Orii/inal Liingunrje. — We would submit that 3'-4' was first composed in Aramaic. The evi- dence we oll'ir is based on a comparison of the Greek with the versions — the Peshitta and Syr. Hcxapla. When the various readings are tr. into Aramaic we obtain cither one Aramaic word with the two desiderated meanings, or two words so nearly alike as easily to be mistaken for one another.
peo fab
K'DOy
xbricators, j-NJ-p " disappeared, ivuidn 5' laid hold, ns
" remembered, \^y^^t " meditates on, ninno •* watclies, p.nni303 " appeared, I'jjnK
4* advantage, iini"
Pesh. Pesh. Hex. Hex. Pesh. Vulg. Pesh. Pesh. Vulg.
world, kdSv
who acquire, pip sinned, imnoK cared for, ns
trod, i3mK
seeks ont, Kysnc places, p.nn3na wasrevealed, t>ynK dignity. *r\fv
It will be observed that the words are uniformly Pal. Aramaic — in some cases peculiar to that dialect. The author, therefore, was of the school of Sirach and not of Philo.
iv. A Hellenist's Encouragement for the Exiles, 4°-5'.^This section is clearly divisible into four odes, each commencing with some form of the verb ffappcif, and to these is appended a Ps closely related to the 11th of the Ps of Sol. 4'"' is drawn entirely from the Song of Moses in Dt 32. After this, in a passage of some beauty and originalitj- (4"""), Jerus. is personified as a woman, narrating her troubles to the neighbours of Zion ; then (v.'"'), as if on the eve of captivity, she bids her children shorten their adieux, as she has put on the sack- cloth of prayer. The prayer is not in vain. Joy comes to her from the Holy One (v.^'). The mother (v.''") again addresses her children, but now in terms of hopefulness, begging them to be patient and in- tensely prayerful, since the hour of deliverance is at hand. At 4* the author assumes the rule of the prophet, and foretells the doom of Israel's foes, and then (4*'-5") he announces the future prosperity of Zion in a pas.sage of remarkable beauty, but too closely copied from Ps-Sol IL
Date. — We unhesitatingly place the composition of this section after the destruction of Jerus. by Titus. Ryle and James have certainly proved the dependence of Bar on the Psalter {Psalms of Sol. Ixxii.-lxxvii. ) ; and there is little reason to suspect that it ever existed except in Greek. The Gr. moves so easily and is fairly idiomatic. Its Hebraisms are due to quotations from books themselves tr. from Sem. sources. The fall of the city is still within the memory of the writer ; the desolation is com- plete ; its captives have gone forth with wailing ami woe. The increasingly joyful tone can hardly have arisen within ten years of the destruction of the city, as Kneucker liolds. Hope must again have kiixiled in the Jewish breast, and possibly the events in the reign of Hadrian, A.D. 118, are those to which the writer looks forward ; though all through this interval most of the Jews never doulited that the temple would be rebuilt. The author of 4''-5' was probably the translator of 3'-4*. Canonical Standing. — Tuough there is strong evidence that l'-3'' was composed in Heb., and some evidence that it once followed Jer in the Canon, it was dropped before the time of]Jerome ; so that he says {Pia'f. in Jer), ' nee legitur nee habetur apud Hebra;os,'aiid Epiph. {de mens. ) bears the same testimony. In the Gr. of the Apost. Const, v. 20 it is, however, said to be used by the Jews (? of the Dispersion) on the 10th of Gorpiieus, i.e. on the Day of Atonement. The reference is wanting in the Syr. text, and has no confirmation whatever. Our iJook is not mentioned by any NT writer or apost. Father, but from Athenagoros (ft. 17G) on- wards for centuries it is quoted as canonical by almost every Christian writer of eminence. This remark applies especially to S*"" ' This is our God. . . . He hath found out the way of knowledge. . . . Afterward ilid she (i.e. Wisdom) appear on earth and was conversant witli men.' Kneucker and Schiirer regard v." (EV) as a Christian in- terjiolation ; but without sullicieiit reason. The wnter personifies Wisdom, and idcntifu's her with the Law ; as we see from 4' (which ought never
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to have been separated by a chapter-division) • This is tlie book of tne commands of God, even the Law which abides for ever.' Christian writers tena- ciously claimed this as a proof-text for tlie divinity of the Wisdom-Logos, and therefore firmly retained Bar in the Canon. Jerome was the lirst for two centuries to call its canonicity in question, and hence Bar is wanting in Codex Amiatinus ; but his criticisms produced no apparent result on the beliefs of his age.
Reuscb, a Romanist commentator, pves an exhaustive account of tlie citations from liar by early Christian writers, and devotes an appendix to their explanations of SSi^^^. From these citations I conn>ute that, of the 75 verses from 3^-5^, 43 are found, eited as canonical, in the patjes of Christian writers.
It is also interesting to note that in every extant List of Canonical Books, Bar either is named or can be proved to be included under Jer — the only doubtful exception beinj that of Melito. Didymus Alex, t 395 distinctly says that Jer and Bar form one book.