Vertical line in Gen. 8:20

[David Brostoff]

In Gen. 8:20, what is the function of the vertical line after מִכֹּ֣ל?

Thank you,

David

[Chris Watts]

In Gen. 8:20, what is the function of the vertical line after מִכֹּ֣ל?

Thank you,

David

This is called a 'Paseq' and The line is there to separate the 'of all' from the following word. Its purpose is to prevent the 'of all' joining with the 'beasts'. It acts as a colon in English in this instance. Instead of reading this verse as : "Noah took of all the clean beasts and all the clean birds..." It reads : "Noah took of everything: (colon)from all the clean beasts and from all the clean birds..." In my ears the first clause : "Noah took of everything..." becomes emphatic, and I think this is the purpose here. To stress the point that Noah did not hold back in his offering to God. I know, it would have been easier if the Masoretes had come up with the idea of a colon.

Chris watts

[bdenckla]

This is called a 'Paseq' [...]

Respectfully, no. Or, at least, needs clarification due to ambiguity. I would say that this bar is a legarmeih, not a paseq. But in some contexts (notably, Unicode!) paseq is used ambiguously, to refer either to a legarmeih, or to a true paseq. So, in this sense, what you say is not wrong, just in need of clarification due to ambiguity.

The two-mark trope on the word in question (מִכֹּ֣ל׀) is called munaḥ legarmeih. Or at least that's what I usually see it called. Unfortunately, the terminology for tropes is not well standardized. Sometimes the trope is just called legarmeih, particularly in contexts where it is clear that we are dealing with the prose rather than poetic trope system. (In the prose system, the legarmeih bar is only used with one mark other than munaḥ: it is used with the rare mark shalshelet. But shalshelet always appears with a legarmeih bar, so it introduces no ambiguity to call the trope munaḥ legarmeih simply legarmeih and to call the trope shalshelet legarmeih simply shalshelet. Again, only in contexts where it is clear that we are restricting ourselves to the prose trope system.)

Some reader-friendly editions such as various editions of MAM make some typographic distinction between the legarmeih bar and the paseq bar. For instance practically right off the bat, in Genesis 1:5, you can see that the "MAM with doc" edition of MAM uses a double vertical bar for paseq:

וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ‖ לָאוֹר֙

Unfortunately, few people seem to be aware of the existence of reader-friendly editions. I've had trouble spreading the good news. The good news is that one needn't struggle to make certain distinctions like this. These distinctions perhaps seemed obvious to the Masoretes and whoever their intended "customers" were. But they are not obvious to us. There's no need to struggle with editions that have only the notations of the manuscripts. Reader-friendly editions add a few extra notations that go a long way towards reducing the struggle.

[Glenn Dean]

The vertical line can be thought of as an emendation to the munah on the word in question - without the vertical line you read it as Chris mentioned above (since the munah is conjunctive): "Noah took of all the clean beasts and all the clean birds...". BUT later they realized that that was NOT the intent of the verse, but they didn't want to remove the munah (so they added the vertical line as an emending to the trope marks)

[Chris Watts]

This is called a 'Paseq' [...]

Respectfully, no. Or, at least, needs clarification due to ambiguity. I would say that this bar is a legarmeih, not a paseq. But in some contexts (notably, Unicode!) paseq is used ambiguously, to refer either to a legarmeih, or to a true paseq. So, in this sense, what you say is not wrong, just in need of clarification due to ambiguity.

The two-mark trope on the word in question (מִכֹּ֣ל׀) is called munaḥ legarmeih. Or at least that's what I usually see it called. Unfortunately, the terminology for tropes is not well standardized. Sometimes the trope is just called legarmeih, particularly in contexts where it is clear that we are dealing with the prose rather than poetic trope system. (In the prose system, the legarmeih bar is only used with one mark other than munaḥ: it is used with the rare mark shalshelet. But shalshelet always appears with a legarmeih bar, so it introduces no ambiguity to call the trope munaḥ legarmeih simply legarmeih and to call the trope shalshelet legarmeih simply shalshelet. Again, only in contexts where it is clear that we are restricting ourselves to the prose trope system.)

Reader-friendly editions such as various editions of MAM make some typographic distinction between the legarmeih bar and the paseq bar. For instance practically right off the bat, in Genesis 1:5, you can see that the "MAM with doc" edition of MAM uses a double vertical bar for paseq:

וַיִּקְרָ֨א אֱלֹהִ֤ים ‖ לָאוֹר֙

Unfortunately, few people seem to be aware of the existence of reader-friendly editions. I've had trouble spreading the good news. The good news is that one needn't struggle to make certain distinctions like this. These distinctions perhaps seemed obvious to the Masoretes and whoever their intended "customers" were. But they are not obvious to us. There's no need to struggle with editions that are just typeset versions of only the notations of the manuscripts. Reader-friendly editions add a few extra notations that go a long way towards reducing the struggle.

Hi Ben,

If I had asked this question I think I would have been put off the whole subject right from the start. Your answer has me mind-boggling within an intellectual vortex of delirious cross-eyedness. The poster asked : <<<What is the function of the vertical line after מִכֹּ֣ל>>> Maybe we just agree to call it 'Vertical Line'.

I do not doubt your knowledge and expertise here, but seriously, I would be interested to hear from you if you could simplify your answer so that it becomes readily available for practical use in reading the Hebrew text. Your answer had me swirling in a sea of intellectual delerium being sucked into a grammatical vortex of mind-boggling dizziness.

Kind regards
Chris watts

[bdenckla]

The vertical line can be thought of as an emendation to the munah on the word in question - without the vertical line you read it as [...]. BUT later they realized that that was NOT the intent of the verse, but they didn't want to remove the munah (so they added the vertical line as an emending to the trope marks)

Again, respectfully, no. You are describing something more like the role paseq plays, as a kind of "add-on" to the trope system, not part of the trope system, usually expressing some kind of a pause not implied by the trope but needed for phonetic or semantic distinction (disjunction).

This case here in Gen. 8:20 is simply one of a rather common pattern of trope:

• munaḥ legarmeih
• (plain) munaḥ
• revia`

I count 1,034 cases of this trope pattern in MAM. This count is listed under the somewhat-cryptic heading "⅃-leg...◆ with 1 ⅃ intervening" in the "munbar" feature of interest listing included along with the "MAM with doc" edition of MAM.

[bdenckla]

I would be interested to hear from you if you could simplify your answer so that it becomes readily available for practical use in reading the Hebrew text.

Yeah, my answer, simplified or not, doesn't really address the practical use of paseq and legarmeih. My answer pretty much just introduced the idea that this bar can mean one of two things: paseq or legarmeih.

These marks (and the distinction between them) can influence our understanding of the meaning of the text. And they can influence the way we deliver the words when reading aloud. But their biggest influence is on chanting.

The best English-language reference for how such marks influence all of the above (meaning, reading aloud, and chanting) is the 2nd edition of Jacobson's Chanting the Hebrew Bible: The Art of Cantillation.

[Chris Watts]

I would be interested to hear from you if you could simplify your answer so that it becomes readily available for practical use in reading the Hebrew text.

Yeah, my answer, simplified or not, doesn't really address the practical use of paseq and legarmeih. My answer pretty much just introduced the idea that this bar can mean one of two things: paseq or legarmeih.

These marks (and the distinction between them) can influence our understanding of the meaning of the text. And they can influence the way we deliver the words when reading aloud. But their biggest influence is on chanting.

The best English-language reference for how such marks influence all of the above (meaning, reading aloud, and chanting) is the 2nd edition of Jacobson's Chanting the Hebrew Bible: The Art of Cantillation.

Hi Ben, yes, Chris kimball just mentioned this book - have you seen the price? It's my birthday next year... Anyway thanks for your comments, I just read Gesenius's comments on this vertical line as I have re-named it, so I'm wiser than 30 minutes ago.

Kindest Regards
Chris watts

[ducky]

Hi,

You can read it for free in JSTOR.

[bdenckla]

You can read it for free in JSTOR.

For JSTOR, I think you'd need a somewhat "powerful" account to download the chapters of that book; for example, my plain old individual account, with no institutional affiliation, isn't powerful enough. So, just be aware that "your mileage may vary."