Judges
18:30
This first example serves to
demonstrate that rabbinic thought is embedded in the Masoretic Text but does
not address the interpretation of a messianic text specifically. The
theological perspective of the Masoretic Text is evident in the suspended nun
in Judg 18:30, which reads, “The Danites set up the carved image for
themselves. Jonathan son of Gershom, son of Manasseh, and his sons were priests
for the Danite tribe until the time of the exile from the land.”
This verse records the establishment
of the first pagan priesthood in Israel. The consonantal text’s original
reading indicated that mšh (Mosheh or Moses) was the grandfather of Jonathan,
the founder of this pagan priesthood. The Masoretes inserted the raised letter נ
(n or nun) making the word read mnšh (Měnaššeh or
Manasseh). According to Tov, the suspended nun was a correction of “an
earlier reading which ascribed the erecting of the idol in Dan to one of the descendants
of Moses. . . . The addition can therefore be understood as a deliberate change
of content.”
The motive for a change is critical.
Keil and Delitzsch cite R. Ranchum, who said that the written “Moses” reading
out to be corrected with a suspended non, so that it would read “Manasseh.”
Keil and Delitzsch also quote Rabba bar bar Channa who argued for the “Manasseh”
reading “because it would have been ignominious to Moses to have an ungodly
son.” Therefore, the nun was suspended to protect the honor of Moses. It
was unthinkable for the exalted lawgiver and prophet of Judaism to have been
the grandfather of the founder of a pagan priesthood. Although this example does
not pertain directly to messianic prophecy, it is significant because it demonstrates
that the Masoretic Text can reflect a later theological perspective. (Michael
Rydelnik, The Messianic Hope: Is the Hebrew Bible Really Messianic? [NAC
Studies in Bible & Theology; Nashville, Tenn.: B&H Publishing Group,
2010], 37)
