The Role of the Karaites in the Transmission of the Hebrew Bible and Their Practice of Transcribing It into Arabic Script

Abstract In the Middle Ages the Karaite Jews in the Islamic world used both Arabic and Hebrew script in their writings. They wrote not only Arabic texts in Arabic script but also many of their Hebrew Bibles in Arabic transcription. The Rabbanites, by contrast, used Hebrew script for writing both Arabic and Hebrew. This paper examines the association of the Karaites with the Masoretic transmission of the Hebrew Bible and the motivation for their transcribing the Bible into Arabic script. It is argued that the Arabic transcriptions reflect the polemical stance of the Karaites against the bases of scriptural authority of the Rabbinites and an advanced degree of rapprochement of the Karaites with the Muslim environment. They represent a convergence with the external form of the Muslim Arabic Qurʾān and also with the concepts of authority associated with the transmission of Muslim scripture.</jats:p

Studies in the Masoretic Tradition of the Hebrew Bible

This volume brings together papers on topics relating to the transmission of the Hebrew Bible from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern period. We refer to this broadly in the title of the volume as the ‘Masoretic Tradition’. The papers are innovative studies of a range of aspects of this Masoretic tradition at various periods, many of them presenting hitherto unstudied primary sources. They focus on traditions of vocalisation signs and accent signs, traditions of oral reading, traditions of Masoretic notes, as well as Rabbinic and exegetical texts. The contributors include established scholars of the field and early-career researchers

Studies in the Masoretic Tradition of the Hebrew Bible

This volume brings together papers on topics relating to the transmission of the Hebrew Bible from Late Antiquity to the Early Modern period. We refer to this broadly in the title of the volume as the ‘Masoretic Tradition’. The papers are innovative studies of a range of aspects of this Masoretic tradition at various periods, many of them presenting hitherto unstudied primary sources. They focus on traditions of vocalisation signs and accent signs, traditions of oral reading, traditions of Masoretic notes, as well as Rabbinic and exegetical texts. The contributors include established scholars of the field and early-career researchers

The Tiberian Pronunciation Tradition of Biblical Hebrew

"These volumes represent the highest level of scholarship on what is arguably the most important tradition of Biblical Hebrew. Written by the leading scholar of the Tiberian Masoretic tradition, they offer a wealth of new data and revised analysis, and constitute a considerable advance on existing published scholarship. It should stand alongside Israel Yeivin’s ‘The Tiberian Masorah’ as an essential handbook for scholars of Biblical Hebrew, and will remain an indispensable reference work for decades to come. —Dr. Benjamin Outhwaite, Director of the Taylor-Schechter Genizah Research Unit, Cambridge University Library The form of Biblical Hebrew that is presented in printed editions, with vocalization and accent signs, has its origin in medieval manuscripts of the Bible. The vocalization and accent signs are notation systems that were created in Tiberias in the early Islamic period by scholars known as the Tiberian Masoretes, but the oral tradition they represent has roots in antiquity. The grammatical textbooks and reference grammars of Biblical Hebrew in use today are heirs to centuries of tradition of grammatical works on Biblical Hebrew in Europe. The paradox is that this European tradition of Biblical Hebrew grammar did not have direct access to the way the Tiberian Masoretes were pronouncing Biblical Hebrew. In the last few decades, research of manuscript sources from the medieval Middle East has made it possible to reconstruct with considerable accuracy the pronunciation of the Tiberian Masoretes, which has come to be known as the ‘Tiberian pronunciation tradition’. This book presents the current state of knowledge of the Tiberian pronunciation tradition of Biblical Hebrew and a full edition of one of the key medieval sources, Hidāyat al-Qāriʾ ‘The Guide for the Reader’, by ʾAbū al-Faraj Hārūn. It is hoped that the book will help to break the mould of current grammatical descriptions of Biblical Hebrew and form a bridge between modern traditions of grammar and the school of the Masoretes of Tiberias. Links and QR codes in the book allow readers to listen to an oral performance of samples of the reconstructed Tiberian pronunciation by Alex Foreman. This is the first time Biblical Hebrew has been recited with the Tiberian pronunciation for a millennium.

The Historical Depth of the Tiberian Reading Tradition of Biblical Hebrew

This volume explores an underappreciated feature of the standard Tiberian Masoretic tradition of Biblical Hebrew, namely its composite nature. Focusing on cases of dissonance between the tradition’s written (consonantal) and reading (vocalic) components, the study shows that the Tiberian spelling and pronunciation traditions, though related, interdependent, and largely in harmony, at numerous points reflect distinct oral realisations of the biblical text. Where the extant vocalisation differs from the apparently pre-exilic pronunciation presupposed by the written tradition, the former often exhibits conspicuous affinity with post-exilic linguistic conventions as seen in representative Second Temple material, such as the core Late Biblical Hebrew books, the Dead Sea Scrolls, Ben Sira, rabbinic literature, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and contemporary Aramaic and Syriac material. On the one hand, such instances of written-reading disharmony clearly entail a degree of anachronism in the vocalisation of Classical Biblical Hebrew compositions. On the other, since many of the innovative and secondary features in the Tiberian vocalisation tradition are typical of sources from the Second Temple Period and, in some cases, are documented as minority alternatives in even earlier material, the Masoretic reading tradition is justifiably characterised as a linguistic artefact of profound historical depth

Accents, Pausal Forms and Qere/Ketiv in the Bible Translations and Commentaries of Saadya Gaon and the Karaites of Jerusalem

Towards the end of the Geonic period (ca. 598–1038 C.E.) the Rabbanite figure Saadya Gaon (882–942) and scholars affiliated with the Karaite movement in Judaism developed and brought into prominence Biblical translation and exegesis. This period also roughly coincided with the end of what is known as the Masoretic period (ca. 500–900). The school of Masoretes whose reading tradition eventually became the most authoritative was the Tiberian school. Parts of the Tiberian reading tradition can reflect exegesis. The accents and pausal forms affect exegesis by demarcating syntactic/semantic boundaries through pauses in reading. Some scholars have noticed, however, that, at times, the pausal forms and accents reflect different pauses within the same verse. The oral reading (qere) sometimes offers a different interpretation from that of the written text (ketiv). The purpose of this thesis is to determine whether and to what extent these three components are discernable in the Bible translations and commentaries of Saadya Gaon and the Jerusalem Karaites. This question is primarily investigated through comparing these scholars' exegesis of verses where: (1) the accents mark a boundary which likely would have been ignored had the accents not been there (Chapter 2), (2) a pausal form marks a boundary different from that of the accents (Chapter 3), (3) the qere reads a lexeme with a different interpretation from that of the ketiv (Chapter 4). Chapters 2 and 3 begin with considerations of evidence relating to accents and pausal forms, respectively, which mostly falls outside of Saadya and the Karaites' works. On the basis of the primary and secondary evidence, I conclude that Saadya more often reflects the division of the accents, whereas the exegesis of the Karaites does not. The Karaites prefer divisions reflected by pausal forms in most cases. This thesis clearly demonstrates therefore that the Jerusalem Karaites did not regard the accents as an integral part of the Biblical text that was the object of exegesis, whereas Saadya considered the accents to be an integral part of the language of the text and should therefore be taken into account in exegesis. All scholars generally prefer the Biblical qere.Valler Doctoral Fellowship—University of Haifa Hebrew Studies Trust Fund—University of Cambridg

Experiencing the Hebrew Bible

Leading scholars from diverse fields explore the importance of the Hebrew Bible for Jewish history, culture, and identity. The Hebrew Bible has been and continues to be at the heart of Judaism. As this volume explores its significance throughout the ages, it focuses both on the textual history and on its lived experience. The articles deal with aspects of textual criticism, translation, the history of reception, and modern references to the Hebrew Bible. They span a historical period from antiquity to the present day. Leading scholars from various disciplines use diverse approaches to highlight the Hebrew Bible’s multifacetedness and its continuous importance for Jews around the world