Editing Masoretic Text (section)

== Masorah ==
{{See also|Tiberian vocalization}}
[[File:Aleppo Codex (Deut).jpg|thumb|A page from the ''[[Aleppo Codex]]'', showing the extensive marginal annotations]]
Traditionally, a ritual [[Sefer Torah]] (Torah scroll) could contain only the Hebrew [[Abjad|consonantal]] text – nothing added, nothing taken away. The Masoretic [[codex|codices]], however, provide extensive additional material, called ''masorah'', to show correct pronunciation and [[Hebrew cantillation|cantillation]], protect against scribal errors, and annotate possible variants. The manuscripts thus include [[niqqud|vowel points]], [[dagesh|pronunciation marks]] and [[Hebrew cantillation|stress accents]] in the text, short annotations in the side margins, and longer more extensive notes in the upper and lower margins and collected at the end of each book.

These notes were added because the Masoretes recognized the possibility of human error in copying the Hebrew Bible. The Masoretes were not working with the original Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible and corruptions had already crept into the versions they copied.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.biblicalarchaeology.org/daily/biblical-topics/bible-versions-and-translations/errors-in-the-masoretes-original-hebrew-manuscripts-of-the-bible/ |title=Errors in the Masoretes' "original" Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible? |work=Biblical Archaeology Society |access-date=25 September 2015}}</ref>

=== Etymology ===
From the Hebrew word ''masorah''{{Efn|Vocalization uncertain, also: ''moseirah'', ''mesorah'', ''mesarah'', ''misrah'', ''masarah''.}} "tradition"''.'' Originally ''masoret'',{{Efn|Also: ''moseret''.}} a word found in [[Book of Ezekiel]] 20:37 (there from אסר "to bind" for "fetters").

According to the majority of scholars,<ref name=":0">{{Cite book|last1=Kelley|first1=Page H.|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Gh6OHYcIZgkC&q=masorah+etymology|title=The Masorah of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Introduction and Annotated Glossary|last2=Mynatt|first2=Daniel S.|last3=Crawford|first3=Timothy G.|date=1998-04-09|publisher=Wm. B. Eerdmans Publishing|isbn=978-0-8028-4363-0|language=en}}</ref> including [[Wilhelm Bacher]], the form of the Ezekiel word ''masoret'' "fetters" was applied by the [[Masoretes]] to the מסר root meaning "to transmit", for ''masoret'' "tradition." (See also {{slink|Aggadah|Etymology}}.)
Later, the text was also called ''moseirah'', by a direct conjugation of מסר "to transmit," and the synthesis of the two forms produced the modern word ''masorah.''<ref>{{Cite journal|last=Bacher|first=W.|date=1891|title=A Contribution to the History of the Term "Massorah"|url=https://www.jstor.org/stable/1450053|journal=The Jewish Quarterly Review|volume=3|issue=4|pages=785–790|doi=10.2307/1450053|jstor=1450053|issn=0021-6682|url-access=subscription}}</ref>

According to a minority of scholars,<ref name=":0" /> including [[Caspar Levias]], the intent of the Masoretes was ''masoret'' "fetter [upon the [[hermeneutics|exposition of the text]]]", and the word was only later connected to מסר and translated as "tradition".<ref>{{Cite book|url=https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001401736|title=Hebrew union college annual [1904] ...|date=1904|publisher=Students of the Hebrew union college|location=Cincinnati, Ohio}}</ref>

Other specific explanations are provided:
[[Samuel David Luzzatto]] argued that ''masoret'' was a synonym for ''siman'' by extended meaning ("transmission[ of the sign]" became "transmitted sign") and referred to the symbols used in vocalizing and punctuating the text.<ref name=":1">"Masorah, Vol. XVI. ''Encyclopaedia Judaica'', Jerusalem, NY: MacMillan Co., 1971.</ref> 
[[Ze'ev Ben-Haim]] argued that ''masoret'' meant "counting" and was later conjugated as ''moseirah'' "thing which is counted", referring to the Masoretic counts of the letters, words, and verses in the Bible, discussed in [[Kiddushin (Talmud)|Qiddushin]] 30a.<ref name=":1" />

=== Language and form ===
The language of the Masoretic notes is primarily [[Aramaic language|Aramaic]] but partly Hebrew. The Masoretic annotations are found in various forms: (a) in separate works, e.g., the ''[[Sefer Oklah we-Oklah|Oklah we-Oklah]]''; (b) in the form of notes written in the margins and at the end of codices. In rare cases, the notes are written between the lines. The first word of each biblical book is also as a rule surrounded by notes. The latter are called the Initial Masorah; the notes on the side margins or between the columns are called the Small (''Masora parva'' or Mp) or Inner Masorah (Masora marginalis); and those on the lower and upper margins, the Large or Outer Masorah (''Masora magna'' or Mm[Mas.M]). The name "Large Masorah" is applied sometimes to the lexically arranged notes at the end of the printed Bible, usually called the Final Masorah, (''Masora finalis''), or the Masoretic Concordance.<ref name="Jewish"/>

The Small Masorah consists of brief notes with reference to marginal readings, to statistics showing the number of times a particular form is found in Scripture, to full and defective spelling, and to abnormally written letters. The Large Masorah is more copious in its notes. The Final Masorah comprises all the longer rubrics for which space could not be found in the margin of the text, and is arranged alphabetically in the form of a concordance. The quantity of notes the marginal Masorah contains is conditioned by the amount of vacant space on each page. In the manuscripts it varies also with the rate at which the [[copyist]] was paid and the fanciful shape he gave to his gloss.<ref name="Jewish"/>

{{blockquote|There was accordingly an independent Babylonian Masora which differed from the Palestinian in terminology and to some extent in order. The Masora is concise in style with a profusion of abbreviations, requiring a considerable amount of knowledge for their full understanding. It was quite natural that a later generation of scribes would no longer understand the notes of the Masoretes and consider them unimportant; by the late medieval period they were reduced to mere ornamentation of the manuscripts. It was Jacob ben&nbsp;Chayyim who restored clarity and order to them.<ref>{{cite book |author=Würthwein, Ernst |title=The Text of the Old Testament |place=Grand Rapids |publisher=William B. Eerdmans |year=1979}}</ref>}}

In most manuscripts, there are some discrepancies between the text and the masorah, suggesting that they were copied from different sources or that one of them has copying errors. The lack of such discrepancies in the ''Aleppo Codex'' is one of the reasons for its importance; the scribe who copied the notes, presumably [[Aaron ben Moses ben Asher]], probably wrote them originally.{{citation needed|date=December 2014}}

=== Numerical Masorah ===
In classical antiquity, [[copyist]]s were paid for their work according to the number of [[Wiktionary:stich|stich]]s (lines of verse). As the prose books of the Bible were hardly ever written in stichs, the copyists, in order to estimate the amount of work, had to count the letters.<ref name="Jewish"/> According to some this was (also) to ensure accuracy in the transmission of the text with the production of subsequent copies that were done by hand.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Pratico |first1=Gary D. |last2=Pelt |first2=Miles V. Van |title=Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar: Second Edition |date=2009 |publisher=Zondervan |isbn=978-0-310-55882-8 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=p3FIoT0s3yYC&pg=PT448}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Mounce |first1=William D. |title=Greek for the Rest of Us: Using Greek Tools Without Mastering Biblical Languages |date=2007 |publisher=Zondervan |isbn=978-0-310-28289-1 |page=289 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=AF-5ptJ0l2gC&pg=PA289}}</ref>

Hence the Masoretes contributed the Numerical Masorah.<ref name="Jewish"/> These notes are traditionally categorized into two main groups, the marginal Masorah and the final Masorah. The category of marginal Masorah is further divided into the ''Masorah parva'' (small Masorah) in the outer side margins and the ''Masorah magna'' (large Masorah), traditionally located at the top and bottom margins of the text. The ''Masorah parva'' is a set of statistics in the outer side margins of the text. Beyond simply counting the letters, the ''Masorah parva'' consists of word-use statistics, similar documentation for expressions or certain phraseology, observations on full or defective writing, references to the Kethiv-Qere readings and more. These observations are also the result of a passionate zeal to safeguard the accurate transmission of the sacred text.<ref>{{cite book |last1=Mounce |first1=William D. |title=Greek for the Rest of Us: Mastering Bible Study Without Mastering Biblical Languages |date=2003 |publisher=Zondervan |isbn=978-0-310-23485-2 |page=288 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=oRsbGj4oMXMC&pg=PA288}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Pratico |first1=Gary Davis |last2=Pelt |first2=Miles V. Van |title=Basics of Biblical Hebrew Grammar |date=2001 |publisher=Zondervan |isbn=978-0-310-23760-0 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vDyz8qIEDeIC&pg=PT447}}</ref>

Even though often cited as very exact, the Masoretic "frequency notes" in the margin of ''Codex Leningradiensis'' contain several errors.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://subhanallah.se/bibeln/gamla-testamentet/osakerheter/osakerheter-over-masoretiska-ordsummor/den-masoretiska-ordraknesumman-i-1-mos-1-12/ |title=Den masoretiska ordräknesumman i 1 Mos 1:12 |access-date=2012-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130528122957/http://subhanallah.se/bibeln/gamla-testamentet/osakerheter/osakerheter-over-masoretiska-ordsummor/den-masoretiska-ordraknesumman-i-1-mos-1-12/ |archive-date=2013-05-28 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=http://subhanallah.se/bibeln/gamla-testamentet/osakerheter/osakerheter-over-masoretiska-ordsummor/den-masoretiska-ordraknesumman-i-1-mos-2-18/ |title=Den masoretiska ordräknesumman i 1 Mos 2:18 |access-date=2012-04-15 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130528124645/http://subhanallah.se/bibeln/gamla-testamentet/osakerheter/osakerheter-over-masoretiska-ordsummor/den-masoretiska-ordraknesumman-i-1-mos-2-18/ |archive-date=2013-05-28 |url-status=dead |df=dmy-all}}</ref>{{efn|See also the whole book "The Sub Loco notes in the Torah of ''Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia''" by Daniel S. Mynatt, which describes about 150&nbsp;frequency errors found in the Torah alone.}}

The ''Masorah magna'', in measure, is an expanded ''Masorah parva''. ''[[Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia]]'' (BHS) includes an apparatus referring the reader to the large Masorah, which is printed separately.<ref>{{cite web |title=UBS Translations: Hebrew Scriptures |url=http://www.ubs-translations.org/cat/biblical_texts/hebrew_scriptures_and_reference/hebrew_scriptures |access-date=2018-12-23 |df=dmy-all}}</ref>

The final Masorah is located at the end of biblical books or after certain sections of the text, such as at the end of the Torah. It contains information and statistics regarding the number of words in a book or section, etc. Thus, [[Book of Leviticus]] 8:23 is the middle verse in the Pentateuch. The collation of manuscripts and the noting of their differences furnished material for the Text-Critical Masorah. The close relation which existed in earlier times (from the [[Soferim (Talmud)|Soferim]] to the [[Amoraim]] inclusive) between the teacher of tradition and the Masorete, both frequently being united in one person, accounts for the Exegetical Masorah. Finally, the invention and introduction of a graphic system of vocalization and accentuation gave rise to the Grammatical Masorah.<ref name="Jewish" />

The most important of the Masoretic notes are those that detail the [[Qere and Ketiv]] that are located in the ''Masorah parva'' in the outside margins of BHS. Given that the Masoretes would not alter the sacred consonantal text, the Kethiv-Qere notes were a way of "correcting" or commenting on the text for any number of reasons (grammatical, theological, aesthetic, etc.) deemed important by the copyist.<ref>{{cite book |author1=Pratico |author2=Van Pelt |title=Basics of Biblical Hebrew |publisher=Zondervan |year=2001 |pages=406&nbsp;ff}}</ref>