This book presents for the first time a detailed analysis of the Aramaic mnemonics, those short witty sentences written in Aramaic as memory aids, on the margins of one of the oldest extant biblical Hebrew manuscripts, that of the Leningrad Codex (1008 CE). The material is presented in clear user-friendly charts. Each mnemonic is set alongside the Hebrew verses it represents, and every Aramaic part of the mnemonic is placed on a matching line with its Hebrew equivalent, and both are highlighted in different fonts. This book demonstrates the ingenuity of the Masoretes in their grand endeavor to preserve the text of the Hebrew Bible precisely in the form that it had reached them. It explains the reason for every Masoretic note represented in the mnemonics, and presents evidence supporting the view that the Masoretes were incipient grammarians.

David Marcus is Professor of Bible, Ancient Semitics, and Masorah at the Jewish Theological Seminary. He is the author of two language manuals, one on Akkadian, the ancient language of Mesopotamia, and the other on the Aramaic of the Babylonian Talmud. His book Jephthah and His Vow challenges the widespread opinion that Jephthah put his daughter to death, and his book From Balaam to Jonah: Anti-Prophetic Satire in the Hebrew Bible explores the use of satire in the Hebrew Bible. He also authored the book of Ezra–Nehemiah for the new Biblia Hebraica Quinta series being published in Stuttgart by the German Bible Society.