The Transmission of the Hebrew Bible
10.2. The Transmission of the Hebrew Bible
10.2.1. The Sopherim
According to Jewish tradition, a group of people known as Sopherim were responsible for the copying of the text of the Old Testament, after Ezra. The name Sopherim is the plural of the Hebrew word sopher translated as ‘writer, scribe, or secretary’. These writers were high government officials who were connected with the palace of the king (2 Kgs 10:12; 18:18,37; Jer. 36:12, 20). We do know some sopherim by name: Seraiah (2 Sam. 8:17); Sheva (2 Sam. 20:25); Shavsha (1 Chron. 18:16); Elihoreph and Ahijah (1 Kgs 4:3); Shebna (2 Kgs. 18:18,37).
The Sopherim worked from around 400 BC to AD 200 on the text. Their work included the establishment of the text that consisted of consonants (consonantal text). They also developed signs to indicate difficult passages in the text. There are eighteen of these passages, which are called tiqqune sopherim (corrections of the sopherim). Why have they changed these passages? According to them, these texts were offensive, and showed a lack of respect for the holy God. What did they do? They used euphemisms to soften the theological implications of the expressions. The first tiqqun is Genesis 18:22. The original text reads: ‘the LORD stood yet before Abraham’. This according to the sopherim was not possible. How can the LORD stand before Abraham, especially if ‘standing before’ means ‘interceding before’ or ‘standing before as a servant’? They therefore recommended reading the text as follows: ‘but Abraham stood yet before the LORD’, Christians, who have the revelation of God in the New Testament, will not have any problem with the original text. The Lord Jesus revealed God to us in a way that the believers in the Old Testament could never know him. The Lord Jesus Christ, the Lord of all, washed the feet of his disciples. He laid down his life for them. He is our servant King!
The following table is a list of the eighteen changes.
Tiqqune Sopherim|
Gen. 18:22|The LORD stood yet before Abraham|
Num. 11:15|Kill me so that I may not look upon your (Yahweh’s) evil|
Num. 12:12|Our mother’s womb the half of our flesh is consumed|
1 Sam. 3:13|Because his sons cursed God|
2 Sam. 16:12|The Lord will see with His (own) eye|
2 Sam. 20:1|Every man to his gods, O Israel|
1 Kgs. 12:16|Departed to their gods|
2 Chr. 10:16|Returned to their gods|
Job 7:20|A burden to you (God)|
Job 32:3|And they declared God (in the wrong)|
Ps. 106:20|They changed my glory|
Jer. 2:11|But my people have changed my glory|
Lam. 3:20|And your soul will mourn over me|
Ezek. 8:17|And they put the branch to my nose|
Hos. 4:7|My glory they have changed into shame.|
Hab. 1:12|You (Yahweh) will not die.|
Zech. 2:8|He that touches you touches the apple of my eye|
Mal. 1:13|You have snuffed at me|
10.2.2. Zugot
The second group of copyists were called the Zugot. They worked from the second century to the first century BC. The well-known rabbis Hillel and Shammai were considered to be Zugot.
10.2.3. The Tannaim
The third group of copyists is known as tannaim (teachers). A tanna (teacher) was one who studied, repeated and transmitted what he learned from his teachers. The tannaim worked up to the second century AD. Besides passing down the text, these teachers also interpreted it. In their interpretation they followed what according to them was the tradition of interpretation. The oral interpretations of the law were brought together in the collection called the Mishnah.
10.2.4. The Masoretes
The Masoretes worked from AD 500 to AD 950 on the transmission of the text. They prepared the final edition of the Old Testament text. Not only did they continue the work of their predecessors, they added vowels, punctuation and accentuation to the consonantal text. Their notes appears in the margin of the printed text and are known as masora, equivalent to our footnotes. The masora consist of two groups:
(1) masora parva (minor masora). These masora contained short comments and notes in the margin of the text.
(2) masora magna (major masora). These included materials that were placed in the upper and bottom margin of the page and at the end of a whole book (masora finalis). Some of the comments of the masoretes include:
Lev. 8:8: the centre verse of the torah.
Lev. 11:42: the centre letter of the torah.
Ps. 78:35, 36: centre of the book.