Studies on the Inspired Scriptures and Their Background

Study Number 5​—The Hebrew Text of the Holy Scriptures

How the Hebrew Scriptures, as part of the inspired Word of God, were copied, preserved as to textual integrity, and transmitted down to this day.

1. (a) How do the ‘words of Jehovah’ differ from other treasures of the past? (b) What questions arise as to the preservation of God’s Word?

THE ‘words of Jehovah’ captured in writing may be likened to waters of truth collected in a remarkable reservoir of inspired documents. How grateful we can be that throughout the period of these heavenly communications, Jehovah caused these “waters” to be gathered together in order to become an inexhaustible source of life-giving information! Other treasures of the past, such as regal crowns, heirlooms, and monuments of men, have tarnished, eroded, or collapsed with the passage of time, but the treasurelike sayings of our God will last to time indefinite. (Isa. 40:8) However, questions arise as to whether there has been contamination of these waters of truth after they were taken into the reservoir. Have they remained unadulterated? Have they been transmitted faithfully from the original-language texts, with the result that what is available to peoples of every language on earth today is reliable? We will find it a thrilling study to examine the section of this reservoir known as the Hebrew text, noting the care taken to preserve its accuracy, together with the wonderful provisions made for its transmission and availability to all nations of mankind through versions and new translations.

2. How were the inspired writings preserved down to Ezra’s day?

² The original documents in the Hebrew and Aramaic languages were recorded by God’s human secretaries, from Moses in 1513 B.C.E. down to shortly after 443 B.C.E. As far as is known today, none of these original writings are now in existence. However, from the beginning, great care was exercised in preserving the inspired writings, including authorized copies of them. About 642 B.C.E., in King Josiah’s time, “the very book of the law” of Moses, doubtless the original copy, was found stored away in the house of Jehovah. It had by this time been faithfully preserved for 871 years. Bible writer Jeremiah manifested such great interest in this discovery that he made written record of it at 2 Kings 22:8-10, and about the year 460 B.C.E., Ezra again referred to the same incident. (2 Chron. 34:14-18) He was interested in these things, for “he was a skilled copyist in the law of Moses, which Jehovah the God of Israel had given.” (Ezra 7:6) No doubt Ezra had access to other scrolls of the Hebrew Scriptures that had been prepared up to his time, possibly including originals of some of the inspired writings. Indeed, Ezra seems to have been the custodian of the divine writings in his day.​—Neh. 8:1, 2.

ERA OF MANUSCRIPT COPYING

3. What need arose for additional copies of the Scriptures, and how was this filled?

³ From Ezra’s time forward, there was an increased demand for copies of the Hebrew Scriptures. Not all the Jews returned to Jerusalem and Palestine in the restoration of 537 B.C.E. and thereafter. Instead, thousands remained in Babylon, while others migrated for business and other reasons, with the result that they were to be found in most of the large commercial centers of the ancient world. Many Jews would make annual pilgrimages back to Jerusalem for the various temple festivals, and there they would share in the worship conducted in Biblical Hebrew. In Ezra’s time the Jews in these many faraway lands used local assembly places known as synagogues, where readings and discussions of the Hebrew Scriptures took place.a Because of the many scattered places of worship, copyists had to multiply the supply of handwritten manuscripts.

4. (a) What was a genizah, and how was it used? (b) What valuable find was made in one of these in the 19th century?

⁴ These synagogues usually had a storage room known as the genizah. In the course of time, the Jews placed in the genizah discarded manuscripts that had become torn or worn with age, replacing them with new ones for current synagogue use. From time to time, the contents of the genizah would be solemnly buried in the earth, in order that the text​—containing the holy name of Jehovah—​might not be desecrated. Over the centuries, thousands of old Hebrew Bible manuscripts disappeared from use in this way. However, the well-stocked genizah of the synagogue in Old Cairo was spared this treatment, probably because it was walled up and forgotten until the middle of the 19th century. In 1890, when the synagogue was being repaired, the contents of the genizah were reexamined and its treasures were gradually either sold or donated. From this source, fairly complete manuscripts and thousands of fragments (some said to be of the sixth century C.E.) have found their way to Cambridge University Library and other libraries of Europe and America.

5. (a) What ancient Hebrew manuscripts have now been cataloged, and how old are they? (b) What does a study of them reveal?

⁵ Today, in various libraries of the world, there have been counted and cataloged perhaps 6,000 manuscripts of all or portions of the Hebrew Scriptures. Until recently there were no such manuscripts (except for a few fragments) older than the tenth century C.E. Then, in 1947, in the area of the Dead Sea, there was discovered a scroll of the book of Isaiah, and in subsequent years additional priceless scrolls of the Hebrew Scriptures came to light as caves in the Dead Sea area surrendered rich treasures of manuscripts that had been hidden for nearly 1,900 years. Experts have now dated some of these as having been copied in the last few centuries B.C.E. The comparative study of the approximately 6,000 manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures gives a sound basis for establishing the Hebrew text and reveals faithfulness in the transmission of the text.

THE HEBREW LANGUAGE

6. (a) What was the early history of the Hebrew language? (b) Why was Moses qualified to write Genesis?

⁶ What men today call the Hebrew language was, in its original form, the language that Adam spoke in the garden of Eden. For this reason it could be referred to as man’s language. It was the language spoken in Noah’s day, though with a growing vocabulary. In still further expanded form, it was the basic language that survived when Jehovah confused mankind’s speech at the Tower of Babel. (Gen. 11:1, 7-9) Hebrew belongs to the Semitic group of languages, of which it is the family head. It appears to be related to the language of Canaan in Abraham’s time, and from their Hebraic branch, the Canaanites formed various dialects. At Isaiah 19:18 it is referred to as “the language of Canaan.” Moses in his time was a scholar, learned not only in the wisdom of the Egyptians but also in the Hebrew language of his forefathers. For this reason he was in a position to read ancient documents that came into his hands, and these may have provided a basis for some of the information he recorded in what is now known as the Bible book of Genesis.

7. (a) What later development of Hebrew took place? (b) As what did Biblical Hebrew serve?

⁷ Later, in the days of the Jewish kings, Hebrew came to be known as “the Jews’ language.” (2 Ki. 18:26, 28) In Jesus’ time, the Jews spoke a newer or expanded form of Hebrew, and this still later became a rabbinic Hebrew. However, it should be noted that in the Christian Greek Scriptures, the language is still referred to as the “Hebrew” language, not the Aramaic. (John 5:2; 19:13, 17; Acts 22:2; Rev. 9:11) From earliest times, Biblical Hebrew was the binding language of communication, understood by most of Jehovah’s pre-Christian witnesses as well as by the Christian witnesses of the first century.

8. Having in mind the purpose of the Scriptures, for what can we be truly thankful?

⁸ The Hebrew Scriptures served as a reservoir of crystal-clear waters of truth, communicated and collected under divine inspiration. However, only those able to read Hebrew could avail themselves directly of these divinely provided waters. How could men of the multitongued nations also find a way to imbibe these waters of truth, thus gaining divine guidance and refreshment for their soul? (Rev. 22:17) The only way was by translation from the Hebrew into other languages, thus broadening the flow of the stream of divine truth to all the multitudes of mankind. We can be truly thankful to Jehovah God that from about the fourth or third century B.C.E. down to the present time, portions of the Bible have been translated into more than 1,900 languages. What a boon this has proved to be for all righteously inclined people, who have indeed been enabled to find their “delight” in these precious waters!​—Ps. 1:2; 37:3, 4.

9. (a) What authority for translation does the Bible itself give? (b) What further good purpose have ancient Bible translations served?

⁹ Does the Bible itself give authority or justification for translating its text into other languages? Certainly it does! God’s word to Israel, “Be glad, you nations, with his people,” and Jesus’ prophetic command to Christians, “This good news of the kingdom will be preached in all the inhabited earth for a witness to all the nations,” must be fulfilled. For this to take place, translation of the Scriptures is a necessity. Looking back over nearly 24 centuries of Bible translating, it is clear that Jehovah’s blessing has accompanied this work. Moreover, ancient translations of the Bible that have survived in manuscript form have also served to confirm the high degree of textual faithfulness of the Hebrew reservoir of truth.​—Deut. 32:43; Matt. 24:14.

EARLIEST TRANSLATED VERSIONS

10. (a) What is the Samaritan Pentateuch, and why is it useful to us today? (b) Give an example of the use of the Samaritan Pentateuch in the New World Translation.

¹⁰ The Samaritan Pentateuch. Dating from early times, there is the version known as the Samaritan Pentateuch, which, as the name implies, contains only the first five books of the Hebrew Scriptures. It is really a transliteration of the Hebrew text into Samaritan script, developed from the ancient Hebrew script. It provides a useful pointer to the Hebrew text of the time. This transliteration was made by the Samaritans​—descendants of those left in Samaria following the conquest of the ten-tribe kingdom of Israel in 740 B.C.E. and those brought in by the Assyrians at that time. The Samaritans incorporated the worship of Israel with that of their own pagan gods, and they accepted the Pentateuch. It is thought that they made their transcription of it about the fourth century B.C.E., although some scholars suggest that it may have been as late as the second century B.C.E. As they read its text, they would, in fact, be pronouncing Hebrew. Although the text contains about 6,000 variations from the Hebrew text, many of them are minor details. Few of the existing manuscript copies are older than the 13th century C.E. Some references are made to the Samaritan Pentateuch in footnotes of the New World Translation.b

11. What are the Targums, and of what benefit are they in connection with the text of the Hebrew Scriptures?

¹¹ The Aramaic Targums. The Aramaic word for “interpretation” or “paraphrase” is targum. From Nehemiah’s time forward, Aramaic came to be used as the common language of many of the Jews living in the territory of Persia, and so it was necessary to accompany readings of the Hebrew Scriptures with translations into that language. They likely assumed their present final form no earlier than about the fifth century C.E. Though they are only loose paraphrases of the Hebrew text, and not an accurate translation, they supply a rich background to the text and give aid in determining some difficult passages. Frequent references are made to the Targums in footnotes of the New World Translation.c

12. What is the Septuagint, and why is it so important?

¹² The Greek Septuagint. The most important of the early versions of the Hebrew Scriptures, and the first actual written translation from the Hebrew, is the Greek Septuagint (meaning, “Seventy”). Its translation began about 280 B.C.E., according to tradition, by 72 Jewish scholars of Alexandria, Egypt. Later, the number 70 somehow came to be used, and thus the version was called the Septuagint. Evidently it was completed sometime in the second century B.C.E. It served as Scripture for the Greek-speaking Jews and was used extensively down to the time of Jesus and his apostles. In the Christian Greek Scriptures, most of the 320 direct quotations and the combined total of perhaps 890 quotations and references to the Hebrew Scriptures are based on the Septuagint.

13. What valuable fragments of the Septuagint have survived to this day, and of what value are they?

¹³ There are still available for study today a considerable number of fragments of the Septuagint written on papyrus. They are valuable because they belong to early Christian times, and though often just a few verses or chapters, they help in assessing the text of the Septuagint. The Fouad Papyri collection (Inventory No. 266) was discovered in Egypt in 1939 and has been found to be of the first century B.C.E. It contains portions of the books of Genesis and Deuteronomy. In the fragments of Genesis, the divine name does not occur because of the incomplete preservation. However, in the book of Deuteronomy, it occurs in various places, written in square Hebrew characters within the Greek text.d Other papyri date down to about the fourth century C.E., when the more durable vellum, a fine grade of parchment generally made from calf, lamb, or goat skins, began to be used for writing manuscripts.

14. (a) What does Origen testify as to the Septuagint? (b) When and how was the Septuagint tampered with? (c) What witness must the early Christians have given in using the Septuagint?

¹⁴ It is of interest that the divine name, in the form of the Tetragrammaton, also appears in the Septuagint of Origen’s six-column Hexapla, completed about 245 C.E. Commenting on Psalm 2:2, Origen wrote of the Septuagint: “In the most accurate manuscripts THE NAME occurs in Hebrew characters, yet not in today’s Hebrew [characters], but in the most ancient ones.”e The evidence appears conclusive that the Septuagint was tampered with at an early date, Kyʹri·os (Lord) and The·osʹ (God) being substituted for the Tetragrammaton. Since the early Christians used manuscripts containing the divine name, it cannot be supposed that they followed Jewish tradition in failing to pronounce “THE NAME” during their ministry. They must have been able to witness to Jehovah’s name directly from the Greek Septuagint.

15. (a) Using the chart on page 314, describe the vellum and leather manuscripts of the Septuagint. (b) What references does the New World Translation make to these?

¹⁵ There are hundreds of vellum and leather manuscripts of the Greek Septuagint still in existence. A number of these, produced between the fourth century C.E. and the ninth century C.E., are important because of the large sections of the Hebrew Scriptures that they cover. They are known as uncials because they are written entirely in large, separated capital letters. The remainder are called minuscules because they are written in a smaller, cursive style of handwriting. Minuscule, or cursive, manuscripts remained in vogue from the ninth century until the inception of printing. The outstanding uncial manuscripts of the fourth and fifth centuries, namely, the Vatican No. 1209, the Sinaitic, and the Alexandrine, all contain the Greek Septuagint with some slight variations. Frequent references are made to the Septuagint in the footnotes and comments in the New World Translation.f

16. (a) What is the Latin Vulgate, and why is it so valuable? (b) Give an example of the New World Translation’s reference to it.

¹⁶ The Latin Vulgate. This version has been the mother text used by a multitude of Catholic translators in producing other versions in the many languages of Western Christendom. How did the Vulgate originate? The Latin word vulgatus means “common, that which is popular.” When the Vulgate was first produced, it was in the common, or popular, Latin of the day so that it could be easily understood by the ordinary people of the Western Roman Empire. The scholar Jerome, who made this translation, had previously made two revisions of the Old Latin Psalms, in comparison with the Greek Septuagint. However, his translation of the Vulgate Bible was made direct from the original Hebrew and Greek languages and was thus not a version of a version. Jerome worked on his Latin translation from the Hebrew from about 390 C.E. to 405 C.E. While the completed work included Apocryphal books, that were by this time in the copies of the Septuagint, Jerome clearly distinguished between the books that were canonical and those that were not. The New World Translation refers many times to Jerome’s Vulgate in its footnotes.g

THE HEBREW-LANGUAGE TEXTS

17. Who were the scribes, or Sopherim, and for what did Jesus condemn them?

¹⁷ The Sopherim. The men who copied the Hebrew Scriptures starting in the days of Ezra and continuing to the time of Jesus were called scribes, or Sopherim. In the course of time, they began to take liberties in making textual changes. In fact, Jesus himself roundly condemned these would-be custodians of the Law for assuming powers that did not belong to them.​—Matt. 23:2, 13.

18. (a) Who were the Masoretes, and what valuable comments have they made on the Hebrew text? (b) What are some examples of their corrections, as noted in the New World Translation?

¹⁸ The Masora Reveals Alterations. The scribal successors of the Sopherim in the centuries after Christ came to be known as the Masoretes. These took note of the alterations made by the earlier Sopherim, recording them in the margin or at the end of the Hebrew text. These marginal notes came to be known as the Masora. The Masora listed the 15 extraordinary points of the Sopherim, namely, 15 words or phrases in the Hebrew text that had been marked by dots or strokes. Some of these extraordinary points do not affect the English translation or the interpretation, but others do and are of importance.h The Sopherim allowed their superstitious fear of pronouncing the name Jehovah to ensnare them into altering it to read ʼAdho·naiʹ (Lord) at 134 places and to read ʼElo·himʹ (God) in some instances. The Masora lists these changes.i The Sopherim or early scribes are also charged with making at least 18 emendations (corrections), according to a note in the Masora, though there evidently were even more.j These emendations were very likely made with good intentions because the original passage appeared to show either irreverence for God or disrespect for his earthly representatives.

19. What is the Hebrew consonantal text, and when did it become fixed in form?

¹⁹ The Consonantal Text. The Hebrew alphabet is made up of 22 consonants, with no vowels. Originally, the reader had to supply the vowel sounds from his knowledge of the language. Hebrew writing was like an abbreviated script. Even in modern English there are many standard abbreviations that people use in which only consonants appear. For example, there is ltd. as an abbreviation for limited. Similarly, the Hebrew language comprised a series of words made up only of consonants. Thus, by “consonantal text” is meant the Hebrew text without any vowel markings. The consonantal text of the Hebrew manuscripts became fixed in form between the first and second centuries C.E., although manuscripts with variant texts continued to circulate for some time. Alterations were no longer made, unlike the previous period of the Sopherim.

20. What did the Masoretes do regarding the Hebrew text?

²⁰ The Masoretic Text. In the second half of the first millennium C.E., the Masoretes (Hebrew, ba·ʽalehʹ ham·ma·soh·rahʹ, meaning “the Masters of Tradition”) established a system of vowel points and accent marks. These served as a written aid in the reading and pronouncing of vowel sounds, whereas previously the pronunciation had been handed down by oral tradition. The Masoretes made no changes whatsoever in the texts that they transmitted but recorded marginal notes in the Masora as they saw fit. They exercised great care to take no textual liberties. Additionally, in their Masora, they drew attention to textual peculiarities and gave corrected readings they considered necessary.

21. What is the Masoretic text?

²¹ Three schools of Masoretes were engaged in the development of the vocalizing and accent marking of the consonantal text, namely, the Babylonian, Palestinian, and Tiberian. The Hebrew text now presented in printed editions of the Hebrew Bible is known as the Masoretic text and uses the system devised by the Tiberian school. This system was developed by the Masoretes of Tiberias, a city on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Footnotes in the New World Translation refer many times to the Masoretic text (under the symbol M) and to its marginal notes, the Masora (under the symbol M^margin).k

22. What manuscript of the Babylonian line of texts has become available, and how does it compare with the Tiberian text?

²² The Palestinian school placed the vowel signs above the consonants. Only a small number of such manuscripts came down to us, showing that this system of vocalization was imperfect. The Babylonian system of vowel pointing was likewise supralinear. A manuscript exhibiting the Babylonian pointing is the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets, of 916 C.E., preserved in the Leningrad Public Library, U.S.S.R. This codex contains Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the “minor” prophets, with marginal notes (Masora). Scholars have eagerly examined this manuscript and compared it with the Tiberian text. Although it uses the supralinear system of vocalization, it in fact follows the Tiberian text as regards the consonantal text and its vowels and Masora. The British Museum has a copy of the Babylonian text of the Pentateuch, which has been found to be substantially in agreement with the Tiberian text.

23. What series of Hebrew manuscript finds has been made near the Dead Sea?

²³ Dead Sea Scrolls. In 1947 an exciting new chapter in Hebrew manuscript history began. In a cave at Wadi Qumran (Nahal Qumeran), in the area of the Dead Sea, the first Isaiah scroll, together with other Biblical and non-Biblical scrolls, was discovered. Shortly thereafter, a complete photostatic copy of this well-preserved Isaiah scroll (1QIs^a) was published for scholars to study. It is believed to date toward the end of the second century B.C.E. Here, indeed, was an incredible find​—a Hebrew manuscript about a thousand years older than the oldest existing manuscript of the recognized Masoretic text of Isaiah!l Other caves in Qumran surrendered fragments of over 170 scrolls representing parts of all books of the Hebrew Scriptures except Esther. Studies of such scrolls are still in progress.

24. How do these manuscripts compare with the Masoretic text, and what use does the New World Translation make of them?

²⁴ One scholar reports that his investigation of the lengthy Psalm 119 in one important Dead Sea Scroll of the Psalms (11QPs^a) shows it to be in almost complete verbal agreement with the Masoretic text of Psalm 119. Regarding the Psalms Scroll, Professor J. A. Sanders noted: “Most of [the variants] are orthographic and important only to those scholars who are interested in clues to the pronunciation of Hebrew in antiquity, and such matters.”a Other examples of these remarkable ancient manuscripts indicate no great variations in most cases. The Isaiah scroll itself, though it shows some differences in spelling and in grammatical construction, does not vary as to doctrinal points. This published Isaiah scroll was examined as to its variations in the preparation of the New World Translation, and references are made to it.b

25. What Hebrew texts have now been discussed, and of what does their study assure us?

²⁵ The major lines of transmission of the Hebrew Scriptures have now been discussed. Principally, these are the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Aramaic Targums, the Greek Septuagint, the Tiberian Hebrew text, the Palestinian Hebrew text, the Babylonian Hebrew text, and the Hebrew text of the Dead Sea Scrolls. As a result of study and comparison of these texts, we are assured that the Hebrew Scriptures have come down to us today substantially in the form in which inspired servants of God first recorded them.

THE REFINED HEBREW TEXT

26. (a) When was a critical study of the Hebrew text advanced, and what are some master texts that have been printed? (b) How has the Ginsburg text been used?

²⁶ The standard printed edition of the Hebrew Bible right into the 19th century was the Second Rabbinic Bible of Jacob ben Chayyim published in 1524-25. It was not until the 18th century that scholars began to advance the critical study of the Hebrew text. In 1776-80, at Oxford, Benjamin Kennicott published variant readings from over 600 Hebrew manuscripts. Then, in 1784-98, at Parma, the Italian scholar J. B. de Rossi published variant readings of over 800 more manuscripts. Hebrew scholar S. Baer, of Germany, also produced a master text. In more recent times, C. D. Ginsburg devoted many years to producing a critical master text of the Hebrew Bible. This first appeared in 1894, with a final revision in 1926.c Joseph Rotherham used the 1894 edition of this text in producing his English translation, The Emphasised Bible, in 1902, and Professor Max L. Margolis and coworkers used the texts of Ginsburg and of Baer in producing their translation of the Hebrew Scriptures in 1917.

27, 28. (a) What is the Biblia Hebraica, and how has it been developed? (b) How has the New World Translation used this text?

²⁷ In 1906 Hebrew scholar Rudolf Kittel released in Germany the first edition (and later, a second edition) of his refined Hebrew text entitled Biblia Hebraica, or “The Hebrew Bible.” In this book Kittel provided a textual apparatus through extended footnotes, which collated or compared the many Hebrew manuscripts of the Masoretic text available at that time. He used the generally accepted text by Jacob ben Chayyim as the basic text. When the far older, superior Ben Asher Masoretic texts, which had been standardized about the 10th century C.E., became available, Kittel set out to produce an entirely different third edition of the Biblia Hebraica. This work was completed by his associates after his death.

²⁸ Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica, the 7th, 8th, and 9th editions (1951-55), provided the basic text used for the Hebrew section of the New World Translation in English. A new edition of the Hebrew text, namely Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, dated 1977, was used for updating the information presented in the footnotes of the New World Translation published in 1984.

29. What feature of the Biblia Hebraica was of particular value in restoring the divine name?

²⁹ Kittel’s presentation of the marginal Masora, which captures many textual alterations of pre-Christian scribes, has contributed to accurate renderings in the New World Translation, including restorations of the divine name, Jehovah. The ever-increasing field of Biblical scholarship continues to be made available through the New World Translation.

30. (a) Using the chart on page 308 showing sources for the Hebrew Scripture portion of the text of the New World Translation, trace the history of the Hebrew text through to the Biblia Hebraica as the main source of the New World Translation. (b) What are some of the other sources to which the New World Bible Translation Committee made reference?

³⁰ Accompanying this study is a chart that sets out the sources for the text of the Hebrew Scriptures in the New World Translation. This chart briefly shows the development of the Hebrew text leading to Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica, which was the main source used. The secondary sources that were consulted are shown by the white dotted lines. This is not intended to indicate that in the case of such versions as the Latin Vulgate and the Greek Septuagint, the original works were consulted. As with the inspired Hebrew writings themselves, the originals of these versions are not now extant. These sources were consulted by means of reliable editions of the texts or from dependable ancient translations and critical commentaries. By consulting these various sources, the New World Bible Translation Committee was able to present an authoritative and reliable translation of the original inspired Hebrew Scriptures. These sources are all indicated in the footnotes of the New World Translation.

31. (a) Of what, therefore, is the Hebrew Scripture portion of the New World Translation the result? (b) What thanks and hope may we thus express?

³¹ The Hebrew Scripture portion of the New World Translation is thus the product of age-long Biblical scholarship and research. It is founded on a text of great integrity, the richly endowed result of faithful textual transmission. With a flow and style that are arresting, it offers for serious Bible study a translation that is at once honest and accurate. Thanks be to Jehovah, the communicating God, that his Word is alive and exerts power today! (Heb. 4:12) May honesthearted persons continue to build faith through the study of God’s precious Word and be aroused to do Jehovah’s will during these momentous days.​—2 Pet. 1:12, 13.

[Footnotes]

[Chart on page 313]

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SOME LEADING PAPYRUS MANUSCRIPTS

Of the Hebrew Scriptures

Name of Manuscript Nash Papyrus

Date 2nd or 1st cent. B.C.E.

Language Hebrew

Located at Cambridge, England

Name of Manuscript Rylands 458

Symbol 957

Date 2nd cent. B.C.E.

Language Greek

Located at Manchester, England

Approximate Contents Fragments of Deuteronomy chaps. 23-28

Name of Manuscript Fouad 266

Date 1st cent. B.C.E.

Language Greek

Located at Cairo, Egypt

Approximate Contents Portions of Genesis and Deuteronomy

Name of Manuscript Dead Sea Leviticus Scroll

Symbol 4Q LXX Lev^b

Date 1st cent. B.C.E.

Language Greek

Located at Jerusalem, Israel

Approximate Contents Fragments of Leviticus

Name of Manuscript Chester Beatty 6

Symbol 963

Date 2nd cent. C.E.

Language Greek

Approximate Contents Portions of Numbers and Deuteronomy

Name of Manuscript Chester Beatty 9, 10

Symbol 967/968

Date 3rd cent. C.E.

Language Greek

Approximate Contents Portions of Ezekiel, Daniel, and Esther

Of the Christian Greek Scriptures

Name of Manuscript Oxyrhynchus 2

Symbol P¹

Date 3rd cent. C.E.

Language Greek

Located at Philadelphia, Pa., U.S.A.

Approximate Contents Matt. 1:1-9, 12, 14-20

Name of Manuscript Oxyrhynchus 1228

Symbol P²²

Date 3rd cent. C.E.

Language Greek

Located at Glasgow, Scotland

Approximate Contents Fragments of John chaps. 15, 16

Name of Manuscript Michigan 1570

Symbol P³⁷

Date 3rd/4th cent. C.E.

Language Greek

Located at Ann Arbor, Mich., U.S.A.

Approximate Contents Matt. 26:19-52

Name of Manuscript Chester Beatty 1

Symbol P⁴⁵

Date 3rd cent. C.E.

Language Greek

Located at Dublin, Ireland; Vienna, Austria

Name of Manuscript Chester Beatty 2

Symbol P⁴⁶

Date c. 200 C.E.

Language Greek

Located at Dublin, Ireland; Ann Arbor, Mich., U.S.A.

Approximate Contents Nine of Paul’s letters

Name of Manuscript Chester Beatty 3

Symbol P⁴⁷

Date 3rd cent. C.E.

Language Greek

Located at Dublin, Ireland

Approximate Contents Rev. 9:10–17:2

Name of Manuscript Rylands 457

Symbol P⁵²

Date c. 125 C.E.

Language Greek

Located at Manchester, England

Approximate Contents John 18:31-33, 37, 38

Name of Manuscript Bodmer 2

Symbol P⁶⁶

Date c. 200 C.E.

Language Greek

Located at Geneva, Switzerland

Approximate Contents Most of John

Name of Manuscript Bodmer 7, 8

Symbol P⁷²

Date 3rd/4th cent. C.E.

Language Greek

Approximate Contents Jude, 1 Peter, and 2 Peter

Name of Manuscript Bodmer 14, 15

Symbol P⁷⁵

Date 3rd cent. C.E.

Language Greek

Located at Geneva, Switzerland

Approximate Contents Most of Luke and John

[Chart on page 314]

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SOME LEADING VELLUM AND LEATHER MANUSCRIPTS

Of the Hebrew Scriptures (in Hebrew)

Name of Manuscript Aleppo Codex

Symbol Al

Date 930 C.E.

Language Hebrew

Located at Formerly at Aleppo, Syria. Now in Israel.

Name of Manuscript British Museum Codex Or4445

Date 10th cent. C.E.

Language Hebrew

Located at London, England

Approximate Contents Most of Pentateuch

Name of Manuscript Cairo Karaite Codex

Symbol Ca

Date 895 C.E.

Language Hebrew

Located at Cairo, Egypt

Approximate Contents Earlier and later Prophets

Name of Manuscript Leningrad Codex

Symbol B 19^A

Date 1008 C.E.

Language Hebrew

Located at Leningrad,

U.S.S.R.

Approximate Contents Hebrew Scriptures

Name of Manuscript Petersburg Codex of the Prophets

Symbol B 3

Date 916 C.E.

Language Hebrew

Located at Leningrad,

U.S.S.R.

Approximate Contents Later Prophets

Name of Manuscript Dead Sea First Isaiah Scroll

Symbol 1QIs^a

Date End of 2nd cent. B.C.E.

Language Hebrew

Located at Jerusalem, Israel

Approximate Contents Isaiah

Name of Manuscript Dead Sea Psalms Scroll

Symbol 11QPs^a

Date 1st cent. C.E.

Language Hebrew

Located at Jerusalem, Israel

Of the Septuagint and Christian Greek Scriptures

Name of Manuscript Sinaiticus

Symbol 01( א)

Date 4th cent. C.E.

Language Greek

Located at London, England

Name of Manuscript Alexandrinus

Symbol A (02)

Date 5th cent. C.E.

Language Greek

Located at London, England

Name of Manuscript Vatican 1209

Symbol B (03)

Date 4th cent. C.E.

Language Greek

Located at Vatican Library in Rome, Italy

Name of Manuscript Ephraemi Syri rescriptus

Symbol C (04)

Date 5th cent. C.E.

Language Greek

Located at Paris, France

Name of Manuscript Codex Bezae Cantabrigiensis

Symbol D^ea (05)

Date 5th cent. C.E.

Language Greek-Latin

Located at Cambridge, England

Name of Manuscript Codex Claromontanus

Symbol D^P (06)

Date 6th cent. C.E.

Language Greek-Latin

Located at Paris, France

Approximate Contents Pauline Epistles (including Hebrews)

[Diagram on page 308]

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Sources for the Text of the New World Translation​—Hebrew Scriptures

Original Hebrew Writings and Early Copies

Aramaic Targums

Dead Sea Scrolls

Samaritan Pentateuch

Greek Septuagint

Old Latin

Coptic, Ethiopic, Armenian

Hebrew Consonantal Text

Latin Vulgate

Greek Versions​—Aquila, Theodotion, Symmachus

Syriac Peshitta

Masoretic Text

Cairo Codex

Petersburg Codex of the Prophets

Aleppo Codex

Ginsburg’s Hebrew Text

Codex Leningrad B 19^A

New World Translation

Hebrew Scriptures​—English; From English Into Many Other Modern Languages

[Diagram on page 309]

(For fully formatted text, see publication)

Sources for the Text of the New World Translation​—Christian Greek Scriptures

Original Greek Writings and Early Copies

Armenian Version

Coptic Versions

Old Latin

Latin Vulgate

Sixtine and Clementine Revised Latin Texts

Greek Cursive MSS.

Erasmus Text

Stephanus Text

Textus Receptus

Griesbach Greek Text

Emphatic Diaglott

Westcott and Hort Greek Text

Bover Greek Text

Merk Greek Text

Nestle-Aland Greek Text

United Bible Societies Greek Text

New World Translation

Christian Greek Scriptures​—English; From English Into Many Other Modern Languages