tas’ 7s Ban eee oe ee ART TL Liber Tramitum Pacis, five volumen tontinens Pentateucbame cury Emendatione Scribarum, Verfione Germahita a Commenterio (Rabbinic. Berlin, 1783... ‘HE tranflation is by the famous Jew, Mofes . Mendelfohn, fo well known dy his Effay on the Immortality of the Soul ; and the comment by a Rabbin galled Solomen Dubnenfis: but the book is chiefly ‘mentioned for the fake of the preface, entitled Lex STramitis, Jeu Prafatio integri Pentateuchi, which is to ‘be had ‘feparaté, and in which Mr. M. repeats forne affertions long fince fuppofed to have been confuted. In this the author contends that Mofes Wrote the ‘whole of the pentateuch (the five laft verfes not excepted) ‘and that by means of the Maffora it is come down entire without any errors of tranfcribers. In, order to prove this Mr. M. enters into feveral difcuffions - Télative’ to the pronunciation and figure of the ‘words, the writing, and the corrections. This leads hitn to treat of the language called boly, which. he contends to have been that in which God fpoke to Adam and the patriarchs, as he attempts to fhew ‘by intrinfic characters of beauty and energy, which ‘render it fuperior to all other languages. ‘Mr. M. builds a great deal of his reafoning on the ‘argument drawn from the proper names having areal Meaning in Hebrew. He he that the vowels as well as confonants were made ufe of in God’s firft conver+ fation with men. They were ufed by Mofes, who tranfmitted them to Jofhua, and thofe who came after him. Ezra made ufe of a different writing from that ‘how called Samaritan, as may be proved by the’ feventh verfe of the fourth chapter of Ezra, where fiention ig ‘taade of a letter written by the Samaritans in the : Aramean,344 Liber Yromituan Pacis; , Arameati; that is tofay the Samaritan language aad characters, which proves, fays Mr.M. the difference theré is between this character and that ufed by Ezra himfelf 3 Mr. M. mentions the opinions of the Rabbins Jofhuz and Jofeph Abo on the exact form of the Hebrew letters. The latter of them pretends that Ezra intro- duced the charaéter called Squdte inftead of the Sama- ritan ; but he is refated by tk: authority of the Talmud of Jerufalem. Mr. M. then-fpeaks of the copies of the Pentateuch exifting arnong the Samaritans, and feems to judge more liberally of them thah is commonly done by his countrymen. d The object of the fourth patt of the firft part of thé _ preface is called Tickcun, of the correction of the writ- ang. Thiscomprehends the punctuation, vowels; and aé- cents. Mr. M. grants that the original of Mofes had neither points, vowels, or accents, but he does not admit the opinion of the Rabbi Evies the Levite, who thinks that points were inferted only after the making of the Talmud, - but incliries rathet to that of thé Rabbi Afaria, who is of opinion that the vowels al- ways exifted, but that not being to be met with in.all the copies, and not being generally known, they were firft reduced to a fyftem by the Mafforetes. Mafes, he tells us, marked in the Pentateuch the Chedadar or tex- tual reading, and pointed out to Jofhud the Keri or mat. ‘ ginal reading, which has been tranfmitted to pofterity, In procefs of time the Mafforetes having compated @ great number of copies together, inferted in the text the reading found in the greateft number of them, and put che variations in the margin, or made {e- parate collections of them. . The fecond part of the preface treats of interpretation. Mr. M., allows a good interpretation to have fome changes and corrections; he illuftrates this by exe amples, and gives Onkelos the greateft praife'on this.- fcore. At the time of the captivity of Babylon, the - : verfion .- Liber Tromitum Patii, Be. 943 Geilion of the feriptures into foreign languages be- came abfolutely neceffary; as only a few of the cap- _ tives réturned to Paleftine. Mr. M. on this occafion gives us his fentiments in the following words! ~ Panci tantutr ex captivitate Babylonica in Juida@arh fedierant . . . . nam fabri, clauftrarii multique fa- pientum quum viderent hanc quietém et redemptionem iam ron’ effe que ex teftimonio cmnium vatumi * divinorum nobis conftituta fit, Babylone remanferunt. We have then an account of the different verfions nade by the Jews—Ezra and: his affociates firft tran- flated the Pentateuch into Chaldaic, this was. retouched by Onkeles after the deftruction of the temple of Jeru+ falem ; then came Aquila, who tranflated it into Greek, and whofe verfion Mr. M. fays ftill exifts. Jonathan Ben Uaziel, who:lived ido years after the ruin of thé fecond temple, tranflated the prophéts. Theré is a ¥erfion extant which pafies for his, but this cannot be, as it contains feveral words, fuch as Germany, Tark y, Lombardy, &c. which were unknown in his time, and in general the ‘ftyle of this vetfion differs much from that of the true Jonathan and of Onkelos, ; The Pentateuch of Jérufalém is lefs a new verfion than a copy which differs in fome refpeéts from the verfion falfely attributed to Jonathan. i . Wich regard to the famous verfion of the feventy; Mr. M. thinks that though the moderns have treated the account given of it by Arifteas as fabulous, we fhall do well to adhere to what Philo fays on the — fubjeét (who thought it genuine) ; nor is it difficult to” reconcile the various accounts of the Rabbins on thé‘ fabjeG&t. But what is remarkable iss that before the’ verfion of the feventy, there had been another made by five old men for a Ptolemy who lived before Ftolemy Philadelphus. This may be collected from . the expreffions of Arifteas and Ariftobulus, whofe - great work on the Pentateuch dedicated to Prolemy . Von. VIL Xx . _. Philopater.