MASO'RA, MASSORETH (Bch. tradition. from mRsar, to hand over). A particular collection of critical notes on the text of the Old Testament, its divisions, accents, vowels, grammatical forms, letters, etc. Accord ing to the early mode of Semitic writing, only the consonants were indicated; hence in the course of time there inevitably arose a vast mini ber of variants in the Old Testament text, or rather different ways of reading and interpreting the same letters by dividing them into different words with different vowels and accents. Some measures for the more accurate preservation of the documents became indispensable, and the desideratum was supplied by the Masora, which, by fixing an immutable reading upon each verse, word. and letter, put an end to the confusion and left the individual fancy free to take its own views for homiletical purposes only. The origin of the Masora is shrouded in mystery, though tradition carries it back to the days of Ezra. The first certain traces of it are found in certain Halachistic works treating of the syna gogue rolls of the Pentateuch, and the mode of writing them, and it is reasonable to suppose that practical necessities called forth by the in stitution of readings from the Pentateuch and Prophets as a regular feature of religious ser vices led to accurate determination of the text of Paoli verse, the number of letters, and the pronunciation of each word, including the proper intonation. A late Talmudic treatise, Masse cheth Ropherim, treats of these matters. of the earliest works on the subjeet have survived in their titles only, such as The Book of the Crowns, The Book of the Sounds, etc. There can hardly he a doubt that the Masora, like the TInlacha and Haggada, was the work. not of one age or century, but of many ages and centuries, as. indeed, we find in ancient authorities mention of different systems of accentuation used in Tiberias, Babylon (Assyria 1. and Palestine. In the period of Hadrian we learn of two scholars, Xakkai and Trammum, who are said to have counted the number of verses in the books of the Old Testament, hut the systematic work of the Masoretes belongs to a much later period. The
vowel system at present employed. which is their work, cannot he traced further hack than the seventh century. and appears to he based on the example furnished by Syrian grammarians: but before this was perfected at Tiberias in Pales tine, another system, chiefly superlincar in char acter and much more complicated, was evolved and adopted in Babylonia. These two systems are distinguished as the Tiberian and the Baby lonian respectively. It was in Tiberias that the Masora was first committed to writing, between the. sixth and ninth centuries A .D. :Monographs, memorial verses, finally glosses on the margins of the text, seem to have been the earliest forms of the written Masora. which gradually expanded into one of the most elaborate and minute sys tems, laid down in the 'Great Masora,' made up of longer notes placed upon the upper and lower margins (about the eleventh century). Besides this there was compiled the 'Small Masora.' notes placed between the columns of the texts. A further distinction is made between Masora testua/is and finalis, the former containing all the marginal notes: the latter, larger annota tions, which, for want of space. had to be placed at the end of the paragraph. Of independent Slasoretic works, the most important is the one known as Ochlah weorhlah, The final arrange ment of the Masora, which was first printed in llomberg's Rabbinical Bible (Venice, 1524-25), is due to Jacob ben Chayim ben Adonijah, and to Felix Pratensis. The language of the Masora is .Aramaic, and besides the difficulty of this idiom, the obscure abbreviations, contractinns, sym bolical signs, etc., with which the work abounds, render its study exceedingly difficult. An ex planation of the Masora is found in Elias Le vita's Masoreth Hammesoreth (trans. into Ger man by Sender. Halle. 1772). and fluxtorEs Tiberias (Basel, 1620). Consult also: Ginsburg, The ilassorah (London. 1880-85) ; id., Introdue (ion to the Hebrew Bible (London. 1899) ; llar ris, ''Rise and Development of the Massorah," in the Jewish Quarterly Review, vol. i. (1888); Einleitung in das Atte Testament (Leip zig, 18931.