Thus then we perceive, that such a compound and harmonising Cycle of Times as has here been shewn by Frank in his analysis of the Jubilean Period, is actually and continually proceeding; that it has invariably proceeded, from the beginning of time; and, that it must continue to proceed, until its interruption, suspension, or termination, by the Will of Him who first ordained its revolution and periodical coincidences. And thus, we are able to contemplate Time, in its parts and in its entireness, and our own position in Time, distinctly and without any obscurity or confusion.

The interpretation of the Jubilean year which has been here given by Frank, appears to derive a very remarkable collateral testimony from the Septuagint version of the first clause of the 11th verse of the chapter of Leviticus cited at the beginning of this note; a testimony the more interesting, as it appears to have entirely escaped the observation of that industrious Computator. That clause, in 86 a Jubilee shall our English translation, is rendered "that 50th year be unto you"-because, it stands thus in our Hebrew texts But, the Septuagint render the clause thus: apsoews onμatia αυτή το έτος το πεντηκοστον ΕΝΙΑΥΤΟΣ εσται υμιν which rendering, the Egyptian version of the Septuagint thus remarkably illustrates: "Signum remissionis vobis est hoc ; nempe, annus quinquagessimus erit vobis (î orрoleni ECXHK -the token of remission Єoλ1) ANNUS PERFECTUS "is this; the fiftieth year shall be unto you a PERFECT "YEAR." By which interpretation, it gives us the true

66

.יובל הוא שנת החמשים שנה תהיה לכם

--

1“ XнK EВoλ, tλngos, plenus, red.8105, perfectus, plenitudo. “xwx eboλ, consummatum est; Tegas, terminus, reλo5, finis; angwua, perfectio, plenitudo." Lex. Egypt. SCHOLTZ. p. 165,

66

170.

intention of vauros in the Greek, sc. sv kavry1, or a perfect annual cycle of time. The cause of this variation in the readings, is very obvious; where our present Hebrew copies read —erit, shall be, the copies of the Alexandrian interpreters evidently read on3,- perfectus, perfect or complete; thence, v aury; and thence again, in the Egyptian, Xнê Єɓоλ—perfectus. Without pursuing the critical inquiry, which of the two readings is most probably the primitive reading; it appears manifest from the interpretation of the Greek, even supposing it to be incorrect, that the Jews, in the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, held the Jubilean or fiftieth year to be a full, perfect, or defining year, coinciding with the 49th or seven times seventh solar year. The phrase," shall be a perfect year," seems to be applicable only to a form of year liable to relative imperfection, and therefore, only to a lunar year. Had the Jubilean year been a perfect solar year, in natural sequence, by the ordinances of the heavens, the terms of the divine mandate would appear to have been without force or application; but, in providing a perpetual Period which should, by Divine Artifice, harmonise the natural indices of the Sun and Moon with the moral index of the Seventh Day, God has manifested Himself to be the Author and Regulator equally of all the Three: the two natural indices being subjected, in that Period, to the rule of the moral index.-Physicis id trado concoquendum.

1 ενιαυτός, εν ἑαυτῷ. Etymol. Magn.- ενιαυτος, ήλιου περιοδος, περιελθοντος εξ ώρων εις ώρας του θέου, κυκλῳ του αστέρος περιδραμόντος. Onomast. JUL. POLL. lib. i. cap. 7.

2", consummationem et complementum rei exprimit; finitus, "consummatus, completus, integer factus, perfectus est.-n, perfectus, "integer, sive physice, sive moraliter. Aliquoties adverbialiter, integre, "vel substantive, integritas: ut, Jos. xxiv. 14. Jud. ix. 16, 19, &c." Ler. Heb. SIMON: etiam CASTELL.

The origin of the Hebrew word -Jobel, has actively exercised the etymological researches of Hebrew philologists and lexicographers. Some, would derive it from jobel, a ram's horn, as denoting the " trumpet” which was to proclaim the Jubilee. (CASTELL. D. Levi, and the Rabbins.) "Ex voce Hebraica iobel, id est cornu, quo promulgabatur Iubelai annus: ita Liranus, "R. Salomon in cap. xx. Lev."" But, this etymon is refuted by the observation of Michaelis, that "it is notorious "that the Jews distinguished three kinds of trumpets

Now, as the trumpet which was to ". יובל, הצרצרה שופר »

proclaim the Jubilee, is expressly declared, in the passage of Leviticus, to be the D, and therefore not the an that conjecture cannot hold its ground. Others, would derive it from, fluxit, and would understand it"denotare sonum continuo profluentem et instar fluminis "se diffundentem." (SIMON.) Some, would derive it from

, fructus, germen, fruit, because the earth was not tilled in the Jubilean year, but brought forth its fruits miraculously; (or, as physics would say, naturally). Others, would derive it from, which, in the conjugation Hiphil, is said to signify, adduxit, abduxit, deduxit, reduxit3; and these would interpret it to signify, a reduction or abduction from captivity, and thence, a remission from servitude. Our learned chronologist, also, has been led by his subject

1 Hiero-Lexicon. Romæ, 1677, p. 337.

2 Suppl. ad Lex. Heb. no. 949.

πομπεύω

It is an erroneous statement, that 5, in a, ever signifies, either abduxit, adduxit, deduxit, or reduxit. It signifies simply, durit, ayo, to lead, or escort; and the determinations, ab, ad, de, re, are solely given by the particles which may happen to precede or follow it. The confusion has arisen from the Latin and Greek modes of expression, abduco ab, adduco ad, deduco de; and from ascribing, after those models, the sense of the separate particle to the verb itself, which always preserves its simple primitive sense aya, duco.

66

επαγειν,

to derive it, but with a different application, from the same commonly assumed sense, adduxit, reduxit—“ quod parem significationem cum verbo Græco says, à quo nomen Epacte deducitur, habet; quare annus Iobelæus idem "est ac annus sяayouevos," (or Leap-year). Michaelis says, "in lexica, by cornu arietis receptum, sed reliquis linguis Orientalibus plane ignotum, quarum nulla arie"tem ita vocant: commentum Rabbinorum, quod repeti "aut credi non decet, donec commenti suspicione liberetur, ejusque certa exempla ex linguis Orientalibus "adferantur. Est tamen perantiquum:-nec quidem de etymo certi quid habeo 1." From hence it is evident, that we have still to seek the origin of the term.

66

To guide us, however, in that search, we have two governing reflections to make, which appear to have been wholly overlooked in the former learned attempts: 1. That the term appears, for the first time, in the words of the divine ordinance; and that it is, in fact, enounced to the Hebrews for the first time by God Himself, who is pleased to assign that new and particular denomination to the Great Festival which He institutes to recur at the end of every seventh hebdomad of years. 2. That the most ancient information we can obtain of the received import of the term, is that imparted by the Alexandrian interpreters; who never employ the term Jobel itself, but always, the interpretations, apei, inaguas, or the periphrasis, αφέσεως σημασία. Hence, the meaning of the word jobel, is to be understood by us in the same sense in which it was understood by the earliest Hebrews whom we can consult; and it cannot, therefore, have any relation to any of the divers objects, to which the ingenuity of modern etymologists would refer it.

Now, we find no root, of the same import as apeois,

'Suppl. ad Lex. Heb. no. 949.

iacus, in the Hebrew, or in its kindred tongues. But, it is most remarkable, that we find all the various interpretations employed in the Greek version made at Alexandria — αφεσις, αφέσεως σημασία, ίλασμος, rendered uniformly in the Egyptian version, by Xw-eRoλ—jo̟-ebol; which words signified, in the native tongue of Egypt, Xw, jo-ponere, Reλ, Roλ, eRoλ, bol-ex, extra, and in compound, the "apos, remissio, apisvai, remittere, inaquos, propitiatio1," of the Alexandrian translation. The 10th day of the 7th month in every hebdomad of years, was to be a day of atonement —, but in every seventh hebdomad of years, the year was to be proclaimed on that day, jobel-. But, in the Egyptian version, it is called in both periods xw-eo, jo-ebol; and, in the Greek ήμερα ἱλασμου ενιαυτός αφέσεως. In the verse above quoted. from the Egyptian, the Latin version of which was given-" signum remissionis vobis est hoc, annus

66

quinquagessimus erit vobis annus perfectus;" the original has—“ signum Xw-eRoλ, jo-ebol, vobis, &c.;” and, generally, before the assignment of the term Jubilee in the Hebrew, where, atonement, occurs in the Hebrew text, it is rendered Xw-Roλ in the Egyptian,

1 Lex. Egypt. SCHOLTZ. p. 116. - Verba Ægyptiaca vocales sæpe (c mutant - ultimæ syllabæ verborum frequenter mutantur.- Varietas "hæc vocalium inde videtur orta, quia Ægyptii vocales olim promiscuè per lineolam supernam expresserunt, ut λ, quod etiam Beλ, Boλ, et Rwλ scribitur. (Gramm. Ægypt. SCHOLTZ. p. 75, 77.) βελ, βελ, βολ, βωλ, λυσις, solutio, ανάλυσις, disso« lutio. (Lex. Ægypt. p. 12, 13.)—XW significat ponere, et Boλ "extrà, unde ponere extrà, ejicere, dimittere. (Thes. Epistol. LACROz. tom. iii. p. 74.) Literam Græci aliquando, et Ægyptii pronunciant “ut C (sh, vel j Gallicum, jour.) — et X inter se commutantur." Præf. GEORGII, ad Fragm. Ev. Sti. Johann. Græco-Copt. Theb. Romæ, 1784. p. 41, 155.