Other Biblical Text Traditions

In this context, we could mention also the Latin Vulgate that has become the holy Scripture of the Catholic church and the Peshitta that has become the holy Scripture of several Syriac churches, but neither text differed sufficiently from MT to be named a separate text tradition.

  Philo refers to this custom in Alexandria. See Philo, Prob.81–82:

In these they are instructed at all other times, but particularly on the seventh days. For that day has been set apart to be kept holy and on it they abstain from all other work and proceed to sacred spots which they call synagogues…Then one takes the books and reads aloud….

See further Philo, Hypoth. 7:13; Vit. Mos. 2:215. The existence of Greek Torah scrolls is also referred to in m. Meg. 1.8; 2.1 andt. Meg. 4.13. 4 Macc 18:10-18, possibly written in Egypt in the first century CE, expressly mentions the reading of the Law accompanied by readings taken from the Prophets, Psalms, and Writings.

Both issues are analyzed in detail in my study “Reflections on the Septuagint with Special Attention Paid to the Post-Pentateuchal Translations,” in Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism … Collected Writings, Volume 3 (2015), 429–48.

See my study “The Septuagint between Judaism and Christianity,” in Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, Qumran, Septuagint: Collected Essays, 449–70. It should also be mentioned that at a later stage Jerome rejected the LXX as a base for the Scripture reading in the church, replacing it between 390 and 405 CE with a Latin translation (the “Vulgate”) that was more faithful to the Hebrew text (of MT) than the LXX, and that in due course came to replace the LXX within the Catholic church.

See b. Meg. 9a and parallels.

 For example, in Gen 17:1 אני אל שדי, “I am the God Shadday,” Aquila’s reading is quoted in conjunction with the opinion that שדי should not be read as Shadday but as she-day (probably: “he who is sufficient”). See Gen. Rabba 46:1 [ed. Theodor-Albeck, 460–61.

Editor’s note: See discussion of one example of this polemic in Jonathan Ben-Dov, “An Altar on Mount Ebal or Mount Gerizim: The Torah in the Sectarian Debate,” TheTorah.com(2016). 

For further information, see Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, 150–53.

In my view wrongly so, because the proto-MT scrolls from the Judean Desert sites strongly support the ancient roots of the medieval Masoretic tradition and they therefore hold up the antiquity of that tradition.