- What are "Cantillation Marks"?
The "cantillation marks" are quite distinguishable from the "vowel points" (see below) in form and purpose. These marks (sometimes called "accent marks") are used primarily to guide the chanting of the biblical texts; however, they can also be used to illustrate the styntactical structure of the text.
The cantillation marks were furthermore used by the Masoretes in their reverential copying of the biblical text to ensure that no words wre missing in their copies. They copiously marked out the exact middle word of verses and books to ensure that each copy was faithful to the original.
- What are "Vowel Points"?
The "vowel points" are dots which are placed around the Hebrew consonant letters to signify vowels. The exact placement of each dot is important for how to read any given word. Often times, two or more words will have exactly the same consonants and thus look exactly the same without the vowel points. These points were added to the originally consonantal text by the Masoretes in the tenth century AD.
- Why are the verse numbers sometimes different in the scrolls?
The verse numbers for the Hebrew Old Testament and Greek Septuagint texts are, at times, at variance with the English numbering. We have worked to reconcile these differences so that the Hebrew and Greek texts in the scrolls accurately represent the English text. The chapter and verse number in the scroll represents the reference in the original document.
For example, when one clicks the 'C' button for Jonah 1:17, he or she will find that the reference next to the Hebrew text is 2:1 instead of 1:17. This is because Jonah 1:17 in the English is actually Jonah 2:1 in the Hebrew Bible. The Hebrew text here therefore accurately represents the English for Jonah 1:17.
- Why is the Hebrew not Displaying Correctly? What Font Should I Be using?
For optimal viewing of the Hebrew, download a free Hebrew font from the Society of Biblical Literature. To install this font, follow the instructions below:
For Windows Users:
1. Download the font file (SBL_Hbrw.ttf).
2. Copy this file into the "Fonts" directory of your computer. You can get to this folder automatically by opening "Control Panel" and clicking the "Fonts" icon. Drag the file into the window that opens.
this will very likely be C:\WINDOWS\Fonts\
For Mac/Apple Users:
1. Download the font file (SBL_Hbrw.ttf).
2. Open the hard disk where your copy of OS X is stored.
3. Open the Library folder.
4. Drag the "SBL Hebrew" font icon from the desktop (or wherever you downloaded it) onto the Fonts folder icon in the Library.
- Why is the interlinear using a different version (only KJV and NASB)?
We currently have Strongs data for the KJV and NASB. We use the KJV data for the KJV-based versions and the NASB data for the NASB-based versions. Though both the KJV and NASB use the Masoretic Text for translation (unlike the New Testament where they use different texts to translate from), the wording of some translations are more akin to the KJV than others, and vice versa. The tense information is currently not available for the NASB data, though we hope to make this available soon.
























