[5] 



The Prophecy of Ahijah the Shilomite (2 Chronicles ix, 29). 

 The Visions of Iddo the Seer against Jeroboam the son of Nebat (2 Chron. ix, 29). 

 The Book of Shemaiah the Prophet (2 Chronicles xii. 15). 

 The Book of Iddo the Seer concerning Genealogies (2 Chronicles xii. 15). 

 The Story of the Prophet Iddo (2 Chronicles xiii. 22). 



The Book of the Kings of Judah and Israel (2 Chronicles xvi. 1 1, and six other 

 places in the same Book). 

 The Book of Jehu (2 Chronicles xx. 34). 

 The Memoirs of Hircanus (mentioned in I Maccabees). 

 The Books of Jason (mentioned in 2 Maccabees ii.). 

 The Acts of Uriah (mentioned in 2 Chronicles xxvi. 22). 

 Three thousand Proverbs of Solomon (mentioned in I Kings iv. 32). 

 A thousand and five Songs (mentioned in ibid). 

 Several other volumes by the same author (mentioned in ibid). 

 The Prophecy of Jeremiah, torn in pieces by Jehoiakim (cited in Jeremiah xxxvi. ), 

 Another Prophecy of his upon the city of Babylon (mentioned in Jeremiah li. ), 

 Memoirs or descriptions of the same author (mentioned in i Maccabees ii.). 

 The Prophecy of Jonah (mentioned in the Book of Jonah). 



We can readily imagine what trouble our pious ancestors must have 

 experienced in deciding which of these writings really emanated from 

 the ghost of God and which were fraudulent productions, for the style 

 in which most of them were written rendered it almost impossible to 

 decipher them : written on rough skins, in ink which had become obli- 

 terated by age, many of them had fallen into the hands of monks and 

 other rogues, who appeared to have suffered severely from cacoethes 

 scribendi, and who recorded events connected with their own persons or 

 surroundings over the original writing, like a lady " crosses " her letters, 

 so that the whole manuscript became a complete jumble. In most cases 

 the original or ground language was Hebrew or Greek in ill-formed and 

 continuous capitals, undivided into words, and without accents, points, 

 or breathings, while the " crossing " was in Arabic, Latin, or some other 

 different dialect, badly written and accompanied with ink spots and 

 senseless dashes. Out of this heterogeneous mass of scribblings the 

 pious divines of the Reformation period compiled our authorised version 

 of the Bible, the translation into English being made, in the case of the 

 Old Testament, from the modern Hebrew text, and in that of the New 

 Testament from Beza's fifth edition of the Greek text. 



There are three different versions of the complete Old Testament 

 viz., the Hebrew, the Greek Septuagint, and the Latin Vulgate, and two 

 Samaritan versions of the Pentateuch, one written in Aramaen and the 

 other in Arabic. The MSS. of the Hebrew version are all written in 

 modern or Masoretic Hebrew, which dates from about the year 1,000 

 A.D. The original language of the Hebrews, which was derived from 

 the Egyptians and afterwards modified by contact with the Chaldeans, 

 was very different from that we are accustomed to read to-day in Hebrew 

 Bibles : instead of each word being separated from its neighbour, and 

 vowel points being subscribed to assist in the reading, sentences, 



