Now, though I confess this translation to be very useful in many things, and to follow the original for the most part, yet being made as yet I know neither when nor by whom, in sundry places evidently following another corrupt translation, and having passed through the hands of men ignorant and suspicious, against whose frauds and folly, by reason of the paucity of copies, we have no relief, I
' The reference is to the old Syriac or Peshito ; a name derived from the Chaldee Kt3'''i'2, simple or single. Though Walton coniplaiued bitterly of the statement of Owen, yet the date of the version has been long matter of controversy among the learned, Mi- chaelis ascribing to it high antiquity, Marsh questioning the conclusiveness of his argu- ments, and Laurence unsuccessfully attempting to refute the bishop. It is thought to belong to the end of the second or beginning of the third century. — Ed.
OF LECTIONS GATHERED OUT OF TRANSLATIONS. 413
question whether it may be esteemed of any great use or importance as to the end inquired after.^
Of the Samaritan Pentateuch, both original and translation, we shall not need to add much. What the people from whom it hath its denomination were is known ; nor have the inquiries of Scaliger and Morinus added any thing to what is vulgarly known of them from the Scripture and Josephus. In a word, an idolatrous, supersti- tious, wicked people they were, before they were subdued by Hyr- canus; afterward they continued in the separation from the true church of God; and, upon the testimony of our Saviour, had not sal- vation among them. When they received their Pentateuch is uncer- tain; it is uncertain also how long they kept it. That they corrupted it whilst they had it is not uncertain ; they are charged to have done so by the Jews in the Talmud, and the instance they give abides to this day, Deut. xi. 30. They have added "Sichem" to the text, to give countenance to their abominations. And openly, in Deut. xxvii. 4<, where God gives a command that an altar should be set up on mount Ebal, they have wickedly and nefariously corrupted the text, and put in Gerizim. Now, one such voluntary corruption, made on set pur- pose to countenance a sin and false worship, is enough to lay low the authority of any copy whatever. The copy here printed was brought out of the east, from Damascus, not long since. "It appears to have been two hundred and thirty years old," saith Morinus in the account of it, Opusc. Samar. Prsefat. ad Translat. Samarit. As I said before, that any Samaritans do as yet remain is uncertain ; some few Jews there are that walk in that way, here and there a few families. Now, that this Pentateuch, which was never as such com- mitted to the church of God, that had its rise no man knows by whom, and that hath been preserved no man knows how, known by few, used by none of the ancient Christians, that hath been volun- tarily corrupted by men of corrupt minds, to countenance thera in their folly, should be of any authority, upon its own single account, to any end or purpose, especially to vie with the Hebrew text, men that have not some design that they publicly own not will scarce contend. The places instanced in by Morinus^ to prove its integrity above the Hebrew copy, as to the solution of difficulties by it, in Gen. xi. 29, 31, Exod. xii. 40, do evidently prove it corrupt. Any man that will consider them will find the alterations purposely made
■ A statement that must be qualified, Michaclis pronouncing it " the very best translation of the Greek Testament he ever read;" and Dr Davidson affirming, " It is far from being as accurate or as uniformly good as it might have been," but always to be " consulted as an important document in the criticism and interpretation of tho New Testament." The testimony of the latter author as to the value of the Old Testa- ment according to this version is equally decided : " In point of fidelity, it is the best of all the ancient versions." — Ed.
2 Morin. cap. i. exer. 4.
414 INTEGRITY AND PURITY OF THE HEBREW AND GREEK TEXT.
to avoid the difficulties in those places; which is one common evi- dence of corruption. In Gen. xi. 31, sixty years are cut off from the life of Terah, to make the chronology agree ; and that of Exod. xii. 40, *' The dwelling of the children of Israel and their fathers, when they dwelt in the land of Canaan and in the land of Egypt, was four hundred and thirty years," is a plain comment or exposition on the text. Nor would Jerome, who had this copy, make any use of it in these difficulties. Might I go over the rest of Morinus' instances, whereby he seeks to credit his Samaritan copy, which we have in these Biblia Polygiotta, I could manifest that there is scarce one of them but yields a clear argument of corruption in it, upon some of the best grounds that we have to judge of the sincerity or corruption of any copy. And if this Pentateuch had been of any credit of old, it would not have been omitted, yea, as it seems, utterly rejected as a thing of nought, by Origen, in his diligent collection of the original and versions,^