And all human languages are imperfect. The
Hebrew language, in which the greater part of the Bible was written, is
very imperfect. And it seems to have been much more imperfect in those
times when the Bible was written, than it is now. And the Greek
language, in which the remainder of the Bible was written, was
imperfect. And the Greek used in the New Testament is not the best
Greek;--it is not the Greek of the Classics.
3. And both Greek and Hebrew now are _dead_ languages, and have been so
for many ages. This renders them more imperfect in some respects: it
makes it harder in many cases to ascertain the sense in which words, and
particular forms of expression, are used by the writers. With regard to
the Hebrew, we have no other books in that language, written in those
early ages when the different parts of the Bible were written, to
assist us in ascertaining the sense in which words were used.
4. The writers of Scripture differ very much from one another both in
style and matter, and their works differ greatly in worth and
usefulness. Ezekiel is much more obscure than Jeremiah; and Jeremiah is
less plain than Isaiah. Many of the figures, and some of the visions of
Ezekiel, seem coarse, and some of them appear unintelligible.
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