in this undertaking appears to have been the establishment or preservation of the Hebrew text, without variations.

V. The Old Testament is now divided into four parts; viz.

1. The Pentateuch, or five Books of Moses.

2. The Historical Books, comprising Joshua to Esther, inclusive.

3. The Doctrinal or Poetical Books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon; and

4. The Prophetical Books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, with his Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, and the twelve Minor Prophets.

These are severally divided into chapters and verses. The former were invented by Cardinal Hugo de Sancto Caro, about the middle of the thirteenth century: who, having projected a concordance to the Latin Vulgate translation, divided the Old and New Testaments into chapters, which are the same we now have. These, again, he subdivided into smaller sections, distinguished by the letters A, B, C, D, E, F, and G. The facility of reference, afforded by these subdivisions, suggested the idea of a Hebrew concordance upon the same plan to Rabbi Mordecai Nathan, a celebrated Jewish teacher in the fifteenth century; who retained the divisions of chapters, but substituted Hebrew numeral figures for the Cardinal's marginal letters. The introduction of verses into the Hebrew Bible was first made, in 1661, by Athias, a Jewish printer at Amsterdam: and from him the division of verses has been adopted in all copies of the Bible in other languages.

SECTION II. On the Divisions and Marks of Distinction occurring

in the New Testament.

I. ANTIENT DIVISIONS.. Before the fourth century, the New Testament was divided into longer chapters, called TT (titloi), and others which were shorter, called иɛpaña (kephalaia), or heads, and also breves. The most

celebrated division of the four Gospels into chapters was that of Ammonius, a learned Christian of Alexandria, in the third century, from whom they have been termed the Ammonian Sections. The Acts of the Apostles and the Catholic Epistles were similarly divided by Euthalius, an Egyptian Bishop, in the fifth century, after whom these divisions have been called the Euthalian Sections. Saint Paul's Epistles were divided in like manner, by some unknown author, in the fourth century. These divisions were superseded by Cardinal Hugo's chapters, in the thirteenth century.

II. PUNCTUATION and DIVISION of VERSES. - Euthalius, who has just been mentioned, was the inventor of the division of the New Testament into six (stichoi), or lines regulated by the sense; so that each terminated where some pause was to be made in reading. The introduction of points or stops, to mark the sense, is a gradual improvement, commenced by Jerome in the fourth century, and continued and improved by succeeding critics. The verses at present found in the New Testament were invented (in imitation of those contrived by Rabbi Nathan) by Robert Stephens, a learned printer, who first introduced them into his edition of the New Testament published in 1551.

III. The Inscriptions or TITLES prefixed to the various books of the New Testament, are of great antiquity. They were added, in order to distinguish one book from another, after the canon of the New Testament was formed, but the author of them is not known.

IV. But the SUBSCRIPTIONS annexed to the epistles are manifestly spurious, for some of them contradict both chronology and history. For instance, according to the subscriptions to 1 & 2 Thessalonians, those epistles were written at Athens, whereas they were written at Corinth. The subscription to 1 Corinthians states that it was written at Philippi; notwithstanding it appears from xvi. 8. and 19. that the apostle was at that time in Asia. The subscrip

tion to the Epistle to the Galatians purports that epistle to have been written from Rome; whereas Saint Paul did not go to Rome until ten years AFTER the conversion of the Galatians. And the subscription to the First Epistle to Timothy evidently was not, and indeed could not have been, written by the apostle Paul: for it states that epistle to have been written from Phrygia Pacatiana; whereas the country of Phrygia was not divided into the two provinces of Phrygia Pacatiana or Prima, and Phrygia Secunda, until the fourth century. The author of these subscriptions, it is evident, was either grossly ignorant or grossly inattentive.

CHAPTER V.

OF THE VARIOUS READINGS OCCURRING IN THE OLD AND NEW

TESTAMENTS.

I. ORIGIN and Nature of VARIOUS READINGS.

The Old and New Testaments, in common with all other antient writings, being preserved and diffused by transcription, the admission of mistakes was unavoidable : which, increasing with the multitude of copies, necessarily produced a great variety of different readings.

Among two or more different readings, one only can be the true reading: the rest must either be wilful corruptions, or the mistakes of the copyist. As it is often difficult to distinguish the genuine from the spurious, whenever the smallest doubts can be entertained, they all receive the appellation of Various Readings: but, where a transcriber has evidently written falsely, they receive the name of errata.

II. Sources of Various Readings.

As all manuscripts were either dictated to copyists, or transcribed by them; and, as all these persons were not supernaturally guarded against the possibility of error, different readings would naturally be produced, 1. By

the negligence or mistakes of the transcribers: to which we may add, 2. The existence of errors or imperfections in the manuscripts copied; 3. Critical emendations of the text made by the copyist without any authority; and, 4. Wilful corruptions made to serve the purposes of a party. Mistakes thus produced in one copy, would of course be propagated through all succeeding copies made from it, each of which might have peculiar faults of its own; so that various readings would thus be increased, in proportion to the number of transcripts made.

III. The means by which the true reading is to be determined are, 1. Manuscripts; 2. The most antient, and best Editions; 3. Antient Versions; 4. Parallel Passages (which, being an important help to interpretation, are noticed again in a subsequent page); 5. Quotations made from the Scriptures in the Writings of the early Fathers of the Christian Church; and, 6. Conjectural Criticisms. All these sources are to be used with great judgment and caution; and the common reading ought not to be rejected but upon the strongest evidence.

IV. Infidels have endeavoured to shake the faith of less informed Christians, by raising objections against the number of various readings. The unlettered Christian, however, need not be under any apprehension that they will diminish the certainty of his faith. Of all the many thousand various readings that have been discovered, none have been found that affect our faith, or destroy a single moral precept of the Gospel. They are mostly of a minute and trifling nature: and by far the greatest number make no alteration whatever in the sense. Such are Δαβιδ (DaBid) for Δαυιδ (David ); Σολομωντα (Solomōnta) for Zoλoμwra (Solomōna) Solomon; xayw (kagō) for naι eyw (kai egō); (& for and I); Nalager (Nazaret) for Nayage (NazareтH) Nazareth; which, with many others, may be used indifferently.

CHAPTER VI.

ON THE QUOTATIONS FROM THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE NEW.

A CONSIDERABLE difference of opinion exists among some learned men, whether the evangelists and other writers of the New Testament quoted the Old Testament from the Hebrew, or from the venerable Greek version usually called the Septuagint. From an actual collation of the passages thus cited, (which is given at length in Hebrew, Greek, and English, in the author's larger work,) it appears, that, though the sacred writers of the New Testament have in many instances quoted from the Hebrew Scriptures; yet they have very frequently made their citations from the Septuagint, because it was generally known and read: and as the apostles wrote for the use of communities, whose members were ignorant of Hebrew, it was necessary on that account that they should refer to the Greek version. But where this materially varied from the meaning of the Hebrew Scriptures, they either gave the sense of the passage cited in their own words; or took as much of the Septuagint as was necessary, introducing the requisite alterations.

Difficulty sometimes arises, with respect to the application of the Quotations made by the apostles and evangelists; when they are applied to a purpose to which they seem to have no relation, according to their original design. This difficulty is occasioned by the writers of the New Testament making quotations from the Old, with very different views. It is therefore necessary to distinguish accurately between such quotations as, being merely borrowed, are used in the words of the writer himself, and such as are quoted in proof of a doctrine or the completion of a prophecy.

The quotations from the Old Testament in the New are generally introduced by certain formulæ, such as, That it might be fulfilled- As it is written - &c. and