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EEV. J. E. H. THOilSOX. M.A., D.D., OX 



Israelites chose the Ashunth vrriting and the Holy tongue, and 

 left to the HediotcB the Tbri vrriting and the Syrian tongue. Wlio 

 are Bed lot cb Eabbi Chasda says ' The Cuthaeans (the 

 Samaritans)."' This script has a close resemblance to that to 

 be found on the Maccabsean coins. This does not imply any 

 very great antiquity. It stands, however, at the end of a long 

 process of evolution. Every manuscript of the Torah with 

 which we, in these days, come in contact, is the resultant of many 

 snccessive copyings from manuscripts in aU the different stages 

 of the script's evolution. Each one of these steps in descent is 

 liable to leave traces discernible in the latest exemplar. These 

 traces are recognized by comparing manuscripts of differing 

 descents. When letters are like, a copyist may confuse one 

 letter with another. But some letters are like in one script while 

 in another the corresponding characters di5er very clearly. A 

 person reading a book printed in German black-letter might be 

 liable on cursory perusal to confuse capital C with capital 

 whereas were the words printed in Eoman characters confusion 

 would be impossible. When the Samaritan recension of the 

 Torah is compared with the Jlassoretic there are numerous cases 

 of difference due to this cause. The most frequent of these 

 are occasioned by the likeness of Daleth and Besh. These letters 

 are not confusLDgly abke in the Samaritan or Maccabsean. They 

 are certainly very like each other in ordinary square-character 

 Hebrew : but the confusion could not have resulted from this, 

 as from what we have seen above the square character was later 

 than the Samaritan. In the angular script which preceded the 

 Samaritan, and is found on the sarcophagi of Ashmunazar and 

 of his father Tabnith, the resemblance between these two letters 

 is confosingly great. Examples of this confusion are numerous, 

 as has been said ; a few of these may be given. In Gen. x, ^, 

 the last named of the sons of Javan (Greece) is in the Massoretic 

 Dodaniyn.hMt in the Samaritan the name appears as Rodonim ; 

 with this the Septuagint agrees, reading Rhodioi ; in the Vulgate 

 Jerome supports the Massoretic reading, as also does the Peshitta. 

 This is evidence that the Egyptian iLSS. from which the LXX 

 made their translation agreed with the Samaritan recension. 

 It may be noted in 1 Chron. i, 7, in the K'thibh — the text which 

 is to be written — Rodanim is found ; it has been corrected by the 

 Massoretes into an agreement with Genesis : our Authorized 

 Version follows this ; the Revised agrees with the Samaritan. 

 One other example may be taken. When Joseph was negotiating 



