Reading your Hebrew Bible: How BHQ helps read the Masorah Magna (sort of)

Students of OT Hebrew know that although the current critical edition of the Hebrew text (BHS) is the standard text at present, a new edition (BHQ) is currently being prepared (slowly, fascicle by fascicle). When completed, BHQ looks to be the new standard.    

Currently published BHQ fascicles

• Megilloth (Ruth, Canticles/Song of Songs, Qoheleth/Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Esther)
• Ezra-Nehemiah
• Deuteronomy
• Proverbs
• Twelve Minor Prophets
• Judges
• Genesis
• Leviticus, Job, and Ezekiel should appear within the next year or so, according to the BHQ website

Accessing BHQ

The main options for accessing BHQ each have their cons, sorry:

1. Purchase hard copies of the fascicles. Cons: Cost prohibitive, and paper is not portable nor searchable (unlike the digital versions).
2. Visit a local (theological/seminary) library to view their hard copies: check worldcat for locations. Cons: Time demanding and inconvenient (and perhaps impractical, if no library nearby owns it).
3. Purchase digital copies. Cons: Not currently available at Logos (fascicles under development to again offer for sale) and BibleWorks (no longer in business; Megollith, Deuteronomy, and Ezra-Nehemiah had been sold before they folded). Accordance is the only one of the major Bible softwares currently offering them ($199 for the first 6 fascicles, Genesis not yet included), but not many consultants own and use Accordance. 

Masorah Magna of Ruth 1:1

The BHQ page of Ruth 1:1 provides the full Masora Magna (Mm) comment on וַיְהִ֥י רָעָ֖ב בָּאָ֑רֶץ (“and there was a famine in the land”). One thing to be aware of is that the Mm references OT passages without our modern chapters and versification: “The Mm identifies references to the OT by listing a word (or words) in unpointed Hebrew that occurs in that reference.”^[1] I have highlighted the OT references in yellow in the following Mm note and translation in BHQ:

• תרין פסוקׄ מיחדין ולית זוגה ויהי רעב בארץ בׄ בטעׄ וירד אברם . וילך איש ׃

Now, if you are scratching your head about any words in that sentence, BHQ also provides this very helpful translation:

• Two verses unusual and unique in the Hebrew Bible: ‏ויהי רעב בארץ‎ twice with these accents: Gen 12:10; Ruth 1:1.

Assessing the Efficacity of the Masorah Magna at Ruth 1:1

Sure enough, if you search on the string וַיְהִ֥י רָעָ֖ב בָּאָ֑רֶץ in BibleWorks (or some other comparable Bible software program) you discover that only Genesis 12:10 and Ruth 1:1 have the same exact series of three words and Masoretic accents (in the Leningrad Codex Masoretic accent system, at least). But you also discover that the Mm neglects to mention that the same string of words also occurs in Genesis 26:1, differing from the other two references only in the Masoretic accents. 

So, I would classify this Mm note as only moderately helpful. 

For translation teams that are making consistent certain key expressions throughout the OT, the Mm might signal to the consultant certain repeated Hebrew constructions/words. But the Mm’s data cannot replace the work of the consultant/exegete! Reference the masorah to tip you off on textual observations you might have otherwise missed. But then make use of the digital tools at your disposal (e.g., Logos, BW, etc.), in order to search the Hebrew text more exhaustively and consider other things like the context!

^[1] Ellis R. Brotzman and Eric J. Tully, Old Testament Textual Criticism: A Practical Introduction, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids: Baker, 2016).