Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Uri Hurwitz <uhurwitz AT yahoo.com>]

> Clay Bartholomew  wrote, inter alia:
> 
> "....I have worked on more than my share of large scale lost causes and I 
> thought
> that biblical philology was going to get me away from all that 
> angst...."


   Clay, As a minor cosolation consider this  ---  most prose sections in the 
HB are quite clear. I don't think there was ever confusion between Abraham 
and Isaac as to who fathered whom,  nor in the dramatic duel between David 
and Goliath who the winner was. This refers to the narrative, rather than the 
history.

   So, considering the age of these texts, one may actually feel quite 
satified with what has been achieved so far.

    Kol Tuv                            Uri



                
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>From pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca  Tue Mar 15 09:11:58 2005
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From: "Ken Penner" <pennerkm AT mcmaster.ca>
To: "'Schmuel'" <schmuel AT escape.com>, "'Hebrew'" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Subject: RE: [b-hebrew] DSS --> MT silent letters and vowel-points
Date: Tue, 15 Mar 2005 09:12:45 -0500
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> To what extent do we have a good study on these changes, and 
> to what extent are they handled uniformly in Masoretic vowel 
> pointing. (on those examples where we might see the spelling 
> differences so represented)
> 
> Has anybody done a study saying along these lines..
>   a) here are x dozen silent alefs in such and such a section 
> of the DSS
>   b) here are the same words in the Masoretic Text, with the 
> following letters and vowel-points 
>   c) this shows such and such a consistency/inconsistency in usage.

A short bibliography:
E.Y. Kutscher, The Language and Linguistic Background of the Isaiah Scroll
(1QIsa^a) (Leiden: Brill, 1974).
E. Qimron, The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Atlanta: Scholars, 1986).
M. Abegg, "The Hebrew of the Dead Sea Scrolls," The Dead Sea Scrolls after
Fifty Years (eds. P. Flint and J. VanderKam; Leiden: Brill, 1998),
1:325-358.
E. Y. Kutscher, "Hebrew Language," Encyclopaedia Judaica 16:1583-1590
(Jerusalem, 1972).
A. Saenz-Badillos, A History of the Hebrew Language (tr. J. Elwolde;
Cambridge UP, 1993). 

Kutscher has some sections (B.5-7) on alef as mater lectionis in 1QIsa^a on
pages 160-164 of his book; Qimron has sections 100.61-100.7 on alef as vowel
letter in non-biblical DSS on pages 22-24. 

Kutscher's Postscript to his chapter on spelling begins, "In this chapter I
have endeavoured to prove that the origin of the 1QIsa^a's peculiar spelling
is to be sought in the orthography current at the time" (186).

In other words, as Peter noted, the spelling was not frozen, and we see
similar spellings in the Mishnah. As Karl has noted previously, some of the
spellings are due to Aramaic influence (conversely, some of the Aramaic
spellings are due to Hebrew influence).

Ken Penner, McMaster/DSS
Dead Sea Scrolls scholars' list owner,
http://mailman.McMaster.CA/mailman/listinfo/g-megillot