The order of books as found in our present Hebrew Bibles is that of the Masorites, and differs from that given in the Talmud, as the following table will show :
as, for instance, the books of Ben-Sira and Ben-Toglah, brings confusion into his house." Accordingly, Eccle-, siasticus is not included in the canon of Melito, Ori- gen, Cyril, Laodicea, Hilary, Kufinus, etc.; and though Augustine, like the Talmud and the Midrashim, con- stantly quotes it, yet he, as well as the ancient .Jewish authorities, distinctly says that it is not in the Hebrew- canon (/> Civil. Dei, xvii, 20). Goinp. also Jerome, Prol. in Libr, Solom., where he says that Ecdesiasti- cus should be read "for the instruction of the peo])le (plebis), not to support the authority of ecclesiastical doctrines."
2. The Alphabet. — It is difficult to determine with precision the time at which the square character was perfected. Origen and Jerome ascribe the invention to Ezra, and so does Jose ben-Chalafta, who flourished be- tween A.D. 138 and 1G4. In the Talmud we find descrip- tions and allusions to the form of Hebrew letters which precisely suit the square alphabet ; and even in the Mishna, which was completed in the 3d century of our *ra, traces occur of the same. In our own days the ex- istence of the Hebrew square alphabet before the Tal- mudic jera has been proved by the discovery of some tombstones in the Crimea, a few of which even bear the date A.D. 6 and 30 (comp. Geiger, Jiidische Zeitschrift, iii, 128-133, 237 ; iv, 214 sq.). But these stones cannot
1. Genesis rT'irXin
2. Exodus 11172":;
3. Leviticus S~p"'1
4. Numbers ^3"T3j
5. Deuteronomy D^llST
1. Joshua rirnn"'
2. Judges B"^i:2VJ
3. I and II Samuel bxi^a':;
4. I and II Kings d-^^blD
5. Isaiah niyO"'
6. Jeremiah niTDTi
7. Ezekiel bxpfni
S. XII Miuor Prophets. nr" ^in
1. Psalms nibnn
2. Proverbs ^b i!:T3
3. Job -11N J
4. Song of Solomon.... ninim "li'iTl
5. Ruth nil I
C. Lamentations n3"^X, msp !■
7. Ecclesiastes nbtlp |
S.Esther "inoS J
9. Daniel bX'^JT
10. Ezra and Neliemiah.XTfS
11. I and II Chronicles.. ni?3in I'nn'n
The Law,
( min
Earlier,
I Later,
I QiDTinX I
J
Proi>hefs,
=■^133
The Five Rolls,
HagioEjrapha,
Talumd. Miisorah.
1
2 3 4 5 f 6 7 8 9 12 10 11 13 15 17 IG 19 14 20 18 22 21 23 124
Besides these twenty-four books, the Talmud also quotes from the apocryphal book Jesus ben-Sira, better known under the name o( Ecclesiasticus, as the passages given in the art. Ecclesiasticus indicate. But, in spite of this book being quoted so often, we are distincth' told that it is not canonical. Thus Yada'im, ch. ii, says, "The book of Ben-Sira, and all the other books written after its time, are not canonical" (CiT^n PX ""'Xw':'^ "(J'^X). Again, the declaration made by R. Akiba, that he who studies uncanonical books will have no portion in the world to come (Mishna, Sanhedr. x, 1), is explained by the Jerusalem Talmud to mean " the books of Ben-Sira and Ben-Laanah ;" and the Midrash on Coheleth, xii, 12 remarks, "Whosoever introduces into his house more than the twenty-four books (i. e. the Sacred Scriptures),
be relied upon, and the forgery has been made manifest by Dr. H. Strack, .4 . Firkowitsch v. seine Entdechingen (Leips. 187G). In the Talmud, however, we are dis- tinctly told not to change X and ", 3 and 3, 5 and S, 1 and ~, n and n, 1 and '', T and ", 12 and S, □ and 0 (Shabbath, fol. 103, col. 2). The Talmiul also knows the five final letters "J, r], y, "j, D (ibid. fol. 104, col. 1), which were probably used to render reading more easy by dis- tinguishing one word from another (thus, rX72"'n?X [the third and fourth words of the Heb. Bible] might be read nX"0 "^nbx," God is dead"). The Talmud, again, not only mentions the so-called taf/f/in (T'Sr, d"i"irD), or calligraphic ornaments on the letters y, 5, T, 5, l3, V, "O (Menachoth, fol. 29, col. 1 sq. ; Shabbath, foL 89, col. 1 ;
TALMUD
188
tal:\iud
fol. 105, col. 2), but also gives different combiuations of the alphabet, as
hj, c;^ 3-j, nn, vi, z,^, yn, pn, 13, an, rx nr, *,T, nri, pbn, yzi, r,-5, "1:2, anx r=, v^, "n::, pn, •,':, rp, sn, on, ',;, nn, hn.
The first of these combinations is remarkable on ac- count of Jerome having so contiilently applied it to the woril Sfies/uik; "jTl"-, in Jer. xxv, 26, it being the same
asbnn.
3. The Vmr el-point.^. — See that article.
4. Division of Words. — Hebrew was originally writ- ten, like most ancient languages, without any divisions between the words, in a scriptio contimta, which fact ac- counts for the various readings in the Sept., as (ien. vii, ll,D"i-l"r>' for D"'-' "lU,""; xx, 16, nnz: lbs for ^3 nniJI; xl, 17, b = 5t nb:^ for b:X^ hz-2, etc.; 1 Sam. i, 1, qi:: 'n, Alex, tv Na(Ti/3, ^Z•':i^:^2 ; Psa. ix, 1, r""cb>' for TTa h'J, etc. But there is no doubt that a division of words already existed in the time of tlie Talmud; at least the final letters, which are already mentioned, may have served such a purpose ; and in Menachoth, fol. 30, col. 1, the space between the woriis in the sacred ^ISS. is fixed with precision. Whether or not this division of words by points — as used in the Sa- maritan Pentateuch — was applied, must be left undeter- mined.