We are continuing on with our discussion on the topic of how the Holy Scriptures were birthed within an oral culture.
Let me start by asking you this.
Did you know that our current practice of punctuation is actually a recent development?
In ancient times, not only did most written languages NOT have punctuation, they didn’t even have beginnings and endings to sentences and paragraph breaks were non-existent.
In St. Augustines book “Confessions” (published in the 4th century), he says his close friend Ambrose was an incredible man simply because he could read text in silence minus having to move his lips.
That’s just how rare a phenomenon it was that a person had the capability to read in silence.
To that point, I’m sure you’re all aware that Hebrew doesn’t have vowels.
Vowel pronunciation marks (called NIKKUD) were added later.
Again, this is because Scripture was written for the purpose of being spoken out loud.
It was through the act of speaking words out loud that one became aware of how words, sentences and paragraphs were separated.
Have you heard of a Bible from the Middle Ages titled the Masoretic Text (named after a group of Jewish scholars called the Masorets)?
Well, what these guys did was develop a system of punctuation so that Jews living in far off lands and their children who would never hear Hebrew growing up would have a way to correctly pronounce the words of Scripture.
This was in response to a world that was becoming increasingly text-based.
The Masorets saw the need to the preserve the SOUND of Hebrew and they acted.
Let me close with this thought.
The ancients believed the spoken word possessed great power.
Again, I emphasize the SPOKEN word, NOT the written word.
Recall in Genesis that Hashem spoke His Creation into existence.
He didn’t bring the universe into existence by sending a text message.
We also read that Yeshua was the Word.
And this is why prayer is soooooo powerful.
In ancient times, the spoken words of a deity were considered living entities that carried tremendous power in and of themselves (and don’t misunderstand me because there’s no way in hell am I calling Yeshua a deity here).
Having said all that, don’t think I am in any way looking down on the wonder of the written word.
Like heck no.
As a professional copywriter, I have first-hand experience of how a couple of carefully crafted persuasive emails can generate literally hundreds of thousands of dollars in just a few short weeks.
There is power in words whether written or spoken.
However, what I want to make crystal clear is that the Bible was created for the purpose of being spoken out loud.
For example, you know how in the book of Leviticus, there is a ton of what seems to be a lot of redundant details and mindless repetition where many verses will say the same thing over and over again in different ways?
That’s because it was meant to be read out loud and was written in a way that would make the teachings both exciting and memorable while driving home important Godly principles about the Lord’s holiness.
I’m done.
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