Bible, the
Bible, the,The Old Testament. The oldest surviving Hebrew text (Codex Babylonicus Petropolitanus) is comparatively recent, dating only from AD 916 . It is a Masoretic text, i.e. one prepared by the guild of scholars called Masoretes. Of much earlier date (5th cent. BC ) is the Samaritan text of the Pentateuch. We have also the Targums or Aramaic paraphrases, written at various times subsequent to the date when Aramaic superseded Hebrew as the language spoken by the Jews (shortly before the Christian era). The Greek version, known as the Septuagint, of the 3rd cent. BC is of far greater importance. Other translations into Greek were made in the 2nd cent. AD and were collected in parallel columns, together with the current Hebrew text and a revised text of the Septuagint, by Origen in his Hexapla. This has perished with the exception of the revised Septuagint, of most of which we possess an 8th-cent. copy. In addition to the above, there was an...
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