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with the aid of a good Lexicon, and a plausible fluency of expression, will be fully sufficient for the purpose. I shall add a few instances in this taste from some modern translations of the New Testament; though I am far from insinuating that the above mentioned qualifications for criticising, were all that the authors were possessed of. Some of them, on the contrary, have, in other instances, displayed critical abilities very respectable. But where is the man who, on every occasion, is equal to himself? The word soλayxvon ", is rendered, by the Genεσπλαγχνίσθη tlemen of Port Royal, Ses entrailles furent emues de compassion, on which Wynne seems to have improved in saying, His bowels yearned with compassion. Eudoxnoav 5, is rendered by the former, ont resolu avec beaucoup d'afection. Δέησις ενεργόμενη “, is translated by Doddridge, Prayer wrought by the energy of the Spirit. Exnvwσe", by Diodati, Tendera un padiglione. Xeporovnoavτes 18, by Beza,' cum ipsi per suffragia creassent, and xλnpovounosor 19, hæreditario jure obtinebunt. The Vulgate too, sometimes without necessity, but more rarely, adopts the same paraphrastical method. For those examples above referred to, which occur in the Gospel, see the notes on the places.

44 Matth. ix. 36. 47 Rev. vii. 15.

47

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48

46

46 James, v. 16.

49 Matth. v. 5.

DISSERTATION THE FIFTH.

OF THE PROPER VERSION OF SOME NAMES OF PRINCIPAL IMPORT IN THE NEW TESTAMENT.

THE religious institution of which the Lord Jesus is the author, is distinguished in the New Testament by particular names and phrases, with the true import of which it is of great consequence that we be acquainted, in order to form a distinct apprehension of the nature and end of the whole. A very small deviation here may lead some into gross mistakes, and conceal from others, in a considerable degree, the spirit which this institution breathes, and the discoveries which it brings. I think it necessary, therefore, to examine this subject a little, in order to lay before the critical, the judicious, and the candid, my reasons for leaving, in some particulars which at first may appear of little moment, the beaten track of interpreters, and giving, it may be said, new · names to known things, where there cannot be any material difference of meaning. The affectation of rejecting a word, because old (if neither obscure nor obsolete), and of preferring another, because new (if it be not more apposite or expressive), is justly held contemptible; but without doubt, it would be an extreme on the other side, not less hurtful, to pay a

greater veneration to names, that is, to mere sounds, than to the things signified by them. And surely, a translator is justly chargeable with this fault, who, in any degree, sacrifices propriety, and that perspicuity which, in a great measure, flows from it, to a scrupulous (not to say superstitious) attachment to terms which, as the phrase is, have been consecrated by long use. But of this I shall have occasion to speak

more afterwards.

The most common appellation given to this institution, or religious dispensation, in the New Testament, is, ἡ Βασιλεια το 2ε8 or των ερανων ; and the title given to the manifestation of this new state, is most frequently το Ευαγγελιον της Βασιλειας &c. and sometimes, when considered under an aspect somewhat different, ἡ Καινη Διαθηκη. The great Personage himself, to whose administration the whole is intrusted, is, in contra-distinction to all others, denominated o Xpisos. I shall in this discourse make a few observations on each of the terms above mentioned.

PART I.

OF THE PHRASE

Ἡ Βασιλεια το Σε8, oκ των ερανων.

In the phrase ἡ Βασιλεια το 2ε8, or των ερανών, there is a manifest allusion to the predictions in which this economy was revealed by the Prophets in the Old

man.

Testament, particularly by the Prophet Daniel, who mentions it, in one place', as a Kingdom, Baσi2elα, which the God of heaven would set up, and which should never be destroyed: in another, as a kingdom to be given, with glory and dominion over all people, nations, and languages, to one like a son of And the Prophet Micah 3, speaking of the same era, represents it as a time when Jehovah, having removed all the afflictions of his people, would reign over them in mount Zion thenceforth even for ever. To the same purpose, though not so explicit, are the declarations of other Prophets. To these predictions there is a manifest reference in the title η Βασιλεια τ8 Θε8, or των ερανων, or simply n Bao2a, given in the New Testament, to the religious constitution which would obtain under the Messiah. It occurs very often, and is, if I mistake not, uniformly, in the common translation, rendered kingdom.

2. THAT the import of the term is always either kingdom, or something nearly related to kingdom, is beyond all question; but it is no less so, that, if, regard be had to the propriety of our own idiom, and consequently to the perspicuity of the version, the English word will not answer on every occasion. In most cases Badiha answers to the Latin But this word is of more extensive regnum. meaning than the English, being equally adapted to

1 ii. 44..

2 vii. 13, 14.

s' iv. 6, 7.

express both our terms reign and kingdom. The first relates to the time or duration of the sovereignty; the second, to the place or country over which it extends. Now, though it is manifest in the Gospels, that it is much oftener the time, than the place, that is alluded to; it is never, in the common version, translated reign, but always kingdom. Yet the expression is often thereby rendered exceedingly awkward, not to say absurd. Use indeed softens every thing. Hence it is that, in reading our Bible, we are insensible of those improprieties which, in any other book, would strike us at first hearing. Such are those expressions which apply motion to a kingdom, as when mention is made of its coming, approaching, and the like; but I should not think it worth while to contend for the observance of a scrupulous propriety, if the violation of it did not affect the sense, and lead the reader into mistakes. Now this is, in several instances, the certain consequence of improperly rendering Baoiλea kingdom.

§ 3. WHEN Bασ2α means reign, and is followed by tov sparov, the translation kingdom of heaven evidently tends to mislead the reader. Heaven, thus construed with kingdom, ought, in our language, by the rules of grammatical propriety, to denote the region under the kingly government spoken of. But finding, as we advance, that this called the kingdom of heaven is actually upon the earth, or, as it were, travelling to the earth and almost arrived, there necessarily arises such a confu

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