Editing Bible (section)

=== Hebrew Bible ===
{{main|Hebrew Bible}}
There are three major [[biblical manuscript|historical versions]] of the [[Hebrew Bible]]: the [[Septuagint]], the [[Masoretic Text]], and the [[Samaritan Pentateuch]] (which contains only the first five books). They are related but do not share the same paths of development. The Septuagint, or the LXX, is a translation of the Hebrew scriptures and some related texts into Koine Greek and is believed to have been carried out by approximately seventy or seventy-two scribes and elders who were [[Hellenistic Judaism|Hellenic Jews]],<ref>[https://www.bl.uk/greek-manuscripts/articles/manuscripts-of-the-greek-old-testament%20Greek%20manuscripts The Old Testament in Greek] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20230520031054/https://www.bl.uk/greek-manuscripts/articles/manuscripts-of-the-greek-old-testament%20Greek%20manuscripts |date=20 May 2023 }} – Greek manuscripts. British Library. Retrieved 20 May 2023.</ref> begun in [[Alexandria]] in the late third century BCE and completed by 132&nbsp;BCE.{{sfn|Segal|2010|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=owd9zig7i1oC&pg=PA363 363]}}{{sfn|Dorival|Harl|Munnich|1988|p=111}}{{efn|name="ndq"}} Probably commissioned by [[Ptolemy II Philadelphus]], King of Egypt, it addressed the need of the primarily Greek-speaking Jews of the Graeco-Roman diaspora.{{sfn|Segal|2010|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=owd9zig7i1oC&pg=PA363 363]}}{{sfn|Lavidas|2021|p=30}} Existing complete copies of the Septuagint date from the third to the fifth centuries CE, with fragments dating back to the second century BCE.{{Sfnm |1a1=Lim |1y=2017 |1pp=45–46, 58 |2a1=Hayes |2y=2012 |2loc=ch. 1 |3a1=Brown |3y=2010 |3loc=Intro. |4a1=Carr |4y=2010 |4p=250 |5a1=Bandstra |5y=2009 |5pp=8, 480 |6a1=Gravett et al. |6y=2008 |6p=47 |7a1=Harris |7a2=Platzner |7y=2008 |7p=27 |8a1=Riches |8y=2000 |8loc=ch. 3}} Revision of its text began as far back as the first century BCE.<ref name="Dines 2004">{{cite book |last1=Dines |first1=Jennifer |title=The Septuagint |date=2004 |publisher=Bloomsbury Publishing |isbn=978-0-567-60152-0 |page=4}}</ref> Fragments of the Septuagint were found among the Dead Sea Scrolls; portions of its text are also found on existing papyrus from Egypt dating to the second and first centuries BCE and to the first century CE.<ref name="Dines 2004"/>{{rp|5}}

The [[Masoretes]] began developing what would become the authoritative [[Biblical Hebrew|Hebrew]] and [[Biblical Aramaic|Aramaic]] text of the 24&nbsp;books of the [[Hebrew Bible]] in [[Rabbinic Judaism]] near the end of the Talmudic period ({{circa|300}}–{{circa|500 CE}}), but the actual date is difficult to determine.{{sfn|Hauser|Watson|Kaufman|2003|pp=30–31}}{{sfn|Wegner|1999|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=kkVFOTsBOAEC&q=%22Masoretes+inherited%22&pg=PA172 172]}}{{sfn|Swenson|2021|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=5xQOEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA29 29]}} In the sixth and seventh centuries, three Jewish communities contributed systems for writing the precise letter-text, with its [[niqqud|vocalization]] and [[Hebrew cantillation|accentuation]] known as the ''mas'sora'' (from which we derive the term "masoretic").{{sfn|Hauser|Watson|Kaufman|2003|pp=30–31}} These early Masoretic scholars were based primarily in the Galilean cities of Tiberias and Jerusalem and in Babylonia (modern Iraq). Those living in the Jewish community of Tiberias in ancient Galilee ({{circa|750}}–950) made scribal copies of the Hebrew Bible texts without a standard text, such as the Babylonian tradition had, to work from. The canonical pronunciation of the Hebrew Bible (called Tiberian Hebrew) that they developed, and many of the notes they made, therefore, differed from the Babylonian.{{sfn|Phillips|2016|pp=288–291}} These differences were resolved into a standard text called the Masoretic text in the ninth century.{{sfn|Lavidas|2021|p=75}} The oldest complete copy still in existence is the [[Leningrad Codex]] dating to c. 1000 CE.{{sfn| VanderKam | Flint| 2013| p= 87}}

The Samaritan Pentateuch is a version of the [[Torah]] maintained by the [[Samaritan]] community since antiquity, which European scholars rediscovered in the 17th century; its oldest existing copies date to c. 1100 CE.{{sfnm |Lim|2017|1pp=46–49 |Ulrich|2013|2pp=95–104 |3a1=VanderKam|3a2=Flint|3y=2013|3loc=ch. 5 |Carr|2010|4p=8 |Bandstra|2009|5p=482 |Gravett et al.|2008|6pp=47–49 |7a1=Harris|7a2=Platzner|7y=2008|7pp=23–28}} Samaritans include only the Pentateuch (Torah) in their biblical canon.{{sfn|VanderKam|Flint|2013|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=SBMXnB4CRpUC&pg=PA91 91]}} They do not recognize [[Authorship of the Bible#Divine authorship|divine authorship]] or [[Biblical inspiration|inspiration]] in any other book in the Jewish Tanakh.{{efn|Although a paucity of extant source material makes it impossible to be certain that the earliest Samaritans also rejected the other books of the Tanakh, the 3rd-century church father [[Origen]] confirms that the Samaritans in his day "receive[d] the books of Moses alone." {{harvnb|Schaff|1885|loc=[https://www.ccel.org/ccel/schaff/anf04.vi.ix.i.l.html Chapter XLIX]|ps= (Commentary on John 13:26)}}}} A [[Book of Joshua (Samaritan)|Samaritan Book of Joshua]] partly based upon the Tanakh's [[Book of Joshua]] exists, but Samaritans regard it as a non-canonical secular historical chronicle.{{sfn|Gaster|1908|p=[https://books.google.com/books?id=eUCRAfZvwRgC&pg=PA166 166]}}

The first [[codex]] form of the Hebrew Bible was produced in the seventh century. The codex is the forerunner of the modern book. Popularized by early Christians, it was made by folding a single sheet of papyrus in half, forming "pages". Assembling multiples of these folded pages together created a "book" that was more easily accessible and more portable than scrolls. In 1488, the first complete printed press version of the Hebrew Bible was produced.{{sfn|Hauser|Watson|Kaufman|2003|pp=31–32}}