J. W. ETHERIDGE, M.A., translator of the new testament from the peschito syriac. GENESIS AND EXODUS. D "For this Law is our Inheritance, not only as a lesson of memory, but as Mendelssohn. LONDON: LONGMAN, GEEEN, LONGMAN, AND ROBERTS. 1862. 101. f. 107 PATRONÆ MEE ET UXORI, ELISÆ, PULCHRÆ, PIE, SEMPER CARISSIMÆ; COMPLORATÆ, VERUNTAMEN NON SINE SPE CONSTANTI ET CERTA; EVANESCE, TANTUM DONEC ASPIRET DIES, ET DIFFUGIANT UMBRÆ. PREFACE. Among the relics of ancient Jewish literature, the Aramaic paraphrases on the Books of the Old Testament have a peculiar value; and yet, though long esteemed by the most learned divines, both Israelite and Christian, they have never been made accessible to the English reader, by a translation into our own language. This defect it is attempted to remedy, at least so far as relates to the writings of Moses, in the work now submitted. The translation, made directly from the Chaldee, is strictly ad literam, and preserves the idiomatic characteristics of the original. The Targum of Onkelos possesses an intrinsic philological and critical worth, from its close adherence to the Hebrew text, and as being a voucher for the condition of that text as extant in the first century; while the more diffuse paraphrase of the Jonathan or Palestinian Targum, variegated with the picturesque traditions of the Jews, will give it an attraction to the general reader. The present volume, exhibiting Genesis and Exodus, will in due time be followed by another, completing the remaining books of the Pentateuch. * In a previous work I have endeavoured to give an idea of the affluence and value of the treasures of Hebrew learning. That book, too, was undertaken because at the time nothing of the kind was to be obtained in English. Not long after its pub * "Jerusalem and Tiberias; Sora and Cordova: a Survey of the Religious and Scholastic Learning of the Jews. Designed as an Introduetion to the Study of Hebrew Literature." Longman and Co. |