perhaps to counterbalance all other inconveniences. Without some division of this kind it would be next to impossible to frame a Concordance, and yet of all aids to the right understanding of the Scriptures, none is so important as a Concordance.

§ 2. Language, Mode of Preservation, Incorrupt Integrity, &c., of the Old Testament Scriptures.

The language in which the Old Testament is written, with the exception of a few passages in Chaldee, is the Hebrew, so called, in all probability, from being principally spoken by the Hebrew nation, the descendants, through Abraham, of Heber, the grandson of Shem. (See Note on Gen. 10. 21 and 14. 13). This language belongs to a group or family of languages usually termed the Shemitic, of which the Chaldee, Syriac, and Arabic are cognate or kindred branches, in each of which ancient versions exist affording very important aids in the interpretation of the Hebrew text. This text has been transmitted to us in the form of manuscripts, written mostly on vellum or parchment, either rolled like a map, or in a book-form, with the contents written in two or three parallel columns. The Jews to this day use no other copies in their synagogues than the rolled manuscripts, which are transcribed with the utmost care and exactness, under regulations superstitiously strict, and often in a chirography of extreme beauty. Of these copies it cannot be affirmed of any one now in existence, that it is absolutely perfect. The lapse of time and the numerous transcriptions through which the sacred writings have passed, would naturally expose them in some degree to the inroads of error; and some instances of this kind have been pointed out. But on the whole the integrity of the Scriptures has been remarkably preserved. The most accurate inquiries have been instituted on this head, and the result of the laborious and critical examination of learned men has shown, that the alterations of the sacred text are extremely slight and trivial, and that in all essential points we have the divine revelation as it came from the hands of the several penmen.

§ 3. Ancient Versions.

The principal Ancient Versions, which illustrate the Scriptures, are the Chaldee Paraphrases, generally called Targums, the Septuagint or Alexandrian Greek Version, and the Vulgate or Latin Version. In a more detailed view of this subject than we now propose, it would be proper to enumerate also the translations of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, together with the Samaritan, Syriac, and Arabic Versions, but as these are comparatively of secondary importance we shall not at present dwell upon them, but refer the reader who is desirous of fuller information to the Introductions of Horne, Jahn, Carpenter, and others who have treated of them in all their particulars. We shall confine ourselves to the following, which, the reader will observe, are made more especially prominent, by frequent quotation, in the ensuing pages.

(a.) THE TARGUMS.-The Chaldee word targum signifies in general any version or explanation; but the appellation is more particularly restricted to the versions or paraphrases of the Old Testament, executed in the East-Aramæan

or Chaldee dialect, as it is usually called. These Targums are termed paraphrases or expositions, because they are rather comments and explications than literal translations of the text. They are written in that dialect, because it became more familiar to the Jews after the time of their captivity in Babylon, than the Hebrew itself; so that when the law was 'read in the synagogue every gabbath-day,' in pure biblical Hebrew, an explanation was subjoined to it in Chaldee, in order to render it intelligible to a people who had in a measure lost their native tongue. This practice originated with Ezra, and it is highly probable that the paraphrases were at first merely oral, but that they were afterwards committed to writing for the benefit of those who wished to study and ponder 'the law of the Lord' at home. Indeed there are yet extant some manuscripts in which the text and the paraphrase are written alternately; first, a verse or two or three in Hebrew, and then a corresponding number of verses in Chaldee. But books of this description were not allowed in the public reading of the Law. -There are at present extant ten of these Chaldee paraphrases on different parts of the Old Testament, three of which, and those by far the most important, comprise the Pentateuch, viz. (1.) The Targum of Onkelos; (2.) That falsely ascribed to Jonathan, and usually cited as the Targum of the Pseudo-Jonathan; (3.) The Jerusalem Targum. Of the rest it will be unnecessary here to speak.

Targum of Onkelos.—It is not known with certainty at what time Onkelos flourished, nor of what nation he was. The generally received opinion is, that he was a proselyte to Judaism, and a disciple of the celebrated Rabbi Hillel, who flourished about fifty years before the Christian era; and consequently that Onkelos was cotemporary with the Saviour. But Bauer and Jahn place him in the second century. His Targum, embracing the five books of Moses, is justly preferred to all the others, both on account of the purity of its style and its general freedom from idle legends. It is rather a version than a paraphrase, and renders the Hebrew text word for word and with so much accuracy and exactness, that being set to the same musical notes with the original Hebrew, it could be read or cantillated in the same tone as the latter in the public assemblies of the Jews. The best-known Latin translation of this Targum, which we have generally quoted by the simple designation 'Chal.,' is that of Paulus Fagius, and the fullest information concerning it is to be found in a tract by G. B. Winer, entitled, 'De Onkeloso ejusque Paraphrasi Chaldaica Dissertatio, 4to. Lips. 1820.

For the sake of affording the English reader a still clearer idea of the nature of these paraphrases, and how far they differ from the original, we subjoin a specimen of each, in a literal translation ranged in parallel columns with the corresponding passages from our received version.

v. 14. And God said, Let there be lights in the firmament of the heaven, to divide the day from the night; and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for days, and for years.

v. 20. And God said, Let the waters bring forth abundantly the moving creature that hath life, and fowl that may fly above the earth in the open firmament of heaven.

Ch. 2. 7. And the Lord God formed man of the dust of the ground, and breathed into his nostrils the breath of life; and man became a living soul.

v. 8. And the Lord God planted a garden eastward in Eden; and there he put the man whom he had formed.

v. 9. And out of the ground made the Lord God to grow every tree that is pleasant to the sight, and good for food; the tree of life also in the midst of the garden, and the tree of knowledge of good and evil.

v. 17. But of the tree of the knowledge of good and evil, thou shalt not eat of it: for in the day thou eatest thereof thou shalt surely die.

v. 18. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him an help meet for him.

v. 20. And Adam gave names to all cattle and to the fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field: but for Adam there was not found an help meet for him.

v. 24. Therefore shall a man leave his father and his mother, and shall cleave unto his wife and they shall be one flesh.

Ch. 3. 10. And he said, I heard thy voice in the garden and I was afraid, because I was naked; and I hid myself.

v. 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

And the Lord said: Let there be lights in the expanse of heaven to distinguish between the day and the night, and let them be for signs, and for seasons, and for to measure by them days and years.

And the Lord said: Let the waters produce the creeping thing endowed with the principle of life, and fowl that may fly over the earth upon the face of the expanse of heaven.

And the Lord God created the man of the dust of the earth, and breathed into his nos trils the breath of life, and it became in the man a speaking spirit."

And the Lord God had planted a garden in Eden from the beginning, and he placed there the man whom he had created.

And the Lord God caused to spring up from the earth every tree that was desirable to be seen, or good for food, and the tree of life in the midst of the garden, and the tree of whose fruit they who eat are wise in discerning between good and evil.

But of the tree of whose fruit they wo eat are wise in discerning between good ar d evil, thou shalt not eat of it, for in the dav that thou shalt eat of it, thou shalt die the death.

And the Lord God said: It is not fit that man should be by himself, I will make for him a support, to be, as it were, his counterpart.

And Adam gave names to all cattle and fowl of the air, and to every beast of the field: but for man he did not find a support who was, as it were, his counterpart.

For this cause a man shall leave the bedchamber of his father and of his mother, and shall adhere to his wife, and they shall be as one flesh.

And he said: I heard in the garden the voice of thy word, and I was afraid, because I am naked, and I hid myself.

And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy son and her son. He shall remember against thee what thou hast done to him from the beginning, and thou shalt be observant of him unto the end.

Targum of the Pseudo-Jonathan.-So called from being ascribed by many to Jonathan Ben Uzziel, who wrote the much esteemed paraphrase on the Prophets. But the difference in the style and diction of this Targum, which is very impure, as well as in the method of paraphrasing adopted in it, clearly proves that it could not have been written by Jonathan Ben Uzziel, who indeed sometimes indulges in allegories, and has introduced a few barbarisms; but this Targum on the Law abounds with the most idle Jewish fables that can well be conceived; which, together with the barbarous and foreign words it contains, renders it of very little utility. Learned men are unanimous in the opinion that

it could not have been written before the seventh, or even the eighth century. Its general character may be learned from a very few specimens.

TARG. OF PS.-JON.

But the earth was confusion and emptiness, destitute of the sons of men, and bare of all cattle; and darkness was upon the face of the abyss; and the spirit of mercies from before the Lord breathed over the surface of the waters.

And the Lord called the light day, and made it that the inhabiters of the world might work therein; and the darkness he called night, and made it that his creatures should rest therein. And there was evening, and there was morning, one day.

And the Lord formed the firmament, which sustaineth him, with three fingers breadth between the uttermost part of the heaven, and the waters of the ocean: and he made a separation between the waters which are under the firmament, and the waters which are above in the tabernacle of the firmament: and it was so.

And the Lord made the two great lights: and they were equal in their glory twenty and one years, subtracting from these six hundred and seventy parts of an hour. But after this, the moon brought a calumnious accusation against the sun, and she was made less and he appointed the sun, which was the greater light, to rule in the day, and the moon, which was the lesser light, to rule in the night with the stars also.

And the Lord said to the angels who min. istered before him, who were created on the second day of the creation of the world: Let us make man in our image, in our likeness, and let them bear rule over the fishes of the sea, and over the fowl in the air of heaven, and over the cattle, and over all the earth, and over every creeping thing which creepeth upon the earth.

And the Lord created man in his own like. ness in the image of the Lord created he him, with two hundred and forty-eight members, and three hundred and sixty-five sinews, and clothed him with a skin, and filled him with flesh and blood: male and female in their body created he them.

And the Lord God said: It is not fit that man should sleep by himself: I will make for him a woman, who shall be a support to him, as his counterpart.

And they were both of them wise, the man and his wife: but they did not tarry in their glory.

The Jerusalem Targum.-This also paraphrases the five books of Moses, and derives its name from the dialect in which it is composed. It is by no means a connected paraphrase, sometimes omitting whole verses or even chapters; at other times explaining only a single word of a verse, of which it sometimes gives a twofold interpretation; and at others, Hebrew words are inserted without any

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explanation whatever. In many respects it corresponds with the paraphrase of the Pseudo-Jonathan, whose legendary tales and rabbinical fictions are copiously interspersed throughout, though sometimes abridged and sometimes expanded. It cannot be referred to a date earlier than the seventh or eighth century, nor is any thing known of the author. The following may serve as specimens.

ENG. VERSION.

Gen. 1. 1. In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth.

v. 5. And God called the light Day, and the darkness he called Night: and the evening and the morning were the first day.

Ch. 2. 15. And the Lord God took the man, and put him into the garden of Eden, to dress it, and to keep it.

v. 18. And the Lord God said, It is not good that the man should be alone: I will make him an help meet for him.

Ch. 3. 9. And the Lord God called unto Adam, and said unto him, Where art thou?

v. 15. And I will put enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy seed and her seed: it shall bruise thy head, and thou shalt bruise his heel.

JERUS. TARG.

In wisdom the Lord created the heaven and the earth.

And evening was, and morning was, in the order of the work of creation, the first day.

And the Lord God took the man, and established him in the garden of Eden, and placed him there that he should be a cultivator of the law, and should keep it.

I will make for him a consort proceeding forth as it were from him.

And the word of the Lord God called un. to Adam, and said unto him: Behold, the world which I have created is laid open before ine: darkness and light are open before me, and how didst thou expect the place, in the midst of which thou art, not to be discovered before me? where is the commandment which I enjoined thee?

And it shall be when the sons of the woman shall attend to the law and perform the precepts thereof, they shall prepare to wound thee on thy head and shall kill thee: but when the sons of the woman shall forsake the cominandments of the law, and shall not perform the precepts thereof, thou shalt be in readiness and shall bite them upon their heel, and shalt afflict them with sickness. Nevertheless, there shall be a remedy for the sons of the woman; but for thee, O Serpent, there shall not be a remedy for they shall provide a medicine for one another in the heel, in the end of the heel of days, in the days of King Messiah.

The above mentioned Targums, but more especially those of Onkelos and Jonathan Ben Uzziel, were held by the Jews in nearly as much veneration as their Hebrew Scriptures; and to give them the greater authority, they traced back their origin to the time of Moses and the ancient prophets; asserting that Onkelos and Jonathan only restored, by committing to writing, what they had received by divine tradition. But this supposition exceeds the usual extravagance of Rabbinical fictions; for it admits that Moses and the prophets dictated a Chaldee paraphrase to the Jews at a time when they could not possibly have had any knowledge of that language. But while we repudiate these extravagant claims, in regard to the antiquity and authority of the Chaldee paraphrases, and treat as they deserve the idle Rabbinical conceits, with which they are interspersed, we may admit, at the same time, that they are of considerable value in the interpretation of the sacred text. They are undoubtedly the most ancient books, next to the Hebrew Scriptures, possessed by the Jewish nation, and being ex

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