The Hebrew Bible / Old Testament
Explore the languages, literary forms and surviving manuscripts that help place each passage within a larger history.
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A library shaped across centuries
The Hebrew Bible brings together ancient narratives, laws, prophetic writings, songs and wisdom literature. These texts are rooted in the histories and traditions of Israel and Judah and have been preserved and studied in Jewish communities across centuries. Most are written in Hebrew; Ezra and Daniel also contain substantial Aramaic passages.
The surviving copies open a longer history
The Judean Desert scrolls preserve biblical manuscripts from long before the great medieval codices. They let scholars compare transmitted forms of particular writings, while medieval manuscripts add detailed vowel signs, accents and Masoretic notes. The guides below follow these different kinds of information into the study of a passage.
Follow another thread
The Bible’s history is a network: manuscripts, languages, communities, scholars, and technologies continually intersect.
See how texts were copied and compared
Explore witnesses, variants, and textual criticism.
Explore →MASORETESMeet the scholars behind the notation
Vowels, accents, cantillation, and Masora.
Explore →CANONCompare biblical collections
See how communities inherited overlapping collections.
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