Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

exile, the sacred books were subjected to a careful and critical examination. About the same time the written character of the ancient Hebrew was modified by the Aramaic chirography, until it took the square form, more nearly resembling the Palmyrene letters, which was adopted perhaps on account of its beauty. Simultaneously came another arrangement of the text, with a view to its public reading. Tradition had prescribed the manner in which the reader's voice should emphasize words and balance sentences, but it was long before that mode was declared by any written signs. The first step toward this was the separation of words from each other, and it was followed by the division into verses. This had been marked in poetry very early by lines or blank spaces measuring the rhythm. In prose it was introduced later for the convenience of the synagogue, and was established by the close of the period we are considering. Before this distribution into sentences, the necessity was felt of breaking up the text into sections of less or greater length. In this division the book of the law consisted of 669 paragraphs or "parashes," and these, in the absence of headings and running indices, were known and referred to by the subject that was most prominent in each; for example, parash "Balaam," parash "Bush," or "Deluge.' The text, thus written and distributed, was most jealously guarded. In copying it nothing must be added, nothing taken away, nothing changed; letters, words, verses, sections were counted. Rules were made in regard to the way in which the MSS. were to be written; every letter that was larger or smaller, suspended or inverted, or otherwise unusual in its form, even if accidentally so written, was to be heedfully copied. Another division into larger parashes or sections, adapted to the public readings on the Sabbath, was introduced at a later time. The next period in the history of the Old Testament text is the Masoretic, commonly reckoned from the 6th to the 11th century. The word masora means a "collection of traditions," and the main object of the laborers in this field was to gather up and arrange the critical material of an older time before the existing traditions should fade out. But the Masorites did more than this; they aimed at completing what had been commenced before; they would fix the reading of the text in all its parts, and their scrupulous care did much to finish and perfect it. They collated MSS., noticed critical and orthographical difficulties, and ventured upon conjectures of their own. Their notes were at first written in separate books; afterward for convenience they were copied upon the margin of MSS., or even at the end of a book, a practice that led gradually to vast confusion. Attempts were even made to crowd the whole Masora upon the margin of MSS., and when the space was too small, as often it was, the annotations were appended to the text or omitted entirely.

[ocr errors]

Since the completion of the Masoretic period the labors of scholars have been spent in elucidating and perpetuating the Masoretic text. The MSS. of the Pentateuch were very carefully revised, and some of them are very ancient. of the other books no MSS. date back as far as the Masoretic period: four or five belong to the 12th century; some 50 belong to the 13th; and for the following centuries the number increases. Eminent Jewish scholars of the middle ages devoted themselves to the task of purifying the sacred text by the largest possible collation of MSS., and in their writings speak of famous copies now lost whose use they enjoyed. When the invention of printing had made easy the exact reproduction and extensive multiplication of copies, an attempt was made to compare carefully the best MSS. extant, to collate with them the Masora, and thus to bring out a true and pure Masoretic text; an undertaking too large to be accomplished at once, and therefore but imperfectly executed at that time. The books were produced singly. The earliest printed portion of the Hebrew Bible, the Psalter, was done in 1477, in small folio form, very carelessly, with many abbreviations, and not a few grave omissions. Later, about 1480, it was reprinted in 12mo, without date or place, and again in the same form with an index. The whole Pentateuch, with the points, the Chaldee paraphrase, and Rashi's commentary, was printed in 1482, in folio, at Bologna. In 1486 appeared in two folios, at Soncino, the prophets, early and later, with Kimchi's commentary. The whole Hagiographa was printed in Naples in 1487. The entire Hebrew Bible was first printed at Soncino in 1488. It was made partly from MSS. neither very old, probably, nor very good, and partly from editions of separate books already published. It contained many errors. Only nine copies of this edition are extant. This was strictly followed by the Gerson edition printed at Brescia in 1494, from which Luther made his translation. It was the parent of the first rabbinical Bible of Bomberg, 1517 and 1518, and of Bomberg's manual editions from 1518 to 1521; of the editions of Robert Stephens (4to, 1539-'44), and of Sebastian Münster's (Basel, 2 vols. 4to, 1536). The next independent edition prepared from a fresh comparison of MSS. was the famous Complutensian Polyglot (Complutum, i. e., Alcalá de Henares), the work of Cardinal Ximenes, assisted by the most eminent biblical scholars in Spain. No expense was spared to procure Hebrew MSS. from different countries. The Vatican and other libraries lent their treasures; and 14 years of preparatory labors were spent before the first volume was issued (1522). The text of the Complutensian Bible agrees closely with that of Bomberg's first edition of 1518. The third great original edition is the second of Bomberg's rabbinical Bible, printed in folio at Venice, 1525-'6. This embodies the labors of Rabbi Jacob ben Chajim, who revised the Masora word by word, ar

|

[ocr errors]

ranged it, made an index, and availed himself the briefer consequently their existence. The systematically of its whole apparatus. It was books of the New Testament were written reprinted several times in the 16th and 17th cen- after the custom of the time upon papyrus, or turies. After these three independent editions, upon parchment, finer and more durable, which all that follow contain a mixed text. The Ant- was beginning to take its place, and were in werp Polyglot, published 1569-'72, at the ex- the roll form. The writing itself, done with a pense of King Philip II. of Spain, and there- reed and ink, was in uncial or large letters, fore called the royal Polyglot, was composed and ran in continuous lines, with no spaces befrom the Complutensian and Bomberg's. Between the words, no capitals or stops. The sides the texts in five volumes, four contain- heading of the books, "According to Matthew," ing the Old and one the New Testament, three 'According to Luke," &c., was added later. other volumes gave a valuable apparatus, crit- Some epistles had their address marked upon ical, philological, antiquarian. The various edi- them, but in others it was inferred from the tions of Plantin followed the Antwerp Poly- contents. The title "catholic" ("general" in glot, as did those of Christian Reineccius. It our English Bibles) was given to certain episwas the basis also of the Paris Polyglot (10 tles in the 4th century. As copies of these anvols. folio, 1645), which gave the text in He- cient books multiplied, they naturally varied brew, Samaritan, Chaldee, Syriac, Arabic, more or less from the originals and from each Greek, and Latin, containing for the first time other; the copyists confounding similar letters in print the Samaritan Pentateuch. It was or words, substituting a synonyme for a given repeated again in the London Polyglot (6 vols. term, introducing something from a parallel folio, 1657). Elias Hutter, in his first edition passage or marginal gloss, or making other alpublished at Hamburg in 1587, and three times terations unintentional or even intentional, as reprinted, used the copies of Venice, Antwerp, the copyist tried to harmonize seeming discrepand Paris. In 1611 the manual edition of ancies or to explain what seemed obscure. Buxtorf was printed. Buxtorf undertook to These variations, small and great, number not improve upon Bomberg's Bible, and as far as he less than 120,000; yet they are mostly variations could conformed to the Masora, for whose text of spelling or inflection, often impossible to exhe had the highest respect, regarding it as the press in a translation. There are not more than only perfect one. The next important edition 1,600 or 2,000 places where the true reading for which the oldest and best MSS. were col- is at all in doubt, while the doubtful readings lated was that of Joseph Athias, printed at which affect the sense are much fewer still, and Amsterdam, 1661 and 1667. Among the later those of any dogmatic importance can be easily editions that have followed this, the most no- numbered. The MSS. of the New Testament ted from their new collation of MSS., careful have been classified according to certain literary selection of readings, and thorough correction or geographical affinities. They were divided of points, are those of Jablonski, Berlin, 1699; into the eastern and the western, or according to Van der Hooght, Amsterdam, 1705; J. H. another description, into an Alexandrine and a Michaelis, Halle, 1720; Houbigant, Paris, 1753; Latin, an Asiatic and a Byzantine text. The Simon, Halle, 1752, 1767; Kennicott, Oxford, Alexandrine type of the Greek text was in use 1776, 1780; August Hahn, 1831; and G. Theile, among the oriental Jewish Christians who used 1849. Besides these editions, which aim at the Greek version of the Old Testament. The bringing the Masoretic text near its perfec- Latin type is found not only in the Latin copies, tion, critical helps are found in the Masora but in the Greek copies which the Latins used. contained in the rabbinical Bibles of Bomberg These groups were not wholly distinct from one and Buxtorf, and the various readings which another, and it is difficult to fix upon the pecuare found in all the best editions. The toil liar reading that belongs to each. The MSS. and treasure expended upon this long series of of the Byzantine class are most uniform. Toeditions, each of which was a triumph in its ward the close of the 4th century no single MS. time, have not been wasted. The result on the was known that comprised the whole New whole is a text of these ancient and venerable Testament. At a considerably later period books, not indeed perfect in every point and they were rare, and most of these contained particle, but more excellent than might have also the Old Testament in Greek. The four been expected, a text that nearly corresponds gospels were commonly written in one collecwith that of the books which constituted the tion, and the Pauline epistles in one. The oldest Hebrew canon.-The task of purifying catholic epistles were classed with the Acts, the Greek of the New Testament and bring- though sometimes these last two collections ing it to the perfection of our latest and best and the Pauline were united. MSS. of the editions was much less difficult, yet a work Apocalypse were the rarest. The gospels were of no small magnitude. Not a fragment from generally found in the order in which we have the hand of an evangelist or an apostle sur- them, though in some copies they were transvived the early generations that used the ori- posed. After the Acts usually came the cathginal MSS. and wore them out. The early olic epistles. The order in which the letters Christians did not feel the importance of laying of Paul stood varied much. The place of the them sacredly aside. The greater their value, Apocalypse was fixed by Athanasius at the end the more extensive was their circulation, and | of the collection, as it stands at present. By

the 4th century papyrus had given place to
parchment, and the form of the roll to that of
the book. Breaks in the line and simple points
were used. To meet the convenience of the
public lecture, the books were measured off
into pauses and sentences by lines, after the same
manner with the poetical books of the Old Tes-
tament. It was not long, however, before
other divisions of the text were adopted. In
the 3d century Ammonius in making his har-
mony of the gospels had broken up the text
into 1,165 sections, and after the 5th century
his arrangement was indicated upon the mar-
gin of nearly all the MSS. The gospels were
divided into chapters from a very early period,
but the present arrangement originated in the
13th century with Cardinal Hugo, who devised
it while making a Latin concordance. Erasmus
noted it in the margin of his Latin translation,
and it was repeated in the Complutensian
Polyglot. The subdivision of the chapters into
verses was introduced by Robert Stephens in
1551. Cursive or small letters were not gen-
erally substituted for the uncial till the 10th
century. Uncial MSS. of the New Testament
are numerous when compared with the ancient
MSS. of other works; and year by year new |
ones are being discovered. The ages of these
to within half a century have been ascertained.
To the 4th century belong two or three: the
Sinaitic codex (N), now at St. Petersburg, ob-
tained by Tischendorf from the convent of St.
Catharine, Mt. Sinai, in 1859, and since pub-
lished in facsimile at the expense of the empe-
ror of Russia (1862); the Vatican codex (B),
containing all the New Testament except the
Apocalypse, the epistles to Timothy, Titus, and
Philemon, and the last four and a half chapters
of Hebrews. This MS. was published by Ti-
schendorf at Leipsic in 1867 and by papal au-
thority at Rome in 1868. To this century per-
haps belongs a palimpsest in the British mu-
seum containing fragments of John xiii. and
xvi., published by Tischendorf. To the 5th
century belong seven MSS.: the Alexandrian
codex (A), presented by the patriarch of Con-
stantinople to Charles I. in 1628, and preserved
in the British museum, and published in 1786
and 1860; the Ephrem palimpsest (C), in the
imperial library at Paris, containing in 64 leaves
fragments of the Septuagint, and in 145 two
thirds of the New Testament, over which had
been written the works of St. Ephrem the Syr-
ian, deciphered and published by Tischendorf in
1843; and five other fragmentary MSS. To the
6th century belong 18 MSS.; among them Beza's
codex (D), a Greek-Latin MS. of part of the
New Testament presented by Beza in 1581 to the
university of Cambridge; the Codex purpureus
(N) written with silver letters on purple vel-
lum; and other MSS. of great interest. From
the 7th century we have only several frag-
ments of MSS. To the 8th century are as-
signed 9, one of the most valuable being the
MS. (L) 62 in the imperial library at Paris
used by Robert Stephens. The 9th century

has left us 20 MSS., besides four which are assigned to the 9th or 10th. From the 10th century we have five. These uncial MSS. (about 75) have been deciphered, some of them with great difficulty; most of them have been accurately collated, and the text of many has been published. Of them all, only one, the recently discovered Sinaitic MS., now has the New Testament complete, though three others originally had the whole, but now lack some parts. Four others have the gospels complete, and four nearly; and about 40 others have portions of the gospels, larger or smaller. The other New Testament books are found more or less complete in some, while in others they are wanting. Besides the 75 uncial MSS. above noticed, there are some 65 lectionaries, or select portions of the gospels or epistles for church services, written in uncial letters, and 1,215 MSS. of some portions of the New Testament and 248 lectionaries in cursive letters.Most eminent scholars have aided in establishing the text of the New Testament: among the Greeks, Irenæus, Clement, Origen, Athanasius, Eusebius, Epiphanius, the Cyrils, Chrysostom, and Theodoret; among the Latins, Cyprian, Tertullian, Ambrose, Augustine, and Rufinus. The name of Bede brings us nearer home. Alcuin endeavored to purify the Latin text, and Photius labored in the 9th century, Suidas in the 10th, and Theophylact, Ecumenius, and others in subsequent ages. Yet 50 years after the invention of printing no attempt had been made to print the original text of the New Testament. The fifth volume of the Complutensian Polyglot contained the original Greek based on MSS. of no special value, so far as may be judged. This volume was printed first of the whole set in 1514, but was not issued until the rest were finished in 1522. Before this, in 1516, Erasmus had issued the first Greek and Latin edition of the New Testament at Basel, constructing his text from five MSS. there. A second edition, changed in some hundred passages, appeared in 1519, a third in 1522, and a fourth in 1527, further altered to conform to the Complutensian, and repeated in 1535 with little change. For 100 years the Complutensian and Erasmian texts were often reprinted with slight alterations. Famous editors of the text were Robert Stephens, a learned printer of Paris (1539-'51), and Theodore Beza (1565-'98). The Elzevirs at Leyden (1624-'41) and at Amsterdam (1656) gave what is known as the "received text," relying upon Stephens and Beza. Bishop Walton's London Polyglot of 1657, Bishop Fell's Greek Testament (Oxford, 1658) and Dr. John Mill's Greek New Testament (Oxford, 1707) gave various readings and versions from many ancient MSS. under the received text. These were the precursors of modern critical editions. Bengel (Tübingen, 1734), Wetstein (Amsterdam, 1751), and Griesbach (Halle, 1744 and 1806) made great advances in critical perfection. The edi |tions of Knapp, Tittmann, Hahn, and Theile

Fragments of it are preserved in Origen's Hexapla. But after the Septuagint the most famous version from the Hebrew was the Latin version of Jerome, the basis of the present Vulgate. Jerome, who had previously undertaken a revision of the old Latin translation of the New Testament, called the Itala, revised the Psalter also from the Septuagint about 383. About 389 he began a new version from the Hebrew, and completed the work about 405. The work, though in parts hastily, was on the whole well done. The translator made use of the Greek versions that were before him, as well as of the Arabic and the Syriac, always, however, comparing them with the Hebrew. The translation, having to contend with a superstitious reverence for the Septuagint, met with a doubtful reception, and made its way slowly into favor, but in the course of 200 or 300 years it was highly regarded at Rome and in other places, but not so highly as to escape corruption from careless copyists, indiscreet revisers, ambitious critics, and reckless theologians. The old Vulgate (the Itala) and the new injured each other. Alcuin, early in the 9th century, bidden, and as some think aided by Charlemagne, revised and corrected Jerome's version by the Hebrew and Greek originals. Lanfranc, archbishop of Canterbury in the 11th century, revised it again. The council of Trent (1546), having received a report from a commission that the text was very corrupt, so that only the pope could restore it, declared that "the old and Vulgate edition .. shall be held as authentic, . . . and that no one, on any pretext whatever, may dare or presume to reject it." The council also decreed that the edition "should be printed as accurately as possible." As it had become necessary to prepare an authentic edition of the authorized version, two popes, Pius IV. and V., addressed themselves to this task; learned men were assembled, a printing press was erected in the Vatican, a pontiff looked over the printed sheets, and the work was published in 1590; but it proved to be so imperfect that Gregory XIV. called another assembly of scholars to make another revision. This time the duty

are chiefly based on Griesbach's. Greenfield | followed Mill, but gave Griesbach's principal variations. Scholz (Leipsic, 1830-'36) made a wide collation of MSS., and Lachmann a very critical study of a few MSS. The late Dean Alford and Dr. Tregelles in England, and Tischendorf in Germany, are among the most eminent laborers in our own day. Tischendorf's first edition (Leipsic, 1841) followed Griesbach and Lachmann, but subsequently he carried out a most elaborate plan of travel and investigation, and published its results in his second edition (Leipsic, 1849). Other editions have followed in 1850, 1854, and 1855-'9, the last giving valuable accounts of his critical labors, and presenting the best text hitherto published. A new edition begun in 1864 is nearly completed (1873). Tregelles has published (1855770) an edition from collation and comparison of MSS. of all the Greek fathers down to the Nicene council. His edition is incomplete, being interrupted by the state of his health. The various critical editions of the New Testament bear conclusive witness to the genuineness of | the text in every matter of importance. There has been no material corruption in the sacred record. The ancient translations of the Old and New Testaments are in some respects of great value. The oldest of these and the most celebrated is the Greek version of the Old Testament called the Septuagint (LXX.) from its 72 translators, or perhaps from the 72 members of the Sanhedrim who sanctioned it. It was commenced by Jews of Alexandria about 280 B. C., and was finished in the course of years evidently by different hands. The Pentateuch is pronounced by scholars the best portion of the work; other portions are unequal; here and there it is considered to betray an imperfect knowledge of the Hebrew language. It contains most of the books called the Apocrypha. (See APOCRYPHA). The Greek Jews, in the declining state of the Hebrew tongue, made great use of the Septuagint, and even the Jews of Palestine held it in high esteem until the Christians in the second century quoted it against them. They then denied its agreement with the Hebrew, and it became odious to them. In Jerome's day there were more thoroughly discharged, and the three differing yet authorized editions of the Biblia Sacra Vulg. Ed. Test. V. Pont. Max. Septuagint in use: one in Palestine, one at Al- jussu recog., &c., the basis of every subsequent exandria, and one in Constantinople. Hence edition, was issued in 1592. The famous Belthe corruptions that mar the MSS. in our pos- larmin, one of the translators, wrote the prefsession. The Septuagint was the parent of ace.-Translations of the New Testament were many translations in Latin, Syriac, Ethiopic, made very early into all the tongues then spoCoptic, Armenian, Georgian, Slavonic, and ken by Christians. A few words upon some Arabic. Many oriental versions were made of the more modern versions will be in place from the Hebrew, of uncertain date; among here. In Germany, Martin Luther spent ten them the Targums in Chaldee (see TARGUMS), laborious years, from 1522 to 1532, in executhe Samaritan Pentateuch, the Syriac translating that wonderful translation which has done tion called the Peshito or "simple," one of the oldest translations of the Bible, several in Arabic, and one in Persian. There were also other Greek versions, of which the most celebrated was that of Aquila, made about A. D. 135, and valuable on account of its anxious literalness.

was

[ocr errors]

so much for the Bible and for the language into which it was rendered. Several portions of the Scriptures he had translated into German before, for the use of the people, viz., the penitential and other Psalms, the Lord's prayer, the Ten Commandments, and other

passages, which were often printed. It was not till toward the close of 1521 that he conceived the plan of translating the whole; but having commenced, the work proceeded rapidly. The New Testament was finished first; in a year came the Pentateuch; another year completed the historical books and the Hagiographa; two years more brought Jonah and Habakkuk; and the prophets were finished in 1532. It was all Luther's work. As the foundation he used the Brescia edition of 1494 (his copy is still preserved at Berlin), and with this the Septuagint, the Vulgate, and other Latin versions, while for the New Testament he took the text of Erasmus, 1519. Many versions have been made since Luther's in Germany, but for vigor and simplicity his has not been surpassed, not even by that of Augusti and De Wette. Portions of the Bible were translated into Saxon by Aldhelm, Egbert, Bede, and others, between the 8th and 10th centuries. An English version of the Psalms is supposed to have been made in 1290. Wycliffe finished his translation of the New Testament about 1380. That of the Old Testament, begun by his coadjutor Nicholas de Hereford about 1382, was completed probably by Wycliffe before 1384. The revision made by John Purvey and others about 1388 nearly displaced Wycliffe's, and was widely circulated in MS. among all classes, until superseded by the printed versions of the 16th century. The first volume printed by Gutenberg (1450-'55) was the Latin Bible, and hardly was it completed when versions began to multiply. In 1524, William Tyndale, finding no place to do it in all England, went to the continent, and there, at Worms, in 1525, printed his version of the New Testament from the original Greek. Coverdale, his fellow laborer, finished his translation of the Old Testament in 1535, and this was followed by several editions of "Matthew's Bible," called also the "Great" Bible, or "Cranmer's," according to its editors. This was the authorized version under Edward VI. The "Genevan Bible," the first English Bible with Roman type, verses, and no Apocrypha, was a new and careful revision from the original tongues by the English refugees at Geneva (1560, and London, 1576). Bishop Parker undertook another version by the help of eminent scholars, which was called the "Bishop's Bible," published in 1568, with preface and notes. Its basis was the "Great Bible," and the "Genevan." little later appeared the Roman Catholic version known as the Douay Bible, the New Testament in 1582, at Rheims, the Old Testament in 1609-'10, at Douay, upon the basis of the authorized Vulgate. Our present English version was made by direction of James I., who, on motion of Dr. Reynolds of Oxford, in the conference at Hampton Court, commissioned 54 divines to undertake the labor. Seven of the 54 died before the task was commenced, but in 1606 the books were distributed among the remainder in six portions, and the transla

66

lation was diligently pressed. The "Bishop's Bible" was the basis, faithfully compared with Tyndale's, Coverdale's, Matthew's, Cranmer's, and the Geneva version, and with the original, and corrected where defective. The whole was completed and sent from the press of Robert Barker in 1611. This version has now been in use 260 years, and its faithfulness, pure and strong English, simple yet dignified style, and its common acceptance by persons of all classes and all shades of religious belief, have given it a combination of advantages over any rival. Many have felt, however, that it could be improved in clearness and accuracy. The late Dean Alford especially urged a new revision; and the convocation of Canterbury, in February, 1870, appointed a committee for this work. This committee comprises some of the most eminent Biblical scholars of the church of England, and has invited the cooperation of other eminent scholars both in England and America. The principles of revision have been adopted, and the work is now in progress (1873). A new version has also been long in progress under the care of the American Bible union. (See BIBLE SOCIETIES.)

BIBLE SOCIETIES, associations for publishing and circulating the Bible among the people. The "Society for Propagating the Gospel in New England" bore the expense of printing Eliot's Indian Bible in 1663; the "Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge," established in 1698, published before 1800 an edition of the New Testament in Arabic, one of the Bible in Manks, and four of the Bible in Welsh, besides English Bibles, prayer books, &c. But these and other similar societies in Great Britain did not make the publication and circulation of the Bible their main work. The Canstein Bible institute (Die Cansteinsche Bibelanstalt), founded in 1712 by the baron of Canstein, to print and circulate Bibles at a cheap rate, and forming a part of Francke's institute at Halle, Germany, issued from 1712 to 1863 5,273,623 Bibles and 2,630,000 New Testaments. The "Naval and Military Bible Society" was formed in London in 1780, to supply the British army and navy with the Bible. The French Bible society, formed in London in 1792, was prevented by the French revolution from accomplishing its object, the distribution of the Scriptures in France. A new era in Bible distribution, however, commenced with the forAmation of the "British and Foreign Bible Society (1804). There had long been a great scarcity of Bibles in Wales. The last edition of 10,000 Welsh Bibles, ordered in 1796 by the society for promoting Christian knowledge, and actually published in 1799, was soon exhausted. The Rev. Thomas Charles, of Bala, a leader among the Welsh Calvinistic Methodists, after vain efforts, first to obtain from this society another edition, and then to pub lish an edition by subscription, went to London in 1802, where he was introduced to the executive committee of the religious tract soci

[ocr errors]
« PreviousContinue »