not mentioned in reference to their religion, as Ex. 21. 2. Gen. 43. 32. 1 Sam. 13. 3, 7. The name is supposed by the Hebrews themselves to be derived from Eber, an ancestor of Abraham, but as nothing is said of him in the Scriptures tending to give him notoriety as a historical personage, others have maintained that the epithet was applied to Abraham from his coming from beyond the Euphrates, meaning over or beyond; and Hebrew implying one that came from beyond the Euphrates. This appellation it is supposed originated with the ancient inhabitants of Canaan, into whose territory Abraham emigrated. For ourselves, we believe the evidence preponderates in favour of the former derivation, but the point is one of comparatively little moment, so far as it concerns the language, which can only be called Hebrew after the usual name of the nation. This name, as a name of the language, occurs not in the O. T., because in general there is little mention of language in it. In Is. 19. 18, it is called the 'language of Canaan,' where Canaan, as a land, is opposed to Egypt. Again, in Is. 36. 11, 13, we find it alluded to under the denomination of the Jews' language' which, however, properly means only the dialect of the Hebrew spoken in the kingdom of Judah, though that dialect, after the conquest of Samaria, gained the entire ascendancy. The title holy tongue (3) was first applied to the old Hebrew in the Chaldee versions, as being the language of the holy books in contradistinction to the lingua profana, i. e. the vernacular Chaldaic. In like manner in India the Sanscrit is called the holy tongue, from the sacred books being written in it, in opposition to the common spoken language of the country.

In the time of the New Testament, under the appellation Hebrew (Gr. &ẞpaiori, &ßpais diaλEXTOS) is to be understood the prevailing Syriac or Syro-Chaldaic dialect then spoken in Palestine in contradistinction from the Greek, although Josephus, by λwooα Twv &ẞpawv, uniformly alludes to the old Hebrew.

3. Historical Sketch. It is not a little remarkable, that at the time when the Pentateuch was written, the Hebrew had reached nearly, if not quite, its highest point of structure and

developement. The natural inference from this fact would be, that it must have been spoken and cultivated a long time previous to that period. But as all historical documents fail us relative to its earlier stages, nothing positive can be affirmed on this head. From the era of Moses, however, to the Babylonish captivity, which has been termed its golden age, it is certain that it underwent few changes. During this period the Hebrews experienced few of those influences which materially affect a language. They advanced but slightly towards a more refined civilization; were never long subject to foreign powers; and had but little intercourse of any kind with people speaking different tongues from their own. Their language advanced little, therefore, in developement, and suffered little from corruption. There are, however, in the Pentateuch, some important characteristics which afterwards disappear, and many of these have become less perceptible by us, in consequence of the more modern punctuation having treated all words according to one standard, and that the standard of the language at a late period.

4. What is termed the golden age of the Hebrew, includes the largest half of the Old Testament books, viz. the Pentateuch, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings; of the poetical, Job, the Psalms, the Proverbs, and the older prophets in the following order-Jonah, Amos, Joel, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, Nahum, Zephaniah, Habakkuk, Obadiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. The two last, with several of the Psalms, and perhaps some parts of Isaiah, are of a period bordering upon the next or silver age.

5. This second, or silver age, of the Hebrew language and literature, extending from the return from the captivity to the time of the Maccabees, or about 160 years, is distinguished especially by a nearer approximation to the cognate East Aramaic, or Chaldee dialect, with which, from its affinity with their own tongue, the Jews in Babylon became easily familiar. This dialect they in fact brought with them on their return, and being generally adopted as the vernacular of the nation, it continued to exercise a growing influence upon the old Hebrew, till at length, about the time of Christ, it had superseded it alto

gether. The Old Testament writings, which belong to this second period, and in which a Chaldaic tincture is more or less apparent, are the books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther; the prophetical books of Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, Daniel; and, according to some of the German critics, the poetical ones of Ecclesiastes, Solomon's Song, and some of the later Psalms; all which they affirm, contain numerous instances of pure Ara

mæisms.

These Aramaic or Chaldaic peculiarities display themselves either in words, forms, or significations. Of the former, we find

instead of the ancient ny time, 3p for p to take, id for yp an end, for to rule. In forms, the scriptio plena mode of writing the vowels i and (§6. 4.) is very common, as 77 (elsewhere 777) David, zip for wp, in for ; the interchanging of final ♫ and §; the very frequent use of substantives ending in i, 17, 57, &c. In signification, we have to say, used in the sense of command, to answer, applied to commencing an address, and Dip holy ones, employed as a term for angels.

6. Throughout its different periods, the Hebrew exhibits a twofold diction, viz. the prosaic and the poetic. The character of the Hebrew prose is simplicity and artlessness, with vivid descriptive power, occasionally rising, where the subject is inspiring, to the purest sublime. The poetic diction is of a very peculiar character. Its essence consists in luxuriant copiousness, inexhaustible variety, and a vast flexibility, as it possesses a much greater abundance of words and formations than prose, of which many are entirely peculiar to itself. This opulence of poetic diction, is derived partly from its zealously retaining what died out of the language of daily life, and partly from its recruiting itself from time to time, from the rich and manifold popular dialects, by the adoption of new matter and forms.

The following may be cited as specimens of the poetic peculiarities of the Hebrew. In the choice of words, we note the use of

= to come אָתָה; דֶּרֶךְ » מִכָּה ; בּוֹא

- may ארח ; אָדָם man, instead of אֱנוֹשׁ

=

TT

word. To the poetical meanings of words belongs the use of certain epithets for substantives, as the mighty. i. e. God; applied also to a bullock; the white, i. e. the moon,

the

beloved, i. e. one's own life. In the department of formations, we

; עַד עֲדֵי ; אֶל-אֲלַי ; עַל-עֲלֵי find the plural forms of prepositions, as

paragogic letters,,, ., i, frequently added to nouns; the suffixes in, in, in, instead of D, D., D, D.; and the plural ending 1. for. In the Syntax there is to be observed the rarer use of the article, of the relative, of the accusative, and of the apocopated future.

7. Grammatical cultivation.-Not long after the Hebrew had ceased to be a spoken language, and the collection of the sacred books was completed, these writings began to be the subject of critical and explanatory labours, and also to be translated into the languages of the surrounding nations. Of the translations, the first was that undertaken at Alexandria under Ptolemy Philadelphus, usually termed the Septuagint, or the Greek Version of the Seventy, of which it will be unnecessary here to give a particular account. At a somewhat later period appeared in Palestine and Babylon the Chaldee Translations or paraphrases, commonly denominated Targums (1 interpretations), respecting which the reader may find in various Biblical treatises the most ample information. As to their explana tions, if such they may be called, they are made up chiefly of alleged traditions, and have respect exclusively to the civil and ritual law, and to doctrine, possessing as little claim to a truly scientific character, as the remarks upon the readings, which constitute another department of their so-called critical labours. Both are contained in the Talmud, of which the first part (the Mishna) was composed in the third century, and the second (the Gemara) in the sixth, and both are written in a mixed dialect made up of Hebrew and Chaldee.

To the period intervening between the completion of the Talmud and the first strictly grammatical treatises, is probably to be referred the vocalization of the hitherto unpointed text, as well as the collection of critical remarks called the Masora, from which the text in its present state is distinguished by the epithet Masoretic. For a fuller account of the Masora, see Appendix.

The example of the Arabians prompted the earliest efforts

at grammatical institution among the Jews. The first rude essays of Saadias have been long since lost, but manuscript treatises written in Arabic by R. Juda Chiug and R. Jona ben Gannach, still exist, a judicious use of which has given to R. David Kimchi in great measure his reputation as a first rate grammarian. From these early writers originated many of the devices and technicalities which have come down to us, and still hold their place in Hebrew grammar; as, for example, the naming of the conjugations and the irregular verbs after the paradigm, and the use of memorial words, such as Begadkephath, Ehevi, Hemanteev, &c. In general, however, no enlarged or philosophical views of the internal structure and genius of the Hebrew are to be found in the works of Rabbinical writers. It may suffice, therefore, simply to give the names and eras of the most distinguished of the Jewish grammarians.

R. SAADIAS GAON, or Saadias the Excellent, President of the Academy at Sora near Babylon (died A. D. 942), wrote a work entitled Book of the Holy Tongue. Of this nothing is known except from the quotations of the later Rabbins.

R. JUDAH CHIUG, called the head or chief of Grammarians, was a physician at Fez in Morocco, and lived about A. D. 1040. He, as well as Saadias, wrote in Arabic, and his work, which has never been printed, treats principally of the niceties of the language, especially as connected with the quiescent letters in the irregular verbs.

R. JONAH BEN GANNACH, a physician of Cordova (lived about A. D. 1120), wrote the first complete Hebrew Grammar under the title of the Book of Splendour. A copy of this work (in Arabic) exists in a scarcely legible MS. at Oxford, divided into three parts, of which the last has been translated into Hebrew. He is also author of a work supplementary to that of R. Chiug on the irregular verbs.

R. ABEN EZRA of Toledo (died A. D. 1174), the most profound, acute, and liberal minded of the Rabbis, wrote a work entitled The Book of Balances of the Holy Tongue, translated by Heidenheim, 1808, and another entitled The Book of Elegancy. He is distinguished for an independent vein of think