Masoretic Studies

In the past, there have been many studies on the importance of the Masorah in the area of biblical Hebrew grammar, as well as a few articles showing how the Masorah can be helpful in the interpretation of some biblical passages, but these articles have usually focused on isolated examples. This paper will attempt  to show that the Masorah can be used as a supplementary tool for elucidating a unified Hebrew text as in the well-known story of Joseph and Potiphar’s wife that occurs in chapter 39 of the Book of Genesis.  I will endeavor to show that the Masorah can assist the elucidation of this text by determining its parameters, by paying attention to its accents, by pointing out its connectiveness to other texts, and by implicitly pointing out the literary structure of the text.

Die Masoreten sind die jüdischen Schriftgelehrten, die über Jahrhunderte den hebräischen Bibeltext sorgfältig überliefert und mit ergänzenden Informationen versehen haben. Die Bezeichnung Masora bezieht sich i.d.R. nur auf den Apparat zum Bibeltext, kann diesen aber auch einschließen.

This paper (written in Hebrew) reviews the text of Ginsburg's edition of the Tanakh which he did for the Trinitarian Bible Society in 1894. It finds a high correlation between Ginsburg's text and the text which is recommended in Yedidiah Norzi's Minchat Shai. It also examines some problems in Ginsburg's Edition.

Illustrating with the Song of Moses, Dominique Barthélemy argued the importance, in the preparation of a critical edition, of distinguishing the work of the copyist from that of the masorete in masoretic manuscripts. This article reviews the argument and considers its application in the layout of the Song in Biblia Hebraica Quinta.

En esta obra se editan las noticias masoréticas del ms M1 (118-Z-42) de la Biblioteca de la Universidad Complutense de Madrid y se ha verificado y comprobado la exactitud de las informaciones consignadas. Incluye un breve estudio introductorio y un pequeño resumen en inglés.

Christentum in Mittelalter und früher Neuzeit. Beiträge zur 45. Internationalen Hebräischlehrerkonferenz (IÖKH) vom 8. bis 10. Mai 2015 in Erfurt Die Handschriften werden in der "Allgemeinen Einleitung" beschrieben (BHQ 18:XLIII-XLVIII). Die Wahl der Handschriften ist dem editorischen Konzept der BHQ verpflichtet, das zum einen die diplomatische Wiedergabe von M L vorhat und zum anderen weitere älteste tiberiensische Textzeugen berücksichtigen will, die in orientalischen Handschriften M A-C , M L17, L34 und M S5 vorliegen. Der Cairo Codex, der im Faksimile mit Bildern sehr niedriger Qualität von Lowinger 1971 herausgegeben wurde, wurde schon in der BHS und deren Vorgängerin Biblia Hebraica von Kittel und Kahle 1937 verwendet. Allerdings benutzte man damals nicht die Bilder, die der Edition von Lowinger zugrunde liegen, sondern jene, die Paul Kahle 1926 machen ließ. 4 Codex Leningradensis, Aleppo Codex und "Damascus Pentateuch" liegen 3 Lesarten dieser Handschrift werden in BHQ 18 zitiert, nicht aber in BHQ 17 und 20. 4 Vgl. Kahle 1947:74; 1959:91 = 1962:99. Eines dieser Bilder wurde in Ettinghausen 1964, pl. XIX (= 1971:463) veröffentlicht.

The Ketib‐Qere (lit. 'written' and 'read') phenomenon is found in the text of medieval masoretic Hebrew Bibles. This phenomenon indicates that a word must be read in a way different to how it is written in the biblical text. The qere reading is a combination of the consonants found in the margin as part of the Masorah Parva (MP), called qere, and the vowels written in the biblical text below the word that must be read differently, called ketib.

Anlässlich der 700 Jahre jüdischer Präsenz im historischen Tirol vereint der hier vorliegende Band neue literarische und historisch-archäologische Erkenntnisse. Die Forschungsergebnisse ergänzen die Geschichte im eigentlichen Sinn und die Geschichte der jüdischen Buchkultur vom Mittelalter bis zur Neuzeit. Wertvolle jüdische Textfragmente aus Tiroler Bibliotheken und Archiven zeugen vom judaistisch-philologischen Reichtum der Funde. Zusätzlich werden Einblicke präsentiert in die fragmentierte Geschichte des Judentums in Tirol von Juden als Randgruppe und Minderheit, in jüdisch-christliche Konversionen, den Judenschutz, sowie in die Architekturgeschichte und jüdische Friedhöfe.

A comparison of English Bibles from 1537 to today, and how they chose between the Masoretic Text and the Septuagint to translate key passages in the Old Testament. Also considers the Orthodox Study Bible, which is translated from the Septuagint.

BIBLID [0544-408X (2006) 55; 475-513] Resumen: Edición, traducción y estudio del original árabe de un apéndice sobre los acentos masoréticos atribuido a ©ayyý¥ por la tradición. Sólo se conocía la traducción hebrea hasta que se identificaron fragmentos del original árabe hallados en la geniza de El Cairo. Las nuevas copias completas de la colección Firkovich ayudan a entender el proceso evolutivo de este apéndice. Abstract: This article includes an edition, translation and study of the original Arabic version of one chapter on Hebrew Cantilation System attributed to ©ayyý § by tradition. It was only known in its Hebrew version until some fragments of the original Arabic were found in the Cairo' geniza. The new and full copies from Firkovich collection help to understand the literary development of this work. Palabras clave: Acentos bíblicos, gramática hebrea, ©ayyý¥, Judeo-Árabe.

"In this paper the recent use of the Masoretic accentuation as a means to establish the colometry in Hebrew verse is evaluated. A comparison of different studies referring to these accents demonstrates that such a reference is made in a rather ad hoc fashion, whereas the accents are not always interpreted in a consistent manner. For that reason in this paper an attempt is made to give a systematic description of the Masoretic accentuation with regard to its use for the colometry of Hebrew verse. In the present part (Part I) the poetic accents were studied and it has been shown that (1) the accents function according to a system which might also provide a guideline for the colometry of the text; (2) the colometry of texts from the "poetic books" in studies referring to the Masoretic accentuation agrees to a large extent with these findings; whereas it was demonstrated that the colometry of diverging passages (e.g. Pss 68 and 110) also could be read according to the Masoretic accentuation; (3) reference to "a major disjunctive accent" is not sufficient, the value of an accent depends on its position within the complete syntax of Masoretic accents. Part II will
deal with the use of the system of accentuation in the so-called "prose books" (or Twenty-one Books)."

The French archaeomusicologist Suzanne Haïk-Vantoura made two important proposals that have never been fully investigated: first, that the te'amim or cantillation marks of the Hebrew scriptures did not originate with the Masoretes, but date back to temple times; second, that she had developed a system for their musical deciphering. This paper suggests that there is indeed evidence for the great antiquity of the Masoretic cantillation. It also suggests that the basic idea of Haïk-Vantoura's deciphering system—that the sublinear te'amim represent the steps of a diatonic scale—is confirmed by more recent archaeomusicological research. Finally, a comparison between the ancient tonus pere-grinus to Psalm 114 and the cantillation of the same psalm deciphered according to Haïk-Vantoura's system provides strong evidence in support of her claims. The fragrance of the songs of Zion blows down through the leaves of the Bible.

*Winner of the 2022 BIAJS Book Prize*

In the first few centuries of Islam, Middle Eastern Christians, Muslims, and Jews alike all faced the challenges of preserving their holy texts in the midst of a changing religious landscape. This situation led Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew scholars to develop new fields of linguistic science in order to better analyse the languages of the Bible and the Qurʾān. Part of this work dealt with the issue of vocalisation in Semitic scripts, which lacked the letters required to precisely record all the vowels in their languages. Semitic scribes thus developed systems of written vocalisation points to better record vowel sounds, first in Syriac, then soon after in Arabic and Hebrew. These new points opened a new field of linguistic analysis, enabling medieval grammarians to more easily examine vowel phonology and explore the relationships between phonetics and orthography. Many aspects of this new field of vocalisation crossed the boundaries between religious communities, first with the spread of ‘relative’ vocalisation systems prior to the eighth century, and later with the terminology created to name the discrete vowels of ‘absolute’ vocalisation systems. This book investigates the theories behind Semitic vocalisation and vowel phonology in the early medieval Middle East, tracing their evolution to identify points of intellectual contact between Syriac, Arabic, and Hebrew linguists before the twelfth century.

You can support open access publishing by downloading this book for free from Open Book Publishers: https://doi.org/10.11647/OBP.0271

Since the 1970's computers are used in the service of textual research and much has been achieved, but there are also drawbacks to the electronic advancement. This paper discusses the conceptual drawbacks for the study of textual criticism. It is also suggested that the use of computers may result in the loss of certain learning skills. The abuse of computers also led to the development of a branch of pseudo-research, and finally, the trustworthiness of electronic tools, especially Wikipedia, is discussed.

This thesis discusses different strategies for interpreting the placement of the ṭəʿ in Masoretic Text of the Hebrew Bible. After introducing the signs and their distribution in the text, the thesis looks at different levels of linguistic analysis where the ṭəʿ provide interesting information. At the word level, word stress and vowel length are discussed. At the phrase level, the different types of phrases are analyzed in light of a closest constituent analysis. At the verse level, the distribution of the ṭəʿ is shown to depend on simple rules which maximize the most common structures of Tiberian Hebrew. Prosodic structure is also evaluated to show what bearing that it has on the placement of the ṭəʿ . Finally, the ṭəʿ are discussed in relation to discourse features.

This master’s thesis deals with three biblical manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah (T-S A 19.11; T-S AS 63.6;  T-S AS 63.59), that are written with Tiberian and Palestinian vocalisation and accentuation signs on the same words. Comparing them one can still find traces of the so-called standard Tiberian tradition, although the usage of Palestinian signs and other Tiberian vocalisation features would point to the non-standard tradition. The placing of the Palestinian accentuation signs seems to show a different understanding of marking stress. Furthermore, vocalisation features, that were generally thought to represent Babylonian influence (i.e. pataḥ/seghol interchange), appear here also in the Palestinian tradition. This thesis also contains a research overview, an introduction to the vocalisation systems of Biblical Hebrew with special regard to the influence of the Syriac vocalisation system, as well as a an excursus on shorthand writing.

In the presented paper author presents an extensive and multilayered explanation of what Masoretic Text (MT) is. Having located MT in the core of great majority of the Bible editions, the author firstly presents the MT as the only text used by organized Judaism from the first century CE onwards. Since it is a medieval text with roots in antiquity, but capable enough of reflecting a thousand year old ancient tradition, a relationship between the forerunners of the medieval MT and the medieval text is further explained. A particular attention is given to the work of the scribes, especially with the reference to the proto-MT. The presentation continues with a respective but condensed presentation of the nature of MT and finally ends with a hermeneutical comparison of MT with the other texts, like Septuagint (LXX), Samaritan Pentateuch (SP) and Dead Sea Scrolls (DSS). ▶

Proofs of a paper published in Eibert Tigchelaar, Pierre Van Hecke, eds., Hebrew of the Late Second Temple Period: Proceedings of a Sixth International Symposium on the Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls and Ben Sira (STDJ 114; Leiden, Brill, 2015), 25-36.

The Masoretic Text (M) is the only complete representative of the Hebrew Bible, and its consonantal framework circulated 1,000 years before the medieval components were added to it. This early text, usually named the proto-Masoretic text, 1 is evidenced in the Judean Desert sites other than Qumran, 2 and actually these sites did not yield any text that differs from the medieval M. The amount of agreement between the consonants of proto-M, for example in the Minor Prophets scroll from Murabba'at or all the Masada texts, and the medieval text as represented by Codex L is remarkable. 3 On the other hand, Qumran yielded only texts that are close to M (M-like texts), as well as several additional groups of texts.

In the Spring of 1869, the Cambridge University Library acquired a medieval Hebrew Bible (Ms. Add. 465), first written in 13th-century Spain and decorated and annotated by various hands in subsequent centuries.  The manuscript contains what many consider the earliest record of a Jewish reader of Christian chapter divisions of the OT.  This article uncovers the story of that manuscript's discovery by Solomon Marcus Schiller-Szinessy (1820–1890), the first practicing Jew formally appointed to an academic position at that university.  It studies Schiller-Szinessy's published and unpublished descriptions of the manuscript, and it reconstructs his understanding of its history of transmission and reception.  It places this story in the distinct but connected contexts of Victorian interests in Rabbinics and in the Massorah, Henry Bradshaw's renewal of the Cambridge University Library, the development of bibliography as a genre of historical scholarship in the Wissenschaft des Judentums, and the late 19th-century understanding of distinct medieval and early modern chapters in the history of Jewish and Christian biblical traditions, their transmission, reception, mutual encounter and critical study.  Finally, the essay takes this case study to reflect on the effect of Jewish emancipation on the academic study of the Hebrew Bible.

We find the proto-Masoretic texts (MT) in two synagogues, in texts and tefillin found with the Judean Desert communities of the Zealots and the followers of Bar Kokhba, the targumim, Jewish-Greek translations, and rabbinic literature. After 70CE, proto-MT was in the hands of the rabbis, and prior to that time in the hands of similar circles. However, there were also persons and communities that did not use MT. None of their versions were based on MT, with the possible exception of the quotations of the Hebrew Ben Sira in Jeremiah. The persons and communities that did not use the proto-MT text are the Qumran community and the authors of all the Second Temple rewritten Bible compositions, based on either SP, the LXX, or a combination of the two. These conclusions are instructive regarding the socio-religious environment of the proto-MT, but not about the proto-MT text itself, which remains enigmatic.

The 10th century Masoretic text renders 1 Samuel 17:4 as Goliath being 6 cubits and 1 span tall (9'9") and therefore a giant. But was he?

I show that historical and archaeological evidence proves that the Hebrew scriptures in the Temple Library, which the historian Josephus rescued and translated into Greek, the ancient Greek Septuagint translation (4th century BC) and the Dead Sea scroll 1QSam found at Qumran dated 50-25 BC all render 1 Samuel 17:4 as Goliath being 4 cubits 1 span (6'9") tall.

So why did the Pharisees and rabbis alter their most sacred text against the express command by God through of Moses? "Do not add to what I command you and do not subtract from it, but keep the commands of the LORD your God that I give you." (Deuteronomy 4:2)

I present the case that the rabbis led by Rabbi Akiva altered 1 Samuel 17:4 for propaganda purposes in order to recruit hesitant Jews into the army of Simon Bar Kokhba who would later be called a false Messiah and "Son of a Lie" by Rabbinic Judaism.

With the text altered, the Rabbi Akiva and the other rabbis could point to their new "corrected" Scriptures which was being distributed throughout Judea, and say, "look at what the Word of God says about David and the giant Goliath who was over 9 feet 9 inches tall." Thus, if David could defeat the giant Goliath, so could they defeat the mighty Roman Empire.

Background The topic of this study is the revision of ancient sources according to the Masoretic text (MT). From our vantage point such a revision sounds like a logical concept since the developments of the past 2000 years have made us accustomed to the idea that MT is the central Scripture text. However, this was not always the case, and the assumption of revisional tendencies cannot automatically be assumed across the board. Each source needs to be analyzed separately, and what is true for the realm of one Greek translation does not necessarily apply to other Greek translations, or to Aramaic translations, and definitely not for Hebrew texts. For example, adaptation of biblical quotations to MT in rabbinic sources is less frequent than one might think. Penkower claims that quotations deviating from MT 1 in the manuscripts of the rabbinic literature or the traditional Jewish commentators were not often changed in manuscripts, 2 while they were in printed editions. 3 The discussion will first lead us to the revision of ancient translations, especially the Septuagint (LXX), and then to the main topic, revision of Hebrew manuscripts.

This text is an example of the Hebrew Pentateuch (a.k.a. Torah) written in the archaic (three-millennia old) script known as Paleo-Hebrew (Ketav 'Ivri), as distinct from the later block-Aramaic script (Ketav 'Ashuri) which became most common for writing Hebrew during the last two millennia. The original Paleo-Hebrew characters are significantly the same as ancient Phoenician, the ancestor to Western alphabets used from antiquity up into the modern day (including Greek, Latin, and English). A table displaying the correspondence between Modern-Hebrew and Paleo-Hebrew scripts along with the alphanumeric values of the letters is provided before the text.

The edition of the Pentateuch on which this current work is based is Meir Ha-Levi Letteris’ 1852 Masoretic text, which is still widely used in synagogues throughout the world today. Letteris was an Austrian philologist of the Haskalah (Jewish Enlightenment) with sympathies for heterodox Judaism, especially the anathematized early-modern philosopher and biblical critic Barukh de Spinoza. This Paleo-Hebrew rendition offers a no-frills text, lacking the diacritical markings and marginal readings of the Masorah (variant readings), as well as the rest of the books of the Hebrew Bible (Tanakh), and made for simple purposes of illustration in humanities and religion.

This paper discusses the stem variance of the root ḥbq in the Bible, suggesting that its inconsistent conjugation does not reflect the original Biblical Hebrew, but rather results from an anachronistic pronunciation created by the Masoretes. The paper reviews the research of Masoretic anachronisms and the methodologies developed to identify them, applying these to the case of the root ḥbq. It concludes that ḥbq belongs to a specific type of Masoretic anachronism, in which original Qal forms were misvocalized by the Masoretes as Piel under the influence of Mishnaic Hebrew. After presenting biblical and extra-biblical evidence to support this conclusion, the paper discusses some of its main implications for the diachronic study of ancient Hebrew: the "late spelling paradox," the scope of the phenomenon of substituting Piel for Qal, and the relation between Masoretic anachronisms and the scholarly debate about the linguistic reliability of the Masoretic text.