§ 55.

8. SEVERAL ARABIC VERSIONS.

I. The Arabic translation of the Prophets contained in the Paris and London polyglots, according to the subscription of the Parisian manuscript, was made [from the Septuagint] by a priest of Alexandria. His age is not determined; but it was somewhat later than the tenth century."

[The subscription is curious. "The end of the prediction of the Prophet Malachi, and also of the book of the sixteen Prophets, after the version of the celebrated and learned Father, an accomplished priest, of Alexandria, from an old, finely-written Greek manuscript. Copied by the little, unworthy Abdrabbih, son of Mohammed, son of Achmed, son of Abdarrachman, son of Ali by Saara, a Christian woman. He prays, and supplicates each man to pray for him, that he may receive favor and forgiveness, and that the Lord would take him to heaven. Praise to God forever! In the month Dsubhadsha, A. 992, (A. C. 1584.)" A hasty comparison shows this statement to be accurate. It seems to follow the hexaplary text of the Seventy, except in Daniel, where it follows Theodotion, and contains some peculiar readings of the Alexandrian codex."

The Hagiographa and historical books, till Joshua,

Moscow, 1663, 1751, 1756, 1757, 1759, 1766; Kiow, 1758; and Suprasl, in Poland, 1743. [See an account of this version, with specimens of the MSS., in the Origin and Progress of Writing, by Thomas Astle; Lond. 1803, 4to. p. 100. See Hug, l. c. § 142, sqq.]

• Gabr. Sion. Præf. ab Psalter. Syr.; Par. 1625. Gesenius, Comm. üb. Jes. i. 1, p. 98, who describes the characteristics of this version of Isaiah, and shows that it follows the hexaplary text. Spohn, Jerem. Vat. i. Præf. p. 21. This version was reprinted at Newcastle, 1811.

b [Eichhorn, § 295.]

the book of Judges, Chronicles, and Job, were also translated from the Greek, and may serve as a valuable means of correcting the Seventy.]"

II. The writings of Solomon, in the same polyglots. III. The book of Ezra, which is contained in the same polyglots.

IV. The Psalms according to the Egyptian recension, which are found in the same place; and that according to the Syriac recension, as printed in Justiniani's Psalter, and in Liber Psalmorum of Justiniani and Gabriel Sionita.'

[Sometimes the two agree very closely, sometimes. they differ widely. Some have concluded from this circumstance that they are only two recensions of the same old manuscript.]

V. The common version of the Psalms used by the Melchites-an orthodox sect of Oriental Christians was made by Abdallah Ben Alfadl, before the twelfth century.

VI. There are some Arabic translations from the Greek, which are still unprinted.“

§ 56.

V. THE VENETIAN VERSION.

In the library of Saint Mark, at Venice, there is a

• [Eichhorn, § 295.]

Justinianus, Psalterium octaplum; Gen. 1516, fol. Liber Psalmorum A Gabr. Sionita et Victorio Sciale; Rom. 1614, 4to. [See Eichhorn, $295, 296.]

Printed at Haleb, 1706; Padua, 1709; Halæ, 1735, and frequently; Lond. 1725; Vienna, 1792. See Rosenmüller's Handbuch, vol. iii. p. 495, sqq. Döderlein, On the Arabic Psalters, in Eichhorn's Repert. vol. ii. P. 176, sqq., vol. iv. p. 187, sqq. [See the specimen in Eichhorn, § 301, a.]

✔ Adler, 1. c. p. 68, 179. Paulus, Specim. Verss. Pentateuchi septem Arab. p. 58, sqq.

b

manuscript of the fourteenth century, containing a Greek translation of several books of the Old Testament." It is the only copy. This version belongs to the middle. ages. It makes frequent use of the Seventy, and the other old Greek versions; and, under the guidance of the Jewish expositors, follows the masoretic (pointed) text, with a slavish fidelity. It is written in a sort of mongrel dialect, and is proportionally of little importance for criticism."

[The manuscript containing this celebrated version is a long quarto, consisting of three hundred and two parchment leaves, written in very unusual characters, and in the Oriental style; so that its first page occupies the place of the last one with us. It is divided into passages, corresponding to the Sabbath-readings of the Jews. To judge from the common means of estimating the age of manuscripts, it belongs to the fourteenth century. It contains the Pentateuch, Proverbs, Ruth, Song of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Jeremiah's Lamenta

a

Nova Versio Gr. Proverbb., Eccles., Cant. Cant., Ruthi, (sic,) Thren., Dan. et selectorum Pentat. Locorum ex unico S. Marci Biblioth. Cod. Ven. nunc primum eruta et Notulis illustr. a J. Bapt. Casp. d'Ansse de Villoison. Reg. Inscriptt. Acad. Paris. socius (sic;) Argent. 1784, 8vo. Nova Versio Græc. Pentateuchi. Ex unico S. Marci Bibliothec. Cod. Ven. nunc primum ed. atque recens. Chrstph. Frd. Ammon. pt. i. Gen. contin. atque Exod.; pt. ii. Levit. contin. et Num.; Erl. 1790; pt. iii. contin. Deut. addenda, Indicem, Comment. de Usu, Indole et Ætate hujus Vers. c. Tab. æri incis.; ibid. 1791, 8vo.

See the different opinions in Döderlein's Theol. Beiträge, vol. iii. p. 248. Bruns, in Eichhorn's Repert. vol. iv. p. 281. Michaelis, Neue Or. Bib. vol. ii. p. 226. De Rossi, Var. Lect. V. T. vol. i. p. xxviii. Eichhorn, § 211, p. 573. On the author, see Ammon, Comment. vol. iii. p. 112. Bertholdt, p. 568. Ziegler, Spruchwörter, p. 55. Bauer, Crit. sac. p. 286.

C

Ammon, 1. c. Dahler, Animadvers. in Vers. Gr. Prov. Salom. ex Vers. Sancti Marci Bibliotheca nuper ed.; Arg. 1786, 8vo. Pfannkuche, on passages of the new Greek version of the O. T. in the library at Venice, in Eichhorn, Allg. Bib. vol. viii. p. 193, sqq.

tions, and Daniel. It is an imperfect copy of an old manuscript.

It was made directly from the Hebrew text. It adheres to the letter of the text more than any other ancient version, and expresses it more carefully, and with greater regard to etymology than even Aquila himself Where it differs from him, the fact must be explained by the direct use of a Hebrew manuscript; for consonants are mistaken for one another, which are alike only in Hebrew. In the Chaldee parts of Daniel, he uses the Doric instead of the Attic dialect, which prevails in the rest of his work. The orthography of proper names is carefully preserved, and their pronunciation carefully expressed. He unites poetic and prosaic forms; Attic elegance and the rudest barbarisms stand side by side. He is fond of nice Attic expressions." He connects the most elegant language of the best Greek writers with expressions, new and un-Grecian, which he had coined, or borrowed from his contemporaries. Sometimes he very happily translates a doubtful expression in the Hebrew by one equally ambiguous. None of the peculiarities of the original seem to have been lost.

In respect to the consonants, he had the complete

masoretic recension before him. Sometimes he follows the Keri; sometimes the Kethib. No one has hitherto discovered readings in him which are not found in the present masoretic manuscripts, and none peculiar to him

[Centoribus atticis undequaque collectis versionem suam distinguere gestivit auctor noster, haud secus ac scriptores male Latini, qui, ut faciem et speciem conciliarent orationi, flosculis undique conquisitis illam ornare comptamque reddere cupiunt, says Ammon, Comment. p. 84, sq.

In hoc studio auctoris plane singulari, ut una ex parte venantur atticismos, ex altera autem verba hebraica anxie expriment, admistis solecismis et vocabulis plane novis, bona græcitas subnasci nullo modo poterat. Ibid. p. 95.]

Eich

which are to be preferred to the common text. horn thinks he did not make use of a manuscript with points, since he sometimes differs from the present pointing, though less frequently than the other old translators.

Before the sixth century, scarcely any one could have the knowledge possessed by this translator, and make such a childish mixture of old and new, elegant and barbarous, regular and lawless speech; and after the tenth century, our present punctuation was fixed, and a translator would not be likely to reject it. In some places, he follows the Jewish scholars, and therefore very often agrees with the Targums, and the Vulgate, which had a great influence on the rabbinic explanations. Whence it appears the author lived between the sixth and tenth centuries.]"

CHAPTER II.

DIRECT ORIENTAL VERSIONS.

§ 57.

I. THE CHALDEE PARAPHRASES, OR TARGUMS.

ORIGIN OF THE CHALDEE PARAPHRASES.

AFTER the extinction of the Hebrew language, it became customary to give an oral explanation in Chaldee of those passages of the Old Testament which were read in the synagogues. In consequence of this custom,

[See Ammon. 1. c., and Eichhorn, § 211.]

› Megilla, col. iv. § 10, ed. Surenhusius: "The history of Reuben is read,