1. The original language of the Old Testament is _Hebrew_, with the exception of certain portions of Ezra and Daniel and a single verse of Jeremiah, (Ezra 4:8-6:18; 7:12-26; Dan. 2:4, from the middle of the verse to end of chap. 7; Jer. 10:11,) which are written in the cognate _Chaldee_ language. The Hebrew belongs to a stock of related languages commonly called _Shemitic_, because spoken mainly by the descendants of Shem. Its main divisions are: (1,) the _Arabic_, having its original seat in the southeastern part of the Shemitic territory, and of which the AEthiopic is a branch; (2,) the _Aramaean_ in the north and northeast, comprising the eastern Aramaean or _Chaldee_, and the western or _Syriac_; (3,) the _Hebrew_, occupying a middle place between the two. The _Samaritan_ is essentially Aramaean, but with an intermixture of Hebrew forms; the _Phoenician_, or _Punic_, on the other hand, is most closely allied to the Hebrew. All these languages, with the exception of the AEthiopic, are written from right to left, and exhibit many peculiarities of orthography and grammatical forms and structure. 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.