Читать книгу Judaism II - Группа авторов - Страница 16

MT includes five elements, of which the consonants and the elements around the text had been transmitted from previous generations (the proto-MT). The other elements were added later by the Masoretes:

1. The consonantal framework, i.e., the letters of the text without any additions;

2. Vocalization, i.e. the vowels that were added to the written text based on oral traditions. Written vocalization signs only started to appear in the eighth century, with the work of the Masoretes, though according to tradition they were already there as an oral tradition accompanying the written Torah.

3. Para-textual elements, i.e., elements added to the written text, such as Ketiv-Qere readings³ and the division of the text into paragraphs;

4. Accentuation (teʿamim or trope), the signs that added a musical dimension to the consonants and vowels. At the same time, the accents also indicated the relation between the words;

5. The Masorah, an apparatus of instructions for the writing and reading of the biblical text. The Masorah is a product of the early Middle Ages.

The principal component of MT, however, that of the letters, was in existence more than a thousand years before the complete MT. As noted above, scholars usually designate this consonantal base of the Masoretic Text as proto-Masoretic.⁴