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f the limits ^ which \ v £ must necessarily prescribe t # the page of criticism in a miscellaneous work , would permit , we should be glad to transcribe more ot the author ' s admirable illustrations of this
point , particularly his observations on the methods ^ which Jesus took to aid and to exercise the recollection ofhis disciples ., doubtless with the view of qualifying them for their office as his future
historians . We cannot help recommending this part of the work particularly to the attention of the young student , and indeed oi every one who wishes to have accurate notions of the character
and design of the N . T- We are only surprised , that after having so well stated the qualifications of the historians , and the sources of their fidelity , accuracy and a-
greement , Mr . Jones should have recourse to the conjecture , that th . ey had access to written memoranda , or to any common documents , which produced the coincidence and agreement observable in these writers - But what has
most excited our astonishment , is , a conjecture , which , however , it may have dazzrled the author of the Illustrations , surely can never have been deliberately considered by him . We refer to his hypothesis of accounting for the knowledge which the Galilean
fishermen had of the Greek tongue . That we may not be suspected of misrepresenting the author , we shall quote his own words . u From the minute provisio »" , s which the Saviour made for the diffusion and
credibility of the gospel , we may infer , that he was not inattentive to the /<** - fiuage in which it was promulgated . He knew that the dialect of Judea was not to be the consecrated rneans of divulging the glad tidings of Christianity to the
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nations at large - He must therefore have directed their attention to the Greek tongue ; and while he used with his countrymen their language , in his private and confidential intercourses with his disciples , he probably expressed himself in the language of the Gospel . If
he went thus far , it was natural for him to proceed farther ; and in order to qualify them for an exacfknowledge , and free use of this speech , he furnished his documents in the Greek , as well as in the vulgar Hebrew , or directed them to set down their memorandums in both .
These inferences are not merely conjectural , but they stand on the foundation of a broad and undeniable fact The fishermen of Galilee soon afterward .- shewed a skill and ' a readiness in tlv * u e of the Greek tongue , not only beyond the vulgar , but beyond the learned in
Judea . This is an effect which requires a rational and adequate cause : and what cause can be more rational , or more adequate , than that , as they thus knew Greek , they had adopted the previous means necessary to know it ? And what motive could have induced Galilean
peasants , engaged in the pursuit of daily bread , remote from the refinements of literary curiosity , and actuated with deep-rooted prejudices against the language and the learning of the Greekswhat motive , I ask , could have induced
men so circumstanced , to study the Greek tongue , but the direction of their Master , who foresaw that the knowledge of this tongue was to be an indispensible qualification in the promotion of his cause ? " p . 604 .
Surely at the moment , when Mr . Junes indulged this idea he must have overlooked an acknowledged fact , which fully accounts for the knowledge , which the apostles had of the Greek tongue . It may justly be asked , how did Jesus himself learn the Greek
language , or how in the short space of : his ministry was he able to perfect twelve uneducated men in the knowledge and use of it ; and if he did so , did he not anticipate and almost render unnecessary the gift of tongues , recorded Acts ii ?
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. Review . —Jones ' s Illustratio ? is of the Four Gospels . 397
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1809, page 397, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1738/page/43/
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