Mitchell

The Cairo Bible, of the year 1010

Throughout the world, there are many manuscripts (ancient copies) of individual books and sections from the Hebrew Bible. The most famous manuscripts are probably those found in Khirbet Qumran near Ein Feshka in other words the manuscripts that are popularly known as the Dead Sea Scrolls. These scrolls represent some of the earliest manuscripts of portions of the Hebrew Bible.

Two more important but not as early texts are the Aleppo Codex and the Cairo Bible, of the year 1010 (the Leningrad Codex). The Aleppo Codex is slightly older than the Leningrad Codex, but the Leningrad Codex is complete, while the Aleppo Codex has a number of missing sections. So, while the Leningrad Codex is far from having the oldest representation of any individual book of the Hebrew Bible, the Leningrad Codex is non-the-less the oldest complete Codex of the Hebrew.

Today the Leningrad Codex is housed in the Russian National Library in St. Petersburg in part of a collection of manuscripts known as the First Firkovich Collection. The Leningrad Codex is thought to have been produced in Cairo, Egypt around the year 1008–1009 CE by a scribe named Samuel ben Jacob.

Sometime between 1862 and 1876 Abraham Firkovich acquired the Leningrad Codex and brought Odessa in 1838. later the codex transferred to the Imperial Library in Leningrad now St Petersburg. Where did Abraham Firkovich find the Cairo Bible of 1010? No one knows and this remains a mystery to this day. What is not a mystery is that Paul E. Kahle recommended the use of the Leningrad Codex as the base text for the 3rd edition of Kittel’s Biblia Hebraica. From 1935 to 1937 Paul Kahle was granted permission to borrow the codex so that he could have it transcribed and typsetted to become part of the Biblia Hebraica Series. Since 1937 the vast majority of New Bible translations of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament have used the Biblia Hebraica and thus also the Leningrad Codex.

While the Leningrad Codex is not as old as the Dea Sea Scrolls, because it is the basis for the majority of modern translations of the Hebrew Bible/Old Testament it is of great importance! However, not everyone can afford a flight to St Petersburg, and even those who can may find it difficult to get permission to study the Leningrad Codex in person. But fear not! Why? Because, the West Semitic Research Project’s photo fascicle of every page of the Leningrad Codex can now be accessed digitally on computers, smartphones, and tablets through Accordance Bible Software. With Accordance’s Leningrad Codex module, one can double-check the BHS / BHQ, read the Masoretic notes, and examine the manuscript at home or on the go.

Leningrad Codex Images

Greek Quote # 12

Κάλλιστον κόσμος, ποίημα γαρ θεού.

“The Universe is most beautiful for it is the work of God (Ο Θαλής ο Μιλήσιος / Thales of Miletus))

Parasing Information:

Κάλλιστον is the neuter form of the superlative adjective “κάλλιστος” (kállistos), which means “most beautiful” or “best.”

κόσμος is a Greek noun that means “world” or “universe” in English. Grammatically, it is masculine in gender and can take different forms depending on its role in a sentence, such as nominative, accusative, genitive, etc.

ποίημα is a Greek noun that means “workmanship”, “creation”, or “poem” in English. It is neuter in gender.

γαρ is a Greek particle used in ancient Greek and Koine Greek. It’s commonly translated as “for” or “indeed” in English. Grammatically, it serves as a conjunction or a particle that connects clauses, providing an explanation, justification, or reason for what was said before. It doesn’t inflect like nouns or verbs, so it doesn’t have different forms.

θεού is a Greek noun that means “of God” in English. Grammatically, it is in the genitive case, which typically indicates possession or relationship. In this form, it shows possession or association with the noun it modifies. In this case, “θεού” indicates possession by or association with God.

Greek Quote# 11

Υἱὸς σοφὸς εὐφραίνει πατέρα, υἱὸς δὲ ἄφρων λύπη τῇ μητρί. (Παροιμίαι (Παλαιά Διαθήκη) 10:1)

“A wise son maketh a glad father: but a foolish son is the heaviness of his mother. “( Proverbs 10:1 KJV)

Brief Glossary and Parsing notes follow:

The masculine noun υἱός (son) appears 2x times in this verse and both times it is found in the nominative singular dictionary form.

All the following lexical items in verse relating the singular (son) are also all singular.
σοφός (wise/wisdom) masculine nominative adjective in the plain dictionary form.
εὐφραίνει  (to make glad, happy, cause to celebrate) is the present active indicative 3rd person form of the verb εὐφραίνω
πατέρα    (Father, Dad, parent) is the accusative masculine form of the noun πατήρ
δὲ  (but, however, now) is a conjunction
ἄφρων (stupid, foolish) is the masculine nominative form of the adjective ἄφρων
Naturally the following are all feminine singular(s)
λύπη   (sorrow, grief, unhappiness) is a nominative noun
τῇ is the of course the article ὁ
μητρί (mother) is the dative form of the noun μήτηρ

Greek Quote #10

κρείσσων γὰρ σοφία λίθων πολυτελῶν,
πᾶν δὲ τίμιον οὐκ ἄξιον αὐτῆς ἐστιν.

indeed wisdom is greater than expensive jewels, and nothing is as valuable as it.

glossary:

κρείττων   better, greater
γάρ   for, since, then, indeed
σοφία    skill; wisdom
λίθος    stone
πολυτελής   expensive
πᾶς   all, every; the whole
δέ   but, and, now
τίμιος   precious, rare; honorable
οὐ   not; no
ἄξιος   worthy; worth, value, dignity
αὐτός   he, she, it; self, same; they
εἰμί   to be, exist

Question about blank Parenthesis in electronic texts of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (BHS)

If you have ever used a digital version of the Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia (link) in Bible Software you may have run across words in parenthesis. In general the words you find in Parenthesis are what are known as the קרי(Qere / read). The Qere are suggested scribal corrections of typos or errors found in Hebrew manuscripts and in the case of the BHS those found in the Leningrad Codex (link) now housed at the National Library of Russia in Saint Petersburg . The Qere is the corrected text that is to be read while the כתיב (K’tiv /writen) is what is actually written in the text before you. The Masoretes were afraid of editing the ancient manuscript so instead they added footnotes and margin notes with corrections. In general when using a digital Hebrew text you will find these ancient correction in Parenthesis. Now, Sometimes you may come across blank Parenthesis and in the case of Accordance Bible Software(link) these may be labeled/tagged as קק qq [qere blank]. You will find on these in Ruth chapter 3 verse 12.

Well, what does this mean…

This means that there is no קרי(Qere / read) for the word אִם there is only the כתיב (K’tiv /writen) for אִם and furthermore other Hebrew manuscripts of Ruth from the Middle Ages also do not have a קרי(Qere) at verse 12. If you have the BHS in print turn to page 1323 look at verse 12 of Ruth chapter 3 and notice the מסורה קטנה (Masorah Katana or Parva) written on the right hand margin here by the בַּעֲלֵי הַמָּסוֹרָה (Masoretes) you will notice that they tells us that this one of 8 times were a word is to be written and not read.

Here is a picture of the Masorah Parva / Masorah Katana of the BHS on page 1323

And it reads thus….

אִם חד מן ח̇ כת̇ ולא קר̇ “The word אִם is one of 8 words which are to be written but not to be read”. Naturally, you might want to know where the other occurrences are, right. Well, you are in luck! The beautiful Accordance Masorah Thesaurus module(link) lists all 8 times of the occurrence of the ‘write not read’ phenomenon:

The electronic version of Weil, Gérard. E’s Massorah Gedolah: Manuscrit B. 19a de Léningrad. Rome: Pontificium Institutum Biblicum, 2001 from Logos also list all 8 occurrences. Although in a different order see:

At first sight Logos’ Massorah Gedolah might look more helpful since there are some English verse references on the side, However, Accordance’s Masorah Thesaurus module has much more … so much more. For example If you enter Ruth 3:12 you will get three different list on the verse. But, that’s not all! The Masorah Thesaurus is not based only on one manuscript, rather the creators of it looked at multiple manuscripts and Masorah, on the other hand the Massorah Gedolah is based only on the Leningrad Codex and it is also a high edited version of the Leningrad codex’s Masorah. BUT, Okay, it is good, helpful and fun to have both!

Today’s post is a slightly edited version of an answer I wrote earlier this year on a thread in the Accordance Forums see: https://forums.accordancebible.com/topic/35879-qere-blank-in-hebrew/

Thanks for reading!