2.  The Hebrew characters in present use, called the Assyrian, or square writing, are not those originally employed.  The earlier form is undoubtedly represented by the inscriptions on the coins struck by the Maccabees, of which the letters bear a strong resemblance to the Samaritan and Phoenician characters.  The Jewish tradition is that the present square character was introduced by Ezra, and that it was of Assyrian origin.  The question of the correctness of this tradition has been much discussed.  Some wholly reject it, and hold that the present square writing came by a gradual process of change from a more ancient type.  See Davidson’s Bib.  Crit., vol.  I, ch. 3.

That the present square writing existed in our Saviour’s day has been argued with much force from Matth. 5:18, where the Saviour says:  “Till heaven and earth pass, one jot (iota) or one tittle (keraia) shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled.”  The iota (Hebrew yod) is the letter i or y, which in the square writing is the smallest in the alphabet ([Hebrew:  y]), but not in the ancient Hebrew, Ph[oe]nician, or Samaritan.  The keraia, little turn, is that which distinguishes one letter from another; as [Hebrew:  d], d, from [Hebrew:  r], r; or [Hebrew:  b], b, from [Hebrew:  k], k.  See Alford on Matth. 5:18. (The recent discovery in the Crimea of inscriptions on the tombs of Caraite Jews, some of them dating back, it is alleged, to the first century, proves that the Assyrian or square character was then in use.  In these inscriptions the Yod (iota) is represented by a simple point.  See Alexander’s Kitto, vol. 3, p. 1173.)

The Rabbinic is a modification of the Assyrian or square writing, for the purpose of giving it a more cursive character.

3.  The Hebrew alphabet, like all the other Shemitic alphabets—­with the exception of the AEthiopic, which is syllabic, the vowels being indicated by certain modifications in the forms of the consonants—­was originally a skeleton alphabet, an alphabet of consonants, in which, however, certain letters, called vowel-letters, performed in a measure the office of vowels.  The Shemite did not separate the vowels from the consonants, and express them, as we do, by separate signs.  He rather conceived of the vowels as inhering in the consonants—­as modifications in the utterance of the consonants, which the reader could make for himself.  Various particulars in respect to the pronunciation of certain consonants were, in like manner, left to the reader’s own knowledge.  For example, the three Hebrew letters, [Hebrew:  sh], sh; [Hebrew:  m], m; [Hebrew:  r], r, ([Hebrew:  shmr], to be read from right to left,) might be pronounced, shamar, he kept; shemor, keep thou; shomer, keeping—­the reader determining from the connection which of these