iii. The Work of the Ma{s)souetes.— Whence comes the text of our extant M.SS? In all essen- tials, of course, from older MSS. Hut there is no doubt that all copyists meant to work rnz~n •p-'?!;, i.e. according to the traditions which had been handed down to them as to the writing and read- ing of the sacred texts.
A. First of all, as to the word moo. It is the custom now in many quarters to write n-pT (cf. n-is;, r-ii;), and to derive from the post-IJiblical verb 10D 'hand down.' The older form of writing it, however, is n-iny. This word is taken from Ezk203' (where it siguiUes ' binding ', from the root ■ok), but in i>ost-BililicaI usage it assumed quite a diil'erent ■euse (as nvnix of Is 41^45" means in New Heb.
not ' coming things ' but ' letters '). mcD in New Heb. means idimarily 'tradition,' e.g. Mishna, iihi-hiliiit, vi. 1 ; heuce the derivation from i;? (Aliuth, i. 1) might \>q per se admis.sible, and even the pronunciation /!•;;.•;, but the oldest witnesses, as has been said, are in favour of n-;:^. In the next place, moo stands for the tradition relating to tlie interpretation of .Scripture. K. 'Al>iba s<iys {Abuth, iii. 13), ' Masoreth is a fence to 'I'urah,' i.e. the prescriptions of tlie oral Law make transgression of the written Law ditlicult. Further, however, the word Masoreth was applied to the tradition re- lating to the Bible text, and tho.se who busied themselves with this tradition were called '^1^3 mm, or Mal,s)sorctes.
B. The 24 books of the OT were considered, at all events as early as the l.st cent, of the Christian era, as holy (see Jos. c. Apiun. i. 8 [cf. PRE^ vii. 427 f. = ' ix. 7.51 f.]). It was an object to preserve the text of these books, in paiticular and above all that of the I'entateuch, and its traditional understiindin;; for coming generations. This was accomplished first Vy attention to the consonantal text.
(a) Conscientious care on the part of the copyists was ensured by numerous rules about the writing out of Bible codices, especially of synagogue rolls (cf. above, ii. G).
(6) They counted the verses and the words of each of the 24 books and of many sections ; they reckoned which was the middle verse and the middle word of each book ; nay, they counted the letters both of particular .sections and even of whole books. The Talmud, Kiddushin, 30a, says: ' The ancients were called Sopherim because they counted [-co ' to count '] all the letters in the Torah. They said : Waw in [inj Lv 11''^ is the middle letter in the Torah ; a-n a-n Lv 10" is the middle word ; nVjn.Ti Lv 13*" is the middle verse ; Ayin in lyo Ps 80" is the middle letter in the Fsalms, and ni.h cim Ps 78** is the middle verse.' R. Joseph asked : 'To which side does waw in 'gah6n belong? Answer : Let us bring a Torah, and I will count. Surely, Rabba bar bar I.Ianna has said that they did not go away until they liad brought a Torah and counted' (ci. Morinus, Excrcitationes biblicce, Paris, 1669, p. 442). They counted also the fre- quency of the occurrence of words, phra.se.s, or forms, both in the whole Bible and in parts of it. Slutlibitth, 496 : ' As the sages sat together, the question was raised. To what do the 3'j principal works that are forbiihlen on the Sabbath day correspond ? I,Iaiiina b. I,Iama said : To the [39] works at the building of the tabernacle ; Jonathan b. Eleazar said in name of Simeon b. Jose : They corres])ond to the 39 occurrences of the word .idnVo in the Torah. Then IJab Jo.seph asked, Does Gn 39" belong to the number or not ? Abaji replied, Let him brini: a Lawbook and count.'
(f) They coUectcil notabilia into groups, and thus not only helped the recollection or these, but also facilitated the control of the MSS. I'"or instance, H words written with final waw are read with he (cod. 916 A.D., Jer 2^); 14 words written with linal Ae are read with waw (cod. 916 A.D., Ezk 37-"). There is a great fondness for anything alphabetical ; e.g. we have an ali>hiilietical list of words which occur only twice in tlie OT — once with and once without ivixv at the beginning : n^jK 1 S 1" and n)->}] Gn 27'" etc. (cod. 916 A.I>., Jer 10'-').
((/) The scriptio plena and ■<:cri/)lio dcfcctiva and other peculiarities of the trailitional text were very often noted in the Haggada (esp. in the Midrashim), and not seldom also in the llahikht'i. These notes serve on the one hand as a proof that the form of writing remarked on was actually received from tradition ; and on the other hanil they helped to ensure that this particular form was retained in
730 TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAJSIENT
TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
the Bible codices. For instance, in Gn 23" llie name Ephron is written the first time jn:» {plcnc) and the second time psy (defective). On tins the midrash Gen. rabha 58 remarks : ' Pr 2S-- " He that hath an evil eye hasteth to be rich, and con- sidereth not that poverty shall come upon him " ; that i.s Epliron who wished to get possession of the riches of the just one, but afterwards he came into poverty.' In Hag 1* Kethibh lias nnrx, IferS n-\2-3K. Talmud, Yoma, 216 asks : ' Why is n not written ? Answer : Because five [n as numerical sign = 5] things which were present in the first temple were wanting in the second, the ark of the covenant with kappureth and cherubim, the holy fire, the Divine gracious presence (Shekinah), the Holy Spirit, and the Urim and Thummim.'