CHAPTER XIV. THERE remains a question, which the proposition of the destruction of the antediluvian earth will naturally recall to the mind; and which, therefore, must not be passed in this argument without examination, and determination. It will be asked; if the first earth perished entirely, what are we to understand concerning the description of the four rivers of Eden, enumerated in verses 11, 12, 13, and 14, of the second chapter of Genesis? That enumeration directly contradicts, not only the positive declaration of St. Peter, and the prescriptive sense of the ancient Hebrew Church, but also, Moses himself1; so that the historian of the Deluge is at variance with the historian of the Creation, or, in other words, Moses contradicts himself. Now, it is an axiom in criticism, universally admitted, that no writer of ability and integrity ever contradicts himself, and therefore, that all apparent contradictions in his writings must have proceeded from accidental causes open to investigation; and, since this principle applies with its ordinary force to Moses, considered only as a writer of ability and integrity, but with extraordinary force, when he is considered as an inspired See above, chap. iii. writer; we must endeavour to investigate the cause of this apparent contradiction, and to see, whether the inspired text cannot relieve itself from the injury which that contradiction has so long inflicted upon it. We may not cut the knot of this difficulty with so little ceremony as De Luc; who, without any hesitation, affirms, that the rivers therein enumerated were not the present Euphrates, Tigris, &c. but, that they were" certain antediluvian rivers, whose "names were afterwards transferred to rivers of .66 the new earth; as is common in colonies, where new places are called after the names of the "mother-country'." This is a question, pertaining to a branch of inquiry entirely distinct from physics, and not to be solved by the easy process of gratuitous invention; yet, it is very material to the present subject, that it should be resolved here. That this description of rivers, constitutes a parenthesis intersecting the direct thread of the history, and that it has been inserted for the purpose of illustration, is manifest upon the face of the text; but, an important critical question arises upon this parenthesis, which those will best apprehend who are most conversant with ancient manuscripts and with the history of their transcriptions: viz. whether this illustrative insertion was written by the author of the history, or, whether it is not more probable that it was originally a marginal gloss, 1 Lett. Geol. p. 327, 8. which, in process of time, became incorporated into the body of the text? To such insertions, Bishop Lowth has occasion to advert in his notes on Isaiah; and Kennicott, and De Rossi, have pointedly noticed them, in their observations on the Hebrew text'1; and there are few ancient authors whose writings have not, in some degree or other, suffered depravation by similar incorporations. Both the Sacred Testaments are well known to have sustained such depravations, in some instances. In order to illustrate this point for those who may not have had experience in this particular branch of investigation, I shall adduce an unquestionable example of an incorporated gloss in the New Testament; which is little known, but which is both very important in itself, and well adapted to expose the nature of similar incorporations. 1" To the preceding instances of interpolation (from negligence of "transcribers) one other of a different kind may be added, (says Kenni"cott,) which deserves our particular attention-I mean, when additions "have been made to any part of sacred history; which additions, after "being first rashly inserted in the margin, have been afterwards injudi"ciously taken into the text. That there are grounds for some complaints "of this nature, is allowed by Grabe, who says —'Additamenta, sive teme⚫ritati, sive imperitiæ librariorum tribuenda puto: temeritati quidem illa inserta à quopiam qui operam abusus est suam, ut historias, adjectis 'novis quibusdam narrationibus, latius diduceret.' (De Vitiis LXX. p. 6.) "Interpretations of this nature, if made late, may be discovered easily "by means of the several ancient versions; but, if made early (a little "before or soon after the birth of Christ,) it may be now difficult to discover them."-KENNICOTT, Dissert. II. on the Hebrew Text, p. 417. glossas demum, scholia, notas, tanquam veras lectiones acci"piunt, et in textum obtrudunt." - DE Rossi, Varia Lectiones V. Test. Prolegom. p. 6. 6 66 It is remarkable, that Michaelis has passed over it in his criticisms on St. John's Gospel; Bishop Marsh, however, has duly remarked it in his notes on that work, and has deduced from it the conclusions which it obviously suggests. In the Royal Library at Paris is a remnant of a very ancient Greek MS. of the New Testament, intitled the Codex Ephremi1. This valuable relic is pronounced by Wetstein, (in whose enumeration it is marked C,) to be of the same age as the celebrated Alexandrian MS.; but, the passage which I am about to produce, will certainly not tend to diminish its comparative antiquity. Montfaucon has given a fac-simile of the first six verses of the 5th chapter of St. John's Gospel, as they stand in this MS.; in which, that portion of the evangelical history is thus read: μετα δε ταυτα ην ἡ ἑορτη των Ιουδαίων, και ανεβη ὁ Ιησους αγελος γαρ κατα- εις Ιεροσόλυμα. εστιν δε εν κρον κατέβεν ενεν ετάρασε ΤΟ τῳ τι κολυμβήθρα και τοις Ιεροσολύμοις επι τη προὕδωρ, δ ουν πρώτος βατικη κολυμβήθρα, ή επι εμβας μετα τιντα ράχιν του ύδατος λεγομένη ἑβραϊστι Βεθέσδα, πεντε υγιης εγίνετω ᾧ αι ποτε κατηχετω νο- στους εχουσα. εν ταύταις και σηματι. τέκειτο πληθος των ασθενούντων, την δε τυφλων, χωλών, ξηρων. εκδεχόμενον τιν 1 MICHAELIS' Introd. to the New Testament, by MARSH, vol. ii. οκτω ετη εχων εν τη ασθενεια After this there was a feast of the Jews, and Jesus For an angel went went up to Jerusalem. down at a certain season, into the Now, there is at Jerusabath, and trou bled' the water; lem, by the sheep-market, whosoever then first, after the a bath, which is called in in, was whole of whatso ever disease he In these lay a great number of impotent folk, of had. blind, halt, withered. And a certain man was there, waiting for the moving of the which had an infirmity waters. thirty and eight years. When Jesus saw him lie, and knew that, &c. In the Greek MS., the text and the marginal sentences, though both are in the uncial character, are written by different hands; and it will be evident from the language, and from the Itacism perceptible in the latter, that the latter are of a date posterior to the former. It will be equally manifest, that they were marginal notes, annexed with the design of illustrating the popular superstition under which the infirm man was waiting at the |