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b-hebrew - Re: [b-hebrew] Where to Get a Good Hebrew OT

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  • From: Peter Kirk <peterkirk AT qaya.org>
  • To: Jon Hjorleifur Stefansson <jonhjorleifur AT gmail.com>
  • Cc: b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Where to Get a Good Hebrew OT
  • Date: Mon, 17 Oct 2005 12:28:40 +0100

On 11/10/2005 15:51, Jon Hjorleifur Stefansson wrote:

Hello everyone.
I didn't mean Mikra'ot Gedolot but just the OT text itself - that will be
good enough to start with. What version/edition would you recommend? I was
thinking of Meir Leteris (published by the British and Foreign Bible
Society). I have been told that there are two lines of mss: From Ben Chayyim
in 1524-25 and then another school based on Aleppo and others. Could
somebody please explain that to me (is that wrong, right or what?) or refer
me to some mss "family tree" on the web? I just want to be informed so that
I can know what there is to choose from. Thank you very much for answering
these beginner questions, and maybe I'll drop in a question/comment later on
when I know some Hebrew myself.


I'm surprised to see no reply to this for nearly a week, so I will attempt a reply.

From how I understand things, the Ben Asher texts represented by the Aleppo and Leningrad codices are the closest to the original Masoretic text, with the pointing as originally perfected by the Masoretes. Over the following several centuries some small changes were made to this pointing, resulting in the printed text of Ben Chayyim etc, from nearly 600 years later than the Aleppo Codex. For such reasons scholars tend to prefer the Ben Asher text. But I think that the differences between the two traditions are rather small - much smaller than for example between different New Testament text types.

Printed editions based on the Leningrad Codex include BHS (Biblica Hebraica Stuttgartensia) published by the Bible Societies, and an edition prepared by Dotan in Israel. This text is also used in many online editions and Bible study software.

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





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