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may be govern'd in this cafe by the agreement of quotations with their originals, nothing feems more true, than what is imply'd in these words of St. AuSTIN. (k) For my part, fays he, being defirous to follow the example of the apostles, who made ufe both of the Hebrew text and Septuagint verfion in citing the prophets, I thought, that I ought to make use of both, as being both the fame, and having both the fame divine autority:

What can be more evident, than that the apoftles fometimes cited the hebrew? For if there be a citation made by the apoftles from the Old Teftament, which, word for word, agrees with the hebrew text, and differs from the Septuagint, muft not the faid citation be fuppos'd taken from the hebrew text, to which it agrees, and not from the Septuagint, to which it does not agree? Now this is the cafe (1) of the famous paffage cited by MATTHEW out of HOSEAH, Out of Egypt have I called my Son; which is read word for word in the hebrew. bible; but in the Septuagint is, "Out of 6¢ Egypt have I called my Sons.

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And this citation

(k) Auguft. De Civitate Dei, 1. 18. c. 44.

(1) See Hieron. in Of. 1. 3. c. tr. & in Matt. 1. f. c. z. Capelli Critica Sacra, p. 55.

Dupin Differt, Prelim. fur la Bible, 1. 1. c. 4. p. 487% Le note.

citation feems alfo to difcover to us the reafon, why the apoftles do fometimes cite the Hebrew, as at other times they do the Septuagint, when these two texts differ, viz. because the hebrew reading feems fometimes more applicable to their purpose than the Septuagint reading. For in the cafe before us, the term Son, as the Hebrew reads it, feems more to favour the application of the paffage to JESUS, than the Septuagint reading Sons, which, beyond all difpute, determines the citation to relate primarily to the children of Ifrael.

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Again, does not, MATTHEW (m) manifeftly cite the hebrew text for these words, (n) Behold my fervant whom I have "chofen, my beloved, in whom my foul is well pleased; which agree to the He brew, and not to the Septuagint, that differs (0) greatly from the Hebrew, and makes exprefs mention of JACOB and ISRAEL there in ?

St. JEROM (p) fays, It is evident, that the apostles and evangelifts made ufe of the bebrew fcriptures. Our Lord and Redeemer,

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(m) Matt. 12. 18.

(n) Isaiah 42. I.

(0) See Kidder's Demonftrat. of the Meffias, Vol. 2.

p. 207,208.

(p) Hieron. 1. 2. Apol. contra Ruffinum.

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deemer, fays he, whenever he cites paffages out of the Old Teftament takes them from the Hebrew: As for example, " He that belie"veth on me, as the fcriptures have faid, હ્રદ out of his belly fhall flow rivers of living " and upon the cross," Eli, Eli, "Lamazabackthani," that is to fay, "My "God, my God, why haft thou forfaken me; and not as the Septuagint has render'd it, and divers other places. I say not this, Says JEROM, to difcredit the Septuagint, but becaufe I believe, that the autority of the apoftles and JESUS CHRIST is preferable to theirs.

I confefs the apoftles do feem (9) much more frequently to cite the Septuagint, than the Hebrew (tho' herein it may be easy to mistake, if it be true, what SIMON and Mr. W. affirm, that the Septuagint verfion has (r) been accommodated to the citations of the apostles; or what Mr. W. (s) himself alfo fays, who not only finds plain indications of the frequent accommodation of the Septuagint verfion to the latter Hebrew, but the alike FREQUENT ACCOMMODATIONS OF

THE

(1) See Earl of Nottingham's Anfter to Mr. Whifton's Letter, &c. p. 105.

Capelli Critica Sacra, 1. 2.

(r) Simon Hift. Crit. du N. Teft. p. 234. and Whis fton's Effay, p. 299.

(s) p. 48, 49, 298, 299.

THE READINGS IN THE NEW TESTAMENT, as alfo in JOSEPHUS, and others, TO THOSE

OF

THE SEPTUAGINT, whence they were commonly Suppos'd to have been taken); and it is particularly manifeft, that, in the famous (t) fpeech before the Sanedrim, attri buted to St. STEPHEN, the Septuagint, and not the Hebrew, is cited in refpect to the number of fouls, that went down into Egypt; the Septuagint reckoning feventy five fouls, and the Hebrew but feventy. But I must own my concurrence with father (2) SIMON in his conjecture, that it is not credible, that St. STEPHEN in the original Speech deliver d by him to the Jews of Jerufalem recited the words otherwife than they were in the hebrew bible; but that St. LuUKE writing to those who either understood no Hebrew, or who chiefly or wholly used the Septuagint verfion, was the author of that change which is fo different from what is contain'd in the original of the Old Testament. For it seems very unaccountable, that St. STEPHEN fhould in his defence before the Sane

drim argue from an antient jewish fact, which that affembly by their knowledge in the hebrew tongue were undoubtedly able

(t) Acts 7. 14, 15.

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to

(u) Simon Hift. Crit. du V. T. p. 186, 187. 1. 2. c. 2. See alfo Dupin Differt. Prelim. I. 1. c. 4. Note. P. 486.

to detect as a mifreprefentation of the jewish story, and would not fail to do so to the confufion of St: STEPHEN.

For further fatisfaction in this point of the apoftle's citing the hebrew text (and that even in places, where they feem to depart from the Hebrew) I refer him to the (w) truly learned Dr. (x) HODY; and to (y) SuRENHUSIUS, who fhows, how all the apoStolick quotations, by being confider'd as quotations, made after the manner of the jewish doctors, were (or might be) taken from the Hebrew. It is evident; that, in many inftances, the apoftles cite paffages, from the Old Teftament, not only in a different literal fenfe from what they bear in their places both in the Hebrew and Septuagint, but whofe words are to be found in neither of them; and, in particular, that many parts of the genealogies in the New Teftament, which fhould feem to be taken from the Old Teftament, are very different from the fame genealogies recorded both in the Hebrew and Septuagint, So that, the citations of the apoftles, whether confider'd as taken from either the Hebrew or Septua gint, must be accounted for from the jewish

man

(w) Whifton's Effay, p. 11.

(x) Hody De Text. Bibl. p. 2431 277.
(*) Surenbufii Tract. &c. See p. 177, &c.

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