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of prayer, and cites two passages from Josephus in support of his opinion. He might have added with advantage the authority of Juvenal, Sat. iii. 296.

Ede, ubi consistas? in qua, te quæso, proseucha?

37. Mr. R. thinks that St. Paul obtained his right of citizenship by descent, from some one of his ancestors who had gained it by merit or by purchase. (Q. Did the purchase of this freedom by an individual confer it upon his descendants?) It is plain that the right did not extend to all the inhabitants of Tarsus, from the circumstance that the officer, though he knew Paul was a citizen of that place, ordered him to be beaten.

Ch. xvii. 23. In the note on this verse, Mr. R. has collected into a short space the substance of what most commentators have written concerning "the Unknown God" worshipped at Athens. He seems to think that the true God of the Jews was intended by this appellation, whose sacred name they were not accustomed to pronounce. The great difficulty of the passage is, that in all ancient inscriptions or passages in ancient authors, (except Lucian, whose authority here is nothing,)_the plural number is invariably used; OEOIE AгNNETOIE. There seem to be but two ways of obviating this difficulty; one, to suppose that St. Paul adapted the singular number to the purpose of his speech; or, that some inscription in the singular number did actually meet his eye, of which no record has been handed down : to this latter opinion we incline.

Ch. xviii. 18. St. Chrysostom refers the vow here mentioned to Aquila. Mr. R. agrees with those who refer it to St. Paul, and thinks that this was the reason why it was necessary for him to keep the approaching Passover at Jerusalem.

Ch. xix. 12. Goudagia. Mr. R. gives a reason why these Latin words of the N. T. were thus clothed in a Grecian garb: -Sacri scriptores talibus uti, ut vulgo receptis, minime dubitarunt, quo melius a plebe intelligi potuerint. We may perhaps do an acceptable service to students by exhibiting a list of these extraneous terms found in the N. T.

appaßav, 2 Cor. v. 5. Eph. i. 14. dooάgiov, Matt. x. 29. Luc. xii. 6. yála, Act. viii. 27.

TouσTOS, Act. xviii. 7.

xodpávτns, Matt. v. 26. Marc. xii. 42.

κολώνια, Act. xvi. 12.

xovo Túdia, Matt. xxvii. 65, 66. xxviii. 11.

xos, Matt. xvii. 25. xxii. 17. 19. Marc. xii. 14.

xgionos, Act. xviii. 8.
Aeyéwy, Luc. viii. 30.
AÉTIOV, Joan. xiii. 4.
μάκελλον, 1 Cor. x. 25.
pídiov, Matt. v. 41.
TpaTάpiov, Matt. xxvii. 27.
xix. 9. Act. xxiii. 35.

πρίσκιλλα, Act. xviii. 18.

σικάριος, Act. xxi. 38.

Guixion, Act. xix. 12. σουδάριον,

σTEXOVAάтwρ, Marc. vi. 27.

Taßegvai, Act. xxviii. 15. peλóvn, 2 Tim. iv. 13.

Pógov, Act. xxviii. 15.

φραγέλλιον, Joan. ii. 15.

Marc. xv. 16. Joh. xviii. 28. 33. Phil. i. 13.

Ppayeλλouv, Matt, xxvii. 26. Marc. xv. 15..

Ch. xix. 19. The following is Mr. R.'s note upon the word περίεργα: “ Curiosa. περίεργος proprie dicitur qui prater rem curiosus est et diligens, atque hinc vox eos notat, qui in rebus humana menti imperviis pervestigandis tempus terunt. Idem sonat vox curiosus apud Latinos. Catull. Ep. vii. Quæ nec pernumerare curiosi possunt, nec mala fascinare lingua." With this we find no fault, except that he stops short, and does not sufficiently trace the meaning of the word in its present usage. Пeplegyos primarily signifies one nimis occupatus, who exercises immoderate care and diligence: secondly, one inepte sedulus, who exercises care and diligence about useless trifles: thirdly, curiosus xar' oxǹv, i. e. magicus, one who pries into the most useless and futile of all arts, the art of magic. Hence the phrase Tà Tepieрya is explained by Albert. Gloss. N. T. by Tà Yontina: see it also used in the same sense by Irenæus adv. Hæres. I. i. c. 26., and by Aristænetus lib. ii. ep. 18. Such arts were particularly studied at Ephesus; witness the 'Epécia yeaμμaτa, so celebrated among the nations of antiquity. These, as Mr. R. rightly observes, were amulets inscribed with a sort of gibberish, the form of which he has quoted from Hesychius. He also cites a passage relating to the same from Lucian, Symp. vii. 5. He might have added a still more apposite one from St. Basil, Homil. in Psalm. xlv. who applies to them the very epithet here used, περίεργοι χαρακτῆρες, i. e. magical characters. Their use is alluded to in a fragment of Menander:

̓Εφέσια τοῖς γαμοῦσιν οὗτος περιπατεῖ
Λέγων αλεξιφάρμακα :

as also by Erasmus Adag. Centur. 2. "Aiunt enim Ephesiis notulas quasdam et voces magicas fuisse, quibus utentes omni negotio victores evaderent." Eustathius (in Hom. Odyss. T. p. 694.) relates a curious story of their efficacy. Clemens Alex. (Strom. 1.) says that by many their introduction was ascribed to the Idæi Dactyli, those free-masons of antiquity. Athenæus informs us (Deipn. lib. 12.) that they used to be carried about the person in small leathern bags.

The value of the books burnt by the magicians at Ephesus is estimated by Mr. R. at the sum of 18751. of our money, by which we perceive he calculates from the Attic drachma; in which we fully agree with him, since this coin had as great a currency in the East as at present the Spanish dollar has: if the Roman denarius be signified by the term apyúgiov, we must diminish the sum a little: but there is not the least reason in supposing with some commentators, among whom we find our worthy friend Gamaliel Smith, Esq., that it was the Hebrew shekel. Ephesus was a Grecian city, and used the Grecian, not the Jewish coin.

Mr. R.'s notes on vv. 24. 27. and 35. contain much research and information.

In ch. xx. 22. the various significations of the word πεμα, as they occur in the N. T., and Bishop Middleton is referred to. In xxi. 34. the rapeμßóλn is well explained from the description by Josephus.

Ch. xxiii. 2, 3. A full account of Ananias, with citations from Josephus to show that St. Paul's character of him was a true one, and his prediction fulfilled.

Ch. xxiv. 16. and xxv. 11. are well illustrated by reference to Roman laws.

If our limits permitted us, we could willingly make many more extracts from this useful work; we must, however, conclude by recommending the editor to persevere in his labors, and to take in hand the epistles of St. Paul. Let him not say, Conamur tenues grandia-he has already well prepared himself for the attempt, and he will acquire additional strength as he proceeds in the task.

To

RARE ARABIC MANUSCRIPT.

o gratify a most respectable and very numerous class of our readers, those interested in the study of Eastern literature, more particularly History and Antiquities, we gladly announce, on authority respecting which little doubt or suspicion can be reasonably entertained, that there has lately been discovered in the East, and is now probably on its way to England, one of those rare Arabic works that many zealous orientalists have long sought without success, even in the principal libraries of Asia. We allude to a copy, represented as being in every respect complete, though ancient, of the Tarikh Kebir, or "Great Chronicle," composed by Abú Jaafer Muhammed ibn Jarir, who was born, anno Hejiræ 224 (A. D. 838), at Amul in Tabristán, and after his native province generally surnamed Tabri, Thabari, or Al-Tabari. Although a Persian by birth, he wrote his Chronicle in the Arabic language with admirable purity and elegance; comprising a general history of the world from Adam until the author's own time. It was the latter portion of this valuable work that furnished Elmacin (Sheikh Almakin) with the chief materials for his History of the Saracens; published in Arabic at Leyden (a small duodecimo volume), and in a Latin translation, by the learned Erpenius (one volume, quarto), under the title of "Historia Saracenica." (Lugd. Bat. 1625.) Such were the merits of Tabari, that our ingenious countryman Ockley has not hesitated to describe him as "the most celebrated and authentic ancient historian amongst the Arabians" (Hist. of the Saracens, vol. 11. p. 350.); and in another place (vol. 11. Introd. p. xxxiii.), he regrets his ignorance of the Turkish language, which prevented him from reading a translation “of the great Tabari, who is the Livy of the Arabians; the very parent of their history, and, as far as I could find by inquiry, given over for lost in Arabic. I formerly inquired of my predecessor, Dr. Luke, concerning him, who said he had never met with him in the East, and that he was to be despaired of in Arabic: Monsieur D'Herbelot says the same."-" However," adds he, "that we may not imagine it lost, because of its scarcity, I luckily found a piece of it in folio amongst Archbishop Laud's manuscripts, (pity it is imperfect,) accurately written with all the points, and no doubt for the use of some great person," &c.. The learned Pococke informs us, that Al-Tabari died in the year 310, (of Muhammed, or 922 of our era,) and brought his

history down to the eighth year before his death. He was, according to the words of Ebn Khalekan, as Pococke translates them, "fidus in allegationibus suis; estque historia ipsius historiarum verissima et certissima." But the Chronicle of Tabari, now become so rare in the original Arabic, was fortunately translated into Persian, a short time after the author's death, by an accomplished personage, vizier to one of the Samarian princes, who enriched the work with so much additional matter, extracted from ancient records of the Jews, the fire-worshippers, and the Musulmans, that, in D'Herbelôt's opinion, "this translation is far more curious than the Arabic text;"-" de sorte que cette traduction est beaucoup plus curieuse que le texte Arabique," (Bibliot. Orient. art. Thabari,) and to this passage Mr. Gibbon refers in the following note (Roman Empire, chap. li. note 33.): "Amidst our meagre relations, I must regret that D'Herbelôt has not found and used a Persian translation of Tabari, enriched, as he says, with many extracts from the native historians of the Ghebers, or Magi."

But several public and private European libraries now contain copies of Tabari's Chronicle under its Persian form, to the value and importance of which Sir William Ouseley bears ample testimony in the Preface to his translation of Ebn Haukal's "Oriental Geography" (p. xiii.), where he says: "Of this most valuable work I am fortunate in possessing three fine copies; one of which, uncommonly correct in the hand-writing, was transcribed A. D. 1446. From this manuscript, which the learned Tychsen, in a letter from Rostock, entitles a Phanix Librorum, collated with the other two copies, a perfect and accurate text might be obtained: this, if correctly translated and illustrated from other Asiatic compositions, the biblical records, the classics of Greece and Rome, and the more modern productions of European writers, would form a complete body of oriental history and antiquities; since it comprehends not only the Persian and Arabian annals, but the most ancient traditions of the Jews, the Egyptians, and the Greeks." There is reason, however, to believe, that whilst the Persian translator has made considerable additions to Tabri's work in some places, he has reduced it in others; altering also, or perhaps totally omitting, several passages: this appears from Sir W. Ouseley's examina tion of an Arabic manuscript, preserved in the British Museum (Cotton Lib. Vitell. A. iv.), containing the second volume of the original work, in which he discovered a passage not retained in the Persian translation. (See his Travels, vol. 11. p. 345.) Besides this fragment and the portion found by Ockley, as above

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