When was the modern manuscript for the Torah agreed upon?
Upvote:4
Great question - but like all great questions, it's not an easy one to answer. Yes, the Talmud does testify to the belief that there had once been multiple versions of the Pentateuch kept in the Temple (bear in mind that the Talmud is speaking of a time that somewhat predates its own composition), and the Talmud also mentions an uncertainty as regards the spelling of certain words. And yes, where the Talmud quotes biblical passages, the quotes are sometimes incorrect - and sometimes are of passages that don't even exist! That happens more rarely, but it does happen; see, for example, Berakhot 61a, which quotes a non-existent verse: "Elkanah walked after his wife".
So when did the text become standardised? Well, technically speaking, it never became 100% standardised, and differences (albeit minute) continue to exist between different texts. If you would like to see an example, consider the spelling of דכא / דכה in Deuteronomy 23:2. The two most ubiquitous Hebrew/English versions of the Pentateuch in print (the Artscroll and the JPS) both spell it differently to one another. That more differences don't exist is due to the work of the masoretes.
These were scholars who flourished in the early Middle Ages, who were responsible for counting letters and words (the Hebrew for scribe, sofer, also means "one who counts") and for developing lists of rare words and phrases. These lists came to be represented in an abbreviated form as marginal notes to what are termed masoretic bibles - the oldest of which, in its entirety and bound as a book, are the Aleppo Codex of the 10th century and the Leningrad Codex of the 11th. There are also very old masoretic manuscripts of Prophets, and of the Pentateuch as a stand-alone work.
Some of the paratextual elements of the Hebrew text (dots above letters, inverted nunim, raised letters, etc) also date back to this period, and in some cases almost certainly served as notations on the text made by masoretic scholars. They are still visible in handwritten Torah scrolls, such as are read liturgically in synagogues, despite these scrolls being stripped of the paratextual elements that people are most familiar with: the vowels and the accent marks (which function as a form of punctuation, amongst other things). The Talmud itself bears witness to some of these curious textual features, and provides homiletic interpretations of them.
The work that the masoretes did went a long way towards standardising the text, as did the work of those who added vowels and punctuation - two features that also serve to disambiguate tricky passages, to break the text up into verses and to otherwise resolve disputed reading traditions. But the biggest impact on the standardisation of the text was made by the development of movable type printing, which allowed for the copying and transmission of biblical texts without the sorts of mistakes so commonly made by scribes.
In my opinion, the best book on this subject is Emanuel Tov, Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible, but there are lots of others as well. I would recommend starting with that one, and if you want something more technical you can follow his bibliography.
More post
- 📝 Did a submarine ever torpedo and sink a destroyer?
- 📝 Was the west bank of the Nile farmed in Ancient Egypt?
- 📝 What are the origins of Pakistani laws on "blasphemy?"
- 📝 When did the allies find out about the killing of Jews during WW2
- 📝 Which king of Burgundy sheltered two Robertians?
- 📝 Was the average lifespan of a soldier deployed within Stalingrad only 24 hours?
- 📝 How is it known that Xenophon saw the ruins of Nineveh?
- 📝 Should the aluminados be considered to be the roots of the illuminati mythos?
- 📝 How did messages get back and forth between ship and shore during the Battle of Cherbourg?
- 📝 How would a Roman soldier address his superior officer? Reversely, how would a superior officer address a lower ranking Roman soldier?
- 📝 Harvard Architecture: How did Harvard Mark I separate data and instruction?
- 📝 Found a bullet shell with 'Winchester 30-06 SPRG' on it, how old is it?
- 📝 Why did Japan take so long to attack Wuhan?
- 📝 Can someone help identify this statue?
- 📝 What are the French gains after the American Revolutionary War
- 📝 How many words were written before Gutenberg
- 📝 Did the medieval Europe have an active "lowbrow" culture?
- 📝 Was Queen Henrietta Maria (of England) known for scratching her initials into things?
- 📝 In the past, why was timezone change based on year?
- 📝 Learning about WW2 lead me to a current event question about German policy
- 📝 Did Naulakha cost more than Burj Khalifa?
- 📝 Who manufactured US 10th Cavalry Saber?
- 📝 Were there trains to anonymous concentration camps?
- 📝 What sort of temples existed in small Greek villages?
- 📝 Why has Iran's GDP shrunk over the last three decades?
- 📝 How many Mendeleyevs there were?
- 📝 Was it widely known during his reign that Kaiser Wilhelm II had a deformed arm?
- 📝 Is there a study about what would have happened if Khmer Rouge remained in power in Cambodia?
- 📝 In the early 1900s, how did US politicians treat black dignitaries from other countries?
- 📝 How public was sex in 1800s America?
Source: stackoverflow.com
Search Posts
Related post
- 📝 When was the modern manuscript for the Torah agreed upon?
- 📝 How and when was the modern company ownership structure invented?
- 📝 When was tofu invented? Was it specifically for vegetarian consumption from the beginning?
- 📝 When was the last time the Catholic Church excommunicated a government official for political reasons?
- 📝 When was the use of detailed maps for military campaigns widely adopted?
- 📝 What incentives were there for Soviet and Chinese politicians to try climb to the top when there was so much history of deposing their own?
- 📝 When was the term for WW2 first used and was it more popular in, say, US before Europe?
- 📝 Why did Hitler attack the Soviet Union when he was still busy fighting the United Kingdom?
- 📝 Why did archery not make a comeback when armor was phased out in the 18th century?
- 📝 Has there ever been a case when a traitorous military commander took command again for the side he betrayed?
- 📝 Did it take 3 minutes to reload a musket when the second amendment to the US constitution was ratified?
- 📝 Why was it "acceptable" for Prince Charles to marry a divorced woman, when Edward VIII had to abdicate for marrying divorcee Wallis Simpson?
- 📝 Why was World War I ended on Nov 11 11:00, rather than immediately upon signing the armistice?
- 📝 During the breakup of the Soviet Union, on what basis was citizenship granted or withheld for each of the fifteen new republics?
- 📝 Where did Hitler get the funds to invest in economic development programs such as the autobahn when the German economy was in a depression?
- 📝 Was it militarily possible to "island hop" the Philippines if not for MacArthur?
- 📝 When did the U.S. Army start saying "oh-six-hundred" for "6 AM"?
- 📝 What was the reason for Soviet troops to withdraw from Yugoslavia in World War II?
- 📝 When the Portuguese began the exploration of the West African Coast, did they believe the Indian Ocean was an enclosed sea?
- 📝 If the Ch’in dynasty was so short-lived, why was China named for it?
- 📝 Is there evidence to suggest the "war on drugs" was a cover for class warfare?
- 📝 What was the plan for an abort of the Enola Gay's mission to drop the atomic bomb?
- 📝 What was the economic basis for West Berlin?
- 📝 Was there a tax in the fifties for British citizens traveling abroad?
- 📝 When was the last time a reigning monarch personally participated in battle?
- 📝 How could Jews integrate into Western modern society back when Saturday was a normal working day?
- 📝 Was it ever possible to join the US military instead of going to prison for a crime?
- 📝 Was the Dutch State independent when the Dutch East India Company was founded?
- 📝 How likely is it that any non-Celtic language was spoken in the British Isles when the Romans invaded?
- 📝 When and why was the samurai class abolished?