СВОЈ •AD34 PREFACE. WHEN I turned my attention many years ago to the Book of Wisdom, there was no Commentary in the English language that treated fully of this work, save that of Arnald. This was copious indeed, but cumbersome and often speculative and uncritical. I felt also the want of some better revision of the text than was offered by the editions of the Septuagint usually met with in England. Even Tischendorf, who had sung the praises of his Sinaitic Codex far and wide, had made scarcely any use of this MS. in his own editions of the Septuagint, contenting himself with noting the variations of the Alexandrian and the Codex Ephraemi rescriptus. Taking the Vatican text as a basis therefore, I collated it with the Sinaitic and the other uncial MSS., and with the cursives given in Holmes and Parsons' work, with occasional reference to the Complutensian and Aldine editions. It was not till my own collation was just completed that I became acquainted with Fritzsche's Libri Apocryphi Veteris Testamenti, a work of the utmost value, though not quite free from mistakes in recording the readings both of the Vatican and Sinaitic MSS. These errors have been noted by E. Nestle in an appendix to the last (eighth) edition of Tischendorf. In confirming the text by reference to the Fathers, I have derived great assistance from Observationes Criticae in Libr. Sap. by F. H. Reusch, who has carefully noted the passages of the Book quoted by early writers. Walton's Polyglot has provided me with the Armenian, Syriac, and Arabic versions. For the sake of comparison I have printed the Latin Vulgate, and the so-called authorised English Version, in parallel columns with the Greek. The former is particularly interesting as containing many unusual words or forms, which are duly noted in the Commentary. In elucidating the text I have endeavoured to give the plain grammatical and historical meaning of each passage, illustrating it by reference to the writings of Philo, Josephus, the Alexandrian writers, and early Fathers; but I have been sparing of quotations from Christian authors, not from want of materials, but because I did not wish my work to assume an homiletical form, or to be burdened by reflections which an educated reader is able to make for himself. |