Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Bearpecs AT aol.com]

In a message dated 7/30/02 7:25:10 PM Eastern Daylight Time, dwashbur AT nyx.net writes:
> But if we assume the Masoretes were preserving the pronunciation 
> traditions as handed down to them, they should have known, as well.  So none of this 
> really helps to explain the phenomenon under consideration. 


I don't understand this.  This Masoretes considered the consonantal text as fixed and pointed HW) as hi' when it was feminine because that was their pronunciation even though it did not correspond with the text.  If the text at one time was written in a script in which like DSS the waw and yod were virtually indistinguishable, later conservative scribes could well have uniformly written HW) for HY) even though they knew very well how to pronounce it.  This may well be evidence (as confusing as it is) for dating the fixing of the standard orthography of the Torah, but I do not at all see why this needs to be evidence for dating the composition of the Torah.