I said (p. 145) that I would indicate some instances of grammatical faults to be met with in the Scriptures, to which the character of divine inspiration cannot be assigned. Upon the subject of the books of the Old Testament I have consulted my learned confrÈre, M. Munk; his reply is in the precise words which follow:
"The biblical authors," he writes to me, "whose style is most incorrect, are Ezekiel and Jeremiah. These authors, and particularly the first, err frequently against grammar and orthography; they are not merely influenced by the Aramean dialect, but they disclose grammatical faults capable of being traced to no source in any of the Semitic dialects. This remark has also been made by Hebrew grammarians of the middle ages, and Isaac Abrabanel (towards the close of the 15th century), in the preface to his commentary upon Ezekiel, does not hesitate to declare that this prophet was but superficially acquainted with Hebrew grammar and orthography. Nevertheless, neither Jeremiah nor Ezekiel, of whom both are distinguished by a certain originality of style, unlike that of any of the other Hebrew writers, is wanting in elegance, energy, and boldness in images, and they display in the highest degree their proficiency in the art of composition. The following are some instances of the grave faults against grammar to be met with in their writings:—
Examples of Incorrect Expressions in Ezekiel.
- ???? ???????? (mischta’ hawithem), "and they worshipped" (viii. 16), a barbarism for ??????? (mischta’hawÎm).
- ?????? ??? (we-nÉschaar ani), "and I remained" (xi. 8), for ????? (wa-ËschaËr) or ??????? (we-nischarti). (There are here faults both of orthography and grammar.)
- ??? (ischÔth), "women" (xxiii. 44), for ??? (neschÉ).
- ???? ?????? (schib’a), "his seven burnt offerings" (xl. 26), for ??? (scheba’). In the number seven the masculine is used instead of the feminine.
- ??????? (bi-benÔthayikh), "in that thou buildest" (xvi. 31), instead of ?????? (bi-benotihÉkh).
- ?????? (be-schoubÉni), "when I returned" (xlvi. 7), instead of ????? (be-schoubi).
- ???? ???? (gabehÂ), "his height was exalted" (xxxi. 5), instead of ???? (gabehÂ). The last letter is aleph, for hÉ.
The Chaldean plural is used in several words, for instance:
- ???? (’hittÎn), "wheat" (iv. 9), for ???? (’hittÎm); ???? (ha-iyyÎn), "the isles," or "the isles in the sea" (xxvi. 18), instead of ???? (ha-iyyim), an error in both orthography and grammar.
Examples of Incorrect Expressions in Jeremiah.
- ?????? (ÔbÎdÂ), "I will destroy" (xlvi. 8), for ?????? (aabÎdÂ).
- ???? (nibbetha), "hast thou prophesied" (xxvi. 9), instead of ???? (nibbetha). The syllable bÉ has a yod instead of an aleph.
- ???? (athanou) "we come" (iii. 22), instead of ????? (athinou.).
- ??? (att), "thee" in the feminine (terminating with yod mute), for ?? (att), a Syriasm very frequent in Jeremiah, who often forms the second person of the perfect fem. in ??? (t followed by yod) instead of ?? (t).
- ??? (lÔ written with waw quiescent), "not" very often for ?? (lÔ without the waw).
- ???? (hoglath), "shall be carried away captive" (xiii. 19), instead of ????? (hoglethÂ). The latter Chaldaism we meet also in the Pentateuch (Leviticus xxv. 22), ???? (we’asath), her fruits (shall) come in." for ????? (we’asetah), and ibid xxvi. 34; ????? (we-hirzath), "she shall enjoy," for ?????? (we-hircethÂ).
With respect to the New Testament, I have required a similar notice from my son William, who has made the Greek language in general, and its deviations in the writings of the Gospel, the object of particular and careful study. I insert, also, the note which he has drawn up upon the subject:—
"On first approaching the text of the New Testament, after having learnt the Greek language and grammar in the classical writers, we are struck by numerous irregularities of expression: amongst these, however, we must carefully distinguish those which constitute merely particular and singular modes of expression from those which are real faults. The former are susceptible of explanation and justification by different examples and different arguments; the latter are not capable of being reconciled with the elementary and necessary laws of language. Thus we may justify such or such a strange form of conjugation or of declension, which would be accounted a barbarism by a school boy, but which was nevertheless in actual use in some one or other of the local dialects, written and spoken by the Greeks. Again, however it may have been the rule in Greek to set the verb in the singular when used with a neuter substantive in the plural, the rule has not been invariably observed even by the purest classical writers, and we may justify by exceptions collected here and there in their compositions, several passages of the New Testament which, at first sight, might appear amenable to a charge of solecism. Thus, in short, after our attention having, at first sight, been arrested and our minds disconcerted by other passages in which the sacred writer has confounded the sense of two words which resemble each other, as a?t???a?, which signifies summon a witness, and which St. Peter employs instead of a?t???? which means, give testimony,[Footnote 127] as ?d???te??, which signifies to be incapable, and which St. Matthew and St. Mark employ in the sense of being impossible, [Footnote 128]—as es??????a, which signifies the meridian or zenith of a star, and which, on three occasions in the New Testament, is used in the sense of in the middle of the air,—or, even when we meet words, not merely strange to the ear, but formed without attention to the rules and in contradiction to analogy, as pe???? for pe??a???[Footnote 129]—we may again, without any departure from logical rules, by judicious or subtle distinctions, escape from the difficulties which the passages suggest, and have a perfect right to do so. But after having made allowances for the irregularities susceptible of explanation in the language of the New Testament, there still remain some which are real faults. The same word cannot be written by the same hand, at an interval of but three pages, both masculine and feminine, as the word ????, rainbow, in the Apocalypse. [Footnote 130] When the substantive is feminine, the adjective cannot be masculine, as t?? ????? ... t?? ??a?. [Footnote 131]
When the substantive is in the accusative, the adjective cannot be in the nominative. In such an employment of words we are able to trace in the sacred writings the hand of man, marks of human imperfection and error; and we must not forget that these faults become more numerous and grosser the greater the antiquity of the MS. in which we find them, and the purer the Jewish origin of the writer. Thus the Greek of the Apocalypse is singularly incorrect, at the same time that the imaginative turn of the expression is remarkably Hebraic. [Footnote 132] In the text, styled the received text, and which was fixed in the 16th century, many of these faults have disappeared, because it has borrowed from MSS. of then recent date. But now that biblical philosophy has mounted higher, we can discern how the copyists, one after the other, actuated by pious scruples, or thinking only to correct some error of their predecessors, have little by little effaced what appeared to them too great a departure from rules to have been written by an evangelist or an apostle. At the present day, these admitted irregularities are an element indispensible to every serious discussion respecting the nature and extent of the divine inspiration to be met with in the sacred volume.
THE END.
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July, 1864
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