friends, will be the first to feel, that, on every account, whether of a public, or a private nature, these pages could be inscribed to none so properly, as to the ARCHBISHOP OF CASHEL.

So far as respects myself, it is a rare felicity, that THE PRELATE, to whom I am both officially and morally responsible for the employment of my time, is also THE MAN, to whom, with full assurance of an indulgent and even cordial reception, I can present this offspring of some thought, and much leisure.

That Your Grace may be long spared, to diffuse happiness through the circle of your family and friends; and as long strengthened, to promote the best interests of the Church and Christianity, is the fervent wish and prayer of,

MY LORD,

Your Grace's most obliged,

Most attached,

And most dutiful Servant,

Abington Glebe,

April 17. 1820.

JOHN JEBB.

CONTENTS.

SECTION I.

STRUCTURE of the New Testament often modelled after poeti-

tical parts of the Old. To prove this, the object of the pre-

sent work. Collateral advantages expected from this enquiry.

Bishop Lowth. His character as a man of letters. He ex-

tended the sphere of Hebrew poetry. Universal character-

istic of that poetry. Parallelism defined. Not unreasonable

to look for it in the New Testament.

NOTES ON SECTION I.

Page 1

Scripture a source of recreation and enjoyment. Doctor John-

son. His unhappy education. Books of the prophets for-

merly accounted prosaic. Hebrew versification. Absurd

and unsuccessful theories of it. Basis of Bishop Lowth's

system. Hebrew poetry not metrical. Not always of the

sublimer character. Doctrine of parallelism: by whom briefly

analysed.

6

SECTION II.

Parallelism described, after Bishop Lowth. His Lordship's

doctrine of synonymous, antithetical, and constructive paral-

lelism, illustrated by examples.

NOTE ON SECTION II.

23

Proverbs, x. 2. vindicated from the misinterpretation of Glass.

SECTION III.

32

Bishop Lowth's name and definition of the first kind of parallel-

ism reviewed. The notion of synonyme examined and re-

jected. The term COGNATE PARALLELISM proposed as unex-

ceptionable. In parallelisms commonly called synonymous,

the second clause invariably diversifies the preceding;

commonly so as to rise above it. This fact exemplified

from Bishop Lowth's own specimens. These distinctions of

moment, in the philology, and moral philosophy, of Scripture.

Further illustrations, from the twenty-fourth, and first psalms.

Climax in the latter, maintained against Gataker. Isaiah, li.

4, 7. Common reading of the fourth verse defended. Page 34

NOTES ON SECTION III.

Bishop Lowth. Dr. Gregory. Archbishop Newcome. Abuse

of the doctrine of synonymous parallelism by modern Scrip-

ture lexicographers. Caution to students in Divinity

SECTION IV.

49

Varieties of the parallelism hitherto unnoticed. Introverted pa-

rallelism. Applicable to the interpretation of obscure pas-

sages. Value of experimental analysis of Scripture. Epa-

nodos; rationale of it. Illustrated from portions of the cviith

psalm. Noticed, but not explored, or accounted for, by some

of the critics.

NOTES ON SECTION IV.

53

Importance of technical distribution. Dr. Kennicott, and Arch-

bishop Newcome upon it. Lord Bacon's experimenta luci-

fera. Collocation of words. Hebrew poetry superior to

classical in this particular. Epanodos, by whom noticed.

Exemplified from the classics.

SECTION V.

66

Parallelism variously distributed through the Old Testament.

Preserved in the Septuagint. Employed in the Apocrypha.

Imitated by the Rabbins. Unity of Scripture, an argument

for its existence in the New Testament. Habits and predi-

lections of the writers and readers of that volume, an addi-

tional argument. Question to be settled by an appeal to

facts. Preparative authorities favourable to unprejudiced

examination.

75

NOTES ON SECTION V.

Followers of Bp. Lowth not agreed respecting the precise limits

of Hebrew poetry. Book of Ecclesiastes, how far poetical.

Specimens of parallelism from the Apocrypha. From rabbi-

nical writers. Parallelism a valuable auxiliary of the best

moral philosophy. Style of the New Testament. Extracts

on that subject. Parallelism already discovered in a few

verses of the N. T. and by whom.

SECTION VI.

Page 82

Quotations from poetical parts of the Old Testament. An in-

termediate link between the parallelisms of both Testaments.

Parallelism carefully preserved in these quotations. Three-

fold division of this topic. 1. Simple quotations. 2. Com-

plex quotations. 3. Quotations mingled with original matter.

Simple quotations exemplified. Compared with the render-

ings in the Septuagint Version. Superiority of the former.

SECTION VII.

96

Complex quotations. Several specimens examined. United

and blended very skilfully. Contrast between these and

classical centos.

114

SECTION VIII.

Quotations mingled with original matter. Parallelism equally

pervades the whole compound. Animadversions on Ernesti

and Wassenbergh. Acts, iv. 24-30. An eucharistic hymn.

An exact commentary on the beginning of the second psalm.

Affords, on the principles of sententious parallelism, a proof

of our Lord's supreme godhead.

SECTION IX.

124

Original parallelisms of the New Testament. Couplets. Tri-

plets. Climax or gradation of members. Received reading

of S. Matt. vii. 4. 6. 18., defended against Origen, Dr. Camp-

bell, and several modern critics.

143