Steven Avery
Administrator
Are there any missing words in the Second Rabbinic Bible Masoretic Text?
Concerning Joshua 21:36-37, Eliezer Katz claimed: "The two verses do not appear in Hebrew version" (New Classified Concordance, p. xxxiv). J. Scott Porter maintained that “it [Joshua 21:36-37] is left out of the Rabbinical Bibles of Ben Chajim, Buxtorf, and Ben Simeon” (Principles, p. 194)...
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In the Hebrew Masoretic Text, Wayne Mitchell claimed that “358 examples of copyist haplography were found, documenting the loss of 1,279 words” (Scribal Skips, p. 132). P. Kyle McCarter noted that “Haplography or ‘single writing’ takes place when a repeated sequence of letters is copied only once with a resulting loss of text” (Textual Criticism, pp. 38-39, 77). In their glossary, Ellis Brotzman and Eric Tully defined haplography as follows: “scribal error resulting from the accidental omission of a letter(s) or word(s)” (OT Textual Criticism, p. 227). Haplography is the broader term that includes two types of scribal errors--homoioarkton [omissions based on similar beginnings of words] and homoioteleuton [omissions based on similar endings]. Wayne Mitchell asserted: “Haplography produces a variant which nearly always impacts the meaning of a text” (Scribal Skips, p. 134). Wayne Mitchell claimed: “For a Bible using MT and the apparent Greek text of the King James version, the total words missing from haplography according to the list used for Table 2 number 1,295 or 5,037 letters” (p. 133).
Concerning Genesis 41:48, Christian Ginsburg observed: “The most cursory examination of the Hebrew text shows that something has dropped out of it and that the Septuagint has preserved that which is missing” (Introduction, p. 303). Concerning Joshua 2:1, Christian Ginsburg claimed: “Here the clause and the two young men came to Jericho is omitted because of the similar words and they came and they came. They are preserved in the Septuagint” (p. 175). Concerning 1 Samuel 3:15, Christian Ginsburg asserted: “Here the words ‘and he rose early in the morning’ are omitted because of the homoeoteleuton the morning … the morning. They are preserved in the Septuagint” (p. 177). Christian Ginsburg listed several other verses where he maintained that words are omitted in the Masoretic Text but they “are preserved in the Septuagint” (pp. 175-177).
Emanuel Tov claimed: “At the end of 2 Samuel 14:30, the LXX adds a sentence which has been omitted from MT by way of homoioteleuton” (Text-Critical Use, p. 72). Wayne Mitchell also cited 2 Samuel 14:30 as a place where the Masoretic Text omitted words (Scribal Skips, p. 49). Wayne Mitchell noted: “A Dead Sea Scroll containing 2 Samuel 24:16 records text from twenty-five Hebrew words that fell out of all other manuscripts by an early two-letter homoioarcton, with involvement of other letters” (p. 130). Wayne Mitchell claimed: “In 1 Kings 2:29, twenty-two Hebrew words of a message from king Solomon to Joab, along with Joab’s reply, were lost in MT by a two-word homoioteleuton to its next occurrence” (Ibid.). James VanderKam and Peter Flint wrote: “In 1 Kings 8:16, however, 4QKings preserves a passage that was lost from the Masoretic Text when a scribe’s eye skipped from one phrase to a similar phrase below” (Meaning of the Dead, p. 116).