We may add further that almost three hundred years before Christ, by the care of the _Egyptian_ kings, the Hebrew books were translated into Greek by those who are called the _Seventy_; that the Greeks might have them in another language, but the sense the same in the main; upon which account they were the less liable to be altered: And the same books were translated into _Chaldee_, and into the _Jerusalem_ language; that is, half _Syriac_; partly a little before, and partly a little after Christ’s time. After which followed other _Greek_ versions, that of _Aquila_, _Symmachus_, and _Theodotion_; which _Origen_, and others after him, compared with the seventy Interpreters, and found no difference in the history; or in any weighty matters. _Philo_ flourished in _Caligula’s_ time, and Josephus lived till _Vespasian’s_. Each of them quote out of the _Hebrew_ books the same things that we find at this day. By this time the Christian religion began to be more and more spread, and many of its professors were _Hebrews_: Many had studied the _Hebrew_ learning, who could very easily have perceived and discovered it, if the _Jews_ had received any thing that was false, in any remarkable subject, I mean, by comparing it with more ancient books. But they not only do this, but they bring very many testimonies out of the Old Testament, plainly in that sense in which they are received amongst the _Hebrews_, which _Hebrews_ may be convicted of any crime, sooner than (I will not say of falsity, but) of negligence, in relation to these books; because they used to transcribe and compare them so very scrupulously, that they could tell how often every letter came over. We may add, in the first place, an argument, and that no mean one, why the _Jews_ did not alter the scripture designedly; because the Christians prove, and as they think very strongly, that their Master Jesus was that very Messiah who was of old promised to the forefathers of the _Jews_; and this from those very books, which were read by the _Jews_. Which the _Jews_ would have taken the greatest care should never have been, after there arose a controversy between them and the Christians; if it had ever been in their power to have altered what they would.” GROTIUS. Footnote 21: (_Thus the_ Phoenician _Annals_, &c.) See what _Josephus_ cites out of them, Book VIII. Chap. 2. of his Ancient History; where he adds, “that if any one would see the Copies of those Epistles which _Solomon_ and _Hirom_ wrote to each other, they may be procured of the public Keepers of the Records at _Tyrus_.” (We must be cautions how we believe this; however, see what I have said upon 1 _Kings_ v. 3.) There is a remarkable place concerning _David_, quoted by _Josephus_, Book VII. Ch. 6. of his Ancient History, out of the IVth of _Damascenus’s_ History. Footnote 22: