tinual additions made to it," brought great confusion into it, which the printed editions seem to have increased.

[The Masora has been published more or less imperfectly. Rabbi Meyer Hallevi, often called Haramah, made a useful catalogue of the words in the Pentateuch, of which there occurs a full or defective reading, with a reference to passages where the reading is found. His work shows the state of the text in his time, the thirteenth century.

The Masora remained in this state until Daniel Bomberg induced Rabbi Jacob Ben Chajim to cleanse this Augean stable. He revised the Masora word by word, arranged and improved it, united the passages omitted in an index known by the name of Masora Maxima, or Finalis. The result of his work was the celebrated Rabbinical Bible of Bomberg. Then the elder Buxtorf attempted to improve Bomberg's Bible; but, in his zeal to extirpate the tares, "he rooted up much good wheat with them," and in many places created a new Masora.]

d

a J. H. Michaelis, Præf. ad Bib. Heb.; Hal. p. 6. See above, note a, p. 349. There is a later addition on Levit. iv. 35.

[In the full reading, (lectio plena,) the quiescent letters,,,, are written out, while in the defective reading, (lectio defectiva,) they are not expressed.]

C

. ספר מסורת סיג לתורה] *

Liber Masoræ Sepes Legis; Flor. 1750, small fol.; Berlin, 1761. It is a valuable aid to the student of the Masora. See Wolf, 1. c. vol. i. p. 746, ii. p. 536. Kennicott, Diss. Gen. ed. Bruns, § 57, 58. Eichhorn, § 156, 136, b.]

Biblia Rabb. Bomberg, I. cur. Fel. Pratensis; Venet. 1518. Biblia Rabb. Bomberg, II. cur. R. Jac. Ben Chajim; ibid. 1526, 4 vols. fol.

Biblia Rabb., &c., Buxtorfius; Basil, 1618, 1619, 4 vols. fol., often bound in 2. [Buxtorf has been severely censured by Simon, Hist. crit. du V. T. p. 513, Disquis. crit. ch. xiii. p. 103, and Lettres Choisies, p. 176. See a defence of Buxtorf in Carpzov, p. 413, sqq. See other editions in Rosenmüller, 1. c. vol. i. p. 260, sqq. See Eichhorn, § 156, b, and 393, sqq. Tychsen, Tent. p. 217.]

§ 91

THE LABORS OF THE MASORITES AND CONTENTS OF THE MASORA

The Masorites made critical, grammatical, orthographical, and other emendations of the received text, which was then established by use." These are contained in the (so called) Keri and Kethib. They made these emendations partly on the authority of tradition, and partly on that of their own judgment.' They also ad

a

Eichhorn, § 129, erroneously, speaks of a masoretic recension. [If, by recension, Eichhorn means an alteration of the text by removing what appeared spurious, and inserting better readings, there are no reasons to support this opinion; for the fact that several letters and words, which obviously do not belong to the text, are suffered to remain in it, while the correction is made in the margin, the word left unpointed, or the form of the letter changed, shows how fearful they were of altering a word or letter of the text itself. But if he means a revision of the text, a collection and comparison of various readings, then the state of the text, the testimony of Jewish writers, and the common consent of the learned, furnish abundant evidence that the Masorites made the chief recension, and their successors added to their remarks, so that the notes of the former and latter cannot now be distinguished.]

The following remark of Cappellus, p. 393, is pertinent. Juxta illud Judæorum effatum, quo censent lectionem Tou Keri semper esse veriorem, planum est, diversitatem lectionis non esse ortam ab hæsitatione Massoretharum inter codicum dissentientium discrepantiam, utra potior esset lectio, ambigentium, sed esse potius certum eorumdem de varia lectione judicium, utra sibi videatur potius sequenda, quod satis indicant, cum lectioni, quam in margine notant, adscribunt hanc litteram, h. e. legito, illud enim prodit

eorum non hæsitationem et dubitationem, sed certum judicium.

It is still a controverted point among the critics whether these corrections were derived from tradition and the MSS. exclusively, or exclusively from the judgment of the Masorites. On the one side are the following, viz.: Dav. Kimchi, Ephodaus, and other rabbins; Jo. Morinus, p. 630; Rich. Sip. 141, sqq.; Buxtorf, the younger, Anticrit. ii. 4; Carpzov, p. 340. Kennicott, Diss. Gen. § 40. On the other side are Löscher, 1. c. p. 441; Pfaff, Primit. (Tübingen,) p. 74; J. A. Danz, Literator Heb. p. 57. Some

mon,

1. c.

mitted the critical remarks of the Talmud, and extended them in some places, as in the Keri velo Kethib."

Besides, they ventured to make conjectures on difficult words, though resting on a grammatical foundation.'

critics more pertinently refer these corrections to both sources, viz., Walton, Prol. viii. 25, Cappellus, Crit. sac. vol. i. p. 344, sqq. [Walton derives all these emendations, except the euphemisms, and the alteration of to and the reading, (see Gesenius, sub voce,) from a comparison of the MSS. Matt. Hiller, in Arcano Keri et Kethib, (Tüb. 1692, 8vo.,) lib. i. p. 24, advances the monstrous opinion, that Ezra, the scribe, made several copies of the Bible, with his own hands, but did not always insert the same words in the text, so that there was that difference in his copies which now exists between Ps. xviii. and 2 Sam. xxii. His successors, seeing this diversity, compared all his MSS., and wrote the variants in the margin. The marginal and the textual readings, therefore, are equally authentic, and alike inspired. This opinion requires no confutation; but an elaborate one may be found in Carpzov, p. 336, and Wolf, vol. ii. p. 517, sqq.; while, on the other hand, Wagenseil, in a letter to Leibnitz, thinks Hillel himself was inspired with this opinion by a divine afflatus; and even Stark calls him an "Edipus."]

a

Critical Keris:— - 1. Different divisions of words: e. g. Ps. lv. 16, Keth.

; לִנְאֵי יוֹנִים .Ker,לגאיונים .Ps. cxxiii. 4, Keth ;רַשִׁי מָוֶת .Ker, רשימות

2 Ch. xxxiv. 6, 77, Ker. 2. Transposition of the consonants: 1 Kings vii. 45, Keth. 3, Ker. ; Prov. xxiii. 26, Keth.

ז “.

man, Ker.n. 3. Alterations of the consonants: Ez. xxv. 7, Keth. ±±ɔ̃, Ker. 3; 1 Kings xii. 33, Keth. 3, Ker. . 4. Misplacing or omit

ting consonants: Am. viii. 8, Keth. p, Ker.

; Jos. viii. 12, Keth. Grammatical :— In Pentateuch, oft, Keth. No77, Ker. No77,

, Ker. Keth., Ker. ; Jer. xlii. 6, Keth. 7, Ker. ; 2 Sam. xvii. 12, Keth., Ker. N. Orthographical: Ez. xxvii. 15, Keth. 77, Ker.

; 2 Ch. viii. 16, Keth. 77, Ker. . Glosses:- Prov. xx. 20, Keth., Ker. . Euphemisms. See § 89. Comp. Cappell. i. 188, sqq., p. 174. Walton, viii. 21. Eichhorn, § 149. Jablonsky, Præf. ad Bib. Heb. § 13.

b

-ה' סבירין מצרימה : is remarked לֵךְ שֶׁב מִצְרַיִם ,19 .on Ex. iv סְבִירִין

Comp. Buxtorf, Tiberias, p. 146,

They also noticed the exegetical, grammatical, and orthographical difficulties and peculiarities."

[No manuscript nor edition affords a complete list of the Keris and Kethibs now extant. They differ from one another both in the number and the position of the reading. Many Keris were first marked by critics. who lived after the sixth century, and were introduced into only such manuscripts as contain their revision. Therefore one manuscript often has in the text what another places in the margin; and this is the greatest difference between eastern and western readings. The same may be said of such editions as do not copy one another. It often happens that the vowels do not agree with the consonants of the text, where there is no Keri in the margin; and this shows that the vowels in question were taken from a manuscript containing one Keri more than the others."

a

Exegetical:- —«Verbum

In this manner the different

Grammatical: — "Gen. i. 22, ad

cum conjunctum, pro jurare per Deum, quater reperitur, quorum loca traduntur 1 Sam. xxx. 15. Gen. xxix. 9, ad : Tria sunt in triplici significatione, nempe hic significat pascere, secundo Jes. xxiv. 19, confringendo, tertio Prov. xxv. 19, malus (dens.) Ps. xxii. 17, ad : Duo sunt cum Kamez in duplici significatione." Buxtorf, l. c. p. 143, sq. notant, tria esse dagessata, i. e. cum Patach subsequente Dagesh. Gen. xvi. 13, ad VER E. Non exstat amplius cum Chatephkamez. Gen. i. 5, ad 1 septem sunt cum Kamez." Buxtorf, 1. c. p. 144, 147. Orthographical commonly relate to the full and defective reading. El. Levita, Mas. Hammas. vol. i. p. 101. [In Genesis i. 12, on N it remarks, "The word occurs twice with the in the middle and once without it." Elias Levita, 1. c., givès this rule: When the full reading occurs oftener than the defective, the defective readings are counted; but when the defective exceed the number of the full, then the letters are enumerated. Buxtorf, 1. c. p. 140, sq.]

b

[Montanus, and some others, erroneously assert that all the copies contain the same number of Keris and Kethibs. See Walton, Prol. viii. 21.]

number of Keris and Kethibs in different manuscripts is accounted for. This diversity is considerable in the manuscripts, and still greater in the printed editions.]"

The enumeration of the verses, words, and consonants, and the remarks on their peculiarities, are less useful labors of the Masorites."

[The Masorites enumerated the passages in which letters are found inverted or suspended, unusually large or small, and in which a final is put for a medial, or a medial for a final letter. From all these peculiarities, they affirmed that important inferences were to be drawn, and advised the reader to draw them, or oftener performed this service themselves. They counted the verses in all the books of the Bible; but they do not agree with the Talmud or the present editions in this enumeration. It may gratify the curious to know that the Talmud makes 5888 verses in the Pentateuch; eight more in the Psalms, and eight less in the Chronicles; that there are twenty-six verses in the Hebrew Bible, each of which contains all the consonants in the alphabet; three verses which contain eighty letters apiece, and one (Jer. xxi. 7) which contains forty-two words, consisting of one hundred and sixty consonants; that the first letter occurs 42,377 times in the Bible, and the sum total of all the letters is 815,280. They must also be told that Shickard, and Elias the Levite, and

G

[Eichhorn, § 149. Lilienthal, De Codd. Regiomont. p. 42. Jablonsky, 1. c. § 13. The Keris in the whole Bible, in the second Venice edition, are 1171; 793 in Plantin's second edition; 983 in Bib. Reg.; and 848 in Elias Levita. Walton, Prol. viii. 21. See Cappellus, 1. c. vol. i. p. 173, sqq. p. 422-476.]

b Buxtorf, 1. c. ch. xii. xviii. The , (pausa, cessatio,) or (ñçãɣμa, negotium,) and 2, (divisio, hiatus,) is not a critical mark. Buxtorf, Clav. Mas. p. 280. Vogel ad Cappellus, vol. i. p. 458, sq