Читать книгу Judaism II - Группа авторов - Страница 25

It is clear that for ancient scribes, consistency in the use of these vowel letters was not as important as it was in later centuries. The lack of unity in proto-MT is further shown by examples of inconsistency in the spelling of words appearing in the same context or belonging to the same grammatical category, and of unusual spellings. This inconsistency also characterizes the textual traditions of the Samaritan Pentateuch, the so-called Qumran Scribal Practice of many Qumran scrolls, and most individual Qumran scrolls. The following examples bring this inconsistency to light:

Feminine plural ending -ot in the participle qtl(w)t, e.g. שמר)ו(ת.

A computer sampling shows that these forms are written with the full spelling of the final syllable in 22.4% of all instances in the Torah, while in 100% of them in the Writings (ketuvim).

The spelling of words belonging to the same grammatical pattern appearing in one context. An example is Ezek 32:29 ירדי בור as opposed to v. 30 יורדי בור (with the added letter waw).

Many words appear in different spellings in the same context. An example is Judg 1:19 וירש compared with ויורש in the next verse.

Unusual spellings such as:

• מצתי (usual form: מצאתי) in Num 11:11

• ההלכוא (usual form: אשר הלכו) in Josh 10:24.

We do not know anything about the forerunners of MT, because we have no written evidence. However, from MT we can extrapolate their existence, and they tell us something about the scribes of MT. The scribes of the MT texts precisely copied their texts as we can see from:

1. The fact that a large number of texts remained unchanged over the course of 2000 years;

2. The exact copying of scribal features (see below, 2.3.3 on Scribal Marks). At the same time, other features seem to contradict this image of precision, namely

3. Inconsistent spellings.

4. Frequent mistakes in MT in certain sections.²⁰

Conditions (1) and (2) apply only if the scribes of MT started applying their rigid precision in copying a text that already contained the features described as (3) and (4).