Hebrew bible in Biblical History

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Schaff's Bible Dictionary

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What is the Hebrew Bible?
        THE HEBREW BIBLE
        The Hebrew Bible of today is a reprint of the so-called Masoretic text -- i. e. the text punctuated and vocalized by a body of Jewish scholars who lived at Tiberias, and at Sora in the Euphrates valley, from the sixth to the twelfth century, and who committed to writing the mass of traditional notes of all kinds called the Masora -- i. e. tradition. Up to the beginning of that period the Hebrew text was written without "points," as the vowel-points are called. These were added, and thus the pronunciation was fixed. By means of other marks punctuation and the tone-syllables were indicated. The separation of the text into verses by means of two dots arranged like a colon and the assortment of the books in a fixed order had been previously effected. It is stated that after the Masoretes had finished their labors all the manuscripts which had not this text were condemned as "profane and illegitimate," which caused most of these rejected copies to perish. Thus the facts that there are very few old Hebrew manuscripts -- the oldest dating from the tenth century -- and that the same text is found in each, are accounted for. But happily for the scholars of Hebrew, the Masoretes marked their corrections upon the margin instead of inserting them in the text, and therefore they are at liberty to reject or use them. The Hebrew character has changed from an irregular to a square form. The Rabbins, however, in their books employed still another form, which is more cramped. The manuscripts whose use is obligatory in the synagogues to-day are written without punctuation-marks upon rolls, and are very carefully written and preserved. The whole Hebrew Bible was first printed in 1488; a second edition appeared in 1494. This was the one used by Luther. All subsequent Hebrew Bibles have been little more than reproductions of these two editions.


        Also See:
        The Bible
        The Text of the Bible
        The Hebrew Bible
        The Greek New Testament
        The Original Language of the Bible
        The Original Language of the Old Testament
        The Original Language of the New Testament

Bibliography Information
Schaff, Philip, Dr. "Biblical Definition for 'hebrew bible' in Schaffs Bible Dictionary".
bible-history.com - Schaff's

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