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The Reformation.

The Reformation marks a great change in the history of Hebrew grammar. The study of the holy language became a part of Christian scholarship and, because of the return to Scripture demanded by the Reformation, an important factor in the religious movement by which Germany was the first to be affected and transformed. The transfer of the leadership in the field of Hebrew grammar from the Jews to the Christians is in a way personified in Elijah Levita (1469-1549), of whom Sebastian Münster, one of the most prominent of the Christian Hebraists, writes in 1546: "Whoever possesses to-day solid knowledge of Hebrew owes it to Elijah's work or to the sources proceeding from it." Levita's text-book on grammar, called "Sefer ha-Baḥur" after Levita's cognomen, is confined to the theory of the noun and the verb, while he treats the theory of vowels and other special grammatical subjects in four partly metrical treatises entitled "Pirḳe Eliyahu." He also wrote a commentary to Moses Ḳimḥi's brief grammar, which through him became one of the most popular manuals. Levita's works were especially useful in the schoolroom, as he avoided on principle all abstract discussions of grammatical categories, on the ground that he was "a grammarian and not a philosopher." Five years after Levita's grammar had appeared at Rome there was published in Venice (1523) the work "Miḳne Abram," by Abraham Balmes, the last independent work of this period based on thorough knowledge and criticism of its predecessors. Balmes' presentation of grammatical questions may in a certain sense be designated as historico-critical. He attempts to apply the methods and terms of Latin grammar to Hebrew, and adds to phonetics and morphology a treatise on syntax, for which he coins the Hebrew name "harkabah." The book was, however, very complex and clumsy, and its terminology difficult to understand; and although it was issued at the same time in a Latin translation, it did not have much influence on the early Hebrew studies of the Christians.

Johann Reuchlin.

The great humanist, Johann Reuchlin, "is honored by history as the father of Hebrew philology among the Christians" (Gesenius). His "Rudimenta Linguæ, Hebraicæ," published in 1506, was the first successful work of its kind written by a Christian to introduce Christians to the Hebrew language, the attempt made by Conrad Pellican two years previously having been entirely inadequate. Reuchlin, who honored as his teachers two Jewish scholars, Jacob Jehiel Loans and Obadiah Sforno, took the material for his work from David Ḳimḥi's "Miklol"; and for a long time thereafter Christian writers on Hebrew grammar owed their knowledge to Jewish teachers and Jewish works. The works of Christians, even in early times, differed from the works of Jewish authors only in the Latinized terminology (introduced in part by Reuchlin) and in the method of presentation.

It is not the object of this article to describe the development of Hebrew grammar and the related literature which has been produced by Christian scholars during the last four centuries; but the list which follows after a short notice of the principal works of this period, and which includes the titles of nearly 400 Hebrew grammars, many of which have passed through a number of editions, will give an idea of the extent of this literature, and hence of the great importance of the study of Hebrew philology in the non-Jewish world.

From the 16th to the 20th Century.

Of greatest importance in the sixteenth century were the works of Sebastian Münster ("Epitome Hebr. Gram." 1520; "Institutiones Grammaticæ," 1524), who, following Elijah Levita, perfected the science of Hebrew grammar as regards both its material and its methods of presentation. In the seventeenthcentury the grammar of the elder Buxtorf, "Præcepta Gram. Hebr." (1605), enjoyed a high reputation. W. Schickard's "Horologium Hebr." (1623), on account of its brevity and pleasing arrangement, passed through even a greater number of editions. The grammar by Glass ("Instit. Gram. Hebr.") was distinguished by its treatment of syntax. In Holland, Alting's "Fundamenta Punctationis" (1654) was the favorite work after the middle of theseventeenth century. Opitz's manual. "Atrium Linguæ Sanctæ" (1674), although based entirely on Wasmuth's "Hebraismus Restitutus" (1666), passed through many editions in the course of an entire century. A great influence was exerted by Danz, who, in addition to his "Compendium" (1699), wrote various treatises in which he carried out a system of vowel-mutation of his own. In the eighteenth century Schultens wrote his epoch-making "Institutiones" (1737), in which he put the treatment of grammar on a new basis and introduced the comparison of kindred languages, especially Arabic. He was succeeded by Schröder, whose grammar, "Institutiones ad Fund. Ling. Hebr." (1766), was much used. Vater, in his "Hebr. Sprachlehre" (1797), prefixed "philological introductions" to the main divisions of the grammar.

The greatest advance since the beginning of this period was made by the grammar of W. Gesenius (1813), which became the most popular and useful manual of Hebrew philology of the nineteenth century, and was several times translated (since 1874 ed. by Kautzsch). The new method of studying language as an organism, introduced at the beginning of the century, was applied by Ewald to Hebrew grammar, his "Kritische Grammatik" (1827) and "Grammatik der Hebr. Sprache" (1829) enjoying with the work of Gesenius the greatest popularity. Olshausen, in his "Lehrbuch der Hebr. Sprache" (1861), treated Hebrew grammar throughout with reference to Arabic. Böttcher's manual, "Ausführliches Lehrbuch der Hebr. Sprache" (1866), is distinguished by thorough and detailed treatment, as are also more recently König's "Lehrgebäude" and "Historisch-Comparative Syntax" (1881-95, 1897). Stade's "Lehrbuch" (1879) has not been completed. Strack's grammar (1883) is very popular on account of its brevity and superior critical method.

The lion's share in the subjoined list belongs to Germany, where after the Reformation Hebrew philology received an unusual degree of attention, especially as an integral part of the science of theology; and where in modern times it has been given its proper place also in general philology, so that Germany still retains the leadership in this branch of science. The first Hebrew grammars written in languages other than Latin appeared at the end of the sixteenth century; namely, one in Italian by Franchi, a converted Jew, "Sole della Lingua Sancta" (1591), and one in English by Udall, "The Key of the Holy Tongue" (1593). A Hebrew grammar in German, "Teutsche Dikduk" (1613), was written by Josephus, a converted Jew. But far into the eighteenth century Latin remained the principal language of these manuals, primarily designed to assist the learned in their studies.

The following is a chronological list of manuals of Hebrew grammar written by Christians from the beginning of the sixteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century. It is based chiefly on Steinschneider's "Bibliographisches Handbuch" (Leipsic, 1859), with corrections and additions both by him ("Centralblatt für Bibliothekswesen" 1896, xiii. 345-379, 441-489) and by Porges (ib. 1898, xv. 493-508, 566-578). For the period covering the last fifty years it was necessary to seek the titles elsewhere, and the list does not pretend to completeness. The date first given is that of the first publication of the book; dates of later editions are given in parentheses. Authors who were baptized Jews are indicated by an asterisk.

Later Jewish Works.

A period of neglect of letters among the Jews of Europe followed the death of Levita. It lasted for two centuries, and manifested itself in the exclusive study of the Talmud and the Cabala, and in the neglect of the rational study of the Bible and consequently of the cognate grammatical studies. No attention was paid to the ancient classics of Hebrew philology; and the very scant output along philological lines contained not a single prominent work. Among the thirty-six works which were produced from the middle of the sixteenth century to the middle of the eighteenth century those of Solomon Hanau are probably the most important.

Mendelssohn's exposition of the Bible gave a new impulse to the study of Hebrew grammar. The most prominent in that department was Ben-Ze'eb, whose grammatical works rendered valuable services to the East-European Jews during the first half of the nineteenth century. Besides Ben-Ze'eb, Shalom Kohn advanced the study of Hebrew grammar by his grammatical work, written in German, but printed with Hebrew letters. The new scienceof Judaism inaugurated by the labors of Zunz and Rapoport included a thorough study of the older grammarians, but it has produced no independent work that could be placed favorably by the side of the presentations of Hebrew grammar by Christian scholars. Nevertheless Samuel David Luzzatto's works deserve especial mention; and of more recent writers Jacob Barth has published the most important contributions to this science.

Up to the middle of the eighteenth century the language of the text-books was chiefly Hebrew; but as early as 1633—manifestly out of regard to the Portuguese Maranos, who had returned to their old faith—the Portuguese language came into use and was followed by the Spanish. The first German grammar with Hebrew characters appeared in 1710, and was soon succeeded by others. In 1735 the first text-book in English appeared; in 1741 the first in Dutch; and in 1751 that in Italian. Beginning with the Mendelssohnian period, text-books written in languages other than Hebrew began to predominate.

The following is a chronological list of Hebrew text-books on Hebrew grammar written by Jews from the middle of the sixteenth to the beginning of the twentieth century:

Neo-Hebraic and Aramaic Grammars.

The grammar of Neo-Hebrew, as found in the Mishnah and cognate works, has been treated by the Jewish scholars Dukes, Geiger, and J. H. Weiss. The text-book of Siegfried has been mentioned above in the first list.

The Aramaic of the books of Daniel and Ezra was not grammatically treated during the exclusively Jewish period of Hebrew philology. Some Christian grammarians at an early period treated this so-called Chaldee in connection with the Hebrew. Among the Aramaic works of more recent times are the following:

The above-named Aramaic grammars partly include also the Targumic dialect. A larger field of Jewish-Aramaic literature is comprised in the work by G. Dalman, "Grammatik des Jüdisch-Palästinensischen Aramäisch" (Leipsic, 1894). After the compendium of Luzzatto, the Aramaic dialect of the Babylonian Talmud was first treated systematically from the point of view of grammar in C. Levias' "A Grammar of the Aramaic Idiom Contained in the Babylonian Talmud" (in "Am. Jour. Semit. Lang." xiii., xiv.; reprinted separately, Chicago, 1899).