B I B 



very fair character upon a fort of leather, and made up in a 

 roll, according to the ancient manner ; but as it has the 

 vowel po:nts annexed, and tlie writing is frtfh and fair, with- 

 out any vilible decay, its antiquity is very j\ilUy denied, and 

 its novchy is unqucilionable. liifaop Pocock, in his Tra- 

 vels, vol. i. p. 23. mentions a MS. Bible, preferved at Cairo, 

 in Egypt, which is faid to be written by Ezra. 



Dnpin fays, that Nehemiah had a great hand in compiiini'- 

 this canon ; for proof of which he refers to the letter to the 

 Jews of Jcrufalem written to the Jews of Egypt, mentioned 

 in the beginning of the fccond book, of Maccabees, in which, it 

 is faid, that Nehemiah had coUeded the books of tlie Kings, 

 of the Prophets, and of David. It is faid, that this canon was 

 then approved by the grand fanhedrnr^, the great fynagogue 

 or council of feventy, and pnblilhed by its antho'ity. It is, 

 however, fays Dupin, more apparent, that about that time 

 the number of the facred books was fixed among tlie Jews 

 by a canon, which the whole Je.vilh nation received and 

 followed ; fo t!\st tiicy looked no longer upon fuclt books 

 as facri.d and divinely infpired, which were not contained in 

 th;o canon. The canon of the whole Hebrew bible feems, 

 fays Kennicott, to have been clofed by Malachi, the latell 

 of the Jewilh prophets : about 50 years after Ezra had col- 

 lected together all t'le facred books which had been com- 

 pofed before and during his time. Pridtanx fuppofcs the 

 carion was clofed by Simon the Jud, about 150 years after 

 Mabchi. But, as his opinion is founded merely on a few 

 proper names at the end of two genealogies ( i Chron. iii. 

 II). & Nelu xii. Z2.), which few names might very eafily be 

 «dded by a tranfcriber afterwards; it is more probable, as 

 Kennicott thinks, that the canon was finilhed by the lall of 

 the prophets, about 400 years before Chrift. The books 

 of tlie Old Tellament having been fettled by Ezra, Nehe- 

 miah, Haggai, Zephaniah, and Malachi, were probably left 

 perfect ; completely repaired after the injuries of time during 

 the -captivity ; and corrected from fuch errors as n:ight have 

 crept in from want of care in the tranfcribers. But the 

 Hebrew text, thus left to pollerity, does not feem to have 

 continued long in the fame condition. For the celebrated 

 text, relative to mount Gerizim, was without doubt altered 

 foon after the temple upon Gerizim wa« built. And as 

 that corruption has been proved upon the Jews, the Jews 

 therefore corrupted their Pentateuch, in ;his inftance, pro- 

 bably between the yeais 400 and 300 before Chrift. See 



PiXTATEUCH. 



It is an enquiry of confiderable importance, in its relation 

 to the fubjeft of this article, what books were contained in 

 the canon of the Jews. In the arrangement of Ezra thcle 

 books were divided into three parts; ift. TheLaw; 2dly. 

 The Prophets ; and 3dly. The Cetubim, or Hagiographa, 

 i.e. the holy writings; which divifion our Saviour himfelf 

 has taken notice of (Luke xxiv. 44) ; meaning by the Pfalms 

 the vs'hole third part, called the Hagiographa. In confor- 

 jnity to this divilion, Jofephus (Contra Apion. i. 8. torn. ii. 

 p. 441.) diftributes the canonical books of the Jews into 

 three cldlTc?. The firft contains the five books of Zvloles ; 

 the fecond, thirteen hiilorical and prophetical books, written 

 from the time of the death ol Moles to Artaxerxes ; and the 

 third, four books of hymns and of morality ; the whole 

 number amounting to twenty-two. The firtl clafs compre- 

 hends Gencfis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deutero- 

 nomy ; the fecond includes Joihua. Judges, P.uth, Samuel, 

 Kings, Chronicles, Ezra with Nehemiah, Efther, Ifaiah, 

 Jeremiah with Lamentations, Ezekicl, Daniel, and the 12 

 minor prophets ; and the third clafs contains Job, the Pfalms, 

 Proverbs, and Ecclefialles. It appears that the Song of So- 

 lomon had no place in the lill of the fucred wTitings drawn 

 Vot. IV. 



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cp by Jofcphu=. Others, however, have joined Ruth with 

 Judges, referred Job to the fecond clafs, and introduced the 

 Song of tiolomon into the third dais. Origen, Athaiiafius, 

 Hilary-, Gregory Nazianzen, Epiphanius, and Jerom, fpcak- 

 ing ol the books that are allowed by the J-ws as facred and 

 canonical, agree in faying, that they are the fame in iiuui- 

 ber w.th the letters in the Hebrew a'ph-.bet, i.e. twenty- 

 two, and reckon particularly thofe books v.hich we have al- 

 ready mentioned ; with relpedt to which they all concur, 

 except in relation to tlie book of Ellher. All of them place 

 the book ot Job and the Lamentations among the Looks 

 contained in the canon of the Jews ; but Athai.afius and 

 Gregoiy Nazianz-n do not reckon the book of Ellher 

 among them, and diilinguilh Ruth from the book of Judges; 

 whereas Oiigen, Hilary, Epiplianins, and Jerom, make only 

 one volume of Ruth and Judges, and introduce the book of 

 Ellher into the number ot V.iC tweiity-two books reckoned 

 by the Jews as canonical. They urho diilinguifhcd Ruth 

 from t!ie book of Judges, ar.d the Lamentation!, from the 

 prop.iecy of Jeremiah, reckoned up twcnty-fjur of them. 

 Th.le books arc difpofed of in tiie following order : viz. jft. 

 The Law, coiitaiiiiiig Genefis, Exoda.*, Leviticus, Numbeio, 

 Deuteronomy ; 2dly. The writings of the prophet.^, divided 

 into the former prophets and the latter prophets; thofe of 

 the former being Jodiua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and the 

 latter Ifaiah, Jeitmiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor pro- 

 phets ; 3dly. The Hagiographa, which are the Pfalms, the 

 1 rovtrbs. Job, the Song of Solomon, or Song of Songs, or 

 Canticlcb, Ruth, the L.amentations, Eccleiiaftes, Either, 

 Daniel, Ezra, and the Chronicles. Under the name of Ezra 

 is comprehended Nehemiah. However, this order hath not 

 alwayj been obferved among the Jews, neither is it fo now 

 in all places ; for in this refpcd there has been a great variety, 

 not only among the Jews, but alfo among the Chriftians, 

 Greeks as well as Latins. All thefe books were not re- 

 ceived into the canon of the Holy Scriptures in the time of 

 Ezra, for Malachi hved after him, and mention is made in 

 Neiiemiah of Jsddua as high pnell, and of Darius Codo- 

 mannus as king of IVrfia, who hved at leafl 100 years after 

 his time ; and in the third chapter of the firit book cf Cliro- 

 nicles, the genealogy of the fons of Zerubbabel is extended 

 to as many generations as will bring it to the time of Alex- 

 ander the Great, fo that this book could not have been in- 

 ftrted in the canon till after his time. Accordinglv, Prideaux 

 fuppofes, that the two books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehe- 

 miah, and Ellher, as well as Malachi, were added in the 

 time of Simon the Jult, when he conceives the canon cf the 

 holy Scriptures was completed. (See above). 



The five books of the Law are divided into 54 fedtions, 

 which divifion is attributed to Ezra, and was intended tor 

 the u!e of their fynagogues, and for the better inltruction 

 of the people in the law of God. Eor every fabbath one of 

 thefe fedtions was read in their fynagogues. They ended the 

 lall fection with the lad words of Deuteronomy on the lab- 

 bath of the feall of the tabeniacles, and then begun a::cw 

 with tiie firil feCtion from tlie begmning of Genefis the next 

 fabbath after, and fo went round in this circle every year. 

 The number of thefe fections was 54, becaufe in their inter- 

 calated years (a month being then added), there were 54 

 fabbaths. On other years they reduced them to the number 

 of the fabbaths which were in thcle years, by joining 

 two fhort ones fevcral limes into one. For they held thcm- 

 felves obliged to have the whole law thus read over in their 

 fynagogues every year. Till the time of the perfecution of 

 Antiochus Epiphanes, they read only the Law ; but bcinir 

 tljcii prohibited from reading it any more, they fubllitutcd ii 

 the room of the 54 fedtions of the Law, 54 fettioas out of 

 Qjl ta- 



