Scribal Wit: Aramaic Mnemonics in the Leningrad Codex (Texts and Studies: Volume 10) (Syriac and Latin Edition) (Gorgias Historical Dictionaries)

This book presents for the first time a detailed analysis of the Aramaic mnemonics, those short witty sentences written in Aramaic as memory aids, on the margins of one of the oldest extant biblical Hebrew manuscripts, that of the Leningrad Codex (1008 CE). The material is presented in clear user-friendly charts. Each mnemonic is set alongside the Hebrew verses it represents, and every Aramaic part of the mnemonic is placed on a matching line with its Hebrew equivalent, and both are highlighted in different fonts. This book demonstrates the ingenuity of the Masoretes in their grand endeavor to preserve the text of the Hebrew Bible precisely in the form that it had reached them. It explains the reason for every Masoretic note represented in the mnemonics, and presents evidence supporting the view that the Masoretes were incipient grammarians. Table of Contents (page 5) Abbreviations (page 7) Preface (page 9) Chapter 1: The nature of the Aramaic mnemonics (page 13) 1. How the mnemonics work (page 13) 2. The content of the mnemonics (page 15) 3. Length of the mnemonics (page 16) 4. Repeated mnemonics (page 16) 5. Difficulties in the mnemonics (page 17) 6. Different collections of mnemonics (page 18) 7. Mnemonics clarified by other versions (page 19) 8. The dialect of the mnemonics (page 21) Chapter 2: Hebrew grammar as reflected in the mnemonics (page 25) Chapter 3: Identification of the mnemonics (page 31) Chapter 4: The corpus of the Aramaic mnemonics in ML (page 35) Epilogue: Practical use of the mnemonics (page 169) Appendix A: The list of the Aramaic mnemonics (page 171) Appendix B: The lemmas of the Aramaic mnemonics (page 179) Works Cited (page 185) Index of Biblical Verses (page 193)

This book presents a detailed analysis of the Aramaic mnemonics, those short witty sentences written in Aramaic as memory aids in the margins of one of the oldest extant biblical Hebrew manuscripts, the Leningrad Codex (1008 CE). The material is presented in clear, user-friendly charts. Each mnemonic is set alongside the Hebrew verses it represents. This book demonstrates the ingenuity of the Masoretes in their grand endeavor to preserve the text of the Hebrew Bible precisely in the form that it had reached them.