the Diatessaron, all translated from the Syriac, two Arabic, and two Armenian. The date of the Diatessaron is given as A. D. 160-170, but Flournoy (No. 67) gives A. D. 150 as the probable date.

Cf. No. 108 (Hogg) and No. 120 (Kenyon) as above; also No. 67 (Flournoy) and article in The Month (London) for December, 1892, by Professor Maher of Stonyhurst. The Diatessaron includes the verses Mark xvi. 9-end.

F. C. Burkitt in his monumental work on the Old Syriac Version, "Evangelion da Mepharresche," decides in favour of the view that Tatian's Diatessaron is earlier than the Old Syriac, the date of which he places at about A. D. 200. The Rev. Joseph John Scott quotes Burkitt (as above) in "The Life of Christ" (No. 151), a modern Diatessaron. Scott places the date of the Diatessaron at "about A. D. 170."

(See additional Note in Appendix 4.)

T

VII.

THE VULGATE.

HE Vulgate was for a thousand years the parent of all

editions of the Bible in Western Europe. In its revised form it is to-day the authorized Bible of the Roman Catholic Church.

The Vulgate is a translation of the Bible into Latin from various sources by Jerome.

Among these sources the principal were (a) the Hebrew of the Old Testament, (b) the Greek Septuagint, (c) the Old Latin.

The New Testament is taken from early Greek MSS.

The authorship of the Old Latin is lost in obscurity. Its date is assigned to the middle or latter half of the second century, or nearly the same period as that of the Peshito.

The Old Latin Version of the Old Testament is taken from the Greek Septuagint, and not from the Hebrew direct.

The Old Latin Version includes the Apocrypha, but did not originally include Hebrews, James, or 2 Peter. It can be traced up to the time of Tertullian, who was born about A. D. 160.

The existence of the Old Latin previous to this period, is attested by contemporary evidence. Bishop Westcott concludes that its date must be previous to A. D. 170, and says: "How much more ancient it is cannot really be discovered."

Kenyon (No. 82, page 79) has a note which is useful as giving incidental proof of the antiquity of the Old Latin Version.

"The Old Latin Version of Ecclesiasticus enables us to correct a disarrangement which has taken place in the text of the Septuagint. In the Greek Version, chapter 30.25-33.13 (a) is

placed after chapter 36.16 (a), which is plainly wrong. The Latin Version has preserved the true order, which has been followed in our Authorized Version."

The

The text of the Old Latin Version became corrupted. variances between different copies were so numerous and important that Pope Damasus in A. D. 383, directed Jerome, as the most learned scholar of the day, to undertake its revision, and, as a result of his labours, we have the Latin translation of the Bible, known as the Vulgate.

Although the Septuagint and the Old Latin Versions were leading authorities consulted by Jerome, he went direct to the Hebrew (O. T.) and to the "Old" Greek (N. T.) MSS. and to all other authorities available in his day.

He commenced with the New Testament, first revising the Gospels with great care. He made no less than three revisions of the Psalms. About the year 387 he commenced his greatest work, that of a new version of the Old Testament direct from the Hebrew.

The Gospels were issued about A. D. 383 and the New Testament was completed soon afterwards.

The translation of the Old Testament occupied about fifteen years (390-405). Jerome died September 30, A. D. 420.

Jerome's Vulgate encountered much opposition and even contemptuous criticism. It was pronounced “revolutionary," "heretical," "subversive of all faith in Holy Scripture," "an impious tampering with the inspired Word of God."

For centuries it was rejected and condemned. By its own good qualities, it gradually gained a commanding position and became the Vulgate or Common Version of the Western Church.

Gregory, the Great, made use of the Vulgate. This set the tide in its favour, and the Roman Council of Trent (1546) declared it to be authentic.

Jerome's Vulgate was revised by Alcuin at the instance of

Charlemagne about A. D. 802. This revision practically lasted for 600 years or until the printing press was established.

As to Jerome's three revisions of the Psalter:

No. I was from the Old Latin and the Septuagint, and is known as the Roman Psalter.

No. 2 was from the Old Latin and the Septuagint, with the aid of Origen's Hexapla, and is now known as the Gallican Psalter.

No. I is earlier in date than No. 2, but No. 2 is more freely revised than No. I. The Old Latin Psalter was used in the services of the Church long after Jerome's Vulgate had come into general use.

The third version of the Psalter was made from the Hebrew but never came into use in the Church service. No. I was

executed in Rome A. D. 383 and was used in the churches in the city of Rome down to the sixteenth century. It is still used in the Chapel of the Vatican and in St. Peter's in Rome, and also in St. Mark's, Venice.

No. 2 was executed at Bethlehem A. D. 389 with full and constant reference to Origen's edition of the Septuagint. It came to England from France, and was adopted in the "Sarum Use" A. D. 1085. From the Sarum Use it passed into the Great Bible, and from the Great Bible into the English Prayer Book. Here we have the explanation of the variance between the Bible and the Prayer Book versions of the Psalms, the Prayer Book still retaining the version taken from the Great Bible or "Jerome No. 2."

The Prayer Book version of the Psalter presents the original, as it were, at the fourth, or even fifth, hand, as follows: 1. Hebrew (the original).

2. Greek (the Septuagint).

3. Latin (the Old Latin).

4. Vulgate (Jerome's Gallican Psalter No. 2).

5. Prayer Book Psalter from the Gallican Psalter through the Sarum Use, and the Great Bible, &c.

VIII.

QUOTATIONS FROM EARLY CHRISTIAN WRITERS, ETC.

E may gather help in arriving at the text or words of Scripture as accepted and read by the Church in the early days from quotations by early Christian writers. Without giving a long list of names, a list of about a dozen is now given, a mere handful among many, taken at intervals so as to form suggestive links in a long chain, taken from different parts of the world, so as to show the world-wide evidence, traced backward from the beginning of the fourth century up to the time of the Apostles themselves.

These writers, as well as those of the omitted links of the chain, quote fully and constantly from the books which form our present Bible, treating them as Scripture.

The list referred to is as follows: