תוTHAU, or Tau, the last Letter of the Thau. Hebrew Alphabet, which they pretend had formerly the Figure of an X, or of a Cross.1 And indeed this may be observed in the Samaritan Medals, and other ancient Monuments2 where the Letter Thau is found very near of the Shape of X, or the Cross; and the greatest part of our Commentators think that in this Passage of Ezekiel, Signa Thau super frontes virorum gementium, it must be understood that the Letter Thau, or the Image of a Cross, was imprinted on their Foreheads. But why Thau rather than any other Letter? Some say, because this Letter is the first in the Word Thorah, the Law. The Septuagint have translated barely,3 Set a Mark upon the Foreheads of the Men that sigh. The Chaldee and the Syriac have understood it in the same manner, as also Aquila and Symmachus, according to the Testimony of St. Jerome.
Origen, in a Fragment printed in the new Edition of the Hexapla, says that Aquila and Theodotion had it thus: Put the Mark Thau upon the Foreheads of those that sigh. But St. Chrysostom, Theodoret, Eusebius of Cæsarea, and the other Greeks, have followed the Seventy, and have understood it of a particular Mark that was to be put upon the Foreheads of those Persons, that they might not be confounded with the multitude of those which were to be put to death; and the Latin Fathers, who lived before the Edition of St. Jerome appeared, have read the same as the Septuagint, nor were of opinion, that they put the Mark Thau, or a Cross, upon the Foreheads of the good Men that were found in Jerusalem. See the Commentators upon Ezek. ix. 4.
The Samaritans were accused for a long time with having expunged three Letters out of their Alphabet; but their Innocence in this has been cleared up, since their Manuscripts have been inspected, and the ancient Medals that were struck in Phœnicia, bordering upon their Country. They can only be reproached with having changed the Shape of the Letter Thau, which Origen, and other Fathers that followed him, assures us was in the Form of a Cross. St. Jerome,4 who might have seen the ancient Copies of the Samaritan Pentateuch, informs us likewise, that their Thau had the Figure of a Cross. ‘Tis agreed that this Letter at this Day has quite another Shape, and we know by the Medals that the Thau was really made very much resembling a Cross. Is this Change merely the Effect of Chance, or of Length of Time? Or is it a Contrivance of the Samaritans to deprive us of a Proof of the Mystery of the Cross, consecrated in the Prophecy of Ezekiel? I would decide nothing in this Affair; but however, it is certain, that this kind of Changes are not frequent, except they are brought about by Design. If we compare the ancient Samaritan Letters with the modern ones, there appears a much greater Difference between the ancient and modern Thau, than between any other Letters of the same Alphabet. See our Dissertation, Whether or no Esdras changed the ancient Hebrew Characters, printed before the Commentary upon Esdras, and the Samaritan Medals engraven at the End of this Dictionary.
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