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  • From: Trevor Peterson <06PETERSON AT cua.edu>
  • To: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] Authority of the Masoretes
  • Date: Tue, 3 Aug 2004 14:23:47 -0400

>===== Original Message From "wattswestmaas" <wattswestmaas AT eircom.net> =====
>Hallo Members,
>
>With particular reference to the 'qere' and 'ketiv' readings of the
>scripture: How much "authority" is given to the variant readings? Are they
>generally preferred than what the written text would imply?

Depends on who you're asking. Generally speaking Orthodox Jewish readers
trust
them implicitly. In my experience there are Evangelical Christians who come
very close to the same position. I suspect that most others are more critical
in their treatment of the qere readings. Part of the question is how you
explain where the qere readings arose. Some of them seem to be euphemistic,
to
replace an offensive word with a less offensive. Some seem to be little more
than standardization of spelling. Sometimes the differences are a bit more
substantive, but the reason is not always clear. There are also cases to
consider where it appears that a word has been pointed according to two
different understandings. I'm rather fond of the notion that they were
basically preserving what they knew to be the oral reading in the synagogue
and not really trying to critique readings on their own. Of course, this
still
leaves the question of where the synagogue readings came from, but from the
standpoint of how the Masoretes did their work, I think it makes the most
sense.

Trevor Peterson
CUA/Semitics





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