BEN-NAPHTALI, MOSES BEN-DAVID. — A Masorete who lived around the middle of the 10th century in Palestine, not in Baghdad, as some erroneously believed after Elias Levita. He devoted himself to establishing the biblical text with the apparatus and vocalization of the Tiberian Masorah (v.).
No manuscripts are known to us that fully and reliably transmit the Masoretic pointing of B.-N., unless it is gathered within the group of manuscripts related to the Reuchlin codex of the Prophets (A.D. 1105–1106 = Ms. Durlach 55 of the Karlsruhe Library). The pointing of B.-N., although it had reached an advanced stage in noting the minutiae both for vowels and accents, was surpassed in the 13th century by the rival school of the Ben-Aššer (v.).
BIBL.: On the differences between the two Palestinian schools V. the work of Mischael (10th cent.), edited by L. Lipschütz, B.-N. Der Bibeltext der Tiberischen Massoreten. Eine Abhandlung des Mischael b. 'Uzziel veröffentlicht und untersucht (Bonner Orientalische Studien, 25), Stuttgart