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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Jacob ben Hayyim - Masoretic Text

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Schmuel <schmuel AT nyc.rr.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Jacob ben Hayyim - Masoretic Text
  • Date: Thu, 28 Jul 2005 13:23:06 +0100

On 28/07/2005 03:02, Schmuel wrote:

Hi Folks,

Subject was: Re: [b-hebrew] Jacob ben Hayyim -was YHWH Pronunciation

Steven Miller,

biographical info on Jacob ben Hayyim? .. http://www.innvista.com/culture/religion/bible/glossary.htm
"In 1524, Jacob ben Hayyim published a printed text of the Hebrew Old
Testament, using a multitude of high quality manuscripts, including several lists
of Masoretic notes. This became a standard for printed Jewish Bibles.


I believe this is 100% accurate, until the 20th century and the modern
textcrit movement, ie. until Gerhard Kittel's third edition. Checking
Kittel in the biography is also an interesting research endeavor, especially
for those so worried about the spiritual purity of their Bible text laborers.


Only in the last two hundred years has it been so accepted in the Christian world.
"


This doesn't make sense, since it was used for the King James Bible. Likely
the Geneva also, although that should be checked. ...


The story may not be that simple. Ben Hayyim's text is called the "Second Rabbinic Bible", but before that there was the "First Rabbinic Bible", published by Daniel Bomberg in Venice and 1517 - see http://www.glaird.com/inspire3.htm. See further below.

By the way, I also found a link (untested) to a free downloadable Ben Hayyim Bible at http://www.christianhospitality.org/benchayyim.htm. But this is apparently incomplete. This page confuses the issue by calling this Second Rabbinic Bible the Bomberg Bible - although Bomberg was perhaps the printed of both.

... And there really weren't other Christian Bibles of note till about
1880. ...


This isn't fair. English is not the only language in the world! Also, before these two was the translation of William Tyndale (about half of the Hebrew Bible) and John Rogers (alias Thomas Matthew, who completed Tyndale's work), also the Great Bible which is probably based on Tyndale and Rogers. Indeed, the KJV is based largely (83%, according to one estimate) on the work of Tyndale and Rogers, although revised from a variety of Hebrew texts including both the First and Second Rabbinic Bibles. But did Tyndale use Ben Hayyim's text? It would have been very newly published when Tyndale started work on translating the Hebrew in the late 1520's. I can't find any clear statement of which text Tyndale used, but at http://www.litencyc.com/php/sworks.php?rec=true&UID=3271 it is suggested that at least one of his sources was Ximenez' 1517 Complutensian Polyglot.

Tyndale also worked with Luther and from his translation. Now Luther cannot have used the Ben Hayyim text because he was working before Ben Hayyim (his Pentateuch was published in 1523); in fact it seems he used Gerson's 1494 Brescia edition (see The New Schaff-Herzog Encyclopedia of Religious Knowledge (1908-1912) as quoted at http://www.bible-researcher.com/hebrewtext1.html).

But does this actually make any difference? According to one site I found, there are a total of just EIGHT differences between the Ben Hayyim and Ben Asher (Aleppo/Leningrad) texts, none of which affect the meaning. (I accept that this count of eight does not include the different pointings of YHWH.) So, are the differences really enough to make a fuss about?

...

KJB used the ben Hayim text directly as its primary underlying text,
augmented more with things like Kimchi's grammar than anything else. ...


It seems that the KJV translators in fact followed Tyndale and Rogers as much as any Hebrew text. And Ben Hayyim's edition was only one of the many Hebrew texts they had available.

--
Peter Kirk
peter AT qaya.org (personal)
peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
http://www.qaya.org/



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