The Transmission of the OT Text

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1 YSCM Y o r k s h i r e S c h o o l o f C h r i s t i a n M i n i s t r y for all Bible believing Churches and Christians - organised by The West & North Yorkshire FIEC Churches the bible college on your doorstep The Transmission of the OT Text XTEND Part 1: The Texts of The Bible 1. The Hebrew Text of the Old Testament a) Existing Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament The oldest Old Testament Hebrew text is a copy of the Pentateuch and a codex of the Prophets dated 895AD a document probably written 2,200 years after the events of the Pentateuch, and some 1800 years after the Prophets. Also there is a manuscript of the Old Testament in a Synagogue at Aleppo, dated 900AD. This script is regarded as the most valuable. Thirdly, comes a manuscript of the Prophets dated 916AD kept in Leningrad, plus a script of the whole of the Old Testament dated 1008 AD. Finally, there is a similar manuscript of the Old Testament kept in Oxford. b) Why do we possess so few Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament? When manuscripts were thought to be too old or worn for further use for ordinary reading purposes, they were reverently burned. The Jews preferred to use the new manuscripts as being the most perfect and free from damage. Before being taken to the consecrated ground for burial, the manuscripts would be kept in a safe store house called a "genizah", which was a room, or lumber-cupboard attached to a synagogue where documents no longer in use were hidden ("genizah" literally means 'a hiding place'). One particular "genizah" appears to have remained unemptied of its valuable contents in Cairo of Hebrew texts of the Old Testament Hebrew Scriptures belonging to the centuries prior to AD 900. During the centuries proceeding AD 900 Jewish scholars worked hard to produce a standard copy of the Hebrew text of the Old Testament. This was finally produced in 1000AD. These editors were known as the "Masoretes" and the Hebrew text they produced is known as the "Masoretic Text" (MT). In their work they added punctuation and a complicated set of vowel sounds to the text in order to ensure that succeeding generations would be able to correctly pronounce the Hebrew language of the Scriptures. The original Hebrew text is written with consonants only in the form of characteristics. Vowels were added by the Masoretes using a system of dots and dashes placed beneath each of the Hebrew characters. The Ben Asher text was finally published as the standard text. This text, then, has become the standard Hebrew text of the Old Testament which is used today, and is known as the "Masoretic Text". Once the Masoretes has accomplished their task, all remaining Hebrew Scriptures were consigned to the genizah waiting internment. c) The accuracy of transmission In spite of the vast number of years that have elapsed between the very early manuscripts and the final Masoretic text, the number and types of variations that have occurred are outstanding slight, few and insignificant. The Masoretes showed meticulous care to avoid errors in their transmission of the text. Using the texts discovered in the Cairo genizah, and the unknown Hebrew text used by Origen (c240ad) in his "Hexapla" and also Jerome's Latin translation of the Old Testament, we find that the Hebrew text itself has suffered very little alteration through q u a l i t y t r a i n i n g f o r b u s y p e o p l e

2 the years. Indeed, the LXX ( Greek translation of a Hebrew text some 200 years BC) clearly shows that no serious changes were introduced to the Hebrew text of the Old Testament during the thousand years and more between the time when this translation was made and the time to which our chief Hebrew manuscripts belong. Other witnesses to the accuracy of the Hebrew text are Syria Version, Samaritan Pentateuch and the Dead Sea Scrolls. A copy of Isaiah (100BC) presents a very close similarity to that of the Masoretic text as does also a copy of Isaiah dated 50BC. Additionally there are copies of Habakkuk, Leviticus of the second century BC, which also bear witness to the accuracy of the Masoretic text. Some portions of the Hebrew text were discovered before the Dead Sea Scrolls known as the Nash Papyrus, probably written around BC showing extracts of Exodus 20 and Deuteronomy 6. A number of disciplines were incorporated by the Masoretes to ensure an accurate copying of the Hebrew texts. Scholars report that out of 284,000,0000 letters in the Hebrew Old Testament text there are about 900,000 variants, of which 750,000 are quite trivial variations of the yod (y). There is only about one variant for 316 letters, and part from the insignificant "waw" (w) and "yod" (y) variations, only about one variant for 1580 letters. One or two manuscripts only support the variants for most part. The agreement, which exists among the existing manuscripts, is a sign of the extraordinary care exercised in the transmission of the text by the Jewish Masoretes. They treated the sacred text with utmost care and reverence. Another example of the Masoretes high regard for the sacred text is shown in the way they numbered the verses, words and letters of every book. They calculated the middle word and the middle letter of each. They enumerated verses that contained all the letters of the alphabet, or a certain number of them: and so on. The Masoretes were indeed anxious that not one jot nor tittle, not one smallest letter, nor one tiny part of a letter of the Law should pass away. d) The Dead Sea Scrolls What are the Dead Sea Scrolls? The Scrolls are made up of some 40,000 inscribed fragments. From these fragments more than 500 books have been reconstructed. A young Bedouin shepherd boy accidentally discovered the Dead Sea Scrolls in 1947 on the west side of the Dead Sea. When the scrolls were studied by the scholars they found that they dated about 100BC. One of the scrolls found was a complete manuscript of the Hebrew text of Isaiah dated around 125 BC Thus this manuscript was dated about 1000 years older than any manuscript previously owned. Other biblical manuscripts were dated around 200BC- 68AD. The importance of the discovery of the Isaiah scroll (BC 125) was its exactness with the Masoretic text of Isaiah produced around AD 916, some 1000 years later. For example, in the famous chapter 53 of Isaiah, out of 166 words, there are only seventeen letters in question. Most of these differences are to do with spelling or very minor stylistic changes such as the waw ('and'). Thus in one chapter of 166 words, there is only one significant word (three letters) in question after a thousand years of transmission. As an example of the very few variants see RSV/NIV use of the variant reading taken from the Dead Sea Scrolls rather than the Masoretic text of Isaiah 21:8.

3 2. The Samaritan Pentateuch a) Background to the Samaritans In 400BC the Samaritans built their own temple on Mount Gerizim, near to Shechem. This was the place to which the "woman of Samaria" (John 4) referred when speaking to Jesus about a place of worship. The Samaritans were always known to the Jews as schismatics. b) The Samaritans regarded the Pentateuch alone as canonical Scriptures. They have preserved a text of these five books in Hebrew that have been transmitted independently of the Masoretic text which can be compared with the Masoretic text and used to offer support to the translators. The text itself was discovered around the middle of the fourteenth century AD and that part of the scroll dated around eleventh century AD with the remainder much later. When compared with the Masoretic text it is found to contain some 6,000 variations and in nearly 2,000 of these it agrees with the Septuagint. Where the Samaritan and the Septuagint text agree against the Masoretic text there is a prima facia case in favour of the former. However, it must be acknowledged that most of the variations are of minor significance. Sometimes the Samaritan text would vary from the Masoretic text where it tried to show that Mount Gerizim is God's favoured choice of a place of worship eg., Deut 27:2-7 (substituting Gerizim for Ebal). For an example of how the RSV and the NIV used the Samaritan Pentateuch see Gen 4:8. When the knowledge of the Samaritan Pentateuch was first brought to Western Europe, the value of the new discovery was over estimated. Further critical study, however, has established the definite superiority of the Masoretic text. Part 2: Versions of The Bible 1. The Septuagint: Greek version of the Old Testament a) The need for a translation of the Hebrew into Greek After the second deportation of Judah into Babylon, those Jews left behind in Judah, taking a reluctant Jeremiah with them, fled into Egypt to escape the wrath of Babylon. By the commencement of the Christian era there were more than a million Jews in Egypt. Greek was the common language of Alexandria and the Jews soon forgot their native language and came to speak exclusively Greek. Therefore a Greek translation of the Old Testament was needed for these Jews. The translation was said to have been undertaken by seventy (two) Jews within seventy days during the reign of the Egyptian King, Ptolemy Philadelphia ( BC), thus the shortened form "LXX." The work was most probably the results of various translators working independently over a considerable amount of time using different vocabulary and different methods of translations. The styles of Greek vary from fairly good koine (koinh) Greek to indifferent and literal Greek styles. Isaiah is considered to be a poor translation, with Esther, Job and Proverbs viewed as paraphrase renderings. Job in particular is shorter than the Hebrew and is full of interpolations. Proverbs contains material not to be found in the Masoretic text. The Pentateuch was produced much more carefully than any other part of the Old Testament and by the second century BC it had become a standard legitimate text to be used. Towards the close of the second century AD a Jewish proselyte, Theodotion, a native of Ephesus produced another Greek version of the OT. This was not an original work, rather Theodotion used an older pre-christian Greek text. Shortly after Theodotion's version of the LXX

4 came another version produced by Symmachus who belonged to the pre-christian group of Ebionites. b) What is the value of the LXX? First it represents a Hebrew text over a thousand years older than our Masoretic manuscripts. The LXX becomes a useful tool in the process of textual criticism as there are places where the LXX has preserved the true text that has become obscured in the Hebrew transmission. These, however, are few in comparison with the places where the Septuagint has mistranslated the Hebrew eg., 1 Samuel 14:41, and Deuteronomy 32:8. c) The use made of the Septuagint by the New Testament writers When the New Testament writers were quoting from the Old Testament they invariably used the LXX ( or an Hebrew original text we do not possess) and this is one reason why their quotations from the Old Testament sometimes differ from our Old Testament. The New Testament writers and evangelists found that their work was made much easier by the wide knowledge and existence of the Septuagint. They did not have to invent a Greek theological vocabulary, for such a vocabulary already existed. It must be remembered that the general religious vocabulary of the Greek language was pagan in character. The Septuagint however, had taken some of those Greek terms and words and given them a distinctive religious Old Testament meaning and content. For example, the term "law" (Greek nomoj nomos) has the meaning of "custom" or "convention" in secular Greek. However, in Septuagint Greek nomoj (nomos) is used to render the Hebrew "Torah" that strictly means "instruction" and has the significance of the God given "Law" at Sinai. When the Greek writers of the New Testament wrote nomoj they meant the OT Hebrew meaning of "Torah" and not the usual Greek meaning of "custom." Equally, other terms such as "mercy, righteousness, truth, sin, and atonement" were not to be seen in their Greek pagan sense, but in the context of their Old Testament Septuagint meaning. Another important factor is that the Septuagint paved the way for the missionary enterprise of the NT. James makes this statement in Acts 15:21. The Septuagint became the "bible" for the first evangelists as they sought to evangelise pagan areas. Thus when the NT was complete it did not reject the Old Testament Greek but simply added their new "Testament" to it thus making up the complete Greek Bible. The great Greek Biblical manuscripts, used to support the New Testament, such as Sinaiticus, Vaticanus and Alexandrian codices, the Chester Beatty collection, and others - are manuscripts of the whole Greek Bible. The Septuagint had thus, in the providence of God, a great and honourable part to play in preparing the world for the Gospel. 2. The Syriac Version of the Old Testament a) Syriac is an eastern Aramaic language "Syriac," became the name given to Aramaic speaking Christians. The "Syriac Church" consists of the Aramaic speaking Christians cf. Act 2:9, which describes some of the member countries present at the Day of Pentecost. These were Jews who lived in the East, territories beyond the Euphrates, outside the Roman Empire. All the Jews in these areas spoke Aramaic. The Acts of the Apostles clearly records the missionary work carried out in the West, but there are no biblical records detailing the spread of the Gospel in the East. What happened to those who were converted who came from the East? The standard official bible of this Church is the Syriac Version of both the Old Testament and the New Testament. The Old Testament is a translation from the Hebrew original, and after the Septuagint, the Syriac Version represents an important translation of the Hebrew text. There is

5 no direct information regarding the date of the translation or its authors. It is spoken of in the fifth century AD which is probably the date the official Syriac Version was accepted. The value of the Syriac Version is that, with the LXX it offers another text that represents a Hebrew original which we do not possess, helpful to translate obscure passages in the Hebrew: eg. Ps 68: The Latin Bible - The Vulgate a) What is the Vulgate Version? This is a version of the bible - Old Testament & New Testament - translated from original manuscripts into Latin. It was from the Latin Version that the first knowledge of the Bible came to the British Isles; it was from the Latin Version, too, that the first English Bible was translated. It was known as Jerome's Vulgate because it was translated by Jerome who was secretary to Damascus bishop of Rome from The translation was called the "Vulgate" because it represented the "vulgar tongue," or common language of his day. b) The need for a Latin Version A Latin Bible was needed in the North African Churches of Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria. This, of course, was before the Islamic invasion of the 7th century. The Churches were strong in these regions. Augustine was bishop of the North African Churches in the fifth century. The language they all spoke was Latin and the theological leaders were known as the "Latin Fathers." c) Jerome's Version Jerome perfected his knowledge of the Hebrew and translated the Old Testament Hebrew into Latin. At first his translation was not favourably received as people thought that the sacred text had been tampered with and they criticised Jerome for doubting the value of the LXX. However, Augustine recognised its value and instantly made it the text that he personally used. It was not until the ninth century that it was fully acknowledged. d) The value of the Latin Version Like all other versions it represents a Hebrew text of the Old Testament older than the ones that formed the basis for the Masoretic Text. The Latin version comes from a Hebrew text some five hundred years before the Masoretes had finished their work. See NIV/RSV use of the Vulgate whenever the Hebrew presents an obscure passage, eg., Psalm 19:4. 4. The Targums a) What are the Targums? The Targums means "Aramaic paraphrase" or "Interpretative Translation," and is applied to some parts of the Old Testament. After the Babylonian captivity, Aramaic gradually came to replace Hebrew as the native tongue of the people, thus their understanding of what was read to them from the Hebrew Scriptures would decrease. The first possible Targum was in Nehemiah 8:8. The translation was not in a ridged form but was presented in the manner of a paraphrase. It was not until AD100 that a standard Targum was fixed. Two authoritative Targums appeared. One of these was a Targum on the Pentateuch called the "Targums of Onqelos" that was a conservative representation keeping very close to the original text of the Hebrew. The second Targum is on the Prophets, and this is called the "Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel" that is more interpretative and liberal in its presentation. It is possible that when the New Testament writers were making their quotations from the Old Testament they were sometimes using the Targums. This may account again for some of the

6 differences in rendering between the New Testament quotation and the actual text in the Old Testament. For example, one of the features of the Targums is that it tends to avoid using the name "God" and prefers to us "glory." Thus in Exodus 3:1 the Hebrew has the mountain of God," but the Targum has "the mountain upon which the glory was revealed." Note especially John's reference Isaiah 6:1 states. John 12:41 has "Because he saw his glory." John reflects the Targumic paraphrase. Similarly, Mark 4:12, when quoting this passage from Isaiah 6 adds the words "and it shall be forgiven them." This addition is not found in the Hebrew text but comes from the Targums. Compare also Ephesians 4:8 where we read, "He... gave gifts to men." The Masoretic Hebrew text and the LXX have "Thou hast received gifts among men," but the Targum reflects Paul's words. b) The value of the Targums Some assistance is offered the translators when the Hebrew text proves difficult to translate and the Targums is supported by the LXX and other versions and texts eg. Proverbs 23:35 and 24:5. The RSV rendering is supported by LXX and the Syriac and Targums (as also the NIV). Whilst the Targums do not throw much light upon the Scriptures themselves, they do give us some understanding of the way the Jews interpreted the Scriptures for themselves. The Targums can provide us with valuable background material for the reading of the New Testament. This is particularly relevant in the rendering of Isaiah 53 in the Targums. In the Targums all the references regarding the Messianic sufferings transferred to the Jewish people or the Gentiles. in Isaiah 53 are If this was the current view of the Jewish people in the first century, we can understand how the proclamation of a suffering and crucified Messiah was a stumbling block to the Jews. Is it little wonder that the disciples, for example, were unable to accept the prospects of Jesus being crucified, if they had been brought up under the teaching of the Targums? Conclusion It is always wise to read the introduction to certain books. No less important is this concerning the Bible. It will be of interest for you to read the introduction to the NIV/RSV. It is to be hoped that considering this lecture you may find that you understand more clearly what is meant when you read this introduction about texts and versions. Additionally, the many footnotes in your bible will now have some meaning attached to them. It may also help to clarify the situation when you find that some translations vary slightly in their individual rendering. This information becomes particularly important in our appreciation of the New Testament quotations of Old Testament texts. Their source material may be that of LXX or Targums or the Hebrew Text other than the Masoretic text. Finally, let us be impressed at this perfect example of the providence of God in which He has so accurately caused the Old Testament to be transmitted. We can be assured that the text we use (apart from the very few variations) is a faithful rendering of the original Hebrew as it was first declared to the original writers. Richard L Lee File under Miscellaneous