THE SACRED CLASSICS Defended and Illuftrated. PART II. CНАР. І. Shall beg leave here to repeat what I advanc'd in the first Part, that the main fubftance and groundwork of the language of the Gospels and Epiftles is incontestably the fame with that of the old authentic Grecians; their narrative and morals are exprefs'd in parallel terms; and in equal exactness of grammatical concord and government. In fhort, the language is the fame, excepting when the rites of the Jewish, and new revelations of the Chriftian Religion requir'd new terms; and where the ufage of Hebrew modes of fpeech, and allufions to the oriental customs exprefs'd the thing with more vigour, and advantage and fatisfaction of the people to whom the Gospel was to be addrefs'd and preach'd. Even in the Hebraifms and peculiarities of the new Testament as good a regard has been had to the general analogy and true propriety of grammar, as in the purest and fublimeft writings, which make up the ftandard of the Greek language. 'Tis very remarkable that thofe Hebraifms are us'd by the writers of the new Testament which are us'd by Plato, Herodotus, &c. as fubftantives instead of adjectives, a nominative case without any verb, repetitions of the fame word, that look very like tautologies; and other modes of speech that we have above fhew'd to be common to the Hebrew and Greek languages: but other Hebrew forms of expression, tho' fcarce bolder or harsher than thefe, are not us'd by the facred writers; believe because they wou'd have been real folecifms, and violation of the analogy and custom of the Greek and Roman language, as never adinitted into it, nor us'd by their approv'd and prin cipal writers. The relative aber is frequently fupprefs'd 2. I fupprefs'd in Hebrew, as the relative who or which is in English. In regimen of nouns the governing noun is alter'd, not the governed. The adjective and the substantive are of different genders and numbers. The verb fometimes does not agree with the proper nominative cafe, but is of the fame number with the oblique cafe in the claufe. And several other Hebraisms there are that are repugnant to the ufage of the Greek language, and never us'd by the divine writers in Greek. I much wonder at that formal remark of a very learned man on Alts v. 30. "St. Luke being a "scholar, uses many words purely Greek." Why don't St. Matthew, St. Mark, St. Paul, St. John ule many words and phrafes purely Greek? Is that to be doubted by any one that ever read them? Has not that excellent critic himself given numerous inftances of it; and prov'd it by parallel inftances out of the beft authors? § 2. In this chapter I lay before the young scholar fome remarkable paffages, precepts of morality, comparisons and proverbial fayings in the Pfal. li. 10. b. Prov. xxiv. 25. Job xxxiv. 28. 1 Sam. ii. 4. Ifa. xvi. 18. d Jerem. x. 22. Job xxix. 10. Haggai ii. 8. Vid. Buxtorf. Thefaur. Grammat. Linguæ Sand. Heb. in Syntaxi. Vid. etiam Bithner. Inftit. Lingua Sandæ ad calcem Lyra Propheticæ cap. 9. Vid. Proverb. xxviii. I. Z 2 facred facred writers, which are us'd in the most lofty and noble foreign writers. And the reason I draw this parallel is, only to fhew the wisdom and condefcention of the Divine Spirit, in directing the Evangelifts and Apostles to use those customary and well-known modes and forms of speech which are found in those writers, which are generally and justly admir'd for their agreeable and prevalent manner of applying to the reafon and affections of mankind. The hand of God in the old and new Testament expreffes his providence and power: In which sense it is taken by the noble Pindar: O our пaλáμg, a haven of Crete that Θεῖ σὺν παλάμᾳ lyeth towards the Southweft, &c. is a low tranflation, and takes away the prosopopeïa and vigour of the original; and is not more plain or intelligible than the literal rendring of it a ba ven which looketh towards the Northweft, &c. The nobleft Claffics have the fame form-A promontory of Salamis looking towards Megara ". f pagan Ariftophanes fays of Juno, whom the world fuppos'd to be that Deity which prefided over the nuptial rites, that she keeps the keys of • Pfal. xcv. 4. xlv. 6. Luke i. 66. f Pindar. Ol. 10. v. 25. • Acts xxvii. 12. Thucid. 2. 141. 1. 8. So in Xen. Cyrop. 8. 5. 2. 317. πρὸς ἕω βλέπεσαν τὴν σκηνήν. Spectant in Septemtriones & Orientem folem. Cæfar. Commen. & lib. 4. Variorum. 2 P. marriage ħ. |