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AMikraot Gedolot (Hebrew:מקראות גדולות,lit. 'Great Scriptures'), often called a "Rabbinic Bible" in English,[1] is an edition of theHebrew Bible that generally includes three distinct elements:
Numerous editions of theMikraot Gedolot have been and continue to be published.
In addition toTargum Onkelos andRashi's commentary, the standard Jewish commentaries on the Hebrew Bible, theMikraot Gedolot will include numerous other commentaries. For instance, theRomm publishing house edition of the Mikraot Gedolot contains the following additional commentaries:[2]
Newer editions often includeBaruch Epstein'sTorah Temimah and other medieval commentaries, or more modern commentaries such asMalbim. Special editions exist of supercommentaries on Rashi or commentaries and targumim not included in older editions. Bomberg also included the Masoretic notes on the biblical text, but no modern edition does.
First published in 1516–17 byDaniel Bomberg inVenice, theMikraot Gedolot was edited byFelix Pratensis. The second edition was edited by the Masoretic scholarJacob ben Hayyim ibn Adonijah in 1525.[3]
All of its elements (Masoretic Text,Targum, and commentaries) were based upon the manuscripts that ben Hayyim had at hand (although he did not always have access to the best ones according to some, Ginsburg and some others argued that it was a good representation of theAaron ben Moses ben Asher text).
The first Bomberg'sMikraot Gedolot, though hailed as an extraordinary achievement, was riddled with thousands of technical errors.[citation needed] Objections were also raised by the Jewish readership, based on the fact that the very first printing of the Mikraot Gedolot was edited byFelix Pratensis, a Jew converted to Christianity.[4] Furthermore, Bomberg, a Christian, had requested animprimatur from thePope. Such facts were not compatible with the supposed Jewish nature of the work; Bomberg had to produce a fresh edition under the direction of acceptable Jewish editors. This second edition served as the textual model for nearly all later editions until modern times. Concerning the biblical text, many of ben Hayyim's errors were later corrected byMenahem Lonzano andJedidiah Norzi.
TheMikraot Gedolot of Ben Hayyim served as the source for theHebrew Bible translation in theKing James Version in 1611 and the SpanishReina Valera translation.[5]
A scholarly reprint of the 1525 Ben-Hayyim Venice edition was published in 1972 byMoshe Goshen-Gottstein.[6]
Most editions until the last few decades,[when?] and many editions even today, are reprints of or based on late nineteenth century Eastern European editions, which are in turn based more or less on the Ben Hayyim edition described above.
In the last generation,[when?] fresh editions of theMikraot Gedolot have been published, based directly on manuscript evidence, principally (for the biblical text and Masoretic notes) theKeter Aram Tzova, the manuscript of the Tanakh kept by the Jews of Aleppo. These also have improved texts of the commentaries based on ancient manuscripts. Four of these editions are:
Wikisource'sMikraot Gedolot is available inHebrew (has the most content) andEnglish.