OF THE HEBREW TEXT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.
THE Hebrew Text has of course been inherited by us from the ancient Jews. The Text which has long been the common working-book of students is that of Van der Hooght 1703), revised by Hahn, Theile, and others. No one seems yet to have dealt with the criticism of the Old Testament Text in the same masterly way as has been done for the New Testament by Griesbach, Lachmann, and their followers. It is wise not to depart from the Masoretic Text:' so thought even the free critic De Wette. Some compensation for the want of a standard critical Text is to be found in the carefully edited Texts of Baer, already alluded to, brought out under the auspices of Professor Delitzsch. They are furnished with useful critical notes, and ample use has been made both of MSS. and Editions. The following are all that have as yet appeared: Genesis, Ezra and Nehemiah (with Daniel), Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Isaiah, and the Minor Prophets.
It will be well in this place to say a little of the Editions, that is, the printed copies of the Hebrew Bible, of course in the main founded upon Manuscripts, of which we have yet to speak. Until the vast stride made in printing, the Bible necessarily was available only in a written form. Nothing belonging to ways and means contributed more to the spiritual enlightenment of modern times than the development of the art by which, of all books, copies of The Book can be multiplied and issued in a form and at a price to suit the wants or means of all classes of readers. As it will be convenient to the student to have the materials with one or other of which he should work at the Hebrew described in a continuous list, we shall next shortly speak of the chief critical editions of the Old Testament.
The first complete printed Hebrew Bible was that published at Soncino in 1488. But the strictly critical editions begin with:—
The Complutensian Polyglott (1,517) brought out under the auspices of Cardinal Ximenes at Alcala in Spain. It contains the Hebrew with the LXX and Latin in parallel columns. For its characteristic readings see Delitzsch's Complutensische Varianten.'
Bomberg's Rabbinical Bible of 1526 was edited by Jacob ben Chajjim. This is the Hebrew Text settled by the Masora—or Massorah, the body of Jewish traditional textual criticism—rather than by MSS. It has however been the staple of later editions. It contains Rabbinical commentaries opposite to the original Text, and what is called the Great Masora,' besides some variant readings.
Buxtorf's Rabbinical Bible (1618) is useful for the Targums, and for the commentaries of the Rabbins. It, like Bomberg's Bible, contains the Masora and lists of readings. The editor was the most learned Christian Hebraist of his day.
Walton's Polyglott (1657) contains the Hebrew, and amongst other versions, the Greek, Latin, Samaritan, and Syriac, with the Targum, in parallel columns, and lists of variations to which we shall have to refer again. Walton says he has followed the Texts of the Complutensian and the Paris Polyglott (1645).
Norzi's edition (1745) represents a revision of the Text by one whom De Rossi, the chief Christian textual critic, has called that greatest of Jewish critics.'
Kennicott 1776-1780: the opus magnum of the well-known pioneer of Old Testament textual criticism.
What is known as Mendelssohn's Bible, now just half-a-century old, is the chief Jewish revision of the Text. It is the best edition of the whole Hebrew Bible that a scholar can at present possess.
A useful book for the Hebrew, LXX, and Vulgate combined, is Stier and Theile's Polyglott; but the Text there employed for the LXX is not a good one: in using the book recourse should still be had to a critical Text of that Version.
The beautifully printed Biblia Sacra Polyglotta ' of Bagster contains the Hebrew Text, with the Greek and Latin, and also the common English, German, French (Ostervald), Italian and Spanish versions, side by side, and the Samaritan Pentateuch in Hebrew characters at the end of the first volume. We shall notice modern versions in a later chapter.