BIBLE. 
lv verfed in the accenting, especially in the poetical books; 
betides, as it was not publifhed under his eye, many faults 
have crept in. That of Jablonfki, in 1699, in quarto, at 
Berlin, is very beautiful as to letter and print; bur, though 
the editor pretends he made life of the editions of Athias 
and Clodius, fome critics find it fcarcely in any thing dif¬ 
ferent from the quarto edition of Bomberg. That of Opi- 
tius is alfo in quarto, at Keil, in 1709 ; the character is 
large and good, but the paper bad : it is done with a great 
deal of care; but the editor made life of no manuferipts 
but thofe of the German libraries ; neglecting the French 
ones, which is an omiffion common to all three. They 
have this advantage, however, that belides the divilions 
ufed by the Jews, both general and particular, into parajkes 
and pefukim , they have alfo thofe of the Chriftians, or of 
the Latin Bibles, into chapters and verfes ; the heri ketib , 
or various readings, Latin fummaries, &c. which made 
them of eonfiderable ufe with refpeit to the Latin editions 
and the concordances. The little Bible of R. Stephens, 
in i6to, is very much prized for the beauty of the cha¬ 
racter in which it is printed. There is, however, another 
edition of Geneva exceedingly kke it, excepting that the 
print is worfe, and the text lefs corieCL To thefe may 
be added fome other Hebrew Bibles without points, in 
oflavo and 24to, which are much coveted by the Jews ; 
not that they are more exadt, but more portable than the 
reft, and are ufed in-their fynagogues and fchoois: of 
thefe there are two beautiful editions, the one of Plantin, 
in oftavo, with two columns, and the other in 24to, re¬ 
printed by Raphalengfhs, at Leyden, in 1610. There is 
alfo an edition of them by Laurens, at Amfterdam, in 
1631, in a larger character; and another in i2ino, at 
Frankfort, in 1694, full of faults, with a preface of M. 
Leufden prefixed. 
At Paris, in 1753, Houbigant publifhed an elegant edi¬ 
tion of the Hebrew Bible, in 4 vols. folio. The text is 
that of Vander Hooght, without points, to which he has 
added marginal notes, fupplying the variations of the Sa¬ 
maritan copy. Dr. Kennicott, after almoft twenty years 
laborious collation of near l'even hundred copies, manu- 
feript and printed, either of the whole or of particular 
parts of the Bible, did, in 1776, publifii the firft volume 
of his Hebrew Bible in folio. The text is that of Everard 
Vander Hooght, already mentioned, differing from it only 
in the difpofition of the poetical parts, which Dr. Kenni¬ 
cott has printed in hemiflichs, into which they divide 
themfelves; however, the words follow one another in the 
fame order as they do in the edition of Vander Hooght, 
This edition is printed on an excellent type; the Samari¬ 
tan text, according to the copy in the London Polyglot, is 
exhibited in a column parallel with the Hebrew text; 
thofe parts of it only being introduced in which it differs 
from the Hebrew. The numerous variations, both of the 
Samaritan manuferipts from the printed copy of the Sama¬ 
ritan texts and of the Hebrew manuferipts from the print¬ 
ed text of Vander Hooght, are placed feparately at the 
bottom of the page, and marked with numbers referring 
to the copies from which they are taken. 
Greek Bibles. The firft verfion of the Bible ever made 
from the original Hebrew, is that of the Septuagint, fo called 
from its being the work of feventy-two Jews, who are 
ufually called the feventy interpreters, becaufe feventy is a 
round number. The hiftory of this verfion is exprefsly 
written by Ariftseus, an officer of the guard to Ptolemy 
Philadelphus, the fubftance of wltofe account is as fol¬ 
lows : Piolcmy having eredted a fine library at Alexandria, 
which he took care to fill with the mod curious and valu¬ 
able books from all parts of the world, was informed that 
the Jews had one containing the laws of Mofes, and the 
hiftory of that people ; and, being defirous of enriching 
his library with a Greek tranflation of it, applied to the 
high-prieft of the Jews ; and, to engage him to comply 
with his requeft, fet at liberty all the Jews whom his fa¬ 
ther Ptolemy Soter had reduced to flavery. After fuch 
1 
f-1 
a ftep, fie eafily obtained what he defired ; Eleazar, the 
Jewiftt high-prieft, Lent back his ambafTadors with an ex- 
adt copy of tiie Mofaical law, written in letters of gold,' 
and fix elders of each tribe, in all feventy-two ; who were 
received with marks of refpect by the king, and then con¬ 
ducted into tlVe'ifie of Pharos, where they were lodged in 
a ho'ufe prepared for their reception, and fupplied with 
every thing necefiary. L hey let about the tranflation, and 
finifiied it in feventy-two days; and the whole being read 
in the pretence of the king, he admired the profound wif- 
dom of the laws of Motes; and lent back the deputies 
laden witlt prefents, for themfelves, the high-prieft, and 
the temple. For 400 years this tranftarion was in high 
eftimation with the Jews. It was read in their fynagogues 
in preference to the Hebrew; not only in thofe places 
where Greek was the common language, but in many fy¬ 
nagogues of Jerufalem and Judea. But, when they law 
it was equally valued by the Chriftians, they became jea¬ 
lous of it, and at length, in the fecond century, Aquila, an, 
apoftate Chriftian, attempted to Lnbftitute another Greek 
tranflation in its place. In this work he was careful to give 
the ancient prophecies concerning the Mefiiah a different 
turn from the Septuagint, that they might not be appli¬ 
cable to Chrift. In the fame delign lie was followed by 
Symmachus and Tlieodotion, who alfo, as St. Jerome in¬ 
forms us, wrote out of hatred to Chriftianity. In the 
meantime, the Septuagint, from the ignorance, boldnefs, 
and carelefthefs, of tranferibers, became full of errors. 
To correct thefe, Origen publifhed a new edition in the 
beginning- of the third century, in which he placed the 
tranflations of Aquila, Symmachus, and Tlieodotion. This 
edition was called Tctrapla, the tranflations being arranged 
oppofite to one another in four columns. He alfo added 
one column, containing the Hebrew text in Hebrew let¬ 
ters, and another exhibiting it in Greek. In a fecond edi¬ 
tion he publifhed two additional Greek verfions ; one of 
which was found at Nicopolis, and the other at Jericho : 
this was called the Hexapla. By comparing fo many tran¬ 
flations, Origen endeavoured to form a corredl copy of 
the Scriptures. Where they all agreed, he confidered 
them right. The paffages which lie,found in the Seventy, 
but not in the Hebrew text, he marked with an obelifk : 
what he found in the Hebrew, but not in the Seventy, he 
marked with an afterifk. St. Jerome fays, that the addi¬ 
tions which Origen made, and marked with an afterifk, 
were taken from Tlieodotion. From this valuable work 
of Origen, the verfion of the Seventy was tranferibed in a 
feparare volume, with the afterifks and obelifks for the 
ufe of the churches ; and from this circumftance the great 
work itfelf was neglected and loft. About the year 300, 
two new editions of the Seventy were publifhed, the -one 
by Hefychius, an Egyptian bifhop, and the other by Lu¬ 
cian, a prefbyter of Antioch. But as thefe authors did 
not mark with any note of diftinSiion the alterations which 
they had made, their edition does not poflefs the advan¬ 
tages of Origen’s. The beft edition of the Seventy, is that 
of Dr. Grabe, which was publifhed about the year 1700. 
He had accefs to two MSS. nearly of equal antiquity, the 
one found in the Vatican library at Rome, the other in 
the royal library at St. James’s, which was prefented to 
Charles L by Cyril, patriarch of Alexandria, and hence 
is called the Alexandrine MS. Anxious to difeover which 
of thefe was according to the edition of Origen, Dr. Grabe 
collected the fragments of the Hexapla, and found they 
agreed with the Alexandrine MS. but not with the Vati¬ 
can, where it differed with the other. Hence he conclu¬ 
ded, that the Alexandrine MS. was taken frouithe edition 
of Origen. By comparing the quotations from feripture, 
in the works of Athanafius and St. Cyr.il with the Vatican 
MS. he found they agreed fo well, that he juftly inferred 
that that MS. was taken from the edition of Hefychius. 
This verfion was in ufe to the time of our bleffed Saviour, 
and is that out of which moft of the citations in the New 
Teftament, from the Old, are taken. It was alfo the or¬ 
dinary 
