Ancient Manuscripts of the Bible

I. MANUSCRIPTS BY CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER

The Dead Sea Scrolls (2nd century BC to 70 AD)
Before this discovery, the earliest existing manuscripts ofAncient
Willthey were in Greek, in manuscripts like theVatican Codexand theCodex Sinaiticus.
Of the approximately 40,000 fragments from 800 to 1,000 rolls found in Qumran, 220
they are from the Old Testament. All the books of the Old Testament are represented, except for theBook of Esther; however,
most are fragmented. In particular, there are tworollsfrom Isaiah, one complete and another
completed at 75%; Due to the poor condition of some of the rolls, scholars have not
identified all your texts.
The identified texts are divided into three general groups:
Approximately 40% are copies of texts from the Hebrew Scriptures.
Approximately another 30% are texts from the Second Temple Period that ultimately do not
they were canonized in the Hebrew Bible, such as the Book of Enoch, the Book of Jubilees, the Book
from Tobit, the Wisdom of Sirach, Psalms 152-155, etc.
The rest (approximately 30%) are sectarian manuscripts of previously existing documents.
unknowns that shed light on the rules and beliefs of a particular group (sect) or
groups within the great Judaism, such as the Community Rule, the War Scroll, the
Commentary on Habakkuk and the Rule of Blessing.
The Great Roll of Isaiah (1QIsaa) is one of the first seven manuscripts discovered in
Qumran in 1947. With a length of 7.34 m; it is the longest and best biblical manuscript.
preserved by all and the only one that has reached us practically complete. It consists of 54
columns that contain the 66 chapters of the Hebrew version of the book of Isaiah and is one of the
oldest manuscripts found in the Judean desert.
In addition to 1QIsaaIn Qumran, about twenty copies of the book of Isaiah have been found.
an additional copy was discovered a few kilometers further south, in Wadi Muraba`at) as well as
six pesherim or interpretations of the book. Isaiah is frequently cited in other manuscripts,
a literary-religious phenomenon that is also present in the writings of the New Testament.
It is not surprising that the book of Isaiah seems to enjoy a canonical importance and authority.
special in the heart of the Qumran community: the messianic beliefs of the community
they find support and foundation in the words of the prophet, known for his prophecies of judgment
and consolation as well as for their visions of the end of times and the coming of the kingdom of God.

Modern research considers that the biblical book of Isaiah is composed of different
compositions, the main ones being: The First-Isaiah or Isaiah I (chapters 1-39 with some
exceptions), which contains the message of the prophet himself and dates back to the time of the First Temple,
around the year 700 before the common era, and Deutero-Isaiah or Isaiah II (chapters 40-66), which
It preserves the words of a prophet whose identity is unknown and who lived about 150 years ago.
later, during the Babylonian exile and the return in the Persian period. When our manuscript
The book of Isaiah was copied in the second third of the 2nd century BCE.
he/she already considered it a single composition.

The Samaritan Pentateuch (5th century BC)

The Samaritan Pentateuch originated around the 5th century B.C. and was transmitted
regardless of the Masoretic Text, from which it differs in about 6000 places. Provides
some additional details, harmonizations, and sectarian theology.
 The Codex Sinaiticus (c. 350 A.D.)
It contains the oldest complete copy of the New Testament, as well as most of the
Greek Old Testament, known as the Septuagint.
As it is preserved today, Codex Sinaiticus consists of just over 400 sheets.
large prepared animal hides, each measuring 380 mm high by 345 mm wide
wide. On these parchment sheets is written about half of the Old Testament and
the apocrypha (2 Esdras, Tobit, Judith, 1 & 4 Maccabees, Wisdom and Sirach), all of the New
Testament and two early Christian texts not found in modern Bibles (One
Epistle of an unknown writer claiming to be the Apostle Barnabas, and 'The Shepherd', written by the
Roman writer from the early 2nd century, Hermas). Most of the first part of
manuscript (which contains most of the so-called historical books, from Genesis to 1
Chronicles) is now missing and is presumed lost.
The number of books in the New Testament in the Codex Sinaiticus is the same as that of the
Modern Bibles in the West, but the order is different. The Letter to the Hebrews is placed
after the Second Letter of Paul to the Thessalonians, and the Acts of the Apostles among
the Pastoral and Catholic Epistles.
The Alexandrian Codex (5th century AD)
It derives its name from the city of Alexandria (Egypt), where it is believed to have been made. It is preserved.
in the British Library, London, England.
It was written in Greek, in uncial script. It contains most of the Old Testament in Greek and
almost the entire New Testament.
The Old Testament of the manuscript includes the deuterocanonical books, including III
Maccabees, IV Maccabees, and Psalm 151 (a short copy of Psalms), texts considered by the
textual criticism such as "Apocrypha" of the Old Testament. At the same time, some folios are
lost. As a result, the books of Genesis, I Kings, and Psalms have gaps. The 'Epistle to
"Marcelino" attributed to St. Athanasius of Alexandria and the summary of the Psalms by Eusebius of
Caesarea is inserted before the Book of Psalms.
A letter known as 1 Clement and the homily known as II Clement are added to the
New Testament, and they were, apparently, considered by the scribe as canonical. The
The New Testament also has lost folios. Around 25 folios from the beginning of
Matthew, 2 leaves of John, and 3 leaves of II Corinthians are lost. One leaf of I Clement and two
the folios of II Clement are also lost.
The Vatican Codex (4th century AD)
Written in Greek, in uncial script, on fine and thin parchment, possibly of antelope.
Found in the Vatican Library, which was founded in 1448 AD and is preserved in the
same institution.
It is one of the oldest preserved manuscripts of the Bible, slightly earlier than the Codex.
Sinaiticus, and probably copied, like that one, during the 4th century. It is written in Greek, in
parchment, with uncial letters, and is kept in the Vatican Library. It is called Codex
Vatican, as is evident from the place where it is kept, although no one knows how it got there.
It originally contained a complete copy of the Septuagint and the New Testament,
but pages 1519 – 1536 (from Hebrews 9:14 to Revelation) were lost and were
replaced by a tiny supplement from the 15th century (No. 1957). It consists of 759 sheets. Missing
an important part of Genesis and some Psalms. The writing style is simple and elegant.
The parchment is very fine and thin; it is possibly made from antelope skin.
Made using a printing press and movable type. A complete copy has 1,282.
pages and most were bound in at least two volumes.

This Bible is the most famous incunable, and its production marked the beginning of mass printing of
texts in the West. It is believed that around 180 copies were produced, 45 on parchment and
135 on paper. After being printed, they were signed and illuminated by hand, work done by
specialists, which makes each copy unique.
The Bezae Codex (6th Century)
Bilingual codex with the Greek and Latin texts of the Synoptic Gospels and the Acts. Theodore
de Beza obtained it from the monastery of Saint Irenaeus in Lyons, and presented it to the University
from Cambridge in 1581.
The Cairo Codex (896 A.D.)
Copied by Moses ben Asher, it contains the Former and Latter Prophets; it also contains
the Masorah and the vowel points. In its colophon, it indicates that it was completed approximately in the
year 895 C.E. the renowned masorete Moses ben Asher of Tiberias. The Crusaders them
took from the Karaite Jews of Jerusalem and subsequently returned them to the
Karaite Jews from Cairo, Egypt.
The Petersburg Codex (916 A.D.)
Contains the last prophets.
TheAleppo Codex925 A.D.
It may be the best manuscript of the OT, but it lacks most of the Pentateuch due to a
fire that occurred at the end of the 1940s. Salomon ben Buya copied the text (consonants) and
Aaron ben Asher provided the vowels. This Codex is the basis of a new critical Hebrew OT that
is being produced by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.

The Leningrad Codex (1008 AD)

It was a direct copy of the text of Aaron ben Asher and is the basis of the current Hebrew Bible and of
the most modern translations of the OT.
Peshitta Bible (1008 A.D.)
Translation from Hebrew and Greek to the Syriac language. 'Peshitta' means 'simple, common'. That is,
The New Testament was translated from Greek to the vernacular of the Assyrians.

Certain evidence and circumstances indicate that the first translation of the New Testament in
Greek to another language was that of Greek to the 'ancient Syriac' in the mid-2nd century, perhaps in the
city of Edessa, cradle of the Syriac language.

II. MANUSCRIPTS OF THE NT

Rylands Fragment of John (the oldest fragment of the N.T., 2nd century).
C. H. Roberts discovered a fragment of papyrus measuring 6 X 9 centimeters in a collection of the
John Rylands Library, in Manchester, England. It contains thirty words in Greek.
coming from chapter 18 of John (18:31 33, 37 38). It is the oldest portion of manuscript
of the New Testament that is known and dates from the first half of the second century. It comes from
a codex, not a scroll. We know this because it is written on both sides of the papyrus, phenomenon
rare in the rolls. Scholars know the fragment by the symbol p52.

Bodmer Papyri (around 200 AD)

In 1956, 1958, and 1962, the Bodmer Papyrus II was published. It includes the first thirteen chapters of
Juan in Greek, in nearly perfect condition, and fragments of the remaining chapters. It is dated.
from around 200 A.D. and is located in the Bodmer Library, near Geneva. In 1961 it
published another document Bodmer: Luke 3:18 to John 15:8. It may be that its origin is
go back to the last quarter of the second century. Other Bodmer fragments include Judas and 2 Peter in
Greek (around 200 AD), and portions of the Bible, both from the Old and the New Testaments.
Testaments, in Greek and Coptic.

Chester Beatty Papyrus (3rd century AD)

Acquired in 1930 by Chester Beatty, it was Sir Frederick Kenyon who announced them to the world in the...
London Times of November 17, 1931. It includes portions of the Old and the New
Testament, and its approximate date is from the third century A.D. (some have assigned it dates in
more generally, dates ranging from the second to the fourth century). There are eleven papyrus codices,
seven from the Old Testament, three from the New, and a part of I Enoch. The oldest copies of
the Pauline epistles, with some gaps (especially the pastoral ones: I and II Timothy and Titus) are
they find in the group; also portions of the four gospels and Acts that date from shortly
after 200 A.D. A part of the Apocalypse completes the papyri that are found
currently in the Chester Beatty Library, Dublin, except for thirty leaves of the epistles
paulinas that are in the library of the University of Michigan, Ann Arbor.

Vatican Codex (4th century AD)

Another well-known document is the Vatican Codex, a 4th-century copy. Discovered in the Library
Vatican and taken to Paris for a time by Napoleon, is currently in the Library
Vatican in Rome, and contains the Greek Old Testament (it is the oldest and best of the
manuscripts of the Septuagint), and the New Testament up to Hebrews 9:14 (all materials
after this portion has been lost). This and the Sinaitic are brother codices,
probably of Egyptian origin. They constitute the best Greek text available.

Beza Codex (4th or 5th century AD)

The Beza Codex is a copy from the 4th or 5th century and contains incomplete texts of the four
Gospels and the Acts, as well as a few verses from I John. The left pages
they have a Greek text and on the right the text in Latin. It bears the name of the reformer Béze,
who donated it to the University of Cambridge in 1581. He had acquired it from the monastery of
Saint Irenaeus in Lyon, in 1562. It contains 406 sheets, but undoubtedly originally contained at least.
less than one hundred more.

Washington Codex I (4th or 5th century A.D.)

The Washington Manuscript I is an important manuscript dating from the fourth or fifth century.
Charles L. Freer bought it from a seller in Cairo, Egypt, in 1906. The document, which
it contains the gospels in Greek in the order of Matthew, John, Luke, Mark (just like the Codex
Béze) is in the Freer Gallery of Art, which is affiliated with the Smithsonian Institution.
Washington, D.C

Alejandrino Codex (5th century AD)

The Alexandrian Codex is a manuscript from the 5th century of the Old and New Testament in Greek.
in addition to two extrabiblical books: the Letters of Clement. It is believed to have been the work of
Thelka the Martyr. The book was gifted to King Charles I in 1627 by Cyril Lucar, Greek Patriarch.
from Alexandria; hence its name. It is located in the British Museum, London, and was one of the
first gifts with which the museum was founded.

Codex of Saint Ephrem (5th century AD)

An incomplete codex of the Old and New Testament in Greek Codex, that of Saint Ephrem, is
known as palimpsest. The term 'palimpsest' is derived from two Greek words: palin, which
means 'again', and psestos, which means 'erased' or 'scraped'; so that a manuscript
palimpsest is one whose previous writing has been scraped off so that the parchment can be used again.
again. In 1950, at the Monastery of Saint Catherine on Mount Sinai, a was discovered
extraordinary palimpsest, which had been used five times and is therefore known as
quintuple palimpsest. In the case of the palimpsest of Saint Ephrem, the biblical text had been
erased, but with relative success, chemical substances were used to restore the first one.
writing. (Currently, photography with ultraviolet rays makes the use of
chemical substances in the palimpsests.) A treatise by Saint Ephrem was written on top of the
biblical scripture. Hence the name of the codex. It includes 64 pages of the Old Testament and 145
of the New, coming from an original of 238.

Texts of the New Testament

The more than 6000 manuscripts of all or part of the Greek NT are written on papyrus, parchment, or
paper. The categories include papyrus, uncials (writing similar to uppercase letters),
lowercase (lowercase cursive writing) and lectionaries (texts in cursive designated for reading)
during the worship). The text was transmitted in various types. Most scholars believe that the
Alejandrino is the oldest and closest to the original, followed by the Western, the Caesarean, and the
Byzantine or koine, which is the latest form.

Papiros Solo 4 out of 115 papyri come from rolls; the rest are from codices. None cover the NT.
complete. The papyri preserve a very ancient and accurate text as many date from the
2nd and 3rd centuries. Some important manuscripts on papyrus include:
P52: The oldest fragment of the Greek NT (110–125 AD); contains John 18:31-33,37-38.
Since Juan wrote his gospel between 90-95 A.D., it is likely that P52 reflects the text.
original by Juan.
P45, P46, P47: Chester Beatty Papyrus (acquired in 1930–1931). Comprised of 30 leaves.
(early 3rd century), P45 contains sections of the Gospels and Acts. P46, approx. 200
A.D., of 86 leaves, includes the Pauline letters and Hebrews (placed after Romans). The P47
(mid 3rd century) has 10 leaves, Rev. 9:10–17:2.
P66, P72, P74, P75: Papyrus M. Martin Bodmer, published between 1956 and 1962. P66, approx. 200
A.D., contains most of John. P72, approx. 250 A.D., includes 1–2 Peter and Jude. P74,
approx. 750 A.D., contains portions of Acts, James, 1–2 Peter, 1–3 John, and Jude. With
Date around 200 AD, P75 contains large portions of John 1-15 and Luke 3-24.
This is the earliest copy of Luke and one of the earliest of John.

Only about one-fifth of the 309 uncials have extensive sections of the NT.
They occupy the second place in importance after the papyri. The important uncials
include:
Vatican (B, 03): The Vatican (4th century) contains most of the NT except for 1–2 Timothy, Titus,
Philemon, Heb. 9:14–13:25 and Revelation, and it is one of the most important witnesses of the text.
New Testament by reflecting a text very similar to that of P75.
Alejandrino (A, 02): The Alejandrino (5th century) contains most of the NT except Mat. 1–24.
portions of John 6–8 and 2 Cor. 4–12. It is an important Alexandrian testimony outside of the
Gospels (in the Gospels it is Byzantine) and one of the best texts of Revelation.
Lowercase writings in italic lowercase (9th–17th centuries), the lowercases reflect the text
Byzantine but they preserve some original readings. More than 2800 minuscules have been cataloged.
Family 1: Consisting of four manuscripts from the 12th to 14th centuries (1, 118, 131, 209), the Family
1 represents a Caesarean text from the 3rd–4th centuries.
Family 13: Collection of approximately 12 manuscripts from the 11th–15th centuries; has affinities
with the type of text cesarean.
Ms 33: The Ms 33 (9th century) contains the entire NT except Revelation. Generally Alexandrian,
shows the Byzantine influence in Acts and the Pauline letters.
Ms 81: The Ms 81 (1044 A.D.) contains Acts and the epistles, and in Acts it often agrees.
with the Alexandrine text.
Ms 1739: The Ms 1739 (10th century) contains Acts and the epistles and apparently follows a
4th century manuscript, except in Acts where the scribe attributes it to Origen (approx. 250
a.C.). The Ms 1739 preserves a relatively pure Alexandrian text.
Lectionaries The lectionaries are minuscule manuscripts that distribute the text of the NT in
readings corresponding to each Sunday of the liturgical year. More than 2400 have been cataloged.
lectionaries. Although most are late, scholars are discovering that they probably
they preserve a form of text that dates back to a much earlier time than the date in
that the manuscript was copied.

Versions of the Old Testament and the New Testament

Due to their antiquity, some ancient versions (translations) are important.
to establish the original text of the Bible. Important versions include:
The Septuagint (LXX) First translation from Hebrew to Greek (approx. 280–100 BC), the LXX is the
the most important testimony in the Old Testament is not Hebrew. Some books like Genesis and Psalms are
literal translations. Others, like Isaiah, are more free. The Septuagint generally
it represents the Masoretic text, but there are differences that are sometimes significant (in
Jeremiah and Ezekiel). Some books preserve a text that is more accurate than the Masoretic.
especially Samuel and Reyes.
The Targums According to tradition, the targums, Aramaic translations of the OT, began with
Ezra (Neh. 8:8), and among the Dead Sea Scrolls there are portions of Job and Leviticus. The targums
they are important because they provide a traditional interpretation that was given in the synagogue as
so too because they bear witness to the Hebrew text. Some are quite literal and others are
periphrastic.
The Peshitta is a Syriac translation (a dialect of Aramaic) of the Old Testament and the New Testament (5th–6th centuries AD), the
The Peshitta generally follows the Masoretic text in the case of the Old Testament. In the New Testament, it follows several types of ...
The NT contains only 22 books, and excludes 2 Peter, 2-3 John, Jude, and Revelation.
The Vulgate The Latin Vulgate (383–405 AD) was the work of Jerome, the first linguist of the church.
in its time. It constituted the Bible of the Western Church for over 1000 years. Jerome
he translated the Masoretic Text into Latin and there are still more than 8000 Latin manuscripts. He used
manuscripts in Latin and several in Greek. Their Greek manuscripts seem to have been a mix
of various types of text. See Textual criticism; Textus receptus.

The scribes.
As far as we know, there is currently no original manuscript or autograph of the Bible.
Despite the embargo, the Bible has been preserved accurately and reliably because the scribes
Biblical scholars generally accepted the Scriptures as inspired by God and sought to realize the
perfection of their hard work in producing handwritten copies of the Word of God.

The men who copied the Hebrew Scriptures during the earthly ministry of Jesus Christ
And during the preceding centuries, they were known as 'scribes' (Heb. soh·ferím). Ezra was one.
of the first; in the Scriptures it is said that he was a "skilled scribe."Ezra 7:6this Esdras
He came up from Babylon. He was a diligent scribe in the law of Moses, which Jehovah God of Israel had
and the king granted him all that he requested, for the hand of the Lord his God was upon
Ezra. Subsequently, some scribes made certain deliberate alterations to the text.
Hebrew, but its successors, the Masoretes, detected them and recorded them in the Masora or notes.
margins of the Masoretic Hebrew text that they prepared.
The copyists of the Christian Greek Scriptures also strove to reproduce
faithfully the text of the Scriptures.
What assurance is there that the Bible has not undergone changes?
Despite the care that the copyists of the biblical manuscripts took, errors were introduced into the
Several errors in the text. Most of them are insignificant and do not affect the overall integrity at all.
from the Bible. It has been possible to detect and correct them thanks to careful critical comparison.
from the many existing manuscripts and ancient versions.

The oldest of all manuscripts?

The "Papyus 52", from Rylands.
Date from the first half of the 2nd century of the Christian Era
The oldest manuscript of the New Testament is Papyrus 52. It is a small piece of papyrus.
about the size of a business card.
Contains a few words from John 18:31-33 and 18:37-38. Written in uncial Greek, that is, all
LETTER IN UPPERCASE.
It is preserved in the John Rylands Library, in Manchester, England.
The existence of this fragment presupposes the existence of the complete papyrus, that is, at least
the whole gospel of John.
This seemingly insignificant fragment of papyrus was acquired in an Egyptian market in
1920. The original transcription and translation were done in 1934.
The fragment was written between the years 100 to 150 AD.

Papyrus 66 contains the Gospel of John. It dates back to the 3rd century.
With the exception of the small Rylands Papyros 52, this is the oldest testimony, until the
date, for the gospel of the apostle John.
This manuscript belongs to the Bodmer Papyri, discovered in 1952 near Dishna.
Egypt. These were smuggled to Switzerland, where Martín Bodmer (1899-1971) bought them.
They are preserved in the Bodmer Library, in Cologny, near Geneva.
Among the Bodmer Papyri are Books V and VI of Homer's Iliad, and three comedies of
Menander.
Papyrus 75, a partial codex, contains most of Luke and John. Even the copy most
ancient of the prayer Our Father.
The Bodmer Library sold it to Mr. Frank Hanna III for a 'substantial sum', and he
he gifted it to the Vatican Library in 2007. It was transported from Switzerland to the
Vatican in an armored vehicle accompanied by guards with machine guns.
Papyrus 72 is the oldest copy of Judas discovered to date.

Both sides of a papyrus that contains James 2:26 - 3:9.

Found in Oxyrhynchus, Egypt. Dates from the late 3rd century.
3, to the right, upper.
Fragments of a page from a papyrus codex in which parts of Acts 18:27 appear.
19:6 and 19:12-16.
Data from the 3rd or 4th century.
Purchased in Cairo, Egypt, in the year 1924.

The Bible in Latin, by Jerome of Stridon. Dates from the year 405 A.D.
"Vulgata", from "vulgata editio", that is, edition for the people. Jerome translated the entire Old
Testament directly from Hebrew, but it is not known for certain whether it translates the New [Testament].
Testament directly from Greek and Aramaic or if it will review ancient Latin versions.
The Vulgate is a translation of the Bible into vulgar Latin, made in the early 5th century by St.
Jerome, commissioned by Pope Damasus I in 382. The version takes its name from the
vulgate edition (edition for the people) and it was written in common Latin, in contrast
with the classical Latin of Cicero, which Saint Jerome mastered. The goal of the Vulgate was to be more
easy to understand and more accurate than its predecessors.
The Latin Bible used before the Vulgate, the Vetus Latina, was not translated by a
unique person or institution and it was not even edited uniformly. The quality and style of the
individual books varied. The translations of the Old Testament came almost entirely from the
Greek Septuagint.
Saint Jerome translated the entire Old Testament directly from Hebrew to Latin for the first time.
Will.
As for the Book of Psalms, there are three versions by Jerome, the Roman Psalter from 384,
that reviewed the Vetus Latina adjusting it to the Septuagint; the Tallicanum of 391, which uses as
source the Hexapla of Origen; and the Hebraicum completely translated from Hebrew in 405.
Jerónimo used Aramaic manuscripts in the translation of the book of Tobit and Judith, while he limited himself to
collect the existing versions of the other deuterocanonical or apocryphal texts, which he placed in a
separate section. It is not known for sure whether he translated the entire New Testament or just
he will review the old Latin translations, comparing them with the Greek manuscripts.
Conservation
A number of early manuscripts that testify to the Vulgate survive today. Dated to
8th century, the Amiatinus codex is the oldest complete manuscript. The Fulda codex, which
data approximately from 545, it is earlier although the gospels are a corrected version of
Diatessaron.
In the Middle Ages, the Vulgate succumbed to the inevitable changes forged by human error, in
the uncountable copying of text in monasteries across Europe. Since its earliest days
early, the readings of the Vetus Latina were introduced. The marginal notes were
incorrectly interpolated in the text. No copy was the same as the other.
Around the year 550, Cassiodorus made the first attempt to restore the Vulgate to its purity.
Alcuin of York oversaw efforts to copy a restored Vulgate, which he presented.
to Charlemagne in 801. Similar attempts were repeated by Theodulph, Bishop
of Orleans (787? - 821); Lanfranc, Archbishop of Canterbury (1070-1089); Stephen Harding, the
Abad de Citeaux (1109-1134); and the deacon Nicolás Maniacoria (about the beginning of the 13th century).
Although the advent of the printing press greatly reduced the potential for human error and increased the
consistency and the uniformity of the text, the earliest editions of the Vulgate reproduced
simply the manuscripts that were easily available to the editors.
Of the hundreds of editions, the most notable is the one by Mazarin, published by Johann.
Gutenberg in 1445, famous for its beauty and antiquity.
In 1504, the first Vulgate with reading variants was published in Paris. One of the texts of
The Complutensian Polyglot Bible was an edition of the Vulgate, made with ancient manuscripts.
and corrected to conform to Greek.
Erasmuspublished a corrected edition checked against the Greek and Hebrew in 1516. In 1528,
Robertus Stephanus. The critical edition by Juan Hentenius of Louvain followed in 1547.
Text copied electronically [Link]

Notes
The numbering of the verses appears for the first time in Bomberg's Hebrew Bible.
(1547), which indicates in the margin every fifth verse using the letters of the Hebrew alphabet.
numerically. Arias Montano published a Hebrew Bible with translation in Antwerp in 1571.
Latin interlinear. In this edition, he introduced the division of the Hebrew text into chapters. In the margin
he introduced the numbering of the verses with Arabic numerals.

2. No document prior to the advent of the printing press was copied as carefully as
it was done with the AT. The manuscripts were written on various materials. The papyri, made
From a reed that was abundant in Egypt, they were used since ancient times.
parchments were made from the skins of sheep, goats, and other animals. Paper, a Chinese invention,
(105 AD) began to be used in Egypt around 700 AD and in Europe around 1000.
A.D. The manuscripts of the Old Testament were in scrolls until 600 A.D. From then on it became popular.
the codex, a primitive form of book.

3. The most important witness of the ancient Old Testament text is called the Masoretic text. The
they, called masoretes, were active between 500 and 1000 AD. They were not
innovators but careful preservers of the text of consonants, vowels, and accents
From the Hebrew text. The most well-known family was that of Ben Asher, especially Moses and his son.
Aaron, the most important Masorete.
Currently, there are about 6,000 manuscripts of all the Hebrew Scriptures or parts of them.
they in different libraries. The vast majority of them contain the Masoretic text and are from
10th century C.E. or later. The Masoretes (from the second half of the 1st millennium C.E.) tried to
to transmit the Hebrew text faithfully and made no changes to it. However, to preserve the
traditional pronunciation of the consonantal text without vowels, they conceived a system of dots
vowels and accents. Furthermore, in the masora or marginal notes they directed attention to the
anomalies in the text and noted the corrections they considered necessary. This text
Masoretic is the one that appears in the printed Hebrew Bibles of today.
When the manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures that were used in Jewish synagogues were
they deteriorated, were replaced by verified copies, and the old manuscripts were deposited
in the geniza (a warehouse or storage of the synagogue). Finally, once the geniza was
full, the manuscripts were taken out and buried with ceremony. In this way, they managed to
losing many ancient manuscripts. However, the content of the geniza of the synagogue of
The ancient city of Cairo was preserved, probably because it was walled up and forgotten.
for centuries. After the reconstruction of the synagogue in the year 1890 C.E., it
they reexamined the manuscripts from their geniza and moved from there to different libraries
manuscripts of the Hebrew Scriptures quite complete and various fragments (it is said that
some are from the 6th century C.E.