There are several ways in which Hebrew can be written. In the Study Bible, we chose to display the Hebrew text as vocalized text. This way of printing the text is consistent with the most common way in which reading the Hebrew text is taught in training and courses. Masoretic accents are not printed. These usually have little impact on the text interpretation and make reading the text difficult for the average reader due to the multitude of characters surrounding the Hebrew letters.

Examples of the different spellings

[expand title="Consonant text“]
Gen. 1:1, written as a consonant text (including "reading mothers" or matres lectionis)
[/expand]
[expand title="Vocalized text“]
Gen. 1:1, written as vocalized text (the spelling in the Study Bible)

Over the centuries, Hebrew has evolved, as every living language evolves. The Hebrew spoken by the rabbis in the centuries after the beginning of our era became increasingly distant from Biblical Hebrew. As a result, people began to have increasing difficulty pronouncing Biblical Hebrew. Thus the need arose to add vowel marks (vocals) to the biblical text. However, it was not considered permissible to interfere with the consonant text. Hence, systems were designed with dashes and dots above, below and within the Hebrew letters (vocalization systems). Several vocalization systems saw the light of day during this period, of which the Babylonian, Palestinian and Tiberian systems are the best known. The Tiberian system - so named because it was developed by rabbis in Tiberias (from the families of Ben Asher and Ben Naftali) - eventually prevailed. Consequently, the text of the Old Testament as handed down by the Masoretes (lett. "transmitters") from at least the ninth century onwards contains this vocalization system. The resulting text thus contains not only consonants, but also (later added) vowel signs, so that we speak of a vocalized text.
Obviously, the masorets had to make choices when they provided vocalizations to the consonant text. After all, some consonant combinations can be the designation of different words. This is no different in Dutch: gnd can be agenda, but also grace; plp can be pulp, but also oploop. This situation was further complicated by the fact that originally people did not write spaces, so it is not always clear where one word begins and another ends.
Almost always it is clear from the context which word a consonant combination points to. There are places in the Old Testament, however, where the consonant text is open to multiple interpretations and where the masoretes had to choose. We find a well-known example in Gen. 49:11. The masoretes interpreted the text of the third verse as "until Silo (HîlOh) comes" (so SV, NBG). However, the same consonant text can also be understood as 'until estimation (Hay lOh) is brought to him' (cf. GNB; see explanation locally for still other translation options). We find another example in Mal. 2:3, where the masoretics interpret the text as 'I will threaten your seed (hazzerav)' (cf. SV, NBG), but where we can also interpret the same consonant text as 'I will threaten your arm (hazzürOav)' (cf. WV). In such cases, the masoretic interpretation does no more justice to the text than the other view: both assume the same root text. It is possible, however, that the masoreticists did not choose randomly, but went back to an ancient oral tradition[/expand].

[expand title="Masoretic accents“]
Gen. 1:1, written as a text with masoretic accents:

From the Middle Ages on, the Bible text was recited in the synagogue in a lilting (cantilating) manner. In order to record this manner of recitation, the masoretics provided all words or word units with accents. These accents also indicate which phrases belong together according to masoretic understanding.[/expand].