נוסח המקרא בבתי הכנסת הקדומים: עיונים בעקבות מגילות מדבר יהודה

This article analyzes the language of the biblical texts used in ancient synagogues. Because of our fragmentary knowledge of ancient synagogues, this investigation faces a variety of enigmas. However, archeology comes to our aid, since two biblical scrolls were found under the floor of the Masada synagogue. This paper focuses on the evidence from these scrolls and from rabbinic sources on biblical texts in general, especially on the indirect evidence of the biblical scrolls from the Judean Desert. The following proposals are made with regard to these scrolls: Firstly, two groups of proto-MT scrolls can be distinguished: (a) The texts found at sites other than Qumran belong to the same family as the medieval Masoretic texts. This tradition is also reflected in biblical quotations in rabbinic literature, as well as in most of the Targumim. These scrolls are therefore considered the inner circle of the proto-MT and proto-rabbinic tradition, further underscored by the evidence from tefillin. These scrolls reflect the practices for writing scriptural scrolls as described at a later stage in rabbinic literature; (b) Similar texts from Qumran deviate from the medieval tradition in some details. They are less precise, and they do not conform with the technical details of rabbinic instructions for writing scriptural scrolls. These scrolls belong to the second circle of proto-MT scrolls. Secondly, the rebels of Masada and the Bar Kokhba freedom fighters possessed Hebrew and Greek biblical scrolls that closely reflect the instructions of the Jerusalem spiritual center. Thirdly, identity between two or more texts could have been achieved only if all of them were copied from a single scroll, probably the master copy of each biblical book as preserved in the temple until 70 CE. Finally, the carefully copied identical biblical texts found in the Judean Desert probably belong to a group which is mentioned in rabbinic literature as 'corrected scrolls'. These texts, which must have been extant in various places in ancient Israel, were copied from or corrected according to the master copies found in the temple court.