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THE FIVE BOOKS FROM MACKABEANS IN ENGLISH INTRODUCTION BOOK III
WITH NOTES AND ILLUSTRATIONS, BY
HENRY COTTON, D.C.L.
ARCHDEACON OF CASHEL,
AND DECEASED STUDENT AT CHRIST CHURCH, OXFORD
OXFORD, AT THE UNIVERSITY PRESS. MDCCCXXXII.
TO
THE PROVOST, FELLOWS AND SCHOLARS, VAN TRINITY COLLEGE, DUBLIN, TO WHOSE VALUABLE LIBRARY I HAD THE MOST GENEROUS ACCESS, THE PRESENT PUBLICATION IS ENGRAVED, IN TESTIMONY OF RESPECT AND REGARD.
BOOK III INTRODUCTION
The third book, or second of our Bibles, contains, under the form of an abridgment, some account of the transactions of about fifteen years, commencing with a period ten or twelve years earlier than the preceding book. Jason, one of the Jews who were living at Cyrene in Africa, appears to have described, in five books, the principal transactions of the Jews during the reigns of Seleucus IV, Antiochus Epiphanes, and Antiochus Eupator. His work was abridged, by order of the Sanhedrim of Jerusalem, (as is asserted by Sixtus Senensis,) by some unknown writer; who has also added to the book, as we now possess it, the acts and death of Nicanor, derived from some other source. It is observable, that the two epistles occurring at the beginning of the work belong to a later period ; and these, in the opinion of Grotius, may have been taken from the records of the Jewish synagogue at Alexandria. By the style, and also by the manner of computation, which differs from that of the preceding book, abridger at least, if not the, author, appears to have been a Hellenistic Jew.
The work exists in Greek, but is not known in Hebrew. It has been attributed to Philo, and to Josephus and by Leo Allatius, to Simon Maccabaeus. It is thought to be the Mακκαβαικων Επιτομη] mentioned in the ” Stromata” of Clemens Alexan- drinus. In point of authority and historic value it is considered far inferior to the former book, from which it differs in several particulars. There is a Syriac version of it in the London Polyglott. quisitions ; A German translation was published in 1786, by Jo. G. Hasse, accompanied by several critical disquisitions; the author of which is of opinion that it was written about B. C. 150, by some Egyptian Jew, namely, the same person who composed the book of Wisdom, attributed to Solomon. The English version of the second and third books, which appears in the present volume, is that of our authorized Bible; but corrected in very many places by aid of the various readings from Greek manuscripts, furnished in the folio Oxford Septuagint, edited by Holmes and Parsons.
As these two have generally accompanied the Bibles throughout the western church, they have, much more than all the others, engaged the attention both of critics and commentators. A Harmony of them was composed and printed, though never published, by a French author, named Nicolas Toinard, who died in 1706. There seems great reason to regret the non-appearance of this work, from the high character which is bestowed on its author by cardinal Noris, in his ” Epochse ” Syro-Macedonum,” 4to. 1696. At p. 78, Noris thus expresses himself:
” Spero fore ut hunc no
” bis nodum solvat Nieolaus Toinardus Aurelia
” nensis, in Harmonia libri utriusque Maccabaeo
” rum. Nam cum in sacra seque ac profana his
” toria sit versatissimus, idemque peregrinarum ” linguarum peritissimus, simulque veterum num
” raorum Regum Syrise aliorumque curiosus per
” scrutator et interpres doctissimus, in laudato’
” opere typis quidem impresso sed nondum pub ” lici juris facto, historiam Maccabseorum ac re
” rum ab iis gestarum tempora summa eruditione ” explicabit.” Again, at p. 244 :
” Idem etiam ” qui totara banc messem inetet, longe probabilio ” rem eorundem interpretationem exhibebit, quam
” et ipse veluti ab oraculo emissam cum plausu ” excipiam.”
The above translated from Latin to English
” I hope that this double knot will be solved by Nieolaus Toinardus of Aurelia, in the Harmony of the Books of the Two Maccabees. For since he is most versed in sacred and profane history, and is also most expert in foreign languages, and at the same time a most learned examiner and interpreter of the ancient chronicles of the Kings of Syria and others, in a praised work, printed indeed but not yet made public, he will explain with the greatest erudition the history of the Maccabees and the events of their deeds.” Again, at p. 244:
” The same also, who will intepret the whole of the world, will, with great probability, exhibit an interpretation of the same thing, which I myself, as if uttered by an oracle, would welcome with applause.”
A short ordo temporum accompanies Houbi gant’s preface to these books in his edition of the Hebrew Bible, 4 vols,folio, 1753. Information illus trative of the Maccabaean history from coins may be found in ” Vaillant’s Historia Regum Syriae,” fol. 1732
A Latin version, or rather Harmony, is said (by Harles, ” Introductio ad Ling. Grαec..” tom. II. part. 2. p. 54.) to have been commenced by Jo. Melchior Faber of Anspach, in a dissertation en titled, ” Harmonia Maccabaeorum,” Onoldini, 1794. This treatise I have not seen.books, in his edition of the Hebrew Bible, 4 vols,folio, 1753.
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