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often go wrong. How many errors, exclaims Ernesti, have arisen from an ignorance of the Hebraistic, an appellation which he gives to the Greek of the New Testament? In order to enter into the spirit and to have a right understanding of this subject, it will be best to notice, in a historical way, some of the changes which the common Greek underwent after the conquests of Alexander, and the causes which combined to produce the oriental or Hellenistic Greek.

After the battle of Cheronæa, the independent republics of Greece, which had been too long separated by the operation of geographical limits, dialects, laws, and local policy, at last became, as it were, brethren beneath the yoke of the conqueror. Previous to this period, the dialect of the Athenians had gained the ascendancy over the others. It now became the language of the court, and in consequence, the medium of communication for the prose writers in all parts of Greece. The general diffusion of this noble dialect was the means of introducing into it a variety of corruptions. New words were introduced instead of old ones, as xere to swim, instead of

, goтpia to plough, instead of go, and in some cases new formations instead of anomalies characteristic of the Attic. In this way, the common Greek, zový or 'Eaanvizń was formed, to which the modern Greek grammars are adapted.*

As Alexandria in Egypt, under the patronage of the princess of the Egyptian dynasty, became a seat of refinement and learning, the dialect in question, as the medium of the literature of which Alexandria was the centre, is called the Alexandrian. In consequence of the conquest of the Ptolemies in Syria and the adjacent regions, the influence of the victories of Alexander in diffusing the Greek through those countries was confirmed and perpetuated. The Babylonian, the Jew, the Syrian found it necessary to speak or attempt to speak in the language of the government. Such persons were said 'ExaŋvíLev, to speak a sort of Greek, and were themselves denominated 'EXACTal. The word Hellenist was, therefore, originally applied to a writer or speaker, who employed the Greek, but whose style of writing or speaking was characterized by an intermixture of oriental idioms.

*The reader will find a learned and perspicuous account of the Greek dialects in the commencement of Buttmann's Greek Grammar. We are happy to learn, that this article of Buttmann's has lately been translated by Prof. Patten of Middlebury, and annexed to his translation of Thiersch's Greek Tables. These tables exhibit the derivation of the Greek tenses, as developed by an examination of the old Ionic poets.

But the difference does not consist merely in the Hellenistic's adopting a construction analogous to that of the oriental idioms; it consists as much or more in attaching new significations to common Greek words. Of the few remains of the Hellenistic, which have survived till the present period, the Septuagint and the New Testament claim peculiar attention. Ptolemy Lagus, soon after his establishment in Egypt, subdued Jerusalem, and carried, as has already been observed, 100,000 Jews prisoners to Alexandria, in order to people this new city. During the latter part of Ptolemy's reign, as is commonly supposed, when Philadelphus, his son, was associated with him on the throne, the Septuagint version was commenced. It is known that the Jews, in Alexandria, at this time built synagogues, and adhered to the customs and institutions of their forefathers; and this single circumstance is sufficient to account for an attempt at a Greek version. That the version was made by different translators is clear, from its internal condition, and we may naturally suppose, and the supposition is strengthened by the most creditable testimony of antiquity, that the Pentateuch was the first fruits of this laudable attempt. The other books followed at successive periods, as convenience prompted, or as necessity required. There can hardly be a question that the persons, who made this version, were by birth Jews, and had been accustomed to read the Hebrew Bible from their infancy. Whether it arose from this circumstance, or from an attempt in the translators at a servile imitation of the original, or both, it is certain, that the Septuagint is full of Hebrew idioms.

Hence it happened, that what is elsewhere called Hellenistic, or oriental Greek, is called likewise Hebraistic. Previous to the time of our Saviour, and at that period, the Septuagint was held in the highest estimation. It was read in preference to the Hebrew, and is almost universally quoted in the New Testament. The style of the New Testament is founded on that of the Seventy, and both conform to the Hebrew idiom.

To this general remark, there is hardly an exception worth mentioning. The preface, however, to Luke's gospel is pure Greek, and some of the speeches of Paul are in a good measure free from Hebraisms. Vorstius, who has treated of this subject to great extent, has made thirty-one classes, or different kinds, or instances of Hebraisms. We shall not of course

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have time to repeat what he has said, nor what others have added, nor indeed to offer what our own examination of the Greek and Hebrew may have suggested. Ernesti, with the greatest propriety, has taken it for granted, as a question amply investigated and sufficiently ascertained, that the Greek of the scriptures is not that of Athens, is not the Kown dianes,' that it breathes a different spirit, and asks for different laws in its interpretation. We trust it will not be deemed wrong in us to pass by, for the present, the minute evidence of a point, of which the proof and the practical consequences are known to biblical scholars. They no sooner open the New Testament, they no sooner utter og eveσews,' than they express themselves with the notions, the feelings, the education of a Jew, who is compelled by his situation to speak in the language of the Greeks; the language of the Greeks in form and appearance, but not in spirit. It is true, that our schoolboys, although it is happily not so much the fashion as formerly, no sooner have committed their grammars, than they begin the acquisition of the language of Demosthenes, by being introduced to the Hebraisms of the New Testament. But precedent cannot sanctify error, nor supersede the authority of facts, and there is no reason to expect, that a mistaken course of education, which is bad enough in itself, will ever communicate the purity of Athens to the written or spoken speech of Gallilee. But while we insist on the affinity of the Greek of the New Testament to the Hebrew, it must not be concluded, that the New Testament presents from beginning to end an unbroken similarity of style. When the interpreter is in possession of the general nature and the prevalent characteristics of the Hellenistic, he must go a step further, and inquire into the distinctive traits of the individual writers; for as there is something peculiar in every man's mind, and something different we may say too in every man's education, so there will be a difference of style. The gospel of St Matthew has harsher Hebraisms than that of St Mark, and the apocalypse than either. St Luke is not always consistent with himself, sometimes writing with much purity, and sometimes not; and Paul, though sufficiently Hebraistic in his style, differs especially in respect to the fulness and roundness of his sentences from all the others. We observe also, that the poetry of the Old Testament, as well as the prose, comes in for its share of influence on the style of the New,

for, by the professed interpreter, if by no others, it ought to be kept in mind, that no little portion of the New Testament is poetry. It bears at least all the characteristic marks of the poetry of the Old Testament, if we except the versification, or, if it be preferred, the parallelisms. Among the specimens of poetry in the New Testament are to be reckoned the thanksgiving song of Mary in the second chapter of Luke, also the song of Zachariah, the father of John the baptist, in the same chapter, the Savior's description of the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, nearly the whole of the apocalypse, and many other scattered fragments. The parallelism occurs very frequently in the epistles.

The foregoing considerations will, we trust, convince our readers that a judicious work on the interpretation of the New Testament was a great desideratum. The history of interpretation furnishes other arguments not less satisfactory. The work of Ernesti before us, in some respects indeed imperfect, for it was never intended to embrace the subject in the full extent of all its parts, is one of the most useful with which we are acquainted; and those students of theology, to whom the Latin is not familiar, of which we trust the number is very small, will be under especial obligations to professor Stuart for his labors. Whoever wishes to pursue the subject further than it is pushed by Ernesti, or the translator in his notes, will find, we apprehend, his fullest desires satisfied, by an examination of the commentary of Morus.

While we are pleased to see this work on the interpretation of the New Testament, we lament that there is no other of equal merit on the Old Testament, neither in our own, nor, that we are aware of, in any other tongue. The work of Meyer is mentioned with high commendation by Rosenmüller; but there is yet wanting on the Old Testament a work like those of Ernesti and Morus on the New, concise, learned, full of weighty and rational thought. To this moreover might be added, with great advantage, a history of interpretation from the earliest ages down to the present time; and we hope that the translator of the treatise before us will not forget the pledge which he has partially given, to supply this chasm in our sacred literature.

ART. XXV.-1. Transactions of the Society, instituted at London, for the Encouragement of Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce. Vol. xxxviii. London, 1821.

2. Transactions of the Society for the Promotion of Useful Arts in the State of New-York. Vol. iv, part ii. Albany. Websters & Skinners. 1819. 8vo.

We have placed at the head of this article the last volume. of the transactions of two very respectable societies, instituted for the object of promoting the useful arts. The English society, for this purpose, is one of the most ancient associations of Great Britain; and besides the numerous premiums which it distributes for discoveries, it publishes yearly a volume of transactions. The volume published by the New-York society is certainly not inferior to the foreign work, in the amount of useful matter which it contains, and is calculated for wider circulation by the absence of costly engravings. The publication of the collections of such societies is one of the most efficient means of promoting the object of their institution. As books, however, of this kind are uninteresting to general readers, instead of giving an analysis of their contents, we shall devote this article to the purpose of laying before our readers some account of the rapid improvements of the useful arts, and of the great number of mechanical inventions which have been made within the last fifty or sixty years. So numerous have these improvements been, that a total reform has been produced in the practice of most of these arts, and the common comforts and conveniences peculiar to civilized life are now for the most part supplied to us, by the action of the elements, rather than by the toil of man.

It is true that some of our most useful machines are of early origin. But these are generally of simple construction, and such as would naturally result from a very few easy experiments. Some contrivance having a nether and upper stone, and which answered the purpose of a corn-mill, was known in the time of Moses; but neither the action of water nor wind was applied as a moving force until the time of Cæsar. It was not until the twelfth, and, according to other writers, the sixteenth century, that water or wind-mills were known in Europe, north of the Alps. Even the common spinning-wheel is quite a modern invention; and the art of knitting was unNew Series, No. 10.

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