עברית / Hebrew Bible History (2)

**List: Hebrew Ministry the Bible ( התנ"ך {the Tanakh} ) Hebrew...    "The language of the ancient Israelites and of the Hebrew nation, and the original language of the Old Testament except for some Aramaic (Chaldee) passages in Daniel, Ezra and Jeremiah.   Hebrew originally records only the consonant sounds, the vowells being supplied by the reader. At some time between the 6th and the 11th centuries, A. D., the tradi- tional vowels were supplied by Jewish scholars known as Massoretes. [One of t]he oldest Hebrew manuscript[s] of the Scriptures extant is a copy of the Pentateuch written in the 9th century, now in the British Museum, London.   At Oxford there is a copy of almost the entire Old Testament written in the 10th century."--1000 Tongues, 1939   [Info only]    "When the Hebrew Bible began to be printed, the manuscripts used were vastly more uniform than those of any other ancient book.   Jewish scribes, united in fixation of the sacred text since at least the fifth century of our era, had so standardized the busi- ness of copying and the precise form of what was to be copied, that even [minor editions], were passed along from age to age.   [And the simple solution of a pure text.]   For to reach back of this iron-clad tradition of copyists and scribes to, or even towards, the original texts as they left the hands of their authors, scholars of today must in some way [depend on] these bonds. That is [an issue] for specialists in the [Hebrew (Masoretic Text)] and other versions of the Old Testament...for experts in the transmission of the Hebrew text itself.    Publishers of the Hebrew Bible have for the most part at- tempted merely to collate the largest possible number of manu- scripts, giving minute attention to such [details] in them as exist, and to the places where Jewish tradition has [existed.]"--1000 Tongues, 1939   [Info only: Beware of CT conjecture, etc. Kittel, and the German scholars often used rationalistic methods.]    "Being the original language of all but a few chapters of the Old Testament, Hebrew belongs among the "versions" of Scrip- ture only in virtue of the modern translations of the New Testa- ment into Hebrew for the use of Jewish readers educated in their ancient tongue.    Of all the New Testament books the Gospel of Matthew and the Epistle to the Hebrews were naturally regarded as most suit- able to turn into the language of scholars who, as Jews, accepted the Old Testament, but drew their impressions of Jesus Christ from polemical anti-Christian writings, often scu. in charac- ter, rather than from the authentic documents of the Christian faith.    How early Christians may have begun to make such versions into Hebrew we have no means of knowing.   But the earliest printed editions of New Testament portions in Hebrew were drawn from manuscripts of much earlier date.   The first of all these was a revision by Sebastian Munster of a translation made by a 14th century Spanish Jew of the Gospel of Matthew.   Though published at Basle, it is dedicated to King Henry VIII of Eng- land.   It was re-issued several times during the 16th century, together with a version of Hebrews, also controversial tracts designed to meet Jewish arguments.   The same text of Matthew was issued independently at Paris in 1551.   But another Paris Matthew, printed only four years later, was derived from a manuscript found at Rome, the author of which is unknown. Christian Jews had published their versions of Mark and Luke in the sixteenth century, before Hutter, at its close, issued a polyglot New Testament in which for the first time the entire New Testa- ment in Hebrew saw the light.   It was not until 1661 that a separate Hebrew New Testament existed, when Robertson, a British scholar, revised Hutter’s polyglot version of 1599.   The many revisions of this Hutter version bring the matter down to the latter part of the nineteenth century, when the entirely fresh translations of Franz Delitzsch [1885] and of Salkinson (completed by Ginsburg) marked a fresh stage in the effort of the Church to give the Jews a worthy New Testament in Hebrew."--1000 Tongues, 1939   [Info only: I. Salkinson & C. D. Ginsburg NT has some CT.]

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