THE SYNTAX OF MASORETIC ACCENTS IN THE HEBREW BIBLE by James D. Price, Ph.D. Temple Baptist Seminary Copyright 1990 by James D. Price All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without permission in writing from the publisher, except in the case of brief quo- tations in critical articles or reviews. ii DEDICATION This work is dedicated to my friend and colleague, Dr. Hermann J. Austel, Academic Dean and Professor of Old Testament and Biblical Languages at Northwest Baptist Seminary, Tacoma, Washington. He has been a lifelong exam- ple of academic and spiritual excellence. iii iv TABLE OF CONTENTS Page DEDICATION ....................................................................................................... iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ........................................................................................ v LIST OF TABLES ............................................... Error! Bookmark not defined.i PREFACE ............................................................................................................. xv ACKNOWLEDGMENTS .................................................................................. xvii INTRODUCTION .................................................................................................. 1 Hebrew's Non-Vowel Marks .............................................................................. 1 Textual Problems ............................................................................................ 1 Masoretic Notes .............................................................................................. 2 Phonetic Union................................................................................................ 2 Accent Marks .................................................................................................. 2 The Study of the Accents .................................................................................... 4 Antiquity of the Accents ..................................................................................... 8 Four Purposes of Primary Accents ..................................................................... 9 Marking Stress ................................................................................................ 9 Marking Syntactic Relationship ...................................................................... 9 Musical Cantillation ...................................................................................... 10 Poetic Structure ............................................................................................. 12 Two Systems of Accentuation .......................................................................... 14 PART I: THE SYNTAX OF THE HEBREW ACCENTS USED IN THE PENTATEUCH ................................................................. 15 CHAPTER 1: The Prose Accents Marks .............................................................. 17 List of Prose Accents ........................................................................................ 17 Disjunctive Accents ...................................................................................... 18 Conjunctive Accents ..................................................................................... 19 CHAPTER 2: The Prose Laws of Accentuation ................................................... 23 The Laws of Hierarchic Governance ................................................................ 23 v Table of Contents Page The Law of Substitution................................................................................ 27 The Law of Conjunctives .............................................................................. 28 The Law of Transformation .............................................................................. 31 The Law of Continuous Dichotomy ................................................................. 32 Unnatural Binary Restraint ........................................................................... 35 Obscure Near Segment ................................................................................. 35 Criteria of Division ....................................................................................... 38 Complexity .................................................................................................... 40 CHAPTER 3: The Prose Accent in Hierarchy I ................................................... 41 CHAPTER 4: The Prose Accents in Hierarchy II ................................................ 45 Silluq ................................................................................................................. 45 Athnach ............................................................................................................. 49 CHAPTER 5: The Prose Accents in Hierarchy III ............................................... 55 Tiphcha ............................................................................................................. 56 Little Zaqeph ..................................................................................................... 61 Great Zaqeph ..................................................................................................... 66 Segolta............................................................................................................... 67 Shalsheleth ........................................................................................................ 71 CHAPTER 6: The Prose Accents in Hierarchy IV ............................................... 73 Tebir .................................................................................................................. 74 Pashta ................................................................................................................ 78 Yethib ................................................................................................................ 83 Zarqa ................................................................................................................. 84 Rebia ................................................................................................................. 88 CHAPTER 7: The Prose Accents in Hierarchy V ................................................ 93 Geresh ............................................................................................................... 93 Garshaim ........................................................................................................... 96 Pazer .................................................................................................................. 97 Great Telisha ..................................................................................................... 98 Great Pazer ........................................................................................................ 99 vi Table of Contents ` Page Legarmeh ........................................................................................................ 101 Paseq ............................................................................................................... 102 Pseudo-Legarmeh ........................................................................................... 103 CHAPTER 8: The Prose Conjunctive Accents ................................................... 107 Munach ........................................................................................................... 107 Mahpak ........................................................................................................... 109 Mereka ............................................................................................................ 111 Double Mereka................................................................................................ 112 Darga ............................................................................................................... 113 Azla ................................................................................................................. 113 Little Telisha ................................................................................................... 115 Galgal .............................................................................................................. 116 Mayela............................................................................................................. 117 CHAPTER 9: Interpreting the Prose Accents ..................................................... 119 Interpreting the Conjunctive Accents ............................................................. 119 The Disjunctive Accents ................................................................................. 120 Accents in Hierarchy I and II ...................................................................... 120 Accents in Hierarchy III.............................................................................. 122 Accents in Hierarchy IV ............................................................................. 124 Accents in Hierarchy V ............................................................................... 125 Influences of Poetic Structure ..................................................................... 125 Interpreting Near Disjunctives .................................................................... 127 The Problem of Altered Accentuation ............................................................ 132 The Problem of Double Accentuation ...........................................................