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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 Svo. 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, Svo.; 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.

6.77 750. 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

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,' by Dr. Mill and Wetstein in the prolegomena to their critical editions of it, by Michaelis and his learned annotator Bishop Marsh, Dr. Griesbach, Professors Beck, and Harles,5 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.-Colinaus. 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.

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 Hore Biblicæ, vol. i. pp. 150-169.

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

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

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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.

3. ROBT. STEPHENS. 1546-49-50.

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.-Curcellæi. Oct. Gr. 1658-75-85-99.-Felli. Oct. Gr. 1675.-Konigi. 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 Instrumetu 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.

1 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 opposi tion 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. — Ή Καινη Διαθηκη. Ἐν λευτετια 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 libra rian 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.

Complutensian, and the fifth edition of Erasmus, and from fifteen antient manuscripts in the Royal Library at Paris, which were collated for him by his son Henry, then a young man of only 18 years of age. Griesbach (tom. i. proleg. pp. xiv.-xxxi.) has given a long and critical examination of this edition, and of the manuscripts consulted by Stephens for his three editions. Stephens's first edition differs from the Complutensian text in 581 instances, exclusive of the Apocalypse, in which he closely follows Erasmus.

The second edition closely resembles the first in its exterior appearance, but differs from it in 67 places; of which four are doubtful readings, 37 not genuine, and 26 genuine, so that this latter edition has eleven readings of less authority than the former, to which however it is preferred on account of its greater rarity and correctness. It is this second edition which has the remarkable erratum pulres for plures in the last line but one of the first page of the preface, occasioned by the transposition of a single letter.

The third edition of 1550, in folio, is a chef d'œuvre of splendid typography. It was once supposed to have been formed entirely on the authority of Greek manuscripts, which Stephens professes, in his preface, to have collated for that purpose, a second and even a third time. So far, however, was this from being the case, that the researches of critics have shown that, except in the Apocalypse, it is scarcely any thing more than a reprint of Erasmus's fifth edition. Though its value as a critical edition is thus considerably reduced, the singular beauty of its typography (which has rarely been exceeded in modern times), has caused it to be considered as a distinguished ornament to any library. Robert Stephens reprinted the Greek New Testament at Geneva in 1551, in 8vo. with the Vulgate and Erasmus's Latin versions, and parallel passages in the margin. This is the scarcest of all his editions, and is remarkable for being the first edition of the New Testament divided into verses.

5. Novum Testamentum, cum versione Latina veteri, et nova Theodori Beza. Genevæ, folio, 1565, 1576, 1582, 1589, 1598.

The New Testament of 1566 is the first of the editions conducted by Theodore Beza, who was a native of France and a protestant, and fled to Switzerland on account of his religion. "The critical materials which he employed were for the most part the same as those which had been used by Robert Stephens. But he had likewise the advantage of that very antient manuscript of the Gospels and the Acts, which he afterwards sent to the university of Cambridge, and which is known by the name of the Codex Bezæ. He had also a very antient manuscript of St. Paul's Epistles, which he procured from Clermont in France, and which is known by the name of the Codex Claromontanus. Lastly, he had the advantage of the Syriac version, which had been lately published by Tremellius, with a close Latin translation. But the use which he made of his materials were not such as might have been expected from a man of Beza's learning. Instead of applying his various readings to the emendation of the text, he used them chiefly for polemical purposes in his notes. In short, he amended Stephen's text in not more than fifty places; and even these emendations were not always founded on proper authority." (Bishop Marsh's Lectures, part i. p. 109.) Beza's third edition of 1582 is considered as the most complete of those printed under his own eye: but all his editions have the Vulgate Latin version, and a new one of his own, together with philological, doctrinal, and practical notes. The edition of 1598, being esteemed the most accurate of any that had before been published, was adopted as the basis of the English version of the New Testament, published by authority in 1611. This testimony of the Anglican church is highly honorable to its merit. The reprint of Beza's Testament, at Cambridge (1642 folio), with the addition of Joachim Camerarius's notes, is considered as the editio optima.

6. Novum Testamentum Græcè. Lugd. Bat. Ex Officina Elzeviriana, 12mo. 1624.

This is the first of the celebrated Elzevir editions, and deserves (says Bishop Marsh) to be particularly noticed, because the text of the Greek Testament, which had fluctuated in the preceding editions, acquired in this a consistency, and seemed during upwards of a century, to be exposed to no future alterations. The text of this edition has been the basis of almost every subsequent impression. Wetstein adapted his various readings to it; and it has acquired the appellation of "Textus Receptus." "The person who conducted this edition (for Elzevir was only the printer) is at present unknown; but, whoever he was, his critical exertions were confined within a narrow compass. The text of this edition was copied from Beza's text, except in about fifty places; and in these places the readings 17

VOL. II.

were borrowed partly from the various readings in Stephen's margin, partly from other editions, but certainly not from Greek manuscripts. The textus receptus therefore, or the text in common use, was copied, with a few exceptions, from the text of Beza. Beza himself closely followed Stephens: and Stephens (namely in his third and chief edition) copied solely from the fifth edition of Erasmus, except in the Revelation, where he followed sometimes Erasmus, sometimes the Complutensian edition. The text therefore in daily use resolves itself at last into the Complutensian and the Erasmian editions." (Bishop Marsh's Lectures, part i. p. 110.)

The Elzevir edition of 1624 was reprinted at Leyden in 1633, and a third time in 1641, and at Amsterdam in 1656, 1662, 1670, and 1678, Gr. Of these various editions, that of 1633 is the best and in most request. The edition of 1633 is the first that has the text divided into separate verses.

7. Novum Testamentum, studio et labore Stephani Curcellæi. Amstelodami, 1658, 12mo. 1675, 1685, 12ma. 1699, 8vo. Gr.

All the editions of Curcellæus or Courcelles are in great repute for their beauty and accuracy; the text is formed on that of the Elzevirs. He has collected the greatest number of various readings to be found in any edition of the New Testament prior to that in the sixth volume of Bishop Walton's Polyglott. These various lections are given from a collation of manuscripts and printed editions, and are partly at the foot of the page, and partly at the end of the Acts and St. Paul's Epistles. Curcelleus has also given a valuable collection of parallel passages. The edition of 1675 contains a prologue or preface to St. Paul's Epistles, which Boecler had printed a few years before from a manuscript brought from the East by Stephen Gerlachius, and differs from the first edition only in having all the various readings placed at the foot of the page. The third and fourth editions were printed after the death of Curcellæus, and differ from the second only in having the text printed in columns. In 1695, John Gottlieb Moller, a divine of Rostock, published a dissertation against the Curcellæan editions, entitled Curcellaus in editione originalis N. T. textus variantium lectionum et parallelorum Scripturæ Locorum additamentis vestita, socinizans. Rumpaus (Com. Crit. ad Nov: Test. p. 280.) has charged Courcelles with unnecessarily multiplying various readings, and making them from conjecture, in order to subserve the Socinian scheme. Michaelis admits that these charges are not wholly unfounded. The passages noticed by Rumpus are 1 John v. 7.; John x. 30. and xvii. 22., concerning the doctrine of the Trinity; Rom. ix. v. 1 John v. 20., and John xvii. 3. concerning the son of God; and Rom. iii. 25. Matt. xxvi. 39. 42. concerning the satisfaction made by Jesus Christ. All the editions of Curcellæus are scarce and dear.

8. Novum Testamentum, Gr. Lat. in the fifth volume of the London Polyglott, described in pp. 116-118. supra.

This edition is deserving of particular notice, as being the first edition of the New Testament that is furnished with a complete critical apparatus. The text is that of Robert Stephen's folio edition of 1550, whose various readings Bishop Walton has incorporated in his sixth volume; and in addition to them he has given a collection of extracts from sixteen Greek manuscripts, which were collated under the direction of Archbishop Usher. "They are described at the head of the collation in the sixth volume by Walton himself; and a further account of them is given in the Prologomena to Mill's Greek Testament, (§ 1372-1396), and in Michaelis's Introduction to the New Testament, (vol. ii. chap. viii.) But the extracts from the Greek manuscripts were neither the sole nor the chief materials which the Polyglott afforded for the emendation of the Greek text. In addition to the Latin Vulgate, it contains the Syriac, the Arabic, and the Ethiopic versions of the New Testament, with the Persian in the Gospels. And these oriental versions are not only arranged in the most convenient manner, for the purpose of comparing them with the Greek, but they are accompanied with literal Latin translations, that even they, who are unacquainted with the oriental languages, might still have recourse to them for various readings, though indeed with less security, as every translator is liable to make mistakes." - (Bishop Marsh's Lectures, part ii. p. 5.)

9. Της Καινής Διαθήκης Απαντα. Novi Testamenti Libri Omnes. Accesserunt Parallela Scripturæ Loca, nec non variantes Lectiones ex plus 100 MSS. Codicibus et antiquis versionibus collectæ. Oxonii, e Theatro Sheldoniano. 1675, 8vo.

This edition was superintended by the learned Dr. John Fell, Bishop of Oxford,

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