The Masoretes (ba'alei hamasorah, Hebrew בעלי המסורה) were Karaite groups of scribes and Bible scholars working between the 7th and 11th centuries, based primarily in present-day Israel in the cities of Tiberias and Jerusalem, as well as in Iraq (Babylonia). Each group compiled a system of pronunciation and grammatical guides in the form of diacritical notes on the external form of the Biblical text in an attempt to fix the pronunciation, paragraph and verse divisions and cantillation of the Jewish Bible, the Tanakh, for the worldwide Jewish community. (See the article on the Masoretic text for a full discussion of their work.)
The Ben Asher family of masoretes was largely responsible for the preservation and production of the Masoretic Text, although an alternate Masoretic text of the Ben Naphtali masoretes which differs slightly from the Ben Asher text existed. The halakhic authority Maimonides endorsed the Ben Asher as superior, although the Egyptian Jewish scholar, Saadya Gaon al-Fayyumi, had preferred the Ben Naphtali system.
The Masoretes devised the vowel notation system for Hebrew that is still widely used as well as the trope symbols used for cantillation.
Further reading
The information stating the Masorites invented the Vowel-Points is strongly disputed by John Gill in his writing, A Dissertation Concerning the Antiquity of the Hebrew Language, Letters, Vowel-Points and Accents", and many[1][1][2] [2][3]other scholars like John Hinton, Ph.D, Harvard.Johannes Buxtorf II (1599-1664), argued that the pronunciation and therefore the Hebrew vowel-points have always made the word Ye-HO'-VaH in Hebrew, and Je-HO'-VaH in English. Johannes Buxtorf II (1599-1664) one of history's most illustrious Hebraists, defended the inspiration of the vowels in his classic publication, Tractatus de punctorum origine, antiquitate, et authoritate, oppositus Arcano puntationis revelato Ludovici Cappelli (1648). It was written to defend and elaborate upon a similar book by his renowned father, Johannes Buxtorf Sr., entitled, Tiberias, sive Commentarius Masoreticus(1620 and 1664). The elder Buxtorf soundly proved wrong Elias Levita's view of the late origin of the Hebrew vowel points.[3][4]
- In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language, Chapter 5. ISBN 0-8147-3654-8
- The Text of the Old Testament. ISBN 0-8028-0788-7
- Introduction to the Tiberian Masorah. ISBN 0-89130-374-X
References
External links
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