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KETHIB

(Heb. kĕṯîḇ)

AND QERE

(qĕrê)

Masoretic notations meaning “what is written” (Kethib) and “what is read” (Qere). The 1300 instances of Kethib-Qere in the MT reflect a stage in the development of the Hebrew text when the consonantal text was considered fixed and unalterable (“what is written”; K), but it was possible to suggest emendations in the margin (“what is read”; Q). The consonants of the Qere were usually written in the margin, and the vowels of the Qere, with the consonants of the Kethib, in the text. The note would lead a person reading the text to pronounce the Qere rather than the Kethib. Qere readings were intended either to correct the Kethib or to preserve variant manuscript traditions.

The Kethib-Qere fall into three categories. The Qĕrê perpetuum, not marked by a marginal note, is the writing of the consonants for YHWH with the vowels for ʾăḏōnāy. This guarded against speaking the divine name. The Tiqqûnê sōpĕrîm or “emendations of the scribes” are some 18 instances in which the Masoretes preserved in a note the “original” form of a text that was earlier changed by scribes to remove objectionable references to God. The ʿIṭṭûrê sōpĕrîm or “omissions of the scribes” are places where a letter was omitted, or where something either is read but not written or is written but not read.

Bibliography. E. Tov, The Textual Criticism of the Hebrew Bible (Minneapolis, 1992); E. Würthwein, The Text of the Old Testament, 2nd ed. (Grand Rapids, 1995).

Michael L. Ruffin

Prayer Tents Bible References - Prayer Tents

KETHIB

Eerdmans Dictionary of the Bible (2000)