question, will no more prove his approbation of the whole book, than Paul's quotations from certain heathen poets prove that apostle's approbation of every part of the compositions to which he referred.

On a reference to the passages of the Old Testament, which are accommodated by the evangelical writers, it will be observed that, by far the greater number of such accommodations has been made by Saint Paul. But the same great apostle of the Gentiles, becoming all things to all men, and being deeply versed in the works of heathen authors, as well as in the sacred writings, did not confine himself exclusively to the inspired books: and, accordingly, we have three instances in the New Testament of the fine taste and ability with which he accommodated passages from Pagan authors, when contending with the Gentiles, or writing to Gentile converts. The first is in Acts xvii. 28. where he cites part of a verse from the Phænomena of Aratus.

The passage was originally spoken of the heathen deity Jupiter, and is dexterously applied to the true God by Paul, who draws a very strong and conclusive inference from it.

The second instance alluded to is in 1 Cor. xv. 33. in which pas sage the apostle quotes a senary iambic, which is supposed to have been taken from Menander's lost comedy of Thais.

Φθείρουσιν ήθη χρησθ' ομιλίαι κακαι :

rendered, in our translation, Evil communications corrupt good man

ners.

The last instance to be noticed under this head is Titus i. 12. where Saint Paul quotes from Epimenides, a Cretan poet, the verse which has already been cited and illustrated in Vol. I. pp. 195, 196.; to which the reader is referred.

1 See pp. 440, 441. supra.

1. A large portion of the Old Testament proved to be poetical ;· Cultivation of Poetry by the Hebrews.-II. The Sententious Parallelism, the Grand Characteristic of Hebrew Poetry. Its ori gin and varieties. 1. Parallel Lines gradational; -2. Paral lel Lines antithetic; — 3. Parallel Lines constructive; — 4. Parallel Lines introverted.-III. The Poetical Dialect not confined to the Old Testament. Reasons for expecting to find it in the New Testament.-Proofs of the existence of the poetical dialect there; -1. From simple and direct quotations of single passages from the poetical parts of the Old Testament; -2. From quotations of different passages, combined into one connected whole;· 3. And from quotations mingled with original matter.-IV. Original Parallelisms occurring in the New Testament, — 1. Parallel Couplets-2. Parallel Triplets;-3. Quatrains; -4, 5. Stanzas of five and six lines;—6. Stanzas of more than six parallel lines. —V. Other examples of the poetical parallelism in the New Testament; -1. Parallel Lines Gradational; -2. The Epanodos.-VI. Different kinds of Hebrew Poetry.-1. Prophetic Poetry;-2. Elegiac Poetry;-3. Didactic Poetry; -4. Lyric Poetry;-5. The Idyl;-6. Dramatic Poetry;7. Acrostic or Alphabetical Poetry.— VII. General Observations for the better understanding the compositions of the sacred poets. I. IT is obvious to the most cursory reader of the Holy Scriptures, that among the books of the Old Testament there is such an apparent diversity in style, as sufficiently discovers which of them are to be considered as poetical, and which are to be regarded as prose compositions. While the historical books and legislative writings of Moses are evidently prosaic in their composition, the book of Job, the Psalms of David, the Song of Solomon, the Lamentations of Jeremiah, a great part of the prophetic writings, and several passages occasionally scattered through the historical books, bear the most plain and distinguishing marks of poetical writing. We can have no reason to doubt that these were originally written in verse, or in some kind of measured numbers; though, as the antient pronunciation of the Hebrew language is now lost, we can only very imperfectly as certain the nature of the Hebrew verse.

From the manner, however, in which Josephus, Origen, and Jerome have spoken of the Hebrew poetry, it should seem that in their time its beauty and rules were well known. Josephus repeatedly affirms that the songs composed by Moses are in heroic verse, and

1 In illustration of this remark, we may mention the song of Moses at the Red Sea, (Exod. xv.); the prophecy of Balaam, (Num. xxiv. 18-24.): the song of Deborah, and Barak, (Jud. v.) Nor is it improbable that the Book of the Wars of the Lord, (Numb. xxi. 14.) and the Book of Jasher, (Josh. x. 13. 2 Sam. i. 18.) were written in poetic measures.

2 Antiq. Jud. lib. ii. c. 16. § 4. lib. iv. c. 8. § 44. and lib. vii. c. 12. § 3.

that David composed several sorts of verses and songs, odes and hymns, in honour of God: some of which were in trimeters or verses of three feet, and others in pentameters or verses of five feet. Origen and Eusebius are said to have espoused the same notion: and Jerome, probably influenced by the manner in which he found the poetical parts of the Old Testament exhibited in the manuscripts of the Septuagint version, fancied that he perceived iambic, alcaic, and sapphic verses in the psalms, similar to those occurring in the works of Pindar and Horace: hexameters and pentameters in the songs of Deuteronomy and Isaiah, the book of Job, and those of Solomon; and sapphic verses in the Lamentations of Jeremiah.1 Among modern writers, the nature and genius of Hebrew poetry have been warmly contested; but by no one have these subjects been illustrated with more elegance and ability than by the late eminently learned Bishop of London, Dr. Robert Lowth. In the third of his justly admired Lectures on Hebrew Poetry," he has collected much and very valuable information concerning the much litigated question, respecting the nature of Hebrew metre; but many of his arguments are successfully controverted by Bishop Jebb, in his Sacred Literature ;* to which work, and to Bishop Lowth's Lectures, the reader is necessarily referred, as the discussion of this very difficult question would extend this chapter to an inordinate length. The construction, characteristics, and different kinds of Hebrew Poetry, including also the poetical style of the New Testament, are the subjects now to be con

1 Hieronymi, Præfat. in Chronic. Epist. 135. ad Paul. Urb. et Epist. ad Paulin. Comment. in Ezek. c. 30.

2 Carpzov (Introd. ad Libros Canonicos Vet. Test. pars ii. pp. 28, 29.) has given a list of antient and modern writers who have treated on Hebrew poetry; and in pp. 2-27. he has noticed the various discordant opinions on this topic. The hypothesis of Bishop Hare on Hebrew metre was refuted by Bishop Lowth at the end of his lectures, and also in his " Larger Confutation," published in 1766, in 8vo., in answer to Dr. Edwards's Latin Letter in defence of Hare's system, published in the preceding year. The general opinion of the learned world has coincided with the arguments of Lowth.

3 The first edition of these lectures appeared in 1753, in 4to., under the title of "De Sacra Pocsi Hebræorum Prælectiones Academica:" a second edition was printed by Bishop Lowth in 1763, in two volumes octavo; the second volume, consisting of additions made by the celebrated Professor Michaelis, who had reprinted the Prælectiones at Göttingen. Several subsequent editions have issued from the Clarendon press; particularly a beautiful one in 1821, including (besides the additions of Michaelis) the further observations of Rosenmüller, (whose edition appeared at Leipsic in 1815,) Ritcher and Weiss. In 1787, the late Dr. George Gregory printed his excellent English translation of Bishop Lowth's Lectures, in two octavo volumes, with some very important additional notes; which was reprinted in 1816. In 1787 M. Herder published at Leipsic two octavo volumes On the Spirit of Hebrew Poetry; from which a selection was translated and published in 1801, under the title of Oriental Dialogues. Both these publications are distinguished by that bold criticism, which for the last fifty or sixty years has characterised too many of those German divines, to whose researches in other respects, biblical literature is so largely indebted. Sir William Jones has a few observations on Hebrew metres in his Poesos Asiatica Comment. cap. ii. (Works, vi. pp. 22-59.)

4 pp. 4-22. The title at length of this beautifully and correctly printed work is as follows: -"Sacred Literature: comprising a Review of the Principles of Composition, laid down by the late Robert Lowth, D. D. Lord Bishop of London, in his Prælections and Isaiah, and an application of the principles so reviewed to the illustration of the New Testament. By John Jebb, A. M. [now D. D. and Bishop of Limerick.] London, 1820." 8vo.

sidered and our account of them is chiefly abridged from the Lectures of Bishop Lowth, and from his preliminary dissertation prefixed to his version of the prophet Isaiah, together with Bishop Jebb's elegant and instructive volume above cited.

-

The peculiar excellence of the Hebrew poetry will appear, when we consider that its origin and earliest application have been clearly traced to the service of religion. To celebrate in hymns and songs the praises of Jehovah to decorate the worship of the Most High with all the charms and graces of harmony to give force and energy to the devout affections was the sublime employment of the sacred muses and it is more than probable, that the very early use of sacred music in the public worship of the Hebrews, contributed not a little to the peculiar character of their poetry, and might impart to it that appropriate form, which, though chiefly adapted to this particular purpose, it nevertheless preserves on every other occasion. In the Old Testament we have ample evidence that music and poetry were cultivated from the earliest ages among the Hebrews. In the days of the judges, mention is made of the schools or colleges of the prophets; in which the candidates for the prophetic office, under the direction of some superior prophet, being altogether removed from intercourse with the world, devoted themselves entirely to the exercises and study of religion: and though the sacred history affords us but little information concerning their institutes and discipline, yet it is manifest from 1 Sam. x. 5-10. and xix. 20-24., that a principal part of their occupation consisted in celebrating the praises of Jehovah in hymns and poetry, with choral chants accompanied with various musical instruments. But it was during the reign of David, that music and poetry were carried to the greatest perfection. For the service of the tabernacle he appointed four thousand Levites, divided into twenty-four courses, and marshalled under several leaders, whose sole business it was to sing hymns, and to perform instrumental music in the public worship. Asaph, Heman, and Jeduthun were the chief directors of the music, and, from the titles of some of the psalms, we may infer that they also were excellent composers of hymns or sacred poems. In the first book of Chronicles (ch. xxv.) we have an account of the institutions of David: which were more costly, splendid, and magnificent than any that ever obtained in the public service of other nations.

II. According to Bishop Lowth there are four principal charac teristics of Hebrew poetry, viz. 1. The acrostical or alphabetical commencement of lines or stanzas;-2. The admission of foreign words and certain particles, which seldom occur in prose composi tion, and which thus form a distinct poetical dialect;-3. Its sententious, figurative, and sublime expressions; and, 4. Parallelism, the nature of which is fully illustrated in a subsequent page. But the existence of the three first of these characteristics has been disproved by Bishop Jebb, who observes that the grand characteristic of Hebrew poetry does not appear to belong peculiarly to the original language of the Old Testament as contra-distinguished from that

of the New. "It is not the acrostical, or regularly alphabetical commencement of lines or stanzas; for this occurs but in twelve poems of the Old Testament: it is not the introduction of foreign words, and of what grammarians call the paragogic, or redundant particles; for these licenses, though frequent, are by no means universal, in the poetical books of Scripture; and they are occasionally admitted in passages merely historical and prosaic: it is not the rhyming termination of lines; for no trace of this artifice is discoverable in the alphabetical poems, the lines or stanzas of which are defined with infallible precision; and every attempt to force it on the text, has been accompanied by the most licentious mutilation of Scripture: and finally, this grand characteristic is not the adoption of metre, properly so called, and analagous to the metre of the heathen classies; for the efforts of the learned, to discover such metre in any one poem of the Hebrews, have universally failed; and while we are morally certain, that, even though it were known and employed by the Jews, while their language was a living one, it is quite beyond recovery in the dead and unpronounceable state of that language, there are also strong reasons for believing, that, even in the most flourishing state of their literature, the Hebrew poets never used this decoration. Again, it is most certain, that the proper characteristic of Hebrew poetry is not elation, grandeur, or sublimity, either of thought or diction. In these qualities, indeed, a large portion of the poetical Scriptures, is not only distinguished, but unrivalled: but there are also many compositions in the Old Testament, indisputably poetical, which, in thought and expression, do not rise above the ordinary tone of just and clear conceptions, calmly, yet pointedly delivered."

The grand, and indeed, the sole characteristic of Hebrew Poetry, is what Bishop Lowth entitles Parallelism, that is, a certain equality, resemblance, or relationship, between the members of each period; so that in two lines, or members of the same period, things shall answer to things, and words to words, as if fitted to each other by a kind of rule or measure. This is the general strain of the Hebrew poetry; instances of which occur in almost every part of the Old Testament, particularly in the ninety-sixth psalm.

It is in a great measure owing to this form of composition that our admirable authorised version, though executed in prose, retains so much of a poetical cast; for, that version being strictly word for word after the original, the form and order of the original sentences are preserved; which, by this artificial structure, this regular alternation and correspondence of parts, makes the ear sensible of a departure from the common style and tone of prose.

The origin of this form of poetical composition among the Hebrews, Bishop Lowth has satisfactorily deduced from the manner in which they were accustomed to sing or chant their sacred hymns. They were accompanied with music, and were alternately sung by opposite choirs: sometimes one choir performed the hymn itself, while the other sang a particular distich, which was regularly in1 Bp. Jebb's Sacred Literature, pp. 4, 5. 57

VOL. II.