949).Google Scholar
Berliner, A., Targum Onkelos, 1884.Google Scholar
Brooke, A. E. and McLean, N., The Old Testament in Greek, vols. I–IV (the Cambridge Septuagint, 1906–40).Google Scholar
Bruce, F. F., The books and the parchments (3rd ed. 1962).Google Scholar
Castro, F. P., Séfer Abisha'. Edición del fragmento antiguo del rollo sagrado del Pentateuco Hebreo Samaritno de Nablus. 1959.Google Scholar
Cross, F. M., The ancient library of Qumran (1958).Google Scholar
Edelman, R. (ed.), Corpus Codicum Hebraicorum Medii Aevi, Part II. Vol. 1, Sperber, A., The Pre-Masoretic Bible… Codex Reuchlinianus (1956); vols. II and III, Sperber, A., Codices Palatani. I. Parma Pentateuch, 2. The Parma Bible, I. Pentateuch–II Samuel; vol. III, II. Jeremiah–Chronicles (1959). (The two volumes of the Parma Bible consist of facsimile plates of the whole Old Testament).Google Scholar
Eissfeldt, O., Einleitung in das Alte Testament (1st ed. 1934). English translation of 3rd ed., Ackroyd, P. R., The Old Testament, an introduction (1965).Google Scholar
Field, F., Origenes Hexaplorum quae supersunt…. (1875, reprint 1965).Google Scholar
Flack, E. E., Metzger, B. M. and others, The text, canon and principal versions of the Bible (1956).Google Scholar
Gehman, H. S., ‘Greek Versions of O. T.’ in Dictionary of the Bible (ed. Grant, F. C. and Rowley, H. H., 2nd ed. of Hastings Dictionary of the Bible) (1963). Numerous articles in various journals.Google Scholar
Gerleman, G., Studies in the Septuagint, vol. I, The Book of Job (1946); vol. II, II Chronicles (1946); vol. III, Proverbs (1956).Google Scholar
Goldschmidt, L. (with Kahle, P.), The earliest editions of the Hebrew Bible, with a treatise of the oldest manuscripts of the Bible (1950).
Gooding, D. W., Recensions of the Septuagint Pentateuch (1955).Google Scholar
Goshen-Gottstein, M. H., The Hebrew University Bible project. The Book of Isaiah. Sample edition with introduction (1965).
Herklots, H. G. G., How the Bible came to us (Penguin, 1959).Google Scholar
Kahle, P. E., The Cairo Geniza (1st ed. 1947, 2nd ed. 1959).Google Scholar
Kahle, P. E., Der Hebräische Text seit Franz Delitzsch (1962).Google Scholar
Kenyon, F. G. (revised), Our Bible and the ancient manuscripts (5th ed. 1958).Google Scholar
Kittel, R. (with Kahle, P.), Biblia Hebraica (3rd ed. 1937, and subsequent).Google Scholar
Lee, S. ed. Vetus Testamentum Syriace, (1823).Google Scholar
Lehmann, O., The Damascus Pentateuch and its manuscript. Tradition according to ben Naphtali (1962).Google Scholar
Leider, J. and Turner, M., An index to Aquila (1966).Google Scholar
Margolis, M. L., The Book of Joshua in Greek (1931–8).Google Scholar
Moss, C., Catalogue of Syriac printed books and related literature in the British Museum (1962).Google Scholar
Noth, M., Die Welt des Alten Testaments (4th ed. 1962). English translation, The Old Testament world (1966).Google Scholar
Orlinsky, H. M., ‘The Masoretic text. A critical evaluation’. Prolegomenon to the re-issue (1966) of Ginsburg, C. D., Introduction to the Massoretico-critical edition of the Hebrew Bible (1897).Google Scholar
Orlinsky, H. M., The Septuagint. The oldest translation of the Bible (1949).Google Scholar
Ottley, R. R., A handbook to the Septuagint (1920).Google Scholar
,Peshitta Institute, The Old Testament in Syriac according to the Peshitta Version. Sample edition (1966).
,Peshitta Institute, List of Old Testament Peshitta manuscripts (Preliminary issue) (1961).
Price, I. M. (revised), The ancestry of our English Bible (3rd ed. 1956).Google Scholar
Rahlfs, A., Septuaginta. Vetus Testamentum Graece (1935 and subsequent editions).Google Scholar
Rahlfs, A., Septuaginta Studien, vols. I–III (1st ed. 1904–11, 2nd ed. 1965).
Robinson, H. W. (revised), The Bible in its ancient and English versions (2nd ed. 1954).Google Scholar
Roth, C., The Aberdeen Codex of the Hebrew Bible (1958).Google Scholar
Rypins, S., The book of thirty centuries (1951).Google Scholar
Sabatier, P., Bibliorum Sacrorum latinae versiones antiquae, and Fischer, B., Vetus Latina, Die Reste der altlateinischen Bibel nach Petrus Sabatier neu gesammelt u. herausg. v. d. Erzabtei Beuron (1739–49, 1751, and 1949–54).Google Scholar
Sainte-Marie, H., Sancti Hieronymi Psalterium iuxta Hebraeos. Édition Critique (1954).Google Scholar
Schäfer, J., Die altlateinische Bibel (1957).Google Scholar
Seeligmann, I. L., The Septuagint Version of Isaiah (1948).Google Scholar
Snaith, N. H., Sepher Torah, Nebi'im u-Kethubim (1958).Google Scholar
Sperber, A., A grammar of Masoretic Hebrew, a general introduction to the pre-Masoretic Bible (1959).Google Scholar
Sperber, A., The Bible in Aramaic, vols. I–III (1959–62).
Stenning, J. F., The Targum of Isaiah (1st ed. 1949, reprint 1953).Google Scholar
Stummer, F., Einführung in die lateinische Bibel (1928).Google Scholar
Swete, H. B., The Old Testament in Greek according to the Septuagint (1st ed. 1887–94, subsequent editions until 1909).Google Scholar
Swete, H. B., Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek (2nd ed. 1914).Google Scholar
Textus. The Annual of the Hebrew University Bible Project. (Editors: Rabin, C., later Talmon, S. (1960–)).Google Scholar
Vandervorst, J., Introduction aux textes hébreu et grec de l' Ancien Testament (1935).Google Scholar
von Gall, A., Der hebräische Pentateuch der Samaritaner. 1914–18. Reprint 1965.Google Scholar
Vööbus, A., Peschitta und Targumim des Pentateuchs (1958).Google Scholar
Weil, G. E., Elia Levita — humaniste et massorète (1963).Google Scholar
Weil, G. E., Initiation à la massorah. L'introduction au sépher zikhronôt d'Elia Levita (1964).Google Scholar
Wevers, J. W., ‘Septuaginta Forschungen’, Theologische Rundschau (1954), with full bibliography.Google Scholar
Würthwein, E., Der Text des Alten Testaments. Eine Einführung in die Biblia Hebraica (2nd ed. 1963). English translation of 1st ed. 1957.Google Scholar
Wutz, F. X., Systematische Wege von der Septuaginta zum hebräischen Urtext (1937).Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure coreplatform@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×