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BiELE. 
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, 
pesuckim, marked in the Hebrew Bible by 
two great points, called soph pusuch , at the 
end of each. For the division of the Bible 
into chapters, as we now have it, is of 
much later date. 
Divers of the ancient Bible-books appear 
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 Solo- 
mons three thousand proverbs, and his 
thousand and five songs, besides his books 
on plants, animals, 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 themselves 
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 seve- 
ral variations have been since made in it : 
Mala chi, for instance, could not be put in 
the Bible by him, since that prophet is al- 
lowed to have lived after Ezra ; nor could 
Nehemiah be there, since mention is made 
in that book of Jaddua, as high priest, and 
of Darius Codomannus as king of Persia, 
who were at least an hundred years later 
than Ezra. It may be added, that, in the 
first book of Chronicles, the genealogy of 
the sons of Zernbbabel is carried down for 
so many generations, as must necessarily 
bring it to the time of Alexander ; and con- 
sequently this book could not be in the ca- 
non in Ezra’s days. It is probable the two 
books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, 
Esther, and Malachi, were adopted into 
the Bible in the time of Simon the Just, 
the last of the men of the great synagogue. 
Bibles, English- Saxon. If we inquire 
into t]ie 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 Lindis- 
ferne, who lived about the year 730, trans- 
lated 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 disciple, in the enumeration of his 
master’s works, speaks only of his transla- 
tion of the Gospels ; and says nothing of the 
rest of the Bible. Some pretend, that King 
Alfred, who lived in 890, translated a great 
part of the Scriptures. We find an old ver- 
sion in the Anglo-Saxon of several books of 
the Bible, made by Elfi ic, abbot of Malmes- 
bury: it was published at Oxford in 1699. 
There is an old Anglo-Saxon version of the 
four Gospels, published by Matthew Par- 
ker, Archbishop of Canterbury, in 1571, 
the author whereof is unknown. Dr. Mil! 
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 other trans- 
lators; as, l.'The Psalms, by Adelm, bi- 
shop of Shireborn, contemporary with 
Bede ; though by others this version is at- 
tributed to King Alfred, who lived 200 
years after. Another version of the Psalms 
in Anglo-Saxon was published by Spelman, 
in 1640. 2. The Evangelists, still extant, 
done from the ancient Vulgate, before it 
was revised by St. Jerome, by an author 
unknown, and published by Matth. Parker, 
in 1571. An old Saxon version of se- 
veral books of the Bible, made by Elfric, 
abbot of Malmesbury, several fragments of 
which were published by William Lilly, in 
1638, the genuine copy by Edm. Tli waites, 
in 1639, at Oxford. 
Bibles, Indian. A translation of the 
Bible into the North American Indian lan- 
guage, by Elliot, was published in 4to. at 
Cambridge, in 1685. 
Bibles, English. The fjrst English Bi- 
ble we read of, was that translated by 
J. Wickliffe, about the year 1360 ; but ne- 
ver printed, though there are MS. copies of 
it in several of the public libraries. J. de 
Trevisa, who died about the year 1398, is 
also said to have translated the whole Bi- 
ble ; but whether any copies of it are re- 
maining, does not appear. 
Tindal’s. The first printed Bible in 
our language, was that translated by 
Will. Tindal, assisted by Miles Coverdale, 
printed abroad in 1526 ; but most of the 
copies were bought up and burnt by Bishop 
Tunstal and Sir Thomas More. It only 
contained the New Testament* and was re- 
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