HAVUaOBIPTS 6:
uidne 16 Samaritiui HSS., some 40 printed tozta and 638 Ifassoretio HSS. (tee "DisBerUtJo Ge&eralis in Vetus TutEtm. Hebraicum", Oxford, 1780). He nunibei«d these MSS. in six groups; nos. 1-88, Oxford HSS.; noB. 89-144, other MSS. of English-speaking countries; nos. 145-254, MSS. of continental Europe; nos. 255-300, printed texts and various MSS.; nos. 301-694 ti^S. collated by Brunsius. De Rossi (VariEe Lectiones Vet. Test.) retained the numeratioa ofKennicottandaddeda list of 479 MSS., all his own pergonal property, (rf which unfortunately 17 had al- ready received aumbers from Kennicott. De Roasi
UAHUaOBXPTB
jot and tittle of the text wa« almost absolutely
ajid uered. R. Aqiba aeenu to have been the
head of this Jewish school of the second century. Un- precedented means were taken to keep the text fixed. The scholars counted the words and consoniuits of each book, the middle word and middle conaonanta, the pecularities of script, etc. Even when such pecu- liarities were clearly due to error or to accident, they were perpetuated and interpreted by a mystical mean- ing. Broken and inverted letters, conaonanta that were too small or too large, dots which w«tc out of place — all these oddities were banded down as God-
I
Cool
a PiTTHci
Ui. 1-3
Saction of Page (Reduced)— Anna, ii, 11-13, biU Abdiaf
MS. in tmpertBl Library. St. Peteraburi
lateradded four Bupplementary Hats of 110,52, 37, and intended. In Gen., ii, 4, □tnSTIS ("when they w«n
76&^S. He brought the number of Maasoretic MSS. created"), all MSS. have a small n. Jewish sdiolara
up to 1375. No one has since undertaken so colossal a looked upon this peculiarity as inspired; they inter-
critical study of the Hebrew MSS. A tew of the chief preted it: "In the letter n he created them"; and then
MSS. are more exactly collated and compared in the set themselves to find out what that meant. This
critical editions of the Massoretic text which were lack of variants in Massoretic MSS. leaves ua bopelew
done by S. Baer and Er. Delitzsch and by Ginsburg. of reaching back to the original Hebrew text oave
To the vast number of Hebrew MSS. examined by throng the versions. Kittel in his splendid Hebrew
Kennicott and De Rossi must be added some 2000 text gives such variants as the versions suggest.
USS. of the Imperial Library of St. Petersburg, which
Firkowitsch collated at Tschutut-Kale (" Jews'
Rook") in the Crimea (see Struck, "Die biblisehen
und massoretischen Handschriften zu Tschufut-
Kale" in"ZeiU. fOrluth. Theol. und Kirche", 1876).
(3) Worth. — The critical study of this rich assort-
ment of about aiOO Massoretic rolls and codices is not
ao promising of important results as it would at first
thou^t seem to be. The MSS. are all of quite receut
date, it compared with Greek, latin, and Syriac cod-
ices. They are all singularly alike. Some few vari-
ants are found in copies made for private use; copies
made for public service in the synagogues are so uni-
form as to deter the critic from comparing them.
Massoretic MSS. bring us back to one editit
ft textual tradition which probably began
Hahkavt, Colaloe Art bibr. BOoUoiKlKAn/M
_. .1 BAlialick (Leipiig. 18751: NsnaADxa, Fa^
similaof Hrbrm MSS. ill till Bedt^n Library (Oxioni, IS06): Nbdbacbr. CatalBs^i ofOieHrbrea UmiucTipl* in Iha BmfMaa Librarv and in tin CoUrge Libraria a) Oifor^ (Oxford, IBH): Khaft AMD DEirracn, Bit handttJiri/a. htbrOitdun Wtrir iit K. K. HBfbihtioOiiie (Vienna, 1857); t^EiNBCBHDDBB. £>» W- bmitch. Handarhriflm dtr K. Ho/, und SlaatMtiliiiOitk (MimMk isas): ScuiLuiR-SiiNEssi. Calaloffut of tht HtbraB USS. pr*- ttrvrd in Ui4 UniBtrritu Library (Cambridge, 1878); AmmMtMU Biblialhtfa AtiotlaJioi Vaticana codicrt Oruralaia (Ron*, 1750): Mai, Appendix Is Avnnani (Rome, 1831).
III. Greek MSS.— (1) In General.— Greek MSS.
are divided into two classes according to their style
of writing— uncials and minuscules, (a) Uneiala were
... __.. written fetween the fourth and tenth oenturiee, with
■that of large and disconnected letters. These lettera were not
' " " capital8,buthadadiatinctivefonn:ep3iloE "'" " ""
ood txDtiay and became more and more minute imtil omega were not written £, X, (I, a
e those oaEat«lt
