this manner; that the poetic passages of the historical books are still divided in this way, and that the poetical books in the oldest manuscripts, such as the Paris manuscript, the Bodleyan, the Cassel, and Regiomontanus, are still written in this manner."

Epiphanius says, "There are five books written in verses, namely, Job, the Psalter, the Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs." So Athanasius, “And rising, she repeated the first stich, (that is, from Ps. cxix.,) I arose at midnight to praise thee for the judgment of thy righteousness."" Chrysostom says, "Each stich suffices to afford us much philosophy; . if we examine each sentence (now) with care, we shall gain great good." This division is found in the Alexandrine and Vatican manuscripts, and in several versions."

a See Martianay, 1. c. Kennicott, Diss. p. 308. Wolf, Bib. Heb. vol. ii. p. 298, 309. Simon, 1. c. p. 156.

Epiphan. De Pond. et Mens. c. iv. p. 162: Iέvte otixhgeis, ý tov'I βίβλος, εἶτα τὸ Ψαλτήριον, Παροιμίαι Σαλομῶντος, Εκκλησιαστής, Ασμα douárov. Comp. Gregor. Naz. Carm. xxxiii. Suicer. Thes. eccles. p. 1020. Athanas. Tract. de Virginit.: 'Ανισταμένη δὲ πρῶτον τοῦτον τὸν στίχον εἰπέ· Μεσονύκτιον ἐξηγειράμην, τοῦ ἐξομολογεῖσθαί σοι τὰ κρίματα τῆς δικαιοσurns σov, (Ps. cxix.) Chrysost. in Ps. xli. (xlii.): 'Aqxɛì dè Exαotos σrizos πολλὴν ἡμῖν ἐκθεῖναι φιλοσοφίαν...... καν μετὰ ἀκριβείας ἑκάστην διερευνήσωμεν ῥῆσιν, μεγάλα καρπωσόμεθα ἀγαθά.

"See Breitinger, Proll. T. I. c. 1, § 6. It is found in the Psalter Turic; Psalt. Sangerm, and others; in Fabri Stapul. Psalt. quincupl.; Psalt. Gr. et Lat. Veron; in Blanchini, Ev. quadrup. ii. 532, Tab. 2; Psalt. Gr. et Lat. Coislin.; and in Codd. Lat. in Martianay, Opp. Hierom. tom. i.

Hieron. ad Sunn. et Fretel. on Ps. xvii. 13. Opp. ii. p. 631: Grando et carbonis ignis. Et quæritis, cur Græcus istum versiculum secundo non habeat interpositis duobus versibus. Sed sciendum, quia de Hebraico et Theodotionis editione in LXX. interpretibus sub asterisco additum sit. Procem. in 1. xvi. Comment. in Jes.: Non parvam mihi quæstiunculam detulisti, quod scilicet octo versus, qui leguntur in Ecclesiis, et in Hebraico non habentur, tertii decimi Psalmi, Apostolus usurparit, scribens ad Romanos. Sepulcrum patens est guttur eorum: linguis suis dolose agebant: venenum aspidum sub labiis eorum. Quorum os maledictione et amaritudine plenum est:

The Talmudic Pesukim," in their etymology, correspond perfectly with the Greek commata (zóuuατα) and the Latin cæsa, and seem originally to have had this meaning in the rhythmical books. Hupfeld' comes to this conclusion from the following passage in Kiddushim: "Our rabbins say the Law contains 5888 verses;" and, according to the present division, there are 5845. "The Psalms have eight verses more." present they contain 2527. "And the Chronicles eight verses less." Their number of verses in the Psalms, 5896, approaches the number 5000 contained in the Greek division.

§ 80, a.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONTINUED.

At

In the prosaic books, there was a logical division into periods corresponding to the rhythmical division in the

veloces pedes eorum ad effundendum sanguinem. Contritio et infelicitas in viis eorum: et viam pacis non cognoverunt: non est timor Dei ante oculos eorum. Martianay, Proleg. iv. 3, ad tom. i.: Octo illi versus, qui tres tantum habent distinctiones in nostra Vulg. Lat. et in Rom. Psalterio, hoc ordine et numero decurrunt in Psalt. sac. Germani, veterem Vulg. et Koy complexo: Sepulcrum patens est guttur eorum,

Linguis suis dolose agebant:

Venenum aspidum sub labiis eorum.

Quorum os maledictione et amaritudine plenum est:

Veloces pedes eorum ad effundendum sanguinem:

Contritio et infelicitas in viis eorum,

Et viam pacis non cognoverunt:

Non est timor Dei ante oculos eorum.

See Codd. Paris. reg. 5 and 6, b. Martianay, 1. c. Cod. Bodl. 5, (Kennicott, Diss. super Ratione Text. Heb. p. 308.) Cod. Cassel. Codd. Regiomont. See others in Wolf, Bib. Heb. vol. ii. p. 298, 309. R. Simon, Hist. Crit. d. V. T. p. 156.

poetic books. These divisions are called Pesukim, and are mentioned in the Mishna as observed in reading the Law and the Prophets, and probably originated from the public reading of these books. It is said in Megilla, iv. 4, "He who reads in the Law must not read less than three verses, (pop.) Let not more than one verse [at a time] be read to the interpreter, and in the Prophets three." This division into verses is derived from Moses."

It appears from the number of these Pesukim, which has been handed down to us, that they were our present verses. In Megilla, iv. 4, the passage Isa. lii. 3-5 is reckoned as three verses. In Taan. iv. 3, a precept is given for reading the history of the Creation (Gen. i.) according to the Parashes, and the number of the verses in the Law. So in the Babylon Gemara," the passage in Deut. xxxiv. 5-12, is called "the last eight verses of the Law."

Besides these, there occur in the Gemara other divisions, called Pesukim, (p, or, more commonly,

sentences which (,טעמים),and also Tumim (,פִיסוּקֵי טְעָמִים

sometimes seem to denote reading lessons in general, and sometimes, in a narrower sense, short passages or half verses in the Pesukim. Thus, in Nederim, it is said, “What is that which is written, And they read in the book, in the Law of the Lord, distinctly, and gave the sense, and caused them to understand the reading'?" Neh. viii. 8: "And they read in the book, in the Law of the Lord,"—that is, the text,—"distinctly,”—that is, they read the Targum, -"and gave the sense,"—that is, the verses, (,)—" and caused them to understand

a

Megill. fol. 22.

C

Bab. Bath. fol. 14, c. 2. Menach. f. 30, c. 1.
Fol. 37, col. 2.

the sense,”—that is, the marks of the sentences, (prob D) Again: "Raf said, 'Is it lawful to receive the price for overseeing the youths?' and R. Johanan said, 'It is lawful to receive a price for teaching the marks of the sentences."" R. Chasda inquired respecting that place where it is written, " And he sent young men of the children of Israel, which offered burnt-offerings," (namely, lambs,)" and sacrificed peace-offerings unto Jehovah," (namely, bullocks.) Ex. xxiv. 5. "How can

it be known," he asked, "that they did not sacrifice bullocks in both cases?" To which Mar Sutra replies, "By the marks of the sentences," (or, as Buxtorf renders it, the pauses of the sentences.)"

§ 80, b.

THE SAME SUBJECT CONcluded.

It appears that these divisions into verses were made originally without any external signs of the division, and were preserved only by oral teaching. This seems to be proved by the fact that the Talmud never mentions any signs of the division, and the first notice of them occurs in Tract Sopherim, iii. 7; from the fact that they are not found in the synagogue rolls; that the observance of them is mentioned as a branch which was taught in the schools, as an art to be learned; and from the fact that the old translators differ in their division into verses. Examples of this occur in the Septuagint and the Vulgate.

Berach. fol. 92, col. 1. Megill. fol. 3, col. 1. Hieros. Megill. fol. 74, col. 6. Buxtorf, Tiberias, ch. 9. Buxtorf the younger, De Punct. p. 80-94. Liber Legis, in quo incisum est et in quo capita incisorum punctata sunt, ne legas in eo.

Ex. Ps. xliv. 11, 12.

VOL. I.

xc. 2. Lam. iii. 5. Jon. ii. 6. Obad. verse 9. In 39

However, it is possible, reasoning from the analogy of the shut Parashes, that the verses may have been marked by leaving a small space between them. It could not be done by a break in the sentence, as Prideaux and Bertholdt suppose," for this would have destroyed the division into Parashes, which was never to be given up. The decalogue was originally written in ten lines, (,) as it appears from a Targum on Cant. v. 13. The division of the prophetic books into greater and smaller passages, (cola and commata,) and the historical into commata, was an innovation introduced by Jerome. He He says, "No one, when he sees the Prophets divided into verses, will suppose that they were bound by metre among the Hebrews, or that they resemble the measure of the Psalms, and the writings of Solomon. But as it is commonly done in the writings of Demosthenes and Tully, which are divided into long and short sentences, (cola and commata,) though they wrote in prose, and not in verse, so we have consulted the convenience of the reader, and divided our new version after this new manner of writing." Again he says, "Read according to our translation, for when the text is written in cola and commata, the sense is more obvious to the reader." "That I might arrange it more perspicuously, and in paragraphs." "We admonish the reader that a careful transcriber will preserve the distinctions marked by the paragraphs." The following passage, "from the above-named verse to the

the Vulg. Cant. v. 5. Eccl. i. 5. Clericus, Ars crit. pt. iii. c. 10, § 23. Cappellus, Crit. sac. ed. Vogel, vol. ii. p. 545, 869.

с

Connections, vol. i. p. 332. Bertholdt, p. 208. This opinion was defended in the earlier editions of this work.

Jerome, Præf. in Jes.: Nemo cum Prophetas versibus viderit esse descriptos, metro eos æstimet apud Hebræos ligari et aliquid simile habere de