The Textual Unity of the Torah

After a certain period, which cannot be exactly defined, the Torah of Moses was conceived of as one textual unit that was copied in the same way even if it was included in separate scrolls because of technical constraints. It seems that the earliest period that may be established for the textual unity of the Torah is the date of the LXX (probably 285 BCE), since its harmonizing pluses, a secondary textual feature, are evenly spread in all the books of the Torah. How long before that time the textual unity of the Torah may be pushed back is unknown. We suggest that this phenomenon derives from the Hebrew source of the LXX, not from the Greek translators. Obviously, at an earlier stage, the Torah was a disharmonious literary document, but this study does not present a statement on the status of the Torah as a literary document. The textual unity was spotted in the tradition of MT, SP, as well as the LXX, so that it existed across the board. Textual unity should be considered an approach and it was natural that such an approach developed because the five books of Moses are bundled as one book, traditionally ascribed to the figure of Moses. If the reference to Ezra’s holding the book of the Torah in his hands in the mid-fifth century is correct (Neh 8:2), as early as that period scribes could have been encouraged to treat the five books of Moses similarly.