Masoretic Points
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[edit] Definition
Masoretic points are marks used to indicate the vowel sounds when the Bible is written in Hebrew.
[edit] History
Vowel sounds were not originally written in Hebrew, and the Hebrew Scriptures were written without them. This may have done well enough when Hebrew was still a living language, but was more problematic when its only use was religious and it had to be learnt as a "dead language".
To remedy this deficiency, the Masoretic scholars, towards the end of the first millennium AD, established a system of indicating the vowel sounds in the Hebrew Bible to fix the oral tradition of pronunciation which had been handed down to them.
[edit] Discussion
To add the vowel points to the consonantal text required, of course, that someone had to decide what the vowel sounds in the Bible actually were. The answer is not always clear and unambiguous.
For example, the Masoretes (in Genesis 47:31) have Jacob "bow upon the head of the bed": they suppose the Hebrew to be "mitta". However, the Septuagint has him "bow upon the head of the staff", which assumes the Hebrew word to be "matte'".
Again, here is the book of Amos (9:11 - 12):
- "In that day I will raise up the booth of David which is fallen and repair its breaches and raise up its ruins, and rebuild it as in the days of old, that they may possess the remnant of Edom."
This follows the Masoretic text. But here is St James, in the Acts of the Apostles (Acts 15:15-17), citing the same passage:
- "And with this the words of the prophets agree, as it is written:
- "After this I will return, and I will rebuild the dwelling of David, which has fallen; I will rebuild its ruins and I will set it up, that the rest of mankind may seek the Lord."
There is a clear theological difference between the "remnant of Edom" and the "rest of mankind" --- and the difference is in the vowel sounds. It is not that St James is misquoting, but that he is dependent on a different tradition of inserting vowels.
