B. Another important early manuscript of the Old Testament is the British Museum Codex of the Pentateuch.

        C. While there are other available manuscripts, these four are the most significant. The latest edition of the current Hebrew Bible (Kittel's Biblia Hebraica) is based on these four manuscripts.

II. Why would there be fewer ancient manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, and why would these manuscripts be later in comparison with the New Testament manuscripts?

A. The Jewish scribes looked upon their copies of the Scriptures with a reverential respect bordering on the superstitious. This motivated them to give a ceremonial burying of any copy which had become old and worn.

B. While this ancient custom was designed to prevent the improper use of Holy Scripture, lest it fall into the wrong hands, it also lengthened the time between the original Old Testament autographs and the earliest copies of the text.

III. All of the earliest copies of the Old Testament are handwritten, and the various circles of Jewish scribes who participated in this copying were extraordinarily careful in their work.

        A. The most important group of these Jewish scholars was the Massoretes, who formed about 500 A.D. and labored for 4 or 5 centuries.

        B. The Massoretes were skillful and persistent in their textual work. To ensure accuracy and eliminate scribal slips they numbered verses, words, and letters of each book. They also calculated the middle verse, the middle word, and the middle letter of each book. (The middle verse of the Pentateuch is Lev. 8:7, while the middle verse of the Hebrew Bible is Jeremiah 6:7). In addition, they counted the number of times each letter was used in each book. With these safeguards, they could accurately check one another's work by counting letters, words, and verses. Earlier Jewish scribes were just as meticulous in their transcription.

        C. How accurate is our Old Testament? In 1998 the Dead Sea scrolls were discovered near the Dead Sea by an Arab boy looking for a lost goat. These 350 fragmentary rolls, preserved in jars, date from as early as 100 B.C. and contain parts of nearly all the Old Testament books. These scrolls, which are a thousand years earlier than our previous Hebrew manuscripts, prove the extraordinary accuracy of the Hebrew text.