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from Hebrew texts and mo­dern translations represents one of the early text traditions to be described below. Textual criticism is the discipline that deals with the textual history of the Bible, but it sometimes also pertains to the history of the literary forms.

      There is no such thing as the »main text« of the Bible, since all the texts to be described below may be named »the Bible.« For practical purposes we may consider the traditional or Masoretic Text (MT, see § 2) the central text, since that is the sacred or authoritative text accepted by all streams of Judaism from the first century CE onwards (see below). It also has become the authoritative text of the Bible in its Hebrew form for the Protestant world, and it is the central text for the scholarly world. But the Septuagint (LXX, see § 4) is equally as much »the Bible« as the MT. That text, originally a Jewish translation of Hebrew Scripture, served subsequently as the sacred text of Christianity; until at a certain point it was replaced by the Latin Vulgate translation. The Dead Sea Scrolls do not have an authoritative status in the modern world, but for the Qumran community they were authoritative between the first century BCE until the end of their existence in 73 CE. The Samaritan Scripture (Samaritan Pentateuch, henceforth SP), based on ancient scrolls, is another Scripture text in Hebrew, limited to the Torah. In short, all forms of the Hebrew and translated Bible that were accepted as authoritative by a given community should be considered »Bible,« as each community accepted a different form of that Bible as authoritative.

      What then is the »Jewish Bible«? Before the first century CE, all forms of Hebrew and translated Scripture may be considered the »Jewish Bible,« but after that period the situation was changed due to the destruction of the Second Temple in 70 CE causing major changes in the use of the Scripture texts (see § 2.1.c below). From that time onwards, only a single text form was considered to be the Jewish Bible. This was the Masoretic Text, accepted by all streams of Judaism as the authoritative Jewish Bible. The Hebrew manuscripts of this tradition were augmented with a layer of vocalization and musical notes (teʿamim) between the eighth and eleventh century.

      The variety of the different forms of the Jewish Bible before the 1^st century of the Common Era created a special situation. At that time the Jewish people, to some extent organized in different groups, mainly the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, held on to manifold forms of the Scripture books, but all of them were considered to be a Jewish Bible. Below we will describe the early proto-Masoretic scrolls from the Judean Desert as well as many other Judean Desert scrolls, mainly the Qumran scrolls. Initially also the Septuagint was considered a Jewish Bible in translation, produced in Greek, around 285 BCE for the Torah, and most of the other early Greek versions were Jewish as well. The Aramaic Targumim were Jewish par excellence. Even the source of the Samaritan Pentateuch originally served as a Jewish Bible until the Samaritans distanced themselves from the other Jews. We turn now to sort out this history of various biblical texts.

      2 The Traditional Hebrew Text of the Bible: The Masoretic Text

      The Masoretic Text (MT), whether in its consonantal form or its fuller, later form, is the commonly used version of the Hebrew Bible, considered authoritative by Jews for almost two millennia. In modern times, the MT is found all over. Even if one thinks that one does not know what MT is or where to find it, one cannot miss it, so to speak, because MT is found in multiple sources.

      All the printed editions of the Hebrew Bible and most of its modern translations present a form of MT. From the invention of the printing press, all editions of the Hebrew Bible have been based on a form of MT, with the exception of publications of the Samaritan Pentateuch or eclectic editions.¹

      The roots of MT and its popularity go back to the first century of the Common Era. Before that period, only the proto-rabbinic (Pharisaic) movement made use of MT, while other streams in Judaism used other Hebrew textual traditions. In other words, before the first century of the Common Era, we witness a textual plurality among Jews, with multiple text forms conceived of as »Bible,« or Scripture, including the Hebrew source of the Septuagint (LXX) Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, which began as the biblical text for Greek speaking Hellenistic Jews.

      Around the turn of the Common Era, the consonantal proto-MT text was accepted as an authoritative form of Hebrew Scripture by the proto-rabbinic movement, whereas other forms were accepted as authoritative by other groups.

      With the advent of Christianity in the first century CE, the LXX, which began as the biblical text for Greek speaking Hellenistic Jews, was accepted as holy writ by the new group of early Christians, and was concomitantly dropped by Greek-speaking Jews and ceased to be considered authoritative scripture by them. Somewhat earlier, the Samaritans created the version of the Torah known as the Samaritan Pentateuch, while the Qumran community, which had assembled texts of different types, ceased to exist.

      Thus, since the first century CE, the consonantal proto-MT and subsequently the full MT version of scripture, including all the books that are contained in it, was accepted as authoritative by all streams of the Jewish people. This text is the only text quoted in rabbinic literature (the small deviations are negligible) and Karaite works,² and it is the only text used by organized Judaism for the past two millennia. The Samaritans embraced their own holy writ, the Pentateuch only (§ 2.5.a below).

      2.1 The Medieval Masoretic Text and Its Forerunner, Proto-MT

      MT includes five elements, of which the consonants and the elements around the text had been transmitted from previous generations (the proto-MT). The other elements were added later by the Masoretes:

      1. The consonantal framework, i.e., the letters of the text without any additions;

      2. Vocalization, i.e. the vowels that were added to the written text based on oral traditions. Written vocalization signs only started to appear in the eighth century, with the work of the Masoretes, though according to tradition they were already there as an oral tradition accompanying the written Torah.

      3. Para-textual elements, i.e., elements added to the written text, such as Ketiv-Qere readings³ and the division of the text into paragraphs;

      4. Accentuation (teʿamim or trope), the signs that added a musical dimension to the consonants and vowels. At the same time, the accents also indicated the relation between the words;

      5. The Masorah, an apparatus of instructions for the writing and reading of the biblical text. The Masorah is a product of the early Middle Ages.

      The principal component of MT, however, that of the letters, was in existence more than a thousand years before the complete MT. As noted above, scholars usually designate this consonantal base of the Masoretic Text as proto-Masoretic.⁴

      2.1.1 Proto-MT and the Judean Desert Texts

      Before the discovery of ancient scrolls in the Judean Desert (the Dead Sea Scrolls), scholars were not aware that MT existed in the same consonantal form as early as the last centuries BCE.⁵ But detailed comparisons of the various forms of the Judean Desert texts with the consonantal text of MT–putting aside the vocalization, accentuation, and other elements of MT dating to the medieval period–reveals that an ancient group of manuscripts from the Second Temple Period is virtually identical to MT.

      We find a striking difference between the Judean Desert scrolls from places other than Qumran and the Qumran scrolls, where most of the scrolls were found. The Qumran scrolls display textual diversity, while the twenty-five texts that were found in the Judean Desert at sites other than Qumran display almost complete identity (roughly 98% agreement) in consonants with the medieval Masoretic text (as reflected in the earliest complete version of MT, called the Leningrad Codex; see discussion below).

      The non-Qumran Judean Desert scrolls were found at both the earlier site of Masada (written between 50 BCE and 30 CE)⁶ and the later sites of Wadi Murabbaʿat, Wadi Sdeir, Naḥal Ḥever, Naḥal ʿArugot, and Naḥal Seʾelim, dating to the period of the Bar Kokhba revolt in 132–135 CE. The latter were copied between 20 and 115 CE.

      4QGen^b, officially labeled as

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