There are two Persian versions of the Gospels, one of which is printed in the London Pohjglot from a MS. belonging to Pococke, written in the year 1341. Its source is the Peshito, as internal evidence abundantly shows. It was published in Latin by Bode (Helmstiidt, 1751). The other version was made from the original Greek. Wheloc, professor of Arabic in the Universitv of Cambridge, began to print it with a Latin translation, which was afterwards edited by Pierson (Lond. 1652- 57). In our century, translations were published by the Bible Society, by Colebroke (Calcutta, 1805), by Mar- tyn, The Keiv Testament, Translated from the Greek into Persian (Lond. 1821).
On the Old-Testament versions, comp. RosenmuUer, De versione Pentateiichi Persica (Leips. 1813) ; Lorsbach, Jenaer A II. Lit.-Zeitung, 181G, No. 58 ; Bernstein, in Ber- thold's Krit. Journ. vol. v, p. 21 ; Zunz, in Geiger's Wis- s'enschaftliche Zeitschrift (1839), iv, 391 ; Fiirst, Bibl. Jud. iii, 453 ; Griitz, Gesch. d. Juden (Leips. 1866), x, 34 sq. ; Hiivernick, hdrod. to the 0. T. p. 350 sq.; Keil, Introd. ii, 281 ; Simon, llistoire critique, \\ 307 ; De Ros- si, Dizionario delli antori Ebrei, p. 309 s(j. (Germ, transl. by Hamburger) ; Munk, Version Persane, in Cohen's Bi- ble (Paris, 1834), ix, 134, etc., who institutes a comjjar- ison between the printed text of the Persian version and that of the MS., and gives an elaborate account of the MSS., as well as specimens of the translation of Lamentations (reprinted in \\\^ Notice sur Rabbi Saadia Gaon et sa version A rabe d'/saie, et sur une rersion Per- sane, manuscrite de la Biblioth'eque royale [Paris, 1838]), p. 62-87 ; but especially the latest work on Tawus's Pen- tateuch by Dr. A. Koluit, Kritische Bdeuchtung der Per-
sischen Pentateuch- Uebersetzung des Jacob ben- Joseph Tavus, imter stetiger liiicksichtnuhme aiif die dltesten Bibelversionen (Heidelb. and Leips. 1871), and Geiger's notice of this work in his JUdische Zeitschrift fdr Wis- senschaft und Leben (1872), x, 103 sq. (B. P.)
Per'sis {Yltpair, fem. of WtpaiKuc, Persian, so used by ^Escliylus, Pers. 151, 281, and often), a female Chris- tian at Rome, whom Paul salutes (Rom. xvi, 12). A.D. 5.5. The apostle commends her with special affection on accoinit of some work which she had performed with singular diligence (see Origen, ad loc).
Person. See Personalitv.
Personality. The word person is derived frono the Latin "persona," originally a term of the theatre, and signifying the mask worn of old by actors. Hence it signified a dramatic character, and in Cicero a person- age ; in Suetonius an individual, as also in law Latin. Tertullian seems to use the word in its original sense, where he saj's '• Persons Dei, Christus Dominus," for he immediately interprets the words by the apostle's expression, ''(iui est imago Dei" — i.e. Christ is the eternal manifestation of the Deity (^Adc. Marc, v, ii); he uses it also in its conventional meaning, "personam nominis," the personage to whom the name attaches {ibid, iv, 14); but elsewhere he applies the word in its true ecclesiastical sense of an intelligent individual Be- ing, " Videmus duplicera statura non confusum sed con- junctum in una persona Deum et homineni Jesum" {Adv. Prcef. xxviii). Similarly the adverb '"personal- iter" means with him relative individuality in contrast with absolute being: "Huncsubstantialiterquidem alw- va TiXiiov appellant ; personaliter vero irpo dpxhv et Ti'iv dpxnv" — i. e. the first absolutely, the second in an- tecedent relation with every after-emanalion. It is im- portant to ascertain the meaning of ecclesiastical Latin terms in TertuHian, for when he wrote the language of the Church at Rome was (ireek; and the Latinity of the Western Church, as well as the barbarisms of its version of Scripture, were imported shortly afterwards from Africa. " Persona" in Latin bore the same rela- tion to "substantia" as vTrocraaii; to ovaia in Greek theology; but vTrorrraai^ in the sense of person was etymologicalh' equivalent for the very different theolog- ical idea of " substantia" in Latin ; hence arose the con- fusion that has been noticed under the article Hypos- tasis. Hilary first coined the term " essentia," to con- vey the meaning of ovaia ; " novo quidcm nomine," as says Augustine, " quo nsi non sunt veteres Latini auc- tores, sed jam nostris temporibus usitato, ne deesset et- iam linguae nostra; quod Gncci appellant ovaiav' {Civ. />«, xii, 2), and "persona" was retained as the equiva- lent for vTroaraau:
The meaning of " person" in theology is as Locke has defined it in metaphysics: "A person is a think- ing, intelligent being, that has reason and reflection, and can consider itself as itself, the same thinking thing in different times and places." There must be a continuous intelligence and a continuous identity, as well as individuality. The memorable axiom of Des- cartes, "Cogito, ergo sum," may be applied not only to the reality of thinking substance, but also to the true personality of that intelligent being. " I am a conscious being, therefore in that consciousness I have a personal existence." But " personality," as applied to the divine substance, involves a contradiction that defines in this direction, as Dr. Mansell has observed, the limits of hu- man thought {Limits if Religious Thought, p. h9). We are compelled to apply to the Absolute our own insuf- ficient human terms of finite relation. The idea of per- sonality must always involve limitation; one person is invested with accidents that another has not. Yet God, as the designer and creator of the universe, must have a personal existence ; as Paley has well stated it, " The marks of design are too strong to be gotten over, and design must have had a designer; that designer must have been a person. That person is God." But how