Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Lewis Reich" <LBR AT sprynet.com>]

On 31 Mar 99, at 11:24, Andrew Kulikovsky wrote:

> I have a question in relation to the vowel pointings of the MT.
> 
> Recently, I had a guy telling me that because they are additions to the text
> they are not the word of God (ie. not inspired nor authoritive).

I am sure that others will have contributions to add, but perhaps I 
can start by observing that without the vowel pointings, God's word 
would consist only of consonants.  However, spoken Hebrew includes 
vowels as well as consonants.

Jewish Torah scrolls to this day include only the consonantal text; 
there are no vowels or punctuation marks, just as there are no vowels 
in the DSS.  However, these texts were all read and understood by 
their readers as carrying implicit vowels with them.  

> When were these pointings added to the text and exactly by who? On what 
> basis
> did they decide which pointings to use?

Just as there were different textual variants, there were doubtless 
different traditions about vowel pointing in some instances.  The 
vowel pointing of the traditional Jewish text (the "Massoretic text") 
was standardized (along with the consonantal text and the 
accompanying musical chant) around a thousand years ago.  The 
traditions (*masorah*) on which the work was based was considerably 
older, of course.

Lewis Reich
LBR AT sprynet.com