The Massorah.
This
Is Appendix 30 From The Companion Bible.
All
the oldest and best manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible contain
on
every page, beside the Text (which is arranged in two or more
columns),
a varying number of lines of smaller writing, distributed
between
the upper and lower margins. This smaller writing is called
the
Massorah Magna or Great Massorah, while that in the side
margins
and between the columns is called the Massorah
Parva or
Small
Massorah.
The
illustration given below is a reduced facsimile of a Hebrew
Manuscript
(16.25 x 12.375), written in a German hand, about the
year
A.D. 1120.
The
small writing in the margins in this particular Manuscript is
seen
to occupy seven lines in the lower margin, and four lines in the
upper;
while in the outer margins and between the three columns is
the Massorah Para.
The
word Massorah is from the root masar,
to devliver something
into the hand of another, so as to commit it to his trust. Hence the
name
is given to the small writing referred to, because it contains
information
necessary to those into whose trust the Sacred Text was
committed,
so that they might transcribe it, and hand it down
correctly.
The
Text itself had been fixed before the Massorites
were put in
charge
of it. This had been the work of the Sopherim
(from saphar,
to count, or number). Their work, under Ezra and Nehemiah, was to
set
the Text in order after the return from Babylon; and we read of it
in
Nehemiah 8:8 1 (compare Ezra 7:6,11). The men of "the Great
Synagogue" completed
the work. This work lasted about 110 years,
from
Nehemiah to Simon the first, 410-300 B.C.
The
Sopherim were the authorised revisers of the Sacred Text;
and,
their work being completed, the Massorites
were the authorised
custodians
of it. Their work was to preserve it. The Massorah is
called
"A Fence to the Scriptures,"
because it locked all words and
letters
in their places. It does not contain notes or comments as such,
but
facts and phenomena. It records the number of times the several
letters
occur in the various books of the Bible; the number of words,
and
the middle word; the number of verses, and the middle verse;
the
number of expressions and combinations of words, etc. All this,
not
from a perverted ingenuity, but for the set purpose of
safeguarding
the Sacred Text, and preventing the loss or
misplacement
of a single letter or word.
This
Massorah is not contained in the margins of any one
Manuscript.
No Manuscript contains the whole, or even the same
part.
It is spread over many Manuscripts, and Dr. C.D. Ginsburg has
been
the first and only scholar who has set himself to collect and
collate
the whole, copying it from every available Manuscript in the
libraries
of many countries. He has published it in three large folio
volumes,
and only a small number of copies has been printed. These
are
obtainable only by the original subscribers
When
the Hebrew Text was printed, only the large type in the
columns
was regarded, and small type of the Massorah
was left,
unheeded,
in the Manuscripts from which the Text was taken.
When
translators came to the printed Hebrew Text, they were
necessarily
destitute of the information contained in the Massorah;
so
that the Revisers as well as the Translators of the Authorised
Version
carried out their work without any idea of the treasures
contained
in the Massorah; and therefore, without giving a hint of it
to
their readers
This
is the first time an edition of the Authorised Version has been
given
containing any of these treasures of the Massorah,
that affect
so
seriouly the understanding of the Text. A vast number of the
Massoretic
notes concern only the orthography, and matters that
pertain
to the Concordance. But many of those which affect the
sense,
or throw any additional light on the Sacred Text, are noted in
the
margin of The Companion Bible.
Some
of the important lists of words which are contained in the
Massorah are also given, videlicet, those that have the
"extraordinary
points" (Appendix 31); the "eighteen emendations"
of
the Sopherim (see Appendix 33); the 134 passages where they
substituted
Adonai for Jehovah (see Appendix 32); and the Various
Readings
called Severin (see Appendix 34). These are given in
separate
Appendixes; but other words of any importance are
preserved
in our marginal notes.
Readers
of The Companion Bible are put in possession of
information
denied to former generations of translators,
commentators,
critics, and general Bible students.
For
futher information on the Massorah
see Dr. Ginsburg's
Introduction to the Hebrew
Bible, of which only a limited edition
was
printed; also a small pamphlet on The
Massorah published by
King's
Printers.
NOTE
1
The Talmud explains that "the
book" meant the original text;
"distinctly" means
explaining it by giving the Chaldee paraphrase;
"gave
the sense" means the division of words, etc. according to the
sense;
and "caused them to understand the reading" means
to give
the
traditional pronuciation of the words (which were then without
vowel points).
