Dear James,
I've been working with a digital copy of the aleppo codex and noticed that many verses have a pe after them (enclosed in {} in the electronic version). So I looked in the WLC and noticed that it too had them. Now I tried to cast my mind back to the hebrew classroom and seem to remember somebody explaining something about what they are for but I can't for the life of me remember. Can somebody remind me what they are for?
They mark short paragraphs into which the entire Bible (except psalms)
was divided. The paragraphs were either "open" or "closed." An open
paragraph was marked by the P (for "petuchah" = open), set between two
verses. (The closed paragraph was marked by a S for "setumah"= closed.)
In handwritten texts an open paragraph commenced at the beginning of a
new line,with the preceding line left partly or completely blank.
Printed texts have changed matters, but the printed P or S marks the
original divisions.
Yours,
Harold Holmyard
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