The main issue with Biblical Hebrew is that the manuscript Masoretic Text and even the manuscripts from Qumran are not direct reflections of a vernacular language, but rather represent a transmitted form of a literary liturgical text. The study of the language of the Hebrew Bible, therefore, is essentially a linguistic study of the reception of the Hebrew Bible at various periods. This applies, for example, to the study of its phonology and morphology, both of which exhibit diversity in different reading traditions, and also its syntax, since any study of syntax should take account of the accent tradition, which is essentially a reception history of the syntax
