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THE OLD TESTAMENT AND ITS CORRUPTION 247

and letters of the Law and other parts of the Scriptures as a procedural
aid in monitoring manuscripts and in checkingtheir accuracy'"

Rabbi Akiba's statement is not entirely clear: certainly the counting of
verses and letters was impractical in his time (c. 55-137 C.E.), and most
likely did not become feasible until the late 9th and early 10th century, when
the Masora system made its first actual appearance. Wtirthwein himself
remarks:

We should therefore assume that when the consonantal text was estab-
lished ca. A.D. 100, it did not result in the immediate suppression of all
other forms of the text,but that manuscriptswith variant textscontinued
to circulatefor a long time, especially in private hands. Theimpressive unity
iftenth-century andlater manuscripts isdue... to the work of the earlier and
later Masoretes who championed the established text and assistedit to
victory over all the variant forms of the text. B9

It should be clear from Wurthwein's own words that this impressive
unity of text was achieved in the 10th century C.E. and later, not in the
first century C.E.

6. TheJewish Revival: a Legacy if Islamic Literary Advancements

i. Pointing and Vocalization Induced by Islamic Achievements

In the matter of vocalization...there was no written tradition of symbols
[i.e. diacritical marks, or 'pointing') for indicating the pronunciation or
intonation of a text. It is not known when pointing originated."

Initial claims that it was founded in the 5th century C.E. have now been
discarded. Noting that the Babylonian Talmud contains no references to
pointing, Bruno Chiesa places the date between 650-750 C.E. But in this
he assumes that the Babylonian Talmud was completed around 600, which
amounts to little more than personal guesswork, and all he can really infer

88 Wurthwein, p. 19. Wurthwein qualifies himself in the footnote: "It is not
certain, however, whether in Rabbi Akiba's statement (Pirqe Aboth 3:13) the word
'Masora' refersto the activities of textual transmission, as it is usually understood....
R. Akibawouldmean that the Tradition of the Fathers(the Oral Law) wasintended
to prevent the violation of the Written Law." [p. 18,footnote 24].
89 ibid, p. 20; emphasis added.
90 ibid, p. 21.