1014 REPORT OF NATIONAL MUSEUM, 1896. 



sented in the printed editions of the Old Testament, had gradually been 

 introduced. 



Originally the Hebrew text was written without divisions into chap- 

 ters and verses, and earlier still, no doubt, without divisions into words. 

 Great care, however, was observed to transmit the text correctly. 

 Josei)hus asserts that "no one has been so bold as either to add any- 

 thing' to them, take anything from them, or to make any change in 

 them" (the books of the Bible). Philo Judieus asserts that "the Jews 

 have never altered one word of what was written by Moses," and in the 

 Talmud a scribe is exhorted as follows: "My sou, take care how thou 

 doest thy work (for thy work is a divine one), lest thou drop or add a 

 letter." 



]S"evertheless, it seems likely that errors crept into the text. Accord- 

 ingly, a body of Jewish scholars known as the Massorites labored for 

 eight centuries (the second to the tenth of the Christian era) to fix the 

 text. They added a number of marginal readings where the text was 

 obscure or faulty, introduced a system of punctuation and accents, and 

 made divisions into chapters, paragraphs, and verses. They counted 

 and recorded the number of sections, verses, words, and even letters 

 contained in the different books. The work of the Massorites on the 

 original text of the Old Testament closes with the schools of Aaron 

 ben Asher in Palestine and Moses ben ISTapthali in Babylonia, and 

 it is generally admitted that the text has been handed down to us in 

 a comijaratively pure and trustworthy form. The oldest complete 

 manuscript of the Old Testament which is known dates from the 

 year 1009 A. D. 



The New Testament. — The New Testament Avas written in Greek 

 in its Hellenistic idiom. The original handwork of the authors per- 

 ished early. The oldest manuscripts known date from the fourth 

 century. The canon of the New Testament as it now stands and is 

 accepted by all the churches was fixed by the councils of Hijipo (303) 

 and Carthage (397) under the influence of St. Augustine. The present 

 division of chapters in the New Testament was originated by Cardinal 

 Hugo of St. Caro in the thirteenth century; that of the verses was 

 made in imitation of the Old Testament, and is first found in the 

 Latin translation of the Vulgate, and only as late as 1551 was it placed 

 by Eobert Stephanus on the margin of the Greek text. 



The following specimens were shown: 



Hebrew Bible. Facsimileof Aleppo Codex. (^See plate 38.) The 

 original manuscript is preserved in the synagogue at Aleppo, Syria. 

 It is assigned to Aaron ben Asher (beginning of the tenth century), 

 and considered as one of the best authorities for the text of the Old 

 Testament, but is probably of somewhat later origin.^ 



Fragments of manuscript of the Hebrew Bible. (See plates 

 39 and 40.) Thirteenth century. Containing a portion of the Psalms 



' Wicke's Treatise ou the Accentuation of the Prose Books of the Old Testament. 



