BEN-NAPHTALI, MŌSHEH BEN-DĀWĪDH. - Masorete who lived around the middle of the 10th century in Palestine, not in Baghdad, as some erroneously thought, following Elijah Levita. He devoted himself to establishing the biblical text with the apparatus and vocalization of the Masorah (v.) of Tiberias.

We do not know of manuscripts that integrally and with certainty transmit to us the Masoretic punctuation of B.-N., unless it is to be found collected in the group of manuscripts akin to the Reuchlin codex on the Prophets (a. 1105-1106 = Ms. Durlach 55 of the library of Karlsruhe). The punctuation of B.-N., although it had reached an advanced degree in detecting minutiae both as regards vowels and accents, was in the 13th century surpassed by the rival school of the Ben-'Āšer (v.).

Bibliography

BIBL.: On the differences between the two Palestinian schools see the work of Mischel (10th cent.), edited by L. Lipschütz, B.-N. Der Bibeltext der Tiberischen Masoreten. Eine Abhandlung des Mischels b. 'Uzziel veröffentlicht und untersucht (Bonner Orientalische Studien, 25), Stuttgart 1937. On the text of B.-N.: P. Kahle, Masoreten des Westens, ibid. 1930, p. 45 ff.

Faustino Salvoni

@incollection{ec2_ben_naphtali_moseh_ben_dawidh, author = {Salvoni, Faustino}, title = {Ben-NaphtĀLĪ, mōšeh ben-dāwīdh}, booktitle = {Enciclopedia Cattolica}, volume = {II}, pages = {1353}, note = {Cited by column}, publisher = {Ente per l’Enciclopedia Cattolica e per il Libro Cattolico}, address = {Città del Vaticano}, year = {1949}, url = {https://azioneromana.com/article/ben-naphtali-moseh-ben-dawidh} }

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Ben-Naphtali, Mōsheh Ben-Dāwīdh

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