τε τα πρόβατα. This cannot be a quotation from the Septuagint, in the Roman edition; but Dr. Randolph states that it is verbatim according to the Alexandrian edition; except that waratov (the imperative, Site) is there found instead of rara (I will smite), as in the Evangelist." xxvii. 9, 10. Kai shabov Ta тpixκοντα αργύρια, την τιμην τα τετι μημένο, όν ετιμήσαντο από ύων Ισφαελ, και έδωκαν αυτά εις τον αγρόν το κεραμέως, καθα συνέταξε μοι και βιος. Sept. Zech. xi. 13. Καθες αυτα εἰς τὰ χωνευτηρίου και σκέψομαι ει δοκιμον εσιν, ον τρόπον εδοκιμάσθην υπερ αυτών και ελαβον τας τριακοντα αργυρες, και ενεβαλον αυτές εις τον einer Kupie, BiS TO XOVELTYPIO"Cast it into the refining furnace, and I will see if it be approved, in like manner as I have been proved by them. And I took the thirty pieces of silver, and cast them into the house of the Lord, into the refin ing furnace."-The difficulties concerning this text, which is cited by Matthew as from Jeremiah, but which is only found in Zechariah, cannot here be considered; but it is most manifest that the Evangelist does not quote from the Septuagint. The passage accords in meaning with the Hebrew, but it is not an exact translation. xxvii. 35. This is verbatim from the Septuagint (Ps. xxii. 18.) which exactly translates the Hebrew (Ps. xxii. 19.) xxvii. 46. Θεε με, Θεέ με, ἵνατι HE EXATENTES.-Sept. Ps. xxii. 1. Ὁ Θεός, Ὁ Θεός με, ίνατί εγκατελιTES ME. The variation is immaterial, yet sufficient to shew, that exact quotation was not prescribed by the sacred writer to himself, as a rule. His words are an exact translation of the Hebrew, and, I suppose, of the Chaldee, which he quotes. Sa bacthani is the word now in the Chaldee paraphrase." (Randolph). In Mark, the words are Exw, Exwi, &c.; and the translation accords to the Septuagint, except that is 71 is put for was. (To be continued.) 64 To the Editor of the Christian Observer. HAVING lately seen an old interpretation of a difficult passage of Scripture put in so much more advantageous a form than usual, as to remove the objections I had always felt against it, I beg leave to communicate to you the substance of the remarks by which it is illustrated and confirmed. The passage is Rom. ix. 3 : Ηυχομην γαρ αυτός εγω αναθεμα ειναι απο το Χεισε υπέρ των αδελφων με, των συγγενων με κατά σαρκα : where the apostle is, by our translation, made to say, " I could wish that myself were accursed from Christ for my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh"i. e. for the Jews. The person to whose critique on the text I refer, is the late Dr. Bandinel, Fellow of Jesus College, Oxford, and Rector of Netherbury in Dorsetshire. He is said to have been the original proposer of the interpretation to which I am about to call your attention: and his observations respecting it have been lately re-published, from a sermon annexed to his Bampton Lectures, in the first number of "the Classical Journal." The apostle, he conceives (and I think justly), can never be imagined to have meant, that he was willing "to be cut off from that salvation on which he had been dwelling with such rapturous ardency of expres sion*, and to perish accursed among the enemies of God and his Christ, It must have been equally impos sible and unlawful for him to enter tain such a sentiment: for it would have implied, being willing to be eternally wicked, as well as eternally miserable. This commentators have feit, and have therefore had recourse to different expedients to avoid such a sense of the words, while the present pointing and translation of the passage have been nearly, if not exactly, retained. Waterland, and after him Doddridge, understands it to mean, accursed See close of Chap. viii. after the example of Christ: urging the use of ano in 2 Tim. i. 3. ("whom I serve from my forefathers with pure conscience") in support of this interpretation. But I cannot admit that the sense of aro in that passage is, strictly speaking, after the example of my forefathers," but, according to the translation, and to the usual meaning of the preposition, from: in the manner handed down from my forefathers: adding myself to the series, as it were, and continuing the succession of worshippers, which takes its origin from them:"--nor can I indeed believe, that the original will bear such a rendering. Others, justly dissatisfied with this interpretation, would affix no definite sense at all to the apostle's words, but consider them only as, in general, a strong hyperbolical declaration of his ardent desire for the salvation of his countrymen, But surely this is a very unsatisfactory way of treating the language of Scripture, or indeed of any sober writer whatever! The terms may be figurative, but all figures must have their archetypes from which they are borrowed. The apostle's language may be hyperbolical, but still that hyperbolical language must have a meaning, a literal meaning, which is the first thing to be inquired after, though the apostle might not intend his words to be taken in the full extent of that meaning. In short, as Dr. Bandinel observes, "however the words are modified into a figurative, hyperbolical expression, denoting the fervency of his zeal and affection; however qualified into a bypothetical or conditional enunciation, signifying only that, were it possible or proper, he could wish to be accursed from Christ; they still seem to contain in them matter, at 2 which buman nature shudders, against which right reason and Christianity revolt." In order then to establish another interpretation, which quite removes the difficulty, and yet seems very CHRIST. OBSERV. No. 105., natural and easy, not to say suggested by the literal translation of the words, Dr. Bandinel observes: 1st. That the verb yuyun is not potential, nor has it any particle joined with it which can give a potential sense to an indicative verb. It seems, therefore, to be improper, and bringing a sense to the words, instead of eliciting one from them, to render it, I could wish: its simple meaning is, I did wish, cr, as it may be rendered with equal strictness, I did glory. The tense also is past, not present: I did (once) wish, or glory; not I could (now) wish. 28. That the pronouns rendered myself should rather be referred to the principal verb uxury as its nominative, than attached, as they are in the translation, to the infinitive siva, which follows it. 3dly. What will be familiar to every reader of Homer, that, though auxquai means to wish, or pray for, it also means to glory, to profess, or arow, as somewhat on which a man values himself. The Doctor adds, that frequently it is pleonastick, sơ that Euxoual eva often means no more than to be*. The great father of profane poetry (who, with all his "majesty of thought," is almost as simple in language as the New Testament itself,) constantly makes his heroes, and the various persons whom he introduces, sUYETSaisiai, houst or declare themselves to be the sons of certain parents, or the natives of certain countries. Indeed, so obvious are all these principles, that I should not hesitate Here I am inclined to think the learned Doctor goes too far. I suspect that this doctrine of pleonasms, strictly so called, in such expressions as those referred to, is not well founded: that most, if not all, of such phrases, convey more than the simple expressions for which they are said to stand. So, to be called is often said to be frequently used in Scripture for to be: but Doddridge justly remarks, that it probably always implies more; namely, that the thing not only is what it is called, but that it is also acknowledg ed and taken notice of under that character. Doddridge on Luke i. 36. 3 Y 1 to refer it to any one at all practised in reading Greek, to say how he would understand and render the sentence, young yas AUTOS Ey avadna svai, if he met with it in a detached state; would be not at once read it, for I myself wished to be, or, I myself gloried in being, an anathema? Thus then the Doctor would ren der it in its present connection, (including it in a parenthesis,) as a very natural and forcible aggravation of the poignancy of the apostle's feelings for his brethren, namely, that he himself had once been all that they now were, and which he now perceived to be nothing short of being an accursed outcast from Christ, their long-looked-for Redeemer, and from all the blessings of his salvation; though he too, like them, had been so blinded as even to glory in that his sad state. But how will the connection agree with this interpretation? Can it be admitted incolumi orationts serie ac nexû? This is an important question, and it may receive a very satisfactory answer. I am inclined to think, with the learned proposer, that the contexture of the apostle's discourse is improved by such a mode of rendering and understanding these words. As the passage at present stands, there is an air of inconsequence about it. The apostle's anguish of mind is set forth with peculiar care and prominence, but the objects of it, though fully noticed, are noticed only indirectly not by naming them as accursed from Christ, but only by naming the apostle himself as having been so, and therefore being capable of appreciating and deeply compassionating the misery of their state, who, it is implied, were now so situate. They might "glory" in holding no communion with JESUS, but this was in fact to be accursed outcasts from CHRIST (the Messiah) himself and all his blessings. Thus then the passage will read: "I have great heaviness and continual sorrow in my heart (for I myself once was, and even gloried in being, an accursed outcast from Christ), on account of my brethren, my kinsmen according to the flesh." With respect to the word avzeuz, Dr. Bandinel conceives the apostle's allusion is to the Jewish excommunications, and particularly to that kind of them called cherem, which were usually, he says, expressed in Greek by this term. In these, he observes: " to the depri vation of the commerce and benefits of society, were added curses and execrations: and the person, on whom this punishment was inflicted, was utterly detested, and utterly abhorred, for he was a cursed thing." He adds further, that it was the custom of the Jews to put on mourning for such an one, and by every mark of sorrow to shew their sense of the misery of his situation: all which the apostle now turns upor the Jews themselves. This gives a very affecting view of the subject. not in connection with his sorrow, Should you think proper to submit this paper to your readers, and should any of them, through your medium, communicate any remarks upon it, in each case it would be esteemed an obligation by, Sir, your constant reader, FAMILY SERMONS. I. S. B. No. XXI. Heb. xi. 13.-" And confessed the they were strangers and pilgrims on the earth." one who is travelling on a journey of devo tion. At one period every corner of Europe poured forth numbers of its inhabitants on these journies; and there remain to this day crosses, which were erected by our own forefathers, to mark the path by which they travelled to the tomb of their Redeemer. Though much of superstition mingled itself with the plan and conduct of such expeditions, and although the pilgrims, for the most part, mistook the spirit of that religion which they meant to honour, yet their object was devout, and the motives of some of them may have been pure. We must, indeed, condemn the folly of those who thought that their sins would be more freely pardoned because they undertook a pilgrimage to Jerusalem; and yet who will say that holy resolutions might not be confirmed, and religious affections excited, by viewing those awful scenes, where the Gospel was first published, where the incarnate Saviour of the world lived and taught, and died, and rose again? Such pilgrimages, however, as a general practice, are plainly neither religious nor even lawful. The Bible teaches us that no particular spot is more favourable than another to devotion or spiritual improvement. "Neither at Jerusalem, nor in this mountain," is God in any peculiar manner present to his worhippers. Men may be equally peitent, and devout, and holy, in whatever place their lot is cast. Po» Sery, indeed, which too often sepaates morality from religion, loves o draw men from the common busi. ess of life, and to send them on pilrimages. In the same way does the Mahommedan superstition people he desert every year with pilgrims oing to worship at the tomb of their rophet. But to such practices the eligion of Christ gives no encouagement. In what sense then is the word ilgrim used in the text? It is a ord borrowed by the apostle from e lips of the patriarchs of whom is speaking; and it is plainly in tended, by a lively figure, to give us a just notion of the character of these boly men, and thus to express the apostle's views of the principles and conduct of the true servants of God. I. In calling the true servant of God a pilgrim, it seems, in the first place, to be signified that he is here on a journey, a traveller in a strange country. To think of this world as our only home, is a high degree of unbelief; and in the degree in which we lose sight of another world, we depart from the true faith. Accordingly, we find the servants of God, in every age, busy in tracing out their small connexion with this world, and their deep interest in another. They have here no continuing city, but they seek one which is to come. They desire a better country, that is, a heavenly, They live by faith, not by sight. They look to the things which are unseen. From this view of the situation and circumstances of the Christian may be drawn some plain observations. 1. If this world be not our home, we ought to take care that our affections are not too much fixed on things below. We err sometimes by loving unlawful objects, and sometimes by loving even lawful objects too well. "If any man love the world, the love of the Father is not in him.” Nay, "If any man love father or mother more than me, he is not worthy of me." How can we dare, in the face of such declarations, so to set our affections on things below, or so to occupy ourselves with them, that they shall rival God in our hearts; or so to spend our time and thoughts upon them, as to leave no strength for God? And here let us seriously inquire, what our conduct is in this respect? Do our schemes centre entirely, or chiefly, in this world? Are we making it our grand object in life to multiply our connexions, to enlarge our possessions, thus binding ourselves more firmly to this earth? This is like fastening ourselves to a wreck which the wa ters will soon overwhelm: it is like shutting ourselves up in a house that is about to be consumed. If we are Christians, this world will not be our home; we must sit loosely on it, and be ready to quit it at a moment's warning; for the Christian is risen with Christ, and seeks those things which are above, where Christ sit teth at the right hand of God. 2. If this world be not our home, we must not expect our happiness in it. Happiness is the reward which is promised to piety, but yet it is not that which always best promotes the growth of piety. "Before I was afflicted," says David, "I went astray, but now have I kept thy word." It is true, indeed, of religion, that all her ways are ways of pleasantness, and all her paths peace; but, then, it is to such as are looking, not at the things which are seen, but the things which are not seen, and who consider the sufferings of this present time as not worthy to be compared with the glory which is to follow. Christ makes no pro mise of earthly possessions, or earthly pleasures, to his followers. It is in the scenes beyond the grave that he places their paradise, and teaches them to expect their happiness.--Now let me ask, as before, where are we looking for our happiness? Are we turning from the somewhat rugged path that leads to heaven, to wander or indulge in forbidden paths? Are we stopping in the race of life to gather the tempting fruit, which the hand, perhaps, of an enemy is scattering around us? Let us remember, that, if we are Christians, not only must we not seek our chief happiness here, but we cannot. Our taste will be higher set. The world does not provide the food which will suit our appetite. We cannot live on husks, when we may have the bread and the water of life. Our language will be that of the Prodigal come to himself; In my Father's house is bread enough, and to spare." I will return thither I will seek my home-I will go to my Father and my God-I will seck my happiness from his hand Why should I any longer be hewing out to my self cisterns which can hold no water, when I may drink freely from living fountains? 3. If the world be not our home, we clearly ought not to adopt the habits of it. He who travels among savages would think it wrong to make their manners and notions his own, especially if they would unit him for the society of his own country when he returned to it. Apply this to the Christian. His country is heaven, and its inhabitants are angels and glorified saints. He is fitting himself for the blessed society of heaven, by fashioning himself after the character of those wha dwell there. The world to him has no such charms as tempt him to conform to it. He considers it not as a place of enjoyment, but of labour and suffering. He regards it as the scene of the fall and ruin of man. He sees in those around him, not the erect, noble creatures whom God but poor, made in his own image; falten, degraded beings, whom thing but the power of God can restore to life and glory. "Can we then consent to copy from creatures so depraved? Can we hope to ft ourselves for the society of beares by imitating them? Can we expect to introduce their habits and princ ples there? Surely not. We ought, on the contrary, to think of the world as of a spot which some contagion has visited, and where, instead of eagerly handling and using every garment that comes in our way, e should be ready to suspect it of dis ease. I admit, indeed, that we are not to reject a practice merely! cause the world has adopted it; ne ther are we to fancy that relig consists in drawing needless vexatious lines of distinction tween ourselves and the wor Whatever is innocent, or useful, ought willingly to use in comme ought t with the world. But we to use it on the world's author nor until we have tried it by the measure of the sanctuary. T Christian has a higher model tha |
