1797-4 
Storia della Medecina Anticha e Mederna, 
in 8yo. containing 274 pages. The au- 
thor, to judge of him by this fpecimen, 
does not appear to be very familar with 
the moft modern medicinal works of 
Germany, and the other northern na- 
BONS. <4 oe 
". THEOLOGY. 
In the department of theology, pro- 
perly fo called, an habitual filence feems 
to prevail at prefent: even the bitter 
fource of polemical controverfy has been 
dried up for feveral years paft. With 
difficulty has the ex-jefuit ZACCARIA, 
(an Qétogenary) been able to bring 
down toa ninth volume his Raccolta di 
Differtaxioni di Storia Ecclefiaftica, in Ita- 
liano o feritte, o tradotte del Francefe. (At 
Rome, by Salomoni.). This work, begun 
in 1792, has brought the hiftory of the 
church no farther than down to the third 
eentury. 
Pietro PALETTA, a canon of Verona, 
has announced an accurate and detailed 
Hiftory of Herefies (Storia ragionata delle 
E-efie} which is to be executed by the 
beautiful preffes of Guiliari. 
ORIENTAL LITERATURE. 
Tn the department of Oriental litera- 
ture, the Aunal Ebreo-tipografici, of the 
Abbé Rossi (at Parma, in gto.) claims 
diftinguifhed -notice. This work may 
be confidered as the continuation of the 
four volumes of Various Readings of the 
Old Tefiament, publifhed by the fame 
author, 
[To be continued.) 

Yo the Edior of the Monthly Magazine. 
SIR, 
qt has lately occurred to me, that the 
3a verfe of Hebrews x1. is not only, 
erroneoufly tranflated in all the modern 
~werfions cf the New Teftament, bute 
that, in its true meaning, it ftrongly fa- 
yours one of the leading dogmas ot thofe 
ancient Chriftian heretics, the Valenti- 
mians, and fhows St. Paul to have enter- 
tained opinions fomewhat analagcus to 
the Platonic theory of ideas. The paf- 
fage in the original is as follows : : 
Thises rospcey nalneTbadas TOUS aEbwveec entnas- 
gs Qscu, bic To wn en Paivrucray TH Brsmouerce 
TYSYOREV Xs, 
This, in the Englith verfion, is render- 
ed: ‘Through faith we underftind, 
that the worlds were framed by the word 
of God, fo that things which are feen, 
Were not made of things which do ap- 
pear.” ‘ sf 5 
Mr, Taylor's Verfion 
ys . 
of a Text iv Hebrews. 105 
In the firft place, she worlds is evi. 
dently a forced interpretation of aswias 
and, éven admitting ic was not, leaves 
the paflage very ambiguous, from the 
uncertainty to what worlds St. Paul al. 
ludes. If we adopt ages, which is the 
general fenfe of the word in the New 
Teftament, we fhall indeed avoid a forc« 
ed and ambiguous interpretation, but 
we fhall render the meaning of the apof- 
tle trifling in the extreme: for as he 
has elfewhere told us, “that all things 
were framed by the word of God,’’ what 
particular faith does it ‘require to be- 
lreve, that by the fame word he framed 
the ages ? 
I obferve, in the fecond place, that ac- 
cording to the definition of faith, given 
in the firft verfe of this chapter, that it 
SOE Pe : : 
is “ the evidence of ¢hings not feen,” it 
is clear, that St. Paul is fpeaking in this 
paflage of fomething invifible. Since 
then wswves 18 neither worlds hor ALES, 
what fhall we fay itis? I anfwer the 
«ones of the Valentinians : and, agree- 
ably to this, the whole paffage fhould be 
tranflated as follows; By faith we un- 
derftand, that the ones were framed 
by the word of God, in order that things 
which are feen, might be generated from 
fuch as do not appear (i.e. from things 
inuifiile).” Every one who ismuch con- 
verfant with Greek authors, muft cer- 
tainly be convinced, that #70 means in 
order that: and I was glad to find, thar 
bifhop Pearfon tranilates as I have done, 
the latter part of this verfe. 
Now we learn from the fecond book 
of Irenzus againft the Heretics, that ac- 
cording to the Valentinians, all created 
things arethe images of the wones, re- 
fident in the pleroma, or/fullnels of deity. 
And does it not clearly follow, from the 
above verfion, that according to St. 
Paul too, the gones are the exemplars 
of vifible, or created things? To which 
we may add, that this fenfe of the paf- 
fage wonderiully accords with the affec- 
tion, that: “faith; is the evidence of 
things not feen.’”’ For here the things 
svbich do.not appear are the woncs ; thefe, 
according to the Valentinians, fubfisting 
in deity. So that from our verfion, St. 
Paul might fay, with great propriety, 
that ‘* we underfand by faith, that che 
zones were framed by the word of 
God, in order that things which are 
{een, might be generated from fuch as 
do not appear :” for this naturally fole 
Jows from his definition of faith. 
It appears likewife, that St. Paul mena 
tions 





