SONGS of DEGREES (ASCENTS).
(Vol. ix., pp. 121. 376.)
The analysis of the word
הַמַּעֲלוֹת
(the steps), confining ourselves to sensible objects, shows, first, the preposition
עַל
, over (=up + on); and, secondly,
מַעֲלָה
, 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
שירא דאתאמר עַל מַסוקִין דְּתְחוֹמָא
, "a song called 'over the steps of the deep'" (Deut. viii. 7.; Ex. xv. 8.). The root of this moral is
עלח
, in the Hebrew and its cognates, and the primitive notion is to ascend; from which is formed in Arabic
The
מ
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,
המעלות
, 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.
T. J. Buckton.
Lichfield.
Footnote 4:[(return)]
"Eadem ratio, ab honestate ducta, eandem pepererat apud Romanos legem. Gellius ex Fabio Pictore, Noct. Attic., lib. x. c. 15., de flamine Diali: Scalas, nisi quæ Græcæ adpellantur, eas adscendere ei plus tribus gradibus religiosum est. Servius ad Æneid, iv. 646. Apud veteres, Flaminicam plus tribus gradibus, nisi Græcas scalas, scandere non licebat, ne ulla pars pedum ejus, crurumve subter conspiceretur; eoque nec pluribus gradibus, sed tribus ut adscensu duplices nisus non paterentur adtolli vestem, aut nudari crura; nam ideo et scalæ Græcæ dicuntur, quia ita fabricantur ut omni ex parte compagine tabularum clausæ sint, ne adspectum ad corporis aliquam partem admittant."—Rosenmüller on Exod. x. 26. The ascent to the altar, fifteen feet high, was by a gangway,
כבש
.