Jerome's transcription Machabeus cannot have come from "pa 4 5 5 7 Rabbinical transcriptions of Kappa(C) and Chi(Ch) IV. Discrimination between the Hebrew endings aj and aj . 30 30 31 32 An enumeration of nineteen MSS. in which it occurs 37 It cannot be quoted as authority in the discussion of this question 41 NAMES are crystallized history and poetry, or to change the simile they are the embalmed remains of warm affections, bitter griefs, ardent hopes and lofty aspirations. As the discovery of a single bone may enable the naturalist to reconstruct the skeleton of an animal belonging to some long extinct species, so the recovery of an ancient name often enables the historian to represent to the imagination the living men and women of the past. There is a peculiar charm in the study of the earlier Hebrew names arising from the artless character of the people, which led them to make their children the remembrancers of their joys and their sorrows, their failures and their successes. Indeed in this respect the several crises of the Jewish history are marked by the same phenomena as its beginning, so that a single name sometimes supplies a missing link, and gives a hint of the popular feeling which otherwise would be entirely wanting. Whether we regard the names of the Hebrews from a romantic, philologic or a historic point of view, we are equally impressed with their importance. What more fruitful theme for the imagination than the names of the early patriarchs! The experiences of these ancient families are gathered up and preserved in the names of the children. If all other records were to perish, we should still have in Abraham the founder of a nation, in Isaac the laughter of joyous parents, and in Jacob one of the shrewdest characters in sacred history. Viewed from a philologic point of view, words and forms have been preserved to us in these names, which otherwise would have been entirely lost, which belong either to the earliest period of the language or to some foreign tongue. 1) But nowhere are the Hebrew names of greater importance than for the history of the people. Whether we contemplate that large class of names which stamp the Israelites as a nation whose God is the Lord, or those which record their sojourn in a strange land, or those which are a recognition of the divine wrath, or a memorial of returning hope, gratitude and joy, we have abundant testimony to the value of this much neglected department of study, and we find that the long lists in the Chronicles are replete with interest. It is true that doubt and uncertainty attend the investigation of many names which have become changed almost beyond recognition through the attrition of time; nevertheless patient research unlocks many a secret and is at all times a blessing to him who engages in it. I am aware of the dangers to which one in pursuing a subject of this kind is exposed. It is easier to theorize than to examine, and one is often, especially in such a case, carried captive by some attractive theory, which is merely an exhalation of the imagination. 1) Examples of words preserved in proper names are and of old forms, the nominative ending of in b, the genitive in, and the original feminine ending at in ; of words belonging to the earliest period of the language, on in on, and ; and of foreign words, the more Persian than Hebrew and the first Aramaic part of the compound in bar. |