210 



CANON GAERATT, M.A._, ON 



the fact of the differing numbers of the Patriarchs' Ages, the LXX, 

 Samaritan and Hebrew, perhaps by the differing lesson portions, and 

 perhaps by the readings indicated by the reader of the paper. (3) 

 I have never been able to attach importance to the difference in 

 Deuteronomy, where Moses is explaining the law, from its form in 

 Exodus. Moses is engaged in enforcing the spirit of the Ten 

 Commandments, and the slight changes are all significant of their 

 intention. But there is an intention parallel in the variants of our 

 Lord's republication of the spirit of the law, showing that the spirit 

 and not the bare letter prevails over mere literal sameness. 



Eev. John Tuckwell. — May I be allowed to ask the last speaker 

 if he will kindly favour me again with the reference he made to the 

 period when the Hebrews are supposed to have adopted the 

 Babylonian script ? I wrote down, as I understood him to say, 

 " long after the Babylonian script came into fashion with the 

 Hebrews." Whose words were those and upon whose authority was 

 that statement made 1 



Rev. F. E. Spencer. — You will find it in Deutsch's article where he 

 quotes from the Talmud. 



Eev. John Tuckwell. — My reason for asking the question is 

 that there is not even the slightest foundation for the belief that the 

 Hebrews at any time ever adopted the Babylonian script. The 

 Babylonian script is cuneiform, as we know ; and from the time the 

 Hebrews came into possession of the Promised Land there is not a 

 single trace that the Hebrews ever made use of the cuneiform. We 

 find a1)undant evidence of the use of the cuneiform in other parts of 

 the East, and we find indications of the use of the cuneiform prior 

 to the supposed period when the Israelites entered the land ; but 

 that I believe is a most gratuitous statement and one without 

 foundation. 



Mr. Martin Rouse. — I should like to say, having carefully 

 perused the article in the Iitiperial Bible Dictionary on that point, I 

 am convinced that the Samaritan letters, as we find them in the 

 text, are the earliest forms; and that, after that, follow the monu- 

 mental letters found on coins and inscriptions, and the present 

 square Hebrew letters are derived from the latter. 



Rev. John Tuckwell. — May I add to what I said just now, that 

 there is not the slightest indication that the Babylonians ever wrote 

 alphabetically; so it seems impossible that any letters in use 



