New Resource: Lexham Hebrew Bible: Cantillation Analysis
With Logos 6, we released an interactive resource that provided a view of the structure implied by the cantillation (accent) system of the Hebrew Bible.
We've had further requests to make that data more searchable and also able to be utilized by visual filters. The Lexham Hebrew Bible: Cantillation Analysis suite of resources should help with this. It is a collection of four resources that use the same basic algorithm as the Interactive resource to convey the cantillation structure of the Hebrew Bible.
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Lexham Hebrew Bible: Cantillation Analysis Dataset uses labels to apply mark information (name, rank, and type) to words in the Hebrew Bible. Hebrew Bibles and translations aligned with Hebrew Bibles have access to this information. It is accessible in the Information Pane and the Context Menu.
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Lexham Hebrew Bible: Cantillation Analysis Graphs is a visualization resource that provides a graph or tree view of the hierarchy implied by the cantillation marks in the Lexham Hebrew Bible.
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Lexham Hebrew Bible: Cantillation Analysis Database is the database that underlies syntax search capabilities of the cantillation analysis. It allows searching by heirarchy or relationship in combination with accent and morphological or lemma combinations.
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Lexham Hebrew Bible: Cantillation Analysis Documentation briefly documents the capabilities of each resource.
This suite of resources is available for users Logos Now. The data is available in the Information Panel and also Context Menu (right click) via the dataset. One could make visual filters using the dataset information as well. Further, the graph structure can be browsed using the graph resource and queried using the database.
Rick Brannan
Data Wrangler, Faithlife
My books in print
Comments
I have not received this dataset yet.
I'm a real newbie at Hebrew so... Is there some advantage gained in understanding the message conveyed by having a knowledge of how to chant scripture? Or is this purely an embellishment?
Meanwhile, Jesus kept on growing wiser and more mature, and in favor with God and his fellow man.
International Standard Version. (2011). (Lk 2:52). Yorba Linda, CA: ISV Foundation.
MacBook Pro MacOS Sequoia 15.4 1TB SSD
Disclaimer: I'm not a Hebraist.
Some folks find the cantillation information useful when reading the Hebrew text. Some Hebrew programs use the cantillation system for this reason. It is less a question of chanting (as I understand) and more knowing where major and minor breaks are. More like commas, semicolons, and periods; less like monks chanting Latin. The visual filters can help with locating where those major/minor breaks are, visually, in the text.
Some people have a deeper interest in the structure implied by the cantillation marks; the visualization and, particularly, the database should help those folks examine questions they've never really been able to examine before (across the whole Hebrew Bible).
Rick Brannan
Data Wrangler, Faithlife
My books in print
Thanks Rick!
Meanwhile, Jesus kept on growing wiser and more mature, and in favor with God and his fellow man.
International Standard Version. (2011). (Lk 2:52). Yorba Linda, CA: ISV Foundation.
MacBook Pro MacOS Sequoia 15.4 1TB SSD
Is this live now? I don't seem to see anything available after "update now"
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Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
MJ. your input is much appreciated. I think revealing the intent of my question will be helpful. My interest is directed at determining whether I should invest any effort into learning to use this set of features to discover some gems of insight into the text. My interests are mostly devotional with a smattering of intellectual curiosity.
Meanwhile, Jesus kept on growing wiser and more mature, and in favor with God and his fellow man.
International Standard Version. (2011). (Lk 2:52). Yorba Linda, CA: ISV Foundation.
MacBook Pro MacOS Sequoia 15.4 1TB SSD
One famous example of how cantillation marks affect understanding of the text is Isaiah 40:3. Without any punctuation marks, it reads like this in English:
"a voice cries in the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord make straight in the desert a highway for our God"
Without any punctuation or cantillation marks, this phrase can be interpreted in many ways... is "the voice crying in the wilderness", as John the Baptist understands it in the NT? Or does the voice cry out, "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord"? At this level, and removed from context, we can't tell.
The Masoretes gave a precise answer to that question using the Cantillation marks:
A voice cries, "In the wilderness prepare the way of the Lord; make straight in the desert a highway for our God."
The Masoretes read the adverbial clause "in the wilderness" as modifying "prepare the way of the Lord". The cantillation marks in the Hebrew indicate this reading, reflecting the parallelism within the verse.
Of course, when John the Baptist was studying the Scriptures, there were no cantillation marks. [:)] They were added many centuries later. But this does explain why Isaiah 40:3 is typically translated slightly different than how John the Baptist understood it.
And like this example there are many other verses in Hebrew that could be interpreted one way or another, depending where the cantillation marks go. Just like how in English the same happens with punctuation marks.
We do not know the original signification of the accents for chanting. There are numerous Jewish traditions in this regard. My interest in the accents is their exegetical value. They are the oldest commentary on the syntax of the text that we have available to us.
Interesting perspective, thanks Dr. Futato
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You are welcome.
Yes, take Deuteronomy 26:5 for example. Notice the 'Hebrew consonants'(in black) and the 'vowels' (in blue) are identical. However, the accents/cantillation marks(in red) differ and the meaning of text was well:
Notice the standard Torah scroll the this text appears neither with accents nor with vowel points. So a reader without the Masorah would have had to decide from him/her self how to interpret this verse:
If you want more examples let me know. The above example only scratches the surface.
Grace and Peace
חַפְּשׂוּ בַּתּוֹרָה הֵיטֵב וְאַל תִּסְתַּמְּכוּ עַל דְּבָרַי
Sometimes reading with the accents makes a subtle difference. Sometimes the difference is major. A few times we judge that the accents are probably in error. An added benefit to reading with the accents is that they break the text into smaller chunks, which makes analyzing the text easier. One interesting example is Gen 1:20 - אֶת־הַתַּנִּינִ֖ם הַגְּדֹלִ֑ים. By placing atnach where they do, the Masoretes have disassociated the tanninim (serpents/sea monsters) from the statement "and is was good." I have a basic introduction to the accents at the publisher; should be out in 2019. You do not have to know every detail of the accents to benefit from paying attention to them. All the best.
שׁלום מרק פוטטו
Thanks for continuing to provide some great feedback to this thread!
This is very good to hear!
In-spite of the fact that are other other commonly used resources on the טַעֲמֵי הַמִּקְרָא (accents of the Bible) the vast majority of them are not entirely welcoming to new students and novice. And, those that are welcoming are much more focused on the Leyning of the trope which may or may not be applicable to everyone interested in the accents.
...You do not have to know every detail of the accents to benefit from paying attention to them. All the best.
Excellent point!
שיהיה לך יום נעים
חַפְּשׂוּ בַּתּוֹרָה הֵיטֵב וְאַל תִּסְתַּמְּכוּ עַל דְּבָרַי
Do let us know ...
Orthodox Bishop Alfeyev: "To be a theologian means to have experience of a personal encounter with God through prayer and worship."; Orthodox proverb: "We know where the Church is, we do not know where it is not."
What? Let's pre-pub this already! [:)]
Sorry for being dense. The documentation seems to suggest that we can create searches which specify specific cantillation marks in the syntax search. Can anyone help me find an example of how this is done? I've been pouring over the documentation all morning trying to figure it out...