The Old Testament: A Historical, Theological, and Critical Introduction

© 2016 by Richard S. Hess

Published by Baker Academic

a division of Baker Publishing Group

P.O. Box 6287, Grand Rapids, MI 49516-6287

www.bakeracademic.com

Ebook edition created 2016

Ebook corrections 02.17.2020, 03.03.2020

All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means—for example, electronic, photocopy, recording—without the prior written permission of the publisher. The only exception is brief quotations in printed reviews.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data is on file at the Library of Congress, Washington, DC.

ISBN 978-1-4934-0573-2

Unless otherwise indicated, Scripture quotations are from the New Revised Standard Version of the Bible, copyright © 1989, by the Division of Christian Education of the National Council of the Churches of Christ in the United States of America. Used by permission. All rights reserved.

Quotations labeled NIV are from the Holy Bible, New International Version®. NIV®. Copyright © 1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.™ Used by permission of Zondervan. All rights reserved worldwide. www.zondervan.com

In quoting NRSV and NIV, Yahweh often replaces LORD.

As any seminary instructor will tell you, finding a good introductory textbook on the Old Testament is no easy task. Some are too critical while others are too general. Some are too conservative while others are too progressive. Some are too comparative while others are too insular. Some are too historical while others are too theologically oriented, often with little or no regard for the literary-historical context of the text itself. Rick Hess, however, has truly found a ‘golden mean’ with this new introduction. Students, teachers, pastors, and anyone else interested in the Word of God will love it.

—Michael S. Moore, Fuller Theological Seminary

An intelligent introduction accessible to the neophyte while engaging the more experienced Old Testament reader. Hess ably balances the needs of seminarians and graduate students in a ‘rich and multifaceted’ exposition of the Old Testament. This is a go-to volume for thoughtful entry to not only the Old Testament but also the disciplines of its study. With attention to interpretive voices through time and surveys of interpretive methods behind, in, and in front of the text, this book is the work of a senior scholar engaged thoughtfully and passionately in the study and teaching of the Old Testament.

—Lissa M. Wray Beal, Providence Theological Seminary

This new introduction to the Old Testament offers a brief outline and overview of each book, considers the history of its interpretation, and provides an analysis of its major themes within the context of the broader biblical canon. It represents an impressive synthesis of the dimensions of modern biblical study identified in its title: the historical, the theological, and the critical.

—Iain Provan, Regent College

Hess has provided a comprehensive introduction to the study of the Old Testament that covers a wide range of scholarship, including his own careful analysis of every Old Testament book. He writes on the subject with remarkable erudition and clarity, making the work accessible and comprehensible to a broad audience. This book is an invaluable resource for any serious student of the Bible. I highly recommend it.

—Carol M. Kaminski, Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary

An accessible yet informed introduction to the Old Testament. Hess orients readers to a breadth of approaches from ancient to modern without losing sight of the content of Scripture and its theological message for today.

—Mark J. Boda, McMaster Divinity College and McMaster University

To Nathan, Cameryn, Miriam, Taylor, Rachel, Abigail, and Kelton, God’s gifts to their grandparents.

May they each learn to love the Old Testament, and may they each come to know the One whom the Old Testament reveals.

Contents

Cover    i

Title Page    ii

Copyright Page    iii

Endorsements    iv

Dedication    v

Preface   viii

Abbreviations    x

Introduction    1

Part 1:  Pentateuch    23

1. Genesis    25

2. Exodus    55

3. Leviticus    79

4. Numbers    102

5. Deuteronomy    123

Part 2:  Historical Books    159

6. Joshua    161

7. Judges    194

8. Ruth    220

9. 1–2 Samuel    236

10. 1–2 Kings    275

11. 1–2 Chronicles    317

12. Ezra and Nehemiah    348

13. Esther    370

Part 3:  Poetic Books    391

14. Job    393

15. Psalms    417

16. Proverbs    452

17. Ecclesiastes    475

18. Song of Songs    494

Part 4:  Prophetic Books    511

19. Isaiah    513

20. Jeremiah    540

21. Lamentations    561

22. Ezekiel    568

23. Daniel    585

24. Hosea    599

25. Joel    611

26. Amos    618

27. Obadiah    631

28. Jonah    637

29. Micah    647

30. Nahum    656

31. Habakkuk    666

32. Zephaniah    676

33. Haggai    683

34. Zechariah    690

35. Malachi    702

Transition    711

Bibliography    715

Ancient Writings Index    760

Scripture Index    762

Subject Index    789

Photo Insert    802

Back Ad    811

Back Cover    812

Preface

The story of this book began shortly after the publication of Israelite Religions. Jim Kinney, vice president for Baker Publishing Group, asked me to consider writing a survey of the Old Testament that could be used in seminaries and graduate schools. At the time it seemed to be a daunting task. Various events and circumstances intervened during the years that followed to slow the completion of this work. However, I found that the process gave me an opportunity for a closer review of the vast literature. I benefited from many new works that added to my understanding of the subjects addressed and that have enriched the volume greatly.

This book is designed to meet the needs of the broad variety of students who come to study the Old Testament at a seminary or at a graduate level. It does not presume a deep knowledge of the Scriptures, although I wrote it with the intent to inform any serious reader. It is written in a world different from the days when I attended seminary as a student. I review the text and its criticism as well as offer an evaluation of critics and their theories. There is theological reflection on each Old Testament book along with consideration of the value in teaching each one. However, there are also sections on how each book and its message fit into the larger canon of the Old and New Testaments. I provide reviews of the history of interpretation, especially as the text was studied and preached in the synagogue and in the church through the centuries. There is an examination of the literary aspects of each text that extends beyond traditional form criticism and includes modern and postmodern approaches. Here as well I attempt to go beyond my own limitations and at an introductory level to reflect the manner in which the text has come to mean something in areas of gender, globalization, and various (post)modern ideologies. In this manner an attempt is made to respect and touch on many of the newer approaches to the interpretation of the Old Testament or Hebrew Bible for today.

I thank Jim Kinney and Baker Academic for supporting this work and for their patience through the process of writing it. I am also grateful for the students in my classes at Denver Seminary, from whom I have learned much and whose reading of some of this book in manuscript form assisted in enhancing its value. My colleagues in the department, M. Daniel (Danny) Carroll R., Hélène Dallaire, and now Knut Heim, have taught me much, and I thank them. The interest and encouragement of Provost Randy MacFarland, President Mark Young, and Chancellor Gordon MacDonald meant a great deal as I worked away over the years. I also wish to thank Matt Hollomon for his eagerness to proofread much of the manuscript. May God bless each of these in their life, family, and work. There are many other colleagues and fellow students of these ancient books whom I cannot list here, yet my gratitude goes to each who has influenced me in so many ways. I, of course, take full responsibility for the contents of this work.

Most of all I extend my appreciation to my family. Our children and their spouses—Fraser and Elizabeth Hess, Greig and Jenna Hess, and Fiona and David Glas—all mean more to me than I can express. Every day I give God thanks for them and for their own wonderful children, to whom this book is dedicated. More than to anyone else, I express my deepest thanks to my wonderful wife, Rev. Dr. Jean Hess. Through these years she has been a source of encouragement and joy. She has challenged and invited me to learn more about myself and to begin to understand what married life means as God created it. At our 316 Celtic Christian Church, where Jean serves as lead pastor and I assist, we have walked the good road of ministry together. As fellow pilgrims in Celtic Christianity, we have sung and prayed to God and visited the ancient sites of this academic and mission movement of old. In 2013 I was delighted to see a further physical and spiritual expression of this in the revised publication of Jean’s Journey to the Manger with St. Patrick and Friends: A Six-Week Celtic Advent Devotional. It is within this ancient life of Christianity and its values of creation, mission, fellowship, and outreach to those in need that we have come to find an integration of the Old Testament with the faith of the ages and with our own lives. It is out of these many influences and blessings that I offer this study for the glory of God and for the edification of those who seek to understand better the inheritance of faith.

Visit www.bakeracademic.com/professors to access study aids and instructor materials for this textbook.

Abbreviations

General, Versions, and Ancient Sources

Journals and Series

Introduction

The Old Testament just seems old! What value does it have for someone living in the twenty-first century, thousands of years after the last book was written? Can it speak to us today? What message does it still hold? In fact, what is the Old Testament, and how do we begin to understand it? We will look at these questions as we journey through the Old Testament, its interpretation, and its teaching.

The purpose of this introduction is threefold: (1) to explain the definition and structure of the Old Testament, (2) to provide essential guidance regarding the composition and manuscript evidence of the Old Testament, and (3) to orient readers to the study of the Old Testament, surveying the interpretive methods explored in the following chapters of this work. Along the way this book will consider the makeup of the Old Testament, examine the Old Testament’s claims about its special place, consider what can be known about how it came into existence as a book, review the most important early manuscripts that constitute the Old Testament, and discuss the study of the Old Testament as a prelude to the remainder of this introductory survey.

Definition and Structure of the Old Testament

What is the Old Testament? At its simplest level this term comprises two words, an adjective and a noun. An internet search shows it as a name applied to a heavy metal band and a 1983 movie. Dictionaries explain that the noun derives from the Latin testamentum, meaning a will, as in last will and testament. An older use of the term understood it as a covenant. The first occurrence of the word for covenant in the Bible (Heb. bĕrît) appears in Genesis 6:18. There God establishes his covenant with Noah and his family when they enter the ark. God promises to deliver them. The word occurs again after Noah exits the ark, in Genesis 9:9–17. Here God promises never to destroy the earth again and presents the rainbow as the sign of this covenant. From the beginning the covenant establishes a relationship between God and humanity, one of preservation and salvation. For this reason the term covenant or testament signifies a document that describes such a relationship and brings salvation to humanity.

The adjective that describes this testament or covenant is old. The term old testament, or old covenant, does not appear in the Old Testament itself. It occurs in 2 Corinthians 3:14 in the New Testament, where it takes on a sense in which a veil obscures the significance of the Old Testament until Jesus Christ removes it. The term new covenant does appear in the Old Testament. In Jeremiah 31:31 God promises that he will establish a new covenant in the future. Hebrews 8:6–13; 9:15; and 12:24 identify this new covenant with the work of Jesus. At the Last Supper, Jesus takes the cup and identifies it and its contents: This cup is the new covenant in my blood (Luke 22:20; cf. 1 Cor. 11:25). The old covenant, therefore, precedes the new covenant. For this reason some have used terms such as Older Testament or First Testament in place of Old Testament. Nevertheless, the term Old Testament remains popular. From its perspective, it presupposes the New Testament that is to come in the future.

For this reason some argue that the term Hebrew Bible serves a greater ecumenical purpose. It is the common Jewish designation of the same texts of Scripture as the Protestant Old Testament. The term Hebrew may refer to the language in which most of the text is written, or it may refer to the Hebrew people, synonymous with the Jewish people in contemporary nomenclature. However, the use of the term Old Testament does not denigrate other traditions. Instead, it affirms the role of these texts in the Scriptures of Christian traditions. Indeed, the term has long been so popular that it takes the role of a proper name used in a wide variety of scholarly and lay contexts.

The component parts of the Old Testament include thirty-nine books. In the medieval and modern Hebrew Bibles and in Judaism today, these books comprise three sections. The first section, the Torah, consists of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. The second section is the Prophets, referred to in Hebrew as Neviʾim (or Nebiʾim). This includes the Former Prophets, which are the history books of Joshua, Judges, 1–2 Samuel, and 1–2 Kings, and the Latter Prophets, which are Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve Minor Prophets. The third section is the Writings, or the Ketuvim (or Ketubim). These books are ordered thus: Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ruth, Esther, Lamentations, Song of Songs (also called the Song of Solomon), Ecclesiastes, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and 1–2 Chronicles. Together these three divisions—Torah, Neviʾim, Ketuvim—are sometimes known by the acronym TaNaK (or Tanakh).

This ordering of books diverges from the Christian tradition, where Ruth follows Judges. Then 1–2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther appear after 2 Kings—thus a core of historical books comes between the Torah and the poetic books. The Latter Prophets are moved to the end of the Old Testament. This volume follows this order, as do all of the Protestant Christian traditions (and the Roman Catholic tradition, if one omits the apocryphal additions, which some call deuterocanonical). The books may be divided into four major groups. The first is identical to the Jewish division, the Pentateuch or Torah, consisting of Genesis through Deuteronomy. The second section includes the Historical Books, from Joshua to Esther. The third division is that of the poetic books, beginning with Job and Psalms and extending through the Song of Songs. The last section is the prophetic books, made up of the Major Prophets and the Minor Prophets. The Major Prophets extend from Isaiah to Daniel, while the Minor Prophets include the Twelve that begin with Hosea and end with Malachi.

The Jewish canon and the Protestant Christian canon are not the only two examples of the manner in which books are ordered in the Old Testament. However, they have become the dominant means of organization. We begin with individual writings and scrolls. By the third or fourth century AD, what we know of as the Old Testament appears. These were collections of scrolls. Since the whole Old Testament had grown and could not be contained within a single scroll, it was distributed across many scrolls. For this reason the fixed order of the Old Testament canon did not appear until later, when manuscripts were bound in a codex (see the sidebar The Codex).

The Codex

A codex is similar to the modern book form. The term codex (pl. codices) is from the Latin caudex, which refers to a block of wood sawed into tablets and fastened at one edge—the earliest form of the codex. Later the leaves of the codex were of papyrus (cf. paper) or parchment or vellum, often bound within wooden covers. Manuscript pages were folded in half and sewn into quires (like signatures in modern books), and quires were bound to one another. Beginning in the first century AD and gaining popularity during the second and third centuries, the codex came to be favored by Christians. With this format, it was eventually possible to collect the entire Bible (OT and NT, for the Christian church) into a single volume of a codex, such as the well-known early complete Bibles: Codex Vaticanus, Codex Sinaiticus, and Codex Alexandrinus (see Uncial Greek Manuscripts in the discussion of textual criticism).

Composition and Manuscript Evidence of the Old Testament

Canon

CONTENTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

Without the canon there can be no Bible.1 So what is the canon of the Old Testament, and how did it come into existence? The term canon has come to include the sense of any official body of media or literature. With reference to the Bible it indicates those books or portions of Scripture that are regarded as inspired and thus carry an authority as God’s Word. The specific issues of inspiration and authority address concerns appropriate to the various theologies of Christian traditions. Believers want to understand the formation of the text as authoritative Scripture. Jewish and Protestant faiths recognize an identical set of books as the Old Testament, or the Hebrew Bible. The Roman Catholic Church adds Tobit, Judith, 1–2 Maccabees, Wisdom (of Solomon), Sirach (also called Sira, Ben Sira, or Ecclesiasticus), Baruch, and Additions to Daniel and to Esther. This additional literature is called the deuterocanonical (second canon) books or the Apocrypha (hidden). The Eastern Orthodox canon of the Old Testament includes additional books, as is also true of some Oriental churches. For example, the Coptic Church recognizes 1 Enoch as a book of Scripture. Moving in the opposite direction, the ancient Samaritans focused on the Torah alone as their canon.

EARLY TESTIMONY TO THE OLD TESTAMENT CANON

The origins of a concept of canon for the Old Testament remain lost to history. However, Deuteronomy 4:2 and 12:32 demonstrate that even in biblical times the writers and readers drew a line between what they thought of as Scripture and what they did not. These texts forbid the addition or subtraction of anything that does not belong to what was originally revealed. The prologue of Sirach, from the second century BC, refers to the Law and the Prophets and the other books of our ancestors. Philo of Alexandria, writing in the early decades of the first century AD, described psalms and laws and oracles delivered through the mouths of prophets (Contemplative Life 25). Thus some of the earliest Jewish literature witnesses to an awareness of Scripture and a threefold division of those sacred texts. While the New Testament bears witness to this sort of structure (Luke 24:44), both Jesus’s words and those of other Gospel writers also attest to a twofold form: the Law and the Prophets (Matt. 7:12; 22:40; Luke 16:16; Acts 13:15; Rom. 3:21).

Further witnesses to the Old Testament canon also emerged by the first century AD, especially with regard to the number of books (or scrolls) that writers ascribed to the sacred collection. In 2 Esdras (4 Ezra), which is often attributed to this period, Ezra is instructed to make public twenty-four books (14:44–46). More frequently the number twenty-two is mentioned: in the first century, by Josephus (Against Apion 1.39); in the late second century, by Origen (cited by Eusebius, Ecclesiastical History 2.25); and late in the fourth century, by Jerome (Preface to Commentary on Samuel and Kings). Such numbers presume the twelve Minor Prophets as a single book; the twofold divisions of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles each taken as a single work; and other joinings of some books (e.g., Ezra–Nehemiah).

Later Jewish tradition (b. Gittin 56a–b) remembers a rabbinic council at Jamnia (Yavneh) sometime after the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70. References to a discussion possibly in this context appear as early as the Mishnah (Yadayim 3.5), compiled at the end of the second century. If the reference there to books that defile the hands implies those in the canon of the Hebrew Bible, then it affirms the continued inclusion of some challenged books such as Ecclesiastes and the Song of Songs.2 Whether such a council actually occurred, the presence of discussion regarding these books, and perhaps Esther, is attested in this period in Judaism. There is, however, no explicit indication that authoritative sources denied these works canonicity. The only question was whether these works should continue to enjoy status as books that may be considered canonical. Both the memory of the discussion from this period and the unified witness of later Judaism attest that they did have this status.

Within early Christianity one of the first and most important witnesses is that of Melito bishop of Sardis (ca. AD 170). He journeyed to Palestine and returned with a canon that can be understood as equal to the Hebrew one, except for Esther.3 The absence of Esther may have been his own decision since its pro-Jewish position has been a target for many Christians with anti-Semitic tendencies over the centuries.4 However, this is not the only possibility.

JUDEAN DESERT MANUSCRIPTS

The Dead Sea Scrolls have received such prominent attention that a whole volume could be devoted to surveying the study of what they tell us about the Old Testament canon. These texts, found in the caves near Khirbet Qumran, were copied between about 250 BC and AD 70. The collection represents more than nine hundred scrolls, many preserved only in fragmentary form. Although Psalms is not the only biblical book under consideration, much has been made of the variety of orders and contents among multiple copies of the Psalms.5 It is evident that some scrolls include psalms that are in addition to what is found in the Masoretic Text of the Psalms, the text on which all modern English translations of the Old Testament and Hebrew Bible are based.6 Further, this variety of psalms occurs at times in a sequence different from the book of Psalms in the Masoretic Text.7 Nevertheless, the Masada copy of the Psalms (from between about 50 BC and AD 72) follows the Masoretic Text closely.8 And how were other books regarded? Some scholars have argued that texts such as 1 Enoch and Jubilees were treated as canonical while Chronicles was not.9 However, they cannot point to criteria that explicitly establish a canonical collection that includes these books.

Other evidence gives caution against the current, widespread assumption that the Old Testament canon was in flux in the first century AD. One text that counters this skepticism is 4QMMT (4Q398 frg. 10), which refers to the book of Moses and the books of the prophets and David. This alludes to the threefold division of the canon of the Hebrew Bible found in contemporary Jewish writers, as already noted. While it does not establish the identification of the specific books in those categories, it does recognize categories of books within the canon.

Another concern has to do with the contents of the books themselves and the extent to which they were in flux. By one count about 40 percent of the biblical manuscripts traced to the caves of Qumran are proto-Masoretic.10 This proto-Masoretic text, which lies behind the Masoretic text, was not selected at random by some later scholar choosing from multiple textual traditions. If that is the case, then perhaps the same may be said for the books included in the Masoretic Text. The same is true of all twenty-five non-Qumran biblical manuscripts and manuscript fragments copied between about 50 BC and AD 150 and found in two other Judean Desert sites: Masada and the Bar Kokhba caves.11 They are all proto-Masoretic texts (see further Hebrew Manuscripts under the discussion of textual criticism, below).12

APOCRYPHA

Although the formation of many of the canons lies beyond the limits of this work, the question remains as to why there are two canons of the Old Testament/Hebrew Bible that appear in mainstream Christianity and Judaism. As noted above, Protestant Christianity and Judaism hold to a canon of thirty-nine books. Roman Catholicism, however, bears witness to these books as well as to additional ones (the Apocrypha) as part of its canon (as deuterocanonical). The discussion surrounding these books is complex, with much disagreement.13 What this work presents is a possible model for understanding the background of the different canons.

The Origins of the Septuagint

The abbreviation for the Septuagint is LXX, the Roman numeral for seventy, reflecting the number of translators (also reported as 72) who worked on rendering the Hebrew Torah into Greek. This tradition appears in its earliest extant form in the Greek Letter of Aristeas. From clues within the letter itself, scholars have determined its likely origin to be in the second century BC. However, the letter purports to have as its author a witness to this translation in Alexandria during the reign of Ptolemy II, in about 275 BC. Later scholars embellished this tradition, emphasizing the miraculous nature of the agreement among the translators that created the Septuagint and thus trying to demonstrate its divine inspiration.

If Ptolemy II was a patron (and perhaps founder) of the celebrated library of Alexandria, it is reasonable that he, perhaps encouraged by the large Jewish community in Alexandria, would have sought a Greek translation of the most sacred books of Jewish Scripture. That he might have called a large body of scholars from Jerusalem to undertake this effort is also reasonable. Whether pairs of scholars were placed in separate huts for a specific amount of time and produced identical translations of the same Torah passages, as later tradition recounts, is not as self-evident. However, the Jews of Alexandria and in many cities around the Mediterranean (and beyond) spoke Greek as their first language. They would surely have received this translation well. The entire Hebrew Bible was rendered into Greek likely by the end of the third century BC or soon afterward.

The Apocrypha appears in the earliest Bibles of the Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint (LXX; see the sidebar The Origins of the Septuagint). The books of this time were scrolls, and a single translation of the Septuagint would have been written on perhaps two dozen such scrolls, so it is likely that these would have been assembled in collections of some sort, such as in the library of Alexandria, the meeting place of the Jews of Alexandria, or elsewhere. As additional Jewish literature was written in Greek or translated into Greek, the best of this would have naturally been written in other scrolls placed with those of Scripture. As the codex format gained popularity in the second or third centuries, particularly among Christians (see the sidebar The Codex, above), in the Greek-speaking communities, where the Septuagint continued to be regarded as the Holy Scriptures, it became natural for all these valued scrolls that had been gathered to be copied into a single codex. The Septuagint thus came to incorporate the apocryphal books as well as the earlier collection of thirty-nine translated books of the Hebrew Bible. As described below, the earliest complete Bibles known today are codices (pl. of codex) of the Greek Old Testament and New Testament that date from the fourth century AD. They include apocryphal books and, in some cases, additional literature from outside the canon, which became accepted along with the books of the Old and New Testaments. Gradually the role of these additional texts as Scripture was accepted by the communities who preserved them.

However, among the Hebrew-reading Jews, the canon of the Bible remained the thirty-nine books in the Hebrew Bible. This priority of the Hebrew canon influenced the religious world of Jesus in first-century Galilee. It is likely that Jesus, during his ministry, and the disciples (especially before AD 70) used this canon. Therefore, it is not surprising that Paul, writing in Greek, should credit the Jews with the identification and preservation of the oracles of God in Romans 3:1–2.

A MODEL FOR CANON FORMATION OF THE HEBREW BIBLE

A possible model for the formation of the Hebrew canon may be suggested here in broad outline. Deuteronomy 31:26 records that the book of the law (presumably Deuteronomy or a text similar to it) was to be placed in the most holy place of the tabernacle.14 As the Word of God was being written, it continued to be collected and preserved in the Jerusalem temple, where it could be read and copied by others who were interested in its contents. By 586 BC copies would have been taken by the exiles out of the country, while other copies may have been hidden near Jerusalem. Even if copies were not already present at Jerusalem, Ezra returned with the books of the Law (the Pentateuch). He and others may have brought back various books of the Bible to Jerusalem. In any case, a collection in the temple allowed the priesthood to regulate what they considered as Scripture and what they did not. At some point prophecy was regarded as having ceased, and the final scrolls came into the collection.15 After that, as far as the sources attest,16 no further scrolls were added to the Hebrew Bible as preserved in the Jerusalem temple. As noted above, these were the thirty-nine books that came to be known as the Old Testament. The rabbis recognized the authority of these texts after the fall of Jerusalem in AD 70.

Text and Textual Criticism

For any ancient text, such as the Bible, that was preserved and transmitted in manuscript (that is, hand-copied) form over a number of years, any two copies of the same text potentially differ in any given word or phrase. These differences are called variant readings. Textual criticism studies these differences and tries to understand how they came into being. Thus textual criticism consists of two parts: (1) the identification of manuscripts and their readings, and (2) the decisions and the reasonings (or mistakes) behind them to explain how the variant readings were obtained. The first part is a massive undertaking, given the thousands of manuscripts and the variants that they contain. The second part is both a science and an art: scholars disagree in the theory and method of the work and in the practical application of it for any given variant.

TEXTUAL TRADITIONS

Because the subject of textual traditions is so important for establishing what the ancient text actually contained, it should be the first topic addressed for any text within the Old Testament. A full discussion lies beyond this book.17 Space allows only for a review of the major textual traditions and the manuscripts represented by them. A textual tradition is a collection of manuscripts whose readings, although varying in some details, possess a general uniformity in their overall witness to a common text from which they were all copied. Textual traditions are often described as families of manuscripts. A textual tradition cannot be held in one’s hand, but a manuscript can be so held, since a manuscript is an individual and tangible witness to that text.

The two largest general textual traditions for the Old Testament are those of the Septuagint (LXX) and of the Masoretic Text (MT). Greek manuscripts often represent the former, and Hebrew manuscripts tend to make up the latter. There are exceptions to this, however. The following catalog considers the major early witnesses to the Old Testament in terms of the known manuscripts and also looks at what textual traditions they represent. First we look at the Hebrew manuscripts of the Old Testament, and then we consider the Greek and other important ancient translations.

HEBREW MANUSCRIPTS

The earliest manuscript of any recognizable part of the Old Testament is a text of part of Numbers 6:24–26 found incised on two small silver scrolls discovered in 1979 during the excavation of Judean burial sites at Ketef Hinnom, immediately southwest of the city of David in Jerusalem. This text is too brief to make a definite connection with a particular tradition. However, it is a form of the blessing of Aaron as well as possibly Deuteronomy 7:9.18 Because biblical texts would have been written on perishable materials such as papyrus or vellum (animal skin), these silver-inscribed scrolls are the only ancient biblical texts preserved in the settled areas of Judah and Israel, thus the earliest such texts.19 Although they were discovered in a burial context that dates from the years immediately before the destruction of Jerusalem in 586 BC, it is likely that the actual composition of these silver manuscripts should be assigned an earlier date, in the seventh century BC.

Subsequent to this, the earliest dated manuscripts derive from the Dead Sea Scrolls (see above). The composition of these texts began around 250 BC and continued as late as the destruction of the site of Qumran, around AD 68. The textual traditions represented by several hundred biblical manuscripts are mixed. As noted above, at one point Emanuel Tov estimated that 40 percent of the biblical manuscripts closely follow the proto-Masoretic text.20 However, another Hebrew textual tradition that developed, the Samaritan, finds representation among several manuscripts.21 There are other unidentified textual traditions, or possibly creative renderings of the biblical text for other purposes (see, for example, the mention of pesher, below), as well as those related to the Bible only in a thematic fashion.22 Among the most important Dead Sea Scrolls for textual criticism are the Hebrew fragments of Samuel (4QSam), whose readings remain closer to the Septuagintal textual tradition.23

Masada

South of Qumran, along the western shore of the Dead Sea, lies Masada, an outcropping of land with steep ascents from all directions. Here Herod the Great established an elaborate palace system as a retreat from the cares of Judea in the first century BC. Seventy years later, when the Judean war against Rome broke out, about a thousand Jewish zealots came to this site and lived there until AD 73; then, after the armies of Rome destroyed Jerusalem, the Romans laid siege to Masada. They built a massive siege ramp (still visible) and prepared to attack the site; the Jewish historian Josephus reports that, rather than fall into enemy hands, the community committed suicide (except for two women and five children, who hid in a cistern and survived). The Romans discovered the synagogue the Jews had made for their worship. But the biblical scrolls that the Jews brought with them remained buried until discovered in the twentieth century.

If the proto-Masoretic text was the dominant text type during this time (see the discussion of canon, above), then how does one explain the other textual traditions among some of the Qumran manuscripts? There is an assumption that the Qumran discoveries have identified variant text types rather than variant purposes to which biblical texts might be used. Yet more could be made of how the Masada scrolls conform to the Masoretic Text, although these scrolls would arguably be closest to what Judaism of the first century recognized as the authoritative Hebrew text. They were brought from Jerusalem, possibly from the temple. The Masada Jewish community consisted of zealots whose political conviction to have an independent Judea could have led them to derive their biblical manuscripts from the exemplars in the Jerusalem temple, a form of the biblical text that Judaism most widely held and revered (see the sidebar Masada). However, the Qumran community represented a sectarian form of Judaism that had split away from the mainstream and formed its own group. Their manuscripts include copies of Scripture, but also paraphrases, pesher interpretations (explaining Scripture to fit current events), so-called parabiblical texts, and texts considerably different from the biblical materials on which they were based.24 Various purposes for texts (e.g., liturgical, ideological) might have dictated selection of text traditions other than that accepted by the Jerusalem temple and motivated alteration of the wording to conform to the Qumran way of life. In light of this, taking all sources into consideration and weighing rather than counting variants, the dominant text type in the first century AD remains the proto-Masoretic Hebrew text.25

The Qumran and other manuscript evidence from around the Dead Sea did not suffer destruction, thanks to the dry climate and the remote and hidden locations of the manuscripts. The same has been true of manuscripts discovered in Egypt. The Nash Papyrus of the Decalogue and that of Deuteronomy 6:4–7 both date from the second century BC. Discovered in the nineteenth century, prior to the finding of the Dead Sea Scrolls, and (like the Dead Sea Scrolls) dated based on paleography (the study of handwriting and the shapes of the letters), these texts represented the earliest witness to the Old Testament.

The biblical manuscripts from Masada, excavated by Yigael Yadin and others in the mid-twentieth century, and from the caves of Bar Kokhba a century later, as well as from the desert site of Murabbaʿat (also of the second century AD), all witness to the proto-Masoretic textual tradition. The same tradition was found in the synagogue in the oldest part of Cairo. There, in 1896, renovations uncovered a room that proved to be an ancient genizah, a storehouse for sacred texts that contain the divine name of God. The Cairo Genizah has yielded about three hundred thousand fragments, including biblical manuscripts from as early as the fifth century AD.

A small fragment of the Hebrew Bible, possibly related to the Cairo Genizah collection, surfaced in Beirut in 1972, known as the Ashkar-Gilson manuscript number 2. It has been compared with another partial text, known as the London Manuscript, as having been written by the same person. Paul Sanders argues that both the Ashkar-Gilson manuscript and the London manuscript derive from the same Torah scroll and that it has been dated to the seventh or eighth century AD.26 Together these unvocalized fragments contain parts of Exodus 9–16 and preserve a text identical to that used by the Masoretes. The structure, including the brickwork formatting of the poem in Exodus 15 (identical to the Masoretic Text), demonstrates that the Masoretes accurately copied earlier manuscripts.

Masoretic Text

The Masoretes themselves consisted of a few families who copied biblical manuscripts that were sold to synagogues. They flourished around AD 780–930, with their center in Tiberias, on the western shore of the Sea of Galilee. Most important for copying accurate texts was the Ben Asher family. The Aleppo Codex, thought to have been lost in the anti-Jewish riots of 1947, resurfaced and was purchased by the Israeli government. It may represent the finest example of the Masoretic tradition. Dating from AD 900–950, it reflects the Masoretes’ innovation of adding vowel letters to the consonantal text, plus accent marks and detailed notes, all designed to ensure accurate copying and reading of the entire Hebrew Bible. Codex Cairensis (from Cairo) dates from AD 895, and the Petersburg Codex of the Prophets dates from AD 916.

The addition of vowel letters provided the first complete edition of the Hebrew Bible that preserved both the consonantal text (as had the earlier manuscripts) and the oral tradition of pronouncing the Hebrew text. The former is called the Kethib, that which is written. The latter is known as the Qere, that which is read (out loud). The two usually agree, but there are some important differences. For example, the divine name is written consonantly as yhwh. However, it is pronounced as adonai, lord. Traditionally, this was done to preserve the sanctity of the name of God. However, other differences between the Kethib and the Qere indicate variations in how a text is understood and interpreted.

One of the most important and accurate exemplars in the Masoretic tradition is Codex Leningradensis (L), which dates from AD 1008 and is preserved in the Hermitage Museum in St. Petersburg. It is the standard for all United Bible Societies editions of the Hebrew Bible (e.g., BHK, BHS, and BHQ [first published in fascicles, 2004–]). While many of the earlier manuscripts in the proto-Masoretic tradition attest to the high degree of accuracy in the Masoretic copying of manuscripts, special note should be made of two texts that are important for Christian theology: Isaiah and the opening chapters of Genesis. Among the manuscripts from Qumran, 1QIsaa is remarkably close to the Isaiah of L, and 1QIsab is even closer; although it is separated from L by more than one thousand years, only five complete words are added and six words are missing in a text that contains parts or all of forty-six chapters of Isaiah. Also, 4QGenb is identical to Genesis 1:1–4:11 in L. Thus the earliest Qumran finds dating from the third century BC bear evidence, among other things, of a tradition of the exact copying of texts belonging to the Masoretic family, that is, of proto-Masoretic texts. Where the manuscripts can be checked, this evidence suggests a tradition of precise copying of the biblical text.

Samaritan Manuscripts

A second Hebrew text tradition is that preserved by the Samaritans. Although not as important in terms of accuracy, it remains a witness to the early biblical text. The text was edited according to Samaritan theological interests. Manuscripts date from as early as the eleventh century AD, although a few manuscripts that date perhaps a millennium earlier from Qumran preserve this text tradition.

GREEK MANUSCRIPTS

The Septuagintal textual tradition, while represented in a few Hebrew manuscripts at Qumran, remains primarily attested in Greek manuscripts and their translations. Some papyri and vellum Septuagint manuscripts from Egypt were discovered in the past century and include pentateuchal texts dating as early as the second century BC. The Qumran Septuagint Greek manuscripts of Leviticus, 4QLXXLeva and 4QpapLXXLevb, both date to the first century BC, and both preserve a text probably closer to the Old Greek (i.e., the first Greek translation) than to the later codices listed below. The 4QLXXLeva manuscript is slightly freer than the later texts and seems to be revised toward the Masoretic Text.27

The Chester Beatty papyri, now preserved in the Chester Beatty Library in Dublin, were first announced in 1931. Discovered in a Coptic graveyard at or near the Fayum district of Egypt, these papyri include fragments of most of the Septuagint books of the Old Testament. Their dating is between the late second and fourth centuries AD, with most having been copied in the third century. Especially important is the text of Daniel (Papyri 967 and 968), which preserves the earliest and only witness of the Old Greek translation of this book, before its witness in later Hexaplaric manuscripts.28

An important Greek manuscript from the early second century AD is the scroll of the twelve Minor Prophets found at Naḥal Ḥever (8ḤevXIIgr). Although written in Greek, it is closer to the Masoretic textual tradition.

Hexapla

The Christian biblical scholar Origen, who lived in Caesarea and died ca. AD 253, undertook a major work in the final decades of his life. Copying the entire Old Testament in six columns (and at times eight), he produced the Hexapla. The first column contained the Hebrew (proto-MT), before vowel points and accents were inserted. The second column, with each verse corresponding to that in the first column, presented the Hebrew text in Greek transliteration. This provided the first known written text that attests the vocalization of the Hebrew text, using the Greek vowels. The third column held the Greek translation of Aquila, generally believed to be a convert to Judaism who produced the work around AD 130. The fourth column had the Greek translation of Symmachus, also believed to be a convert to Judaism, who produced the work around AD 170. The fifth column contained the Septuagint as Origen knew it. The sixth and final column presented the Greek translation credited to Theodotion, another convert to Judaism, usually dated to the second century AD. However, the New Testament and other early Greek references to the Bible preserve Theodotionic readings, which suggest that at least some of the sixth column of the Hexapla may predate the second century AD.

Jerome claims to have visited Caesarea around AD 400 and to have seen the original Hexapla. However, the work was not preserved in its entirety. Today fragmentary citations by later scholars witness to it as does a translation into Syriac some centuries later, known as the Syro-Hexapla. Where it is preserved, Origen’s fifth column is a valuable witness to the early Septuagint. Although he edited the text he had received, Origen made notations every time he added or omitted any text. Unfortunately, the problems with the preservation of this text have included inaccurate copying of these notes. Thus it is not always certain what was original and what was added by Origen.

Uncial Greek Manuscripts

Most important are the uncial manuscripts of the Septuagint, preserved in a particular style of Greek writing, using uncial (primarily uppercase, or capital) letters. These are in the form of books, or codices, and provide the earliest extant copies of the entire Old Testament and of the entire Bible (OT and NT). The earliest of these codices is likely the fourth-century-AD Codex Vaticanus (B), preserved in the Vatican Library from at least as early as the fifteenth century. This codex, originating in either Egypt or Palestine (probably Caesarea), preserves the best complete Septuagint manuscript. It forms the basis for some of the most widely used later and modern editions and translations of the Septuagint, as well as the Septuagint Commentary Series (SCS). The latter provides a full text, translation, and commentary on the literary aspects of many biblical books in this codex.29 Eusebius of Caesarea recounts how Constantine, when he united the Roman Empire under the official religion of Christianity in AD 325, commanded that fifty (Greek) Bibles be prepared to be distributed among the new churches being built in the East. Codex Vaticanus may have been one of those created for this purpose (Life of Constantine 4.37), although others argue that it originated somewhat later in the fourth century.

A second fourth-century uncial is Codex Sinaiticus (abbreviated S or א). This codex is generally thought to be slightly later than B; however, the two often agree and thus bear witness to the Old Greek. Even so, S has been further influenced by other Greek translation traditions and is not thought to have a text that reflects the earlier Septuagint as clearly as B. Codex Sinaiticus was found by Constantin von Tischendorf (1815–74) at Saint Catherine’s Monastery in the southern Sinai Peninsula (at the base of Jebel Musa, the traditional site of Mount Sinai). When he departed from the monastery in 1859, he took the manuscript with him. His own claim that he discovered the text in a wastepaper basket was contradicted by the monks, who have maintained that Tischendorf borrowed the codex and never returned it. Today the British Library houses it.

The third-most important uncial is Codex Alexandrinus (A), dating from the fifth century AD. Scholars observe its tendency to harmonize conflicting passages. The Hexapla influenced A more than the other uncials, so that at times the codex follows the Hexaplaric tradition without variation.30 Today it rests beside S in the British Library in London.

Greek Text Editions

The minuscule manuscripts (written with lowercase, cursive letters) date from the ninth to the sixteenth centuries AD. They are conveniently referenced in the major critical editions of the Septuagint: the earlier Cambridge edition and the more recent Göttingen Septuagint. Both use an eclectic text—the editor chooses the best reading from among the variants to assemble a new text.31 The other variants are then listed in a detailed critical apparatus. Neither series is complete, although the Göttingen Septuagint continues to publish volumes.

ARAMAIC AND SYRIAC MANUSCRIPTS

The third-most important language for Old Testament textual witnesses is Aramaic. This divides into two groups: Jewish Aramaic texts in Hebrew script and Christian Aramaic texts in the Syriac language and script. The Jewish Aramaic texts are best represented in the targums, which are homiletic paraphrases of biblical texts and refer to the biblical text. The Aramaic word targum (cf. Ezra 4:7 MT) refers to the rendering of a text in a particular language. While citizens of Judah (i.e., Yehud), in the Persian period and for centuries afterward, spoke and read Aramaic, their Bible was written in Hebrew. This required a translation of the biblical text, one that could be accompanied by an exposition of a passage’s teaching and its application for the listeners. The earliest targum manuscripts date from the medieval period. Their contents render the date of authorship difficult; some scholars argue that the targums preserve traditions of interpretation extending to the early Christian or pre-Christian period. The Palestinian targums likely date between the beginning of Palestinian rabbinic literature and the Palestinian Talmud, in the first half of the first millennium AD.32 The remaining Jewish targums also likely date from this period.33 Thus the references to the Hebrew Bible provide valuable attestations as to the text used in the Holy Land and outside it by Jewish people in the early first millennium AD.

Christian Aramaic, known as Syriac, developed separate letter forms for the alphabet and evolved into different dialects. The Syriac translation of the Bible became known as the Peshitta. Some argue that the translation of the Bible into Syriac began as early as the second century AD, when Syriac-speaking Edessa became the first kingdom to adopt Christianity as the official religion. This would suggest the text had a Christian origin and transmission. Nevertheless, some scholars have identified Jewish exegetical tendencies in the Torah. The earliest manuscripts date from the fifth century AD. The text lies in the proto-Masoretic tradition, although more divergent (i.e., with more variants) than the targums. Some books show affinities with the Septuagint, either in its exegetical interests or, as with Proverbs, in the translation itself.34

LATIN MANUSCRIPTS

Latin translations of the Bible predate the church father Jerome, the translator of the Vulgate. These Old Latin fragments provide valuable witness to a text form as found in 1–2 Samuel and 1–2 Kings in some Greek versions. The so-called Lucianic version35 provides examples of correction toward the proto-Masoretic text but also an early textual tradition distinct in places from the Septuagint and from the proto-Masoretic text. Between AD 390 and 405, Jerome produced a Latin translation of the entire Bible, which became known as the Vulgate. He based his translation on the proto-Masoretic Hebrew text, and his Vulgate is best placed in this textual tradition. However, it often finds influence from the Septuagint of his era.

CONCLUSION

Other early versions include Coptic, Ethiopic (Geʿez), Armenian, and Arabic translations. However, the major textual traditions of the Septuagint and Masoretic Text remain dominant in the early versions. Whereas the Septuagint provides a vast variety of variants and numerous streams within its textual tradition, the Masoretic Text preserves a more uniform text that, in some of the examples cited above, continued unchanged for more than a thousand years.

The Study of the Old Testament

Finding the Right Tools

The study of the Old Testament can lead one into a dizzying variety of modern approaches. It is not the purpose of this book to describe them all. There are many useful tools for guidance in the study of the Old Testament. An important resource is a good up-to-date bibliography, such as the online (free access) Annotated Old Testament Bibliography produced by H. Dallaire, K. Heim, Daniel Carroll R., and R. S. Hess. This is regularly updated and can be accessed by going to the Denver Seminary website.36 Scrolling through this bibliography, one will find recommendations on books for a wide variety of Old Testament areas: introductions; series; theology; histories of Israel; archaeology; atlases; translations of collections of ancient Near Eastern texts; ancient Near Eastern histories; Hebrew lexicons; biblical-theological dictionaries; concordances; Hebrew grammars; Old Testament canon/textual criticism; sociological and anthropological studies; feminist, minority, and third world approaches; literary approaches; Israelite religion; messianic Judaism; and commentaries by Bible book.

The last section gives the titles of about a dozen recommended English-language exegetical commentaries for each book of the Old Testament, listed in order according to the Protestant canon. Every suggested book in all sections of the bibliography includes a brief annotation describing its value. Many of the readers (approximately two thousand hits monthly) who access the Denver Journal find the Old Testament and New Testament bibliographies to be useful in their study of the Bible, whether