§ 49.

2. THE VERSIONS INDIRECTLY MADE INTO SYRIAC.

According to Abulfaragius, the western Syrians had another version, besides the Peshito, which was made from the Septuagint. This, following Pococke's reading and translation, has commonly been called FIGURA[The Alexandrian version was held in superstitious veneration by the Syrians, and therefore it is no wonder it was the parent of many new Syriac versions.]

TA."

The following Syriac versions of the Septuagint are known to us:

1. In the year 617 A. C., Paul, bishop of Tela, at the request of the Monophysite patriarch Athanasius of Antioch, made, at Alexandria, a Syriac version of the hex

a Pococke, Spec. Hist. Arabum, p. 184. (Compare Abulfaragius, Histor. Dynast. p. 100.) "The more western Syrians have two versions; the direct one, (istam simplicem,) which was translated from the Hebrew language into the Syriac, after the advent of Christ, the Lord, in the time of Addeus, [Thaddeus,] the apostle; or, according to others, before Christ, in the time of Hiram and Solomon, son of David. And they have another, called figuratam, made according to the translation of the LXX. elders, from the Greek into the Syriac, long after the incarnation of the Savior." De Rossi translates the passage, "another made after the rule of the LXX., from the Greek language into the Syriac." Spec. ineditæ et Hexapl. Biblior. Vers. Syro-Estranghelæ, p. 1. Compare Eichhorn, Repert. vol. iii. p. 197. Bruns, ad Kennicott, Diss. Gen. p. 181, says, "I will add (from Asseman's Bib. Or. vol. iii. pt. i. p. 146,) that the word 7%, which properly means figure, image, is used for text by the Syrians, when it is applied to the Scripture." Michaelis, Or. Bib. vol. xiii. p. 150. Sylv. de Sacy (in Eichhorn's Allg. Bib. vol. viii. p. 588, following Renaudot, Perpet. de la Foi, vol. v. p. 554) proposes a different reading of the text, and translates it, "In the time of Solomon, son of David, and Hiram, king of Tyre, and [they have] another edition, called the version according to the LXX.," instead of Pococke's text and version, as above. De Sacy's conjecture is favored by the notes of Abraham Ecchellensis, on Ebedjesu's Catal. Lib. Chaldæorum, (Rom. 1653,) and by MSS. See Jahn, vol. ii. p. vi. sqq.

aplary text." Andrew Masius once had and used a manuscript containing this version; but it has since been lost. However, in the Ambrosian manuscript at Milan," the following books are contained, namely: the Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, the Song of Solomon, the Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, the twelve minor Prophets, Jeremiah, Baruch, the Lamentations, Daniel, Ezekiel, and Isaiah. The fourth book of Kings is contained in manuscript at Paris. All of these have been published, with the exception of the apocryphal books.

This version follows the hexaplary text, literally, even imitating the Greek etymologies, preserving the article and the Greek words. It contains also the hexaplary

Eichhorn's Essay on the Author of the Syriac Version of the Hexapla, in his Repert. vol. iii. p. 220, sqq.

Josuæ Imperatoris Hist. illust. atque explic. ab And. Masio; Antwerp, 1573, fol. Ep. dedic. p. 6. "In preparing this work," says Masius, "I have followed the old MSS. [of the LXX.,] and in particular that which is preserved in the Vatican library. I had also the Syriac version, a most certain guide, that literally expresses the Greek text as it was 900 years ago, which was contained in Origen's Hexapla, deposited by Eusebius in that noble library at Cæsarea.... From the same Syriac interpreter I have the books of Judges, and the Kings, besides the Chronicles, Esdras, Esther, Judith, and, finally, a good part of Tobit and Deuteronomy."

......

‹ Bruns, in Eichhorn's Repert. vol. iii. p. 166–212. De Rossi, 1. c. Compare Eichhorn, 1. c. vol. iii. p. 197, sqq.

Codex Syriaco-Hexaplaris Ambrosiano-Mediolanensis ed. et Latine vers. a Matth. Norberg, tom. i. (Jer. et Ez. ;) Lond. Goth. 1787. Daniel sec. ed. LXX. Intt. ex Tetraplis desumtam. Ex Cod. Syro-Estranghelo Bibliothecæ Ambros. Syriace edidit, Lat. vertit, Præf. Notisque crit. illustr. Cajet. Bugatus; Mediol. 1788. Curæ hexaplares in Jobum. E Cod. SyriacoHexapl. Ambros.-Mediol. scripsit H. Middeldorpf; Vratisl. 1817, 4to.

Description and critical use of them by Bruns, Curæ Hexapl. in iv. libr. Reg. in Eichhorn's Repert. vols. viii., ix., x. Libri iv. Regum Syro-Heptaplaris Spec. e MS.; Paris, Syriace ed., textum vers. Alex. Hexapl. restit. notisque illustravit J. Gdfr. Hasse; Jen. 1782. [The following portions of the Ambrosian MS. have been printed, in Eichhorn's Repert. vol. iii., with all the marginal notes, &c.: Isa. iv. 6, 7. Dan. ix. 24-27. Ps. i., and fragments of Ps. xl.]

marks, and is a valuable aid in restoring the text of the Hexapla.

[This celebrated Milan manuscript was first made known by J. J. Bjiornstrahl, a Swedish professor. He published a letter (dated Milan, 1773) in a Swedish journal, and stated that he had seen a Syriac version of a part of Origen's Hexapla, in a manuscript written in the old Estranghelo character; that the manuscript was not known to the learned. In the margin, he says, are Origen's critical notes. At the end of almost every book, it is said, "This was translated from Origen's Tetrapla," which had been copied by Eusebius and Pamphilus. There is reason to suppose that the manuscript in the hands of Masius, and this at Milan, are parts of the same whole."

To judge from the printed extracts, the version is very literal; it sacrifices the purity of the Syriac, for the sake of a literal rendering. It seeks etymologies of the Greek words. This servile adherence to the letter enhances its value for critical purposes. In general it follows the hexaplary text of the Seventy, but sometimes it agrees with the Vatican, sometimes with the Complutensian text. Sometimes it attempts to reconcile the

• Eichhorn, Repert. vol. vii. p. 220, sqq. [De Rossi published an account of this version. Spec. inedit. et hexap. Bib. Vers. Syro-Estranghelæ cum simplici atque utriusque fontibus, Græco et Hebræo, collatæ, &c.; Parm. 1778, 4to. He gives several specimens of it, comprising Ps. i., reprinted with valuable additions, in Eichhorn, l. c. vol. iii. p. 197, sqq. See the valuable article of Bruns, on the Syriac hexaplary MS. at Milan. Ibid. p. 166, sqq.] Psalmi sec. ed. LXX. Interp. quos ex Cod. Syr.-Estrang. Bib. Ambros. Syriace imprimendos curavit. C. Bugatus; Med. 1820. See Pluschke, De Psalteri Syr. Mediol. a C. Bugato ed. pec. indole ejusdemque usu critico, Bonn, 1835. Cod. Syr. Hexapl. lib. iv. Regum, e Cod.; Paris, ed. H. Middeldorpf; Berlin, 1835, 2 vols. 4to.: vol. 1. contains Isaiah, the twelve minor Prophets, Ruth, Job, Solomon's Song, Lament., Eccles.; vol. ii. contains the critical commentary.

various readings still extant in the manuscripts. The use of it is limited mostly to the criticism of the hexaplary text of the Seventy, which is quite imperfectly represented by the Alexandrian manuscript. In many places it supplies the words which are now wanting in the Seventy, but found in the Hebrew, and sometimes it omits the redundancies of the Greek. It does not always give a good sense, by combining the words of the several versions. It agrees closely with the Marshaline codex, the most valuable manuscript for the restoration of the hexaplary text. This version generally omits the passages of the Seventy not found in the Hebrew, though not always, and sometimes it furnishes readings peculiar to itself.]a

In 1486 A. C., Hareth Ben Senan made an Arabic version of the hexaplary Syriac translation. Two manuscripts of this are still preserved in the Bodleyan library at Oxford, and two in Paris.

[They are mainly useful in revising the Syriac version of the Hexapla, and thereby restoring the true text of the Septuagint.]"

2. In the Paris manuscript we find a version of the Pentateuch and Daniel, which was made from the Septuagint and Theodotion, and which was revised in the beginning of the eighth century, by James of Edessa, "from the version used by the Greeks and the Syrians," that is, from the Peshito. It usually follows the text of

[Eichhorn, § 256.]

'Eichhorn, § 294, c. Paulus, Com. Crit. exhibens e Bibliotheca Bodlejan. Specimina Verss. Pentateuchi septem Arab. p. 70, sqq. Schnurrer, in Holmes, Præf. ad tom. i. ed. LXX. c. 4. [See some extracts from the Bodleyan MS. in Walton's Polyglot, vol. vi. See, also, Joseph White's letter to the bishop of London; Oxon. 1779, 8vo. p. 56. Eichhorn's Allg. Bib. vol. i. p. 605, 652, sqq.]

the Septuagint, and (in the book of Daniel) Theodotion, and agrees only occasionally with the Peshito."

Eichhorn and De Sacy have conjectured that the so called Figurata lies at the bottom of this version. But others think the hexaplary version mentioned above is the same with the Figurata, and has been revised by James of Edessa.' But the hexaplary text never came into common use, but seems to have been used merely for critical purposes.

[If we follow the account of the Assemans, James of Edessa was for a time bishop of that place, but retired from his office in disgust, and spent nine years in the solitude of a cloister at Teleda. Some months before his death, he returned to his office, and died, A. C. 708, or, as others say, 712. While at Teleda, he made a revision of the text of the Syriac version of the Old Testament, in the years 1015, 1016, of the era of the Seleucidæ, (that is, 703, 704, A. C.,) according to the subscription in the two Paris manuscripts. From the specimens published by Eichhorn, it would appear this could not be a revision of the Peshito, for it agrees, in the Pentateuch, step by step, with the Septuagint; in Daniel, it sometimes agrees closely with Theodotion, though at other times it inclines to the Septuagint. Here, however, he aims to introduce some of the passages of the Peshito. He follows Theodotion in the

a

Eichhorn, On the Syriac version of the O. T. which James of Edessa edited, in his Allg. Bib. vol. ii. p. 270, sqq. Einleit. § 261. De Sacy, Notice d'un MS. Siriaque du Pent., &c., in Allg. Bib. vol. viii. p. 570, sqq., reprinted in Notices et Extraits de MSS. de la Bibl. nat. vol. iv. p. 684, sqq. Bugatus published fragments of the MS. in his Syr. Hexap. Daniel.

› Hävernik, vol. i. pt. ii. p. 64, 66. Rhode, Gregor. Barhebræus Schol. in Ps. v. et xviii. p. 76.

C

Eichhorn, § 267. Asseman, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 411, and vol. iii. pt. i. p. 75, sqq.