BIB 



BIB 



tiling but moss, birch trees have succeed- 

 ed, so as to produce at least 20s. per acre 

 per ann. The broom-makers are constant 

 customers for birch, in all places within 

 20 miles of the metropolis, or where wa- 

 ter carriage is convenient; in other parts 

 the hoop-benders are the purchasers; but 

 the larger trees are consumed by turn- 

 ers, and the manufacturers of instruments 

 of husbandry. 



BEVEL, among masons, carpenters, 

 joiners, and bricklayers, an instrument 

 composed of two straight edges, or blades, 

 attached at one end on a centre, as a rule 

 joint, and may be set to any angle. 



The make and use of this instrument 

 is pretty much the same as those of the 

 common square and mitre, except that 

 those are fixed, the first at an angle of 

 ninety degrees, and the second at forty- 

 five: whereas the bevel being moveable, 

 it may in some measure supply the place 

 of both, which it is chiefly intended for, 

 serving to set off or transfer angles, either 

 greater or less than 90 or 45 degrees. 



BEVILE, in heraldry, a thing broken 

 or opening like a carpenter's rule : thus 

 we say, he beareth argent, a chief bevile, 

 vert, by the name of bevirlis. 



BIBLE, the br>ok, a name given by Chris- 

 tians, by way of eminence, to a collection 

 of the sacred writings. 



This collection of the sacred writings, 

 containing those of the Old and New Tes. 

 lament, is justly looked upon as the foun- 

 dation of the Jewish, as well as the Chris- 

 tian, religion. The Jews, it is true, ac- 

 knowledge only the scriptures of the Old 

 Testament, the correcting and publishing 

 of which are unanimously ascribed, both 

 by the Jews and the Christians, to Ezra. 

 Some of the ancient fathers, on no other 

 foundation than that fabulous and apocry- 

 phal book, the second book of Esdras, 

 pretend that the scriptures were entirely 

 lost in the Babylonish captivity, and that 

 Ezra had restored them again by divine 

 revelation. What is certain is, that in the 

 reign of Josiah there were no other books 

 of the law extant, besides that found in 

 the temple by Hilkiah ; from which origi- 

 nal, that pious king ordered copies to 

 be immediately written out, and search 

 made for all the parts of the scriptures; 

 by which means copies of the whole be- 

 came pretty numerous among the people, 

 who earned them with them into captivi- 

 ty. After the return of the Jews from the 

 ' Babylonish captivity, Ezra got together as 

 many copies as he could of the sacred 

 writings, and out of them all prepared a 

 correct edition, disposing the several 



books in their natural order, and settling 

 the canon of the scriptures for his time; 

 having published them according to the 

 opinion of most learned men in the Chal- 

 dee character, as the Jews, upon their 

 return from the captivity, brought with 

 them the Chaldaic language, which from 

 that time became their mother tongue, 

 and probably gave birth to the Chaldee 

 translation of their scriptures. 



BIBLE, Chaldee, is only the glosses, or 

 expositions made by the Jews, when they 

 spoke the Chaldee tongue; whence it is 

 called targwnim, or paraphrases, as not 

 being a strict version of the scriptures. 



BIBLE, Hebrew. There is, in the church 

 of St. Dominic, in Bononia, a copy of the 

 Hebrew scriptures, which they pretend 

 to be the original copy, written by Ezra 

 himself. It is written in a fair character, 

 upon a sort of leather, and made up into 

 a roll, after the ancient manner; but its 

 having the vowel points annexed, and 

 the writing being fresh and fair, without 

 any decay, are circumstances which prove 

 the novelty of the copy. 



BIBLE, Greek. It is a dispute among 

 authors, whether there was a Greek ver- 

 sion of the Old Testament, more ancient 

 than that of the 72 Jews employed by 

 Ptolemy Philadelphus to translate that 

 book: before our Saviour's time, there 

 was no other version of the Old Testa- 

 ment besides that which went under the 

 name of the LXX. 



But, after the establishment of Chris- 

 tianity, some authors undertook new 

 translations of the Bible, under pretence 

 of making them more conformable to the 

 Hebrew text. There have been about 

 six of these versions, some of which are 

 charged with having corrupted several 

 passages of the prophets relating to 

 Jesus Christ ; others have been thought 

 too free in their versions; and ethers 

 have been found fault with, for having 

 confined themselves too servilely to the 

 letter. 



BIBLE, Latin. It sbeyond dispute, that 

 the Latin churches had, even in the first 

 ages, a translation of the Bible in their 

 language, which being the vulgar lan- 

 guage, and consequently understood by 

 every body, occasioned a vast number of 

 Latin versions. Among these there was 

 one which was generally received, and 

 called, by St. Jerome, the vulgar or com- 

 mon translation. St. Austin gives this ver- 

 sion the name of the Italic, and prefers it 

 to all the rest. See VULGATE. 



There were several other translations 

 of the Bible into Latin, the most remark- 



