L/V 10+ Tip of the Day #344 Masoretic "verse" boundaries rather than Christian versification

MJ. Smith

Another tip of the day (TOTD) series fo r Logos/Verbum 10. They will be short and often drawn from forum posts. Feel free to ask questions and/or suggest forum posts you'd like to see included. Adding comments about the behavior on mobile and web apps would be appreciated by your fellow forumites. A search for "L/V 10+ Tip of the Day site:community.logos.com" on Google should bring the tips up as should this Reading List within the application.

This tip is inspired by the forum post: Chapter Verse and Pericope - Logos Forums

BKMitchell said:

David Ames said:

The Chapter breaks seem to be not inspired.  For example why are  the verses Gen 2:1-3 not part of Genesis 1?    [Split by R. Salomon b. Ishmael ca. 1330 c.e. (OT)?]  

Not, only do they 'seem' to be not inspired, they are not original to the text! See:

"[quote]The system of breaking up the Biblical text into verses may seem, both in the original and in the versions, to go hand in hand with its division into chapters. In truth, however, the chapter-division and the verse-division are of different origin. The division into chapters was employed first in the Vulgate, perhaps by Stephen Langton, Archbishop of Canterbury (d. 1228). It was adopted by Jewish scholars for purposes of reference — not only by Isaac Nathan ben Kalonymus in his great concordance, "Meïr Netib" (Venice, 1523), but, not long after its introduction into the Vulgate,by Solomon b. Ishmael (see "Theologisch Tijdschrift," 1878, p. 104)—and was introduced into the printed editions of the Hebrew text, from the Bomberg Bible of 1521 downward. On the other hand, verse-division, with the elaborate systems of accentuation resting upon it, is in itself essentially a part of the Masoretic tradition, although notation by means of figures in the text, or on the margin, was employed first in the Latin Bibles of 1528 and 1555, and somewhat later (1571) by Arias Montanus in the Antwerp Bible: a figure on the margin corresponded to a cross in the text at the beginning of each verse. The Athias Bible (1659-61) was the first edition with verse-notation that could be used by Jews." (link) 

Masoretic verse divisions (according to the accents) and those found in christian bibles do not always match in fact they are often at odds with each other. Unfortunately it is not possible to search on accent patterns in Logos, at this time! For more about accents check out this article (link) and the following:

[quote] In general, each word in the Tanach has one cantillation sign. (There are two types of exception. A group of words joined by hyphens is regarded as one word so they only have one accent between them. Conversely, a long word may have two, e.g. a disjunctive on the stressed syllable and the related conjunctive two syllables before in place of meteg.) This may be either a disjunctive, showing a division between that and the following word, or a conjunctive, joining the two words (like a slur in music). Thus, disjunctives divide a verse into phrases, and within each phrase all the words except the last carry conjunctives.

 

The disjunctives are traditionally divided into four levels, with lower level disjunctives marking less important breaks.

1. The first level, known as "Emperors", includes sof pasuq / siluq, marking the end of the verse, and atnach / etnachta, marking the middle.
2. The second level is known as "Kings". The usual second level disjunctive is zaqef qaton (when on its own, this becomes zaqef gadol). This is replaced by tifcha when in the immediate neighbourhood of sof pasuq or atnach. A stronger second level disjunctive, used in very long verses, is segol: when it occurs on its own, this may be replaced by shalshelet.
3. The third level is known as "Dukes". The usual third level disjunctive is revia. For musical reasons, this is replaced by zarqa when in the vicinity of segol, by pashta or yetiv when in the vicinity of zakef, and by tevir when in the vicinity of tifcha.
4. The fourth level is known as "Counts". These are found mainly in longer verses, and tend to cluster near the beginning of a half-verse: for this reason their musical realisation is usually more elaborate than that of higher level disjunctives. They are pazer, geresh, gershayim, telishah gedolah, munach legarmeh and qarne farah.

The general conjunctive is munach. Depending on which disjunctive follows, this may be replaced by mercha, mahpach, darga, qadma, telisha qetannah or yerach ben yomo.

One other symbol is mercha kefulah, double mercha. There is some argument about whether this is another conjunctive or an occasional replacement for tevir.

Disjunctives have a function somewhat similar to punctuation in Western languages. Sof pasuq could be thought of as a full stop, atnach as a semi-colon, second level disjunctives as commas and third level disjunctives as commas or unmarked. Where two words are syntactically bound together (for example, pene ha-mayim, "the face of the waters"), the first invariably carries a conjunctive.

The cantillation signs are often an important aid in the interpretation of a passage. For example, the words qol qore bamidbar panu derekh YHWH (Isaiah 40-3) is translated in the Authorised Version as "The voice of him that crieth in the wilderness, Prepare ye the way of the Lord". As the word qore takes the high-level disjunctive zaqef qaton this meaning is discouraged by the cantillation marks.^{[citation needed]} Accordingly the New Revised Standard Version translates "A voice cries out: 'In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord'," while the New Jewish Publication Society Version has "A voice rings out: 'Clear in the desert a road for the LORD'."

 (link)

However, it is possible to search on some the Masoretic notation! For example with the WIVU database in the SESB it is possible to search on the 'sof pasuk' a colon like marker that marks the end of a verse according to the Masorah. And one may also run queries on the 'open' and 'close' markers in the Hebrew Bible that mark paragraphs and thought units.  Here is a description of those found in Logos:

[quote] פ“Open.” Abbreviation for פתוחא (cf. סתומא). This refers to the short paragraphs (פרשיות) into which the entire Bible (except Psalms) was divided. Such paragraphs could be either “open” (פתוחא) or “closed” (סתומא). An open paragraph (indicated by פ placed between two verses) had to commence at the beginning of a new line, with the preceding line left partly or wholly blank. The first paragraph in a book is assumed to be open without a written פ, since it begins on the first line of the manuscript. These rules applied to handwritten texts but are no longer valid for printed Bibles, since their line and paragraph divisions are of necessity different from those of ancient manuscripts. However, the original format of L is indicated in BHS by the printing of either ס or פ in the space before the beginning of a new paragraph.

Kelley, P. H., Mynatt, D. S., & Crawford, T. G. (1998). The Masorah of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Introduction and annotated glossary (167). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company Logos/Libronix edition.

Here are the first sevenפתוחא /Petuhah markers (notice any interesting coincidences here?):

1:1-5 Petuhah marker(1)
1:6-8 Petuhah marker(2)
1:9-13 Petuhah maker(3)
1:14-19 Petuhah marker(4)
1:20-23 Petuhah marker(5)
1:25-31 Petuhah marker(6)
2:1-3 Petuhah marker(7)

In addition Pentateuch/ Torah section of the Hebrew Bible is also divided up into a lectionary type system:

[quote]Abbreviation for סדר. Plural: סדרים. Literally: “order, sequence.” This was the name assigned to the sections into which the Torah was divided for the Sabbath readings in the synagogues. In Palestine, where the custom was to complete the reading in three to three and a half years, the Torah was divided into 154 or 167 סדרים (sedarim). BHS has 167 Torah sedarim (Gen. has 45; Exod. has 33; Lev. has 25; Num. has 33; Deut. has 31). The beginning of each is marked by ס֡ printed in the center margin on each page (in the same column as the verse numbers), so as not to interfere with Mp notes on the outer margin (cf. Gen. 1:1; 2:4; 3:22; etc.). In Babylonia, the custom was to complete the reading of the Torah in one year, which led to the Torah’s being divided into 54 larger sections, known as פָּרָשׁוֹת (see פרש̇). The beginning of these sections in BHS is indicated by פרש̇ printed in the center margin of the page (cf. Gen. 6:9; 12:1; 18:1; 23:1; etc.). The number of the sedarim is indicated in notes placed at the end of each of the books of the Torah, but the number of the parashot is not so indicated. The Babylonian custom of reading the Torah in one year eventually became the norm in Palestine, even though the sedarim divisions continued to be indicated in the margins of manuscripts like L.

Kelley, P. H., Mynatt, D. S., & Crawford, T. G. (1998). The Masorah of Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia: Introduction and annotated glossary (155). Grand Rapids, MI: William B. Eerdmans Publishing Company.