Open Bible Data Home  About  News  OET Key

Demonstration version—prototype quality only—still in development

OETOET-RVOET-LVULTUSTBSBBLBAICNTOEBWEBWMBNETLSVFBVTCNTT4TLEBBBEMOFJPSASVDRAYLTDBYRVWBSKJBBBGNVCBTNTWYCSR-GNTUHBRelatedParallelInterlinearDictionarySearch

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOPQRSTUVWXYZ

Tyndale Open Bible Dictionary

IntroIndex©

QERE*

An anglicized Aramaic word meaning “what is to be read.” Until the time of the Masoretes, the Hebrew Bible was written only with consonants. The Masoretes, however, thought that the vowels would clarify the Scriptures and therefore began to copy them with the vowels. When they came across a word they thought was unclear by its normal vowels, they would put the word in the margin with other vowels, changing the meaning or intent. The word that was written in the text was called the “Ketib,” and what was to be read, “Qere.” This is the variant marginal reading.