§ 99. Division into verses.[a]

Any one may readily perceive that the sacred writers did not divide their books into small portions, such as our verses, which were not used in the time of the ancients, as is proved by their versions, wherein a different division, sometimes better and sometimes worse, is frequently observed. Since these small sections are intimately connected with the accents and vowel points, it may be inferred that they were contemporaneously introduced. For these verses are altogether different from the hemistichs of poems, which originated from the respective authors, and are retained in the songs in Exod. xv, Deut. xxxii, Jud. v., and in the more ancient manuscripts of Job, the Psalms and the Proverbs. See STARK, Proleg. in Psalm T. II. P. II. Sect. 14., who says, that "in proportion to the antiquity of the Hebrew manuscripts, does the manner of writing by verses prevail in the poetical books." Comp. KENNICOTT, Diss. I. On the state of the Hebrew Text. p. 324, 424, 566. The ancients attest that the same method of writing was followed in Ecclesiastes and the Canticles. See JEROME Præf. in Jes., Epiph. de Pond. et Mens. c. 4., CYRILL OF JERUS. Cataches. IV. The same arrangement, as Jerome in his Præf. in Jes. et Ezek. declares, was at length applied to the prose compositions, and books which were written in this way were called 5xngsis, because they were divided sxnews, or by six, that is verses. But the 50, as we learn from Jerome, Præf. I. in Job, were distinguished into two kinds, the smaller or cola, and the larger or commata. These distinctions which appear to be what is meant by the D'o and

פסוּקִים

of the Tal

mudists, (Tract. Megilloth c. 4., and Massecheth c. 4.), had reference to the sense ; [b] short sentences and members of sentences, completed in one line, being called cola, and full periods and parts somewhat long, commata. Whatever the truth may be, it is beyond all doubt that all these ancient divisions were entirely different from our verses. Comp. DE ROSSI, Specimen Lect. variantium V. F. in Append. p. 399-440, SIMON Hist. Crit. du V. T. L. v. ch. 28.

[a) Comp. PRIDEAUX Connexions, Part. I. B. V. anno 446. Vol. I. pp. 334. ss. DE WETTE, Einleit. & 77. Tr.]

[b) Thus Jerome, Præf. in Ezek. "Legite igitur et hunc juxta translationem nostram, quoniam per cola scriptus et commata, manifestiorem legentibus sensum tribuit."]

§ 100.

Division of the Pentateuch into Pharashioth.

The Pentateuch is divided into fifty and also into fifty-four Pharashioth, л, in order that whether the year be a simple lunar year

or intercalated, one Pharasha, 5, may be read in the Synagogues,

TTT

every week, and the whole Pentateuch in the course of the year. The Pharashioth are indicated by DD or DDD. These longer weekly portions are subdivided into smaller, which are read every day in the Synagogue by different men ;[a] and these divisions are designated by or. By these letters transcribers are directed to begin with a new line after 5 and, (which stand for л, open, denoting that

T

the remainder of the line is to be blank,) and after DDD or (which stand for or no, shut, denoting that the line is not to be

blank,) to continue the line, after leaving a considerable interval. This division is mentioned in the Treatise Sopherim, of the sixth or seventh century, and seems to have come down from the time when after the return from captivity the reading of the Pentateuch in the Synagogues was established. For a long period, however, the portion to be read appears to have been left to the discretion of the ruler of the Synagogue, until at length the presiding officers determined upon a permanent division into parts for reading. This gave rise to different divisions, of we Maimonides complained; at last all agreed in one of most celebrity, which is admitted into our Bibles.

[a) DE WETTE, Einleit. § 79. anm. c., denies that this opinion, (which is also maintained by BERTHOLDT, S. 202.) has any foundation. He refers for another view of the subject to BUXTORF, Synagoga Judaica, e. xvi. p. 327. ss. Tr.]

§ 101. The Haphtaroth.

In the Synagogue service there is read also every Sabbath a portion of the Prophets, which is called Haphtara, non.[a] The Haphta

roth are selections taken from the Prophets, and written out by themselves in manuscripts. Their number is the same as that of the Pharashioth.-Whether the origin of the practice of reading certain portions from the prophets is to be sought for in the age of the Maccabees, as is the opinion of Elias Levita, (in Thisbi. sub. voce ¬,) and of Vitringa (de Synagoga Vet. L. III. P. II. p. 1008,) is undetermined. It is certain from Luke iv. 16 ss., that it was usual to read the prophets in the Synagogues in the age of Jesus; but the choice of the prophet to be read appears to have been left to the pleasure of the ruler of the Synagogue. For the passage in Luke iv. 16. from Isa. lxi. 1-3., is not to be found in the modern Haphtaroth, and therefore the determination of particular portions seems to have been the work of a more modern age.

Elias traces the reading of the prophets to the prohibition of the reading of the law, by Antiochus. But as the purpose of this monarch was completely to destroy Judaism, his prohibition undoubtedly was intended to include the prophets also. Vitringa's opinion is much more probable, that after the Jews had re-established their state by means of the Maccabees, they sought to improve the character of their worship by adding a portion from the prophets to that from the law, which had been formerly read. Comp. CARPZ. Crit. Sac. L. I. C. 4. § 4. p. 147—149.

[a) Haphtara, П, the dismission, from D, to dismiss; so

TT:

called because this is the last lesson, and immediately precedes the dismission of the people; on which account also the reader of the Haphtara is called ODD, the dismisser. Comp. BuXT. Lex. Chal. et Talm.

in 5 Col. 1719, VITRINGA de Syn. Vet. Lib. III. Pars. II. Cap. x.

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p. 993. ss. LEUSDEN Philolog. Hebr. p. 38.-Tr.]

§ 102.

Division into Chapters.

The division into chapters was introduced into our Vulgate in the thirteenth century, on occasion of the composition of a concordance, in order that places might be cited with accuracy, and easily found. For this reason, also, every chapter (for the verses were first introdu

ced into the Latin Vulgate, and numbered, by Robert Stephens, in 1548,) was subdivided into smaller parts by the letters A. B. C. D. &c. disposed according to a certain number of lines, that a passage marked in the concordance might be found without any labour. It is scarcely possible to determine, whether this division owes its origin to Stephen Langton, archbishop of Canterbury, or to Hugo a S. Caro, the former of whom died in 1227 and the latter in 1262. Perhaps the division into chapters originated with Stephen, and was afterwards somewhat altered by Hugh; this will account for the varieties which even now are to be seen in different editions. One thing is certain, that from the year 1240, citations are made by a reference to chapters. See GENEBRARD, Chronol. L. IV. p. 644. This division was first introduced into the Hebrew Bible by Rabbi Isaac Nathan in 1440, (See BuxT. Concord. Bib. Heb. 1633. Præf. col. 4-14.) and hence it passed into the edition of Daniel Bomberg, 1525.

JEROME, Comment. in Mich. vi. 9., Sophon. iii. 14., Jer. ix. 22., Quæst. in Gen. xxxvi. 14, and elsewhere, speaks of chapters in the Hebrew text and in the Alexandrine translation. But they are entirely different from our divisions into chapters, and perhaps they are the same as the Siderim, □770, which Jacob Ben Chajim found in a manu

.T:

script of Genesis, amounting to forty-two, and which are mentioned also in the Paris Correctorium of the twelfth century. The ancient ecclesiastical writers never designate places of the Bible by chapters; the Jews denominated portions of considerable extent from the name of some person, place, or thing, mentioned therein, nearly in the same manner as the Mahommedans do the Suras of the Koran. Thus PHILO, de Agric. T. I. p. 316, Edit. Mangey, cites a passage av TAIS agais, in the curses, meaning Deut. xxvii; RASHI on Hos. ix. 19. this is Gibeon of Benjamin, vɔɔɔɔ, in the concubine, that is, in Jud. xix

xxi., and on Ps. ii., as it is said 18 in Abner, meaning II Sam.

ii. 8—iii. 39.; ABENEZRA on Hos. iv. 8. y, in Eli, that is, in

I Sam. i. iv. The same mode of quotation occurs in Mark xii. 26. ETITS Bars, in the bush, that is, in Exod. ii-iv., Comp. Luke xx. 37.; in Mark ii. 26. sv Abiadag, in Abiathar, that is, I. Sam. xxi.-xxii.; also in Rom. xi. 2. sv Eλa, in Elias, or I Kings xvii-xix.

Although the division into our chapters and verses does afford the advantage of citing any places with accuracy, and of finding them readily, yet it is accompanied by a great inconvenience, the series of discourse being withdrawn from the reader's attention by an improper division, or by the want of one where it ought to have been introduced. The interpreter therefore may disregard these divisions, and it would be desirable in new editions of the Bible to adopt others of a more suitable kind, and to note the former chapters and verses in the margin at the end of the lines, for the convenience of turning to quotations and finding them with ease. Thus the series of discourse would not be interrupted.

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§ 103. Division of the books of the Old Testament.[a]

The books of the Old Testament have been distributed into three classes, the law, in, the prophets, '', and the writings, ', emphatically so called, which we are accustomed to designate by the term Hagiographa. This division is employed as well known and in common use, not only by Josephus, Philo, and the writers of the New Testament, but also by the translator of Ecclesiasticus in the Prologue, 131 B. C., and it seems to have descended from that age in which the canon was fixed. In course of time, however, the arrangement of the books in the second and third classes underwent some change, for Josephus reckons 13 prophets and 4 Hagiographa; but the Talmudists, who extended the number of the books to 24, removed 5 books of the second class into the third, and consequently they reckon 11 Hagiographa and 8 prophets. This order is preserved in our Bibles, in which also four prophets, that is to say, the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings, are called first or former, D'i, and the remaining four, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the book of the 12 minor prophets, the latter, . In our Bibles the third class contains the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra and Nehemiah, and the Chronicles. The formation of another class of books under the name of the five rolls, nihan, including Ruth, Esther, Canticles, Lamentations, and Ecclesiastes, is more modern, but of what particular age is unknown. It originated from the read