Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Alexander Oldernes <alexander AT oldernes.no>]

It was discussed on page 144 in his book:

This complex system of multiple qeres produced numerous errors within the 
same codex. For example, in the codex B19a, which is considered by 
specialists to be one of the best copies, there are seven different 
pointings of the Tetragram. The most frequent error is the transformation of 
the vowels e, a of the qere into e, o, a (Gn 3:14 9:26 18:17; Ex 3:2 
13:3,9,12,15 14:1,8; Lv 23:34 25:17; Dt 31:27 32:9 33:12,13; 1S 1:11; 1K 
3:5; Jr 2:37 3:1,21,22,23,25 4:1,3,4,8; 5:2,3,9,18,19,22,29; 6:9; 8:13 30:10 
36:8; Ezk 33:23 44:5 46:13; Os 10:3; Na 1:3; Ml 3:23; Ps 15:1 40:5 47:6 
100:5 116:5,6; Pr 1:29), or the vowels e, i into e, o, i (1K 2:26; Is 50:4; 
Jr 1:6 7:20; Ezk 2:4 3:11,27 5:5 8:1 12:10 13:16 14:21,23 16:36 17:9 20:39 
21:33 22:31 23:32 24:6,14; 26:21 28:2 30:22 33:25 35:11 36:2 39:17 43:27 
46:16; Za 9:14; Ps 73:28).

QERE         ADONAY            ÈLOHIM
usual         hw:hy³  (e, ,a)    hwIhy³  (e, ,i)
Gn 3:14    h/:hy³  (e,o,a)       hwIhyO  (è, ,i)    Gn 15:2, 8
Ps 144:15 hw:hy}  (a, ,a)    h/Ihy³  (e,o,i)  1K 2:26
                      h/IhyO  (è,o,i)  Jg 16:28

  The situation is identical for other codices. The most frequent error is 
the transformation e, a into e, o, a, thus the changing of the form YeHWaH 
into YeHoWaH, which one finds in the Aleppo codex (Ezk 3:13; etc.) and in 
the Or4445 codex (Ex 16:7; 40:29; etc.) These errors are very old and can be 
observed on reproductions of biblical fragments (P. Kahle - Masoreten des 
Westens Stuttgart 1927 Ed. V.V.W. Kohlhammer  p. 17/1 sheet 930 p.19/3 sheet 
946 p.24/8 sheet 1017) dated between 700 and 900. Something that doubtless 
facilitated this kind of error, in spite of the scrupulous attention of the 
copyists, was the presence of a sign of cantillation, the rebia, which was 
very difficult to differentiate from the point representing the vowel o. So, 
from the twelfth to the fifteenth century CE the qere e, a (kept by the 
present BHS) changed into e, o, a (kept by the former BHK) which would 
become the standard qere in Jewish Bibles.


---

Alexander Oldernes
Norway


----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Peter Kirk" <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
To: "Yigal Levin" <leviny1 AT mail.biu.ac.il>
Cc: "b-hebrew" <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>
Sent: Thursday, September 15, 2005 1:29 PM
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Masoretic vocalization of the name


> On 15/09/2005 11:53, Yigal Levin wrote:
>
> > The Aleppo Codex, if I remember correctly, does have the holam over the 
> > he.
> > So the Leningrad's spelling the Tetragrammaton without it, picked up by 
> > BHS,
> > seems to be unique.
> You do not remember correctly. Let me repost here a passage from
> Gertoux's book posted here by Alexander Oldernes on 18th July this year:
>
> >   The situation is identical for other codices. The most frequent error 
> > is the transformation e, a into e, o, a, thus the changing of the form 
> > YeHWaH into YeHoWaH, which one finds in the Aleppo codex (Ezk 3:13; etc.) 
> > and in the Or4445 codex (Ex 16:7; 40:29; etc.) These errors are very old 
> > and can be observed on reproductions of biblical fragments (P. Kahle - 
> > Masoreten des Westens Stuttgart 1927 Ed. V.V.W. Kohlhammer  p. 17/1 sheet 
> > 930 p.19/3 sheet 946 p.24/8 sheet 1017) dated between 700 and 900. ...
> Whatever we might think of the characterisation as "errors", this makes
> it very clear that the regular pointing in the Aleppo codex is
> sheva-qamats, but that sheva-holam-qamats is found occasionally e.g. at
> Ezekiel 3:13.
>
>
> --
> Peter Kirk
> peter AT qaya.org (personal)
> peterkirk AT qaya.org (work)
> http://www.qaya.org/
>
>
>
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