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לְכַפֶר עַל־נַפְשׁתֵיכֶם Exod. xxx. 15. "ΤTo atone for your

souls.

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לְכַפֶר עֲלֵיו Levi. 4. "To make atonement for him."

וְכִפֶר עֲלֵהֶם הַכֹּהֵן Lev. iv. 20. " And the priest shall

make atonement for them."

with all the remaining passages in which the verb invariably appears, in Pignel, and compounded with the above preposition(gal), meaning to atone," the best word our language furnishes; but it does not come near the descriptive energy of the original, by which the mind's eye beholds the impressive ceremonial, the supplicant congregation in the attitude of humility and confession, and the high priest at the altar as mediator, and as the third quotation literally translated would be, over their souls. Before the Christian Hebraist is depicted the exaltation of the Great Redeemer; and in the united verb, and the preposition in this form Pignel, the perpetuity of redemption, and, under the visible shedding of the blood of the victim, is typified the overspreading oblivion and obliteration of crime: or, to use the words of our excellent Church Catechism, "the outward and visible sign of an inward and spiritual grace." If Noah be considered in the character of priest of his family, which at the time of his officiation made up the entire human race, we must of course suppose the ceremonial of sacrifice, and that, therefore, the sacred writer (Moses) would have used precisely the same phrase to express the command, as he and the other writers do in all the 60 or 70 passages; and therefore כפר־אֵתkafar-eth, cannot and does not signify the same as כפר על kiffer gnal. As to the argument of Mr. B., (more plausible than sound,) viz. that because in the other passages, where mention is made of bitumen, another Hebrew word זפת is used to express itכפר therefore cannot be in that signification! To this it may be replied that וְפֶת and כְפֶר are cognate words in their primary sense, and refer to two distinct pro

This word is expressed exactly by the Latin propitiari-pro is gnal, signifying for or for the sake of, and the other part of the word from πιπίζω dropping the reduplicate: liquidum præbeo: alluding to the ancient libutions and the shedding of the blood of the victim. Here we may trace the ancient Roman ritual to the Mosaic.

perties of bitumen, or pitch. The figure ellipsis reigns universally throughout the Hebrew language: a very great number of the words commonly denominated substantives, are evidently, and may be traced as, nouns appellative or participial. Thus כפר Kofer, from the participle כפר Kofeir, covering, overspreading, or that which covers or overspreads; hence the word זפת, which primarily signifies exudation, is

understood, and the ellipsis supplied would be זֶפֶת הַכֹּפֶר Zéfeth hakkófer, the covering exudation, which idea the context of the chapter under notice would obviously suggest to a native Israelite, when the Hebrew was a living language. Hence the epithet כפר is altogether appropriate and self-intelligible; as nothing more completely covers nad preserves the substance or material to which it is applied than pitch. The letters, and are cognate. From צום zouf to ooze out, exudate, or distil, we have the Hiphil form

tif, which connected with the extensively formative particle אֶת, produces the substantive צפת exudation; but, on account of the kindred of the letters above noted, the Lexicons show וְפֶת only.

Resinous gums and tar, of which pitch is manufactured, exudate from various trees by the sun's heat, or the application of fire. But why כפר, for the pitch on the ark, in preference to זפת ? We are now approaching the stone over which Mr. Bellamy has so unfortunately stumbled. Commentators agree, not that Noah was commanded to atone, but that the preservation of himself and family is indeed typical of the Mediation through Christ. The sacred writer, to convey that solemn symbol, seems to have given especial and just preference to the word כפר )the epithet indicative of protection and preservation) before זֶפֶת. The covering of pitch over the timber of the ark was, during the angry deluge, most strictly and locally intermediate! it was between the entire human race and destruction.

: Mr. Bellamy, in your last Journal for March, page 128, affirms that the word מבית is "not noticed in the common version," and is " surprised how the translators have dared

See Gusset, page 399. Ams. Ed. 1702.

VOL. XXIV.

Cl. Jl.

NO. XLVIII. U

to reject it!!"-One weak position requires others to defend it. Aware of the universal conviction that the ceremonial of the atonement was instituted by Moses and Aaron, he makes a vain effort to support his novel opinion by the assertion that God communicated with Noah from the mercy seat in the ark.

As to מבית being rejected by our translators, permit Mr. Bellamy to be told that this is an unjust charge against them; and a shock to the common sense of a Tyro in the Hebrew language. Below are the Hebrew, the despised Septuagint, the Vulgate, and the version of Tremellius, with our own:

ukufartha authah mib וְכָפַּרְתָּ אֹתָהּ מִבַּיִת וּמִחוּץ בַּכֹּפֶר:

báith u michuz bak

kofer.

τῇ ἀσφάλτω καὶ-ἔξωθεν ἔσωθεν αὐτὴν καὶ-ἀσφαλτώσεις-Septuaginta. pice et-extrinsecus intrinsecus eamet-picabis-Tremellius et Junius. bitumine et-extrinsecus intrinsecus eam et-linies-Vulgate. with pitch and without

within it and thou shalt pitch

all these translations are verbatim, and your readers will please to read them from right to left in the Hebrew manner, and let them judge whether מבית be translated or not!! Then, as to this word meaning "Mercy-seat," Mr. Bellamy does not produce a single authority. Wherever Mercy-seat is meant, it is uniformly expressed by כפרת, and it occurs no where in the Bible till the history of the institution of the Levitical priesthood.

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Mr. Bellamy remarks, "this word מִבֵּית is truly translated by house or temple, a place of divine worship," and directs us to Kings xi. 10 and 13, Isaiah Ivi. 7, 1 Chron. vi. 10, 2 Chron. xxiii. 10, xxxv. 20, Prov. xvii. 1." Truly translated house or temple! indeed? When in his four first references this מִבֵּית is translated IN the TEMPLE! in the 5th FROM the house: in 2 Chron. xxxv. 20. the word does not occur; and in Prov. xvii. 1. it is translated, and property, "than a house!!" Here then, Mr. Editor, is either misrepresentation, designed to protect his version of Gen. vi. 14, or ignorance of the subject, and of the language, in the knowledge of which he claims exclusive pre-eminence. But, fortunately for the cause of truth, here is a passage exactly parallel to the one in question, where, besides in numerous other instances, the words מִבַּיִת and מחוץ are translated, " within and without:"

.11 .Exod. xxv וְצַפִיתָ אֹתוֹ זָהָב טָהוֹר מִבַּיִת וּמִחוּץ תְּצַפֶנּוּ

" and thou shalt overlay it with pure gold, within and without shalt thou overlay it." This places the accuracy of the received version of Gen. vi. 14. on a basis immoveable against the attacks of infidelity or fanaticism. And by the way we have here another proof of the kindred meaning in the rationale of the words כפר and זפת and that they respectively may denote pitch or its properties.

And finally, it appears that the common version of this verse reposes on the authority and collected opinion of ages; and it is not, as Mr. Bellamy has presumed to designate it, " a consecrated error," but firmly established and consecrated truth. To controvert this, Mr. Bellamy disputes, and would disturb, the tenor of the divine dispensation, as universally believed and clearly apparent in the Bible; he must abjure the doctrine of the points, inasmuch as he disregards all grammarians and lexicographers, subjecting them to his own opinions: and what he writes is plainly tantamount to the assertion that the Jews, Arabians, Chaldeans, and Syrians, have not understood their own languages!

I must defer for another opportunity the notice of Mr. Bellamy's translation of 2 Kings v. 18; I now merely affirm, as I shall endeavour to prove, that our present version of the passage is correct that Elijah's answer to Naahman is in no respect derogatory to his high character as a prophet, or the least compromise of his holy religion.

Liverpool, July, 1821.

J. W.

IN HISTORIAM ANTIQUIORUM TEMPORUM

ET SERIORIS ÆTATIS OBSERVATIONES CRITICÆ.

QUE ad historiam vel antiquiorum temporum, monumentorum, hominum et populorum, vel serioris ætatis, ejusque institutorum et civitatum pervestigandam et judicandam nuper variam in partem quæsita sunt et tum conjiciendo et colligendo inventa tum concludendo et comparando effecta, non solum deinceps enarrare constitui, sed etiam ad certiorem quamdam rationem adducere, et ita persequi, ut, quæ et quantum quæque probabilia sint, de quibus aliter statuendum videatur, appareat, provideaturque, ne decretis nonnullis rationibusve temere adsentiamur.

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Nihil enim gravibus juvenum studiis periculosius reperitur, nihil eos facilius in errores ita seducere et implicare potest, ut ægre expediantur, quam novitas opinionum, quæ iis blanditur, copia doctrinæ, quæ ostentatur, recondita disputationis ratio, quæ allicit, denique auctoritas doctorum hominum et laudes, quibus omnes movemur, estque illud, quod dixi, errandi periculum tanto præsentius, quanto sæpius nunc e libris auctorum, quibus novæ conjecturæ et rationes speciose proponuntur, quam e scholis magistrorum, qui eas subtiliter examinarunt, omnis earum hauritur cognitio. Versabor autem in ea disputatione sic, ut, quoniam ita et rerum ubertas et horum libellorum ratio et laborum nunc mihi impositorum multitudo me facere cogunt, brevius quam olim scribam et summa potius argumentorum capita complectar, quam in singula altius descendam, neque, quod et longum est nec invidia caret, nominem ubique omnes omnium commentorum auctores, sed res et rationes propositas commemorem. Et prima quidem disputatio ad antiquiorem spectat historiam, continet autem plura, quæ nunc quidem observatu digna sint. Etenim 1. postquam omnino de antiquissima historia, e mythorum carminumve usu propagata, deque ipsorum mythorum natura, generibus, interpretatione et fide uberius et doctius disputatum a multis erat, fieri non potuit, quin existerent, qui suo vel ingenio vel sensu ducti omnem rejicerent mythicam, quam dicunt, historiam, elicerentve inde et vero comminiscerentur rerum narrationem, a mythis illis prorsus diversam, suis opinionibus accommodatam, interdum etiam probabili variorum eventorum et institutorum comparatione et conjunctione firmatam, fundamento idoneo destitutam, eamque ipsam ob causam incertiorem etiam mythis. Nam in his non inest tantum factorum narratio, quæ ad religiosas cosmologicasque ideas referuntur, neque experientia continentur, ut Rhodius 1. 1. censuit, qui ita eos ab historia distinxit; sed etiam expositio rerum vere gestarum, comparata tamen illa et ornata ad sensum et orationem poeticam symbolicamque ætatis antiquissimæ et sensim aucta et expolita. Cur enim negemus, mythis antiquioribus nonnullis eventa et facta vere contineri, qui sciamus, aliis etiam temporibus, quorum certior est notitia, multa quæ agebantur, ore et sermonibushominum esse tradita et propagata, justa causa non apparet. Nam ut fabulosa multa inesse mythis largiamur, multa, quæ non gesta sint, perinde ut gesta, enarrata: omnia tamen conficta esse

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Præter multos alios cf. Rhodius in lib. Beyträge zur Alterthumskunde II. p. 7. ss.

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