What we have is the Masoretic Text and the Dead Sea Scrolls for the Old Testament.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d5F5jSPuHfo
Another reason why bibles are not reliable is because of the Old Testament manuscripts that bibles are translated from.
The Old Testament found in bibles today is not even translated from the original Hebrew texts! They are translated from the Masoretic Hebrew texts (from the 8th-10th century AD), not the original Hebrew texts. By the time bibles came around (in the 15th century), the original Hebrew had been lost, both the manuscripts and the language. There is not a man alive today who knows how to pronounce or read the original Hebrew language.
Around the 8th-10th century AD, the Masorites took the liberty within themselves to add vowel signs to the original Hebrew Alphabet. The original Hebrew alphabet had only 22 letters and had no vowels. This 10th century manuscript is what all bibles base their Old Testament translations on.
Now, if one starts taking liberties within himself and says, "Gee, there aren't any vowels in this alphabet. Why don't I start adding these little points in there and I'll re-create something here. I'll just add what God left out. It was a mistake for God to omit vowels in His alphabet, so I must correct His mistake." What has he now done to a language that was perfect at its conception? Can anybody improve on God? Can anybody do better than God Himself? If God intended for the Hebrew alphabet to have vowels, He would have added them himself!
We are not to tamper with the Word of God or His ordained languages, i.e., Hebrew, Greek, Aramaic, English, etc. We are not to take away or add to God's Word (Deuteronomy 4:2; 12:32, Proverbs 30:6, Jeremiah 26:2, Revelation 22:18-19). But this is what the Masorites blatantly did! There is not one place in the Masoretic Hebrew where they can show that God ever authorized them to change the original language by adding vowel points to it. And by adding the vowels, they changed the words, and by changing the words, they have changed the meaning of these words, and by changing the meaning of words, they have changed the Word of God. And if they have changed the Word of God within the Masoretic Hebrew text, we must take care.
Exact meaning of Hebrew uncertain, Syntax of Hebrew unclear, The traditional reading madhebah is of unknown meaning, Grammar of Hebrew unclear, Meaning of first line uncertain, Meaning of verse uncertain in part, Force of Hebrew uncertain, Construction of the verses uncertain, etc..
This was very shocking. We are usually told the Bible is inerrant. The Jews were the guardians of the Old Testament who were extremely diligent to preserve the text that not one jot or tittle was added or removed. Nearly all Christian Bibles rely on the Jewish Masoretic Hebrew text for translating the Old Testament into current languages. How was it possible for the translators to produce an "inerrant" Bible, when the "guardians of the so called 'inerrant' Hebrew text", did not know the meaning of many words and passages?
"The English names of the Hebrew letters are written with much less uniformity than those of the Greek because there has been more dispute respecting their powers. This is directly contrary to what one would have expected. Since the Hebrew names are words originally significant of other things in the letters and the Greek are not. Theoriginal pronunciation of both languages is admitted to be lost." The Grammar of English Grammar, 9th Edition, 1865.
A Maxim of Law states, "He who does not speak the truth is a betrayer of the truth." So, if people are doctoring up the truth intentionally, or they are not really speaking the truth, they are actually betraying the truth!
It is worth noting that, as far as the Hebrew text is concerned, the King James was translated from the Ben Chayyim Masoretic Text; named after Jacob ben Chayyim, under whose editorship it was printed in 1524-1525, while almost all modern English bibles translated since 1898 rely heavily on Kittel's revised Masoretic text; Rudolf Kittel was a German rationalistic higher critic, rejecting Biblical inerrancy and firmly devoted to evolutionism.
So, if the original Hebrew language has been lost, and all the Old Testament books contained in bibles are based upon a corrupted 8th-10th century manuscript that has little in common with the Original Hebrew Text, is God's Word still available to us today? Well, God has promised us that He would preserve his Word (1 Peter 1:23, 25, Luke 21:33, Psalms 12:6-7; 119:89, 152, 160, Isaiah 40:8; 59:21, John 10:35, Matthew 24:35). So, just where is God's Word preserved today?
There is a manuscript still in existence today that was around during the time of Christ in the first century. The Septuagint (also known as the LXX - the Greek Old Testament) WAS translated from the original Hebrew Text, 285 years before Christ, into the language that was then predominant in the world, Greek!
