Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

There are a number of reasons, Steve:


 1.  The Hebrew texts are much older than the NT texts, and so are less 
likely to survive the ravages of time.
 2.  The Hebrew texts were not as widely dispersed as the NT texts.
 3.  Most of the Hebrew Bible circulated in Greek translations for quite a 
while, leaving the Hebrew texts a small circulation area.
 4.  Only Hebrew scribes could copy the Hebrew texts, and there were not many 
of them when compared to the constituency of Greek writers/scribes who could 
copy texts.
 5.  The Hebrew texts are bulkier than the NT, so there were probably much 
fewer of them produced.
 6.  More lay people would have owned NT documents than Hebrew texts or Greek 
OTs. Hebrew texts would have been largely confined to synagogues and the like.
 7.  Christian numbers eclipsed Jewish numbers at an early point, and 
Christians generally read the NT documents far more than the OT. So not as 
many OT documents were around.


Regards,

GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au