13. Page [131].—The character of Harūn ar-Rashid, in fact, became almost as distorted by legend as that of Solomon. Neither of them were models of civil justice (Weil, Geschichte der Chalifen, ii. 127).
14. Page [148] (Prov. xxvii. 6).—Consult, however, the Septuagint, which seems to have read מ at the beginning of the second line (‘More faithful ... than’ &c.). See Cornill on Ezek. xxxv. 13.
15. Page [162], note 1.—The Mo’tazilites (‘the Protestants of Islam’) denied the eternity of the Korán because it implied the existence of two eternal beings (Weil, Gesch. der Chalifen, ii. 262).
16. Page [173].—Text of Proverbs. Among the minor additions in Sept., note the μὴ in Prov. v. 16 (so Vatican and, originally, Sinaitic MS.), if we may follow Lagarde and Field. The Alexandrine MS., however, and the Complutensian edition, omit μὴ, which is also wanting in Aquila. Comp. Field’s Hexapla ad loc.
17. Pages [176], [177] (Religious Value of Proverbs).—To appreciate the religious spirit of this fine book, we require some imaginative sympathy with past ages. The ‘staid, quiet, “douce,” orderly burgher of the Book of Proverbs, who is regular in his attendance at the Temple, diligent in his business, prosperous in his affairs, of repute among the elders, with daughters doing virtuously, and a wife that has his house decked with coverings of tapestry, while her own clothing is silk and purple’ (Mr. Binney’s words in Is it possible to make the best of both worlds?), is not the noblest type of man, and therefore not the model Christian even of our own day.
18. Page [178] (Aids to the Student).—Add, Les sentences et proverbes du Talmud et du Midrasch. Par Moïse Schuhl. Par. 1878.
19. Page [180].—On the date of Jesus son of Sirach, comp. Hody, De Bibliorum Textibus Originalibus (Oxon., 1705), pp. 192-194.
20. Page [189], note 1 (Sirach xxi. 27).—Fritzsche weakens the proverb by taking ‘Satan’ as equivalent to ‘accuser’ (Ps. cix. 6, Zech. iii. 1). The wise man says that it is no use for the ungodly man to disclaim responsibility for his sin. ‘The Satan’ either means the depraved will (comp. Dukes, Rabbin. Blumenlese, p. 108) or the great evil spirit. In the latter case the wise man says that for all practical purposes the tempter called Satan may be identified with the inborn tempter of the heart. Comp. Ps. xxxvi. 2, ‘The ungodly man hath an oracle of transgression within his heart.’
21. Page [193] (The Hymn of Praise).—Frankel suspected xliv. 16 to be an interpolation, on the ground that the view of Enoch as an example of μετάνοια is Philonian (Palästinische Exegese, p. 44). Against this see Fritzsche, who explains the passage as a characteristically uncritical inference from Gen. v. 22. Enoch was a pattern of μετάνοια because he walked with God after begetting Methuselah.
22. Page [195] (Ancient Versions of Sirach).—The Peshitto version deviates, one may venture to assume, in many points from the original Sirach. Geiger has pointed out some remarkable instances of this (Zeitschr. der deutschen morgenl. Ges. xii. 536 &c.), and if the Greek version is to be regarded as absolutely authoritative, the number of deviations must be extremely great. Fritzsche goes so far as to say that in the latter part of the Syriac Sirach (from about chap. xxx.) the original is only hazily traceable (‘durchschimmert’). He describes this version as really no version, but ‘eine ziemlich leichtfertig hingeschriebene Paraphrase’ (‘a rather careless paraphrase’). This, as fairer judges of the Syriac are agreed, is not an accurate statement of the case. It can be readily disproved by referring to some of the passages in which the Greek translator has manifestly misrendered the original (e.g. xxiv. 27; see above, p. [196]). Dr. Edersheim, who is working upon both versions, agrees with Bickell that the Syriac often enables us to restore the Hebrew, where the Greek text is wrong. This is not placing the Syriac in a superior position to the Greek, but giving it the subsidiary importance which it deserves. Doubtless, the Hebrew text which the Syriac translator employed was in many places corrupt. The best edition of the Peshitto, I may add, is in Lagarde’s Libri Vet. Test. Apocryphi Syriaci (1861). It is from Walton’s Polyglot, but ‘codicum nitriensium ope et coniecturis meis hic illic emendatiorem’ [one sixth-century MS. of Ecclesiasticus is used].