21

Old Testament Manuscripts

The original manuscripts of the Old Testament (autographa) are not available, but the
Hebrew text is amply represented by both pre- and post-Christian manuscripts.1 As a result,
the reliability of the Hebrew text can be evaluated from available manuscript evidence. But,
what are the nature and amount of the documentary evidence for the original text of the Old
Testament? Sir Frederic Kenyon posed this “great, indeed all important question” when he
wrote, “Does this Hebrew text which we call Masoretic2 faithfully represent the Hebrew
text as originally written by the authors of the Old Testament books?”3 The answer to that
question arises from a careful examination of the number and nature of Hebrew
manuscripts of the Old Testament.
THE NUMBER OF HEBREW OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS
The first collection of Hebrew manuscripts, made by Benjamin Kennicott (A.D. 1776-
1780) and published by Oxford, listed 615 manuscripts of the Old Testament. Later
Giovanni de Rossi (1784-1788) published a list of 731 manuscripts. The main manuscript
discoveries in modern times are those of the Cairo Geniza (c. 1890ff.) and the Dead Sea
Scrolls (1947ff.) In the Cairo synagogue attic storeroom alone were discovered some
200,000 manuscripts and fragments,4 some 10,000 of which are biblical.5 According to J. T.
Milik, fragments of about 600 manuscripts are known from the Dead Sea Scrolls, not all
biblical. Moshe Goshen-Gottstein estimates that the total number of Old Testament Hebrew
manuscript fragments throughout the world runs into the tens of thousands.6
MAJOR COLLECTIONS OF OLD TESTAMENT MANUSCRIPTS
Of the 200,000 Cairo Geniza manuscript fragments, some 100,000 are housed at
Cambridge. The largest organized collection of Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts in the
world is the Second Firkowitch Collection in Leningrad. It contains 1,582 items of the
Bible and Masora on parchment (725 on paper), plus 1,200 additional Hebrew manuscript
fragments.7 The British Museum catalog lists 161 Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts. At
Oxford, the Bodleian Library catalog lists 146 Old Testament manuscripts, each one

1
1. Much of the following discussion is updated from Norman L. Geisler, Bible Manuscripts," in Wycliffe Bible
Encyclopedia, 1:248-52.
2
2. The standard edition of the Masoretic Text was first published under the editorship of a Hebrew
Christian, Jacob Ben Chayyim (c. 1525). It was essentially a recension of the text of the Masorete Ben Asher
(flourished c. A.D. 920). See chap. 25 discussion.
3
3. Frederic G. Kenyon, Our Bible and the Ancient Manuscripts, p. 88.
4
4. Paul E. Kahle, The Cairo Geniza, p. 13; Ernst Wurthwein, The Text of the Old Testament: An Introduction
the Biblia Hebraica, p. 25.
5
5. Moshe Goshen-Gottstein, “Biblical Manuscripts in the United States,” p. 35.
6
6. Ibid., p. 31.
7
7. The Antonin Collection, Wurthwein, p. 23.

1
containing a large number of fragments.8 Goshen-Gottstein estimates that in the United
States alone there are tens of thousands of Semitic manuscript fragments, about 5 percent of
which are biblical—more than 500 manuscripts.9
DESCRIPTION OF MAJOR OLD TESTAMENT HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS
The most significant Hebrew Old Testament manuscripts date from between the third
century B.C. and the fourteenth century A.D.
Nash Papyrus Besides those unusual finds, which are about a thousand years older
than most of the earliest Old Testament Hebrew manuscripts, there is extant one damaged
copy of the Shema (from Deut. 6:4-9) and two fragments of the Decalogue (Ex. 20:2ff.;
Deut. 5:6ff.). It is dated between the second century B.C.10 and the first century A.D.
Orientales 4445 This British Museum manuscript is dated by C[hristian] D.
Ginsburg between A.D. 820 and 850, the Masora notes being added a century later. But Paul
E. Kahle11 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 39:20–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 Codex was written and vowel-
pointed in A.D. 895 by Moses ben Asher in Tiberias in Palestine.12 It contains the Former
Prophets (Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 2 Kings) and the Latter Prophets (Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve). It is symbolized C in Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia
(BHS).13
Aleppo Codex of the Whole Old Testament This was written by Shelomo ben
Baya’a,14 but according to a colophon it was pointed (i.e., the vowel marks were added) by
Moses ben Asher (c. A.D. 930). It is a model codex, and although it was not permitted to be
copied for along time and was even reported to have been destroyed,15 it was smuggled
from Syria to Israel. It has now been photographed and will be the basis of the New Hebrew

8
8. Kahle, p. 5.
9
9. Goshen-Gottstein, p. 30.
10
10. William F. Albright, “A Biblical Fragment from the Maccabean Age: The Nash Papyrus,” pp.145-76.
11
11. Kahle, in Wurthwein, p. 118.
12
12. Wurthwein, p. 25.
13
13. K. Elliger and W. Rudolph, eds., Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia is the successor of R. Kittel and P. Kahle,
eds., Biblia Hebraica, 7th ed., and is regarded as the most authoritative Hebrew text based on the Masoretic
text tradition.
14
14. Kenyon, p. 84.
15
15. Wurthwein, p. 25.