The Period of the Persian Monarchy, Chapter 20
CHAP. XX.
IT is laid in the sense of the word foreign, which our Translation Englisheth Nobles, and that rightly. The Word naturally doth signifie a Grandeè, a Chiefe as head over the rest in Power, or Authority, or both. One that with his Countenance is able to doe much upon the rest, whether they be servants or not. No man hath reason to say the contrary, sith it doth radically signifie some great Men, whether Magistrate or Magistrates fellowe. The Hebrew word which indeed doth signifie, and is commonly used to signifie a Freeman, is foreign. Which is up and downe translated a Freeman, in all versions that I know. But our word foreign comes from a roote, which signifies dSchindl. Penteglot. c▪ ad foreign quòd aulici Proceres olim candidis vestirentur: quod de Iosepho legimus. Gen. 41.42. & de Mordochaeo. Est. 8.15.White. Because States used to be clad in White in those times and places. But the Septuagint, who were naturall Iewes render it foreign, which is properly Freemen. The thing I am to prove then, is. That the S…ptuagint understood by foreign, Men of Quaelity, Neh. 4. v. 14, 19. The words be [I sayd to the Nobles and Rulers and to the rest of the People.] The word translated Nobles is foreign: and so rendred it must be.
For reade it Freemen, and what a poore sense doe we put upon the holy Text. I said to the Freemen, and Rulers, and to the rest of the People. What, Freemen put before Rulers. Againe, Freemen opposed to the rest of the People. Were not the Commons many of them Freemen now? Nay. The word People is so farre from being restrained to Meane, onelyonly Servants; that Servants are rather excluded than otherwise: not meant at all, rather than onelyonly meant. Nehemiah had neither need, nor cause to speake to the Servants, whose Masters had power over them, to bring them in to his Will. How then doth the Text oppose them to Freemen, and make them as two severall distinct Branches? But what say the 70 here? foreign, i. e. Honourable Men. And therefore the 70 themselves tooke Nobles, Honourable, to be the meaning of foreign. The like wee have, Neh. 5.7. Where Nehemiah dealt in the matter of eNot that Nobles were all Vsurers: but because it was their sinne to see it and suffer, and in their power to redresse it. Neither can it be thought that all the Freemen were Vsurers: and therefore to render it Freemen cannot hold▪Vsury. What be the words. I rebuked, saith he, foreign. The Nobles and Rulers, saith our Engglish. Me thinkes it makes the holy Ghost to speake backeward to English it thus. I rebuked the Freemen and Rulers. And here we have the 70 for us. Againe, they translate it foreign, honourable. A third place we finde, Neh. 6.17. The Nobles of Iudah sent many letters to Tobija. It makes a kinde of Non-sense of it to reade it. The Freemen of Iudah sent many letters. The word is, foreign. And must we make them a Popular State, and turne their Common-wealth into a Democracy, that Letters must be written in the name of every Freeman. And here, as before the Septuagint have it foreign. No no, They were the Nobles that wrote, whose Letters were like to carry some stroke with Tobijah. And can it sinke into any Mans head, that all or most of the Freemen must meet many times, to write many letters to Tobijah. Thus we see, how often in this very booke of Nehemiah, which best of all opens it selfe, the word foreign is used, where it can possibly (both by the Scripture and by the Translation of the 70.) signifie nothing but Nobles. And were not the Septuagint Iewes? Did not they best know how to give the right meaning of their owne Language? Now, what say we to other places of Scripture! We reade Esay. 34.12. They shall call the Nobles to the Kingdome. The word is foreign. Reade the word Freemen: it is ridiculous. They shall call the Freemen to the Kingdome. And here, once more, the Septuagint are for us. The Greeke is foreign. i. e. Princes, great officers, men of place, power: and the like we finde, Ier. 27.20. The words be. Nebuchadnezzar carryed away with King Ieconiah all the Nobles. The originall is, [foreign] What? did he carry away all the Freemen? No such matter. He left all the Freemen, or all almost behind him. They were not carried away in the deportation of Ieconiah. But the Nobles hee did all, or as good as all. But wee must consult with the Septuagint. There it is, foreign, Potentates. And one place more, if you will in Ier. 39.6. Where we reade, That after Nebuchadnezzar, had slaine the sons of King Zedekiah: the Text saith, That the King of Babel slew all the Nobles of Iudah. The Originall hath [foreign]. Translate it Freemen, and there is as little truth, as good sense in it. For he did not then kill all the Freemen of Iudah. So to English it, is to father untruth's upon the booke of God. We must not leave out the Septuagint. They must be heard by all meanes. And how doe they Greeke it here? Why [foreign] Princes againe. By all these places we see how little truth there is in such bold assertions as these, that foreign doth properly signifie Freemen. That the Septuagint, who were Iewes by Nature, and could best say what is the signification of the words in their owne Language, doe so understand it. Which we see, is neither so, nor so. But if a 1000 Septuagints had said that Freemen is the proper and naturall signification of the word (sith wee see the contrary in almost all the places of the Bible where the Word is used:) we must crave pardon, if we be hard of beliefe in the point. But doe not the 70 here, in the very place, Nehemiah 13.17. translate the word foreign? They doe. Doth not foreign, naturally and Grammatically signifie Freemen? It doth. And did not the 70 know what foreign meant? They did. What will you doe now? No hurt done. I meane not: nor need to disable the Version of the 70 (as a great fHie…onym. in Isay. 10. & passim.▪Hebrician and Divine both doth. Nor am I about to say, That the Edition that we now have, is so vitiate, that one would thinke it were not the same, but some impostor rather.) Yet gDe Verbo De… lib. 2. c. 6.Bellarmine is so bold with the 70. Tis enough to carry it on our side, that in so many places (as above) the 70 themselves construe the word foreign by such Greeke words as never can signifie a Freeman, as such: but ever A man of Eminency & Port. And now, whereas in our place, the Septuagint doe translate foreign, The meaning is, not to note out free Men simply: but such Freemen as were also Men of Note and Quality above the rest. And let the reason of this Metaphoricall use of the word be. Because such Men should be of a free and generous spirit. Or else. Because Rulers were taken and chosen (when chosen) never out of Servants: but of such, whose houses were free in Israel. We will not looke after other Authors: but (to leave this place till anon) prove out of some other places of Scripture, That the 70 cannot still meane Freemen, when they doe translate [foreign] foreign. Which they doe, but rare and seldome. To begin with 1 Kings 21.8. Where we find, That Iezabel wrote Letters in Ahabs name to the Elders, and to the Nobles that were in his City, The Hebrew word translated by our English Nobles, is our word foreign where it is by the 70 done into Greeke foreign. Now by the very Text it appeares, that foreign cannot be translated a Freeman. For it is not to be imagined that Iezabell did write and direct her Letters to the Elders and Freemen of that City. What had the Freemen to doe with her practise? She had a bloudy secret in hand, which she neyther would, nor need to impart to every Freeman. But the Rulers and Nobles, they were the men, that were onelyonly fit to be entrusted with her feat, and able to satisfie her wicked turne. Her drift was to put off the matter with a faire colour, and to cover it from the eyes of the Commons. Which she could not doe nor meant to doe, if so bee shee had writen to the Freemen in the Kings Name. Except such and such Freemen that were fit for her designe, were not to be made acquainted with that horrid plot? What? writeth that to the Freemen, which by all meanes her desire was to secret from the Freemen. And she might well thinke, That all the Freemen would not have come in to her mind to massacre a man and his family, for nothing but his conscience. And therefore I take it a clere case. That by foreign here are meant Nobles and not Freemen. And yet the 70. have it in the Greeke foreign. Therefore in this place they doe not thinke that foreign signifies Freemen. Nor doe they by their foreign intend to expresse Freemen (quà tales) but great men.
And the same is also proved by Eccles. hEccl. 10.17. Vulgar, Nobiles. Vat ab. Filius Nobilium. So Paguine, Tremel. Clarissimi. Piscator. Cuius Rex natus est viris illustribus His Scholion. Heb. Cuius Rex filius Candidorum est. Hebraei foreign candidos seu albos intelligunt viros principes, claros, & illusties: vel quòd gererent candidas vest…s, vel quòd nomine …apientiae, & virtutis illustres & clari essent.10.17. Blessed (saith the holy Ghost there) art thou Land, when thy King is the sonne of Nobles.] The Hebrew is our word in question foreign. In the Septuagint it foreign. What English is this? Blessed is the Land when the King is the sonne of Freemen. A wise blessednesse. And translations agree in the best Linguists, to give the word foreign, such words in Latine, as can beare no good English except by such a word as Nobles, Illustrious, Renowned. And in these places, 'tis not to be denyed, That when the 70. translate foreign: though foreign doe in the Grammaticall signification of it properly signifie any Freemen as Freemen: yet) the 70. doe by it understand a Potent, a Man of place, and accompt. As it is plaine and proved to be plaine by the places before cited, which are all the places I know, (except this in Nehemiah now in question) where in the 70. foreign is done into the Greeke foreign. And the reason was,The very word foreign in divers ancient Writers is taken metaphorically, applied to the mind, and not onelyonly for civill freedome in the compound, foreign: in the abstract foreign, meane, base basenesse. See plenty of instances, out of Greeke Authors, in Scapula, and Stephanus. as I said, because such should bee of a free and noble mind. And doth not this make it plaine. That whenever the 70. are to translate foreign which is radically and properly a Freeman as a Freeman simply, as opposite to a Bondman, there they ever use to translate it by the word foreign: but when they are to translate foreign usually they doe give it a word in Greeke which signifies a Gentleman, or rather one a size above a Gentleman. And in these few places where they put it into the word foreign (as in those places I have set downe & in this of Nehemiah) the scope of the places do shew, that they meane to note thereby nothing lesse than nakedly a Freeman. And if challenging were so fit among Scholars, me thinks I might put any man to prove, That in any place where foreign is used in the Originall, or where foreign is made by the 70. the translation of foreign: that then and there in any one place it must yea, or may be rendred a Freeman, Quatenùs a Freeman contradistinct to a servant. The briefe of all is in two words. In other places where foreign is made by the 70. the translation of foreign it cannot signifie Freemen: and therefore it doth not follow that it must here, in our place of Nehemiah.
And now at last to come to the very place, I say that here it doth not signifie a Freeman, and therefore the 70. who being Iewes borne knew best to translate their owne Language, do not here (translating foreign) meane thereby a Freeman: but a man of Note and Name. Tis a poore piece of Learning then to say, that it doth properly signifie, a Freeman, when there is no one place in all the Bible, where it must, say I? nay) where it may handsomely be translated Freeman. And for this place I dare appeale to all Interpreters, where ever any did translate it by a word that is ever used in any Tongue to signifie a Freeman. OnelyOnly excepted this questioned translation of the 70. now in hand. When I say all: I meane all iHieron. Optimates. Vulg. Optimates. Beda. Optimates. Pagn. Optimates. Pagn. in Thesauro, Magnate…. S. hindl. Primates. Buxd. Clarissimi. Tremel. Clarissimi. Interlin Heroes. French. les gouverneurs. Spanish, a los sennores English translat. Geneva. Rulers. last, Noble…. Ital gli huomini, Notabili▪I have seene, and by them I judge the same of all the rest, I have not seene. Divers words they have: but all the wit in the world cannot expresse what they all meane in a more full formall, and significant terme than Noble, which is our last English. To say all in a word, the 70. translate commonly foreign by foreign and foreign, which of force signify Nobles: and in two or three places (where they render it foreign, they must and did meane Nobles. And so doe the circumstances of this very place (Nehe. 13.17.) evince it to be understood here. Consider but that the same forme and manner of chiding and reproving which he followes here, he used before, Verse. 11. Where he saith, he contended with the Rulers about the abuse of the Levits portion. But there the men reproved were great men. For the word is foreign which is there in the 70. kVid Arist. polit. l. …. cap. ult. who having occasion to treate of some Magistates saith, foreign.foreign and that is nor can be nothing but Rule…s. In regard of their place of office, he cals them there Rulers. In regard of their Birth or others Titles and dignities he calls them here (Vers. 17.) Nobles: in both, the same ranke of men. But because the Septuagints translation of the word in this place foreign is by some made such a matter: We will therefore shew, it is not for nothing, that we af…firmed the 70. to meane by foreign, A man of a free and noble spirit. Consider we then that [foreign] properly & originally doth signifie Ingenuous men. Now an ingenuous man is defined in lInstitut. Iuris. lib. 1. tit▪ 4.Law to bee borne not made a Freeman. Yet a common use of foreign in Scriptures is to signifie Princes, Potentates, Rulers, Nobles. The 70. who being …ewes best knew the use of their owne mother Tongue, do mPro. 19.6. foreign. King. Psal. 118.9. & 47.10.83.12.113.7. foreign. Princes. 1. Sam. 2.8 foreign. Powers. Prov. 8.16. foreign. Tyrants or Kings. The word tyrant was anciently of a good meaning. Scapula.often translate it by words, which doe and in very grammaticall etymology must signifie Rulers. And the nBeza in Luc. 22.25. Iansen. concordant. cap. 133.learned are in the right, when they teach us, That Luke (22.25) by foreign Benefactours bountifull doth expresse the Hebrew [foreign] and that S. Luke doth import men of authority and place. Two of the Ptolomej Kings of Egypt, tooke to them this Title to be called Ptolomeus Euergetes. And why? But because Princes and Grandies should be men of a bountifull mind, and of a free and most ingenuous spirit. And oforeign. Arist. pol. l. 3. cap. 11. Qui magistratum ambieb… ̄t Boni dicebantur, quia munus non ni…i a Bonis administrari vel ambiri fas erat Seneca. lib. 1. ep. 3. Sic. qui publica curabant Optimates, quia non nisi Optimis committi debebant publica negotia.Aristotle saith, That Kings were created from their Beneficence. And gives this reason. For that good men are highly esteemed for their vertue. As then the Hebrew and Greeke words, which signifie properly ingenuous, free, munificent, are used for Princes as common as may bee, because such men should have such conditions; and hee wrongs the Text, that shall translate foreign Ingenuous: may I not in like manner say. That the 70. in our place useth the word foreign, which thematically & properly signifies Freeman for a Nobleman, because mē, of quality such, should be endued with such qualities. The very same we see in the word p1 King. 21.8. foreign. i. e. To the Elders, meaning the chiefe Magistrates and Masters of the City, & passim.foreign, whose immediate and literall signification is an elderly man, a Senior. Yet how often in the old Testament is it used to signifie a Ruler in the State? And all over the new Testament for a Ruler and Rector in the Church. And why? Because men are not usually so fit to be put in place in either, till they come to some yeares. The reason we have in the qforeign Eth. lib. 1. c. 3. foreign. Polit. lib. 7. cap. 9▪ foreign. Ibid.Philosopher. Because a man is not fit for a Councellour in the state, till he be of some good experience, which a Iunior cannot have: Nor in the Church, till he be of composed manners, which is not found every day among the younger sort. Old in time and old in manners usually goe together. To come to the point then. Sith most an end the 70. doe translate foreign by words expressing Nobles; And sith in those few places, where the 70. doe make use of the word foreign, the Circumstances of the place doe carry it, That simply Freemen as Freemen cannot be meant; but Noblemen, because they should be men of free mindes (as the words foreign ▪ are translated in like sort from the literall sense to signifie men of place and quality;) And sith all translations I thinke, I am sure all that I have seene, doe in the Nationall and learned versions and translations turne it by words expressing Nobles, Lords, Worthies, Heroicall persons, Potentates, Illustrious and the like; Sith I say all these proofes meet, as most pregnant to evince the true and full signification of the word foreign to be Nobles; the conclusion is ours: That Nehemiah did contest not with all the Freemen; but with the Nobles, as men that were in place and power to redresse the Prophanation of the Sabbath day.