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What is the relationship between the Masoretic Text and the Dead Sea Scrolls?
The Masoretic manuscripts among the Dead Sea Scrolls are astonishingly similar to the standard Hebrew texts 1,000 years later, proving that Jewish scribes were accurate in preserving and transmitting the Masoretic Scriptures.
What is the difference between the Masoretic text and the Septuagint?
Canonical differences The Septuagint has four: law, history, poetry, and prophets. The Septuagint version of some books, such as Daniel and Esther, are longer than those in the Masoretic Text, which were affirmed as canonical by the rabbis. The Septuagint Book of Jeremiah is shorter than the Masoretic Text.
When was the Masoretic text put together?
6th century ad
This monumental work was begun around the 6th century ad and completed in the 10th by scholars at Talmudic academies in Babylonia and Palestine, in an effort to reproduce, as far as possible, the original text of the Hebrew Old Testament.
Who created the Masoretic text?
The system of masoretic symbols was developed by the Masoretes of Tiberias on the sea of Galilee around the 10th century CE. The Tiberian masoretic system superseded the Palestinian and Babylonian systems, which date to the 6th century CE and are less detailed.
Were the Dead Sea Scrolls translated from Greek texts?
Some of the Dead Sea Scrolls actually have more in common with the Greek Septuagint than the traditional Hebrew Masoretic Text. This suggests that the Greek translators must have been translating from Hebrew texts that resembled the Dead Sea Scrolls.
Should we use the Dead Sea Scrolls to modify the Masoretic Text?
As is typical in the world of academics and research, there are scholars on each side of every argument. The case of using the Dead Sea Scrolls to modify the Masoretic text is no different.
How many Dead Sea Scroll fragments were found in Qumran?
This Bible History Daily feature was originally published in 2011.—Ed. Inside Qumran Cave four, where 15,000 Dead Sea Scroll fragments from more than 580 documents were found. Many of the Biblical fragments from Cave 4 preserve readings that deviate from the standard readings of the Masoretic Text.
Do the dead seal scrolls reflect original Hebrew variants or mistranslations?
Generally, Tov argues that the Dead Seal Scrolls reflect original Hebrew variants/manifestations/proto-forms (vorlage), rather than LXX mistranslations.