314 017800 1893 B1 PREFACE. IBLICAL Study was greatly stimulated among English-speaking people by the appearance of the Revised Version. Much attention has of late years been directed to the examination of the original Text of the Bible, and to the investigation of the literary character of the various books. Explorations and discoveries in the East are constantly furnishing new matter for Biblical illustration. The present Volume is intended to supply such information on the Structure and Text of the Bible, and the way in which its composite material was gathered together, as may enable the English reader to understand questions now largely discussed. The papers which deal with these matters are supplemented by an account, written by the Bishop of Durham, of the Sacred Books of Præ-christian religions, and by a history of the English Bible. A large space has been devoted to a description of the contents of the several books of both Testaments and of the Apocrypha. In the New Testament special attention is bestowed on the Arguments of the separate Epistles and on, a subject now much discussed, the relations of the Gospels to one another. The external history of Israel has been drawn into a continuous narrative, and the religious history of the nation is sketched in the development of the Messianic hope. To the history of the Apostolic Age is appended an account of the condition of the Jews Greeks and Romans at that time. Biblical Chronology has been presented in the traditional form, which appears in the margins of our Bibles, but throughout the History of the Kingdoms, where the Inscriptions furnish trustworthy grounds for modification, such changes as appear warranted have been introduced into the Tables in a separate column. The Antiquities of the Bible, and the Geology, Climate, Geography, and Natural History of the Holy Land, are treated of in separate articles. Much care has been bestowed on the Index of Proper Names, in which all the changes made in the Revised Version are recorded. The volume is made complete by a Glossary of Bible Words, an Index of Subjects, and a Concordance of considerable fulness. An entirely new set of maps has been provided, and in that which illustrates the Travels of St Paul account has been taken of the latest investigations concerning the roads in Asia Minor. CAMBRIDGE, December, 1892. TABLE OF CONTENTS. PAGE 1. The Bible and its names.-Old and New Testaments 2. Groups of Books of the Old Testament (Pentateuch, Historical Books, Poetical II. THE LIMITS AND GROWTH OF THE 1. History of the Canon of the Old Testament The Apocrypha and other apocryphal books B. Ancient Versions (Samaritan Pentateuch, Targums, Septuagint and deri- vative Versions, other Greek Versions, Vulgate Latin, Syriac, and others) Greek Manuscripts, New Testament and Lectionaries B. Ancient Versions (Latin, Syriac, Egyptian, Ethiopic, Armenian, Gothic) Samaritan Pentateuch and the Targums (Old Testament) b. Septuagint and other Greek Versions of the Old Testament f. Other Ancient Translations e. Gothic By the Rev. Dr SINKER. A |