How many times has the Old Testament been re-written?

Question

From skins of a cleansed animal the scribes started to record their history in what is called the Old Testament from about 600 BCE.

Since then how many times has the old Testament been copied and re-written into what we can take as the gospel truth of what God has delivered to the living during the last 2,600 years.

Answer 1

The Old Testament is not one book written by a single author, but a collection of ancient texts written and re-written by numerous authors and editors for hundreds of years.
It is estimated that the chronology of the Old Testament covers more than 1500 years, from approximately 2000 B.C. to 400 B.C.

Answer 2

Did you make this up or read this some where? Are you aware that the oldest script of the Old Testrament dates 3oo year before your date listed? Per record, Moses wrote the first 5 books (1450 BC), the rest written over a space of 1000 years

If you are suggesting that the multiple copies changed the text, is the same true of Shakespeare, or Juliaus Caesar's Gallic war histories? Are you familiar with the Dead Sea Scrolls, dated to prior to the 1st century BC, and are in fact near identical to today's Hebrew Old Testament? Did all of the copies made in the last 2000 years change the text?

The Declaration of Independence was written by a bunch of pygmies around 1914. See, I can do it to!

Answer 3

It has been copied many many times...I would estimate it to be in the hundreds. The reason the Bible isn't full of errors and contradictions and false historical facts is the care that was put into copying a manuscript. The Jews that transcribed had to take a bath before sitting down to copy. They had to sit in full Jewish attire. They had to look at every word from the old text before copying to the new text--one word at a time. Not one jot or tittle could be from memory. If they were writing God's name, they were not allowed to look up, even if a king should address them.

I believe they had special ink and like you said clean animal skins to write on....anyway it was very meticulous, and that's why today's Bible matched VERY closely to the dead sea scrolls, even though the manuscripts were like six centuries apart.

Oh and by the way--once they were done, they reviewed it and if one word was wrong, it was thrown out and burned.

Just thought you'd find that interesting.

Answer 4

It was transmitted to us by exacting Jewish Scribes who thought that they would go to hell if they made a mistake. It is unlikely that they made any major errors which were missed by other scribes.

Besides, archeology combined with textual criticism would have picked up any major edits or revisions done later in time, because the details of later edits would not match details in the archeological record.

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The OT was written and meticulously preserved in the original Hebrew language from the beginning through today. It was always considered sacred and therefore was very seriously guarded and copied with the utmost care.

The sole responsibility of the Jewish Scribes was to know, maintain, protect, and, exactly preserve the books of the OT. The levels of care that they went through is astounding:
The skin, ink, document size, and lines on the document were all clearly defined. The number, size, spacing, and length of lines and columns per skin were specified. The spacing of the letters, words, sections, and books and the point of ending books were to be exact.

The dress and cleanliness of the scribe, condition of the book being copied , and the manner in which the name for God (YWHW) was written was all specifically ordered.
When each book or section had been copied, the scribes would count and check the number of every verse, word, and letter of the manuscript. They even counted the times each letter occurred in each book, calculated the middle word and middle letter and checked the new with the old. Such detail seems extreme to us, but with this level of detail, we can know we have reliable manuscripts today.

Answer 5

As Many times as New Evidence was recorded that people were giving it their own interpretation's and confusing the enquirers and The Faithful.. Peoples from an ever increasing and wider world seek clarification repeatedly .

Answer 6

A bunch. Just look at all the new versions that have come out in the last 50-60 years. They keep rewriting it, trying to take out all the things that Christians don't like.

You'd think God would put a stop to this and send us a new Bible to end all the confusion.

If people in the Bible could speak in tongues, God should be able to put together a Bible that everyone could understand in their own language.

Answer 7

Too many times to count.

In the 10th cent. B.C. the first of a series of editors collected materials from earlier traditional folkloric and historical records (i.e., both oral and written sources) to compose a narrative of the history of the Hebrews who now found themselves united under David and Solomon. Stemming from differing traditions originating among those living in what was later the northern kingdom of Israel and those in the southern kingdom of Judah, we can trace two dominant compilations, known as the E (preferring the epithet "Elohim" for God) and the J (preferring the epithet "Yahweh"), respectively. These were combined by a Judaean some time after the fall of the northern kingdom and are to be found inextricably associated in Genesis, Exodus, Numbers, Joshua, Judges, First and Second Samuel, and First and Second Kings. According to scholars, this combined JE narrative is the bulk of the earlier Old Testament.

The prophets began to confront Israel in the days of the divided monarchy, indicting the people for failure to heed the moral demand of God and for failing to protect the weak in society. Their warnings of doom came to pass as Israel fell before the imperial might of Assyria and Babylon. Faithful disciples of the prophets guarded their oracles, even supplementing them, long after their masters had passed from the scene.

To Deuteronomy, scholars assign a late 7th-century B.C. origin. Deuteronomy, the book of the law "found" in the Temple during the reign of Josiah 1 King of Judah, son and successor of Amon. The great event of his reign came in its 18th year, when the book of the law, apparently Deuteronomy, was found in the Temple. Josiah had it read publicly, and a reform movement began, led by the young king, was written, scholars argue, for a specific purpose—to provide a written law for the people, and to authenticate the reforms Josiah had instigated. Deuteronomy gave rise to a historical work, called the Deuteronomic History, in which the older JE traditions were reworked in light of its theology. Leviticus, with its emphasis on priestly matters, probably reached its final form in the post-exilic era in the establishment of post-exilic Judaism. The books of Chronicles and of Ezra and Nehemiah provide a theological agenda for post-exilic Judaism, stressing Temple worship, ethnic purity, and adherence to the Mosaic law.

Answer 8

the old testament is a collection of stories just like the rest, akin to something like beowolf, the sad part about it is that the old testament is really disgustingly immoral, i think rational minded christians should drop this part from their theology.

Answer 9

I'm sure there's an official record somewhere, but in truth, I doubt anyone really knows.

Answer 10

Just so long as they don't change how it ends. I love the fact that it ends with a curse!