B-Hebrew: The Biblical Hebrew Forum

I am the publisher of the Unicode/XML Leningrad Codex at <https://www.tanach.us>. The site provides the biblical text free and without restriction in multiple formats.

I'm considering providing the full text in eBook format, eventually targeting the Kindle and Nook readers. As with all other site files, the eBook would be free of charge. It would probably be available free from Amazon, too.

I'd like to pose some questions to members of the forum who are knowledgeable about eBooks:

1. Is a high quality Tanach eBook already available?

2. Can an eBook have a built-in Hebrew font, i.e. SBL Hebrew?

3. Can an eBook have controls for layout, content and font size similar to those of the tanach.us site?

4. Can an eBook provide rapid access to a particular verse in a manner similar to the tanach.us book selection table -> chapter selection table -> verse selection table -> last verse selection table sequence?

Any other comments would be appreciated.

Christopher V. Kimball
West Redding, CT
USA

Hi Chris,

Just a new thing that you might be interested with.

The Hebrew Academy has a project of potting online all of the Hebrew text from manuscripts.

When they added the Torah text, they did it according to the Leningrad handwriting, and they tested the handwriting.
And so, they discovered that the handwriting had a lot of corrections that was made in it.

Meaning that what we see is not really what the original writer wrote, and it was edited later by other Masoretic writers (maybe by those who added the vowels and/or the cantillation marks.

they gave a couple of examples:

1. איל אחר נאחז
this is the known MT text
But other texts (like Samaria, and Greek and also other manuscripts) writes איל אחד נאחז
which is way understandable (but not according to the MT)
and this version was probably known for everyone

The MT text writes אחר even though it is less understandable.
And they found that the Leningrad writer also wrote אחד and not אחר
and later is was corrected to the known MT אחר

*****
They also say that there were typos there that also were corrected
for example
in the text, it was written
וחי אחיך אמך
and that is a typo that was corrected to
וחי אחיך עמך
***

another thing
in the text, it was written ערמים
but it was corrected to ערומים according to the MT tradition of this word

****

David,

What are the quotes you are citing?

Hi Kenneth,

ואיל אחר נאחז
Gen. 22:13

There were probably two versions for this word that were around
and some say it is because of the letter R which similar to D
אחד / אחר

Anyway, according to a quick look
The MT, and Onkelos and Vulgate read this verse with אחר
And others, such as the Greek, Syrian, an Aramaic Rabbinic translation, and also some MT books wrote אחד

*****
וחי אחיך עמך
Levi. 25:36

******
ערומים
Gen. 2:25

Hi David,
When I look at Gen. 22:13 in Bibleworks, the Samaritan Penteteuch reads ‎ אחר, not אחד.
LXX apparently saw אחד as you said.

Hi Steve,

I am not familiar with Bibleworks.
But In the Hebrew Academy site they write that the Samaritan version is אחד

And also in the book "Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible" by Emanuel Tov
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emanuel_Tov
He writes that they wrote אחד

Thanks David. The ones you quote should be weightier references.

I also found a Hebrew https://www.stepbible.org/?q=version=SP ... ions=VUNHG
and English https://www.stepbible.org/?q=version=SP ... nce=Gen.22
It says achar.
??

Hi Steve,

The link you posted is the regular MT text.

I checked other verses that the Samaritan wrote differently than the MT's and I didn't see any change.
It is just the MT text (as far as I can see).

*****

Maybe I don't understand you.
What do you mean by "weightier references".

Emanuel Tov is an expert about the "versions" and if he wrote that the Samaritan wrote אחד then I can't believe that he was wrong about that.
(the edition that I have is from 2012, and there was no talk about this so-called mistake)

Plus, the fact that the Hebrew Academy site writes it (in 2020) makes it stronger.

****
By the way, notice that this site (in its comment) voweled it as אַחֵר (and not as אַחַר) I don't know why they did it.

David,
"weightier" means more credibility. I agree with you that Emmanuel Tov is a much more credible source that the ones I gave.

Yeah, that was MT. I checked Gen 5:25 where MT and SP have different years.
The site said it was "SP tagged to MT", but it was just MT with no vowels.
Here is the correct SP Hebrew link on that site:
https://www.stepbible.org/?q=version=SP ... ions=VUNHG
I checked Gen 5:25 to be sure.
It says achar too.
(I corrected the link in my previous post. thanks!)

I see what you mean about the wrong vowels. It is probably a s/w bug. The s/w didn't know which homonym of achar to link to. It linked to achair, meaning "another" instead of achar meaning behind.

hi Steve and thanks.

This is probably the Samaritan version, and I see that it write אחר.
I must say that it is probably a mistake.

I don't know what this site is, who wrote it, who is the one that stands behind it
And so, it is hard to treat this site as a real loyal source.
especially when I see other claims from other reliable known scholars.

Do you have information about this site and who stands behind it?