CRITICISM
569
CRITICISM
yeen handed down orally for some centuries, became ifterwardB so extensive as to demand its committal to irriting. Much of what is contained in the Masora exists also in the Talmud. Part of it, howerer, is >ldcr than the Talmnd, thbugh not rednciod to its pres- snt form till a much later period. The yarions obser- rations comprised in the Masora were at first written in separate books, of which there are MSS. extant. A.fterward8 they were pat into the margin of the Bible MSS.
When we speak of the MatoreHc recetuion of the text, it is not meant that the Masoretes gave a certain form to the text itself^ or that they undertook and ex- ecuted a new revision. They made the iextut receptut of that day the basis of their remarks, and gave their sentiments concerning it Had the text been altered in every case where they recommend; had it been made conformable to their ideas of what it should be, it would have been appropriate to have called it the Masoretic recengkm. The designation, however, though not applicable in strictness, is customary.
The most important part of the Masora (q. v.) con- sists of the marginal readings or Keritj which the Ma^ soretes always preferred to the textual, and which the later Jews have adopted. The Kerit are critical, grammctticalf arthograpkiccU, explanatory, and eupht- migtic. It has been a subject of dispute among schol- ars from what source the Masoretes derived the Keris. It is highly probable that they were generally taken fh>m MSS, and tradition, tiiough they may have been in part the oflbpring of conjecture. It is but reasona- ble to suppose that these scholars tomeiimet gave the result of their own judgment. In addition to the Ke- rit the Masora contains an enlargement of critical re- marks found in the Talmud. Besides, the verses, words, and consonants of the diflferent books of the Bible are counted, a task unparalleled in point of mi- nute labor, though comparatively unproBtable.
The application of the Masora in the criticism of the Old Testament is difficult, because its text has fidlen into great disorder. It was printed for the first time in the first Rabbinical Bible of Bomberg, superintend- ed by Felix Pratenais. In the second Rabbinical Bible of Bomberg,. R. Jacob ben-Chayim bestowed considerable care upon the printing of the Masora. At the end of this second Rabbinicfd Bible there is a collection of Oriental and Western readings, or, in other words, Babylonian and PaksUtnan, communicated by the editor, and the result of an ancient revision of the text. The number is about 216. Of the sources from which the collection was drawn we are entirely igj^rant. Judging by the contents, it must be older than many observations made by the Masoretes. It should probably be referred to a period anterior to the introduction of the vowel system, as it contains no al- lusion to the vowels. It is certainly of considerable value, and proves that the Oriental no less than the Western Jews had always attended to the state of the sacred text. In addition to this list, we meet with another in the Rabbinical Bibles of Bomberg and Buxtorf, and in the sixth volume of the London Poly- glot, belonging to the eleventh century. It owes its origin to the labors of Ben-Asher and Ben-Naphtali, the respective presidents of academies in Palestine and Babylon. These readings, with a single excep- tion, refer to the vowels and accents. The vowel sys- tem had therefore been completed when this collection ^^as made.
Here the history of the unprinted text may be said to close. The old unvowelled copies perished. New ones furnished with points and accents came into use. But, although the ancient copies are now irrecovera- l>ly lost, there is no reason for supposing that their preservation to the present time would have had any essential influence in altering the form of the text. "^Q text appears to have been established and settied when the punctuation system was completed. The
labors of the Masoretic doctors have been of substan- tial benefit in maintaining its integrity.
4. From the Inoention cfPrinHng to the present Time, — There are three early editions from which all others have been taken. 1. That published at Soncino (A.D. 1488), which was the first entire copy of the Hebrew Scriptures ever printed. The text is ftimished with the points and accents, but we are ignorant of the MSS. employed by the editor. 2. The second great edition was that in the Complutensian Polyglot (1514 -17) taken fh)m seven MSS. 8. The third was the second Rabbinical Bible of Bomberg, superintended by R. Jacob ben-Chayim (Venice, 1626, 6 vols. fol.). The text is formed chiefly after the Masora, but Span- ish MSS. were used. Almost all modem printed cop- ies have been taken fiom it. The Antwerp Polyglot has a text compounded of those in the second and third recensions just mentioned.
Amofig the editions furnished with a critical appa- ratus, that of Buxtorf, published at Basle 1619, occu- pies a high place. It contains the commentaries of the Jewish Rabbis Jarchi, Aben-ezra, Kimchi, Levi ben-Gerson, and Saadias Haggaon. The appendix is occupied with the Jerusalem Targum, the great Masora corrected and amended, with the various readings of Ben-Asher and Ben-Naphtali
The other principal editions with various readings are those of Seb. M&nster, Jablonski, V an der Hooght, J. H. Michaelis, C* F* Houbigant, and Benjamin Ken- nicott.