Biblical Hebrew Forum

["Rolf" <rolf.furuli AT sf-nett.no>]

Dear Ratson,

In connection with my MA thesis I made a comparison of the Greek vowels used 
in the Hexapla and the Hebrew vowels in the MT. The result of a portion of 
the Hexapla is as follows:

192 sere: epsilon: 34, eta: 139, iota: 4, other:15.

472 hireq: iota: 258, epsilon: 107, epsilon-iota: 28, alfa 24, other: 45.

198 segol: epsilon: 102, alfa: 42, no vowel: 39.

466 qamets: alfa: 362, epsilon: 7, no vowel: 74.

369 patah: alfa: 212, epsilon: 86, iota: 5, no vowel: 31, other: 28

257 holem-qibbuts: omega: 217, omikron: 24, omikron-ypsilon: 5, other: 10.

157 shureq: omikron-ypsilon: 144, omikron: 2, omega: 3, other: 8.

206 shewa qui.: no vowel: 181, epsilon: 5, alfa: 7.

270 shewa mob.: no vowel: 184, epsilon: 33, alfa: 44, omikron: 5, eta: 3, 
iota: 1.


We see that by and large there is a good correspondence. One important 
difference is that the WAW plus gemination in the WAYYIQTOLs are 
transliterated as omikron-ypsilon. So, there is no difference between 
WAYYIQTOL  and WEYIQTOL.

In my view, the pointing of the Masoretes are very close to the vowels that 
were pronounced when the Hebrew text was recited by those who wrote the DSS. 
The only exception may be the use of shewa. A fine article that illuminates 
the issue is: James Barr, ""Vocalization and the Analysis of Hebrew among the 
Ancient Translators," Hebräische Wortforschung. Festschrift zum 80 Geburtstag 
von Walter Bsaumgartner, Supp Vetus Testamentum XVI, pp. 1-11. Also: E.Y. 
Kutcher, The language and the Linguistic background of the Isaiah Scroll." 
Studies in the Texts of the Desert of Judah, Vol 6, 1974.

In view of the fact that the books of the Tanakh were written over a period 
of several hundred years, the text (word forms, grammar, syntax) is 
remarkably uniform. The timbre of vowels may be different in different places 
where a language is spoken at the same time, and may also change through 
time. But I am not aware of any evidence indicating that the words of the 
Hebrew language, say, in the 7th century BCE, had different vowels compared 
with the DSS and the MT.



Best regards,


Rolf Furuli
Stavern
Norway


Mandag 15. Juli 2013 10:03 CEST skrev yahoo-arch AT heplist.com:

> Jerry asks:
>  > With regard to the second column,
>  > could you provide some estimate
>  > as to how much of it is indisputably extant.
>
> Most of the dispute regarding the Secunda is whether Origen transcribed it 
> himself, or whether Origen copied (or based it) on an older existing text 
> (this, too, could be said of other columns). How much different Secunda 
> pronunciation is from Tiberian seems to vary from one scholar to another, 
> although various generalizations have been concluded by most of them (such 
> as the lack of the effect of Philippi's Law present in MT/Tiberian Hebrew, 
> and some general rules of what letters do and do-not geminate).
>
> I have wanted to make comparisons, myself, but other than very short 
> transcripts, I have yet to find a full copy of the Secunda that I can 
> examine for myself (at least, not in my price-range). Like most non-MT and 
> non-G-NT texts, this is an area highly under-published (relatively 
> speaking). Most of what I find are short extracts (which I would conclude 
> as poorly representative unless I could compare it to the whole to say 
> otherwise).
> (I am also searching for other mss from other textual families. I have a 
> copy of the Samaritan Pent. based on a few witnesses, but how accurate it 
> is to the textual family, I'm not sure. I'm still searching for vocalized 
> texts based on the Babylonian and Palestinian traditions, as well. I know 
> how to read the niqqud for each of these latter-stated traditions, I just 
> don't have complete texts to examine for myself. I really do not want to 
> rely on various third-party scholastic examinations, alone, and would 
> prefer to witness what they conclude first-hand. Call me a little-anal.)
> I may have to splurge on my budget to getting better texts to work from.
>
> In lack of reporting first-hand examinations, I can only really report what 
> is available in the various journals on the subject.
>
> --
> Ratson Naharädama
> Denver, CO
>
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