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CRITICAL NOTICES 32I
CRITICAL NOTICES.
THE REVISED VERSION OF THE APOCRYPHA.
This final instalment of the Revision of the Authorized Version of
161 1 will be found to stand, in point of merit, as its contents mostly
fall in point of time, somewhere between the Old and New Testaments.
But while it does not, as a whole, attain the level of sober scholarship
displayed by the Old Testament Revision, yet it is in parts a splendid
performance, which will reflect credit on English learning and prove
a priceless boon to the student. Indeed, the work as a whole is
a distinct advance on the A. V., and it would have been a greater stride
still but for the regrettable fact that some of the best of the new
features are strangely defaced by what looks like a want of continuity
in the editing. The most striking change is naturally the one that
first catches the reader's eye : the arrangement of the whole version
into paragraphs, and the display of the parallelism of line by the
method of printing adopted in the more poetical and sententious
parts. It is difficult to suggest any other cause than the one already
hinted at in explanation of the spasmodic way in which the second
of these great changes is neglected. The Prayer of Manasses is
printed in one long paragraph, though the parallelism is quite as
marked as in the Song of Judith, which the Revisers print in parallel
lines. The same remark applies to the Song of the Three Children,
where the parallelism is as plainly discernible as in any part of the
Old Testament literature. Cf. the 136th Psalm with this Song, and
it will be seen that while the 0. T. Revisers rightly place the refrain,
" For his mercy endureth for ever," in a separate line throughout,
the Revisers of the Apocrypha neglect to do the same with the equally
catching refrain, "Praise and exalt him above all for ever." (It is
here noteworthy that the phrase " above all " is a developed form of
the Psalmie " above all gods.") A similar surprise must be felt about
the treatment of portions of Baruch iii-v ; surely the parallelism in
iii. 9 sq. is as easily displayed as say that in Ecclus. 1. 1-3, where the
322 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
Revisers adopt the newer method? Baruch iii. 9-1 1 should run
thus : —
Hear, O Israel, the commandments of life :
Give ear to understand wisdom.
How happeneth it, O Israel, that thou art in thine enemies' land,
That thou art waxen old in a strange country,
That thou art defiled with the dead,
That thou art counted with them that go down into the grave ?
Another general and external point, on which however a difference
of opinion is sure to be felt, concerns the retention of the italics.
This is to me a very disturbing matter, though here the Revisers of
the Apocrypha only maintain the questionable plan of the Old
Testament Committee. But in the Apocrypha, as the Revisers'
preface points out, a " greater freedom of rendering characterizes the
(A. V.) translation when compared with the translation of the Old or
of the New Testament," and this greater freedom, we are told, was
here preserved. Why then was it necessary to print " a Greek place
of exercise" in 2 Mace. iv. 12, where the text yvpvd<noi> and the
context render the word "Greek" a necessary part of the translation ?
The inconsistencies which such a method involve may be seen by
comparing the R.V. of Proverbs xvi. 1 with the R.V. of Ecclus. i. 1.
In the latter, the Greek Ilaaa aocpia irapa Kvplov is rendered "All
wisdom cometh from the Lord," but in Prov. xvi. 1, where rtiJ?D "noi
}1K9 involves a similar addition of a verb " to come," the R.V. rightly
gives us " The answer of the tongue is from the Lord," without any
italicization of is. This question I am here raising is not a mere
quibble, for at the basis of a true translation must lie a reproduction
of Hebrew or Greek idiom by English idiom, and not by an italicized
rendering which implies that a word or idea is unexpressed in the
original, when it is really implicitly expressed by the syntax of the
original. In Wisdom xvi. 9 the italics seem superfluous in rendering
two TowvTcov "by such as these" ; ibid. vii. 4 " watchful cares" seems
to imply that the Greek (ppovrlatv does not exactly mean " watchful,
anxious concern." In Baruch vi. 39 "these gods of wood," for ™
£i\iva introduces an unnecessary interpolation — "wooden things"
is a more effective phrase. In Susanna v. 46 why is woman italicized ?
Does not ravrrfs mean " this woman " ? That the matter is important
may be seen from this, that the use of italics leads sometimes to
what is almost a mistranslation. A case occurs of what I mean, in
the R.V. of the Wisdom of Solomon vi. 14, *o dpOpiaas eV avnjv
is translated "He that riseth up early to seek her;" seek being
italicized, the reader is perhaps led to fancy that the Greek verb
does not mean "seek." But this is just what opOpifa does mean
CRITICAL NOTICES 323
in Hellenistic Greek. Thus in Job viii. 5, where the Hebrew runs
bit bx -inen nm DK, the LXX has <rv 8e SpOpifr npbs Kvpiov, and
the R.V. " If thou wouldst seek diligently unto the Lord." Cf. the
use of 6p6piC<>> in (LXX) Ps. lxiii. 1, and in some other passages cited
by Prof. Preudenthal in this Review, III, 746. The old sense of
"rise early," had passed into the derived signification "to seek
earnestly." Further, the italics are often ambiguous, for occasionally
they imply more than the actual text contains. A striking instance
is Ecclus. xii. 3 " a foolish daughter is born " to her father's loss.
The Greek, however, has only Ovydrvp. In point of fact the author of
Ecclesiasticus has a very low opinion of women in general (cf. Cheyne,
Job and Solomon, p. 187) ; and while he draws a distinction as regards
the father's gain or loss between a bad and a good son, he may mean
that a daughter, whether foolish or wise, is her father's loss ; at best
she is her husband's gain, always she is her father's detriment.
On the other hand, the Revisers have boldly broken from the old
spellings of the names in the Apocrypha. They have not attempted
a pedantic consistency, but they have been guided by sound common-
sense and critical judgment. Some would have preferred them to
have been a little bolder here and there, e. g. in 1 Mace. v. 66 where
Marisa and Samaria might have changed places in margin and text.
They have retained, too, the spelling Modin in 1 Mace. ii. 1-5, though
there can be little critical ground for omitting an e and reading
Modein, a syllable present both in the Greek MwSeiV, and in the
Hebrew D'yilD. It is not obvious, again, why Arius in 1 Mace. xii. 7
is read for 'Apsis — but what a scholarly change is made here from the
Darius of the A.V. ! Again, why do the Revisers, who rightly reject the
AV. Maspha (1 Mace. iii. 46), replace it by Mizpeh ? Both the Hebrew
of the MT. and all the varying texts of the LXX retain the second *
sound, as do the Revisers of the Old Testament (see e.g. 1 Sam. vii. 5).
But the name improvements are so numerous that it is impossible to
do more than indicate a few. Nebuchadnezzar (Judith, passim) for
Nabuchodonosor ; Chittim for Chettiim (1 Mace. i. 1) ; Phineas and
Joshua (1 Mace. ii. 54-55) for Phinees and Jesus; plain country (1 Mace,
xi. 38) for Sephela; Hasideans (=tP*PDn 1 Mace. ii. 42) for Asideans;
Chislev (ibid. i. 54) for Casleu; Michmash (ibid. ix. 73) for Machmas;
Hazor (= "Wn ibid. xi. 67) for Nazor. The Revisers rightly resisted
the temptation to substitute (with Codex Sinaiticus) Nahum for
Jonah in Tobit xiv. 4, for though Tobit seems to imply ignorance of
the Bible narrative in declaring that, " I believe all the things which
Jonah the prophet spake of Nineveh, that it shall be overthrown,"
he is really following a Rabbinical tradition which would have it
that the repentance of the Ninevites was insincere, and that their
324 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
respite from destruction was probably temporary. pj>OB> Ml "iDK
mw hmk ib>j> nven btf nawn b^ p (Taanith, r. j. 11. 3. Cf.
Rosenmaim, Studien zum Buche Tobit, p. n).
To many readers the point of greatest moment will be the treat-
ment meted out to the text by the Revisers. The title-page anticipates
the chief novelty of the revision, for we are informed that the present
translation is made " out of the Greek and Latin tongues." This
prepares us to find included the Latin fragment of 2 Esdras, but it
also prepares us for the fact that the Revisers have not used any
Hebrew texts to modify certain readings in the Greek. The point
is a very debateable one. It must be freely admitted that the Hebrew
or Aramaic texts of certain parts of the Apocrypha are neither ancient
nor authentic. With the second book of the Maccabees (by the way
the Revisers might profitably have given us the third and fourth books
in an Appendix), and the Wisdom of Solomon, no Hebrew could be
of any relevancy. The extant Hebrew Versions of Tobit and Judith
are useless for this purpose 1 , even if we do not accept the improbable
theoiy of NOldeke, Fritsche, and Schiirer that Tobit was originally
1 Hebrew usage seems to suggest an emendation of Judith ix. 12,
where the exclamation NaJ vai is somewhat pointless. Is it not pos-
sible that these words belong to the pi - evious verse and represent the
Hebrew p«i )n»? The LXX is not consistent in its rendering of jo*»,
sometimes it uses yivotro, sometimes Afi^v. — In Tobit iv. 17, I feel
almost certain that the Greek is best explained by supposing a mistake
between -opa and i">pi. (By the way, the Revisers ought probably to have
replaced " grace " (in Ecclus. vii. 33 b) by " kindness," for here x&piv
= icn.) Rosenmann, p. 22, defends the reading laps by quoting is D'asim
oyisn nap from the Karaite Sahal ben Mazliach, but the word should
be read D'JJim . An important variant, suggested by Talmudical passages,
is three for seven in Tobit vi. 13. — It is almost a pity that the Revisers
did not add "and cheese" in Judith x. 5, for which there is strong
authority in the versions and in Jewish tradition. On the whole, it
must be said that the Revisers have failed altogether to do justice to
Judith xvi. That in Judith some carelessness occurred is discernible
from a comparison of xvi. 14 with ix. 12. In the former case vacra 1) miais
ami is rightly rendered " all thy creation," emending the A. V., which
renders "all creatures." But in ix. 12, with strange inconsistency,
fiaaiKtv iraat]s m-iatiit aov is rendered by the R. V. " King of every crea-
ture," the emendation being relegated to the margin ! —It was, perhaps,
too much to expect in Bel and the Dragon a transformation of the lions*
den into the reality — viz. a subterranean pit, or chamber, where the lions
were for the occasion confined. The Revisers of the O. T. also left the
den in evidence, though it is hard to conceive how the lions cordd have
contrived to live there.
CRITICAL NOTICES 325
composed in Greek and not in Hebrew. The Hebrew of the first
book of the Maccabees is lost. But the matter stands somewhat
differently with Ecclesiasticus. This work was, of course, written
in Hebrew, and though the Hebrew or Aramaic original has long
been lost, a large number of quotations from it are to be found in
Rabbinical literature. These quotations were given in full in this
Review (Vol. Ill, p. 682) by Mr. Schechter (cf. Vol. IV, p. 162), and it
is not unreasonable to maintain that they might be used, with caution
and sparingly, for emending the Greek text. It would no doubt be
easy to push this argument too far, but I think vii. 10, " Pray not
when thou art fainthearted" (Heb. HIV hit "flD reading iW for 1TV1*),
is preferable to "Be not fainthearted in thy prayer." Again, in
iii. 22, the R.V. has " Thou hast no need of the things that are secret,"
but a better sense is given in the Hebrew " Thou hast no business with
the things that are secret." In xxvi. 3, should not the Hebrew pTO
(in the bosom) be read instead of piri3 (" in the portion ") which seems
to underlie the Greek ev pepiSi ? So in xxxviii. 1, when the Revisers
were emending the A.V. from " Honour a physician with the honour
due to him," into "Honour a physician according to thy need of him,"
which has little sense, might they not have gone a little farther and
have adopted the Hebrew reading " before thou hast need of him " ?
On the other hand, S e adyah's text of Ecclus. v. 5-7, 1K5JJ t\X1 ffDm 13
W not D^yen by\ (J. Q.R. IV, 163), better agrees with the Greek than
do the citations in other Rabbinical forms (J. Q. R. Ill, 695), though the
latter are more consonant with the context. The Revisers in xxi. 23
translate (the italics are not mine), " A foolish man peepeth in from
the door of another man's house," but surely the Hebrew reading n s 3 ba
"to another man's house" gives a better sense. The Greek otto
fiipas ...eh oMav is easily explained, since if, instead of the full form
JV3 ba, the Hebrew had read ITO?, the word would be ambiguous.
But the passage in which the Hebrew gives the prettiest variant of
all is in xiii. 15 seq. By reading f[M for 't\ty in verse 16, the Greek
gives us ncura a-apt- instead of bird, while the Rev^ers (wrongly I think)
change beast as given by the A. V. in verse 15 into " living creature."
By this the parallelism is quite lost. If the reader will cast his eye
down the third column and will compare the italicized lines with
those in roman type (omitting for the present verse 20), he will see
that the Hebrew beautifully preserves throughout the comparison
of a fact in brute nature to a corresponding fact in human nature.
For verse 20 the Hebrew gives us no help, but I cannot help thinking
that perhaps CI33 (restrained, humbled) was read for B>33 (lamb), and
"IT (proud) possibly for 3NT (wolf) (with allusion to Isaiah xi. 6).
It would be no insurmountable objection that verse 20 would, on this
326
THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
view, resume the thought of verse 17. This is a not unknown device
with the author of Ecclus. Comp. xxxiii. 19-23, where the final verse
(23) repeats the thought of verse 19. This is how the present passage
looks in the A.V., R.V., and in the translation suggested in part by
the Hebrew : —
A.v.
15 Every beast loveth
his like, and every man
loveth his neighbour.
16 All flesh consorteth
according to kind, and a
man will cleave to his
like.
17 What fellowship hath
the wolf with the lamb ?
so the sinner with the
godly.
18 What agreement is
there between the hyena
and a dog? and what
peace between the rich
and the poor ?
19 As the wild ass is the
lion's prey in the wilder-
ness, so the rich eat up
the poor.
20 As the proud hate
humility: so doth the
rich abhor the poor.
E.V.
Every living creature
loveth his like,
And every man loveth
his neighbour.
All flesh consorteth
according to kind.
And a man will cleave
to his like.
What fellowship shall
the wolf have with the
lamb?
So is the sinner unto
the godly.
What peace is there
between the hyena and
the dog?
And what peace be-
tween the rich man and
the poor ?
Wild asses are the
prey of lions in ,the wil-
derness ;
So poor men are pas-
ture for the rich.
Lowliness is an abom-
ination to a proud man,
So a poor man is an
abomination to the rich.
Beading suggested by
the Hebrew.
Every beast loveth his
like,
And every man loveth
his neighbour.
Every bird dwelleth with
its kind,
And a man will cleave
to his like.
What fellowship hath
the wolf with the lanib ?
So is the sinner unto
the godly.
What peace is there be-
tween the hyena and the
dog?
And what peace be-
tween the rich man and
the poor ?
Wild asses are the prey
of lions in the wilder-
ness ;
So poor men are pas-
ture for the rich.
As the lamb is hated by
the wolf,
So a poor man is an
abomination to the rich.
The Revisers, indeed, make use of the Hebrew (or rather Syriac)
in Ecclus. xxii. 6, but for some curious reason they reject even the
three clear and well-established emendations (which Cheyne rightly
accepts, op. cit., p. 196) of "WJ for "IN3, xxiv. 27, of poison for head,
xxv. 15, and enemies for Tyrians in xlvi. 18.
It would be hard to congratulate the Revisers too cordially on the
courage with which they have omitted the spurious additions to
Ecclesiasticus. Perhaps the omitted passages should have been placed
in the margin, or in an Appendix, but that was hardly consistent
with the nature of their work. Nor would it be easy to cite the
many places in which their renderings in this difficult book are
decided improvements. I very much fancy the Revisers' phrase in
xxii. 11, "Weep more sweetly for the dead" — it is a perfect foil to
CRITICAL NOTICES
327
the older classical expression "to weep bitterly," and is a distinct
gain to Biblical phraseology. In x. 27, Proverbs xii. 9 has been
rightly used to get the text. But I wish the Revisers had seen their
way in the Introduction of Ecclus. to translate " and are attached to
these writings (i. e. this book)," instead of " addicted to these things,"
which is very ambiguous.
An excellent change in xv. 15, must, however, be specially com-
mended :
A. V. E. V.
If thou •wilt, to keep the command-
ments, and to perform acceptable
faithfulness.
If thou 'wilt, thou shalt keep the
commandments ;
And to perform faithfulness, is of
thine own good pleasure.
The Wisdom of Solomon as it appears in the Revised Version is
almost a new book. The translators have here produced a master-
piece. So frequent and so admirable are the changes, that I despair
to select adequate specimens. Could anything be better than the
word nature for vnoarao-is in xvi. 21? The A.V. of xv. 19 runs thus :
" Neither are they beautiful, so much as to be desired in respect of
beasts : but they went without the praise of God and his blessing '■' —
which is a real puzzle. The R.V. beautifully renders : —
Neither, as seen beside other creatures, are they beautiful, so that one
should desire them,
But they have escaped both the praise of X3od and his blessing.
Another very difficult passage is xvii. 1 1 seq., and here the altera-
tions are so felicitous and scholarly that I must find space for
a longer quotation : —
A.V.
11 For wickedness, condemned by
her own witness, is very timorous, and
being pressed with conscience, always
forecasteth grievous things.
12 For fear is nothing else but a be-
traying of the succours which reason'
offereth.
13 And the expectation from within,
being less, counteth the ignorance
more than the cause which bringeth
the torment.
14. But they, sleeping the same sleep
that night, which was indeed intoler-
able, and which came upon them out
of the bottoms of the inevitable hell,
E.V.
For wickedness, condemned by a
witness within, is a coward thing,
And being pressed hard by con-
science, always forecasteth the worst
lot:
For fear is nothing else but a sur-
render of the succours whioh reason
offereth ;
And from within the heart the ex-
pectation of them being less
Maketh of greater account the ignor-
ance of the cause that bringeth the
torment.
But they, all through the night
which was powerless indeed,
And which came upon them out of
the recesses of powerless Hades,
All sleeping the same sleep,
328 THE JEWISH QUARTERLY REVIEW
A.V. E.V.
15 Were partly vexed with monstrous Now were haunted by monstrous
apparitions, and partly fainted, their apparitions,
heart failing them : for a sudden fear, And now were paralysed by their
and not looked for, came upon them. soul's surrendering :
For fear sudden and nnlooked for
came upon them.
It is a pity to stop the quotation here, for the whole of this most
difficult chapter scintillates with amazingly luminous emendations,
which stamp the Revisers as masters of Greek and English. Other
smaller changes are always improvements ; in i. 12, " Court not
death," exactly catches the force of foXnvv, and is a delightful im-
provement on the A.V. "Seek not death." Death is personified in
i. 16, and the Revisers correctly substitute him for it. In iii. 14 (it will
be observed that the passages I am here citing are mostly the same
difficult texts which induced Prof. Margoliouth to propound the strange
hypothesis that the original language of the Wisdom was something
other than Greek), the Revisers rightly replace the A. V. " For unto
him shall be given the special gift of faith " by " For there shall be
given him for his faithfulness a peculiar favour," for maris means
fidelity in many passages of Hellenistic Greek (cf. Freudenthal,
J. Q. R. Ill, 741-2). In iv. 10, the Revisers' emendation is admirable.
The A. V. reads : " He pleased God and was beloved of him," the
R. V. has " Being found well-pleasing unto God he was beloved of
him," which well brings out the idea that r)yanf]8r) is the consequence
of the righteous man being evdpfaros. The " much people " of the
R.V. in vi. 2 represents the Greek rrX-qdovs rather better than does the
A. V. "people."
I have only left myself space to say a word or two of the new
rendering of the Books of the Maccabees. Scholarly care is dis-
cernible in every line of the revision. In 2 Mace. iv. 9, the Greek
has tovs iv'Upoa-oKifiois 'Avrio)(eis dvaypd^ai, which the A.V. makes non-
sense of. The R.V. gives the right meaning : "And to register the inhabi-
tants of Jerusalem as citizens of Antioch." On the other hand, the
technical title orparrryds, in 1 Mace. xi. 59, means more than captain;
commander would perhaps be a better term (cf. 1 Mace. xiv. 47). At
all events 1 Mace. xiv. 27-28 is not satisfactorily dealt with, for what-
ever the right reading is it cannot be " in Asaramel," nor is the latter
obscure word the name of a place. Schfirer's suggestion {Jewish People
in the time of Christ, E. T. I, i. p. 265, note 17), that the original was
?N QJ? "W [3D, has much to recommend it. But the Revisers seem
throughout their work on the Apocrypha to have resisted practically
every temptation to construct the text by the aid of Hebrew. In no
other way can one so readily explain their omission, e.g. in Ecclus. vi. 2,
CRITICAL NOTICES 329
to read " by a bull " instead of " as a bull " (cf. Ball's Introduction
to the Variorum Apocrypha). Might not a better reading have been
obtained, too, in 1 Mace. ii. 57, by remembering that VHDn (especially
in the books of the Maccabees), would mean pious acts rather than
•mercy ? It is hard to understand how " David for being merciful
inherited the throne." The writer, however, might well have cited
David's piety as the cause of his preferment. Mercy was hardly
a characteristic of the Biblical David, however much his virtues were
idealized.
In the preceding comments, undue prominence has perhaps been
given to passages in which I venture to diifer from the conclusions
arrived at by the compilers of the version under review. But these
comments must not be taken to imply that I do not fully appreciate
the magnitude of the service the Revisers have rendered. The
Revisers might well address captious critics in the words prefaced
by the grandson of Jesus the son of Sirach to the Greek translation
of his father's wisdom : — " Ye are intreated therefore to read with
favour and attention, and to pardon us, if in any parts of what we
have laboured to interpret, we may seem to fail in some of the
phrases." But the authors of this translation have no need to plead
for mercy. The most rigid and candid justice must assign to parts of
their work a very high place, and to all of their work an honourable
and respectable place, among the great translations of the present
century.
I. Abrahams.
THE SIFRE ZUTA.
Nt31f >l "iaD. Si/re" Suta, d. i. eig. Si/re" Numeri (in 2. Recension) zum
ersten Male nach dem handschrifilichen Midrasch ha-gadol, Jalkut
Simeoni u. a., gesammelt und mit Anmerhungen versehen, nebst
einer ausfuhrlichen Einleitung herausgegeben von Dr. B. K5nigs-
beegee. (1. Lieferung, Frankfurt a. M. Kauffmann, 1894.
24 Blatter, 8vo.)
Ik addition to the Sifre on the Book of Numbers, there was another
Tannaite Midrash, several fragments of which are preserved in the
Jalkut Shimeoni. With these and other fragments as a basis to work
on, the late Nehemiah Brull contributed to the Jubilee Volume, pub-
lished on the occasion of Graetz's seventieth birthday, a descriptive
sketch of the lost Midrash termed the "Minor Sifre" (XDtt nBD).
He endeavoured to demonstrate that that Midrash did not belong to
a late period, as even Weiss's History of Tradition assumes, but that
