The traditionally correct text of the Hebrew Bible was established by a group of scholars, the Masoretes, whose activity extended from the sixth to the tenth centuries CE. The Masoretes examined the many biblical manuscripts, noting divergences and seeking to determine which text is the more accurate.
They noted where a traditional reading (kere) differs from the traditional written text (ketiv),for example, where the written text contains a coarse or vulgar expression. Such expressions were left in the text but the euphemisms required by the tradition are noted for the benefit of the reader in the synagogue.
The Masoretes also noted where the tradition requires certain letters to be larger than the others and certain letters smaller than the others. They provided notes in which they conjecture that some words should have been written differently, for example, where the text has the singular form while the context seems to require the plural, but such conjectures were left in the margins and the text itself remained unchanged.
The current text of the Bible was established by the Masorete ben Asher in Tiberias in 930 CE and this is known as the the Masoretic Text (abbreviated in scholarly works as MT).
A major problem in biblical studies revolves around the accuracy and reliability of the Masoretic Text. It is known that from early Rabbinic times the greatest care was taken by copyists, especially when copying the Pentateuch text, the Sefer Torah . There are detailed rules as to how the Sefer Torah is to be copied, with the result that there are no divergences in the text between one Sefer Torah and another in any part of the Jewish world.
But, as the ancient versions–the Septuagint, the Targum, the Samaritan Pentateuch, the Latin version, the Vulgate, and the texts found among the Dead Sea Scrolls–show, errors may have crept into the text before the Masoretic Text had been established or, rather, the ancient versions may be based on traditions different from that finally recorded in the Masoretic Text.
Here and there even in the Talmud some biblical texts quoted differ in their wording from the current version.
Until the 1950s, Bible scholars turned to the Jewish Masoretic text as the definitive version of the Torah, virtually ignoring the Samaritan text. However, in the winter of 1947, a group of archeological specialists searching through 11 caves in Qumran happened upon the Dead Sea Scrolls. After rigorous study of the scrolls, researchers have come to believe there were several versions of the Torah being studied throughout Jewish history, according to Eugene Ulrich, a theology professor at University of Notre Dame.
The scrolls they found in Qumran matched the Samaritan text more closely than the Masoretic text, leading some researchers to believe the Samaritan text held validity in the minds of Jews during the Second Temple period and that both texts were once studied together.
“Finding the Dead Sea Scrolls proved that there were two versions, if not more, of the Torah circulating within Judaism, but they were all dealt with with equal validity and respect,” said Ulrich, who served as one of the chief editors on the Dead Sea Scrolls International Publication Project. “The Samaritan Torah and Masoretic Torah used to be studied side by side. The Masoretic text wasn’t always the authoritative version. They were both seen as important during the Second Temple time period.”
Ulrich said after the destruction of the Second Temple, the people split into three groups, each with their own text: The rabbis took the Masoretic text for their own, the Samaritans took theirs, and the early Christians used much of a different version called the Septuagint—a Masoretic version translated into Greek in the 2nd century BCE—in what later become the Christian Bible.
(27) Adonai will strike you with the Egyptian inflammation, with hemorrhoids [abscesses], boil-scars, and itch, from which you shall never recover.
hemorrhoids This is the translation of the kere, tehorim. The ketiv is vocalized ofalim, “swellings” or “tumors.” According to rabbinic tradition, ofalim also means “hemorrhoids,” but was considered vulgar and was therefore replaced with the more polite tehorim when the Torah was read in the synagogue (another such substitution is found in v. 30).
Some modern scholars believe that ofalim originally referred to the swellings (“buboes”) of bubonic plague, since the ofalim/tehorim that plague the Philistines in 1 Samuel 5 are associated with mortality and, according to the Septuagint there, with mice. In their view, the ancient interpretation as hemorrhoids, and hence the euphemism tehorim, are due to misunderstanding. However, the interpretation “hemorrhoids” is supported by the paraphrases in the Septuagint and the Vulgate here (“in the seat,” “in the part of your body from which excrement is cast out”) and by Arabic, which refers to swellings and other symptoms in the genital-anal area.
(6) The hand of the LORD lay heavy upon the Ashdodites, and He wrought havoc among them: He struck Ashdod and its territory with hemorrhoids.
1. The proto-Masoretic texts from the Judean Desert (except for Qumran) are identical to the medieval manuscripts and exactly represented their source, probably the scroll of the temple court.
2. These proto-Masoretic texts represent all the features of the medieval text and, presumably, of the temple copy, including all its scribal phenomena, with the exception of the Masoretic Ketiv/Kere variations.
3. The Ketiv/Kere variations were not included in the margins of any ancient text.
4. Rather, they reflect an oral tradition, which only at a late stage was put into writing in the Masoretic tradition
הדרן עלך הקורא את המגילה עומד
This is as Rabbi Ika bar Avin said that Rav Ḥananel said that Rav said: What is the meaning of that which is written: “And they read in the book, in the Torah of God, distinctly; and they gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading” (Nehemiah 8:8)? The Gemara explains: “They read in the book, in the Torah of God”; that is the Bible. “Distinctly”; that is the Aramaic translation. “And they gave the sense”; these are the division into verses. “And caused them to understand the reading”; this is punctuation of the text with cantillation notes, which facilitate the understanding of the verses. And some say: These are the traditions that determine the proper vocalization of the Bible. Rav holds that the cantillation notes are an integral part of Torah study. On a related note, Rabbi Yitzḥak said: The vocalization of the scribes, and the ornamentation of the scribes, and the verses with words that are read but not written, and those that are written but not read are all halakha transmitted to Moses from Sinai.