letters were not all used in Palestine until after the time of Cadmus; and if the Hebrews copied their letters from those of Cadmus, they would at first have taken 16 only, and afterwards, as the necessity for more arose, they would have increased that number to two and twenty. I believe that this process actually took place-that the Hebrews learnt their alphabet and most of their civilization from the Phoenicians and other inhabitants of Canaan, and that in the age of Cadmus they used only 16 or 17 letters, because at that time the Canaanites possessed no more.

There is no reason, says Shuckford,* to think the first and most ancient Hebrew alphabet had thus many letters. Irenæus says expressly

Ipsæ antiquæ et primæ Hebræorum litteræ, et sacerdotales nuncupatæ, decem quidem sunt numero.

The ancient Hebrew letters denominated Sacerdotal, are ten in number.

T, V.

It is commonly said that sixteen letters formed the alphabet of Cadmus : these were a, ß, y, d, e, ɩ, k, X, μ, v, 0, π, p, o, But it appears from old inscriptions that the letter U was not used, its place being supplied by O; if this be so, we must fill up the number of the sixteen letters by inserting F the digamma, which certainly occurs on inscriptions, and had a power kindred to that of U, V or W. As the Hebrew has no U, but a vau or waw, sounding something like V, W, or F, the likeness between the Greek and Hebrew alphabets is rendered remarkably striking.

It is said by some ancient writers that the Grecian alphabet was increased from its original sixteen letters by Palamedes, who added 0, §, o, x, and by Simonides, who added g, n,, w. But several of these letters occur also in the modern Hebrew alphabet; yet it is almost certain that neither Palamedes nor Simonides ever was in Phoenicia or the land of Canaan, they therefore did not borrow these * Connection Vol.i, p. 255, 3d edit note.

letters from the Israelites, as is proved also by the nature of these letters, which either are double letters, combined of two others, as zeta or zed which is a combination of d and s, or bear a certain relation to other letters for prosodial purposes, as eta and omega, which are merely long forms of epsilon and omicron.

If then the supplementary letters were invented in Greece, they must evidently have been borrowed from the Greeks by the Hebrews: nor is this supposition so improbable as it may seem; for in the age of Alexander there was a great influx of Greeks into Palestine: Grecian arts and Grecian literature were introduced, and in the days of the Syrian kings, who bore the name of Antiochus, Judæa ran a narrow risk of becoming altogether a Grecian dependency. Here then is to be found the channel through which the Hebrew alphabet, originally consisting of ten, and afterwards of sixteen letters, was finally increased to the number of two and twenty. At the same period also, the limited means which the ancients possessed for multiplying books were wonderfully increased by Eumenes king of Pergamus, who, in imitation of the Egyptian papyrus, and in rivalry of Ptolemy's famous Alexandrian library, caused the material called Pergament or parchment, to be fabricated from the skins of goats, and on this new substance all the most famous Grecian writings were copied out to enrich the newly formed library of Pergamus.

These facts seem to show that books were first brought into use and their use finally extended, between the sixth and third centuries before the Christian era. The same inference, too, seems to follow from the general prevalent use of inscriptions anterior to that date. Herodotus relates that he saw an ancient hexameter verse-the most ancient then known-sculptured in Cadmean letters by Amphitryon on a tripod at Delphi. It appears, indeed,

that before the date, so often already mentioned, books, as we now have them, were absolutely unknown: every thing was carved in stone; laws were promulgated and proclamations issued by means of inscriptions. The two tables of stone given by God through Moses, have nothing to distinguish them from other similar tablets, which have been used by all nations for the same purpose. The Decemviri, at Rome, followed the same mode, which continued to be practised in Athens, and over all Greece, for many hundred years. These facts lead to the belief that it was not different with the Israelites, a nation, chosen indeed by the Almighty to play a signal part in the history of the world, but endowed with no peculiar development of intellectual genius, that might enable them to outstrip the rest of the world, in arts, letters or general civilization.

APPENDIX.

1. THE SAMARITAN PENTATEUCH.

From Dean Prideaux's Connection of Sacred and Profane History,

Vol. I, p. 416, sixth edit., 1719.

The Samaritans ¶ receive none other scriptures, than the five books of Moses, rejecting all the other books, which are in the Jewish canon. And these five books they still have among them written in the old Hebrew or Phoenician character, which was in use among them before the Babylonish Captivity, and in which both these, and all other scriptures were written, till Ezra transcribed them into that of the Chaldeans. And this hath led many learned men into a mistake, as if the Samaritan copy, because written in the old character, were the true authentic copy, and that Ezra's was only a transcript; whereas in truth the Samaritan Pentateuch is no more than a transcript, copied in another character from that of Ezra, with some variations, additions, and transpositions made therein. That it was copied from that of Ezra, is manifest from two reasons. For first, it hath all the interpolations that Ezra's copy hath; and that he was the author of those interpolations is generally acknowledged; and therefore had it been ancienter than Ezra's copy, it must have been without them. 2dly, There are a great many variations in the Samaritan copy, which are manifestly caused by the mistake of the similar letters in the Hebrew alphabet; which letters having no similitude in the Samaritan character, this evidently proves those variations were made in transcribing the Samaritan from the Hebrew, and not in transcribing the Hebrew from the Samaritan. It seems from hence to be beyond all doubt that Manasseh, when he fled to the Samaritans, first brought the Law of Moses among them. Esarhaddon indeed* sent to his new colony, which he had planted in Samaria, an Israelitish prist to teach them the way of worshipping God according to the manner of the former inhabitants, but it appears not that he did this by bringing the law of Moses among them, or that they were any other wise instructed in it, than by tradition, till Manasseh came among them. For had they received the law of Moses from the

¶ Hieronymus in Dialogo adversus Luciferianos. Epiphanius, Hæres. 9. Benjaminis Itinerarium, p. 38. Eutychius, &c. II Kings, xvii, 28.

a

:

first, and made that the rule of worship, which they paid the God of Israel, from the time of the coming of that priest among them, how could they have continued in that gross idolatry of worshipping other gods in conjunction with him, which that Law doth so often and so strictly forbid? And yet, in this idolatry, it is agreed on all hands, they continued until the building of the temple on mount Gerizim; and therefore it seems clear, that till then they had not a copy of this law, but that when Manasseh, and so many apostate Jews with him, came over to them, and settled in Samaria, they first brought it among them and because the old Phoenician character was that only which the Samaritans were accustomed to, they caused this law, for their sakes, to be written out in that character, and in this they have retained it ever since. This Samaritan Pentateuch was well known to many of the Fathers, and ancient Christian writers. For it is quoted by Origen, Africanus, Eusebius, Jerom, Diodor of Tarsus, Cyril of Alexandria, Procopius Gazæus, and others. That which made it so familiar to them, was a Greek translation of it then extant, which now is lost. For as there was a Greek translation of the Hebrew scriptures made for the Hellenistic Jews, which we call the Septuagint, so also was there a like Greek translation of the Samaritan scriptures (that is the Pentateuch, which they only allowed for such (made for the use of the Hellenistical Samaritans, especially for those of Alexandria,* where the Samaritans dwelt in great numbers, as well as the Jews. Origen, indeed, and Jerom, understood the Hebrew language, and might have consulted the Samaritan text, that being none other than Hebrew in another character. But the rest of those mentioned, understanding nothing of it, could no otherwise have any knowledge of this Samaritan Pentateuch, but from the translation of it. And there is also an old scholiast upon the Septuagint, that makes frequent mention of it. But this, as well as the other ancient books, in which any mention of the Samaritan Pentateuch is to be found, were all written before the end of the sixth century. From that time for above a thousand years after, it hath lain wholly in the dark, and in an absolute state of oblivion among all Christians both of the west and east, and hath been no more spoken of after that time by any of their writers, till about the beginning of the last Century, when Scaliger having gotten notice, that there was such a Samaritan Pentateuch among those of that sect in the east, made heavy complaints, that no one would take care to get a copy of it from thence, and bring it among us into these parts. A little after this ¶ Arch-Bishop Usher procured several copies of it out of the east, and not long after Sancius Harley, a priest of the Oratory at Paris, and afterwards bishop of St Malo's in Britanny, † brought another copy into Europe, and reposited it in the library belonging to that order in Paris. From

Josephus Antip. lib. 12. c. 1 & lib. 13. c.

De Emendatione Temporum lib. 7. p. 669.

¶ Waltoni Prolegom. xi. ad Biblia Polyglotta Lond. §. 10.

Morini Exercitatio prima in Pentateuchum Samaritanum, cap. 1.