THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
of Biblical literature in Yale University. Besides his work as editor of The Historical Series for Bible Students (in collaboration with F. K. Sanders; New York, 1899 sqq.), he has published: The Messages of the Bible (1S99 sqq.); Library of Ancient Inscriptions (in collaboration with F. K. Sanders; 1904 sqq.), and The Student's Old Testament (1904 sqq.), he has written Outlines of Hebrew History (Providence, B. I., 1895); The Wise Men of Ancient Israel and their Proverbs (New York, 1895); A History of the Hebrew People: The United Kingdom (1896); A History of the Hebrew People: The Divided Kingdom (1S97); A History of the Jewish People: The Babylonian, Persian, and Greek Periods (1899); The Messages of the Earlier Prophets (1899); The Messages of the Later Prophets (1900); The Messages of Israel's Lawgivers (1902) ; Narratives of the Beginnings of Hebrew History (1904); Israel's Historical and Biographical Narratives (1905); Origin and Permanent Value of the Old Testament (1906) ; Israel's Laws and Legal Precedents (1907); Founders and Rulers of Un ited Israel from Moses to the Divi-
sion of the Hebrew Kingdom (1908) ; Heroes and Crises of Early Hebrew History (1908) ; and Kings and Prophets of Israel and Judah (1909).
KENTIGERN, ken'ti-gern, SAINT: known also as St. Mungo: The apostle of the Strathclyde Britons and patron of the city of Glasgow; according to his twelfth-century lives, b. at Culross, probably in 518; d. in Glasgow Jan. 13, 603. His birth is surrounded with a halo of mystery, and his mother may have been a nun. He was trained in a monastic school at Culross, and in early manhood settled at Cathures (Glasgow) and became bishop of those who had remained Christian from the time of Xinian. Because of attacks from the heathen he went to Wales and founded there the monastery of Llanelwy (St. Asaph) . In 573 the Christians gained the supremacy in the north and Kentigern returned. He reclaimed the Picts of Galloway and the Strathclyde Britons who had lapsed into paganism, visited the land northeast of the Forth, and is even said to have sent missionaries to the islands, to Norway, and to Iceland. His life was written by Jocelin of Furness, c. 1180.
Bibliography: Lives of St. Ninian and St. Kentigern, ed. A. P. Forbes, Edinburgh, 1874; idem, Kalendars of Scottish Saints, pp. 362-373, Edinburgh, 1872; T. MaeLauchlan, The Early Scotch Church, chap, x., Edinburgh, 1865; DNB, xxxi. 26-27; DCB, 603-605 (excellent for sources).
KEPHART, kep'hart, ISAIAH LAFAYETTE: United Brethren; b. in Decatur Township, Pa., Dec. 10, 1832. He studied at Otterbein University, Westerville, O. (1857-61), was licensed to preach in 1859, joined the Allegheny Conference of his denomination, and was at East Salem, Pa., 1861-63. He was chaplain of the Twenty-First Pennsylvania Cavalry throughout the war, and preached at Hummelstown, Pa., 1865-67. He became principal of the public schools of Jefferson, la., 1867; superintendent of schools in Greene County, la., 1869; professor of natural science in Western College, la., 1871, actuary of the United Brethren Aid Society of Pennsylvania, residing at Lebanon, Pa., 1876; professor of mental and moral
science in San Joaquin Valley College, Cal., 1883president of Westfield College, Westfield, 111., 1885editor of The Religious Telescope, the official organ of his denomination, 1889. He has written: Biography of Rev. Jacob S. Kessler (Dayton, O., 1867); Evils of the Use of Tobacco by Christians (1882)- The Holy Spirit in the Devout Life (1904) ; and Life of Ezekiel Boring Kephart (1908).
KERI AND KETHIBH: Words (in the form of Aramaic participles) employed by the Masoretes (see Masorah) to distinguish the pointed or voweled from the unpointed text of the Old Testament. Kethibh, " written " or " what is written," designates the original form of the text of the Old Testament in which the words were represented by their consonants alone; ken, " read " or " what is to be read," refers to the completely vocalized text. Of the kethibh it is necessary to say only that it was intended to represent the form in which all the Hebrew Scriptures were written (without vowels) by their authors, and that after it was adopted as the authorized text, no alteration in the words or letters was ever permitted. The keri serves two main purposes. It makes the exact reading or pronunciation of the words perfectly clear by inserting their vowels; and it is used to correct the possible errors which, perhaps from the very beginning, were observed in the kethibh or traditional text. Since the second purpose could not be attained by introducing notes into the body of the text, the divergences of the keri from the kethibh were pointed out in the margin by characteristic methods and devices which may be observed in any current copy of the Hebrew Bible. As a help to the understanding of them, several modern editions contain a useful Masoretic clavis.
Some common and natural misconceptions may be alluded to. The keri, when cited in the margin, is not always intended as a substitute for the kethibh or official reading. It often merely records a traditional variant reading. Nor, on the other hand, was the kethibh made an unchangeable text because it was thought to be infallible. The official text (authorized not long after the destruction of Jerusalem, 70 a.d.), was chosen not because it was perfect but because it was thought to be the most correct, and because a single archetype was (perhaps wisely) deemed necessary. This is proved by the fact that even the accidental peculiarities of the copy thus chosen were retained and still remain. Again, the Masoretes or Jewish editors did not establish or even seek to influence the keri or the traditional readings as marked by the vowel signs. The received form of words goes back to times several centuries before the Masoretes began their work. It was perpetuated chiefly by the synagogal services (see Synagogue) ; and, of course, without the pronunciation of the words the kethibh itself could not have been preserved.
J. F. McCdrdy.
Bibliography: C. D. Ginsburg, Introduction to the Ma>soretico-Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible, London, 1897; F. G. Kenyon, Our Bible and the Ancient MSS., lb. 1896; T. H. Weir, A Short Hist, of the Hebrew Text of the O. T., ib. 1899. Much of the literature in the bibliography under Bible Text, I., contains information on the subject.