III. Among the Cabalists. — An entirely different atti- tude towards the Old Test, was assumed by the Caba- lists, the .Jewish theosophists of the IMiddle Ages; for the}' endeavored to lay a foundation for their theosoph- ic doctrine and theories formed by fusing Greek and Oriental speculations, together with the Old-Test, reve- lation, in allegorical and mystical interpretations of the Old Test., especially the history of creation in Genesis, and Ezekiel's vision of the chariot of (Jod. For this purpose they availed themselves of the artificial herme- neutical methods of the Talraudical Ilagadah. They not only made use of the four modes of interpretation comprised in the mnemotechnic Pardes, of the Notari- con and Guimatria mentioned above, but also of the Tsiruph (rilT^lt), an anagram which consists in the change of any word into others by the transposition of the component letters, which form various words. Thus n'^'iUXIS, "in the beginning," has been anagramatizcd
UJX n"'")i, " a covenant of fire," to accord with Deut. xxxiii, 2; the Temurah (n"n^n), or permutation, or a change of the letters of the alphabet, by first reducing its twenty-two letters to eleven couples, coupling the first with the last, the second with the one next to the
last, etc., as bD "c"' 21: DH rT 31 :jn p"i 13 cn r,5<,
and then forming mysterious words from the substituted letters. They assert that Jeremiah, in order that he might not provoke the king of Babylon against him by making use of the word Babylon, artfully substituted ~'CCi (Jer. li, 41), and that it is the same as bSD. Without going into details, we will quote the Jewish writer Zunz, who (in his Gottesdknslliche Vortrdr;e, p. 403) characterizes the Cabalistic treatment of Scripture in the following manner; "The contents and significa- tion of the Biblical and Talmudical doctrines were linked on to traditional or self-imagined laws for the regula- tion of the world in the mysteries of the Divine Maj- esty. The secrets of the law became now the deeper sense of the old precepts and opinions when this had been unriddled. It was believed that these secrets had been deposited in the letter of Scripture, but were legi- ble only to the initiated or inspired, who knew how to set free the spirits confined in the words. Thus, then, in all that was given by the Scripture and the Hagadah, men saw a sum of letters and signs, whose arbitrary com- bination led to the unveiling of mysteries, and as the use of similar means occurred already in the Hagadah, such a spiritualizing of the letter, by means of which the connection of Judaism with the eternal order regulating the heavens became known, was held to be the glory of the law, the highest attainment of all exposition, and the final aim of aU wisdom. The contents of the Holy Scriptures, the Halachah as well as the Hagadah, the se- cret doctrine and the results of philosophy — the whole was the bearer of an order which regulated the world; in which God and law were the foundation, the written Word was the symbol, but the alleged body of tradition was the truth. Into that domain of the 'Mercabah' and the ' Bereshith' ['the Chariot' and 'the Creation'], at one time kept at such a distance from the public, ev- erything of expository material which antiquity had bequeathed was gradually drawn in, and was extended into philosophico-mystical systems of Judaism, in writ- ings of the most manifold description." See Cabala.
IV. A mong the Karaites. — Their opposition to Kabbin- ism would also lead them to a rejection of their mode of interpretation. They expounded the Old Test, sim- ply and naturally, and their expositions manifest an obvious effort to reach the true spiritual understandmg. In general they have penetrated deeper into the spirit of the Old Test, than their opponents.
See Hartmann, Die enge Verbindiing des Allen Testa- ments mil dem Neuen, p. 384-731; Hirschfeld, Der Geist der talmudischen AusleguiH/ der Bibel — Erster Theil, 11 u- lachische Exegese (Berlin, 1840); id. Die hagadische Ex- egese (ibid. 1847); Frankel, Vorstndien zu der Sepiua- ginta, p. 1G3-203 ; id. Ueber den Einjluss der paldstinen- sischen Exegese auf die alexandrinische Hermeneutik and Programm zur Eroffimrig des jiidisch-theolog. Seminars zu Breslau (1854); Welte, in the Tiib.theoL Quartal- schrift, 1842, p. 19-58; Hamburger, Reul-EncyUop. s. v. " Exegese ;" Schiirer, Neulestamentliche Zeitgeschichte, p. 44G sq. ; (iriitz, Gesch. d. Juden, iii, 175 sq. ; iv, 55 sq., 427 sq. ; id. in Frankel's Monatsschrift, 1851-52, p. 15C- 1G2; Pinner, Einleititng zur Uebersetzung des Tractates Berachoth, p. 17 b-20 a; Presscl, in Herzog's Real-En- cyklop. XV, ()51 sq.; Zunz, Gottesdienstliche Vort7-dge, p. 58 s(]., 8(5 sq. ; Edersheim, I/ist, of the Jewish Nation, p. 182 sq., 570 sq. ; I'Aacnmcuger, iXeueiitdecktes Judenthum, i, 453 sq. ; Wahlner, Antiquilates Kbrceorum, i,37C-532; Hottinger, Thesaur. Vhilolog. p. 5(30-562; Bodenschatz, Kirchl. Verfassiaig der heutigen Juden, iii, 237-246; I)'A()nine [Ph.], Vet(rum Rabbinorum in Exponendo Pen- taleucho (Paris, 1622); Maimunidcs, Moie Nebuchim (see
SCRIPTURES, HOLY
481
SCRIPTURES, HOLY
Rosenmiillcr's Ihindbuch, iv, 124 sq.); Keil, Intrndurtion to the Old Test, ii, 380 sq. ; Ginsburg, Kabbala/i, p. 48 sq. ; id. Kcdetiiajites, p. 30 sq. ; MargoVMuth, AJodtrn Ju- daism Investii/ated, p. 13 sq. (B. P.)
8CKIPTIIKES, Holy, the term generally applied in the Christian Church, since the 2(1 century, to denote the collective writings of the Old and New Testaments. See Bible. The names Scripture, or " writing" (>) ypa<pi], 2 Pet. i, 20), Scriptures (a'l ypacpai. Matt, xxii, 29 ; Acts viii, 24), /Jolt/ Sci'iptures (itfju ypaiifiaTa, 2 Tim. iii, 15), are those employed in the New Test, to denote exclusively the writings of the Old. See Tks- TAMEXT. About A.D. 180, the term The Holy Sciipt- ures (^at ayiai yf>a(p(u) is used by Theopliilus {Ad Au- tolyc. iii, 12) to include the (iospels. IreniBus (ii, 27) calls tlie whole collection of the books of the Old and New Testaments The JJicine Scriptures {Btiai ypafai), and The Lord's Scriptures (DuminiciS Scripturaj, v, 20, 2). By Clement of Alexandria (Sti-om. vii) they are called the Scriptures (ypacpai), and the inspired Script- ures {a'l BtoTrvsLiaroi ypa(pai). From the end of the 2d and beginning of the 3d century, at which time a col- lection of the New-Test, writings was generally re- ceived, the term came into constant use. and was so applied as to include all the ijonks contained in the ver- sion of the Sept., as well as those of the Hebrew canon. See ScKiPTUKE.