Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, Ninth Edition, v. 20.djvu/46

Rh 34 P S A P S A wide sweep, based on the vision of Deutero-Isaiah. All these marks carry us down for this as for the other collec- tions of the Elohistic Psalter to the time when passive obedience to the Achaemenians was interrupted. Several points indicate that the collection was not originally formed as part of the temple liturgy. The title, as preserved in the subscription to Ps. Ixxii. 20, was not "Psalms" but "Prayers of David." Again, while the Levitical psalms were sung in the name of righteous Israel, of which, according to the theory of the second temple, the priestly and Levitical circles were the special holy representatives, these Davidic psalms contain touching expressions of con- trition' and confession (li., Ixv.). And, while there are direct references to the temple service, these are often made from the standpoint, not of the ministers of the temple, but of the laity who come up to join in the solemn feasts or appear before the altar to fulfil their vows (Pss. liv. 6, Iv. 14, Ixiii., Ixvi. 13, &c.). Moreover, the didactic element so prominent in the Levitical psalms is not found here. Such is the fragmentary and conjectural outline which it seems possible to supply of the history of the two Davidic collections, from which it appears that the name of David which they bear is at least so far appropriate as it marks the generally non-clerical origin of these poems. But the positive origin of this title must be sought in another direction and in connexion with book i. From the days of Amos, and in full accordance with the older history, the name of David had been connected with musical skill and even the invention of musical instruments (Amos vi. 5). In the days of Nehemiah, though we do not hear of psalms of David, 1 we do learn that instruments of the singers were designated as Davidic, and the epithet " man of God " (Nell. xii. 36) probably implies that agreeably with this David was already regarded as having furnished psalms as well as instruments. But it was because the temple music was ascribed to him that the oldest liturgy came to be known in its totality as "Psalms of David," and the same name was extended to the lay collection of " Prayers of David," while the psalms whose origin was known because they had always been temple psalms were simply named from the Levitical choirs, or at a later date had no title. Musical Execution and Place of tJie Psalms in the Temple Service. The musical notes found in the titles of the psalms and occasion- ally also in the text (Selah, Higgaion) are so obscure that it seems unnecessary to enter here upon the various conjectures that have been made about them. The clearest point is that a number of the psalms were set to melodies named after songs, 2 and that one of these songs, beginning nPlKTT/X (Al-taschith in E.V., Ps. Ivii. sq. ), may be probably identified with the vintage song, Isa. Ixv. 8. The temple music was therefore apparently based on popular melodies. A good deal is said about the musical services of the Levites in Chronicles, both in the account given of David's ordi- nances and in the descriptions of particular festival occasions. But unfortunately it has not been found possible to get from these accounts any clear picture of the ritual or any certainty as to the technical terms used. By the time of the Septuagint these terms were no longer understood ; it is not quite clear whether even the Chronicler understood them fully. The music of the temple attracted the attention of Theophrastus (ap. Porph., De Abst., ii. 26), who was perhaps the first of the Greeks to make observations on the Jews. His description of the temple ritual is not strictly accurate, but he speaks of the wor- shippers as passing the night in gazing at the stars and calling on God in prayer ; his words, if they do not exactly fit anything in the later ritual, are well fitted to illustrate the original liturgical use of Pss. viii., cxxxiv. Some of the Jewish traditions as to the use of particular psalms have been already cited ; it may be added that the Mishna ( Tamld) assigns to the service of the continual 1 I.e., not in the parts of the book of Nehemiah which are by Nehemiah himself. 2 Compare the similar way of citing melodies with the prep, 'al or oZ kala, &c., in Syriac (Land, Anecd., iv. ; Ephr. Syr., Hymni, ed. Lamy). burnt-offering the following weekly cycle of psalms, (1) xxiv., (2) xlviii., (3) Ixxxii., (4) xciv., (5) Ixxxi., (6) xciii., (Sabbath) xi-ii., as in the title. Many other details are given in the treatise Sii/'f-rini, but these for the most part refer primarily to the synagogue service after the destruction of the temple. For details on the liturgical use of the Psalter in Christendom the reader may refer to Smith's Diet. Chr. Ant., s.v. "Psalmody." Ancient Versions. A. The oldest version, the LXX., follows a text generally closely corresponding to the Massoretic Hebrew, the main variations being in the titles and in the addition (lacking in some MSS.) of an apocryphal psalm ascribed to David when he fought with Goliath. Pss. ix. and x. are rightly taken as one psalm, but conversely Ps. cxlvii. is divided into two. The LXX. text has many "daughters," of which may be noticed (a) the Memphitic (ed. Lagarde, 1875) ; (ft) the old Latin, which as revised by Jerome in 383 after the current Greek text forms the Psalterium Ronutnnm, long read in the Roman Church and still used in St Peter's ; (c) various Arabic versions, including that printed in the polyglotts of Le Jay and Walton, and two others of the four ex- hibited together in Lagarde's Psalterium, lob, Proverbia, Arabice, 1876 ; on the relations and history of these versions, see G. Hoffmann, in Jenaer Literatim., 1876, art. 539 ; the fourth of Lagarde's versions is from the Peshito. The Hexaplar text of the LXX., as reduced by Origen into greater conformity with the Hebrew by the aid of subsequent Greek versions, 3 was further the mother (ii) of the Psalterium Gallicanum, that is, of Jerome's second revision of the Psalter (385) by the aid ef the Hexaplar text ; this edition became current in Gaul and ultimately was taken into the Vulgate (e) of the Syro-Hexaplar ver- sion (published by Bugati, 1820, and in facsimile from the famous Ambrosian MS. l.yCeriani, Milan, 1874). B. The Christian Aramaic version or Peshito (P'shltta) is largely influenced by the LXX. ; compare Baethgen, Untersuchungen ilber die Psalmen nach der Peschita, Kiel, 1878 (unfinished). This version has peculiar titles taken from Eusebius and Theodore of Mopsuestia (see Nestle, in Theol. Literaturz., 1876, p. 283). C. The Jewish Aramaic version or Targum is probably a late work. The most convenient edition is in Lagarde, Hagiographa Chaldaice, 1873. D. The best of all the old versions is that made by Jerome after the Hebrew in 405. It did not, however, obtain ecclesiastical currency the old versions holding their ground, just as English churchmen still read the Psalms in the version of the "Great Bible" printed in their Prayer Book. This important version was first published in a good text by Lagarde, Psal- terium iuxta Hebrieos Hieronymi, Leipsic, 1874. Exegetical Works. While some works of patristic writers are still of value for text criticism and for the history of early exeg'etical tradition, the treatment of the Psalms by ancient and mediaeval Christian writers is as a whole such as to throw light on the ideas of the commentators and their times rather than on the sense of a text which most of them knew only through translations. For the Psalms as for the other books of the Old Testament the scholars of the period of the revival of Hebrew studies about the time of the Reformation were mainly dependent on the ancient versions and on the Jewish scholars of the Middle Ages. In the latter class Kimhi stands pre-eminent ; to the editions of his commentary on the Psalms enumerated in the article KIMHI must now be added the admirable edition of Dr Schiller-Szinessy (Cambridge, 1883), con- taining unfortunately only the first book of his longer commentary. Among the works of older Christian scholars since the revival of letters, the commentary of Calvin (1557) full of religious insight and sound thought and the laborious work of M. Geier (1668, 1681 et saspius) may still be consulted with advantage, but for most purposes Rosenmiiller's Scholia in Pss. (2d ed., 1821-22) supersedes the necessity of frequent reference to the predecessors of that industrious com- piler. Of more recent works the freshest and most indispensable are Ew aid's, in the first two half volumes of his Dichter des alien Bundes (2d ed., Gottingen, 1866 ; Eng. tr., 1880), and Olshausen's (1853). To these may be added (excluding general commentaries on the Old Testament) the two acute but wayward com- mentaries of Hitzig (1836, 1863-65), that of Delitzsch (1859-60, then in shorter form in several editions since 1867 ; Eng. tr., 1871), and that of Hupfeld (2d ed. by Riehm, 1867, 2 vols.). The last-named work, though lacking in original power and clearness of judgment, is extremely convenient and useful, and has had an influence perhaps disproportionate to its real exegetical merits. The question of the text was first properly raised by Olshausen, and has since received special attention from, among others, Lagarde (Prophetee ChaM., 1872, p. xlvi. sq.), Dyserinck (in the " scholia" to his Dutch translation of the Psalms, Theol. Tijdschr., 1878, p. 279 sq.), and Bickell (Carmina V. T. metrice, &c., Innsbruck, 1882), whose critical services are not to be judged merely by the measure of assent which his metrical theories may command. In English we have, among others, the useful work of Perowne (5th ed., 1883), that of Lov e and Jennings (2d ed., 1885), and the valuable translation of Cheyne (1884). The mass of literature on the Psalms is so enormous that no full list even of recent commentaries can be here attempted, much less an enumeration of treatises on individual psalms and special critical questions. For the latter Kuenen's Onderzoek, vol. iii., is, up to its date (1865), the most complete, and the new edition now in preparation will doubtless prove the standard work of reference. As regards the dates and historical interpretation of the Psalms, all older dis- cussions, even those of Ewald, are in great measure antiquated by recent pro- gress in Pentateuch criticism and the history of the canon, and an entirely fresh treatment of the Psalter by a sober critical commentator is urgently needed. (W. R. S.) PSALTERY. For the mediaeval instrument of this name ("sautrie" or "cembalo"), see PIANOFORTE (vol. xix. p. 65). The Hebrew ;Q3, rendered if'aXrijpLov,* i/a/fAa, ^aA//.os (Ps. Ixxi. 22), KiOdpa (Ps. Ixxxi. 2), opyavov (Am. v. 23, vi. 5), in the LXX., and " psaltery " or " viol " in the A.V. (also " lute " in the Prayer-Book version of the Psalms), appears to have been a small stringed instrument, harp or lyre, the strings of which were touched with the player's fingers. The statement of Josephus (Ant., vii. 12, 3), that the Kivvpa (1133) had ten strings and was struck with the plectrum, while the va/SAa had twelve and was played with the hand, is the earliest definition having any authority to be met with of these obscure instruments. The Kivvpa, if not a smaller lyre with tighter strings re- 8 See Field, Origenis Hexnpla, where the fragments of these ver- sions are collected. That of Symmachus is esteemed the best. 4 This word reappears in the p^riJDQ of Dan. iii. 5, &c.