The works of Nathaniel Lardner - The Christian Researcher - Home

206 Credibility of the Gospel History.
stantiiie, a little before his death, prepared himself for^
baptism.
Jerom has not only allotted Lncian a place in his Book
of Illustrious Men, and mentioned him in his Chronicle, as
already seen, but has likewise named him in his'' letter to
Magnus, among" other christian Avritcrs, eminent for polite
learning- as well as for knowledge in the divine scriptures.
And there are some other passages of his to be taken notice of.
II. Jerom said, in the place before cited from his Catalogue,
that some copies of scripture were called Lucian's
he elsewhere'^ speaks of that matter more largely, where he
says, that ' the churches of Eg'ypt made use of that edition
* of the Septuagint, which was put out by Hesychius. From
' Constantinople to Antioch Lucian's edition was used ; but the
* countries lying in the midst read the version of the Seventy,
' as published by Pamphilus and Eusebius from Origen's
* copy.'
There is another passage of Jerom concerning Lucian's
"^ edition of the Seventy, which
the page.
I transcribe at the bottom of
And in his preface to the four gospels he*^ speaks of an
edition of the New, as well as of the Old Testament, made
by Lucian and Hesychius ; but he does not commend their
copies ; for, as he says, they were interpolated ; that is, there
were some things inserted in them without good authority,
they being wanting in more ancient copies.
Jerom is now commonly understood to say in the first of
these passages, that Lucian's edition of the version of the
Seventy was generally used by the churches from Constan-
tinople to Antioch, and Hesychius's by the churches in
"^ Vid. Euseb. de Vit. Const. 1. iv. c. 61. p. 557. * nee non
presbyterorum Pamphili, Pierii, Malchionis, &c. Ep. 83. p. 656.
'' Alexandria et iEgyptus in Septuaginta suis Hesychium laudat auctorem.
Constantinopolis usque Antiochiam Luciani martyris exemplaria probat.
Media; inter has provincige PaliEstinos codices legunt, q.uos ab Origene elabo-
rates Eusebius et Pamphilus vulgaverunt. Totusque orbis ac inter se tnfaria
varietate compugnat. Hier. Praef. in Paralip. 0pp. T. i. p. 1023. Eadem
repetuntur in libr. ii. adv. Ruf. T. iv. p. 425.
"^ In quo illud breviter admoneo, ut sciatis aliam esse editionem, quam
Origenes, et Caesariensis Eusebius, omnesque Graecise tractatores Koivrjv, id est,
Communcm, appellant, atque vulgatam, et a plerisque Auiaavog dicitur
aliam Septuaginta Interpretum, quae in 'EgoTrXotc codicibus reperitur, eta nobis
in Latinum sermonem fideliter versa est et Jerosolyma? atque in Orientis ecclesiis
decantatur. Ep. ad Sun. et Fret. [al. Ep. 135.] T. ii. p. 627.
^ Praelermitto codices, quos a Luciano et Hesychio nuncupates paucorum
hominum asserit perversa consuetude :
quibus utique nee in Veteri Testamento
post Septuaginta Interpretes emendarc quid licuit, nee in Novo profuit emen-
dasse ; quum multarum gentium Unguis scriptura ante translata doceat falsa
esse quae addita sunt. Praef. in Quat. Evang.
: ;