Biblical Hebrew Forum

[joel AT exc.com]

>The Massoretes did not interpret the text, they were passing on a
>consonantal and vocalization tradition as they had heard and seen the
>text.  While some interpretation may have gone on, -- both in the

I don't understand.  Your position is that they "did not interpret the
text" but that "some interpretation may have gone on"?

I suppose we'll have to agree to disagree.  My position, which seems
to be supported by overwhelming evidence, is that the Hebrew
pronunciation of the Masoretes does not accurately reflect the
pronunciation from over 1,000 years before them, so using the Tiberian
pronunciation diacritic marks (a.k.a. "vowels") to understand Hebrew
from the first millennium BCE is simply a mistake in anything other
than a religious context.

-Joel


Joel M. Hoffman, PhD
http://www.lashon.net/JMH
http://caje33.lashon.net