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The Sopherim.
The work of the Sopherim dates from the days of Nehemiah and Ezra. Ezra himself
was called a "Scribe" (Neh. 7: 4), or one of the Sopherim. The custom of having an
interpreter in the synagogue at the reading of the law is referred by the Gemara to
Nehemiah 8: 8.
The Sopherim in effect produced an A.V. of the Hebrew Scriptures. The Rabbinical
work named Kiddush says "The ancients were called Sopherim `numberers' because they
numbered all the letters of the law; for they said that in Gachon `belly' (Lev. 11: 42) is
the middle letter of the whole book of the law.
The Massorah.
It was the business of the Massorites to preserve this version for all time. With the
labour of the Massorites the final stage in the history of the Hebrew text is reached.
Masar means "to deliver something into the hand of another". It was a sacred trust. The
Massorites had a twofold object:
(1)
To preserve a perfect orthoepic standard (i.e. correct pronunciations) of the
Hebrew tongue.
(2)
To the reading of a correct or inviolate text of the Hebrew Scriptures.
To accomplish this task the Massorites:
(1)
Collect all that could be found in the Talmud concerning the traditional vowel
points and punctuations, and produced a text with a series of points indicating
vowel sounds.
(2)
As the Hebrew Bible at that time had neither chapter nor verse, the Massorites
divided the several books into: parashiotts "greater sections", sedarim
"orders", perakin "chapters" and pesikin "verses".
(3)
When the division was completed, the number of verses to each book was notified
by a technical word. The middle verse, or clause, or the middle letter were
registered, and the number of letters in each book counted.
(4)
Notes were made of places where words or letters appeared to have been altered,
omitted or added, and the results of this prodigious labour were placed in the
margins of the Scrolls.
(5)
The Massorites, moreover, introduced a series of accents which were intended to
answer four purposes:
(a) To certify the meaning of words.
(b) To indicate true syllables.
(c) To regulate the cantillation (or chanting) of synagogue reading.
(d) To show the emphasis of an expression.
The Massorah does not contain comment, and that scrupulous care, even to
counting of letters, means that "not one jot or tittle" could be lost without
knowledge. Consequently we have in our hands today the standard or
Canonical Scriptures as they left the hands of Ezra over 2,360 years ago.