V The Text of the Sacred Books of the Old Testament
All this mighty superstructure of “Mishnah and Gemara,” which occupied so many of the greatest and most earnest minds in Israel for several centuries, was built up on the foundations of a Law (Torah) recognised as given by God Himself. The Books containing this Law (Torah), the Pentateuch, were accepted as divine in the course of the five centuries which intervened between the return from exile and the Christian era. The Pentateuch at first constituted the canon of Jewish Scripture. Its acknowledgment, though, no doubt dates from a much older period—long before the days of the Exile. We do not, however, possess sufficient historical data to define accurately the position which the Law held in pre-exilic Israel. To the Pentateuch was subsequently added the writings of the Prophets and the sacred works belonging to the older pre-exilic history of Israel. The canon of Scripture was completed and acknowledged much in its present form certainly 200 years before the age of Jesus Christ.
But although the prophets and other writings belonging to the pre-exilic period had been subsequently added to the Torah (the Law of Moses), it is certain that they never were placed quite on a level with it.
The Massorah
After the question—What constituted the canonical writings, the Divine Word?—was finally and authoritatively settled, the next step was to ensure the preservation of the sacred text which contained the Divine Revelation. The Scribes had determined what were the canonical books. The text of these books was handed over to another group of scholars known as the Massoretes. The precise chronology of these various steps is unknown.
The word “Massorah” comes from the Hebrew “Masar,” to give something into the hand of another so as to commit it to his trust. The work and duty of the Massoretes—the authoritative custodians of the sacred text—was to safeguard it, so as to protect it from any change. This they did effectually by “building a hedge round it.” To do this, they carefully registered all the phenomena in the ancient manuscripts, the reason for and meaning of many of which were not understood; but they were carefully noted and preserved. Some words were found which had been dotted over; some were spelt with large, some with smaller letters; some words and expressions were archaic, that is, belonging to a much earlier date in their history; some were suspended above the line; some sentences contained peculiar expressions: such-like phenomena and peculiarities in the ancient MSS. were diligently recorded by the Massoretes,—none were overlooked.
Other textual notes were carefully made, such as the number of verses in each sacred book. The middle verse and word of each great section in each book and even in the whole Bible were also recorded. All important words were noted; the number of times that each letter of the alphabet occurs in each division in each book and in the whole Bible were diligently written down. All this, and very much more of such curious statistical information, was registered by the Massoretes so as to lock and interlock every letter, word, and line into its place, that the original text of the ancient MSS. might be preserved and faithfully reproduced and handed down by any copyist who followed the direction of the Massorah.
That some of this curious elaborate work was done, that some of this vast hedge166 round the Law was planted before the fall of the City and Temple in A.D. 70, is fairly certain. But there is no doubt that the extremely complicated and exhaustive work of the Massoretes to ensure the preservation of the ancient text was really elaborated and completed in those centuries after the Christian era when the composition of the Mishnah and Gemara occupied the attention of the great Rabbinic academies which arose after the ruin of the City and Temple, in Palestine and in Babylonia.
This very brief sketch of the Massorah will give some idea of how exceedingly precious in the eyes of the Jew for many centuries has been the text of his loved Scriptures.
We possess no MSS. of the Hebrew Bible older than the first half of the ninth century. The reason of the non-existence of any very ancient MSS. is probably owing to the fact of the Jews being in the habit of burying old and worn-out copies of the Scriptures lest the worn material, the valuable parchment or papyrus, should be employed for any secular purpose. The text we now possess is, however, certainly that which was current in the seventh and eighth centuries of the Christian era, and there is little doubt that it accurately represents a much older text.
The Massoretic notes, something of the general purport of which is described above, are written above and below the three columns into which usually each page of the MS. of the Scriptures is divided. These notes are termed the “Massorah Magna”; while on the margin and between the columns are more Massoretic notes. These are termed the “Massorah Parva.”
The composition of these notes, which included every phenomenon of the text, as well as a vast number of interesting statistical facts bearing on the text, went on for well-nigh a thousand years, and eventually they amounted to an enormous bulk of material. It became in time absolutely impossible to write down anything approaching to the whole of the Massorah in any single MS. Hence, whenever a new copy of the Scriptures was ordered by an individual or a community, the Massoretic scribes were in the habit of transcribing only so much of the Massorah as they deemed of especial importance and interest, or as much of the Massorah as they considered a fair equivalent for the price paid for the MS. Thus it has come about that there is no single MS. of the Old Testament which contains the whole or anything approximating to the whole Massorah. The present scholarly editor of the Massorah (Dr. Ginsberg) has some seventy-two ancient MSS. of the Old Testament collected in the British Museum, from which he is gathering the different Massoretic notes for the monumental work on which he is engaged.
The mass of material put together by successive generations of scribes is so enormous that much of it has been even gathered into separate treatises; it having been found in old time simply impossible to find space for it in any codex, although all manner of abbreviations and signs to compress the notes into a smaller compass have been devised by the ancient scribes.
Such was the Massorah, that marvellous and unique apparatus devised by the Rabbis for the preservation of the ancient text of the Scriptures. A brief sketch showing the estimation in which these Scriptures, or at all events the Law proper, the Pentateuch, was held by the great Rabbinical schools, is indispensable to this little study on the Talmud.