almost confirm us in the opinion, that man received it immediately from his Maker. The first time that alphabetical writing is mentioned in the Pentateuch is in Exodus xvii. 14. "And the Lord said write this as a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua.”—According to the chronology of Dr. Lloyd, this was pronounced to Moses, three months prior to the promulgation, of the law on Mount Sinai. But it is generally admitted by sacred critics, that the writings of Job were anterior to this event, and likewise to the books of the Pentateuch, and, consequently, that these are the most ancient records in the world.* This circumstance, says Dr. Hales, (D'Oylý * Homer is the most ancient of the profane writers: and, according to the opinion of the late Dr. Hill, of St. Andrew's, in his Essays on Ancient Greece, the age in which he lived was about 1200 years before the Christian era; according to the calculation of Sir Isaac Newton, it was 900 years before the Christian era: but as the poet has made no allusion to the return of the Heraclidæ, which happened 80 years after the taking of Troy, (1270 before the Christian era), the conclusion of Dr. Hill appears to be well grounded. It is well authenticated that the Greeks acknowledged to have received their letters from the Phoenicians.. (Herodotus, Terpsichore). "Ιωνες παραλαβόντες διδαχῇ παρὰ τῶν Φοινίκων τὰ γράμματα, et seq. Iones, cùm à Phoenicibus literas didicissent, usi eis sunt cum immutatione quâdam; et cum usu professi sunt (ut æquum erat, cùm eas Phoenices in Græciam attulissent) quòd litteræ illæ Phoeniciæ dice rentur. Eupolemus, in his book on the kings of Judea, says, Mosem primum fuisse sapientum, atque ab eo datam literaturam Judæis, quæ ab Judæis, ad Phoenices pervenerit. (Grotius). Capel, Bochart, and Le Clerc have proved that the shape of the letters of the Greeks was the same as that of the Phoenician and Samaritan letters. The Cadmean alphabet consisted of 16 letters, to which Palamedes added four, and Simonides of Melos four others. "The command that every king, upon his accession to the throne, should write him a copy of the law in a book out of that which is before the priests," Deut. v. 18, is a proof not only that the law existed in writing, but that there was a copy of it deposited in the tabernacle, or temple.-Bishop Tomline. We have the authority of tradition to say that every tribe was fur nished with a copy of the laws before the death of Moses.—Ibid, and Mant's Bible), stamps the highest value upon the Book of Job, as a most faithful and authentic monument of the language, the learning, the manners, and the religion of the earlier and purer patriarchal ages. Doubtless, on his arrival at Canaan, Abraham retained for some time his original tongue; but after his return from Egypt, the long stay which he made in Canaan, the possessions he acquired, the alliances he contracted, the covenants he made, and the credit and conversation he had with the people of the country, make it more than probable, that he acquired the Canaanitish or Phoenician language, and transmitted it to Isaac. Other learned men conceive, therefore, that it is no unreasonable conjecture, that the language of Isaac and Jacob, instead of being the parent of all, was itself descended from that of Canaan. It is acknowledged that this conclusion will not be diminished by the circumstances of Isaac* and Jacob's journeying for their * Gen. xxv. 20. "And Isaac was forty years old when he took Rebekah to wife, the daughter of Bethuel, the Syrian, of Padan-Aram, the sister to Laban, the Syrian." Bethuel, as also his son Laban, is called the Aramite, or Syrian, not as descended from Aram, or a Syrian by descent; but as living in the country which fell to the lot of Aram at the first plantation after the flood, (or rather at the general dispersion of mankind), and which must accordingly be esteemed a part also of Syria, largely taken to denote all the country of Aram. For he lived at Haran, and so in the north part of Aram-Naharaim, or Mesopotamia, which north part, from the fruitfulness of it, was particularly called Padan-Aram, the word Padan denoting a cultivated fruitful ground.-Dr. Wells. The Syrians were so called, because they were the descendents of Aram, the son of Shem. Gen. x. 22. Aram-Naharaim, was the country of those Syrians that lived between the two rivers Tigris and Euphrates. (Bishop Patrick.) Asshur properly means the descendants of Asshur, the Assyrian; but the Syrians and Assyrians are often confounded together, and mentioned as the same people. The Greeks under Alexander the Great subdued all those countries. The Romans afterwards extended their empire into the same regions: and Assyria, properly so called, was conquered by the emperor Trajan.-Bp. Newton. wives to the East, to the paternal country of Abraham, Padan-Aram, near Ur of the Chaldees; for while it is admitted, that Abraham had acquired the language of Canaan, it does not follow, that he had either forgotten his native tongue, or that he had not, in some degree, transmitted it to Isaac, and that Isaac had not transmitted it to Jacob. Still it is not improbable, that, during the twenty years' stay of Jacob in his father-inlaw Laban's house, he spoke the language of the place; and became as much familiar with that as with the language of Canaan: it seems very probable, I think, that he should have cultivated a further knowledge and practice of the language of this country; the country of his betrothed wife, the country where his heart was glad, where " seven years were as a few days." It is here to be recollected, that this was the birth-place of the twelve sons of Jacob: the original language of the Israelites was the same, therefore, or nearly the same, as that of Abraham. But whether we yield to, or depart altogether from the opinion of Le Clerc and Stackhouse, that "The Hebrew tongue, instead of being the parent of all, was itself descended from that of Canaan," no doubt can possibly arise in our minds respecting the change or modification of the language of the Hebrews and Israelites during the period of 215 years, from the departure of Abraham out of the country of Ur of the Chaldees. This circumstance is, in some degree, corroborated by the passages in Gen. xxxi. 45, &c. respecting the covenant which was made between Laban and Jacob-" And Jacob took a stone, and set it up for a pillar. And Jacob said unto his brethren, gather stones; and they took stones, and made an heap, and they did eat there upon the heap. And Laban called it Jegar-saha dutha: but Jacob called it Galeed, (the one is a Syriac, the other a Hebrew name: both having the same signification;" (Bishop Patrick;) that is, according to the marginal reference of the Bible, "the heap of witness." "Therefore was the name of it called Galeëd (a heap), and Mizpah, (a beacon, or watch tower; marginal reference). It is, nevertheless, to be recollected, that the journey of Jacob tó Padan-Aram, and his twenty years' stay there, tended very much to restore to him the original language of his grandfather, Abraham; but as alphabetical writing was not then invented, it is natural to conceive, that in proportion to the various relations of time, circumstance, and place, the language of the children of Israel, though a separate people, would be perpetually fluctuating. CHAP. XII. Causes of the fluctuation of language stated-language of the Israelites neither spoken nor generally understood in Egypt at the time of the famine the marriages of Joseph and Moses with Egyptian women— the friendship which possibly subsisted between the Israelites and the Egyptians until the death of Joseph-the mixed multitude which departed from Egypt—the language in which the written law was promulgated on Mount Sinai different from the language of the original or former sons of Eber-from the time of the captivity the Hebrew ceased to be a living language. LINGUISTS admit very generally that a living language is liable to various modifications; this is affirmed to be true even when the language has been spoken in its greatest purity, and protected by the efforts of classical writers: and we very well know that time, circumstance, and place, do occasion alterations-in all modern languages. The propriety of consenting to this position will be felt by referring to the 12th chapter of Judges, the 5th and 6th verses, respecting the pronunciation of the sons of Ephraim. "And the Gileadites took the passages of Jordan before the Ephraimites: and it was so that when those Ephraimites which were escaped, said, let me go over, that the men of Gilead said unto him, art thou an Ephraimite? if he said, nay; then said they unto him, say now Shibboleth: and he said Sibboleth: for he could not frame to pronounce it right." And certainly what is applicable to a written language, as the Hebrew, at the time when the Ephraimites quarrelled with Jeptha, must be equally so to a language which was not a written one,-as that of the Hebrews and Israelites, before their deliverance from the Egyptian bondage. On these points, however, the sacred records are entirely silent: hence all the opinions respecting them must be governed entirely by analogy. But one circumstance is well authenticated; and that is this;-the language of the children of Israel at the time of the famine in and about Egypt and Canaan, was not spoken or generally understood in Egypt. For when the children of Israel went there to buy corn, and appeared before Joseph, he knew them, but made himself strange" that is, he affected not to know them, but conversed with them by an interpreter. "If ye be true men, let one of your brethren be bound in the house of our prison: go ye, carry corn for the famine of your houses. But bring your youngest brother unto me, so shall your words be verified, and ye shall not die.""And they said one to another, We are very guilty concerning our brother, in that we saw the anguish of |