Beleg_Strongbow

The Old Testament was written in Hebrew, so I'd like a bit of information about it. I heard that they have no vowels, just consonant roots, can someone elaboarate? Also, what would be some common translation errors that could occur because of the nature of the language? Any other facts are good as well. I'm not interesting in actually learning Hebrew, just learning about it. Links are fine too.

Paintballislife

well i heard this on the discovery channel one day, this is what started the ball down the hill with religon. scientists figured out that on was actually by. so when jesus walked on the water, it really meant he walked by the water. and theres some others. its like any language, u cant get the full meaning and translate it into another verbatem.

Jacey

Off to BC & H...........

Celsus

That is correct. The Masoretes only added vowel sound indicators towards the end of the first millenium CE (7th to 9th centuries CE).
Translation errors wouldn't be all that bad, although copying errors have been noticed and traced. Once the canonisation process ended (for more on that see here), no significant textual developments occurred (although prior to that, there have been arguably significant textual differences: e.g. differences the LXX, Samaritan Pentateuch and the Masoretic text; parallel accounts in Samuel-Kings and Chronicles, etc.). Some common copying errors (which differ from textual development in usually being unintentional*) are well documented:

• Aural conditioning: mishearing similarly sounding consonants
• Visual similarities: graphically similar letters getting confused
• Dittography: inadvertent duplication of letters or words
• Haplography: inadvertent omission of a letter or word (usually found in close proximity to each other)
• Homeoteleuton: accidental omission due to two separate phrases ending identically on differing lines, with the middle text omitted

What you'd probably be most interested in are the class of errors due to exegetical consideration in which differing words can be interpreted from the consonantal spelling. Encyclopaedia Britannica gives the following example:

• Thus the lack of vowel signs may permit the word DBR to be read as a verb DiBeR ("he spoke," as in the Masoretic text of Hosea) or as a noun DeBaR ("the word of," as in the Septuagint). The absence of word dividers could lead to different divisions of consonants. Thus BBQRYM in Amos could be understood as BaBeQaRYM ("with oxen," as in the Masoretic text) or as BaBaQaR YaM ("the sea with an ox").

Joel

* The exception being when a scribe found variants in two manuscripts of the same work, and combined both readings to form a conflate text.

Volker.Doormann

I think a good link is http://www.bju.edu/bible/, because you got a link to the origin hebrew word (in latin letters) and an English translation of the meaning('s) of each word in the Bible.

Volker