lectio proditum ne ullum quidein codicem habet auctorem, et sicubi est vocabulum, est probo. Sed ex hoc non sine sagacitate exsculpsit Reiskius, quem Ernestius ne nominavit quidem, proditum, quod recipiendum censuerunt cum Ernestio Wolfius et Schützius.

Dorpati.

CAROLUS MORGENSTERN.

ON THE VARIOUS READINGS OF THE HEBREW BIBLE.

LETTER 1.

THE collation of Hebrew MSS. by Dr. Kennicott forms an important epoch in the history of Biblical criticism. Before the period when this collation took place, an opinion generally prevailed, that the text of the Hebrew Bible had been preserved free from error and defect; and that no various readings of any consequence were to be found, either in the editions, or in the MSS., of the Hebrew Bible. About the middle of the 17th century Cappellus and Morinus maintained a different hypothesis. "Hic sane," says Morinus, speaking of the opinion mentioned above, respecting the immaculate state of the Hebrew text, "Hic sane insolentissima confidentia cum ignoratione maxima conjungitur. Hebraica Biblia sunt sincerissima. Quamobrem vero? Non alia ratione ducuntur, quam quod excusa sibi invicem consentire animadvertant. Idem de MSS. omnium ætatum, quorum ne specimina quidem unquam viderunt, affirmandum esse temere pronunciant. Nec cogitant omnes fere libros editos ex uno et eodem fonte dimanasse; ideo consensum illum non magis admirandum esse, quam editionum vulgatæ versionis auctoritate Clementis VIII. recensitarum unitissimam concordiam." The account of Cappellus's laborious and valuable work I shall give in the words of Dr. Kennicott. "The man who first undertook to bring the printed text of the Old Testament to the test of sound criticism, was the learned and now justly celebrated Ludovicus Cappellus, in his Critica Sacra,

'Kennicott's 1st Dissert. on the state of the printed Hebrew text, p. 295.

the work of six-and-thirty years; a work, which, notwithstanding the violence with which the publication of it was (for the space of ten years) opposed by some, notwithstanding the virulence with which it was condemned after publication by many others, (and is condemned to this very day by a few,) and notwithstanding some undoubted mistakes in particular places, will be a lasting monument of the fame of its author." "Cappellus undertakes to prove that various readings may, and ought to be, collected on the books of the Hebrew Testament, on account of the many mistakes in the modern copies, which mistakes have been occasioned by the ignorance and carelessness of transcribers-that one principal means of discovering these various readings is, a careful examination of the ancient versions, and a judicious comparison of them with the present Hebrew text-and that, from the many places in which the printed Hebrew text differs widely from the sense of those ancient versions, and places where the translators could have no reason for varying designedly, we may properly infer that their written copies were in these places somewhat different from our printed copies; consequently that we may safely refer to these versions wherever the present Hebrew text is unintelligible, absurd or contradictory." The new doctrines advanced by Cappellus and Morinus met with great opposition: nor did the subject of dispute between them and their opponents admit of a satisfactory decision till the extensive collation of MSS. and editions of the Hebrew Scriptures undertaken and executed by Dr. Kennicott. This learned and laborious critic states, in the Dissertatio generalis at the end of his edition of the Hebrew Bible, that he at one time thought that the printed editions of the Hebrew Bible differed very little, and in matters of trifling import, from the autographs of Moses and the prophets. He was led by degrees to form a different opinion, in consequence of a request from Bp. Lowth that he would compare the Hebrew text of 2 Sam. xxiii. 8. with that of the parrallel passage, 1 Chron. xi. 11.3 A careful examination of these and other parallel passages convinced him that the Hebrew text had materially suffered from the errors of transcribers, and in a dissertation on 1 Chron. xi. compared with 2 Sam.v. and xxiii, he endeavoured to prove the truth of this position, and proposed an extensive collation of Hebrew MSS. with a view to

Kennicott's 1st Dissert. p. 279. 2 Kennicott's 1st Dissert. p. 280.. 3 See Kennicott's Dissert. Gener. p. 57.

the restoration of the Hebrew text, as far as so desirable an object could be attained, to its original purity. The sentiments of Dr. Kennicott, though supported with much ability and cogency of reasoning, met with considerable opposition; but happily his plan obtained the powerful support of a prelate, not less eminent for a profound knowledge of the Hebrew language, and skill and acuteness in Biblical criticism, than for a zealous and conscientious discharge of his important public functions; "vir," as Bishop Lowth elegantly describes him, summæ eruditionis, summo loco." The collation of Hebrew MSS. was begun in the year 1761, under the auspices of the Archbishop of Canterbury and the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, and Dublin, followed soon afterwards by the patronage of the King of England, and of most of the crowned heads in Europe, and the second and last volume was published in 1780. The MSS. Hebrew and Samaritan, collated by Kennicott and his coadjutor Bruns, for this splendid and valuable work, amounted to no less than 600, besides 30 editions; and the facts resulting from this collation have proved to demonstration, that the opinion of Cappellus, Morinus, and Kennicott, as to the state of the printed Hebrew text, is substantially true-that there is no immaculate copy of the Hebrew text at present in existence, and that the same means must be used for correcting the text of the Old Testament, as have already been used with so much success in correcting the New Testament. It is not necessary, nor indeed would it accord with my own sentiments, to vindicate all the conjectural emendations of the Hebrew text proposed by Dr. Kennicott. Aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus and we ought rather to be surprised that so many of his critical conjectures have received a strong support from MSS. afterwards collated, than that he has sometimes proposed amendments without sufficient grounds. I will conclude this letter by stating some facts which I conceive to have been fully proved by Kennicott's collation.

Dr. Kennicott's collation has proved

1st. That the MSS. of the Hebrew text differ, in a great number of passages, from the printed text. "Codex hic Mstus.," says Kennicott, speaking of the Bodleian MS. No. 1, continet lectiones circiter 14,000 a textu Hooghtiano diversas." 1 2nd. That the printed copies of the Hebrew Bible differ materially from each other. "Monendum est," says Kenni

VOL. XXVI.

1 Diss. Gen. p. 21.

CI. JI.

NO. LI.

E

cott, speaking of the editions of the Hebrew Bible published in the 15th century; "monendum est harum editionum primam,' etsi tantum psalmos complectatur, habere supra 600 diversitates integris verbis vel literis. Editionem vero ultimam, quæ est Bibliorum, continere plures quam 12,000." "Primi editores prophetarum priorum affirmant-penes nos fuerunt exemplaria multa probata et bona-non libera tamen ab erroribus et mendis; nam profecto inventio libri absque mendo vel errore miraculum foret."

3rd. That many readings of the collated MSS. are decidedly preferable to Vanderhooght's text; and serve to correct that text in many places where it is obviously corrupt or defective. Some proofs of this will be found in my remarks on Mr. Bellamy's New Translation, inserted in the Class. Journ. xxxv. p. 151.

4th. That the Septuagint and other ancient versions are confirmed by the authority of MSS. in many passages, where the reading of those versions is preferable to that of Vanderhooght's text. For proof of this, I refer the reader either to Kennicott's Dissertatio Generalis, or to the readings of the ancient versions in Boothroyd's Biblia Hebraica-a valuable work, though I shall have occasion to prove in a subsequent letter that it abounds with typographical errors.

Falmouth, May, 1822.

KIMCHI.

1 Psalmi 1477.

2 Diss. Gen. p. 25.

CRITICAL REMARKS

ON DR. OSANN'S EDITION OF PHILEMON.

No. II. [Continued from No. L. p. 343.]

'DENIQUE addendum notas in Philemonis Lex. auctore Britanno Anonymo, editas in Mus. Crit. Cant. 1. et 2., ad quarum calcem sigla R. W. adposita est, quum frugi esse viderentur, omniaque Philemonem spectantia simul hac in Edit. contineri vellem, integras in notis nominato ubique auctore repetendas curavi, perpaucis exceptis, quæ locum scriptoris alicujus sisterent et sine dispendio sensus concisius afferri posset." P. xli. The signature R. W. denotes Robert Walpole, the learned traveller.

σε Οἷον * ὑπηλιβής, * ἀνυπηλιφής : e Cod. editum οἷον νηλιφὴς, avnλions, quæ mutavi secundum Lexici SGM. inediti locum et Etym. Μ. 61. ̓Αλλὰ διὰ τοῦ ι γράφεται, οἷον * ὑπηλιφής, * ἀνυπη λιφὴς, σημαίνει δὲ τὴν ναῦν τὴν μὴ ἀλειφθεῖσαν πίσσῃ : quo minus autem hic de mendo cogitetur, facit alius Etym. locus p. 22. *Αζωστος ναῦς ἐστὶν ἡ * ἀνυπηλιφὴς, ubi perperam edebatur* ἀνυπή Aipos, quo vitio etiam Phrynich. in Bekk. Anecd. 21. *Ανυπή λιφος ναῦς· ἡ μὴ ὑπαληλιμμένη κ. τ. λ. laborabat, licet Bekkeri errorem Barkerus Epist. Cr. ad Boissonad. 217. propagarit. Igitur etiam Phav. [post Eust. ap. H. Steph. Thes. p. 1799. d. Ed. Lond.] fallitur, quum l. c. scribit, olov avnλiøùs vaïs, ʼn μnj apio ioon, facile corrigendus." P. 17. See the New Gr. Thes. I. c.

"De nominum in aλeos desinentium accentu egregie disputavit E. G. [H.] Barker. in Aristarcho Anti-Blomf. sive A Reply to the Notice of the New Gr. Thes., Londini edito 1820. P. I. p. 7. et xviii. Vide et ipsam Lond. H. Steph. Thes. Edit. p. 1493. a. v. Ailaλéos, ubi tamen ab Editoribus in eo erratum est, quod vocem vypaλéos et Philemonis et Arcadii de Acc. 38. auctoritate firmatam nibili esse contenderunt. Utramque vocis formam et Schneider. et Riemer. optime agnoscunt, modo non páλos evulgassent." P. 41. "Sententiam de delenda v. vŋpaλéos latam quum ipse Barkerus in Add. ad Aristarchum suum p. 112. retractavit, non debebat vir eruditissimus erroris a me redargui. Rei conficiendæ nunc satis habeo Herodiani Tepi Movýpous Aews Fr. attulisse, paucis ante mensibus e Cod. Taurinensi erutum a Peyron Notit. Codd. Taur. 33., ubi de