SEPTUAGINTA-STUDIEN. 



mittee, it was necessary to adopt tliis text; and it was determined, iu this newly-revised edi- 

 tion, not only to separate all the apocryphal matter from the canonical books, but also to 

 remove the itrconveniences arising from the unaccountable dislocations of chapters and verses, 

 which occur in certain books of the Septuagint, by rearranging them according to the order 

 of the Hebrew text. This desideratum the Committee trust it will be found that Mr. Field 

 has skilfully and successfuUy accomplished. And he has so accomplished it as still to show 

 what the previous arrangemeut of the Greek text was. For while , for the manifest conve- 

 xiience of biblical students, the text of this edition reads, chapter and verse, side by side 

 with the Hebrew, and with all translations from it; an additional and collateral numbering 

 of chapters and verses, where necessary, in brackets, shows what was before the order of 

 the Greek. In one case, that of the thirty-sixth and following three chapters of Exodus, 

 where the confusion of the Greek text is so great that the two separate arrangements could 

 not be distinctly marked in that manner, the text iu extenso, just as it Stands in the Sep- 

 tuagints hitherto in use, is printed in a smaller type, below the arranged text of this edi- 

 tion. The additions to the books of Esther and Daniel are removed and placed with the 

 apocryphal books, as in ourEnglish Bibles: and all those shorter apocryphal interpolations 

 in other books, which could not be conveniently removed and printed by themselves, such, 

 for iustance, as the allusion to the bee in the sixth chapter of Proverbs, are, in this edi- 

 tion, marked with inverted commas. 



With regard to the text itself, no pains have been spared to render it as satisfactory 

 as possible. Mr. Field's character, as a learned, judicious, and accurate editor, was already 

 established by his valuable labours upon. the Homilies of St. Chrysostom; and in his lata 

 editorial labours in the service of this Society, he was well supplied with all ueedful means 

 and appliances for the satisfactory accomplishment of the task imposed upon him. Besides 

 his own resources, the üniversity library and the library of Trinity College, Cambridge, af- 

 forded him important helps. Through the very liberal kindness of the trustees of the Bri- 

 tish Museum, the Committee were enabled, without cost, to provide him with a copy of Mr. 

 Baber's fac-simile of the Codex Alexaudrinus ; and wherever, in the course of his labours, 

 there appeared to be any reason to question the accuracy of Mr. Baber's work, the original 

 Codex was carefully examined. And the Foreign Translation Committee feel themselves 

 bound to take this opportunity of acknowledging , with gratitude, the ready courtesy with 

 which every facility of reference to that precious manuscript was at all times afforded them. 

 It is only just also to add, at the same time, that, as the use which has been made of Mr. 

 Baber's fac-simile, in preparing this edition of the Septuagint, has tested, so also has it con- 

 firmed the claim of his work to the character of remarkable accuracy. 



An early copy of Cardinal Mai's Transcript of the Codex Vaticanus was also procured 

 for the use of this edition, and is now first applied to the improvement of the text ofEze- 

 kiel and following canonical books, as well as of nearly the whole of the Apocrypha. In 

 the earlier books, which had been previously printed off, constant reference has been made 

 to the same authority in constructing the Appendix. 



This volume is now published, as it is hoped, very opportunely for the purposes of the 

 lecturBship on the Septuagint, lately founded at Oxford, through the munificence of a vene- 

 rable member of this Society, a member now of fifty years' Standing, the Rev. E. W. Grin- 

 field, already favourably known among biblical scholars as the author of »The Apology for 

 the Septuagint«, as well as of »The Hellenistic Greek Testament.« Mr. Grinfield has long 

 been an advocate for such an arrangement of the text of the Septuagint as that now pre- 

 sented, in accordance with the Hebrew original, and the Foreign Translation Committee have 

 receiVed many Communications from him on the subject; his more recent letters particularly 

 expressing his anxiety, that the Society's new edition might be published in time for his 



