_Titles to the Psalms in the Syriac Version._--MR. T. J. BUCKTON (Vol. ix.,
p. 242.) observes, in reference to the superscription [Hebrew: LMNTSCH
BNGYNT], "For the chief performer on the neginoth," that "the Syriac and
Arabic versions omit this superscription altogether, from _ignorance_ of
the musical sense of the words." And lower down he speaks as if [Hebrew:
NCHYLWT] were expressed in the Syriac by the word "church." I do not
question the accuracy of MR. B.'s renderings of the Hebrew words, for they
have been admitted for centuries; but I wish to observe that the translator
of the Syriac should not be lightly charged with ignorance of Hebrew, as I
can testify from an extensive acquaintance with that venerable version. I
therefore cannot allow that the words were omitted by the translator for
that reason. Besides, whenever he found a word untranslateable, he
transferred it as it was. Nor do I admit that _nehiloth_, in Psalm v., is
translated by the term "church." And this leads me to remark, what seems to
have been overlooked by most writers, viz. that the Syriac version _omits_
uniformly the titles of the Psalms as they are found in Hebrew[9]. The
inscriptions contained in the common editions of these Psalms form no part
of the translation. One of them refers to the destruction of Jerusalem by
Titus! They are not always the same. I am acquainted with at least _three
different sets_ of these headings contained in the Syriac MSS. in the
British Museum. Erpenius omitted them altogether in his edition of the
Psalter, and Dathe's follows his; for which very substantial reasons are
given by him in the "Praef. ad Lect." of his _Psalterium Syriacum_, pp. 36,
37., Halae, 1768.