by Prof. Emanuel Tov
— Part 1—
The Bible and the Masoretic Text
The
Masoretic Text (MT), whether in its consonantal form (Proto-MT) or its
full form, is the commonly used version of the Hebrew Bible, considered
authoritative by Jews for almost two millenia.[1]
From the invention of the printing press, all Hebrew editions of the
Hebrew Bible have been based on a text form of MT, with the exception of
publications of the Samaritan Pentateuch or eclectic editions.[2]
The
roots of MT and its popularity go back to the first century of the
Common Era. Before that period, only the proto-rabbinic (Pharisaic)
movement made use of MT, while other streams in Judaism used other
Hebrew textual traditions.
In
other words, before the first century of the Common Era, we witness a
textual plurality among Jews, with multiple text forms conceived of as
“the Bible,” or Scripture, including the Hebrew source upon which the
ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Bible, the Septuagint (LXX), was
built...
Posts
Stumble It!
No comments:
Post a Comment