century, though a somewhat earlier date has been assigned to others, and most of them are more recent. Dr. Kennicott entertained the supposition that, prior to the year A.D. 1000, the Hebrew manuscripts were destroyed by a decree of the Jewish senate. There are also private Hebrew codices, written on cotton or linen paper, in rabbinical and cursive characters, without vowel-points, and with many abbreviations, but of a later date, being not older than 500 years. Manuscripts have been found among the Chinese Jews consisting of synagogue rolls and private copies, whose text is Masoretic. The Pentateuch brought to England from Malabar by the late Dr. Buchanan has the Masoretic text, with some unimportant deviations, and is a roll written on red skins.

A copy of the Samaritan Pentateuch was brought to Europe in the year 1616, which had previously been regarded as lost, though quoted by the fathers, its version having been supposed by Houbigant, Capellus, Kennicott, Michaelis, and others, to have been contemporary with the separation of the tribes, and therefore of equal authority with that of Moses. It was obtained by Peter della Valle through De Saucy, French ambassador at Constantinople, and was deposited in the library of the Oratoire at Paris. Usher afterwards procured six oriental copies of it, and sixteen of the same were collated by Kennicott. The other historical and prophetical books were either discredited by the Samaritans, more especially the personal compositions of David and Solomon, or were refused from national motives of envy and aversion. The strict and vigilant conservation, therefore, by them of these Mosaic institutes would be more likely on this account to be guaranteed. It is evident, however, that the Samaritan and Hebrew texts, if not so much before, yet since the Christian era,

have been corrupted by transcription, notwithstanding the use of points, and the doubtfulness of their origin.

The quality of Hebrew Mss. is deserving of consideration, more than the mere number of such as are of the same family. Their authority depends on their different characters, dates, and countries. M. De Rossi is of opinion, that those exemplars are always more valuable which have not been tampered with by the Masorites, and have the Chaldee Paraphrase introduced in alternate verses. More than 1100, if not in whole, have been collated in part by Kennicott and De Rossi. Dr. K. states, that the older the Hebrew Mss. of the Bible are, the more they differ from the modern printed text, and the more they agree with the ancient versions and the quotations in the New Testament. The oldest printed copies disagree greatly with the latest, and correspond most with the oldest and best Mss. The codex Laudianus, which is attributed to the tenth or eleventh centuries, contains 14,000 variations from the edition of Vander Hooght. More than 2000 occur in the Pentateuch, which are conformable to the Septuagint in 109 readings, the Syriac in 98, the Arabic in 82, the Vulgate in 88, the Chaldee paraphrase in 42, and the Samaritan Pentateuch in 700 examples.

The Hebrew superscriptions to many of the Psalms are very ancient, because they are annexed to the Septuagint. They have the appearance of being hieroglyphical to us, from the fact of their having been adapted to the service of the Temple, and to those vocal and instrumental courses with which we are not conversant. Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun were three chief masters of music, whose sons were musicians, in which service David employed the Levites, after they had ceased to be porters of the taber

nacle. The parallelism of Hebrew poetry, according to Dr. Jahn, was both synonymous and antithetical in its sense. Sometimes its construction consisted of two and three members or verses, and sometimes four, the first answering to the third, and the second to the fourth. Sometimes there were five members, the two first and the two last being parallel, and the middle one being unequal; or if the first should be parallel to the third, and the second to the fourth, the fifth was unequal. Poetry, which was neither measured by the number of syllables and words, nor reducible to the form of parallelism, was irregular.

The Talmud, which signifies "doctrine," contains the Jewish civil and canonical law. It not only relates to religion, but to philosophy, medicine, history, jurisprudence, and practical duties. The oral law is the interpreter of the written, and constitutes the text or Mishna of the Talmud, which was compiled by Rabbi Judah about 150 years after the fall of Jerusalem. The word Mishna means "repetition," because it was a second written law. The word Gemara denotes "completion," being a supplement to the other, and consisting of a commentary on it. It is divided into the Babylonian and Jerusalem Gemara. The former was the work of learned rabbins in the fifth century, and the latter emanated from the Jewish academy at Tiberias about the fourth century, but some think later. The Mishna was composed in the Hebrew, and the Gemara in the Aramæan dialect. The Rabbinical writings are fraught with palpable falsehoods, puerilities, and impieties, like the hierarchical decretals of popes and councils, the acts of saints, and the traditionary revelations of Ro

manism.

The earliest book printed in Hebrew was the Psalter

in 1477, and the whole Bible by Soncinus in 1488. Dr. Kennicott notices, that there is in the Eton library a Hebrew printed copy, dated 1487, which he supposes to be the only known one in existence, having been collated by him twice with the edition of Vander Hooght. The first portion of the Talmud was printed by Soncinus at Constantinople in 1484, and the whole by Bomberg at Venice between 1520 and 1530.

The Masora, being another name for "tradition," is a rule for ascertaining the true reading of the Hebrew text. The Targums are Chaldee paraphrases, the word signifying "interpretation," or version, being eleven in number. The earliest date of any one is about the birth of Christ, and others are much later. The Targum on Proverbs was first printed at Leira in Portugal, in 1492, and the others at different times.

The New Testament was first translated into Hebrew by Elias Hutter, and published in his Polyglot Testament, containing twelve languages, at Nuremberg in 1599. It was thence detached, and printed under the care of William Robertson at London in 1661, but the larger part of this edition was sacrificed in the fire of 1666. It was reprinted by the Rev. Richard Caddick in 1798. A new translation in pure biblical Hebrew was made in 1817. The late Rev. Dr. Buchanan procured a Hebrew Ms. of the New Testament in the district of Travancore, on the southern extremity of India, which was written in small characters, and is now in the University of Cambridge. The translator was a learned Rabbi, and his work is generally well executed, which was intended to promote the cause of infidelity by refuting the arguments of the Syrian Christians, but it became the means of his own conversion, and he died in the Christian faith.

The Greek translation of the Seventy, ἡ παλαιὰ διαOnn, comes next under our consideration, which is an invaluable treasury of high biblical antiquity, and if corrupted in a degree exceeding that of the Hebrew text by its own glosses, interpolations, and omissions, yet it affords great assistance, in having transmitted to us numerous fragmentary readings, in all likelihood derived from older copies of the Hebrew than we now possess, and has preserved the genuine meaning of the original in instances where the modern Hebrew has indubitably failed.

The testimony likewise of the Greek and Latin fathers, compared with that of manuscripts and versions, though sometimes undervalued, must be judged to be of much concurrent utility. Lectionaries, although they sometimes contain readings of consequence, are not of equal credit with Mss. of like antiquity, because they have been altered to suit the temporary purposes for which they were written.

The Pentateuch of the Septuagint was translated by order and direction of the Jewish Sanhedrim at Alexandria about B.C. 285, under the joint reigns and by permission of Ptolemy Lagus and Philadelphus, who were the chief patrons of literature, arts, and sciences, and its other books were finished B.C. 130, being the work of Alexandrian or Hellenistic Jews, if not with the counsel of some learned men from Syria, yet by means of Palestinian exemplars. There have been two texts of the Greek version in use since the Christian age, the Kown or common, and the Hexapla of Origen, which was commenced by him A.D. 231. This great patristic work was found neglected and buried in a corner at Tyre by Eusebius, who removed it to Cæsarea, and about the year 300 reëdited it; but the manuscript of Origen is believed to have perished on the capture of the city by the Arabs in the year 653. Portions of it