What are the oldest OT manuscripts we have?

Answer 1

The Hebrew Bible, or Tanakh, was composed by four or five writers between 1000 to 400 BCE and based on tradition rather than any earlier text. One of these, the "Song of Solomon", is somewhat pornographic by modern Christian standards! The oldest surviving translation of Hebrew Scripture used to be the Greek Septuagint , which was undertaken in the third century BC in Egypt by Jewish scholars, but I'm not sure any more.

Answer 2

I know much more about NT manuscripts, but I think the earliest OT manuscript dates to about 200-300 BCE.

EDIT: C. Yes it matters. Since the KJV was based on dubious Greek translations and copies that dated from at least 1000 years after the putative events, their accuracy is highly questionable. All modern bible scholars (both secular and religious ones) reject the KJV.
There are about 5000 existing manuscripts from the NT. The oldest ones date to about 200-300 years after the "events". There are more differences between those 5000 manuscripts then there are words in the NT.

The link is to a talk given at Stanford University by Bart Erhman, a professor of biblical studies who wrote a book called "Misquoting Jesus" I hope you will find it educational.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KN8NI7JNPHc

If gods message was so important, you'd think he would have done a better job of making sure the original writings were preserved intact from one copy to the next.

Answer 3

The Septugiant..or seventy...was written in greek for jewish emigrants who moved to greek speaking jews. Around 250-200 b.c.

The Dead sea scrolls were written from about 100b.c. -70 a.d. by the Essenes who are now a defunct sect of Judiasm.

Answer 4

i was going to say dead sea scrolls, but i think the oldest OT book is ezek. or isiah. i wish i could remember.

Answer 5

Dead Sea Scrolls?