The "Eighteen Emendations" of the Sopherim.
This Is Appendix 33 From
The Companion Bible.
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 .
NOTES
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
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