Why Hebrew and Aramaic Orthography?
This book introduces the student to the textual study of the Hebrew Bible—to help such a student "perceive the work of the numberless and nameless scribes torn between tradition and fashion in their restrained attempts to update the orthography of Scripture." Sixteen essays serve as the bridge from older methods for the study of orthography to newer ones, using the computer to analyze large bodies of text.
More information on Hebrew resources can be found in the Product Guide on Hebrew Texts and Tools.
Additional Information
Series: Biblical and Judaic Studies from the University of California, San Diego (BJSUCSD 2)
Authors: David Noel Freedman, A. Dean Forbes, and Francis I. Andersen
Publisher: Eisenbrauns
Copyright 1992; 328 pages
Praise for the Print Edition
"It indeed makes for interesting reading."
– Gary A. Rendsburg, Cornell University
in Journal of Biblical Literature (113/2, 1994)
"Everything you could possibly want to know about the orthography of biblical Hebrew and Aramaic. And more. Users of this volume may find particular pleasure and enlightenment in its concluding appendix ('What Did the Scribes Count?'), wherein the verse, word, and number counts of the Masoretes and others are freshly examined to great effect."
– Leonard J. Greenspoon, Oxford Centre
in Religious Studies Review (Vol. 19, No. 4, Oct. 1993)
Table of Contents
PREFACE
SIGLA
I. BACKGROUND
1. THE EVOLUTION OF HEBREW ORTHOGRAPHY - David Noel Freedman
1.1 Introduction
1.2 Phase I: Pure Consonantism
1.3 Phase II: Vowel Letters
1.4 Phase III: Post-exilic Orthography
1.4.1 Archaic Hebrew Spelling (AHS)
1.4.2 Standard Hebrew Spelling (AHS)
1.4.3 Hellenistic Hebrew Spelling (AHS)
1.5 Conclusion
2. A TUTORIAL ON METHOD: A GUIDE FOR THE STATISTICALLY PERPLEXED - A. Dean Forbes
2.1 One More Time
2.2 Finding Spelling Patterns
2.3 Grouping Copies of Copies
2.4 Hebrew Spelling
2.5 Data Preparation
2.5.1 Which Text?
2.5.2 What Might Determine Spelling?
Vowel Type
Vowel Stress
Text Portion
Word Aesthetics
Word Proximity
Local Frequency
2.5.3 The Mechanics of Data Preparation
Identifying Vowels Having Fixed Spelling
Labeling Vowels
2.6 Methods of Data Analysis
2.7 Results
2.7.1 A Helpful Analogy
2.7.2 Possible Effects of Transmission
Error-free Theory
Indifference Theory
Mixed Theory
2.7.3 Examples of Portion and Spelling Choice Association
David
The Object Marker
2.8 Hierarchical Clustering
2.8.1 A Geographical Example
2.8.2 Text Clustering Based on Spelling Practice
2.9 Where Matters Stand
3. REVIEW: MT SPELLING AND STATISTICS - Francis I. Andersen & A. Dean Forbes
3.1 Survey of Our Previous Work
3.1.1 Background Materials
3.1.2 Preparing the Data for Analysis
3.1.3 Analyses of Spelling Practice
3.2 Further Explanation
3.2.1 Successive Plene Vowels
3.2.2 The Effects of Markov Chains
3.2.3 Outliers and Their Detection
3.3 Tables of Types, Portions, & Outliers
II. EXTENSIONS
4. THE SPELLING OF SUFFIXES - Francis I. Andersen
4.1 More on Terminal a
4.2 Suffix 'his'
4.3 Nouns Ending in -an and -on
5. THE SPELLING OF O AND E - Francis I. Andersen
5.1 Historical Development
5.2 Biblical Spelling
5.3 Qumran Spelling
6. ARCHAIC, STANDARD, AND LATE SPELLING - Francis I. Andersen
6.1 The Problem of Dating
6.2 Phases in Biblical Spelling
7. ALEPH AS A VOWEL LETTER IN OLD ARAMAIC
7.1 Introduction
7.2 Items Excluded
7.3 Paths of Development
7.4 Conclusions
III. ADVANCES
8. CHOICE OF STATISTICAL METHODS - A. Dean Forbes
8.1 The Basic Approach
8.2 Distance Measures
8.3 Clustering Algorithms
8.4 Multidimensional Scaling
9. SPELLING IN PARALLEL PASSAGES - Francis I. Andersen & A. Dean Forbes
9.1 Source-Encoder-Channel Equations
9.2 Choice of Parallel Texts
9.3 Behavior of Corresponding Vowels
9.4 Intra-book Parallels
9.5 Inter-book Parallels
10. THE SERIATION OF PORTIONS - A. Dean Forbes
10.1 The Cluster or to Seriate?
10.2 Seriation by Multidimensional Scaling
10.3 The Abundance Matrix for Spelling
10.4 From Abundances to Seriation
IV. DOCUMENTS
11. THE SPELLING OF THE ARAMAIC PORTION OF THE TELL FEKHERYE BILINGUAL - Francis I. Andersen & David Noel Freedman
11.1 Introduction
11.2 The Basic Data
11.3 The Inventory of Words
11.4 Summary
11.5 Conclusions
11.5.1 Final Vowels
11.5.2 Medial Vowels
A Notable Exception
11.5.3 Diphthongs
12. THE SPELLING OF SAMARIA PAPYRUS 1 - David Noel Freedman & Francis I. Andersen
12.1 Introduction
12.2 The Evidence
12.3 Conclusions
12.4 Summary
13. ANOTHER LOOK AT 4QSAM -Francis I. Andersen & David Noel Freedman
13.1 The Evidence
13.1.1 Fragment 1 (1Sa 16:1-11)
13.1.2 Fragment 2 (1 Sa 19:10-17)
13.1.3 Fragments 3 and 4 (1 Sa 21:3-10)
13.1.4 Fragments 5 and 6 (1 Sa 23:9-17)
13.2 Summary
13.2.1 Invariant Spellings
13.2.2 Standard Spellings
13.2.3 Spellings in 4QSam
13.3 Conclusions
14. THE ORTHOGRAPHY OF 4QTESTIMONIA - Francis I. Andersen & David Noel Freedman
14.1 Introduction
14.2 Procedure
14.3 Inventory: Deuteronomy 5:28-29
14.4 Inventory: Deuteronomy 18:18-19
14.5 Inventory: Numbers 24:15-17
14.6 Inventory: Deuteronomy 33:8-11
14.7 Discussion
14.8 Excursus: in 4QTestim
14.9 Final Comment
15. THE ORTHOGRAPHY OF D62 - Francis I. Andersen
15.1 The Codex from Karasu-Bazar
15.2 The Text
15.3 Codicology
15.4 Palaeography
15.5 Orthography: Spelling Variants
15.6 Orthography: Interpretation
15.7 Corrections in D62
15.8 Variant Spellings in D62
APPENDIX
WHAT DID THE SCRIBES COUNT? - Francis I. Andersen & A. Dean Forbes
A.1 The Tradition
A.2 Specifics in the Tradition
A.3 Mechanisms of Divergence
A.4 Verse Counts
A.5 Middle Verses
A.6 Word Counts
A.7 The Middle Word of the Torah
A.8 Letter Counts
A.8.1 Letter Counts of the Torah
A.8.2 Letter Counts of the Bible
A.9 Middle Letters
A.9.1 The Middle Letter of the Torah
A.9.2 The Middle Letter of the Psalter
A.9.3 The Middle Letter of the Bible
A.10 Conclusions
REFERENCES