108 



NOTES AND QUEEIES. 



[No. 223. 



Luther's error (?), or by his own superior know- 

 ledge of the sacred tongue. 



3. I do not think that the phrase, " the proper 

 Jewish notion of gain," was either called for or 

 relevant to the subject. 



4. The reign of James I. was by no means as 

 distinguished for Hebrew scholarship as were the 

 immediate previous reigns. Indeed it would ap- 

 pear that the knowledge of the sacred languages 

 was at a very low ebb in this country during the 

 agitating period of the Reformation, so much so 

 that even the unaccountable Henry VIII. was 

 forced to exclaim, " Vehementer dolere nostra- 

 tium Theologorum sortem sanctissime linguae 

 scientia carentium, efc linguaruin doctrinam fuisse 

 intermissam." (Hody, p. 4G6.) 



When Coverdale made his version of the Bible 

 he was not only aided by Tindale, but also by 

 the celebrated Hebrew, of the Hebrews, Emanuel 

 Tremellius, who was then professor of the sacred 

 tongue in the University of Cambridge, where 

 that English Reformer was educated ; and Cover- 

 dale translated the latter part of Ps. cxxvii. 2. as 

 follows : " For look, to whom it pleaseth Him, He 

 giveth it in sleep." 



When the translation was revised, during the 

 reign of James I., the most accomplished Anglo- 

 Hebraist was, by some caprice of jealousy, forced 

 to leave this country ; I mean Hugh Broughton. 

 He communicated many renderings to the re- 

 visers, some of which they thoughtlessly rejected, 

 and others, to use Broughton's own phrase, "they 

 thrust into the margin." A perusal of Brough- 

 ton's works* gives one an accurate notion of the 

 proceedings of the revisers of the previous ver- 

 sions. 



* Lightfoot, who edited Broughton's works in 1662, 

 entitled them as follows : — " The Works of the great 

 Albionen Divine, renowned in many Nations for rare 

 Skill in Salem's and Athens' Tongues, and familiar 

 acquaintance with all Rabbinical Learning," &c. 



Ben Jonson has managed to introduce Broughton 

 into some of his plays. In his Volpone, when the 

 " Fox " delivers a medical lecture, to the great amuse- 

 ment of Politic and Peregrine, the former remarks, 



" Is not his language rare?" 

 To which the latter replies, 



" But Alchemy, 

 I never heard the like, or Broughton's books." 



In the Alchemist, " Face " is made thus to speak of a 

 female companion : 



" Y' are very right, Sir, she is a most rare scholar, 

 And is gone mad with studying Broughton's works; 

 If you but name a word touching the Hebrew, 

 She falls into her fit, and will discourse 

 So learnedly of genealogies, 

 As you would run mad too to hear her, Sir." 



(See also The History of the Jews in Great Britain, 

 vol. i. pp. 305, &c.) 



5. Coverdale's translation is not "ungramma- 

 tical" as far as the Hebrew language is concerned, 

 notwithstanding that it was rejected in the rei^n 

 of James I. Drp, " bread," is evidently the ac- 

 cusative noun to the transitive verb |JV, " He shall 

 give." Nor is it " false," for the same noun, Dl"6» 

 " bread," is no doubt the antecedent to which the 

 word it refers. 



6. Mendelsohn does not omit the it in his He- 

 brew comment; and I am therefore unwarrantably 

 charged with supplying it " unauthorisedly." I 

 should like to see Mb. Buck/ton's translation of 

 that comment. If any doubt remained upon Mr. 

 B.'s mind as to the intended meaning of the word 

 irUTV used by Mendelsohn, his German version 

 might have removed such a doubt, as the little word 

 es, " it," indicates pretty clearly what Mendelsohn 

 meant by jri3Jl\ So that, instead of proving Men- 

 delsohn " at variance with himself," he is proved 

 most satisfactorily to have been in perfect harmony 

 with himself. 



7. Mendelsohn does not omit the important word 

 p ; and if Mr. B. will refer once more to his copy of 

 Mendelsohn (we are both using the same edition), 

 he will find two different interpretations proposed 

 for the word p, viz. thus and rightly. I myself 

 prefer the latter rendering. The word occurs 

 about twenty times in the Hebrew Bible, and in 

 the great majority of instances rightly or certainly 

 is the only correct rendering. Both Mendelsohn 

 and Zunz omit to translate it in their German 

 versions, simply because the sentence is more 

 idiomatic, in the German language, without it 

 than with it. 



8. I perfectly agree with Mr. B. " that no 

 version has yet had so large an amount of learn- 

 ing bestowed on it as the English one." But 

 Mr. B. will candidly acknowledge that the largest 

 amount was bestowed on it since the revision of 

 the authorised version closed. Lowth, Newcombe, 

 Home, Horsley, Lee, &c. wrote since, and they 

 boldly called in question many of the renderings 

 in the authorised version. 



Let me not be mistaken ; I do most sincerely 

 consider our version superior to all others, but it 

 is not for this reason faultless. 



In reply to Mr. Jebb's temperate strictures, I 

 would most respectively submit — 



1. That considerable examination leads me to 

 take just the reverse view to that of Burkius, 

 that JOES' cannot be looked upon as antithetical 

 to siagere, sedere, dolorum. With all my search- 

 ings I failed to discover an analogous antithesis. 

 I shall be truly thankful to Mr. Jebb for a case 

 in point. Moreover, Psalms iii. and iv., to which 

 Dr. French and Mr. Skinner refer, prove to my 

 mind that not sleep is the gift, but sustenance and 

 other blessings bestowed upon the Psalmist whilst 

 asleep. I cannot help observing that due reflec- 

 tion makes me look upon the expression, " So He 



