Biblical Hebrew Forum

[George Athas <George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>]

Fred, your conclusion is possible, but not necessary. The evidence does not 
necessitate it. One could just as easily argue that the effort involved in 
production was intended for wide use.

Of course, how you define 'use' is also important. Is it 'public' if it's 
kept in the repository of a synagogue where hundreds of people gather on 
Shabbat, and only brought out for reading by a cantor?


GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au

From: fred burlingame <tensorpath AT gmail.com<mailto:tensorpath AT gmail.com>>
Date: Thu, 23 Dec 2010 08:19:30 -0600
To: George Athas <george.athas AT moore.edu.au<mailto:george.athas AT moore.edu.au>>
Cc: B-Hebrew <b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org<mailto:b-hebrew AT lists.ibiblio.org>>
Subject: Re: [b-hebrew] Was the MT for public consumption?

Hello George;

You could be correct. I was not present at that time.

But .... when manufacture of a single book the size of the bible consumes 
years of one scribe's full time effort, .... it seems improbable that the 
masoretic text resulted for any, but a relatively few teachers; and surely 
not the general population of millions of consumers.

http://www.hrc.utexas.edu/exhibitions/permanent/gutenberg/html/2.html


regards,

fred burlingame
On Wed, Dec 22, 2010 at 10:09 PM, George Athas 
<George.Athas AT moore.edu.au<mailto:George.Athas AT moore.edu.au>> wrote:
Fred,

The intent to preserve 'orthodoxy' is within the scope of the religious and 
pietistic purpose of the Masoretes. However, your three points (a, b, c) do 
not necessarily lead to the conclusion you reach, namely that the MT was 
produced 'for exclusive consumption by teachers and rabbis'. There is no 
reason why it could not have a wider scope in mind. In fact, given the intent 
of preserving orthodoxy for a particular community, it seems logical to 
conclude that they would have liked a wider audience. While not all of the 
community would have been able to read it, this does not preclude them from 
being 'consumers' of the MT. Your conclusion appears to be narrower than your 
three points require.


GEORGE ATHAS
Moore Theological College (Sydney, Australia)
www.moore.edu.au<http://www.moore.edu.au/>

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