masoret

plural masorets

1. An unwritten tradition orally passed down as law by the Hebrews.

   From the above, it would seem that Rabban Gamliel had a different masoret from R' Yehoshua, one that was a very well-kept secret.

   2014, Richard Fiedler, Sod Ha'ibur, →ISBN, page 77

   2 more examples

   The rough correspondence between these concepts and “native” Jewish ideas such as masoret (authoritative tradition) and galut (exile) further helps to explain their enduring status in the field.

   2011, Ra'anan S. Boustan, Oren Kosansky, Marina Rustow, Jewish Studies at the Crossroads of Anthropology and History, →ISBN

   “The Sadducees say that there is a tradition (masoret) in the hands of the Pharisees to afflict themselves,” according to 'Abot R. Nat. A (end chap. 12).

   2015, Herbert Basser, Marsha B. Cohen, The Gospel of Matthew and Judaic Traditions, →ISBN

plural Masorets

1. alternativeAlternative form of Masorete.

   Having thus fixed the correct reading, the Masorets determined to prevent as far as possible, the danger of any future departure from it.

   1889, John MacDevitt, Introduction to the Sacred Scriptures: In Two Parts, page 13

   2 more examples

   The Masorets, by their great care and diligence, have left us an edition of the Old Testament, which secures the text from all interpolations, while it checks also the licentiousness of conjectural criticism, and gives a definite meaning to many obscure passages; at the same time, it by no means precludes the labours of the learned from aiming at greater accuracy in their attempts to understand Scripture, as the sense which the Masorets may have put upon any passage can only be said to be highly probable: the meaning of Scripture in all cases being derivable from the words, and not from the vowel points, or any arbitrary divisions.

   1838, George Townsend, The New Testament, arranged in chronological and historical order, with copious notes on the principal subjects in theology

   It is a version of the Hebrew Old Testament, translated from 700-1000 a.d. (yes, that's right) by the Masorets, Jewish scholars trying to translate the Old Testament back into Hebrew from fragments of existing Hebrew, oral tradition, and the Septuagint.

   2009, John A. Peck, Called to Serve, →ISBN, page 4

2. A Masorah.

   Where the Keri's have to do with exegesis or grammar, by far the largest part of them proceed immediately from the Masorets themselves.

   1860, Johann Jakob Herzog, The Protestant Theological and Ecclesiastical Encyclopedia, page 413

   2 more examples

   ...the transcribers themselves have candidly intimated by the suspended Nun that סשמ is the genuine reading, and the Masorets also expressly state, that the Nun was inserted, in order that the first idolatrous priest should not be said to be a grandson of Moses.

   1827, Johann Jahn, Samuel Hulbeart Turner, William Rollinson Whittingham, An Introduction to the Old Testament, page 160

   This is surprising, because in the Masoret it is plene, but we have found that the Masoret disagrees with the Talmud in Tractate Shabbat [55b].

   2001, B. Barry Levy, Fixing God's Torah: The Accuracy of the Hebrew Bible Text in Jewish Law, →ISBN