QUOTATION. 



the points placed under them, hut according to others fub- 

 ftituted ill their l\ead ; as isdoi,<!by St. Peter, Afts, iii. 23, 

 by Steplien, Afts, vii. 43. and by Paul, 1 Cor. xv. 54. 

 ■1 Cor. viii. 15, &c. The fecond is by cliangiug the letters ; 

 as is done by Paul, Rom.ix. 33. i Cor. xi. 9 Hcb. viii. 9, 

 and X. 5. and by Stephen, Ads, vii. 43. The third is by 

 changing both letters and points ; as is done by Paul, Ads, 

 xiii. 41 . and 2 Cor. viii. 15. The fourth is by adding; fome 

 letters and taking away otliers. The fifth is by tranfpofing 

 words and letters. The fixth is by dividing <;ne word into 

 two. The feventh, adding other words to make the fenfe 

 more clear. The eighth, changing the order of the words. 

 The ninth, changing tlie order of the words and adding 

 other words. Both of which are done by the apoftles. 

 And laiHy, changing the order of words, adding words, 

 and retrenching words ; wliich is a method often ufed by St. 

 Paul. 



Other authors, as bifhop Kidder, M. le Clerc, Mr. 

 Sykes, &c. folve the difficulty another way. That ulual 

 form of quotation among the evangelilts, " That it mi^ht 

 be fulfilled which wasfpoken by the phrophets," according 

 to thefe authors, means no more than an accommodation of 

 the prophet's words to the cale in hand. 



The word -rj-f.r.-u.'^r,, fulfilled, does not nPC'I'-'-ily determine 

 us to fuch a fenfe, as if the evangelilL u^ugned to fpeak of 

 a predidion of future events accouipTiftjed ; but may barely 

 exprefs an accommodation of borrowed words. In effed, 

 fays bifliop Kidder, a fcripture may be laid to be fulfilled 

 two ways ; properly, as when that which was foretold comes 

 to pafs ; and improperly, by way of accommodation, as 

 when an event happens to any place or people like to what 

 fell out fome time before. And thus it is that St. Matthew 

 fays, on occafion of the murder of the innocents, that " then 

 was fulfilled what was fpoken by the prophet Jeremy, In 

 Rama "was a voice heard," &c. 



This interpretation is confirmed by M. le Clerc, who 

 obferves that the Jews, in their language, uied to fay, that 

 a pafl'age of fcripture was fulfilled, as often as any thing 

 happened to which it might be apphed ; fo that the evange- 

 lifl Matthew, who was a Hebrew, and wrote, as is com- 

 monly fuppofed, in that language, intended no more in the 

 padage juil cited, but that a tiling happened, to which 

 one might apply what Jeremy had formerly faid on another 

 occafion. 



Accordingly, fays Mr. Sykes, the evangclifts, in citing 

 that paflage of Ifaiah, Behold, a "virgin Jloall he luith child, 

 &c. only ufe it as words of that prophet remarkably agree- 

 ing to the miraculous birth of Jelus, and not as a prophecy 

 of his birth. 



It may be*added that this way of fpeaking was not un- 

 known among the heathen writers. Thus in jElian, Dio- 

 genes Sinopeiifis ufed continually to fay of himfelf, that he 

 fulfilled and underweit all the curfes of tragedy. 



The difficulty ftated in this article has been already the 

 fubjed of difcufiion under the terms Accommodation and 

 Prophecy. Whilft it is allowed, that many paliages in the 

 New Teftament, and aKo in the writings of the Chrillian fa- 

 thers, arc very different from the correfpondent paffages as 

 they now ftand in the Hebrew text ; and that fome words are 

 introduced as quotations which are no where to be found : 

 thofe who urge the objedion {hould be difpofed to pay due 

 attention to the various modes of replying to it, which bibli- 

 cal critics have propoft d. Some have fuppofed,with W'.iilon, 

 that thofe early Chritlian writers quoted from the LXX : 

 others have alleged that they fometimes quoted from their 

 memory ; and this, it is faid, is the more probable, becaufe 

 the fame paflage is quoted in fome cafe.s by different authors 



in very different worda, even where the fenfe agree*. It 19 

 moreover alleged, that \.he fcufe of the pafiages fuppofed to ' 

 be loft is ffill to be found in the Old Teftament, though 

 the auords be not ; fuch efpecially are Matt. ii. ult. and 

 John, vii. 38. But if it were granted, that fome of the 

 verfes originally belonging to the Old Teftament are loft, 

 or materially corrupted, no objection could be jullly alleged 

 agaiiift the authenticity and divine authority of the facred 

 writings in general. As for the quotations that occur in 

 the New Teflament, the m.oft probable opinion is, that 

 fome of them arc made from the Greek verfion and fome 

 from the Hebrew text. To thofe who aflume, that though 

 fuch quotations are made from the Greek verfion, where 

 that differs from the Hebrew, yet both the text and the 

 verfion are in fuch places always the fame in fenfe, we reply 

 with Dr. Kcnnicolt, that this is not the cafe : and he thinks, 

 that the only way of doing juflice to our Saviour and his 

 apofHes in their references to the Old Teftament, is to fay, 

 that for whatever purpofc fuch quotations were made ( whether 

 by way of exprefs prophecy, or only of allufion and ac- 

 commodation) they were always confonaiit to the true fenfe 

 of the Hebrew text. For he fays, it is fcarcely poflible 

 to conceive, how any fpeaker or writer can quote juftly fucli 

 and fuch words, as (e. g.) from Mofes or from Ifaiah, when 

 the words quoted are not the words of Mofes or Ifaiah, 

 and do not exprefs even the fenfe of Mofes or Ifaiah ; but 

 are only taken from fome verfion, which (upon the prefent 

 fuppofition) was no verfion at all in thefe inftaiices, becaufe 

 it did not agree here in fenfe with its original. The found- 

 ation of this miftake, as this learned writer adds, is the 

 notion that has prevailed of the integrity of the modern 

 Hebrew text ; for the writers who have held this to be per- 

 fed, have never been able and never will be able to vindicate 

 the prophetical quotations. Paffages quoted from the feveral 

 Jewilh writers by iufpired men muft (he thinks) have been 

 quoted agreeably to the fenfe of the Hebrew text ; but fuch 

 quotations do not agree in fenfe with the printed Hebrew 

 text. Therefore fome alterations have happened, either in 

 the Gi-eek text of the New Teftament, or the Hebrew text 

 of the Old. Collins fays that the Hebrew text has been 

 delivered down perfed, and therefore that the quotations 

 are either forged or falfified in the New Teftament. To this 

 it is replied, that as it appears from a collation of the 

 Greek MSS. of the New Teftament, that the words of the 

 quotations are not corrupted in the Greek text, fo it ap- 

 pears from a collation of the Hebrew MSS. that the 

 words have been corrupted in the Hebrew. And this is 

 an aiifwer which fhould approve itfelf to all Chriftians. See 

 Kennicott's State of the Hebrew Text, vol. ii. p. 34J — 

 347. &c. 



Upon the whole we obferve, that the writers of the New 

 Teftament did not make it a conftant rule to quote from the 

 Greek verfion, becaufe there are many places where their 

 quotations differ from that verfion and agree with the Hebrew. 

 And as the quotations now agree with the Hebrew, fre- 

 quently in the exprefs words, generally in the fenfe ; fo it 

 it is mofl probable, that they always agreed at firft, and that 

 where the Hebrew was cxpreffed properly in the Greek 

 verfion, they ufed the words of tliat verfion ; and where the 

 verfion was not proper, they tranflated for theinfelves. 



With regard to Matt. ii. ult. the firft of the paffages 

 above cited. Dr. Doddridge (Fan>. Expof. in loc.) obferves, 

 that Nazareth was a little city on the confines of Zabulon 

 and Illachar ; fo contemptible among the Jews, that it 

 was a proverb among them, No good thing can be expeded 

 from thence. Thus was fulfilled what was fpoken in effed by- 

 many of the propliets, "hefhallbecalledaNazareiie;" /. e. he 



ftiall 



