B I B 



B I B 



tnnt, are often reftored, in pirtj bv copies which ftil! fub- 

 filL Witli regard to ancient editions, De Rofli diftin- 

 guidies th;! Maforetic from thofe editionj without the Ma- 

 I'ora, which are anterior to the year 1525, whtn the rab- 

 binical Bible of Jacob Ben Chaim was publilhed. Of 242 

 which he has collefted, he reckons 30 which beior^ to the 

 fifteenth centuiy, and above 60 which are anterior to the 

 firll Maforttic Bible. The ancient verlions enumerated by 

 the author are the Greek, Chaldaic, Syriac, Arabic, and Per- 

 fian ; and annong thefe, the Greek ver^iijn of the Penta- 

 teuch, yet unpublilhed, which is in the library of St. Mark 

 at Venice, and which he fuppofes to have be -n icade in the 

 twelftii or thirteenth century, by an HcUer.ilV, from the 

 Hebrew of Ezra C" of Paleiline ; and not as the Septuagint, 

 from the Egyptian or Ilraelitifh text. The differences that 

 are found in thefe verfions muft not be confidcred as various 

 readings ; fince manj^ of thefe diverfities are to be attri- 

 buted, fays De Roffi, to the tranflators themfelves, who 

 have fometimcs taken great liberties with the original text, 

 by altering it in their verfions. For other particulars, we 

 refer the learned reader to the work itftlf. The fecond 

 volume was publifhed at Parma, in 1 785, and contains the 

 books of Numbers, Deuteronomy, Jofhua, Judges, Samuel, 

 and Kings. The third comprehends Ifaiah, Jeremiah, Eze- 

 kiel, the twelve IcfTer prophets, with the Song of Solomon, 

 Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclcfiaftcs, and Efther. And in the 

 fourth, or laft, are the Pfalms, Proverbs, Job, Daniel, Ezra, 

 Nehemiah, and Chronicles. ParniK, 17S6. The high price 

 of Kennicott's and De Rofli's very valuable works, induced 

 M. Breitkopf to employ Dr. Doederlein and Profeflbr 

 MeifTner, to collect the moll interefting various readings 

 from the above works, and to print them under the text of 

 his new edition of Reineccius's bible, printed at Leiplic in 

 1725, and again in 1739, under the title of '■ Bibha He- 

 braica, olim a Chriftiano Reineccio edita, nunc denuo, cum 

 viriis Icctionibus, ex ingenti codicum copia, a B. Kenni- 

 cotto & J. B. de Roffi collatonim," Lipfis, 8vo, 1793. 



Bibles, Greek. The moft ancient Greek verfion is the 

 Septuagint : for an account of which, the manner in which 

 it was found, the collation of its MSS., and other circum- 

 ftances relating to it, fee Septuagint ; fee alfo Alex- 

 andrian, and Vatican. The number of editions of the 

 Bible in Greek is very conliderable ; but they may be all 

 reduced to three or four principal ones, namely, that of 

 Complutum or Alcala de Henares, that of Venice, that of 

 Rom.e, and that of Oxford. The firlt or Complutenfian 

 edition was undertaken by the divines of Complutum, under 

 the dircttion and at the cxpence of Cardinal Ximenes, and 

 hnilhed in 15 14, but not allowed bv Leo to be publiiOicd 

 till 1520 ; nor were the copies of it di'lributed to the world 

 at large before the year 1522. It was inferted in the Polr- 

 glott Bible, ufuaily called the "Complutenfun Bible." In 

 this edition the Greek of the LXX. is f?.id to be altered in 

 many places, in order to accommodate it to the Hebrew 

 text, and to the Vulgate. For a more particular account 

 of it, fee CoMPLUTENsiAN', and Polvglott. It has 

 been reprinted in the Polyglott Bible of Antwerp, called 

 " BiblJa Regia," by Arias Montanus, in 1572 ; in that of 

 the Commelines, commonly called " Vatablus's I'^ible," in 

 1599; and in De Jay's Polyglott of P.tris, in 164J. See 

 Polyglott. 



The fecond Greek Bible is that of Venice, formed from 

 many ancient copies by Andrea Afulanus, and printed by 

 Aldus Manutius in 1518, and hence called the " Aldine 

 edition." This edition approaches nearly to the Roman, 

 and is faid to be purer than the Complutenlian. Mafius 

 fays of it, that it is a copy of the fimple interpretation of 

 Vol. IV. 



the ancient LXX. ; but not pure, nor free from all intei- 

 mixture of the words of Theodotion. U-lier obferves, that 

 it fomefimes deviates from the LXX. and adopts the read- 

 ings of Aquila ; and that various glolTes have crept into it. 

 From this Aldine edition all the German cooiesliave been 

 derived, which generally adopt the words of it, Jjut differ, 

 from it in the order of the books, chapters, and fome verfes. 

 The apocr}-phal books are printed feparately after tlie reft. 

 This edition was reprinted, with the Coir.plutennan Latin 

 verfion, in 1520, by And. Cratandriis ; anc^ again, in IJ50, 

 by Rich. Brylingerus ; at Strafburg, in IJ25; at Ham- 

 burgh, in 1596 ; 2t Frankfort, by the Wecheliani, in 1597 ; 

 and in other phices, with fome alterations, to bring it nearer 

 to the Hebrew. The moft. commodious is that of Frank- 

 fort, in which are publifhed, from the Complutenfian edi- 

 tion, the four laft chapters of Exodus, and a great part of 

 the 24th chapter of the Proverbs. There are alfo added 

 little Scholia, wliich flieiv the different interpretations of 

 the old Greek tranflation. The author of this collection 

 has not annexed his name, but it is commonly afciibed ta 

 Francis Junius. 



The third Greek Bible is that of Rome, or the Vatican 

 (fee Vatican), formed from the Vatican copy by cardinal 

 CarafFa, and other karne'a perfons, who were employed in 

 this work for nine years, by the order and under the auf- 

 pices of Pope Sixtus \. It was printed at Rome in 1587, 

 with the Greek Scholia, colleAed from the MSS. in the 

 Roman libraries. It was afterwards printed in Latin, with 

 learned and ufefnl notes, by Flamiuius Nobihu', at Rome, 

 in 1588. The Greek edition, with the Latin annexed, the 

 diftinction of verfes, according to the Vulgate, the Greek 

 Scholia, and the Notes of Nobilius, was printed at Paris, 

 in 1628, by J. Morin, priell of the Oratory. In forming 

 this edition, Carafa made ufe of feveral ancient MSS. be- 

 fides the Vatican, and particularly one procured from the 

 library of Cardinal Bcffarion, written in large letters, and 

 another from Magna Graecia, agreeing with the Vatican ; 

 and Carafa profefles that it was his delign, not to accommo- 

 date this edition to the Latin Vulgate, or the Hebrew, 

 but to the ancient LXX. Not with Handing fome few tri- 

 vial objeftions, tl.is edition has been extolled for its purity, 

 its freedom from any material corruptions, and its fuperi- 

 ority to all other editions. From this all the Englifh edi- 

 tions have been derived. The Greek edition of Rome, or 

 as Grabe fays in his Prolegomena, that of Paris, has been 

 printed in the Polyglott Bible of London, in 1657 ; to 

 which Walton has added, at bottom, the various readings 

 of the Aldine and Complutenfian editions, and of the Ale;<- 

 andrian MS., as well as of Marcliialanus's and Card. Bar- 

 berini's. It was printed at London, in 1653, inSvo^ viwh 

 fome deviations with regard to the order of the books, the 

 number of the pfalms, Sec. ; at Cambridge, in 3 vols, 

 l2mo., with a preface by the learned Pearfon, in 1665 ; 

 at Amilerdam, with the fame preface, in 1683, by Leuf- 

 den, 8vo. ; and at Leipfic, in 1697, 8vo. with the Greek 

 Scholia of the Roman edition, the parallel places and va- 

 rious readings, and a preface by J. Frickius of IHm. An- 

 other Greek Bible was publifhed at Fianequer, in 1709, by 

 Lambert Bos, who profeffes to adhere to the Roman edi- 

 tion of the Vatican copy, and to fubjoin at the bottom of 

 the p^ige, befides the Scholia of the Roman edition, all the 

 various readings he could find, together with fragments of-, 

 the verfions of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion. 

 Breitingcr, however, obferves, that Bos, inilead of ailher- 

 ing to the Roman edition, has followed that of Paiis by 

 Morinus, or the text in Walton's polyglott. This edition 

 of Bos has been long the common text-book of bibiical 

 S f fchoJar.-, 



