proprietor of the kingdom, in the other the place, it is evident that this does not hold always. In parallel passages in the different Gospels, where the same facts are recorded, the former of these expressions is commonly used by Matthew, and the other as equivalent by the other evangelists. Nay, the phrase ẞaoilea Twv ovpavwv is adopted, when it is manifest that the place of dominion suggested is earth, not heaven; and that, therefore, the term can be understood only as a synonyma for Jɛos. The prodigal says to his father, "Father, I have sinned against Heaven and before thee," Luke xv. 18, 21; that is, against God and thee: otherwise to speak of sinning against an inanimate object would be exceedingly unsuitable both to the Christian theology and to the Jewish. "The baptism of John," says our Lord, "whence was it; from Heaven or of men ?" Matt. xxi. 25. From Heaven, that is, from God. Divine authority is here opposed to human. This difference, however, in the sense of oupavos, makes no difference to a translator, inasmuch as the vernacular term with us admits the same latitude with the Hebrew and the Greek.

5. That Barida ought sometimes to be rendered reign, and not kingdom, I shall further evince when I illustrate the import of the words knpuσow, evayyedišw, and some others. Isaiah, Daniel, Micah, and others of the prophets, had encouraged the people to expect a time when the Lord of Hosts should reign in Mount Zion and in Jerusalem, when the people of God should be redeemed from their enemies, and made joyful in the Messiah their King. It was this happy epoch that was generally understood to be denominated by the phrases βασιλεια του Θεού, and βασιλɛla Twv ovρavwv, the reign of God, and the reign of Heaven: the approach of which was first announced by the Baptist, afterward by our Lord himself and his apostles. Bartλeta is applicable in both acceptations, and it needs only to be observed, that when it refers to the time, it ought to be rendered reign, when to the place, kingdom. For this reason, when it is construed with the verb κηρύσσω, ευαγγελίζω, καταγγελλω, or the noun ευαγγελιον, it ought invariably to be reign, as also when it is spoken as come, coming, or approaching.

6. The French have two words corresponding to ours, règne, reign, and royaume, kingdom. Their interpreters have often fallen into the same fault with ours, substituting the latter word for the former; yet, in no French translation that I have seen, is this done so uniformly as in ours. In the Lord's Prayer, for example, they all say, ton règne vienne not ton royaume, thy reign come, not thy kingdom. On the other hand, when mention is made of entrance or admission into the Basiλeia, or exclusion from it, or where there is a manifest reference to the state of the blessed hereafter; in all these cases, and perhaps a few others, wherein the sense may easily be collected from the context, it ought to be rendered kingdom, and not reign.

7. There are a few passages, it must be acknowledged, in which neither of the English words can be considered as a translation of Barista strictly proper. In some of the parables (Matt. xviii. 23.) it evidently means administration, or method of governing; and in one of them, (Luke xix. 12, 15,) the word denotes royalty, or royal authority, there being a manifest allusion to what had been done by Herod the Great, and his immediate successor, in recurring to the Roman senate in order to be invested with the title and dignity of King of Judea, then dependent upon Rome. But where there is a proper attention to the scope of the place, one will be at no loss to discover the import of the word.

PART II.

OF THE NAME το Ευαγγέλιον.

I PROCEED to inquire into the meaning of the word το Ευαγγελιον.. This term, agreeably to its etymology, from eu, bene, and ayyeλia, nuncium, always in classical use, where it occurs but rarely, denotes either good news, or the reward given to the bearer of good news. Let us see what ought to be accounted the Scriptural use of the term. Ευαγγελιον and ευαγγελια occur six times in the Septuagint in the books of Samuel and Kings. I reckon them as one word, because they are of the same origin, are used indiscriminately, and always supply the place of the same Hebrew word besharah. In five of these the meaning is good news; in the sixth, the word denotes the reward given for bringing good news. In like manner, the verb ευαγγελίζειν, οι ευαγγελίζεσθαι, which occurs much oftener in the Septuagint than the noun, is always the version of the Hebrew verb bashar, læta annunciare, to tell good news. It ought to be remarked also, that Evayyeλw is the only word by which the Hebrew verb is rendered into Greek: nor do I know any word in the Greek language that is more strictly of one signification than this verb. In one instance, (1 Sam. iv. 17,) the verbal an mebasher, is indeed used for one who brings tidings, though not good; but in that place the Seventy have not employed the verb Evayyediw, or any of its derivatives. One passage, (2 Sam. i. 20,) wherein the Septuagint uses the verb ευαγγελίζομαι, has also been alleged as an exception from the common acceptation. But that this is improperly called an exception, must be manifest to every one who reflects that the total defeat of the Israelitish army, with the slaughter of the king of Israel and his sons, must have been the most joyful tidings that could have been related in Gath and Askelon, two Philistine cities. The word occurs several times in the Prophets, particularly in Isaiah, and is always rendered in the common version, either by the phrase "to bring good

DISS. V.

tidings," or by some terms nearly equivalent. It is sometimes also so rendered in the New Testament; Luke i. 19, ii. 10, viii. 1, Acts xiii. 32, Rom. x. 15, 1 Thess. iii. 6.

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2. Now, let it be observed, that when the word is introduced in the Gospels, it is generally either in a quotation from the Prophets, or in evident allusion to their words. Thus TTWɣOL EVAYYEAZOVTAL, which our translators render, (Matt. xi. 5, Luke vii. 22,) to the poor the gospel is preached," the whole context shows to be in allusion to what is said by the Prophet Isaiah, (lxi. 1,) in whom the corresponding phrase is rendered "preach good tidings to the meek." But nothing can be more to my purpose than that noted passage wherein we are told, that the place in Isaiah was read by our Lord in the synagogue of Nazareth. The words in the common translation of the Gospel are these, "The Spirit of the Lord is upon me, because he hath anointed me to preach the gospel, Evayyedai, to the poor; he hath sent me to heal the broken-hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised, to preach the acceptable year of the Lord," Luke iv. 18, 19. Now I cannot help observing of this passage, that the meaning would have been more perspicuously conveyed, and its beauty and energy would have been better preserved, if our translators had kept closer to the manner in which they had rendered it in the Old Testament. There the term Evayyediεoat is rendered "to preach good tidings." And though it is certain, agreeably to our Lord's declaration, that the gospel with its spiritual blessings are here held forth to us, it is still under the figure of temporal blessings; and therefore it is very improperly introduced by its distinguishing appellation into the version, which ought to convey the literal, not the figurative sense of the original.

Ευαγγελίζεσθαι πτωχοις, " to bring good tidings to the poor or afflicted, agreeably to the extensive signification of the Hebrew word, is the general title of the message, and comprehends the whole. It is explained by being branched out into the particulars which immediately follow. For if it be asked, What is the good tidings brought to the afflicted? the answer is, a cure to the broken-hearted, deliverance to the captives, sight to the blind. It is the Lord's jubilee, which brings freedom to the slave, acquittance to the debtor, and relief to the oppressed. Now that the gospel is herein admirably delineated is manifest; but still it is presented to us under figures, and therefore, to mention it by its peculiar title, in the midst of the figurative description, is to efface in a great measure that description; it is to jumble injudiciously the sign and the thing signified. It is as if one should confound, in an apologue or parable, the literal sense with the moral, and assert of the one what is strictly true only of the other; by which means no distinct image would be pre

sented to the mind: Or it is as when a painter supplies the defects in his work by labels, and, instead of a picture, presents us with a confused jumble, wherein some things are painted and some things described in words. But it is not in our version only, but in most modern translations, that this confusion in rendering this beautiful passage has appeared.

3. I shall add but one other instance of a quotation from the Prophets : 'Ως ὡραιοι οἱ ποδες των ευαγγελιζομενων ειρηνην, των ευαγγελιζομενων τα αγαθα : in the common version, as quoted in the New Testament, "How beautiful are the feet of them that preach the gospel of peace, and bring glad tidings of good things," Rom. x. 15. It would have been better here also, on many accounts, to keep closer to the original in Isai. lii. 7, whence the passage was taken, and to translate it thus: "How beautiful are the feet of them who bring the joyful message of peace, the joyful news of good things" at the same time I acknowledge, it is with a particular allusion to that spiritual peace, and those eternal good things, procured to us by Jesus Christ. But the beauty and energy of the allusion and implied similitude are destroyed, or rather there is no more allusion or similitude in the words, when the characteristic description intended by the Prophet is in a manner thrown aside, and in its stead is inserted the name appropriated to the dispensation. This, at least, is in part done; for the Prophet's figures are neither totally laid aside nor totally retained. Instead of imitating his simplicity of manner, they have made a jumble of the sense implied and the sense expressed. For this purpose they have rendered the same word (which is repeated in the two clauses) in one clause, "preach the gospel," according to the sense justly supposed to be figured by it in the other clause," bring glad tidings," according to the letI can see no reason for this want of uniformity, unless perhaps the notion that "the gospel of good things" sounded more awkwardly than "the gospel of peace.'

ter.

4. The Prophet's design undoubtedly was, to deliver it as an universal truth, amply confirmed by experience, that the message of peace and prosperity to those who had been oppressed and afflicted by the ravages of war, and its various unhappy consequences, was so charming, that it could transform a most disagreeable into a pleasing object. The feet of those who had travelled far in a hot country, through rough and dusty roads, present a spectacle naturally offensive to the beholder; nevertheless, the consideration that the persons themselves are to us the messengers of peace and felicity, and that it is in bringing this welcome tidings they have contracted that sordid appearance, can in an instant convert deformity into beauty, and make us behold with delight this indication of their embassy, their dirty feet, as being the natural consequence of the long journey they have made. A thought somewhat similar occurs in Horace,

lib. ii. ode 1,) who, speaking of victors returning with glory from a well-fought field, exhibits them as-"Non indecoro pulvere sordidos." The poet perceives a charm, something decorous, in the very dust and sweat with which the warriors are smeared, and which serve to recall to the mind of the spectator the glorious toils of the day: thus, things in themselves ugly and disgusting, share, when associated in the mind with things delightful, in the beauty and attractions of those things with which they are connected. But this sentiment is lost in the common version; for it might puzzle the most sagacious reader to devise a reason why the feet in particular of the Christian preacher should be declared to excel in beauty.

5. Now, in all the passages quoted from the Prophets, it appears so natural, and so proper every way, to give them in the words which had been used in translating the prophecies, when the words in the New Testament will bear the same version, that one is at a loss to conceive what could move the translators to depart from this rule. Ought they, where no ground is given for it in the original, either to make the sacred penmen appear to have misquoted the Prophets, or to make the unlearned reader imagine that the Scriptures used by them differed from those used by us, where there is not in fact any difference? Let it be observed that I say, when the words in the New Testament will bear the same version with those in the Old; for I am not for carrying this point so far as some translators have done, who, when there is a real difference in the import of the expressions, are for correcting one of the sacred writers by the other. This is not the part of a faithful translator, who ought candidly to represent what his author says, and leave it to the judicious critic to account for such differences as he best can. But it is surely a more inexcusable error to make differences where there are none, than to attempt to cover them where there are. Now, as it was never pretended that, in the passages above quoted, the Hebrew word was not justly translated by the LXX, and that the sense of both was not justly expressed by the phrase which our translators had employed in the version of the Prophets, they had no reason for adopting a different, though it were a synonymous phrase, in rendering the passage when quoted in the New. What shall we say then of their employing an expression which conveys a very different meaning?

6. I shall produce one example, which, though no quotation, yet having a direct reference to a promise often mentioned in the Old Testament, and made originally to the patriarchs, ought to have been interpreted in the most comprehensive way. Our translators, by not attending to this, have rendered a passage otherwise perspicuous perfectly unintelligible. Και γαρ εσμεν ευηγγελισ μενοι, καθαπερ κακεινοι : in the common version, "For unto us was the gospel preached as well as unto them," Heb. iv. 2.

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