Very few MSS. contain the whole either of the Old or the New Testament; and almost all the more ancient manuscripts are imperfect. Corrections and erasures occur in all MSS. Such corrections as were made à primâ manu, that is, by the copyist of a manuscript, are preferable to those made à secundâ manu, that is, by later hands. Erasures were made, either by drawing a line through a word, or with the penknife, or sometimes the old writing was obliterated with a sponge, and other words-treatises indeed-were written in lieu of it. Manuscripts thus re-written are termed CODICES PALIMPSESTI, or RESCRIPTI: many of them are of considerable antiquity. They may be easily known, as it rarely happens that the former writing is so completely erased, as not to exhibit some traces. In a few instances both wri tings are legible. IV. Account of GREEK MANUSCRIPTS, containing the Old and New Testaments. No existing MSS. of the New Testament can be traced higher than the fourth century; and most of them are still later. Some contain the whole New Testament; others comprise particular books or fragments of books, and several contain only detached portions or lessons appointed to be read in the public service of the Church. Some are accompanied with a version, either interlined or in a parallel column. These are called Codices Belingues: the greatest number of them is in Greek and Latin; and the Latin version is in general one of those which existed before the time of Jerome.* 1. The Codex Alexandrinus, or ALEXANDRIAN MANUSCRIPT, is one of the most precious relics of Christian antiquity. It consists of four folio volumes: the three first containing the Old Testament and Apocryphal Books; the fourth comprising the New Testament, together with the first epistle of Clement to the Corinthians, the apocryphal psalms ascribed to Solomon, and some liturgical hymns. Athanasius's Epistle to Marcellus precedes the As the author found it impracticable to abridge the numerous bibliographical accounts of MSS., which are given in his larger Introduction to the Critical Study and Knowledge of the Holy Scriptures, so as to convey a full idea of their various contents, he has been obliged to confine the analysis contained in this section, to a notice of the three most important manu. scripts; viz the Alexandrian, Vatican, and Cambridge, MSS. Psalms, to which last are annexed the arguments of Eusebius, as his canons are, to the Gospels. In the New Testament there is wanting the beginning as far as Matt. xxv. 6; likewise, from John vi. 50, to viii. 52; and from 2 Cor. iv. 13, to xii. 7. This MS. was procured at Alexandria, by Cyrillus Lucaris, Patriarch of Constantinople, by whom it was sent as a present to King Charles I., in the year 1628. Since the year 1752, it has been deposited in the British Museum. It was most probably written between the middle and end of the fourth century and tradition attributes the transcribing of it to one Thecla, a martyress, of whom nothing certain can now be known. It is written in uncial or capital letters. A fac-simile of the new Testament was published in 1786, in folio, by Dr. Woide, Assistant Librarian at the British Museum; and a facsimile edition of the Old Testament is now in progress, under the editorial care of the Rev. H. H. Baber, keeper of the printed books in that noble library. The following passage, rendered rather more literally than the idiom of our language will admit, will enable the reader to form a correct idea of the manner in which the original Greek is written John 1-14. INTHEBEGINNINGWASTHE WORD ANDTHEWORDWAS WITHGOD'ANDGODWASTHEWORD HEWASINTHEBEGINNINGWITHGOD ALLWEREMADEBY HIMANDWITH OUTHIM WAS MADENOTONETHING THATWASMADEINHIMLIFEWAS ANDTHELIFEWASTHELIGHTOFMEN ETHANDTHEDARKNESSDIDNOTITCOMPRE HEND' THEREWASAMANSE NTFROMGODWHOSENAME WAS JOHN THISPERSONCAME ASAWITNESSTHATHEMIGHTTESTI FYCONCERNINGTHELIGHTTHATA LLMIGHTBELIEVETHROUGHHIM. 2. The Codex Vaticanus, or VATICAN MANUSCRIPT, which is preserved in the Vatican Library at Rome, is also written on vellum in uncial characters, and most probably before the close of the fifth century, though some critics assign to it an earlier, and others a later date. It wants, in the Old Testament, from Gen. i. to xlvi. and from Psalm cv. to cxxxvii. inclusive; and in the New Testament, from Hebrews, ch. ix. 14, to the end of that epistle, as well as St. Paul's other epistles to Timothy, Titus, and Philemon, and the entire book of the Revelations. This last book, however, has been added, as well as the latter part of the epistle to the Hebrews, by a modern hand in the fifteenth century. In many places, the faded letters have been retouched by a modern but careful hand. Various defects, both in orthography and language, indicate that this MS. was written by an Egyptian copyist. The following literal English version of the prophecy of Ezekiel, ch. i. ver. 1-3; will enable the reader to form a similarly correct idea of the manner in which the Codex Vaticanus was executed This manuscript has been repeatedly collated by various critics: the Roman edition of the Septuagint, pub lished in 1587, professes to exhibit the text of this manuscript, of which no fac-simile edition has ever been printed. 3. The CODEX CANTABRIGIENSIS was presented to the University of Cambridge by Theodore Beza, in 1531, after whom it is most commonly called the Codex Beza. It is a Greek-Latin manuscript; concerning its date, critics greatly differ; but it may most probably be referred to the fifth or sixth century. It contains the four Gospels and Acts of the Apostles: sixty-six leaves of it are much torn and mutilated, and ten have been supplied by a later transcriber. Notwithstanding its acknowledged. antiquity, this MS. is deemed of comparatively little value, in consequence of the Greek text having been altered, and readings introduced from some Latin version, which were warranted by no Greek manuscript. An elegant fac-simile edition of it was printed at the expense of the university of Cambridge, under the editorial care of the Rev. Dr. Kipling, in 2 vols. folio, 1793. CHAPTER III. ON THE DIVISIONS AND MARKS OF DISTINCTION OCCURRING IN MANUSCRIPTS AND PRINTED EDITIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES. SECTION I.-Divisions and Marks of Distinction occurring in the Old Testament. I. Different APPELLATIONS given to the Scriptures. The collection of writings, which is regarded by Christians as the rule of their faith and practice, has been variously termed, the Scriptures, as being the most important of all Writings;-the Holy or Sacred Scriptures, because they were composed by divinely inspired persons; the Canonical Scriptures, either because they are the rule of our faith and practice, or to distinguish them from apocryphal writings, (those of uncertain authority and of human origin ;)-and, most frequently, the BIBLE, that is, THE BOOK, by way of eminence, as being the Book of Books, infinitely superior to every unassisted production of the human mind. II. The CANONICAL BOOKS are usually divided into two parts I The Old Testament, containing the revelations. of the divine will before the Birth of Christ; and 2. The New Testament, which comprises the inspired writings of the Evangelists and Apostles. III. The Old Testament was divided into three portions or classes; viz.: 1. The Law, including the Pentateuch, or five Books of Moses, 2. The Prophets, containing the Books of Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, and 1 and 2 Kings: these were termed the Former Prophets; and also the prophetical Books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor Prophets, who were called the Latter Prophets, with reference to the time when they flourished. 3. The Cetubim, or Hagiographa, that is, the Holy Writings, so called because the Jews affirm that they were written by holy men divinely in spired, but who had no public mission as prophets. This division comprehended the Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations of Jeremiah, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel. Ezra, and Nehemiah, and the two Books of Chronicles. The Pentateuch is divided into fifty or fifty-four Paraschioth, or larger sections, according as the Jewish year is simple or intercalary, one of which is read in the synagogues every Sabbath day: and these Paraschioth arc further subdivided into smaller sections termed Siderim, or orders. The reading of the law being prohibited during the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes, the Jews substituted for it fifty-four Haphtoroth or sections from the prophets, which are further divided into pesukim or verses. the restoration of the reading of the law, by the Maccabees, the section which had before been read from the law was used for the first, and that from the prophets for the second lesson. After IV. Origin and rise of the MASORA.-The sacred text was, originally, written without any divisions into chapters or verses, or even into words. In the lapse of ages, various readings having arisen in consequence of successive transcriptions, the Jews had recourse to a canon, which they judged to be infallible, in order to fix the reading of the Hebrew text. This rule they called MASORA, or Tradition, pretending that it was at first given by God to Moses, on Mount Sinai, when he taught him, first, its true reading, and, secondly, its true interpretation. The former is the subject of the Masora, the latter (or true interpretation) is that of the Misna, or Collection of Jewish Traditions and Expositions of Scripture Texts, and of the Gemara, or Commentary thereon. The Masoretic criticisms relate to the divisions of the |