Leerstellen innerhalb biblischer Verse. Ein Beitrag zur hebräischen Textgeschichte

Abstract

Out of the 55–60 cases of a blank space within a biblical verse (pisqa') 37 stand immediately before an introductory formula and thereby serve to emphasise the direct speech which follows. A further 11 cases function as a setumah or petuchah. So 83% of the occurrences of pisqa' can and should be interpreted as older paragraph markers, which were later subordinated to the Masoretic division into paragraphs and verses.