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( Continued from p . 339 . )
Dr « S . devotes a fch&ptef to ** An inquiry into the State of Opinion and Expectation with Te ^ pect to the Messiah existing among the Jews in the period between the closing of the Old Testament and the dissolution of their National Establishment . " It is a subject to which many of the defetniers of reputed orthodoxy
attach much importance , and what our author has written upon it claims our notice as much on account of concessions , which * coming from one of his opinions , as well as his learning , deserve to be recorded * as on account of arguments which we are unwilling to pass by without an attempt to ascertain their real value .
The chapter contains five sections devoted to the inquiry , and a sixth stating the results * The subjects are , 1 * The Syriac and Septuagrot Versions ; 2 . The Chakfee Targums ; 3 * The Apocrypha ; 4 . The Works of Philo and Josephus ; 5 . The Rabbinical Writings . ** The Syriac Version of the Old Testament is considered by the critics aa 6 f an antiquity prior to the Christian era .... It is a strict version ; and it rs remarkably clear and strong in those passages which attribute characters of Deity to the Messiah . "
In what degree Dr . S . has exaggerated the testimony of this version in his favour , we shall not now stop to inquire . We think we might trust our own cause to a fair examination of that version only ; but we would ask what
be means by asserting that it is " considered by critics as of an antiquity prior to the Christian era" ? No doubt it is so Considered by some writers ; indeed , it has been affirmed to be as old as the time of Solomon $ but a much later date has been assigned to it by critics of deservedly high authority in such matters , and we pave been accustomed to consider its having been made some time after the Christian era so much as a settled point , that we were surprised at a contrary statement , unaccompanied by a hint , of uncertainty or a particle of evidence * The most probable date of the Syriac Version of the Old Testament seems to be about the latter end of the second century after Christ . As to the Greek Version , Dr . S . avows that it gives him np assistance , and in consequence he treats , perhaps , with less than justice its venerable authors . In the section go the Targums , or ancient Chaldee Paraphrases on the Old Testament , he insists , indeed , that the instances he has brought forward in speaking of the original texts , " though the number of such is not great , have sufficiently shewn that the writers did not refrain from ascribing to the Messiah the titles and attributes of the Supreme Qod ; " but he , with evident reluctance , and much to the credit both of his judgment and his honesty * abandons the argument from the use of the phrase , the word of the Lord , giving the following , after a full illustration of the subject by examples , as " the results of in ) partially examining the question ;"
* ' 1 . That the primary import of the Chaldee expression is that , whatever it may be , which is the medium of communicating the mind and intention of one person to another . . - . . " 2 . That it thence assumed the sense of a reciprocal pronoun . 3 . That when used in the latter sense , its most usual application is to the Divine Being ; denoting , if we may use the expression , God , his very self ; Deus
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i 458 J
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• ¦ ¦ i tm . j . p . smith ' s scm * nra « testimony to the messiaw .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), July 2, 1831, page 458, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2599/page/26/
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