Besides these Various Readings in general upon almost the whole Old and New Testament, there are some in particular, upon certain Books of the Bible; which are to be found likewise in the sixth Tome of the London Polyglot. Upon Genesis, collected by James Usher and Patrick Junius. Upon Joshua, by Andrew Masius, and are likewise in his Comments upon the Historical Books. Upon the Titles of the Psalms, by William Sirlet. Upon Isaiah, by William Norisius. Upon the Small Prophets, by John Lightfoot, in the third Tome of his Works, p. 19. of the Edition in fol. at Utrecht, 1699. Upon the Proverbs, by Giggeé.
James Usher was of Dublin, where he was born in 1580. Having a Mind naturally bent to Study, he addicted himself to it from his Youth, and particularly to History. His Father being dead, he applied himself to Divinity, and his Uncle, who was Archbishop of Armagh, put him into Priests Orders, according to the English Ritual, when as yet he was but 21 Years of Age. King James made him Bishop of Meath in the Year 1620, and he succeeded his Uncle in 1626. He died in 1655, in the seventy-fifth Year of his Age, after having enjoyed this See thirty Years. It is more easy, as Eutropius said of the Emperor Antonine, to admire than praise him: He was always employed, either in Reading, Writing, or Preaching. He had a thorough Knowledge of Antiquity, Divinity, and the Belles Lettres; and with all this he was a Man of great Modesty. See his Life and Character, among Smith’s Learned Men, printed at London, 1707, in 4to. and the Catalogue of his Works, in M. Dupin’s Tables, tom. 4. p. 1295. See likewise Bayle’s Critical Dictionary, of the last Edition.
These Various Readings, whereof we have been speaking, are in great number upon the New Testament. See what Fabricius says of them, in his Bibliotheca Græca, l. 4. c. 5. p. 81. They may be found in the Editions of Robert Stephens, in the Polyglots of England and Antwerp, in Possin’s, or Poussines’s Catena of the Greek Fathers, on St. Mark; in the Greek Testament published by Curcellæus; and Isaac Vossius and John Lomejer have had a Share in this Collection.
Mill and Kuster published likewise Various Lections in their Greek Testament, whereof there has been Mention made above. Daniel Whitby wrote a particular Examination of those by Dr. Mill, printed at London, 1710, in fol. in Latin. In this he asserts, that the Doctor had unnecessarily multiplied the Various Readings to an almost infinite Number. Richard Bentley, in his Essay of the New Testament in Greek and Latin, disputes likewise against the great number of them. He admits but very few, if any. Their respective Treatises should be read, if you would know their Reasons.
Patrick Junius and John Morinus have likewise put our Various Greek Readings on the four Gospels particularly, and the Acts of the Apostles. They are printed in Morinus’s Exercitationes Biblicæ, tom. 1. p. 48, — 54. There is no disputing the Importance of them, being taken from a Cambridge Manuscript which Beza calls an admirable Book, and a very valuable Monument of Antiquity. Junius himself having transcribed the different Readings of it, sent them from England to Mess. Dupui, who communicated them to F. Morinus, and he published them.
John Hentenius collected different Greek Readings on the four Gospels from Euthymius’s Comment, and inserted them before it in the Impression of it at Paris, 1544, in 8vo.
Luke of Bruges put out a Book of Remarks, explaining the Greek and Latin Various Readings of the four Gospels. It is prefixed to his Comment, printed at Antwerp in 1606, 1616, in fol. Mill, in the Prolegomena to his Greek Testament, says, that he had had nothing more learned and elaborate than this Work; that the Author has not relied in it upon the Integrity of another, as Beza had done, but collated himself the old Copies, that he might say nothing but what was very well averr’d.
Lewis de la Cerda in the ninth Chapter of his Adversaria put out the different Readings which the Marquis de Velés, or Velesius, had collected on the four Gospels out of sixteen Manuscripts. This had been a very valuable Treasure, if the Places had been mentioned from whence they were taken, says Mariana, in his Treatise of the Vulgate Edition, ch. 17. p. 83. See Mill’s Thoughts of them, in the above cited Prolegomena, p. 138.
The true Name of Velés, or Velesius, was Peter Exard, or Faxard, or Fagiard, by Nation a Spaniard, very rich, and of an ancient and noble Family. He lived about 1600, understood Greek, and spared for nothing in collecting Manuscripts.
The Various Readings of the Greek Text of St. Matthew, collected by John Saubert from several Greek Copies, as well Printed as Manuscript, were printed at Helmstadt in 1674, in 4to. To these he added Prolegomena, concerning the Original, Authority, and Use, of Various Readings in the Greek Text of the New Testament.
Saubert was a German of Nuremberg, the Son of John Saubert, Lutheran Minister of Nuremberg. He too was a Lutheran, and Professor of Hebrew, first at Helmstadt, then at Altorf. He died in 1688, at 51 Years of Age. He had a great deal of Wit, was learned, grave, and moderate, as Fabricius says, who speaks of him and his Works in the History of his Library, tom. 3, and 5. We too shall have occasion to say something of him hereafter.
F. Morinus likewise, in his Exercitationes, l. 1. p. 55, — 59. put out Various Readings on St. Paul’s Epistles, which he took out of a Manuscript in the College of Clermont at Paris; and they are the more to be esteemed, on the score of this Manuscript, which is very valuable: For Beza believed it to be the second Part of that at Cambridge. It is certainly very ancient, as may be judged by the Character, which is in large Greek Letters. See what F. Morinus says of it, ibid.