Study the Torah with Academic Scholarship

By using this site you agree to our Terms of Use

Masoretic Text

How Many Trumpet Blasts to Travel? MT+SP=LXX

YHWH instructs Moses to sound a teruah blast to get the eastern camp to travel, and a second for the southern camp. What about the western and northern camps? The answer can be found by comparing the Masoretic Text, the Samaritan Pentateuch, and the Septuagint: It was a parablepsis.

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

,

,

As Solomon Builds the Temple, God Warns “Follow My Laws” in MT Not LXX

The description of Solomon building and dedicating the Temple in the Masoretic Text (MT) of 1 Kings 6 and 8 differ from their parallels in the Septuagint (LXX). These expansions are written in Pentateuchal language, uncharacteristic of Kings, and reflect the attempt of a later scribe(s) to make these scenes cohere with Priestly theology and style, especially of Leviticus 26.

Dr.

Guy Darshan

,

,

Dots on Deuteronomy 29:28: A Polemical Response to Qumran’s Secret Laws

“The secret things belong unto YHWH our God; but the things that are revealed belong unto us and to our children forever”—the verse has eleven dotted letters indicating erasure marks, but why? The answer lies in a controversial interpretation found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.

Prof.

Albert I. Baumgarten

,

,

How Was the Hebrew of the Bible Originally Pronounced?

Three traditions of pronouncing the Hebrew Bible existed in the first millennium C.E.: Babylonian, Palestinian, and Tiberian, each with its own written vocalization system. From the later Middle Ages on, however, biblical manuscripts have been written almost exclusively with the vowels and cantillation marks of the Tiberian system while paradoxically, the Tiberian pronunciation itself fell into oblivion.

Prof.

Geoffrey Khan

,

,

The Bible and the Masoretic Text

Prof.

Emanuel Tov

,

,

An Altar on Mt Ebal or Mt Gerizim? – The Torah in the Sectarian Debate

The textual remnants of a Second Temple religious polemic between Judeans and Samaritans about where God’s chosen mountain lies.

Prof.

Jonathan Ben-Dov

,

,

Mount Gerizim and the Polemic Against the Samaritans

Mount Gerizim appears in the Pentateuch as the mountain of blessing and plays a prominent role in Samaritan tradition, but the Jewish tradition sidelines this mountain and the Samaritans themselves in a polemic that began more than two and half thousand years ago.

Dr.

Eyal Baruch

,

,

Unspoken Hemorrhoids: Making the Torah Reading Polite

Two places in the Bible describe God striking people with hemorrhoids (ophalim): the curses in Deuteronomy 28 and the story of the Philistines’ capture of the ark in 1 Samuel 5-6. In the latter, the Philistines make golden statues of their afflicted buttocks to propitiate the Israelite deity. Traditional readings replace these crass references with the less offensive term techorim (abscesses).

Dr. Rabbi

Zev Farber

,

,

Socio-Religious Background and Stabilization

Prof.

Emanuel Tov

,

,

Evaluating (Proto-)MT

Prof.

Emanuel Tov

,

,

“All of Jacob’s Descendants Numbered Seventy-Five” – The Opening of Exodus in the Dead Sea Scrolls

The Book of Exodus begins with an accounting of the members of Jacob's family who went with him to Egypt. Our Torah, the Masoretic Text, lists 70 people. Dead Sea Scroll manuscript 4QExb, however, records 75 people. How do we account for this and other differences between the texts?

Prof.

Marc Zvi Brettler

,

,

Editions and Translations of MT

Prof.

Emanuel Tov

,

,

The Building Blocks of Biblical Interpretations: Text, Lexicon, and Grammar

Illustrations From Parashat Ekev

Prof.

Marc Zvi Brettler

,

,

The Oldest Known Copy of the Decalogue?

A careful examination of the three oldest copies of the Decalogue—4QDeutn, 4QPaleoExodusm, and the Nash Papyrus—surprisingly shows that none of them reflects the Masoretic Text.

Dr.

Esther Eshel

,

,

No items found.