Orientales 4445
This British Museum manuscript is dated by Christian D. Ginsburg between AD 820 and 850, the Masora notes being added a century later. But Paul E. Kahle (Kahle, in Wurthwein. P. 118) argues that both consonantal Hebrew texts and pointing (the added vowel points or marks) are from the time of Moses ben Asher (tenth century). Because the Hebrew alphabet consists only of consonants, Hebrew writing normally shows only those letters, with a few of the letters being used in varying degrees to represent some of the vocalic sounds. This manuscript contains Genesis-Deuteronomy 1:33 (less Numbers 7:47-73 and Numbers 9:12-10:18).

Codex Cairensis
A codex is a manuscript in book form with pages. According to a colophon, or inscription at the end of the book, this Cairo Codes was written and vowel-pointed in AD 895 by Moses ben Asher in Tiberias in Palestine., (Wurthwein. P. 25). It contains the Former Prophets (Joshua, Judges, I and II Samuel, I and II Kings) and the Latter Prophets (Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve). It is symbolized C in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS).

Aleppo Codex of the Whole Old Testament
This was written by Shelomo ben Baya’a (Kenyon p. 84), but according to a colophon it was pointed (i.e. the vowel marks were added) by Moses ben Asher (c. AD 930). It is a model codex and although it was not permitted to be copied for a long time and was even reported to have been destroyed (Wurthwein. P. 25), it was smuggled from Syria to Israel. It has now been photographed and will be the basis of the New Hebrew Bible to be published by the Hebrew University (Goshen-Gosttstein. P. 13). It is a sound authority for the Ben Asher text.

Codex Leningradensis (B19A)
According to a colophon, or note at the end, this was copied in Old Cairo by Samuel ben Jacob in AD 1008 from a manuscript (now lost) written by Aaron ben Moses ben Asher c. AD 1000 (Kahle. P. 110), whereas Ginsburg held it was copied from the Aleppo Codex (Ginsburg. P. 243f.). It represents one of the oldest manuscripts of the complete Hebrew Bible that is known (Kahle, p. 132). Kittel adopted it as the basis for the third edition of his Biblia Hebraica (BHK), and it continues to be used as such in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS), where is represented under the symbol L.

Babylonian Codex of the Latter Prophets (MS Heb. B3)
This is some times called the Leningrad Codex of the Prophets (Kenyon, p. 85) or the [St.] Petersburg Codex (Wurthwein. P. 26). It contains Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve. It is dated AD 916, but its chief significance is that through it punctuation added by the Babylonian school of Masoretes was rediscovered. It is symbolized as V (ar)p in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia.

Reuchlin Codex of the Prophets
Dated AD 1105, this is now at Karlsruhe. Like the British Museum manuscript Ad. 21161 (c. AD 1150), it contains a recension of Ben Naphtali, a Tiberian Masorete. These have been of great value in establishing the fidelity of the Ben Asher text (Kenyon. P. 36).

Cairo Geniza Manuscripts
Of the approximately 10,000 biblical manuscripts and fragments from the Geniza (storehouse for old manuscripts) of the Cairo synagogue now scattered throughout the world, Kahle identified more than 120 examples copied by the Babylonian group of Masoretes. In the Firkowitch Collection are found 14 Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts dating between AD 929 and 1121. Kahle contends also that the 1,200 manuscripts and fragments of the Antonin Collection come from the Cairo Geniza (Kahle, p. 7). He provided a list of 70 of these manuscripts in the prolegomena to Biblia Hebraica, seventh edition. There are other Geniza manuscripts scattered over the world. Some of the better ones in the United States are in the Enelow Memorial Collection housed at the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York (cf. Wurthwein. P. 26).

Erfurt Codices (E  1,2,3)
These are listed in the University Library in Tubingen as Manuscript Orientale 1210/11, 1212,1213. Their peculiarity is that they represent more or less (more in E 3) the text and Masora of the Ben Naphtali tradition. E 1 is a fourteenth-century manuscript containing the Hebrew Old Testament and the Targum. E. 2 is also of the Hebrew Old Testament and Targum Ontelos, probably from the thirteenth century. E 3 is the oldest, being dated by Kahle and others before AD 1100 (Cf. Wurthwein, p. 26).

Some Lost Codices
There are a number of significant but now lost codices whose peculiar readings are preserved and referred to in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia. Codex Severi (Sev.) is a medieval list of thirty-two variants of the Pentateuch (cf. critical apparatus to Gen. 18:21; 24:7; Num. 4:3), supposedly based on a manuscript brought to Rome in AD 70  that Emperor Severus (AD 222-35) later gave to a synagogue he had built. Codex Hillel (Hill.) was supposedly written c. AD 600 by Rabbi Hillel ben Moses ben Hillel. It is said to have been accurate and was used to revise other manuscripts. Readings from that manuscript are cited by medieval Masoretes and are used in the critical apparatus of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia in Genesis 6:3; 19:6; Exodus 25:19; Leviticus 26:9. A critical apparatus lists the variant readings to the text that the editor considers are significant for translators or necessary for establishing the text.

DEAD SEA SCROLLS (DSS)
The most remarkable manuscripts are those of the Dead Sea Scrolls, which date from the third century B.C.E. to the first century AD. They include one complete Old Testament book (Isaiah) and thousands of fragments, which together represent every Old Testament book except Esther.

Cave 1 was officially excavated Feb. 15 and March 9, 1949. It yielded fragments of Genesis, Leviticus, Deuteronomy, Judges, Samuel, Isaiah, Ezekiel, Psalms also Enoch and sayings of Moses (previously unknown), Book of Jubilee, Book of Noah, Testament of Levi, Tobit, and the Wisdom of Solomon. An interesting fragment of Daniel, containing 2:4 (where the language changes from Hebrew to Aramaic), also comes from this cave. Fragmentary commentaries on Psalms, Micah, and Zephaniah were also found in Cave I.

Samaritan Pentateuch
The separation of the Samaritans from the Jews was an important event in the history of the post-exilic period of the Old Testament. It occurred probably during the fifth or fourth century B.C.E., and was the culmination of a long process. At the time of the schism one would suspect that the Samaritans took with them the Scriptures as they then existed, with the result that there came into being a second Hebrew recension or revised text of the Pentateuch. This Samaritan Pentateuch is not a version in the strict sense of the word, but rather a manuscript portion of the Hebrew text itself. It contains the five books of Moses and is written in a Paleo-Hebrew script quite similar to that found on the Moabite Stone, the Siloam inscription, the Lachisch letters, and in particular some of the older biblical manuscripts from Qumran. Because the Samaritan script is a derivative of the Paleo-Hebrew script that was revived in the Maccabean era of nationalist archaizing, and because of the full orthography of the Samaritan Pentateuch, Frank M. Cross Jr., believes that the Samaritan Pentateuch branched off from the pre- or proto-Masoretic text in the second century B.C.E.

A form of the Samaritan Pentateuch text seems to have been known to such early church Fathers as Eusebius of Caesarea and Jerome. It did not become available to scholars in the West, however, until 1616, when Pietro della Valle discovered a manuscript of the Samaritan Pentateuch in Damascus. A great wave of excitement arose among biblical scholars. The text was published in an early portion of the Paris Polyglot (1632) and later in the text of the London Polyglot (1657). It was quickly regarded as being superior to the Masoretic Text (MT); but it became relegated to relative obscurity after Wilhelm Gesenius in 1815 adjudged it to be practically worthless for textual criticism. In more recent times the value of the Samaritan Pentateuch has been reasserted by such scholars as A.Geiger, Paul E. Kahle, and Frederic G. Kenyon.

So far as is known, no manuscript of the Samaritan Pentateuch is older than the eleventh century AD. The oldest codex of the Samaritan Pentateuch bears a note about its sale in AD 1149-50, but the manuscript itself is much older. One manuscript was copied in 1204, another dated 1211-1212 is now in the John Rylands Library at Manchester, and still another dated c. 1232, is in the New York Public Library.

The Aramaic Targums
There is evidence that the scribes were making oral paraphrases of the Hebrew Scriptures into the Aramaic vernacular as early as the time of Ezra (Neh. 8:1-8). These paraphrases were not strictly translations, but were actually aids in understanding the archaic language forms of the Torah. The translator or interpreter involved in that work was called a methurgeman.

The necessity for such helps arose because Hebrew was becoming less and less familiar to the ordinary people as a spoken language. By the close of the last centuries B.C.E., this gradual process had continued until almost every book in the Old Testament had its oral paraphrase or interpretation (Targum).

During the early centuries AD., these Targums were committed to writing, and an official text came to the fore, since the Hebrew canon, text, and interpretation had become well solidified before the rabbinical scholars of Jamnia (c. AD 90), and the expulsion of the Jews from Palestine in AD 135.

The earliest Targums were apparently written in Palestinian Aramaic during the second century AD.; however, there is evidence of Aramaic Targums from the pre-Christian period (Harris. Pp. 154-59). These early official Targums contained the Law and the Prophets, but the Writings were included in unofficial Targums in later times.

It is interesting to note that a pre-Christian Targum of Job was written in Palestinian Aramaic and discovered in Cave 11 at Qumran. Cave 4 contained a Targum of the Pentateuch. These unofficial Aramaic Targums were superseded by official text in the second century AD.

The Septuagint (LXX)
Just as the Jews had abandoned their native Hebrew tongue for Aramaic (In Jesus time they spoke Aramaic) in the Near East, so they abandoned the Aramaic in favor of Greek (Jesus quoted from the LXX) in such Hellenistic centers as Alexandria, Egypt. During the campaigns of Alexander the Great, the Jews were shown considerable favor. In fact, Alexander was sympathetic towards the Jews as a result of their policies toward him in the siege of Tyre (332 B.C.E.). He is even reported to have traveled to Jerusalem to do homage to their God. As he conquered new lands, he built new cities, which frequently had Jewish inhabitants, and frequently names them Alexandria.

It was during the reign of Ptolemy Philadelphus (after the death of Alexander the Great) that full political and religious rights were granted to the Jews. It was in that period (c. 250-c. 150 BCE), that the Hebrew Old Testament was translated into Greek-the first time it had ever been extensively translated. The leaders of Alexandrian Jewry had a standard Greek version produced, known as the LXX (It should be noted that the term Septuagint applies to the Pentateuch, which was probably the only portion of the Old Testament translated during the time of Ptolemy II Philadelphus.), the Greek word for “seventy.” It was undoubtedly translated during the third and/or second centuries B.C.E. and was purported to have been written as early as the time of Ptolemy II in a Letter of Aristeas to Philocartes (c. 130-100 B.C.E.).

Let us take a text from Genesis and see how it reads from these different books.

The Talmud
Following the first period of Old Testament scribal tradition, the period of the Sopherim (c. 400 B.C.E.-AD 200), there appeared a second, the Talmudic period (C. AD 100-c. 500), which was followed by the better-known Masoretic tradition (c. 500-c.950). Ezra worked with the first of these groups, and they were regarded as the Bible custodians until after the time of Christ (See Archer, pp. 61-65). Between AD 100 and 500, the Talmud (instruction, teaching) grew up as a body of Hebrew civil and canonical law based on the Torah. The Talmud basically represents the opinions and decisions of Jewish teachers from about 300 B.C.E. to AD 500, and it consists of two main divisions: the Mishnah and the Gemara.