as Mr. Lambert, that the common mustard plant is suitable to all that is required, especially as it is herbaceous as stated in the first part of the parable; has a small seed, and was probably cultivated in gardens. But this mustard-seed is far from being the smallest of seeds, for even in Syria we have trees, as the poplar and willow, with smaller seeds; but still, speaking generally, mustard-seed is small, as is also that of the khardal, or Salvadora persica, for anything that grows into a tree, and that the parable seems to me to require. Mr. Don, though not satisfied with this, is as little so with the common mustard; and fancies that some unknown agricultural plant of large growth was intended, but which it would now be difficult to discover. But to me there appears nothing improbable in the Salvadora persica itself having been so cultivated, and its herbaceous parts employed, as well as its seed, as a condiment. In fact, we might infer that it was so, for Rosenmüller mentions that a plant, which he supposes was the common mustard, was, at least by the later Hebrews, cultivated as a garden plant. This is evident from the fact, that in the Talmud (Massroth, cap. IV. § 6) its buds are mentioned amongst things which are subject to tithe. From this he infers that it was cultivated, because, according to the general rule established in the Talmud (Massroth, cap. 1. § 1), everything eatable, and which is taken care of, cultivated, and nursed (in gardens, or in ploughed fields), and which has its growth from the earth, is subject to tithe. If we were to take the foregoing passage literally, it would of itself be sufficient to prove that the common mustard-plant was not that alluded to, because herbaceous plants are without regular buds; and they are moreover not grown to a great size at the season when birds build their nests.

into

We may briefly, therefore, sum up the result of our inquiries. Our Saviour in the parable adduces a plant having a small seed, which being sown, we may suppose in a suitable soil, grows up a tree, or, as the Evangelist Luke says, a great tree, in the branches of which the fowls of the air take shelter or build their nests. This tree is mentioned in the New Testament by the Greek name Sinapè, or mustard, and we may infer that it was spoken of by the Hebrew or Syriac name of mustard, which, as in the Arabic, is chardal, or khardal. Whatever the plant may be, we are justified in concluding that it possessed the properties of mustard, from the same

Mr. Norris, Assistant Secretary of the Royal Asiatic Society, has favoured me with the following note: I have looked at the old Syriac version of the passages where the mustard tree is named, and find the word μ khardalo. The same

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is in the Chaldee. The modern Jews appear also to use the same word, for I find it in the Hebrew version of the New Testament.'

name

name being applied to it. The Arabs, we have seen, enumerate several kinds of khardal or mustard; that is, the common, the wild, and the Persian kinds; and it has been shown that the ancients were in the habit of grouping things together rather by their intrinsic properties than by their external characters.

Having learnt that the tree which in Palestine is at the present day recognized as the Mustard Tree of Scripture is there called khardal, I was led to conclude that this was Salvadora persica before even I could prove that this tree had ever been found in Syria. It is a curious and interesting fact, and one which we cannot consider accidental, that in so remote a country as the north-west of India, the name kharjal should be applied to the same tree as khardal is in Syria. This proves the impossibility of collusion, or the recent application of the latter name to a plant of Palestine, merely to meet the exigencies of the case. This has been done in some cases by unscrupulous monks, who usually calculate on the credulity of their hearers being in proportion to their own ignorance. Subsequently I learnt that Captains Irby and Mangles had found a tree near the shores of the Dead Sea, which I concluded from their short description must be Salvadora persica. This I afterwards ascertained had already been determined by Messrs. Don and Lambert, from examination of specimens brought from the very locality by Mr. W. Bankes; and we find that it is a tree known both in Persia and Arabia, in India and Abyssinia, for its gratefully aromatic and pungent seeds, which we find employed at the present day in Syria for the ordinary purposes of mustard, and which we are therefore justified in concluding is the chardal tree alluded to by Talmudical writers.

In conclusion, it appears to me, that taking everything into consideration, Salvadora persica appears better calculated than any other tree that has yet been adduced to answer to everything that is required, especially if we take into account its name and the opinions held respecting it in Syria. We have in it a small seed, which, sown in cultivated ground, grows up and abounds in foliage. This being pungent, may, like the seeds, have been used as a condiment, as mustard and cress is with us. The nature of the plant, however, is to become arboreous, and thus it will form a large shrub, or a tree, twenty-five feet high, under which a horseman may stand, when the soil and climate are favourable. It produces numerous branches and leaves, among which birds may and do take shelter, as well as build their nests. It has a name in Syria which may be considered as traditional from the earliest times, and of which the Greek is a correct translation. Its seeds have the pungent taste, and are used for the same purposes, as mustard. And in a country where trees are not plentiful, that

is, the shores of the Lake of Tiberias, this tree is said to abound, that is, in the very locality where the parable was spoken. If we consider, moreover, the wide distribution of this plant, from Damascus to Cape Comorin, and from the Persian Gulf to Senegambia, we still find that it is well suited to illustrate the typical comparison of the doctrines of the Gospel, which, though at first gaining only a few adherents, would in the end spread far and wide.

HEBREW IN THE TIME OF JEROME.

By the Rev, F. BOSWORTH, Montreal.

'AFTER a diligent examination of the works of Jerome,' says Delitzsch, ‘I am prepared confidently to affirm, that he has gathered with so much care and taste into the treasury of the Church whatever the Synagogue had to offer that was of high value, that, next to the Talmudical treatises, his writings are the best source whence to derive a knowledge of Jewish tradition.' This is high praise, yet it is well deserved. Of all the Fathers Jerome renders the most important service to the student of Hebrew literature. He began the study of Hebrew in early life, 'Hebræam linguam,' says he, 'quam ego ab adolescentiâ multo labore ac sudore ex parte didici' (Ep. ad Eust.). He enjoyed the instructions of the most celebrated Jewish teachers of his age, who read the various books of the Hebrew Scriptures with him, and to whom he frequently refers in his writings. Nor was he content with this. In company with some learned Jews he traversed the land of Palestine. His purpose in so in so doing he thus describes: Quomodo Græcorum historias magis intelligunt, qui Athenas viderint; ita sanctam scripturam lucidius intuebitur, qui Judæam oculis contemplatus est. Unde et nobis curæ fuit, cum eruditissimis Hebræorum hunc laborem subire, ut circumiremus provinciam, quam universæ Christi ecclesiæ sonant' (Præf. in Paral.). So ardently did he pursue this study that the Hebrew Scriptures were his constant companion. Nihil,' he exclaims, mihi profuit Hebræorum eruditio, et ab adolescentiâ usque ad hanc ætatem quotidiana in lege, prophetis, evangeliisque meditatio' (Ep. ad Domn.). He even lost in its pursuit the purity of his Latin style and pronunciation. Nos, ut scis,' he writes to Marcella, Hebræorum lectione detenti, in Latinâ linguâ rubiginem obduximus, in tantum ut loquentibus quoque nobis stridor

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6

quidam

quidam non Latinus interstrepat.' 'Obsecro te, lector, ut ignoscas celeri sermone dictanti; nec requiras eloquii venustatem, quam multo tempore Hebrææ linguæ studio perdidi' (Com. in Agg. ii.). Omnem sermonis elegantiam, et Latini eloquii venustatem, stridor lectionis Hebraica sordidavit' (Pr. in Gal.).

Favoured with such advantages as these, and knowing well how best to use them, the numerous references which Jerome makes to the Hebrew language are more than ordinarily valuable and trustworthy. Of these, it will be the design of the present paper to bring together the most important.a

I. THE CHARACTER OF THE WRITING.

The Hebrew manuscripts in Jerome's time were written in the square character. This is evident from the following consi

derations: :

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1. Jerome speaks of the so-called Samaritan character as being very different from that then in use. It is certain,' says he, that Ezra the scribe and doctor of the law, after the taking of Jerusalem and the rebuilding of the temple under Zerubbabel, introduced other letters, which we at present use, while up to that time the characters of the Samaritan and Hebrew were the same'

(Præf. in Reg.). Again, he says, 'In the most ancient Hebrew letters, which the Samaritans use at present, the last letter thau has the form of a cross' (Com. in Ez. ix. 4).

2. Such terms are used, when speaking of the letters individually, as would in no respect apply to any other Hebrew character than the square one. Thus Jerome says that the letters and are alike, differing only in size (Quæst. in Gen.; Com. in Ez. vii.; Com. in Os. ix., x.; Com. in Hab. ii.; Com. in Zach. v.). He speaks of and as having been confounded from their resemblance (Com. in Am. vii.). He notices the similarity between and П, and mentions some who translated 'ducti elementi similitudine,' and refers to the possibility of mistaking for, eo quod res et daleth parvo apice distinguuntur.' Jerome, indeed, frequently notices mistakes of this kind, viz., comp. Isa. viii., xxxviii., xxviii.; Ez. xx., xlvii.; Os. ii., ix. (twice); Am. i. (thrice); Soph. iii.; Zech. xi.; Eccles. viii. Finally, on the word ira, Matt. v., he uses the following language: ex figura literæ ostenditur, quod etiamque minima putantur in lege,' and correctly translates the word negala by the Latin apex, the very term which he uses when

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a We regret not having been able to obtain a sight of Hupfeld's papers on this and kindred subjects, published in the Stud. und Kritiken, 1830.

speaking

speaking of the difference between 7and (see Lightf. Op. ii. 282; Tholuck and Olshausen, in loco).

The difference between the medial and final letters was known to Jerome. In his Præf. in Lib. Reg. he says, 'Moreover, there are five double letters among the Hebrews-caph, mem, nun, phe, sade; for they are written in one way at the beginning and middle of words, and in another at the end.' Others of the Fathers refer to the peculiarity of the final letters. Epiphanius says, ' διπλοῦνται πέντε παρ' αὐτοῖς στοιχεῖα (De Pond. et Mem. c. 22). From the connection in which both these passages stand to the enumeration of the canonical books, unde et quinque a plerisque libri duplices æstimantur,' it is probable that these final forms were, even in Jerome's time, of somewhat long standing.b

Jerome complains of the characters of his manuscripts as being small, and therefore injurious to the eyes. His language is, 'Accedit ad hanc dictandi difficultatem, quod caligantibus oculis senectute, et aliquid sustinentibus beati Isaac, ad nocturnum lumen nequaquam valeamus Hebræorum volumina relegere; qui etiam ad solis dieique fulgorem, literarum nobis parvitate cœcantur' (Proem in Ez. xxi.).

II. THE UNPOINTED STATE OF THE TEXT.

In Jerome's time the Hebrew text was evidently without points. The language of this Father is of itself sufficient to establish the truth of this statement. He says, writing on Gen. xlvii. 33, 'much in Hebrew may be read different ways' (Quæst. in Gen.). Again, he tells us, for that word which we have rendered death, we have, in the Hebrew, three letters, daleth, beth, res, WITHOUT ANY VOWEL. If it is read dabar, it means a word; but if read deber, a pestilence' (Com. in Hab. iii. 5). In his Com. in Jer. ix. 22, he thus writes respecting the same word: 'Verbum Hebr. quod tribus literis scribitur 17, vocales enim in medio non habet, pro consequentia et legentis arbitrio, si legatur dabar, sermonem significat, si deber, mortem, si daber loquere.' Speaking of the

[The square character belongs to a period anterior to the beginning of our era, and may be traced, through the Palmyrene, up to the Aramaic on Egyptian monuments, and so on to the common parent of all these alphabets, the Phoenician. Now, as the oldest Palmyrene inscription, which belongs to about the year 49 of our era, possesses the final nun; and as the Aramaic inscriptions already show two final letters caph and nun (Gesen. Mon. Phœn. p. 61); it may be fairly concluded that the development of final letters is to be ascribed to some influence which must have been common to the method of writing these characters. This influence also progressively increased. Hence, those characters which have been derived from this branch of the Phoenician trunk (such as the Estrangelo, Kufic, Peshito, and Nischi) have multiplied their final letters even far beyond the number of the Hebrew alphabet. Kopp considers it probable that the square character possessed final letters at the earliest period of its existence (Bilder ù. Schriften, ii. 137).—EDITOR.]

word