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What Bible scholars use to produce modern translations of the Old Testament.

How do we get English translations?

Did you know the Bible was originally written in different languages? The Old Testament was written in Hebrew and Aramaic and the New Testament was written in Greek. When scholars produce modern translations of the Bible they do so from these original languages.

Unfortunately, they don’t consult the original copies of the Bible. But that’s not because they don’t want to work with the originals. Instead, it’s because we don’t have an original copy of any book in the Bible.

So, what do Bible scholars use to translate the Bible?

Well, the answer differs slightly for the Old Testament and the New Testament. In this blog post, we’ll dive into the main sources scholars use to produce translations of the Old Testament.

The Masoretic Text

The Masoretic Text is the tradition of texts behind most translations of the Old Testament familiar to you. However, we know the Masoretic Text does not preserve the original wording of the Old Testament perfectly for two reasons.

First, the oldest known versions of the Masoretic Text only date back to around 900-1000 A.D. This fact means that scribes copied the Old Testament for well over 1,000 years before our earliest complete manuscript came into existence.

Second, copying errors occurred during this process. The Masoretes, Jewish scribes from the middle ages responsible for creating the MT, worked diligently to accurately preserve the words of the Old Testament. Unfortunately, they were not perfect. Thankfully, they created a system of notes that highlight peculiarities in the text and showed where mistakes were made.

While the Masoretic Text is an essential resource for translating the Old Testament, it is not perfect. Consequently, scholars use additional ancient manuscripts to determine what the earliest versions of the Bible may have looked like.

A photocopy of the Leningrad Codex.

The Septuagint

The Septuagint is another significant resource for modern translations of the Old Testament. It refers to Greek translations of an earlier Hebrew version of the Old Testament.

The Letter of Aristeas, an ancient document, claims that 72 Jewish scholars were sent to Alexandria, Egypt during King Ptolemy II Philadelphus’s reign (283-246 BCE) to produce a Greek translation of Genesis through Deuteronomy.

Citations of the Greek translation began appearing around 200 B.C., confirming that some portion of the Septuagint existed by that time. As Greek was the lingua franca of the ancient world during the time of Jesus and the early Church, the Septuagint was widely used. In fact, the majority of Old Testament quotations in the New Testament come from the Septuagint.

The Septuagint is essential for modern translations of the Old Testament because scholars can reconstruct the Hebrew text used by the translators to create it by analyzing the translation techniques used to produce the Septuagint.

Additionally, the Septuagint provides evidence of significant differences between the Masoretic Text and the Hebrew version used by the translators of the Septuagint. For example, Jeremiah is significantly longer in the Masoretic Text than the Septuagint. Since the two texts don't match up perfectly (in Jeremiah and other places), scholars rely on other ancient documents to determine the earliest versions of the Bible.

A photograph of a page from Codex Vaticanus

Other Ancient Translations

In addition to the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint, scholars rely on several other ancient manuscripts for modern translations of the Bible. These include the Peshitta, the Vulgate, and the Targums, all of which were based on ancient versions of the Hebrew Bible.

The Peshitta is a Syriac translation of the Old Testament completed around the 3rd century A.D. It mostly reflects the words found in the Masoretic Text.

St. Jerome's Latin translation of the Bible, the Vulgate, was produced in the 4th century A.D. It was based on both the Greek Septuagint and Hebrew versions of the Old Testament.

The Targums, Aramaic translations of Hebrew Bible books, were made over several centuries. Scholars are not sure when they were first created. Evidence from the Dead Sea Scrolls, however, indicates that some Targums existed prior to the time of Jesus.

A page from the Peshitta

A page from the Targum

A page from the Vulgate

The Dead Sea Scrolls

The discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls in the 1940s has greatly impacted the study and translation of the Old Testament. Roughly 900 scrolls were found in caves near the Dead Sea, with around 230 of them containing copies of Old Testament books. This is significant for a few reasons.

First, these scrolls are the earliest known copies of Old Testament books written in Hebrew, dating back to the 3rd century B.C. This observation means the Dead Sea scrolls are much earlier than our oldest complete copy of the Old Testament in Hebrew, which is from around 1000 A.D.

Second, the Dead Sea Scrolls demonstrate the care with which Jewish scribes preserved the Bible over the centuries. Many of the scrolls reflect the Masoretic Text and show only minor differences that were due to scribal errors.

However, the scrolls also show that the Masoretic Text does not perfectly reflect the earliest Hebrew versions of the Bible. Although many differences between the Masoretic Text and the Dead Sea Scrolls are minor, there are also significant variations.

A Fragment from Deuteronomy

For example, the Dead Sea Scrolls contain additional psalms. Additionally, the psalms are arranged differently and use different words at times. Finally, some of the scrolls reflect a Hebrew text used by the Septuagint translators.

Overall, the Dead Sea Scrolls provide important insights into the early versions of the Old Testament, but other ancient documents must also be considered.

Conclusion

In conclusion, scholars consult numerous ancient copies of the Old Testament to determine what the earliest version most likely looked like. So, the next time you pick up your English translation of the Bible, take a minute to remember the important work Bible translators do to help us read the Bible easily.