The Triumph of Tradition

Now when Israel had finished killing all the inhabitants of Ai in the field in the wilderness where they pursued them, and all of them had fallen by the edge of the sword until they were destroyed, then all Israel returned to Ai and struck it with the edge of the sword.  Joshua 8:24 NASB

Until – Look at the Hebrew text below.  You may not be able to read it properly, but you will notice that there is something odd in this text.  Do you see the section in parentheses?  Did you notice that the words in parentheses have no vowel markings?  That indicates that these words are instructions about reading the text, not actually part of the text.  This is much like a qere/ketiv, i.e., what is read and what is written.  But here it isn’t about a change in the spelling of a word.  Here something else is happening.

וַיְהִ֣י כְּכַלּ֣וֹת יִשְׂרָאֵ֡ל לַהֲרֹג֩ אֶת־כָּל־יֽשְׁבֵ֨י הָעַ֜י בַּשָּׂדֶ֗ה בַּמִּדְבָּר֙ אֲשֶׁ֣ר רְדָפ֣וּם בּ֔וֹ וַיִּפְּל֥וּ כֻלָּ֛ם לְפִי־חֶ֖רֶב עַד־תֻּמָּ֑ם (פסקא באמצע פסוק) וַיָּשֻׁ֚בוּ כָל־יִשְׂרָאֵל֙ הָעַ֔י וַיַּכּ֥וּ אֹתָ֖הּ לְפִי־חָֽרֶב 

The Hebrew phrase פסקא באמצע פסוק literally means “chapter in the middle of a verse.”  This phrase refers to an insertion or a parenthetical comment that is a significant diversion from the main text.  The phrase is often used metaphorically to describe a situation where: (1) Someone introduces a lengthy, unrelated side topic in the middle of a conversation. (2) A speaker or writer interrupts the flow of their main point with a long-winded digression.  In other words, this instruction tells the reader that there are two thoughts happening in this sentence; thoughts that would normally require a new paragraph, but in this case, they are somehow connected in a single verse.

This raises an interesting question.  Who decided that this verse had a paragraph disconnection in it?  The instruction isn’t in all the scrolls.  The very fact that it is concerned with paragraphs indicates that it must have been inserted long after the original text was written.  When did that occur?  The “paragraph” is a Greek idea, from parágraphos meaning “written in the margin,” a way of indicating a change in speaker or subject.  Ancient Hebrew was never written this way.  It had no punctuation marks or paragraph breaks.  Sometime after paragraphs showed up in Greek literature, the rabbis adopted this Greek invention, and consequently, a phrase like “paragraph in the middle of a verse” came into being.  But, of course, someone had to decide that there was a “paragraph in the middle,” since it is not obvious from the text itself.

Perhaps we can learn more about the decision to make a paragraph in the middle if we look at another example (there aren’t many).  Numbers 26:1 contains the same instruction.

וַיְהִ֖י אַֽחֲרֵ֣י הַמַּגֵּפָ֑ה (פ באמצע פסוק) וַיֹּ֤אמֶר יְהֹוָה֙ אֶל־משֶׁ֔ה וְאֶ֧ל אֶלְעָזָ֛ר בֶּן־אַֽהֲרֹ֥ן הַכֹּהֵ֖ן לֵאמֹֽר

“It was after the plague, that the Lord spoke to Moses and to Eleazar the son of Aaron the kohen, saying:”  Chabad

Here the paragraph break is indicated following “It was after the plague.”  In the Hebrew text, the literal translation would be, “It was after the plague.  And spoke YHVH to Moses . . .”  What follows is a break in thought.  The remaining portion of the text deals with taking a census.  So, perhaps it’s understandable that there could be (should be) a paragraph here.

But can we apply the same explanation to the verse in Joshua?  It doesn’t seem so.  The entire verse, including the supposed paragraph break, is about one subject, namely, the slaughter of the citizens of Ai.  There doesn’t seem to be a change in subject and there certainly isn’t a change in speaker.  So, why was the paragraph break instruction inserted? Even the majority of Jewish commentators ignore this.

What have we learned, other than some interesting oddities about the text?  Can I suggest that we have learned that tradition often triumphs over text?  Here we have an insertion that has been passed down from generation to generation without any clear explanation of why it was added in the first place.  It might be ignored but it is not removed.  There is something about the antiquity of the insertion that makes it impossible to take out.  The same thing happened in some places in the apostolic writings, the most notorious of them being the marginal note of 1 John 5:7-8 which was incorporated into the text.  Things like this happen, and when they do, it’s very difficult to correct them later.  Just remember this when you think that we are only dealing with the “pure” text.

Topical Index: paragraph, Numbers 26:1, I John 5:7-8, Joshua 8:24