Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Karl Randolph" <kwrandolph AT email.com>]

Steven:

You wrote,

> One reason I will bypass Karl's suggestion is that I consider the
> Masoretic vowels as part of the Received Text, not arbitrary or
> guesswork.

How many times do I need to repeat that I do not believe that the
Masoritic points were arbitrary or guesswork? Is the fact that I
believe that they are sometimes wrong sufficient to bring that
charge?

Once more for the record, I believe that the points reflect a
tradition as it existed at the time of the Masorites. There is more
than one reason to believe that that tradition had changed from the
pronunciation used when Tanakh was written. Further, there are
demonstrable places where the tradition had erred, which is
possible from orally transmitted tradition. But nowhere is this
“arbitrary or guesswork”. Nor is it “made up”.

I prefer to read Tanakh without the points because I found that
where the points are right, they are just so much extra clutter,
where they are wrongc they are distracting.

Karl W. Randolph.

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