Chronological Institute of London, 227. Codex Leicestrensis; its age, style, Codex Zacynthus,. description of, 171. land, 278; his literary labours and Culdees, their rise and labours, 282. trines, miracles, and prophecies, 234. Correspondence, 169, 386. Criticism of the New Testament, 1. Curious books, 216. Cursives, Mr. Scrivener on, 12. F Five Clergymen, their revision of Franks, the, and their Metropolitan, G Gerson, Rabbi Ben Levi, on Jewish Glasgow Cathedral, its rise, 291. 3. Grammar of the New Testament dic- Grammar, Arabic, 427. H "He shall be called a Nazarene," re- Hebrew Literature, 219. Helena, the empress, her country and Hengstenberg on Messianic predic- Heraldry in the Bible, 228. Herodotus and his history, 332; his D De Missy's sarcasm, 1. Dr. Dobbin quoted, 2. Dr. Davidson on old MSS., 12. Druids, their remains in Scotland, 275; Sir Walter Scott on, 276; their I Inspiration of the Evangelists, 117. Jewish Priesthood, on the, 34; the K Kalisch, Dr., Rational Enquiries by, L Large Libraries, 228. Layard, his Discoveries, 334; his ideas M Maccabees, the, parties in the time of, Maimonides on Jewish sacrifices, 30. Mansel on religious thought, 204. Martyrs in Scotland, 293. Mosaic Dispensation compared with Parallel passages relating to our Lord's Peschito-Syriac, the, Dr. Tregelles Prince Alfred at Jerusalem, 449. Psalm xvi., notes on, 190. Ꭱ Rawlinson, Mr., theory of the rise of Revelation ix.-xi., analysis of, 137, Revised edition of Job, 257. Roman Emperor Leo's edict against Romans, Epistle to the, annotations on Royal Asiatic Society, 221. Royal Society of Antiquaries, facts S Sabbath at Shechem, 420. St. Matthew ii. 23, suggestions for a St. John, analysis of the Emblems of, Savile, Rev. B., on the advents, 202. Scrivener, Mr., his edition of the Codex Selwyn, Professor, on the Septuagint Sentence of death pronounced against Syriac Documents, 411. Trustees of the British Museum, 228. U Uncials, their number, 13. V Vatican Manuscript, remarks on the, THE JOURNAL OF SACRED LITERATURE AND BIBLICAL RECORD. No. XVII. APRIL, 1859. CRITICISM OF THE NEW TESTAMENT; UNCIALS AND CURSIVES. In the Introduction to the valuable work whose title we give below," we find the following noble and praiseworthy sentiments:-"I have always thought that the researches and labours of the scholar-of the theological scholar above all others—are their own highest and purest reward. Let me plead guilty to having read with sensations akin to scorn, the manuscript note appended by Cæsar de Missy (a person who might have known better) to the copy of Hearne's scarce edition of the Codex Laudianus (published in 1815), now preserved in the British Museum. To Hearne's miserable list of just forty-one subscribers to his book, De Missy subjoins the sarcastic comment, Après cela, Docteur, va pálir sur la Bible! Yet, why should he not have grown pale in the study of God's Word? Why not have handed down to happier times a treasure of sacred learning "An Exact Transcript of the Codex Augiensis; a Græco-Latin Manuscript of St. Paul's Epistles, deposited in the library of Trinity College, Cambridge. To which is added a full collation of fifty manuscripts, containing various portions of the Greek New Testament in the libraries of Cambridge, Parham, Leicester, Oxford, Lambeth, the British Museum, etc. With a critical introduction by the Rev. Frederick Henry Scrivener, M.A., late Scholar of Trinity College, Cambridge, Perpetual Curate of Penwerris, Falmouth. Quod Potui." Cambridge: Deighton and Co. London: Bell and Daldy, 1859. Large 8vo, pp. 642. 66 VOL. IX.NO. XVII. B which the princes and prelates of George the First's reign (that nadir-point of public virtue and intellectual cultivation in England) were too slothful to appreciate, too negligent even to despise? The pursuits of Scriptural criticism are so quiet, so laborious, that they can have few charms for the votary of fame, or the courtier of preferment; they always have been, perhaps they always must be, the choice employment mainly of those who, feeling conscious (it may be) of having but one talent committed to their keeping, seek nothing so earnestly as to use that one talent well." Truth, stern, yet pleasing in its rigid beauty, is contained in these remarks, and a similar sentiment, uttered by one labouring in the same field, is now presented to our mind, and we are tempted to quote it: "In the library of the University of Oxford," says Dr. Dobbin," "and in those of the several colleges, is probably the largest accumulation of unused MS. material in the world, not excepting the stores in Rome, Vienna, or Paris; and that both of a sacred and secular nature. The harvest is abundant beyond parallel; and the fields are white for the sickle, the most liberal access being given to these documents by the authorities of the place. To studious souls, the mere announcement of the fact is an invitation to labour in this field. But we have the additional inducement to offer, that labour expended here will leave the disinterestedness of the student beyond the reach of question; inasmuch as the grain he thus garners, however curious in itself, is so little thought of amid the more practical issues of life, that he must make up his mind to gain little either of reputation or profit from his toil. From the time of Erasmus down through Mill and Wetstein, the collater of MSS. has had his labour as the chief reward of his pains. The Tagus of textual criticism is not used to roll over golden sands. The genuine student will derive his impulse from the very condition of things which we describe, and will thereupon all the more earnestly proclaim his enthusiastic devotion to the pursuits of critical learning." Now, the hard and unrequited toil spoken of in these extracts, is that employed in the attempt to bring the documents of the Greek New Testament as nearly as possible to the state in which they were left by the inspired writers. This is not a modern study, although it has revived and gathered strength since the Reformation, for the various readings of the Holy Scriptures are The Codex Montfortianus; a collation of this celebrated MS. in the library of Trinity College, Dublin, throughout the Gospels and Acts, with the Greek text of Wetstein, and with certain MSS. in the Universities of Oxford. By Orlando T. Dobbin, LL.D., etc. London: Bagster and Sons, 1854. |