H ΚΑΙΝΗ ΔΙΑΘΗΚΗ. THE GREEK TESTAMENT WITH ENGLISH NOTES. BY THE REV. EDWARD BURTON, D. D. CANON OF CHRIST CHURCH AND REGIUS PROFESSOR OF DIVINITY. IN TWO VOLUMES. VOL. I. OXFORD, PRINTED BY S. COLLINGWOOD, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY, WHITTAKER AND CO.; J. G. AND F. RIVINGTON, LONDON: PREFACE. It is perhaps hardly possible to produce a commentary upon the scriptures, which shall be suited to readers of every description. If it is intelligible to the poor, and to people of little education, it will not satisfy the curiosity of the learned: or if it enters into doctrinal and critical difficulties, there must be much which is unprofitable to the unlearned reader. The very nature of the case seems to make the union of these two objects impossible: and lest I should be thought to have attempted in the present publication, what I have already pronounced to be hopeless, I am anxious to state explicitly what is the class of readers for which this edition is intended. The notes are calculated for those persons who are not reading the Greek Testament for the first time, but who as yet have little acquaintance with the labours of critical commentators. If they should be found useful in the upper classes of schools, to the younger members of our universities, and to the candidates for holy orders, the anxious wishes of the editor will be amply gratified. It is not merely the fashion of the day which has induced me to compose the notes in English rather than in Latin. This custom seems indeed to be gaining ground in editions of profane authors, as well as of the Greek Testament: |