Page:The New International Encyclopædia 1st ed. v. 03.djvu/51

BIBLE. Hodern Greek. — A modern Greek version of parts of the Old Testament was made by the Jews in 154". In IG.3S certain Dutch Protes- tants had a modern Greek Testament published at Geneva. Another one was issued in England in 1703. These were forbidden by the authorities of the Greek Church. In 1830 "the British and Foreign Bible Society republished and circulated this translation. In IS.'JS-SS a new and better version of the Xew Testament was published, and the Old Testament was also gradually rendered into modern Greek. Later editions appeared in 18G1 and 1872. The attempt to circulate a new revision in 1901. in the army, led to student riots in Athens, because it was supposed to emanate from Russia, and to be the entering wedge for such a version into the Church.

In Magyar or Hungariaii. a New Testament was first printed in 1541. The whole Bible was published in 1590. A modern revision is par- tially completed. The Lithuanian and Lettish version began with the Xew Testament and Psalms in 1662. A Finnish Xew Testament was published in 1548. the Bible in 1642. A new translation was made in 1850. The Lapps received the Bible in their own tongue in 1838-40.

Of modern missionary versions, only brief mention can be made. The whole or parts of the Bible have been translated into about 400 languages ; many of these, of course, being dia- lects of one main stock. As to particulars, it may be specified that the Sacred Scriptures have been rendered into upward of 40 Indian dia- lects of the Western Hemisphere, into 60 dialects and languages of Africa, into many of the tongues of the Pacific Isles, into .Japanese, Chinese, the various dialects of India, into Arabic. Persian, Turkish, modern Armenian, Kurdish. Georgian, and modern Syriac. The up- lifting and civilizing influence of such transla- tions is beyond all estimation.

(A) Text of the Old Testament. Our knowledge of the Massoretic text is derived from the printed editions and the extant manuscripts. The Psalter was printed in 1477. probably at Bologna ; the Pentateuch in 1482. at Bologna ; the Five Megilloth, possibly also in 1482, at Bologna; the Prophets in 1486. at Soncino : the Hagio- grapha in 1486-87, at Naples. Of the whole Bible, the editio princeps appeared at Soncino in 1488. A second edition was probably printed at Naples, 1491-93. The third edition, used by Luther, ap- peared at Brescia in 1493. and a fourth at Pesaro in 1511-17. For the Complutensian Polyglot, printed at Alcal.'i. 151417. Cardinal Ximenes employed Alfonso de Zamora. who had at his disposal seven valuable manuscripts. The first Rabbinic Bible was edited by the Christian .Jew, Felix of Prato. and published by Daniel Bomberg at Venice, in 1516-17. Of this, quarto editions appeared in 1518, 1.521, and 1525-28. The editio princeps of Jacob ben Chayim's Rabbinic ]!ible, . with the Masora, was published by Bomberg at Venice in 1524-25. Of all the earlier editions, this is the most accurate. These editions were, 'in part, based on maniiscripts not known at the present time. A mixture of the Complutensian and the Bomberg texts is found in the .Antwerp (1.569-72), Paris (1629-45), and London (1654- 57) Polyglots, and in Mutter's edition (1587). More criticjfl value, because of the collation of new manuscripts, must be accorded to the edi- tions of Joseph .thias (1661 and 1667); Jab- lonski (1699): Van der Hooght (1705); Opitz (1709) ; and J. H. ilichaelis (1720). But par- ticularly valuable is the edition of Raphael Chayim Italia, printed at Mantua in 1742-44, because of the subjoined commentary of .Jedidja Salomo Norzi (written 1626). Kennicott's Bi- ble (1776-80) was the result of a collation of over six hundred manuscripts. An indispen- sable supplement to this work was published by De Rossi (1781. 1788, 1798). Together. Kenni- cott and De Rossi possessed some knowledge of 1346 manuscripts and over 300 editions. The books have been carefully edited by Baer and Delitzsch (1869-95. 14 parts, including all ex- cept Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteron- omy). A Massoretic, critical edition, based on Jacob ben Chayim's text, was published in 1894 by Ginsburg. with a very valuable apjiaratus. The manuscripts are either unpointed parch- ments or leather rolls of the Pentateuch and the Megilloth for public use, or pointed codices in book form of parchment or paper for private use. By direct statement or by handwriting, they are sho-n to have been made in Spain, Italy, Germany, France, Egypt, .Arabia, or Syria.

The oldest dated manuscript is the Saint Peters- burg Codex of the Latter Prophets, written in 1228 of the Seleucid Era, or a.d. 916. It is possible that a manuscript of the Law in the British Museum (Or. 4445) belongs to the Xinth Century. But it is difficult to determine the age of a Hebrew manuscript on paleographical grounds, and the dates given are not always reliable. The work of classifying these manu- scripts into families, according to age and coun- try, and of comparing their minute difi'erences, has been retarded by the discovery that they all represent substantially the same recension of the text. This fact has been explained by many scholars as due to the adoption of one model codex and the destruction or retirement of its rivals. It is more likely, however, that the uni- formity results from the labors of scribes and Massorites. Among the Massoretic marginal an- notations there are frequent references to stand- ard codices now lost, such as Codices Mugah. Hil- leli. Zanbuki,. Jericho, Sinai, ifachzor rabba, Ezra, and B.abli. Of these, the oldest seems to date from C.600. There is no reason to suppose that any of them differed essentially from those now known, though they may have contained many minor differences, not wholly without importance. For the IVIassorites. who from the Sixth to the Eleventh Century supplied the text with annota- tions, vowel-points, and accents, were, as the name implies (Massorah — tradition'), chiefly recorders of a tradition that had already taken form. It was above all to presere the tradition- al reading of the Scripture that they entered their marginal notes on textual peculiarities, introduced their systems of vowel-notation, and indicated the accents as aids in <'antillation. The latest of these activities was the accentuation. Possibly as early as a.d. 700. the punctuation- marks and neumes used infJreek Icctionarics and psalters began to be adopted as an assistance to the eye in the musical declamation of certain books. This chanting itself had grown out of a particularly solemn reading. The written signs probably took the place of manual signs without changing the customary intonation.