Masorah

Masoretes

ca. 1000

This image shows a leaf from the Damascus Pentateuch, with the Masorah in the margins. The Damascus Pentateuch is an incomplete Bible codex written around 1000 CE. This is the first page, which starts with Genesis 9:26. The Masorah (tradition) refers to notes transmitted in the margins of the written volumes of the Hebrew Bible that are intended to preserve the integrity of the biblical text.
Worn manuscript page with three columns of Hebrew text, with annotations along the edges and between the columns.

Credits

From the National Library Collection, The National Library of Israel, Jerusalem, MS Heb. 24°5702.

Published in: The Posen Library of Jewish Culture and Civilization, vol. 3: Encountering Christianity and Islam.

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Creator Bio

Masoretes

The Masoretes were a group of scholars who developed the system of the Masorah (“tradition”), after which they are named. Aside from a few names from the later generations, especially from the Ben Asher family, we know very little about the Masoretes. They seem to have begun their work in the sixth century, and the last known member of the Ben Asher family, Aaron, probably lived around the beginning of the tenth century.

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