History of the Bible

Septuagint, LXX

General Information

The Septuagint, commonly designated LXX, is the oldest Greek version of the Old Testament of the Bible, the title "seventy" referring to the tradition that it was the work of 70 translators (or 72 in some traditions). The translation was made from the Hebrew Bible by Hellenistic Jews during the period 275 - 100 BC at Alexandria. Initially the Septuagint was widely used by Greek - speaking Jews, but its adoption by the Christians, who used it in preference to the Hebrew original, aroused hostility among the Jews, who ceased to use it after about 70 AD. It is still used by the Greek Orthodox church.

The Septuagint contains the books of the Hebrew Bible, the deuterocanonical books - that is, those not in the Hebrew version but accepted by the Christian church - and the Apocrypha. Ancient manuscripts from Qumran suggest that the Septuagint often followed a Hebrew text different from the present authoritative Hebrew text. Thus its value for textual criticism has been enhanced. The Septuagint provides an understanding of the cultural and intellectual settings of Hellenistic Judaism.

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Norman K Gottwald

Bibliography
C H Dodd, The Bible and the Greeks (1935); S Jellicoe, The LXX and Modern Studies (1968).

Septuagint

Septuagint is the name given the ancient Greek translation of the Hebrew Old Testament. The term is derived from the Latin word septuaginta ("seventy"; hence, the customary abbreviation LXX), which refers to the 70 (or 72) translators who were once believed to have been appointed by the Jewish high priest of the time to render the Hebrew Bible into Greek at the behest of the Hellenistic emperor Ptolemy II.

The legend of the 70 translators contains an element of truth, for the Torah (the five books of Moses-Genesis to Deuteronomy) probably had been translated into Greek by the 3rd century BC to serve the needs of Greek-speaking Jews outside Palestine who were no longer able to read their Scriptures in the original Hebrew. The translation of the remaining books of the Hebrew Old Testament, the addition to it of books and parts of books (the Apocrypha), and the final production of the Greek Old Testament as the Bible of the early Christian church form a very complicated history. Because the Septuagint, rather than the Hebrew text, became the Bible of the early church, other Jewish translations of the Hebrew Bible into Greek were made by the 3rd century; these are extant only in fragments, and their history is even more obscure than that of the Septuagint.

Rev. Bruce Vawter

Vulgate

Vulgate (Latin vulgata editio, "popular edition") is the edition of the Latin Bible that was pronounced "authentic" by the Council of Trent. The name originally was given to the "common edition" of the Greek Septuagint used by the early Fathers of the Church. It was then transferred to the Old Latin version (the Itala) of both the Old Testament and the New Testament that was used extensively during the first centuries in the Western church. The present composite Vulgate is basically the work of St. Jerome, a Doctor of the Church.

At first St. Jerome used the Greek Septuagint for his Old Testament translation, including parts of the Apocrypha; later he consulted the original Hebrew texts. He produced three versions of the Psalms, called the Roman, the Gallican, and the Hebrew. The Gallican Psalter, based on a Greek transliteration of a Hebrew text, is now read in the Vulgate. At the request of Pope Damasus I in 382, Jerome had previously undertaken a revision of the New Testament. He corrected the Gospels thoroughly; it is disputed whether the slight revisions made in the remainder of the New Testament are his work.

Through the next 12 centuries, the text of the Vulgate was transmitted with less and less accuracy. The Council of Trent (around 1550) recognized the need for an authentic Latin text and authorized a revision of the extant corrupt editions. This revision is the basic Latin text still used by scholars. A modern reworking of it, called for by Pope Paul VI as a result of the Second Vatican Council, was largely completed in 1977. It was used in making up the new liturgical texts in Latin that were basic to the vernacular liturgies mandated by the council.

Ver'sion

A Version is a translation of the holy Scriptures. This word is not found in the Bible; nevertheless, as frequent references are made in this work to various ancient as well as modern versions, it is fitting that some brief account should be given of the most important of these. These versions are important helps to the right interpretation of the Word. (See Samaritan Pentateuch article, below.)
.

• The Targums
  After the return from the Captivity, the Jews, no longer familiar with the old Hebrew, required that their Scriptures should be translated for them into the Chaldaic or Aramaic language and interpreted. These translations and paraphrases were at first oral, but they were afterwards reduced to writing, and thus targums, i.e., "versions" or "translations", have come down to us. The chief of these are,
  
  • (1.) The Onkelos Targum, i.e., the targum of Akelas=Aquila, a targum so called to give it greater popularity by comparing it with the Greek translation of Aquila mentioned below. This targum originated about the second century after Christ. Other scholars say it dates from 60 BC. This Targum includes the Hebrew text of the Pentateuch. The oldest existing copies seem to be from about 500 AD.
  • (2.) The Targum of Jonathan ben Uzziel comes next to that of Onkelos in respect of age and value. It is more a paraphrase on the Prophets, however, than a translation. It is thought to be from about 30 BC. This Targum contains the historical Books of the Old Testament and the Prophets. The oldest existing copies seem to be from about 500 AD. Written in Aramaic.
  • Both of these targums issued from the Jewish school which then flourished at Babylon.

• The Greek Versions
  
  • (1.) The oldest of these is the Septuagint, usually quoted as the LXX. The origin of this, the most important of all the versions is involved in much obscurity. It derives its name from the popular notion that seventy-two translators were employed on it by the direction of Ptolemy Philadelphus, king of Egypt, and that it was accomplished in seventy-two days, for the use of the Jews residing in that country. There is no historical warrant for this notion. It is, however, an established fact that this version was made at Alexandria; that it was begun about 280 B.C., and finished about 200 or 150 B.C.; that it was the work of a number of translators who differed greatly both in their knowledge of Hebrew and of Greek; and that from the earliest times it has borne the name of "The Septuagint", i.e., "The Seventy."

    This version, with all its defects, must be of the greatest interest:
    

    • (a) as preserving evidence for the text far more ancient than the oldest Hebrew manuscripts;
    • (b) as the means by which the Greek Language was wedded to Hebrew thought;
    • (c) as the source of the great majority of quotations from the Old Testament by writers of the New Testament.

  • (2.) Aquila, called Aquila of Pontus (flourished about 130), translated the Old Testament into Greek. He was born in Sinope, Pontus (now Sinop, Turkey). His translation of the Old Testament was so literal that Jews of his time preferred it to the Septuagint version, as did the Judaistic sect of Christians called Ebionites. The remaining fragments of the version may be found in the Hexapla of the Alexandrian theologian Origen.

  • (3.) The New Testament manuscripts fall into two divisions,
    
    • Uncials, written in Greek capitals, with no distinction at all between the different words, and very little even between the different lines; and
      
    • Cursives, in small Greek letters, were a "running hand" script form where the letters were connected as in our longhand. This script was continuous scriptio continua, without breaks for words or lines or verses. Also called Minuscule writing.

    The change between the two kinds of Greek writing took place about the tenth century AD.

    Only five manuscripts of the New Testament approaching to completeness are more ancient than this dividing date.
    

    • The first, numbered A, is the Alexandrian manuscript. Though brought to this country by Cyril Lucar, patriarch of Constantinople, as a present to Charles I., it is believed that it was written, not in that capital, but in Alexandria; whence its title. It is now dated in the fifth century A.D. Also called Codex Alexandrinus. It contains almost the entire Bible.
    • The second, known as B, is the Vatican manuscript. (See Codex Vaticanus article, below.)
    • The Third, C, or the Ephraem manuscript, was so called because it was written over the writings of Ephraem, a Syrian theological author, a practice very common in the days when writing materials were scarce and dear. It is believed that it belongs to the fifth century, and perhaps a slightly earlier period of it than the manuscript A. Also called Codex Ephraemi. Nearly every Book of the Bible is represented in it.
    • The fourth, D, or the manuscript of Beza, was so called because it belonged to the reformer Beza, who found it in the monastery of St. Irenaeus at Lyons in 1562 A.D. It is imperfect, and is dated in the sixth century. Also called Codex Bezae. This manuscript contains the Gospels and Acts in both Greek and Latin.
    • The fifth (called Aleph) is the Sinaitic manuscript. (See Codex Sinaiticus article, below.)

• The Syriac Versions
  
  • Old Syriac Version. Contains the Four Gospels, copied about the fourth century. Two copies exist today.
  • Syriac Peshitta. This was the standard Syrian Version, created about 150-250 AD. More than 350 copies of it exist today.
  • Palestinian Syriac. About 400-450 AD.
  • Philoxenian. 508 AD. Polycarp made this translation.
  • Harkleian Syriac. 616 AD, by Thomas of Harkel.

  (See Syriac article, below.)

• The Latin Versions
  A Latin version of the Scriptures, called the "Old Latin," which originated in North Africa, was in common use in the time of Tertullian (A.D. 150). Of this there appear to have been various copies or recensions made. About 50 copies exist today. The dates of those copies are not known.

  A Latin version made in Italy, and called the Itala, was reckoned the most accurate. This translation of the Old Testament seems to have been made not from the original Hebrew but from the LXX. This version became greatly corrupted by repeated transcription, and to remedy the evil, Jerome (A.D. 329-420) was requested by Damasus, the bishop of Rome, to undertake a complete revision of it. By 384 AD, Jerome had completed the task. It met with opposition at first, but was at length, in the seventh century, recognized as the "Vulgate" version. The word Vulgate means common or popular. More than 10,000 manuscript copies of the Vulgate exist today.

  The Vulgate Bible appeared in a printed from about A.D. 1455, the first book that ever issued from the printing press. The Council of Trent (1546) declared it "authentic." It subsequently underwent various revisions, but that which was executed (1592) under the sanction of Pope Clement VIII was adopted as the basis of all subsequent editions. It is regarded as the sacred original in the Roman Catholic Church.

  All modern European versions have been more or less influenced by the Vulgate. This version reads ipsa instead of ipse in Gen. 3:15, "She shall bruise thy head."

  Other Latin Versions

  • African Old Latin or Codex Babbiensis. 400 AD.
  • Codex Corbiensis. 400-500 AD. Contains the Four Gospels.
  • Codex Vercellensis. 360 AD.
  • Codex Palatinus. Fifth century AD.
• Other Versions
  There are numerous other ancient versions which are of importance for Biblical critics, but which we need not mention particularly, such as the
  
  • Ethiopic. Fourth century, from the Greek LXX; More than 2,000 manuscript copies of it exist today. Some scholars say sixth century.
  • Memphitic. Circulated in Lower Egypt about the fourth century from the Greek.
  • Thebaic. Designed for Upper Egypt, about the fourth century from the Greek.
  • Sahidic. Early in the third century in Egypt
  • Bohairic. Fourth century. About 100 manuscript copies now exist.
  • Middle Egyptian. Fourth or fifth century.
  • Gothic, written in the German language, but with the Greek alphabet, by Ulphilas (died A.D. 388), of which only fragments of the Old Testament remain; About 6 partial texts exist today.
  • Armenian, about A.D. 400; About 2,600 manuscript copies exist today. Translated from a Greek Bible.
  • Slavonic, in the ninth century, for ancient Moravia. Over 4,000 manuscript copies exist today.
  • Arabic. About 75 manuscript copies exist today.
  • Persian. Only 2 manuscript copies exist today.
  • Anglo-Saxon. Seven manuscript copies exist today.
  • Georgian. Fifth century.
  • Nubian. Sixth century.

  .

• The English Versions
  The history of the English versions begins properly with Wyckliffe (around AD 1384). But earlier, around AD 650, Caedmon wrote many of the Bible's central passages in the form of Saxon poems. Around AD 700, two bishops, Eadhelm and Egbert, made rather crude Saxon translations of the Psalms and of the Gospels.

  Portions of the Scriptures were rendered into Saxon (as the Gospel according to John, by Bede, A.D. 735), (much improved quality) and also into English (by Orme, called the "Ormulum," a portion of the Gospels and of the Acts in the form of a metrical paraphrase, toward the close of the seventh century), long before Wyckliffe; but it is to him that the honour belongs of having first rendered the whole Bible into English (A.D. 1384). This version was made from the Vulgate, and renders Gen. 3:15 after that Version, "She shall trede thy head." This translation was very stilted and mechanical in style. It is likely that only a few hundred copies were ever made, because the printing press had not yet been invented. Each copy was laboriously and meticulously copied by hand. There are presently one hundred and seventy copies still in existence.

  In 1454, Johann Gutenberg developed the movable type printing press. This allowed all of the following Bible versions to be printed in much larger quantity. It seems no coincidence that Martin Luther and the Protestant Revolution began soon after (1517), since a much larger number of scholars now had easy access to Biblical texts.

  This was followed by Tyndale's translation (1525-1531) (this translation was based on the original Greek of the New Testament, and was translated in a free idiomatic English; when the KJAV was produced almost a century later (1611), one-third of it retained Tyndale's wording and the remainder retained his general literary structure); Miles Coverdale's (1535-1553); Thomas Matthew's (1537), really, however, the work of John Rogers, the first martyr under the reign of Queen Mary. This was properly the first Authorized Version, Henry VIII, having ordered a copy of it to be got for every church. This took place in less than a year after Tyndale was martyred for the crime of translating the Scriptures. In 1539 Richard Taverner published a revised edition of Matthew's Bible. The Great Bible, so called from its great size, called also Cranmer's Bible, was published in 1539 and 1568. In the strict sense, the "Great Bible" is "the only authorized version; for the Bishops' Bible and the present Bible [the A.V.] never had the formal sanction of royal authority." Next in order was the Geneva version (1557-1560) (the first version to recognize the division of the text into verses); the Bishops' Bible (1568); the Rheims and Douai versions, under Roman Catholic auspices (1582, 1609) (still the standard Roman Catholic Bible); the Authorized Version (1611) (the most broadly distributed version, also called King James Authorized Version [KJAV]; the work of fifty-four scholars from Oxford, Cambridge and Westminster; a number of revisions were soon made, in 1613, 1629, 1638, 1762, and 1769); and the Revised Version of the New Testament in 1880 and of the Old Testament in 1884. The two were combined and called the English Revised Version (1885).

Newer Popular English Versions

The American Standard Version (1901, 1946, 1957); The Holy Bible; Revised Standard Version (1946 [NT], 1952 [OT], 1971); the Living Bible (1971); the New International Version (NIV) (1973, 1978, 1984); the Simple English Version (1978, 1980); the New King James Version (1982); and the Micro Bible (1988), have all developed broad acceptance by various Christian Denominations and groups.

Additionally, the Literal Translation of the Holy Bible (Young, 1887, reprinted 1953); The Twentieth Century New Testament (1901); The Historical New Testament (Moffatt, 1901); The New Testament in Modern Speech (Weymouth, 1903); The Holy Bible - An Improved Edition (Amer. Baptist Publication Society, 1913); The Bible - A New Translation (Moffatt, 1922); The New Testament, an American Translation (Goodspeed, 1923); The Bible, an American Translation (Goodspeed, 1931); The New Testament (Williams, 1937); Letters to Young Churches (Phillips, 1948) (paraphrases the New Testament Epistles); The Gospels (Phillips, 1953) (popular paraphrases among young people); The Berkeley Version of the Bible (Verkuyl, 1959); have popularity for various reasons, usually either common vocabulary or extremely careful translation.

Samar'itan Pen'tateuch

On the return from the Exile, the Jews refused the Samaritans participation with them in the worship at Jerusalem, and the latter separated from all fellowship with them, and built a temple for themselves on Mount Gerizim. This temple was razed to the ground more than one hundred years B.C. Then a system of worship was instituted similar to that of the temple at Jerusalem. It was founded on the Law, copies of which had been multiplied in Israel as well as in Judah.

Thus the Pentateuch was preserved among the Samaritans, although they never called it by this name, but always "the Law," which they read as one book. The division into five books, as we now have it, however, was adopted by the Samaritans, as it was by the Jews, in all their priests' copies of "the Law," for the sake of convenience. This was the only portion of the Old Testament which was accepted by the Samaritans as of divine authority.

The form of the letters in the manuscript copies of the Samaritan Pentateuch is different from that of the Hebrew copies, and is probably the same as that which was in general use before the Captivity. There are other peculiarities in the writing which need not here be specified. There are important differences between the Hebrew and the Samaritan copies of the Pentateuch in the readings of many sentences. In about two thousand instances in which the Samaritan and the Jewish texts differ, the LXX agrees with the former. The New Testament also, when quoting from the Old Testament, agrees as a rule with the Samaritan text, where that differs from the Jewish. Thus Ex. 12:40 in the Samaritan reads, "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel and of their fathers which they had dwelt in the land of Canaan and in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years" (comp. Gal. 3: 17). It may be noted that the LXX has the same reading of this text.

(Easton Illustrated Dictionary)

Sinait'icus codex

Sinaiticus codex, usually designated by the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet, is one of the most valuable of ancient MSS of the Greek New Testament. On the occasion of a third visit to the convent of St. Catherine, on Mount Sinai, in 1859, it was discovered by Dr. Tischendorf. He had on a previous visit in 1844 obtained forty-three parchment leaves of the LXX, which he deposited in the university library of Leipsic, under the title of the Codex Frederico-Augustanus, after his royal patron the king of Saxony. In the year referred to (1859) the emperor of Russia sent him to prosecute his search for MSS, which he was convinced were still to be found in the Sinai convent.

The story of his finding the manuscript of the New Testament has all the interest of a romance. He reached the convent on 31st January; but his inquiries appeared to be fruitless. On the 4th February he had resolved to return home without having gained his object. "On that day, when walking with the provisor of the convent, he spoke with much regret of his ill-success. Returning from their promenade, Tischendorf accompanied the monk to his room, and there had displayed to him what his companion called a copy of the LXX, which he, the ghostly brother, owned. The MS was wrapped up in a piece of cloth, and on its being unrolled, to the surprise and delight of the critic the very document presented itself which he had given up all hope of seeing.

His object had been to complete the fragmentary LXX of 1844, which he had declared to be the most ancient of all Greek codices on vellum that are extant; but he found not only that, but a copy of the Greek New Testament attached, of the same age, and perfectly complete, not wanting a single page or paragraph." This precious fragment, after some negotiations, he obtained possession of, and conveyed it to the Emperor Alexander, who fully appreciated its importance, and caused it to be published as nearly as possible in facsimile, so as to exhibit correctly the ancient handwriting.

The entire codex consists of 346 1/2 folios. Of these 199 belong to the Old Testament and 147 1/2 to the New, along with two ancient documents called the Epistle of Barnabas and the Shepherd of Hermas. The books of the New Testament stand thus:, the four Gospels, the epistles of Paul, the Acts of the Apostles, the Catholic Epistles, the Apocalypse of John.

It is shown by Tischendorf that this codex was written in the fourth century, and is thus of about the same age as the Vatican codex; but while the latter wants the greater part of Matthew and sundry leaves here and there besides, the Sinaiticus is the only copy of the New Testament in uncial characters which is complete. Thus it is the oldest extant MS copy of the New Testament. Both the Vatican and the Sinai codices were probably written in Egypt. (See Vaticanus article, below.)

(Easton Illustrated Dictionary)

Syr'iac

Syriac, (2 Kings 18:26; Ezra 4:7; Dan. 2:4), more correctly rendered "Aramaic," including both the Syriac and the Chaldee languages. In the New Testament there are several Syriac words, such as "Eloi, Eloi, lama sabachthani?" (Mark 15:34; Matt. 27:46 gives the Heb. form, "Eli, Eli"), "Raca" (Matt. 5:22), "Ephphatha" (Mark 7:34), "Maran-atha" (1 Cor. 16:22).

A Syriac version of the Old Testament, containing all the canonical books, along with some apocryphal books (called the Peshitto, i.e., simple translation, and not a paraphrase), was made early in the second century, and is therefore the first Christian translation of the Old Testament. It was made directly from the original, and not from the LXX Version. The New Testament was also translated from Greek into Syriac about the same time. It is noticeable that this version does not contain the Second and Third Epistles of John, 2 Peter, Jude, and the Apocalypse. These were, however, translated subsequently and placed in the version. (See Version article, above.)

Codex Vatica'nus

The Codex Vaticanus is said to be the oldest extant vellum manuscript. It and the Codex Sinaiticus are the two oldest uncial manuscripts. They were probably written in the fourth century. The Vaticanus was placed in the Vatican Library at Rome by Pope Nicolas V. in 1448, its previous history being unknown.

It originally consisted in all probability of a complete copy of the Septuagint and of the New Testament. It is now imperfect, and consists of 759 thin, delicate leaves, of which the New Testament fills 142. Like the Sinaiticus, it is of the greatest value to Biblical scholars in aiding in the formation of a correct text of the New Testament. It is referred to by critics as Codex B.

(Easton Illustrated Dictionary)

The Early Canon of the New Testament

.	Mar cion c.140	Iren- aeus 130-202	Old Latin 150-70	Murat- orian c.170	Tertull . 150-220	Old Syriac 200	Origen . 185-254	Hippo- lytus 200-25	Euse- bius 325-40	Codex Vatic 325-50	Codex Sinai 325-425	Athan asius 367	Amphi locius 380	Pesh- itta 375-400	Cart- hage3 c.397	Codex Alex 425-75
Matthew	o	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
Mark	o	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
Luke	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
John	o	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
Acts	o	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
Romans	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
1 Cor	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
2 Cor	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
Galat	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
Ephes	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
Philip	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
Coloss	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
1 Thess	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
2 Thess	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i
1 Tim	o	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	m	i	i	i	i	i	i
2 Tim	o	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	m	i	i	i	i	i	i
Titus	o	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	m	i	i	i	i	i	i
Philem	i	i	i	i	i	i	i	o	i	i	i	i	o	i	i	i
Hebrew	o	o	o	o	o	i	d	o	i	i	i	i	o	i	i	i
James	o	o	o	o	o	i	d	o	d	m	i	i	o	i	i	i
1 Pet	o	i	o	o	i	i	i	i	i	m	i	i	o	i	i	i
2 Pet	o	o	o	o	o	o	o	o	d	m	i	i	i	o	i	i
1 John	o	i	i	i	i	i	o	o	i	m	i	i	i	i	i	i
2 John	o	i	i	i	o	o	d	o	d	m	i	i	i	o	i	i
3 John	o	o	i	o	o	o	d	o	d	m	i	i	i	o	i	i
Jude	o	o	i	i	i	o	d	o	d	m	i	i	i	o	i	i
Revel	o	i	i	i	i	o	i	i	i	m	i	i	i	o	i	i
Hermas	o	i	o	o	o	o	i	o	r	m	i	o	o	o	o	o
Barnabas	o	o	o	o	o	o	i	o	r	m	i	o	o	o	o	o
Didache	o	o	o	o	o	o	i	o	r	m	o	o	o	o	o	o
ApocPet	o	o	o	i	o	o	o	o	o	m	o	o	o	o	o	o
1Clement	o	o	o	o	o	o	o	o	o	m	o	o	o	o	o	i
2Clement	o	o	o	o	o	o	o	o	o	m	o	o	o	o	o	i

i=included (canonicity definitely accepted)
o=omitted (canonicity doubted or denied)
m=missing (the codex omits the Pastorals and ends at Heb. 9:13)
d=disputed (canonicity mentioned as being in doubt)
r=rejected (canonicity specifically denied)

Marcion

Marcion was a heretic in Rome. He believed that the Church should eliminate all references to the Creator-God of the Old Testament. Therefore, he proposed rejecting the entire Old Testament as well as anything in the New Testament that seemed to him to be contaminated with Judaism. Therefore, he eliminated everything but an edited version of Luke (written by the Gentile Luke) and ten of the Pauline Epistles. Marcion's list was definitely not the position of the Church at the time, but a deliberate variation from it. Actually, his efforts acted to inspire the orthodox Church to speed up their establishment of the true New Testament Canon.

Muratorian Fragment

Cardinal Muratori first published (in 1740) a list based on a document he studied that also came from around Rome. The beginning of the original document is mutilated, but it evidently included Matthew and Mark because it refers to Luke as the third Gospel. It included the Apocalypse of Peter (a Book later determined to be non Canonical) and it mentions that the Shepherd of Hermas as being worthy to be read in Church but not to be included among prophetic or apostolic writings.

The Gospel

Very early on, possibly soon after the writing of the Gospel according to John, the four Gospels appear to have been united. The fourfold collection was originally known as "The Gospel" (singular) and this appears to be where the "according tos" were established. This collection was designated by the Greek word Evangelion.

Tatian

Around 170 AD an Assyrian Christian (apparently in Rome) named Tatian combined the fourfold Gospel into a narrative "Harmony of the Gospels". This was long the favorite form of the Gospels in the Assyrian Church, and it was quite distinct from the four Gospels in the existing Old Syriac version also existant at the time. Tatian's Harmony is usually known as the Diatessaron and it is thought that its original language was probably Greek, but later given to the Assyrian Christians in a Syriac form.

Luke

When the four Gospels had become gathered together into one combined work, Luke's two contributions (Luke and Acts) thus became separated. Slight modifications were apparently then introduced into the text at the end of Luke and the beginning of Acts. (Luke 24:51 and Acts 1:2) Some scholars have been concerned about apparent inconsistencies regarding the Ascension in these two Books that this 'adjustment' might be responsible for that.

Corpus Paulinum

At roughly the same time that the fourfold Gospel was collected together, the group of Paul's writings were assembled. It was designated by the Greek word Apostolos. Initially, this collection just included the letters "To the . . ." but Hebrews and Acts were soon bound up with them.

Origen

Origen mentioned that a number of Books were disputed by some: Hebrews, 2Peter, 2John, 3John, James, Jude, the Epistle of Barnabas, the Shepherd of Hermas, the Didache, and the 'Gospel according to the Hebrews'. (This last greatly resembled Matthew and existed among a group called the Ebionites in Egypt and Transjordan. Jerome later identified it with the "Gospel of the Nazarenes".) It is not clear if Jerome was correct about that.

Athanasius

In 367 AD, Athanasius appears to have been the first to establish the specific New Testament Canon of 27 Books that became broadly accepted and which we follow today.

Eastern Church

It took until around 508 AD that 2Peter, 2John, 3John, Jude and Revelation were included in a version of the Syriac Bible, adding to the earlier 22, to then agree with the same 27 Book New Testament Canon as in the West.

Hippo Regius (393) and Carthage (397)

These were the first two ecclesiastical Councils held specifically to classify the Canonical Books. These both occurred in North Africa. They did not impose any 'new' list on Christians but rather codified the already generally recognized Canon.

Septuagint Version

The first translation of the Hebrew Old Testament, made into popular Greek before the Christian era. This article will treat of:

I. Its Importance;

II. Its Origin:

A. According to tradition;

B. According to the commonly accepted view;

III. Its subsequent history, recensions, manuscripts, and editions;

IV. Its critical value; Language.

I. HISTORICAL IMPORTANCE OF THE SEPTUAGINT

The importance of the Septuagint Version is shown by the following considerations:

A. The Septuagint is the most ancient translation of the Old Testament and consequently is invaluable to critics for understanding and correcting the Hebrew text (Massorah), the latter, such as it has come down to us, being the text established by the Massoretes in the sixth century A.D. Many textual corruptions, additions, omissions, or transpositions must have crept into the Hebrew text between the third and second centuries B.C. and the sixth and seventh centuries of our era; the manuscripts therefore which the Seventy had at their disposal, may in places have been better than the Massoretic manuscripts.

B. The Septuagint Version accepted first by the Alexandrian Jews, and afterwards by all the Greek-speaking countries, helped to spread among the Gentiles the idea and the expectation of the Messias, and to introduce into Greek the theological terminology that made it a most suitable instrument for the propagation of the Gospel of Christ.

C. The Jews made use of it long before the Christian Era, and in the time of Christ it was recognised as a legitimate text, and was employed in Palestine even by the rabbis. The Apostles and Evangelists utilised it also and borrowed Old Testament citations from it, especially in regard to the prophecies. The Fathers and the other ecclesiastical writers of the early Church drew upon it, either directly, as in the case of the Greek Fathers, or indirectly, like the Latin Fathers and writers and others who employed Latin, Syriac, Ethiopian, Arabic and Gothic versions. It was held tin high esteem by all, some even believed it inspired. Consequently, a knowledge of the Septuagint helps to a perfect understanding of these literatures.

D. At the present time, the Septuagint is the official text in the Greek Church, and the ancient Latin Versions used in the western church were made from it; the earliest translation adopted in the Latin Church, the Vetus Itala, was directly from the Septuagint: the meanings adopted in it, the Greek names and words employed (such as: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers [Arithmoi], Deuteronomy), and finally, the pronunciation given to the Hebrew text, passed very frequently into the Itala, and from it, at times, into the Vulgate, which not rarely gives signs of the influence of the Vetus Itala; this is especially so in the Psalms, the Vulgate translation being merely the Vetus Itala corrected by St. Jerome according to the hexaplar text of the Septuagint.

II. ORIGIN OF THE SEPTUAGINT

A. According to Tradition

The Septuagint Version is first mentioned in a letter of Aristeas to his brother Philocrates. Here, in substance, is what we read of the origin of the version. Ptolemy II Philadelphus, King of Egypt (287-47 BC) had recently established a valuable library at Alexandria. He was persuaded by Demetrius of Phalarus, chief librarian, to enrich it with a copy of the sacred books of the Jews. To win the good graces of this people, Ptolemy, by the advice of Aristeas, an officer of the royal guard, an Egyptian by birth and a pagan by religion, emancipated 100,000 slaves in different parts of his kingdom. He then sent delegates, among whom was Aristeas, to Jerusalem, to ask Eleazar, the Jewish high-priest, to provide him with a copy of the Law, and Jews capable of translating it into Greek. The embassy was successful: a richly ornamented copy of the Law was sent to him and seventy-two Israelites, six from each tribe, were deputed to go to Egypt and carry out the wish of the king. They were received with great honor and during seven days astonished everyone by the wisdom they displayed in answering seventy-two questions which they were asked; then they were led into the solitary island of Pharos, where they began their work, translating the Law, helping one another and comparing translations in proportion as they finished them. At the end of seventy-two days, their work was completed, The translation was read in presence of the Jewish priests, princes, and people assembled at Alexandria, who all recognized and praised its perfect conformity with the Hebrew original. The king was greatly pleased with the work and had it placed in the library.

Despite its legendary character, Aristeas' account gained credence; Aristobulus (170-50 B.C.), in a passage preserved by Eusebius, says that "through the efforts of Demetrius of Phalerus a complete translation of the Jewish legislation was executed in the days of Ptolemy"; Aristeas's story is repeated almost verbatim by Flavius Josephus (Ant. Jud., XII, ii) and substantially, with the omission of Aristeas' name, by Philo of Alexandria (De vita Moysis, II, vi). the letter and the story were accepted as genuine by many Fathers and ecclesiastical writers till the beginning of the sixteenth century; other details serving to emphasize the extraordinary origin of the version were added to Aristeas's account" The seventy-two interpreters were inspired by God (Tertullian, St. Augustine, the author of the "Cohortatio ad Graecos" [Justin?], and others); in translating they did not consult with one another, they had even been shut up in separate cells, either singly, or in pairs, and their translations when compared were found to agree entirely both as to the sense and the expressions employed with the original text and with each other (Cohortatio ad Graecos, St. Irenæus, St. Clement of Alexandria). St. Jerome rejected the story of the cells as fabulous and untrue ("Praef. in Pentateuchum";"Adv. Rufinum", II, xxv). likewise the alleged inspiration of the Septuagint. Finally the seventy two interpreters translated, not only the five books of the Pentateuch, but the entire Hebrew Old Testament. The authenticity of the letter, called in question first by Louis Vivès (1492-1540), professor at Louvain (Ad S. August. Civ. Dei, XVIII, xlii), then by Jos. Scaliger (d. 1609), and especially by H. Hody (d. 1705) and Dupin (d. 1719) is now universally denied.

Criticism

(1) The letter of Aristeas is certainly apocryphal. The writer, who calls himself Aristeas and says he is a Greek and a pagan, shows by his whole work that he is a pious, zealous Jew: he recognizes the God of the Jews as the one true God; he declares that God is the author of the Mosaic law; he is an enthusiastic admirer of the Temple of Jerusalem, the Jewish land and people, and its holy laws and learned men.

(2) The account as given in the letter must be regarded as fabulous and legendary, at least in several parts. Some of the details, such as the official intervention of the king and the high priest, the number of the seventy-two translators, the seventy-two questions they had to answer, the seventy-two days they took for their work, are clearly arbitrary assertions; it is difficult, moreover, to admit that the Alexandrian Jews adopted for their public worship a translation of the Law, made at the request of a pagan king; lastly, the very language of the Septuagint Version betrays in places a rather imperfect knowledge both of Hebrew and of the topography of Palestine, and corresponds more closely with the vulgar idiom of Alexandria. Yet it is not certain that everything contained in the letter is legendary, and scholars ask if there is not a historic foundation underneath the legendary details. Indeed it is likely -- as appears from the peculiar character of the language, as well as from what we know of the origin and history of the version -- that the Pentateuch was translated at Alexandria. It seems true also that it dates from the time of Ptolemy Philadelphus, and therefore from the middle of the third century B.C. For if, as is commonly believed, Aristeas's letter was written about 200 B.C., fifty years after the death of Philadelphus, and with a view to increase the authority of the Greek version of the Law, would it have been accepted so easily and spread broadcast, if it had been fictitious, and if the time of the composition did not correspond with the reality? Moreover, it is possible that Ptolemy had something to do with the preparation or publishing of the translation, though how and why cannot be determined now. Was it for the purpose of enriching his library as Pseudo-Aristeas states? This is possible, but is not proven, while, as will be shown below, we can very well account for the origin of the version independently of the king.

(3) The few details which during the course of ages have been added to Aristeas's account cannot be accepted; such are the story of the cells (St. Jerome explicitly rejects this); the inspiration of the translators, an opinion certainly based on the legend of the cells; the number of the translators, seventy-two (see below); the assertion that all the Hebrew books were translated at the same time. Aristeas speaks of the translation of the law (nomos), of the legislation (nomothesia), of the books of the legislator; now these expressions especially the last two, certainly mean the Pentateuch, exclusive of the other Old Testament books: and St. Jerome (Comment. in Mich.) says: "Josephus writes, and the Hebrews inform us, that only the five books of Moses were translated by them (seventy-two), and given to King Ptolemy." Besides, the versions of the various books of the Old Testament differ so much in vocabulary, style, form, and character, sometimes free and sometimes extremely literal, that they could not be the work of the same translators. Nevertheless, in spite of these divergencies the name of the Septuagint Version is universally given to the entire collection of the Old Testament books in the Greek Bible adopted by the Eastern Church.

B. Origin according to the commonly accepted view.

As to the Pentateuch the following view seems plausible, and is now commonly accepted in its broad lines: The Jews in the last two centuries B.C. were so numerous in Egypt, especially at Alexandria, that at a certain time they formed two-fifths of the entire population. Little by little most of them ceased to use and even forgot the Hebrew language in great part, and there was a danger of their forgetting the Law. Consequently it became customary to interpret in Greek the Law which was read in the synagogues, and it was quite natural that, after a time, some men zealous for the Law should have undertaken to compile a Greek Translation of the Pentateuch. This happened about the middle of the third century B.C. As to the other Hebrew books -- the prophetical and historical -- it was natural that the Alexandrian Jews, making use of the translated Pentateuch in their liturgical reunions, should desire to read the remaining books also and hence should gradually have translated all of them into Greek, which had become their maternal language; this would be so much the more likely as their knowledge of Hebrew was diminishing daily. It is not possible to determine accurately the precise time or the occasions on which these different translations were made; but it is certain that the Law, the Prophets, and at least part of the other books, that is, the hagiographies, existed in Greek before the year 130 B.C., as appears from the prologue of Ecclesiasticus, which does not date later than that year. It is difficult also to say where the various translations were made, the data being so scanty. Judging by the Egyptian words and expressions occurring in the version, most of the books must have been translated in Egypt and most likely in Alexandria; Esther however was translated in Jerusalem (XI, i).

Who were the translators and how many? Is there any foundation for their number, seventy or seventy-two, as given in the legendary account (Brassac-Vigouroux, n. 105)? It seems impossible to decide definitely; the Talmudists tell us that the Pentateuch was translated by five interpreters (Sopherim, c.i.). History gives us no details; but an examination of the text shows that in general that the authors were not Palestinian Jews called to Egypt; and differences of terminology, method, etc. prove clearly that the translators were not the same for the different books. It is impossible also to say whether the work was carried out officially or was merely a private undertaking, as seems to have been the case with Ecclesiasticus; but the different books when translated were soon put together -- the author of Ecclesiasticus knew the collection -- and were received as official by the Greek-speaking Jews.

III. SUBSEQUENT HISTORY

Recensions

The Greek version, known as the Septuagint, welcomed by the Alexandrian Jews, spread quickly throughout the countries in which Greek was spoken; it was utilized by different writers, and supplanted the original text in liturgical services. Philo of Alexandria used it in his writings and looked on the translators as inspired Prophets; it was finally received even by the Jews of Palestine, and was employed notably by Josephus, the Palestinian Jewish historian. We know also that the writers of the New Testament made use of it, borrowing from it most of their citations; it became the Old Testament of the Church and was so highly esteemed by the early Christians that several writers and Fathers declared it to be inspired. The Christians had recourse to it constantly in their controversies with the Jews, who soon recognized its imperfections, and finally rejected it in favour of the Hebrew text or of more literal translations (Aquila, Theodotion).

Critical corrections of Origen, Lucian, and Hesychius

On account of its diffusion alone the hellenizing Jews and early Christians, copies of the Septuagint were multiplied; and as might be expected, many changes, deliberate as well as involuntary, crept in. The necessity of restoring the text as far as possible to its pristine purity was felt. The following is a brief account of the attempted corrections:

A. Origen reproduced the Septuagint text in the fifth column of his Hexapla; marking with obeli the texts that occurred in the Septuagint without being in the original; adding according to Theodotion's version, and distinguishing with asterisks and metobeli the texts of the original which were not in the Septuagint; adopting from the variants of the Greek Version the texts which were closest to the Hebrew; and, finally, transposing the text where the order of the Septuagint did not correspond with the Hebrew order. His recension, copied by Pamphilus and Eusebius, is called the hexaplar, to distinguish it from the version previously employed and which is called the common, vulgate, koine, or ante-hexaplar. It was adopted in Palestine.

B. St. Lucien, priest of Antioch and martyr, in the beginning of the fourth century, published an edition corrected in accordance with the hebrew; this retained the name of koine, vulgate edition, and is sometimes called Loukianos, after its author. In the time of St. Jerome it was in use at Constantinople and Antioch. C. Finally, Hesychius, an Egyptian bishop, published about the same time, a new recension, employed chiefly in Egypt.

Manuscripts

The three most celebrated manuscripts of the Septuagint known are the Vatican, "Codex Vaticanus" (fourth century); the Alexandrian, "Codex Alexandrinus" (fifth century), now in the British Museum, London; and that of Sinai, "Codex Sinaiticus" (fourth century), found by Tischendorf in the convent of St. Catherine, on Mount Sinai, in 1844 and 1849, now part at Leipzig and in part in St. Petersburg; they are all written in uncials.

The "Codex Vaticanus" is the purest of the three; it generally gives the more ancient text, while the "Codex Alexandrinus" borrows much from the hexaplar text and is changed according to the Massoretic text (The "Codex Vaticanus" is referred to by the letter B; the "Codex Alexandrinus" by the letter A, and the "Codex Sinaiticus" by the first letter of the Hebrew alphabet Aleph or by S). The Bibliotheque Nationale in Paris possesses also an important palimpsest manuscript of the Septuagint, the "Codex Ephraemi rescriptus" (designated by the letter C), and two manuscripts of less value (64 and 114), in cursives, one belonging to the tenth or eleventh century and the other to the thirteenth (Bacuez and Vigouroux, 12th ed., n. 109).

Printed Editions

All the printed editions of the Septuagint are derived from the three recensions mentioned above.

The editio princeps is the Complutensian or that of Alcalá. It was from Origen's hexaplar text; printer in 1514-18, it was not published till it appeared in the Polyglot of Cardinal Ximenes in 1520.

The Aldine edition (begun by Aldus Manucius) appeared at Venice in 1518. The text is purer than that of the Complutensian edition, and is closer to Codex B. The editor says he collated ancient manuscripts but does not specify them. It has been reprinted several times.

The most important edition is the Roman or Sixtine, which reproduces the "Codex Vaticanus" almost exclusively. It was published under the direction of Cardinal Caraffa, with the help of various savants, in 1586, by the authority of Sixtus V, to assist the revisers who were preparing the Latin Vulgate edition ordered by the Council of Trent. It has become the textus receptus of the Greek Old Testament and has had many new editions, such as that of Holmes and Pearsons (Oxford, 1798-1827), the seven editions of Tischendorf, which appeared at Leipzig between 1850 and 1887, the last two, published after the death of the author and revised by Nestle, the four editions of Swete (Cambridge, 1887-95, 1901, 1909), etc.

Grabe's edition was published at Oxford, from 1707 to 1720, and reproduced, but imperfectly, the "Codex Alexandrinus" of London. For partial editions, see Vigouroux, "Dict. de la Bible", 1643 sqq.

IV. CRITICAL VALUE AND LANGUAGE

Critical Value

The Septuagint Version, while giving exactly as to the form and substance the true sense of the Sacred Books, differs nevertheless considerably from our present Hebrew text. These discrepancies, however, are not of great importance and are only matters of interpretation. They may be thus classified: Some result from the translators having had at their disposal Hebrew recensions differing from those which were know to the Massoretes; sometimes the texts varied, at others the texts were identical, but they were read in different order. Other discrepancies are due to the translators personally; not to speak of the influence exerted on their work by their methods of interpretation, the inherent difficulties of the work, their greater or less knowledge of Greek and Hebrew, they now and then translated differently from the Massoretes, because they read the texts differently; that was natural, for, Hebrew being written in square characters, and certain consonants being very similar in form, it was easy to confound them occasionally and so give an erroneous translation; moreover, their Hebrew text being written without any spacing between the various words, they could easily make a mistake in the separation of the words; finally, as the Hebrew text at their disposal contained no vowels, they might supply different vowels from those used later by the Massoretes. Again, we must not think that we have at present the Greek text exactly as it was written by the translators; the frequent transcriptions during the early centuries, as well as the corrections and editions of Origen, Lucian, and Hesychius impaired the purity of the text: voluntarily or involuntarily the copyists allowed many textual corruptions, transpositions, additions, and omissions to creep into the primitive text of the Septuagint. In particular we may note the addition of parallel passages, explanatory notes, or double translations caused by marginal notes. On this consult Dict. de la Bible, art. cit., and Swete, "An Introduction to the Old Testament in Greek".

Language

Everyone admits that the Septuagint Version was made in popular Greek, the koine dislektos. But is the Greek of the Old Testament a special idiom? Many authorities assert that it is, though they disagree as to its real character. The "Dict. de la Bible", s.v. Grec biblique, asserts that it was "the hebraicizing Greek spoken by the Jewish community at Alexandria", the popular Greek of Alexandria "with a very large admixture of Hebraicisms". The same dictionary, s.v. Septante, mentions the more recent opinion of Deissmann that the Greek of the Septuagint is merely the ordinary vernacular Greek, the pure koine of the time. Deissmann bases his theory on the perfect resemblance of the language of the Septuagint and that of the papyri and the inscriptions of the same age; he believes that the syntactical peculiarities of the Septuagint, which at first sight seem to favour the theory of a special language, a hebraicizing Greek, are sufficiently explained by the fact that the Septuagint is a Greek translation of Hebrew books.

Publication information Written by A. Vander Heeren. Transcribed by Nick Austriaco. Dedicated with gratitude to God to the Catholic Fellowship of M.I.T. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume XIII. Published 1912. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat, February 1, 1912. Remy Lafort, D.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John Cardinal Farley, Archbishop of New York

The Authorized Version

Name given to the English translation of the Bible produced by the Commission appointed by James I, and in consequence often spoken of as "King James's Bible". It is in general use among English-speaking non-Catholics. In order to understand its origin and history, a brief survey is necessary of the earlier English translations of the Scriptures. From very early times portions of the Bible have been translated into English. It is well known that Venerable Bede was finishing a translation of St. John's Gospel on his deathbed. But the history of the English Bible as a whole does not go back nearly so far; it dates from the so-called Wyclif Version, believed to have been completed about the year 1380. The translation was made from the Vulgate as it then existed, that is before the Sixtine and Clementine revisions, and was well and accurately done. Abbot Gasquet contends confidently (The Old English Bible, 102 sqq.) that it was in reality of Catholic origin, and not due to Wyclif at all; at any rate it seems fairly certain that he had no share in any part of it except the Gospels, even if he had in these; and there is evidence that copies of the whole were in the hands of good Catholics, and were read by them. The version, however, undoubtedly derived its chief importance from the use made of it by Wyclif and the Lollards, and it is in this connection that it is chiefly remembered. During the progress of the Reformation a number of English versions appeared, translated for the most part not from the Vulgate, but from the original Hebrew and Greek. Of these the most famous were Tyndale's Bible (1525); Coverdale's Bible (1535); Matthews' Bible (1537); Cromwell's, or the "Great Bible" (1539), the second and subsequent editions of which were known as Cranmer's Bible; the Geneva Bible (1557-60); and the Bishop's Bible (1568). The art of printing being by this time known, copies of all these circulated freely among the people. That there was much good and patient work in them, none will deny; but they were marred by the perversion of many passages, due to the theological bias of the translators; and they were used on all sides to serve the cause of Protestantism.

In order to counteract the evil effects of these versions, the Catholics determined to produce one of their own. Many of them were then living at various centres on the Continent, having been forced to leave England on account of the Penal Laws, and the work was undertaken by the members of Allen's College, at Douai, in Flanders, which was for a time transferred to Reims. The result was the Reims New Testament (1582) and the Douay Bible (1609-10). The translation was made from the Vulgate, and although accurate, was sadly deficient in literary form, and so full of Latinisms as to be in places hardly intelligible. Indeed, a few years later, Dr. William Fulke, a well-known Puritan controversialist, brought out a book in which the text of the Bishops' Bible and the Reims Testament were printed in parallel columns, with the sole purpose of discrediting the latter. In this he did not altogether succeed, and it is now generally conceded that the Douay Bible contained much excellent and scholarly work, its very faults being due to over-anxiety not to sacrifice accuracy. In the meantime the Protestants were becoming dissatisfied with their own versions, and soon after his accession King James I appointed a commission of revision--the only practical outcome of the celebrated Hampton Court Conferences. The commissioners, who numbered forty-seven, were divided into six companies, two of which sat at Oxford, Cambridge, and Westminster, respectively; each company undertook a definite portion of the Bible, and its work was afterwards revised by a select committee chosen from the whole body. The instructions for their procedure were, to take the Bishops' Bible, which was in use in the churches, as their basis, correcting it by a comparison with the Hebrew and Greek texts. They were also given a list of other English versions which they were to consult. The commissioners set to work in 1607, and completed their labours in the short period of two years and nine months, the result being what is now known as the "Authorized Version". Although at first somewhat slow in gaining general acceptance, the Authorized Version has since become famous as a masterpiece of English literature. The first edition appeared in 1611, soon after the Douay Bible; and although this latter was not one of the versions named in the instructions to the revisers, it is understood that it had considerable influence on them (see Preface to Revised Version, i, 2. Also, J. G. Carleton, "Rheims and the English Bible").

The Authorized Version was printed in the usual form of chapters and verses, and before each chapter a summary of its contents was prefixed. No other extraneous matter was permitted, except some marginal explanations of the meaning of certain Hebrew or Greek words, and a number of cross-references to other parts of the Scripture. At the beginning was placed a dedication to King James and a short "Address to the Reader". Books such as Ecclesiasticus, and Machabees, and Tobias, which are considered by Protestants to be apocryphal, were of course omitted. Although it was stated on the title-page that the Authorized Version was "appointed to be read in the Churches", in fact it came into use only gradually. For the Epistles and Gospels, it did not displace the Bishops' Version until the revision of the Liturgy in 1661; and for the Psalms, that version has been retained to the present day; for it was found that the people were so accustomed to singing it that any change was inadvisable, if not impossible. Considerable changes were made, from time to time, in the successive editions of the Authorized Version, in the notes and references, and some even in the text. A system of chronology based chiefly on the calculations of Archbishop Ussher was first inserted in 1701; but in many later editions both the dates and many, or even all, of the references or verbal notes have been omitted.

It is generally admitted that the Authorized Version was in almost every respect a great improvement on any of its predecessors. So much was this the case that when Bishop Challoner made his revision of the Douay Bible (1749-52), which is now commonly in use among English-speaking Catholics, he did not scruple to borrow largely from it. Indeed, Cardinal Newman gives it as his opinion (Tracts Theol. and Eccles., 373) that Challoner's revision was even nearer to the Authorized Version than to the original Douay, "not in grammatical structure, but in phraseology and diction". Nevertheless, there remained in the Authorized Version here and there traces of controversial prejudice, as for example, in the angel's salutation to the Blessed Virgin Mary, the words "highly favoured" being a very imperfect rendering of the original. In such cases, needless to say, Challoner adhered to the Douay. Moreover, while in the Authorized Version the names of persons and places were usually given in an anglicized form already in use, derived from the Hebrew spelling, Challoner nearly always kept the Vulgate names, which come originally from the Septuagint. It is partly due to this that the Authorized Version has an unfamiliar sound to Catholic ears. The Authorized Version remained in undisputed possession for the greater part of three centuries, and became part of the life of the people. In the latter half of the nineteenth century, however, it began to be considered that the progress of science called for a new version which should embrace the results of modern research. The work was set on foot by Convocation in 1870, and a Committee was formed, in which the Americans co-operated, resulting in the issue of the Revised Version (1881-84). The Revised Version has never received any definite ecclesiastical sanction, nor has it been officially introduced into church use. It has made its way simply on its merits. But although at the present day it is much used by students, for the general public (non-Catholic) the Authorized Version still holds its ground, and shows no sign of losing its popularity.

Publication information Written by Bernard Ward. Transcribed by Janet Grayson. The Catholic Encyclopedia, Volume II. Published 1907. New York: Robert Appleton Company. Nihil Obstat, 1907. Remy Lafort, S.T.D., Censor. Imprimatur. +John M. Farley, Archbishop of New York

Bible Manuscripts

By this term are designated handwritten copies and codices of the Hebrew Bible as a whole, or of several books arranged in groups according to a certain order (see Bible Canon), or of single books. Sometimes, though not often, they contain collections of detached prophetic selections (see Hafṭarah), generally in connection with the Pentateuch (see Strack, "Zeitschrift für die Gesammte Lutherische Theologie und Kirche," 1875, p. 594). A distinction is made between manuscripts intended for use in the synagogue and in public reading and those for private purposes. Originally both the sacred or public copies and the private or profane were in the shape of scrolls, this being the only style of book-making known to antiquity. After the leaved form of books came into vogue (from the fourth century of the common era), adherence to the ancestral model was insisted on in the case of those reserved for holy uses at public worship. While demanded only for the Pentateuch and the Book of Esther, this conformity must, as the name indicates, have been at one time exacted also for the four remaining Megillot, read as lessons on certain festivals. Why they and the collections of the Hafṭarot ceased to conform to the historical model can not be ascertained.

Rules for Writing.

The Pentateuch and Esther, when designated for synagogal use, are required to be written with scrupulous attention to rules laid down in the Law (see Soferim). They must be written in square characters (, also known as ; see Alphabet), without vowel-points and accents, on parchment made from the hides of "clean" animals, which, when duly prepared, are sewn together by threads of the same origin. If four mistakes are found in one column, or a single error is discovered in the "open" and "closed" sections of the Law, or in the arrangements of the metrical portions, the whole copy is rendered unfit for use () and must be buried. Great age-through long use, and exposure to climatic and other influences involving decay and other imperfections-is among the causes which render a copy unserviceable; and this circumstance explains why very old copies are not found. The manuscripts intended for private use vary considerably in size, material, and character. They are in rolls, and in book form-folio, quarto, octavo, and duodecimo. Some are written on parchment, some on leather, others on paper; some in square characters, others in rabbinical (the latter only in modern times). They are usually provided with vowel-points, written in a different color from the consonants, which-are always in black. Initial words or letters are often in gold and silver; some, indeed, are artistically illuminated. Sometimes on the inner margins of the columns are given Masoretic notes; the outer ones are reserved for scholia and, in more modern manuscripts, for rabbinical commentaries. Yemenite manuscripts have usually no columns; and each verse is accompanied by the corresponding verse from the Targum Onkelos and the Arabic translation by Saadia. The space at the bottom of the pages is sometimes occupied by the commentary of Rashi.

Colophons and Inscriptions.

Generally, the manuscripts are provided with inscriptions giving the name of the copyist and the dates of writing. Several eras are used in the computation of these dates: that of the creation of the world; that of the Seleucids; that of the destruction of the Temple; and, finally, that of the Babylonian exile (see Era). The age of undated manuscripts is approximatively determined by the ink, the quality of the parchment, the presence or absence of Masoretic notes, and by paleographic signs (See Paleography).

As indicated above, extant manuscripts are not of very great antiquity. In addition to the explanation already given, this phenomenon, all the more curious because, according to Jewish law, every Jew ought to have at least one copy in his house, is very plausibly accounted for on the theory advanced by Brian Walton; namely, that with the definitive settlement of the Masorah in the seventh century, many copies must have been discarded because of their infractions of the established Masoretic rules. If Talmud Yerushalmi (Ta'anit lxviii. 1) is to be credited, while the Temple was still standing, standard codices of the Pentateuch were officially recognized. These were deposited in the court of the Temple and served as models for accuracy. According to the passage quoted, three were known by the following names respectively: "Sefer Me'on," so called on account of its reading instead of (Deut. xxxiii. 27); "Sefer Za'aṭuṭe," because of its reading instead of (Ex. xxiv. 5); and "Sefer Hi," because of its reading with a yod in nine passages instead of eleven. The Masorites, too, seem to have consulted standard manuscripts celebrated for their accuracy in the redaction of the text and in the compilation of the Masoretic glosses. Though none of these has been preserved, the following are referred to as authorities in almost every manuscript of importance:

Codex Muggeh,

i.e., the corrected Codex: Quoted by the Masorites either by its full title () or simply as "Muggeh" ().

Codex Hilleli ():

The origin of its name is not known. According to Zacuto, this codex was written by a certain Hillel at about 600 of the common era. In his Chronicle, compiled about 1500, Zacuto expresses himself as follows:

"In the year 4957, on the twenty-eighth of Ab (Aug. 14, 1197), there was a great persecution of the Jews in the kingdom of Leon at the hand of the two kingdoms that came to besiege it. At that time they removed thence the twenty-four sacred books which were written about 600 years before. They were written by R. Hillel ben Moses ben Hillel, and hence his name was given to the codex, which was called 'Hilleli.' It was exceedingly correct; and all other codices were revised after it. I saw the remaining two parts of it, containing the Former and Latter Prophets, written in large and beautiful characters; these had been brought by the exiles to Portugal and sold at Bugia in Africa, where they still are, having been written about 900 years ago. Kimḥi in his grammar on Num. x. 4 says that the Pentateuch of the Hillel Codex was extant in Toledo."

Codex Sanbuki:

Frequently quoted in the Masorah Parva, and highly praised for its accuracy by Menahem de Lonzano in his "Or Torah." According to Christian D. Ginsburg, the name of this codex is derived from "Zambuki" on the Tigris, to which community it belonged.

Codex Yerushalmi:

As attested by Ḳimḥi ("Miklol," ed. Fürth, 1793, p. 184b), the codex was for many years in Saragossa, and was extensively used by the grammarian and lexicographer Ibn Janaḥ. It is often quoted in the Masorah as exhibiting a different orthography from that of the Codex Hilleli.

Codex Jericho, also called Jericho Pentateuch ():

The name seems to imply that the manuscript embraced only the Pentateuch. It is mentioned by Elijah Levita, in "Shibre Luḥot," as most reliable for the accents.

Codex Sinai ():

Many opinions exist as to the derivation of its name. The most plausible is that it was derived from "Mount Sinai," just as the codices Jericho and Yerushalmi denote the places of their origin. It is mentioned in the Masorah, and is also cited by Elijah Levita in his work quoted above.

Codex Great Maḥzor ():

This probably contained the annual or triennial cycle ("Maḥzor") of lessons to be read on week-days, Sabbaths, feasts, and fasts; hence its name.

Codex Ezra:

Quoted in the Masorah Parva. A manuscript professing to be a copy of this codex is in the possession of Christian D. Ginsburg.

Codex Babylon ():

Differences (, "ḥillufin") existed between the Western schools (), the chief seat of which was Tiberias, and the Eastern (), the principal centers of which were Nehardea and Sura, in the reading of many passages; this codex gives the Eastern recension (see Masorah). Another standard codex which served as a model at the time of Maimonides was that written in the tenth century by the renowned Masorite Aaron ben Moses ben Asher of Tiberias (compare Maimonides, "Yad," Sefer Torah, viii. 4). This codex was for a long time believed to be identical with that preserved in the synagogue at Aleppo (Jacob Saphir, , i. 12b; Grätz, in "Monatsschrift," 1871, p. 6; 1887, p. 30; Strack, "Prolegomena Critica," pp. 44-46). [E. N. Adler ("Kaufmann Gedenkbuch," p. 130) argues that the Aleppo Codex is a copy, not the original; but Wickes ("Hebrew Accentuation," Preface, p. vii., Oxford, 1887) makes it clear that "the statement assigning the codex to (Aaron ben Moses) Ben-Asher is a fabrication." E. G. H.

Two celebrated manuscripts believed to be very ancient are still extant in Syria. One of these, the Damascus Codex, which, according to the inscription on its title-page (added, however, by a later hand), was written in the third century of the common era, belongs to a Jewish family of Damascus named Parḥi, and is exhibited to the inhabitants on feast-days. The other is kept in a grotto by the inhabitants of Jobar near Damascus.

Number of MSS.

The number of Hebrew Bible manuscripts found in European libraries is considerable. The oldest collection is that in the Imperial Library, St. Petersburg, formerly in the Odessa Biblical Society's library. A description of some of these manuscripts was given by Ephraim Moses Pinner in a pamphlet entitled "Prospectus der Alten Hebräischen und Rabbinischen Manuscripte," etc., Odessa, 1845. A full description by Strack and Harkavy is given in their catalogue. The oldest manuscript of this valuable collection is a Pentateuch brought from Derband (Daghestan), written before 604 of the common era. It consists of forty-five skins having 226 columns, and is composed of six pieces: (1) Gen. i.-xlvi. 25, end (9 skins, 52 columns, 51 lines; Taggin by a later hand). (2) Gen. xlvi. 26-Numbers (24 skins, 134 columns, 50 lines, without Taggin). (3) Deut. i.-xvii. (4 skins, 21 columns, 51 lines, without Taggin). (4) Deut. xvii.-xxi. 4 (1 skin, 3 columns, 51 lines). (5) Deut. xxi. 5-xxiii. 23 (1 skin, 3 columns, 51 lines). (6) Deut. xxiii. 24-end of Deut. (4 skins, 13 columns, 51 lines).

The oldest manuscript in book form at the library of St. Petersburg dates from 916. It consists of 225 folios, each folio divided lengthwise into two columns with 21 lines to the column, with the exception of folio 1a and folio 224a-b, which exhibit epigraphs. It contains the Latter Prophets. Two lines of Masorah Magna appear in the lower margin of each page; while the Masorah Parva occupies the center space between the columns. The vowel-points are superlinear in the so-called Babylonian system. The total number of the Bible manuscripts in the St. Petersburg library is 146.

In Libraries.

The British Museum possesses 165 Bible manuscripts, the oldest of which is the Masoretic Bible written about 820-850. This contains the Pentateuch and consists of 186 folios, 55 of which were at one time missing, but have been added by a later hand. The Bodleian Library, Oxford, possesses 146 Bible manuscripts, the oldest of which dates from 1104. Cambridge counts 32, the oldest believed to be of the tenth century. Bible manuscripts in goodly numbers are also to be found in private libraries in England, the most important collection being that of E. N. Adler. This contains about 100 codices, the oldest dating from the ninth century. The Bibliothèque Nationale, Paris, has 132 Bible manuscripts, the oldest with the date 1286. The number of Bible manuscripts in the Vienna Library is 24. The oldest (given by Kennicott under No. 126) contains the Latter Prophets and the Hagiographa, written in the tenth century. Steinschneider describes 14 Bible manuscripts in the Royal library of Berlin; none of them is very old. De Rossi describes 848 manuscripts (now at Parma), the oldest of which is No. 634, containing Lev. xxi. 19-Num. i. 50, written in the eighth century. The Vatican Library possesses 39 Bible manuscripts, which have been described by Joseph Simon Assemani and Stephen Ephodius Assemani.

Several Bible manuscripts are in the libraries of Leipsic, Munich, and Leyden.

Some Bible manuscripts have been brought from China. They are partly synagogue rolls, partly private copies, whose text does not differ from the Masoretic Bibles. A Pentateuch of the Malabar Jews is now in England. It resembles, on the whole, the usual synagogue rolls, except that it is written on red skin.

Samaritan manuscripts of the Pentateuch are to be found in the British Museum, the Bodleian, St. Petersburg, Parma, and the Vatican libraries; for a description of them, the respective catalogues may be consulted.

As curiosities may be mentioned a Hebrew Pentateuch in Arabic characters, now in the British Museum; the Pentateuch in Latin characters in the Bodleian Library; and, finally, the fragments of the Pentateuch written in inverted alphabet discovered lately in the Cairo genizah.

Emil G. Hirsch, Isaac Broyd�
Jewish Encyclopedia, published between 1901-1906.

Bibliography:
Kennicott, Dissertatio Generalis; Walton, Prolegomena to the Polyglot; S. Davidson, Treatise on Biblical Criticism; Strack, Prolegomena Critica in Vetus Testamentum Hebraicum; Christian D. Ginsburg, Introduction to the Masoretico-Critical Edition of the Hebrew Bible, pp. 421 et seq.

Bible Translations

The Targums.

According to Blau ("Einleitung," p. 79) the reference is to a copy written in the Old Hebrew script. The Targum is largely a paraphrase, reproducing the rabbinical tradition as regards the meaning of the text. For a history of this Targum see Targum. In passing a word should be said about the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch in the West-Aramaic dialect, which the Samaritans at one time spoke. It is as yet not possible to say in which century this version was made. Even though the citations under the caption τὸ Σαμαρειτικόυ, which are found in the scholia to Origen's Hexapla, refer to it, Kohn believes that they are drawn from a Greek translation of the Samaritan made in Egypt. The text has been edited in Samaritan characters by H. Petermann and K. Vollers (Berlin, 1872-91), and in Hebrew characters by A. Brüll (1873-75), from the London Polyglot. M. Heidenheim's edition in Hebrew characters, of which Genesis only has appeared ("Bibliotheca Samaritana," i., Leipsic, 1884), has been very severely criticized (see Nestle, "Uebersetzungen der Bibel," p. 205).

Influence of Hellenism.

The settlement of large numbers of Jews in various parts of the Greek world, the Hellenization of Palestine, and the presence in Jerusalem of Jews from all countries, especially from those under Greek influence, in course of time forced the Rabbis to treat the question more liberally. According to Meg. ii. 1, it was forbidden to read the Megillah in Aramaic or in any other non-Hebrew language, except for the foreign Jews () in Jerusalem (compare the Baraita in Bab. Meg. 18a; Shab. 115b); and that such foreign Jews were in the city in large numbers is seen from Acts ii. 5-11. So, also, it is found, according to another tradition (Meg. i. 8), that it was permitted to write the Biblical books in any language (); though R. Simon ben Gamaliel would restrict this permission to Greek (Yer. Meg. i. 1): "After careful examination it was found that the Pentateuch could be adequately translated only into Greek").

Evidence exists of the fact that in the synagogue of the Greek was freely used (Tosef., Meg. iv. 13). There is even a tradition that Greek letters were engraven upon the chest in the Temple in which the shekels were kept (Sheḳ. iii. 2); and there is also Christian testimony to this effect (Justin, "Cohortatio ad Græcos," xiii.; Tertullian, "Apologia," xviii.; Frankel, "Vorstudien," p. 56). It is reported that in Asia Minor R. Meïr was unable to find a Megillah written in Hebrew (Tosef., Meg. ii. 4); and the weekly lessons both from the Law and the Prophets were at an early date read in Greek in Alexandria ("Jew. Quart. Rev." ix. 730). This makes comprehensible the statement that "the Law can be read in any language" (Soṭah 33a; Meg. 17b). The well-known passage in the Mishnah (Yad. iv. 5) which mentions the Levitical impurity occasioned by touching Biblical books, and which especially excepts the Targum from these provisions, has been very properly explained by Blau as referring to different degrees of sanctity only: no translation could, of course, be put upon the same level with the original Hebrew.

At a later time-perhaps in the second century ofthe present era-a different view seems to have prevailed; and it was said that the day on which the Law was translated into Greek was as unfortunate for the Jews as that on which the Golden Calf was made (Soferim i. 8, 9). Even to teach children Greek was forbidden (Soṭah ix. 14); though it was still permitted to teach a girl Greek, as a knowledge of that language was considered to be an accomplishment. Evidently this change of view was occasioned by the rise of the Christian Church, which used the Bible only in the Septuagint Version. It will be seen that in the Middle Ages the desire to please the women during the service and to instruct them led to the introduction of the vernacular, especially for the prophetical lessons. The treatise Soferim even makes it a duty "to translate, for the women, the weekly readings from the Pentateuch and the Prophets before the close of the service. The translation was not read verse by verse after the Hebrew, but as one continuous passage" (Abrahams, "Jewish Life in the Middle Ages," p. 345).

The Septuagint.

The oldest and most important of all the versions made by Jews is that called "The Septuagint" ("Interpretatio septuaginta virorum" or "seniorum"). It is a monument of the Greek spoken by the large and important Jewish community of Alexandria; not of classic Greek, nor even of the Hellenistic style affected by Alexandrian writers. If the account given by Aristeas be true, some traces of Palestinian influence should be found; but a study of the Egyptian papyri, which are abundant for this particular period, is said by both Mahaffy and Deissmann to show a very close similarity between the language they represent and that of the Septuagint, not to mention the Egyptian words already recognized by both Hody and Eichhorn. These papyri have in a measure reinstated Aristeas (about 200 B.C.) in the opinion of scholars. Upon his "Letter to Philocrates" the tradition as to the origin of the Septuagint rests. It is now believed that even though he may have been mistaken in some points, his facts in general are worthy of credence (Abrahams, in "Jew. Quart. Rev." xiv. 321). According to Aristeas, the Pentateuch was translated at the time of Philadelphus, the second Ptolemy (285-247 B.C.), which translation was encouraged by the king and welcomed by the Jews of Alexandria. Grätz ("Gesch. der Juden," 3d ed., iii. 615) stands alone in assigning it to the reign of Philometor (181-146 B.C.). Whatever share the king may have had in the work, it evidently satisfied a pressing need felt by the Jewish community, among whom a knowledge of Hebrew was rapidly waning before the demands of every-day life.

It is not known when the other books of the Bible were rendered into Greek. The grandson of Ben Sira (132 B.C.), in the prologue to his translation of his grandfather's work, speaks of the "Law, Prophets, and the rest of the books" as being already current in his day. A Greek Chronicles is mentioned by Eupolemus (middle of second century B.C.); Aristeas, the historian, quotes Job; a foot-note to the Greek Esther seems to show that that book was in circulation before the end of the second century B.C.; and the Septuagint Psalter is quoted in I Macc. vii. 17. It is therefore more than probable that the whole of the Bible was translated into Greek before the beginning of the Christian era (Swete, "An Introduction to the O. T. in Greek," ch. i.). The large number of Greek-speaking Jewish communities in Palestine, Syria, Mesopotamia, Asia Minor, and northern Africa must have facilitated its spread in all these regions. The quotations from the Old Testament found in the New are in the main taken from the Septuagint; and even where the citation is indirect the influence of this version is clearly seen. This will also explain in a measure the undoubted influence of the Septuagint upon the Syriac translation called the "Peshiṭta."

Being a composite work, the translation varies in the different books. In the Pentateuch, naturally, it adheres most closely to the original; in Job it varies therefrom most widely. In some books (e.g., Daniel) the influence of the Jewish Midrash is more apparent than in others. Where it is literal it is "intolerable as a literary work" (Swete, ib. p. 22). The translation, which shows at times a peculiar ignorance of Hebrew usage, was evidently made from a codex which differed widely in places from the text crystallized by the Masorah. Its influence upon the Greek-speaking Jews must have been great. In course of time it came to be the canonical Greek Bible, as Luther's translation became the German, and the Authorized Version the English. It is the version used by the Jewish Hellenistic writers, Demetrius, Eupolemus, Artabanus, Aristeas, Ezekiel, and Aristobulus, as well as in the Book of Wisdom, the translation of Ben Sira, and the Jewish Sibyllines. Hornemann, Siegfried, and Ryle have shown that Philo bases his citations from the Bible on the Septuagint Version, though he has no scruple about modifying them or citing them with much freedom. Josephus follows this translation closely (Freudenthal, "Hellenistische Studien," ii. 171; Siegfried, in Stade's "Zeitschrift," iii. 32). It became part of the Bible of the Christian Church.

Aquila.

Two things, however, rendered the Septuagint unwelcome in the long run to the Jews. Its divergence from the accepted text (afterward called the Masoretic) was too evident; and it therefore could not serve as a basis for theological discussion or for homiletic interpretation. This distrust was accentuated by the fact that it had been adopted as Sacred Scripture by the new faith. A revision in the sense of the canonical Jewish text was necessary. This revision was made by a proselyte, Aquila, who lived during the reign of Hadrian (117-138). He is reported to have been a pupil of R. Akiba and to have embodied in his revision the principles of the strictest literal interpretation of the text; certainly his translation is pedantic, and its Greek is uncouth. It strove only to reproduce the text word for word, and for this reason it grew rapidly in favor in strictly Jewish circles where Hebrew was yet understood. Not only in the days of Origen was it thus popular, but, according to the testimony of Jerome and Augustine, down to the fourth and fifth centuries. Of this translation a few fragments have come down to us, together with many citations made by Christian writers from Origen's Hexapla. In the middle ofthe sixth century a certain section of the Jews in Byzantium wished to read the Sabbath lections in Greek as well as in Hebrew; but the Rabbis and authorities desired that only Hebrew should be read. The discussion came before the emperor, Justinian, who in the year 553 issued a novella in which it was expressly stated that "the Hebrews are allowed to read the Holy Writ in their synagogues in the Greek language"; and the emperor advised them to use either the Septuagint or the version of Aquila (Grätz, "Gesch. der Juden," v. 435).

Theodotion and Symmachus.

A second revision of the Septuagint was made by one Theodotion, perhaps a native of Ephesus, who may have lived toward the end of the second century. He is sometimes said to have been a convert to Judaism. His revision, also, is in the nature of a recurrence to the Hebrew text, but he avoids entirely the pedantry of Aquila, and his Greek gives a readable text; the only evidences of pedantry are his transliterations of a number of Hebrew words. Strange to say, his version of Daniel entirely displaced that of the Septuagint; and in other portions his translations are occasionally found in ordinary Septuagint manuscripts. For this fact no sufficient reason has yet been given. Fragments of his work are also found in the remains of Origen's Hexapla. A third translator, Symmachus, whose date is not known, tried to smooth down Aquila's un-Grecian Greek by the use of both the Septuagint and Theodotion. He seems to be the best stylist of all. According to Epiphanius, he was a Samaritan convert to Judaism; but Eusebius and Jerome make him out an Ebionite. Of the three other fragmentary translations into Greek used by Origen in compiling his Hexapla, very little is known. It is not even certain that they are the work of Jews.

Toward the end of the fourteenth century or at the beginning of the fifteenth another translation ofthe Bible into Greek was made, of which the portion covering the Pentateuch, Ruth, Proverbs, Canticles, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations, and Daniel is still preserved in manuscript (MS. Gr., No. vii.) in the library of St. Mark's, Venice. It has been edited in a final form by Oscar von Gebhardt ("Græcus Venetus," Leipsic, 1875), with a preface by Franz Delitzsch. According to Von Gebhardt, Delitzsch, and Freudenthal ("Hellenistische Studien," p. 129), the author was a Jew, who for some reason or other preferred the commentary of David Ḳimḥi to that of Rashi. The author has also used the former Greek versions. The body of the work is done into Attic Greek; the Aramaic portions of Daniel are rendered into Doric. Delitzsch has tried to identify the author with a certain Eliseus, a learned Jew at the court of Murad I. (see "Theol. Lit. Zeit." i. 107; Swete, l.c. p. 56; Nestle, l.c.p. 84). On the other hand, P. Frankl has tried to show that the translator was a Christian and not a Jew ("Monatsschrift," xxiv. 372). According to Grätz ("Gesch. der Juden," vii. 318), Shemariah of Negroponte (1328-46) rendered the Book of Genesis into Greek, in an attempt to bridge over the cleft separating Karaites from Rabbinites. But Shemariah's work was a commentary and not a translation (Steinschneider, "Hebr. Bibl." xv. 39). On translations of the Hafṭarot into Greek see "Magazin," ii. 5.

Modern Greek.

The first attempt to translate the Bible into modern Greek was made by a monk of the island of Crete, Agapiou by name. In 1543 he published a rendering of the Psalms which followed closely the Septuagint translation. This preceded the first Jewish translation by only a few years. One column of the Polyglot Pentateuch (Constantinople, 1547) contained a Neo-Greek version in Hebrew characters. The dialect used is that of Epirus; and no single word of Turkish is to be found in it. Though full of Hebraisims, it is said to be of importance for the study of Greek linguistics. The few copies of this edition which are now known to exist do not agree; and it has been suggested that corrections were made in the text during printing. In the "Revue des Etudes Grecques" (iii. 288 et seq.) Belleli has reprinted the first four chapters of Genesis; and a facsimile of the whole has been published by D. C. Hesseling, "Les Cinq Livres de la Loi" (Leyden, 1897; compare the discussion in "Rev. Etudes Juives," xxxv. 132, 314). A translation of Jonah into modern Greek is found in a manuscript volume of prayers in the library of the University of Bologna; and it is known, from R. Meïr Katzenellenbogen, that in his day (1470-1565) it was customary in Padua to read the Hafṭarah of the Atonement Day in the vernacular; this was also the case in Candia (Kapsali, ed. Lattes, p. 22). L. Modena has shown ("Cataloghi dei Codici Orientali," p. 335, Florence, 1876) that this thirteenth-century manuscript, which came originally from Canea, is similar to MS. No. 1144 in the Bodleian collection (Neubauer, "Cat. Bodl. Hebr. MSS." col. 333; "Rev. Etudes Juives," xxiii. 135). In 1576 Moses ben Elijah Phobian, or Popian, published at Constantinople a Neo-Greek translation of Job for the express purpose of facilitating the teaching of Hebrew (Belleli, in "Rev. Etudes Juives," xxii. 250; compare ib. xxiii. 136, xxiv. 160, and Güdemann, "Quellen'" pp. 239-289).

The Peshiṭta.

The Syriac translation of the Old Testament was undoubtedly made directly from the Hebrew; though at Antioch, during the third century of the present era and at later periods, it was revised so as to make it conform to the Septuagint. The history of its origin is obscure; but it was probably made in Mesopotamia during the first century. As with most of the older translations, various hands have been at work here. Perles ("Meletemata Peschittoniana," Breslau, 1859), Prager ("De Veteris, Testamenti Versione Peschitto," Göttingen, 1875), and Bacher (see Aramaic Language) believe it is the work of Jews: but this has not yet been proved; and the view of Dathe, Eichhorn, Hitzig, Nöldeke, and Renan, that it owes its origin to Judæo-Christians, seems more probable. Perles, however, has shown that there are unmistakable evidences in the Peshiṭta of the influence of the Targum, especially in Genesis. This has been confirmed for Ezekiel by Cornill ("Das Buch Ezekiel," p. 154), for Chronicles by S. Fränkel (in "Jahrb. für Protestantische Theologie," 1879), and for Job by Stenig ("De Syriaca Libri Jobi Interp." Helsingfors, 1887), Mandl ("Peschitto zu Hiob," Leipsic, 1892), and Hauman (in Stade's "Zeitschrift," xix.29). The closest agreement between the two versions is found in the Book of Proverbs; but it is now generally held that in this case the Targum reflects the Peshiṭta and not vice versa, as Maybaum contends (Merx, "Archiv," vol. ii.). This view is upheld by a consideration of the general character of the translation (Pinkuss, in Stade's "Zeitschrift," xiv. 101; see also Duval, "Littérature Syriaque," 1899, pp. 31 et seq.).

Arabic Versions.

It is impossible to tell at how early a time the Jews commenced to translate the Bible into Arabic. After the early victories of the Mohammedans, Arabic civilization and Arabic surroundings brought the Jews into very close connection with the Arabic language. Even where Hebrew was still kept up, the Hebrew alphabet must at times have gone out of fashion; for there exist some Karaite manuscripts of the tenth century, giving the Hebrew text in Arabic characters and with the letters used as vowel-signs (R. Hörning, "British Museum Karaite MSS." London, 1889; Margoliouth, "Cat. Hebr. and Samaritan MSS. Brit. Mus." i., Nos. 103, 104). That the Jews had little scruple in reading the Bible in Arabic may be seen from Judah ibn Tibbon's advice to his son to read the Sabbath lections in that tongue ("Jew. Quart. Rev." xii. 484). There are no facts, however, which prove that the early Jews of Arabia possessed any Arabic translation of the Bible. There is a tradition, going back to Abu Huraya, a contemporary of Mohammed, that "The People of the Book used to read the Taurah [Torah] in Hebrew and interpret it in Arabic to the followers of Islam"; which tradition is the basis of the polemics of Abu Mohammed ibn Ḥazm (d. 1064). Another tradition says that "Ka'ab the rabbi brought a book ["sifr"] to Omar the calif and said, 'Here is the Torah, read it'" (Goldziher, in "Z. D. M. G." xxxii. 344). The evidence is insufficient; and thereis even less warrant for Sprenger's idea that apocryphal writings were current in Arabia during Mohammed's days (see Kuenen, "Volksreligion," p. 297). At a later time, however, such translations must have existed, even though little credence can be placed upon the assurances of the polemical writers that they had "read this in the Torah" or "in the Zabur [Psalms]" (ib. p. 351; compare Stade's "Zeitschrift," xiii. 315). The Fihrist (ed. Flügel, i. 22) of Al-Nadim mentions an Aḥmad ibn Abd Allah ibn Salam who translated the Bible into Arabic, at the time of Harun al-Rashid. Faḥr al-Din al-Razi mentions a translation of Habbakuk by the son of Rabban al-Ṭabari ("Z. D. M. G." xlii. 645). Many of the Arabic historians, as Al-Ṭabari, Mas'udi, Ḥamza, and Biruni, cite passages and recount the early history of the Jews in a most circumstantial manner. Ibn Ḳutaibah, the historian (d. 889), says that he read the Bible; and he even made a collection of Biblical passages in a work which has been preserved by Ibn Jauzi of the twelfth century (see Haupt and Delitzsch, "Beiträge zur Assyriologie," iii. 46; Stade's "Zeitschrift," xv. 138).

Saadia Gaon.

The first important Arabic translation is that of Saadia Gaon (892-942). The influence of this translation was in its way as great as that of the gaon's philosophical work. It has remained to this day the version for the Jews in Arabic-speaking countries: it is dignified by the name "Targum"; and in many of the South Arabian Bible manuscripts it follows the Aramaic verse by verse, as the Aramaic follows the Hebrew. Saadia in the main takes the Targum as his guide, especially in doing away with all anthropomorphisms. His chief thought, however, is to produce a readable and intelligible translation. In this sense his translation may be called free; he was evidently working for a general reading public, both Jewish and Mohammedan, and not for scholars. Ibn Ezra blames him for the apparent case with which he passes over difficulties. But, in calling this translation a "tafsir" (explanation), he meant to indicate that he aimed to present the simple sense ("basiṭ"="peshaṭ") of the Biblical text; and Abu al-Walid looks upon him as the chief representative of this method. His fervent belief in the verbal inspiration of the Biblical text kept him free, on the one hand, from the influence of his rationalistic philosophy and, on the other, from the allegorical method of the Talmud (Editio Derenbourg, v. x.; Bacher in Winter and Wünsche, "Jüdische Litteratur," iii. 244). When no word in Arabic will exactly express his meaning, he uses the Hebrew word or adopts the Hebrew construction. In addition, he attempts to reproduce Hebrew words by Arabic words with a similar sound (Munk, in Cahen's "Bible," ix. 127). Saadia, in the introduction to the commentary on the Pentateuch, states that he translated it twice: once with a diffuse commentary; the second time without the commentary. Of the first translation only a few fragments and citations by Abraham ibn Ezra, Baḥya ben Asher, Abraham Maimonides, etc., have been preserved (Derenbourg's ed. of the Pentateuch, Hebrew part, p. vii.; "Monatsschrift," xli. 205; "Jew. Quart. Rev." xii. 536). Of this work, at one time complete, only the Pentateuch, Isaiah, Minor Prophets, portions of Judges, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, and Daniel are now extant.

Saadia's translation was first printed in the Polyglot Pentateuch, Constantinople, 1546. It was reproduced in Arabic characters in the Paris and London Polyglots (1645-57). From time to time more or less critical editions of various portions have been published; a complete list of these editions as well as of the extant manuscripts is given by Steinschneider in the "Kaufmann Gedenkbuch," pp. 153 et seq. (see also "Monatsschrift," xli. 124, and Engelkemper, "De Saadiæ Gaonis Vita, Bibliorum Versione, etc.," Münster, 1897). A definite edition of the translation and commentaries was commenced by the late Joseph Derenbourg, "Œuvres Complètes de R. Saadia," Paris, 1893 et seq., and is being carried on by Hartwig Derenbourg and Mayer Lambert; the Pentateuch, Isaiah, Proverbs, and Job have appeared (1902).

Other Arabic Versions.

A number of other translations into Arabic must have existed. Abu al-Walid mentions some of them, though it can hardly be determined to-day to which translations he refers (Bacher, "Leben und Werke des Abulwalid," p. 99). Some of them, though bearing no direct relation to that of Saadia, show evident traces of his influence. This is true at least of a translation of the Minor Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and Ezekiel, found in Codex Huntington (No. 206 in the Bodleian Library, Oxford). From this manuscript Hosea was published by R. Schröter in Merx, "Archiv," i. 28 et seq. M. Peritz has edited "Zwei Alte Uebersetzungen des Buches Ruth," Berlin, 1900 ("Monatsschrift," 1899, pp. 49 et seq.). The second of these, from a manuscript in the British Museum, though it shows most of the peculiarities of Saadia's translation, is not by him (see also Poznanski, in "Zeit. für Hebr. Bibl." iv. 167). Nothing is known of the fragments of the Arabic version of the Pentateuch found in the twelfth-century manuscript, St. Petersburg, Nos. 137 and 138 (Harkavy-Strack, "Catalog," p. 164). Another translation of the Five Scrolls is found in British Museum MSS., Nos. 146, 147 (Poznanski, in "Rev. Etudes Juives," xli. 302). A rimed version of the Psalms was made by one Ḥafẓ al-Ḳuṭi (tenth century), which is contained in a manuscript of the Ambrosian Library in Milan (Hammer-Purgstall in "Bibl. Ital. di Letteratura," civ. 36), copied in 1625 from a manuscript in the Escurial, which has since been lost. It is cited by Moses ibn Ezra in his "Poetics"; but it is evident that this translation was made by one who was not even, as has been supposed, a baptized Jew ("Hebr. Bibl." x. 26). Neubauer has pointed out ("Rev. Etudes Juives," xxx. 65) that it contains Christian quotations; and the term "the Goth" (ib. p. 318) would sufficiently indicate that the author was a Christian. A version of Ecclesiastes by Judah ibn Ghayyat has been published by J. Löwy, Leyden, 1884 (see Rahmer's "Jüdisches Litteratur-Blatt," May 29, 1884, p. 88). In the thirteenth century a translation of the Pentateuch was made by an African Jew, who also based his work on that of Saadia. It is known as the "Arabs Erpenii" ("Pent. Mosis Arabice," Lug.-Bat. MS., No. 1622). (On a supposed translation ofthe Psalms by Saadia ben Levi Azankot see Steinschneider, "Cat. Bodl." col. 2227.) In modern times several Arabic translations of the Bible have been published in India; e.g., by Ezekiel Shem-Ṭob David, Bombay, 1889, and the Apocrypha by Joseph David, Bombay, 1895.

Karaite Versions.

It was natural that the Karaites should refuse to make use of the version in Arabic made by their arch-enemy, Saadia. Only two or three of their attempts to replace it have come down; and even these have been preserved in a most fragmentary form only. One of the earliest of these attempts was that made by Joshua b. Ari, or, to give him the name by which he is better known, Abu al-Faraj Furḳan ibn Asad, a learned Jerusalem Karaite of the middle of the eleventh century. A portion of his Arabic translation of the Pentateuch is to be found in MS. Or. 2491 of the British Museum. It shows occasionally a decided rationalistic tendency, explanatory glosses being introduced here and there into the text (G. Margoliouth, in "Jew. Quart. Rev." xi. 190). Whether Japheth ha-Levi (Ibn Ali al-Baṣri) really translated any parts of the Bible (Margoliouth, "Descriptive List," pp. 25 et seq.), is undetermined; but it is known that he had the ambitious desire to write an extensive commentary upon the whole Bible (Steinschneider, "Hebr. Uebers." p. 941). According to Margoliouth ("Cat. Hebr. and Samaritan MSS. Brit. Mus." p. 71), MS. Brit. Mus. 101 (Or. 2481) contains an Arabic translation of the Pentateuch based upon that of Japheth.

Samaritan Revision of Saadia.

The translation of Saadia, as is said above, had become a standard work in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria. But to the Samaritans it was as distasteful (Harkavy, "Ḥadashim," No. 7, p. 22) as it no doubt had been to the Karaites, because of the rabbinical interpretations which it represented. At some time, perhaps during the thirteenth century, it was revised by a Samaritan with the express purpose of adapting it to the use of his coreligionists. This revision is usually held to have been made by Abu Sa'id ibn abu al-Ḥusain ibn abu Sa'id, and has claimed the attention of European scholars such as De Sacy ("Mémoires de l'Académie," 1808, xlix. 1 et seq.), Gesenius ("De Pentateuchi Samaritani Origine, Indole et Auctoritate," p. 120, Halle, 1815), and Juynboll ("Commentatio de Versione Arabico-Samaritana," Amsterdam, 1846). Of it Genesis, Ezodus, and Leviticus have been edited by A. Kuenen (Leyden, 1851-54; see Kohn, "Zur Sprache der Samaritaner," p. 134; Nestle, l.c. p. 153). Abu Sa'id was supposed to have lived about the year 1070; but Wreschner ("Samaritanische Tradition," 1888, p. xix.) has shown that he flourished in the thirteenth century. According to Joseph Bloch, "Die Samaritanisch-Arabische Pentateuch Uebersetzung," p. 16, Berlin, 1901, the real translator is perhaps the Tyrian, Abu al-Ḥasan, and Abu Sa'id is only a scholiast. If this be true, it was not the first translation; for one was made in the twelfth century by Ṣadaḳa ibn Munajja of Damascus, a physician in the service of Sultan Malik al-Ashraf (Haji Khalifah, ii. 402; Neubauer, "Chronique Samaritaine," p. 112).

Persian Versions.

It is not known at what time the first translations of the Bible were made into Persian. From quotations in the "Dinkard" and the "Shikand Gumanik Vijar" (theological works of the Sassanian period), James Darmesteter has supposed that one existed in Pahlavi ("Rev. Etudes Juives," xviii. 5); but the supposition is unsupported by any real evidence. Blau also ("Einleitung," p. 95) seems to incline to this opinion, because Bab. Meg. 18a speaks of a scroll of Esther in the Elamite and Median languages. According to Maimonides, the Pentạteuch was translated into Persian many hundred years previous to Mohammed (Zunz, "G. V." 2d ed., p. 9). This statement also can not be further substantiated. The earliest version of which we have any knowledge is that made by Jacob ben Joseph Tawus, and printed in Hebrew characters in the Polyglot Pentateuch, Constantinople, 1546. This was transcribed into Persian characters and translated into Latin by Thomas Hyde, in which form it was published in the London Polyglot. Kohut ("Beleuchtung der Persischen Pentateuch-Uebersetzung," 1871) places Tawus in the first half of the sixteenth century (compare also Zunz, "G. S." iii. 136). According to Steinschneider ("Jewish Literature," p. 321), Tawus made use of an earlier translation made in the thirteenth century (see Munk, in Cahen's "Bible," vol. ix.), which followed the Targum and the commentary of David Ḳimḥi. A number of translations into Persian are to be found in the various collections of manuscript, of which the following is a partial list:

Pentateuch:

Vatican MS. 61 (Guidi, in "Rendiconti . . . dei Lincei," 1885, p. 347). Codex Adler B. 63, written in 1776 ("Jew. Quart. Rev." x. 596). Codex St. Petersburg 141 (not by Tawus; Harkavy-Strack, "Cat." p. 166).

Psalms: Vatican MS. 37; Bodleian MS. 1830. Vatican MS. 42; Bodleian MS. 1827 (Jewish? Horn, in "Z. D. M. G." li. 7). Codex Adler B. 27 ("Jew. Quart. Rev." x. 592). Brit. Mus. MSS. 159, 160 (transl. about 1740 by Baba b. Nuriel of Ispahan; Margoliouth, "Cat. of Hebr. and Samaritan MSS. Brit. Mus." p. 120). Brit. Mus. MS. Or. 4729 (dated 1822; "Jew. Quart. Rev." vii. 119). Proverbs, Canticles, Ruth, Ecclesiastes: Paris MS. 116 ("Cat. des MSS. Héb. de la Bibl. Nat.").

Proverbs, Canticles, Ecclesiastes: Codex Adler B. 46 ("Jew. Quart. Rev." x. 595). Paris MS. 117 ("Cat. des MSS. Héb. de la Bibl. Nat."). Proverbs: On a translation now lost, see Lagarde, "Symmicta," ii. 14.

Job and Lamentations: Codex de Rossi 1093 (Zunz, "G. S." iii. 135). Paris MS. 118 ("Cat. des MSS. Hébreux de la Bibl. Nat.").

Job: Codex St. Petersburg 142 (Harkavy-Strack, p. 167.). Paris MSS. 120, 121 ("Catalogue," etc.). Song of Songs: Codex Adler B. 12 ("Jew. Quart. Rev." x. 589).

Daniel: Paris MSS. 128, 129 ("Catalogue," etc.).

Esther: Codex Adler T. 16 and 27 ("Jew. Quart. Rev." x. 598, 599). Paris MS. 127 ("Catalogue," etc.).

Tobit, Judith, Bel and Dragon, Antiochus: Codex Bodleian 130. Minor Prophets: Codex St. Petersburg 139 and Codex B. 18 (Harkavy-Strack, pp. 165, 262).

Hafṭarot: Codex St. Petersburg 140 (Harkavy-Strack, p. 166). There are also some quite modern translations into Persian, as , Vienna, 1883 (transl. by Benjamin Cohen of Bokhara; see "Lit.-Blatt für Or. Phil." i. 186); , Jerusalem, 1885; Job, ib.; the latter two also translated by Benjamin Cohen.

Tatar Versions.

For the use of the Karaites in the Crimea and Turkey, a translation has been made into the Tshagatai-Tatar dialect. The Pentateuch was printed (text and Tshagatai in Hebrew characters) by 'Irab Ozlu & Sons, Constantinople, 1836, with the title ; on the margin are the ; and acrostic poems are added by Abraham ben Samuel, Simḥah ben Joseph (Chages?), Isaac Cohen, and Isaac ben Samuel Cohen of Jerusalem. The whole Bible was printed in Tshagatai by Mordecai Trishkin (4 vols., Goslov, 1841-42; see "Jew. Quart. Rev." xii. 686). Extracts are also to be found in the of Musafia, printed at Ortaköi (Constantinople), 1825, and published by the same firm that edited the Pentateuch of 1836 ("Jew. Quart. Rev." xiii. 549). Manuscripts of such translations exist also in the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg (Nos. 143-146; Harkavy-Strack, "Cat." pp. 167-170).

Coptic and Hungarian.

Talmud tradition expressly speaks of a Coptic translation of the Bible (Meg. 18a; Shabbat 115a). Cornill, in his examination of the Coptic text of Ezekiel, finds the one published by Tattam to be of composite character and not simply a translation of the Septuagint. Blau believes that it was made directly from the Hebrew text ("Einleitung," p. 91; "Jew. Quart. Rev." ix. 728).

No Jewish translation into Hungarian was made until quite recently, the Jews of Hungary making use of the Catholic and Protestant versions of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. About the middle of the nineteenth century M. Bloch (Ballaghi) attempted such a rendering; but he was not successful. His plan has recently (1902) been carried out; and the Pentateuch (by M. Bernstein and M. Blau), Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings (by Julius Fischer, Bánóczi, Bacher, and Krauss) have appeared (see "Rev. Etudes Juives," xliii. 158).

Judæo-German.

The translation of the Bible into the German dialect spoken by the Jews of middle Europe was commenced at an early date. A manuscript in the collection of De Rossi, dated Mantua, 1421, contains a Judæo-German translation of Joshua, Judges, Jonah, and four of the Megillot. De Rossi supposed them to be written in Polish because they were brought to Italy by Polish Jews (Neubauer, in "Jew. Quart. Rev." iv. 703). Such translations were technically known as "Teutsch-Ḥummash." A printer had innocently placed the words (Cant. iii. 11) on the title-page of such a translation made by Jacob ben Isaac of Janow (Lublin, 17th century?), from which they became familiarly called "Ze'enah U-re'ennah"; and down to the time of Mendelssohn's translation they were popular reading-books, especially for women on Saturdays. They were embellished with all manner of explanations, legends, and moral sayings, which were inserted into the text (Steinschneider, "Volkslitteratur der Juden," p. 17). The first rendering of this kind was made by a convert, Michael Adam, the translator of Yosippon into Judæo-German. It was published by Paulus Fagius, Constance, 1543-44 (Steinschneider, "Cat. Bodl." Nos. 1187, 4333; Perles, in "Monatsschrift," xxv. 361; id. "Aramäische Studien," p. 167; "Rev. Etudes Juives," v. 143, 315), and was reprinted at Basel in 1583 and 1607. It has nothing in common with Luther's translation, as Wolf ("Bibl. Hebr." iv. 198) supposes. This Pentateuch was reprinted at Cremona, 1560 (ed. Judah ben Moses Naphtali); Basel, 1583; ib. 1603; Prague, 1608, 1610; Frankfort-on-the-Main, 1687. A rimed version of it appeared at Fürth, 1692, and Wilmersdorf, 1718; and a second rimed version of Genesis was made by a certain Aaron of Prague during the seventeenth century. In 1543-44 Paulus Æmilius published a similar translation of the Pentateuch (Augsburg, 1544). It is uncertain whether Æmilius simply copied the edition of Adam or not (Steinschneider, in "Zeit. für Gesch. der Juden in Deutschland," i. 286). Æmilius also edited at Ingolstadt (1562) the Judæo-German rimed translation of Samuel in German characters. This was a mere copy of the edition in Hebrew characters by Ḥayyim ben David Schwartz, Augsburg, 1544 (ib. i. 285). It was called the ("Samuel Book"). This was reprinted at Mantua about 1562; Cracow, 1593; Prague, 1609; Basel, 1612. Schwartz also published a rimed translation of Kings, , Augsburg, 1543; Prague, 1607. A translation of Judges (rimed) appeared at Mantua in 1561; one of Joshua, "derneut in teutscher Sprach, wol gereimt . . . hübsch mit Midraschim," at Cracow in 1588 or 1594; one of Canticles, by Isaac Sulkes, at Cracow in 1579; another by Moses Särtels, Prague, 1604; one of Jeremiah, ib. 1602; one of Ezekiel (rimed), ib. 1602; and one of Jonah, " mit viel und alle Midraschim" (rimed), Prague, before 1686.

The first Judæo-German translation of the Psalms was that of Elijah Levita (Venice, 1545; Zurich, 1558, etc.); it was arranged in the order of the psalms said on each day of the week. A rimed by Moses Stendal appeared at Cracow in 1586. Proverbs was translated by Mordecai ben (Isaac) Jacob Töplitz, Cracow, 1582 (a version also appeared at Amsterdam, 1735); and Job by the same (?), Prague, 1597. A translation of Kings appeared at Cracow in 1583 (Neubauer, in "Rev. Etudes Juives," v. 144); one of Esther, ib. 1596; and one of Daniel, " in teutscher Sprach hübsch und bescheidlich, gar kurzweilig darin zu leien Weiber und Meidlich," Cracow, 1588. These editions of Cracow came from the press of Isaac ben Aaron Prossnitz, whose intention it was to publish the whole Bible in Judæo-German in order that "women and children might be able to read without the help of a teacher" (Perles, in "Monatsschrift," xxv. 353). Isaac Blitz's Bible.

The first complete Bible in Judæo-German was that of Isaac Blitz, Amsterdam, 1676-78. It was for the use of the Polish Jews who had fled thither a few years previously because of the Chmielnicki persecutions. It must have been the intention of the translator to push its sale in Poland also; for letters patent were granted for it by John Sobieski III. This translation exercised very little influence, as the Judæo-German in which itwas written contained many Dutch words and expressions (Wiener, "Yiddish Literature," p. 19). A second translation, in opposition to that of Blitz, was published in Amsterdam in 1679 by Joseph Witzenhausen, formerly a compositor in the employ of Uri Phoebus, the printer of the former edition. Witzenhausen was able to secure the approbation of the Council of the Four Lands, and his attempt to make the Athias edition supersede that of Phoebus occasioned much bad blood (see Joseph Athias). A second edition of this last translation was published at Amsterdam in 1687, and a third, in German characters, at Wandsbeck in 1711. A third translation, by Süssman Rödelheim and Menahem Man Levi, under the title , appeared at Amsterdam in 1725-29. At the same place in 1735 there was published an edition of Proverbs ("Cat. Rosenthal. Bibl." i. 207). It was more than one hundred years before another complete German translation was published, namely, at Prague, 1833-37; but this was of a composite character, as its editor, W. Meyer, made use of various translations (in general, compare Grünbaum, "Jüdisch-Deutsche Chrestomathie," Leipsic, 1882).

German Translation-Mendelssohn.

The growing acquaintance of the Jews with German literature soon produced a marked discontent with these Judæo-German translations. This discontent was voiced by the rabbis of Berlin, Mecklenburg, and Courland (Zunz, "G. V." 2d ed., p. 467). To meet this want Mendelssohn stepped into the breach; and his translation of the Pentateuch is worthy of more than a passing notice. It had a special importance in that it not only aroused an esthetic interest in literature on the part of those who read it, but also paved the way for a more general use of High German among the Jews of Germany, among whom it may be said to have introduced a new literary era (Kayserling, "Moses Mendelssohn," p. 286; "Literaturblatt des Orients," 1840, p. 320; Auerbach, in "Zeitschrift für Gesch. der Juden in Deutschland," i. 25; Wogue, "Hist. de la Bible et de l'Exégèse," p. 329). Mendelssohn undertook the work for the instru