BIBLE. 



able of which are, the versions of St. Je- 

 rotn, Santes Pagninus, Cardinal Cajetan, 

 and Isiodore Clarius, all from the Hebrew 

 text. Besides these translations by Ca- 

 tholic authors, there are some made by 

 Protestant translators of the Hebrew; 

 the most eminent of their versions are 

 those of Sebastian Minister, Leo Juda, 

 Sebastian Castalio, Theodore Beza, Le 

 Clerc, &c. 



BIBLE, Syriac. The Syrians have in 

 their language a version of the Old Tes- 

 tament, which they pretend to be of 

 great antiquity, most part of which they 

 say was made in Solomon's time, and 

 the rest in the time of Abgarus king of 

 Eclessa. 



BIBLE, Arabic. The Arabic versions of 

 the bible are of two sorts, the one done 

 by Christians, the other by Jews. There 

 are also several Arabic versions of parti- 

 cular books of scripture, as a translation 

 of the Pentateuch from the Syriac, and 

 another of the same from the Septuagint, 

 and two other versions of the Pentateuch, 

 the manuscripts of which are in the Bod- 

 leian library. 



The Gospel being preached in all na- 

 tions, the bible, which is the foundation 

 of the Christian religion, was translated 

 into the respective languages of each na- 

 tion ; as the Egyptian or Coptic, the In- 

 dian, Persian, Arminian, Ethiopic, Scy- 

 thian, Sarmatian, Sclavonian, Polish, Bo- 

 hemian, German, English, &c. 



The books of the bible are divided by 

 the Jews into three classes, viz. the law, 

 the prophets, and the hagiographers ; a 

 division which they are supposed to bor- 

 row from Ezra himself. 



Each book is subdivided into sections, 

 or parasches; which some maintain to 

 have been as old as Moses, though others, 

 with more probability, ascribe it to the 

 same Ezra. These were subdivided into 

 verses, pesuchim, marked in the Hebrew 

 bible by two great points, called soph 

 pasuch, at the end of each. For the di- 

 vision of the bible into chapters, as we 

 now have it, is of much later date. 



Divers of the ancient bible-books ap- 

 pear to be irrecoverably lost, whether it 

 be that the copies of them perished, or 

 that Ezdras threw them out of his canon. 

 Hence it is, that, in the books still extant, 

 we find divers citations of, and references 

 to, others, which are now no more ; as 

 the book of Jasher, the book of the wars 

 of the Lord, annals of the kings of Judah 

 and Israel, part of Solomon's three thou- 

 sand proverbs, and his thousand and five 

 songs, besides his books on plants, ani- 

 mals, fishes, insects, &c. To which may 



be added, a book of Jeremiah, wherein 

 he enjoined the captives who went to 

 Babylon to take the sacred fire and con- 

 ceal it ; also the precepts which that pro- 

 phet gave the Jews, to preserve them- 

 selves from idolatry, and his lamentations 

 on the death of king Josiah. 



The Jewish canon of scripture then 

 was settled by Ezra ; yet not so, but that 

 several variations have been since made 

 in it : Malachi, for instance, could not be 

 put in the bible by him, since that pro- 

 phet is allowed to have lived after Ezra ; 

 nor could Nehemiah be there, since men- 

 tion is made in that book of Juddua as 

 high priest, and of Darius Codomannus as 

 king of Persia, who were at least an hun- 

 dred years later than Ezra. It may be 

 added, that in the first book of Chro- 

 nicles, the genealogy of the sons of Ze- 

 rubbabel is carried down for so many ge- 

 nerations, as must necessarily bring it to 

 the time of Alexander; and consequent- 

 ly this book could not be in the canon in 

 Ezra's days. It is probable the two books 

 of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, 

 and Malachi, were adopted into the bi- 

 ble in the time of Simon the Just, the last 

 of the men of the great synagogue. 



BIBLES, English-Saxon. If we inquire 

 into the versions of the bible of our own 

 country, we shall find that Adelm, bishop 

 of Shireborn, who lived in 709, made an 

 English-Saxon version of the Psalms ; 

 and that Eadfrid, or Ecbert, bishop of 

 Lindisferne, who lived about the year 

 730, translated several of the books of 

 scripture into the same language. It is 

 said likewise that venerable Bede, who 

 died in 785, translated the whole bible 

 into Saxon. But Cuthbert, Bede's disci- 

 ple, in the enumeration of his master's 

 works, speaks only of his translation of 

 the Gospels, and says nothing of the rest 

 of the Bible. Some pretend that king Al- 

 fred, who lived in 890, translated a great 

 part of the scriptures. We find an old 

 version in the Anglo-Saxon of several 

 books of the bible, made by Elfric, abbot 

 of Malmesbury : it was published at Ox- 

 ford in 1 699. There is an old Anglo-Sax- 

 on version of the four Gospels, published 

 by Matthew Parker, archbishop of Can- 

 terbury, in 1571, the author whereof is 

 unknown. Dr. Mill observes, that this 

 version was made from a Latin copy of 

 the old Vulgate. 



BIBLES, Saxon. The whole scripture is 

 said by some to have been translated into 

 the Anglo-Saxon by Bede, about the year 

 701, though others contend he only trans, 

 lated the Gospels. We have certain 

 books or parts of the bible, by several 



