Among the modern editions of the Vulgate, that printed by Didot, Paris, 1785, in four volumes octavo, is particularly recommended by the neatness of its typography.

XV.

We now come to THE ENGLISH TRANSLATIONS OF THE BIBLE.

XV. 1. There are many Anglo-Saxon versions of different parts of the Old and New Testament. Of the Translation by the Archbishop Elfric, in the tenth century, we have, of the Old Testament, the Hepta

teuch, published by Edmund Thwaites, at Oxford 1699,-and, of the New Testament, the Gospels only, by Matthew Parker, London, 1571, 4. These were reprinted by Franciscus Junius and Thomas Marshall, at Dodrect, with the Mæso-Gothic Version, 1665, 4, reprinted at Amsterdam, 1684. As this Anglo-Saxon version is supposed by some to have been made from the Latin

version in use before St. Jerom, it is highly valued by those who are curious after the readings of the Old Italic. But Professor Alter, (Memorabil. VI, St. No. IX. and VIII. St. p. 185), considers it to have been made from the Vulgate, as the Anglo-Saxon version of the Psalms, published by Spelman, certainly was. An imperfect account of the former of these versions is given in the following work; A Saxon Treatise concerning the Old and New Testament, written about the time of King Edgar, by Adelfricus Abbas, published by William Lisle, London, 1623, 4", which was afterwards reprinted with this title:---" Diverse Antient Muniments, in the Saxon Tongue, written seven hundred years ago, 1638. It may be added, that Elfric's translation is so very loose as to make it difficult to collect any antient readings from it.

XV. 2. The most antient English translation is that of Wickliff. It was finished about the year 1367. It was revised by

some of his followers. Both the original and the revised translation are still extant in manuscript: the printed copies of it are not uncommon. The manuscript copies of the latter are more rare than the copies of the former.

XV. 3. The principal printed editions are, 1st, those of Tyndal and Coverdale; 2d, the Genevan Bible, or the translations made by the English, who fled to Geneva, to avoid the persecutions of Queen Mary; 3d, the Episcopal translation, made in the reign of Queen Elizabeth, under the direction of Matthew Parker, the celebrated archbishop of Canterbury; 4th, King James's Bible :-it was printed in 1611, and is that, which is at present used in all the British dominions; the original copy, with the manuscript corrections, is in the Bodleian library; 5th, the English translations made by the Roman Catholics. The chief of these are, the Rhemish Testament, printed at Rheims in 1582. In the year 1589, Dr. Fulke,

master of Pembroke-Hall, Cambridge, reprinted this translation, together with the Bishop's Bible, in two columns. It is a curious performance, and very much deserves the attention of those who study the subjects in controversy between the Roman Catholics and Protestants, particularly such as turn on Scriptural interpretation. The Doway Bible is printed in two volumes quarto, in 1609, 1610. It is said to be made from "the authentic Latin." A new edition of it was published in five volumes octavo, in 1750, by the late Dr. Challoner. Besides these, a translation in two volumes large octavo was published at Doway, in the year 1730, by Dr. Witham. It is enriched with useful and concise notes.

XVI.

It remains to observe a striking peculiarity of the Old and New Testament,---its division into CHAPTERS AND VERSES.

XVI. 1. The division of the Hebrew text into chapters was made by the Jews, in imitation of the division of the New Testament into chapters. But the chapters spoken of in this place must not be confounded with their Paraschioths or greater and less sections, into which, for the regular reading of it in the synagogue, they have divided the Pentateuch, a much more antient division, and still retained in the rolls of the synagogue. Their division of the Old Testament into verses, was more antient than the division of it into chapters, being probably of the same date as their invention of the vowel points. Much of the labour of the Masorites was consumed in calculating the verses, and their literal peculiarities. Thus they discovered, that the verses in the book of Genesis amounted to 1534; that its middle verse was the fortieth of the twentyseventh chapter; that the whole Bible contained twenty-three thousand two hundred and six verses; that the Pentateuch con