An Introduction to Biblical Hebrew Syntax

B.C.E.), they began to indicate final vowels by using consonants which were
homogeneous to them, namely, yod for final ī, waw for final ū, and he for the
remaining signs. (In the MT he is sometimes used for ō as well as for ā; this
archaic spelling has largely been replaced by waw for ō.) Consonants used for
indicating vowels are known as matres lectiones (‘mothers of reading’). The same
system for the representation of final vowels was used in Moabite and Hebrew
from the ninth century on. In Aramaic texts the system of vowel representation
was extended sporadically to medial vowels after the ninth century. It was begun
in Hebrew thereafter. The process coincided with diphthongal contractions in both
Aramaic and Hebrew (e.g., *aw > ô as *yawm > yôm), and as a result yod and
waw acquired new values: yod for ê < ay, and waw for o < aw; he later came to
represent only the â vowel. Eventually other medial long vowels came to be
notated, with yod used for -ī/ē- and waw for -ū/ō- (the last from historical long -ā).
1.5.3 From 400 B.C.E. to 100 C.E.
a The same tendencies to preserve and revise the text, labeled by S. Talmon as
centrifugal and centripetal, 51 manifest themselves in the manuscripts and versions
extant from the time of the formation of the canon and the final standardization of
the consonantal text. 52
b Tendency to preserve the text. The presence of a text type among the Qumran
biblical texts (ca. 100 B.C.E. to 130 C.E.) similar to the one preserved by the
Masoretes, whose earliest extant manuscript dates to ca. 1000 C.E., gives
testimony to the achievement of the later scribes in faithfully preserving the text.
This text type must have been in existence before the time of Qumran, and its
many archaic forms give strong reason to believe that it was transmitted in a circle
of scribes dedicated to the preservation of the text. M. Martin’s studies show that
the Dead Sea Scrolls reveal a conservative scribal tendency to follow the exemplar
both in text and form. 53
c According to rabbinic tradition, the scribes attempted to keep the text “correct.” 54
The MT itself preserves some remnants of earlier scribal concern with preserving
the text: (1) the fifteen extraordinary marks that either condemn the Hebrew letters
* unattested form
51
See S. Talmon, “Aspects of the Textual Transmission of the Bible in Light of
Qumran Manuscripts,” Textus 4 (1964) 95–132, reprinted in Cross and Talmon,
Qumran and the History of the Biblical Text, 226–63.
52
Again, the discussion follows Waltke, “Textual Criticism,” 213–16.
53
M. Martin, The Scribal Character of the Dead Sea Scrolls (Louvain: Publications
Universitaires, 1958)
54
Babylonian Talmud, Nedarim 37b–38a.
MT Masoretic Text