The
Serugin, Te’amim, and Meturgeman in Christian Perspective-part 6
It is possible that very ancient complete OT manuscripts that did not survive over the many
centuries could have contained the te’amim,
but this is only an unsubstantiated hypothesis that is far from proven fact. However, this is possible and
perhaps even probable if the system of te’amim
notation is as ancient as the time the OT texts were written i.e. if they
were revealed to Moses on Mt. Sinai or if they were entered by Ezra’s scribes
as some ancient scholars tended to believe.
Later we will discuss the opinions of scholars (some of them ancient and
some modern) who have believed or now believe that this system was indeed much
more ancient than the OT texts copied out by the Masoretes at Tiberius.
It is worth noting that Moshe ben
Asher (born c 825 AD) was reputed to be among the last of a long tradition of
Karaites—some writers do not believe that he was a Karaite. His son Aaron ben
Asher was perhaps among the last of this tradition. The Karaites were known to
be guardians of the written tradition of Scripture. They were a movement of ancient scholarly
Jews that considered the OT Scripture to be the supreme authority concerning
Jewish law and theology [as opposed to the rules of Rabbinic Judaism]. The Karaites were “masters of the
transmission” known for their intent to “build up a wall [or fence] around the
Torah”.
For that reason alone, it is not difficult to
understand why they entered or re-entered the te’amim into the Sacred Text.
The Christian reader should note that these Karaites who were “protecting
the tradition of Scripture” were deeply dedicated to the task of protecting the
accuracy of the Tanakh with meticulous care and complete accuracy. This is why they are known as “masters of the
transmission”. These scribes never
added or subtracted anything of verity when they meticulously copied out the
Holy Writ. Because of this dedication to
meticulous accuracy, the Dead Sea Scrolls and the Masoretic Texts are
remarkably alike in their accuracy.
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