Items of Interest October 3, 2011 Issue

Scholars labor meticulously on a definitive Old Testament

Matti Friedman

“In Jerusalem, scholars trace Bible’s evolution” © 2011 The Associated Press. Used with permission. All rights reserved. August 12, 2011

A dull-looking chart projected on the wall of a university office in Jerusalem displayed a revelation that would startle many readers of the Old Testament: the sacred text that people revered in the past was not the same one we study today.

An ancient version of one book has an extra phrase. Another appears to have been revised to retroactively insert a prophecy after the events happened.

Scholars in this out-of-the-way corner of the Hebrew University campus have been quietly at work for 53 years on one of the most ambitious projects attempted in biblical studies—publishing the authoritative edition of the Old Testament, also known as the Hebrew Bible, and tracking every single evolution of the text over centuries and millennia. . . .

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