/ GENHJS AND SPIRIT OF THE HEBREW BIBLE. ^, INCLUDING THE BIBLIC PHILOSOPHY OC-.-;^ ^"'"^ CELESTIAL WISDOM, RELIGION AND THEO- LOGY, ASTRONOMY AND REALIZATION, ONTOLOGY AND MYTHOLOGY, CHRONO- METRY AND MATHEMATICS* Beings the Fii'84 ISeries orBiblicTriilliJif^, Ascertained and Explained by the true restored names and words in Eng- lish Letters, ot the Religious and Philoso- phical Conceptions of the OBRI or He- brew Language relating thereto, that are found in the MKRE or Hebhew Scrip- tures, with their meanings and deriva- tions: whereby the real ancient OBRI knowledge is restored and found to agree with the highest modern knowledge. BY C. S. RAFINESaUE. A, JVL Ph.D. Prof, of Historical and Natural Sci- ences^ of Languages and comparative Philology—Member of many learned Societies in Europe and America—Atir- tJior of many Works—Founder of thr Central University of Illinois ^c. PHILADELPHIA. 1838. Printed for the Eleutherium of Know- ledge^and Central University of Illinois, Spoken words are the music of Ideas* Written words are tJie painting of Ideas, Every name had and still has a meaning. Ideas and icords rule the moral and social worlds. ^ DEDICATION To the Good Men and Wise Men of all Religions and Sects, who seek the Truth, and esteem or venerate the He- brew Bible, as records of ancient Lore. —These pages and explanations of the concealed or forgotten Ideas, Words and Truths therein contained and revealed— are respectfully presented and inscribed. By the Author. Philadelphia, 1st of May 1838, APPEAL. To THE Members of Bible Societies who spend millions to multiply and dissem-^ inate the errors and mistakes of imperfect, inaccurate or false translations made long ago in ages of ignorance and bhndness— It is recommended to spend a small share of their time and money, in studying the original Hebrew Text, and revising, cor- recting or rectifying the english transla- tions of it, now so deplorably defficient in accuracy and truth of names and mean- ings. While to the Teachers of religious truths, Deceived and Deceiving, by de- pending on our inacurate english transla- tions, it must be earnestly urged to return to the pristine sublimity and accuracy of the original OBRl language, in which the Hebrew Scriptures were written. —Where- by we shall restore ourselves to the pris- tine Angelic Knowledge of Yore^ and lead the way to the restoration of man- kind to the promised Ev-angelic or Good Angelic State—AMEN. LBRDM OBRI OR HEBREW ALPHABET. Reduced to English letters and rectiified, Invariable Signs and Sounds. Names, Xaldi. Sounds. 1 Alef t^ A—Ah as in Father, 2 Beh 2 B— 3 Gimel y G—G harsh as in God, 4 Daleh T D— 5 CEe PI E—Eh, as in Belt. 6 Uau 1 U—U as in Full, O in Do. 7 Zain T Z Z 8 CEeh n CE-as U in Fur, I in Bird. 9 Teh DT T 10 lod 1 I—I as in Bill. 11 Xaf D X—Kh, aspirated. 12 Lamed S L— 13 Mem D M— 14 Nun :3 N N 15 Samex D S—S as in initials. 16 Oin V O—O as in For. 17 Fe Q F F or Ph. 18 Yadi tf Y—Tz, as the German and Italian Z. 19 Kof p K—K or harsh C, 20 Rec n R— 21 Cin tS^ C—Sh, Fr. Ch, Germ./&A. 22 Hau n H—Th, or the Greek e. : 6 OBRI 2. REMARKS ON THE ALPHABET. This improved and rectified alphabet for the Hebrew Language has no need to employ double letters for single sounds, and has no equivocal letters nor sounds like the Xaldi Alphabet* It has long been needed and it is strange that it never was thought of before : although premiums had been offered for writing the Oriental Lan- guages in our letters, and we have still 5 unemployed letters for the Oriental sounds not in the Hebrew, J for J or Dj. P, V, W, Q,, M, besides accents. In selecting english signs for the equi- vocal Xaldi letters of the Hebrew, I have been led by analogies. Thus Y employed for Tz is quite like the Xaldi sign, altho' now widely different with us, being made similar to French I in sound although it was the French U of the Greeks. X for Kb is exactly the Greek and Spanish letter and sound* F is the real sound of Ph, prononnced between F and P in Greek and Oriental dialects. C quite a useless letter with us, may very properly repre- sent the sound of Sh, as it partly did in the Italic languages although commonly modified now in Tsh.—H for the English TH is a novelty, I might have prefered to introduce the Greek ©, if I had not meant strictly to employ the English Alphabet ALPHABET. 7 in that case H might have stood for the 8th letter ; but its sound is certainly the vocal sound of (E as in Latin and French w^ho w^rite it now Eit., Heu, (Eu, and this was probably the exact sound of the Greek H,taken from the Phenician and Hebrew, and not at all our mild aspiration of H similar to the French mute E, which was the Sheva of the Hebrew, or soft breath- ing put between consonnants to prevent a clashing of hard sounds, by producing a gentle hiatus. Lastly each letter must be fully sound- ed; none are ever mute nor silent, and the phonic utterance is always invariable. By attending to these few directions, we shall be able to pronounce the Hebrew Language exactly as it was done 3000 years ago. As to the nutations or points of the Mashoretic Jews, they are entirely useless, nay pernicious; because they stand for the changes and additions in the words of later dialects, whereby we distort and lose the real original words, obtaining instead another Language. It is as if when WTit- ing Latin we were to write instead in mod- ern Italian Language, Vomo for Homo, Albero for Arbor &c. These difficult wowel points being rejected altogether, make the Hebrew Language much easier 8 OBRI to attain, and by no means equivocal as the Rabis pretend, since the points rather pro- duce many more equivocations. And in fact they do not employ them when writ- ing the modern Rabinic or Syriac Dia- lects, nor in the Talmud. By this reduction to the real elementa- ry sounds, the OBRI, is easily attained, the words shortened and rendered quite concise; whereby we could if we liked write the pure old OBRI as easily as we write English, and in half the space. We should find it a very philosophical Lan- guage, able to express nearly all our ideas and .even modern terms, by adopting them, as the Rabis adopted many foreign words- in later times. By discarding altogether the ugly and equivocal Xaldi letters we shall lessen the expence and trouble of printing the He- brew, and render it attainable to those who are disgusted or puzzled by these Xaldi letters, and the useless old mode of writing and printing and reading from right to left—which I also dismiss alto- gether adopting our usual mode of left to right in all cases. It is well known that the Hebrews did not employ the Xaldi letters till after their return from the captivity, and that the Sa- maritan letters are supposed to be their ALPHABET. 9 real ancient letters, unless they had an earlier Alphabet now lost, akin to the De- motic Egyptian and Phenician, such for instance as is found on the Rocks of Mt. Sinai. Therefore the Xaldi signs being foreign and spurious, are by no means es- sential to the Hebrew in any way, and the old Hebrew or OBRI could be written as well in Greek as it was once by many Jews, or in Arabic letters as now done by some of them, but most conveniently in our Roman or European letters, now generaly in use by nearly all the civilized nations, even the Germans and Russians beginning to employ them. Of the 22 signs used for the sounds of the OBRI, 6 represent vocal sounds or wowels A, E, U, OE, I, O—10 are con- sonnants B, G, D, T, X, L, M, N, K, R—and 6 are Sibilants Z, S, F, Y, C, H. 3. RELATIVE APPLICATIONS OF THOSE SIGNS OR LETTERS. The two main applications of the 22 OBRI signs are to express a classification of ideas, and numeration or designations ' of numeral values. Our numerals are now distinct from our letters, in Obri they were not, and thus they were employed 1* 10 OBRI for arithmetical signs, as well as painting ideas. In our actual languages, words are so multiplied that they must be classified, which is often attended with great diffi- culty. In Obri the words were fewer, all derived from Roots of 2 letters chiefly, forming G eneras of Ideas, while each sin- gle sign was a kind of order or class of ideas.—In the biliteral Roots the first let- ter had commonly the preponderating in- fluence. The triliteral Roots are often formed by double roots, whereof the two joining letter are similar and therefore blended into one. All the words of 4 letters are either compounds of double roots or derivations by affixed letters. This peculiarity makes the Obri Lan- guage very philosophical, and analytical, while it provec; to a certainty that the pure names alone ought to be used, discarding all the accessories of mashoretic accents and nutations, with all superadditions and expletions.