in the triple Inscriptions of the Persians, &c. 301 
scribe and doctor of the law, after the capture of Jerusalem, and restoration of 
the Temple, under the direction of Zorobabel, invented other letters that we 
now make use of; whereas, up to that time, the shape of the Hebrew and 
Samaritan elements was the same.”* But if the characters in question were 
the gift of Ezra, or were new in his day, or were his invention, they hardly 
could have been previously in use among the Babylonians. The passages, there- 
fore, which are relied on to prove a Pagan origin of the modern Hebrew letters, 
rather, as far as they bear upon the point, conduct to the very opposite conclu- 
sion ; and the first semblance of any warrant for such an origin of those letters 
is presented to us in the Talmuds of Jerusalem and Babylon,—books of tradi- 
tions, with comments thereon, which the Jews did not begin to commit to writing 
till about the middle of the fifth century.+ In both editions of the Mishnah, 
the writing in which the text of the Hebrew Scriptures has been transmitted is 
novis characteribus.— Husebii Chronicon Greco-Armeno-Latinum, Venetiis editum, liber prior, 
p- 190. In the version of Hieronymus the same passage is rendered thus: ‘‘ Anno mundi 4742, 
Artaxerxis anno sexto, Ezra sacerdos apud Hebreos insignis agnoscitur, cujus «tate pontifex 
maximus habitus est Necliasib filius Joachim, filii Jesu, filii Josedech. Fuit autem Ezras erudi- 
tissimus legis divine, et clarus omnium Judaworum magister qui de captivitate regressi fuerunt in 
Judzeam: affirmaturque divinas Scripturas memoriter condidisse et, ut Samaritanis non misce- 
rentur, litteras Judaicas commutasse.”—Eusebii Chronicon quod Hieronymus Latinum facere 
curavit, Henrico Stephano editum, fo. 67. But Hieronymus admits, in his preface to this ver- 
sion, that he made many additions to the original from the works of later authors, in the follow- 
ing terms: ‘“‘A Troja capta usque ad vicesimum Constantini annum, nunc addita, nune mixta 
sunt plurima, que de Tranquillo et ceteris illustribus historicis curiosissime excerpsimus.’’ The 
Armenian version, therefore, is more to be depended on, than that of Hieronymus, for the exact 
sense of the lost passage of Eusebius. 
* Samaritani etiam Pentateuchum Mosis totidem litteris [scilicet 22] scriptitant, figuris tantum 
et apicibus discrepantes: certumque est Esdram scribam, legisque doctorem, post captam Ieroso- 
lymam, et instaurationem Templi sub Zorobabel, alias litteras reperisse quibus nunc utimur; 
quum ad illud usque tempus iidem Samaritanorum et Hebreeorum characteres fuerint.—Hiero- 
nymi Opera, Ed. Benedictina, tom. i. p. 318. 
+ The Jewish traditions composing the Wishnah, or secondary law (called in Greek Deuterosis), 
were not committed to writing till after the death of Augustine, Bishop of Hippo, in the year of 
our era 430, as appears from the following passage in his works: ‘‘ Nescit autem [adversarius | 
habere preter Scripturas legitimas et propheticas Judeos quasdam traditiones suas, quas non 
scriptas habent, sed memoriter tenent, et alter in alterum loquendo transfundit, quas Deuterosin 
yocant."—Augustinus contra Adversarium Legis et Proph., lib. ii. cap. 1. 
