EXHIBIT OF BIBLICAL ANTIQUITIES. 1017 



population. As time went on the Jews lost command of tlie Hebrew 

 language and required a translation of their sacred books into Greek. 

 The men who met this want differed very much in know edge and 

 skill, were of an indeteriuinate number, and of different periods, 

 beginning the work at the time of Ptolemy Philadeljjhus and ending it 

 about 150 B. C. Tlie Pentateuch is much more (carefully translated 

 than the rest of the Bible. Books now considered apocryphal were 

 included in the canon. The Septuagint was used by the Jews until 

 the second century of the Christian era, when they reverted to the 

 Hebrew. It was also, no doubt, used by the Apostles and by the 

 Church Fathers, who refer to it under the name of " Vulgata." 



Targum or Aramean translation of the Old Testament. 

 Parallel edition of the Pentateuch with the Hebrew text and various 

 Hebrew commentaries, Vienna, 1859. — Targum, which means transla- 

 tion, is a name specifically given to the Aramean versions. They are 

 supposed to owe their origin to the disuse of the Hebrew tongue by 

 exiles in Babylon. They were at first oral, and arose from the custom 

 of having the law read in Hebrew and then rendered by the official 

 translator {Mctnrgeman, English dragoman) into Aramean. The best 

 Targum is that which passes under the name of Onkelos, who lived 

 about 70 A. D. It is, however, generally assumed that, in its present 

 shape at least, it was produced in the third century A. I), in Babylonia. 

 That ascribed to Jonathan ben Uziel, which originated in the fourth 

 century A. D. in Babylon and is only extant on the Prophets, is more 

 in the nature of an homiletic paraphrase, while the so-called Jerusalem 

 Targum ("Pseudo- Jonathan") was probably not completed till the 

 seventh century. 



Facsimile of manuscripts of the Septuagint, ascribed to 300 

 A. D. — The original is au Egyptian papyrus now at Vienna. It con- 

 sists of sixteen sheets written on both sides, and contains the greater 

 part of Zechariah from the fourth chapter and parts of Malachi. It is 

 written in uncial characters (capitals) and contains no divisions between 

 the words. 



Facsimile of the Codex Vaticanus, containing the Old and 

 New Testaments, in six volumes. Pome, 18G8-1881. — The Codex Vati- 

 canus, so called from the fact that it is preserved in the Vatican at 

 Rome, is the best and oldest Biblical manuscript now known. It is 

 written in Greek, in uncial characters, and was probably the work of 

 two or three scribes in Egypt during the fourth century. The original 

 is probably the most valuable treasure of the Vatican Library. It was 

 brought to Rome by Pope Nicholas V in 1448. The manuscript is not 

 quite complete; there are a few gaps in the Old Testament, and the 

 New Testament ends with Hebrews ix, 14. 



Codex Sinaiticus. Facsimile edition, St. Petersburg. Four vol- 

 umes, 1802. — The Codex Sinaiticus was discovered in 185'.) by Constan- 

 tine Tischenforf in the Convent of St. Catharine at the foot of Mount 



