A history of the work of redemption. Containing the outlines of a body of…

so that as soon as ever it was written by its original penmen, it immediately lay open to the world in a language that was commonly understood every where, as there was no language that was so commonly understood in the world in Christ's and the apostles times as the Greek; the cause of which was the setting up of the Grecian empire in the world.

XV. The next thing I shall take notice of is, the translation of the scriptures of the Old Testament into a language that was commonly understood by the Gentiles. The translation that I here speak of is that into the G•eek language, that is commonly called the Septuagint, or the translation of the Seventy. This is supposed to have been made about fifty or sixty years after Alexander's conquering the world. This is the first translation that ever was made of the scriptures that we have any credible account of. The canon of the Old Testament had been completed by the prophet Malachi but about an hundred and twenty years before in its original; and hitherto the scriptures had remained locked up from all other nations but the Jews, in the Hebrew tongue, which was understood by no other nation. But now it was translated into the Greek language, which, as we observed before, was a language that was commonly understood by the nations of the world.

XV. The next thing I shall take notice of is, the translation of the scriptures of the Old Testament into a language that was commonly understood by the Gentiles. The translation that I here speak of is that into the G•eek language, that is commonly called the Septuagint, or the tra•slation of the Seventy. This is supposed to have been made about fifty or sixty years after Alexander's conquering the world. This is the first translation that ever was made of the scriptures that we have any credible account of. The canon of the Old Test•ment had been compleated by the prophet Malachi but about an hundred and twenty years before in its original; and hitherto the scriptures had remained locked up from all other nations but the Jews, in the Hebrew tongue, which was understood by no other nation. But now it was translated into the Greek language, which, as we observed before, was a language that was commonly understood by the nations of the world.