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12. Orthography

  • Aaron D. Hornkohl (author)
Chapter of: Diachronic Diversity in Classical Biblical Hebrew(pp. 183–202)

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Metadata
Title12. Orthography
ContributorAaron D. Hornkohl (author)
DOIhttps://doi.org/10.11647/obp.0433.12
Landing pagehttps://www.openbookpublishers.com/books/10.11647/obp.0433/chapters/10.11647/obp.0433.12
Licensehttps://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
CopyrightAaron D. Hornkohl
PublisherOpen Book Publishers
Published on2024-11-11
Long abstractThe chapter explores the orthography of the Tiberian Torah in relation to other biblical texts, emphasising the linguistic and diachronic distinctiveness of the written component within the Masoretic tradition. It argues that while features discussed in chapters 8–11 might be viewed as purely orthographic peculiarities, they are better understood as linguistic differences. But even so, the distinctive defective orthography of the Torah, especially when compared to the more plene orthography in the rest of the Masoretic Bible, suggests that the spelling conventions of the Torah are conservative and may reflect an earlier stage of the Hebrew language. The presence of secondary developments in orthography raises questions about the authenticity and reliability of these conventions, but there remains a possibility of discerning meaningful early data amidst these changes. The text further delves into various examples of pre-Tiberian and proto-Tiberian orthography, drawing evidence from biblical manuscripts, including the Dead Sea Scrolls, which illustrate more defective spellings than the Masoretic Text. Studies on the orthographic distinctiveness of the Tiberian Torah reveal that its conservative defectiveness correlates with early spelling conventions, particularly in Priestly material. While some scholars argue that orthographic variations can be attributed to secondary processes, the overall findings suggest that the orthographic conservatism of the Torah may be indicative of its antiquity. The distinction between the orthography of the Torah and the Former Prophets suggests a nuanced interplay of diachronic developments within the Hebrew Bible, highlighting the complex relationship between language, orthography, and textual transmission.
Page rangepp. 183–202
Print length20 pages
LanguageEnglish (Original)
Contributors

Aaron D. Hornkohl

(author)
Associate Professor in Hebrew at University of Cambridge
https://www.ames.cam.ac.uk/people/dr-aaron-d-hornkohl

Aaron D. Hornkohl (PhD, The Hebrew University of Jerusalem, 2012) is University Associate Professor in Hebrew, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge. His research focuses on ancient Hebrew philology and linguistics, especially historical linguistics and ancient Hebrew periodisation; the components of the standard Tiberian Masoretic biblical tradition; and that tradition’s profile in the context of other biblical traditions and extrabiblical sources. This is his third single-author monograph after The Historical Depth of the Tiberian Reading Tradition of Biblical Hebrew (Cambridge: Open Book Publishers, 2023) and Ancient Hebrew Periodization and the Book of Jeremiah (Leiden: Brill 2014). He has also co-edited several volumes and written numerous articles.