IV. }'a/iie of the J\[asorah. — While there is much in the iiasorah that can be regarded in no other light than as laborious trifling, it is far from deserving the scorn which has sometimes been poured upon it. There can l)e no doubt that it preserves to us much valuable tradi- tional information concerning the constitution and the meaning of tlie sacred text. It is the source whence materials for a critical revision of the O.-Test. text can now alone be derived. It is a pity that it is now impos- sible to discriminate the older Trom the more recent of its contents. Wc would earnestly reiterate the wish of Eichhorn, that some one would undertake the "bitter task" of making complete critical excerpts from the Ma- sorah.
V. Literature.— Elias Levita, r~i'lD':n nTlb': (Yen. 1538; German transl. by Semler, Halle, 1770; English transl. by Ginsburg, Lond. 1867) ; Buxtorf, Tiberias, sive Comment. Masoreth. trii^lex histor. didact. crit. (Basle, 1620, 4to); Cappell, CriV.^Sflc. lib.iii; Olaus Celsius, i>e Masora Bisput. ; Leusden, Philol. Ileb., Diss, xxii-xxv -, Walton, Prolegf]. in rolyglott, No. viii; Carpzov, Crit. Sacr. p. 283; Wiihner, Antiq. Hebr. sec. 1, c. 30; Abr. Geiger, Zur Gesch. der Masorah (in the 3d vol. of his Jiid. Zeitschr.fiir Wissensch. u, Leben) ; Frensdorff, Das Buck " Ochlach W'ochlach" (Massora) (Hamburg. 1804, 8vo) ; Hupfeld, Veber eine bisher nnbehamt gebliebene Ilandschrift der Masorah (in Zeitschr. d. deutsch. mor- genl, Gesellsch. xxi, 201 sq.) ; Eichhorn, Einleit. ins A . T. voLi, sec. 140-158; De Wette, Einleit. sec. 90-92; Hii- vernick, Introd. to the 0. T. p. 279 sq. ; Bleek, Einleit. ins A. T. p. 803 sq. ; Ginsburg, Introduction to the Rabbinic Bible by J. ben-Chajim, transl. m the Journal of Sacred Literature for July, 1803. See Criticism, Biblical.
Mas'pha, the name of two places mentioned in the Apocrypha.
1. (MaffffjjijJidB' V. r. Ma(7(Tjj0a.) A place opposite to {KaTivavTi) Jerusalem, at which Judas jMaccabajus and his followers assembled themselves to bewail the deso- lation of the city and the sanctuary, and to inflame their resentment before the battle of Emmaus, by the sight not only of the distant city, which was probably visible from the eminence, but also of the book of the law mu- tilated and profaned, and of other objects of peculiar preciousness and sanctity (1 Mace, iii, 40). As the pas- sage contains an allusion to similar acts of devotion " aforetime in Israel," there is no doubt that it is iden- tical with MizPEii (q. v.) of Benjamin, the ancient sanctuary at which Samuel had convened the people on an occasion of equal emergency (1 Sam. vii, 6). In fact, Maspha, or, more accurately, Massepha, is merely the form in which the Sept. uniformly renders the He- brew name Mizpeh, the modern Kebi-Samicil, a high range in the neighborhood of Jerusalem (Kobiuson, Re- searches, ii, 143). — Smith.
2. (Ma(T0a.) One of the cities which were taken from the Ammonites by Judas MaccabiEus in his cam- paign on the east of Jordan (1 Mace, v, 35). It is un- certain whether the ancient city of Mizpeh of Gilead (Judg. xi, 29, etc.) or Mizpeh of Moab (1 Sam. xxii, 3) is meant. The Syriac has the curious variation of Olim, " salt," and one Greek ]MS. has ti'c "AXf/(rt, another e'lQ 'EaXena, another f /f Af/^ta : but this seems to be a mere arbitrary correction from ver. 26 by some one who thought that the place mentioned in both verses should be the same. Michaelis, however, would combine both readings, and make tlie place Mizpeh-Eltm. Perhaps Josephus also reads Ti^'O, "salt," as he reads MfiXX?; {Ant. xii, 8, 3), which Grimm thinks has arisen from transposition of letters (Ilandb. z. a. Apokr. ad loc).
Mas'rekah (Ileb. Jfasrehah', Hp'lb^, vineyard; Sept. MaaaiKKa, MaaiKKii), a place apparently in Idu- mrea, the native place of Samlah, one of the Edomitish kings (Gen. xxxvi, 36; 1 Chron. i, 47). "The student will observe that while some of these kings are men- tioned with the addition, ' and the name of liis town was,' others are introduced as ' coming from' some other place. Kalisch (ad loc.) remarks that the former seems to comprise native Iduma?ans, the latter foreigners. Eu- sebius and Jerome, however {Onomast. s. v. Masraca), locate Masrcliah in Gebalene, a province embracing the northern part of Edom" (Kitto). "Inteqireted as He- brew, the name refers to vineyards — as if from Sai-al; a root with which. we are familiar in the 'vine of So- rek,' that is, the choice vine ; and, led by this, Knobel {Genesis, p. 257) proposes to place Masrekah in the dis- trict of the Idum^an mountains north of Petra, and along the Haj route, where Burckliardt found ' exten- sive vineyards,' and 'great quantities of dried grapes,' made by the tribe of the Refaya for the supply of Gaza
MASS
863
MASS
and for the Mecca pilgrims (Burckhardt, Syria, p. 418). But this is mere conjecture, as no name at all corre- sponding with Slasrekah has been yet discovered in that locality" (Smith). According to Schwarz {Palest. p. 215), there is still a town, eight miles south of Pctra, called En-Masrak, which he thinks may be the locality. He probably refers to the place marked Ain Mafrah on Palmer's Map, and Ain el-Usdaka on Kiepert's.
Mass (Latin Missa) is the technical term by which tlie Church of Home designates the Eucharistic service which in that Church, as well as in the Greek and other Oriental churches, is held to be the sacrifice of the new law — a real though unbloody offering, in which Christ is the victim, in substance the same with the sacrifice of the cross. It is instituted, Romanists further teach, in commemoration of that sacrifice, and as a means of applying its merits through all ages for the sanctifica- tion of men.