The controversies of the IGth century respecting the late origin of the vowel-marks and accents are well known. Both are with the Jews the authoritative ex- ponents of the manner in which the text is to be read : " Any interpretation," sa}'s Aben-Ezra, " which is not in accordance with the arrangement of the accents, thou shalt not consent to it, nor listen to it." If in the books of Job, Psalms, and Proverbs the accents are held by some Jewish scholars to be irregularly placed (Mason and Bernard's Grammar, ii, 235 ; Delitzsch's Com. on the Psalter, vol. ii), the explanation is probablj' that in those books the rhythm of the poetry has afforded the means of testing the value of the accentuation, and has consequently disclosed its occasional imperfections. Making allowance for these, we must yet on the whole admire the marvellous correctness in the Hebrew Bible of both the vocalization and accentuation. The diffi- culties which both occasionally present, and which a superficial criticism would, by overriding them, so easily remove, furnish the best evidence that both faithfully embody, not the private judgments of the punctuators, but the traditions which had descended to them from previous generations.
Besides the evidences of various readings contained in the Keris of the Masorah, we have two lists of differ- ent readings purporting or presumed to be those adopt- ed by the Palestinian and Babylonian Jews respectively. Both are given in Walton's Polyglot, vol. vi. The first of these recensions was printed by R. Jacob ben-Chayim in the Bomberg Bible edited by him, without any men- tion of the source whence he had derived it. The dif- ferent readings are 216 in number: all relate to the consonants, except two, which relate to the Mappik in the n. They are generally of but little importance : many of the differences are orthographical, many iden- tical with those indicated by the Keris and Kethibs. The list does not extend to the Pentateuch. It is sup- posed to be ancient, but post-Talmudic. The other recension is the result of a collation of MSS. made in the 11th century by two Jews, R, Aaron ben-Asher, a Palestinian, and R. Jacob ben-Naphtali, a Babylonian. The differences, 864 in number, relate to the vowels, the accents, the IMakkeph, and in one instance (Cant. viii, 6) to the division of one word into two. The list helps to furnish evidence of the date by which the punctuation and accentuation of the text must have been completed. The readings of our MSS. commonly accord with those of Ben-Asher.
It is possible that even the separate Jewish academies may in some instances have had their own distinctive standard texts. Traces of minor variations between the standards of the two Babylonian academies of Sura and Nahardea are mentioned by De Rossi (Proleg. § 35).
From the end, however, of the Masoretic period on.
OLEARIUS
342
OLEARIUS
ward, the Masorah became the great authority by which the text given in all the Jewish MSS. was settled. It may thus be said that all our MSS. are Masoretic : those of older date were either suffered to perish, or, as some think, were intentionally consigned to destruction as incorrect. Various standard copies are mentioned by the Jews, by which, in the subsequent transcriptions, their MSS. were tested and corrected, but of which none are now known. Such were the Codex HUM in Spain ; the Codex ACgyptius, or Uierosobjmitanus, of Ben-Asher; and the Codex Babyhnius of Ben-Naphtali. Of the Pentateuch there were the Codex Sinaiticus, of which the authority stood high with regard to its ac- centuation ; and the Codex Hierichuntinits, which was valued with regard to its use of the mati-es lectiotiis; also the Codex Ezra, or Azarah, at Toledo, ransomed from the Black Prince for a large sum at his capture of the city in 13G7, but destroyed in a subsequent siege (Scott Porter, Princ. of Text. Crit. p. 74).
The subsequent history of the O. T. text is discussed under Criticism, Saceeo.
II. Commentaries. — The following are the special ex- egetical helps on the entire O. T. exclusively (in addi- tion to the Rabbinical Bibles [q. v.]), the most impor- tant of which we designate by an asterisk prefixed : Augustine, Exegetica (in 0pp. iii) ; Damianus, Collec- tanea (in Oj^i. iv, 74 sq.); Antonius, Exjyositio [mys- tical] (in 0pp. St. Francis, p. 464); Sol. ibn-Melek, '^S'' '^30 (Constantinople, 1533, fol. ; ed. Abendana, n. d. ; ed. Uri ben-Ap., Amst. 1661, fol.; ed. D. Tartas, ib. 1685, fol.) ; Munster, Biblia Latina [chiefly Rab- binical] (Basil. 1546, fol.; also in the Critici Saci-i); Broughton, Treatises [on various parts] (in Wo7-ks) ; *Osiander, Expositiu (Tub. 1578-86, 7 vols. 4to, and often afterwards); Drusius, Comment arii [on most of the books] (at various places in parts, 1595 sq., mostly 4to) ; also. Vet. interpret. Grcecorum fragmenta (Arnob. 1622, 4to) ; Parens, Com.mentarii (in 0pp. i) ; Althing, Commentarii [on certain parts] (in 0pp. ii); Maldona- tus, Commentarii [on most of the books] (Par. 1643, fol.) ; Abram Nicolai, Pharus [dissertations] (Par. 1648, fol.) ; Malvenda, Commentarii (Lugd. 1650, 5 vols, fol.) ; Anon., Adnotationes (Cantab. 16.53; Amst. 1703, 8vo) ; Richardson, Observations (Lond. 1655, fol.) ; Cappel, Commentarii (Amst, 1689, fol.) ; Burmann, Erlddrung [Gen. to Job] (Frankf. 1709, fol. ; earlier in Dutch in parts) ; Jarchi (i. e. Rashi), Commentarius (ed. Breit- haupt, Gotha, 1710, 5 vols. 4to) ; Le Clerc, Commentarius (Amst. 1710 sq., 4 vols, fol.); Pyle, Parap/irase (Lond. 1717 sq., 1738, 4 vols. 8vo) ; Patrick and Lowth, Com- mentary (Lond. 1738, 4 vols. fol. ; earlier in parts sepa- rately); *Wi.cha.t\i9, Adnotationes (Hal. 1745,3 vols. 4to) ; Menoche, Commentarii (Vienna, 1755, 4to) ; Hou- bigant, N'otce (Franc. 1777, 2 vols. 4to) ; Alfonso Nicolai, Bissertazioni (\''en. 1781-2, 12 vols. 8vo) ; Schulze, Scholia (Norimb. 1783-90, 9 vols. 8vo); Kennicot, Re- marks [on certain passages] (Oxf. 1787, 8vo) ; Digby, Lectures (Dubl. 1787, 8vo); Orton, Exposition [practi- cal] (Shrewsb. 1788; Lond. 1822, 6 vols. 8vo) ; *Rosen- miiller. Scholia (Lips. 1788 sq., and several times since, 23 vols. 8vo); Paulus, Clavis (Jen. 1791-1827, 2 vols. 8vo); Augusti and Hiipfner. Exeg. Uandb. (Lpz. 1797- 1800, 9 pts. 8vo) ; De Rossi, Scholia (Parm. 1799. 8vo) ; Boothroyd, Notes (Pontef. 1810-16, 2 vols. 4to) ; *Hit- zig, Knobel, Thenius, and others, Kurzgef. Exeg. Ilandb. (Lpz. 1833 sq. 17 pts. 8vo) ; Bottcher, Aehrenlese (Lpz. 1833-5, 3 vols. 8v()); Ilolden, Expositor (Lond. 1834, 12mo) ; *Maurer, Commentarius (Lips. 1835-8. 4 vols. 8vo); Philippson, Erlaut. [.lewish] (Lpz. 1839-56, 1858, 3 vols.4to); *Keil and Delitzsch, Commra^;/- (Lpz. 1861 sq., and several editions, to be completed in about 20 vols. 8vo ; tr. in Clark's Eor. Library, Edinb. 1866 sq.).