B I B 



B I B 



In the number of Latin Bibles is alfo ufually ranked the 

 verCion of the fame Pagiiinus corrected, or rather rendered 

 lltjral, by Arias Montanm ; which correftion being approved 

 of by the doclors of Louvain, &c. was inferted in the Poly- 

 glott Bible of Phih'p 11. asd fince in that of London. The 

 chief aim of Montanus h;iS been to tranflate the Hebrew 

 words by the fame number of Latin ones ; fo tliat he has ac- 

 commodated his whole trai.flation to the moft fcrupulous 

 rules of grammar, withotit duly adverting to his latinity ; 

 and therefore this verfion may be confidcred rather as a 

 grammatical commentary than a ti"ue verfion, and adapted to 

 inftruft young beginners in the Hebrew, rather tlian to be read 

 feparately. There have been various editions of this in folio, 

 quarto, and oftavo ; to which have been add^d the Hebrew 

 text of the Old Teftament, and the Greek of the New. The 

 bed of them all is the firft, which is in folio, 1571. The 

 tranflation of Thomas Malvenda, a Spanifli Dominican, is 

 more grammatical and barbarous than that of Montar.us, and 

 not much efteenicd. 



Since the Reformation, there have been feveral Latin ver- 

 fions of the Bible from the original Hebrew by Proteftants. 

 The moft eftecmed are thofe of Munfter, Leo Juda, Callalio, 

 and Trtmellius : the three laft of which have been reprinted 

 various times. Munfter publifliedhis verfion at Bafil in 1534, 

 which he afterwards revifed ; he publifhed a correct edition 

 in 1546. Without rigidly adhering to the grammatical fig- 

 nification of the words, like Pagninus and Montanus, he has 

 given a more free and intelligible verfion ; but by not devi- 

 ating from the fenfe of the Hebrew text, he has retained 

 fomeo'f itsidiotifms. He has alfo availed himfclf of the com- 

 mentariesof thebeftRabbins. Huetius gives him thecharafler 

 of a tranflator well verfcd in the Hebrew language, whofe 

 llvle is very exaftand confoiTnable to the original. Caftalio's 

 fine Latin pleafcs moft people ; but there are fome v/ho think 

 it too much alTecled, and deftitute of that noble fimplicity 

 and natural grandeur, and of that intxpixfTible ensrgy of 

 ftyle, belonging to the originals, and fome other verfions : 

 the beft edition of it is that in 1573. Leo Juda's verfion, 

 altered a little by the divines of Salamanca, was added to 

 the ancient Latin edition, as publiftied by R. Stephens, with 

 notes, under the name of " Vatablus's Bible," in 1545. It 

 was printed at Zurich in 1543, and is -more elegantly written 

 than Munfter's, but fonietimes recedes too far from the lite- 

 ral fenfe. It was condemned by the Parifian divines, but 

 printed, with fomealterations, by the Spanifli divines of Sala- 

 manca. That of Junius and Tremellius is preferred, efpeci- 

 ally by the Calvinifts, and has undergone a great number of 

 editions. It poflcfres much more of the true natural fimpli- 

 city. The chief Hebraifms are preferved, and the whole is 

 exadlly conformable to the Hebrew text, without the leaft ob- 

 fcutity or barbarity. Neverlhelefs, it is not without defects : 

 relative pronouns are introduced, without attention to the 

 Hebrew text, and they are charged with adding fome words 

 to exprefs their own fenfe. 



We may add a fourth clafs of Latin Bibles, comprehend- 

 ing the Vulgnte edition, corrected from the originals. The 

 Bible of Ifidorus Clarlu^ is of this number : that author, rot 

 being contented with reftoriiig the ancient Latin copy, has 

 correlated the tranflator in a great number of places, which 

 he thouglit ill rendered, fo as to make them conformable to 

 the Hebrew text. Although he corrected above 8000 paf- 

 fages, he has omitted tome to avoid giving offence to the 

 catholics, by making too many alterations in the vulgar ver- 

 fion. Some proteftants have followed the fame method, and, 

 among others, Andrew and Luke Ofiander, who have each 

 publiftied a new edition of the " Vulgate," connected from 

 the originals, acconling to the Hebrew text. They have 

 inferted their emendations in a character different from the 



text of the vulgar verfion, inftead of throwing them into 

 the margin, and thus they have occafioned fome confufion. 



Bibles, Orienla!. At the head of the Oriental vtriiou* 

 of the Bible, muft be placed the Samaritan, as being the 

 moft ancient of all, though neither its age nor author hav- 

 been yet afcertained, and admitting no more for Scripture 

 but the Pentateuch, or five books of Mofes. This tranfla- 

 tion is made from the Samaritan Hebrew text, which is a 

 little different from the Hebrew text of the Jews. This ver- 

 fion has never been printed alone ; nor any where but in the 

 Polyglotts of London and Paris. See Pentateuch, and 

 Samaritans. 



Bibles, Chahlcc, are only the glotfes or expofitions made 

 by the Jews in the time when they fpake the Chaldee tongue. 

 Thtfe they call by the name of Targumim, or parnphrafei, 

 as not being any ftrict verfions of the Scripture. They have 

 been inferted entire in the large Hebrew Bibles of Vei:ice and 

 Bafil ; but are read more commodioufly in the Polyglott, 

 being there attended with a Latin tranflation. See Chaldee 

 Paraphrase. 



Bibles, Syr'iac. There are extant two verfions of the 

 Old Teftament in the Syriac language ; one from the Sep- 

 tuagint, which is ancient, and made probably about the 

 time of Conftantine ; the other, called antiqua l^f ftmplex, 

 made from the Hebrew, as fome fuppofe, about the time of 

 the apoftles. This verfion is printed in the Polyglotts of 

 London and Paris. 



In the year 1555, Widmanftadius printed the whole New 

 Teftament in Syriac, at Vienna, in a beautiful charafter. 

 After him there were feveral other editions ; and it was in- 

 ferted in the Bible of Philip II. with a Latin tranflation. 

 The beft edition of the Syriac New Teftament is unqueftion- 

 ably that of Leyden, publiftied by Schaaf in 1708, and re- 

 printed, much improved, at Leyden, in 1717. Anew Sy- 

 riac and Arabic Teftament was printed at Rome, in 1703, 

 by the Propaganda, for the ufe of the Maronite Chriftians 

 in Syria. Gabriel Sionita alio pubhihed a beautiful Syriac 

 edition of the Pfalms, at Parij, in 1525, with a Latin inter- 

 pretation. See Syriac Verfion. 



Bibles, Arabic. Although the Chriftian religion was 

 preached in Arabia, as well as in other countries of the Eaft, 

 at an early period, it never was the eftablifhed religion of 

 the countr)-, as in Syria and in Egypt ; for even the temple 

 of Mecca was a heathen temple till the time of Mahomet. 

 A tranflation of the Bible into Arabic was therefore wholly 

 unneceflary before the conquefts of the Saracens, when the 

 Arabic became the vernacular language of Chriftian coun- 

 tries. Hiftorical evidence on this fubject extends no further 

 than the tenth century, when Rabbi Saadias Gaon publifhed 

 an Arabic verfion of the Pentateuch ; and if conjecture may 

 be allowed (fays Marfli, in his edition of Michaelis's Intro- 

 duftion, vol. iii. p. 599. )> ^"^ ■^''y fuppofe that moft of the 

 Arabic verfions were made during the period that elapfed 

 between the couqi;efts of the Saracens in the 7th century, 

 and the crufades in the nth, efpecially about the middle of 

 this period, when tlie Syriac and the Coptic, though they 

 had ccafed to be lixinc; languages, were Itill underftood by 

 men of education ; and Arabic hterature, under the patron- 

 age of Almamon and his fucceilbrs, arrived at its higheft 

 pitch. The age in which the Arabic printed verfion, or ver- 

 fions of the New Teftament, wete written, is wholly unde- 

 cided, for we have no Knowledge of the MSS. from which 

 the Roman edition of the four Go'"pels (mentioned below) 

 was printed ; and all that we know of the MSS. ufed by 

 Gabriel Sionita in his edition of the Paris Polyglott, and by 

 Lrpenius in his edition of the Arabic New Teftament, is, 

 that the former ufid a MS. brought from Aleppo, and writ- 

 ten in Lgyp; in the 14th centurj , and the latter a ir.anu- 

 S f 2 feripl 



