Masorah
Masoretes, Masorah and Mayhem
James Cuénod
Part 1: The Masoretes
Understanding the text we have
The Text we Don't Have
- It's not like the NT (an eclectic text)
- It's not “THE” Masoretic text
- It's not the “Consonantal Text”
The Text we Have
- Consonantal Text (100 CE)
- Rabbinic Period (200–700 CE)
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Talmud:
Mishnah (200 CE)
Gemara (500 CE)
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Talmud:
- Masoretic Period (700–1000 CE)
- Aleppo Codex
- Leningrad Codex
- Dead Sea Scrolls (1946–1956 CE)
The Masoretes' Purpose:
- Pronounciation
- Vowels
- Accents
- Text Criticism - Masorah
transmission & Preservation
Key Question:
Do we Care?
Part 2: The Masorah
Interpreting the text we have
Masorah parva (/qatanah)
Ketiv/qere (כתב / קרא)
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The Tetragrammaton
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הִוא / הוּא
- *Technically a few others as well
- What do we know about them?
In answer to the two questions which were asked about the origins of the Ketiv-Qere, it is likely (1) that the Masoretes intended for the Qere to be preferred over the Ketiv, and (2) that manuscript readings do underlie some Qere variants, although it is not likely that they derive directly from a critical collation of manuscripts. Perhaps the immediate origin of the Ketiv-Qere system was the need to record both an authoritative written text and a separate reading tradition, but the ultimate source of the reading tradition was a popular manuscript recension. This would account for both the presence of Qere readings in ancient sources and the function which the Ketiv-Qere system seems to have performed during the Masoretic period.
Other Masoretic Notes
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The number system
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The most common formula
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How to figure this stuff out
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Interesting notes... (Job 32:3)
The Interesting Stuff
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Bold letters (Deut 6:4)
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Lots of dots (Ps 27:13)
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Inverted Nuns (Num 10:35–36)
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Suspended Nuns (Judg 18:30)
Masorah (1): Masoretes, Masorah and Mayhem
By James Cuénod
