Imágenes de páginas
PDF
EPUB

CHAPTER V.

HISTORY OF THE CONDITION OF THE HEBREW TEXT.*

§ 92. Change of the Hebrew Characters.

The characters of the letters which Moses used in writing cannot be ascertained from what remains of antiquity, unless at some future time those stones, on which Joshua caused the law to be engraven, (Jos. viii. 30. ss., comp. Deut. xxvii. 1. ss.) should by some happy chance be discovered, and found to be even yet legible. By comparing them with the inscriptions on pieces of money belonging to the Asmonæan times, much information relative to the changes of Hebrew writing, highly useful to criticism, might be obtained. So long as these monuments are concealed, we must derive our only knowledge of the subject from the modern form of the characters, from which nothing more can be inferred than that they at first exhibited a rude delineation of those objects which their names denote. Comp. my Heb. Gram. Ed. 3d. § 1, 2. p. 1–16.-The inconstancy and mutability of all human things will not suffer us to doubt, that this original form of the letters was subjected in course of time to various changes. This is proved to have been the case by a comparison of the Hebrew, Punic, Samaritan, and Syriac characters, all of which were originally the same, and yet in the times of Jerome and of Origen, in the ages when the Palmyrene inscriptions were made, and when the Phoenician and Jewish coins were stamped, they differed in a very great degree.

* [On the subjects of this chapter, see BAUER, $ 10-17, p. 111-160; EICHH. § 58-80 b; GESENIUS Geschichte der Hebraeischen Sprache und Schrift, Leipz. 1815, 40-57. Tr.]

As the Hebrews during the Babylonian exile used the Aramæan dialect, at this period a more than ordinary change of the characters took place. This seems to have induced the Rabbies Jose and Zutra to assert in the Babylonian Talmud (Sanhedrin II. p. 21. col. 1.) that the characters which came into general use after the exile, were introduced by the Jews who returned from Assyria, (Babylonia,) and that Ezra wrote out the sacred books in those new characters, and thus the old were left to the Samaritans. But not a few of the Rabbies in the Talmud oppose this assertion, and indeed on good grounds, since neither Ezra nor Josephus makes any mention of this sudden change; Origen expresses himself doubtfully respecting it: Jerome* was the first who without hesitation affirmed, that the Hebrew character in use at his time had been introduced by Ezra. More modern writers blindly followed Jerome, until the opinion was attacked by CAPEL,[a] who was opposed by very bitter adversaries, particularly BUXTORF. Comp. WOLFII Biblioth. Heb. Vol. II. sect. vi. p. 419. s. p. 623. Vol. IV. sect. vi. p. 227-242. WALTON Proleg. III. § 29-37. p. 103–125. Ed. DATHII.

(a) In his Arcanum Punctuationis, L. I. c. 6., and afterwards in his Diatriba de veris et antiquis literis Hebraicis, 1645, Amstelod.]

§ 93. Whether the alphabet of the Hebrews consisted anciently of twenty-two letters.

To whatever changes the Hebrew characters may have been subjected during a long course of ages, their number was not increased. The alphabetical Psalms (xxv. xxxiv. xxxvii. cxi. cxii. cxix. cxlv.) indicate 22, and consequently these are not more modern than the time of David; on the contrary, as the very use made of them in these poems recognizes them as well known, they are of much higher antiquity Why not, then, ascribe them at once to the inventor of the alphabet? A person of a later age, after the art of writing had been extended to many nations, would not have been able to obtrude upon others, Phoenicians, Syrians, and Egyptians, for instance, letters of his own invention; not to say, that grammatical niceties were not so much attended to at that time as to suggest the idea of increasing the number of the letters. The enlargement of the Arabic alphabet in more modern times, shows that for this purpose grammarians of some skill are necessary.

* In Prolog. Galeat.

It is said indeed, that Cadmus the Phoenician, 1519 years B. C., and therefore 85 after the exode from Egypt, brought from Phoenicia into Greece only sixteen letters. This is the account of Pliny and Plutarch. But almost 300 years before, Aristotle speaks of his having introduced eighteen, and Herodotus, the most ancient writer, and Diodorus Siculus, who followed him, are entirely silent respecting the number. These circumstances were sufficient to induce Dionysius of Halicarnassus, (Tom. II. p. 21. Ed. Oxon.) to doubt as to the possibility of determining the number of letters introduced by Cadmus. But a comparison of the Greek characters with the Oriental, which I shall therefore subjoin, will show that Cadmus introduced twentytwo letters.

AN, B 2, г 1, A 7, Eñ, V 1, Z ì, нn, ☺v, I ', K ɔ, A ↳, MD, N 1, Z D, Oy, Þ 5, Y, X p, P, Συ, Τη

The letter tzade is the only one which wants a corresponding character, and this may be found in dave, which, as well as tzade, designates the number 90. The Greeks added Psi and Pi, the latter of which was not used by the Orientals, as Jerome has remarked,* for the Hebrew Phe is never sounded p, but always like the Arabic and Syriac f. The Greek writers, therefore, are not to be regarded respecting the addition of letters, their declarations on this subject being mere conjectures founded on slight and uncertain rumour. Much less are we to admit the reasonings of CHISHULL,† COUR DE GEBELIN,‡ and BIANCONI,|| who from coins, in the inscriptions on which only sixteen letters appear, argue that in the original Hebrew alphabet only that number existed. Without urging that this is not supported by the fact, and that we cannot reasonably expect to meet with all the letters of an alphabet in a few words of inscriptions, it is enough to say, that all the coins which have been found are much more modern not only than the alphabetical Psalms, but even than the verses in Prov. xxxi. 10-31, and the alphabetical lamentations of Jeremiah, in which the twenty-two letters occur.

* [Qui Palaestini dicuntur Graecis, Hebraeis vocantur Philistini, quia P literam Hebraeus non habet. Comment. in Jes. II.]

[Antiquit. Asiatic. § 19. p. 25.]

: [Monde Primitif. T. III. L. V. Sect. II. c. 8. ss. p. 411. ss.]

[Antiq. Lit. Heb. et Graec. p. 41. Ed. II.]

§ 94. Age of the Vowel Points.

Since the Jews, although fond of adhering to ancient usages, write their rolls for the Synagogue service without vowel points, and since all the manuscripts of the Samaritans are so, it may be conjectured that the ancient Hebrews also did not use them. The more modern Jews indeed wish to have it supposed that they received the vowel points by tradition from Moses; but they are to be considered as referring to the manner of reading the text. That our present points were not in existence in former ages is proved by the practice of the ancient translators, who often render the words with different vowels.* Origen, in writing the Hebrew text in Greek letters in his Hexapla, and Jerome, when he gives the Hebrew words in Latin letters, frequently employ other vowels than those which are indicated by the present points. Jerome also, as well as the Talmud and the treatise Sopherim, observes a profound silence respecting the points even in places, where, if they had been in use, he could not have passed them over unnoticed.—1) Since the Talmud was completed at the close of the fifth century, and the treatise Sopherim, which speaks of the Talmud as already finished, cannot have been written before the sixth century; it follows, that as late as the sixth century the points were unknown.- -2) But in the eleventh century, Aaron Ben Asher and Jacob Ben Naphtali devoted all their attention to pointing the text properly, and giving a judgment on the variations of different copies; whence it is clear, that in their day our present system had already been some time in use.-3) The punctuation system displays so much care and is so artificially constructed, that it could not possibly have been brought to such a height of perfection in a short time. Besides, in the comparison of the eastern and western texts, which was probably made in the eighth century, two various readings occasioned by different methods of punctuation occur. We shall not therefore greatly err by coming to the conclusion, that the present system of punctuation began in the seventh or eighth century, and was brought to perfection during the ninth and tenth.

* [See the Germ. Introd. p. 332, and CAPELLI. Crit. Sac. T. II. L. IV. c. 2 § 3—29, p. 502–545. L. V. c. 2. § 2. p. 772–779, and c. 4. § 1—9, p. 805–821. c. 8. § 1—8. p. 858-869.]

§ 95.

Whether the letters

were formerly vowels.

Jerome does indeed frequently say, that the Hebrews very rarely make use of vowel letters in the middle.* But he is not speaking of the matres lectionis or the letters, because among these vowel

letters he reckons Cheth and Ayin, (See Præf. ad Comment. in Amos., and de Nomin. Heb.;) and in another place he says that the Hebrews have no vowels in the middle. They are quite mistaken therefore who infer from hence, that the letters were the vowels of the

ancient Hebrews, and of more frequent occurrence than at present in the text, whence the greater part of them were stricken out, upon the invention of the points. Nor indeed is it easy to conceive that these letters supplied the places of the vowels, since He is rarely a mater lectionis, (being so only when it terminates the second person of pronouns and of singular verbs in the preterite ;) Aleph takes all the vowels; Vau and Jod when quiescent lengthen the syllable, and fall away when it is shortened. Comp. Germ. Introd. p. 338, 339.

§ 96.

Whether the ancient Hebrews had no vowel signs.

Although the ancient Hebrews did not use either our points, or the quiescent letters as vowels, yet words, the pronunciation of which is not accurately determined by means of the series of discourse, seem to have required some sign to suggest it to the reader; and thus the Arabians, although they write without points, constantly add some vowel mark to ambiguous words.-The Syrians did actually in the sixth century transmit to the Arabians not only their twenty-two consonants, but also three vowel signs, to which in the eighth century they added two others.--Three marks of this description, annexed to the letters, are found also in the Chaldee writing of the Mendæans in Mesopotamia at Mardin.-Ephraem the Syrian, (T. I. Opp. p. 184.), by remarking that he had never found the word chomre, but always chemre, intimates the presence of some vowel mark, for without one

might be read either way. Hence it may be inferred, that as early as the fourth century the Syrians had, if not the three vowel

* [Vocalibus in medio literis perraro uti.]

[Non habere in medio vocales.]

« AnteriorContinuar »