HORE BIBLICE.

WITH a view to impress on the memory the result of some miscellaneous reading on different subjects of BIBLICAL LITERATURE, the following Notes were committed to paper. It may be found, that they give,

I. Some history of the rise and decline of the Hebrew language, including an account of the Mishna, the Two Gemaras, and the Targums: II. Some account of the Hellenistic language, principally with a view to the Septuagint version of the Bible under this head, mention will be made of the early versions of the Old Testament, and the biblical labours of Origen: III. Some observations on the effect produced on the style of the New Testament, 1st, by the Hellenistic idiom of the writers; 2dly, by the Rabbinical doctrines current in Judæa at the time of Christ's appearance on earth, and by the controversies among the sects, into which the learned were then divided: 3dly, by the literary pursuits of the Jews being confined to their religious tenets and observances; 4thly, by the political subserviency of the Jews to the

Romans; 5thly, by their connexions and intercourse with the neighbouring nations; and 6thly, by the difference of the dialects, which prevailed among the Jews themselves: IV. Some account, 1st, of the biblical literature of the middle ages; 2dly, of the industry of the Monks; and 3dly, of the industry of the Jews, in copying Hebrew manuscripts: V. Some notion of the Masorah, and the Keri and Ketibh: VI. Some notion of the controversy respecting the nature, antiquity and utility of the vowel points : VII. Some general remarks,—1st, on the history of the Jews after their return from the Babylonish captivity to the birth of Christ; 2dly, on the persecutions suffered by the Jews; 3dly, on their present state; 4thly, on their religious tenets; 5thly, on the appellations of their doctors and teachers; 6thly, on the distinction between the Tanaits or Rabanists and Caraits, and on the actual state of the Pharisees and Sadducees: 7thly, on the Cabala; 8thly, on their writers against the Christian religion; and 9thly, on their principles respecting religious toleration VIII. Some observations on the nature of the Hebrew manuscripts, and the principal printed editions of the Hebrew Bible: IX. Some account of the principal Greek manuscripts of the New Testament: X. Of the Polyglott editions of the New Testament: XI. Of the principal Greek editions of the New Testament: XII. Of the versions of the New Testament into the Romeika, or

Modern Greek: XIII. Of the Oriental Versions of the New Testament; and the Ancient Versions of it into the Northern Languages: XIV. Of the Latin Vulgate XV. Of the English translations of the Bible: XVI. And of the division of the Bible into chapters and verses: XVII. Some general observations will be offered on the nature of the various readings of the sacred text, so far as they may be supposed to influence the questions respecting its purity, authenticity, or divine inspiration: XVIII. Mention will then be made of the principal works made use of by the writer, in the course of his enquiries.

I.

THE claim of THE HEBREW LANGUAGE to high antiquity cannot be denied: its pretensions to be the original language of mankind, and to have been the only language in existence before the confusion at Babel, have, by many respectable writers, been thought not inconsiderable. It may be asserted confidently, that it was, at least, a dialect of that language, and that, in the strictest sense of the word, it is the oldest language, in which, any work now extant was written. In a general sense it denotes the language used by the descendants of Abraham, in all the variations of their fortune, before and after they became possessed of the promised land; during their captivity in Babylon; from their return to their final dispersion; and from

their final dispersion, so far as they have retained a peculiar language of their own, to the present time. But it may be more accurately considered, under the three distinct idioms of South Chanaanitic, Aramæan and Talmudical.

I. 1. It evidently received the appellation of South Chanaanitic, from its being the idiom of the inhabitants of the land of Chanaan: and, as no material alteration took place in it, during the long period which elapsed, from Abraham's arrival in Chanaan, till the captivity, it is known, through the whole of this period, by that appellation. Nice observers have professed to find, that it arrived åt its perfection in the reign of Solomon, and to remark in it some degree of falling off from that time, and have therefore pronounced his reign to be the golden, and the prophesyings of Isaiah to be the silver age of the Hebrew Language: but, unless this observation be understood with some qualification, it appears to have more of fancy than of truth. During the captivity of the Jews in Babylon, their language was far from being wholly forgotten by them. On their return it was greatly their wish to restore it: but their commixture with the natives of the country, where they had been captives, the residence of many of them in the neighbouring nations, their intercourse and habits with the subjects of other kingdoms, and their frequent political connections with the Seleucidan monarchs, introduced into it a multitude of foreign