View source for Masoretes

{{Short description|Medieval Jewish sect}}
{{About|groups of scholars who compiled a system of pronunciation and grammatical guides of Jewish texts|a discussion of the work of the Mascorderoretes|Masoretic Text|the Israeli term for "Tradition Keeper" or "Traditionalist" non-Orthodox observance|Shomer Masoret}}

{{More citations needed|date=November 2025}}
The '''Masoretes''' ({{langx|he|בַּעֲלֵי הַמָּסוֹרָה|Baʿălēy Hammāsōrā}}, [[Literal translation|lit.]] 'Masters of the Tradition') were groups of [[Jewish]] [[scribe]]-[[scholar]]s who worked from around the end of the 5th through 10th centuries AD,<ref>{{cite book |last=Wegner |first=Paul |title=The Journey From Texts to Translations |year=1999 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kkVFOTsBOAEC&q=%22Masoretes+inherited%22&pg=PA172 |publisher=Baker Academic |isbn=978-0801027994 |page=172 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last1=Swenson |first1=Kristin |title=A Most Peculiar Book: The Inherent Strangeness of the Bible |date=2021 |publisher=[[Oxford University Press]] |isbn=978-0-19-065173-2 |page=29 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=5xQOEAAAQBAJ&pg=PA29 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> based primarily in the Jewish centers of the Levant (e.g., [[Tiberias]] and [[Jerusalem]]) and [[Mesopotamia]] (e.g., [[Sura_(city) | Sura]] and [[Nehardea]]).<ref>{{cite EJ |title=Masorah |volume=3 |page=321 |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0013_0_13385.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160727155941/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org:80/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0013_0_13385.html |archive-date=27 July 2016}}</ref> Each group compiled a system of pronunciation and grammatical guides in the form of [[diacritical]] notes (''[[niqqud]]'') on the external form of the biblical text in an attempt to standardize the pronunciation, paragraph and verse divisions, and [[Hebrew cantillation|cantillation]] of the [[Hebrew Bible]] (the [[Tanakh]]) for the worldwide Jewish community.

The [[ben Asher]] family of Masoretes was largely responsible for the preservation and production of the [[Masoretic Text]], although there existed an alternative Masoretic text of the [[ben Naphtali]] Masoretes, which has around 875 differences from the ben Asher text.<ref>{{cite encyclopedia |url=http://jewishencyclopedia.com/articles/2884-ben-naphtali |title=Ben Naphtali |author=Louis Ginzberg, Caspar Levias |encyclopedia=Jewish Encyclopedia}}</ref> The [[halakhic]] authority [[Maimonides]] endorsed the ben Asher as superior, although the Egyptian Jewish scholar, the [[Saadya Gaon]], had preferred the ben Naphtali system. It has been suggested that the ben Asher family and the majority of the Masoretes were [[Karaite Judaism|Karaites]].<ref>{{cite web |website=[[Jewish Virtual Library]] |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/biography/benAsher.html |title=Aaron ben Moses ben Asher}}</ref> However, [[Geoffrey Khan]] believes that the ben Asher family was probably not Karaite,<ref>{{cite book |last=Khan |first=Geoffrey |date=2000 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Ad0XAQAAIAAJ&q=masoretes+karaites |title=Early Karaite grammatical texts |publisher=Society of Biblical Literature |page=52 |isbn=978-1589830004 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref><ref>{{cite book |last=Khan |first=Geoffrey |date=1990 |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=2jE9AAAAIAAJ&q=masoretes+karaites&pg=PA20 |title=Karaite Bible Manuscripts from the Cairo Genizah |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] Archive |page=20 |isbn=978-0521392273 |via=[[Google Books]]}}</ref> and [[:he:אהרן_דותן|Aron Dotan]] avers that there are "decisive proofs that M. Ben-Asher was not a Karaite."<ref>{{cite EJ |title=Masorah |volume=3 |page=321 |url=https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0013_0_13385.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160727155941/http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org:80/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0013_0_13385.html |archive-date=27 July 2016}}</ref>

The Masoretes devised the [[niqqud|vowel notation system]] for Hebrew that is still widely used, as well as the [[Hebrew cantillation|trope]] symbols used for cantillation.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Sommer |first=Benjamin D. |date=1999 |title=Revelation at Sinai in the Hebrew Bible and in Jewish Theology |url=https://www.journals.uchicago.edu/doi/abs/10.1086/490456?journalCode=jr |journal=The Chicago Journal of Religion |volume=79 |issue=3 |pages=422–451 |doi=10.1086/490456 |issn=0022-4189 |via=University of Chicago Press|url-access=subscription }}</ref>

The [[nakdanim]] were successors to the Masoretes in the transmission of the traditional Hebrew text of the Old Testament.

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== Further reading ==
* ''In the Beginning: A Short History of the Hebrew Language'', Chapter 5. {{ISBN|0-8147-3654-8}}
* ''The Text of the Old Testament''. {{ISBN|0-8028-0788-7}}
* ''Introduction to the Tiberian Masorah''. {{ISBN|0-89130-374-X}}
* {{Cite GHG|2}}, {{Cite GHG|3|notitle=1}}

==External links==
* [http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=246&letter=M "Masorah"] in ''[[The Jewish Encyclopedia]]''
* [http://lc.bfbs.org.uk/e107_files/downloads/masoretes.pdf The Role of the Masoretes (PDF)]
* [https://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/judaica/ejud_0002_0013_0_13385.html "Masorah"] in the ''[[Encyclopaedia Judaica]]''

{{Jews and Judaism}}

[[Category:Hebrew grammar]]
[[Category:Jewish scribes (soferim)]]
[[Category:Language of the Hebrew Bible]]

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