Many people understand that though presently the Hebrew Scriptures have vowels written underneath or to the left side of the consonents, originally the text was voweless - much the same way that most modern Hebrew is written without vowels. But few people are aware that there are other signs written below, to the side, and above the consenants and that these signs were also not original to the text, but are nevertheless, very important, as they contain importantant indicators how the text was interpreted before the coming of Christ, and after, for about five hundred years. These signs, called "Ta'amei HaMikr'a" (Scripture reasons or emphasis) are really musical signs that convey melodies, and as much modern melodies function, they convey "phrasing", and to a large extent, phrasing conveys understanding of the text. the melodies of the Scripture capture the way the Scriptures were sung in the day of Jesus, and it is possible to reconstruct how the Scriptures were sung in His day and thus how they were understood.
Present day Jews come from all parts of the world and in their synagogues the Scriptures are sung, usually separate melodies for the Torah portions and separate melodies for the prophetic readings (Haftorah).These melodies vary according to the dispersions and yet certain musical themes appear to most of the dispersions. Joel Segal, musiclogist and Jewish historian, pointed out over forty years ago that the only way the identical or near identical refrains could appear in these dispersions, is that they came from a time when all these dispersion were "undispersed" and still in the Holy Land. That is, prior to the great dispersion by the Romans of the Jews in 70AD. That dispersion brought the Jews (Judeans) to Rome, then to the Rhine Valley, where they began to speak the language which was to become German for the Gentiles, and "Yiddish" for the Jews, and from there to eastern Europe, to America, and elsewhere. This is the great dispersion of the Ashkenazi (what the Jews called the area of the Rhine to which they were dispersed). A Much later dispersion of Jews was the expulsion from Spain in 1492, which brought the Jews around to the Mediterraenean countries, such as Greece, Turkey, Morocco, and others, and through the Netherlands to the New world of America. These Jews also sang the Scriptures, very differently than the Ashkenazi, but identical and near identical in some of the the musical motifs. And there were other lesser known but distinct dispersions. From a reconstruction of the identical and the near identical, it si possible to know and to hear the music of the synagogue of the the first century before the dispersions took place. Here is a common Ashkenazi melody for the prophetic portion that has identical or near identical motifs in the Sephardic prophetic renderings (Sephardic Sepharad was the Hebrew word for Spain) and other dispersions and thus show how the Scriptures sounded in the first century:
D'''FGA'''G G'''A'''G GGGD D'''Bb'''AGF FC'''D''' (A '''bold''' letter indicates it is higher than the letter before it)