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it is imperfect, and of course often obscure; because the means of comparison and illustration from other parts of the language, are wanting.

For this reason, the labor and difficulty of a critical knowledge of the Hebrew are greatly enhanced, by the necessity of appealing to other kindred tongues, in order to supply, in an imperfect manner, the deficiencies arising from its incompleteness. The scholar who would possess this power, must make himself master of the Chaldee and Syriac dialects; of the noble and widespread Arabic; and, to some extent, also, of the Samaritan, the Ethiopic, and the corrupt Rabbinic. He must pursue his devious way throughout all these tongues, in search of analogies and correspondences, to illustrate the forms and meaning and construction of many Hebrew words, for which there exists no other testimony. To the like end, he must examine the ancient versions of the Old Testament, in the same and other tongues; and when he has done all, he can perhaps in many cases arrive only at an uncertain or merely probable result. All this may well make out the main labor of a whole life; and such, indeed, has ever been the fact in respect to the giants of Hebrew literature, whether they lived in former days, or still adorn our own. The Hebrew with its kindred dialects, and the subsidiary branches of study necessary for its complete illustration, have sufficed to occupy their best hours and best years, by day and by night, from early youth to late old age.

Nor is the case very dissimilar with the Greek language of the New Testament. This, too, is but the fragment of a peculiar dialect in the wide field of Greek philology. True, we have here the aid of all the branches of the classic Grecian language and literature, in their poetic youth, their Attic manliness and vigor, and their later decline. We have, too, all the results of ancient and modern research in regard to Greek philology; while the idiom and character of the language are far more accordant than the Hebrew with our own. The Greek, too, in an altered form, is to this day a spoken language. Yet all this neither suffices for the illustration of the idiom of the New Testament, nor does it supersede, even here, the necessity of an acquaintance with the Hebrew tongue of the earlier Scriptures.

The language of the New Testament is the later Greek, as spoken by foreigners of the Hebrew stock, and applied by them to subjects on which it had never been employed by native Greeks. After the disuse of the ancient Hebrew in Palestine, and the ir

ruption of western conquerors, the Jews adopted the Greek language from necessity; partly as a conquered people, and partly from the intercourse of life, of commerce, in colonies, in cities, founded like Alexandria and others, which were peopled with throngs of Jews. It was, therefore, the spoken language of ordinary life, which they learned; not the classic style of books, which has elsewhere come down to us. But they spoke it as foreigners, whose native tongue was the later Aramaean; and it therefore could not fail to acquire upon their lips a strong Semitic character and coloring. When to this we add, that they spoke in Greek on the things of the true God, and the relations of makind to Jehovah and to a Saviour-subjects to which no native Greek had ever then applied his beautiful language, it will be obvious that an appeal merely to classic Greek and its philology, will not suffice for the interpreter of the New Testament. The Jewish-Greek idiom must be studied almost as an independent dialect; and its most important illustrations. will be derived from the idiom of the Old Testament, especially as exhibited in the version of the Seventy and the Apocrypha, and from the cotemporary writings of Philo and Josephus.

The volumes of controversy which have been written in former centuries, upon the character of the idiom of the New Testament, may at the present day be safely left out of view in a theological education, except as matters of history. Even in this view, they are important chiefly as showing by what crude theories and slow advances, the human mind and human learning often arrive at truth. The principle virtually laid down was, that as God spoke to man in Greek, he could employ only the most pure and perfect Greek; and therefore the idiom of the New Testament must be accounted as one of the purest models of the Greek language. It was here overlooked that God spoke to man only in the language of those whom he addressed; and that therefore to judge of this language, we must look to the character and circumstances of those who spoke it. These were at the time a conquered, and, in some respects, already an abject people; and their dialect of the Greek, in comparison with the language of Greece itself, was much like the dialects of the Jews at the present day in modern lands, unpolished and corrupted by foreign words, idioms, and forms.

Enough has been said to show, that a proper acquaintance with the original tongues of the Holy Scriptures, the very foundation of a critical study of the Word of God, is not to be

gained by a few slight efforts, but requires years of diligence and toil. It is not, indeed, to be desired, nor would it of course be possible, for every student in a Theological Seminary to go over the whole ground here pointed out; but it is incumbent on every such student, to be sufficiently prepared to understand and profit by the labors of the many and great minds who have trod this course before him, and whose efforts have been directed to make plain the way to those who should come after them.*

II. The power of studying the Scriptures in the original languages having been thus acquired, it becomes important to take a general survey of the wide field to be cultivated, and of the methods and means by which the labor may be accomplished with the greatest facility and success. For this end, a branch of biblical science has sprung up within the last century in Germany, which has hitherto found its way slowly and with difficulty into the English language, and has as yet been fostered by very little original effort in that tongue. It is called "Introduction to the Bible;" and the object of it is, as the name imports, to introduce the learner to the best methods and means for prosecuting the study of the Scriptures. It takes the Bible as it is, as the Word of God; the evidences of its divine

It is gratifying to mark the progress of this department of biblical learning in the United States, since its revival five and twenty years ago, chiefly through the exertions of the Rev. Professor Stuart, of Andover. That it is not now on the decline, is apparent from the fact, that besides the six editions of Professor Stuart's Hebrew Grammar, and two of that by Professor Bush, not less than fifteen hundred copies of Dr. Nordheimer's Grammar have been sold since its publication in 1838. Of the translation of Gesenius' Lexicon, also, published in the autumn of 1836, more than two thousand copies have been sold in this country, besides several hundreds ordered for England. It may not be out of place likewise to remark, that England is now indebted to America for many other of her elementary books in the same department. Both the Hebrew and Greek Grammars of Professor Stuart have been republished in that country, as also the translation of Gesenius' Hebrew Grammar. The Greek and English Lexicon of the New Testament, by the author of these pages, has also been brought out there, in three rival editions, and two abridg

ments.

origin and inspired character being left to another department of theology; and proceeds to point out to the student the proper topics and order of his inquiries. It thus becomes either General or Particular.

The former, or General Introduction, comprises a description of all the various manuscripts and editions of the Hebrew and Greek Scriptures, and their comparative value. It enumerates the various ancient versions, their authors, their dates, the circumstances of their composition, and their importance to the biblical student. It details the efforts which have been made to obtain a correct text both of the Old and New Testaments, the sources and character of the various readings, and the general principles on which such researches must be conducted. It touches also, in general terms, upon the character of the language and style; on the history, chronology, geography, and antiquities, of the Jewish people. In all these branches, it names and characterizes the best books to be consulted. It gives, too, the history of the sacred volume itself; the manner in which it has been reverenced and studied in different ages; and the various external forms and divisions in which it has appeared.

Particular Introduction, on the other hand, takes up, first, the main portions of the Scriptures, as the historical, poetical, prophetic, or doctrinal books; and discusses the characteristics common to each division; and then proceeds to treat of each particular book. It inquires into the time when it was written, its author, its subject and object, its style and manner; and aims, in short, to afford all the information, which may enable the learner to read and understand each book and chapter of the Bible, in the best and most perfect manner.

This branch of biblical study has ever appeared to me one of great importance; and particularly adapted to interest the minds both of the learned and unlearned. Its purpose is to tell all that is known about the Bible as a sacred volume, and to point out how every one may best read and understand it. All this would seem to be capable of very popular application, and would be especially appropriate for the youth of Bible classes and Sabbath schools, as a means of exciting and fixing their attention, and leading them forward in their biblical course. It is, indeed, matter of surprise, that so little account has as yet been made of this department, both in this country and in England; there having appeared in this branch, so far as I know,

not more than a single original work of importance in the English language; and not one of a character adapted to popu❤ lar instruction.

III. After this general survey of the whole field of biblical study, let us now bring under review more particularly the several branches. Of these, one of the first in place and importance, is the Criticism of the Biblical Text, by which we are taught to judge of the accuracy and authenticity of the Bible as it has come down to us. It is well known that the text of the common editions of the New Testament was fixed by Erasmus, on the authority of the few Greek manuscripts to which he had access; and that since his day, the collation of numerous other manuscripts, many of them older and better than those of Erasmus, has brought together a mass of various readings, differing from those of the common text, and sometimes of higher authority. It is the part of Biblical Criticism to compare and sift these readings, and to determine which of them, by weight of evidence and authority, is entitled to a place in the genuine text. The same science applies, in a similar manner, to the Hebrew text of the Old Testament; in the manuscripts of which, notwithstanding the vaunted care and exactness of the scribes and the Rabbins, vast numbers of like various readings have been found to exist.

The time, however, has gone by, when this accumulated mass of various readings, in both the Testaments, was an object of dread or suspicion to the learned or unlearned. The optimism of the external form of the Bible has been laid aside; and it is now known and felt, that in the process of transcription or printing, by uninspired men, the Scriptures are not less liable to the occurrence of slight mistakes than other books. Such are, for the most part, all the various readings, both of the Hebrew and Greek Testaments; and it is a fact long well established, that not one of these affects a single article of faith or practice, unless in the very slightest degree.

In this country, we have no biblical manuscripts, either known or yet to be brought to light. We have no vast libraries, where the dust of ages has accumulated; beneath which we might hope still to find treasures of antiquity. In Biblical Criticism we must rest satisfied with the materials collected by Kennicott and De Rossi, on the Old Testament, and by Mill, Wetstein, Griesbach, and others on the New. Still, it is in our power to make ourselves acquainted with the principles by

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