the Hebrew, the Hebrew in Greek characters, the version of Aquila, the version of Symmachus, the Septuagint version, and that of Theodotion. In those books, which contained likewise two anonymous versions, and filled therefore eight columns, it was called Biblia Octapla; and in the passages, where the third anonymous version occupied a ninth column, it received the name of Enneapla. On the other hand, as out of the six columns, which went through the whole work, only four were occupied with Greek translations, the same work, which most writers call Hexapla, has by others been denominated Tetrapla. They are only different names of the same work viewed in different lights, though some authors have fallen into the mistake of supposing, from the difference in the names, that they denoted different works.

The labour, which was necessary for a work of such magnitude, can be estimated only by those, who have been engaged in similar undertakings. Eight and twenty years are said to have been employed in making preparations for it, independently of the time, which was employed in the writing of it. It was begun at Cæsarea, and probably finished at Tyre. The text of the Septuagint, as settled by Origen, is called the Hexaplarian text,

to distinguish it from the text of the Septuagint, as it existed before the time of Origen, which is therefore called the Ante-hexaplarian.

On the value of the Hexapla modern critics are divided; and it has been considered by some very recent writers, rather as a mechanical, than as a critical undertaking. It is true, that great as the labour was, much was still wanting to make it a perfect work. It does not appear, that Origen at all collated manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible: and, though he compared different manuscripts of the Septuagint, without which he could not have known the variations, of which he speaks, it does not appear, that he applied those collations to the purpose of correcting the text. A comparison between his own copy of the Hebrew Bible and his own copy of the Septuagint seems alone to have determined the places, in which he deemed it necessary to introduce corrections. It was his design, to render the Bible of the Christians in all respects the same with the Bible of the Jews, that in future controversies there might be a common standard, to which both parties might appeal. And if in the execution of this work, the rules, which modern critics have learnt from longer experience are not discernible, it must be remembered that this was the first effort, which was ever made to

amend a corrupted text, either of the Old or of the New Testament.

The work, in its entire state, has long ceased to exist; and we are indebted, for our knowledge of it, to Eusebius and Jerom, both of whom had seen it in the library of Cæsarea, whither the original itself was removed from Tyre, where Origen died, by Pamphilus the founder of the Cæsarean library. But as the magnitude of the work was such, that it could not be transcribed without an heavy expence, no copy, as far as we know, was ever taken of the whole: and the original perished in the flames, which consumed the library of Cæsarea on the irruption of the Saracens.

But that column of the Hexapla, which contained the corrected text of the Septuagint, with its critical marks, was transcribed by Eusebius and Pamphilus with occasional extracts from the other versions. If we had this column entire, it might make some reparation for the loss of the rest: but even this column has descended to us only in fragments, which have been collected by the industry of the learned, particularly of Montfaucon, the author of the Palæographia Græca, who published them at Paris, in 1714, in two folio volumes, by the title Hexaploram Origenis quæ supersunt.

Such is the history of one of the most celebrated among the literary undertakings of antiquity. In the next Lecture, this review of sacred criticism, as far as it relates to the early and the middle ages, will be continued and concluded.

LECTURE IV.

In the preceding Lecture was given some account of the labours of Origen to amend the corrupted text of the Septuagint version. At the end of the third, and at the beginning of the fourth century, similar, though less laborious tasks, being founded probably on the prior labours of Origen, were undertaken by Lucian a Presbyter of Antioch, and by Hesychius an Egyptian Bishop. Their revisions, or, as we should say of printed books, their editions of the Septuagint, were held in such high estimation, that the edition of Hesychius was generally adopted by the churches of Egypt, and that of Lucian was commanded by Constantine the Great to be read in all the churches from Antioch to Constantinople.

Nor was the criticism of the Hebrew Original neglected in those ages. Tiberias in Galilee was then the seat of Jewish learning: it was the residence of the best Hebrew scholars, the repository