1894. It is essentially "based upon the first edition of Jacob ben Chayim's Massoretic recension." (6) A sixth independent text is in process of publication by R. Kittel (1905), with critical notes, using ancient Vrss. and conjectural emendations. The vol. containing has not yet appeared.

§ 5. The earliest Version of the Psalter was that of the Greek Septuagint, translated from the Hebrew in the second century B.C. at Alexandria, and preserved in many ancient codices, the earliest of the fourth century A.D., giving evidence as to an original Hebrew text, many centuries prior to any Hebrew authorities. The ancient Latin, Coptic, Gothic, Armenian, and Ethiopic Versions are based upon the Greek Version.

The OT. was translated for the use of Egyptian and Greek Jews. The earliest writings translated were the five books of the Law in the third century. The Psalter was probably translated in the early second century, for use in public prayer and praise in the Egyptian synagogues. It was made from the best Mss. accessible at the time, and gives evidence as to the original Hebrew text of early second century B.C., three centuries earlier than the text fixed by the school of Jamnia, and twelve centuries earlier than the Mass. text as fixed by Ben Asher and preserved in the earliest Hebrew codd. It is usually called the Septuagint because of the legend that it was prepared by seventy chosen Hebrew scholars (Br.SHS. 188 sq.). The Septuagint Version of the Psalter, referred to in the abbr. 6, is one of the best translations of the OT. It shows an excellent knowledge of the original Hebrew, and a good knowledge of Alexandrine Greek. The translator appreciated the poetic character of the Psalter, and also the fact that it was for public use in the worship of the synagogue. He was concerned, therefore, to preserve as far as practicable the metrical form, and to give the sense of the original in intelligible Greek. Where a literal rendering interferes with these objects he departs. from the letter and gives the spirit of his original, and so tends toward the method of the later Targums. He shares in the religious and theological prejudices of his times. He has an undue awe of God, and conceives of Him as essentially transcendent. He shrinks from the anthropomorphisms and anthropopathisms of the earlier writers.

*

The text of has been preserved in several types enabling us to go back, on the genealogical principle of textual criticism, to an original earlier than any of the codices (v. Br.SHS. 231 sq.).. (1) The earliest codex is one preserved in the Vatican Library, usually indicated by B. Pss. 10527-1376 are missing. This cod. was written in the fourth century A.D. It was the basis of the Sixtine edition of the Septuagint of 1586(7). It was used in the London Polyglot, with critical notes making use of the other known codd.; and so in many manual editions, especially Van Ess, 1823, 1854, and Tischendorf, 1850, 1856. B was published by Mai in 1857, and a facsimile edition by Vercellone and Cozza in 1866 sq., a photographic lithographic edition, 1890. The hands of several later editors may be traced in the text, indicated by Ba. b. c. (2) About the same time, and under essentially the same influence, the Sinaitic codex was written. It was discovered by Tischendorf in 1844-1859, in the convent of S. Catharine, on Mt. Sinai, and was deposited in the Imperial Library at St. Petersburg. It gives complete. It is known usually as N, but by many Germans as S (v. Gregory, Prolegomena, pp. 345 sq.). Tischendorf issued a facsimile edition in 1862 (Bibliorium Codex Sinaiticus Petropolitanus, Tom I-IV.). He also used & in his manual editions of 1860, 1869, continued after his death by Nestle, 1875, 1880, 1887. The best text of B has been issued by Swete (3 vols. 1887-1894, 1895-1899), who uses & to supply the missing Pss. The references to B will be given simply as B, those to will appear as (v. Intr. Swete's edition). These two codices give what Westcott and Hort term the Neutral Text, based on a text written on separate rolls in the early part of the second century A.D. (v. Br.SHS. 197). (3) The Alexandrian codex (Øa), now in the British Museum, was written in the fifth century. Pss. 4919-7910 are missing from its text. This codex represents an Alexandrian official text, but later than the revisions of Hesychius and Origen. This text was published by Grabe and his associates in 1707– 1720). HP. also cite the Psalterium purpureum Turicense (6T) as Ms. 262. It has been preserved in the Municipal Library of Zurich. It was published by Tischendorf in his Monumenta Sacra inedita, IV. It was evidently written in the seventh century. According to Swete its readings are in frequent agreement with A. The following Pss. are missing: 1-25 302-3620 416-433 5814-595 599-10 5918-601 6412-714 928-937 9612-978. (4) The text of Origen is represented in the fragments of his Hexapla which have been preserved. A Syriac translation of the text of the Hexapla (Syr. Hex.) was made by Paul of Tella in 616 A.D. A Ms. of this text of the eighth century was discovered by Ceriani in the Ambrosian Library of Milan, and issued in 1874. (5) Lucian the martyr (311 +) made an independent revision of the entire Greek Bible at Antioch. Lagarde issued this text for the Historical books of the OT. in 1883, but died before he was able to publish the rest of the OT. This text rests upon a parent text which is the basis of the old Latin version, is near the Syriac version, and resembles that used in the citations in Josephus (v. Br.SHS. 203-204). The Codex Vaticanus 330 (HP. 108) was recognised by Field and Lagarde as giving essentially this text. It was the chief authority for the

text of the Complutensian Polyglot; but this cod. does not contain . Swete regards 144, 147, 185 HP. as Lucian in their characteristics. (6) The Revision of Hesychius is not so easy to determine. Cornill (Ezekiel, 79) and Swete (Introduction to Old Test. in Greek, 486) think that the Aldine text gives essentially the text of Hesychius. Four other codices have come into importance in recent times. (7) The Psalterium Graeco-Latinum Veronense, GR, generally attributed to the sixth century, is preserved in Verona. It was published by Bianchini in his Vinai iae canonicarum scripturarum, I,, Rome, 1740; but was not used in HP. It is highly valued by Tisch., Swete, and others. Swete says: "A few portions of the Psalms (11-27 6520-683 6826-33 10543-1062) have been replaced or supplied by a hand of the tenth century, to which the corrections throughout the Ms. are generally due." (8) The Fragmenta papyracea Londinensia (SV). These are in the British Museum. Only two portions of have been preserved: 102-186 2014-346. It was published by Tisch. in his Monumenta sacra inedita, Nov. Coll., 1855. Tisch. ascribes it to the sixth or seventh century. "Its readings are often unique, or agree with the Hebrew or the Vrss. or patristic citations, against all other known Mss." (Swete, p. xiii). (9) The Leipzig papyrus fragments of the Psalter contain Pss. 305-14. 18-25 311 32186-339 3318-342 3424-353 3645514. They have been published by Heinrici, in Beiträge zur Geschichte und Erklärung des N.T., IV., Leipzig, 1903. According to this scholar, these fragments resemble those of GU, and both represent the common text, used by Christians and cited by the early Fathers, as described by Jerome and Origen, before the latter undertook to purify it and establish a correct text (pp. 9, 13, 25).

Many ancient Vrss. were translated from . The oldest of these was the ancient Latin. Many Latin Psalters have been preserved, but so far as known, none of them give early texts. We are for the most part dependent on citations in the early Fathers. Jerome made a revision of the Latin Psalter under the auspices of Pope Damasus I. in 383. This is the Roman Psalter still used in St. Peter's at Rome. About 392 Jerome made a second revision on the basis of the Hexapla. This is known as the Gallican Psalter, and is still in use in the Vulgate and the Roman Catholic Breviaries. The Coptic Vrss. were made from 6. The Bohairic Vrs. of the Psalter is of the sixth century (edited by Lagarde, 1875). The Sahidic Vrs. is older, but of uncertain date. The Psalter has been edited by Bridge, 1898. It seems to represent a text of corresponding closely to " (v. Brightman, Journal of Theol. Studies, II., 275). The old Gothic Vrs. of the sixth. and the Slavonic of the ninth century were made from of

Lucian. The Armenian and Ethiopic Vrss. in their present form are based on mixed texts, in which Syriac and Hebraic elements are mingled with the Greek.

The texts of the Psalter in the several codd. of G are not always homogeneous with the texts of other parts of OT., especially in the early codd. This was due to the fact that the Psalter was usually on a separate roll, and that the most of these rolls were prepared for ecclesiastical use. Swete remarks quite truly that Pss. of "are evidently copied from a Psalter written for ecclesiastical use, and it is interesting to notice how constantly A here appears in company with the later liturgical Psalters, R and T, and with the seventh century corrections of known as .." He also says: "The first hand of often agrees with A against B, and the combinations N, A, R, T in the Psalms are not uncommon" (Intr. to OT. in Greek, p. 490). To this may be added that in fact it is just these liturgical Psalters which seem to have preserved the most accurate text of 6, whether that was due to the well-known conservatism of liturgical texts, or to a more conservative revision of the ancient faulty texts by Origen and Lucian than has generally been supposed, limited chiefly to the correction of errors. The text of where there is a consensus of readings has a value which has not been estimated by critics as highly as it ought to be, so far as the Psalter is concerned. In a very large number of cases this common text is to be preferred to H. Where the ancient codd. B. differ from the other codd. they are almost invariably at fault. It is altogether misleading to take them as the norms of a correct text of the Psalter.

3

I have carefully examined all the most important variations, and the result is the following. I. Where stands alone: (1) there are nine corruptions of Greek words, 1714 278 3520 3728 7115 748 768 8411 10586. (2) There are fourteen omissions of words or clauses of required by measure or else earlier Heb. glosses, 162 643 652.6 7112 7318 74 757 8819 9016 10216 13912 1433 1452. (3) There is one insertion injuring the measure, 764. (4) There is only a single instance in which the text is correct. That is the omission of a clause of, 412, which injures the measure. But this may be merely an accidental coincidence in which a careless scribe happened to omit a passage which was a real gloss. II. Where G stands alone there are many cases of error, e. g. 1103.6.6 1153 1161. 2. 6 1222. 6.9 129 130 1383.

The earliest printed editions of the Psalter of rested upon codd. which have not, so far as I know, been determined: Milan, 1481; Venice, 1486, 1489; Basel, 1516. Justinianus issued in 1516 at Genoa his Octaplum Psalterium. The text of the Complutensian Polyglot, 1514-1517, was followed by four other polyglots: Antwerp, 1569-1572; Heidelberg, 1586-1587; Hamburg, 1596; Paris, 1645 +. The Aldine text of 1518, the text of the Complutensian Polyglot and of the Octaplum, all agree for the most part with 144, 185, 264, of HP; and although based on late codd., in fact are much nearer the original than the earliest codd. B. N. In a few instances the Octaplum differs from the Complutensian text, but in these, so far as the most important readings are concerned, it agrees with 144 HP, which is regarded as Lucian's. A valuable discussion of texts and versions of is given by Swete, Introduction to the Study of the OT. in Greek, and by Nestle, Urtext und Uebersetzungen, pp. 64-65. A cautious but valuable study of the reading of of Swete's edition is given by F. W. Mozley, The Psalter of the Church, 1905. There remains much work to be done in the study of these codd.

§ 6. Several other Greek Versions were made in the second, third, and fourth centuries A.D., that of Aquila from the official Hebrew text of the school of Jamnia, that of Theodotion to improve

in the direction of that text; and that of Symmachus to give a better Greek style. Other minor Versions, indicated as Quinta and Sexta, were also composed. None of these have been preserved, except in fragments.

was used in a large proportion of the citations in the NT. and Christian writings of the second and third centuries. The Jews of the school of Rabbi Akiba, owing to a literalistic tendency, threw discredit upon among the Jews, and so gradually undermined the confidence even of Christians in its accuracy. Accordingly, many attempts were made to make a better Version. The first of these came from Aquila, a pupil of Akiba, who made a new translation from the official text established by the school of Jamnia. This is exceedingly literal and pedantic, and frequently transliterates rather than translates. This Version, indicated by Aq., is chiefly valuable for its evidence as to the official text which it translates. Theodotion () undertook a revision of to make it more conformable to the Hebrew text of Jamnia. Its variations from also help to the official Hebrew text of the second century rather than to an earlier text. Symmachus () had a later and a different purpose; namely, to improve the style and character of G.