Category Archives: Textual Criticism

Historical phonetic shifts in Biblical Hebrew shaped spelling variation across manuscripts, genres, and periods—transforming orthography into a living record of sound change. Loss of gutturals and glottals (e.g., חֵטְא → חֵט), vowel reduction, and assimilation of weak consonants led to elision and stem modification, while matres lectionis emerged over time to preserve pronunciation amid dialectal drift. Foreign influence and scribal tradition introduced variant spellings (e.g., רֵישׁ vs. רֹאשׁ), and Masoretic Qere/Ketiv readings crystallized phonological hesitations. These shifts, whether in consonant behavior or vowel preservation, illuminate chronology, semantic nuance, and theological tone—where phonology becomes a lens for exegesis.… Learn Hebrew

Biblical Hebrew’s rare words—especially hapax legomena—demand multi-layered interpretive strategies, since their infrequency leaves no internal textual parallels. Scholars decode them through poetic and grammatical context (e.g., parallelism), comparative philology using Semitic cognates (e.g., Ugaritic, Akkadian, Arabic), textual criticism involving variant manuscripts (like the LXX or Masora), and Ancient Near Eastern literature that echoes thematic or legal usages. Terms like לִוְיָתָן and רְהָב resist precise translation, requiring lexical humility and semantic approximation. Together, these approaches highlight not just linguistic intricacy but theological and cultural depth, revealing the biblical text as a dynamic literary artifact shaped by its historical matrix.… Learn Hebrew

The Masoretic notation הִכְתִּיב (Hekhtiv) highlights a scribal affirmation that an unusual or seemingly defective written form in the biblical text is deliberate and authoritative, contrasting with the more dialogical Ketiv-Qere system where a divergent oral reading is supplied. As a Hiphil verb meaning “he caused to be written,” הִכְתִּיב signals that no correction is to be made, preserving orthographic irregularities as intentional. Used in Masora Parva and Magna, these annotations reflect the Masoretes’ reverence for textual fidelity, resisting normalization in favor of tradition.… Learn Hebrew

The system of Qerê and Kethîb in the Hebrew Bible reflects a scribal tradition that preserves both the written text (Kethîb, “what is written”) and the preferred oral reading (Qerê, “what is read”). In such cases, the consonants of the Kethîb remain in the text, while the vowels of the Qerê are superimposed, with the full Qerê form noted in the margin. Special categories include Kethîb velo Qerê (written but not read) and Qerê velo Kethîb (read but not written). Some readings, known as Qerê perpetuum, are so common they are assumed without marginal notes (e.g.,… Learn Hebrew