[Footnote 3: The _Dou_ to be pronounced as in _Douglass_.]
* * * * *
SONGS of DEGREES (ASCENTS).
(Vol. ix., pp. 121. 376.)
The analysis of the word [Hebrew: HAMA`ALWOT] (_the steps_), confining
ourselves to sensible objects, shows, first, the preposition [Hebrew: `AL],
_over_ (=_up_ + _on_); and, secondly, [Hebrew: MA`ALAH], the
_chamber-over_. (Neh. ix. 4., xii. 37.; Jos. x. 10.; 1 Sam. ix. 11.; Am.
ix. 6.; Ps. civ. 13.) The translators of the authorised version, in using
the word "degrees," intended probably to convey the notion of _rank_; but
the modern mixed-mathematical ideas lead us of this day rather to think of
geographical, barometrical, &c. degrees. That _steps_ is the word most
accordant with the ancient notions is evident from the concurrence of the
Greek, Latin, Syriac, Arabic, and Ethiopic versions, as also from the
Chaldee Targum, alluded to by J. R. G., which has the inscription [Chaldee:
SHYR' D'T'MR `AL MASWQIYN DTCHWOMA'], "a song called 'over the _steps_ of
the deep'" (Deut. viii. 7.; Ex. xv. 8.). The root of this moral is [Hebrew:
`LCH], in the Hebrew and its cognates, and the primitive notion is _to
ascend_; from which is formed in Arabic [(ARABIC)], _adscendit in tectum_;
in Syriac [(SYRIAC)], _contignatio superior, coenaculum_ (Jud. iii. 23-25.;
Luc. xxii. 12.); and the Chaldee [Chaldee: `ALIYT], _pars domus superior,
cubiculum, sive coenaculum superius_, Graec. [Greek: huperoon] (Dan. vi.
11.). See Shaw's _Itinerary_, pp. 360-365.
The [Hebrew: M] prefixed is the _participial_ form of the verb, equivalent
to the termination _ing_ in English; and converts the verb also into a
verbal noun, conveying the generalised idea of a class of _actions_; and
thereby the steps, [Hebrew: HM`LWT], _the steppings upward_, literally,
which means "the ascents," or "the ascendings."
The ascent by fifteen steps of the rabbins is probably equally apocryphal
with the quotations from St. Matthew and St. James (ix. p. 376.); for the
same reason (Ex. xx. 26.) which forbad the ascending the altar by steps,
would apply still more strongly to the supposed "fifteen steps leading from
the Atrium Israelis to the court of the _women_."[4] Although the
ground-plans of the temples are well known, their elevations are involved
in doubt.
Your journal would not afford me sufficient space for an _excursus_ to
establish the suggestion, _not_ assertion, that I have adventured as to the
_domestic_ use of the Alphabetic and Degree Psalms, but there is negative
evidence that these Psalms were _not_ used in the Jewish liturgy. I will
only refer you to Lightfoot's ninth volume (Pitman's edition), where the
Psalms used, and indeed the whole service of the Jews, is as clearly set
forth as the Greek service is in the liturgies of Basil and Chrysostom.