Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 1.pdf/203

157 Abrahams, "Jewish Quarterly Review." 1890, xi. 201 et seq. 6. The accentuation, like the vocalization, is ver- tainly a post Talmudie innovation. The treatise Soferim, in which for the first time reference is made to points marking the beginning (or. as it may be called, the end) of a verse (iii. 7). and possibly also to signs (points) by which the subdivisions of a verse are indicated, is post-Tal- iudic. 752 (Soferin, ili. 7) apparently means "10 cut upa verse"; compare Meg. 22u: rogh - "I was not permitted to break up a verse"; in xiii. 1, reference is made to the sticlie form of the texts of Psalms, Jub, and Proverbs in which a verse (that is, a long verse) is said to be broken up into three parts by a blank left after the opening portion COP. 52: corresponding to 's section), at the (this is apparently the correct reading; see the edition of Müller, Leipsic, 1878) amd at the end (0) Observe that the terminology is far from fixed. In the Talmud itself reference is made to the practise reciting the text in a manter accord- ing with the logical jauses (Meg. 3 Ned. 37b; Hag. ; in Ber. 62 mention is made of a system of hand movements used by teachers in training their pupils to pause in the proper places), and up- parently also to the habit of elianting (Meg. 320). but not to written signs by which pauses are market. The beginnings of our system of accentuation may therefore safely be placed in the sixth century. The first to prove the post-Talmudic date of the points and Accents was ELIAS LEVITA (PER P3, 1589). Seo VOCALIZATION. Post-Tal mudic Origin. 7. One is led to the same conclusion by an exam- ination of the Syrine system of accentuation intro- duced at the end of the fifth century by the gram- marian Joseph Huzaya (Wright, "A Sliort History of Syriae Literature," pp.115 tarq.. London, 1891), to which the Hebrew system hears a striking resem- blance and from which it is apparently derived. The Syrians, apt disciples of the Grerks, adopted from the latter their method of reading, and accordingly also their system of punctuation. The Greeks dis- tinguished three kinils of reading (iráyrwac): om- torical or dramatic delivery implying declamation and gesticulation (sall inoxpron); reading in record- auce with the torie, that is, word-necent (xari mpr- llar), and reading in accordance with pauses re- quired by the sense (sarà diadrobi). A single point (rou), plared above or below or in the middle of the line, indientert the puuses; the upper point (relu ory) at the end of a pericul complete in itself (utrorezije), the lower point (i mariyuh) butwreu prot- asis and apodosis, and the middle point (uloy artu in a long sentence in order to permit the remler to take breath, t'pon this modest system, which is found in our oldest Syrine manuscripts, Huzayn founded a more cluborale one to mark the subordinate divi. sions in a more regular and cureful pranber. The following diagram will illustrate the system(A means protasis, and B apodosis): R Compare with this the Hebrew (prose) system in its essential parts: The point employed at the end the Syrians cuil pisofa, thmt is, "sertor"; 792 (currupted into 199gy was apparently the name which in the Hebrew sys tem belongs to the double point marking the endl of a verse. The Grocks also had a sign called ipfe (from which our "hyphen" is derived) to mark the coalescing of two syllables into one (synalepha). The Syrians employed the same sign to join together two Syrinte worls used in translation of one Greek word: hence the Hebrew hyphen (re3). In the Hebrew system the rhetorical Accents (they were the signs of interrogation, exclamation, etc.) are wanting. How- ever, in distributing the panses the Jewish accentua tors frequently pay attention to the requirements of rhetorical declamation (see the quotation from the Kalonymus hen David at the end of the Hebrow grammar of Abrahiam de Balmis, Venice, 1523). See Merx, "Historia Artis Grammatica apud Syros," pp. 62 et seq., laipsic, 1889. On the origin (and function) of the minor pausal Accents see Büchler," Untersuch- ungen zur Entstehung und Entwicklung der Ne- hritischen Accente," Vienna, 1891 (see also Grätz, 8. It is doubtful whether the vocalization and ac- centuation were introduced simultaneously. Per- haps the latter followed the former. Boli became an object of care to the Masoretes, who, in addition to the task of preserving the traditional consonantal text intact. undertook to watch over the traditional vowel-points and accent signs. Compare, for ex- ample, the Masoretie note to Jer. i 7: * se, that is, the words 28 77 758) occur four times (i. 7, iii. 11, xi, 6, xv. 1; contrast iii. 6 and xi. 9) in Jeremiah this accentel. On the accentual variations of the Orientals (775) and Occidentals (27) see MASORAH. Even more minune are the differences between BEN ASHER and BEN NAPH TALI. Our editions usually follow the former, who is the authority of the West. 9. The accentuation offers an invaluable aid to the understanding of the Biblical text. One must, how. ever, constantly bear in mind its limitations, which are of a twofolil character. On the one band, in at- tempting to accomplish too much, the system fails in important points. In short verses its pauses are unnecessary; in long verses there are not enough of them. Sense is not infrequently sacrificed to rlietor- ical effect. The imperfection of the system is par. ticularly noticeable in the awkwardness with which a parenthesis is indicated (cumpare, for example, ler. xx. 1). Nor is it always easy to tell just what the accentuators had in mind in choosing a certain mode of accentuation. While, for the tiner points of Bib- lical exegesis, a knowledge of the Accents is indispen- salle, the beginner in the study of the Bible should not be turdened will learning more than a few of the important pausals, which are quite sullicient for ordi- nary purposes. On the other hand, the accentuation represents the interpretation current in the Jewish schools at a comparatively late period. While, on the whole, the accentuation endeavors to be true to the natural meaning (peahat; which Valuoser) of the Biblical documents, it does in Bible to altogether keep itself free front Interpreta dogmntie prejudiers (see I Sam, iii. tion. 3), which it indeed shares with the ancient versions, at hest the necen Immation is representative of traditional Jewish ex- egesis, which the student of the Bible is frequrally forced to overrule. The rule laid down by ABRA- HAY TEN EZRA: 14 TN PORN "no interpretation of a Biblical pass suge which dnes not follow the seventuation should be accepted." was simted against by every dewish commentator of huportance, including 1n Ezra
 * Manuel du Lecteur," in Merx, p. 69, note 2; also
 * Monatsschrift," 1882, pp. 387–109).