ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE HEBREW BIBLE BY JEWS.

WE are happy to inform our readers, that a Prospectus of this undertaking has been published, which seems to promise a very necessary and useful work. It is remarked by the proposed Editors, De Sola, Lindenthal, and Morris T. Raphall, that "British Jews offer to the world the surprising anomaly, that they alone, in all Europe, are without a translation of the Scriptures in their own language." It is with great pleasure that we hail the prospect of this defect being supplied; but we feel a strong conviction, that to many intelligent Christians the work will be no less acceptable than to Israelites, to whom, anciently, "were committed the oracles of God." The translation is to be accompanied by explanatory notes, and to be published weekly, price 6d, monthly price 2s, or 2s 6d, containing four or five numbers. Subscriptions will be received at the office of the Hebrew Review, 17, Millman Street, Bedford Row, and some other places.

CORRESPONDENCE.

WE have read the first number of LIVESEY'S MORAL REFORMER, published at Preston, and sold by Groombridge, Panyer Alley. Its design is expressed in the title, and the execution is conducted in a moral and religious spirit. It is to be issued monthly, price one

penny.

Our friends are respectfully informed that a few copies of the Advocate," for the last year, price 4s., may be obtained by application to the Publishers, where communications for the Editor may be directed.

THE

UNITARIAN BAPTIST ADVOCATE.

"For effecting a recovery and re-establishment of the long-lost truth.” SIR ISAAC NEWTON.

"One Lord, one Faith, one Baptism, one God and Father of all.” PAUL.

No. XV.]

MARCH, 1838.

[VOL. II., N. S.

THE LANGUAGE OF ANCIENT PALESTINE.

"THE language of Palestine was, in ancient times, the common language of Western Asia, THE ARAMEAN,the same as that which was spoken by the CANAANITE natives, and which, subsequently, by the HEBREWS, the progeny of Abraham, who was a new settler of that country, was called the Hebrew language, it being the peculiar language of that nation. The adolescence of this language, or the period of its development towards that degree of perfection which we find it to have attained in the writings of the Old Testament, does surely not extend beyond the age of DAVID and SOLOMON, and the age of the Prophet Schools established by SAMUEL-its golden age lasted from the time of David to the Babylonian Captivity, and during this period, probably, a great part of the sacred writings of the Jews was composed. By the Babylonian Captivity, this old Hebrew tongue was expatriated by the Aramaic, which was current in Babylon, and which, as its pronunciation was somewhat broad and vulgar, bore the same relationship to the Hebrew, as the Lower Saxon dialect to High German, [or Lowland Scottish to English]: this Babylonian Aramaic soon became the national language of the Jews, the ancient Hebrew for some time still remaining the language of literature, although, it must be admitted, that fragments written in Aramaic are found in the sacred volumes composed in the later part of this period.

"At the time of Jesus Christ, the ancient Hebrew was VOL. II.

F

completely extinct, even in its character of language of literature; and all the Jews at that period residing in Palestine spoke and wrote the Aramaic. Jesus, too, spoke this language; and the names Kephas (John i, 42), Boanerges (Mark iii, 17), Barnabas (Acts iv, 36); as also the expressions Talitha kumi (Mark v, 41), Abba, (ib. xiv, 36), Eli, Eli, &c. (Matth. xxvii, 46), are specimens of it.

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People of liberal education spoke this language as it was written, but the common people, as generally is the case, spoke it in different dialects. The dialect of Jerusalem and Judea was most correct; but that which prevailed in Samaria, and particularly that of Galilee, was much more rude than the former, full of contractions and mutilations; letters were omitted in it, and one guttural exchanged for another, so that, for example, according to the careless and irregular pronunciation of the Galilean dialect, the same words might denote an ass, wine, wool, and a lamb to be sacrificed. A Galilean was, therefore, easily recognized by his pronunciation (Matth. xxvi, 73), and was never admitted as a public reader of Scripture in any synagogue of Judea. Jews residing abroad in Greek countries, particularly in Egypt, had completely adopted the Greek language as their own; and even in Palestine itself, where abhorrence against every thing foreign was affected, it seems that, partly through intercourse with Jews residing abroad, who spoke Greek, partly through the neighbourhood to Syria and Egypt, where Greek was generally spoken, and partly through Greek residenters, of whom, especially in Galilee and Perea, vast numbers dwelt among the Jews, the Greek had become generally known and current. This appears from Acts ii, 7-11, where Jews, from Greek countries and provinces, witnessing the enthusiasm which had seized the Apostles and their friends, wondered that they expressed their religious thoughts and sentiments in Greek dialects, which they had been accustomed to hear abroad, and not merely, as was usual, in ancient Hebrew; likewise from Acts vi, 1-6, where a considerable number of the primitive members of the Christian community at Jerusalem is stated to have been Hellenistic, or Greek speaking; and also from Acts xxii, 40, compared with xxii, 2, where the Jews expected

Paul, who had been accused by Greek Jews, to address them in Greek, but were delighted to hear him speak to them in the language of the country. Several other hints to the same effect need not here be mentioned. Whether Jesus himself understood and spoke Greek cannot be determined for certain, although it is highly probable; because in Galilee and Perea he was in frequent intercourse with foreigners; because, even in Jerusalem, an interview with him was sought by Greeks (John xii, 20), and these surely spoke no other language than Greek; because, we must suppose that the conferences between Jesus and Pilate, mentioned in John xviii, 33-37, and xix, 9-11, was certainly carried on neither in Aramaic nor Latin, but in Greek; and because Mary, in her conversation with Jesus, (John xx, 14, seq.) seems to have made use of the Greek language until she recognized him as arisen from the dead, when she instantly returns to the familiar Aramaic, to which in daily intercourse with him she was accustomed, and addressed him with the word Rabboni. The Apostles, too, being Galileans, must be supposed to have been more or less acquainted with Greek, even during the three years of their familiar intercourse with Jesus, although it may have been only at a subsequent period that they, in their vocation as messengers of the Gospel, rendered themselves more perfect masters of it, so as to be able to express in writing their thoughts in that language.

"The Latin language was spoken in Palestine only by Romans, and in the Roman garrisons, and, perhaps, understood by a few Jews.

"The circumstance that Pilate fastened to the cross the cause for which Jesus suffered death, in the HEBREW, the GREEK, and the LATIN LANGUAGE (John xix, 20), seems to express, with accuracy, the relation in which the prevailing languages of Palestine stood to one another. The first was the language of the country; in the next degree to it the Greek prevailed; and last, or in the most limited degree, the Latin, although it was the language of government. General philology, or the knowledge of foreign tongues, acquired with the view of gathering information from books written in them, was at no period common among the Jews, because, in their estimation, the treasures of all wisdom and knowledge were only to be sought in their sacred writings."

MEMOIR OF THE REV. JOSEPH MORRIS, MINISTER OF GLASS-HOUSE YARD CHURCH, LONDON.

JOSEPH MORRIS was born at Badby, near Daventry, in the county of Northampton, about the year 1685, but the exact time is not certainly known. His father was a dissenting minister of the Baptist denomination, in the same county, and one of the messengers of the churches in that neighbourhood. The son was in his early years taken notice of for his piety and genius; and having made a considerable progress, both in grammar learning and academical studies, had a proposal made to him, of being sent to one of our universities for further improvement. But declining this offer, he was by some generous patrons, the family of the Wrights of Daventry, sent over into Holland, and studied some years at Amsterdam, under the direction of the celebrated Le Clerc, and Limborch. But as he chose to make the Scriptures the rule of his faith and practice, he no farther espoused the sentiments of others than as they appeared to him consistent with those sacred oracles.

He was a very close student, and embraced a large extent of knowledge; but his chief care was to be intimately acquainted with the holy scriptures; for which purpose he gained considerable skill in the languages in which they were first written, and then applied himself to the study of the originals, and of the learned commentators upon them. This critical knowledge of the scriptures enabled him to defend them against the false and injurious reflections of the enemies of revelation, who often rashly reproach what they never took the pains to understand, or fairly to examine. Of this he has given some remarkable instances in a volume of Sermons which he published during his life-time, and another which was published after his death.

He was well read in universal history, and especially thạt part of it which relates to ecclesiastical affairs. He had likewise carefully perused and considered the ancient apologists for christianity; by which means he was further qualified to answer the cavils raised against it by its adversaries, both ancient and modern; the latter of whom often content themselves with little more than barely reviving