BIBLE. 



523 



*The Book of Wisdom, *Ecclesiasticus, Isaiah, Jere- 

 miah, and *Baruch ; Ezekiel, Daniel, Hosea, Joel, 

 Amos, Obadiah, Nahum (which, in our editions, is 

 placed after Micah and before Habakkuk), Jonah 

 (which we place after Obadiah), Micah, Habakkuk, 

 Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, *I Macca- 

 bees and *II Maccabees.f The books received by 

 the Jews were divided by Ezra into three classes t 

 1. The Law, contained in the Pentateuch, (q. v.) or 

 five books of Moses. 2. The Prophets, comprising 

 Toshua, Judges, and Ruth, I and II Samuel, I and 

 II Kings, I and II Chronicles, Isaiah, Jeremiah and 

 Lamentations, Ezekiel, Daniel, the twelve minor 

 prophets, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther. 3. The Ce- 

 tubim, or Hagiographa, that is, holy writings, con- 

 taining the Psalms, the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and 

 the Song of Solomon. These books were written in 

 the Hebrew language, while those which are rejected 

 from the canon as apocryphal by the Protestants, are 

 found only in Greek or Latin. 



The books of Moses were deposited, according to 

 the Bible, after his death, in the tabernacle, near the 

 ark : the other sacred writings, it is further said, 

 were successively deposited in the same place, as 

 they were written. After the building of the temple, 

 they were removed by Solomon to that edifice : on 

 the capture of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar, the 

 autographs probably perished, but numerous copies 

 were preserved, as is inferred from allusions in wri- 

 ters subsequent to the Babylonish captivity. It is 

 generally admitted, that the canon of the Old Testa- 

 ment was settled soon after the return from Babylon, 

 and the re-establishment of the Jewish religion. This 

 work was accomplished, according to the traditions 

 of the Jews, by Ezra, with the assistance of the great 

 synagogue, who collected and compared as many 

 copies as could be found. From this collation a cor- 

 rect edition of the whole was prepared, with the ex- 

 ception of the writings of Ezra, Malachi, and Nehe- 

 miah, which were added by Simon the Just. When 

 J udas Maccabaeus repaired the temple, which had 

 been destroyed by Antiochus Epiphanes, he placed 

 in it a correct copy of the Hebrew Scriptures, whether 

 the autograph of Ezra or not is not known. This 

 copy was carried to Rome by Titus. The division 

 into chapters and verses is of modern origin. Cardi- 

 nal Hugo de Sancto Curo, who nourished in the 

 thirteenth century, having divided the Vulgate into 

 chapters, for convenience of reference, similar divi- 

 sions were made in the Hebrew text by rabbi Morde- 

 cai Nathan, in the fifteenth century. The present 

 division into verses was made by Athias, a Jew of 

 Amsterdam, in his edition of 1661. The punctuation 

 is also the work of modern scholars. Biblical critics 

 divide the Scriptures of the Old Testament into the 

 Pentateuch, or five books of Moses ; the historical 

 books, from Joshua to Esther inclusive ; the doctrinal 

 or poetical books of Job, Psalms, Proverbs, Eccles- 

 iastes, and the Song of Solomon ; the prophetical 

 books. The most esteemed manuscripts of the He- 

 brew Bible are those of the Spanish Jews. The most 

 ancient are not more than seven or eight centuries 

 old : the famous manuscript of the Samaritan Penta- 

 teuch, in the possession of the Samaritans of Sichem, 

 is only 500 years old : a manuscript in the Bodleian 

 library is thought to be 700 years old : one in the 

 Vatican is supposed to have been written in 973. 

 In some manuscripts, the Masora (q. v.) is added. 



The printed editions of the Hebrew Bible are very 

 numerous. The earliest were printed in Italy. The 

 first edition of the entire Hebrew Bible was printed 

 at Sondoo, in 1488. The Brescian edition of 1494 



to which an asterisk is prefixed arc, by Protes- 

 amerud apocryphal. 



was used by Luther, in making his German transla- 

 tion. The editions of Athias, a Jew of Amsterdam, 

 1661 and 1667, are much esteemed for their beauty 

 and correctness. Van der Hooght followed the latter. 

 Doctor Kennicott did more than any one of his pre- 

 decessors to settle the Hebrew text. His Hebrew 

 Bible appeared at Oxford, in 1776 1780, 2 vols., 

 folio. The text is from that of Van der Hooght, 

 with which 630 MSS. were collated, De Rossi, who 

 published a supplement to Kennicott's edition (Parma, 

 1784-99, 5 vols. 4to), collated 958 MSS. The Ger- 

 man Orientalists, Gesenius, De Wette, &c., in recent 

 times, have done very much towards correcting the 

 Hebrew text. 



The earliest and most famous version of the Old 

 Testament is the Septuagint, or Greek translation. 

 The Syriac version, called the Pesc/iito, was made 

 early in the second century. It is celebrated for its 

 fidelity. The Coptic version was made from the 

 Septuagint, some time before the seventh century. 

 The Gothic version, by Ulphilas, was also made from 

 the Septuagint, in the fourth century. The most im- 

 portant Latin version is the Vulgate. (For an account 

 of the principal polyglots, see Polyglot.) 



The books of the New Testament were all written 

 in Greek, unless it be true, as some critics suppose, 

 that the Gospel of St Matthew was originally written 

 in Hebrew. Most of these writings have always been 

 received as canonical ; but the Epistle to the He- 

 brews, by an uncertain author, that of St Jude, the 

 second of Peter, the second and third of John, and 

 the Apocalypse (q. v.) have been doubted. Eusebius 

 distinguishes three sorts of books connected with the 

 New Testament : 1. those which have always been 

 unanimously received, namely, the four Gospels, the 

 Acts of the Apostles, thirteen Epistles of Paul, the 

 first Epistle of Peter, and the first of John : 2. those 

 which were not received, at first, by all the churches ; 

 of these, some which have been already mentioned, 

 though at first rejected by some churches, have been 

 since universally received ; others, such as the Books 

 of the Shepherd, the Letter of St Barnabas, the two 

 Epistles of St Clement, have not been generally ac- 

 knowledged as canonical : 3. books forged by here- 

 tics, to maintain their doctrines ; such are the Gospels 

 of St Thomas, St Peter, &c. The division of the 

 text of the New Testament into chapters and verses 

 was introduced earlier than that of the Old Testa- 

 ment; but it is not precisely known when, or by 

 whom. (For the numerous translations of the Bible, 

 in modern times, see the article Bible Societies, and 

 the annual reports of these societies, particularly of 

 the British and Foreign Bible Society.) In Bibliciil 

 criticism, the Germans have, without doubt, done 

 more than any other nation ; and we should far ex- 

 ceed our limits, if we were to attempt an enumeration 

 of their works in this department. (See fFette, Gries- 

 bach, Gesenius, Schleiermacher, Michaelis, &c.) 



The whole Bible was translated into Saxon by 

 Bede, in the beginning of the eighth century. The 

 first English translation, by an unknown hand, is sup- 

 posed to have been made near the end of the thir- 

 teenth century. Wickliffe's translation of the entire 

 Bible from the Vulgate, 1380, is to be found in 

 iViS. in several of the public libraries. The first 

 printed edition of any part of the Scriptures in 

 English was a translation of the New Testament 

 from the original Greek, published by Tindal, 1526. 

 The whole impression was bought up and burned by 

 the bishop of London. The authorized version now 

 in use, in England and America, was made by the, 

 command of James I., and is commonly called king 

 James'* Bible. Forty-seven distinguished scholars 

 were appointed for this purpose, and divided into 

 six classes. Ten at Wotminster were to translate 

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