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Bibliotheca Sacra, there is a valuable collection of various readings made from the Masoretic and Non-Masoretic printed copies of the Hebrew Bible. See pp. xl.cxviii.

9. Biblia Hebraica, olim a Christiano Reineccio edita, nunc denuo cum variis lectionibus, ex ingenti codicum copia à B. Kennicotto et J. B. De Rossi collatorum, ediderunt J. C. Doederlein et J. H. Meissner. Lipsiæ, 1793, 8vo.

This edition was undertaken by the celebrated Dr. Doederlein and Professor Meissner, in order to supply those lovers of Hebrew literature who may not be able to consult the expensive volumes of Kennicott and De Rossi. They have selected the principal various readings of those eminent collators, but Professor Jahn asserts that the text is very incorrect. The fine paper copies are beautiful and convenient books; but those on common paper are scarcely legible. They are usually bound in two volumes. In 1818 a second edition of this valuable Hebrew Bible was published at Halle, with a new preface by Dr. Knappe, entitled: Biblica Hebraica olim a Christ. Reineccio evulgata, post ad fidem recensionis Masoreticæ, cum varūs lectionibus ex ingenti codd. mss. copia a Benj. Kennichtto et I. B. De Rossi collatorum edita, cur. J. C. Doederleinio et I. H. Meissnero. Quorum editioni ante hos XXV. annos e bibliopoli Lipsiensi emissæ, nunc emtionis jure in libr. Orphanotrophei Halensis translate; accessit G. Chr. Knappii præfatio de editionibus Bibliorum Halensibus, 8vo. Halæ, Libraria Orphanotrophei. According to the Journal Général de la Litterature Etrangère (Jan. 1819.). the above noticed edition of 1793 consisted of ten thousand copies; the unsold stock of which were disposed of to the trustees or governors of the Orphan House at Halle, by whom the title page was altered to the date of 1818, and a new preface was added by Professor Knappe relative to the editions of the Bible published at Halle.

10. Biblia Hebraica. adjecit Johannes Jahn. Professor Jahn has long been distinguished for his successful cultivation of Oriental literature. In this edition the text is very distinctly printed, the principal Hebrew points are retained; and the poetical parts of the Old Testament are metrically arranged: it is conveniently divided into four vols; of which

Digessit et graviores Lectionum varietates
Viennæ, 1806, 4 vols. 8vo.

VOL. I. contains the Pentateuch. - VOL. II. contains the Historical Books of Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Ezra, Esther, and Nehemiah. - Vol. III. comprises the Prophetical Books thus arranged;-Amos, Hosea, Micah, Isaiah, Joel, Nahum, Habakkuk, Obadiah, Zephaniah, Jeremiah, Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah, Jonah, Malachi, — VOL. IV. contains the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, and Ecclesiastes.

The Books of Chronicles are scattered through the first and second volumes; being placed in a second column against their parallel passages, in the other historical Books.

Each Book is judiciously divided into greater or less sections, to which is prefixed a short analysis of their contents. The division into chapters is preserved, and their numbers are noted at the heads of the sections. The numbers of the verses are also marked in the margin. The Masoretic Notes, which are generally added in the margin of the Hebrew Bibles, are retained, with the exception of a very few, which relate to the accents, and mark the middle of a book. They are all expressed at full length, and many of them are also accompanied with a Latin

version.

The Jewish criticisms, which are in some editions added at the end of each book, are omitted by Professor Jahn, as being of no use to the Christian reader. To the text are subjoined the more important various readings: and in some more difficult places, all the variations that could be found are carefully given. These various readings are taken from the collations of Bishop Walton, Grabe, Montfaucon, Dr. Kennicott, De Rossi, and Dr. Holmes. The text is that of Vander Hooght, from which the editor has departed only in nine or ten places, in which many other editions had preceded him, and which are supported by numerous and very weighty authorities. There are copies on fine paper in 8vo., which are very beautiful, and also a few copies in 4to.

11. Biblia Hebraica, or the Hebrew Scriptures of the Old Testament, without points, after the text of Kennicott, with the chief various readings, selected from his collation of Hebrew manuscripts,

from that of De Rossi, and from the antient versions; accompanied with English notes, critical, philological, and explanatory, selected from the most approved antient and modern English and foreign biblical critics. By B. Boothroyd. [now D. D.] Pontefract and London, 1816, 2 vols. 4to.

This is perhaps the cheapest Hebrew Bible, with critical apparatus, that is extant; it was published originally in parts, the first of which appeared in 1810. It is peculiarly interesting to the Hebrew scholar and critic, as it contains, in a condensed form, the substance of the most valuable and expensive works. An eminent critic has observed, "Mr. Boothroyd has evidently spared neither expense nor labour to furnish the student with interesting extracts, which are calculated to assist him as well in interpreting as in obtaining a critical acquaintance with the original text. A good philological note is frequently of more importance towards the elucidation of a difficult passage than a long theological comment, which is often little better than a detail of contrary opinions. There is evidently some hazard of adopting fanciful and conjectural corrections in so extensive an undertaking as this, which is principally compiled from preceding authors of almost every description. Against this danger the sobriety of the editor's judgment has been a powerful protection; and as his avowed object was the solid instruction of the purchasers of his book, he has, in a commendable manner, accomplished his purpose." (Electic Review, vol. vii. p. 34. New Series.) The type is very clear; and the poetical parts of the Hebrew Scriptures are printed in hemistichs, according to the arrangement proposed by Bishop Lowth, and adopted by Archbishop Newcome. There are copies in royal 4to.

12. Biblia Hebraica secundum editionem Everardi Vander Hooght, denuo recognita et emendata à Juda D'Allemand, Linguæ Sanctæ Doctore. Editio longè accuratissima. Londini, 1822. 8vo.

This edition is stereotyped: it is printed after Vander Hooght's text; in preparing which for the press, the learned editor, Mr. D'Allemand, states that he discovered not fewer than two hundred errata. These he has carefully corrected, and by repeated and most attentive revision he has perhaps done all that human industry can accomplish, in order to produce an accurate edition of the Hebrew Bible. In addition to the care previously bestowed by the editor, every page was revised four times, after the stereotype plates were cast, by persons familiar with the Hebrew language. Vander Hooght's historical summaries of the contents of each chapter are omitted, in order that the expense of the book may not be unnecessarily increased. The various readings and Masoretic notes are very neatly and clearly exhibited at the foot of each page. Upon the whole, this edition (especially the fine paper copies) may safely be pronounced the most beautiful, as well as the cheapest edition of the Hebrew Scriptures ever published.

13. Biblia Hebraica. Textum recognovit, insigniorem Lectionis varietatem, Argumentorumque notationes adjecit G. Gesenius. Lipsiæ, 8vo.

This critical edition of the Hebrew Bible by Professor Gesenius was announced in the catalogue of books published at the Leipsic Easter fair, 1823, but it has not yet made its appearance.

Of the minor editions, containing the Hebrew text only, without any critical apparatus, the following have been recommended to biblical students, viz.

1. The most useful Hebrew Bible, for any person who is moderately acquainted with Latin, is that of Benedictus Arias Montanus, with an interlineary Latin translation, printed by Christopher Plantin at Antwerp, 1572, 1584, folio. See it noticed p. 116. supra.

2. Biblia Hebraica, accurante M. Christiano Reineccio. Lipsia 1725, 1729, 1756.

These are neat and accurate editions. Masch mentions another edition dated 1729, in quarto, in which the books are arranged according to the order adopted in the editions of the German translation of the Bible.

3. Biblia Hebraica manualia ad optimas quasque editiones recensita, atque cum brevi lectionum Masorethicarum Kettriban et Krijan

resolutione ac explicatione. Edita a Johanne Simonis. Halæ, 1752, 1767, 8vo.

The second edition of 1767 is the best. The text of both is that of Vander Hooght. There is a short yet full Hebrew and Latin Lexicon at the end of both editions, which have the additional merit of being portable, cheap, and useful.

4. Biblia Hebraica sine punctis. Amstelodami, 1701, small 8vo. This is usually though incorrectly called Leusden's Hebrew Bible. The real editor was Maresius; Leusden wrote a preface to the Hebrew Bible printed at Amsterdam, 1694, 8vo. which abounds with errors. With the edition of 1701 is frequently bound up a neat and accurate edition of the Greek Testament, printed by Wetstein at Amsterdam, 1740, in small 8vo.

5. Victorini Bythneri Lyra Davidis regis, sive Analysis CriticoPractica Psalmorum: quâ Voces Ebrææ explicantur, ac consensus Textûs Sacri cum Paraphrasi Chaldaica ac Septuaginta Virorum Interpretatione Græca monstratur. Londini, 1650, 1664, 1679, 4to. ; Tiguri, 1664, 1670, 8vo.; Glasguæ (in ædibus academicis) et Londini, 1823. 8vo.

Bythner's Lyra Prophetica has long been known, as perhaps the most valuable help to the critical and grammatical study of the Book of Psalms. The late reprint, at the university press of Glasgow is very beautiful.

6.750. The Book of Psalms, without Points; corrected from the edition of Vander Hooght, with a Key, Grammar, Literal English Version, and Lexicon upon an improved plan. By John Reid, M. D. Glasgow, 1821. 8vo.

SECTION II.

A CRITICAL NOTICE OF THE PRINCIPAL EDITIONS OF THE

2

GREEK TESTAMENT.

BESIDES the works of Le Long and Masch, the history of the various editions of the Greek Testament is treated at considerable length by Pritius,1 by Dr. Mill and Wetstein in the prolegomena to their critical editions of it, by Michaelis and his learned annotator Bishop Marsh, Dr. Griesbach,3 Professors Beck, and Harles, by Mr. Butler, and by Dr. Clarke. To their labours, which have been consulted for this section, the reader is once for all referred, who is desirous of studying this important branch of the literary history of the sacred writings.

The following table exhibits the four principal Standard-Text-Editions of the Greek Testament, together with the principal editions which are founded upon them.8

1. ERASMUS. 1516-19-22-27-35.

Aldus. Fol. Gr. 1518.-Gerbelii. Qto. Gr. 1521.-Cephalaus. Oct. Gr. 1524.-Bebelius. Oct. 1524. Gr. 1531-35.-Colinæus. Oct. Gr. 1534.-Platteri. Oct. Gr. 1538-40-43.

1 Introd. ad Lect. Nov. Test. pp. 403–423.

2 Introduction to the New Test. vol. ii. part i. pp. 429-494; part ii. pp. 844885. Bishop Marsh's Divinity Lectures, part i. pp. 98-110; part ii. pp. 1–46. 3 Nov. Test. vol. i. prolegom. pp. iii.-xxxix.

4 Monogrammata Hermeneutices Novi Testamenti, pp. 110-115.

5 Brevior Notitia Literaturæ Græcæ, pp. 656-664; and also vol. iv. of his improved edition of Fabricius's Bibliotheca Græca, pp. 839-856.

6 Hora Biblicæ, vol. i. pp. 150-169.

7 Bibliographical Dictionary, vol. vi. pp. 168-203.

*The above table is taken from Masch and Boerner's edition of Le Long's Bi

2. COMPLUTENSIAN. 1514.

Plantin. Oct. Gr. 1564-73-74-90-91-1601-12. Fol. Gr. et Lat. 1572. Oct. 1574-83. Fol. 1584.-Geneva. Gr. 1609. 24mo., 1619, 1620. Qto.-Goldhagen. (Mentz.) 1753. Oct.

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Oporinus. Duod. Gr. 1552-Wechel, Fol. Gr. 1597. Duod. 1600. Fol. 1601. Duod. 1629-Imp. Nicholai Dulcis. Fol. Gr. 1687.-Edit. Regia. Fol. Gr. 1642.Crispin. Duod. Gr. 1553-63-1604. Duod. Gr. et Lat. 1612-22.-Froschoveri. Oct. Gr. 1559-66.—Brylinger. Oct. Gr. 1563.-Voegelii. Oct. Gr. 1564.-Vignonii. Duod. Gr. 1584-87-1613-15.-Beza. Fol. Gr. et Lat. 1565-82-89-981642.-Millii. Fol. Gr. 1707.-Kusteri. Fol. Gr. 1710-23.-Birchii. Gr. 1788. Fol. et Qto.-Hardy. Oct. Gr. 1768, 1776, 1819.-Valpy. Oct. Gr. 1816. 4. ELZEVIR. 1624-33, &c.

Boecleri. Oct. Gr. 1645.-Curcellai. Oct. Gr. 1658-75-85-99.-Felli. Oct. Gr. 1675.-Konigü. Oct. Gr. 1697-1702.-Gregorii. Fol. Gr. 1703.-G. D. T. M. D. Oct. Gr. 1711-35.-Wetstenii. Fol. Gr. 1715.

The editions of Bengel, Bowyer, Griesbach, Alter, and Harwood, are not formed on the text of either of the above editions.

Of the various editions of the Greek Testament, which have issued from the press, the following more particularly claim the notice of the biblical student.

1. Novum Instrumetů omne diligenter ab Erasmo Roterodamo recognitum et emendatum. Basilea, 1516, folio. Gr. Lat. edit. princeps.

Erasmus had the distinguished honour of giving to the world the first edition of the entire New Testament. It was reprinted in 1519, 1522, 1527, and 1535.

The first edition is of extreme rarity, and was executed with great haste, in the short space of five months. Some of the manuscripts which he consulted are preserved in the public library at Basle, but none of them are of very great antiquity. For the first edition he had only one mutilated manuscript of the Apocalypse, (since totally lost); he therefore filled up the chasms with his own Greek translations from the Latin Vulgate. The publication of this edition, in which he omitted the controverted clause in 1 John v. 7. because it was not in any of his manuscripts, involved him in a literary contest with the divines of Louvain, and with Stunica, the most learned of the Complutensian editors.2 The editions of 1516, 1519, and 1522, were published before he saw the Complutensian Polyglott, from which he corrected the edition of 1527, particularly in the Apocalypse. Erasmus's editions were repeatedly printed after his death, particularly at Basle, Frankfort, and Leipsic. All his editions are much esteemed, notwithstanding their faults, and in some respects they are considered as equal to manuscripts. In the first edition Dr. Mill discovered about 500 vitiated passages, and about one hundred genuine ones; a copy, on vellum, is in the Cathedral Library at York. Mr. Nolan has satisfactorily vindicated the character of Erasmus, as a sound critic and editor of the New Testament, from the charges of Dr. Griesbach. Inquiry into the Integrity of the Greek Vulgate, pp. 410-419.

2. Novum Testamentum, Græce et Latine. Compluti, 1514.

This forms the fifth volume of the Complutensian Polyglott already noticed, (p. 115. supra); though it bears the date of 1514, yet as it was not allowed to be sold generally until 1522, before which time Erasmus had printed three editions of

bliotheca Sacra, and from Mr. Dibdin's Introduction to the Knowledge of the Classics, vol. i. p. 55.

The first portion ever printed was executed by Aldus Manutius at Venice, in 1504. A copy is in the Royal Library of Wirtemburg at Stutgard. The whole of St. John's Gospel was published at Tubingen, in 1514.

2 In his disputes with Stunica, Erasmus professed his readiness to insert this verse if it were found in a single manuscript. Though Stunica could not produce one, yet as it was afterwards discovered in the Codex Britannicus (i. e. Montfortianus, see pp. 107, 108. supra), a manuscript of no great antiquity, Erasmus felt himself bound to insert it, and accordingly admitted it into his third edition of 1522.

the New Testament, it is in fact entitled only to the second place in our list. The Greek text of this edition is printed without spirits, but the vowels are frequently accented. The characters seem to have been cut in imitation of those found in manuscripts of the twelfth century; and were probably taken from some manuscripts of that age, which were consulted by the Complutensian editors. The Complutensian edition contains the celebrated text relative to the heavenly witnesses in 1 John v. 7, 8. of which we have given an engraved fac-simile, infra, Vol. IV. Part II. Ch. V. Sect. V. VI. Wetstein, Semler, and other Protestant critics charged the editors with having altered the text, in order to make it comformable to the Latin Vulgate; but this charge has been refuted by Goeze and Griesbach. Their vindication is pronounced satisfactory by Michaelis (who considers the Apocalypse to be the best edited part of the Complutensian Greek Testament); and also by his annotator, Bishop Marsh, who states that this charge, in general, is not true. For though he is of opinion, that in some few single passages, -as in Matt. x. 25. and I John v. 7.- they follow the Vulgate in opposition to all the Greek manuscripts, he has ascertained, from actual collation, that there are more than two hundred passages in the Catholic Epistles, in which the Complutensian Greek text differs from the text of the Vulgate, as printed in the Complutensian edition.

The manuscripts used for this edition are characterised as being very antient and very correct, but this assertion is contradicted by internal evidence. The manuscripts themselves, which were deposited in the library at Alcala, are no longer in existence; and it is a most remarkable fact, that "wherever modern Greek manuscripts, manuscripts written in the thirteenth, fourteenth, or fifteenth centuries, differ from the most antient Greek manuscripts, and from the quotations of the early Greek fathers, in such characteristic readings the Complutensian Greek Testament almost invariably agrees with the modern, in opposition to the antient manuscripts. There cannot be a doubt, therefore, that the Complutensian text was formed from modern manuscripts alone." (Bishop Marsh's Divinity Lectures, part i. p. 95.) The researches of the Danish professor Birch have shown that the Complutensian editors have made no use whatever of the Codex Vaticanus, though they boasted of valuable manuscripts being sent to them from the Vatican library.

3. Simonis Colinæi. - Η Καινη Διαθηκη. Ἐν λευτερια των παρησίων, παρα τω Σίμωνι Κολιναίω, δεκεμβριου μηνος δευτέρου φθίνοντος, έτει από της Θεογονίας α. φ. λ. δ. (Paris, 1534, 8νο.)

An edition of singular rarity, beauty, and correctness. Colinæus was a very careful printer. He has been unjustly charged with partiality in following some unknown manuscripts; but from this accusation he has been fully exonerated by Dr. Mill and Wetstein.

4. Novum Testamentum, Græce. Lutetiæ, ex officina Roberti Stephani Typographi, Typis Regiis. 1546. 12mo. 1549, 12mo. 1550, folio.

The first of these editions is usually called the O mirificam Edition, from the introductory sentence of the preface O mirificam regis nostri optimi et præstantissimi principis liberalitatem. It has always been admired for the neatness of its typography, as well as for its correctness, only twelve errata (it is said) having been discovered in it. Robert Stephens compiled this edition chiefly from the

1 Great anxiety prevailed in the literary world, in the course of the last century, to examine the manuscripts from which the Complutensian Polyglott was composed. Professor Moldenhawer, who was in Spain in 1784, went to Alcala for the express purpose of discovering those manuscripts, and there learnt, to his inexpressible chagrin, that about 35 years before, they had been sold by a very illiterate librarian, who wanted room for some new books, como membranas inutiles (as useless parchments), to one Toryo, a dealer in fire-works, as materials for making rockets! Martinez, a man of learning, and particularly skilled in the Greek language, hearing of the circumstance soon after they were sold, hastened to rescue these treasures from destruction. He arrived time enough to save a few scattered leaves, which are stated to be now preserved in the library at Alcala. It does not, however, appear that Moldenhawer saw these fragments. "Oh!" says Michaelis, with becoming indignation, “ that I had it in my power to immortalise both librarian and rocket maker! The author of this inexcusable act- this prodigy of barbarism was the greatest barbarian of the present (18th) century, and happy only in being unknown." Michaelis, vol. ii. pp. 440, 441.

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