Show OLD dictionary TO AID BIBLE CLARITY document of century never before published ne new w haven conn controversies that have arisen over incongruous translations in the english revised version of the bible probably may be solved through the use of the oldest comprehensive dictionary of the bible which has been published by the yale university press the dictionary written in the tenth century and since then extant only in manuscript form has been edited by dr solomon L professor of arabic in cropsie college philadelphia the dictionary was written in arabic but in hebrew characters and is based on manuscripts which for f a r eight centuries lay forgotten in the basement of a jerusalem synagogue with it several disputed passages of the bible have been clarified it was written by david ben abraham alfasi al ai fasi one of the ka a jewish sect which originated in mesopotamia in the eighth century and which denied the validity of the traditional teachings of the talmud and later rabbinic literature accepted old testament the karaitis Ka accepting the old testament as the sole authority devoted their entire attention to a thorough study of the scriptures its exegesis and philology al basis dictionary enjoyed such popularity and authority among the generations of scholars that followed him that it was known simply as the book in various european libraries Ebra ries today are to be found in manuscript form three different abridgements abridge ments made during the eleventh century an old and torn manuscript of al I basis work was found in 1830 in in an underground chamber of the synagogue in jerusalem the manuscripts together with several fragments of the various versions are now in the state public library in leningrad dr in 1932 was investigating manuscripts in the library on a grant awarded by the american council of learned societies when he discovered the last half of one of the partly destroyed leningrad f fragments rag A study of the hebrew arabic dictionary has been made by students of the old testament and verses which have required elaborate interpretations to explain their incongruity have been shown to be incorrectly translated exodus chapter cited As an example dr charles C torrey sterling professor of semitics emeritus of yale cites the customary version of the story of the golden calf in exodus chapter 32 verse 4 the revised version presented the story that when the wives sons and daughters brought the golden earrings aaron received it at their hand and fashioned it with a graving tool and made it a molten calf aarons transformation of the golden earrings into a golden calf by means of a graving tool has been difficult to understand dr torrey points out that the alfasi al fasi dictionary takes the corresponding hebrew expression beret to mean a mold into which molten gold and silver are poured and the whole passage becomes clear aaron cast the earrings into a mold and made a golden calf according to dr the author of the dictionary was born in fez morocco as his surname alfasi the indicates however he must have lived for some length of time in jerusalem where he most most likely wrote his dictionary dr editions are based on all the known manuscripts and fragments and all its versions |