Text of Scripture

TEXT of Scripture. 1. The Text of Scripture is taken, sometimes by way of opposition to the Gloss, Comment, or Explication, without any respect had to the Language in which the Text is written, whether it be the Original, or only a Translation. For example, the Text informs us that God was angry, or repented; and the Gloss acquaints us that this must be taken in a figurative Sense, and as if it had been said, that God acted as tho’ he had been angry, or as if he had repented.

2. The Text of Scripture is put in opposition to the Translations that have been made of it. Thus the Hebrew Text of the Old Testament, and the Greek Text of the New, are as it were the Fountains from whence all the Translations are derived. ‘Tis to these Fountains we must have recourse, to understand well the Sense of the Translations.

The Original Text of all the Books of the Old Testament, which are received into the Canon of the Jews, is the Hebrew. But the Christian Church receives also as Canonical certain other Books of the Old Testament, of which the Greek is thought to be the Original. For example, the Book of Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus, Tobit, Judith, the Maccabees, the xiiith and xivth Chapters of Daniel, the Additions at the end of the Book of Esther, and that part of the iiid Chapter of Daniel which is from Verse 24 to 91. Tobit, Judith, Ecclesiasticus, and probably the first Book of the Maccabees, were originally written in Syriac, or in Hebrew with a Mixture of Chaldee and Syriac; but as the Originals written in these Lan-

L guages the Greek, which is the oldest Version, is accounted as the Original. We have no certain Proof that the Book of Wisdom, and the Second Book of Maccabees, were written originally either in Syriac or Hebrew.

The original Text of the Books of the New Testament is the Greek; though it be certain that St. Matthew wrote his Gospel in Hebrew, and some think St. Mark wrote his Gospel in Latin, and that St. Paul wrote his Epistle to the Romans in Latin, and his Epistle to the Hebrews in Hebrew. But as the Original Hebrew Text of St. Matthew is lost, and as there are good Proofs that all the other Books of the New Testament were written in Greek, the Greek passes for the original Language of all the New Testament.

For the Samaritan Text, see Samaritan, before.

Tho’ it cannot be maintained that the Original Texts of both the Old and New Testaments are entirely free from Faults, yet it must be agreed that they are perfectly Authentick, and that the Faults which, by length of Time, or by the Negligence of Transcribers, have crept into the Text, are not of such Consequence as to make them be look’d upon as corrupted Fountains, or as Monuments of no Authority. These Faults are not numerous, they are not of great Importance, they do not go to the Bottom of Things. Perhaps, for Example, some Date may be changed, some proper Name of a Person or a City, or something like this, may be alter’d and corrupted: Defects which may easily be supplied, either by the help of ancient Manuscripts, or old Translations that were made before such Alterations happened in the Text. Some of the ancient Fathers¹ have complained that the Jews had purposely corrupted several Passages of the Old Testament, which they thought too favourable to Jesus Christ: But this Accusation has not been well supported: The Passages which they have been said to have taken out of the Hebrew Text, were probably never in it. Lastly, this Opinion is at this day quite given up by all the Criticks. See St. Jerome upon Isaiah, Chap. vi. Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. l. 3. c. 10. St. August. l. 15. c. 13. de Civitate Dei.

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