In these Volumes will be found three valu able disquisitions which were published in the lifetime of the Bishop, and which are here reprinted, as forming a necessary link in the present chain of Sacred Criticism. The first, containing a General View of the first Three Chapters of Genesis, together with an Inquiry into the etymology and import of the Divine Names of ELOAH, ELOHIM, EL, JEHOVAH, and JAH, appeared in the British Critic of 1802, in a review on the late Dr Geddes' Critical Remarks on the Hebrew Scriptures. The second is a Critical Disquisition on the Eighteenth Chapter of Isaiah; and the third, a Translation of the Prophecy of Hosea. These are inserted as revised and corrected by their Author. At the end of the fourth Volume will be found Translations of Sacred Songs, with Notes critical and explanatory. These were evidently intended by their Author for publication; and the reason why they appear at the end, and not in the body of the general Notes, where they more properly occur, is, that when the Editor was collating the MSS for the press, he found translations of some of the songs of Scripture missing; namely, those of Jacob's Blessing of his Sons, of the Song of Moses, and of Balaam's Prophecy. Convinced that these, as well as what are here given, had been translated by his Father, he was unwilling to stop the press while searching for them, and reserved the whole of the translations for the conclusion of the Work. He has however been unsuccessful in his search; and though satisfied that such MSS did once exist, he has been unable to discover them. He has been compelled therefore to commence the translations with the one of the Last Words of Moses. He has now again to repeat, that he is not to be understood as sending forth the following as a perfect work. He shall be much disappoint ed, however, if it be not thought, both by the student and proficient in Hebrew Literature, a work of great utility, when viewed as a book of` reference and consultation. And he trusts that nothing will be found in it that can in any way tend to tarnish the high reputation of its Author as a philological critic in the original language of Scripture: on the contrary, he expects that reputation to be increased by the successful elucidation of passages which, as they at present stand, in the Hebrew and Samaritan Texts, and in the Versions of the LXX and the Vulgate, are involved in great obscurity, and on which the labours of preceding Commentators have, for the most part, proved very unsatisfactory. H. HORSLEY. Dundee, March 22, 1820. |