lication, however, appeared the erudite production of Herr Steinschneider,—" Jewish Literature, from the Eighth to the Eighteenth Century." Yet, (not to speak of the greater chronological range of my own work,) such is the difference in the cast and complexion of the two books, that they in nowise interfere with each other. If it be too much for me

to say that my volume may be accepted as a companion to that of the learned German, I will at least express the hope that it may serve as an humble attendant.

The present opportunity is taken of mentioning my regret, that in the account of Jewish Commentaries on the Scriptures, I omitted those of M. Cahen, of Paris, in fourteen volumes, which comprise the Hebrew text, and a new French translation, with notes, philologic, geographical, and literary. I have the pleasure, also, of adding to the list of this class of works the more recently published commentaries of Dr. M. Kalisch, on the Books of Genesis and Exodus,—rich in learning, and beautiful in style. It may be acceptable also to mention, that an excellent edition of the Machsor, the entire Ritual for the festivals of the Hebrew year, has been lately published by Mr. Valentine, of London, in six portable volumes. It has the Hebrew text, well printed, with an English translation under the care of the Rev. D. A. De Sola, Minister of the Spanish Synagogue in the Metropolis. That eminent Jewish scholar, Herr Leopold Dukes, has also increased our obligations to his laborious pen, by his German Disquisition on the ethical works of Salomo ben Gabirol, as well as his edition of the Shiri Shelomo of the same author; and his Nachal Kedumim, or Collection of choice Specimens of the Ancient and Mediæval Hebrew Poets. Nor, in reference to the

metaphysics of Gabirol, must I omit to point out to the attention of the student the recent profound and learned "Mélanges de Philosophie Juive et Arabe " of the Jewish professor, S. Munk, of Paris.✻

More akin to the work now in hand, is a translation of the Hebrew Bible into English, for the use of Jewish schools and families, by Dr. Benisch, of London, carried on, as we understand, under the supervision of the Chief Rabbi, the Rev. Dr. Adler; and another of the same character, in the German language, by Dr. Ludwig Philippson, with the original text and illustrations, in four volumes. I make a special note also of a beautiful edition of the Hebrew Bible, lately published at Wilna and Petersburg, with the German translation begun by Mendelssohn, and completed by his continuators. This noble edition is in sixteen volumes, large octavo; the original text being accompanied by the Chaldee Targums, the commentary of Rashi, (R. Sal. Izhaki,) and a condensed commentary gathered from Eben Ezra, Levi ben Gershom, David Kimchi, and other eminent expositors. The Bible text only has the German version; the Targums and commentaries are untranslated. The octavo size of the work makes it much more convenient than the unwieldy folios of the Polyglots and the other Rabbinical Bibles.

Such works as these, and I have mentioned but a few, out of many which have appeared within the last seven years, give plain indication that the revival of Hebrew learning, in the present century, is still acquiring strength; and that the Jewish literati especially, by their noble enterprises for the advancement of the study of their glorious language, and of the Holy Writings delivered in it to mankind, are

* Gabirol's Mibchar Happeninim, or, "Selection of Pearls," (a catena of moral proverbs,) has been rendered into English by Mr. Asher.

doing a great work, and are worthy of the gratitude and honour of all who revere the Word of God.

In the ensuing Translation I have followed, upon Onkelos, the Aramaic text of Walton, carefully col-lated with the last edition of the Targums, published at Wilna, under the care of an association of learned Jews. The principal variations are noted in our margin, along with the more remarkable readings of the Samaritan version of the Pentateuch. Between Onkelos and the Palestinian Targum there is a great difference of manner, the paraphrase in the latter being largely interspersed with hagadistic or legendary illustrations; some of which, when explained on the principle laid down in the Introduction, are good enough, though for others of them, as unworthy of the solemn majesty of Holy Scripture, I have no apology. In fact, these paraphrases contain two elements the sacred, in the true representation of the Word of God; and the merely human, with its infirmity and folly. Each must have its proper judgment.

The perusal of these Targums will have one good result, if it lead to a renewed examination and study of the Pentateuch: a Record sacred in every sense; ever and for evermore the subject of reverential affection to the Believer, as being the foundation of all literature, the origines of all authentic history, the shrine of the primæval revelation, the register of the eternal covenant of grace, and the panorama of

those sacrosanct emblems which shadow out the Redeeming Work accomplished in the fulness of time by Him, of whom Moses, in the Law, and the prophets did write.

St. Austell, October 24th, 1862.

INTRODUCTION.

The opening of the Christian Dispensation was an epoch replete with wonder-working effects in the intellectual, moral, and civil conditions of human life. Till then, "darkness had covered the earth, and gross darkness the people;" but to the Christian church had been decreed the glory of becoming the instructress of the Gentiles, the angel of revelation to the world. In the record of the great facts embodied in the Gospel, and the doctrines it inculcates,—doctrines in which the oracles of the Hebrew revelation culminate in a grandeur visibly Divine,—the Bible for all humanity was completed, and a means of enlightenment, at once simple and effectual, developed far and widely, by which all the families of the earth might be made wise to salvation. The day-spring from on high was now to arise, to give light to them who sat blind in the shadow of death, and to guide their feet into the way of peace. Hitherto they had sought, but found not. Dark as sin had made the Gentile mind, the consciousness of its relation to the Divine and Eternal had never been extinguished in its depths, and an unsatisfied yearning after the truth unknown had betrayed itself in the

B

fabrication by some, and the reception by others, of codes of law, sagas of tradition, and decretals of doctrine, which bare, to the belief of their votaries, the seal and authority of Heaven. So the Egyptian deciphered his hieroglyphs; the Chinese listened at the pagoda to the chapters of the Chou-Qing, the "Book of Books; the Brahmin in his temple heard the Manava Dharma Sastra, and in the laws of Menu recognised the oracles of eternity; the Greek and Roman, in search of the beautiful and true, conversed with the abstractions of Plato, the riddles of Pythagoras, the dogmas of the Stoics, or the more sensuous imaginings of Homer and the poets; while the Celt and the Briton asked for the great secret from the lips of the Druid in the cavern temples of primeval forests.

Meanwhile the great purpose of God for the ultimate renovation of our fallen world had not been forgotten. Time had been designedly given to mankind to test the strength of their own resources. Already had the verdict been pronounced, of which the apostle's famous words are but the true echo,—"The world by wisdom cannot know God." "Nothing," said Anaxagoras, "can be surely known; nothing therefore can be learned; nothing can be certain: the senses are limited and delusive; intellect is weak; life is short." Plato therefore carried with him the assent of all the thinking men of his day, when he summed up his own persuasions, and those of the great masters who had gone before him, in affirming, that "if ever man was destined to know the Divine truth, it must be by a revelation from the Deity."—That revelation came in its fulness upon the lips of the Incarnate Word: "In Him was life; and the life was the light of men."

The same Spirit who spake by the prophets completed the saving revelations of the Divine will to the