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Copyright

Benjamin Kantor;

Published On

2025-03-07

Page Range

pp. 157–188

Language

  • English

Print Length

32 pages

Healed by ‘his wound(s)’, ‘his bruising’, or ‘in his company’?

Isaiah 53.5 and Dagesh Mavḥin

  • Benjamin Paul Kantor (author)
Chapter of: Interconnected Traditions: Semitic Languages, Literatures, Cultures—A Festschrift for Geoffrey Khan: Volume 1: Hebrew and the Wider Semitic World(pp. 157–188)
The article examines the philological and morphological issues surrounding the Hebrew term חֲבוּרָה in Isaiah 53.5, traditionally translated as ‘wound’ or ‘stripe.’ It proposes that the lack of dagesh to mark gemination in the bet in this instance reflects a unique reading tradition where the term may carry a meaning different from that of the more common חֲבֻּרָה (with gemination and dagesh). Drawing on historical Hebrew grammatical concepts, particularly dagesh mavḥin ‘secondary semantic gemination’, the study suggests that this distinction may have developed to differentiate semantic nuances in similar-sounding words. The article explores alternative interpretations, including the influence of Rabbinic Hebrew and Targum Jonathan, as well as broader implications for understanding vocalisation traditions and their exegetical impact on biblical texts. It also situates this analysis within the wider context of Second Temple and Medieval Hebrew traditions.

Contributors

Benjamin Paul Kantor

(author)
Assistant Professor in Hebrew and the Jews of the Mediaeval Middle East at University of Cambridge

Benjamin Kantor (PhD, University of Texas, Austin) is Assistant Professor in Hebrew and the Jews of the Mediaeval Middle East, Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies, University of Cambridge. Specialisms: Biblical Hebrew; Medieval (and Late Antique) Hebrew reading/vocalisation traditions and grammarians; Judaeo-Arabic; Semitic Philology; Greek of Judaea-Palestine. Recent publications: The Standard Language Ideology of the Hebrew and Arabic Grammarians of the ʿAbbasid Period (University of Cambridge Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Open Book Publishers, 2023), The Linguistic Classification of the Reading Traditions of Biblical Hebrew: A Phyla-and-Waves Model (University of Cambridge Faculty of Asian and Middle Eastern Studies and Open Book Publishers, 2023), and The Pronunciation of New Testament Greek: Judeo-Palestinian Greek Phonology and Orthography from Alexander to Islam (Eerdmans, 2023).