H. LiTBRATORB. — H. L. Sttack, art. 'Massom'in PRE^ix. pp. 388-394; II W. Bacher, 'A contribution to the history of the t«rm Massomh' in JQR, 1891, pp. 785-790; 'Die Massora' in Winter und Wiinsche, Die jiid. Litteratur sett AbschliLSS de* Kanans, it (Trier, 1894) pp. 121-132 ; I Is. Harris, 'The rise and development of the Massora' in JQR, 1889, pp. 128-142, 223- 257; I Ginsburg, Introd.. (above, L J) passim, esp. p. 421 ff.; I EliM Levita, miDD.T miDD 1S3, Venite, 1638, 4<> ; Ch. D. Ginsburg, The Sfassoreth ha-inassnrtth of E. L., viih an Eng. tr. aiid . . . notes, London, 1807 ; J. Buxtorf, Tiberias sive com- mentarius inasorethicus triplex, Basel, 1605(l8ted. 1G20); (1 S. l-Veusdorff, Stassoretisches H orterbuch, Hannover, 1876 (20 and 387 pp.), 4«; II Ch. D. Ginsburg, T/ie Massorah compiled from 3ISS, alphabetically and texically arraivied, London, 1880-85, 8 vols. fol. (758, 838, and SS3 pp.) ; II S. Daor und II. L Strack, Die Dikdttke ha-tfamim des Ahron ben Moscheh ben Ascfter, mtui andere alte qramnuUisch. inassorethischs Lehrstiicke, l^ipzig, 1879 (42 and 95 pp.).
iv. Eaulier Traces of the Heb. Text of tub OT. — The work of the Ma(s)soretes was ended (see above, iii. F) at the latest in the 9th cent., and lies before us in this form in the St. Peters- burg codex of the Latter Prophets, 916 A.D., and in other MSS. What other means have we now of ascertaining what was the form of text in earlier times ?
A. On the margins of many codices, sometimes also at the end, there are notices of difi'erences between various authorities, and of readings found in MSS that are now lost. From these notices we gather, for instance, that the Jews of the West (3t;:9), i.e. Palestine, diflered from those of the East (mm, nrp), i.e. Babylonia, even in regard to their Bible text. This difference, moreover, con-
T1':XT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 731
cerneil not only the Prophets and the Hagiographa, but also the I'eiituteuch, not only the tonsonanta, but also the punctuation ; cf. Giusburg, Intrud. pp. 197-240. The Eastern Madn'lia'i were not always at one among themselves ; the views of the BtUolars of Sura dillered on not a few questions from those of the scholars of Neharde'a. Cf. Strack, ' Ueber verloren gegangene Handschriften des AT ' in Geo. Al. Kohut, Semitic Studies, Berlin, 1897, pp. 500-572.
IJ. The quotations in the Talmuds and the oldest Midrashim. The present writer has called attention to the importance of these quotations in hxs Prulcrjomcna cntica in VT Heb., Leipzig, 187.3, pp. o'J-lll, esp. p. 91 ff. A prerequisite, which has not yet been supplied, for such investigations is critical editions of the Jewish literature just named.
C. As to the activity of the ^opherim [ypa/i- luLT€h), i.e. those students of the Law who jire- ceded the Ma(8)sorete8, and laboured during the last centuries B.C. and at the beginning of the Christian era, we have, unfortunately, only very scanty information. The princiiial passage is Talmud, ^'cdariin, 376, 38a : ' A law given to Moses on Sinai (i.e. a very ancient tradition) is the following : D'lSio Kipa, the pronunciation iixed by the Sopherim, e.g. O'C'f shnmdyim, accented on the penult ; 'o -BEy, the cancelling [of waw] by the ^op/ierim before inx Gn 18» 24", Nu 3P, Ps 68=«, and before tosst: Ps 36' ; p'rij Kb] [np, words read which are not written in the text, e.g. n-js 2 S 8', t'x after bxf 2 S 10^, c-.s^ Jer 3P», a> after -.T Jer 50^, n!< before -^; Itu 2", '-^x Ru S"- " ; j.-jB «';) i?'"?, words written but cancelled in reading, e.g. k; after the second n'j;: 2 K 5", nxi before .nison Jer 32", the second "PT Jer 51', the second roq Ezk 48'*, CN Uu 3'^.' * This record does not give all the instances : there were many differences as to the ipre^nce or the absence of the waw conjunctive. There were more words read but not written, and written but not read ; see Frensdorlf, Okhltih we'olc/dah, Nos. 97, 98 ; and Ginsburg, Massor. ii. p. 54 f. We learn from the above extract that the Snpherim were not simply copyists but revisers of the text. — A large part of their work consisted in removing everything which could give offence in any waj' to pious souls when the sacred texts were used in the course of jjublic worship. Further, the Divine names, especially the Tetragrammaton, had to be protected against irreverent, and above all against frequent, utterance (see §§ v., vi, and Ginsburg, Introd. pp. 345-404).
It may be assumed as certain that the results of the common labours of the Sopherim in Jeru- salem were utilized in the Bible codices that were prepared under their superintendence. These codices would then serve as the basis of future copies. When differences were remarked between M.SS, especially those kept in the sanctuary, it was the custom to follow the majority ; cf. Pal. Taliu. Ta'anilh, iv. fol. 6Sa[accordiu<j to Sopherim, vi. 4, Kesh Lalfish is the author of the record] : 'Three codices of the Pent, were in the court of the temple. In Dt 33'-'' one read pyn, two njiyn ; they accepted the text of the two, and rejected that of the one. In Ex 24' one read •cit:;i, two nv3 ; they accepted the text of the two, and re- jected that of the one. In one codex k'.t was written nine times, in two eleven times ; they accepted the text of the two, and rejected that of the one.' ('oio;') was, according to Talm. Mcij. 9a, one of the alterations made by the seventy-