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Mikraot Gedolot

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A Mikraot Gedolot (Hebrew: מקראות גדולות, lit. 'Great Scriptures'), often called a "Rabbinic Bible" in English,[1] is an edition of the Hebrew Bible that generally includes three distinct elements:

A page of a modern Mikraot Gedolot Chumash. The text is the block of large, bold letters; adjacent to it is the Targum Onkelos with Rashi's commentary below with the related supercommentary Siftei Chachamim adjacent. Nachmanides, Abraham ibn Ezra, and Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno are on the facing page; other commentaries and references are in the margins.
Vayikra – The Book of Leviticus, Warsaw edition,1860, title page
Book of Leviticus, Warsaw edition, 1860, Page 1

Numerous editions of the Mikraot Gedolot have been and continue to be published.

Commentaries

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In addition to Targum Onkelos and Rashi's commentary, the standard Jewish commentaries on the Hebrew Bible, the Mikraot Gedolot will include numerous other commentaries. For instance, the Romm publishing house edition of the Mikraot Gedolot contains the following additional commentaries:[2]

Newer editions often include Baruch Epstein's Torah Temimah and other medieval commentaries, or more modern commentaries such as Malbim. 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.

Editions of the Bomberg Mikraot Gedolot

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First published in 1516–17 by Daniel Bomberg in Venice, the Mikraot Gedolot was edited by Felix Pratensis, a Jew converted to Christianity. The second edition was edited by the Masoretic scholar Jacob ben Hayyim ibn Adonijah in 1525.[3] The four-volume set included the Masoretic text of the Torah (Hebrew Pentateuch) with accompanying commentaries (many of which had never previously been printed), a targum (Aramaic translation), the haftarot and the Five Megillot.[4] 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 the Aaron ben Moses ben Asher text). The commentaries included by Bomberg and placed side-by-side on thee page covered a wide geographical, chronological and methodological gamut, featuring the text of the Torah the interpretive works of Rashi and Targum Onkelos, a translation of the Torah written in Jewish Babylonian Aramaic and dating back to the second century CE. Other commentators included were Rashbam, Abraham ibn Ezra, Nachmanides (Ramban), David Kimhi (Radak) and Obadiah ben Jacob Sforno.[5] Bomberg's Mikraot Gedolot became a model for future printings of the Hebrew Bible.[6]

The first printing of Bomberg's Mikraot Gedolot, though hailed as an extraordinary achievement, was riddled with thousands of technical errors.[7] Objections were also raised by the Jewish readership, based on the fact that the very first printing of the Mikraot Gedolot was edited by Felix Pratensis.[8] Furthermore, Bomberg, a Christian, had requested an imprimatur from Pope Leo X.[4]. 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 the errors that remained in ben Hayyim's work were corrected years later by Menahem Lonzano and Jedidiah Norzi.[citation needed]}

The Mikraot Gedolot of Ben Hayyim served as the source for the Hebrew Bible translation in the King James Version in 1611 and the Spanish Reina Valera translation, and was used as a reference for other subsequent Christian translations of the Old Testament.[6][9]

A scholarly reprint of the 1525 Ben-Hayyim Venice edition was published in 1972 by Moshe Goshen-Gottstein.[10]

Recent printed editions

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Many editions are reprints of, or based on, late nineteenth century Eastern European editions, which are based on the Ben Hayyim edition.

Newer editions of Mikraot Gedolot have been published based on manuscript evidence, principally (for the biblical text and Masoretic notes) the Keter 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:

  • the Bar Ilan Mikraot Gedolot ha-Keter, ed. Menaḥem Cohen, complete in 21 volumes: Genesis (2 vols.), Exodus (2 vols.), Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua & Judges (1 vol.), Samuel, Kings, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Minor Prophets, Psalms (2 vols.), Proverbs, Job, Five Megillot (1 vol.), Daniel-Ezra-Nehemiah, and Chronicles.
  • Torat Hayim, published by Mossad Harav Kook, with 15 volumes thus far: Torah, Psalms, Proverbs, and five Megillot, plus several non-biblical texts.
  • Chorev Mikraot Gedolot, published by Hotzaat Chorev (now complete).
  • Mikraot Gedolot, published by Artscroll Mesorah

References

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  1. ↑ Martin Sicker An introduction to Judaic thought and rabbinic literature 2007 Page 158 "Moreover, the so-called Rabbinic Bible, the Mikraot Gedolot ("Great Scriptures"), may have as many as ten different commentaries, and notes on the commentaries accompany the text, thus providing a range of possible interpretations of ..."
  2. ↑ Mikraot Gedolot: Vayikra (in Hebrew and Aramaic). Vilna: Romm Publishing House. 1899. Retrieved 23 July 2013.
  3. ↑ "Jordan S. Penkower – Some Notes Regarding the First & Second Rabbinic Bibles – The Seforim Blog". 5 March 2008.
  4. 1 2 Teter, Magda; Fram, Edward (2006). "Apostasy, Fraud, and the Beginnings of Hebrew Printing in Cracow": 34. {{cite journal}}: Cite journal requires |journal= (help)
  5. ↑ "Lost in Translation" Jewish Review of Books, Spring 2010. Accessed May 3, 2026. "The innovation of Bomberg’s Mikraot Gedolot was typographical, elegantly displaying the different commentators and the biblical verses they interpret on the same page. But, of course, it was not merely typographical. Like the printed Talmud, Mikraot Gedolot offers a synopsis in the most literal sense of the word—a seeing together—of commentators who lived generations and worlds apart. First, placed immediately alongside the biblical text is an Aramaic translation by Onkelos (2nd century). Beneath it, we see the French contingent, Rabbi Shlomo Yitzchaki (known by his famous acronym, Rashi) and his grandson, Rabbi Shlomo ben Meir (Rashbam). Rashi’s commentary combines linguistic brilliance with an unflagging commitment to classical rabbinic midrash. He is the indispensable commentator to the Torah (and, amazingly, to the Talmud as well). Rashbam is deeply committed to the plain sense, or peshat, of the Torah. Further down the page, we find the great Spanish writers: Abraham Ibn Ezra, a contemporary of Rashbam, who was born in Muslim Spain but wandered throughout Europe and the Middle East, and Nahmanides (Ramban), whose expansive commentary investigates the biblical text in relation to its plain sense, to rabbinic midrash, and to kabbalistic interpretations. In addition, we have Rabbi David Kimchi (Radak), the outstanding representative of the Provençal philosophical tradition of exegesis, and Obadiah ben Ya’akov Sforno, the late Renaissance Italian doctor and commentator."
  6. 1 2 The Bomberg Bible, Trinitarian Bible Society. Accessed May 3, 2026. "This edition of the Masoretic Hebrew text underlies the Old Testament of the Authorised (King James) Bible, and which the Society publishes. Setting the standard for all later Hebrew Bibles, this was indeed the text used to translate the Old Testament into many languages."
  7. ↑ Raz-Krakotzkin, p. 109
  8. ↑ Toy, Crowford Howell; Gottheil, Richard (1901–1906), "Bible Editions", Jewish Encyclopedia, vol. 3, New York: Funk & Wagnalls, pp. 154–162
  9. ↑ Schmid, Konrad; Schröter, Jens (2021). The Making of the Bible: From the First Fragments to Sacred Scripture. Harvard University Press. p. 22. ISBN 978-0-674-26939-2.
  10. ↑ M. H. Goshen-Gottstein (ed.), Mikraot Gedolot, Biblia Rabbinica, A Reprint of the 1525 Venice Edition (Makor, Jerusalem, 1972)

Sources

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  • Menaḥem Cohen, "Introduction to the Haketer edition," in Mikra'ot Gedolot Haketer: A revised and augmented scientific edition of "Mikra'ot Gedolot" based on the Aleppo Codex and Early Medieval MSS (Bar-Ilan University Press, 1992).
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Wikimedia projects

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Wikisource's Mikraot Gedolot is available in Hebrew (has the most content) and English.

Editions available online

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