As helps for finding all the passages where a word, and also its forms and derivatives, occur, the following two concordances may be recommended: Marii a Calasio* Concordantiae Hebraicae, Romae 1621, and Lond. 1747-49, 4 vols. folio; and J. Buxtorfii (patris) Concordantiae Bibliorum Hebraicae, cum praef. J. Buxtorfii fil. Basileae 1632, fol. The first of these has a Latin translation along with the original passages; but has also the inconvenience, that the forms and derivatives of the same root are all mixed up together; while in Buxtorf the passages are arranged separately according to the order of the forms and derivatives, a far more convenient method, which much facilitates consultation. The work of Calasio is a tolerably exact translation of the concordance of R. Isaac or Mordecai Nathan; that of Buxtorf is a remoulding of the same. The particles and proper names are wanting in both. For the particles we have: Noldii Concordantiae Particularum EbraeoChaldaicarum, ed. Tympe, Jenae 1734, quarto; and for the proper names: Lankisch Concordantiae Bibliorum Germanico-Hebraico-Graecae, Leipz. and Frankf. 1696, folio,—where however the names are arranged according to the German orthography of Luther.

But besides the peculiarly important business of the philologian, to search out every where the most appropriate parallel passages, with reference to the meaning of words, to phrases, and to other constructions,† it will also be of use to take account of the following circumstances, in the philological observations to be drawn from the Bible itself.

1. The student will compare all those words which are either kindred or antithetic in their meaning, and will notice the analogous modifications of signification which are formed with them. Whoever, for instance, has observed, how to a Hebrew wisdom is very generally synonymous with virtue and piety, folly with vice and impiety, sweet savour with good will; and how the words for righteousness and virtue are used also for deliverance and prosperity; will be able clearly to apprehend a multitude of philological phenomena, and will easily cause many difficulties.

* He was a Franciscan monk, and Professor of Hebrew at Rome. For this object the 'Hallische Bibel' of J. H. and C. B. Michaelis, as also their Annotationes uberiores ad libros V. T. Hagiographos, will render good service.

to vanish. In this respect, however, a comparison of the kindred dialects is productive of far more fruit.2

2. Let the inquirer make use particularly of those exegetically parallel passages, in which the sense of an obscure word is also expressed by one that is more known; especially when this is done by the same writer.3

3. In the poetical books, the parallelism of the members often gives a hint as to the meaning of obscure words; although this help must be employed with caution, because the parallel members are not always synonymous, but often contain only a similar or even a progressive sense.1

4. Observe carefully the individual usus loquendi of each writer, and explain it first of all from himself, and then from other writers who are most nearly related to him. Such kindred classes of writers are e. g. Job and the writings ascribed to Solomon; the Hebrew sections of Daniel and Ezra; the Chronicles and the book of Esther; the earlier prophets, Isaiah, Hosea, Micah, Amos; and again those who lived after the exile. In all this, however, it will be understood of course, that the results of critical investigation* are to be taken into the account; and the heterogeneous parts of one and the same book to be carefully distinguished.

II. Traditional knowledge of the Hebrew among the Jews.

2

As the second source of Hebrew philology, we have desig

Compare, in the lexicon of the author, the roots UNE, DUE; PIX no. 6. Also of antithetic words, i

.etc , מָצָא and חָטָא יָרַע and רוּעַ

3 See e. g. 7

and ; and,

Judg. 9: 37, comp. 72 v. 36,

and Ez. 38: 12, comp. 6: 2. 33: 28. 35: 12. vation, Ps. 132: 9, comp.

v. 16.

Ez. 23: 20, comp. 782 v. 5.

So pay deliverance, sal

their paramours, masc. Dan. 1:5, 15, comp.

v. 10. That however there are cases, where parallel passages cannot be exegetically applied, is obvious; e. g. where a later writer has transcribed an earlier one, and has occasionally altered the sense. See the author's Gesch. der Heb. Sprache, p. 37 sq.

E.

4 The rabbins also have often misapplied parallelisms in this way. when they take Carmel, Cant. 7: 6, for

g.

crimson,

(מַלְאָכִים .parall) אֶרְאֶלָם purple ; so also אַרְגָּמָן because of the parallel

Is. 33: 7, for messengers instead of heroes.

* Die Ergebnisse der Kritik; see the note in Vol. II. p. 552.—Ed.

nated above Jewish tradition, which is preserved, first, in the different ancient versions, and then, in the rabbinical commentaries and lexicons. In order to obtain a clear view of the nature of this tradition, so as to be able to assign to it a proper authority and consideration, we must here carefully distinguish the different periods and even parties, in and among which we find this traditional knowledge preserved. The period when the Alexandrine (and perhaps also the oldest Chaldee) version was made, falls so near, or even perhaps (so far as concerns the Pentateuch) coincides with, the time when the Hebrew was yet a living language, that we may properly suppose the translators to have been acquainted with the Hebrew idiom from the living intercourse of society, and not merely from the study of the Bible in the schools. Although the more ancient Hebrew was probably for the most part already supplanted in the mouth of the common people by the Chaldee and Greek; yet books were still often written in Hebrew, as the books of Daniel* and Sirach shew; and it was still known to all educated persons, as the language of the national literature.5 Hence we may explain the interesting circumstance, that the Alexandrine interpreters especially have often assigned to a Hebrew word a signification, which is no where actually found in the Bible, but which is found in the kindred languages, and even in the Arabic. Now since it cannot be supposed, that they derived it from a knowledge of these languages, and especially the Arabic, it is plain, that such significations are also Hebrew, and came to them by tradition. On the other hand, the student will not place too much confidence even in this comparatively purest tradition, when he considers that already in the latest books of the canon there are evident traces, how the ancient richness of the language had by degrees died away; and also much that was no longer clear and

The author and some other critics, as is well known, place the composition of the book of Daniel as low down as the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. This view has been ably refuted by Hengstenberg in his late work: Die Authentie des Daniel, Berl. 1831.-ED.

5 See Gesch. der Heb. Sprache, p. 44, 79.

6 Ibid. p. 78. A view of the significations which the Alexandrine translators have given to Hebrew words in different places, see in Kircher's Concordantiae V. T. Graecae, Frankf. 1607, quarto; in the Index at the end of Tromm's Concordance, and in the Lexicon Hebræum annexed to Origenis Hexapla ed. Montfaucon, II. p. 401 sq.

familiar even to a person who himself wrote Hebrew." To this also we must add, that just these earliest interpreters, viz. the Alexandrine, are often deficient in the requisite exactness in respect to grammar and orthography;8 as indeed it is a usual fact, that a conscientiously accurate and philological mode of treating a language and its monuments, is first introduced by study and observation after it has ceased to be a living tongue.

Such a mode of treatment in regard to the Hebrew, is found in a far higher degree, in the labours of the Jews of Palestine and Babylonia, who had already the aid of their own kindred dialect; and the Chaldee versions prepared by them, present us with that interpretation of the Hebrew text, which had been handed down by tradition in the Jewish schools, and upon which at a later period the authors of the vowel points and the Jewish grammarians have farther built. The conception of the sense exhibited in the earlier Targums is certainly in a good degree true and correct; although it is often hidden behind absurd paraphrases and interpolated later theologoumena.-The Syriac version, the most literal of all the ancient translations now extant, and probably the work of a Syrian Christian, must be regarded more as a production of learned study, than of living tradition; and we find in it, along with a good degree of grammatical knowledge of the Hebrew and an occasional application of the Syriac usus loquendi, also an eclectic use of the Greek, and more seldom of the Chaldaic version.20 The same is the case with the Latin version of

7 See the remarks on certain passages of the Chronicles, Gesch. der Heb. Sprache, p. 40 sq. 8 Ibid. p. 79.

9 The Targums are found in the rabbinic Bibles of Bomberg and Buxtorf, and accompanied by Latin versions, in the Polyglotts. There are three of them on the Pentateuch; of Onkelos, (see Winer de Onkelosi ejusque Paraphrasi Chaldaica, Lips.1820,) Pseudo-Jonathan, and the Targum of Jerusalem. On Daniel, Ezra, and Nehemiah, there is none. The Targum on Chronicles was first published from an Erfurth manuscript by Beck, Augsb. 1680-83, 4to. and from a Cambridge manuscript by Wilkins, Amstelod. 1715, 4to. For the Targum of Jonathan on the prophets, see the author's Commentary on Isaiah, I. p. 65 sq. [See further on the Targums the American edition of Calmet's Dict. in octavo, art. TARGUMS, which is by the Editor; also the Chaldee Manual of Mr. Riggs, just published.—ED.

10 A new edition of the Syriac version, with many, though not sufficient corrections and amendments, was published by Prof. Lee, Lond. 1823. 4to. [It is printed with great accuracy and beauty. See

Jerome; the basis of which lies in the instruction which he received from learned Palestine Jews, and the constant comparison of the LXX, as also of the other three Greek versions then extant, viz. of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion.* In the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch, which cannot have been made later than in the second century after Christ, the received interpretation of the sect of the Samaritans, which had been separated from the Jews from the time of Alexander, lies at the foundation; among whom, however, the student will in vain look for the philological accuracy of the Palestine Jews in the explanation, as well as for their critical scrupulousness in the preservation, of the original text." That Onkelos was used in making this version, as is confidently affirmed, is ungrounded; while, on the other hand, this seems to have been the case in the Persian translation.12-The immediate Arabic versions also are not without value in this respect; among which the most ancient is that of R. Saadias Gaon, the first Hebrew grammarian, who died in A. D. 942. It covers, so far as it is yet known, the Pentateuch, Isaiah, and Job; and contains, along with the earlier tradition, much also which is the result of independent thought and study, though indeed often subtile and forced.13 It has been used in the still unprinted Samaritan-Arabic version of Abusaid.14 Among the latest labours of the Jews in translation, belongs the Moorish-Arabic version of the Pentateuch published by Erpenius,15 commonly known as the Arabs Erpenii; as also the the A. L. Z. 1832, No. 4. On the character of the Syriac version, see Hirzel de Pentateuchi Versionis Syriaca indole, etc. Zurich, 1825. Comp. A. L. Z. 1832, No. 5.—Ed.

* See Calmet ibid. art. VERSIONS.-ED.

11 Winer de Versionis Pentat. Samar. indole Dissert. critico-exegetica, Lips. 1817. The text is found in the Paris and London Polyglotts. 12 Rosenmueller de Versione Pentateuchi Persica, Lips. 1813.

13 His version of the Pentateuch stands in the London Polyglott with Arabic letters and vowels; the manuscripts are written in the Hebrew character. That of Isaiah was published by Paulus, Jena 1790, 91, 8vo. That of Job is found in the Bodleian library at Oxford, Cod. Huntington. 511; Uri's Catalogue, Codd. orient. No. 45. Of this last I have taken a copy.

14 See De Sacy, in the Mémoires de l'Académie des Inscr. et des belles Lett. T. XLIX.

15 Pentateuchus Mosis Arabice, Lugd. Bat. 1622. 4to.