One KJV-only diehard wrote on the subject, failing to declare that there was once a need for the creation of the at-that-time new King James Version itself, and that "the KJV" has undergone many revision and edition changes.

He mentioned "THE Masoretic Text" without defining if THAT meant the ben Chayyim or the ben Asher text (purportedly discrepant against each other). He condemned Rudolf Kittel and his editor Kahle for putting footnotes in the text of their Stuttgart-edition Hebrew Bible based on a Leningrad Manuscript - with the presumption that Kittel wanted to confuse readers by insinuating that they randomly replace the main text with footnote alterations or substitutions. He went on to state that the American Bible Society offers an 1866-incepted Letteris (ben Chayyim) Hebrew Old-Testament text for sale, but this author has never seen any such advertisement from ABS at any time ever.

Mr. KJV-only also failed to state WHY the ben Asher Hebrew Text was THE (recognized) Received Text in authority until the 1500s, but somehow lost that authenticity until Kittel's 1937 edition of ben Asher's Text - which Text the RSV and NASV are thankfully based upon.

Mr. KJV-only gave credence to a certain "Daniel Bomberg" (whoever HE was) and who (according to the preface of the NKJV Bible) concocted and printed a so-called "first rabbinic bible" in 1516 (whatever THAT was)......followed by [oh oh!]: a SECOND edition (the FIRST was NOT GOOD ENOUGH)?

One internet source stated that Jacob ben Chayyim was apparently "some jewish refugee" who the source alleged to have become a Christian (sounds suspicious)! So WHO WAS ben Chayyim, and what were his motives for trashing the traditional ben Asher Text?

With all this in mind, I synthesized three internet pieces from one Jewish author giving further info about ben Asher:

Codex Leningradensis) is the oldest complete manuscript of the Hebrew Bible in Hebrew, using the masoretic text and Tiberian vocalization. It is dated 1008 CE (or possibly 1009) according to its colophon. The Leningrad Codex the oldest complete codex of the Tiberian mesorah that has survived intact to this day.

In modern times, the Leningrad Codex is significant as the Hebrew text reproduced in Biblia Hebraica (1937) and Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (1977). It also serves scholars as a primary source for the recovery of details in the missing parts of the Aleppo Codex.

The biblical text as found in the codex contains the Hebrew letter-text along with Tiberian vowels and cantillation signs. In addition, there are masoretic notes in the margins. There are also various technical supplements dealing with textual and linguistic details, many of which are painted in geometrical forms. The codex is written on parchment and bound in leather.

The Leningrad Codex, in extraordinarily pristine condition after a millennium, also provides an example of medieval Jewish art. Sixteen of the pages contain decorative geometric patterns that illuminate passages from the text. The carpet page shows a star with the names of the scribes on the edges and a blessing written in the middle.

The order of the books in the Leningrad Codex follows the Tiberian textual tradition, which is also that of the later tradition of Sephardic biblical manuscripts. This order for the books differs markedly from that of most printed Hebrew bibles for the books of the Ketuvim. In the Leningrad Codex, the order of the Ketuvim is: Chronicles, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah.

According to its colophon, the codex was copied in Cairo from manuscripts written by Aaron ben Moses ben Asher. It has been claimed to be a product of the Asher scriptorium itself.

In its vocalization system (vowel points and cantillation) it is considered by scholars to be the most faithful representative of ben Asher's tradition apart from the Aleppo Codex (edited by ben Asher himself).

The codex is now preserved in the National Library of Russia, accessioned as "Firkovich B 19 A". Its former owner, the Crimean Karaite collector Abraham Firkovich, left no indication in his writings where he had acquired the codex, which was taken to Odessa in 1838 and later transferred to the Imperial Library in St Petersburg.

The Leningrad Codex (a codex is a hand-written book as opposed to a scroll) is so named because it has been housed at the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg since 1863. In 1924, after the Russian Revolution, Petrograd (formerly Saint Petersburg) was renamed Leningrad, and, because the codex was used as the basic text for the Biblia Hebraica since 1937, it became internationally known as the "Leningrad Codex".

Although in 1991, after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, the city's original name was restored to St Petersburg, the National Library of Russia requested that "Leningrad" be retained in the name of the codex. Nonetheless, the Codex is occasionally referred to as the Codex Petersburgensis or Petropolitanus, or the St. Petersburg Codex.

In 1935, the Leningrad Codex was lent to the Old Testament Seminar of the University of Leipzig for two years while Paul E. Kahle supervised its transcription for the Hebrew text of the third edition of Biblia Hebraica (BHK), published in Stuttgart, 1937. The codex was also used for Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS) in 1977, and is being used for Biblia Hebraica Quinta (BHQ).

As an original work by Tiberian masoretes, the Leningrad Codex was older by several centuries than the other Hebrew manuscripts which had been used for all previous editions.

The Westminster Leningrad Codex is an online digital version of the Leningrad Codex maintained by the J. Alan Groves Center for Advanced Biblical Research at the Westminster Theological Seminary. This is a verified version of the Michigan-Claremont text, transcribed from BHS at the University of Michigan in 1981-1982 under the direction of H. Van Dyke Parunak (of the University of Michigan) and Richard E. Whitaker (of the Institute for Antiquity and Christianity, Claremont Graduate University) with funding from the Packard Foundation and the University of Michigan, with further proofreading and corrections. The online version includes transcription notes and tools for analyzing syntax.

The Leningrad Codex also served as the basis for two important modern Jewish editions of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh):

* The Dotan edition, which was distributed to soldiers in mass quantities as the official Tanakh of the Israel Defense Forces throughout the 1990s.
* The JPS Hebrew-English Tanakh (Philadelphia, 1999) and the various volumes of the JPS Torah Commentary and JPS Bible Commentary.

Autograph-accurateText in papyrus, headquartered in Antioch, was diversely scattered and read, becoming more ancient and worn as time went on, but CAREFULLY-copied duplicates were PAINSTAKINGLY produced, and such already-canonical Text was disseminiated in greater and greater numbers worldwide.

Inevitably, counterfeits (like weeds) began to appear from heretics such as Marcion and others who concocted corrupt Alexandrian and Sinaiticus type Greek-lettered replacements - blasphemously miscalled " manuscripts"- ultimately synthesized by the occultic-spiritualist demonic duo Hort and Westcott in England in the late 1800s, peddled and promoted thereafter by Metzger, Aland, and Nestle.

The ORIGINAL Text survived in entirety, however, true to God's promise and power of indestructibility and eternal longevity. Erasmus (respected by Martin Luther) tried to sort out the genuine from the garbage, and at that time did his best with consecutive improving editions. Beza and Stephanus continued the refinement, and Scrivener of England finally put it all together in 1894 into what is now know as the Scrivener Trinitarian Greek Text of the New Testament for these momentous last days before Christ's visible bodily return to Earth at Armageddon.

The Revised Standard Version (RSV) has, for its Isaiah 7:14, the following phrase: "a young woman shall conceive and bear a son" whereas the King James Version (KJV) has the phrase: "the virgin shall conceive..." instead of young woman for the exact same passage.

Well, which is it: "young woman" or "virgin?"

All young-women virgins are young women, but obviously not all young women are young-women virgins.

Allow no one to "get away with" being an accursed fool and blatter that: "it doesn't matter" or: "whatever" or "don't major in minors" or "don't sweat the small stuff" or "don't nitpick about trifles" pertaining to precise word choice. It certainly does matter! A crucial part of the doctrines of Christ!

The Isaiah 7:14 passage in practically all translations (except the RSV, for example) state that a virgin "shall conceive and bear a son" reiterated in most all translations of Matthew 1:23.

Most virgins and mere young women (not virgins) can conceive, whether married or not at the time, then thus be pregnant with child as stated in Isaiah 7:14 and as stated in Matthew 1:23.

The "conceiving" and "being with child" of necessity specifies female gender and thus excludes the possibility of reference to male humans, virgin or not.

Also, the word maid is inadequate as a substitute word for Isaiah 7:14 because such term involves the additional connotation of servitude as a slave or employee.

Invariably most commentators have related that Matthew 1:23 "virgin" passage to the Old-Testament reference of Isaiah 7:14.

However, Isaiah 7:14 does NOT contain Strong's English-lettered Hebrew-text Word# 1330 for "virgin," but instead contains Strong's Word# 5959 for [an-obviously-female] young woman.

In Genesis 24:16 girl Rebekkah [one with whom no male had yet lain] is identified with Strong's Word# 1330 (which the RSV has correctly translated: virgin), while Abraham's servant (in Genesis 24:43) requests of the Lord a Strong's Word# 5959 young woman (NOT "virgin" - which the RSV has correctly translated: young woman).

Strong's Word# 1330 for "virgin" is found in Job 31:1 (which the RSV has translated correctly and the KJV incorrectly) describing who Job refused to look lustfully at in a probably-voyeuristic porno-like perusal of her inadequately clothed or indecently misattired. The KJV in Job 31:1 has incorrectly translated Strong's Word# 1330 as: "maid" ["maiden" would have been the appropriate term instead] -- while the RSV, again, got it correct stating the word: "virgin" for that Job 31:1 passage.

So, for Strong's Word# 5959 (young woman) used in Isaiah 7:14 the RSV properly translated: "young woman" but which the KJV got incorrect using the term: "virgin".

Concordantly, Strong's Word# 5959 (young woman) is also found in Exodus 2:8 with reference to the young woman, sister of baby Moses who called her mother as a nurse for Moses at the request of Pharaoh's daughter. In that passage, the KJV uses the semi-acceptable word: "maid" while the RSV uses the quasi-legitimate word: "girl" in their rendition of Exodus 2:8.

Concerned theologians (including yours truly) wonder that being Isaiah 7:14 only refers to a "YOUNG WOMAN" conceiving how can that particular passage be the prophesied source of the prediction in Matthew 1:23 referring instead to a VIRGIN being with child"?

In other words, though Matthew 1:22-23 contains the phrase: ". . . what the Lord had spoken by the prophet . . ." it is obvious from the exact Hebrew meaning of Strongs Word# 5959 in Isaiah 7:14 that Isaiah 7:14 is NOT the verse source of the Matthew 1:22-23 prophecy.

There is no known source for that Matthew 1:23 prophecy in the entire canonical Old Testament, and reminds us of other New-Testament inclusions which are also sourceless, such as "sawn asunder," "Jannes and Jambres," and "Michael contending against the Devil about the body of Moses."

Even within the Old Testament itself, there is no reference correlation to "the Book of Jashar" (mentioned in Joshua 10:13 and Second Samuel 1:18) anywhere else in the Old and New Testaments.