apocryphal part of Daniel. This revision became a critical authority in the church.

Asseman conjectures that James of Edessa himself made a new version from the Greek, and grounds the conjecture mainly on some various readings of the Psalms, which Barhebræus cites from him, and on a book from his hand, in the Vatican, relating to the Syriac version. But there seems to be little reason for the opinion.]

3. A version of the Old Testament was made, or procured to be made, by Philoxenus, bishop of Hierapolis. But of this we know too little to pronounce, as some have done, that it is the same as the figurata." [Philoxenus, called also Xenaias, was bishop of Hierapolis or Mabug, from 488 to 518. At his direction, Polycarp made a Syriac version of the New Testament, which was called the Philoxenian, in honor of the bishop who caused it to be undertaken. It is still a question whether he translated also the Old Testament. Moses Aghelaus, who lived in the middle of the sixth century, mentions a version of the Psalms from the Greek, made by Polycarp, the rural bishop. The Milan manuscript of the hexaplary version on Isa. ix. 6, cites a passage from "another version made for the Syrians by the holy Philoxenus, bishop of Mabug." It cannot be determined whether it included all the books of the Old Testament.]

4. There is a Syriac version of the patriarch Mar Abba. [He was by birth a Magian, but was converted to Christianity, and applied himself diligently to the

study of languages. He learned the Syriac and the Greek, and then translated several books from the latter into the former tongue. Amongst them was the Old Testament. In translating this, he was assisted by his teacher, one Thomas, who has been confounded with Thomas of Heraclea. It cannot be determined whether this version was ever authorized by the church, or remained entirely in private use. It was made in the sixth century."

5. Simeon, abbot of the monastery of Licinius, translated the Psalms from the Greek into the Syriac. He gives an account of his labors in an epistle to a monk, which—as well as his brief exposition of some of the Psalms is still extant in the Vatican library."

6. It is also maintained by some that Thomas of Heraclea, a Monophysite bishop, about 613, made a translation of the Seventy into Syriac. Barhebræus often quotes the Heraclean version. Pococke had a manuscript containing the History of Susannah, which professed to come from the same source. The apocryphal additions to Daniel, ch. xii., in Walton's polyglot, are printed from the Heraclean version. But it is not probable that Thomas ever made such a translation; for he was contemporary with Paul of Tela, another Monophysite bishop, who himself made a version; and it is not probable two independent Syriac versions would be made contemporarily by associated bishops, for the use of the same party in the church. Thomas, it appears, translated a portion, or the whole of the Apocrypha, and revised the Philoxenian version of the New Testament,

[Eichhorn, § 267. Asseman, 1. c. vol. ii. p. 411, sqq., vol. iii. pt. i. p. 75, sqq.]

Eichhorn, 271. Asseman, vol. ii. p. 83.

while Paul translated the hexaplary text of the whole Old Testament into the Syriac. The work of Paul seems sometimes to have been called the Heraclean version."

There was a version called the Karkuphish (versio Karkuphensis) in use among the Nestorian Christians, who inhabited the mountains of Assyria. It received its name which signifies the version of the mountaineers from this circumstance. However, but little is known of it. Dr. Wiseman says, it is a recension of the Peshito, made about the end of the tenth century, by David, a Jacobite monk of the convent of St. Aaron, on Mount Sigari, in Mesopotamia. It bears a close affinity with the Peshito, except in proper names and Græco-Syriac words, where it follows the Greek orthography, and that of Thomas of Heraclea. Some think it was made for the Monophysite Christians, which others deny. There is a valuable manuscript of this recension in the Vatican.]

§ 50.

3. THE ETHIOPIAN VERSION.

The Ethiopians have a version of the whole Bible, in their sacred language, called Geez. Its origin cannot be placed earlier than the fourth century.

Its author is

[Ibid. Wiseman, Horæ Syriacæ; Rome, 1828, 8vo. vol. i. p. 236-240, 162, 163, cited in Horne, l. c. pt. i. ch. iii. sect. iii. § 4. Lee's Proleg. in Bib. Polyg. minora, iii. sect. iii. p. 40. A writer in the Edinburgh Review for October, 1840, art. v., says M. Tattam has discovered in Egypt two MSS. of a Syriac version, containing Exodus and Joshua.]

[See an account of this language in Adelung, 1. c. vol. i. p. 401, sqq., vol. iii. p. 101, sqq.]

For an account of the conversion of the Ethiopians by Frumentius, (the

unknown. [This version has been referred to the times of the apostles by some; but the Ethiopians were not converted to Christianity before the first part of the fourth century. It is, therefore, no wonder that traces of this version are not found till near the end of this century. Chrysostom speaks of its existence, though without treating of its history; and no one of ancient times has given us any information about its author.'

Bruce thinks the Old Testament was translated from the Hebrew, before Christ, and the New Testament at the above date. The dialect into which both have been rendered is a dead language, or, at least, it is not spoken. He seldom found perfect copies of the Old Testament. They are rare in churches, and still more so in private use. Several books of both the Old and New Testament are almost unknown. The Abyssinians make no careful distinction between canonical and apocryphal books. The story of Bel and the Dragon, the Book of Enoch,

Abba Salama,) about 330, see Ludolf, Hist. Æthiop. lib. iii. 2; Franc. ad Mœnum, 1681, fol. [See the other authorities, cited in Gieseler, 1. c. vol. i. p. 312. It is commonly, perhaps, supposed that the Ethiopians were converted by the servant of Candace, baptized by Philip, (Acts viii. 27,) or by Bartholomew, or Matthew, or Matthias; but the Æthiopians themselves state that Christianity was first taught them by Frumentius and Ædesius, (Fremonatus and Sydracus,) at the above date. It is supposed the Bible was translated at the above date. Ludolf, 1. c. See Bruce's Travels to discover the Source of the Nile; 1805, vol. ii. p. 416-420. See the most ancient testimony in Chrysostom, Hom. in Joh. ii. p. 561.]

A pretence to an apostolical origin of this version has been founded on Acts viii. 27. Walton, Prolegg. xv. 12, [maintains that it was made at an early date. His arguments are mainly two: 1. The early church could not flourish without the Scriptures; and, 2. the version agrees with some very ancient readings.] See Pet. Vict. Cajetan, Paradig. de Lingua Ethiop. p. 160.

" The Æthiopian legends make Abba Salama the author of it. But there are traces of several hands. See Ludolf, 1. c. lib. iii. ch. iv. p. 295. Bruce, l. c. Eichhorn, Allg. Bib. vol. iii. p. 120, sqq.

b [See Eichhorn, § 309.]

and Solomon's Song, are common. "Saint George and his Dragon are reverenced as highly as the heroes of the Old or the saints of the New Testament."]

a

The Ethiopian Jews make use of this version, although it originated with Christian authors. The translation of the Old Testament followed the Septuagint, according to the Alexandrian recension, as an original." There are in Europe manuscripts of this version entire, but only fragments of it have yet been printed."

[Bruce, 1. c. in Eichhorn, l. c. p. 120, sqq. Bruce brought three MSS. of the Book of Enoch to Europe, and one of the Æthiopic version of the whole Bible. See an account of another MS. in Horne, l. c. pt. i. ch. iii. sect. iii.]

Ludolf, Comment. in Hist. Æthiop. 1. c. Renaudot thinks the Coptic version is the original of the Æthiopic. Le Long, ed. Masch, vol. ii. pt. i. p. 142, sq. Bruce is of the opinion it is not translated from the LXX. J. A. B. Dorn, De Psalterio Ethiop., (Lips. 1825, 4to.,) maintains the author often consulted the Hebrew original; but his reviewer, in A. L. Z. for 1832, No. 8, maintains the contrary.

Ludolf, l. c. p. 298. Bruce's MS. is still in the hands of his heirs. [It is not known in whose hands it now is. Mr. Horne, l. c. pt. i. ch. iii. sect. iii. § 3, says, p. 273, sq., the whole Æthiopic version will soon be printed. The Gospels are already in print - Evangelia sancta Ethiopica ad Cod. MSS. Fidem, ed. T. P. Flatt; Lond. 1826, 4to.] See a catalogue of the MSS. in Ludolf, 1. c. Besides the common Apocrypha, they have others; e. g., the Book of Enoch, of which an English version has been published; the Book of Enoch the Prophet, &c., by Richard Laurence; Ox. 1821, 2d ed., enlarged, 1833, 8vo. [See the Christian Observer, vol. xxx. p. 417, sqq. Cited in Horne, l. c. Bibl. Append. pt. i. ch. iii. sect. ii. No. 11. A. G. Hoffmann, Das Buch Henoch; Jena, 1833, 2 vols. 8vo.] See Gesenius, article Ethiop. Sprache und Lit., in Ersch and Gruber's Encyclop.

Psalter. cum Cant. Cant. ed. J. Potken; Rom. 1513, 4to., and Col. 1518, fol., and in London Polyglot, 1657. Psalterium Davidis Æth. et Lat. cum duobus Impr. et tribus MSS. Codd. diligenter collat. et emend....... Accedunt Æthiopice tantum Hymni et Orationes aliquæ Vet. et N. Test., item Cant. Cant. cum var. Lectt. et Notis. Cura Jobi Ludolfi, Frcf. ad M. 1701, 4to. Cant. Cant. Schelomonis Eth. e vetusto Cod. summa cum Cura erutum ......a J. G. Nisselio; Lug. Bat. 1656, 4to. Liber Ruth Æth. ed. a J. G. Nisselio; Lug. Bat. 1660, 4to. Prophetia Jonæ ex Æth. in Lat. ad Verbum versa. ................ Cui adjunguntur quatuor Genes, Capp. e vetust. Mspto Æth. eruta a Theod. Petræo ; Lug. Bat. 1660; reprinted by Staudacher; Frank. 1706, 4to. The four first chapters of Genesis, by G. Ch. Bürklin; Frankfort ad Mœ26

VOL. I.