25. What Hebrew texts have now been discussed, and of what does their study assure us?

²⁵ The major lines of transmission of the Hebrew Scriptures have now been discussed. Principally, these are the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Aramaic Targums, the Greek Septuagint, the Tiberian Hebrew text, the Palestinian Hebrew text, the Babylonian Hebrew text, and the Hebrew text of the Dead Sea Scrolls. As a result of study and comparison of these texts, we are assured that the Hebrew Scriptures have come down to us today substantially in the form in which inspired servants of God first recorded them.

²⁸ Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica, the 7th, 8th, and 9th editions (1951-55), provided the basic text used for the Hebrew section of the New World Translation in English. A new edition of the Hebrew text, namely Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia, dated 1977, was used for updating the information presented in the footnotes of the New World Translation published in 1984.

29. What feature of the Biblia Hebraica was of particular value in restoring the divine name?

²⁹ Kittel’s presentation of the marginal Masora, which captures many textual alterations of pre-Christian scribes, has contributed to accurate renderings in the New World Translation, including restorations of the divine name, Jehovah. The ever-increasing field of Biblical scholarship continues to be made available through the New World Translation.