Jeff A. Benner | A History of Hebrew Part 20: The Aleppo Codex @ancienthebreworg | Uploaded April 2010 | Updated October 2024, 2 hours ago.
A History of Hebrew DVD available through Amazon.Com - amazon.com/History-Hebrew-Its-Language-Philosophy/dp/1621370593
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This is a segment of a much larger video production that I am working on and am looking for feedback (positive and negative) on the layout and content.
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Up until the discovery of the DSS, the oldest existing complete Hebrew Bible was the Aleppo codex, also called the Masoretic text, which was written in the 10th C. CE, a thousand years after the DSS. For centuries, this text has been the foundation for Jewish and Christian translators.
The major difference between the Aleppo Codex and the Dead Sea Scrolls is the addition of the vowel pointings to the Hebrew words. These pointings provide the vowel sounds that are not present in the Hebrew language and were probably inserted into the text to standardize pronunciation.
In the DSS the name Israel is written with five Hebrew letters. The first letter is the letter yud representing the "y" sound. Then resh for the r, sin for the s, aleph which is silent and the lamed for the l. In the Aleppo codex, vowel pointings, in the form of dots and dashes are placed above and below each letter to represent the vowel sounds, providing the pronunciation yisra'el.
While the Masoretic text and the Dead Sea Scrolls were transcribed a thousand years apart, they are amazingly similar proving that the copying methods employed by the Jewish scribes over the centuries are very sophisticated and successful. However, there are some differences, some are simple variations of a reading, while others are much more complex.
Psalm 145 is an acrostic psalm where each verse begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In the Aleppo Codex the first verse begins with the letter aleph, the second with the beyt, the third with the gimel, and so on. Verse 13 begins with the letter mem, the 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the next verse begins with the letter samech, the 15th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. There is no verse beginning with the 14th letter nun.
When we examine Psalm 145 from the Dead Sea Scrolls we find between the verse beginning with the mem and the verse beginning with the samech, the verse beginning with the letter nun. There we read: נאמן אלוהים בדבריו וחסיד בכול מעשיו , which translates as "God is faithful in his words, and gracious in all his deeds."
This is why Psalm 145:13 reads differently in the KJV and the modern versions such as the RSV. The KJV was written prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls while the RSV and other modern versions were written afterward and often incorporate what has been found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
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Narration: Jeff A. Benner
Graphics: Jeff A. Benner
Images: Ardon Bar Hama, Reuvenk, The Seattle Traveler, Library of Congress,
Music: Kevin MacLeod
A History of Hebrew DVD available through Amazon.Com - amazon.com/History-Hebrew-Its-Language-Philosophy/dp/1621370593
---------------------------
This is a segment of a much larger video production that I am working on and am looking for feedback (positive and negative) on the layout and content.
___________________
Up until the discovery of the DSS, the oldest existing complete Hebrew Bible was the Aleppo codex, also called the Masoretic text, which was written in the 10th C. CE, a thousand years after the DSS. For centuries, this text has been the foundation for Jewish and Christian translators.
The major difference between the Aleppo Codex and the Dead Sea Scrolls is the addition of the vowel pointings to the Hebrew words. These pointings provide the vowel sounds that are not present in the Hebrew language and were probably inserted into the text to standardize pronunciation.
In the DSS the name Israel is written with five Hebrew letters. The first letter is the letter yud representing the "y" sound. Then resh for the r, sin for the s, aleph which is silent and the lamed for the l. In the Aleppo codex, vowel pointings, in the form of dots and dashes are placed above and below each letter to represent the vowel sounds, providing the pronunciation yisra'el.
While the Masoretic text and the Dead Sea Scrolls were transcribed a thousand years apart, they are amazingly similar proving that the copying methods employed by the Jewish scribes over the centuries are very sophisticated and successful. However, there are some differences, some are simple variations of a reading, while others are much more complex.
Psalm 145 is an acrostic psalm where each verse begins with the next letter of the Hebrew alphabet. In the Aleppo Codex the first verse begins with the letter aleph, the second with the beyt, the third with the gimel, and so on. Verse 13 begins with the letter mem, the 13th letter of the Hebrew alphabet, the next verse begins with the letter samech, the 15th letter of the Hebrew alphabet. There is no verse beginning with the 14th letter nun.
When we examine Psalm 145 from the Dead Sea Scrolls we find between the verse beginning with the mem and the verse beginning with the samech, the verse beginning with the letter nun. There we read: נאמן אלוהים בדבריו וחסיד בכול מעשיו , which translates as "God is faithful in his words, and gracious in all his deeds."
This is why Psalm 145:13 reads differently in the KJV and the modern versions such as the RSV. The KJV was written prior to the discovery of the Dead Sea Scrolls while the RSV and other modern versions were written afterward and often incorporate what has been found in the Dead Sea Scrolls.
___________________
Narration: Jeff A. Benner
Graphics: Jeff A. Benner
Images: Ardon Bar Hama, Reuvenk, The Seattle Traveler, Library of Congress,
Music: Kevin MacLeod
