sive commercially than until recently accredited ; while Greek condottieri had been employed
in Egypt from the seventh century by Psametticus : nor was Xenophon the first General,
nor Ctesias the first Dootor, who volunteered their services to the Achæmenidæ of Persia.
Into Jerusalem itself, Greek ideas had penetrated very soon after the erection of the Second
Temple in the fifth century. These result from the history, and are stamped upon the
p ro p e r names of the Jews of Palestine, particularly after Alexander’s era. Nor were such
Hellenic infiltrations without a certain influence upon the canonical literature of Judaism;
for the “ political satire” (164) entitled the " B o o k of D a n ie l” betrays!, through its Greek
words, as much as by its exegetieal adaptations, an author of the age of Antiochus Epi
phanes, not earlier than the plunder of Jerusalem by that king about 164 years B. o. Continental
scholarship long ago placed this fact beyond dispute ; (165) and the Hebraical erudition
of the late Rev. Moses Stuart (166) induced him to fortify it with his customary
skilfulness,
So much nonsense still passes currently, in regard to the various dialects spoken by the
Jews after their return from the Captivity, that we must here digress for a moment. Independently
of books read and others cited, we have sought for information on these subject«
from some of the most cultivated Hebrew citizens of the United States, and have invariably
met with the kindest readiness to enlighten us. We possess not (merely because we omitted
to ask for it) the sanction, of the many very learned Israelites consulted, to publish their
honored names ; but not on that account are the hints with which all have favored us the
less appreciated by ourselves nor the less useful to readers: No interdict being laid by
one of the writer’s valued friends, Mr. J. C. Levy of Savannah, upon the many indices to
knowledge for which his goodness has rendered us his debtor, we condense the .substance
of two recent communications ; coupled with regrets that certain mexorable limits of typographical
space should compress what ought to be in “ Brevier” into “ Nonpareil.” (167)
' (16« New York Daily TrOmne; Peb. 10, 1853. The attribution to “Discoveries” at Babylon is fabulons. lot
that of thé Deadogue, conf. Ghddox, Oita, 1819; p. 19 : — extended in New York Sun, “Historical Sketches«!
Egypt,” Nos. 6, 7; Jan. 19 and 25, 1850.
(165) M u m : Palestine; p. 420;—Db W e t t e : ii. pp. 183-512; — C a h e n : Notes on Daniel.
(166) Bints m the Interpretation o f Prophecy.; Andover, 1812 ; pp. 71-108. -,
(16 7 ) E x t r a c t 1 .— “ The information I promised barely is, that the Babylonian Captivity lasted from 538 ■
b c when Zerubabel, with 50,000 men, went to Palestine with the permission of Cyrus. A second colony »
lowed in the year 458, led by Ezra, under the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus. He was, again, followed U
Nehemiah, 441. During the Captivity, by good treatment, they adopted Babylonian, customs and mam®,
and amalgamated with their conquerors (P m v. ; Nehemiah xiii. 1 - 3 ) , and forgot their native Hebrew, Bcsata
this the Samaritans speaking an Aramaic (Chaldaic) dialect, as well as the Syrians who ruled for a long to»
in Palestine, exercised great influence over the Jews ; so that the Hebrew soon disappeared as the vemacula,
(Nehemiah xiii 21) to yield to the Chaldaic, and the mother-tongue probably was the language of their ml
mothers This may be best proved by the fact, that all civil acts, official documents;, and legal formulas, w
written in that language, and that the Talmud itself is written, to a great extent, in this tongue. Burt®
more, numerous proverbs originating at this time, and popular books/of that ag& are all in the same langu^
The chief prayers of the Jewish Service, composed by Ezra, are in the Chaldaic' language. Already at the cn
serration of the Temple on the 1st of the 9th mouth and in the 24 days of its duration, it was g R H d
to accompany the reading of the Law with translations and expUmalsms (Nehemiah vui. 8,12), the latter 1) ,
the W r i n g s and foundation of the Talmud, or traditional oral law, which was first prohibited to be wntW
down, in order to preserve life and motion for the letter of holy writ. That this prohibition was afterwrt
transgressed much to the injury of the development of Judaism, and caused all schisms among the Jews, »
well known. Had these explanations, which are inostly contradictory of each, other, notJseen collected a*
made a code of, all strife might have been avoided. - .
“ Written Chaldaic translations were in existence in the time of the Macoabees — the first known is that
O n kelos disciple of K. Gamaliel (53 after X), and fellow-student of the Apostle Paul. This translation is par ■
phrastical, especially in the prophetic and poetical parts of the Bible. More explanatory is that of Johate*
lEV-Naoozm,. A third translation is the Targum Jermhalme (Jerusalem translation), fragmentary, and c,
hi tine a commentary in accordance with the reigning ideas of the age. Macedonian and Egyptian ,ro■“
Palestine produced among the Jews Grecian manners, customs, and ideas, also language; so that transie in
of the Bible were soon necessary. The oldest mentioned is that of AxnAS, often referred to m ancient wntW
t evnlain Chaldaic parts of the Bible ; there you have the Greek translation of the LXX. Philo, Josephus,
in Greek/proving their ignorance o,Hebrew by the blunders in translation r f
explanation of the Text. Greek technical terms are even to be found abundantly in the Talmud.
ra/vf oo+.ifjfip.d with the meaere reference rî‘,7'vr* Éïp ■»’•»n-nrriincr r „vv. t.ho umoranc© © 1 ■
Returning to the LXX. — Some precursory events had prepared Jewish Alexandrian
immigrants for the adoption “ nolens volens” of the Greek tongue and alphabet, consequent
upon the oblivion of the Aramaean dialect which their progenitors had re-imported into
Palestine. The children were growing up in ignorance of a “ Law ” their Alexandrian parents
could no longer read in Hebrew. To have paraphrased that “ Law ” into Syro- Chaldee, like
their brethren in Palestine and Babylonia, would at Alexandria have been useless; because
the parents ha# forgotten Syro-Chaldee, and the children already talked Greek, by the reign
Of Ptolemy Philadelphus, b . c. 284-45. What more in unison with the instinctive characteristics
of that “ Type of Mankind” which, beyond all others (from the days of Abraham),
changes its language with most facility, while it repels admixture of alien blood and tenaciously
adheres to its own religion, than that one of its branches, the Alexandrian Hebrews,
should cause the sacred writings of their forefathers to be translated into Greek? This
was precisely that which they did, although the exact year of the commencement of such
translations can no longer be fixed; but the style and idioms of the several books, to Which,
after collection into «one canon, the name of Septuagint was subsequently given, indicate
different times and divers hands. (168)
While confined to Judaism in Alexandria, this Greek translation was reputed orthodox
by the Hellenizing Rabbis as much as the Hebrew Scriptures themselves; and more authoritative,
because they could read no other. It was read in the Synagogues of that city,
and wherever Jewish congregations were planted under similar Grecian circumstances ; but
a Greek version was of no use, and therefore of little value, to the Jews of Palestine,
Syria, and Persia; who understood not the Greek tongue, but spoke Chaldaic “ patois.”
The Greeks themselves, regarding all languages but their own as barbarous, Hebrew inclusive,
never troubled their heads about the Septuagint until after apostolic missions had propagated
the New Testament, composed in Greek by Hellenized Jews also; when the recurrence
of quotations from the Old Testament, in the evangelical books, instigated its readers
to reference to that Code; and as these Christianized readers were ignorant of Oriental
idioms, of course the Septuagint version was the only one accessible to them: while, to give
it an air of antiquity and of royal respectability of origin, both Grsecized Jews and Juda-
izing Christians, coincided in attributing its authorship to “ 70 ” translators, appointed (like
our forty-seven English translators by king James) under the hand and seal of Philadelphus;
whose encouragement of literature was testified by munificent donations (cost to
himself, nothing) to the Alexandrian Library. A pseudo-Aristeas “ reported” a fable so
flattening to Alexandrine pride, to Jewish respectabilities, and to Christian orthodoxy;
while the real tradition seems to have reached us in an account that the authors of the
Septuagint were but “five:” (169) and so, veneration for the Septuagint increased from day
to day in the ratio that time rolled onward, and that the remembrance of its natural origin
faded from the “ memory of the oldest inhabitant” of Alexandria; nor would the harmless
legend have been disturbed, had not proselyting furor on the part of new converts
to Christianity led them to provoke rabbinical susceptibility by appeals to the Greek version
of the Old Testament in support of novel doctrines promulgated in the New: the two texts
everywhere of Hebrew after the Captivity.. . . I offer you what your opponents cannot object to—that is, the
Xlllth Chapter’of N e h e m ia h (the chronology of the hook you . know better then I do). Jewish, or Christian
chronology make it‘ about 450 before X. This chapter will show you, that the Dragoman [Arahice Turgemdn,
‘Interpreter”] was necessary in reading the Book of the Law. Gibbon (vi. vol. chap. 50, p. 262) quotes, in a
note, Walton (Prolegomena ad Bibl. polyglot., pp. 34, 93,97; also, Simon, Hist. Critique du V. et du IT. Testa-
• wieni), to illustrate that the Bible was translated into Arabic at a much earlier period than the time he is
treating of (about 550 after X); and he proves the fact ‘ from the perpetual practice of the Synagogue of
^expounding the Hebrew Lesson by a paraphrase of the vulgar tongue of the country.’ : . . I think these very
respectable authorities, if you need them.” Mr. Levy’s views are amply supported by G e s e n iu s (Geschichte der
Sd). SpracJie-, &c.; p. 198).
(168) De W e t t e : i. p. 145;—T a y lo r ’s Calmet;,mce “ Torsions.”
| (169) Ibid.; p . 150 —note from the Talmud, Tract Sopherim, ch. i. — “ The work of the Jive elders, who wrote
41ie Law in Greek, in the time of King Ptolemy ” : unless they meant the Pentateuch, attributing one book to
each elder ? Conferre, also, the high Jewish authority of R a p a p o r t , in “ Ereih Milin ” — New York Asmonean •
July 29,1853.
78