All
the oldest and best manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible contain on every page,
beside the Text (which is arranged in two or more columns), a varying number of
lines of smaller writing, distributed between the upper and lower margins. This
smaller writing is called the Massorah Magna or Great Massorah,
while that in the side margins and between the columns is called the Massorah
Parva or Small Massorah.
The illustration given below is a reduced facsimile of a
Hebrew Manuscript (16.25 x 12.375), written in a German hand, about the year A.D.
1120.
The small writing in the margins in this particular Manuscript
is seen to occupy seven lines in the lower margin, and four lines in the upper;
while in the outer margins and between the three columns is the Massorah
Para.
The word Massorah is from the root masar,
to devliver something into the hand of another, so as to commit it to
his trust. Hence the name is given to the small writing referred to, because it
contains information necessary to those into whose trust the Sacred Text was
committed, so that they might transcribe it, and hand it down correctly.
The Text itself had been fixed before the Massorites
were put in charge of it. This had been the work of the Sopherim
(from saphar, to count, or number). Their work,
under Ezra and Nehemiah, was to set the Text in order after the return from
Babylon; and we read of it in Nehemiah 8:8
1
(compare Ezra 7:6,11).
The men of "the Great Synagogue" completed the work.
This work lasted about 110 years, from Nehemiah to Simon the first, 410-300 B.C.
The Sopherim were the authorised revisers of the
Sacred Text; and, their work being completed, the Massorites were
the authorised custodians of it. Their work was to preserve it. The Massorah
is called "A Fence to the Scriptures," because it locked
all words and letters in their places. It does not contain notes or comments as
such, but facts and phenomena. It records the number of times the several
letters occur in the various books of the Bible; the number of words, and the
middle word; the number of verses, and the middle verse; the number of
expressions and combinations of words, etc. All this, not from a perverted
ingenuity, but for the set purpose of safeguarding the Sacred Text, and
preventing the loss or misplacement of a single letter or word.
This Massorah is not contained in the margins of
any one Manuscript. No Manuscript contains the whole, or even the same part. It
is spread over many Manuscripts, and Dr. C.D. Ginsburg has been the first and
only scholar who has set himself to collect and collate the whole, copying it
from every available Manuscript in the libraries of many countries. He has
published it in three large folio volumes, and only a small number of copies has
been printed. These are obtainable only by the original subscribers
When the Hebrew Text was printed, only the large type in the
columns was regarded, and small type of the Massorah was left,
unheeded, in the Manuscripts from which the Text was taken.
When translators came to the printed Hebrew Text, they were
necessarily destitute of the information contained in the Massorah;
so that the Revisers as well as the Translators of the Authorised Version
carried out their work without any idea of the treasures contained in the Massorah;
and therefore, without giving a hint of it to their readers
This is the first time an edition of the Authorised Version
has been given containing any of these treasures of the Massorah,
that affect so seriouly the understanding of the Text. A vast number of the
Massoretic notes concern only the orthography, and matters that pertain to the
Concordance. But many of those which affect the sense, or throw any additional
light on the Sacred Text, are noted in the margin of The Companion Bible.
Some of the important lists of words which are contained in
the Massorah are also given, videlicet, those that have the "extraordinary
points" (Appendix
31); the "eighteen emendations" of the Sopherim
(see Appendix 33);
the 134 passages where they substituted Adonai for Jehovah (see
Appendix 32); and the Various Readings called Severin (see Appendix
34). These are given in separate Appendixes; but other words of any
importance are preserved in our marginal notes.
Readers of The Companion Bible are put in
possession of information denied to former generations of translators,
commentators, critics, and general Bible students.
For futher information on the Massorah see Dr.
Ginsburg's Introduction to the Hebrew Bible, of which only a
limited edition was printed; also a small pamphlet on The Massorah
published by King's Printers.