Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>]

----- Original Message -----
From: "Daniel R. Pater" <paterdr AT hotmail.com>
> In conclusion: the mem finalis was introduced into the text at some time
> after the writing of the Qumran Isaiah scroll (ca 100 BC) and sometime
> before the final flowering of the Tiberian masoretic school in the 10th
> century AD, when the Aleppo Codex was produced.  At that time the text was
> written as two words but to be read as one.  This is confirmed by the Mm
> note in Leningrad B19a for Gen 30:11 and the Mp note at IChr 34:6.
>
> Respectfully submitted,
> Daniel R. Pater

Dear Daniel,

You are assuming that there is a direct "line of decsent" from the Qumran
Isaiah scroll to the Aleppo codex, and that the Qumran scroll represents the
"normative" tradition of the 1st century BCE. How do you know this? Maybe
there was also a "final mem" tradition, which the scribe who wrote the
Qumran scroll ignored or corrected. How would we know?

Yigal