WE cannot more properly begin this Essay of a new Bibliotheca Sacra, than with speaking of those Authors who have furnished the Idea of it, and have composed Works in the same way, tho’ differing in the Execution of them.
The first that occurs to us is Notker, or Notger, surnamed the Stutterer, because of an Impediment in his Speech. He was a Monk of the Abbey of St. Gal in Switzerland, and died in 912, upon the 6th of April. He made a Book concerning the Writers who had explained the Holy Scriptures. It is in the Anecdotes of D. Bernard Pez, Tom. I. Part I. and contains twelve Chapters.
Sextus of Siena, a long time after, published a much larger Work, under the Name of Bibliotheca Sancta, which very well deserves this Title; for till then, nothing more finished had appeared upon the Matter treated by him.
It is divided into eight Books; the first whereof treats of the Number, Order, and Authority of the several Authors and Subjects of the Sacred Writings. The second, of the Holy Scriptures, and those who composed them; of the Writings which are and are not in Being; of those which are either certain, dubious, or apocryphal, that have been cited by the sacred Authors, and of spurious Writings. This Part is one of the most curious of the whole Work; though there are some Faults in it, as M. Simon observes, in his Critical History of the New Testament, B. 3. c. 17. The third Part treats of the Manner of explaining Scripture, of the several Senses of the sacred Books, and different sorts of Comments which have been made on them. The fourth, of the Catholick Commentators, whose Names he sets down in an alphabetical Order, and says something of their Lives, Writings, and Manner of explaining Scripture; as also the Judgment of the Learned concerning the principal Commentators. At the End of this fourth Book we find the Names of these Authors, according to the Order of the Books in Scripture which they have commented. This is followed with a Catalogue of Authors, according to their different Ways of writing upon the sacred Books: For example, of those who have abridged the more prolix Comments of others, of those who have written upon Chronology, made Dictionaries, translated the Scripture into Verse, or composed Homilies. The fifth Book of this Bibliotheca contains particular Places that deserve Observation and Censure, taken from the several Explanations of Catholick Commentators, and especially of the Ancients. In pointing out these Places, he keeps to the Order wherein the Books stand in the Old Testament, and generally reports the Judgment of others: When he has Opportunity, he mentions other Places in the Works of those Authors whom he censures, on the same Passages of Scripture, which are either clearer, or entirely different from the first, to serve, as he himself says, in the way of Antidotes. In the sixth Book, Sixtus of Siena continues on the New Testament what he had done in the fifth upon the Old. In the seventh and eighth the Author opposes those who have ventured to write against these divine Volumes. He finishes his Work with the Article of New Versions, which were very common in his Time, and are rejected by him. He endeavours to shew that we should by all Means keep to the Vulgate, which he proves by several Arguments; and upon this Occasion treats of the old Translations of the Scripture.
This Work is in very good Esteem, and it may be proper to consult it. In it will be found the Names of abundance of Authors who have written on the Scripture. I shall here mention several others of whom Sextus of Siena had no Knowledge, they having been written since his time. There have been many Editions of this Work, as well in fol. as in 4to. The first was published at Venice, in the Year 1560, in two Tomes in fol. The different Editions of this Work may be seen in F. Echard’s Bibliotheca Script. Ord. Prædicat. tom. 2. p. 207, and 208. Sixtus was born at Siena in 1520. and, being of Jewish Parentage, he was converted to Christianity. After his Conversion, he was admitted among the Minor Brothers, from whom he removed some time after to the Dominicans. He died at Genoa, in 1569, being 49 Years of Age. He understood the Oriental Languages.
Since Sixtus of Siena’s time, F. Possevin has done something partly in the same way in the two Books of his Apparatus Sacer, wherein he treats of the Holy Scripture. At the End of this Book he gives us an alphabetical Catalogue of those who have written upon all, or some part only, of the Scriptures. This Author does not confine himself to an Account of the Commentators of the Scripture, but speaks likewise of all the Works of the Fathers, of the Divines, and those who have published any thing upon Ecclesiastical History. The Work is in two Volumes in fol. in an alphabetical Order, printed at Cologn, in 1608. The Reader may see M. Dupin’s Judgment of it, in his Bibliotheque Ecclesiastique, tom. I. p. 143, 144. of the 17th Century, in 8vo. where he speaks likewise of the Author.
Works of this kind have been carried farther in our Days: F. Cherubin de Saint Joseph, a Bare-footed Carmelite, and Native of Toulouse, has published one under the Title of Bibliotheca Criticæ Sacræ, &c. whereof there are four Volumes in fol. of the twelve which he had promised. The two first were printed at Louvain, in 1704. the third and fourth at Brussels, in 1705, 1706.
In the first Tome, he has, 1. A long Exhortation to the Reading of the Scripture. 2. He gives a general Knowledge of it. 3. He treats of the Principles and Mysteries of the Cabala. 4. Of the Jewish Worship before the building of the first Temple. 5. Of Solomon’s Temple.
In the second he speaks, 1. Of Sacrifices and Festivals. 2. Of Fasts. 3. Of the Urim and Thummim. 4. Of the Schools of the Jews, and of their different Sects. 5. Of the Mishnah or Talmud.
In the third he speaks, 1. Of the Jewish Cabala. 2. Of their Ecclesiastical and Political Government. 3. Of the New Versions of the Scripture.
In the fourth the Author draws up History of the several Versions in the vulgar Languages; of the different Translations of the Bible, and of the Polyglots. It were to be wished that he had finished so vast a Design; but it is very probable that Death prevented the Execution of it; or what remains is only in Manuscript.
By this circumstantial Account, it appears, what this prodigious Work must have been, and how much Pains the Author must have taken in providing Matter for so many Subjects, which he treats of very accurately, and at a proper Length: The Materials of it are good, and well chosen; but there is some Confusion in the Disposition of them. He afterwards put out an Abridgment of this Bibliotheca Critica, at Bourdeaux, 1709, 1710. in 8vo.
Father Le Long has not comprehended such a Variety of Matter in his Bibliotheca Sacra, but has confined himself to simple Catalogues, at least in the second Part: For in the first he has given himself more Scope; and it is to be perceived that he had done so in the second, if Death had not too soon snatched him from us, to the great Regret of Men of Letters. The first was printed at Paris, in 1709, two Vols in 8vo. Afterwards it was reprinted, with the second, in two Vols. in fol. Ibid. 1723.
In the first Volume the Author treats of all the different Editions of the Bible, of the Versions, and Books which relate to it. In the second, he speaks of all the Commentators, both ancient and modern, Catholick and Protestant; which required abundance of Industry and Application. It had been well if he had ranged them in better Order, and had been more particular in his Account both of the Lives and Characters of Authors, and in his Opinion of the Judgment that should be made of their Works. This Defect we have endeavoured to supply in our Bibliotheca Sacra, as far as the Bounds which we have prescribed to ourselves will give us leave.