A.V., and against Dr. Benisch's translation of the verse under inquiry. Stanislaus Hoga's paraphrase of Psalm xvi. 8, is arbitary and untenable. We translate the verse, according to the original, as follows : "I have set the LORD before me continually, For when He is at my right hand, I shall not slip." ,the being paragogic- כור or כרה and the a curtailed 1,-and must be translated as such, even thus :-"they have dug through," or " pierced." Whilst in Isaiah xxxviii. 13, the rendering must be "like a lion." In the former, the is the first letter of the root; in the latter, it is the comparison servile. No wonder that that marvellous Masorite JACOB BEN CHAYIM, the author of Masora finalis, should have confessed his faith in Christ, when he discovered that one of the clearest predictions respecting the Redeemer's sufferings on the cross, had been tampered with so daringly. The Committee of Jewish Hebrew Scholars at Vienna, who brought out, a few years ago, a translation of the Old Testament in Judæo-German-i e. in the German language, but in Hebrew characters-for the benefit of German Jews האבען דורכגראבען have adopted "have dug through," as the equivalent for the Hebrew word " here. We agree with Böttcher-though we do not endorse his reading, for all that Dr. Perowne adopts it, nor admire his version-that the rendering, “like a lion," is "a production of meagre Jewish wit." We might have referred to the very significant evidence of ancient versions, or to the important testimony of impartial critics, such as Bochart, De Rossi, Hupfeld, Hitzig, and a host of others after their kind; but we preferred the testimony of Jewish witnesses in favour of the correctness of the Poor Stanislaus Hoga's history was a very sad one. A man of extraordinary attainments, he devoted his immense learning, on professing Christianity, to the elucidation of the TRUE FAITH, by the writings of Moses and the prophets. Unkindness from those he had a right to expect sympathy, first broke his heart, and then unseated his reason. He very often nearly broke our own heart when we were compelled to listen to his incoherent and rhapsodical tales of woe, which we knew to be perfectly true. We have some of the last letters which that sore stricken Lazarus had ever penned in Hebrew, which an Isaiah might have appreciated. Those letters convince us that the poor man died in THE FAITH, no matter where his earthly remains were buried.-EDIT. H. C. W. and P. I.] IN Micah v. 6, the Messiah is said to be the Peace when the Assyrian is in the land. A converted sceptic asks how could this be, when he was not born till several hundred years after. Can you kindly solve the difficulty? R. T. WILL Some of your readers supply the following great want in apologetic literature: a collection of all the passages in the early Jewish books that openly or covertly refer to Christ and Christianity that would be of any use in the defence of the Gospel? They ought to be translated into English. R. T. Notices to our readers and correspondents, as well as several literary notices and various other articles and communications, are unavoidably postponed. The Hebrew Christian Witness AND PROPHETIC JNVESTIGATOR. AN ANGLO-JUDÆO CHRISTIAN MAGAZINE. E have often heard it asserted that the laconic petition, which our Blessed Lord has taught HIS DISCIPLES, was substantially a prayer already in use in the Liturgical service of the Temple and synagogue, when the Redeemer of Israel came to visit us in great humility. We have been frequently asked by brother clergymen whether it was so, and whether we could give a reference to its whereabout, either in modern Jewish liturgies, or in ancient Jewish writings. The frequency of the question being put to us made us abrupt in our reply:-"Nothing of the kind! The Jewish liturgy never contained anything so glorious, or so comprehensive, as that wonderful supplication which our Saviour dictated to His disciples, and which is known as the LORD'S PRAYER." We have, however, recently received a letter, from a most estimable brother clergyman, one of the truest lovers of our nation, in which the question is mooted in the following words :-"Will you inform me where one may find, among pre-Christian Hebrew writings, any prayer closely resembling our Lord's Prayer?' 'Lord's Prayer?' I have read that such a prayer does (or did) exist in Jewish books: where ?" In a private letter, we informed our valued friend that nothing of the kind existed in pre-Christian Hebrew writings, but that, subsequent to the promulgation of that Heaven-taught orison, the Jews borrowed certain sentences from it, and incorporated them in some of their later prayers. The idea that a petition, closely resembling the LORD'S PRAYER, existed in pre-Christian Hebrew writings originated with neological schoolmen, such as Spinoza and his disciples, who imagined that the daring propagation of premature conceptions, and doing despite to ripe and well-tried truths, was the surest way to a reputation for profound and broad thinking. Subsequently to our receiving and answering the above query, we compared notes with some members of our Jewish Bible Class. When we read to them our dear Christian brother's letter-for his query was preceded by such sentiments as the following: "You rightly judge that I have love to the house of Israel. Yes; God has, I trust, put into my heart great tenderness and great zeal for His people whom He hath chosen, and not cast away. It is a pleasure to me to commune with any Hebrew, especially with any of Abraham's seed having also Abraham's faith in THE SEED of promise and blessing"-our Jewish friends expressed a wish that that prayer form the subject of our reading there and then. We have, of course, acquiesced, but asked that the liturgies of both synagogues-namely, the Portuguese and German-be laid on the table, as well as copies of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, ere the reading commenced. The following is the substance of our remarks and observations on the LORD'S PRAYER : That divinely-dictated orison was twice taught by the Celestial Teacher; the first time in His celebrated Discourse, commonly known as THE SERMON ON THE MOUNTAIN, to which we would add another title,-HEAVEN'S LESSONS ON THE WHOLE DUTY OF MAN. THE mountain, rò opus, we take to describe Mount Hermon: we eschew the critical remarks of Middleton, Bloomfield, and of others on these Greek words; we incline to "ZETA's" strictures. The second time He taught the same petition, by special request, in the neighbourhood of Bethany, after He Himself, at a certain time, had been praying,† maybe in the garden of Gethsemane. In the first instance, we are told by the Evangelist, when the disciples promulgated that simple but sublime Discourse to the multitudes, öxλoi, "The people were astonished at His doctrine; for He taught them as one having authority, and not as the scribes." The prayer was part of the doctrine which He taught, and that, as well as His other sayings in that "Sermon," elicited the astonishment of the multitude; that, as well as the other behests, was something very different from the prayers taught by the scribes. As we have intimated, however, the scribes and other prayer-makers, subsequently to the promulgation of HEAVEN'S LESSONS ON THE WHOLE DUTY OF MAN, have not been above borrowing certain sentences and sentiments from those lessons, and incorporating them in some of their later writings and prayers. There is a Judæo-patristic 66 ,Accept that which is true קבל את האמת ממי שאמרו : saying whosoever the promulgator of it may be." Our analysis must be confined, in the present instance, to the LORD'S PRAYER. We begin with the first word in the opening invocation:—OUR FATHER! Of course, the simple term is often to be met with in the Old * See our April number, pp. 186-191. We recommend an attentive re-perusal of that very suggestive paper. Luke ai. 1-4. Matt. vii. 28, 29. Testament Scriptures. For instance, in that soul-blessing psalm, the hundred and third, the thirteenth verse of which runs thus: "Like as a FATHER pitieth his children, so the Lord pitieth them that reverence Him." In one of the most glorious anthems in the writings of the Evangelical Prophet, dictated as one of the triumph-songs for penitent Israel's celebration, we have the following stanza : "For Thou art OUR FATHER, Though Abraham may not have known us, Thou, O LORD, art OUR FATHER; From everlasting Thy name is Our Redeemer."* Further on in the same penitential triumph-song-for we hold the sixtyfourth chapter of Isaiah should have been part and parcel of the preceding one-we have the following : "And now, O LORD, Thou art OUR FATHER."† So that the endearing term by itself was not original. But considering the present Teacher and taught, it is of manifold importance, as we shall presently point out. Its point and force consist in its terse coupling with the predicate, WHICH ART IN HEAVEN. The two words thus linked-though the Greek and English translators were obliged to make six words of the two in their respective versions-the original words of the invocation must have consisted of two words only, namely N. It is interesting to notice that the same soulblessing psalm-which we have already quoted in reference to the first word of the invocation-has also the second word of the inaugural sentence, as well as the basis of the second supplicatory sentence. We shall dwell upon this more particularly in our second article on this theme. At present, we only quote the verse to which we allude:— "The LORD in the HEAVENS has established His throne, This is not the only instance in which this term is to be met with in the Book of Psalms. We have such couplets as the following: "The LORD is in the Temple of His Holiness, "To THEE have I lifted up mine eyes, O THOU that sittest in the HEAVENS." || We might advance many other instances in which the opening words of Ps. ciii. 19. our LORD'S PRAYER respectively occur in different parts of the Old Testament, but we could not adduce a single instance in which the terms are linked, as they are in the invocation of the petition taught by our Redeemer, either in the writings of Moses or the Prophets. It was the Great and Only Mediator alone who has taught His disciples to begin their petitions thus. We have observed that the invocation thus worded acquires manifold importance if we bear in mind the character of the Teacher and of the taught. The Teacher was none other than the SON OF GOD in the strictest sense of the word. It was He, respecting whom the Psalmist was inspired to say: "Kiss the Son lest He be angry, And ye lose the WAY."* It was He to whom Agur alludes.† Of whom Isaiah sang. ‡ Whom Nebuchadnezzar saw in the burning fiery furnace which He entered in order to save His tried ones.§ It was He, who in fulness of time came to visit us in great humility, in order to make His chosen ones members of Himself, or His brothers and sisters, children of God, and inheritors of the Kingdom of Heaven. Who were the taught? Not the multitudes; we are distinctly told that the solemn "sayings" on THE MOUNTAIN were given utterance to, after He had left the crowds below, "He went up into THE MOUNTAIN : and when His disciples came unto Him." The second time, when He was in the neighbourhod of Bethany :-" And it came to pass, that, as He was praying in a certain place, when He ceased, one of His disciples said unto Him, Lord, teach us to pray, as John also taught his disciples." This "certain place" we take to be the garden of Gethsemane at the foot of the Mount of Olives; the same Evangelist tells us that it was the Redeemer's wont to go thither.** Or as the beloved disciple records, "Jesus ofttimes resorted thither with His disciples."†† We could not forbear quoting here, whilst speaking to our Bible class of Jewish ladies and gentlemen, Hart's sweet little hymn : |