Scribal error and Psalm 22

Starting here with this quote from Emmanuel Tov’s  Exegesis in the Bible.

“Omission of ʿayin (in Yeshayahu in Qumram) indicates the weakening of
laryngeals and pharyngeals. Supralinear letter added. ומי בימי בי
Addition of waw is probably due to Aramaic influence. עזיהו עוזיה
Short theophoric names are more frequent in the Second Temple period.
יחזקיהו יחזקיה See the previous item. 2 ארץ הארץ Addition of the
article.1 והם והמה Lengthened pronouns typical of Late Biblical
Hebrew. 7 כמהפכת כמאפכת The addition of an aleph is probably
influenced by the Aramaic root אפך =) הפך in Hebrew). 8 ונותרה ונתרתֹ
The variant probably reflects an Aramaic verbal form for the 3rd per.
fem. sing. a See Eduard Y. Kutscher, The Language and Linguistic
Background of the Isaiah Scroll”

So we have evidence of some spelling difference in the name Yeshayahu (Isaiah) Masoretic text Tiberian sound (ישעיהו) and then DSS Qumran Yeshayahu (Isaiah) ישיהו.

Now he says the addition of the vav in the name Uziyahu עזיהו” עוזיה, see the difference one has a vav and the other no vav (waw in ancient times). I would say this is simply the kativ malei from not having vowel in the times of the Essenes and Qumran. Same thing here k’mapeikat כמהפכת” כמאפכת “as in upheaval or revolution”, the main difference with the added alef in the ktiv malei is lack of vowels or diacritics in the text itself in the 250-200 bce era.

Here is Samuel 2:14 Masoretic text.

הִכָּ֨ה בַכִּיּ֜וֹר א֣וֹ בַדּ֗וּד א֚וֹ בַקַּלַּ֙חַת֙ א֣וֹ בַפָּר֔וּר
 כֹּל אֲשֶׁ֣ר יַעֲלֶ֣ה הַמַּזְלֵ֔ג יִקַּ֥ח הַכֹּהֵ֖ן בּ֑וֹ כָּכָה
יַעֲשֹ֣וּ לְכָל־יִשְׂרָאֵ֔ל הַבָּאִ֥ים שָׁ֖ם בְּשִׁלֹֽה:

“He struck the pan or cauldron or the kettle or and the Kohein (priest) would take all of which the fork brought up for himself.” (this is universal to the MT&DSS), this as follows is Masoretic text unique: This is how they dealt with all the people of Yisrael who came there to Shiloh.

Now the Dead Sea Scroll ending.

אם רע הוא ואם טוב לבד מח זה התנופה ושוק הימין

“If it is bad and if it is good, only marrow in addition to the waved breast and the right thigh”

This differential is very compelling and why the change, the DSS yield seems to go back to Torah sacrifice.

Here are quotes on the Dead Sea scrolls by two different researchers.

Emanuel Tov quote

“The textual evidence does not point to a single ‘original’ text, but
a series of subsequent authoritative texts produced by the same or
different authors … the original texts(s) remain(s) an evasive entity
that cannot be reconstructed … Some biblical books, such as Jeremiah,
reached a final state more than once … the original text is far
removed and can never be reconstructed … the Judean Desert scrolls
[our earliest biblical manuscripts.”

Ian Young

“Into this picture of variant Hebrew and Greek witnesses to the book
of Samuel come the Dead Sea Scrolls.10 The Dead Sea Scrolls are also
known as the Qumran scrolls since they were found in caves at Qumran
in the Judean wilderness in the late 1940s and in the 1950s. It took a
long time, but since the 1990s, all the scrolls have been available to
everyone. What they are is the remains—usually very, very
fragmentary—of over 900 scrolls, all or almost all of them literary
texts. This means that Qumran is a very unusual find, both for the
number of manuscripts discovered, and for the predominance of
literary— meaning religious—texts in it. In regard to date, the
earliest”

Here is a quote from David Carr, a professor of Hebrew Bible at Union Theological in New York. On memorization as opposed to strict text copying.

“David Carr has recently written a major study of textual transmission
in the ancient world.38 He points out the significance of memorisation
in the transmission of ancient texts, rather than just what we would
consider transmission purely by literary means.39 It is clear that in
ancient times, a book was primarily an oral entity, in the minds of
those who knew it. Note narratives in the Bible such as where Moses is
commanded by God to write the song which appears as Deuteronomy 32,
but then is commanded to put it in the mouths of the Israelites, i.e.,
to teach them to be able to recite it orally (Deut 31:26). So too,
when the scroll of Jeremiah’s prophecies was destroyed, Jeremiah (or
possibly in the LXX, Baruch his scribe) is able to dictate a new copy
from memory, adding other things from the Jeremiah tradition that were
not in the first scroll (Jer 36:32)”

“produce.”50 Note the question of how tall Goliath was. In the MT he
is said to be “six cubits and a span” (1 Sam 17:4), which comes out to
be a giant nine foot nine. In 4QSama and the major LXX witnesses, he
is “four cubits and a span,” which would still be a very tall six foot
seven. Now, from a factual point of view, Goliath cannot have been
both. However, from a literary and an ancient historiographical point
of view, the difference is not so important, since both readings
convey what the text wants to convey: Goliath is scarily tall
(especially in the ancient world). The biblical historians, as ancient
historians, shared the view that the exact details of the presentation
were not important, except insofar as they contribute to the overall
message of the passage they are found in”

My first thought is that without a printing press keeping scripture together coherent is harder than we thought but the Holy Spirit was there to keep everything together in spite of the difficulties of the ancient world. In the same way we have a Christian canon despite the Roman Catholic Church and Eastern Orthodox Church having different agendas (also the Oriental Orthodox Church). So what’s the punch line, so yea scribal error exists even in divine inspiration. So what happens when a scribal error gets in the Bible and it does some damage to God and the truth of Jesus Christ?

So lets go to Psalm 22 verse 17 in the original Hebrew Masoretic text which maybe verse 16 in your English Christian Bible translation.

כִּֽי־סְבָב֗וּנִי כְּלָ֫בִ֥ים עֲדַ֣ת מְ֖רֵעִים הִקִּיפ֑וּנִי כָּֽ֜אֲרִ֗י יָדַ֥י וְרַגְלָֽי:

First I want to talk about what is not in dispute.

“For dogs have surrounded me, an assembly of of evildoers has encircled me”

That part is not in dispute but what about the ending?

Here is the awaited punchline Ka’ari כָּֽ֜אֲרִ֗י which means like a lion. ka meaning as or like and ari is a shorter version of aryeh meaning lion. It is likely the word aryeh comes from the word or meaning light in Hebrew because lions looked radiant or bright as opposed to other predators. So here below is the Chabad translation of the Tanakh (Old Testament) of this Psalm verse.

For dogs have surrounded me; a band of evildoers has encompassed me, like a lion, my hands and feet.

So you notice the lion in the translation like a lion my hands and feet. Here below is the (ESV) translation.

“For dogs encompass me;
    a company of evildoers encircles me;
they have pierced my hands and feet”

Here a different ending and a obvious reference to the crucifixion of Jesus Christ our Lord. Most Christian English translations do say it this way, but why?

Maybe a scribal error what if ka’ari was scribed incorrectly. If so what would it be what word could be confused by כארי that word ka’ari? This word here karo כרו which means to mine, dig or cut. The verbal root karah is also where in Genesis 15 and it says God cut a covenant the word used for cut is carat כרת. So if there was a scribal error and kaari was supposed to be karo, karah or karat then this explains the ending of ” they have pierced my hands and feet”.

So who is right, my first thought is that ari for lion makes the most sense as a shorter first name. In Israel Aryeh meaning lion is a popular first name and these men or boys are often affectionately called Ari. In talking of the animal that lives in Africa and chases antelope you it would make more sense to use aryeh. So in that case then ka’aryeh would make more sense on like a lion, and not kaari. So this makes the karo look more logical if a scribal error occurred. My second thought is more common sense and context. The phrase “they pierced my hands and feet” makes sense whether you are talking of Jesus or not. The phrase “like a lion, my hands and feet” does not make sense, what do in any context have feet hands and lions make any sense, lions have paws folks. If you were like a lion you would be on your paws. So the phrase they pierced my hands and feet just makes more sense in general.

In ancient times there is evidence that karo כרו may then have been written כארו as opposed to כרו. So if a scribe made the vav ו to small or the scroll was erased or blurred in some way then כארו karo meaning to dig, pierce or mine or dig a grave could have deceptively looked like כארי meaning like a lion. A slip of the pen, an ink smudge, or a tear in an older manuscript could easily transform one letter into the other. I think the best evidence is still common sense that pierced makes more sense then lions not having paws!

God Bless everyone!