Showing posts with label Masoretes. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Masoretes. Show all posts

Monday, October 18, 2010

Number of Words and Letters in Torah, Neviim, and Ketuvim

As a follow up to my blog post of Monday, October 11, 2010: "Number of Verses in Neviim and Ketuvim", I was informed by JTS professor Dr. David Marcus, that the following article has tables showing word and letter counts for the books of the TaNaKh (Hebrew Bible): “What Did the Scribes Count?” by Francis I. Andersen and A. Dean Forbes. This article is found as Appendix A (p.297-318) in the work Studies in Hebrew and Aramaic Orthography [Winona Lake, Indiana : Eisenbrauns, 1992].

Monday, October 11, 2010

Number of Verses in Neviim and Ketuvim

Question:
I am interested in knowing how many verses are in each of the books that comprise the Neviim (Prophets) and the Ketuvim (Writings) in the TaNaKh (Bible). The editions that I consulted do not give me that data. Would you recommend an edition that will give me that information?

Answer:
In those editions of the TaNaKH that contain masoretic notes (see here for information on the Masoretes and their notes: http://www.jewishencyclopedia.com/view.jsp?artid=246&letter=M&search=masorah), the verse-counts for each of the books that comprise the Neviim and Ketuvim can be found at the end of each book. A popular edition of the TaNaKH that records masoretic notes is: Biblia Hebraica Stuttgartensia [Stuttgart : Deutsche Bibelgesellschaft, 1997].