How we got the text — the ancient manuscripts, translation traditions, and textual families that underlie every modern Bible. When your translation has a footnote saying "other manuscripts read," this is why.
Standardized and preserved by the Masoretes — Jewish scribal scholars, c. 500–1000 AD — who added vowel markings and cantillation marks and surrounded every page with notes (Masorah) to ensure perfect transmission. The consonantal text they transmitted was already ancient — the same text family found in some Dead Sea Scrolls (c. 200 BC–68 AD).
The oldest complete MT manuscript is the Leningrad Codex (1008–1009 AD). The oldest complete Torah section is the Aleppo Codex (c. 925 AD, partially damaged).
The Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures produced in Alexandria, Egypt beginning c. 250 BC. The Torah was translated first; the prophets and writings followed over the next two centuries.
This is the Bible the NT quotes from. When Matthew writes "the virgin shall conceive" (1:23), he quotes the LXX's parthenos (virgin) rather than the Hebrew almah (young woman).
Discovered 1947–1956 in 11 caves near Qumran, they include the oldest surviving manuscripts of virtually every OT book (except Esther), predating the Masoretic Text by ~1,000 years.
The Great Isaiah Scroll (c. 100 BC) is 24 feet long and matches the MT in 95% of its text. A small number of Qumran scrolls preserve a text closer to the Septuagint — confirming multiple textual traditions existed before the Masoretes standardized the text.
Over 5,800 Greek manuscripts survive. By comparison, Homer's Iliad survives in ~1,800 manuscripts; Caesar's Gallic Wars in ~10. The Rylands papyrus (P52, c. 125 AD) contains a fragment of John 18, copied within 30–40 years of John's writing.
Textual variants exist — over 400,000 by count — but 99% are spelling differences and word order that don't affect meaning. No core Christian doctrine rests on a disputed passage.
Commissioned by Pope Damasus I and translated by Jerome in Bethlehem (382–405 AD). Jerome translated the OT directly from Hebrew — unusual for his time, when most Latin versions used the Septuagint.
The Vulgate shaped Western vocabulary: paenitentiam agite (do penance) for the Greek "repent" influenced medieval sacramental theology; gratia plena (full of grace) in Luke 1:28 influenced Marian theology.
Commissioned by King James I, translated by 47 scholars in six committees (1604–1611), building on Tyndale's earlier translation so heavily that scholars estimate 83% of the NT is Tyndale's work. Translators used the Textus Receptus — a Greek NT compiled by Erasmus from late manuscripts — explaining passages the KJV includes that earlier manuscripts lack.
It is the translation TELL uses as its primary text because it is public domain, widely recognized, and remains a scholarly baseline.
Two reasons: (1) Manuscript differences — translators choosing between textual families or handling disputed passages. (2) Translation philosophy — word-for-word (KJV/NASB/ESV) vs. thought-for-thought (NIV/NLT) vs. paraphrase (The Message). TELL's four translations (KJV, WEB, ASV, YLT) are all public domain and represent different eras and philosophies, letting readers compare — which is often where the most interesting questions live.