according to a definite recipe, must be used. Only an authentic copy must be used, and

no deviation is permissible. Not the smallest word or letter may be written from memory.

Between every consonant must be a hairs breadth. Between every word the breadth of a

narrow consonant. Between every new section the breadth of nine consonants. Between

every book three lines. The fifth book of Moses must terminate exactly with a line. The

copyist must sit in full Jewish dress, wash his whole body, and not begin to write the

name of God with a pen not newly dipped in ink. Should even the King address him, he

must take no notice of him. Rolls not prepared according to these rules, must not be used

in the synagogue, but must be buried or burned, or used as reading books in schools.

Hebrew contains no vowels.  Modern Hebrew uses a system of vowel points

resembling those used in shorthand. An English illustration may help:

The letters BLL may mean Bill, Bell or Bull. There would be no uncertainty in a

sentence that said the Bll was pd or the Bll was tlld or the Bll was fd with grss. Some

momentary hesitation may occur if we read that the Bll was Rng, as a bell may be rung,

but also may a bull by a ring in the nose, but the context would decide.

Owing to the scrupulous care put into these Scrolls, no Hebrew manuscript was

allowed to become badly worn before it was discarded; consequently until the discovery

of the Dead Sea Scrolls we did not possess Hebrew MSS earlier than the eighth century.

We can go back to the Targums or Chaldee paraphrases to the time between Nehemiah

and Christ and eleven such Targums are known.

The Targum of Onkelos is described as "A very simple and literal translation of the

Pentateuch, and . . . . . for that reason the more useful as evidence for the Hebrew text

from which it was taken" (Kenyon). Onkelos was the disciple of Hillel and Hillel was

the grandfather of Gamaliel, at whose feet sat Saul the Pharisee.

This word is the equivalent to our word "doctrine". The Talmud embodies all that had

previously been written, in a series of rules, laws and institutions governing the civil and

religious life of Israel.

The Talmud consists of two parts: (1) the Mishna, "the text"; (2) the Gemara, "the

completion". Taken together with the Scriptures their testimony is final.