The Significance of Three Methods of Grouping Biblical Hebrew Text Portions

The paper first indicates the implications of the mixed results obtained by using three disparate analytical methods to infer relationships among biblical text portions based upon their spelling practices. Next, a sketch is provided of matres lectionis ("mothers of reading") in Biblical He...

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Publié dans:Journal for semitics
Autres titres:SBL Annual Meeting 2020 Linguistics and Biblical Hebrew Seminar: The Intersection of Text and Language in the Hebrew Bible: Innovative Tools and Methods
Auteur principal: Forbes, A. Dean 1941- (Auteur)
Type de support: Électronique Article
Langue:Anglais
Vérifier la disponibilité: HBZ Gateway
Fernleihe:Fernleihe für die Fachinformationsdienste
Publié: Unisa Press 2021
Dans: Journal for semitics
Sujets / Chaînes de mots-clés standardisés:B Hébreu / Méthodologie / Linguistique textuelle
RelBib Classification:BH Judaïsme
Sujets non-standardisés:B spelling
B text-portion ordering
B mater lectionis
B text-portion grouping
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Résumé:The paper first indicates the implications of the mixed results obtained by using three disparate analytical methods to infer relationships among biblical text portions based upon their spelling practices. Next, a sketch is provided of matres lectionis ("mothers of reading") in Biblical Hebrew and of the Andersen-Forbes classification system. Vowel features are specified, and examples presented. The notion of transmissional textual change is introduced. The criticality of comparing the results provided by different analytical methods is emphasised. Next, three complementary analytical methods are introduced in turn, and their results are appraised. Clustering is a heuristic data exploration method, its prime result being that the spelling of the Torah sets it well apart from the other portions of the Hebrew Bible. Clustering, however, produces many other provocative portion groupings inviting investigation. While multidimensional scaling also gathers the Torah portions, it also yields its own tantalising juxtapositions. Seriation orders the portions along a timeline. It results in an expected horseshoe-shaped band of portions, albeit rather "puffy." Also, some of its text-portion orders are suspicious. While many results produced by the three methods are encouraging, many are perplexing. Envisioned future application of evolving methods to our BH text-portion data may well enhance the trustworthiness of our inferences.
Contient:Enthalten in: Journal for semitics
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.25159/2663-6573/9320