The Old Testament was originally written in Hebrew, with some portions appearing in Aramiac—specifically in Daniel and Ezra. The oldest copies of the Old Testament were discovered around the Dead Sea and are referred to as the Dead Sea Scrolls—dating to the third–second centuries BC. Before this discovery in the twentieth century, the oldest copy of the Old Testament was a Masoretic Text dated to AD 1008–09 (Leningrad Codex). The original Hebrew Bible contained only consonants but between AD 500–700, Jewish scribes known as Masoretes produced copies in which they added vowels to preserve pronunciation. This is the standard authoritative text used in synagogues and by Catholics and Protestants as the source text for their Old Testament translations.
In the third century BC, seventy (or seventy-two) Hebrew scholars translated the Old Testament into Greek. This is the earliest translation of the Hebrew Bible and is often called the Septuagint, or LXX—referring to the seventy who translated it. We don’t know what copies they translated from, but it includes second-century BC fragments of Leviticus and Deuteronomy. This is stated because the LXX has variants that differ from the Masoretic text. For example, Jeremiah 27:19–22:
Septuagint (NETS) 19 … Even some of the remaining vessels 20 which the king of Babylon did not take when he exiled Jeconiah from Jerusalem, shall enter into Babylon, says the Lord.
Hebrew Bible (NRSV) 19 … and the rest of the vessels that are left in this city 20 which King Nebuchadnezzar of Babylon did not take away when he took into exile from Jerusalem to Babylon King Jeconiah son of Jehoiakim of Judah, and all the nobles of Judah and Jerusalem—21 thus says the Lord of hosts, the God of Israel, concerning the vessels left in the house of the Lord, in the house of the king of Judah, and in Jerusalem: 22 They shall be carried to Babylon, and there they shall stay, until the day when I give attention to them, says the Lord. Then I will bring them up and restore them to this place.
I prefer to think of these differences like how we read the Synoptic Gospels—as variations rather than contradictions. There are many between the LXX and Hebrew Bible. The Orthodox Church uses the LXX for their Old Testament since the early church used it. This translation was the basis for the Old Latin, Coptic (Egyptian), Ethiopic, Armenian, Georgian, Slavonic, and part of the Arabic translations.
The Samaritan Pentateuch was comprised in the second century BC (approx. 122 BC). It was written in Samaritan Hebrew in contrast to Tiberian Hebrew among the Jews. Samaritans only acknowledged the Bible’s first five books, and we have variations from the Old Testament. For example, in Acts 7:4, Stephen says that Abraham left Haran for Canaan after his father died, agreeing with the Samaritan Pentateuch; the Masoretic Text claims that Abraham’s father died sixty years after he had left (Genesis 11:32). In the Septuagint and the New Testament book of Acts (7:14), Jacob had seventy-five descendants rather than the seventy found in the Hebrew Bible. A few years later, portions of Scripture were translated into Aramaic since that was the most spoken language in Palestine. It’s known as the Targum, Aramaic for “translation.”
The New Testament was written in Koine Greek in the first century AD. In the second century, however, the Old Testament was translated into Syriac, spoken by Jews in northern Syria. This version was called the Peshitta (“simple”). Later, Syriac Christians adopted it and added a Syriac version of the New Testament.
A Minister's Study 