Page:Catholic Encyclopedia, volume 7.djvu/214

 HEBREW

176

HEBREW

Editions of the Bible; Massorah; Versions op THE Bible).

(jixsBcRG. Introduction to the Massorelico-Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible (London, 1S97), reviewed at length by Blac. Jewish Quarterly Review, XII; MooRE. article on Vulnate Chapters and the Hebrew Bible in Journal of Biblical Liter- ature, XII.

John F. Fenlon. Hebrew Coinage. See Numismatics. Hebrew Gospel. See ApornvPHA, Vol. I, 608.

Hebrew Language and Literature. — Hebrew was the language spoken by the ancient Israelites, and in which were composed nearly all of the books of the Old Testament. The name Hebrew as applied to the language is quite recent in Biblical usage, occurring for the first time in the Greek prologue of Ecclesias- ticus, about 130 B. c. (e^paiVrrZ, rendered by the Vul- gate t'erfea/icbrai'ca). In Isaias, xix, IS, it is designated as the "language of Chanaan". In other passages (IV Kings, xviii, 26; Is., x.xxvi, 11; II Esd., xiii, 24) it is referred to adverbially as the "Jews' language" (miiT, lovSai'ffTl, judaice). In later times the term sacred language was sometimes employed by the Jews to designate the Bible Hebrew in opposition to the "profane language", i. e. the Aramjean dialects which eventually usurped the place of the other as a spoken language. In New-Testament usage the current .Ara- maic of the time is frequently called Hebrew (ippal's didXcKTos, Acts, xxi. 40; xxii, 2; xxvi, 14), not in the strict sense of the word, but because it was the dialect in use among the Jews of Palestine. Among Biblical scholars the language of the Old Testament is sometimes termed "ancient" or "classical" Helirew in opposition to the neo-Hebrew of the Mishna. With the exception of a few fragments, viz. one verse of Jeremias (x, 11), some chapters of Daniel (ii, 4b-vii, 28) and of E.sdras (I Esd., iv, 8-vi, IS; vii, 26), which are in .-Vramaic, all the protocanonical books of the Old Testament are written in Hebrew. The same is true also of some of the deuterocanonical books or fragments (concerning Ecclesiasticus there is no longer any doubt, and there is a fair probability with regard to Dan., iii, 24-90; xiii; xiv; and I Mach.) and like- wise of some of the Apocrypha, e. g. the Book of Henoch, the P.salms of Solomon, etc. .\part from these writings no written documents of the Hebrew language have come down to us except a few meagre inscriptions, e. g. that of Siloe discovered in Jerusa- lem in 1880, and belonging to the eighth century b. c, a score of seals dating from before the Captivity and containing scarcely anything Ijut proper names, and finally a few coins belonging to the period of tlie Machabees.

Hebrew belongs to the great Semitic family of lan- guages, the geographical location of which is princi- pally in South- Western Asia, extending from the Mediterranean to the mountains east of the valley of the Euphrates, and from the mountains of .'Armenia on the north to the southern extremity of the .-Vrabian Peninsula. The migrations of the southern Arabs carried at an early date a branch of the Semitic lan- guages into -Vby.ssinia, and in like manner the com- mercial enterprise of the Phoenicians caused Semitic colonies to be established along the northern coast of Africa and on some of the islands of the Mediterranean.

The Semitic languages may be divided geographi- cally into four groups, viz. the southern: Arabic and Ethiopic; the northern, embracing the various .\ra- msean dialects; the eastern or Assyro-Babylonian ; and the central or Chanaanitish, to which belong, to- gether with Phoenician, Moabitic, and other dialects, the ancient Hebrew and its later offshoots, neo-He- brew and Rabbinic.

Writing. — The Hebrew alphabet comprises twenty- two letters, but as one of these (c) is used to represent a twofold sound, there are equivalently twenty-three.

These letters are all consonants, though a few of them (X, n, 1, ') have secondary vowel values analogously with our w and y. From the writing found on pre- Exilic monuments, as well as from other indications, it is clear that in the earlier period of the history of the language the Hebrew letters were quite difTerent in form from those with which we are now familiar, and whose use probably goes back to the close of the Captivity. The accompanying schema exhibits the letters of the alphabet in the current, so-called square, form, together with their approximate phonetic values, their names and probable signification, and their value as numerals.

Form

N.4ME

Phonetic Value

Mea.vi.n-g

ncmehical

Value

K

Aleph

■ Spiritus lenis

Ox

1

3

BSth

b or V

House

2

i

Ghimel

g hard, gh

Camel

3

1

Daleth

d or dh

Door

4

n

H6

h

Window

5

1

Waw

w

Hook

6

1

Zayin

z

Weapon

7

n

H6th

= German ch

Fence

8

D

T«th

t e.xplosive

.Serpent

9

%

YAdh

y

Hand

10

1 .3

Caph

c hard, k

Bended

20

L

Hand

Lamedh

1

Goad

30

D.D

.M6m

m

Water

40

\-3

Nun

n

Fish

50

D

Samech

s

Prop

60

V

Ayin

Peculiar guttural

Eye

70

f].S

P6

p or ph

Jlouth

80

r.v

Tsade

s explosive, ta

Fish-hook

90

p

Q6ph

q

Back of the head

100

1

R4sh

r

Head

200

t'

Sin

s

Tooth

300

V

Shin

sh

Tooth

300

n

Tau

tor th

Sign

400

It will be noticed that five of the letters (3, D, J, 3, V) have a difTerent form when they stand at the end of a word, and that the letter Shin differs from Sin only by the position of the diacritical point. Hebrew, like .'Ara- bic and Syriac, is written from right to left. Words are never divided at the end of a line, the scribes pre- ferring either to leave a blank space or to stretch out certain letters (X, n, P, D, n, hence called dilatable) in order to fill out the line, .\mong the essential charac- teristics which Hebrew has in common with the other Semitic languages is the preponderating importance of the consonants over the vowels. Imlecd so in- ferior was the role of the latter that originally, and so long as Helirew remained a living language, no pro- vision was made for the writing of the vowels other than by a .sparing use of the four weak consonants above mentioned, which were occasionally employed to remove ambiguity by iixlicating certain vowel sounds. In Semitic generally the role of the vowels is quite secondarj-, viz. to modify the root idea ex- pressed by the consonants, generally three in number, and indicate some of its derived meanings. For in- stance, the consonantal root pop, qtl. represents the notion of killing or smiting, and the varying vowels that may be associated with the consonants serve only to indicate different aspects of this signification; thus: 9(5<a/, " he killed" ; ^e/rf/, "to kill"; fyd/r/, active participle, ".slaying", "slayer"; qalAl, pas.sive parti- ciple, "slain", etc. This explains why the alphabet and writing of the ancient Hebrews, as well as those of the later SjTians and .\rabs, consisted only of conso- nants, the "educated reader being able to determine through practice, and from the general sense of the