A. M. 5243 (A. D. 1483); Opp. add. No. 26, 4o dated the 2nd of Elul A. M. 5240 (A. D. 1480).

II. The British Museum possesses three MSS. of the Megillath Antiochos, all of which are on vellum, viz. 1) Harleian No. 1861, fol. 305-306 with points, 15th century; Harl. No. 5713 fol. 16-17 written in London 1714, without points; Harl. No. 5686, written on the margin of a Roman Machsor fol. 18 and 19 without points, dated Cesena 1464.

III. The National Library, Paris has six manuscript copies of the Megillath Antiochos as follows; 1) No. 20 is in beautful Spanish writing on vellum by Josua ben Abraham ben Gaon A. M. 5061 (A. D. 1301). The Meg. Ant. is to be found on the last two pages in Chaldee without points. 2) No. 47 is a Spanish MS. on vellum belonging to the fourteenth century. It contains the Pentateuch, accompanied upon the upper and lower margin by the Haphtaroth, the five Megilloth, and the Meg. Ant. in Chaldee. 3) Nos. 43 and 4) 46 on vellum contain the Meg. Ant. at the end of each, in Hebrew. The latter is assigned to the fourteenth century. 5) No. 716 has the Meg. Ant. in Hebrew without vowel points, and 6) No. 130, which contains the book of Tobit, from which the edition in the London Polyglott was printed, is in Persian with Hebrew characters. 1

IV. The city Library, Hamburg has a MS. No. 45 in Hebrew, on vellum, containing the Meg. Ant. with vowel points, dated A. M. 5720 (A. D. 1480).

V. The Royal Berlin Library purchased from Mr. Shapira of Jerusalem in 1873 two Arabico-Hebrew

1) For a more complete description of the Paris MSS. see "Catalogues des Manuscrits Hebreux et Samaritains de La Bibliothèque Impériale".

MSS. Nos. 627 and 629. from Yemen, which contain the Meg. Ant. folio 55 and 39 under the name

somewhat abridged, and with the old מגלת בני חשמונאי

Babylonian punctuation. While these MSS. have every mark of genuineness, yet as they belong to the 1617th century, it is possible that the vowel points are the work of a recent hand. This is quite probable as the points themselves are incorrect, the ink with which they are written is in some cases of a different color from that of the text, and the Babylonian pointing is not supposed to belong to so late a period. 1

VI. In the Leipzig city Library there is a Spanish MS. which contains the Meg. Ant. in Chaldee, on vellum, with points, of the fourteenth or fifteenth century. In the same library there is an interesting copy, No. 66, of the Codex Colbertinus (Paris No. 43), which was made by J. C. Wagenseil, on paper, and provided with a Latin translation.2

VII. A manuscript is in the possession of Dr. Adolf Jellinek of Vienna. It is on paper, is in Chaldee, furnished with vowel points and is dated 1559.

VIII. The MS. No. 111 in the Royal Turin Library contains the Meg. Ant. in Chaldee, without points, on vellum and is assigned to the thirteenth century. IX. The Meg. Ant. also occurs in a fragment discovered by the Karaite Abraham Firkowitsch.

The following rare printed editions of the Megillath Antiochos are in existence in the Bodleian library

1) See Steinschneider's Literarische Beilage der ,,Heb. Bibliographie" Mai Juni, 1873, S. 54-58. It is an interesting fact that the books of Lamentations and Esther which occur in No. 627 are on the other hand punctuated according to the Tiberian System.

1) See Wolf Bibl. Hebr. Tom. I. p. 204 and Prof. Delitzsch in the Catalogue of the City Library in Leipzig.

No. 11, Pent. Meg. Haft. Naples 1491, 4o; No. 19, Pent. Meg. Haft. Constantinople 1505 folio; No. 1384 Mantua 1557, and No. 1385 Mantua 1557-9, 8o.

Other editions may be found as fallows: 1) In Bartoloccii Bibliotheca Rabbinica with a Latin translation; Filipowski, The Choice of Pearls, and the Book of Antiochus in Aramaic, Hebrew and English, London 1851, 32o; A. Jellinek's Beth ha-Midrasch, Leipzig 1853, Theil I, S. 142—46.

It has also been issued separately by David Sluski

מגלת אנטיוכוס הנקראת מגלה יוכית בשפת under the title .16 ,1864 Warschau ארמית ומתורגמת בלשון עברית

This Megillah was published by Baer Frank from the German Jewish edition, Venice 1548, with a German translation in Hebrew characters, under the title

.12 ,1860 Presburg מגבת מתתיהו עם תרגום אשכנזי

Besides, this Megilla is found in a German Machsor in a volume entitled 2 Livorno 1870.

To illustrate the variations in the MSS. I give verse 28 of the Megillath Antiochos according to Filipowski, first in Chaldee, and then in Hebrew, with the variations of the different MSS. as follows:

Hunt. 399 has after בכה עמודה על שמיה וקרא ליה קטיל תקיפין: 30 .Poc ;(אתר on the margin) מִקְבֵי the name וקרא ליה

p; Opp. add. 26:1 Harl. 5686, f. 18

2:מכבי

:2 B. N. No. 20, f. 467 "; No. 47, f. 296 7:3 Berlin Nos. 627 and 629 2, Compare the Fac“apë simile: Jellinek with the almost illegible marginal

מקרי 1475 .Turn No. 111, f :מי כמוכה באלים ה' note

1) These three belong to the Bodleian library.

2) British Museum.

3) These two are in the Bibliothèque Nationale.
4) See the leaf opposite the title-page.

The above passage in the Yemen MSS. of the Royal library in Berlin reads according to the facsimiles:

מקבי קטול כה במתבותיה עבד ליה ביתא ובכא בה מוכרתא וקרא

תקיפין:

On his return he built him a house and set up therein a candlestick, and called it Makbi slayer of the strong. Cod. 627 gives the passage more briefly

במתבותיה בנא מנרתא על שמיה וקרא לה מקבי קטל תקיפין:

I now subjoin Filipowski's Hebrew text of the same verse, which is exactly that of Harleian No. 5713, f. 16a, with the variations from the Hebrew MSS.:

156 .B. N. No. 43, f עמוד ויקרא על שמו ממית החזקים: No. 46, f. 268 follows ;עַמּוּד עַל שְׁמוֹ וַיִּקְרָא לוֹ מַקְבֵי הֶרֶג הַזְקִים

the same order as No. 43 but has in pp:

And he built there a pillar and called it valley

of the slaughter of the princes.

The corruption of the surname Machabee into "p in the Turin MS. and into p in the MS. mentioned by Firkowitsch, as well as the great variations in the punctuation of the name show conclusively, that it was quite unknown in the old Jewish sources, and that it probably does not occur in Jewish literature before the age of the so-called Jusippon ben Gurion (A. D. 940). Hence it is idle to quote the readings of the name in these MSS. as authoritative, since they stand in no direct connection with the original Hebrew book of first Machabees, but have simply been borrowed from Hellenic and Latin sources.

Remark. I am indebted for the transcriptions of Harl. 1861, f. 305, 5686, f. 18, 5713 f. 16. to Prof. William Wright.

. Add to p. 11 § 4. The following remark occurs at the end of the XVI. chapter of the Arabic second book of Machabees:

Thus far extends هاهنا انتهى السفر التاني نقل العبرانيين

the second book as it has been taken from the Hebrews. There is no indication in this of a Hebrew original, the remark simply means, that the Machabean history, as related in the Hebrew, that is, Jewish second book of Machabees, ends at this point, viz. the defeat of Nicanor and the festival in commemoration of it.