The
Massorah (Appendix
30) that is to say, the small writing in the margins of the standard Hebrew
codices, as shown in the plate at the bottom of Appendix
30, consists of a concordance of words and phrases, etc., safeguarding the
Sacred Text.
A note in the Massorah against several passages
in the manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible states: "This is one of the
Eighteen Emendations of the Sopherim," or words of that effect.
Complete lists of these emendations are found in the Massorah
of most of the model or standard codices of the Hebrew Bible, and these are not
always identical; so that the total number exceeds eighteen: from which it would
appear that these examples are simply typical.
The Siphri 1
adduces seven passages; the Yalkut,2
ten; the Mechiltha,3
eleven; the Tanchuma,4
seventeen; while the St. Petersburg Codex gives two passages not included in any
other list (Malachi 1:12;
3:9;
see below).
These emendations were made at a period long before Christ,
before the Hebrew text had obtained its present settled form, and these
emendations affect the Figure called Anthropopatheia. See
Appendix 6.
The following is a list of the eighteen "Emendations,"
together with eight others not included in the official lists. Particulars will
be found on consulting the notes on the respective passages.
Genesis 18:22.
Numbers 11:15.
12:12.
1Samuel
3:13.
2Samuel
12:14.
16:12.
1Kings
12:16.
21:10.
21:13.
2Chronicles
10:16.
Job 1:5.
1:11.
2:5.
2:9.
7:20.
Psalm 10:3.
106:20.
Ecclesiastes 3:21.
Jeremiah 2:11.
Lamentations 3:20.
Ezekiel 8:17.
Hosea 4:7.
Habakkuk 1:12.
Zechariah 2:8
(12).
Malachi 1:13.
3:9.
1
An ancient commentary on Leviticus (circa A.D.
219-47).
2
A catena of the whole Hebrew Scriptures, composed in the eleventh
century, from ancient sources by Rabbi Simeon.
3
An ancient commentary on Exodus, compiled about A.D.
90 by Rabbi Ishmael ben Elisa.
4
A commentary on the Pentateuch, compiled from ancient sources by Rabbi Tanchuma
ben Abba, about A.D.
380