There are some, perhaps, who will deem this estimate of the Sept. too low ; who think that the use of this ver- sion in the New Test, stamps it with an authority above that of a mere translation. But as the apostles and evangelists do not invariably cite the Old Test, accord- ing to this version, we are left to judge l)y the light of facts and evidence. Students of Holy Scripture, as well as students of the natural world, should bear in mind the maxim of Bacon, " Sola spes est in vera iuductione." IX.— M M
VI. Benefits to be Derived from the Study of the Sep- tvayint. — After all the notices of imperfection above given, it maj' seem strange to say, but we believe it to be the truth, that the student of Scripture can scarcely read a chapter without some benefit, especially if he be a student of Hebrew, and able, even in a very humble way, to compare the version with the original.
1. We have seen above that the Sept. gives evidence of the character and condition of the Hebrew MSS. from which it was made with respect to vowel-points and the mode of writing. This evidence often renders very ma- terial help in the correction and establishment of the Hebrew text. Being made from MSS. far older than the Masoretic recension, the Sept. often indicates read- ings more ancient and more correct than those of our present Hebrew MSS. and editions, and often speaks de- cisively between the conflicting readings of the present MSS. The following are instances :
Psa. xxii, 17 (in the Sept. xxi, IG). The printed He- brew text is "^"1X3 ; but several MSS. have a verb in the third person plural, I^ND : the Sept. steps in to de- cide the doubt, uipv^civ xtipne /lov /cat ttoSuq (lov, con- firmed by Aqtiila, y<y)(vvai'.
Psa. xvi, 10. The printed text is ""^T^on, in the plural; "but near two hundred MSS. have the singular, "'J'^Ori, which is clearly confirmed by the evidence of the Sept., ovci Swaeig rov oawv cov I'^etv Sta(l)Sropdv.
In passages like these, which touch on the cardinal truths of the Gospel, it is of great importance to have the testimony of an unsuspected witness in the Sept. long before the controversy between Christians and Jews.
In Hosea vi, 5, the context clearlv requires that the first person should be maintained throughout the verse; the Sept. corrects the present Hebrew text, without a change except in the position of one letter, to Kpifia 1.10V wg (pwg f^EkevrrtTai, rendering unnecessary the ad- dition of words in italics in our English version.
Other examples might be given, but we must content ourselves with one signal instance of a clause omitted in the Hebrew (probably by what is called oj-iotoriXfUTOi') and preserved in the Sept. In Gen. iv, 8 is a passage which in the Hebrew and in our English version is evi- dently incomplete: "And Cain talked ("'^X''^) with Abel his brother; and it came to pass when they were in the field," etc. Here the Hebrew word "i^N'^JI is the word constantly used as the introduction to words spoken, " Cain said unto Abel ," but, as the text stands, there are no words spoken, and the following words " . . . vheii they were in the field" come in abruptly. The Sept. fills up the lacuna Hehraorvm codicum ( Pearson ), Kai htte Kdiv TrpoQ 'Aj3t\ toi' altkipov
aVTOV, SliX^WjJlil' SIC TO TTtSiov { ~ i^^'<2^'^ '^-r.'?)'
The Samaritan Pentateuch and the Syriac version agree with the Sept., and the passage is thus cited by Clemens liomanus (A}>. i, 4). The Hebrew transcriber's eye was probably misled by the word tTlb terminating both the clauses.
In all the foregoing cases we do not attribute any paramount authority to the Sept. on account of its su- perior antiquity to the extant Hebrew MSS., but wc take it as an evidence of a more ancient Hebrew text, as an eye-witness of the texts, 2S0 or ISO years B.C. The decision as to any particular reading must lie made by weighing this evidence, together with that of other ancient versions, with the arguments from the context, the rules of grammar^, the genius of the language, and the comparison of parallel passages. Thus the He- brew will sometimes correct the tireek, and sometimes the (ireek the Hebrew; both liable to err through the infirmity of human eyes and hands, but eacli checking the other's errors.
2. The close connection between the Old and the New Test, makes the study of the Sept. extremely
SEPTUAGINT
546
SEPTUAGINT
valuable, and almost indispensable to the theological student. Pearson quotes from Irenreus and Jerome as to the citation of the words of prophecy from the Sept. The former, as Pearson observes, speaks too universal- ly when he says that the apostles " prophetica omnia ita enunciaverunt quemadmodum Seniorum interpre- tatio continet." But it was manifestly the chief store- house from which they drew their proofs and precepts. Grintield says that " the number of direct quotations from the Old Test, in the Gospels, Acts, and Epistles may be estimated at 350, of which not more than fiftj- materially differ from the iSept. But the indirect ver- bal allusions would swell the number to a far greater amount" (Apol.Jor LXX, p. 37). The comparison of the citations with the Sept. is much tacilitated by Grinfield's Editio Hdlenisticu of the New Test., and by Gough's Neio Test, Quotations, in which the He- brew and Greek passages of the Old Test, are placed side by side with the citations in the New. (On this subject see Hody, p. 2-18, 281 ; Kennicott, Dissert. Gen. § 84 ; Cappelli Critica Sacra, vol. ii.)