The Serugin, Te’amim, and Meturgeman in Christian Perspective-part 8

The Serugin, Te’amim, and Meturgeman in Christian Perspective-part 8 

            Scholars know that the scrolls of Scripture that were copied out by the Masoretes of the School of Tiberius did indeed include the te’amim above and below the entire OT manuscripts. However, there is conjecture and much disagreement among Bible historians as to whether Moshe ben Asher and the other scholars at Tiberius invented and entered the cantilation signs [te’amim] or if they merely entered or re-entered these signs above and below the OT texts which are called “the Codex of the Prophets”.  If indeed these scholars did not create the graphic cantillation signs but merely entered or re-entered the te’amim above and below the OT texts, they were no doubt much more ancient and authoritative than cantilation signs invented at this period of the history of the OT manuscripts.  Haik-Vantoura explained,

                “It is evident that the music we have discovered [she is referring to her deciphering of the te’amim] was so ancient, even at the time the notation was propagated [she is referring to the te’amim being entered into the OT texts by the Masoretes at Tiberius], that the oral tradition was already greatly corrupted…On the other hand it is equally evident that the teachers of Tiberius—if, as commonly held today, they were the creators of this notation—did not know themselves the exact musical significance harbored in the signs they fixed in writing in order to transmit, the traditional values they represented.  If this was not the case, why would they not have specified the meaning of the signs?”  Haik-Vantoura TMotBR, p. 48.

            OT grammarians have over hundreds of years struggled with the meaning of the biblical accents [te’amim] since it has been generally acknowledged that the Tiberian scholars did not fully understand the usage of these markings.  If the te’amim had been the invention of the Tiberian scholars, it would seem logical that they would have had a more complete grasp of their meaning.  Also, since writers often mention the fact that these meticulous copiers of Scripture were not in the habit of adding unknown symbols or anything to the Tanakh [All of the OT Law, Prophets and Writings], it is risky for one to accept the hypothesis that the Masoretes at Tiberius would have invented these symbols and then added them to the Holy Writ.