Extant Manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible

In a tomb at Ketef Hinnom in Israel, the oldest text of the Hebrew Bible was discovered. The text, inscribed on a silver scroll in the old Hebrew script dating to the 7th Century B.C., is the Aaronic blessing (Numbers 6:24-26), which begins, "yeverekh'kha YHWH Vayishmarekha" (May Yahweh bless you and keep you).

The Torah (the first five books of the Bible) are believed to have been translated in the 4th C. BC and is called the Septuagint (A 2,000-year-old Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, also identified as LXX, the Roman numeral for 70). The remainder of the Hebrew Bible (the Prophets and the Writings) are believed to have been translated into Greek, and then included into the Septuagint, around the first century AD.

Another very old fragment of the Hebrew Bible is the Nash Papyrus, discovered in Egypt in 1898. The fragment includes the Ten Commandments (Exodus 20:2-17) and the Sh'ma (Deuteronomy 5:6-21) and is dated to the 2nd Century B.C.

Between 1947 and 1956, ancient scrolls and fragments of the Hebrew Bible were discovered in caves near the Dead Sea dating to the 1st Century B.C. and the 1st Century A.D. The manuscripts discovered in the Dead Sea Caves include; all of the Canonical Books of the Hebrew Bible with the exception of the book of Esther, non-Canonical Books such as Enoch, Jubilees, Tobit and Sirach as well as Psalms that are not part of the 150 Psalms in the Canonical Bible, and Sectarian Books such as, the Community Rule, the War Scroll, the Damascus Document and commentaries on books of the Bible.

Targum Onkelos is an Aramaic translation of the Torah written by Onkelos, a Roman convert to Judaism. The word "targum" is Hebrew and Aramaic word meaning "translation."

Targum Jonathon is an Aramaic translation of the Prophets. It was written in the 1st Century B.C. by Jonathon Ben Uziel, a student of Hillel the Elder, the famous Jewish teacher and religious leader.

The Peshitta is an Aramaic translation of the entire Hebrew Bible that was written around the 2nd Century A.D. The Peshitta also includes an Aramaic New Testament that was written around the 5th Century A.D.

This codex includes the Septuagint. It is believed that the Torah portion of the Septuagint was originally written around 250 BC and the prophets and the writings around the 1st century AD.

This codex includes the Septuagint. It is believed that the Torah portion of the Septuagint was originally written around 250 BC and the prophets and the writings around the 1st century AD.

Old and New Testament translations translated from the Alexandrian Greek version.

Only fragments of the Hebrew Bible have survived and were discovered in a Cairo synagogue.

The Latin Vulgate, consisting of the Hebrew Bible as well as the New Testament, was written by Jerome, a Christian priest and apologist, in the 5th Century A.D. This translation was commissioned by Pope Damascus in 382 and is based on Origen's Septuigant and Hebrew manuscripts.

One of the Ben Asher Masoretic manuscripts; Source for the Hebrew University Bible; source for Maimonides Torah Scrolls; Portions of the codex destroyed in fire in 1948. Up until the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls, the oldest existing complete Hebrew Bible was the Aleppo codex. For centuries, this text has been the foundation for Jewish and Christian translators.

One of the Ben Asher Masoretic manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. The Masoretic texts introduced the nikkudot (the dots and dashes above and below the Hebrew letters to represent the vowel sounds).

Considered to be the first complete bible (Old and New Testament) written in the English language (Middle English).

The Gutenberg Bible was the first major book printed in the West and the first printed Bible using mass-produced movable type. It marked the start of the "Gutenberg Revolution" and the age of the printed book in the West. Prior to the Guttenberg Bible all Bible manuscripts were hand-written.

Considered the first Rabbinic Bible. Composed by Daniel Bomberg; second edition composed by converted Rabbi Abraham Ben Chayyim; The KJV is based on this text.

The first complete Bible (Old and New Testament) printed in the modern English language and is the foundation to most English Bibles today.

According to the Samaritans, this scroll of the Torah was written by Aaron's son, Abisha. Scholars suggest a date in the 17th C. AD.

This Hebrew Bible is a copy of the Masoretic Text as recorded in the Leningrad Codex.