Hebrew, and Assyrian, having been much the same, I could willingly, before I close this essay, add a few observations upon each of these in their order. 1. Now the ancient Hebrew alphabet was not written in the present Hebrew character, but in a letter pretty much the same as the present Samaritan. Buxtorf and Lightfoot were not of this opinion; but it has been abundantly proved by Scaliger, Casaubon, Grotius, Vossius, Bochart, Father Morin, Brerewood, Capellus, and Walton. Bishop Walton has proved it beyond contradiction, from some ancient Jerusalem coins, called shekels". The Rabbins, Talmudists, Christian Fathers, Origen and St. Jerome, all believed that there had been a change of the Hebrew letters. St. Jerome asserts it very expressly'. Spanheim and Dr. Allix took the other side of the question; but they have answered only a small part of the arguments against them. This change of the Hebrew letters is supposed to have been made by Ezra, after the rebuilding the Temple, when he wrote out a new copy of the law. 9 De Siclorum Formis, in Prolegom. iii, sect. 29, 30. See Dr. Prideaux's Connect. vol. i, part į, book v, an. 446. In Præfat. ad Lib. Regum. VOL. I.' The old Hebrew letters, nearly the same still used by the Samaritans, were written in this same2 manner. SAMARITAN 1. a N J I ¥ 3 4 3 AN hh Z V h d g b 0 35 y 2 ཅ E m 1 k i I Y J r q ts p th Supposed by Theseus Ambrosius to have been formed after the course and movements of nature. SAMARITAN 2. hh V X TTT I ว I + X W 9 > TO t sch r q ts aa The above is taken from the Samaritan coins in Bishop Walton's Polyglott. 2 There is no reason to think the first and most ancient Hebrew alphabet had thus many letters. Irenæus says expressly, "Ipsæ antiquæ et primæ Hebræorum litteræ, et Sacerdotales nuncupatæ, decem quidem sunt numero." Like to these were the Syrian and Phœnician: the best copy we can take of the old Phoenician is For the preceding Alphabet, see Scaliger, p. 80, and Montfaucon's Palæogr. Græc. p. 122. 7 k PHOENICIAN 2. TE 7 4 9 i hh v h d 9 q y 0 34 3 YO m This is given on the authority of the Abbé Barthelemy, who is said to have taken it from inscriptions preserved in Malta, and from Syrian medals. See Ency. Franc. Plan. v. COMPLETE PHOENICIAN ALPHABET.* * XF F F KK Ka 99994 Аъ ▲へ 1Yg 4 K L L ^ v ^ / 1 844y4m 1 5 5 5 5 5 5 yy n 7 0 0 0 0 0 h p p p p m 4 7 mm z TP TDP P k 7741 9 4 4 9 9 ŕ vvwwwws h ♪ hp h + + + X t * This was furnished by Mr. Henley from ancient coins, and inserted by Mr. Fry in his Pantographia, who has kindly lent the Editor this, and several other of his alphabets, for the use of this work. EDIT. From the Phoenician were derived the ancient Greek letters, which, according to the oldest spe cimen we have of them, were thus written: Greek Alphabet, written from left to right and from right to left, taken from the Sigean Inscription. ААХ В ЛАТАРЭНН be gr ds аа h The Greek letters were not anciently written from the left hand to the right, as we now write them, but from the right hand to the left, as the Hebrews and Phoenicians wrote; and then, the letters being inverted, had a nearer resemblance to the Phoenician character, from whence they were taken. In time the Greeks left off writing from the right to the left in part, and retained it in part; that is, they began one line from the left to right, the next from right to left, the third from left to right, &c. |