ABSTRACT
The “Hebrew Bible” is divided into three sections, Torah, Neviyiym and Ketuviym, hence the acronym TaNaKh. The importance of manuscripts was not just for the obligation of study, as errors can creep into manuscripts, even with the most careful of scribes. It was therefore necessary to collate texts from reliable manuscripts. Text “criticism,” that is comparing and collating manuscripts, began, according to tradition, with three Torah scrolls kept in the court of the Temple. While many biblical manuscripts, scrolls and codices were written in medieval Spain, only a few actually are found in Spain today. Rabbinical sources provide some interesting information about biblical scrolls and manuscripts. Maimonides devoted an entire section of his code of Jewish law to the proper writing of Torah scrolls and possible errors in them. Spanish Jews played a pioneering role in the translation of the Bible into the vernacular.
