New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1872-03-10

| ODDOSllT schools anu stCOo: SOV tAO val Ia
tions have been so slight as to change the
meaning of very few sentences: and these
not sufficiently as to modify any important
truth.
We will now glance at the history of the
Hebrew text from the time of Christ. Its
| history. from the time OF writing each book
| to the time of the completion of the canon,
formed part OF the history of their COM
| piation already studied.
The perfect preservation of the text dur
ing the 300 wears following, up to the time
of Christ, may be accepted as fact from
| what has been already stated about the
! Temple and Synagogue copies, and the Sep
| tuagent. To these T1ay be added the Tar
| gum or Explanation of Onkelos of the Pen
| teteuch in the Chaldaic Hebrew, published
| sixty years before Christ. and the Targum
| of Jothathan on the Prophets and historical
| books published near the birth of Christ.
! Targums of the remainder of the Scriptures
| were afterward published, and all of them,
ten in number, are still preserved, and
nearly all printed. They give literal para
| phrases of the original Hebrew.
| In the first century the Septuagent was
mostly used, even to the neglect of the Re
brew Scriptures. This was owing to the
| prevalence Of the Greek language spoken in
those countries, where the Jews mostly
| scattered
In the second century both Jews and
! Christians applied themselves to the study
| of the Hebrew Scriptures. -Four new YER
| sions OF TRANSACTIONS of them were made
| The PershitO (literal) or old Syriac version
| was made for the Christians of Syria.
! Besides this three Greek versions were
| made, one by Aauila. which was afterward
| adopted by the Jews instead of the Septua-
| gent and two for the Ebeonites, or half
| Christians. by Symmachus and Theodotion.
! These versions were extensively used by
| these three opposing parties, each of which
would serve as check on the other.
But as some errors would unavOidably
creep into the text in the third century
Origen undertook the great task of collect
ing, in single volume, the original Hebrew
text, and also the principal Greek versions
in use, and correcting the errors. He ar
ranged his work in six columns; hence it
was called the Hexapla. He had the orr
ginal Hebrew, the same in Greek, the YER
sions of Aquila, Symmachus, the Septuagent
and Theodotion. He worked twenty-eight
years on this task. The work filled fifty
volumes, and about fifty years after his
death it. was found in an obscure corner of
the city of Tyre by Eusebius and Pamphilus.
jerome saw it the middle of the fourth cen
fury. The work is supposed to have per-
ished in A. D. 652, but happily the Septua-
gent column, with its corrections, had been
copied by Eusebius. These portions of the
work have been preserved:
During the second and third centuries
the variations in the Hebrew Scriptures be-
gan to excite the attention of the Jews who
began to collate copies and collect different
readings, which were published in what is
called the Jerusalem Talmud Ito Teach)
about the beginning of the fourth century.
During these centuries the Scriptures were
translated into the Latin language, and cir
culated in the west of Europe. The princi-
pal version was the Old Italc. These YER
sions being more or less imperfect, Jerome
was led to make Latin translation, directly
from the Hebrew. On this work he labored
twenty years, and finished it A. D. 405.
This came to be the standard version of the
Catholic Church. and was the first book
ever printed. The present text is corrupt.
This is called the Vulgate version.
Besides these principal versions in the
East and West before the fifth century
there were many other versions in different
dialects.
1t is evident. therefore, that if we take
the leading versions as our guide. the text
of the Scriptures was carefully preserved
until the sixth century.
We now reach period in which the text
of the Old Testament Scriptures were
studied still more critically by learned men.
In the first centuries after Christ the Jews
were scattered throughout the Roman
empire Some settled in the East and gave
themselves to the study of literature. and
opened schools in which they taught the
Scriptures. One of the most distinguished
of these schools was at Tiberias, in Pales
tine. Jerome mentions it as existing in the
fifth century. Afterward there was a cele-
brated school in Babylon. The doctors of
the Tiberlas school early began to collect
everything critical or grammatical on the
Scriptures that would aid in giving them
the true reading or interpretation They
followed the general idea of the Talmud,
Already referred to. Their collection was
called the "Masorah.' or tradition. These
masoretic notes and criticisms comprise
corrections of the text and observations on it,
and relate to the books, verses, words, letters,
yowel-points and accents. These "MasO-
retes," as these learned men were called,
were the first to divide the books and sec
lions of books into verses. Their criticisms
were carried to great perfection. The
number of the verses in every book
verse of every section was also marked.
Every slight Change in the text was
noted, whether it was in verses, words
or letters The different Specifications
of each was given. The letters even
were numbered and the reverence for the
sacred books was so great that when a letter
was found misplaced some mystery was
supposed to be connected with it. The
Masorets invented the system of vowel
points and accents which has greatly aided
in preserving the proper pronunciation of
the Hebrew. All these critical writings
were published in Bomberg's Rabbinical
Bible in Venice, in 1913 SO. They are printed
on the side of the text and at the end of
each book. Extracts are published in most
Hebrew Bibles, and portions are also found
in many large English Bibles.
What was done in Liberals was also done
in Babylon. Here too was school of
with great care. There was also Baby
lonish Talmud with the same text as the
Talmud of Jerusalem. Following this the
sacred text was subjected to the same Sc
we're scrunity as it had been at Liberals.
In the eighth or ninth century the edi-
tions of these two great schools were col
lated and their different readings given to
us under the names OF the Eastern and
Western Readings. Only about 200 varia-
tons were found; not one in the whole
Pentateuch. Only one related to vowel and
not one affected the sense. Early in the
eleventh century Aaron Ben Asher, presi-
dent of the Liberals school, and John Ben
Naph,ale, president Of the Babylon school,
colla1ed the manuscripts OF the Eastern
and Western Jews The variations were so
slight as not to change the sense OF any
ithNHS. No Dtlttf eNlutUcG cOulu pos
sibly be given Of the perfect preservation
of any text.
From this time forth the Hebrew text has
remained unaltered. Our printed Hebrew
Scriptures follow the edition of Ben Asher.
In the middle of the eleventh century the
learned Jews who removed into Europe
took the If manuscript Scriptures with them,
and IN the twelfth and thirteenth centuries
copies were carefully made. In this work
the SIX most celebrated copies were made
the standard.
Cardinal HUGO de Sanctn Nictnrn u,ho