THE OLD TESTAMENT

pa:::Ilelism fortes a triplet, the third line) having been thrown slightly back to mark its subordination to the first. The several HISS. differ however both as to the number of the lines and occasionally also as to the grouping of the words, and these variations have been recorded in the notes. The division of lines in the text is generally conformed to that in the 1IS. which it represents; but in Ps. exviii. (=cxix.), where N throws the majority of the verses into single lines, it has been thought better to adhere to the usual division. Similar arrangements have been adopted in the other Books which are written a--rtxr786v, viz.: Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, job, and the two Wisdoms.

.,. It has been found inexpedient to exhibit in the text the numbered sections into which the Books of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes and Canticles are divided, apparently by the first hand', in B, and the last two less thoroughly in N ; and the effect of admitting these numbers into the foot-notes would have been to overcrowd and confuse the latter. A table skewing the verse or word in a verse at which each of the sections begins will be found below=; their purpose and method is a4n interesting problem, but one upon which this is not the place to enter.

3. In the non-canonical books of this volume and in the extra-canonical portions of Esther, where there is either no Hebrew original, or none now known to exist, the secondary verse-numeration is that of the Latin Bible. The Latin verses often differ so seriously from the Greek, as well in their numbering and position as in the character of their text, that comparison becomes tedious and difficult; and it is hoped that the method which has been adopted may be found serviceable by students both of the LXX. and the Vulgate. In some cases the correspondence is doubtful; in many it extends to a part of a verse only. When the Latin stops short in the middle of a Greek verse, a short hyphen in the margin indicates the inferior limit of the former.

4. A remarkable divergence in the arrangement of the Septuagint and Old Latin versions of Ecclesiasticus xxx.-xxxvi. calls for notice here. In

these chapters the Greek order fails to yield a natural sequence, whereas the Latin arrangement, which is also that of the Syriac and Armenian versions, makes excellent sense. Two sections, c. xxx. 25-xxxiii. 13a (ws Kaap_t5Jaevos...Ovas 'ICXK0i~) and c. xxxiii. t 3f-xxxvi. 161 (ka,u7rrpa Kap&a... ~aXCXTOS 7)ypuavt7aa), have exchanged places in the Latin, and the change is justified by the result. On examination it appears that these sections are nearly equal, containing in B 15+ and I59 tr-riXot respectively, whilst

exhibits 16o in each. There can be little doubt that in the exenaj5lar from which, so far as is certainly known, all our Greek HISS. of this book are ultimately derived the pairs of leaves on which these sections were severally written had been transposed, whereas the Latin translator, working from a 11S. in which the transposition had not taken place, has preserved the true order. Under the circumstances it has been judged best to follow the guidance of the Latin, regarding it as the representative of a Greek text earlier in this particular than that which is known to us through our existing DI55 2

5. The Greek additions to the Book of Esther are distinguished from the chapters of the Ilebrew text by successive letters of the alphabet3, and divided into verses which agree in length, although not in numeration, with those of the corresponding Latin.

6. In the Book of Tobit the text of N differs so materially from the text of either B or A that it was found inconvenient to display its variants in the apparatus criticres. The Sinaitie Tobit has therefore been printed in extenso beneath the Vatican text, but in a smaller type, to denote its secondary character. To assist comparison it has been divided into verses corresponding as nearly as possible with those of the standard text.

The published texts of seven DOSS. have been collated for the present volume. Three of these (B'NA) are described in the first volume; a few particulars must be added here.

This AIS. continues to supply the text of the edition wherever it is available. In the Psalter ten leaves of the original Codex have been lost, and the missing portion is supplied in the manuscript by the same recent cursive hand by which the prima manzzs has been replaced in the gaps of Genesis and 2 Kings. In Genesis the text of A was in this edition installed into the place vacated by the first hand of B; in the Psalms the text of is the natural substitute'.

According to Tischendorf the poetical books in:~ are the work of the third of its four scribes, whom he distinguishes as C. Of the numerous correctors who have dealt with the text of N, the second, tic-a, a hand of the seventh century, has been everywhere active in these Books. His corrections have not unfrequently been erased or otherwise set aside either by himself, or by a subsequent reviser, who is not identified. In the notes to the Psalms the symbol c.b has been employed for the corrector of Ne-a; but it is necessary to apprise the reader that Tischendorf has elsewhere employed this expression for another hand of the seventh century to which he denies any part in the correction of the poetical books=. In the remaining books of this class the ambiguity has been avoided by another method of notation.

The scribe of the third volume of the Codex Alexandrinus derived his text from a liturgical Psalter, and from it introduced into this great Bible of the fifth century a quantity of foreign matter relating to the Psalms. They are preceded in A by the Epistle of S. Athanasius to Dlarcellinus (f£ 525 r-53o r)3, the Argument of Eusebius Pamphili4, a table of the contents of the Psalms, apparently due to the same authors, and canons

of the Psalms for day and night use ff. 5 31 r-5 3 2 v) I. After the Psalms,

to which the ~aXuds ibzoypa(pos iS appended as the I5Ist, fourteen

Canticles occur in the following order: Exod. xv. I-Ig (WO77 Uwva-&ws iv

T~'E;ot6tp), Deut. xxxii. i-¢3 (tpH MWUQ~WS EV T~ AEVTepovoldw), I IZeg.

ii. I-Io (?rpoo-EvX7j "Avvas /c7lTpos _-altov~X), Esa. xxvi. 9-2o (7rpoo-EVXi7

'ESEKfoU [sic]), Ion. ii. 3-Io (7rpooevX~ 'Iwva), Hab. iii. I-Ig (n'poUevXi7

' AA~aKO6w), Esa. xxxviii. Io-2o (7rpouevX~ 'E~EKIou), the Prayer of

Manasseh, Dan. iii. 1-3 [z-2I, Tisch.] (7rpoaevXi7 'A~apiov), Dan. iii. 23

Nine leaves of the Psalter are missing in A, with a corresponding loss in its text of Pss. xlix. i9-lxxix. Io.

For the apparatus criticus of the Psalms it has been thought desirable to employ the testimony of three other uncial MSS. The first two, like the archetype of A, were liturgical Psalters; the third consists of fragments of the first book which, if not of very early date, appear to preserve an early text. Each of these MSS. possesses features of singular interest.

A bilingual Psalter of Western origin and attributed to the 6th century 2, in quarto, exhibiting at each opening the Greek text in Latin letters on the lefthand page and on the right a Latin version which is in the main Old Latin3. The MS. is without punctuation, but written Q7tX,7puus. A few portions of the Psalms (i. I-ii. 7, lxv. 2o--lxviii. 3, Ixviii. 26-33) have been replaced or supplied by a hand of the tenth century, to which the corrections throughout the -Al S. are generally due. The tpaapos i&oypa¢os seems to have had no place in this Psalter

¢rznta manu; it is added in Greek and Latin by the later hand. The Canticles on the other hand appear to be in the first hand and are without correction4. Eight Canticles are given in the following order: Exod. xv. I-2r, Deut. xxxii. x-44,

This Psalter, which is the property of the Chapter of Verona, was published by Giuseppe Bianchini, a native and at one time a Canon of

Verona, in hi, Vindiciae canonicartura scrz'pturarrtut (toin. i., Rornae, I;+o). A copper-plate facsimile of Ps. exlii. I-6 precedes his text, which is followed' by a too brief description of the AIS. and of the editor's manner of dealing with its contents. A specimen of the handwriting may also be seen in the Nouveau traits' de diplomali jue=.

In the use of this MS. the transliteration of the Greek text into Latin letters creates ambiguities in places, and these are increased by Bianchini's somewhat uncertain practice with regard to the orthography. If his facsimile may be trusted, he has not only according to his professed intentions' aspirated the t, c, and f which the scribe had used to represent B, x, and q5, but he has tacitly corrected the spelling in other cases, changing (e.g.) etros into echthros and acediasen into ecediasen. The Latin text appears to have undergone similar corrections; praeceu has become precem, and manune, mauuum. Bianchini's AIS. copy of the Verona Psalter is still preserved at Iunich't, and might throw light on some of these doubts; but a collation or a facsimile edition of the Psalter itself is to be desired.

In the notes of this edition the later hand has been distinguished as Ra; where his work has undergone revision, the symbol Rb has been employed.

The Verona MS. was not used by Parsons5, nor does it seem to have taken its place hitherto in the apparatus criticus of the Greek Psalms except that which is contained in Lagarde's Specimen, where it is used for I's. i.-v. Its claims are however asserted by Tiscbendorf, who accords it a high place among the "egregia novae editionis subsidia6."

A quarto volume bound in hog's skin, written in uncials on vellum of the thinnest sort dyed purple. The characters are of silver, gold and vermilion, silver being used for the text, gold for the numbers titles and initial letters of the Psalms, and vermilion for the Latin renderings of the first few words of each verse which are inscribed in the ample margin. There are no accents or breathings, but compendia scribeiuli are frequent, and some of them such as do not occur in the earliest MSS. There is no punctuation properly so called, but a double point resembling a semicolon is used to mark the commencement of a verse when it falls in the course of a line. When perfect this AIS. contained the Psalms, followed by the Canticles. Of the 223 leaves which remain tog are occupied by the Psalms-; the quire marks shew that they originally filled 288. The following Psalms and portions of Psalms are missing : P SS. i.-xxv. ; xxx. 2-xxxvi. 20 ; x li. 6-xliii. 3

hiii. X4-lix. 5; lix. 9-10; lix. 13-lx. 1; lxiv. r2-Ixxi. q; xcii. 3-xciii, 7; xcvi. 12-xcvii. 8. The Canticles have also suffered loss: the first five have entirely disappeared, with parts of the sixth. The remaining portion includes 1 Reg. ii.

6-to, (5') ~1laguijicat, (,j ) Fsa- xxxviii. 10-20, (B') the Prayer of Manasseh, Dan. iii. 23 [2-211, (Ea') ib. [28-331, (to') zG. 134-671, (zY~) 7icuedictus, (t&')--uric zlimittis. The `'Morning Hynin' follows on the last two paves, but it is imperfect through the loss of the lower part of the leaf.

This 'purple' Psalter is the pride of the municipal library of Zurich', where it has lain for at least two centuries. In a letter dated 17 r t J. H. Hirzel deplores the neglect into which the AIS. had fallen and of which there is still evidence in the loss of 7 -3 quires at the beginning of the book, and in the numerous lacunae throughout the greater portion of the remainder. Attention was called to the importance of its text in a dissertation by J. J. Breitinger=, published in 1748, and a collation was obtained by Parsons, the continuator of Holmes, who cites it as MS. 26-23. Finally, the entire IS. was copied in 1856 by Tischendorf, who after comparing his copy with the original in the autumn of 1869 gave it to the world in the fourth volume of his Alonumenta sacra inedilcz (Nova Coll.)', adding prolegomena, and a coloured representation of Ps. cxxxvii. 6 cxxxviii. 25. The collation of the Zurich Psalter for the present edition is based upon Tischendorf's reproduction.

The earlier history of this princelys DIS. is unknown. But the employment of the Latin Vulgate by a contemporary hand in the margin of the Psalms and of certain of the Canticles? clearly indicates its Western origin. A peculiar division of Ps. cxviii. (=cxix.) connects it with the use of the Roman Church. The Psalm is made to fall into twelve sections beginning at vv. r, 16, 33, 49, 65, 73, 81, 97, 113, 13=, 145, r 6r. These sections generally correspond to the portions which were said severally under one glories in the Gregorian Psalters. With regard to the age

of the 'NIS., it appears to be determined within certain limits by the character of the uncials. The somewhat compressed forms of 6, 0, 0, (:, and the shape of such crucial letters as p, ~,, H and rr, justify Tischendorfs conclusion: "septimo...saeculo adscribentes vix errabimusl."

The Zurich Psalter is free from many of the blunders which disfigure earlier ISS. The most noticeable fault is an inveterate habit of writing the forms of the aorist conjunctive for those of the future indicative. Corrections are few, as might be expected in so sumptuous a book; those which occur seem to be due to tire scribe or to his cdiorthota. The reading of this HIS. are in frequent agreement with Codex Alexandrinus, and to a still more remarkable extent with the second corrector of Codex Sinaiticus.

1·RAGMENTA PAPYRACEA LONDINENSIA, Brit. Mus. pap. xxxvii. (A, B, C).

Fragments of the Psalms written on 30 leaves of papyrus (8x 7 inches), ra to x9 lines filling a page. The handwriting, which is singularly fresh and black, slopes considerably, and wavers between uncials and minuscules ; the letters

A, i~, E, H, M, Y frequently assume a cursive form. Breathings and accents are freely employed, the latter however with great irregularity both of form and of position. The words are not separated, and there is no break at the end of a Psalm. The titles of the Psalms are not distinguished from the text and the numbers are added in the margin only in two instances (K&', ay'), and possibly by another hand. A single point is occasionally used. Only two portions of this Psalter (x. z-xviii. 6, xx. x4-xxxiv. 6) are preserved at the British Museum, but Tischendorf hints that other scraps may exist elsewhere in England. The London fragments (3z leaves, including two which are blank on both sides) are mounted and enclosed in glass frames, which fill three book-like cases; one of the leaves is exhibited to the public.

The age of this fragment has been very differently estimated. Notwithstanding the mixed character of the writing and the use of accents,

This MS. is the work of a careless and illiterate scribe, but it presents a text of much value. Its readings are often unique, or agree with the Hebrew or the versions or patristic citations against all other known:PISS. The corrections, which are few and appear to be prima manu, or the work of a contemporary, deal merely with clerical errors.

In the rest of the poetical books the witness of I3 A has been supplemented by the surviving fragments of the great Paris palimpsest, the last of the Greek: Bibles of the fourth and fifth centuries.

A folio of fine vellum, written in single columns of 40-46 lines, usually 41, each line when full consisting of some 40 letters. The characters are somewhat larger and more elaborate than those of PA; capitals occur freely, as in A; punctuation is rare, confined to a single point nearly level with the top of the letters, and followed by a space of a letter's breadth; there are no breathings or accents firima mauu. These and other indications seem to point to a date not later than the middle of the fifth century.

Of the zog leaves which have survived the wreck of this great hIS. Bible, the first 64 contain fragments of the LXX. ; of these 1g belong to Job, 6 to Proverbs, 8 to Ecclesiastes, y to the Wisdom of Solomon, 23 to Sirach, whilst of Canticles only one leaf remains. The Old and New Testament portions of the DIS. appear to have been written by different but contemporary hands.

This AlS., as its title denotes, is a palimpsest. In the twelfth century the original writing throughout the Codex was washed out by a scribe who afterwards wrote over it in a cursive hand a Greek translation of certain homilies and other works of Ephraim, the Syrian deacon.

The O.T. fragments of this Codex were edited by Tischendorf in 1845, as a sequel to his edition of the N. T. of C, which had appeared in 18.13. The editor was confronted by unusual difficulties. The MS., already defaced by the scribe of Ephrailn, has been discoloured in a recent attempt (183+) to restore the original writing. Many of the leaves are badly torn, many more are scarcely legible. From a table in Tischendorf's prolegomena= it appears that only three or four pages can be read with comparative ease; one of these, which contains Ecclesiastes v. 5-1 7, is represented by a plate at the end of his volume. A lame proportion are stated to be in a condition all but desperate; and the broken lines of the facsimile are a frank confession of the editor's imperfect success. These facts suggest the need of caution in the use of C, until some attempt has been made to verify Tischendorf's results3.

Tischendorf, who regards this Codex as the work of an Egyptian scribe, believes that it travelled from Egypt to Palestine, Syria or Asia Minor, and from thence to Constantinople, where it became a palimpsest. In the early years of the sixteenth century it was brought to the West by Andrew John Lascaris, and became the property of Lorenzo de' AIedici. Subsequently the volume passed into the hands of Catharine de' Medici, and was conveyed to Paris, where it found place in the Royal Library.

The O. T. fragments of C have been corrected by a second hand (Ca) of the sixth or seventh century. The corrections are usually few, but more frequent in Ecclesiasticus.

The Editor desires to renew his acknowledgments (already offered in the notice prefixed to the Psalter`s) to Professor Nestle of Tiibingen for his generous assistance in carefully revising the text and notes of the Psalms, with especial reference to the variants of the Alexandrine MS., the Zurich Psalter, and the London papyrus fragments. He is also indebted to the Rev. II. A. Redpath, Vicar of Sparsholt, Berks, and Editor of the forthcoming Oxford Concordance to the LY., who within the last fem months has worked through the proofs of this volume, with the exception of the Psalms, and has liberally communicated a considerable number of errata and omissions which had escaped notice. A debt of another kind and one which no words can interpret is clue to the Lady 'Margaret Pro-