21. The Text of the Old Testament - In the preceding few posts we have looked at the transmission of the Greek text of the New Testament. Our next task is to focus attention upon the text of the Old Testament. It will not be necessary to go at length in answer to the question of the Old Testament text, for the principles followed in the restoration of the New Testament text largely apply to the Old. In fact, the guidelines followed by textual critics relate to all types of literature, whether in or outside the Bible. Text data collections for the Old Testament is not as vast as the multitude of witnesses on the Greek text, nor is it as comprehensive. The rather recent recovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls constitutes a sensational story with reference to the Old Testament text. Yet there remains a large gap of centuries between the time of the ancient scrolls and our earliest Hebrew manuscripts. Aside from the recently discovered scrolls, given below are the main manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. 1. The Aleppo Codex - First in rank among the Hebrew manuscripts, the Aleppo Codex derives its name from the city in Syria where it had long been located. A beautifully written codex of the entire Hebrew Bible, it was finished sometime in the tenth century. Unfortunately, it is no longer complete; large sections of it were destroyed in Arab riots against the Jews in 1947. The damaged codex was smuggled out of Syria to Jerusalem. 2. The Leningrad Codex - Of equal rank with the Aleppo and now the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible, it was written in Cairo about the year 1010. It, too, is a beautiful manuscript, with pages ornately wrought. Today it is housed in the National Library of St. Petersburg, Russia. Although the citys name is once again St. Petersburg, the manuscript is still known as the Leningrad Codex. 3. The Cairo Codex - This manuscript of the Former and Latter Prophets was written in 895. Subsequently, it came into the possession of a Jewish sect in Jerusalem known as Karaites. After being carried off by the Crusaders and later returned, it made its way to the Karaite community in Cairo, where it remains today. 4. The Leningrad Codex - of the Prophets. Written in 916, this manuscript includes Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Minor Prophets. 5. British Library Codex of the Pentateuch - Containing most of the Pentateuch, this codex is an important witness to the text. An undated manuscript, which formerly was thought to be from the ninth century, is now dated a century later. There are, of course, many more Hebrew manuscripts. Those mentioned above are by far the most important ones. Our recent critical Hebrew texts rely upon them almost exclusively. One may wonder why copies of the Hebrew Bible are very late in comparison with the New Testament materials, especially when we recall that the Old Testament was completed several centuries before the first New Testament book was written. We shall discuss this in our next post. This post is based on the following very readable introduction to Bible transmission. Lightfoot, N. R., (2010) How We Got the Bible, Baker Books, 3e, ISBN 978-0801072611
Posted on: Mon, 18 Nov 2013 13:59:30 +0000
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