Biblical Hebrew Forum

[peter_kirk AT SIL.ORG]

This prompts a controversial suggestion which I would like to float, 
not as my fixed opinion but as an idea I am toying with: The works in 
the Hebrew Bible can be considered as having arrived at a stable and 
generally accepted canonical form only with the formation of the 
proto-Masoretic text type (as already witnessed at Qumran, e.g. in the 
Isaiah scroll). Therefore the text form which should be considered 
"inspired" (in whatever sense anyone might want to take that) is this 
proto-Masoretic text, and the textual basis for Christian (and 
presumably Jewish, though I cannot speak for that) teaching and for 
general purpose Bible translations should be the proto-Masoretic text. 
Therefore (except of course for scholarly research) LXX, Samaritan 
Pentateuch and other early variant texts and versions derived from 
them should be used only for clarification of MT and not to correct 
the text, except where there is good reason to believe that the MT 
does not reflect the proto-MT. I would include the Masoretic 
vocalisation in this to the extent that it can be considered an 
accurate reflection of the vocalisation understood by those who 
stabilised the proto-MT.

Comments?

Peter Kirk


______________________________ Reply Separator 
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Subject: Re: Hebrew vowel pointings in the MT
Author:  atombomb AT sirius.com at internet
Date:    07/04/1999 13:03


Andrew Kulikovsky wrote:

> Only the autographs are inspired.

Andrew:  Your other question (not quoted here) about the origin of the 
vowel pointings is a good one, but I would quibble with the aforegoing 
statement.  Only the autographs are inspired, unless the text belonged 
to, and in some sense was written by, a community which closed its canon
(and I mean the canon of any single work) at a later stage in the process.

Regards to all.

John Burnett