Textual Criticism of the Old Testament

In the Name of Allah; Most-Merciful, Most-Compassionate.

A previous post shared some highlights of textual comparison and criticism of the Qur'an - which showed how these commonly used orientalist claims are largely unfounded and baseless, without any acknowledgement of Islamic scholarship. Having done that, it is beneficial for us to now explore some of the textual criticisms of the Old Testament - not only for comparative purposes but also for dawah (the following is taken from Muhammad Mustafa al-Azami's The History of the Qur'anic Text):

"A false impression has been created among general readers that the OT [Old Testament] has been transmitted through the ages exactly word for word, and character for character. Such is hardly the case; even the Ten Commandments differ in two versions. (p. 241)

"Approximately 6000 discrepancies [exist] between the Samaritan and Jewish Pentateuchs alone ... one is certainly tempted to question how many of these 6000 discrepancies are due to Samaritan alterations, and how many are due to Jewish ones ... no single authoritative version of the OT [Old Testament] existed prior to at least the first century C.E., let alone an authoritative version that was transmitted with any appreciable degree of fidelity. (p. 242-243)

"We should be more concerned with intentional alterations however, as they are naturally far more serious. Until the Middle Ages the text of the OT [Old Testament] was not yet established, and 'before the text of the Old Testament was officially established, it was not regarded as unalterable.' Therefore scribes and transmitters would occasionally make deliberate alterations which, regardless of their intentions, served in a very real sense to corrupt the original text. (p. 244)

"The Text itself remained fluid till the 10th century C.E., nearly 2300 years after Moses' death: fluid in that it remained open to alterations given sufficient doctrinal justification. And once the change was complete, the original became 'defective' and was destroyed, eliminating all traces of a trail which might otherwise have led back to something older and more intact. (p. 262).