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as ready on the other hand to accuse him to the people, and excite them against him, as an enemy to their rights, they having possessed them with this notion against paying tax. es to any foreign power.

The Jews are charged in some instances, of having corrupted their scriptures, and omitted or altered passages plainly predictive of the coming of Christ since our Saviour was upon earth. But it has happened, through the good pro vidence of God, that some of their most ancient writings, (besides the Scriptures) to which they give with an obsti nacy and perverseness not easily accounted for, an equal degree of veneration to what is due to the revealed word only, are still preserved, and afford unquestionable evidence, that many of the prophecies recorded in the Old Testament, are applicable to Jesus of Nazareth only. That no forced construction can twist them so as to mean any other; and that in him the GREAT REDEEMER, the lawis fulfilled for righteousness to them that believe, and that all the types, shadows, and ceremonies of the Jewish econo my are finished, completed, and for ever done away.

The Targums or paraphrases were made for the use and instruction of the vulgar Jews after their return from the Babylonish captivity. For although many of the better sort still retained the knowledge of the Hebrew language during that captivity, and taught it their chil dren, and the Holy Scriptures that were delivered after that time, excepting only some parts of Daniel and Ezra and one verse in Jeremiah, were all written therein; yet the common people, by having so long conversed with the Babylonians, learned their language, and forgot their It happened indeed otherwise to the children of Israel in Egypt. For although they lived there above three times as long as the Babylonish captivity lasted, yet they still preserved the Hebrew language among them, and brought it back entire with them into Canaan The reason of this was, that in Egypt they all lived together in the land of Goshen; but on their being carried captive by the Babylonians, they were dispersed all over Chaldea and Assyria, and being there intermixed with the people of the land, had much intercourse with them, and therefore were forced to learn their language, and this

soon induced a disuse of their own among them. By this means it came to pass, that after their return, the common people, especially those of them who had been bred up in that captivity, understood not the Holy Scriptures in the Hebrew language, nor their posterity after them. And therefore when Ezra read the law to the people, he had several persons standing by him well skilled in both the Chaldee and Hebrew languages, who interpreted to the people in Chaldee what he first read to them in Hebrew. And afterwards when the method was established of dividing the law into fifty-four sections, and of reading one of them every week in their synagogues (according as hath been already described) the same course of reading to the people the Hebrew text first, and then interpreting it to them in Chaldee, was still continued. For when the reader had read one verse in Hebrew, an interpreter standing by rendered it into Chaldee, and then the next verse being read in Hebrew, it was in like manner interpreted in the same language as before, and so on from verse to verse was every verse alternately read first in the Hebrew, and then interpreted in Chaldee to the end of the section; it was this which first gave occasion for the making of Chaldee versions for the help of those interpreters. And they thenceforth became necessary not only for their help in the public synagogues, but also for the use of the people at home in their families, that they might there have the Scriptures for their private reading in a language which they understood.

Synagogues having multiplied among the Jews beyond the number of able interpreters, it became necessary that such versions should be made for the help of the less able. This was done at first only for the law, because the law only was publicly read in their synagogues till the persecution of Antiochus Epiphanes; but after that time lessons being read out of the prophets in those religious assemblies, as well as out of the law, the same reason rendered it necessary, that Chaldee versions should be made of these Scriptures also. And secondly, the use of the people (which was the other reason for the composing of those versions) made this necessary for all the scripture, as well as for the law and the prophets.

For all scripture being given for our edification, all ought for this end to have them in a language which they understand. For when God gave his law unto Israel, he enjoined, that they should have his commandments, statutes, and judgments always in their hearts, that they should meditate on them day and night, teach them their children, and talk of them, when they sat in their houses, and when they walked by the way, and when they lay down, and when they rose up; and that all might be the better enabled to perform all this, it was strictly enjoined by a constitution of the elders from ancient times, that every man should have by him at home a copy of the Holy Scriptures fairly written out either by his own, or if he could not write himself, by some other hand, for his instruction herein. But how could this be done, if they had those scriptures only in a language, which they did not understand? It was necessary therefore, that as they had the Hebrew text for the sake of the original, so also that they should have the Chaldee version for the sake of helping them to understand it. Indeed the letter of the law which commands what I bave here mentioned, extends no further than to the five books of Moses; for no more of the Holy Scriptures were then written, when that law was given; and also the consti tution abovementioned, which was superadded by the el ders, is by positive words limited thereto. But the reason of the thing extended to the whole word of God. For since all of it is given for our instruction, we are all equally obliged to know each part of it, as well as the other. And therefore this caused, that at length the whole scriptures were thus translated from the Hebrew into the Chaldean language for the sake of those who could not otherwise understand them. For to lock up from the people in an unknown language, that word of God, which was given to lead them to everlasting life, was a thing that was not thought agreeable either to reason or piety in those times.

As the Targum of Onkelos is the first in order of place, as being on the Pentateuch, which is the first part of the Holy Scriptures; so we think it is not be to doubted, but that it is the first also in order of time, and the most an

cient that was written of all that are now extant. This Targum of Onkelos is rather a version, than a paraphrase. For it renders the Hebrew text word for word, and for the most part accurately and exactly, and it is by much. the best of all this sort. And therefore it hath always been had in esteem among the Jews much more than all the other Targums, and being set to the same musical notes with the Hebrew text, it is thereby made capable of being read in the same tone with it in their public assemblies. And that it was accordingly there read alternately with the text in the manner as is above described, Elias Levita tells us, who of all the Jews that have handled this argument, hath written the most accurately and fully on it. For he says, That the Jews holding themselves obliged every week in their syna, gogues to read twice that Parashah or section of the law, which was the lesson of the week, (that is in the Hebrew original first, and then in the Chaldee interpretation) made use of the Targum of Onkelos for this purpose; and that this was their usage even down to his time (which was about the first part of the sixteenth century.) And that for this reason, though till the art of printing was invented there were of the other Targums scarce above one or two of a sort to be found in a whole country; yet then the Targum of Onkelos was every where among them.

The next Targum to that of Onkelos is the Targum of Jonathan Ben Uzziel on the prophets, which is next it also in the purity of its style, but is not like it in the manner of its composition. For whereas the Targum of Onkelos is a strict version, rendering the Hebrew text word for word, Jonathan takes on him the liberty of a paraphrast by enlargements and additions to the text. For therein are inserted several stories, and also several glosses of his own, which do not much commend his work; and more of this is to be found in that part which is on the latter prophets, than in that which is on the former. For in that latter part he is more lax and paraphrastical, and less accurate and clear, than in the other. The books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings are cal

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led the former prophets, and the books of Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets the latter.

The third Targum in the order above mentioned is that on the law, which is also ascribed to Jonathan Ben Uzziel, But that it is none of his is sufficiently proved by the style, which is wholly different from that, wherein is written the true Targum of Jonathan (that upon the prophets, which all allow to have been his) as will very plainly ap pear to all such as shall thoroughly compare them together; and besides its enlargements in the paraphrastical way by glosses, fables, prolix explications, and other additions, are much beyond what we find practised by Jonathan in that Targum which is truly his..

That the Targums of Onkelos on the law, and Jonathan on the prophets, are 'as ancient as our Saviour's time, if not still older, is the general opinion of both Jews and Christians; the Jewish historians positively say it. For they tell us that Jonathan was the most eminent of all the scholars of Hillel, who died about the time that our Saviour was born, and that Onkelos was contemporary with Gamaliel the elder, the same that was St. Paul's master, and one of the Jewish sanhedrim.

The Targums of Onkelos and Jonathan are in so great esteem among the Jews, that they hold them to be of the same authority with the original sacred text; and for the support of this opinion they feign them to be derived from the same fountain. For they say, that when God delivered the written law unto Moses from mount Sinai, he delivered with it at the same time the Chaldee paraphrase of Onkelos in the same manner, as they say, he then did the oral law; and so that when by his Holy Spirit he dictated unto the prophets the scriptures of the prophetical books, he delivered severally to them upon each book the Targum of Jonathan at the same time. And that both these Targums were delivered down by tradition through such faithful hands, as God by his providence had appointed, the first from Moses, and the other from the prophets themselves, who were the writers of these prophetical books till at length through this chain of traditional descent they came down to the hands of Onkelos and Jonathan, and that all they did was only to put them into writing.

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