Look up "Hebrew" and even Wikipedia tells us that the written Hebrew of modern times (neo-Hebrew) is not paleo-Hebrew. Paleo-Hebrew is the original writings of the books of the Old Testament (OT). As I said, paleo-Hebrew was lost to antiquity.
Hebrew letters have gone through several revisions. It's true the original letter versions of most of the books of the OT fell out of use. However we still have plenty of writings of such letters, and know how to read them.
Modern written Hebrew is based on the work by the Masoretes in 900 AD. Who are the Masoretes? They are Pharisaic Jews (Pharisees), who recreated a new written 'Hebrew' from Arabic and other existing Canaanitish languages because the original Hebrew was lost in antiquity. The Masoretes used the Greek Septuagint Old Testament to create a new written 'Hebrew' that had vowel points.
Ever heard of the Judean Desert Scrolls which predate the Masoretes by a thousand years? Those scrolls are still readable today. In fact they closely match what the Masoretes produced. Most of them use the more modern Hebrew letters, some of them use the older Hebrew. Some use both. An Aleph is still an Aleph whether the character for it is drawn like an X or drawn like an Ox's head.
All the Masoretes did was come up with a canonical text by deciding between variant spellings and synonymous wording, standardized chapters, and added vowels around the text and punctuation marks. From the text itself, the differences between that and texts a millennia earlier are minute.
The Masoretes were not Pharisaic Jews, they were Karaite Jews.
The oldest Bible OT there is the Septuagint, which was transliterated from the original paleo-Hebrew in circa 285 BC.
The original Septuagint was only on the first 5 books of the OT, and has been long lost, as it was replaced by many later updated Greek translations. The Judean Desert Scrolls though are from the time frame you mention, and are in old Hebrew lettering, new Hebrew lettering, and Greek.
After the first 5 books were finished, the translators set out to work on the rest of the OT. The exact date this was accomplished is not known, but it is certain the complete OT was finished within 100 years and it is likely it was completed within a few years by the same translators.
Nice wishful thinking.
We can say that many of the Greek in our hands today used translation techniques from those first translations. But no authoritative original Greek version exists.
If there was an original authoritative Greek version extant on everything, there would have been no reason for Aquila or various Church Fathers to do their own translations (or translation updates).
Hebrew letters have gone through several revisions. It's true the original letter versions of most of the books of the OT fell out of use. However we still have plenty of writings of such letters, and know how to read them.
Ever heard of the Judean Desert Scrolls which predate the Masoretes by a thousand years? Those scrolls are still readable today. In fact they closely match what the Masoretes produced. Most of them use the more modern Hebrew letters, some of them use the older Hebrew. Some use both. An Aleph is still an Aleph whether the character for it is drawn like an X or drawn like an Ox's head.
All the Masoretes did was come up with a canonical text by deciding between variant spellings and synonymous wording, standardized chapters, and added vowels around the text and punctuation marks. From the text itself, the differences between that and texts a millennia earlier are minute.
The Masoretes were not Pharisaic Jews, they were Karaite Jews.
The original Septuagint was only on the first 5 books of the OT, and has been long lost, as it was replaced by many later updated Greek translations. The Judean Desert Scrolls though are from the time frame you mention, and are in old Hebrew lettering, new Hebrew lettering, and Greek.
Nice wishful thinking.
We can say that many of the Greek in our hands today used translation techniques from those first translations. But no authoritative original Greek version exists.
If there was an original authoritative Greek version extant on everything, there would have been no reason for Aquila or various Church Fathers to do their own translations (or translation updates).