The Works of Early Jewish Scribes & Copyists

 

Jewish scribes or copyists consisted of 3 main groups

  1. The Sopherim (400BC - AD 200)

  2. The Talmudist (AD 100 - 500)

  3. The Masoretes (AD 500 – 950)

The Sopherim (Scribes) - 400 BC – AD 200

  • Started by Ezra during the Babylonian Exile.
  • They were the Bible publication society of their day.
  • At about 100 BC they began to count the verses, words & letters of each book in the Old Testament and appending these figures to the end (Masora Finalis) of each book.
  • Used text only with consonants.
  • Sub-grouped by Jewish tradition as follows
    • Sopherim – 5th – 3rd Century BC – Ezra to Antigonus of Socho
    • Zugoth – 2nd – 1st Century BC Jose ben Joezer to Hillel
    • Tannaim – 1st & 2nd Century AD – Death of Hillel – Judah Hannasi
  • Their writings are found in the Mishnah, the Tosefta, the Baraithoth, and the Midrash

The Midrash (To Study) – 100 BC – 300 AD

·        Doctrinal & homiletical exposition of the Old Testament

·        Written in Hebrew & Aramaic

·        Consisted of two parts

o       Halakah (procedure) Commenting on Torah only

o       Haggada (declaration) Commenting on the Old Testament

 The Tosefta (Supplement) – 100 BC – 300 AD

·        A collection of teachings and traditions of the Tannaim

 

The Talmudist (Instruction) 100 – 500 AD

The Talmud

·        A collection of teachings and traditions of the Masoretes

·        Consists of two main divisions

o       Mishnah (repetition)

§         Completed about 200 AD

§         Written in Hebrew

§         A digest of all the oral laws

§         It is divided into six orders (sedarim)

·        Agriculture

·        Feasts

·        Women

·        Civil

·        Criminal Law

·        Sacrifices or holy things & unclean things

o       Gemara (the matter that is learned)

§         Completed in 200 – 500 AD

§         Written in Aramaic

§         Commentary on the Mishnah

§         It arose in two distinct forms

·        Palestinian Gemara – About 200 AD

·        Babylonian Gamara – About 500 AD

 

·        The Discipline of the Talmudists for coping a synagogue scroll

1.      A synagogue scroll must be written on the skins of clean animals.
2.      A synagogue scroll must be prepared by a Jew.
3.      A synagogue scroll must be fastened by strings taken from clean animals.
4.      Every skin must contain a certain number of columns throughout the entire codex.
5.      The length of each column must not extend over less the 48 or more then 60 lines; and the breadth must consist of thirty letters.
6.      The whole copy must be first-lined; and if three words be written without a line, it is worthless
7.      The ink should be black, neither red, green, nor any other color, and be prepared according to a definite recipe.
8.      An authentic copy must be the exemplar, from which the transcriber ought not in the least deviate.
9.      No word or letter, not even a yod, must be written from memory, the scribe not having looked at the codex before him.
10.  Between every consonant the space of a hair or thread must intervene.
11.  Between every parashah, or section, the breadth of nine consonants.
12.  Between every book, three lines.
13.  The fifth book of Moses must terminate exactly with a line; but the rest need not do so.
14.  The copyist must sit in full Jewish dress.
15.  The copyist must wash his whole body.
16.  The copyist must not begin to write the name of God with a pen newly dipped in ink.
17.  Should a king address him while writing that name he must take no notice of him.

 

The Masoretes – Scholars who between 500 AD – 950 AD gave the final form to the Old Testament by taking the consonant only text of the Sopherim and adding vowel points.

·        Their way of correcting what they thought were wrong words – If the Masoretes thought the wrong word was used in the book they were coping that would leave the Consonants alone but would place the vowels from the correct word over the consonants of the wrong word and in the side margin of the parchment they would write the consonants of the correct word.

o       The original name of God (Yahweh) was YHWH. The Masoretes couldn’t write the name of God so they would replace His name with the Hebrew word for Lord (Adonay). They would write YHWH but write the vowels from Adonay (EOA) over the YHWH and write the consonants DNY in the margin. Thus the church read Gods name as Yehovah or in German Jehovah.

·        The Masoretic texts contained 3 Margins

o       Marginal Masorah – The side margin where they would write the Consonants of corrected words as well as the number of words & letters for each line of text.

o       Larger Masorah – The bottom margin where they would place more notes as well as mnemonic devices.

o       Final Masorah – The end of a book was where they would place number of verses, letters as well as the middle word and middle letter so every copy could be checked against the original.

·        The Masoretes also used two other types of textual correction.

o       If they thought any words were added after the original text they would mark the text in doubtful with dots. Example “and Aaron from Numbers 3:39.

o       If a letter was considered doubtful they would raise that letter a little above the text Example in Judges 18:30, the name Moses (MSH) was changed to Manasseh (MNSH) to protect Moses. So they would write the “N” higher then the rest. See footnote in the NIV