III. Critical Valve of the Version. — The vahie of this version, in a critical point of view, has been great- ly impaired hy the corruptions which it has suffered during the centuries of jiolitical changes to which the country has been exposed, and especially liy the en- deavor of its editors to make it conform to the Russian translation. It must not, however, be supposed that its value is entirely gone. Both Tischendorf {N. T. Grcec. 2d ed. prsef. p. Ixxviii) and Jlr. Malan regard it as a good auxiliary' to the criticism of the Greek text. Indeed, Mr. Malan, who has publislied an English translation of the Georgian version of John's Gospel, goes so far as to saj' that "it dift'ers from the Sla- vonic in many places in which it niiglit be expected to agree, it has a character of its own, is a f;iitliful ver- sion, and valuable for criticism" (The Gospel according to St. John, translated from the eleven oldest Versions, etc., by the Rev. S. C. Malan, M.A., Lond. 18G2, p. ix, note 3).
lY. Literature. — A very interesting treatise on this version, containing a brief account of its histoiy and publication, from the preface of prince Vaktangh, was communicated by professor Adler, of Copenhagen, to Eichhorn, who published it in his AUgemeine Eihliothek der biblitchen Literaliir, i, 153 sq., and afterwards re- printed it in his Einleitung in dts .Alte Testament, vol. ii, sec. 318, I), etc. Dr. Henderson, who had visited both Georgia and Russia, could do no more in his Bib- lical Researches and Travels in Russia (London, 1826, p.
GEORGIUS SYNCELLUS
814
GERAR
518, etc.) than to give a literal translation of this ac- count. A valuable book has also been published by Franz Carl Alter, entit'el Ueber Ge irfjianlsche Litera- tur (Wien, 1798), in which is given an extensive colla- tion of the various readings from both the 0. and N. T.— Kitto, s. V.
Georgius Syncellus, termed also "Abbas and Munachus,"' lived in tlic latter part of the 8th and be- ginning of the !)th century. Ho obtained his distin- guishing epithet from having Ijeen sj'ncellus or per- sonal attendant of Tarasius, i)atriarch of Constantino- ple, who died A.D. 80G. Theophanes, who was his friend, describes liim as a man of talent and learning, especially well versed in chronographical and histor- ical subjects, which he had studied very deeply. He died in "the orthodox faith,'' without completing his principal (and, indeed, only known) work, the comple- tion of which he strongly urged, as his dying request, upon his friend Theophanes. He is the author of a chronography or chronicle, the title of which in full is as follows : 'EfcXoy/) yipoi'oypad/iaQ avvTayiiaa inro TeiopYiov iVToi'nYoS 'S.uyKiWov yeyoi'uroc; Tapaaiov IlaTpiap\ov KwvcTTavri)'07ru\tuig cnro 'Acufi /.dxC^ ^ioK\)jTiavot', A select Chronicle, drawn up hy George the Monk, Syncellus of Sarasivs, Patriarch of Constan- tinople, from Adam to Diocletian. The author states that he intended to bring his work down to A.D. 800; but, as alreadj^ stated, he was cut off liy death, and the •work onh' comes down to the accession of Diocletian, A.D. 284. The work is included in the various edi- tions of the Byzantine writers. Goar, the Parisian editor, contended that we have the worlv of Syncellus in a complete form, but the contrar}-- opinion seems to be the better founded. Possevino, Vossius, and others have identified Syncellus witli Georgius Har- martolus; but Allatius has shown tiiat this identifica- tion is erroneous. Syncellus has transcribed verbatim a consiclei-able part of the Chronicon of Eusebius, so that his work has bean emploj'ed to restore or com- plete the Greek text of the Chronicon. The Chrono- graphia of Theophanes, which extends from A.D. 28:) to A.D. 813, ma}- be regarded as a continuation of thit of Syncellus, and completes the author's original de- sign. The Bonn edition of Syncellus is edited by AV. Dindorf, and, with the hr'iet C/ironnfiraphia of Niceph- orus of Constantinople, occupies 2 vols. 8vo, 1829. (Theophanes, Procemium ad chronog. ; Cedren. Com- pend. sub. init. ; Allatius, Jhid. p. 24 ; Fabricius, Bihl. Gr. vii, 457; Cave, Hist. Lit. i, 641). — ^mith, Dictionary of Gr. and Rom.. Biography, ii, 254. See Sykcellus.
Geplien. See Vine.
Gephrus {Vi((,povc, prob. a Graccized form of the Heb. "133, a village; see Caphah), a town mentioned by Polybius (v, 70, 12) as captured by Antiochus along with Pella and Camus (Camon), and therefore situated in the same vicinity east of the Jordan (Roland. Pa- Icpst. p. 804); perhaps the present Kefr-Awiin, a short distance N.E. of Kefr-Abil {liohinson, Later Research- es, p. 318).
Ge'ra (Hsb. Cera', S<'n:,,' a grain [see Gerah] ; Sept. Tjjpa), the name of at least three Benjamites.
1. The son of B-la and grandson of Benjamin (1 Chron. viii, 3); probably the same with the one men- tioned (with some confusion) in verses 5, 7, unless one of these be identical with No. 2 below. In Gen. xlvi, 21, he is given as if directly the son of Benjamin ; and he there appears among the descendants of Jacob, at the time of that patriarch's remoral to Egypt, B.C. 1874. See Jacok. " Gera is not mentioned in the list of Bcnjamite families in Numb, xxvi, 38-40, of ■which a very obvious explanation is that at that time he was not the head of a separate family, Init was in- cluded among the B'daites ;,it l)eing a matter cf neces- sity that some of Bela's sons should lie so included. Otherwise there could be no family of Belaites at all.