B I B 



372 



B 1 B 



It Mmt to comprise the fragment* of three different rolls. 

 See a ' Collation of an Indian copy of the Pentateuch,' also 

 a collation and description of a manuscript roll of the book 

 of Either from the Hebrew extant in brazen tablet* at 

 Goa, with an English translation, by Thomas Ycates, Cam- 

 bridge, 1812, -itn.' None of the Hebrew manuscripts is 

 800 year* old. The reason why the manuscripts of the 

 Old Testament are never found of so high antiquity as the 

 oldest of the New Testament, is that the Jews never suffer 

 their holy manuscripts to exist in a dilapidated state. The 



manuscripts which begin to be illegible, or contain readings 

 not authorised by the Masora, or are inaccurate, are col- 

 lected in the tjj, ' place of deposit, or rather hiding- 

 place in the synagogue. When this place is filled up, all 

 its contents are removed to be buried in n place of the 



I burying-grouod chosen for that purpose. The following 

 line may represent a codex about to be buried for being 



I faulty and illegible. 



The unwearied application of the learned in the collation 

 iT Hebrew manuscripts has proved that all of them repre- 

 sent nearly the same text that was in the hands of the old 

 translators, which has not suffered any very material altera- 

 tion in spite of thousands of small changes. This is also 

 proved by the fact that the peculiarities of style which cha- 

 racterise the different biblical writers have not been effaced. 

 The old school of the Buxtorfs and their followers believed 

 in the general correctness of the Masorethical text. The 

 correctness of this opinion, however, has been established 

 not by the opposition of the old school to critical examina- 

 tion, but by the exertions of those critics who for some 

 time overrated the authority of the Samaritan Pentateuch 

 ami that of the antient translations, and overstated the 

 faults of the Masorethical text. 



Critics now distinguish, 1st, the text before the con- 

 clusion of the canon in the parallel passages of the Old 

 Testament ; 2nd, the text before the Masora in the quota- 

 tions of the Talmud ; 3rd, the Samaritan and Alexandrine ; 

 4th, the Masorethical. 



The first Samaritan MSS. were brought into Europe in 

 the year of our Lord 1620. Achill. Harlay de Sancy di- 

 rected Pietro della Valle in 16 1C to purchase them at Da- 

 mascus, and presented them to the library of the Ora- 

 torium at Paris. There are extant, besides these, a Codex 

 Cottonianus, a Codex S. Genov. at Paris. Compare also 

 the Barberini Triglotta and the Paris and London Poly- 

 glotts in Samaritan types, and the Pent. Hebneo-Samarit. 

 ed. Benj. Blayney, Oxon. 1790, in the usual square charac- 

 ters. [See SAMARITANS.] 



The earliest translations of the Old Testament were made 

 from a text which belongs to a period from which no manu- 

 scripts have been preserved. These translations confirm 

 the significations which are given in our Lexicons to He- 

 brew words, and show how the biblical text was understood 

 at a period when the original language was still living, or 



pioiptf 



ID 



fltWt ^ ^3 



DiNV IN 



According to Ongen, Lucianus and Hesychius bestowed 

 tin ir critical labours upon the text of the Septuagint; and 

 their editions came into public use, but have entirely dis- 

 appeared. It appears from Georg. Syncell. Chronogr. p. 203, 

 'Bf tvi avriypaQtft Xiav t'lKpttufiirtft tic rijc iv Kaioaptia rij<; 

 KaTTrniWui'c IXSovri i!f l/u /3iXio9>'jti)c, Iv tf fat iirtfiypairro, 

 <*l u ptvac till Stiof Ba<riXfu>c TO J uv ituvo airiypiifi], iitTt- 

 CaXwK liafStiaaTo flitXia. Comp. Carpzou crit. sacra, p. 533, 

 that the labours of Basilius the Great on the Septuagint 

 consisted in his care to obtain correct copies. 



Of late, the English Bible Society has encouraged Bishop 

 Hilanon in prosecuting his translation into modern Greek, 

 part* of which have been published ; e. c. the Psalms in 

 elegant modern Greek. 



In the days of St. Augustine, several Latin translations 

 existed: among these he preferred the Itala, which was in 

 more general use, and which had originated in the first 

 period of Christianity. The fragments of the Itala still ex- 

 tant prove that it was made from the Septuagint. Ilicro- 

 minus corrected it about the year A.D. 382 ; but the greater 

 part of hi* labours was lost during his own lifetime, and 

 lie could not gratify the desire of Augustine to restore 



| when, at least, many helps to its understanding, which have 

 since disappeared, were still accessible. We shall tn 

 separate a nicies on the following most important antiutt 

 translations : 



The Septuagint is written in the Hellenistic or J< 

 Greek language, and was formerly read in many syna- 

 gogues. Josephus makes more use of the Septuagint than 

 of the Hebrew text; but at a later period, when Christians 

 employed the Septuagint, the Jews rejected it. The Talmud 

 appoints a fast-day on the eighth day of Tebeth, 1>< 

 'on thut day the law was written in Greek through King 

 Ptolemy, and darkness came orer the earth for three <l.i\ - ; 

 and that day was fatal to Israel as the day on \vlueh the 

 calf was made.' (See Mcgillath Taanith, fol. 50, c. 2 ed. 

 Bas. 1 758 ; Tract. Sopher. c. 1 .) 



The fragments which have been preserved of the transla- 

 tion made by the Jewish prosolyte, Aquila of Sinope, at the 

 commencement of the second century, are very valuable, 

 because they are so literal that they exactly represent tin- 

 text which was before the eye of the translator. [Sec 

 AQUILA.] Theodotion only remodelled the Septuagint. 

 His translation of Daniel was used among the Christians 

 instead of the Septuagint. Symraachus wrote better Greek, 

 but translated more freely. Each of these three translated 

 with more accuracy than the translators of the Septua<rnit. 



There ore, besides, fragments of three anonymous Greek 

 translations, which have been called, from the places which 

 they occupy in the 'Hexapla' of Origen, Quinta, Sexta, 

 Septima. 



Parts of the Old Testament have been translated into a 

 Jewish modern Greek, of which ' Wolfii Bibliotheca Hc- 

 brsca,' vol. iii. Appendix, nnd vol. iv. p. 1219-26, contains 

 curious specimens printed in Hebrew type. 



We exhibit here the first three verses of Genesis, in the 

 rare Versio JudcDO-Gnoco-Barbara, belonging to the Oppeu- 

 heimer library at Oxford : 



(1.) Ei'c dpxV 'TAafftv o Stoc TOV oiipavo Kai TI}V lyi. 



(2.) Km iyi t^TOV aftwffoc Kai a^owaff^iof, rni OKOTOK t-ri 

 rpoaurif riCiWou, Kai avtpof TOV Siov avairiraii Itri vpoevir-f 

 ruv vipuv. 



(3.) Kai flirty i GV ac tJi'm *V*c, Kai >}rov fiwc. 



the lots, because he had not sufficient scribes at his com 

 maud. 



According to Abulfaragius, the Syrians had, along with 

 the Peschito, another translation of the Septuagint, which 

 has been called, according to an erroneous reading of 

 Pococke, the Figurata. 



Of the Syrian translation by Philoxcnus, bishop of Hicra- 

 polis, we know so little that we cannot say whether it was 

 the same with the Figurata. 



In the Arabrosiun library at Milan there are the Psalms, 

 Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, the Wisdom of 

 Solomon, Sirach, the twelve minor prophets, Jeremiah, 

 Baruch, Lamentations, Daniel, Kzekicl, and Isaiah, in an 

 Hcxaplar Syriac translation by Paul, bishop of Telia, of the 

 year 616. Of the same translation there is a copy at Pans 

 of the fourth, or, as we call it, the second book of Kings. 

 This version was translated into Arabic by Hareth lien 

 Senan, A.D. 1486, and is preserved in the Arabic at Paris 

 and at Oxford. 



The Ethiopians have, in the Gcez, an anonymous transla- 

 tion of the whole Bible, the origin of which cannot be earlier 

 than the fourth century. Ibis version WM made by Chris- 



