sition that its books have not been essentially altered or falsified is confirmed; for by far the greater part of variants that occur are only unimportant minutiæ; there are but few which entirely alter the sense, and they do not essentially affect the matter of the book."]"

The masoretic text, on the whole, is a better witness for the true punctuation than that of hasty critics, or of the versions, which are often unskilfully made.'

§ 124.

CRITICAL CONJECTURE.

After mature examination, if the text give no sense, or a contradictory sense, and no witnesses afford as

The following instances of punctuation show a deeper insight into the context and usage: Isa. i. 27, 7, instead of

; v. 13, 2, instead

There are various opinions as to the preference to be accorded to the Spanish, Italian, and German MSS. The rabbins and the following writers prefer the former: El. Levita, Præf. in Mas. Ham. p. 37; Menahem de Lonzano, Præf. ad Or. Thora, in Bruns, Præf. ad Kennicott, p. vi. viii.; Richard Simon, Hist. crit. V. T. p. 121; Wolf, Bib. Heb. vol. ii. p. 327. — De Rossi, 1. c. p. l. can. xvii., sqq., prefers the others as unmasoretic.

Without necessity Michaelis gives a conjectural reading on Isa. vi. 8, where makes very good sense, (compare Gen. i. 26,) on Isa. xxx. 7, xlviii. 7, xlix., and elsewhere. See Or. Bib. vol. xviii. p. 106, sqq. Lowth and Koppe err in this way, and especially Houbigant. (Teller Præf. ad Kennicott, Diss. ii. p. xl.) does the same, and without necessity, and, in opposition to the peculiarity of the author's usage, rejects in Ps. xxxii. 7. On , Ps. cvii. 3, see Muntighe et al., De Wette, Com. über die Ps. in loc., and Gesenius, Lexicon, sub voce. Hitzig (Begriff der Kritik) conjectures

, in Gen. xxvii. 33, instead of. On the contrary, see Tuch, in loc.

sistance in the case, we must have recourse to conjecture."

Here the critic must be governed by sound exegeticocritical and historico-critical considerations," but especially by the peculiarities of the writer and the passage. But a negative is more certain than a positive judgment." Such considerations must lead to an alteration of the points when necessary." [Dogmatic criticism, says Jahn, ought never to be tolerated. The question is not what the author ought to have written touching this or that doctrine, but what he actually did write. "Nothing," says Eichhorn, "is more difficult; nothing demands more extensive acquaintance with languages and things; nothing demands more acuteness and circumspection; nothing a wider and deeper penetration into the aim, spirit, subject, and course of a work, than the actual exercise of conjectural criticism in general, and in particular in its application to the Old Testament, where criticism is yet in its infancy.

"We have a thick volume of conjectures on the New

"For the conjectures (1) of the Masorites, see above, § 91. Cappellus, vol. ii. p. 1001, sqq. [Buxtorf, Tiberias, ch. x.]

с

See above, § 118–121.

The conjectural reading of 1, for o, Ex. xvii. 16, agrees with verse 15, and is supported by the probable change of into. Köhler (Correction of some Readings in the O. T., in Eichhorn's Repert. vol. ii. p. 251) makes a conjecture on Num. xvi. 1, which is almost evident. [He reads 7 107

דתן ואבירם בני אליאב וארז instead of בני אליאב בן פלוא בן ראובן

1787 b 1.] See Vater, in loc. On the other side, Rosenmüller. The conjecture on Gen. xi. 31, *, for 7, is more happy than that of the Samaritan text.

The alteration

instead of 2, Gen. vii. 6, is not only unnecessary, but conflicts with the opinions of the narrator. Hitzig (1. c. 127, sqq., 140, sqq.) makes the lucky conjecture in Gen. xxvii., and reads, for i.

in

Testament; and now, after so great an expenditure of acute conjectures, we know that scarce two passages it seem to require any alteration from conjecture. The line that separates the narrow and uncertain field of conjectural criticism from the broad and secure province of sound criticism, is so thin that it cannot be discovered with any certainty, until the rules of special criticism, for the writer in question, have been thoroughly investigated; and they can be established only by an acute study of the most perfect critical apparatus, continued through many years."]"

[Eichhorn, (§ 404,) Luther, Osiander, Brentius, and Musculus, cautious and religious critics, did not scruple sometimes to resort to conjecture. See specimens of them, ibid. See Hitzig, l. c. p. 113, sqq.] VOL. I. 52

APPENDIX.

A.

(See § 8, p. 12.)

CATALOGUE OF BOOKS CITED IN THE OLD TESTAMENT, BUT NOW LOST. Comp

46 180- 194.

I. The Book of the Wars of Jehovah. in nianbao. Num. xxi. 14. Abarbenel, in loc., refers it to the time of Abraham; but others, with no better reason, ascribe the book to Moses. Some Jewish writers think certain parts of the Pentateuch are referred to under this title."

II. The Book of Jasher, that is, the Righteous.. Josh. x. 13, 2 Sam. i. 18. This book must have been of no very ancient date, for it contained the Lamentations of David on the death of Saul and Jonathan. A spurious work with this title has come down to us, containing the history recorded in the first seven books of the Old Testament."

III. The Book of the Constitution of the Kingdom.

1 Sam. x. 25.

IV. Solomon's Three Thousand Proverbs. b 1 Kings v. 12. (iv. 32.)

V. Solomon's Thousand and Five Songs. .

* See the Jerusalem Targum and that of Jonathan, in loc. For this and the following book, see Wolf, Bibliotheca Hebræa, vol. ii. p. 216, sqq.

1. The Book of Jasher, with notes, &c.; 1751, 4to. 2. The Book of Jasher, &c.; Bristol, 1829, 4to. 50, or the Book of Jasher, &c.; New York, 1840. See Christian Examiner for May, 1840. Horne, 1. c. Bib. App. ch. iii.

sect. i.

1 Kings v. 12. (iv. 32.) It has been thought that a part of these are extant in the Song of Solomon.

VI. Solomon's Works on Natural History. ; naman by;

VII. The Book of the Acts of Solomon. why bo. 1 Kings xi. 41.

VIII. The Book of the

Chronicles of the Kings of Israel.

1 Kings xiv. 19, xvi. 5, 20, 27, xxii. 39.

IX. The Books of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah. 1 Kings xv. 7.

X. Chronicles of King David. 777 33" ".1 Ch. xxvii. 24.
XI. XII. and XIII. The Books of Samuel the Seer;

"7; of Nathan the Prophet, ""; of Gad the Seer, in ". 1 Ch. xxix. 29, 2 Ch. ix. 29. Perhaps the first of these is the present book of Samuel.

XIV. and XV. The Prophecy of Ahijah, the Visions of Iddo, ini.2 Ch. ix. 29.a

XVI. The Book of Shemaiah.7.2 Ch. xii. 15. § of idle tu XVII. The Book of Jehu. 7.2 Ch. xxix. 2.*? XX. 34.

XVIII. An Historical Book of Isaiah the Prophet is referred to

in 2 Ch. xxvi. 22. I Life of Erzerk,” Stuart.

XIX. The Sayings of Hosea.
XX. The Lamentations.

in 7. 2 Ch. xxxiii. 19. c or fl p. 2 Ch. xxxv. 25. It cannot be

the present book of Lamentation, for it contained an elegy on King Josiah, not found in the latter. Some think it the work of the Jeremiah mentioned in 2 Kings xxiii. 31.

Besides the above, some writers think other books, not now extant, are referred to in the Old Testament, namely, in Ex. xvii. 14, xxiv. 7; Isa. xxxiv. 16, xxix. 11; 1 Ch. iv. 22, and elsewhere.

The Book of the Chronicles of the Kings of Media and Persia is mentioned, Esther x. 2; but that was not a Hebrew book. The book of Enoch is mentioned in the New Testament, Jude, verses 14, 15; but that is still extant."

• See 1 Kings xi. 29; 2 Ch. xii. 15, xiii. 22.

See Clericus, in loc.

In the English Bible, this work is called The Sayings of the Seers; this is the reading of the LXX. See verse 18. VEL

d The Book of Enoch the Prophet,

......

now first translated from an Ethiby Richard Lawrence, &c.; Oxford, 1821, 2d ed.; corrected