composition, dissertation, disquisition. The subjects of the essays, which
number sixty-eight, are such as are of universal interest--fame, studies,
atheism, beauty, ambition, death, empire, sedition, honor, adversity, and
suchlike.

The Essays have been ably edited and annotated by Archbishop Whately, and
his work has been republished in America.

CHAPTER XVII.

THE ENGLISH BIBLE.

Early Versions. The Septuagint. The Vulgate. Wiclif; Tyndale.
Coverdale; Cranmer. Geneva; Bishop's Bible. King James's Bible.
Language of the Bible. Revision.

EARLY VERSIONS OF THE SCRIPTURES.

When we consider the very extended circulation of the English Bible in the
version made by direction of James I., we are warranted in saying that no
work in the language, viewed simply as a literary production, has had a
more powerful historic influence over the world of English-speaking
people.

Properly to understand its value as a version of the inspired writings, it
is necessary to go back to the original history, and discover through what
precedent forms they have come into English.

All the canonical books of the Old Testament were written in Hebrew. The
apocryphal books were produced either in a corrupted dialect, or in Greek.

THE SEPTUAGINT.--Limiting our inquiry to the canonical books, and
rejecting all fanciful traditions, it is known that about 286 or 285 B.C.,
Ptolemy Philadelphus, King of Egypt, probably at the instance of his
librarian, Demetrius Phalereus, caused seventy-two Jews, equally learned
in Hebrew and in Greek, to be brought to Alexandria, to prepare a Greek
version of the Hebrew Scriptures. This was for the use of the Alexandrian
Jews. The version was called the Septuagint, or translation of the
seventy. The various portions of the translation are of unequal merit,
the rendering of the Pentateuch being the best; but the completed work was
of great value, not only to the Jews dispersed in the countries where
Greek had been adopted as the national language, but it opened the way for
the coming of Christianity: the study of its prophecies prepared the minds
of men for the great Advent, and the version was used by the earlier
Christians as the historic ground of their faith.

The books of the New Testament were written in Greek, with the probable
exception of St. Matthew's Gospel, which, if written in Hebrew, or
Aramaean, was immediately translated into Greek.

Contemporary with the origin