Biblical Hebrew Forum

[Harold Holmyard <hholmyard3 AT earthlink.net>]

(sorry about the duplication; the automatic way b-Hebrew does the reply 
to the individual rather than the group should be changed)

George,
> The Sopherim are believed to have established the text, and
> they finished their work in about 300 B.C. So textual evidence of what
> existed before their work should not be expected in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
>
> Where are you getting this information from, Harold? I'm not sure we can talk 
> about an 'established' text in 300 BC. There is a Proto-Masoretic family of 
> texts, along with the LXX Vorlage, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and other 
> non-aligned text types. Are you perhaps thinking within the Masoretic 
> tradition? And if you are, even then, your claim seems to overstate the 
> situation as best as we can determine it from available evidence.
>   

HH: This was the surprising fact I learned from several sources, that 
the Massoretes are believed to have handled a text that was already 
fixed by the Sopherim. I realize that a lot of people disagree with 
this, but the issue was what the Jewish tradition says about the work of 
the Sopherim, as a basis for considering what it says about when any 
emendations might have entered the text.  Here is one quote, but the 
material basically comes from Bullinger, E. W., The Companion Bible. 
Zondervan Bible Publishers, Grand Rapids, 1974:

http://www.geocities.com/hebrew_roots/html/hr-2-3-02.html

     The Massorites were a group of Jewish scholars who copied and 
handed down the text of the Hebrew Scriptures. However, they themselves 
did not make the alterations to the text, rather they merely passed on 
what had been handed down to them by the Sopherim (Soph-ehr-eem 
Scribes). E. W. Bullinger, in Appendix #30, p. 31, of The Companion 
Bible, makes the following observation about the relationship between 
the Sopherim and the Massorites.

     "The Text itself had been fixed before the Massorites were put in 
charge of it. This had been the work of the Sopherim (from saphar, to 
count, or number). Their work, under Ezra and Nehemiah, was to set the 
Text in order after the return from Babylon; and we read of it in Neh. 
8.8 (cp. Ezra 7.6,11). The men of 'the Great Synagogue' completed the 
work. This work lasted about 110 years, from Nehemiah to Simon the 
first, 410-300 B.C.
     "The Sopherim were the authorized revisers of the Sacred Text; 
and, their work being completed, the Massorites were the authorized 
custodians of it. Their work was to preserve it. The Massorah is called 
'A Fence to the Scriptures,' because it locked all words and letters in 
their places. ..."

HH: Here is another source, the Jewish Encyclopedia:

http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=246&letter=M&search=Masorah#727


>From the statements in Talmudic literature to the effect that there 
was deposited in the court of the Temple a standard copy of the Bible 
for the benefit of copyists, and that there were paid correctors of 
Biblical books among the officers of the Temple (Ket. 106a); from the 
fact that such a copy is mentioned in the Aristeas Letter (§ 30; comp. 
Blau, "Studien zum Althebr. Buchwesen," p. 100); from the statements of 
Philo (preamble to his "Analysis of the Political Constitution of the 
Jews") and of Josephus ("Contra Ap." i. 8) that the text of Scripture 
had never been altered; finally, from the fact that there seem to have 
been no differences of readings between Pharisees and Sadducees, it may 
be concluded that the Scriptural text, at least as much as then belonged 
to the canon, was already fixed, at the latest, about 200 B.C. and 
perhaps a century earlier.

While the text was thus early fixed, it took centuries to produce a 
tolerable uniformity among all the circulating copies. This is by no 
means astonishing when one considers that the standard copy deposited at 
the Temple could be of benefit only to those who were sufficiently near 
Jerusalem to make use of it. This was not the case with those living in 
the Diaspora. When to this is added the carelessness of some copyists, 
it will not seem strange that as late as the second century of the 
common era scholars found it necessary to warn against incorrect copies; 
and the conclusions usually drawn from differences in the late books 
between the Hebrew text and the Greek version lose much of their force.

HH: Here is another statement to this effect, giving the historical 
circumstances:

http://www.biblestudy.org/maturart/the-two-gods-of-psalms/introduction.html

In /The Christian Passover/ by Fred R. Coulter we are given a detailed 
account of the codification of the Old Testament by Ezra the priest.  
Chapter Fifteen reveals that this codification took place under the most 
difficult of circumstances!  A remnant of the exiled Jewish people had 
returned to Jerusalem from their captivity in Babylon and other parts of 
the Medo-Persian Empire. Among these restored exiles were a large number 
of Levites and priests, whose duty it was to restore the temple service 
and to teach their brethren the laws of God, lest they fall into 
idolatry and once more be cast out of their own land.   But Manasseh, a 
Levite and the legitimate heir to the high priesthood, had married the 
daughter of Governor Sanballat of neighboring Chaldean Samaria. In the 
sixth century B.C., Manasseh defected to Samaria, taking with him a 
major contingent of Levites, including many who were of the Aaronic 
priesthood.

Under the auspices of governor Sanballat, Manasseh and his fellow 
Levites set up a counterfeit priesthood in their own temple in Samaria.  
Not only was there a competing "Mosaic" religion in Samaria at this 
time, but there was also a competing "Mosaic" religion and temple at 
Elephantine, Egypt, as well as a third temple in the Tran Jordan region, 
where sacrifices were already being offered to God.  To stem this tide 
of apostasy, Ezra and Nehemiah acted under God's direction and 
inspiration to preserve the true worship of God as commanded in the Holy 
Scriptures.

Because Manasseh and his heretical followers also laid claim to the 
Scriptures, it was with the greatest urgency that Ezra and Nehemiah 
acted to safeguard the integrity of the Old Testament text. Levitical 
*Sopherim* were placed in charge of standardizing, updating and 
translating the Old Testament.  It was this group of Levites who 
compiled the Old Testament as we now know it.  The Torah (the first five 
books) was translated, with special emphasis upon the commands in the 
book of Deuteronomy, which was updated, copied and sent throughout the 
Persian Empire.  A true chronology of this period places these events 
between 539 and 512 B.C.

The /Jehovah/ who later became the Christ guided the Sopherim in their 
work on the Old Testament.  At the beginning of His ministry on earth, 
He placed His seal of approval on the Old Testament text, saying,

   "Think not that I am come to destroy the law, or the prophets:  I am
   not come to destroy, but to fulfil.  For verily I say unto you,
   *Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise
   pass from the law, till all be fulfilled*" (Matthew 5:17-18).

God will not allow any of His words to be lost.  Although changes were 
later introduced into the Old Testament text after the original work of 
the Sopherim was completed, those alterations were carefully recorded, 
and the records were preserved and passed down to us today so that we 
can know the true and authentic words of God.

When the work on the Old Testament text was completed by the Sopherim, 
the text was passed on to the Massorites. Bullinger states,

   "*The Text itself had been fixed before the /Massorites/ were put in
   charge of it.*  This had been the work of the /Sopherim/ (from
   /saphar, /to count, or number).  Their work, under Ezra and
   Nehemiah, was to set the Text in order after the return from
   Babylon; and we read of it in Nehemiah 8:8 (cp. Ezra 7:6,11).  The
   men of 'the Great Synagogue' completed the work" (/The Companion
   Bible,/ Appendix 30).

God will not allow any of His words to be lost.

HH: The following is the old International Critical Commentary, talking 
about the text of Esther, and saying how all texts go back to a single 
text produced by the Sopherim:

http://www.archive.org/stream/criticalesthcr13patouoft/criticalesthcr13patouoft_djvu.txt

These are all the descendants of the text of the Sopherim, since Aquila, 
Symmachus, and Theodotion, that are so helpful in other books, do not 
exist for Esther. By a comparison of the various forms of the text 
described thus far, namely, the Tiberian recension, the Babylonian 
recension, the Peshitto, First Targum, Second Targum, Vulgate and 
Talmud, it is possible to reconstruct with great certainty the 
consonantal text from which all are descended. The extraordinary 
similarity of the MSS. both of the Palestinian and of the Babylonian 
type a similarity which extends even to the reproduction of errors and 
exceptional letters and the close agreement of all the Vrss. made since 
the beginning of the Christian era, prove the thesis of Lagarde to be 
correct, that all these recensions are descendants from a single 
prototype, the so-called text of the Sopherim (cf. Anmerkungen zur 
griechischen Uebersetzung der Proverbien, 1863, pp. 1-2). At some time 
in the second century the exigencies of controversy with Christians, and 
the desire to have a fixed basis of discussion between the rabbis, led 
to the adoption by the Jewish authorities of an official standard codex 
of the OT. Since that time all copies have been made directly or 
indirectly from this codex and variant codices have been destroyed. The 
result is, that no ancient differences of reading have come down to us 
in this family, but only variants that have arisen since the standard 
codex was adopted.

Yours,
Harold Holmyard