New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1898-06-19
FRAGMENTS OF THE BIBLE.
IMPORTANCE AND INTEREST OF ANCIENT
MANUSCRIPTS
THE cAnRRIuGE. CAIRO GENIZAH Is SUPPOSED
T. FURNISH THE OLDEST KNOWS MANU-
scRI~TT or ANY PART OF

THE bible

From Tho London Globc
Dt S,hcchter contributes an article TO The
jewish Chronicle ON the Cambridge cairo Cent
zdh II" saws tn" collections consist not or vol
uii.ee lut ~ separate loose sheets. each 0f them
with a history II It's own which one can onlt
learn b, suhj",tiuE 10 20 examination 10y itself
Tho Identification 81 Biblical fragments gives
To beast trouble. as they arc mostly written In
laf.r square characters These fragments arc
written iu different hands. tcsufyinE % various
photographic ages. AMI many of them ar as'
provided with MdssoretIc notes. or with an un-
familiar system a. rIuctuatlOn. Others are
intcrsp~rsrd with portions OF thu Chalia.o or
Arabic version Tho, an have 10 bc arranged
"nft"r their kind" while as specimens ~ writ
NJ they haze o. h- sorted mt Come kind Of
chronological order.
To- Judge by the writing the Gcnzah fur
ulsh's US with the oldest known manuscripts
II any part Of the Bible Older even than the
Pcntatcuch manuscripts ~ the British Museum
Oriental 4l4!p described ~ dating probably"
from the ninth century. ON one Biblical frag-
ment Dr Schechter continues. | found some
silt letters. Gold ink was well known To- the
Jews Of antiquity. But its use in the writing OF
the Scriptures was early forbidden 10y the rab-
hes The prohibition WAS meant only 20 apply to
copies intended for public reading In the syna-
gogue. But. a. fact. all manuscripts Of the
Bible are singularly free from such Ornamental
ads The fragment In question forms a rare
exception. and must therefore date from an age
when simplicity and uniformity In the materials
used for writing the Bible had not yet become
the rule
WORDS REPRESENTED BY INITIALS
or great rarity. again. are the fragments IN
which all the words except those a the begin
ming o. the verses are represented by initials
only a' FOR Instance I'm the beginning G. e. the
h. a the e" Genesis T. D. That such abbrevia
tons should be employed even in copies OF Holy
writ was only natural In age when the
chiscl and the pen were the only means OF max
ing thought visible. On the strength OF the few
Aubrey atoms they met with in Bible MANI
scripts, Kennicott and other scholars tried to az
count for certain misreading- I'm the Septuasint
The GeniZah has for the FIRST time supplied us
with samples proving that the abbrevation sys-
tenn not limited to certain isolate d works
The particular system represented in the Gen
izah seems to have been known to the old rah-
bios under the name OF Trcllis-~rltins. Or Felix
Ferries, nom his acquaintance with the few
specimens acquired by the Bodleian Library nj
once recognized their significance for the verbal
criticism Of the Bible. and made them the sub
jet Of some apt remarks In a recent ESSAY
The Cambridge collections include such exam |
pies in far greater number and many moro msv |
still be found. They Will probably be edited in |
a volume by themselves, and will. ! have no
uo"p', hIter careful study throw fresh light |
on many an obscure passage IN the different |
versions.
THE VALUE OF PAILMPSESTS
And, after you have taken in the text. mar !
sinal notes. versions, curses and all there |
flashes upon you from between the lines or the |
words a faint yellow mark differently shaped |
from those IN the rest OF the fragment and you
discover that II ls a palimpsest you have I'm |
hand. Your purely Hebrew studies are then AT
an end and you find yourself drifting suddenly
Into Greek Palestinian Syriac Coptc or Geor-
san' just az the case may be Only in two
cases have the palimpsests turned out TO be
iiebre" upon Hebrew. new examination then
begins, and 10 this you have To apply yourself
the more strenuously, inasmuch as the under
writing is usually OF more Importance than the