Page:Encyclopædia Britannica, first edition - Volume I, A-B.pdf/657

 BIB ( 547 ) BIB Prideaux is of opinion that Ezra made additions in formable to the Hebrew text. The fird who performed feveral parts of the Bible, where any thing appeared ne- thi defign was the Jewifh profelyte Aquila, of the c: -. of ceflary for illuftrating, conne&ing, or compleating the Synope inPontus, dilcipie to Rabbi Akiba, who pie it ;• exwork; in which he appears to have been affifted by the fame ecution the twelfth year of the emperor Adrian, -. D.[28. fpirit in which they were firft written. Among fuch addi- St Epiphanius pretends, that being excommunicated aftions~are to be reckoned the laft chapter of Deuteronomy, ter his converfion, for addiAing himfelf to judicial adrowherein Mofes feems to give an account of his own death logy, he fet about this verfion out of hatred to the Chriand burial, and the fucceffion of Jofhua after him. To dians, and with a wicked defign of corrupting the padathe fame caufe our learned author thinks are to be attri- ges of the prophets relating to Jefus Chrid. St Jerom buted many other interpolations in the Bible, which cre- fays, his verfion is made word for word, and with too ated difficulties and objections to the authenticity of the fcrupulous a nicety. facred text, no ways to be folved without allowing them; The fecond Greek verfion after the Septuagint is that Ezra changed the names of feveral places which were of Symmachus, a Samaritan by birth, who fird turned grown obfolete, and inffead of them put their new names, Jew, then Chridian, and at lad Ebionite. He compoby which they were then called, in the text. Thus it is fed it, according to Epiphanius, in the reign of the emthat Abraham is faid to have purfued the kings who car- peror Severus. His verfion was more free than the red; ried Lot away captive, as far as Danwhereas that for he applied himfelf chiefly to the fenfe, without tranfplace in Mofes’s time was called Laiffi ; the name Dan, lating word for word; wherefore his verfion comes nearbeing unknown till the Danites, long after the death of er the Septuagint than that of Aquila. The third Greek verfion is that of Theodotion of Ephefus. It is faid he Moles, poffeffed themfelves of it. The Jewiffi canon of fcripture was then fettled by was a difciple of Marcion, and that, having had fome Ezra, yet not fo but that feveral variations have been difference with thofe of his feft, he turned Jew. The made in it. Malachi, for inftance, could not be put in verfion of this author was the bed of the three, becaufe the Bible by him, fince that prophet is allowed ro have he kept a jud medium between Aquila and Symmachus#, lived after Ezra ; nor could Nehemiah be there, firice not confining himfelf fo fervilely to the letter as the firft mention is made, in that book, of Jaddus, as high-pried, did, nor wandering fo far from it as the fecond did. and of Darius CodomannuS, as kihg of Perfia, who were There were, befides thefe, three other Greek verfions,. at lead an hundred years later than Ezra. It may be whofe authors are unknown. added, that in the fird book of Chronicles, the genealogy Syriac Bible. The Syrians have in their language of the fons of Zerubbabel is carried down for fo many ge- a verfion of the Old Tedament, which they pretend to nerations as mud necedarily bring it to the time of Alex- be of great antiquity. A great part of it,. they fay, was ander, and confequently this book could not be in the ca- made in Solomon’s time, and the red in the time of Abnon in Ezra’s days. It is probable, the two books of garus king of Edeffa. 1’hey relate, that Hiram king of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehcmiah, Edher, and Malachi, were Tyre defired Solomon to communieate the ufe of letadopted into the Bible .in the time of Simon the Jud, the ters and writing to the Syrians, and to get tranflated for lad of the men of the great fynagogue. them the facred books of the Hebrews ; which Solomon As the Jews were very backward in having any inter- complied with, and fent them the Pentateuch, Jofhua, courfe with drangers, it was a long time before their facred Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Pfalms, Proverbs, Ecclefiades,. books came to be known and read in other nations. Jo Solomon’s Song, and Job, which were the only books fephus afcribes the little that is faid of the Jews by pa- then extant ; the remaining books of fcripture, they add, gan writers to this, that the latter had no opportunity of were trandated into Sy riac after the death of Chrid, by being acquainted with their hidorians, for want of a tire care of Abgarus king of Edeffa. But this account is tranflation of their books into the Greek language. A- looked upon as fabulous. It is true, the Syriac verfion rideas indeed pretends, that there was ah imperfeCI ver- which we have now mud be very ancient, fince it is often ■ don of the fcriptures before the time of Demetrius Pha- cited by the fathers. Dr Prideaux is of opinion, it was Jereus; and that Theopompus intending to infert a part of made within the fird century; that the author of it was them in his verfes, was deprived of bis underdanding/, fome Chridian of th& Jewifh nation ; and that it is the but of this there is no proof.. bed tranflation of the Old Tedament. This verfion is The Jews, upon their return from the Babyloniffi cap- not always agreeable to the original; but in fome places tivity, having brought with them their Chaldaic or Affy- is more conformable to the Samaritan Pentateuch, and rian language, which from that time became their mother- in fome to the verfion of the Septuagint. In the Pfalms,. tongue, gave birth to the Chaldee trandutions, or rather, tranflator has taken the liberty to leave out the anparaphrafes of the Bible,.called Targum. See Targum. the cient titles and infcriptions of each pfalm,- indead of Greek Bible. It is a mattey of difpute among authors which he gives an abdrad of the contents of .each pfalm, whether there was a Greek verfion of the Old Tedament: Bible. It.is pad'difpute, that the Latin more ancient than the Septuagint. See Septuagint. churches had, even* in the fird ages, a tranflation of the Before our Saviour’s time, there was no other Greek Bible in their language, which being the vulgar lanverfion of the Old Tedament, befides that which went guage, and confequemly underdood by every one, occaunder the name of the Septuagirit: But after the eda- fioned a vad number of Latin verfions. Among all thefe, bliffiment of Chridianity, Lome authors undertook new one which was generally received, and called trandations, under pretence, of making them more con- bythereSt was Jerom the vulgar, or common tranflation, St Au, din •