Editing Scribe (section)

===Sofer===
{{Main|Sofer}}
Sofers (Jewish scribes) are among the few scribes that still do their trade by hand, writing on [[parchment]]. Renowned [[calligrapher]]s, they produce the Hebrew [[Sefer Torah|Torah scrolls]] and other holy texts.

====Accuracy====
{{further|Dead Sea Scrolls}}

Until 1948, the oldest known manuscripts of the [[Hebrew Bible]] dated back to 895 CE. In 1947, a shepherd boy discovered some scrolls dated between 100 BCE and 100 CE, inside a cave west of the [[Dead Sea]]. In the course of the following decades more scrolls were found in caves at [[Qumran]] and elsewhere.<ref>
{{cite news
|last1                = Kershner
|first1               = Isabel
|author-link1         = Isabel Kershner
|date                 = 16 March 2021
|title                = Israel Reveals Newly Discovered Fragments of Dead Sea Scrolls
|url                  = https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/16/world/middleeast/dead-sea-scrolls-israel.html
|work                 = The New York Times
|issn                 = 0362-4331
|access-date          = 27 February 2025
}}
</ref>
The discovered texts have become known collectively as the "[[Dead Sea Scrolls]]".<ref>
The ''Oxford English Dictionary'' records the name "Dead Sea Scrolls" from 1949 onwards - {{oed | Dead Sea Scrolls}}
</ref>
One complete [[Books of the Bible | book]], plus fragments of every other book in the [[Hebrew Bible]] except [[Book of Esther|Esther]], have been identified amongst the texts.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Debel
 |first1               = Hans
 |editor-last1         = Dušek
 |editor-first1        = Jan
 |editor-last2         = Roskovec
 |editor-first2        = Jan
 |date                 = 26 September 2016
 |chapter              = Retracing Authoritative Traditions behind the Scriptural Texts: The Book of Daniel as a Case in Point
 |title                = The Process of Authority: The Dynamics in Transmission and Reception of Canonical Texts
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=G90sDQAAQBAJ
 |series               = Deuterocanonical and Cognate Literature Studies, volume 27
 |location             = Berlin
 |publisher            = Walter de Gruyter GmbH & Co KG
 |page                 = 117
 |edition              = reprint
 |isbn                 = 9783110399394
 |access-date          = 7 March 2025
 |quote                = It is a well-known truism that the different sites in the Judean Desert yielded fragments of all the books included in the canon of the Hebrew Bible except Esther. It should nevertheless be noted, in this regard, that the identification of 4Q118 as a fragment from Chronicles - the ''only'' fragment of Chronicles found among the Dead Sea Scrolls - remains highly doubtful [...]. [...] Taking into account the canons of the eastern churches, reference should also be made to the numerous fragments of the book of Jubilees and 1 [[Enoch | Henoch]], as well as to the longer version of Psalm 151 found in 11QPsa.
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = VanderKam
 |first1               = James
 |last2                = Flint
 |first2               = Peter
 |author-link2         = Peter Flint
 |date                 = 10 July 2005
 |orig-date            = 2002
 |chapter              = The Biblical Scrolls and the Text of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament
 |title                = The Meaning of the Dead Sea Scrolls: Their Significance For Understanding the Bible, Judaism, Jesus, and Christianity
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=SBMXnB4CRpUC
 |series               = Continuum imprint
 |location             = London
 |publisher            = A&C Black
 |page                 = 119
 |edition              = reprint
 |isbn                 = 9780567084682
 |access-date          = 7 March 2025
 |quote                = With the possible exception of Nehemiah  Esther is the only book in the traditional Hebrew Bible not represented among the manuscripts found at Qumran, Masada, and other sites near the Dead Sea. [...] Research and evidence from certain nonbiblical scrolls, however, show that Esther was rejected by the Qumran community for theological reasons.
}}
</ref><ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Ariel
 |first1               = Donald T.
 |author2              = Israel Antiquities Authority (Rashut ha-ʻatiḳot)
 |author-link2         = Israel Antiquities Authority
 |editor-last1         = Ariel
 |editor-first1        = Donald T.
 |year                 = 2007
 |title                = The Dead Sea Scrolls
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=fhoRAQAAIAAJ
 |edition              = 2
 |publisher            = Israel Antiquities Authority
 |page                 = 3
 |isbn                 = 9789654061926
 |access-date          = 7 March 2025
 |quote                = The scrolls, biblical and sectarian, [...] contain fragments of all the books of the Hebrew Bible (with the exception of the Book of Esther), as well as a complete text of Isaiah.
}}
</ref>
Fragments from each of the [[Canon of the Hebrew Bible | Hebrew canonical books]] have been discovered,<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Ulrich
 |first1               = Eugene
 |author-link1         = Eugene Ulrich
 |editor-last1         = VanderKam
 |editor-first1        = James C.
 |editor-last2         = Flint
 |editor-first2        = Peter W.
 |editor-link2         = Peter Flint
 |date                 = 2 April 2024
 |year                 = 
 |orig-date            = 1999
 |chapter              = Appendix I: Index of Passages in the Biblical scrolls
 |title                = The Dead Sea Scrolls After Fifty Years: A Comprehensive Assessment
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=GDT-EAAAQBAJ
 |series               = Biblical Studies, Ancient Near East and Early Christianity - Book Archive pre-2000
 |volume               = 2
 |location             = Leiden
 |publisher            = Brill
 |pages                = 649-665
 |isbn                 = 9789004676855
 |access-date          = 13 March 2025
}}
</ref>
including 30 fragments from the [[Book of Deuteronomy]].<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = VanderKam
 |first1               = James C.
 |date                 = 31 January 2012
 |chapter              = The 'Biblical' Scrolls and Their Implications: Number of copies from the Qumran caves
 |title                = The Dead Sea Scrolls and the Bible
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=2g7hBhKI31QC
 |location             = Grand Rapids, Michigan
 |publisher            = Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing
 |pages                = 2 - 3
 |isbn                 = 9780802866790
 |access-date          = 13 March 2025
 |quote                = [...] 1QIsa contains the entire book of Isaiah. All of the other representatives of 'biblical' books are fragmentary to one degree or another, usually to a very high degree. [...] The list below gives the numbers of identified copies for each book of the Hebrew Bible. [...] Deuteronomy   30
}}
</ref>

While there were other items found among the Dead Sea Scrolls not currently in the Hebrew Bible, and many variations and errors occurred when they were copied, the texts, on the whole, testify to the accuracy of the scribes.<ref>{{cite book|last1=Johnson|first1=Paul|title=A History of the Jews|date=1993|publisher=Phoenix|location=London|isbn=978-1857990966|page=91|edition=2nd}}</ref> The Dead Sea Scrolls are currently the best route of comparison to the accuracy and consistency of translation for the Hebrew Bible because they are the oldest out of any [[Bible|biblical text]] currently known.<ref>
{{cite book
 |last1                = Johnson
 |first1               = Paul
 |author-link1         = Paul Johnson (writer)
 |title                = A History of the Jews
 |date = 8 August 2013
 |url                  = https://books.google.com/books?id=gbUzAAAAQBAJ
 |publisher            = Hachette UK
 |orig-date            = 1987
 |publication-date     = 2013
 |page                 = 
 |isbn                 = 9781780226699
 |access-date          = 21 February 2022
 |quote                = The Dead Sea Scrolls testify, on the whole, to the accuracy with which the Bible was copied through the ages [...].
}} 
</ref><ref>{{cite book|last1=Johnson|first1=Paul|title=A History of the Jews|date= 1993|publisher= Phoenix |location= London|isbn=978-1857990966|page=91|edition=2nd}}</ref>

====Corrections and editing====
[[File:מימין לשמאל יושבים הרב יונתן שטנצל הגאון רבי אשר וייס הרב דוד יצחק מנדלבוים כתיבת ספר תורה ביתר עילית.JPG|thumb|Completing the writing of the text for an [[inauguration of a Torah scroll]]]]
Priests who took over the leadership of the Jewish community preserved and edited biblical literature. Biblical literature became a tool that legitimated and furthered the priests' political and religious authority.<ref>{{cite news |url=http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/ancient/origins-written-bible.html |title=Origins of the Written Bible |first=William M. |last=Schniedewind |author-link=William M. Schniedewind |date=18 November 2008 |access-date=9 July 2018 |publisher=[[PBS Online]] |work=Nova}}</ref>

Corrections by the scribes ([[Tiqqun soferim]]) refers to changes that were made in the original wording of the Hebrew Bible during the second temple period, perhaps sometime between 450 and 350 BCE. One of the most prominent men at this time was [[Ezra|Ezra the scribe]]. He also hired scribes to work for him, in order to write down and revise the oral tradition.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://booksnthoughts.com/ezra-changed-the-torah-text/ |title=Ezra changed the Torah text |first=Israel |last=Drazin |date=26 August 2015 |access-date=9 July 2018 |website=Jewish Books}}</ref> After Ezra and the scribes had completed the writing, Ezra gathered the Jews who had returned from exile, all of whom belonged to [[Kohen|Kohanim]] families. Ezra read them an unfamiliar version of the Torah. This version was different from the Torah of their fathers. Ezra did not write a new bible. Through the genius of his ‘editing', he presented the religion in a new light.<ref>{{cite book |first=M. |last=Okouneff |title=The Wrong Scribe: The Scribe Who Revised the King David Story |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=3XFdjwEACAAJ |publisher=[[CreateSpace Independent Publishing Platform]] |date=23 January 2016 |pages=146 |editor-first=John |editor-last=Greenburg |isbn=9781523640430}}</ref><ref>{{cite news |url=https://www.haaretz.com/jewish/.premium-who-wrote-the-torah-1.5318582 |title=Who Wrote the Torah? |last=Gilad |first=Elon |date=22 October 2014 |access-date=9 July 2018 |newspaper=[[Haaretz]]}}</ref>