Biblical Entelligence.

ENGLAND.

Collegiate Library, Manchester.-This excellent Institution, originally founded by Humphrey Chetham Esqr.* now contains about 18,000 volumes; and "is open to the public in general at the hours appointed, with a degree of liberality which few similar establishments in this country present." In every department of Theology and of History it is peculiarly rich; it is stored with the best editions of the Greek and Roman classics; it possesses some valuable works on Natural History, several fine collections of engravings, and a few Manuscripts."

The catalogue is scientifically arranged into "Theologia-Jurisprudentia— Historia Scientiæ et Artes-Literæ Humaniores-Libri Manuscripti." Under the first of these departments are classed "Scriptura Sacra, Bibliorum Interpretes, S. S. Patres et Scriptores Ecclesiastici, Jus Canonicum et Pontificum Liturgiæ, Scriptores Scholastici et Dogmatici, Theologia Miscellanea."

An interesting Roll of the Hebrew Pentateuch is here; but it has apparently hitherto excited little attention. The library contains a MS.† account of one examination of it; and, in a printed book there, that statement also appears, but with some alterations. Thus writes the Rev. T. Yeates." The following are the particulars of this Roll lately communicated to me by a learned friend, a clergyman, on whose skill and accuracy the reader may rely. It is a large double Roll of the Hebrew Pentateuch, composed of brown African skins, 45 in number, and measures in length 106 feet, containing 204 columns of writing, and each column having about 48 lines. The breadth of the Roll is about 20 inches, and of each column about 4 inches. The letters are black and well preserved, and the whole text is without points, accents and marginal additions.-There are in it some few erasures or defaced places, where there have been corrections. Some of the letters have the Coronæ : and as to the great and small letters in certain words, this MS. has them in common with other copies. It has not been collated the donor's name is Byron*." The reader is requested to look at the subjacent notes, which supply some needed additions and corrections.

Porteusian Bible Society-The first annual meeting of the Porteusian Bible Society was held on Tuesday May 25, at the Freemason's Tavern, and was most respectably attended; Major Moody, of the royal engineers was in the chair. The object of this Society, of which his Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex is the Patron, is to circulate the authorized English Version of the Holy Scriptures, with the more interesting and devotional chapters pointed out by certain marks in the

sages.

"They (the Apostles) showed-and with a disinterestedness, which has never scarce had, nor seems destined to have, any imitators-that, in the Christian world, if government in any shape has divine right for its support, it is in the shape of democracy;-representative democracy-operating by universal suffrage. In the eye of the Christian, as well as of the philosopher and the philanthropist, behold here the only legitimate government," p. 217. "And these deacons, by whom appointed? by the Apostles? No; but, by the whole communion of the Saints;-aud in the way of free election,-election, on the principle of universal suffrage. Monarchists and Aristocrats! mark well! of universal suffrage, p. 203.

* See a small sixpenny pamphlet, called, "Some account of the Blue Coat Hospital and Public Library in the college Manchester, founded by Humphrey Chetham Esqr. in the year 1651. Manchester, 1824.

+ With this sentence subjoined: "This account was taken by the Rev. George Strong, of St. Asaph."

Collation of the Pentateuch, &c. by the Rev. T. Yeates.

margin, and an index of reference &c. at the commencement. The report stated that nearly 15,000 copies of the society's publications had been circulated through the united Kingdom, and on the continent of Europe, and that the most beneficial effects had been produced. It was also stated, in the course of the meeting, that such was the anxiety manifested in some places abroad, to obtain a copy of this edition of the Scriptures, that many individuals had borrowed from others for the purpose of transcribing, and this had been done to a very great extent in the West Indies. Our trans-atlantic brethren so highly approved of the measure, that, as soon as the publication became known at New York, a meeting of the inhabitants was convened for the formation of a society to print and circulate the Scriptures upon a similar plan, which society is now in active operation.

Society for the conversion of the Jews.-The London Society for promoting Christianity amongt he Jews, have just published their sixteenth report, in which it is stated, that the number of Bibles, Testaments, &c. issued by the Society during the past year, is as follows:

Hebrew Testaments.....

..1,497

German-Hebrew do.....

341

Judeo-Polish do.......

The places and countries to which these have been sent, are, besides the united Kingdom, Paris, Amsterdam, Hamburg, Frankfort on the Maine, Leipzic, Dresden, Berlin, Königsberg, Breslaw, Posen, various parts of Poland and Russia, Gibraltar, Leghorn, Palestine, Madras and Calcutta. And when it is considered that most of the places here enumerated are resorted to by Jews from almost every part of the Globe, and that there is a continual intercourse kept up among them, it will appear probable that the range of the Society's publications is much wider than it is possible to define.

London Hibernian Society-The eighteenth report of this Society, which is just published, states that the number of schools, under its direction, amounts to 1,072, and the number of scholars to 71,554, three fourths of this number being the children of Roman Catholics. Sixteen thousand three hundred and two copies of the Scriptures have been given out of the depository within the year, making the total distribution amount to 108,902, since the foundation of the Society.

British and Foreign School Society.—The annual meeting of this Society was held at Freemason's-Hall on May 10th. His Royal Highness the Duke of Sussex in the chair.

* Not Byron, but Byrom. The name, however, and his titles ought to have appeared in full" John Byrom, M.A. F.R.S."-The celebrated author of the Short-hand system of writing, who died Sept. 28th, 1763, aged 72, and respectfully remembered in Manchester by name of Dr.Byrom. See Gregson's Fragments, relative to the Antiquities of Lancashire.

where the following important particulars, among others, are stated: 1st. These people, in dress and manners, resemble the natives so as not to be distinguished from them, but by attentive observation and inquiry. 2nd. They have Hebrew names of the same kind, and with the same local termination, as the Sepoys in the 9th Regiment Bombay Native Infantry, already described. 3rd. Some of them read Hebrew, and they have a faint tradition of the cause of their original exodus from Egypt. 4th. Their common language is the Hindu. 5th. They keep idols and worship them, and use idolatrous ceremonies intermixed with Hebrew. 6th. They circumcise their own children. 7th. They observe the 1, Kippoor, or great expiation-day of the Hebrews. 8th. They call themselves "Gorah Jehudi," or White Jews, and they term the Black Jews" Collah Jehudi." 9th. They speak of the Arabian Jews as their brethren, but do not acknowledge the European Jews as such, because they are of a fairer complexion than themselves. 10th, They use the same prayer as those of whom we have already heard, namely, "Hear, O Israel, the Lord our God (Jehovah Elohim) is one Lord (Jehovah.)" (Deut. vi. 4.). 11th. They have no Cohen (priest), Levite, or Nasi among them, under those terms, though it appears they have elders and a chief in cach commuuity, who determine in their religious concerns. 12th. They expect the Messiah, and when he comes, that they will all go to Jerusalem; that the time of his appearance they think will soon arrive, and their return, at which they would much rejoice, since at Jerusalem they would see their God, worship him only, and be dispersed no more.

From the preceding, therefore, I think it is fair to conclude, that Mr. Sargon's account of these people is sufficient to prove them "Israelites," and not Jews of the two tribes and a half; and to distinguish the race, as well from the White Jews, as Black Jews at Cochin; and that it does not consist of a bare description of a people observing certain Jewish customs, but contains evident marks of such as have descended from the parent stock at one time or other; and probably from all circumstances, we may safely include them among the offspring of the long-lost ten tribes: though, if we are to believe Esdras, (xiii. 40, 41.) "The ten tribes went into a further country where never mankind dwelt." Conceiving them, however, to be Israelites, their idolatrous practices are evident; they invoke Ramah, (which is only another name for the Indian Camah,) the deity of love, who was produced from the egg the serpent they adore holds in his mouth; and although whilst performing their idolatrous ceremonies they call upon Jehovah, the God of Israel, yet their idolatry is sufficiently marked by the existence of the idol among them, to fulfil the prophecy of Moses the man of God, (Deut. xxviii. 64.) who denounces the judgments of the Lord against them; "The Lord shall scatter thee among all people, from the one end of the earth to the other, and there shalt thou serve other gods, which neither thou nor thy fathers have known, even wood and stone."

In regard to the list of the names of the places where Beni-Israel are stated to reside, given by Moosajee and Isajee, inserted at the foot of Mr. Sargon's Report, as it was requisite to obtain some clue to their discovery, Mr. Sargon was requested to extend his inquiries, and has accordingly since transmitted three lists of villages, which he says he obtained from a very intelligent person, the free servant of a Black Jew at Cochin, who has been in the practice of passing through them, going and coming, upward of fifteen years: they form the enclosure marked G. On comparing these with the other list, a number of places which that list does not contain will be observed, and some of the same name differing in the pronunciation, are so expressed in the orthography. In each of these villages, this person says, a portion of the Beni-Israel reside, but is not prepared to state the number; he supposes however, (with the exception of Bombay, where more are to be found,) that there may be from ten to sixty families dwelling in each; but that they have been so long connected with the Heathen, that they have followed them in almost every usage, and that he could scarcely perceive any difference between the Hindoo woman and those of the Beni-Israel, in those parts.

The committee hope to be able, next year to depute Mr. Sargon again among them; and although we do not expect much additional information to prove these Beni Israel to be of the long-lost ten tribes, yet we may look for varied accounts, that may reflect light upon each other.

Biblical Ellustrations.

JOHN VIII. 3-9.

And the Scribes and Pharisees brought unto him a woman taken in adultery; and when they had set her in the midst, they say unto him, Master, this woman was taken in adultery, in the very act. Now Moses in the law commanded us, that such should be stoned: but what sayest thou? this they said tempting him, that they might have to accuse him, &c.

THE law in this case was, that both the culprits should be brought before the council, where, if condemned, the whole audience, COUNCIL INCLUDED, were to stone them. By bringing this woman only to Jesus, the Jews were guilty, 1. Of partiality, as they ought to have brought the adulterer also; 2. They desired Jesus to take on himself the office of the council, which would have been assuming political power, and would have endangered his life this plot he retorts on themselves by saying: "Do you, on your own proposals, assume that conduct which you well know the council would pursue in such a case; consider this prisoner as ipso facto condemned by the circumstances in which she was apprehended; therefore, do you cast stones at her, as the council would cast stones at a person so condemned." This they declined, being aware of its tendency; and they shrunk from that action to which they had urged Jesus. To this his words seem more particularly to allude, "Let him, who is without sin-not moral guilt; merely, but political offence -he who can be innocent in assuming that power of life and death, which is legally lodged elsewhere, let him act the judge, and stone her." And so speaking to the woman, "Has nobody officially condemned thee-executed the condemnation of the law on thee, by stoning thee? neither do I officially condemn thee;-I do not execute condemnation on thee by stoning thee: remember the narrow escape thou hast now experienced: go, and sin no more.”

VOL. II.

* Additions to "Adultery" in Calmet.

Y

Sacred Geography.

CANAAN, OR THE HOLY LAND.

Of the principal Buildings in, and about Jerusalem. *

THE remarkable fidelity of Mr. Maundrell's narrative is too well known and appreciated, to render any apology necessary for our transcribing, from him, an account of those places, still to be described in or about the Holy City. In his Journal, under date April 5, 1697, he thus writes:

About

This morning we went to some more of the curiosities which had been yet unvisited by us. The first place we came to was that which they call St. Peter's prison, from which he was delivered by the angel (Acts xii.). It is close by the church of the Holy Sepulchre, and still serves for its primitive use. the space of a furlong from thence, we came to an old church, held to have been built by Helena, in the place where stood the house of Zebedee. This is in the hands of the Greeks, who tell you, that Zebedee, being a fisherman, was wont to bring fish from Joppa hither, and to vend it at this place. Not far from hence we came to the place where they say stood anciently the iron gate, which opened to Peter of its own accord. A few steps farther is the small church built over the house of Mark, to which the Apostle directed his course, after his miraculous gaol delivery. The Syrians (who have this place in their custody) pretend to shew you the very window at which Rhoda looked out, while Peter knocked at the door. In the church they shew a Syriac manuscript of the New Testament in folio, pretended to be eight hundred and fifty two years old, and a little stone font used by the Apostles themselves in baptizing. About one hundred and fifty paces farther, in the same street, is that which they call the house of St. Thomas, converted formerly into a church, but now a mosque. Not many paces farther is another street crossing the former, which leads you on the right hand to the place, where they say our Lord appeared, after his resurrection, to the three Marys (Matt. xxviii. 9.). Three Marys, the friars tell you, though in that place of St. Matthew, mention is made but of two. The same street carries you on the left hand to the Armenian convent. The Armenians have here a very large and delightful space of ground; their convent and gardens taking up all that part of Mount Sion which is within the walls of the city.† Their church is built over the

* Continued from page 248.

+ This establishment is spacious, and well provided with every comfort for the accommodation of pilgrims, as the Armenians are compelled to receive and maintain all the worshippers of their sect during their stay in Jerusalem, which is not the case with any other of the Christian churches. Dr. Clarke states that every thing belonging to this convent "is Oriental."