Biblical Hebrew Forum

[K Randolph <kwrandolph AT gmail.com>]

Thanks, Petr:

It is my understanding that these are textual witnesses.

I did see a discussion of the first one, Genesis 18:22, where the change was
noted and why: the original had the Lord standing before Abraham. But the
Masoretes concluded that the inferior stands before the superior, that it’s
not merely a spacial statement, therefore they changed the verse to say that
Abraham stood before the Lord. But I don’t have any information about the
other passages.

Karl W. Randolph.

On Tue, Nov 17, 2009 at 7:54 AM, Petr Tomasek <tomasek AT etf.cuni.cz> wrote:

> On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 05:23:39PM -0800, K Randolph wrote:
> > Petr:
> >
> > On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 1:57 PM, Petr Tomasek <tomasek AT etf.cuni.cz>
> wrote:
> >
> > > On Mon, Nov 16, 2009 at 10:14:30AM -0800, K Randolph wrote:
> > > >. I also have a list of 17
> > > > verses where the Masoretes admit to changing the verses, …
> > >
> > > which list exactly do you mean?
> > >
> > >
> > Gen 18:22
> …
>
> OK, so you mean the "Tiqqunei sopherim" which are mentioned not only by
> massoretes,
> but in the rabbinic litterature as well (there do exist several versions
> with
> different number of biblical passages).
>
> They are mentioned in (according to E. Tov):
>  1) Sifre 84 (Num 10:35) - 8 passages
>  2) Mekhilta d' r. Jishmael 6 (Ex 15:7) - 11 passages
>  3) Tanhuma Beshallakh 16 (Ex 15:7) - 18 passages
>  4) Okhla we-Okhla nr. 168 - 18 passages
>
> It is however questionable if those lists are real "textual witnesses" or
> whether
> they are rather of midrashic nature...
>
>