B I B 
Vulgate, borrowed them from the verfion of the Seventy, 
and our tranflutors have appropriated them. But, inftead 
of preferring the word A§» 9 //oi, which the Seventy had 
placed at the head of the fourth book of the Pentateuch, 
the author of the Vulgate having thought proper to ren¬ 
der it in Latin Numeri, we have followed him ; and this 
book, is now univerfally called Numbers, becaule, amongft: 
many other remarkable things, it contains, almoft from 
the beginning, the numbering of the people of God. 1 he 
Jews intitle it -i3Tl Uideber, “ And he fpake,” becaufe it 
begins with this expreflion in the original: othenvife they 
fometimes give it the name nmea Bemdeber, which is the 
fifth word in the Hebrew text, and (ignifies, “ in the wil- 
dernels;” evidently becaufe it contains the hiftory of what 
pa(Ted during about thirty-nine years of the journeying of 
the Ifraelites in the defects of Arabia. 
The jifih, and laft book of the Pentateuch, is known 
amongft the Jews under the title of anal" Mbit Ale-edbmm, 
with which it begins, and which we render “ thefe be the 
words.” The rabbies fometimes call it “ the book of re- 
prehenfions,” on account of the frequent reproaches which 
Moles there calls upon the Ifraelites; but they more fre¬ 
quently call it mm Tureh, “ the lawor Kiit’D Mijlina, 
as much as to fay, “ the duplicate, or copy, of the law 
becaufe it contains a colle6tion of the laws which are found 
fcattered in the preceding books. For this fame reafon 
the Seventy have intitled it “ the Deuteronomy, or repeti¬ 
tion of the law’;” a repetition accompanied with expofi- 
tions and additions, for the ufe of Inch of the Ifraelites, 
as, being born in the wildernefs, had not heard the firlt 
publication of the laws of God. In this book Mofes in¬ 
fills upon the motives to obedience in a manner which is 
truly interelling, both as to the extenfivenefs of his re¬ 
flections, and the lively and affeCting manner in which he 
embellilhes it. Not content to fpeak of it as a legislator, 
he enforces it as a minifter of, God, for the falvation of 
the fouls committed to his trull. The tender, the urgent, 
the pathetic, are every where joined with the majefry of 
the legiflative llile; no laws are delivered, without llrong 
exhortations to fubmit to them ; no precepts, without par¬ 
ticulars which fet forth their beauty, their jullice, conve¬ 
nience, and necefiity; no opportunity efcapes of bending 
hearts to obedience, by the powerful attraction of the be¬ 
nignity of divine love, and of the advantages which man 
procures to himfelf by a rational fubmilfion to the fupreme 
will of his Creator. 
Thefe five books of the law are divided into fifty-four 
fettions, which many of the Jews hold to have been ap¬ 
pointed by Mofes himfelf; though others, with more pro¬ 
bability, aferibe it to Ezra. The defign of this divifion 
was, that one of thefe feftions might be read in their fy- 
nagogues every fabbath-day. The number was fifty-four, 
becaufe in their intercalated years, a month being then ad¬ 
ded, there were fifty-four fabbaths. In other years, they 
reduced them to fifty-two, by twice joining together two 
fhort feClions. Till the perfecution of Antiochus Epi- 
phanes, they read only the law ; but, the reading ot it 
being then prohibited, they fubllituted in the room of it 
fifty-dour feCtions out of the prophets; and, when the 
reading of the law was reltored by the Maccaiyees, the 
feCtion which was read every labbath out of the law ferved 
for their firfi: leffon, and the feclion out of the prophets 
for their fecond. Thefe feclions were divided into verfes, 
of which divifion, if Ezra was not the author, it was in¬ 
troduced not long after him, and feems to have been de- 
figned for the ufe of the Targumills or Chaldee interpre¬ 
ters : for, after the return of the Jews from the Babylonilh 
captivity, when the Hebrew language ceafed to be their 
mother tongue, and the Chaldee grew into ufe inftead of 
it, the cullom was, that the law fhould be firfi read in the 
original Hebrew, and then interpreted to the people in the 
Chaldee language, to which purpofe thefe fiiorter feCtions 
or periods were very well adapted. 
The divifion of the feriptures into chapters, as we at 
prefent have them, is of much later date. Some attribute 
Vul. III. No. 113. 
L E-. «; 
it to Stephen Langton, archbifhop of Canterbury, in the 
reigns of king John and Henry III. But the true author 
of the fcheme was Hugo de SanCto Caro, commonly called 
Hugo Cardinalis, becaufe he was the firfi Dominican that, 
ever was railed to the degree of cardinal. This Hugo 
flouriihed about the year 1240. He wrote a comment on 
the feriptures, and projected the firfi concordance, which 
is that of the vulgar Latin Bible. The aim of this work 
being for the more eafy finding out any word or pa Cage in 
the feriptures, he found it neeelfary to divide the book 
into feCtions, and the feclions into fubdivilions ; for till 
that time the vulgar Latin Bibles were without any divi- 
fions at all. Thefe feclions are the chapters into which 
the Bible has ever fince been divided : but the fubdivi- 
fion of the chapters Was not then into verfes as it is now. 
Hugo’s method of fubdividing them was by the letters A, 
B, C, D, E, F, G, placed in the margin at an equal dis¬ 
tance from each other, according to the length ot the 
chapters. The fubdivifion of the chapters into verfes, as 
they now (land in our Bibles, had its Origin from a famous 
Jevvilh rabbi, named Mordecai Nathan, about the year 
1445. This rabbi, in imitation of Hugo Cardinalis, drew 
up a concordance to the Hebrew Bible, for the ufe of the 
Jews. But, though he followed Hugo in his divifion of 
the books into chapters, he refined upon,his invention as 
to the fubdivifion, and contrived that by verfes: this being 
found a much more convenient method, it has been ever 
fince followed. And thus, as the Jews borrowed the di- 
vilion of the books of the holy feriptures into chapters 
from the Chriftians, in like manner the Chriftians borrow¬ 
ed that of the chapters into verfes from the Jews. 
The order and divifion of the books of the Bible, as 
well of the Old as the New Teftament, according to the 
decree made by the council of Trent, are as follow: but 
in this enumeration it is to be obferved/i that thofe books 
to which afterifms are prefixed, are rejeded by the prote- 
ftants as apocryphal/ 
Genefis; Exodus; Leviticus; Numbers; Deuteronomy; 
Jofhua; Judges and Ruth; 1 Samuel, or 1 Kings; 2 Sa¬ 
muel, or 2 Kings; 1 Kings, otherwise called 3 Kings; 
2 Kings, otherwife called 4 Kings ; 1 Chronicles ; 2 Chro¬ 
nicles ; i Efdras (as the Seventy and Vulgate call it), or 
the book of Ezra; 2 Efdras, or (as we have it) the book 
of Nehemiah ; *Tobit; * Judith ; Either; Job; Pfalms; 
Proverbs; Eccleliafies ; Song of Solomon ; •* The book of 
Wildorn; * Ecclefiafticus ; Ifaiah; Jeremiah'and *Baruch; 
Ezekiel ; Darnel ; Hofea ; Joel; Amos ; Obadiah ; Na¬ 
hum, which we place immediately after Micah, before 
Habakkuk; Jonah, which we place immediately after 
Obadiah; Micah; Habakkuk; Zephaniah ; Haggai; Ze- 
chariah ; Malachi ; * 1 Maccabees ; * 2 Maccabees. 
The books of the New Teftament are—The Gofpel of 
St. Matthew ; St. Mark ; St. Luke ; St.John; Ads of 
the Apoftles ; the Epiftie of St. Paul to the Romans; the 
1 Corinthians ; the 2 Corinthians ; the Galatians ; the 
Ephefians; the Philippians ; the Coloflians; the 1 Thef- 
falonians ; the 2 Thelfalonians; 1 Timothy; 2 Timothy; 
Titus; Philemon; the Hebrews; the general Epiftie ot 
St. James; St. Peter, I. St. Peter, il. St.John, I. St. 
John, II. St.John, III. St.jude; Revelation of St. John. 
The apocryphal books of the Old Teftament, according 
to the Romanifts, are, the book of Enoch ; the third and 
fourth books of Efdras; the third and fourth books of 
Maccabees ; the prayer of Manalfeh ; the Teftament of 
the twelve Patriarchs'; the Pialter of Solomon ; and fome 
other pieces of the fame kind. T he apocryphal books of 
the New Teftament are, the epiftie of St. Barnabas ; the 
pretended epiftie of St. Paul to the Laodiceans; feveral 
fpurious gofpels; Ads of the Apoftles, and Revelations; 
the book of Hernias, intitled The Shepherd ; ChrilPs 
Letter to Abgarus ; theepiftlesof St. Paul to Seneca; aiyi 
feveral other pieces of the like nature, as may be feeii in 
the colledion of the apocryphal writings of the New I ef- 
tament made by Fabricius. The books which are now 
loft and cited in the Old Teftament are thefe ; the book of 
D 
