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  • From: Bearpecs AT aol.com
  • To: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Versification of the Tanach
  • Date: Sun, 17 Jul 2005 11:50:15 EDT


In a message dated 7/17/2005 11:01:28 AM Eastern Daylight Time,
mail AT cvkimball.com writes:

"The organization of the Tanach into chapters and verses is a late
(14-th century) development by Christians which was subsequently
accepted by Jews."



Not exactly correct.

See_Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible_ by Emanuel Tov, 2001, pp. 50-53:

The most basic division of the text was into the sections which were read
weekly in the synagogue (parashot in the case of an annual cycle, sidrot in
the
case of a trienniel cycle).

Division of the text into paragraphs (parashiyyot), either open (petuHot) or
closed (se+umot), was done before the proto-Massoretic texts of Qumran were
written.

The division into verses was certainly ancient, and the Talmud discusses,
for example, that a minimum of three verses must be read in a public
reading.
The Masoretes formalized the versification with the cantillation accents
(silluq ending a verse), and compiled counts of the number of verses in
books,
weekly parashot, etc. In a few instances, there were, of course, some
disagreements between Eastern and Western Masoretes on the versification.
The
numbering of the verses, however, came from the manuscript tradition of the
Vulgate.

"The division into chapters was established in the thirteenth centruy by
Archbishop Stephen Langton from Canterbury, England, who also worked in
Paris.
The earliest manuscript containing the division of Bishop Langton is the
Paris mauscript of V from the thriteenth century. From V, this division was
transferred to the manuscripts and editions of the Hebrew Bible."






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