district of the country." "For that word which we have rendered death, we have, in the Hebrew, three letters, daleth, beth, res, without any vowel. If it is read dabar, it means a word, but if read deber, a pestilence." The word, according to its position, means placed, [,] or there, [.] In other places, he shows with what confidence he regarded his own interpretation. Thus, on Gen. xlvii. 33, he says, "Some unreasonably pretend, from this passage, that Jacob worshipped the top of Joseph's staff. But much in Hebrew may be read in different ways. Israel worshipped at the head

of his bed." a

§ 89.

TRACES OF A CRITICAL CARE FOR THE TEXT, IN THE TALMUD.

The Talmud gives precepts for biblical caligraphy. Thus it says, "Books may be received from foreigners, or wherever they can be found, provided they are writ

a

Hieronymus, Ep. 125, ad Damas.: Idem sermo et iisdem litteris scriptus diversas apud eos et voces et intelligentias habet, e. g. pastores et amatores iisdem litteris scribuntur, res, ain, jod, mem, (:) sed pastores roim leguntur, amatores reim. Ep. 126, ad Evagr.: Non refert, utrum Salem, an Salim nominetur, cum vocalibus in medio litteris perraro utantur Hebræi, et pro voluntate lectorum atque varietate regionum eadem verba diversis sonis et accentibus proferantur. Com. ad Hab. iii. 5: Pro eo, quod nos transtulimus mortem, in Hebræo tres litteræ sunt positæ, daleth, beth, resch, absque ulla vocali, quæ si legantur dabar, verbum significant; si deber, pestem. Hab. iii. 4: Verbum pro qualitate loci, et posuit () intelligitur, et ibi (□) On Gen. xlvii. 33: Hoc loco quidam frustra simulant, adorasse Jacob summitatem sceptri (2) Josephi, ...... cum in Hebræo multum aliter legatur: et adoravit Israel ad caput lectuli. See Hupfeld, in Stud. und Krit. for 1830, p. 571, sqq.

[Doctor J. M. Jost, in the Neue Jena Allg. Lit. Zeit. for March, 1842, p. 210, says that some fragments of an old Hebrew Bible have been found in the Crimea, in which the vocalization and accentuation are different throughout

ten according to rule." writing shall be perfect. ain, beth for caph, gimel yod, zain for nun, teth for peh, nor the incurvate for the direct letters; nor mem for samech, the shut letters for the open, ( final for ;) nor an open section be made a closed section; nor the reverse of these."

"You must write so that the Aleph must not be written for for daleth, he for heth, vau for

מ

The Talmud speaks also of the comparison of manuscripts, and of an enumeration of the verses, words, and letters, of the Bible, which reveals a painful anxiety to preserve the text. Thus it Thus it says, "The ancients were called counters (7) because they counted all the letters of the Law, and said the letter vau, in the word , Levit. xi. 42, is the middle letter of the book of the Law. The word, Levit. x. 16, is the middle word of the Law, and Levit. xiii. 33, the middle verse. The letter ain, in , Ps. lxxx. 14, is the middle letter of the Psalms, and Ps. lxxviii. 38 is the middle verse of the Psalms."d

There occur in the Talmud, as afterwards in the

from that of our present Bibles. He caused a fac simile of a part of Isa. xlix. to be inserted in a Hebrew periodical called Zion, Jahrgang, 601, No. 11. He thinks the age of this fragment greater than that of the common Bibles, and that it proves the present system of vocalization and accentuation has not always prevailed.]

G

Tr. Gittim, fol. 45, col. 2. See Tychsen, l. c. p. 18. Eichhorn, § 114.
Tr. Schab. fol. 103, col. 2.

Jerusalem Talmud, Tr. Taanith, fol. 68, col. 1. (Comp. Tr. Sopherim, vi. 4.) Tres libros invenerunt in atrio, librum 7, librum et 1. : in uno invenerunt scriptum (Deut. xxxiii. 27) 1792, in duobus, et approbantes duos, rejecerunt unum. In uno invenerunt (Exod. xxiv. 5,) scriptum, in duobus, et approbantes duos, rejecerunt unum. In uno invenerunt scriptum (Gen. xxxii. 23) 7, (ed. Fr. 178 29

et approbantes (, אחד עשר היא .ed. Fr), אחד עשרה היא in duobus (הוא

duos, rejecerunt unum. Kennicott, Diss. Gen. § 34. Morinus, Ex. bib. p. 408. Eichhorn, § 115.

d Kiddushin, fol. 30, col. 1. Comp. Buxtorf, Tiberias, p. 44.

Masora, certain classes of corrections, which had been admitted into the text of the Bible before the composition of the Talmud." They are as follows:

I. The omission of the scribes.' This relates to the omission of the prefix vau, in Gen. xviii. 5, xxiv. 55, Num. xii. 14, Ps. lxviii. 26, xxxvi. 7.

II. The extraordinary points, which occur in fifteen words; for example, 15, Ps. xxvii. 13;

C

(Samaritan

,) Num. xxi. 30;, Gen. xix. 33. III. What is read, but not written, (Keri velo Kethib.)

Morinus, 1. c. p. 570, finds in these corrections fragments or vestiges of recensions, [supposing each class thereof to be the result of an entire revision of the text.] Eichhorn, § 116, finds three revisions, and Bertholdt, p. 270, a great critical work, undertaken for various purposes. He ascribes it to the Talmudists. On the other side, see Jahn, 1. c. vol. i. p. 384. All of these following classes are said to be the traditions of Moses from Mount Sinai. Nedarim, fol. 37, col. 2.

b

ipio japa,

been freed from

. See Buxtorf, Lex. Talmud. sub voce, pp. 15, 97. Morinus, l. c. p. 570. Cappellus, ed. Vogel, vol. i. p. 443, sqq. Eichhorn, § 117. To these might be added the correction of the scribes, which relates to sixteen or eighteen passages that have errors - Gen. xviii. 22, 1 Sam. iii. 13, and others. This the correction of the scribes- is not mentioned in the Talmud, but in works of later date. See the Masora on Num. i. 1, Ps. cvi. 20. Comp. Buxtorf, Morinus, and Vogel, 1. c. Eichhorn, § 116. Oehlschläger, Præs. Bornitz de Thikkun Sopherim; Viteb. 1644.

C

[These are probably affixed to a word or letter to show that it did not belong to the genuine text, which makes good sense without it. The other instances of extraordinary points are, Gen. xvi. 5, xviii. 9, xxxiii. 4, xxxvi. 12; Num. iii. 39, ix. 10, xxix. 15; Deut. xxix. 28; 2 Sam. xix. 20; Isa. xliv. 9; Ezek. xli. 20, xlvi. 22, enumerated by Buxtorf, Tiberias, p. 173, and Eichhorn, § 118.] See Morinus, p. 106. Hüpeden, Neue wahrscheinliche Muthmass. von der wahren Urs. und Bedeut. der ausserordentliche Puncte, &c.; Hann. 1751, 4to. Gesenius has found points in Samaritan MSS. over single letters and words, used to denote their spuriousness. By this means, the scribes avoided striking out and erasing words. On misunderstanding these points, see Tr. Nasir. fol. 23, col. 1. Quare est punctatum supra litteram in de primogenita? Ad indicandum, quod, cum decumberet, non cognoverit, et, dum surgeret, noverit. Jerome, Quæst. in Gen. xviii. 35: Appungunt desuper, quasi incredibile et quod rerum natura non capiat, coire quempiam nescientem.

This relates to words that are not in the text, but are yet read as if there. Such words occur in seven passages; for example, in 2 Sam. viii. 3, xvi. 23.a

IV. Written, but not read, (Kethib velo Keri.) This relates to words that stand in the text, but are not read with it. They occur in five passages; for example, in 2 Kings v. 18, the word

.'

V. Various readings. The Talmud also sometimes mentions various readings, which the Masorites call written and read, (Keri oo Kethib.) They occur in Job xiii. 15, Hag. i. 8. [In these cases, the true reading stands in the margin without vowels, for the vowels of the text belong to the marginal reading. Sometimes they are properly various readings; for example, for

, and the contrary. Sometimes they furnish the readings of old manuscripts, but do not inform us in what, or in how many, manuscripts the variants occur. Sometimes they contain explanations of difficult words, as in 1 Sam. v. 6, 9, 12, vi. 4, 5, 11, 17, Deut. xxviii. 17; and again they supply euphemisms, as in 2 Kings xviii. 27, Isa. xxvi. 12.]

Nedarim, fol. 37, col. 2. El. Levita, Masor. Hamm. vol. ii. p. 175, sqq., mentions eight, and in the preface, ten passages. Comp. Morinus, p. 407, 497. Cappellus, 1. c. vol. i. p. 180, sqq. But the marginal annotations, the vacant spaces, and the points in the text, are later than the Talmud.

Nedarim, 1. c. Morinus, p. 498. Cappellus, p. 185, sqq. Eichhorn very properly considers both of these classes as glosses.

TIT:

Tr. Sota, v. 5. Eichhorn, § 120. Joma, fol. 21, col. 2. Quid est, quod scriptum exstat (Hag. i. 8) 7231, et nos legimus ? Euphemistic Keris occur; Megilla, fol. 25, col. 2. Tradunt rabbini nostri: Omnes voces, quæ scriptæ sunt in lege in turpitudinem, leguntur in laudem, e. g.

; בטחוריו (27 ib. verse), בעפלין pro ;ישכבנה (30 .Deut. xxviii), ישגלנה pro (,27 .ib. xviii), שיניהם,,חראיהם pro ; דביונים (25 .Reg. vi 2), חרי יונים pro . כמוצאות (27 .ib. x), למחראות pro ; רגליהם, צואתם

[Jahn, 1. c. p. 387, sqq. Walton, Prol. viii. 20-28.]

The unusual letters, the suspended and inverted, the greater and the smaller, had, originally, only a critical meaning, perhaps, but afterwards acquired a mystical signification."

§ 90.

THE MASORA.

After the Talmud was finished, and about the sixth century, the Jews, who were learned in the Scriptures, especially those at the town of Tiberias, began to labor upon the text of the Old Testament, in a critical, grammatical, and exegetical way, though not without Jewish frivolity. Their store of remarks was, at first, transmitted by word of mouth; but subsequently it was written. Thus Aben Ezra, who wrote about 1150 A. C., says, "Such was the custom of the wise men of Tiberias, for the Masorites were of their number, and we have received from them the whole system of punctuation." Elias Levita says, "The Masora was handed down from one learned man to another, until the time of Ezra and his coadjutors; by them it was committed to the learned men of Tiberias, who caused it to be written,

a See, e. g., the litera majuscula in 1977, Levit. xi. 42. (Gesenius, Lehrgebaude, p. 11. See above, p. 343.) Baba Bathra, fol. 109, col. 2: An (Gersom) filius Manassis fuit et non potius f. Mosis? sicut scriptum est: filii Mosis Gersom et Elieser, (1 Ch. xxiii. 14;) sed propterea quod fecit opera Manassis, (fil. Hiske regis,) appendit eum Scriptura (familiæ) Manassis. Comp. Buxtorf, Tiberias, ch. xvi. p. 171. The Masora is called the " Hedge of the Law" in Pirke Aboth, iii. 13.

מָסוֹרֵת and • מָסוֹרֶת מָסוֹרָה - The word is written variously by the Jews •

It is derived from, to deliver, hand down, trado. On this and other etymologies of the word, see Buxtorf, Tiberias, ch. i. p. 3, sqq. Carpzov,

Crit. sac. p. 284. Wolf, Bib. Heb. vol. ii. p. 461, sqq.