Concordantiæ Hebraicæ Mardochæi Nathan. Venetiis, apud Dan. Bomberg. 1523. Item Basileæ, apud Froben. 1581, in fol. Rabbi Nathan employed ten Years in making this Hebrew Concordance. He did not undertake this Work alone, but several Jews were assistant to him, as he declares in his Preface, under the Name of Isaac Nathan, who is the same with Mordecai. But we are not to confound him with Nathan surnamed the Just, as Gasper Wasor has done in his Treatise De Nummis, p. 16. For the latter lived about 1050, and died at Rome; whereas the other flourished about 1438. He is sometimes called Mordecai, sometimes Isaac, because the Jews have a Custom of changing their Names in extreme Illnesses, and if they recover they retain the last, as a Sign of their Repentance and Change of Manners.
Besides the Editions of these Concordances taken notice of by us, it may be convenient to know, that Rabbi Ansebel had them printed a third time in Hebrew and German, at Cracow, 1584, in 4to. but in Hebrew Characters; and Marius Calasius, or De Calasio, in Hebrew and Latin. He has also published Canons, or Rules for learning the sacred Language, at Rome, 1616, in 4to. He was called Calasio from the Place of his Birth, a small Town in Italy, embraced the Order of St. Francis, and died at Rome, in 1620.
The Title of Calasio’s Concordances runs thus; Concordantiæ Sacrorum Bibliorum Hebraicorum. Romæ, 1621. 4 Vols. in fol. This Work is infinitely useful to those who study the Holy Scripture. In it the Hebrew Passages are translated into Latin, ranged in two Columns, and in the Margin are the Differences of the Vulgate and the Septuagint, in Latin likewise. In the Beginning of every Article we see all the Significations of the same Word disposed in order, and at the End the Combination of the Hebrew with other Oriental Languages.
Antony Reuchlin had before put out some Part of Rabbi Mordecai’s Concordances, under the following Title; Concordantiarum Hebraicarum capita à Raibbno Mardochæo conscripta, & Latinè translata, in fol. Basileæ, Henrici Petri, 1556. But there are many Faults in Reuchlin’s Version.
The two Buxtorfs, Father and Son, wrote Hebrew Concordances with the following Title; Concordantiæ Bibliorum Hebraicæ nova & artificiosa methodo dispositæ accessernnt novæ Concordantiæ Chaldaicæ vocum quæ corpore Biblico Hebraico continentur. Per Joan. Buxtorfium filium, in fol. Basileæ, 1632. So that these Concordances are both Hebrew and Chaldee. Buxtorf the Father having left them at his Death imperfect, his Son finished them, and added the Chaldee Concordances, with a Preface, shewing the Use which should be made of this Work. Christian Racius, a German Lutheran, put out an Epitome of them, in the way of Dictionary, at Berlin, 1677, in 8vo. under the Title of Fons Sion.
Frederici Lanckisch, Saxonis Lutherani, Concordantiæ Bibl. Hebraico- & Græco- Germanicæ. Lips. & Frankfort, 1680, in 4to. This is only an Epitome, divided into two Parts: The first contains the Hebrew and Chaldee Words of the Old Testament: the second, the Greek Words of the New, those of the Septuagint Translation, and of Luther’s German Version.
Concordantiæ veteris Testamenti Græcæ Hebræis vocibus respondentes. Authore Conrado Kircher, Augustano, Francofurti, 1607. 2 Vols. in 4to. This Work is very useful, not only for the reading Holy Scripture, and learning how the old Greek Interpreters translated every Word of the Original, but for reading likewise the Greek Fathers. Kircher wrote his Concordance from the Complutensian Edition of the Greek: It were to be wished that he had followed rather the Roman Edition, which is beyond comparison much better.
These Concordances were reprinted in two Vols. fol. at Antwerp and Utrecht, in 1718. Abraham Trommius, who was principally concerned in this new Edition, has changed the Order of Kircher’s Concordance, by ranging the Words of his Dictionary according to the Greek Alphabet; whereas Kircher in his Edition, begins with the Hebrew, and follows the Order of the Hebrew Alphabet; which is perplexing to those who do not understand this Language. Trommius has regulated it better, and corrected it in many Places. He has added the Versions of the old Greek Interpreters, copied the Edition of the Septuagint by Wechel; and at the end he has given us a Table; wherein he compares the different Divisions of the Chapters, according to the different Editions of the Septuagint; that so the Use of his Concordance may be made more easy to the Reader, which was absolutely necessary.
It may be farther convenient to know, that John Gagnier has written a Defence of Kircher’s Concordance, against Trommius, printed at Oxford, 1718, in fol. His Undertaking consists of Observations upon Trommius’s Concordances, wherein, 1. He defends Kircher against the other’s unjust Accusations. 2. He shews that he is not without Defects. 3. He proposes a Method for making new ones, and disposing them into better Order. These Observations contain but 20 Pages, and seem to be very just. Trommius replied to him in an Apologetical Letter, printed at Amsterdam, in 1711, in 4to. There is notice taken of it in the Bibliotheque Choisie for the same Year, p. 11. This Author was born in 1633, and died 1719, of his Age 86. See his Life, in the Bibliotheca Philologica, tom. 3. p. 1117.
Symphonia sive novi Testamenti Concordantiæ Græcæ, in fol. Basileæ, 1546. Sixtus Betulejus was the first who began to make Greek Concordances of the New Testament, Colomesius, in his Bibliotheque Choisie, p. 497. believes them, together with those of the Old Testament, to be so necessary, that he says, there is no Comment that can be of so much Advantage. Kircher has made a Treatise relating to these Concordances, printed at Wittemberg, 1622, in 4to.
Betulejus was of Swabia, born at Augsburg, in 1500. studied at Basil, turned Lutheran, and died in 1554. His Name was Birck. You may see his Life in Melchior Adam, among those of the German Philosophers, p. 74. of the last Edition. He is said to have been infinitely laborious, always employed in Study, in reading, or in writing.
Henry Stephens, in the Year 1595, published Greek Concordances of the New Testament, in fol. They were printed in 1600, at Geneva, in fol. by Paul Stephens, with a Supplement, in 1624. Chouet put out a new Edition of them, with Augmentations, in fol. at Geneva. The same at Wittemberg, 1638. corrected by Erasmus Schmid: This Edition is preferable to all that preceded it.
The first Edition of the Greek Concordances is very imperfect; the succeeding ones are much better. They are of very great use to know in what Sense the Authors of the New Testament understood some particular Greek Words, the Meaning whereof, as they understood them, is very different from that which is given them in the best Greek Writers.