Error in The Masoretic Text

The textual dispute centers on a single Hebrew word in Psalm 22:16. The traditional Christian reading depends on the word karu (“pierce”), which the Septuagint rendered as oryxan—whereas most surviving Hebrew manuscripts, particularly in Jewish Bibles from the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, contain ka’ari (“like a lion”).[1]

This creates a fundamental problem: the Masoretic text reads ka’ari “like a lion,” which produces an incoherent sentence.[2] The phrase “like a lion, my hands and my feet” simply doesn’t parse grammatically or semantically. Scholars cannot determine what meaning the Masorites intended, though the difficulty of translating it as “like a lion” has prompted most critics to propose alternative readings.[3]

Hebraists have proposed several solutions. Some scholars would read ka’aru instead—a verb derived from kur, meaning fundamentally “to be round,” so that bindings, cords, or anything encircling hands and feet would align with the word’s semantic range.[2] Many ancient versions render the phrase as “they bound” rather than “they pierced.”[2] The Masoretes themselves noted the karu variant, treating the apparent error as an example of kethibh (uncorrected text error) and kere (marginal correction).[1]

The stakes of this dispute are significant. The disagreement between Christians and Jews over the verse’s messianic significance was eventually overshadowed by Protestant-Catholic debates about textual purity.[1] The karu reading appears in only one primary Jewish manuscript and a few copies, while the received text and the Masora support ka’ari—leading some scholars to argue that abandoning the manuscript consensus would undermine textual criticism itself.[3] Yet the incoherence of “like a lion” continues to motivate alternative readings among linguists who prioritize semantic intelligibility over manuscript authority.

[1] Richard A. Muller, Post-Reformation Reformed Dogmatics: The Rise and Development of Reformed Orthodoxy; Volume 2: The Cognitive Foundation of Theology (Grand Rapids, MI: Baker Academic, 2003), 418.
[2] M. Brodrick, “The Crucifixion and the Site of the Holy Sepulchre,” in The Trial and Crucifixion of Jesus Christ of Nazareth (London: John Murray, 1908), 163.
[3] M. Stuart, “Hebrew Criticisms,” Bibliotheca Sacra (1852), 60–61.