Masorah of the Hebrew Bible

The name masorah (perhaps an Aramaic word meaning transmission) refers to comments added by the Masoretes to the Medieval Manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible. These comments appear in three different forms giving titles by their respective Latin names masora parva, masora magna, and masora finalis. The comments are written in Aramaic with some Hebrew added, but unfortunately in a very condensed “telegraphic” style hard to interpret.

The comments were used to keep the text of the Hebrew Bible intact. Therefore most of the material deals with rare expressions in the text itself the idea being that the scribe should copy the rare words as they are and not think that there is a spelling error in his source.

Masora parva (lesser masorah) includes very brief notes, mainly in form of a number. Notice the exceptional numbering ל = 1 and thus  כי  = 30, but לא = 31 etc. In the main text a small circle above the word(s) (see e.g. the very first word of Gen 1:1) refer of the masora parva note. The famous ketib/qere variation is found in the masora parva, too. Printed editions of the Biblia Hebraica include the marora parva in the margin of the text. This is also how it appears in the manuscripts.

Masora magna (large masorah) includes longer comments usually giving references where a phenomenon appears. In the manuscripts masora magna is place either on the top of the page of at the bottom of it. In BHS masora magna is published as a separate volume by Gérard E. Weil, Masorah gedolah iuxta codicem Leninrgadensem B 19 a (Rome, 1971). In BHQ the notes will be printed with the main text (add there will be separate comments on it).

Masorah finalis (final masorah) appears at the end of each book or at the end of the manuscript. Masora finalis include statistical material concerning e.g. number of verses in each book. The part that appears at the end of each book is printed accordingly in the editions of Biblia Hebraica. The rest of masora finalis is not printed with BHS nor will it be printed in BHQ.

The importance of the material in masorah for the translation or the exegesis is limited.

Basic introductions to the text of the Hebrew Bible, such as Ernst Würthwein, The Text of the Old Testament: An Introduction to the Biblia Hebraica (2nd Ed. 1995) contain brief descriptions of the masorah. For a more detailed introduction, see Page H. Kelley, Daniel S. Mynatt, and Timothy G. Crawford, The Masorah of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Introduction and Annotated Glossary (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1998). However, the most detailed and useful book is Israel Yeivin, Introduction to the Tiberian Masorah, SBL Masoretic Studies 5 [orig. מבוא למסורה הטברנית] (Scholars Press, 1980).