Home of the Trumbull, CT EFCA Bible Quiz Team.

The Trumbull Bible Quiz Team has ended. Thank you for 30 years of happy Bible Quizzing.

Monday, August 13, 2012

BIBLE NEWS: Israeli scholar looks to correct Hebrew Bible's grammar

As Bible Quizzers, we have great respect for the Word of God.  But to some scholars, it is not only the words that matter, but literally every "jot and tittle" (i.e. every minor marking, like the dot of an i, or the placement of a comma) that is worthy of scrutiny.  Israeli Judaic scholar Menachem Cohen has spent the last 30 years trying to "correct" every grammatical detail of the Hebrew Bible used today.

His edits, focusing primarily on grammatical blemishes and an intricate set of biblical symbols, mark the first major overhaul of the Hebrew Bible in nearly 500 years.
Poring over thousands of medieval manuscripts, the 84-year-old Cohen identified 1,500 inaccuracies in the Hebrew language texts that have been corrected in his completed 21-volume set. The final chapter is set to be published next year.
He notes that none of his changes affect the meaning of the text in any way.  But it does it's best to bring our received version of the Hebrew books of the Bible back as close to the original writings as possible.