e world but for
its mature age, and which deals not so much with the details of
particulars as with great principles, which require for their full
comprehension the capacity of abstraction and generalization. In the
historical records of the Old Testament, and in its poetic and prophetic
parts, the Hebrew language was altogether at home. But for such
compositions as the epistle to the Romans the Greek offered a more
perfect medium; and here, as everywhere else God's providence took care
that the founders of the Christian church should be furnished in the
most complete manner.

3. We find, accordingly, that centuries before our Lord's advent,
preparation began to be made in the providence of God for this change in
the language of the inspired writings. One result of the Babylonish
captivity was that Hebrew ceased to be the vernacular of the masses of
the people, and a form of Aramaean took its place. Chap. 14, No. 4.
After the return of the Jews from this same captivity and their
reestablishment in their own land, the spirit of prophecy was also
withdrawn, and the canon of the Old Testament brought to a close. Thus
the cessation of Hebrew as the spoken language of the people, and the
withdrawal of the spirit of prophecy were contemporaneous events. The
canon was locked up in the sacred language, and the _interpreter_ took
the place of the _prophet_. "The providential change of language
suggested a general limit within which the voice of inspiration might be
heard, as the fearful chastisements of the captivity turned men's minds
to the old Scriptures with a devotion unknown before." Westcott's
Introduc. to the Study of the Gospels, chap. 1.

4. But the conquests of Alexander the Great (B.C. 334-323) brought the
Greek language and the Greek civilization into Asia and Egypt, as a sure
leaven destined to leaven the whole mass. To this influence the Jews
could not remain insensible. It reached even Palestine, where they
naturally clung most tenaciously to the Aramaean language and to the
customs of their fathers. But out of Palestine, where the Jews were
dispersed in immense numbers, it operated more immediately; especially
in Egypt, whose metropolis Alexandria was, after the age of Alexander
its founder, one of the chief seats of Grecian learning. To the Jews of
Alexandria the Greek language was vernacular. By them was executed, as
we have seen, under the patronage of the Egyptian king, the first
version ever made of the H