both the
Memphitic and the Thebaic, have been discovered. To this, the epithet
_Bashmuric_ has been applied, from the Arabian name _Bashmur_, a
district of lower Egypt in the Delta to the East. But Egyptian scholars
doubt whether the term is well applied, as the version is said to have
stronger affinity to the Thebaic than to the Memphitic version.

The Memphitic and Thebaic versions are said to have contained
the whole Bible, that of the Old Testament being made from the
Septuagint. The whole Memphitic New Testament has been several
times published, but never in such a manner as to meet the wants
of Biblical criticism. Of the Thebaic version only some
fragments have been published.

10. An _Ethiopic_ version of the whole Bible exists in the ancient
dialect of Axum. That of the Old Testament was made from the Septuagint;
that of the New is a close version of the original Greek. The age to
which it belongs is not known. Many of the readings of its text are said
to show an affinity with the older class of Greek manuscripts, while
others are of a later character. This leads to the suspicion that the
version has undergone revision by the aid of later Greek manuscripts. An
edition of the whole Bible is in process of publication in Germany.

IV. THE GOTHIC AND OTHER VERSIONS.

11. The first information which European scholars had of the existence
of a _Gothic_ version of the New Testament was in the sixteenth century,
when one Morillon copied from a Gothic manuscript in the library of the
Monastery of Werden in Westphalia the Lord's Prayer and some other
parts, which were afterwards published. When the Swedes, in 1648, took
Prague, among the spoils sent to Stockholm was the celebrated _Codex
Argenteus_, _Silver manuscript_, containing a copy of the Gothic gospels
written on purple vellum in silver letters, except the beginnings of the
sections which are in gold. When entire the manuscript is said to have
contained 320 leaves, but when found it had but 188 in quarto size. In
its present state it wants parts of all the gospels. The letters are
deeply furrowed, and beautifully regular. It is thought that this
manuscript was executed for the use of some Gothic king. After various
changes of place, it was finally deposited in the library of the
University of Upsal in Sweden, where it is now preserved enclosed in a
silver case. The Gothic version, of which the Codex Argenteus is a
transcript, was made