Sinai Codex, Hebrew

Sinai Codex, Hebrew.

This MS., which contains the Pentateuch, contains many variations of the accents, as וישמע, and he heard (Ex 18:1), has the accent Gershai, but in Sinai it has Rebia; again, המדבר, the desert (ver. 5), has Zakeph, while in Sinai it has Zakeph gadol. As to the name of the codex, whether it is so called from the author or from the place where it was written is a matter of dispute. According to Levita it would be the name of a codex; Furst (Gesch. der Karder, 1, 22, 138) thinks that this codex derives its name from Mount Sinai, while Joseph Eshoe, the expositor of the Masorah, says, on Ex 18:1, "As to the remark Sinai has Rebia, know that the inventors of the vowel-points and accents were mostly from the spiritual heads and the sages of Tiberias. Now the name of one of these was Sinai, and he differed from the Masorah, which remarks that וישמע has Gershaim, and said that it has the accefit Rebia." From this it will be seen that this great Masoretic authority does not take סיני as Codex Sinaiticus, but regards it as a proper name of one of the inventors of the vowel-points and accents. Delitzsch (in his Hebrew translation of Paul's Epistle to the Romans, p. 41, 121) thinks that the name ספר סיני, Simzai Codex, refers rather to the place where it was written or found. See Strack, Prolegomena Critica in Vet. Test. Hebraicum (Lips. 1873), p. 23 sq. Levita, Massoreth ha-Massoreth (ed. Ginsburg), p. 259; Hottinger, Thes. Philologicus (3d ed.), p. 107; Eichhorn, Einleitung in das alte Test. 1, 375; Tychsen, Tentzamel de Vatiis Codd. Hebr. p. 215. (B.P.)