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non-biblical inscriptions. But did biblical but later the letter vav (w) was used as in the
scribes adopt these improvements into the text Masoretic Text (ibid., p. 58). In fact, some of
of the OT as quickly as they came into use in the Dead Sea Scrolls even use two consonants
popular literature or at a later date? Such un- in places to mark a single long vowel such as
knowns make any effort to restore the original alef AND vav for a single long o, a practice
character sequence of the OT text by removing not used in the Masoretic Text. Third, during
matres lectionis (and other orthographic the rabbinic and Masoretic periods as the He-
changes) from the Hebrew text essentially brew text was being "set in stone" there were
impossible. some attempts by scribes out of due reverence
to the original text to remove some of the later
When the earliest books of the OT were spelling forms in order to restore the older
originated matres lectionis were not used (An- spelling patterns. However, such efforts were
gel Saenz-Badillos, A History of the Hebrew implemented inconsistently and only partially
Language, p. 66), yet they occur thousands of (which is another reason the Masoretic Text
times just in the five books of the Pentateuch, displays such a mixture of Hebrew spelling
the portion of the Bible in which most of the practices throughout).
Bible codes occur. To return to our earlier ex-
ample, in Genesis 1:1-5a at least twenty-one In Summary
matres lectionis occur within this string of
text. None of them were original. Remove them The adoption of matres lectionis into the
and the "hidden code" torah ceases to exist Hebrew text of the OT by early Israelite
though the meaning and pronunciation of the scribes is only one of many problems with the
passage remain unchanged. Ironically the popular ELS Code and represents only one of
spelling form used for torah in Genesis 1:1-5a many such changes in Hebrew spelling habits
by Code proponents is a later form of to rah incorporated by scribes into the OT text. My
which uses the letter vav (corresponding to our purpose has not been to study exhaustively all
"w") as a mater lectionis (mater is singular, aspects of the Code or to present a complete
matres plural) to mark the long "o." Hence description of the history of the biblical text's
Code proponents are using a spelling form of transmission, but rather to show one of the
to rah (t-w-r-h) which postdates the Mosaic KEY reasons why the ELS Code is invalid.
writings rather than the more archaic form (t-r-
h) to find "codes" in the very oldest section of I believe that the spirit of God inspired the
the Bible. books of the Old Testament as originally writ-
ten. Nevertheless, orthographic changes to the
Three additional issues further complicate text of the Hebrew Old Testament did occur
the matter. First, matres lectionis and other or- and thousands of textual variants do exist. We
thographic changes were incorporated into the ignore such facts at our own peril. The good
OT text inconsistently. The Masoretic Text is news is that most of these anomalies affect
"itself a mixture of orthographic forms from only spelling (and other minor issues) and
every stage in the history of Hebrew spelling" have little impact on the meaning of passages.
(Frank Moore Cross, Jr. and David Noel Due to the efforts of textual critics we can be
Freedman, Early Hebrew Orthography, p. confident that we have a version of the He-
59). Second, which Hebrew consonants were brew text that is generally faithful to the origi-
used to mark which vowels changed over time. nal. Yet the thousands of orthographic changes
For example, when matres lectionis first came that affect the number and order of characters
into use the letter he (h) marked the long "o" make any "Code" based on exact sequences of

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