1752, was indeed printed from four MSS. but has been altered from the Vulgate, so that it can be of no use in criticism. The edition published by Rutilius without mention of place, and not completed, was taken from this. Comp. EICHHORN's Rep. X. Th. S. 154-165. ROSENMUELLER, Handbuch für die Literatur der Bibl. Krit. und Exeg. III. Th. S. 56-64.

§ 55. Persian Version. [a]

Jacob ben Joseph, a native of Thus in Persia, translated the Pentateuch from the Hebrew into Persian, not before the commencement of the 9th century; for in Gen. x. 10, for Babel he substitutes Bagdad, which city was founded in 762. Like Aquila he is exceedingly literal; he retains the more difficult words in his version, and generally agrees with Onkelos. He follows our masoretic text. This version was published in the London Polyglot, from the Constantinopolitan edition of 1546, the defects of which were indeed supplied by Hyde, the supplementary parts being carefully included in brackets. Comp. E. F. C. ROSENMUELLER de Versione Persica, 1813.

[a) On this section, Comp. HORNE Vol. II. pp. 191. ss. DE WETTE Einleit. 68. EICHH. & 317. Tr.]

§ 56. Egyptian Versions.[a]

The Old Testament was translated, probably in the 2d or 3d century, from the Alexandrine version into the modern dialects of Egypt, which arose from the combination of the ancient Egyptian language with the Greek introduced by the Ptolemies. The versions which have hitherto become known to us, are: 1) The Coptic version of the Pentateuch, published from three MSS. by Wilkins, at London, in 1731 2) A Coptic Psalter, published with an Arabic translation, by the Propaganda at Rome, in 1744 and 1749: 3) The Memphite and Sahidic translation of the ninth chapter of Daniel from the version of Theodotion, published by Münster, in 1786, at Rome: and 4) a portion of Jeremiah from c. ix. 17. to c. xiii., published by MINGARELLI in his Reliquiæ Ægyptiorum codicum in Bibl. Naniana asservatæ, 1785, Bologna. Other books lie yet unedited in libraries. Comp. QUATREMERE Recherches sur la langue et literature d' Egypte.

p. 116-140.

MICHAELIS Neue Oriental. Biblioth. IV. Th. S. 74.
ROSENMUELLER Handb. für die Lit. der krit.

ff. VII. Th. S. 25. ff.

u. Exeg. III. Th. S. 74-77.

[a) Comp. HORNE II. 192-195. EICHH. 312-316. DE WETTE Einleit. 51. Tr.]

§ 57. Ethiopic Version.[a]

The Ethiopic or Abyssinian version with which we are at present acquainted seems to be the same which is mentioned by Chrysostom Hom. II. in Joh., and was made from the Alexandrine version. The following parts have been printed: 1) The Psalter and Canticles in 1513 at Rome, in 1518 at Cologne, and in the London Polyglot. The Psalter was also published at Frankfort on the Maine by Ludolph, in 1701, and Canticles at Leyden by Nissel in 1656. 2) The book of Jonah and the first four chapters of Genesis, by Peträus, at Leyden, in 1660. Jonah was also published at Frankfort on the Maine by Staudrach in 1706. 3) Joel, Malachi and Isaiah lvi. 1— 7. by Peträus at Leyden, in 1661. 4) Zephaniah and Ruth, by Nissel, at Leyden in 1660. 5) Some fragments, by C. A. Bode, at Helmstadt, in 1755, and by Hasse in his Lectionaria Syro-ArabicoSamaritano-Æthiopica, Regiomont. 1788, 8vo. The version of the whole Bible, brought by Bruce from Abyssinia, is preserved in the British Museum.

[a) Comp. HORNE, II. 192-195. CARPZ. P. II. C. V. § 4. EICHH. 309-311. Tr.]

§ 58. Armenian Version.[a]

The Armenian version was made from the Alexandrine version by Miesrob, the inventor of the Armenian alphabet, but has since been altered not only from the Syriac Peshito, but also from the Latin Vulgate. That this was not done by king Haithon or Haitho in the 13th century, as has been commonly thought, is proved by the Armenian Baghinanti in ALTER's Miscellany 1799, p. 140. ss. It was the work of Yushkanor Uskan the Armenian bishop, who published it in 1655 at Amsterdam. Comp. EICHHORN Bibliothek. IV. Th. S.

623-652. The edition published at Constantinople in 1705 was collated for Holmes by Bredenkamp.

(a) See HORNE, II. 196. 308. Tr.]

DE WETTE, † 52. EICHA. 306

§ 59.

Slavonic Version.[a]

In the 9th century Cyril of Thessalonica, the inventor of the Slavonic alphabet, who with his brother Methodius preached the gospel to the Bulgarians and Moravians, translated the Alexandrine version into the Slavonic language. The first edition, at least of the Pentateuch, appeared at Prague in 1519, and that of all the books, at Prague in 1570. The first edition in Russia was printed at Ostrog in 1581, and has served as the basis of all others.

(a) HORNE, II. 196. DE WETTE, § 54. EICHH. § 318, a. For an account of the Georgian version, see § 318, b. and DE WETTE, § 53. Tr.}

§ 60. Latin Versions before the time of Jerome.[a]

Augustin, De Doct. Christ. L. II. c. 11, expressly asserts that several Latin translations of the Old Testament made from the Alexandrine version, had appeared in the earlier period of Christianity, and he adds, c. 15, that the Italic (Itala) surpassed the others in fidelity and perspicuity. This last is called by Jerome, Comm. in Jer. xiv. & xlix. VULGATAM, the vulgate, and COMMUNIS, the common, and by Gregory I. Ep. ad Leandr. VETUS, the old, translation.

:

Sabatier, in his Praefatio ad Bibliorum versiones Latinas Antiquas, 1743, Rheims, has opposed the opinion that a number of ancient Latin versions existed. But without effect for when Augustin, in an epistle to Jerome tells him that he would confer a great benefit on the church by adding to the Latin verity, the Scripture as translated by the seventy,'* he certainly did not mean by Latin verity' one version, but the Latin Bible; for which reason he immediately adds, that this Latin verity' (or Latin Bible) is so various in different copies as to be hardly tolerable, and is so much suspected of differing

* "Si eam Scripturam quam septuaginta interpretati sunt, Latinae veritati addiderit."

6

6

from the Greek, that one must hesitate to make quotations from it.'* Jerome also, in his preface to the book of Joshua, points out not one version, but many, when he says that there are among the Latins 'tot exemplaria, quot codices,' as many copies as there are manuscripts, for the antithesis between exemplaria' and 'codices' shows that exemplaria' must signify different versions; and when he adds, 'every one has at pleasure added or omitted according to his own judgment,' he only points out another source of variations, in addition to the multiplicity of translations already mentioned; just as in his Preface to the Gospels, he repeats the same words with reference to the Latin text of the gospels, in which case there can be no doubt of the existence of several versions.

The portions of the bible in the Missals, are taken from the ancient version known as the Vulgate, the common translation, or the Itala. FLAMINIUS NOBILIUS collected many other fragments of the same version, and from them composed his translation of the Septuagint after the Vatican manuscript, and published it at Rome in 1588. This translation is printed in the London Polyglot, but can be of no use to the critic, since Flaminius selected only those parts of the ancient version which agreed with the Septuagint text, and supplied the rest from the modern Vulgate or by a translation of his own. Nevertheless, the extracts of Nobilius from the fathers, are of great importance in the criticism of the Alexandrine version. The ancient Latin version of the Psalms, is given in the Psalterium Quintuplex, published by FABER STAPULENSIS, in 1599, at Paris, and afterwards frequently reprinted; and in the Psalterium Duplex, together with the songs of Moses, Hezekiah, the three children, Zachariah, Simeon, and Mary, according to the Vulgate, the Septuagint, and the old Latin Itala, in the second part of the Vindiciae Canonic. Script. Vulg. Lat. of BLANCHINI, 1740, Rome. All these and several other fragments are collected by SABATIER in his Bibliorum Latinæ versiones antiquæ, published at Rheims, in 1743, in 3 vols. folio.

[a) With this and the remaining sections, Compare HORNE II. pp. 196 -202. CARPZ. P. II. Cap. vi. EICHH. 319-337. BAUER, † 98, 99, p. 336-340. SIMON, L. II. c. xi-xiv. DE WETTE, Einleit. § 69 -72. Tr.]

In diversis cou Graeco aliud inveniatu

* "Unumquemque,

ita variam est, ut tolerari vix possit, et ita suspectam ne in t inde aliquid proferri dubitetur.'

arbitrio suo vel addiderit vel subtraxerit quod ei visum est.”

§ 61. Emendation of the Latin version by Jerome.

Jerome, in order to remedy the confusion introduced by this multiplicity of versions, undertook to alter the common version, or Italic, to a conformity with the Alexandrine. This he did at first in a hasty manner, as he says, Præf. ad Psalt., in the Psalter: but afterwards he corrected it more accurately according to the Hexaplar text, adding also the obelisks and asterisks used in that edition. The first of these corrections he undertook at Rome, the other in Gaul; and hence the Roman and Gallican Psalters have descended. Both have been published by Faber Stapulensis in his Psalterium quintuplex, at Paris, in 1509; and by Joseph Maria a Caro or Thomasius, in 1683, at Rome. Jerome corrected the other books of the Old Testament by the Hexaplar text in a similar manner, but published only those to which we have his double prefaces prefixed, namely, Chronicles, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Proverbs, and Job: the copy the rest he lost, as he writes to Augustin, Ep. 64, by the treachery of some individual.

of

Before the completion of his correction of the old version, or Italic, Jerome began to translate the Hebrew text itself into Latin, "in order that he might make known to persons acquainted only with the Latin language, who might become engaged in controversies with the Jews, the true sense of the Hebrew text." HIERON. ad Sophron. T. I. Opp. col. 835., ad Augustin. T. IV. Opp. col. 627. Præf. in Jes. His translations of the several books were made in the order in which they were requested of him by his friends: Præf. in Paralip., in Ezr. et Neh., and in Pentat. He did not invariably give what he himself believed to be the best translation of the original, but occasionally, as he confesses, Præf. ad Com. in Eccles., and Præf. in Pent., followed the Greek translators, although he was aware that they had often erred through negligence, because he was apprehensive of giving umbrage to his readers by too wide a departure from the established version: and therefore we find that in his commentaries he sometimes corrects his own translation. Sometimes, too, he has substituted a worse in place of the old translation.