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CHAP. II.

The Original Languages.

87. For explaining the Scriptures, fome knowledge of the original languages in which they were written, is abfolutely neceffary; as without it, whatever fense a perfon puts upon them, must be taken wholly on the authority of others.

88. To be reduced to this neceffity, is shameful in the teachers of religion; and, therefore, to neglect the ftudy of thefe languages, is alfo in them inexcufable.

89. Criticism prefuppofes the grammar of the particular languages; and is employed in applying the principles there laid down, to their proper use.

90. The languages in which the Scriptures are written, are the Hebrew and the Greek; on them it therefore is, that Scripture criticifm must be exercised.

SECT.

SECT. I.

The Origin of the Hebrew Language, and of the Greek.

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91. Some have ascribed the invention of language, wholly to the natural powers of men; others, wholly to a divine inftruction. * Most probably, the first language was formed by Adam and Eve for themselves, by the use of their own powers, but fupernaturally affifted. 3

'Diod. Sicul. 1. i. Lactant. de cultu. 1. 10. Greg. Nyff. cont. Eunom. or. 12. Simon, V. T. 1. 1. c. 14, 15.

* The Jews in general.

Plato. Cratyl. Koran, c. 2. Buxtorf de ling. Heb. orig. Blair on Rhetor. L. 6. Walton Prol. 1. § 4.

3 Univerfal Hiftory, b. 1. c. 2. 8. 5.

92. From our fuppofing the primitive language to have been formed not without divine affiftance, or even from its having been immediately of divine original, it cannot be concluded, that it must have poffeffed an uncommon degree of perfection; for ftill, the wisdom of God would adapt it to the necessities of mankind at that period, and to the ufe which their unimproved faculties could make of it; and confequently, it is natural to think that it was narrow and unpolished.

Univ. Hift. ib. Blair, ib.

93. Adam and his posterity continued to use the primititive language, only making fome additions to it, as their occafions from time to time required. On account of the longevity of men, and their not being very numerous, nor widely fcattered, that language probably remained with little variation, till the deluge; and the fame language would, of course, be spoken by the family of Noah, for fome space of time.

Univ. Hift. ib. Simon, ib. Walton, Prol. 1. § 6.

94. This uniformity of language was broken by the difperfion of mankind at Babel; and when, in confequence of that event, the different tribes were formed into distinct nations, they would naturally run into different dialects, which would, in courfe of time, become more and more different from one another.

Gen. xi. 6, &c.

Cleric. in loc. Simon, V. T. 1. 1. c. 14. Scaliger, Exercit. in Cardan. If. Cafaubon, Diatrib. de ling. Heb. M. Cafaubon de 4 ling.

fufion of Languages. Brett's

Wotton concerning the Con

Effay on the fame. Buxt.

de ling. Heb. confufione. Walton, ib. § 6, 7.

95. Some have thought that the primitive language is wholly loft; others, that it ftill exifts, and that the Hebrew is that language. The truth feems to be, that in one fense it is loft, all the languages now known differing from it in many respects; but in another fense it ftill exifts, to wit, in the feveral dialects derived from it, all which retain fomething of it.

Greg. Nyff. ib. Simon, ib. c. 14. Grot. in Gen. xi. 1.

96. Of thefe dialects, that may moft properly be

reckoned

reckoned the primitive language, which has deviated leaft from it: And, though claims have been urged in favour of many languages, particularly, of all the Oriental tongues, this character is fhewn, by many plausible arguments, to belong to the Hebrew, in preference to all others.

Theodoret. qu. 51. in Gen. Pocock. Pref, in Tograi. Buxt. ib. Chryfoft. hom. 30. in Gen. xi. Auguft. de Civ. Dei, Hieron. Comment. in Sophon. Origen,

1. 17. c. 11.
hom. 11. in Num.

Phaleg. 1. 1. c. 15.

Orat. de ling. Arab.

t

Selden de Synedr. 1. 2. c. 9. Bochart,
Simon, V.T. 1.1. c. 14, 15. Schultene,
Walton, Prol. 3. § 1-22.

97. The Hebrew language was not confined to the Ifraelites alone, nor even to the defcendants of Abraham or of Shem; but was the fame with that of the Phenicians and Canaanites, who were of the pofterity of Ham.

Simon, ib.

98. The Greek language was ultimately derived from the same source, having taken its rife from fome of the Oriental dialects used by the colonies which peopled Greece; but, by reafon of the fituation of those that used it, their progrefs in arts and sciences, and their care in refining and improving it, it underwent fo great alterations as to become, in time, a very dissimilar language.

Squire's Inquiry into the Origin of the Greek Language.

Ogerii Græca et Latina Ling. Hebraizantes.. Monboddo's
Origin of Lang. p. 1. b. 3. c. 11, 12. & p. 2. diff. 1.

SECT.

SECT. II.

Of Written Language, particularly the Hebrew and the Greek.

99. MEN could not fail foon to become defirous of expreffing their thoughts by vifible marks, as well as by founds.

100. The first method which they fell upon for this purpose, was, probably, the fixing upon marks to denote particular things; and thefe would be, in the beginning, a rude picture of the thing; but would, afterwards, be fimplified for the fake of expedition. Of marks in this stage, the Chinese characters appear to be an instance.

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Warburton, Div. Leg. Blair on Rhetor. L. 7. Walton, Prol. 2. § 13, 20, 21.

101. By most nations, these marks of things were laid afide, as foon as they had invented or learned a more commodious method of writing, namely by an alphabet; but, the Egyptians retained it along with this other method, and improved it to a great degree of refinement in their hieroglyphical writing, which they appropriated to particular purposes, efpecially thofe in refpect of which they ftudied fecrecy.

Warburton, ib. Blair, ib. Walton, ib. f 17, 18, 19.

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