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fome inftances feldomer begin the fentences in which they record them with xa, than Mark and Luke, who probably wrote their accounts chiefly from the information of others. The beautiful and impreffive parables of the compaffionate Samaritan, and of the Prodigal Son, are recorded by Luke alone. In the former, x. 30 to 37, two verfes begin with xa, and four verses, after the Grecian manner, have de for the fecond word. In the latter, xv. 11 to 32, fix verses begin with xa, and nine have de for the fecond word.

και,

Only one verse begins with xa in the parable of the Sower, as related by Matthew xiii. 3 to 9; as recorded by Mark, iv. 3 to 9, four verses begin with xa; as given by Luke, viii. 5 to 8, three verfes begin with xai. In the explanation of the fame parable in Matt. xiii. 19 to 23, and Luke viii. 11, to 15, not a fingle verfe begins with xa. Whereas, in Mark iv. 14 to 20, five verfes begin with xa.

In the parable of the man who planted a vineyard, and let it out, Matt. xxi. 33 to 44, three verfes begin with xa. In the fame parable, Mark xii. 1 to 11, and Luke xx. 9 to 18, four verfes in each of these evangelifts begin with xa.

xii.

In the difcourfe of Chrift on the Sabbath, Matt.

3 to 8, Mark ii. 25 to 28, Luke vi. 8, 9, 10; and in his anfwer to the queftion of the Sadducees relating to the refurrection, Matt. xxii. 29 to 32, Mark xii. 24 to 27, Luke xx. 34 to 38; not one fentence in any of the evangelifts begins with xz.

In the prophecy of the deftruction of Jerufalem, Matt. xxiv. 4 to 35, ten verfes begin with xas, and feven have de for the fecond word. In Mark xiii. 5 to 31, eleven verfes begin with xa, and 10 have de for the fecond word. In Luke xxi. 6 to 33, fix verses begin with xa, and nine have de for the

fecond word.

I do not know an instance in which any prophane Greek writer begins a book with xa; nor is it common to begin either a chapter or a section with this particle. A redundant de is most frequently used by the Greeks in general as the fecond word, and fometimes δη, μεν, μην, μενοι, γε οι γαρ. The most ancient Greek hiftorian, Herodotus, in his first book, called Clio, which contains 216 fections, begins only fec. 114 and 139 with xa. In his fecond book, called Euterpe, which contains 182 fections, abont four or five of them begin with xas. The first book of Herodian's history contains 55 fections, not one of which begins with xa. The first book of Jofephus's history of the Jewish war contains 33 chapters: xa is the first word only of chap. vi. and xvi. and of fection 4 in ch. xvii. There are much more varied beginnings of the chapters and fections in his Jewish War, than in his Jewish Antiquities. The former being written by the defire of the Emperor, he might give more attention to the compofition of it. Though in the first book of his Antiquities of the Jews, which contains 22 chapters, only one of them begins

with xa. And in the whole book only two fections, which are in ch. 18, begin with this particle.

In Greek didactic works xa is very feldom the. first word in a fection. In Longinus on the Sublime, not a single section begins with xas: but this particle is the fecond word in fec. 14 and 15, and the third in fec. 16 and 24. For the fecond word of a fection he uses the particles above-mentioned. In Aristotle on poetry, I think not one fection begins with xa. The fecond word is ufually dɛ.

In the enumeration of fo many minute particulars relating to the Hebraistic use of the particles and xas, though endeavours to be accurate have been exerted, yet errors may have been undefignedly committed. But if the general statements only be right, they fuggeft the following obfervations.

1. The frequent ufe of and xa, as the first word of books, chapters, sections, narrations, and fentences, greatly enfeebles a ftyle. The original dignity and impressiveness, therefore, of the manner in which our Lord and his Apostles delivered their instructions, are better preserved by thofe records which tranfmit them with the feweft inftances of the particle xa at the beginning of paragraphs and fentences.

2. The frequent use of for the first word of books, chapters, and verses in the Hebrew bible, and of xas in the Septuagint, and a fimilar ufe of xx in the chapters and verfes of the four gofpels, and the book of Acts, when compared with the omiffion of xx at the beginning of books, and the very rare ufe

с с

of it as the firft word of chapters, even in the historical works of prophane Greek writers, clearly evinces that this mode of employing xa in fcripture is of Hebrew origin, and an idiom of the Hebrew language.

3. The frequent ufe of xa at the beginning of chapters and verses, in the Gospels, and the book of Acts, therefore fhews, that the writers of them were perfons of Hebrew education, or in habits of intercourse with Jews. For though pure claffical Greek writers may occafionally begin sentences, and even fections and chapters, with xa; yet, as Michaelis obferves, in his Introduction to the New Teftament, vol. i. p. 142, "the peculiarity of a language frequently confifts in the repeated use of particular

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phrases," and, we may add, of particular words and particles, in a fingular manner. "In cafes "where a native Greek would have introduced, as "the connection required, perhaps feveral particles, "the writers of the New Teftament are obliged to "supply their place with the fingle conjunction xa, "which they repeat as often the Hebrew writers "their Vau præfixum, that gives the structure of "their periods a tedious uniformity."—Michael. Introd. vol. i. p. 123.

4. The Hebrew idiom muft have been adopted by the Septuagint tranflators of the Old Teftament, and by the writers of the New Teftament, at a time when the Greek language was familiarly used by native Jews; for no other people wrote Hebraistic

Greek. This, therefore, could not have been before Alexander conquered Judæa, nor much later than the first century. After the conquefts of Alexander, Greek became the general language in his empire. On this account, as well as because many Gentiles who spake Greek became profelytes to Judaifm, the Jews at Alexandria tranflated the Hebrew fcriptures into Greek. In this version, as was natural when Jews tranflated their own fcriptures into another language, much of the Hebrew idiom was retained. The first traces of Hebraic Greek are found in the Septuagint. The continual reading of this in their fynagogues tended to confirm the Jews in the ufe of this Hebraic Greek on religious fubjects. This, therefore, became habitual to the writers of the New Testament. It was a style that was best understood by those to whom it was originally addreffed. And it is highly probable, that if the New Teftament had been written with Attic purity, it would have been unintelligible to many of its earliest readers, who had never read the doctrines of religion in any other than Jewish Greek. See Michael. vol. i. p. 111, III, 117 to 119. The frequent Hebraisms and Syriasms in the Greek of the New Testament shew it not only to have been written by men of Hebrew origin, but also to have been a production of the first century, or within A. D. 120; fince, after the decease of the Jewish converts to Christianity, we find hardly any inftance of Jews who turned preachers of the Gofpel; and the Chriftian Fathers were for the most part totally ignorant of Hebrew, and therefore

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