3d, First Attempts at Revision.

(v)

If my reader's patience will permit, I will endeavour to lead him through these labors. And, first, the following quotation from a Prospectus (issued June 1836), will at once explain the difficulties to be contended with, and present an interesting scale as to the value of other more ancient Concordances.

Extract from a Prospectus, dated June, 1836.

"The whole of this has TWICE been verified with Vanderhooght's Hebrew Bible The process pursued was this:-The MS. was read through, and each word in the various places referred to in it, found in the Bible, and there crossed out. The first of these comparisons was instituted in the Autumn of 1833, and finished in the Spring of 1834, a red chalk pencil being used to cancel the passages in the Bible. On account of the indistinctness arising from the chalk, and for other reasons, this comparison was decmed insufficient. A second similiar revision therefore commenced in June, 1834; and a fresh Bible having been prepared for the purpose, interleaved with tissue paper, red ink was substituted for the chalk, and the indistinctness avoided. By these means, as no words were marked in the Bible but those found in the manuscript, of course the words not marked with red ink in the Bible, when the whole comparision was ended, were ALL the words which had been omitted in the manuscript. Each quotation also has been carefully compared with a Hebrew and English Bible. IT IS NOT FEARED, THEREFORE, if a comparison be instituted between the present and any former Concordance, but that this will be found, both as to the correctness and the number of the references, by far the most perfect. And in order to insure this,-at once to prevent the omission of any quotations found in any former Concordance, and to ascertain how many new references have been given,-arrangements have been made to compare each sheet with the works of Buxtorf, of Marius de Calasio, as edited by W. Romaine, and of Taylor.

"The aid of all these very valuable books, as also of Trom, Conrad Kircher, Noldius on the Particles, and many other of the best printed, as well as living, authorities, has been largely used; and but for the assistance ministered by them (but especially by Buxtorf and Noldius), the present work would have failed of much of that accuracy which has been attained.

"That the present edition will be found 'complete' or 'faultless,' is not suggested: but that it will be found, as to matter far more full and accurate, as to arrangement more simple and perspicuous, and as to price more accessible than any former work of a similar nature, is confidently believed, to say nothing of superior portability, type, paper, &c.

"P.S. The first sheet of the present work was originally set up by the printer in a larger type, and somewhat different form, so as to contain about one-eighth less matter than at present. The result of its comparison with the other Concordances, was the following report of omissions, &c.

2:12.

1 Ki. 10:10.

Within the space of eight pages

Within the space of fifteen pages, besides a few mistakes in books, chapters, verses, quotations; -in all under twenty.

DN Deu. 10: 3.

2 Sa. 18:17.

Taylor, in his preface, says, "I Rabbi Nathan's work, second have added all the words I could edition, Basil, 1581, has fewer find that Buxtorf hath omitted, and two columns, besides mis- mistakes though more omissions which amount to 121;" (he certakes regarding the respective than Buxtorf's. In Kircher, I tainly added many more, but) OBbooks, 4-chapters, 17;-verses, found one, and in Trom about SERVE, our first sheet alone, less 92-quotations, 5;-in all 118. four references not found else- than one eightieth part of the I find also that in there are where. whole work, adds 25 more. 380 omissions, and 1100 errata. In this work has 145 omissions. In this work has 250 omissions.

"The preparation of this work for the press has been the labour of many. To Dr. Bialloblotzky, especially, I am indebted more largely than I can here state, as also to his assistant, Mr. Davidson."

Revision

needful.

4th, Further But all this labour was abortive, and further delay occurred: for that no superstructure, reared upon or formed out of such materials as had been found ready to our hands, could be made to approach to the measure of accuracy desired, became apparent soon after the publication of the prospectus out of which the above is quoted.

The only prospect of success seemed to be in commencing de novo, and forming something which would be in itself a perfect STANDARD of comparison. From this period, indeed, I date the commencement of the revision of the work: and we have reason to believe, that if instead of merely making A STANDARD OF COMPARISON, we had also re-written the manuscript from that standard, much trouble and delay would have been saved us. For the rough copy (orignally made upon the basis of Taylor's Concordance by those who were employed under Mr. Burgh, and who were wholly

incompetent to the task of executing his plan), had come into my hand so replete with inaccuracies, that the corrections, and attempts at corrections, had made any proper revision of it difficult. To re-write the MS., however, did not occur to us till a later period, or else much trouble might have been spared. The formation of such a standard of comparison was, however, undertaken and carried through by the kind aid of many; among the rest, of S. P. Tregelles, on whom the responsibility of the correction of the MS. now also devolved; of B. Davidson, a converted Hebrew (already mentioned); and of W. Chalk, with whom the correction of the press has chiefly rested, &c. &c. &c.; as also, Mr. G. W. Pieritz, Mr. A. Levi, and Mr. N. Davis, afterwards connected with the London Society for Promoting Christianity among the Jews. I cannot explain this portion of our toil more simply, than by reprinting an—

"ACCOUNT OF THE HEBRAIST'S VADE MECUM;'

5th, Formation of a Standard of Comparison.

OR, STANDARD OF COMPARISON.

"THE supposed inaccuracies, and known omissions in existing Hebrew Concordances, first suggested, 28th October 1836, the idea of the present attempt. In revising the second sheet of the Englishman's Hebrew Concordance, it alone was found to contain 300 citations not in the works of Rabbi Nathan, Buxtorf, Marius, Taylor, Trom, or Kircher. Confessedly, then, none of these works were complete; perhaps, also, none had been made directly from the Hebrew Language, and if so, then none of them could justly be looked upon as A Standard.' Complete Hebrew Concordance, presenting a complete balance as to the extent of its contents with that of the Hebrew Bible, there was none. Could such a thing be produced? The plan on which the attempt has been made is a very simple one, namely, that on which catalogues to libraries are usually formed. The thought to be carried into execution, was to distribute' (as the printer would say) the Hebrew Bible from Genesis to 2nd Chronicles, the last book according to the Hebrew order, placing each word as it recurs, with those like it which had occurred in the preceding parts of the Bible. In order to effect this,—

I. The first step taken was to make a census of the words in the Bible, so as to be able to say how many words each respective verse in each chapter and book throughout the whole Bible contained. This was easily accomplished, the number of words in each verse being counted in a copy of Athias's Bible by one person, and this checked by a second, who counted in Vanderhooght's Bible.

"II. According to this census, tables were prepared for each word in each verse, on pages containing 3 columns in width and 27 lines in depth. "The directions to the writers were these:

"Write the name of the book, and the figures representing chapter and verse, as often as the census says there are words in the verse.

"Thus labels were prepared for each word in each verse in the Bible, of such a nature, as that if the Hebrew word were firmly appended to it, its place in the Bible would be manifest.

"III. Two copies of Vanderhooght's Bible were taken, and by tracing a carmine line through the alternate pages of the two, there was left but one clean Bible.

"IV. Each page was then pared to the edge of the letterpress on every side except the left; each line with its accents and points was divided with scissors from that above and that below it, from right to left, yet not cut off, but allowed to adhere to the white edge which remained on the left side, so that all the lines of each page were bound together in one.

"V. A paster having run his brush down the left side of a column in the Table (described above, see II.), tore off a line of letterpress, and observing to keep that side uppermost which had no carmine line drawn through the words, separated each word from that which followed, with scissors, into the paste. Each word had then to be laid straight and pressed.

"N.B. As a sooph passuk (:) ends each verse in the Bible, if the report

and the table were correct, the last label of each verse would have sooph passuk:- this was a check to the paster.

«VI. The whole was then read carefully with the Bible, to see that nothing was lost;-thus: first one person held the MS., and a second read aloud from the Hebrew Bible, tapping on the table when he came to a word beginning, in the simple form of it, with &, which the other marked + in the MS.; and then the MS. was carefully read again, to be sure that all the alephs were marked and were correct as to accents, &c., &c.

“VII. The alephs were then cut out with a penknife, divided into appellatives and proper names,—the former sorted, first according to the roots whence derived, then into separate words and forms, and then pasted.

"For sorting the roots and words we had the use of 1100 lozenge boxes, and used trays for the forms.

«VIII. The pasted books of aleph were read, and the contents of each article carefully compared with Buxtorf and with Taylor,—the leading forms compared with Taylor, and again with Buxtorf.

"The order of books, of chapters, and of verses, in each article, severally and separately examined by one person; the words in each article read verbatim by one person, and letter by letter by a second, to prevent there being in any article more than one form.

"IX. A copy of Vanderhooght interleaved was then taken, and each word in the pasted books found in this, the accents compared, and then a line drawn in the Bible over the word, and it ticked in the pasted book. The Bible thus marked was then compared and examined by another, which had been twice carefully revised by competent persons. "[There was a two-fold object in thus proceeding as to

first, it brought the whole work again and again under inspection; and, secondly, enabled us to proceed in the use of aleph in a much shorter space of time than we could, had we waited till the whole Bible was distributed.]

"X. Having thus disposed of aleph, each page in the tables was read down by the marker, who placed the initial letter of the simple form after each word, except where it happened to stand without any prefix; and p. n. was in addition added to each proper name.

“XI. A box rising from 8 inches depth in the front, to 14 inches depth at the back was provided; it contained 24 departments, each in area about 4 inches. These were labelled with the letters of the alphabet according to their supposed frequency, the less frequent being placed in the less accessible, and the more frequent in the more accessible parts:-21 letters, one place for proper names, and one for (usually considered in the alphabet under), left us but one for waste scraps.

"The tables were pared and the columns separated: and then the distributer proceeded, a column in the left hand and scissors in the right, to distribute. He read as he proceeded, and snipped into its department each labelled word according to the letter after it (see X.), except when his judgment differed from that of the marker; in which case Buxtorf and Gesenius were immediately resorted to.

"XII. When the whole was thus distributed, the contents of each department of the box were examined, and all the labels which had not upon them the same letter as marked the department under examination, were set aside for the second judgment of the distributer, and then put by the sorter into bags.

"XIII. The proper names were distributed, and in like manner looked through.

"XIV. The marker then distributed the respective letters into roots, which of course brought under his eye the corrections of his former work by the distributer.