.D. esis e Text of the Masoretes Its Character, Historical Seing, and Relationship to Jewish Biblical Exegesis Petr Tomášek e Department of Old Testament Studies supervised by doc. Dr Martin Prudký Prague Disertační práce e Text of the Masoretes Its Character, Historical Seing, and Relationship to Jewish Biblical Exegesis Text Masoretů Jeho arakter, historiý kontext a vztah k židovské biblié exegezi Petr Tomášek katedra Starého zákona vedoucí doc. Dr Martin Prudký studijní program P Teologie studijní obor Bibliá teologie Praha Prohlášení Prohlašuji, že jsem tuto disertační práci s názvem „e Text of the Masoretes: Its Character, Historical Seing and Its Relationship to the Jewish Biblical Exegesis“ napsal samostatně a výhradně s použitím citovaných pramenů. Souhlasím s tím, aby práce byla zveřejněna pro účely výzkumu a soukromého studia. V Praze dne .. .................................... Petr Tomášek Aowledgement I hereby confirm that I have wrien this doctoral thesis on my own and that I have not used any other sources than the ones referred to in this thesis. Permission is granted to use and distribute this work for purposes of research or private study. Prague, November , .................................... Petr Tomášek Bibliographic Citatation Petr Tomášek. “e Text of the Masoretes: Its Character, Historical Seing and Relationship to the Jewish Biblical Exegesis.” .D. diss., Charles University of Prague, Protestant eological Faculty . Summary is work tries to take a new look at the Masoretic text of the Hebrew Bible. Based on the assumption that the masoretic vocalization has its roots in the oral tradition it asks what is the character of this text, why it was transmied orally, and in which context it was wrien down only at such a late date. It asks further what was the function and mutual relationship of the other masoretic elements: the Hebrew vocalization, the accentuation and the Masoretic notes, and whether they all can be traced back to a common denominator. Lastly, this work tries to answer a question whether the masoretic tradition presented a reinterpretation of the consonantal text to some degree. To answer these questions this thesis analyses phenomena connected to the masoretic vocalization, accentuation and masoretic notes. Further, it observes some grammatically unusual masoretic forms. It comes to the conclusion that all of the masoretic elements of the Hebrew biblical text are to be traced back to an institutionalized oral study of Bible, which was the prevalent way of learning before the literacy became common. e present work could not testify any interpretative tendency in the Hebrew vocalization. Keywords Hebrew Bible, Old Testament, textual criticism, Masoretic text, punctuation, vocalization, Hebrew accents, liturgical chant, targum, masoretic notes, oral study. נוסח המסורה, הניקוד, טעמי המקרא, הערות המסורה, תרגום, לימוד פעל-פה. Bibliografiá citace e Text of the Masoretes [rukopis]: Its Character, Historical Seing, and Relationship to Jewish Biblical Exegesis: Disertační práce / Petr Tomášek; vedoucí práce: doc. Dr Martin Prudký.―Praha .―v, s. Anotace Tato práce se snaží nově prozkoumat masoretský text Hebrejské bible. Na základě předpokladu, že masoret- ská vokalizace má svůj základ v ústní tradici, se táže, jaký byl charakter tohoto textu, proč byl předáván ústně a v jakém kontextu byl zapsán teprve v dosti pozdní době. Dále se tato práce ptá, jaká byla funkce a vzájemný vztah jednotlivých masoretských elementů: hebrejské vokalizace, akcentuace a masoretických poznámek, a zda-li všechny tyto elementy mají nějaký společný základ. Tato práce se rovněž táže, zda-li masoretská tradice představovala do nějaké míry reinterpretaci hebrejského konsonantního textu. K zod- povězení těchto otázek analyzuje tato dizertace jevy související s masoretskou vokalizací, akcentuací a s masoretskými poznámkami a dále si všímá některých gramaticky nezvyklých masoretských tvarů. Práce dochází k závěru, že všechny masoretské elementy hebrejského biblického textu lze chápat jako výsledek institucionalizovaného ústního studia biblického textu, které bylo běžné dokud se dostatečně nerozšířila gramotnost. Práce nepotvrdila žádné interpretativní tendence hebrejské vokalizace. Klíčová slova Hebrejská Bible, Starý zákon, textová kritika, masoretiský text, punktace, vokalizace, hebrejské akcenty, litur- gický zpěv, targum, masoretské poznámky, ústní tradice. Table of Content Abbreviations, Sigla, Signs................................................................................................................. i Masoretic and Other Notation Systems.......................................................................................... iv T P M T.......................................................................................... . Basic estions of the Present Work......................................................................................... T J B S O T..................................... . Socio-economic Conditions of the Transmission of Biblical text in the Rab- binic period ...................................................................................................................................... . e Role of Orality in the Rabbinic Times................................................................................ .. e Ability to Read but not to Write?........................................................................................ . Liturgy or Study?............................................................................................................................ .. Liturgical Reading as a Ritualized Form of the Study of the Bible...................................... . e Complementarity of the “Wrien-” and “Oral Torah”.................................................. .. Rabbis and Scribes: A Dispute over Authority........................................................................ . Conclusion........................................................................................................................................ M T C............................................................................................ . Masoretic and Proto-Masoretic Elements of the MT.............................................................. Excursus : e Suspended leers ................................................................................................. T V .............................................................................................................................. . e Qerē and Ketīḇ ......................................................................................................................... .. Explicative qerē/ketīḇ Notes?....................................................................................................... ............................................................................................ לוֹ/ לֹא .. e Homophonic Qerē/Ketīḇ Excursus : Some Peculiar Qerē/Ketīḇ Examples ....................................................................... .. Qerē/Ketīḇ in Manuscripts with Palestinian Pointings .......................................................... ... e Manuscript Cb (M. Dietrich) ............................................................................................. .. Further Evidence............................................................................................................................. ... Evidence from the Targumic Masora ......................................................................................... . Evidence from Biblical otations............................................................................................. . e Qerē as a Reinterpretation of the Consonants? ............................................................... T H A........................................................................................................................ ............................................................................................... טעמים . e Prosodic Nature of the . e Accents as a Mnemonic Device ........................................................................................... Excursus : e Byzantine ekphonetic neumes........................................................................... . Accents in the Whole Hebrew Bible .......................................................................................... .. e Accentuation of the “Poetical Books”................................................................................ . e Accentuation of the Targum ................................................................................................ Excursus : Words with Double Accentuation and the Text of the Targumīm...................... . e Accentuation of the Rabbinic Literature ........................................................................... . e Accentuation of Other Texts ................................................................................................ . Disagreement of the Vocalization with the Accents .............................................................. M N................................................................................................................................ . An Example: e Masora parva of J ................................................................................. . e Character of the Masoretic notes of the ʾOklā-ve-ʾOḵ lā̱ Collection ............................ .. e