Ancient Versions and Codexes

Calvin's Commentaries, Vol. 23: Ezekiel, Part II, tr. by John King, [1847-50], at sacred-texts.com

A NOTICE OF THE
ANCIENT VERSIONS AND CODEXES

WHICH CONTAIN
EZEKIEL’S PROPHECIES.

The Arabic Version Of Ezekiel. It was made from the Septuagint, and is contained in the London Polyglot,,. It agrees throughout with that Greek text which exists in the Alexandrine Codex, now in the British Museum. It was executed from Hesychius’s edition of the Septuagint, and is valuable for the comparison of cognate words and phrases with the Hebrew.

The Chaldee Version, said to have been made by Jonathan, the son of Uzziel, is found in the London Polyglott, and is praised in Buxtorf’s Rabbinical Commentaries.

The Alexandrine Codex is esteemed the most ancient MS. existing, written probably in the fourth century, though some authorities place it much later.  ³⁵¹ The book of Ezekiel was translated for this version during the reign of Ptolemy Philometer. Of all the prophets, Jeremiah seems the best executed: then Amos, and Ezekiel, and Isaiah the worst of all, except Daniel. Edited by Jo. Ern. Grabe, 1707-1720. 4 vols. fol. Oxon.

The Codices Of Kennicott And De Rossi. Only some of them contain Ezekiel; that formerly belonging to the learned Reuchlin (No. 154) contains this Prophet, with a Targum also. The Codex Norimburgensis, (No. 198,) written about A.D. 1290, is noticed here only for the order in which Ezekiel is placed: it is neither that of the Masorites nor the Talmudists. Again, in Codex No. 224, the order is Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah.

The Codex Romanus Or Vaticanus is of great antiquity. A facsimile of this MS. was made for Dr. Grabe in 1704, and Horne has given an accurate specimen of Ezekiel, Eze 1:1-3. This facsimile is at long the MSS. of the Bodleian Library. Cardinal Anton. Carasa executed an edition under the auspices of Pope Sixtus V. Rome, 1587. Fol.

The Syro. Estranghelae Version is a translation into Syriac of Origen’s Hexaplar edition of the Septuagint A MS. exists in the Ambrosian Library at Milan. It contains Scholia of the Greek and Syrian fathers, and various valuable annotations. Matth. Norberg edited from it the Prophecies of Ezekiel and Jeremiah, in 1787, 4to, Londini Gothorum; giving it the title of Codex Syriaco-Hexaplaris Ambrosiano-Mediolanensis. See Eichhorn’s account of it in his Allgem. Bib. der Bibl. Lit., volume 1 page 837, and foll.

The Vulgate Version needs mention here only to point out the differences in rendering Ezekiel between the editions of Sixtus 5. and Clement 8. In Eze 14:22, the former has egredientur, which is correct, and the latter ingredientur

Among The Five Gothic Mss. discovered by Ang. Mai, in the Ambrosian Library at Milan, amidst the Codices Rescripti, the homilies of Gregory the Great on this Prophet were found written over various portions of St. Paul’s Epistles. These homilies were executed before the eighth century.

Footnotes

351

See Hart well Horne’s Introduction, etc., volume 2, part 1 page 116, edit. 6th, where full information on this and kindred subjects is to be found.