The Doctrine of the Greek Article; applied to the Criticisms and the Illustration of the New Testament. By T.F.Middleton, A.M. Rector of Tansor in Northamptonshire, and of Bytham in Lincolnshire. pp. 724. Price 145. bds. Cadell and Davies, London, 1808. the purpose of saving time, and thereby assisting the introduction of a greater variety of matter into discourse. But articles do not abbreviate nouns, they seem rather to abbreviate circumstances, or to hint at them, by concise and apt allusion. Even the cockneyisms of " this here" and" that there" are abbreviations of "this, which is distinguished by the circumstance of lying here; " and " that, which is distinguished by the circumstance of lying there." To speak of a circumstance without a subject, would be a serious defect in language; to describe every circumstance at length, would be a seri ous inconvenience. If rapidity and succinctness were indulged till they generated confusion, language inust suffer, and knowledge with it. Brevity and discrimination are the wings of language. Brevity alone would become unintelligible: discrimination alone would be tiresome. These appear to be general principles. Those languages that have no article, are defective in perspicuity; often too in force, and application. But it must not be supposed that the article is without its rules in those which possess it, and what were the rules of the Greek language in reference to the article, which maintains an important place in it, is the purport of Dr. Middleton's inquiry, in the volume before us. MR. HORNE TOOKE's idea of "winged words" was a happy conception: the expression, indeed, is borrowed from Homer, but the application of it is his own. When Time was young, and subjects of discourse were few, each might be described at length, and the speaker might bestow all his tediousness" upon it, without any perceptible disadvantage. But when the articles with which men were conversant, were multiplied, their descriptions respectively, must suffer abbreviation, and the number of subjects to be described, demanded that fewer words should represent each, in order to include the whole. For time was not lengthened, because things were multiplied; words therefore, the representations of things, must be shortened, or some things must be denied their due mention in the discourse intended. Hence the shorter terms in language. Like the pins of a tabernacle, they combine the whole structure, though seldom discerned, and to these the master A few years ago Mr. Granville Sharp workman pays peculiar attention, how-published observations on the use of the ever the unskilful and unwise may neg- article, as employed by the writers of lect them. the New Testament; this we examined with niingled satisfaction and hesita tion. In the present age of the world, we cannot enter into long descriptions in order to convey information that we have seen a certain quadruped, leaping and frisking about-with long mang and tail,a horse; but the term "horse" expresses our meaning at once to whoever knows the animal: nor need we embellish our description of a bull, by imitative lowing, and butting with our heads, as Omiah did, when recently arrived from Otaheite, where bulls were unknown. The word "bull" in our language excites the idea of the animal with sufficient distinctness: Pronouns, in like manner, are representatives of nouns; and, ever retaining the purposes of winged words, they are shorter and capable of more rapid pronunciation than nouns in general. Articles, too, may be considered as abbreviated representatives, abstracts, or epitomes, for VOL. V. [Lit. Pan. Dec. 1808.] Mr. Wordsworth followed, in support of the same principles, and we attentively perused Mr. Wordsworth, who had amassed a collection of instances from the Christian Fathers, with exemplary patience, diligence, and learning. A Mr. Blunt, on the opposite side of the question, we acknowledge we did not read seriously; as that writer did not affect the character of a serious philologist. Something, however, was yet wanting, for though it was evident, that the usage was so and so, yet the reason why it was so, did not sufficiently appear. Dr. M. has supplied this deficiency: and we consider his labours as of great importance, not merely in New Testament criticism, but in the study of philology at large. His work is divided into two Parts: the first treats of the nature, power, R sition. and restrictions of the article: the second | pressions of the same idea in We scarcely know how to comprise a statement of the principles adopted by our author in his first Part, in a manner due to their importance, yet facile of comprehension to our readers, within the limits our work can allot to the subject. We earnestly recommend the perusal of this volume to every scholar; and heartily do we wish, that Dr. M. by a judicious interspersion of renderings into English, had enabled us to comprehend under this term, in this instance, that numerous body of Christian readers who from very commendable motives obtain some acquaintance with the original of the sacred writings. Let not this be despised as cf small service to knowledge and piety: nor let Dr. M. think lightly of his crime in withholding from whoever may be appointed at some future time, to revise our public version, the assistance they would have derived from the selection of words and phrases adopted by a gentleman who had considered the New Testament with such close attention. Further, on the behalf of the English language, Dr. M. must give us leave to insist that if the English articles will not in every case accurately and adequately express the full power of the Greek, yet by means of a dexterous management of our this, that, these, those, &c. we can come much nearer to it, than he appears to have imagined. (p. 63.) For instance, The xx. read Kings xviii. 39. Kúpios autós Ériv "O cós-our translators have well expressed this in their "The Lord he is THE God!"-where the power of the English article (no of fence, we hope) is fully equal to that of the Greek. Other places may support the same inference. But, though we find it impossible to do justice to Dr. M.'s labours, yet we must not wholly omit his leading principle, which is, That the article indicates the sub-intellection of the participle of existence where that participle is not expressed, or otherwise implied; but if the participle of existence be expressed or im plied, in any word, then the article is dropped, lest there should be two ex The article being the symbol of that, which is uppermost in the speaker's mind, is applicable not only to the case of reference to something already mentioned, but also to the person or thing, which is about to become the subject of an assertion for such must at the time be the object most familiar to our own minds, [the speaker's mind] though perhaps most foreign from that of our hearer. Dr. M. also observes : All the insertions of the article are reducible to two kinds, arising out of one property, viz. its anticipative reference for the anticipation must be either of that which is known, or of that which is unknown: in the former case the purpose of retrospective reference, in the the article with its predicate is subservient to latter to that of hypothesis. The article, says the Dr. is employed to express 1. renewed mention. This requires no explanation. 2. Super-excellence: as Thucydides mentions the plague; the warz meaning the celebrated plague of Athens, the famous Peloponessian war:-and so we say in English, the Reformation, meaning that from popery; the Revolution, meaning that under William III. It is not safe to infer universally, from this use of the article, any thing more, than that the person or thing spoken of is from some cause or other well known: the particular cause may be a subject of further considera tion, says our author. 3. Almost with the same intention, the article marks monades, things of which there can be only one, 4. It has the sense of a possessive pronoun. 5. It attends (as it were) the great objects of nature; the heaven, the sun, the earth, &c. 6. It is frequently prefixed to adjectives of the Neuter Gender, when they mark some attribute or quality in its general and abstract idea. 7. Correlatives, 8, Partitives. These are the divisions of Dr. M's first section of his third chapter, and may serve to shew the extensive view he has taken of his subject. This chapter is very long and important. Toward the close of it the author supports Mr. Sharp's rule of interpretation in the New Testament, that when attributives coupled together are assumed of the same subject, the first only has the article prefixedimporting union of the two characters in one person; whereas, if the article were prefixed to the second also, it would import disunion, and mark a second person. If, for example, Eph. v. 5. we are with Our reference to ideas in the speaker's mind afterwards to be explained: i. e. anticipatory allusion. A. THAT is a wicked slut, THAT Susan. Muslin ;-THE wicked girl hasB. What? A.-made mischief between me and Robin Goodfellow. Here the idea of malice is in such immediate succession in the mind of A. that it forms in fact but one with his that: although B. being ignorant of the circuminstance of the enmity between Robin Goodfellow and A. thinks it necessary to demand an explanation, of his that." perceives some allusion in it; but to what circumstance implied, as none is expressed, he cannot determine. common version to translate v T βασιλέι α ΤΟΥ Χρισέ ΚΑΙ Θεό, "in the kingdom of Christ and of God;" or Tit. ii. 13, ΤΟΥ μεγάλο Θεῖ ΚΑΙ σωτῆρος ἡμῶν Ἰησε Χρισ8, "of the Great God and (of) our Saviour Jesus Christ," we must in consistence translate also from Plutarch, Roscius the son and another person heir to the deceased; though a Singular Verb follows: and so on an endless series of absurdities, p. 94. We may explain this by a well known instance among ourselves. The bishop of Derry on the death of his brother, lord Hervey, inherited his title and now his titles stood "the Right Hon. THE Lord Hervey, Lord Bishop of Derry:" under which phrase should we find an enumeration in a list of Dignitaries, we should consider it as denoting one person who united two titles. But should we find in such a list," THE Lord Hervey, THE Lord Bishop of Derry," we should conclude that the writer of the list intended to mark two distinct persons, to each of which one title only belonged. Of such importance, then, is the article, and of such effect is its absence, presence, positition, duplication, &c. in our own language, as well as in the Greek. We might appeal to other confirmations of Dr. M's principal positions which are current among us; for, if Dr. M. would observe the natural language of our countrymen, he would find no want of inferential powers in the English article. A. THAT man, they say is mad: fellow is downright mad! B. Aye, I thought as much. THE A. Why the man, whom we took to the watchhouse, for making a riot last night. Here, it is clear, that A.'s THAT alludes to past ideas, to the circumstance of the riot, &c. in the minds of A. and B; and A. knows; sufficiently well, that his expressson will recal to B's mind, the incidents, their cause, their commencement (if he saw it) and their termination. But the whole is a complete mystery to C. who having no previous acquaintance with the circumstance, is as much in the dark about that man, and THE fellow, as if no such man or fellow, had ever existed. Our English articles are also capable of If Dr. M. has ever stood on a shore where were several huts, the inhabitants of each of which had a boat, he may have observed some such language as this, when a lad had got into the boat belonging to his family: "Jack is got into THE boat,-and is rowing"-but if the lad had got into the boat belonging to another family, the expression would be,-" Jack is got into such an one's boat :"-the article the, in the first instance, in effect recals the circumstance of relation between the boat and Jack's family to the mind of the hearer, as it is an expression of the same idea in the mind of the speaker. In the second instance, there being no such circumstance, the the is inappli cable and should it be adopted (the family having no boat) the hearer would immediately demand further informa tion by inquiring "into whose boat ?? Dr. M. will perceive that these instances are in apposition to his το πλοίον, Math. XIII. 2. and others. Moreover, as somewhat sturdy sons of honest John Bull, we stand up for our native language; determined that it shall dispute with the Greek language, or any other, article by article, rather than yield without a struggle to an ignoble convention. Dr. M. treats at large on the causes for omission of the article: but these we must pass. The main object of his work being to illustrate the New Testament, the ninth chapter is occupied in vindicating the writers of that division of Holy Writ. We subjoin the following observations in which their competency as writers of the Greek language is stated with less reserve than some have thought necessary. 66 Neither were they natives of a country, where Greek was rarely spoken; nor is it probable that any of them made the acquisition late in life The victories of Alexander and the consequent establishment of the Seleucide produced a revolution in the language of Syria and Palestine. The Araman dialects still, indeed, continued to be in use: but the language of literature and of commerce, and in a great degree, even of the ordinary intercourse of life, was the Greek: without a knowledge of this it was impossible to have any extensive communication. Greek," says Michaelis, "was the current language in all the cities to the west of the Euphrates:" and Josephus expressly declares, that he had written in his vernacular idiom a work on the Jewish war, of which the Greek work, still preserved, is a translation," in order that Parthians, Babylonians, Arabians, and the Jews who dwell beyond the Euphrates, might be informed of what had happened." It is, then, manifest, that westward of the Euphrates, a knowledge of Greek was not an accomplishment confined exclusively to the learned and polite, but that it was generally understood, and commonly used by people of all ranks, and must have been acquired in their childhood. In this state of things, therefore, what were we to expect à priori from the writers of the N. T. I speak not of St. Luke and St. Paul, of whom Greek was the native language, but of the other evangelists aud apostles. It was not, indeed, to be expected, if we reflect on their circumstances and habits of life, and on the remoteness of Palestine, that they should write with the elegance of learned Adicnians; but I know not of any reasonable presumption against their writing with perspicuity and with gram matical correctness. But what has been here adduced will not apply with equal force to translations; since he, who translates, rarely writes with the same case and correctness, as when he is left entirely to himself. Hence it has happened that in quotations from the LXX. in some parts of the Apocalypse, (see Apoc. x. 17.) and in passages rendered from the Hebrew, some liceuse may be bserved. In his Second Part, consisting of Notes on the New Testament, Dr. M. follows the order of the sacred books; and not to be wholly listless when the promotion of Anowledge and religion is in question, we shall sta e such further explanations, or .confirmations, as have occurred to us while this part of the Dr.'s labours was under our perusal. To readers of the New Testament we offer no apology and The Dr. we are certain desires none. : On Meth. i. 18. Dr. M. enlarges on the -- breath different senses of rvsua as, or wind-the intellectual part of man— spirits-THE Holy Spirit the influences of the Holy Spirit-the effects of spiritual influence in virtues and graces. Our author's distinctions substitute the influences of the Holy Spirit, for his person, in several places where divines have usually found the latter: but we willingly abandon whatever interpretation is not warranted by grammatical accuracy. Chap. ii. 23." The Nazarene." We have in our language adopted so many Latinized names expressing countries, Africanus, Italicus, &c. that we should but little scruple writing Nazarenus; it is less exceptionable than the introduction of any article; and to say truth we are not satisfied with any that can be prefixed. For, A Nazarene, does not distinguish the party intended from the mass of Nazarenes, any one of whom might be thus described with propriety; it is not, therefore, strong enough: and, THE Nazarene, is too strong, as it appropriates the appellation exclusively; neither is it a title given to Jesus, in a way of excellence, but of degradation : "THAT Nazarene,” might perhaps approach the nearest fo critical correctness. iv. 1. The Desert." Michaelis prôposes, as the scene of the temptation, the desert of Sinai. Strange enough! What optics could from thence discover all the kingdoms of the region around, and their glory?-And by what means did our Lord reach the temple at Jerusalem from thence? Surely, not by the vulgar conception of a journey through the air under Satanic ́despotism. The temptation has three scenes; or rather three scenes are selected for our instructior, the first, in a desert, the second on a high mountain (why not Pisgah? from which Moses viewed the land) the third on the temple. Verse 6. To lepuyor. Certainly not" on a pinnacle" of the temple, as in our public translation. Equally certainly, in our opinion, not on the roof," as Dr. M. says, for that was covered with sharp pointed iron spikes, four cubits in height, to prevent birds from alighting on it [Michaelis wrote a curious paper on the conducting power of these spikes, as security against lightning.] Nor could this station be an άers for this term denotes the pediment, which is part of the roof, if so, well known to his disciples, as the scene of his retirement for devotion, therefore " THE mountain."-Compare also Math. xxviii. 16. where our Lord met his disciples, according to bis appointment, on THE mountain, sis to öpos, in Galilee. May we not infer that it might be generally known to his friends? It was probably north of Capernaum; but not so far north as Cæsarea Phillippi. but not synonimous with the roof itself, whatever Wetstein might infer. Of such pediments a roof had two, one at each end neither of these, then, could be THE plerugion, as we are by the article restricted to one only. Commentators have looked too high for this. Had they recollected, that advice given to a man to throw himself from the top of St. Paul's would be no temptation; since human nature undistinguished by On this passage, we are surprised how grace, or even by talents, shudders at Dr. M. could fancy that the LXX. intenthe thought, it must be downright ded to express "the Mountain District," suicide!Had they reflected too, that our by Is To opos, Gen. xix. 17. Had Lord's answer, does not imply a tempta- theworthy Dr. reflected, that before the tion to suicide, but alludes to bodily hurt, surface of the Dead Sea was formed by the at the utmost, they would have been near- water that has flowed into it, the level of er the truth. Dr. M. says: "no instance its bottom grounds, must have been many can be found in any author, in which feet lower than at present, he would have πτερύγιον lepuytov is applied to a building" perceived, that to a person standing on. yet Scheuzer observes, that (Dan ix. 27.) that lower level, all around him was the LXX have translated canaph by pte- mountainous. This alone might justify rugion; and Dr. M. allows that the Sy- the expression: but we add, that nothing riac has translated plerugion by canaph. It can be more natural in a person speaking, must therefore have been a part of this than a designation by pointing towards building known to these writers. The that particular object to which he alterm 1800s applies to all the buildings ludes,-THAT City, THAT hill, THAT. around the courts of the temple: and if mountain-and to this the history agrees: we suppose one sole projection in the gal-"I cannot escape to THAT mountain," lery opposite the altar-[whoever, walks over Black Friars bridge, may find several such, supported by the Ionic pillars of the bridge]-this might be the pierugion. It must have been, 1st, accessible to the laity; 2d, in sight, and probably in hearing, of the people at worship, &c. Something similar really did exist, for Hegesippus relating the death of St. James Minor (vide CALMET), says, "that the Pharisees made him go up into one of the galleries of the temple, that he might be heard by the whole multitude below, the Pharisees going up to where he was, threw him down from thence, yet did he not die instantly from his fall, but kneeling down, prayed," &c. This height, then, was not calculated for direct suicide, though it hazarded breaking of bones, &c. of which this story is evidence. V. i. àveen eis To opos. Certainly not a mountain," equally certainly, not THE Mountain District," of Judea; as proposed by Dr. M. It was, in all probability, the same as is intended Luke vi. 12. where we have the same phrase is To opos, and where our Lord continued all night in prayer; the same perhaps, too, as that whereon he was transfigured; and &c. Verse 15." THE bushel, THE can dlestick." This gives to the English reader the notion of a portable candlestick; no such thing is intended. A lamp dependent from the centre of the ceiling, would be much nearer the mark; but if we admit, (which is less conformable to Oriental costume) that the light was placed against the centre of one side of the apartment, still it would be singular: THE lamp-stand." VII. 24. έπι την πέτραν. The necessity of the article here requires no other illustration than that derived from the nature of the soil in Judea. It is mostly a rock, covered with mould; but, by the sides of the torrents, it is a rock covered with the sand brought down by those torrents. The foolish builder, without digging, lays his first course of bricks on the surface of the sand; this sand being permeable to water, when the stream attacks it, soon yields, and carries away the edifice with it. The wise builder digs away the sand tilk he comes to THE rock on this he builds, and defies the torrent. As this formation of their country must have been perfectly familiar to our Lord's hearers, THE rock |