The Massorah.

quaintance with the peculiarities of the Massorotio scribes for its decipherment , Now , all these various editions of the text , all these traditional notes , will be classified and arranged under the head of the several MSS . to which they belong , in parallel columnsso that the eye will see at a glance

, how far the MSS . agree , the additions in one case , the deticiences or variations iu another . There is , however , one feature of Dr . Ginsburg ' s labours to which we wish to call especial attention . It is the use he lms been able to make of the Eastern or

Baby lonian recension of text ancl Massoreth for comparison with the Western . It was well known that a divergence did exist between these two recensions , and that as there was very early a different system of vocalization , as well as a difference in traditions between the Eastern

ancl AA estern Jews , so there was also a difference in their MSS . of the Bible . But before the year 1840 the only record of that difference that had been preserved was the list of variations riven in Yaeob

ben Chayyim s Bible , which was extremely defective . ' Now , however , a very important discovery has been made . Among the MSS . recently acquired by the Imperial Library at St . Petersburg , there is , besides a fragment of the Pentateuch , a MS . containing the whole of the later Prophets

, exhibiting the Eastern Recension ; and as this MS . has also the Massoreth , we are enabled thereby to ascertain the Oriental reading of a large number of passages in other books of the Bible , besides those which are comprised in the MS . AVe thus

get a recension of the text which is very much earlier than any existing MS . of which the age is undisputed . It must always be a matter of the deepest regret that no Hebrew MS . of the Bible of any antiquity has come down to us ; for on how many dark passages might li ght be cast , if a codex were discovered even as ancient as the most ancient MSS .

ot the New Testament ! It must always enhance our regret to reflect that Christian barbarism is to a large extent responsible for this calamity . The savage and unrelenting persecution of the Jews has left an indelible blot on the pages of Christian history from the beginning of the 11 th century to the middle of the 16 th . There

is not a European nation , scarcely a European town of any magnitude , the annals of which are not disgraced by the intolerable cruelties practised on this people . Popes , Fathers , ancl Councils , vied , with one another in denouncing

them . Edict after edict was issued against them . No insult was too coarse for them ; Jew and devil were synonymous terms in the Christian vocabulary ; they were outside the pale of humanity . Again and again the fury of the populace , stirred up often by renegades of their own nation , was let loose upon them ; their houses were plundered , their property confiscated , their wives and children violated before

their eyes . The tale of " Christian Atrocities" in those ages ' reads in many exact particulars like the tale of " Turkish Atrocities" with which we have all of late been familiar . Thousands of Jews were compelled to abjure their faith ancl submit to baptism ; thousands more were

banished from the cities or countries in which they had settled ; great multitudes were tortured and cruelly put to death . Their Selichoth or Synagogue hymns for cen buries were one great wail going up to heavena cry like the cry of the souls

, pleading beneath the altar , "Lord , how long 1 " a bitter lamentation , the burden of weeping ancl great mourning as of Rachel weeping for her children , and refusing to be comforted . In these outbursts of religious fanaticism

we know that many precious books ancl MSS . perished . Synagogues were- plundered , burnt , razed to the ground , and the rolls of the Law torn to pieces ancl strewed in the streets . On the 17 th of June , 1244 , twenty-four cart-loads of MSS . were burnt in Paris alone . "I have nob a

single book left , writes a French Rabbi to R . Meir of Rothenburg ; " the oppressor has taken from us our treasures . " Many books were thrown into wells ; many were buried in the earth to conceal them from Christians . The possessor of one codex thanks God that he and not the

earth has been the means of preserving it . " AA e are forbidden , " writes Abr . ibn Ranioch , at the close of the 14 th century , ' * to have the Torah ( the Law ) in our possession , and other books which they have carried off into the churches . " Another complains that the holy books were dis-