Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Yohanan bin-Dawidh" <yohanan.bin.dawidh AT gmail.com>]

Dear Yitzhak,

You wrote, "Then, the Massoretic version at some point reinterpreted
"bprm$l$" as "bprm $l$", while it should have read "bpr m$l$". So,
here is an example where two versions (DSS, LXX) against the MT
suggest rereading the words differently."

I might be a bit biased, since I do personally feel the Masoretic Text
as we have it today to be more accurate than the LXX or DSS, but even
if I was not biased, I must ask - what makes one think that it should
not have read "bpr m$I$" over "bprm $I$"? Is it merely because we have
two sources which suggest the idea of "bprm $I$"?

While it is possible for the best of copiest to make a mistake, and
thus any text can be copied down improperly, and thus changing the
meaning of text, who are we somewhat 2,000 plus years later to decide
who made the mistake?

I think that on a personal level we can decide such things, and if
someone would like to publish, now that we have scanners and
computers, which make it easier to refrain from making mistakes, a
copy of the Hebrew text of the DSS, or the Greek LXX then this
acceptable. And I think that if a person, or even a group of people
want to hold these as being more accurate than the MT, and thus base
their ideology and theology upon said documents then this is
completely acceptable, but I do not think that we being somewhat 2,000
plus years removed can claim this should have read this way, or this
should have read that way.

Yohanan bin-Dawidh