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Study · Isaiah 40:8

The oldest witnesses, from the caves of the Judean wilderness to the great Greek codices, and the Masoretic copies made a thousand years later.

The family tree of the witnesses

  1. I · c. 250 BC – AD 100

    The Apostolic stream

    The Greek Scriptures, the Qumran scrolls, Philo, Josephus and the Apostles read one shared text.

  2. II · c. AD 100 – 200

    After the Temple fell

    New Greek versions were made to match the Hebrew of their day, turning from the Septuagint the assemblies read.

  3. III · c. AD 930 – 1008

    The Masoretic copies

    Pointed Hebrew codices made nearly a thousand years after the Apostles. Today's Hebrew Bibles are printed from them.

The Scriptures given to Israel

Hebrew

Aramaic & Syriac

Greek Old Testament

Greek New Testament

The Septuagint

c. 250 – 100 BC · Alexandria

The Greek Scriptures read in the synagogues of the dispersion, and the version the Apostles quote most often.

KeepsTanakh and the added books

§ Restores these readings

  1. c. 150–100 BC

    Hebrew · Qumran Cave 4, 1952

    4QExod-b

    Reads seventy-five souls who went down into Egypt (Exodus 1:5), with the Septuagint and Stephen in Acts 7:14, where the MT reads seventy.

  2. c. 50 BC

    Hebrew · Qumran Cave 4, 1952

    4QDeut-q

    Preserves the fuller Song of Moses at Deuteronomy 32:43, including the heavens bowing to Him — the reading Hebrews 1:6 cites with the Septuagint. MT lacks these lines.

  3. c. 125 BC

    Hebrew · Qumran Cave 1, 1947

    Great Isaiah Scroll (1QIsa-a)

    The complete book of Isaiah, a thousand years older than the medieval Masoretic copies. At Isaiah 53:11 it reads “he shall see light,” with the Septuagint, where MT omits “light.”

  4. c. AD 50–68

    Hebrew · Nahal Hever, 1951–1960

    Nahal Hever Psalms (5/6HevPs)

    At Psalm 22:16 it reads a verb, “they dug / pierced,” agreeing with the Septuagint against the MT “like a lion.”

  5. c. 50 BC – AD 50

    Greek · Nahal Hever, 1952

    Greek Minor Prophets (8HevXIIgr)

    A Greek scroll of the Twelve from the generation of the Apostles, showing the Scriptures were read in Greek in the land of Israel itself.

  6. c. AD 330–360

    Greek · St Catherine's, Sinai, 1844–1859

    Codex Sinaiticus

    The oldest complete Greek New Testament, bound with the Septuagint — including Tobit, Judith, 1 & 4 Maccabees, Wisdom and Sirach — as one Bible.

  7. c. AD 300–325

    Greek · Vatican Library, catalogued 1475

    Codex Vaticanus

    The oldest near-complete Greek Bible. Its Old Testament is the Septuagint, with Wisdom, Sirach, Judith, Tobit and Baruch among the books.

  8. c. AD 400–440

    Greek · Sent to London from Constantinople, 1627

    Codex Alexandrinus

    Contains the Septuagint with all four books of Maccabees and Psalm 151, followed by the Apostolic Writings.

  9. c. AD 930

    Hebrew · Tiberias; later Aleppo

    Aleppo Codex (MT)

    The oldest near-complete Masoretic text, with vowel points added by the Masoretes — about a thousand years after the Qumran scrolls and the Septuagint.

  10. AD 1008

    Hebrew · Cairo; now St Petersburg

    Leningrad Codex (MT)

    The oldest complete Masoretic Hebrew Bible and the base of most modern Old Testament translations.