infers from (
Hebrew characters) that there were eight different melodies
((Hebrew characters)). And eight (Hebrew characters) are also mentioned elsewhere;[1]
perhaps not without reference to those eight church -tones,
which are also found among the Armenians.[2] Moreover the
two modes of using the accents in chanting, which are at-
tested in the ancient service-books,[3] may perhaps be not
altogether unconnected with the distinction between the festi-
val and the simpler ferial manner in the Gregorian style of
church- music.
VII. TRANSLATIONS OF THE PSALMS.
The earliest translation of the Psalms is the Greek Alexandrine version. When the grandson of the son of Sirach came to Egypt in the year 132 B.C., not only the Law and the Prophets, but also the Hagiographa were already trans- lated into the Greek; of course therefore also the Psalms, by which the Hagiographa are directly named in Luke xxiv. 44. The story of the LXX (LXXII) translators, in its original form, refers only to the Théra; the translations of the other books are later and by different authors. All these trans- lators used a text consisting only of consonants, and these moreover were here and there more or less indistinct; this text had numerous glosses, and was certainly not yet, as la- ter, settled on the Masoretic basis. This they translated liter- ally, in ignorance of the higher exegetical] and artistic func- tions of the translator, and frequently the translation itself is obscure. From Philo, Josephus and the New Testament we see that we possess the text of this translation substantially in its original form, so that criticism, which since the middle of the last century has acquired many hitherto unknown helps,[4] more especially also in the province of the Psalms, will not need to reverse its judgment of the character of the
- ↑ Steinschneider, Jewish Literature p. 336 sq.
- ↑ Petermann, Ueber die Musik der Armenier in the Deulsehe Morgenl Zei‘schrift v. 368 f.
- ↑ Zunz, Synagogale Poesie, S. 115.
- ↑ To this period belong 1) the Psatterium Veronense published by Blanchini 1740, the Greek text in Roman characters with the Italic at the side belonging to the 5th or 6th century (vid. Tischendorf's edition of the LXX, 1856, Prolegg. p. \viii sq.); 2) the Psalterium Turicense pur-
