Comparison of marginal notes between A Testimonie (1566/1567) and Foxe’s Book of Martyrs (1570)
| 1566/1567 A Testimonie marginal notes | Foxe’s 1570 edited version of the same marginal note |
|---|---|
| “No such signe commanded by God in that place of Scripture, but it was the bloud that God dyd loke upon. Exod. 12” | “Thys Hebrewe letters [Thau] was not marked for the signe of the crosse, but for the word [Torat]a that is, the lawe of God: the first letter for the whole word” |
| “Understand thys as that of S. Paule Ephe, 2. Christ reconciled both to God in one body through hys crosse” | “That onely crosse is it (wherewith?) we are marked. That S. Paule speaketh of Ephe. 2. Christ reconciled both to God in one body through his crosse” |
| 1566/1567 | Foxe’s 1570 edited version of the same marginal note |
|---|---|
| “No such signe commanded by God in that place of Scripture, but it was the bloud that God dyd loke upon. Exod. 12” | “Thys Hebrewe letters [Thau] was not marked for the signe of the crosse, but for the word [Torat] |
| “Understand thys as that of S. Paule Ephe, 2. Christ reconciled both to God in one body through hys crosse” | “That onely crosse is it (wherewith?) we are marked. That S. Paule speaketh of Ephe. 2. Christ reconciled both to God in one body through his crosse” |
“Torat” is used instead of “Torah” in the 1570 edition, and it continues until the 1,610 edition. In 1,610, “Torat” is changed to “Torath”, and that continues through the 1,684 edition. I reached out to Dr Talya Sarna to inquire about the variety of spellings. Dr Sarna wrote that “Torat” is the possessive of “Torah” and that “t/th” is potentially how people pronounced it at the time. It is possible the “t/th” may not be pronounced in the 16th and 17th centuries and may just be early modern standardized spelling. The modern and correct way to transliterate it would be the “th”, but Sephardic and modern Israeli Hebrew would pronounce it “t”. (Communication with Dr Talya Sarna November 12, 2023). However, it is unusual for English to borrow a word form from an oblique case unless the nominative form is anomalous. Therefore, it is possible that this form, which is not referenced in the OED, has been taken from the Arabic form “tawrat/torat”. See Lang (2015)
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