I'M 



BIBLE. 



15IBLK. 



100 



of their letters. Origen seems to have forgotten the book of the 

 twelve minor prophets ; and so it happens that, having promised to 

 count twenty-two hooks, he enumerates only twenty -one. In the Latin 

 version of Euaebius by Ruffinus, the book of the minor prophets is 

 inserted after the Canticles ; and in a similar manner Hilarius expresses 



himself in the prologue to the Psalms, which he translated from 

 Origen. 



After these observations the following diagram will be understood 

 and will facilitate the finding of Hebrew passages, since most Christians 

 are accustomed to a different succession of biblical books : 



According to a Jewish tradition, Moses was the first who wrote. In 

 the subsequent heroic times of the Hebrews we find the noting down 

 of historical facts and the composition of poems ; but Hebrew litera- 

 ture received its chief impulse at a later epoch from Samuel's " Schools 

 of the Prophet*," which produced the best specimens of moral or 

 didactic and lyric poetry, an <l tue finest prophetical compositions. 



That several documents and books of ancient Hebrew literature have 

 lieen lort, is in itself very credible, and it appears, from the difference 

 of style, that Genesis w formed out of various documents. [GnxKsrs.] 

 The book of Jasher is twice quoted (Jos. x. 13 ; 2 Sam. i. 18), but the 

 compilations in Hebrew and in English extant \mder this title are 

 forgeries. [JASIIKB.] The books of Chronicles and Kings are extracts 

 from larger records, to which the reader is frequently referred by such 

 < .w the acts of David the king, first and last, behold, they 

 are "written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan 

 the prophet, and in the book of Gad the seer," 1 C'hron. xxix. 29. "And 

 the rent of the acts of Solomon, and all that he did, and his wisdom, 

 .ir.: they not written in the book of the acts of Solomon?" 1 Kings 

 xi. 41. ' Now the rest of the acts of Solomon, first and last, are they 

 not written in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the prophecy of 

 Ahijah the Shilonite, and in the visions of Iddo the seer against Jero- 

 boam the son of Nebat?" 2 Chron. ix. 29. Solomon "spake three 

 thousand proverbs, and his songs were a thousand and five," most of 

 which are not extant now. Even by counting the subdivisions in the 



Solomonic writings now extant, the above numbers cannot be produced. 

 According to the rabbinical mode of counting stated in Hebrew at the 

 conclusion of biblical books, the number of verses in the book of 

 Proverbs is 915, in the Song of Songs 117, in Ecclesiastes 222. 



With the restoration of the ancient constitution and manners there 

 was excited a literary zeal for collecting those remains of national 

 literature which were neglected during the Babylonian captivity. To 

 this zeal for collecting the ancient holy writings the Old Testament 

 owes its formation. But the zeal for national literature survived the 

 national language, and accordingly the body of the Apocrypha wa 

 added, after the Old Testament had been brought to a conclusion, 

 about B.C. 150. Ezra, and the other members of the great synagogue, 

 have been frequently considered as the founders of the Canon ; but 

 the Talmudic passages upon which this opinion rests are by no means 

 decisive ; and we have therefore more reason to ascribe this merit to 

 Nehemiah, concerning whom we read in the 2 Maccabees, oh. ii. ver. 13, 

 " the same things also were reported in the writings and commentaries 

 of Neemias, and how he founded a library, gathered together the acts 

 of the kings and the prophets, and of David, and the epistles of the 

 kings concerning the holy gifts. In like manner Judas also gathered 

 together all those things that were lost by reason of the war we had ; 

 and they remain with us." 



The most ancient record of the Old Testament as a collection is in 

 the prologue of Jesus son of Sirach, about B.C. 1 30 under the appellation 



