List of Hebrew Bible manuscripts
Encyclopedia
Old Testament
The Old Testament, of which Christians hold different views, is a Christian term for the religious writings of ancient Israel held sacred and inspired by Christians which overlaps with the 24-book canon of the Masoretic Text of Judaism...
(Tanakh
Tanakh
The Tanakh is a name used in Judaism for the canon of the Hebrew Bible. The Tanakh is also known as the Masoretic Text or the Miqra. The name is an acronym formed from the initial Hebrew letters of the Masoretic Text's three traditional subdivisions: The Torah , Nevi'im and Ketuvim —hence...
) made on papyrus, parchment, paper, and written in Hebrew language
Hebrew language
Hebrew is a Semitic language of the Afroasiatic language family. Culturally, is it considered by Jews and other religious groups as the language of the Jewish people, though other Jewish languages had originated among diaspora Jews, and the Hebrew language is also used by non-Jewish groups, such...
. The oldest manuscripts were written in a form of scroll, the mediaeval manuscripts usually were written in a form of codex
Codex
A codex is a book in the format used for modern books, with multiple quires or gatherings typically bound together and given a cover.Developed by the Romans from wooden writing tablets, its gradual replacement...
. The late manuscripts written after the 9th century use the Masoretic Text
Masoretic Text
The Masoretic Text is the authoritative Hebrew text of the Jewish Bible and is regarded as Judaism's official version of the Tanakh. While the Masoretic Text defines the books of the Jewish canon, it also defines the precise letter-text of these biblical books, with their vocalization and...
. The important manuscripts are associated with Aaron ben Asher
Aaron ben Moses ben Asher
Aaron ben Moses ben Asher was a Jewish scribe who refined the Tiberian system for writing down vowel sounds in Hebrew, which is still in use today, and serves as the basis for grammatical analysis...
(especially Codex Leningradensis).
The original manuscripts and early copies of the Old Testament disappeared because of time, because of wars, especially the destruction of the First Temple, the Second Temple, and other intentional destructions made by enemies. In result the lapse of time between the original manuscripts and their survived copies is much longer than in the case of the New Testament
New Testament
The New Testament is the second major division of the Christian biblical canon, the first such division being the much longer Old Testament....
manuscripts.
The first list of the Old Testament manuscripts in Hebrew, made by Benjamin Kennicott
Benjamin Kennicott
Benjamin Kennicott was an English churchman and Hebrew scholar.He was born at Totnes, Devon. He succeeded his father as master of a charity school, but the generosity of some friends enabled him to go to Wadham College, Oxford, in 1744, and he distinguished himself in Hebrew and divinity...
(1776–1780) and published by Oxford, listed 615 manuscripts from libraries in England and on the Continent. Giovanni de Rossi (1784–1788) published a list of 731 manuscripts. The main manuscript discoveries in modern times are those of the Cairo Geniza
Cairo Geniza
The Cairo Geniza is a collection of almost 280,000 Jewish manuscript fragments found in the Genizah or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, presently Old Cairo, Egypt. Some additional fragments were found in the Basatin cemetery east of Old Cairo, and the collection includes a number of...
(c. 1890) and the Dead Sea Scrolls (1947). In the old synagogue in Cairo
Cairo
Cairo , is the capital of Egypt and the largest city in the Arab world and Africa, and the 16th largest metropolitan area in the world. Nicknamed "The City of a Thousand Minarets" for its preponderance of Islamic architecture, Cairo has long been a centre of the region's political and cultural life...
were discovered 260.000 Hebrew manuscripts, 10.000 of them are biblical manuscripts. There are more than 200 biblical manuscripts among the Dead Sea Scrolls
Dead Sea scrolls
The Dead Sea Scrolls are a collection of 972 texts from the Hebrew Bible and extra-biblical documents found between 1947 and 1956 on the northwest shore of the Dead Sea, from which they derive their name...
, some of them were written in the Paleo-Hebrew alphabet
Paleo-Hebrew alphabet
The Paleo-Hebrew alphabet , is an abjad offshoot of the ancient Semitic alphabet, identical to the Phoenician alphabet. At the very least it dates to the 10th century BCE...
. They were written before the year 70 AD. 14 scroll manuscripts were discovered in Masada
Masada
Masada is the name for a site of ancient palaces and fortifications in the South District of Israel, on top of an isolated rock plateau, or horst, on the eastern edge of the Judean Desert, overlooking the Dead Sea. Masada is best known for the violence that occurred there in the first century CE...
in 1963–1965.
Actually the largest organized collection of Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts in the world are housed in Russian National Library
Russian National Library
The National Library of Russia in St Petersburg, known as the State Public Saltykov-Shchedrin Library from 1932 to 1992 , is the oldest public library in Russia...
("Second Firkovitch Collection") in Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg
Saint Petersburg is a city and a federal subject of Russia located on the Neva River at the head of the Gulf of Finland on the Baltic Sea...
.
Codex Leningradensis is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew. Manuscripts earlier than the 13th century are very rare. Majority of the manuscripts have survived in a fragmentary condition.
List of manuscripts
- Nash PapyrusNash PapyrusThe Nash Papyrus is a collection of four papyrus fragments acquired in Egypt in 1898 by W. L. Nash, the secretary of the Society of Biblical Archaeology. He presented to Cambridge University Library. They comprise a single sheet and are not part of a scroll. The papyrus is of unknown provenance,...
, dated to the 2nd BC – 1st AD
Masorah manuscripts
- Codex CairensisCodex CairensisThe Codex Cairensis is believed to be the oldest extant Hebrew manuscript containing the complete text of the Old Testament Nevi'im .- History :...
, dated by a colophon to the 895, Cairo - Codex Leningradensis, dated to the 1008, Russian National LibraryRussian National LibraryThe National Library of Russia in St Petersburg, known as the State Public Saltykov-Shchedrin Library from 1932 to 1992 , is the oldest public library in Russia...
- Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus, dated to the 916, Russian National LibraryRussian National LibraryThe National Library of Russia in St Petersburg, known as the State Public Saltykov-Shchedrin Library from 1932 to 1992 , is the oldest public library in Russia...
- Aleppo CodexAleppo CodexThe Aleppo Codex is a medieval bound manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. The codex was written in the 10th century A.D.The codex has long been considered to be the most authoritative document in the masorah , the tradition by which the Hebrew Scriptures have been preserved from generation to generation...
, c. 930, Museum Ben Zwi - Reuchlin Codex of the Prophets, dated to the 1105
- Erfurt Codices
- Severus ScrollSeverus ScrollThe Severus Scroll was a lost scroll containing the Torah. A very few sentences of it have been preserved by Rabbinic literature....
, a lost manuscript of 1 century, only a few sentences are preserved by Rabbinic literatureRabbinic literatureRabbinic literature, in its broadest sense, can mean the entire spectrum of rabbinic writings throughout Jewish history. However, the term often refers specifically to literature from the Talmudic era, as opposed to medieval and modern rabbinic writing, and thus corresponds with the Hebrew term... - Codex Hilleli, a lost manuscript of AD 600, only a few sentences are preserved by Rabbinic literature
- Codex Muggeh, lost, only a few sentences are preserved by Rabbinic literature
- Codex Orientales 4445, dated between AD 820 and 850; the manuscript contains Genesis-Deuteronomy 1:33 (less Numbers 7:47–73 and Numbers 9:12–10:18).
- Codex Sanbuki
- Codex Jericho, lost, only a few sentences are preserved by Rabbinic literature
- Codex Yeruschalmi, lost, only a few sentences are preserved by Rabbinic literature
- Codex Sinai
- Codex Great Mahzor
- Codex Ezra
- Cairo GenizaCairo GenizaThe Cairo Geniza is a collection of almost 280,000 Jewish manuscript fragments found in the Genizah or storeroom of the Ben Ezra Synagogue in Fustat, presently Old Cairo, Egypt. Some additional fragments were found in the Basatin cemetery east of Old Cairo, and the collection includes a number of...
fragments contains portions of the Old Testament in Hebrew and Aramaic, discovered in Cairo synagogue, which date from about AD 400 - Ben Asher Manuscripts
- Michigan Codex
- Abisha Scroll, text of Torah from the 11th–14th century, housed in the Samaritan synagogue of NablusNablusNablus is a Palestinian city in the northern West Bank, approximately north of Jerusalem, with a population of 126,132. Located in a strategic position between Mount Ebal and Mount Gerizim, it is the capital of the Nablus Governorate and a Palestinian commercial and cultural center.Founded by the...
Dead Sea Scrolls
- 1QIsaIsaiah scrollThe Isaiah Scroll or 1Qlsa was found in a cave near the Dead Sea with six other scrolls by Bedouin shepherds in 1947, later known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. It is the most complete scroll out of the 220 found, being complete from beginning to end...
(a copy of the book of IsaiahBook of IsaiahThe Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, preceding the books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve...
') - 1QIsb (a second copy of the book of IsaiahBook of IsaiahThe Book of Isaiah is the first of the Latter Prophets in the Hebrew Bible, preceding the books of Ezekiel, Jeremiah and the Book of the Twelve...
) - 4Q1064Q1064Q106 is one large and three small fragments from three columns of a scroll containing portions of the Song of Songs in Hebrew. It is one of three scrolls found in Cave 4 at Qumran that have been reconstructed as copies of the Song of Songs...
- 4Q1074Q1074Q107 is a fragment of the Song of Songs in Hebrew found in Cave 4 at Qumran in the West Bank and which comprises part of the Dead Sea Scrolls. From the palaeography on the fragment it has been identified as being early-Herodian, i.e. c.30-31 BCE. The scribe responsible for 4Q107 did not write...
- 4Q1084Q1084Q108 is a fragment containing a portion of the Song of Songs in Hebrew. Fragments from three such scrolls were found in Cave 4 at Qumran...
- 4Q2404Q2404Q240 is believed to be a commentary on the Song of Songs, also known as 'Canticles'. Written in Hebrew, it was found in Cave 4 at Qumran in Israel and comprises part of the Dead Sea Scrolls...
- 6Q66Q66Q6 is a small portion of a scroll from Cave 6 at Qumran, containing Song of Songs 1:1-7 in Hebrew. Together with three scroll portions found in Cave 4, they comprise the total witness to the Song from the Dead Sea Scrolls...
- 11QPsa, contains 41 canonical Psalms
Further reading
- Würthwein Ernst (1988). Der Text des Alten Testaments, Stuttgart: Deutsche BibelgesellschaftDeutsche BibelgesellschaftThe Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft is a religious foundation regulated by public law. It is involved in publishing and in spreading the message of the Bible....
1988, p. 40–47; English translation The text of the Old Testament: an introduction to the Biblia Hebraica - Malcolm C. Davis, Ben Outhwaite, Hebrew Bible Manuscripts in the Cambridge Genizah Collections: Taylor-Schechter additional series 32–255, with addenda to previous volumes, Cambridge University LibraryCambridge University LibraryThe Cambridge University Library is the centrally-administered library of Cambridge University in England. It comprises five separate libraries:* the University Library main building * the Medical Library...
2003