The Old Testament has effectively 5 textual traditions, we shall go through each here. “Textual tradition” is essentially a path by which the written text is passed down, and we are saying that in the case of the OT, there are mainly 5 such discernible paths. These paths arise from the original manuscript being circulated into different regions which might be at different times and in different languages.

The Timeline of the Various Traditions

Of these the Masoretic text (MSS) represents the Hebrew original, however its manuscript tradition, is that is to be based upon the extant manuscripts is the weakest, since they are, as we shall see, latest. The others have older manuscripts and are the result of early translation and dispersion of the original. Of these the Aramaic and Greek would originally have been made in the first few centuries BC, while the Latin in the first few centuries AD. The importance of the Latin is that it is thought to have been composed directly, at least in part, from some Aramaic and Hebrew originals which have since become lost. The Hebrew original represents the oldest tradition, because the Bible remained untranslated for over a millennium until the conquest of Jerusalem and the advent of the Greeks. Since our earliest manuscript of that tradition is the Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS) which arrives at the very end of that period of compilation, this means that we have nothing from the period of compilation itself. The MSS represents it but cannot confirm it. The timeline of OT textual languages is: the original Hebrew, then Aramaic on return from exile in Babylon, then Greek with the Greeks, then Latin with the Romans.

Masoretic text

he Masoretic text (MSS) represents the Hebrew original, however its manuscript tradition, is that is to be based upon the extant manuscripts is the weakest, since they are latest. The earliest extant text of the MSS is the Codex Leningrad. The easiest way to look up the MSS is to look up any modern-day Hebrew Bible. To my knowledge, those have not been updated in line with the DSS discoveries, and they certainly do not refer to the LXX

Septuagint (LXX)

My favorite online searchable LXX is https://www.blueletterbible.org/lxx/gen/1/1/p1/s_1001

The standard critical edition is that of Rahlf, which went into a second edition in 2010.

The earliest extant fragmentary copies

The oldest manuscripts of the Septuagint include 2nd-century-BCE fragments of Leviticus and Deuteronomy (Rahlfs nos. 801, 819, and 957) and 1st-century-BCE fragments of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, and the Twelve Minor Prophets (Alfred Rahlfs nos. 802, 803, 805, 848, 942, and 943). Relatively-complete manuscripts of the Septuagint postdate the Hexaplar recension, and include the fourth-century-CE Codex Vaticanus and the fifth-century Codex Alexandrinus.

4Q119 (also 4QLXXLeva; TM 62293; LDAB 3454)

This designates the remnants of a Greek manuscript of the Book of Leviticus written on parchment. It was found at Qumran cave 4 and is dated to the 1st century BCE or 1st century CE. It got the no. 801 according to the system of Alfred Rahlfs. The manuscript is stored in Rockefeller Museum at Jerusalem (Mus. Inv. Gr. 1004).

The manuscript 4Q120 (also pap4QLXXLevb; AT22; VH 46; Rahlfs 802; LDAB 3452)

is a Septuagint manuscript (LXX) of the biblical Book of Leviticus written on papyrus,[1] found at Qumran. The Rahlfs-No. is 802. Palaoegraphycally it dates from the first century BCE. Currently the manuscript is housed in the Rockefeller Museum in Jerusalem.

The Papyrus Fouad 266

(three fragments listed as Rahlfs 847, 848 and 942)

are fragments, part of a papyrus manuscript in scroll form containing the Greek translation, known as the Septuagint, of the Pentateuch. They have been assigned palaeographically to the 1st century BCE. There is discussion about whether the text is original or a later recension of the Septuagint.

Papyrus Rylands 458 (TM 62298; LDAB 3459)

is a copy of the Pentateuch in a Greek version of the Hebrew Bible known as the Septuagint. It is a papyrus manuscript in roll form. The manuscript has been assigned palaeographically toward the middle of the 2nd century BC,[1] and before the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls it was the oldest known manuscript of the Greek Bible. The manuscript has survived in a very fragmentary condition.

In addition there’s

Rahlf numbers 803 is 4Q121 and contains fragments of Numbers 3:39-4:16, 1st century BC

819 is 4Q122 and contains fragments of Deut 11:4, 2nd century BC

Wikipedia have a great article summarizing all the manuscripts in between these early ones and the final arrival of the complete Septuagint with the great Codices. Here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Septuagint_manuscripts

This is the most comprehensive critical version of the Septuagint. VERY Expensive! https://www.logos.com/product/4951/gottingen-septuagint?fbclid=IwAR1Eop3EYI2lUDZtH7ANBjkzt7DCWX_tP3ePuZbj1rjwnx4A_vTZeNC9YEo

Nash Papyrus

The Nash Papyrus is dated to 150-100BC, it is closer to the Septuagint than the MSS. It is Twenty-four lines long, with a few letters missing at each edge, the papyrus contains the Ten Commandments in Hebrew and a short middle text, followed by the start of the Shema Yisrael prayer. The text of the Ten Commandments combines parts of the version from Exodus 20:2–17 with parts from Deuteronomy 5:6–21. A curiosity is its omission of the phrase “house of bondage”, used in both versions, about Egypt – perhaps a reflection of where the papyrus was composed.

Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS)

Aramaic Peshitta

The term Peshitta means “simple” (in analogy to the Latin Vulgate). It contains the entire Old Testament, most of the deuterocanonical books, as well as 22 books of the New Testament, lacking the shorter Catholic Epistles (2-3 John, 2 Peter, Jude, as well as John 7:53-8:11). It was made in the beginning of the 5th century. Its authorship was ascribed to Rabbula, bishop of Edessa (411-435). The Syriac church still uses it to the present day. More than 350 manuscripts survived, several of which date from the 5th and 6th centuries. The earliest manuscript of the Peshitta is a Pentateuch dated AD 464

Latin Vulgate

The Vulgate is usually credited as being the first translation of the Old Testament into Latin directly from the Hebrew Tanakh rather than from the Greek Septuagint. Saint Augustine, a contemporary of Saint Jerome, states in Book XVII ch. 43 of his The City of God that “in our own day the priest Jerome, a great scholar and master of all three tongues, has made a translation into Latin, not from Greek but directly from the original Hebrew. We cannot be certain just what extent this might be true, but in this sense the Vulgate represents an early translation from the lost Hebrew originals and therefore a link to it..

Dating from the 8th century, the Codex Amiatinus is the earliest surviving manuscript of the complete Vulgate Bible. The Codex Fuldensis, dating from around 545, contains most of the New Testament in the Vulgate version, but the four gospels are harmonised into a continuous narrative derived from the Diatessaron.