PART I
The Masoretic or Traditional Text (MT) of the Old Testament (OT) is the Hebrew text of the King James Bible (KJB). It is in fact the text of the “Holy Scriptures” which were in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles in the first century AD. But if we take the book of Job as the oldest book in the Bible (and there is no reason not to), then the Holy Scriptures actually go back to about 2,000 BC (the period of the patriarchs), with the Torah (Pentateuch) having been written around 1,500 BC by Moses under divine inspiration. In other words our Old Testament has a history of about 4,000 years. And all during that time is has not changed.
Christians need to know how the Masoretic Text came to be written and printed, and they also need to know that God preserved the Hebrew Tanakh for millennia through faithful scribes who copied and recopied the Scriptures since the time of Moses. Therefore we have in our hands the Scriptures as they were originally recorded by the prophets (all the writers of the OT are deemed to be prophets).
The Hebrew Tanakh
The Hebrew Bible consists of only 24 books (corresponding to the 39 books in the Protestant Old Testament), and was originally written only in consanants (no vowels). There are only 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and that was the alphabest used for the Tanakh. The word “Tanakh” itself is derived from the three major divisions of the Old Testament: Torah -- Neviim -- Ketuvim. Torah (five books of the Law); Neviim (Nebim) (eight books of the Prophets); Ketuvim (Kethubim) (11 books of the Writings). Total: 24 books in the Hebrew canon (no apocryphal books)
The Scribes (Sopherim)
We see in the New Testament that the scribes, along with the Pharisees and chief priests, were the enemies of Christ. But they were an important group in Israel, and given the responsibility to ensure that the Word of God was faithfully preserved in the Hebrew Bible. So despite their animosity to Jesus of Nazareth, God used the scribes to preserve His Word. They were copyists, interpreters, and teachers, and they had to follow very strict rules for copying the Scriptures. “The Israelite scribe was first and foremost a faithful witness; he wrote exactly what he heard, and he copied any writing exactly as it was given to him. Some scribes served as notaries, placing their seals on documents to verify their authenticity. On display in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem is a clay fragment bearing the seal of Baruch the son of Neriah, the scribe who preserved in writing the words of Jeremiah the prophet. A scribe’s highest calling was to copy, precisely and without error, the words of the Bible.”https://israelmyglory.org/article/the-ancient-sopherim/
Moses wrote the Torah on a scroll, and commanded the Levites to put it inside the Ark of the Covenant: And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this Law in a book [scroll], until they were finished, That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying, Take this Book of the Law (sepher ha Torah), and put it in the side of the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. (Deut 31: 24-26 cf v 9). He also commanded the future kings of Israel to ensure that they had copies of the Torah and obeyed it (Deut 17:18-20). Joshua was commanded by the LORD to memorize the Torah (Josh 1:8). After his conquest of Ai, Joshua wrote a copy of the Torah on the altar of whole stones located on Mount Ebal (Josh 8:32) , and then he repeated all the words of the Torah to Israel (Josh 8:34,35).
“Over the years, the Jewish scribes developed rigorous stipulations for writing biblical scrolls. The Talmud contains an entire tractate, almost an individual book, devoted to the rules for the work of the scribes. There are rules for the writing materials, the size and dimensions of the scrolls, and the size of the columns and lines. Another Talmudic tractate stipulates that each column should be wide enough to write the longest word in the Hebrew Bible (lemishpachoteycem, “for your families”) three times. Torah scrolls are written in paragraphs, with specific rules governing whether a paragraph can begin on the same line or must begin on a new line. Each book of the Torah must be separated from the previous book by four lines. The rules for writing each letter and each word are equally meticulous.” https://israelmyglory.org/article/the-ancient-sopherim/
So when Christ read from the Hebrew scrolls he did not hesitate to identify the existing Hebrew Bible as totally trustworthy (Luke 24:25,26, 44-48). Whenever Christ disputed with the scribes, Pharisees, chief priests, and elders, He quoted from the same Hebrew Tanakh with which they were familiar, and He quoted from many books. The Isaiah scroll found with the Dead Sea Scrolls (dating back to about 300 BC) was almost identical to the Isaiah scroll used by Christ (c 30 AD), which was identical to the book of Isaiah in the printed Masoretic Text (c 1,000 AD and printed in the 16th century).
The Tannaim and the Amoraim
The Tannaim were Jewish rabbis and scribes who lived between 273 BC and 220 AD. The period between 10 and 220 AD is known as the Mishnaic period. The Tannaim were teachers of the Oral Law (“the tradition of the elders” promoted by the Pharisees and rejected by Christ) and the Mishna was called the Oral Torah. After the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem in 70 AD, the oral law began to be written down as the Talmud. At the same time “In the first century AD, there was an effort to standardize the text of the Old Testament, taking into account all of the manuscripts and variants from across the Roman Empire. Once a reading was agreed upon, the variants were removed, and the scribes began their meticulous work to make exact copies. A group of scribes called the Tannaim produced extensive guidelines for producing accurate copies. Around AD 200, another group called the Amoraim (“expositors”) began preserving and explaining the text, producing the Talmud.” https://www.gotquestions.org/who-Masoretes.html
One of the Tannaim, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, was a disciple of Hillel, who managed to survive the destruction of Jerusalem, and was able to get the Romans to allow him to set up a Sanhedrin in Yavneh (Yavne, Jamnia, Ibelin, or Yibna in the Central District of Israel). He established a rabbinic school in Yavneh, which replaced Jerusalem as the seat of learning. The copying of the Tanakh continued after this, and the canon of the OT was finalized by 200 AD: Thus, since the first century C.E., the consonantal (proto-)MT, and subsequently full MT, version of scripture, including all the books that are contained in it, was accepted as authoritative by all streams of the Jewish people. This text is the only text quoted in rabbinic literature (the small deviations are negligible) and Karaite works, and it is the only text used by organized Judaism for the past two millennia. (https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-bible-and-the-masoretic-text)
The Masoretic or Traditional Text (MT) of the Old Testament (OT) is the Hebrew text of the King James Bible (KJB). It is in fact the text of the “Holy Scriptures” which were in the hands of the Lord Jesus Christ and His apostles in the first century AD. But if we take the book of Job as the oldest book in the Bible (and there is no reason not to), then the Holy Scriptures actually go back to about 2,000 BC (the period of the patriarchs), with the Torah (Pentateuch) having been written around 1,500 BC by Moses under divine inspiration. In other words our Old Testament has a history of about 4,000 years. And all during that time is has not changed.
Christians need to know how the Masoretic Text came to be written and printed, and they also need to know that God preserved the Hebrew Tanakh for millennia through faithful scribes who copied and recopied the Scriptures since the time of Moses. Therefore we have in our hands the Scriptures as they were originally recorded by the prophets (all the writers of the OT are deemed to be prophets).
The Hebrew Tanakh
The Hebrew Bible consists of only 24 books (corresponding to the 39 books in the Protestant Old Testament), and was originally written only in consanants (no vowels). There are only 22 letters in the Hebrew alphabet, and that was the alphabest used for the Tanakh. The word “Tanakh” itself is derived from the three major divisions of the Old Testament: Torah -- Neviim -- Ketuvim. Torah (five books of the Law); Neviim (Nebim) (eight books of the Prophets); Ketuvim (Kethubim) (11 books of the Writings). Total: 24 books in the Hebrew canon (no apocryphal books)
The Scribes (Sopherim)
We see in the New Testament that the scribes, along with the Pharisees and chief priests, were the enemies of Christ. But they were an important group in Israel, and given the responsibility to ensure that the Word of God was faithfully preserved in the Hebrew Bible. So despite their animosity to Jesus of Nazareth, God used the scribes to preserve His Word. They were copyists, interpreters, and teachers, and they had to follow very strict rules for copying the Scriptures. “The Israelite scribe was first and foremost a faithful witness; he wrote exactly what he heard, and he copied any writing exactly as it was given to him. Some scribes served as notaries, placing their seals on documents to verify their authenticity. On display in the Israel Museum in Jerusalem is a clay fragment bearing the seal of Baruch the son of Neriah, the scribe who preserved in writing the words of Jeremiah the prophet. A scribe’s highest calling was to copy, precisely and without error, the words of the Bible.”https://israelmyglory.org/article/the-ancient-sopherim/
Moses wrote the Torah on a scroll, and commanded the Levites to put it inside the Ark of the Covenant: And it came to pass, when Moses had made an end of writing the words of this Law in a book [scroll], until they were finished, That Moses commanded the Levites, which bare the ark of the covenant of the LORD, saying, Take this Book of the Law (sepher ha Torah), and put it in the side of the Ark of the Covenant of the LORD your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. (Deut 31: 24-26 cf v 9). He also commanded the future kings of Israel to ensure that they had copies of the Torah and obeyed it (Deut 17:18-20). Joshua was commanded by the LORD to memorize the Torah (Josh 1:8). After his conquest of Ai, Joshua wrote a copy of the Torah on the altar of whole stones located on Mount Ebal (Josh 8:32) , and then he repeated all the words of the Torah to Israel (Josh 8:34,35).
“Over the years, the Jewish scribes developed rigorous stipulations for writing biblical scrolls. The Talmud contains an entire tractate, almost an individual book, devoted to the rules for the work of the scribes. There are rules for the writing materials, the size and dimensions of the scrolls, and the size of the columns and lines. Another Talmudic tractate stipulates that each column should be wide enough to write the longest word in the Hebrew Bible (lemishpachoteycem, “for your families”) three times. Torah scrolls are written in paragraphs, with specific rules governing whether a paragraph can begin on the same line or must begin on a new line. Each book of the Torah must be separated from the previous book by four lines. The rules for writing each letter and each word are equally meticulous.” https://israelmyglory.org/article/the-ancient-sopherim/
So when Christ read from the Hebrew scrolls he did not hesitate to identify the existing Hebrew Bible as totally trustworthy (Luke 24:25,26, 44-48). Whenever Christ disputed with the scribes, Pharisees, chief priests, and elders, He quoted from the same Hebrew Tanakh with which they were familiar, and He quoted from many books. The Isaiah scroll found with the Dead Sea Scrolls (dating back to about 300 BC) was almost identical to the Isaiah scroll used by Christ (c 30 AD), which was identical to the book of Isaiah in the printed Masoretic Text (c 1,000 AD and printed in the 16th century).
The Tannaim and the Amoraim
The Tannaim were Jewish rabbis and scribes who lived between 273 BC and 220 AD. The period between 10 and 220 AD is known as the Mishnaic period. The Tannaim were teachers of the Oral Law (“the tradition of the elders” promoted by the Pharisees and rejected by Christ) and the Mishna was called the Oral Torah. After the destruction of the temple at Jerusalem in 70 AD, the oral law began to be written down as the Talmud. At the same time “In the first century AD, there was an effort to standardize the text of the Old Testament, taking into account all of the manuscripts and variants from across the Roman Empire. Once a reading was agreed upon, the variants were removed, and the scribes began their meticulous work to make exact copies. A group of scribes called the Tannaim produced extensive guidelines for producing accurate copies. Around AD 200, another group called the Amoraim (“expositors”) began preserving and explaining the text, producing the Talmud.” https://www.gotquestions.org/who-Masoretes.html
One of the Tannaim, Rabbi Yohanan ben Zakkai, was a disciple of Hillel, who managed to survive the destruction of Jerusalem, and was able to get the Romans to allow him to set up a Sanhedrin in Yavneh (Yavne, Jamnia, Ibelin, or Yibna in the Central District of Israel). He established a rabbinic school in Yavneh, which replaced Jerusalem as the seat of learning. The copying of the Tanakh continued after this, and the canon of the OT was finalized by 200 AD: Thus, since the first century C.E., the consonantal (proto-)MT, and subsequently full MT, version of scripture, including all the books that are contained in it, was accepted as authoritative by all streams of the Jewish people. This text is the only text quoted in rabbinic literature (the small deviations are negligible) and Karaite works, and it is the only text used by organized Judaism for the past two millennia. (https://www.thetorah.com/article/the-bible-and-the-masoretic-text)
