No. 3, Pinner, small folio. This MS. con tains the greater and lesser prophets, on 225 leaves. Every page is written in two columns, between which, as well as below, and in the outer margin, stands the Masorah. Every column contains twenty one lines. After each verse are two points, to which, without any interval, a new verse succeeds. The vowels and accents, as well as the greater and lesser Masorah, are wholly different from the Masoretic. The former are placed above the consonants. The first page has a twofold pointing, viz., above and below, but this does not occur again except occa sionally in verses or words. From Zech. xiv. 6 to Mal. i. 13 there is no punctuation, and the first three verses of Malachi alone have been pointed much later in the manner now usual. The whole codex is very correctly written. The form of the consonants differs considerably from the present text. The various readings of this MS., according to Pinner's collation, are numerous and important. The date is 916. Two others in the same collection, Nos. 15 and 16, have the same vowel and accent system, i.e., the Babylonian or Eastern, which ori ginated in the 6th century, and from which in the 7th that of the Westerns, or the school of Tiberias, was developed. Pinsker has written ably on the subject (Eh:led:mg iu das Babylonisch-licbroischi Punktationssystem, u. s. w., Wien 1863), reviewed by Fiirst in the Zee/schrift der dew/schen MOrgell lcilldirChat GeSdISChaft, IS Band, p. 314, d seq.
No. 13, Pinner, in folio. This is an incomplete MS., consisting of 115 leaves, on good parchment, containing 2 Samuel from vi. to to the end, and the books of Kings. Each page has three columns, between which, as also at the sides of the text, stands the Masorah. The vowels and accents are different from those now in use. The text has many and important readings ; and the Masorah deserves to be examined. Two points stand after each verse ; and ad succeeds 1st Kings without a vacant space between. An inscription states that the MS. was purchased 938. It is obviously an important codex.
Codex 59o, Kennicott, fol. This MS. contains the Prophets and Hagiographa on parchment. The text has the vowel-points, but apparently from a later hand. The margin does not exhibit the Masorah, but variations are noted here and there. Some books have the final Masorah. The separate books have no titles, and they are arranged in the oldest order, Jeremiah and Ezekiel coming before Isaiah, and Ruth before the Psalms. According to the subscription it was written A.D. 1019, or lo18 by another reckoning. The MS. is in the Imperial library of Vienna.
— Pinner, small folio. A MS. containing the Pentateuch, Prophets, and Hagiographa, on good parchment. Every page has three columns, except in Psalms, Job, and Proverbs, where there are but two. The text is furnished with vowels and ac cents, two points standing after each verse. The letters and accents are like those in No. 3 of Pinner. The great and little Masorah are in the margins.
Being a Karaite MS. it has not been written with great accuracy. Words and verses are sometimes repeated. It is highly ornamented with gold and silver colours. The codex states that it was written in Egypt in the year solo.
The most important and oldest Hebrew MSS. collated by Kennicott, Bruns, De Rossi, Pinner, and others, are described in Davidson's Biblical Criticism, voL i. p. 346, et seq. ; and his Text of the Old Testament considered, etc. etc., p. 98 et seq. See also the third section of Tychsen's Tentamen de variis Codicum Hebraicorum Vet. Test. MSS. generibus, etc., Rostock 1772, 8vo, in which the learned writer examines the marks of antiquity assumed by Simon, Jablonski, Wolf, Houbigant, Kennicott, and Lilienthal, and shows that the Masorah alone is a certain index; for determining the age and goodness of Hebrew MSS. ; the same writer's BeurtIzeilung deryahrzahlen in den liebra isch-Biblischen Handschriften, Rostock 1786, Svo, in which the mode of determining the age of MSS. adopted by Kennicott, Bruns, and De Rossi, is rejected ; and Schnurrer's Dissertatio Inauguralis de Codicum Hebraorum Vet. Test. relate elf/fig-utter de terminandd, Tubingen 1772, 4to, reprinted in his Dissertationes Philologico-Critica, Gotha and Am sterdam 1790, Svo.
Private MSS. written in the Rabbinical character are much more recent than the preceding ; none of them being older than Soo years. They are on cotton or linen paper, in a cursive character, with out vowel-points or the Masorah, and with many abbreviations.
The MSS. found among the Chinese Jews are partly synagogue rolls, partly private copies, whose text does not differ from the Masoretic. The Pen tateuch of the Malabar Jews brought from India to England by the late Dr. Buchanan, and described by Mr. Yeates, resembles on the whole the usual synagogue rolls of the Jews, except that it is written on red skins. Its text is the Masoretic, with a few unimportant deviations.
Eight exemplars are celebrated among the Jews for their correctness and value. They are now lost, but extracts from them are still preserved. From Jewish writings, and from the margin of some MSS., where a reference is made to them, we learn that they were highly prized for their sin gular accuracy. They formed the basis of subse quent copies. They are—x. The codex of Hillel ; 2. The Babylonian codex ; 3. The codex of Israel ; 4. An Egyptian codex ; 5. Codex Sinai ; 6. The Pentateuch of Jericho ; 7. Codex Sanbuki ; 8. The book Taggin. For a more copious account of Hebrew MSS. we refer to Eichhorn's Einleitung (Introduction), vol. ii. ; Kennicott's Dissertatio ge neralis ; Walton's Prolegomena to the Polyglott, separately edited by Dathe and Wrangham ; Tych sen's Tentamen ; De Rossi's Varie Lectiones Vet. Test., etc. ; and his Scholia critica iu V. T. libros, etc. ; De Wette, Lehrbuch der Historisclz-Kritis chen Einleitung ; Davidson's Treatise on Biblical Criticism ; and his Introduction to the Old Testa ment, in Horne.