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    On the whole , then , it appears that die Christian Scri p tures contain a body of evidence strongly in favour of the authenticity ana credibility of the prophetical writings ; and when it is considered that this evidence is furnished in an indirect and casual manner , without any consciousness of the purpose to which it might , in after ages , be applied , its value will be found to be much greater than if it had been conveyed to us in a more connected and systematic form .

    5 . Our next document of reference is the Septuagint or old Greek Version of the Hebrew Scriptures , which was in general use among foreign Jews long before the birth of our Saviour , and was regarded by them till about the close of the first century , with as much veneration as the Hebrew original itself . This version still exists , and contains all the books at present included in the Jewish canon . It appears , from the inquiries of learned men into its origin , that it was undertaken , in the first instance , for the accommodation of those Jews who resided at a distance from Jerusalem , and

    were unable to read or understand their own Scriptures , except through the medium of a translation : but it was made , in all probability , at different intervals , as circumstances arose to render a translation of particular parts desirable or necessary . Aristeas is the first writer who mentions this version , and he speaks of it merely as a translation of the law ; a term which , though sometimes used , in an enlarged sense , to denote the whole of the Jewish Scriptures , * cannot

    possibly have that signification in the present instance . Next to Aristeas , the most ancient writers who are known to have alluded to the history of this version are Aristobulus , Philo and Josephus ; and they all concur in stating that the law was first translated . Josephus , indeed , expressly asserts , in the preface to his Jewish Antiquities ^ that Ptolemy " did not procure a translation of the whole of the Jewish Scriptures , but only the books of the law ; " and a consideration of the circumstances of the Jews , at the time when this translation was made , will tend to confirm the statement

    of the Jewish historian . Thus armed by the authority of all the most ancient writers who have treated upon the subject , Prideaux ventured to assert that " the law only was first translated into Greek . " J The correctness of this assertion , however , was called in question by Dr . Thomas Brett , who , in " A Dissertation on the Ancient Versions of the Bible , " published in the year 1742 , and republisbed in Watson ' s " Collection of Theological Tracts , " affirms " that

    the learned Dean was under a great mistake when he named Aristobulus as telling us that the Seventy-two interpreted the law only : for , " says he , * ' in a fragment cited from him by Eusebius , ( Praep . Evan . Li ., ) he asserts the direct contrary , saying , that the whole sacred Scripture was rightly translated through the means of Demetrius Phalereus , and by the command of Philadelphus the king . " § After a declaration like this , the reader will of course expect to find that the person who makes it is prepared to follow it up by an appeal to some decisive passage which must nave escaped the observation of the learned Dean ; but , if such are his expectations , he will be

    * See John x . 34 , xv . 25 , and 1 Cor , xiv . 21 , with the corresponding passages in the Old Testament , viz . Psalm lxxxii . 6 , xxxv . 19 , and Isaiah xxvui . 11 . f § 111 . t The Old and New Testament connected in the History of the Jey& and Neighbouring Nations , &c , by Humphrey Prideaux , D . D . 8 th « dit . 8 w > . Lortd Yol . II . p . 45 . § Watson ' s Theol . Tracts , Vol . HI . p . 21 .

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    £ 0 £ € ittwnical Authority of ( he Books of the Prophet * .

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1827, page 502, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1798/page/30/