HEBREW.

"WHATEVER disputes may have arisen among the learned, respecting the antiquity of the Hebrew alphabet, or the manner of writing it, little doubt appears to have been entertained of the antiquity of the language itself. The writings of Moses, and the book of Job, are undoubtedly the most ancient compositions acknowledged in Europe. Both these works exhibit a language arrived at a great degree of perfection, and which must have been in use, as a written, as well as an oral tongue, long before these writings were published, or it would have been useless to have written where none could read.*

"Besides a great number of words in the Greek, Arabic, and Celtic, which appear to have been derived from the Hebrew, the very structure of the language points it out as an original one.

"The radical words very uniformly consist of two or three letters, and the derivatives branch out from them in a manner best calculated to produce precision, and conciseness of expression.

Astle on the Origin aud Progress of Writing, p. 12.

"The question respecting the original Hebrew characters has undergone abundance of discussion, from the times of the first fathers of the Christian church, down to this day. Origen and Jerom, on the authority of the old Rabbis; and among the moderns, Scaliger, Montfaucon, Chishull, and Dr. Sharpe in his treatise on this subject; contend, that the Samaritan was the original Hebrew character, and that the present alphabet was invented after the captivity.

Origen speaks to this effect: In the more accurate copies of the Old Testament, he says, the sacred name of Jehovah is actually written, but in the ancient Hebrew letters, and not in those in use at present, which Esdras is said to have introduced after the captivity.

"St. Jerom, in his preface to the books of Kings, puts this matter in a still stronger light: he says, the Samaritans often copy the five books of Moses, in the same number of letters as the Jews do; but their letters differ in form, and the use of points: for it is certain that Esdras, the scribe and a teacher of the law, after the taking of Jerusalem, and the restoration of the temple under Zorobabel, invented those

other letters which we now use; whereas, before that time, the letters of the Samaritans and Hebrews were the same.

"From these passages of Origen and Jerom we may very certainly conclude, that this was the opinion of the ancient Rabbis and Jewish doctors: but it is very singular and worthy of notice, that Origen says, that even in his time, the sacred name, in the more accurate copies of the Bible used by the Jews themselves, was written in the ancient or Samaritan, not in the Hebrew or modern alphabet; for both Esdras and the other rulers of the synagogue, who patronized the use of the new characters, believed themselves conscientiously bound to preserve the name of Jehovah in the same letters in which they

first received it.

"In support of the opposite opinion, the modern Rabbis, the two Buxtorfs, Wasmuth, Sehickard, Lightfoot, and P. Allix, (Spanh. p. 69), &c. contend that the alphabet now in use among the Jews, is the same that the Law and Old Testament were originally written in from the time of Moses.

"Having stated the nature of the dispute, and some of the principal authors

on both sides of the question, we think it right to remind our readers, that it is no part of this work to enter minutely into controversies of this kind.*"

In the column, No. 1, of the foregoing table, the force of the Hebrew letters, when read without points, is expressed; and the next column, No. 2, gives you their force when the language is complicated with the Masoretic points or vowels, which are certainly of later date than the present Hebrew letters.

The following five letters are cast broad, and are used at the end of words, viz.

Aleph

א

He Lamed Mem Thau

L

ת

but are not counted among the final letters, being contrived for justifying, because Hebrew is not divided.

Although the vowel points, in the opinion of the best scholars, are not essential to the language, yet as they are still used in some Bibles, and in all works published by Jews, it will be necessary for a compositor to attend to them.