[Footnote 62: Our versions now extant, whether Jewish or
Christian, appear more recent than the Koran; but the
existence of a prior translation may be fairly inferred, -
1. From the perpetual practice of the synagogue of
expounding the Hebrew lesson by a paraphrase in the vulgar
tongue of the country; 2. From the analogy of the Armenian,
Persian, Aethiopic versions, expressly quoted by the fathers
of the fifth century, who assert that the Scriptures were
translated into all the Barbaric languages, (Walton,
Prolegomena ad Biblia Polyglot, p. 34, 93 - 97. Simon,
Hist. Critique du V. et du N. Testament, tom. i. p. 180,
181, 282 - 286, 293, 305, 306, tom. iv. p. 206.)]