Subject: The Massorah? |
Bible Note: EdB, The Massorah is from the root (masar), so as to commit it to his trust. Hence the name is given to the small writing (Massorah Magna) referred to, because it contains information necessary to those into whose trust the Sacred Text was comitted, so that they might transcribe it, and hand it down correctly. the Text itself had been fixed before the Massorites were put in charge of it. This has been the work of the sopherim (from saphar, to count, or number). their work under Ezra and Nehemiah, was to set the Text in order after the return from Babylon; and we read of it in Neh.8:8, Ezra7:6,11. The men of the Great Synagogue completed the work. This work lasted about 110 years, Nehemiah to Simon the first, 410-300 B.C. The Sopherim were the authorised revisers of the Sacred Text; and their work being completed, the Massorites were the authorised custodians of it. Their work was to preserve it. The Massorah is called "A fence to the scriptures," because it locked all words and letters in their places. It does not contain notes or comments as such, but facts and phenomena. It records the number of times the several letters occur in the various books of the Bible; the number of words, and the middle word; the number of verses, and the middle verse; the number of expressions and combination of words. All this not from a perverted ingenuity, but for the set purpose of safeguarding the Sacred Text, and preventing the loss or misplacement of a single letter or word. This Massorah is not contained in any one Manuscript. No Manuscript, contains the whole, or even the same part. It is spread over many manuscripts, and Dr. C.D. Ginsburg has been the first and only scholar who has set himself to collect and collate the whole, copying from every available in the libraries of many countries. When the Hebrew Text was printed, only the large type in the columns was regarded, and the small type of the Massorah was left unheeded, in the Manuscripts from which the Text was taken. When translators came to the printed Hebrew Text, they were necessarily destitute of the information contained in the Massorah; so as the Revisers as well as the Translators of the Authorised Version carried out their work without any idea of the treasures contained in the Massorah; and therfore, without giving a hint of it to their readers. In LOVE of the Father, SERENETIME |