Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Rolf Furuli" <furuli AT online.no>]

Dear James,

The answer is clearly No. We cannot learn anything regarding the old 
pronunciation of Hebrew from the LXX.  The Masoretes were extremely careful 
when they copied the text, and we have every reason to believe that their 
vocalization represented the pronunciation that was used in B.C.E.

A curiosity: This year I defended my doctoral dissertation, which gives a 
completely new definition of the finite and infinite verbs of classical 
Hebrew. In this work I argue that Hebrew has only two conjugations and not 
four, and that the so-called consecutive forms were invented by the 
Masoretes. One of my opponents, from the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, had 
problems in understanding how I could view the Masoretes as extremely 
faithful copyists and at the same time say that they invented the 
consecutive forms. We had a very lively discussion about this, were he gave 
many examples of the faithfulness of the Masoretes.


Best regards

Rolf Furuli
University of Oslo


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Read, James C" <K0434995 AT kingston.ac.uk>
To: <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Sunday, July 24, 2005 2:33 PM
Subject: [b-hebrew] masorete pointing v's LLX transliterations


> I don't have an opinion in this regard but recent discussions
> have made me wonder:
>
> Could it be that the pointing of the masoretes only show the
> pronunciation of the period?
> And that thus we cannot look to them as a good source for
> archaic vowel pronunciation?
> And that consequently the older LLX transliterations give a
> better source for understanding archaic vowel pronunciation?
> (within their limitations)
> While the hebrew text helps us to put the consonants in the
> right places that the LLX transliterations were incapable of
> expressing?
>
> Any thoughts on the matter, much appreciated.
>
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