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REV. CANON HAMMOND, LL.B.^ ON 



Canon Garratt, an idea occurred to me which may possibly prove 

 useful. Canon Garratt speaks of the value of the Samaritan 

 Pentateuch as being the oldest known copy of the Law of Moses, 

 and points out the value of the collation of that MS. with the 

 Hebrew received text — so far as that collation has been carried out 

 in copies accessible to Kennicott and others. The Samaritans guard 

 their great copy of the Pentateuch, which they say was written by 

 the grandson of Aaron, so jealously, that comparison between it 

 and the Hebrew text has been all but impossible. But while I 

 was living at Jerusalem there was also living there, from 1858 to 

 1862, Dr. Levysohn, a professor of the University of St. Petersburg 

 and an old friend and tutor of Cyril the first Kussian Bishop at 

 Jerusalem. Dr. Levysohn, a Christian by birth and a profound 

 Hebrew scholar, devoted himself to the study of the Samaritan 

 Pentateuch and literature. He became possessed of a magnificent 

 roll of the Pentateuch and of many small MSS. and fragments of 

 MSS. He was on the most friendly terms with the Samaritans 

 and obtained permission to compare the MS. in his possession with 

 the great MS. This he did, as he himself told us, literally " on 

 his Icnees,^^ so great was his reverence for that most venerable Record 

 of the Law of Moses. Dr. Levysohn also made with his own hands 

 lithograph facsimiles of the MSS. in his possession. I have 

 specimens of these which he most kindly gave to us, and which I 

 will gladly show to anyone who may like to see them. It is greatly 

 to be regretted that Dr. Levysohn's valuable MSS. and all his notes 

 fell into the hands of an ignorant couple, who brought some of 

 them at least to England, with a view to sale. I do not know what 

 ultimately became of them — Dr. Levysohn died soon after in 

 Russia. 



As to the difference between the Samaritan character and the 

 square character of our Hebrew Bibles — it is noteworthy that the 

 so-called Samaritan is practically identical with that used on the 

 Maccabean coins, in the Siloam, and other inscriptions. But 

 Hebrew Sacred rolls (all that now exist) are written in the squaie 

 character. This latter had been called the Babylonian character, 

 not however because it has any affinity with Babylonian cuneiform 

 (which is not alphabetic at all but ideographic, having a sign for 

 each word) ; I would suggest that the square character may have 

 been called " Babylonian " because it first came to be generally known 



