fragments still preserved in Josephus, Eusebius, and other authors, which speak of the Jews more agreeably to the scriptural history, but still with such variations and intermixtures of falsity, that none of those remains, excepting only what we find taken out of Demetrius, in the ninth book of Eusebius de Præparatione Evangelica, do give us any ground to believe, that the writers of them ever consulted those books, or knew any thing of them. This Demetrius' was an historian that wrote in Greek, and an inhabitant of Alexandria, where he compiled a history of the Jews, and continued it down to the reign of the fourth Ptolemy, who was Ptolemy Philopator, the grandson of Philadelphus. How much longer after this it was that he lived is not any where said. He having written so agreeably to the scripture, this seems to prove him to have been a Jew. However, if he were otherwise, that is, not a Jew, but a heathen Greek, that no heathen writer, but he only, should make use of those scriptures, after they had been translated into Greek, sufficiently shows, how much that copy of them which was laid up in the king's library at Alexandria was there neglected, and also how carefully the Jews, who were the first composers of this version, kept and confined all other copies of it to their own use. They had the stated lessons read out of it in their synagogues, and they had copies of it at home for their private use, and thus they seem to have reserved it wholly to themselves till our Saviour's time. But after that time the gospel having been propagated to all nations, this version of the Hebrew scriptures was propagated with it among all that used the Greek tongue, and it became no longer locked up among the Hellenistical Jews, but copies of it were dispersed into all men's hands that desired it; and hence it came to pass, that, after our Saviour's time, many of the heathen writers, as Celsus, Porphyry, and others, became well acquainted with the Old Testament scriptures, though we find scarce any, or rather none of them, were so before.

X. As Christianity grew, so also did the credit and use of the Greek version of the Old Testament scriptures. The evangelists and apostles, who were the holy penmen of the New Testament scriptures, all quoted out of it, and so did all the primitive fathers after them. All the Greek churches used it, and the Latins had no other copy of those scriptures in their language, till Jerome's time, but what was translated from it. Whatsoever comments were written on any part of them, this was always the text, and the explications were made according to it; and when other nations were converted to Christianity, and had those scriptures translated for their use into their several languages, these versions were all made from the Septuagint, as the Illyrian, the Gothic, the Arabic, the Ethiopic, the Armenian, and the Syriac. There was, indeed, an old Syriac version translated immediately from the Hebrew original, which is still in being, and at this time made use of by all the Syrian churches in the east. But, besides this, there was another Syriac version of the same scriptures, which was from the Septuagint. The former was made, if not in the apostles' time, yet very soon after, for the use of the Syrian churches, and it is still used in them; but this latter was not made till about six hundred years after the other, and is at this time extant in some of those churches, where they are both used promiscuously together, that is, as well the one as the other. Of the antiquity of the old Syriac version, the Maronites, and other Syrian Christians, do much brag; for they will have it, that it was made, one part of it, by the command of Solomon, for the use of Hirom, king of Tyre, and the other part (that is, that part whereof the original was written after the time of Solomon) by the command of Abgarus, king of Edessa, who lived in our Saviour's time. The chief argument which they bring for this is, that St. Paul, in his Epistle to the Ephesians (chap. iv. ver. 8,) quoting a passage from Psalm lxviii. ver. 18, makes his quotation of it, not according to the Septuagint, nor according to the

1 Clemens Alexandrinus Strom. lib. 1. Hieronymus in Catalogo Illustrium Scriptorum, c. 38. Vossius de Historicis Græcis, lib. 3, sub litera D.

2 Vide Waltoni Prolegom. c. 9. s. 1. Hodium, lib. 3, part 1.
3 Vide Waltoni Prolegom. c. 13. Du-Pin, Simonium, aliosque.

Hebrew original, but according to the Syriac version; for in that only is it found so as he quotes it; and therefore, say they, this quotation was taken out of it, and consequently, this version must have been made before his time. The words of that passage, as quoted by St. Paul, are, "He led captivity captive, and gave gifts unto men." But the latter part of it is neither according to the Septuagint version of that Psalm, nor according to the Hebrew original, but according to the Syriac version only. For, according to the two former, the quotation must have been, "And received gifts for men;" and according to the latter only is it in that text of the Psalmist so as St. Paul quotes it. But this rather proves, that the Syriac version in that passage of the Psalmist was formed according to St. Paul's quotation, than that St. Paul's quotation was taken from that version. It is certain this version was very ancient. It was in all likelihood made within the first century after Christ, and had for its author some Christian of the Jewish nation that was thoroughly skilled in both languages, that is, in the Hebrew, as well as in the Syriac: for it is very accurately done, and expresseth the sense of the original with greater exactness than any other version which hath been made of those scriptures (I am speaking of the Old Testament,) at any time before the revival of learning in these last ages; and therefore, as it is (excepting only the Septuagint, and the Chaldee paraphrases of Onkelos on the Law, and Jonathan on the Prophets) the oldest translation that we have of any part of those scriptures, so is it the best, without any exception at all, that has been made of them by the ancients into any language whatsoever. And this last character belongs to it, in respect of the New Tes tament as well as of the Old. And therefore, of all the ancient versions which are now consulted by Christians, for the better understanding of the holy scriptures, as well of the New Testament as of the Old, none can better serve this end, than this old Syriac version, when carefully consulted, and well understood. And to this purpose the very nature of the language much helpeth; for it having been the mother-tongue of those who wrote the New Testament, and a dialect of that in which the Old was first given unto us, many things of both are more happily expressed in it through this whole version, than can well be done in any other language. But to return to the Septuagint.

3

XI. As this version grew into use among the Christians, it grew out of credit with the Jews: for they being pinched in many particulars, urged against them by the Christians out of this version, for the evading hereof they entered into the same design against the Septuagint version, that, in the last age, the English papists of Doway and Rheims did against our English version, that is, they were for making a new one that might better serve their purpose. The person who undertook this work was Aquila, a proselyte Jew of Sinope, a city of Pontus. He had been bred up in the heathen religion, and had much addicted himself, while of it, to magic and judicial astrology; but being very much affected with the miracles which he saw the professors of the Christian religion did work in his time, he became a convert to it, upon the same foot as Simon Magus had formerly been, that is, out of an expectation of obtaining power thereby of doing the same works. But not being able to attain thereto, as not having sufficient faith and sincerity for so great a gift he went on with his magic and judicial astrology, endeavouring, thereby, to bewitch the people, and make himself thought some great one among them; which evil practices of his, coming to the knowledge of the governors of the church, they admonished him against them, and, on his refusal to obey their admonitions, excommunicated him; at which being very much exasperated, he apostatized to the Jews, was circumcised, and became a proselyte to their religion: and, for his better in

1 See Dr. Pocock's Preface to his Commentary on Micah.

2 The Rheimish Testament was published A. D. 1600; the Doway version of the Old Testament, 4to. 1609; both in opposition to the English Bible used in Queen Elizabeth's time.

3 Epiphanius de Ponderibus et Mensuris. Synopsis Sacræ Scripturæ Athanasio ascripta. Euthymius in Præfatione ad Comment, in Psalmos. Vide etiam de eo Usserii Syntagma de Versione LXX. Interpretum, c. 5. et 6. Waltoni Prolegomena, c. 9. et Hodium, lib. 4. c. 1.

VOL. II.-6

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struction herein, got himself admitted into the school of Rabbi Akiba,' the most celebrated doctor of the Jewish law in his time; and under him he made such a proficiency in the knowledge of the Jewish language, and those holy scriptures that were written in it, that he was thought sufficient for this work, and accordingly undertook it, and made two editions thereof; the first he published in the twelfth year of the reign of Adrian,3 the Roman emperor, which was the year of our Lord 128. But afterward, having revised it, and made it more correct, he published the second edition of it. And this the Hellenistical Jews received, and afterward used it every where instead of the Septuagint; and therefore this Greek translation is often made mention of in the Talmud, but the Septuagint never." And in this use of it they continued till the finishing and publishing of both the Talmuds. After that time the notion grew among them, that the scriptures ought not to be read in any of their synagogues but in the old form, that is, in the Hebrew first, and then, by way of interpretation, in the Chaldee, according to the manner as I have already described it; and the decrees of the doctors are urged for this way. But the Hellenistical Jews, after so long use of the Greek version, not easily coming into this, it caused great divisions and disturbances among them; for the quieting of which, Justinian the emperor published a decree, which is still extant among his novel constitutions, whereby he ordained, that the Jews might read the scriptures in their synagogues, either in the Greek version of the LXXII., or in that of Aquila, or in any other language, according to the country in which they should dwell. But the Jewish doctors having determined otherwise, their decrees obtained against the emperor's; and, within a little while after, both the Septuagint and the version of Aquila became rejected by them: and ever since, the solemn reading of the scriptures among them in their public assemblies hath been in the Hebrew and Chaldee languages."

9

Not long after the time of Aquila, there were two other Greek versions made of the same scriptures; the first by Theodotion, who lived in the time of Commodus, the Roman emperor, and the other by Symmachus, who flourished a little after him, in the reign of Severus and Caracalla. The former, according to some, was of Sinope in Pontus; but according to others, 10 of Ephesus. They who would reconcile this matter, say he was of the former by birth, and of the other by habitation. The latter was a Samaritan," and bred up in that sect, but afterward he became a Christian of the sect of the Ebionites; 12 and Theodotion having been of the same profession before him, hence it came to pass, that they were by some said to have been both of them proselytes to Judaism, for the heresy of the Ebionites approached nearer the religion of the Jews than that of the orthodox Christians. They professed, indeed, to believe in Christ as the true Messiah, but held him to be no more than a mere man, and thought themselves still under the obligation of the law of Moses, and therefore were circumcised, and observed all the other rites and ceremonies of the Jewish religion; and, for this reason, they had commonly the name of Jews given them by the orthodox Christians: and hence it is, that we find both these persons as having been of that heretical sect, sometimes branded with the name of Jews by the ancient writers of the church. They both of them undertook the making of their versions with the same design as Aquila did, although not wholly for the same end: for they all three entered on this work for the perverting of the Old Testament scriptures; but Aquila did it for the serving of the interest of the Jewish religion, the other two for the serving of the interest of that heretical

13

1 Hieronymus in Comment. ad Esaiæ, cap. 8.

3 Epiphanius in libro de Ponderibus et Mensuris.

2 Hieronymus in Comment. ad Ezek. cap. 4.

4 Philastrius Hæres. 90. Origen. in Epistola ad Africanum.

5 Lightfoot. in Primam Epistolam ad Corinthios, c. 9.

6 Novel, 146. Photii Nomocanon XII. 3.

7 The Chaldee is used in some of their synagogues even to this day, as particularly at Frankfort in Germany.

8 Epiphanius in Libro de Ponderibus et Mensuris.

9 Ibid.

10 Trenæus Hæres. lib. 3. c. 24. Synopsis Sacræ Scripturæ, Athanasio ascripta. 12 Eusebius in Hist. Eccles. lib. 6. c. 17. et Demonstrat. Evang. lib. 7. c. 1.

sect which they were of; and all of them wrested those holy writings, in their versions of them, as much as they could, to make them speak for the different ends which they proposed. There is some dispute, which of the two latter versions was first made. Symmachus's version is first in the order of columns in the Hexapla of Origen; and this hath made some think, that it was first also in the order of time. But if this were an argument of any force, it would prove his version, and Aquila's also, to have been made before the Septuagint; for they are both, in the order of those columns, placed before it. Irenæus quotes Aquila,' and also Theodotion, but says nothing of Symmachus; which sufficiently proves, that both their versions were extant in his time, but not that of the other. These three interpreters took three different ways in the making of their versions. Aquila stuck closely and servilely to the letter, rendering word for word, as nearly as he could, whether the idioms and properties of the language he made his version into, or the true sense of the text would bear it or no. Hence his version is said to be rather a good dictionary to give the meaning of the Hebrew words, than a good interpretation to unfold unto us the sense of the text; and therefore Jerome commends him much in the former respect, and as often condemns him in the latter. Symmachus3 took a contrary course, and, running into the other extreme, endeavoured only to express what he thought was the true sense of the text, without having much regard to the words; whereby he made his version rather a paraphrase than an exact translation. Theodotion' went the middle way between both, without keeping himself too servilely to the words, or going too far from them; but endeavoured to express the sense of the text in such Greek words as would best suit the Hebrew, as far as the different idioms of the two languages would bear. And his taking this middle way between both these extremes, is, I reckon, the chief reason why some have thought he lived after both the other two, because he corrected that in which the other two have erred. But this his method might happen to lead him to, without his having any such view in it. Theodotion's version had the preference with all, except the Jews, who adhered to that of Aquila as long as they used any Greek version at all. And therefore, when the ancient Christians found the Septuagint version of Daniel too faulty to be used in their churches, they took Theodotion's version of that book into their Greek Bibles instead of it; and there it hath continued ever since. And for the same reason, Origen, in his Hexapla where he supplies out of the Hebrew original what was defective in the Septuagint, doth it mostly according to the version of Theodotion. All these four different Greek versions Origen collected together in one volume,' placing them in four distinct columns, one over against the other, all in the same page; and from hence this edition was called the Tetrapla, i. e. the fourfold edition. In the first column of this edition was placed the version of Aquila, in the second that of Symmachus, in the third that of the Septuagint, and in the last that of Theodotion. Sometime after he published another edition, wherein he added two other columns in the beginning, and two others also in the end of the same page, and this was called the Hexapla, i. e. the sixfold edition, and sometimes the Octapla, that is, the eightfold. In the first column of this edition was placed the Hebrew text in Hebrew letters," in the second the same Hebrew text in Greek letters, in the third the Greek version of Aquila, in the fourth that of Symmachus, in the fifth that of the Septuagint, in the sixth that of Theodotion, in the seventh that which was called the fifth

1 Lib. 3. c. 24.

2 Epiphanius de Ponderibus et Mensuris. Origen. in Epist. ad Africanum. Hieronymus in Præfat. ad Chronica. Eusebiana, et in Præfat. ad Librum Job, et in Tractat. de optimo Genere interpretandi. 3 Hieronymus in Præfatione ad Chronica Eusebiana, et in Comment. ad Amos, c. 3.

4 Hieronymus in Præfatione ad Chronica Eusebiana, et in Præfatione ad Librum Job, et alibi sæpius.

5 Hieronymus in Præfatione ad Versionem Danielis, et in Præfatione ad Comment. in Danielem et alibi.

6 Hieronymus in Præfatione ad Pentat. et in Præfatione ad Libros Paralipom, et in Epistola ad Augustinum, et alibi in operibus suis.

7 Epiphanius de Ponderibus et Mensuris. Hieronymus in Præfatione ad Libros Paralipom. Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. lib. 6. c. 16.

8 Eusebius et Epiphanius, ibid. Hieronymus in Comment. in Epistolam Pauli ad Titum, et in Epistola ad Vincentium et Gallienum, et alibi. Videas etiam de hac re Waltonum, Hodium, et Simonium.

Greek version, and in the eighth the sixth Greek version; and after all these columns, in some parts of this edition, was added a ninth, in which was placed that which they call the seventh version. The fifth and sixth were not of the whole Old Testament, but only of some parts of it. The law, and several other of the books of these scriptures, were wanting in both these versions: and therefore this edition began only with six columns, and the other columns were added there only where these other versions began. And hence it is, that this edition is called sometimes the Hexapla, in respect of that part of it where there were only six columns, and sometimes the Octapla, in respect to that part of it where there were eight columns: for the Hexapla and the Octapla were one and the same work, which, in some parts of it, had only six columns, and in others eight, and in some nine. In respect of the two former, it was called Hexapla and Octapla, but never Enneapla (i. e. the ninefold,) in respect of the last: for that last containing only a small part, and, as some say, no more than the Psalms, no regard was had to it, in the name given to the whole work. In this edition, Origen' altered the order of several parts of the Septuagint, where it differed from the Hebrew original: for whereas several passages in that version,2 especially in Jeremiah, were inverted, transposed, and put into a different order from what they are in the Hebrew, it was necessary for him to reduce them again to the same order with it for the making of this edition answer the end he proposed; for this end herein being, that the differences between all the versions and the original might be the more easily seen, in order to the making of that version the more correct and perfect which was in use through the whole Greek church, he found it necessary to make the whole answer line for line in every column, that all might appear the more readily to the view of the reader; which could not be done without reducing all to the same uniform order; and that of the original, in which all was first written, was the properest to be followed.

The fifth and sixth edition above mentioned were found," the one of them at Nicopolis, a city near Actium in Epirus, in the reign of Caracalla, and the other at Jericho in Judea, in the reign of Alexander Severus. Where the seventh was found, or who was the author of this, or of the other two, is no where said. The first of these three contained the minor prophets, the Psalms, the Canticles, and the book of Job; the second, the minor prophets, and the Canticles; and the third, according to some, only the Psalms. But very uncertain, and in some particulars, very contradictory accounts being given of these three last versions, and the matter being of no moment, since they are now all lost, it will be of no use to make any farther inquiry concerning them. How the whole was disposed in this edition of Origen's will be best understood by the subjoined scheme.

All the three last versions, as well as the other three, of Aquila, Symmachus, and Theodotion, Origen published in this edition as he found them. But the Septuagint, which was in the fifth column, being that for the sake of which he published all the rest, he bestowed much more pains upon it, to make it as correct and perfect as he could: for the copies of it," which in 1 Vide de hac re Usserii Syntagma de Græca LXX. interpretum versione, c. 9. Morini Exercitationes Bibli. cas, part 1. et Hodium de Textibus Bibliorum Originalibus, lib. 4. c. 2. s. 15.

2 Origen in Epistola ad Africanum. Hieronymus in Præfatione ad Jeremiam.

3 Euseb. Hist. Eccles. lib. G. c. 11. Epiphanius de Ponderibus et Mensuris. Hieronymus. Author Synop sis Sacræ Scripturæ, aliique. 4 Hieronymus citat eam versionem in his libris, nemo in aliis.

5 Origen in Matthæum editionis Huetianæ, tom. 1. p. 381.