Textual variants in the Hebrew Bible manuscripts arise when a copyist makes deliberate or inadvertent alterations to the text that is being reproduced. Textual criticism of the Hebrew Bible (or Old Testament) has included study of its textual variants.
Although the Masoretic Text (MT) counts as the authoritative form of the Hebrew Bible according to Rabbinic Judaism, modern scholars seeking to understand the history of the Hebrew Bible use a range of sources.[1] These include the Greek Septuagint (LXX), the Syriac language Peshitta translation, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Dead Sea Scrolls collection, and quotations from rabbinic manuscripts. These sources may be older than the Masoretic Text in some cases, and often differ from it.[2] These differences have given rise to the theory that yet another text, an Urtext of the Hebrew Bible, once existed and is the source of the versions extant today.[3] However, such an Urtext has never been found, and which of the three commonly known versions (Septuagint, Masoretic Text, Samaritan Pentateuch) is closest to the Urtext is debated.[4]
- ^ "Scholars seek Hebrew Bible's original text – but was there one?". Jewish Telegraphic Agency. 13 May 2014. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
- ^ "Controversy lurks as scholars try to work out Bible's original text". The Times of Israel. Retrieved 25 September 2015.
- ^ Isaac Leo Seeligmann, Robert Hanhart, Hermann Spieckermann: The Septuagint Version of Isaiah and Cognate Studies, Tübingen 2004, pp. 33–34.
- ^ Shanks, Herschel (1992). Understanding the Dead Sea Scrolls (1st ed.). Random House. p. 336. ISBN 978-0679414483.