HEBREWS post-Biblical Jewish works ; Yehudith, Jewish, in the Biblical history of the period following the captivity of the ten tribes ; in Isaiah, poetically, also sefath Kenyan, language of Canaan), to- gether with scanty remnants of the Phoenician and Punic, belongs to the so-called Canaanitic branch of the Semitic family of languages. (See SEMITIC RACE AND LANGUAGES.) In the antiquity of its extant literary remnants the Hebrew by far surpasses all other Semitic idioms, and in richness and development ex- ceeds all others except the Arabic. The He- brew is deficient in grammatical technicalities, especially in moods and tenses of the verb, and consequently also somewhat in precision ; but in euphony, simplicity, brevity, variety of signification, and power of poetical expression, is hardly excelled by any tongue. In its full rarity the Hebrew appears in the earlier books >f the Bible, in the mediaeval poetical works >f Judah Hallevi, Aben Ezra, &c., and in the lodern poems of Wessely, S. Cohen, and lers. The prose writings posterior to the ibylonish captivity are generally tinged with imaisms, especially the Mishnah, which al- contains numerous Greek words, while the lixed idiom of the Gemara and its commen- may be termed Chaldaic rather than [ebrew. (See TALMUD.) In the middle ages rare Hebrew was used only in poetry and poet- ical prose ; in modern times it is used also in imple prose. In the East and in Poland the ebrew is often used in correspondence, in ie East occasionally also as a medium of con- versation with occidental Jews. Of the various lodes of Hebrew pronunciation, the Sefaradic (improperly Portuguese), or that of the de- fendants of the exiles from Spain and Portu- il, is regarded by scholars as the most genu- le. There are three kinds of Hebrew alpha- now in use : the square, also called the Lssyrian (properly Babylonian), which is gen- lly supposed to have been introduced by Ezra, the most common in print ; the rabbini- cal or mediaeval, used chiefly in commentaries and notes ; and the cursive, in writing. The lost ancient Hebrew, however, is believed by many critics more to have resembled the Phoe- nician (see ALPHABET), and to be best repre- sented by the Maccabean coins and the alpha- bet of the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch, ie writing is from right to left. The alpha- consists of 22 letters or consonants, called tleph, beth, &c. (see ALPHABET), the vowels sing expressed by marks above or below the otters, thus : N, a ; a, Ie ; a, gi ; *, do. Five 3rs (kaph, mem, nun, pe, tsade) have a sepa- final form. There are no capital letters, ie accents and marks of punctuation are very lumerous. The following examples will ex- libit some of the most interesting features of e language: Kol, (a) voice, haklcol, the roice ; gan, garden, haggan, the garden ; shem, e, hashshem, the name. Dod, uncle, dodah, mt ; dod zaken, an old uncle, dodah zelcenah, HEBREWS (EPISTLE TO THE) 599 an old aunt ; dodim zekenim, old uncles, dodoth ze&enoth, old aunts ; dod e'had, one uncle, do- dah a'hath, one aunt ; shenei dodim, two uncles, shetei dodoth, two aunts. Oznayim, raglayim, alpayim, two (a couple of) ears, feet, thou- sands. Banim, sons, banoth, daughters ; benei david, benoth david, sons, daughters of David. Ani gadol, I am great, hu gadol, he is great, hem gedolim, they are great. Roll, my voice, Icolo, his voice, kolam, their voice, Icolan, their voice, speaking of females. Lemosheh, to Mo- ses, bemosheh, in Moses, kemosheh, like Moses, middavid, from David. Bo, in him, lo, to him ; lanu, in us, lanu, to us. Bein, between ; bein mosheh vedavid, between Moses and David; beini ubeino, between me and him. Min, from ; gadol middavid, greater than David ; haggadol baarets, the greatest in the land. Golyath raah eth david, Goliath saw (looked at) David ; golyath 'hereph eth david, Goliath insulted (mocked at) David ; david MlcTcaJi eth golyath, David struck (at) Goliath. Shamor, to guard ; eshmor, I shall guard, tishmor, thou wilt guard, nishmor, we shall guard; shamarti, I (have) guarded, shamarnu, we guarded, shemartem, ye guarded ; ani shomer (I am guarding), I guard, hu shomer, he guards, hi shomerah, she guards, hem shomerim, they guard; shamar r (he) guarded, nishmar, was guarded, hishtam- mer, guarded himself; lishmor, to guard, bish- mor, in guarding ; mosheh shamar, Moses guard- ed ; miry am shamerah, Miriam guarded ; she- marani, (he) guarded me, shemaro, guarded him ; yishmerenu, will guard us; shomer (guarder), guardian, mishmar, guard, watch, confinement, ashmoreth, night watch, mishmereth, thing to- be watched, observance, trust. Alchal, (he) ate, ikkel, consumed, JieeTchil, caused to eat, nee- TcJial, was eaten, ukkal, was consumed. Among the eminent modern Christian writers (besides- the Jewish previously mentioned) on Hebrew history, literature, or language are Reuchlin, the Buxtorfs, Lowth, Basnage, Michaelis, Eich- horn, Herder, Rosenmtiller, Jahn, Gesenius, De Wette, Ewald, Quatremere, Milman, Robinson, Noyes, Stuart, Conant, Bush, and Renan. HEBREWS, Epistle to the, one of the canoni- cal books of the New Testament, addressed to converted Jews, and designed to dissuade them from relapsing into Judaism and to for- tify them in the Christian faith. It aims to demonstrate the preeminence of Christ over Moses and the angels of the Lord, and of the gospel over the law, and to show that the lat- ter was typical of the former, and was abol- ished by it. The epistle was addressed to a congregation of converted Jews, whether at Jerusalem or at some other place is still a con- troverted point. It is the opinion of most com- mentators that it was written between 64 and 66. The Greek fathers unanimously ascribed the epistle to Paul, and its Pauline authorship was generally accepted in the western church from the 5th century, though in the first three centuries no Latin writer attributed it to him. Among modern writers its Pauline origin has
