Hebrew Voices #156 – Bibles Written by Medieval Jewish Kids
In this episode of Hebrew Voices #156, Bibles Written by Medieval Jewish Kids, Nehemia talks with Dr. Estara Arrant about her research at Cambridge University into “informal Bibles” discovered in the Cairo Genizah. They discuss the insights that can be … Continue reading →
In this episode of Hebrew Voices #156, Bibles Written by Medieval Jewish Kids, Nehemia talks with Dr. Estara Arrant about her research at Cambridge University into “informal Bibles” discovered in the Cairo Genizah. They discuss the insights that can be gained from these previously overlooked Hebrew fragments, the surprising degree of literacy among Jewish children in the Middle Ages, and how errors in personal Bibles prove that the text of the Hebrew Bible was fixed.
I look forward to reading your comments!
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Transcript
Hebrew Voices #156 – Bibles Written by Medieval Jewish Kids
You are listening to Hebrew Voices with Nehemia Gordon. Thank you for supporting Nehemia Gordon's Makor Hebrew Foundation. Learn more at NehemiasWall.com.
Estara: Gosh, we've got everything. We've got…
Nehemia: Aren’t there recipes and love letters?
Estara: … legal documents, we've got a sheet of music.
Nehemia: Wow!
Estara: We've got everything! We've got a whole society preserved in the Genizah.
Nehemia: Shalom, and welcome to Hebrew Voices. I'm here today at Cambridge University with Dr. Estara Arrant. So, tell me about some of the research you did on your doctorate. I learned about this, and I was fascinated, because in my background dealing with Hebrew Bible manuscripts, a lot of it is, you look at the Aleppo Codex and the Leningrad Codex, and if you're really advanced, then you look at maybe a few other manuscripts, and these are like these monumental, kind of official manuscripts. And what you looked at in your research was really a completely different angle. Tell us about that.
Estara: I looked at everything that wasn't your nicest Bible, everything that was something people might consider informal, or scrappy, or less than formal - still nice, but not three columns, beautiful parchment, lots of decoration, full vowels. I looked at everything else because that had never been looked at before. People… you're right, they focus typically… all these are generalizations, they focus typically on the most complete specimens, the most beautiful specimens, the most famous specimens.
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Comments
I find it fascinating that most Europeans were educated even back then even the “uneducated” could read and write in some cases two or a mixed alphabet or language.
We’nt kings instructed to write a copy of Torah?
It may not be far fetched that other people wrote copies for themselves?
Fascinating discussion. Would the term “unrefined” be a good descriptor for the skills of these writers?
I have just completed the memorial of the Passover. I want to explain that being Messianic, I am following only the written Torah.
I want to ask how your faith of Kariate Jewish traditions are observed at Passover. Yes, it is the age old question what is leaven?
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