On the Polyi,'lot Bibles : Wolf, ii. 832-304, Iv. OO-IOT ; lo I-ong- Moach, 1. 3:!l-408; Kd. Rcuss in PRE'* xii. 96-103; Frani Delitzsch, Zur Enlttehungsfjesch. der Pohifjlotteubihel des Kar. dinals Ximmes, Leipii|{. 1871, 1878, 1880 (44, 38, and 60 pp.), 4*.
ii. The Manuscript.s.— A. Polls.— The oldest form of book is the roll (n^jp, volu7ncn). Even at the present day the books which are read aloud in the principal |)art of the synagogue service are written in the roll form : namely, the Pentateuch
(.Tj'iBn hep), from which a pardxha is read every Sabbath, and the five Megilloth (nuinque volumina), namely, tlie Song of Songs {read at the Passover), Ruth (at Feast of Weeks), Lamentations (on anniversary of Destruction of Jerusalem by the Chaldajans), Ecclesiastes (at Feast of Tabernacles), Esther (at Feast of Purini).
The material of the rolls is usually parchment ; in the East, leather was also employed. At the beginning and the end there is a wooden roller (C'CO CJ! 'the tree of life'), and the columns that have been read are rolled up on the first of these. Neither vowel signs nor accents are present. In seven parchment rolls at Tzufutkale the present writer noticed a point at the end of each verse, in two of them two points. The letters [■ j M d y r have generally -small ornamental strokes (I'Jn coro- nuUe). Between each book of the Torah four lines are left blank. The whole Pent, is divided into 669 sections (pardshas nvp-;-!), which are called, according to the character of the spaces which separate them, open {apertas nimn5, marked D) or closed (clauscB, niDin9, marked D). The 54 Sabbath pcricopes are marked £33 and DDD respectively (with the exception of the 12th, Gn 47^, at whose commencement the intervening space is only that of one letter). Six words, whose initial letters are inr .t3 (Ps G8'), stand, particularly in Spanish (Sephardic) MSS, at the beginning of a column : nTKia Gn 1', mi.-i' Gn 49*, D'Ksn Ex 14»8, -jC Lv \&, nD Nu 24», and m-yxl Dt 31=» ; in others, par- ticularly the (Jerni.an (Ashkcnazite) MSS, the a and D are represented by Dt 16'" d-dbb" (or 12-^ tdp) and 23^" NsiD. Instead of mi.T some MSS have tzve' of Gn 49" at the commencement of a column. Many copyists begin each column with a new verse, some begin each with the letter wati), D'"!i::j,'n ii. The poetical passages Ex 15 and Dt 32 are written (and even printed) in artistically constructed divisions. On these and other rules to be observed by the writers of rolls, see the Literature. Epigraphs are rare. The rules that have to be observed by a modern copyist of a Torah roll may be learned very conveniently from S. Baer's ed. of the Penta- teuch, Nnip.Ti TsiD.T jipn, Rccdelheim, 1866 and often.
B. MSS in book form. These may contain the whole Bible, or one or two of its four principal parts (Pent., PropheUe priores. Prophetic pos- teriores, Ilagiographa). The material is either parchment or paper (on the employment of the latter see Steinscnneider, Ilandschriftenkunde, p. 18 f., and cf. art. WRITING). The size is very fre- quently quarto ; in ancient times folio is commoner tlian octavo. Almost all codices have vowels and accents. The omi.ssion of the double point soph pa^k at the end of the ver.se is rare (four codd. at Tzufutkale, and cod. Brit. Mus. Orient. 4445 ; see Ginsburg, Introd. p. 473) ; still rarer is the placing of only a single point (cod. Tzufut. 102). — Most MSS contain also mas(s)oi-a, i.e. observations on the number of times that particular words and word-forms occur : mas(s)ora parva (I^irS and KUhibh ; the indication of the number of occur- rences of a word or word-form, e.g. b = twice, ^^^p = 134 times) on the side margins ; »H/j.s(.s)ora mngrui (detailed lists with citation of pa.s.sages) on the top and bottom nuirgins ; mns(s)ora finalis ; some MSS have Ma»(s)orclic material also at the begin- ning. The extent of these observations was regu- lated by the s|)ace avaihiMe, the inclination of the copyist, and the remuneration oll'ered by the man who ordered the cojiy. Some copyists wrote part of the 7/i«.v(.v)oro maqna in figures (animaU, leaves, etc.) formed by elaborate flourishes, so that the reading is at times a matter of no little dilliculty. Such embellishments have also proved not infre- quently detrimental to the accuracy of the copy-
728 TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
Highly valuable, but unfortunately found only in a portion of the MSS, are the epigraplis, especially wnen these give the date, the country, and the name of the scribe. — The punctuation and the mas(s)ora are frequently not from tlie liand of tlie writer of the consonantal text, but liave been added by one or two other scribes. The punctuator is called |^pj.
C. A scientific examination and collating of all ancient or otherwise important MSS of the OT has not as yet been undertaken. Collections of vari- ous readings are given bj' Sal. Norzi, J. H. Michaelis, and B. Kennicott (see above, i. D), J. B. de Rossi (below, J), S. Baer (i. U), and Ch. T>. Ginsburg (i. £). Some of the most important MSS are—
(a) Codex of the Former and the Latter Pro- phets, written by Moses ben Aslier 8'J7 years after the destruction of the temple, i.e. A.D. 895, now in the Karaite synagogue at Cairo. See M. Weiss- mann in the Heb. weekly Uamaij'jid i. (1857), Nos. 47, 48, 50, ii. 16 ; Jacob Sappir, t2D pK, Lyck, 1866, fol. 14 ; on the other side Ad. Neubauer in Studia Biblica, iii. (Oxford, 1891) pp. 25-27.— (b) Bible written by Kyx'n p naHa ; the vowel points, the accents, and the 7nas(s)ora are added, according to an epigraph, by Aaron ben Asher. It is now in the possession of the Jewish com- munity at Aleppo. See Sappir, fol. 12, 13, 17-20 ; Strack, Frolecjomena, pp. 44-46, and in Baer-Strack, Die Dikduke ha-t'nmim des Akron ben Moscheh ben Asclier, Leipzig, 1879, pp. ix-xiv. W. Wickes (Treatise on the accentuation of ike twenty- one so-called prose-boo/cs of the OT, Oxford, 1887, p. Lx) contends that this epigraph ' is a fabrica- tion, merely introduced to enhance the value ' of the codex. The present writer is still doubtful whether Wickes is right. Ginsburg {Introd. p. 242) does not call in question the credibility of the epigraph. — (c) St. I'etersburg Bible written at Cairo m the year 1009 by Samuel ben Jacob, who declares that he copied the codex of Aaron ben Asher. See Harkavj'-Strack, Catalogue, pp. 263- 274. Wickes (I.e.) says, indeed, that the codex ' is much younger,' but the present writer feels certain that he is wrong. Ginsburg, too, believes in the trustworthiness of the epigraphs. — (d) Pro- phetarum pofiteriurum codex Babijlonic n.i Petro- politanus [B3], edidit H. L. Strack, Leipzig, 1876 (449 and 37 pp.), fol. max., written A.D. 916. Re-