Critical history and defence of the Old Testament canon;

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CRITICAL HISTORY AND DEFENCE

OLD TESTAMENT CANON.

CRITICAL

HISTORY AND DEFENCE

OLD TESTAMENT CANON.

BY MOSES STUART,

PROFESSOR OF SACRED LITERATURE IN THE THEOLOGICAL SEMINARY,
ANDOVEll, MASSACHUSETTS.

©DilPli, Ujitlj ©ttastonal iSotes anU JJefrrrnffa,

THE REV. PETER LORIMER,

PROFESSOR OF THEOLOGY AND BIBLICAL LITERATURE IN THE ENGLISH PRESBYTERIAN
COLLEGE, LONDON.

EDINBURGH:

T. & T. CLARK, 38 GEORGE STREET.

LONDON: HAMILTON, ADAMS, AND CO.; DUBLIN: JAMES m'gI.ASIIAN.

MDCCCXLIX.

EDINBUnGIi:

PRINTED BY ANDREW JACK,

NIDDRY STREET.

"^5

PREFATORY NOTICE BY THE EDITOR.

I CHEERFULLY undertook the task of superintending the
present reprint in its passage through the press, under the
conviction that Professor Stuart's work, in an improved
form, and at a moderate price, would prove a seasonable
and acceptable present to the theological readers and
teachers of this country. It supplies, to a considerable
extent, a long-felt desideratum, and though it is not of the
nature of a complete Litrodnction to the Old Testament,
but leaves the demand for such a work in our own language
still unsupplied, — yet, as a general outline of the Critical
History of the Ancient Canon, and of the argument upon
which its Divine authority mainly rests, it will be found of
excellent service, both to students of theology, and to
general readers who are desirous of informing themselves,
and coming to intelligent conclusions upon these interest-
ing and important subjects. It is especially well fitted for
use as a Text-Book in classes of Biblical literature in our
higher schools and colleges. I have not always been able to
accept the learned author's decisions upon points of doubt
and difficulty; but I did not think it necessary, or consist-
ent with good taste, to intrude, on all or even on many such
occasions, my reasons for venturing to differ from the
critical judgments of so eminent an authority. An author
of his distinguished standing and services in the depart-
ment of Biblical literature is entitled to be heard without
interruption upon a subject with which the learned labours
of a lifetime have made him perfectly familiar. It has.

20700-16

Yl PREFACE.

therefore, been with a feeling of deep reluctance, that in one
or two instances, I have felt myself obliged, by a regard^to
the sacred interests of truth, in connection with questions
of present practical moment, to enter a caveat against some
of the views which the author has broached. But in the
very few cases in which I have done this, I hope to have
the reader's candid acknowledgment, that I have not done
it without grave occasion, and that I would have been
more blame- worthy for leaving it undone, than I am for
doing it.

I have also occasionally supplied a few additional refer-
ences to the writings of other authors, when this appeared
to be really desirable. In this I have had chiefly in view
the advantage of theological students. To have multiplied
such references to a great extent would have been very
easy; but this would only have been to repeat what has
already been adequately done in Kitto's Biblical Cyclo-
pcBdia, in which, at the end of each of the articles treat-
ing of the several books of Scripture, will be found a se-
lect body of references to the literature of each subject.
A short Index has been appended to the volume, which,
taken along with the Table of Contents, will be quite suf-
ficient to facilitate the consultation of the work.

A good many errors in the American edition have been
corrected; and, on the whole, it is hoped that this valuable
contribution to Biblical literature will be found, in its
present shape, well adapted to the use of the British
Churches ; and that it will prove useful in preparing the
minds of many for times of renewed theological discussion
upon the fundamental subjects here treated of, — times
which, by many sure tokens in the religious firmament,
seem to be rapidly approaching.

THE EDITOR.

En{;|,ISII I'llKSIUTKIUAN Coi.LKGi:, LoNDON,

May ID, IJilf).

CONTENTS.

Page

§ 1. Introductory Remarks ..... 1

2. Definition of the word Canon .... 24

3. Commencement of the Canon .... .27

4. State of Literature and Instruction among the Hebrews . 62
.5. Continued History of the Canon— Books of known authors . 118

6. Continued History— Books anonymous . . 125

7. Lost books of the Hebrews . . . . .159

8. Manner of preserving the Sacred books . . . 171

9. Genuineness — General considerations . . . 188
10, Completion of the Canon . . . . . 194
] 1 . Ancient divisions of the Canon .... 213

12. Sameness of the Jewish Canon ever since its completion . 223

13. General Results ...... 255

14. Canon of the Egyptian Jews .... 259
16. How were the Scriptures estimated by the Jews? . . 262

16. Summary of testimony by Sirach, Philo, and Josephus . 271

17. Nature and importance of New Testament testimony . 273

18. Appeals by the New Testament to the Old . . 278

19. Result . . . • . . .296

20. Conclusion ....... 299

21. Remarks on doubts respecting some of the Old Testament books 301

22. Use of the Old Testament ..... 333

APPENDIX.

No. I. Testimony of the Son of Sirach
II. „ of Philo Judaeus

III. „ of Josephus

IV. „ ofMelito .

367
370
371
372

CONTENTS.

Vo.V.

Testimony of Origen

VI.

„ of the Council of Laodicea

VII.

„ of Cyrill of Jerusalem

VIII.

„ of Gregory Nazianzen

IX.

„ of Athanasius .

X.

„ of Synopsis of Scripture

XI.

„ of Epiphanius .

XII.

„ of the Council of Hippo

XIII.

„ of the Council of Carthage

XIV.

„ of Jerome

. ; XV.

„ of Hilary

XVI.

,, of Rutinus

Page

373

376

376

377

. : 379

381

382

383

384

384

386

387

ERRATA.

Page 21, note, for x.a)iavt\a., read xavovi^a.

„ 27, last \me,for Pentateach, read Pentateuch.
„ 63, line 18 from top,/or I'lJ^'i^, read I'lp'i?;^.

„ 75, line 4 from bottom, for "^t^tT' '"^"^ "^I^tl?.
„ 79, line 21 from top,/or pti^h' ^eati Hb^h.
„ 79, line 2 of note,/or j-f^^, read pQ^.

— T — T

„ 229, Ime 7 from bottom, for -i-^, read '^5,
., 254, line 15 from top, /or fc^'^i^j read ^^^2,

CRITICAL HISTORY AND DEFENCE

CANON OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

§ 1. Introductory Remarks.

The time has been, when few, if any, who admitted the Divine
origin and authority of the Christian rehgion, deemed it consis-
tent or decorous to deny the sacred authority of the Old Testa-
ment Scriptures. But that time has passed away, and we have
come to witness new developments of sceptical feelings, at which
our ancestors would have stood astounded. I do not mean to
aver, that there has not, for ages past, been a class of men in all
Christian countries, who doubted the Divine authority of the
Christian and Jewish religion, and of course the Divine origin
and authority of the sacred books in general. But the professed
reception of the Christian religion as Divine, with the admission
that the New Testament contains at least a credible and authen-
tic account of it; the admission, at the same time, that the Jew-
ish religion had some proper and real claim to be considered as
having been approved and established by God, while the Old
Testament is regarded in the main as a work of sciolists and
impostors, is a phenomenon that has rarely occurred, I believe,
in any country, but which we of the present day are called upon,
perhaps for the first time, to witness.

Past experience and a priori reasoning from the nature of the
case would probably have led most persons to conclude, that such
a development would not take place on the part of any well-in-
formed and consistent man; yet Mr Norton, in a work replete
in many respects with learning and valuable matter — a work

2 § 1. INTRODUCTOUY REMAIiKS.

wliicli he entitles Evidences of the Genuineness of the Gospels — has
taken the unusual position which I have been describing. In a
note appended to vol. ii. of this work, extending from p. xlviii.
to p. cc, in which he has brought under review "the Jewish dis-
pensation, the Pentateuch, and the other Books of the Old Tes-
tament," he has developed his opinions at length on these sub-
jects, and actually and earnestly laboured to show, that in order
to maintain the Divine origin of the Jewish religion, as founded
by JNloses, it becomes necessary to show that he did not write the
Pentateuch; and in like manner, in order to show that the Jew-
ish prophets and others who laboured to promote the observance
of the Jewish religion, were the true disciples of a true religion,
it becomes necessary to show that most of the Old Testament
books are filled with incredible, or trivial, or superstitious nar-
rations and notions, and that the best we can do, even with the
prophets, is to select here and there a passage that accords with
reason and sound judgment, to which we may give our assent as
being worthy of the ancient dispensation, while the rest is to be
placed under the same category as the fictions and extravagant
accounts of all other nations, respecting their origin and their
history in ages too remote to have been consigned to writing.

It is not my design, in the present work, to review at length
and controvert all the positions of Mr Norton. It will be seen,
in the brief account that I shall give of them in the sequel, that
a great proportion of them belong rather to the department of
Christian theology^ specially of apologetic and polemic theology,
than to the department of sacred literature. I leave to others
what properly belongs to them, not doubting in the least that
there is the ability and the will, among some of the theologians
of our country, to put on their armour and advance to the con-
test, when the attempt is made to take our citadel by storm.
My intention is to confine myself, in the main, within the limits
of a critical and historical view of the Jewish Canon of Scripture
in the days of Christ and the apostles, and to show that this Canon,
as received hy the Jews at that time, was declaimed hy our Saviour
and his apostles to be of Divine origin and authority, and teas treat-
ed by them as entitled to these claims. If it can be shown that
Christ and the apostles, as the commissioned messengers of God
to establish Christianity, did receive, regard, and treat the Scrip-
tures of the Jews as obligatory and of Divine authority, and also
that these Scriptures were the same books which belong to our

§ 1. INTHODUCTOUY KKMAHK.S. 3

present Old Testament, then two consequences must follow IVoin
the establishment of these propositions. The first is, that what-
ever doubts or difficulties any one may have about the critical
history or origin of particular books in the Old Testament, still
he must now acknowledge that they have received the sanction
of an authority from which there is no appeal. Universal scepti-
cism alone can make exceptions to them, on the ground of credi-
bility and authenticity. The second is, that the man who admits
the Divine origin and authority of the Christian religion, and
that the New Testament contains a credible and authentic ac-
count or development of it by Christ and by the apostles, must
be altogether inconsistent with himself and inconsequent in his
reasonings, if he rejects the Divine origin and authority of the
Old Testament Scriptures.

If I succeed in proving in a historico-critical way what I de-
sign to prove, the nucleus of the question, as to the authority
and claims of the Old Testament, would seem to be reached. I
shall not endeavour therefore to invest myself, on the present oc-
casion, with the panoply of the merely apologetic and polemic
theologian. Let those use it, who have long worn it, and are
semper parati for contest. The simple sling and stone of histo-
rical criticism are all that I assay to use. And if I miss my
aim, I must leave it for others to defend our common citadel in
a more effectual manner; for defence would seem to be needed.
The contest has become one pro arts et focis.

Mr Norton''s work consists of three volumes, and is printed in
a splendid manner. The size of the work, and the consequent
price of it, will doubtless prevent a widely extended circulation
of the book. On this account, and because of what I have al-
reaely said respecting it, I have thought it would appear desir-
able to most of my readers to learn something of the nature of
the attack which he has made upon the Old Testament, through
the medium of some brief communication. In as summary a
manner as possible, I will therefore now present them with a
coup cV cell, or table of contents, of that portion of his work
which I have specially in view on this occasion.

He commences with the concession, that the Jewish religion
is Divine, and that Christianity is built upon it. But this, he
says, does not make Christianity in the least degree responsible
for the bools of the Old Testament. The Jewish religion itself,
he avers, is no more responsible for the books of the Old Testa-

4 § 1. INTKODUCrORY REMARKS.

ment, than Christianity is responsible for the writings of the
fathers from the second century to the eleventh ; p. 48 seq.

The character ascribed by most Christians to the Old Testa-
. ment Scriptures, he goes on to say, brings them into collision
f with rational criticism in the interpretation of language, with
the moral and religious conceptions of enlightened men, and with
the progress of the physical sciences. They are contradicted
by geology ; p. 50. The philosopher must reject their [the
Scriptural] views of the Godhead ; the enlightened Christian
and moralist mustjreject the cruelties which they often enjoin,
as appropriate only to a dark and barbarous age ; the careful in-
quirer will be revolted by their contradictions and discrepancies.
The explanations and defence of these things have been unsatis-
factory, and built on false principles and assumed facts ; so that
one can hardly believe that the men who have offered them have
been sincere in so doing; p. 51 seq.

In expressing these views, he says that he merely gives form
and voice to the ideas and feelings that exist in the minds of a
large portion of intelligent believers ; p. 52. To separate all
these things from Christianity, so that it shall not be responsible
for them, is the duty of every friend to this religion ; p. 53.

To maintain that Moses was a minister of God, is one thing;
to maintain that he was the author of the Pentateuch, is another.
So far is the truth of either proposition from being involved in
the other, that, in order to render it evident that the mission of
Moses was from God, it may be necessary to prove that the books,
which profess to contain a history of his ministry, were not writ-
ten by him, and do not afford an authentic account of it ; p. 67.

The Pentateuch puts forward no claims to be considered as
the work of Moses. The fact that the Law, in the time of Ezra,
was ascribed to Moses, does not prove that the authorship of the
Pentateuch was at the same time ascribed to him. In the reign of
I Josiah, a short time before the captivity, the Jews were ignorant
of any written copy of their national laws, as is evident from the
discovery as represented of a copy of the Law in the temple. Such
a book was before unknown to Josiah a pious king, to the secre-
tary Shaphan, and to the high priest Hilkiah. " The story of its
being accidentally found in the temple, may be thought to have
been what was considered a justifiable artifice, to account for the
appearance of a book hitherto unknown ;" pp. 71, 84, 8().

The Canon of the Old Testament, after the captivity, com-

§ 1. INTI{OOU('TOKY KKMAKIvS. 5

prised all the books of the Hebrews then extant. This Canon
was formed npon no principle of selection, but comprised all the
remains of ancient literature. There is little doubt that compo-
sitions were ascribed to some of the prophets, particularly to
Isaiah, of which they were not the authors ; p. 72 seq.

The tradition that Ezra revised and re-edited the books of
the Old Testament, is obviously fabulous. There exists no his-
torical evidence that Moses was the author of the Pentateuch.
In the other books of the Old Testament, there is indeed refer-
ence to various narratives and laws now found in the Pentateuch;
but these references are in fact to traditions and national laws
that existed before the Pentateuch ; and by the aid of these the
Pentateuch was afterwards compiled ; p. 73 seq.

No such book as a Pentateuch by Moses is mentioned in the
books of Samuel, or Kings, or in those of the prophets who were
the public teachers of religion ; p. 82 ^eq. The Pentateuch
could not have been the national code of the Jews ; for its ordi-
nances were not observed during the long period of the monarch-
ies, and many things were often done which the Pentateuch for-
bids, or neglected which it enjoins ; p. 88 seq.

The Pentateuch was not written until some time after the re-
turn of the Jews from the captivity ; and then, traditionary sto-
ries, laws, customs, ritual observances, &c., were inserted, and
all these were attributed to Moses, in order to give greater
weight and authority to the compilation; p. 96 seq.

The art of wi-iting was not in use in the time of Moses ; and
consequently the writing of the Pentateuch by him was impos-
sible; p. 100 seq. The style of Moses could not possibly have
been so much like the style of the later writers. A period so
long, without more change of language, is incredible and con-
trary to all experience; p. 102 seq. The Pentateuch contains
narrations of events later than the time of Moses, and if it had
been really his work, interpolations of this kind could never have
taken place; p. 105 seq.

The Pentateuch does not make claim to Moses as its author.
It always speaks of him in the third person, and not in the first.
Such a semblance of modesty would have been wholly unsuitable
for him in his official character; p. 106.

The facts related in the Pentateuch show that it is full of in-
accuracies. The number of fighting men (600,000), when the
Israelites left Egypt, is incredible and impossible. Their original

6 § 1. INTKODUCTOKY KEMAHKS.

number and time of sojourning in Egypt were utterly inadequate
to have brought into existence such a number. Tlie genealogy
of Moses proves that the Israelites could not have been in Egypt
more than 215 years at the most, instead of the 430 as commonly
reckoned, and 215 years could have done but little toward pro-
ducing such a number; p. 110 seq.

The account of the flight from Egypt, and of the journey
through the wilderness, is replete with difficulties, incredibilities,
and impossibilities. How could two and a half millions of men
be put in motion in one night ? Whence all their flocks, and
herds, and wealth ? How could they all quench their thirst at
Marah, or at Horeb ? p. 118 seq.

Before the birth of Moses, Pharaoh is represented as saying,
that the Israelites had become stronger than the Egyptians, and
therefore the male children must be destroyed. The thing is
impossible. The command is incredible. How could Pharaoh
wish to lessen the number of his slaves 1 How could he suppose
it possible that the Jews would submit to his cruel orders and
obey him ? p. 115 seq.

Moreover, how could such a multitude find food and drink in
the Arabian waste? The water was supplied miraculously but
twice. What became of their flocks and herds ? They must
have all perished in such circumstances ; and hence their
state of starvation, i. e. by reason of losing them. And yet,
before they quitted Mount Sinai, they appear to have had an
abundance of cattle for sacrifices, lambs for the passover, and
all manner of spices, flour, oil, wine, &c. p. 116 seq.

Whence came all their skill in the diflferent arts? How could
brick-making slaves understand architecture, engraving, and the
manufacture of splendid furniture and garments ? How could
they transport all these through the desert, when they had no
camels ? p. 119 seq.

The Israelites are forbidden to destroy all the people of the
land of Canaan, lest wild beasts should overrun the country.
Were not two and a half millions of people more than enough
to keep in due subjection the wild beasts of a country, which was
only 200 miles in length and 100 in breadth? p. 120 seq.

On the supposition that all the wonderful events took place
which are narrated in the Pentateuch, how is it possible to be-
lieve that the Jews would have been so stupid, ungrateful, and
rebellious as their history represents them to be? p. 122 seep

§ ] . INTUOnUCTORY KEMAKKS. 7

There is indeed sublimity in the description of the creation, and
lofty conception as to the true nature of religion in the precept,
that men should love God with all the heart, and their neighbour
as themselves. But " in coming to the l^entateuch wo have
entered only the precincts of true religion, while grotesque shapes
are around us, and the heavens are obscured by clouds from
which the thunder is rolling;"" p. 123 seq.

The conceptions of God in Genesis, are very rude ones. In
Ex. iv. the account of Jehovah's meeting Moses and seeking to
slay him, is strange indeed. Ex. xxiv. is not less so. The mar-
vellous theophany related there, and all its tremendous solemnity
of preparation, ends in the command to the Israelites to bring
silver and gold and rams' skins and goats' hair and aromatics, &c.
and make and furnish a tabernacle for Jehovah to dwell in. Manv
other directions in the sequel are equally trivial ; p. 126 seq.

God is represented in a most unbecoming manner throughout
the Pentateuch. The command to punish the Egyptian nation
because of Pharaoh's haughtiness and cruelty ; the injunction
to extirpate the Midianites, but to keep the virgin females for
their own use, (which at least did but sanction and perpetuate
the barbarism of the age) ; the command of utter excision in
respect to the Canaanites; are inconsistent with the justice or
the mercy of God. Why should the innocent suffer with the
guilty, as an oriental despot exterminates a family for the offen-
ces of its head ? The effect of making the Jews executioners of
the Divine indignation against the idolatrous Canaanites, must
have been to convert them into a horde of fei-ocious and brutal
barbarians; p. 127 seq.

The distinguishing rite of the Jews was painful, and the thought
of it disgusting. Nothing can render it probable, that the laws
respecting slaves were from God. And what shall we say of the
command to destroy witches I What of such commands as for-
bid the eating of particular birds and beasts, some of which no
one would ever think of eating, except in case of actual starva-
tion ! On many laws, moi'eover, which the Pentateuch contains,
delicacy forbids one even to comment ; p. ]S1 seq.

On the whole, it is altogether evident, that the original in-
stitutions of Moses had been greatly corrupted and changed by
superstition, and by hankering after ritual observances, before
the Pentateuch could have been written as it now is; p. 1S4.
The spirit of the prophets is wholly different from that of

8 § 1. INTRODUCTOHY KEMAUK3.

tie Law, and often in opposition to it. They put no faith in
sacrifices or ritual observances; p. 135 seq. The Pentateuch,
in declaring that God visits the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children, stands in direct opposition to Ezekiel, who declares
that the son shall not bear the iniquity of the father, nor the
father the iniquity of the son; Ezek. xviii. This same Ezekiel
is full of unseemly representations of the Godhead. His work
is repulsive for other reasons. The last nine chapters show him
to have been a stickler for mere rites and ceremonies ; p. 135 seq.
Malachi shows how the Jews reasoned and felt, after the full
ritual of the Pentateuch was introduced. What he says is di-
rectly in opposition to Ps. 1.; p. 143 seq. The Son of Sirach,
Philo, Josephus, the Essenes, all thought but little of the ritual
ordinances of the Pentateuch; p. 145 seq.

Our Saviour everywhere shows how little he regarded the
Jewish ritual ordinances. " It is an unquestionable fact, that
his words are not always reported to us with correctness.'''
Sometimes, also, he employed Jewish modes of expression that
were common, in order to avoid the exciting of prejudice among
his hearers. Both these things are to be kept steadily in view,
in the interpretation of what he may seem to have said about
the ancient Scriptures; and nearly every difficulty can be remov-
ed by the aid of these two considerations. E. g. where he is
reported as saying: " Moses wrote concerning me," it is evident
that the Evangelist, through default of memory or want of re-
flection, used the word wrote instead of the word spol(e. So in-
stead of receiving, in its simple and obvious sense, the declara-
tion of Christ as reported by John (John v. 46), viz. " Had ye
believed Moses, ye would have believed me; for he wrote con-
cerning me," we are to adopt the following substitute as expres-
sive of Christ's real meaning, viz. " Had ye believed Moses, ye
would have believed me ; for the books which, as you suppose^
Moses wrote, concern me," p. 150 seq.

The Jewish Law was civil as well as ecclesiastical. It was on
this ground merely that the Saviour and his apostles obeyed it,
and required others to do so, while it continued; p. 143 seq.
Sometimes, indeed, Jesus violated it; e. g. in order to do good
on the Sabbath, and to inculcate the duties of kindness and
humanity. This was intended to lead the Jews to reflect on
the folly of their attachment to ritual observances; p. 164 seq.
Occasionally Cln-ist directly taught the vanity and groundless-

§ 1. IXTUOULCTOKY REMARKS. 9

ness of the Jewish laws; e. g. by what he says about eating
that which is unclean (Matt, xv.); by what he says in respect to
the matter of divorces (Matt. xix. and v.),- p. 1 72 seq. The
conversation with the Samaritan woman (John iv.) shows, how
little value Jesus put upon the whole Jewish ritual; p. 179.

Thus much for the Pentateuch. Now for the other books of
the Old Testament.

In the books of Joshua and Judges there is a great mixture of
fabulous traditions, such as are found in the early history of all
othernations; p. 181. No one who puts aside the notion of the
Divine authority of all the Hebrew books, can doubt that extra-
vagant fables and false prodigies are found in all those which re-
late the Jewish history antecedent to the time of Samuel; and there
seems to be no good reason wdiy the books of Samuel and Kings
should be regarded as exceptions to this mixture; p. l8o. But
still we may admit real miracles, in cases where an important
and evident moral design is in view; p. 185 seq.

The prophets were moral preachers. Some of their number
may have been occasionally employed as the special ministers of
God. Jesus never appeals to them for evidence of his Divine
mission. Our Saviour did not accomplish any express pi'ophecy
relating to him; but he came in conformity to an expectation,
which the whole tenor of God's providence had taught the Jews
to entertain; p. 189 seq.

The error committed in representing the Old Testament as of
Divine origin, has, beyond question, been a most serious hindrance
to all rational belief of the fact, that God has miraculously re-
vealed himself to man; p. 198.

I have now given a compressed view of the arguments em-
ployed by Mr Norton, in order to overthrow the claims of the
Old Testament to be considered as a book of Divine origin and
authority. I have in no case made, by any design or effort on
my part, the representation stronger than he has made it. It
is not my wish to paint in more vivid colours than those which
he has employed. In most cases, I have employed his own lan-
guage; and where I have not, I have changed the diction merely
for the sake of abridgment, and not from a design to employ
any stronger colouring.

Mr Norton himself declares (p. 52), that " in expressing his
opinions he is only giving form and voice to the ideas and feel-

10 § 1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

ings that exist in the minds of a large portion of intelligent be-
lievers;" and also, that "there is nothing in them of novelty or
of boldness.'''' It is indeed most obviously true, that there is no-
thing special in them of novelty. For substance they have been
before the world for some sixteen centuries. Porphyry and Cel-
sus knew well how to manage weapons of this sort. But as to
boldness, I think his modesty should not have shrunk from a
claim to this. It certainly did require some boldness for one
who had been a preacher of the gospel and a teacher in a theo-
logical seminary professedly Chi'istian, to make before the whole
world declarations such as he has made. No one indeed who
knows him well, can fail to regard him as an independent think-
er and reasoner; and after what he has recently published to the
world, he may not very unreasonably be denominated somewhat
o^ (Xifree tlihiker. His objections to the Old Testament are, it is
true, nearly all of a date somewhat ancient. But I do not re-
gard him, on this account, as merely copying and retailing the
opinions of others. It is manifest enough, through his whole
work, that he has thought and reasoned for himself, even when
he has employed material which others had collected, and which
he found in a manner ready to his hand.

I have already said, that it is no part of my design to examine
in detail all the objections of Mr N. to the Old Testament.
Most of them plainly belong to the province of polemic and
apologetic theology; and I shall therefore leave them to those
whose proper business it is to act in this department.* Why
they have not sooner begun to act in defence of one of the cita-
dels of revelation, I know not. I have not unfrequently heard
the remark made, that "had the question been one of metaphys'i-
cal theology, which concerned points where even evangelical
Christians may and do disagree, and have for centuries disa-

* The readex' will find many of these objections, in so far as they are directed
against the Pentateuch, handled in a very able manner, and with all the advantages
of the most mature criticism, in Hengstenbei-g's Dissertations on the Grnuinmess
of the. Pentateuch, lately translated by Mr Ryland of Northampton, and forming a
part of Mr Clark of Edinburgh's Foreign Thcohigical Library. The objection founded
upon the command to exterminate the Canaanitcs, forms the subject of an interest-
ing paper by Professor Edwards of Andover in the Bihliotheca Sacra for November
Iff 45. While taking the same apologetic ground as Hengstcnberg, Px-ofcssor Edwards
has made some material additions to the argument, especially in the vindication
which he offers of the Divine procedure in employing the Israelites as the instru-
ments of his judgnionts ujjon the Canaanites, instead of inflicting these judgments by
his own immediate hand, as in the case of Sodom and Gomorrah. — Ed.

§ 1. l.NTKODUCTOKY REMAKKS. 11

greed, there would not have been wanting a goodly number of
defenders, specially against an attack made either by one side
or the other upon points mooted by New School and Old School.
But now, (they have the boldness to add), the theologians stand
off at wary distance, as the camp of Israel did when Goliath
came out to bid defiance to them." But I am reluctant to ac-
cede to such an intimation. I know indeed full well, and I re-
gret, the excessive zeal that is abroad about points of mere specu-
lation in theology, which are never likely to be settled; but I
must still believe, that there are not many Christian ministers in
the evangelical ranks, who would not relax, and recede from the
boundaries that sect and party names have set up, when it be-
comes necessary to unite in order to defend and save the citadel of
all religion. Time will show, whether I am not in the right.

I cannot resist the impression made on me by the reading of
Mr N.'s critique on the Old Testament, that the estimation in
which he has for many years held it, has prevented him from
devoting much of his time to the study of it. He tells us,
(p. 62), that his remarks on the Old Testament were com-
mitted to writing more than ten years before he put them to the
press. If he had named a period thrice as long, I could easily
have believed his declaration to be true. He has surely made
some faux pas in matters of Old Testament criticism, which,
had he read more widely, and kept up at all with the times in
their development of historical criticism pertaining to the
Hebrew Scriptures, he could not well have made. I do not say
this ad invidiam, nor in order to wound his feelings. I say it
from a full persuasion, that more enlarged views would have
given quite a different direction to some parts of his critique,
and spared him the labour of defending some things which he
must now find, on a more extended examination, to be inde-
fensible.

My present design forbids me to go into detail at all, in order
to justify these assertions. I can only glance at one or two
matters, as explanatory of what I mean.

Mr N. asserts, that there is no satisfactory evidence that
alphabetical writing was known in the time of Moses. Should
he not have known, that the recent palcographic examinations
in Egypt, Phenicia, Persia, and Assyria, make entirely against
this, even if he sets aside the abundant evidence of the Greek
writers, that tlieir al[)habet is as old as the time of Cadmus I

12 § 1. INTRODUCTORY REMAKKS.

Gesenius, most of his life a strenuous assertor of the late origin
of the Pentateuch, was compelled by his Phenician and EL^yp-
tian investigations to say, that " alphabetic writing must have
been in use among the Egyptians at least 2000 years before the
Christian era;'' and that "their neighbours the Phenicians, in
all probability, must have employed this method of writing, as
early as the reign of the shepherd kings in Egypt." Ges. Heh.
Gramm. edit. xiii. Exc. I. p. 290. This pre-eminent paleographer,
then, from whose decision it is not very safe to appeal as to
such matters, places the art of alphabetical writing long enough
before the time of Moses, to give it a wide sweep in Egypt and
Phenicia, and indeed in the neighbouring countries. And if
Moses was " learned in all the wisdom of the Egyptians, and was
mighty in words and deeds," as the martyr Stephen asserts
(Acts vii. 22), cannot one venture to attribute to him the know-
ledge of alphabetic writing ?

Again, when Mr N. avers (p. 102 seq.) that tlie Hebrew of
the Pentateuch and of the later Hebrew books is of the same
stamp, and that we cannot possibly suppose, that an interval
of 900 or 1000 years would not have made a greater change in
the Hebrew language than is developed by these Jewish writ-
ings, I must think that he has not paid very strict attention to
the history of languages. Is it not a fact, that the Peshito or
old Syriac version of the New Testament, made during the
second century, is altogether of the same Hnguistic tenor as the
Syriac Chronicon of Bar Hebrseus, written about 1000 years
later? Is it not a fact, that the Arabic of the Koran, and of
the Arabian writers just before and after the time of Moham-
med, differs but slightly from that of the Arabian writers from
the tenth down to the eighteenth century ? And yet another
fact: The late Dr Marshman, a missionary in Hindoostan,
translated into English the great work of Confucius, the cele-
brated Chinese philosopher and teacher, who lived more than
five centuries before the Christian era. The same gentleman
diligently consulted the principal commentators on the work of
Confucius, and he assures us, that commentaries written 1500
and more years after the time of Confucius are altogether of the
same type of language which is exhibited in the work of that
philosopher. Facts like these, now, need no comment. They
place the matter beyond fair appeal. Indeed the nature of the
case speaks for itself. The Jews were neither a literary nor a

1^ 1. INTRODUCTORY KKM AliKS. 13

commercial people. They saw little of strangers abroad, and
very few foreigners resided among them. They knew little of
the arts and sciences, and certainly made no advances in them.
What was there then to operate in the way of producing many
and important changes in their language ? There was nothing
like to that which produces changes of this nature, at the present
day, among the nations of the West. Their case was, in respect
to intercourse, like to that of the Chinese. The effect of such a
state of things upon language, was the same in Palestine and in
China.

Yet even in any state of a nation, however uniform, we cannot
but suppose that a long time will make some variations in lan-
guage. It did so among the Hebrews. The assertion of Mr N.
is by no means correct, that there are no diversities of language
between the Pentateuch and later books of the Hebrew. Jahn,
that well known and highly respected theologian and critic at
Vienna, just before his death, published a series of Essays in
Bengel's Archiv. which demonstrate the point in question beyond
appeal. Archaisms, or whatever Mr N. may call them, abound
to some extent in the Pentateuch ; and the ara^ X«^ ou^im of the
Pentateuch, Jahn has shown to be quite a large number.*

Once more, but in respect to a case of a different tenor. Mr
N. thinks, that the use of the third person in the narrations of
the Pentateuch, shows that Moses was not the author. There
was no reason, he avers, for his adopting such a method of

* The student wlio desires to peruse a fuller statement upon the interesting
points of criticism referi-ed to in these last paragraplis, cannot fail to derive profit
from a paper in the Bibliotheca Sacra for May 1845, on the Aulhenticihj and Genvine-
vessofthe Pentateuch, by Professor Edwards of Aiidover. It discusses at consider-
able length the early origin of alphabetic writing, and shows with much copious-
ness of argument that the language and stjle of the Pentateuch form no adequate
proof of its pretended later origin. The paper is also valuable as containing a pretty
lengthened list of specimens of the archaisms enumerated by Dr Jahn. " That enu-
meration," it is stated, '' comprises about four hundred words and phrases peculiar
to the Pentateuch, or but very seldom employed elsewhere, and about four hundred
words and phrases in the later books which either do not occur at all, or but very
rarely in the Pentateuch ;" and though Jahn's list requires revision, as Hebrew
learning has made great progress in the last twenty-five years, yet, " after all
allowances are made, the greater portion of the words in his enumei-ation are per-
fectly in point." Professor Edwards adds that not a few words and piirases to which
Jahn makes no allusion might swell the number.

Compare, also, upon the antiquity of alphabetic writing, the articles "Alphabet"
and " Writing," in Kitto's Ci/clopcedia of Biblical Literature; and Jahn's Biblical An-
tiquities, Part 1st, chap, v., pp. 43, 41, of the London reprint of the American
translation. For additional references, see subsequent note on p. 41. — Ed.

14 § 1. INTItODUCITOllY UKM.AHKS,

writing. It was Moses' business to speak with autitority, and to
place himself directly before the people.

The histories of Csesar and Clarendon, which employ the third
person, are no justification, in his view, of the usage in question.
Yet Mr N. maintains, that the Gospels of Matthew and of John
are worthy of credit. But where, I ask, have these wri ers
spoken of themselves in the^rs^ person ?

Mr N. says that the Pentateuch does not claim to be the work
of Moses, i. e. he has not affixed his name to it as the author, and
therefore there is no certainty that the work is his. He will
permit me to ask him, how he could write three volumes to show
the Genuineness of the Gospels, when not a single one of them has
the name of its author affixed to it, or contains an explicit decla-
ration as to who was its author ? Every sciolist in criticism knows,
that the titles now affixed to the Gospels, are the work of critics
quite remote from the times of the apostles.*

But I must withdraw my hand. I have said enough to illus-
ti*ate and confirm the representation which I have made above ;
and this is all that can now be done.

Mr N. appears to cherish strong feelings of disapprobation
toward that branch of the so-called Liberal Party, who have dis-
carded the authority of both the Old Testament and the New ;
who doubt the personality of the Godhead ; and who flatly deny
the possibility of miracles. He speaks of their system as a
" shallow philosophy,*" and appears to be much in earnest when
defending the miraculous power of Christ ; but rather less so,
perhaps, when defending that of the apostles. Yet most of the
reasons of any considerable weight which Mr N. has brought
forward against the claims of the Old Testament, either flow
from, or are connected with, his unwillingness to believe in the
miraculous interpositions of the Godhead as there declared. Was
there not as much need of these interpositions in the ancient
times of darkness and ignorance, as there was at a later period
when the New Testament was written ? He allows, indeed, a
few cases in which he thinks that a miracle may be deemed pro-
bable ; e. g. such a case as that of fire falling from heaven to con-
sume the sacrifice which Elijah had prepared, in order to put
to the test the claims of Jehovah and of Baal to divine honours.
But he erases from the list of credibles every case of alleged

" See Chrysostoni, lloniil. I. in Matt.; also Hug, Einl. ins N. Test. § 47.

« § 1. INTUOOHCTOHY UEiJAIiKH. 15

miraculous interposition, where he cannot perceive the moral
purpose accompHshed by it. A subjective line of separation be-
tween the true and the false, he has probably drawn for himself.
A copy of the drawing, it may be, is impressed upon his own
mind. But what the ohjectlve rule for testing the credible and
incredible is, by which others, who are of different modes of think-
ing, and who view religious matters in a different light, may be
guided, and may thus possibly come to an agreement with him,
he has not told us. There are men who at least would be greatly
offended at having either their learning, or their logic, or their
piety called in question, and who in fact regard religion as a
matter of very grave import, and yet have avowed themselves
unable to discover the great moral end of converting the water
at a wedding feast into a large quantity of wine ; who are not
quite satisfied with the moral bearing of Christ's permission to
the demons to enter an immense herd of swine and drown them
in the sea ; who hang in suspense concerning the great moral
design manifested by cursing and withering the fig-tree. Now,
what has Mr N. to say, to satisfy these doubters ? Whatever
it may be, it will at least be as easy to say the like things, in
order to satisfy our minds respecting many miracles related in
the Old Testament, which he rejects with scorn.

Some persons, in a state of mind quite different from that of
Mr N., or of those who are filled with doubts about the miracles
of Christ mentioned above, still hesitate to decide at once on the
matters under consideration, and therefore enquire, and cau-
tiously and candidly examine. It is quite possible to suppose,
that there are men, who, after having done all this, are not
entirely satisfied with the reasons alleged for defending the real-
ity of these miracles, (I mean so far as their intellectual judg-
ment is concerned), while at the same time, they remove all
real stumbling-blocks from their way, by the consideration, that
there may have been ends accomplished, or may be ends to be
accomplished, by some miracles, of which they are not aware.
They are conscious that their knowledge is imperfect, and that
to decide with confidence against the truth of such narrations as
relate the miracles in question, while all around is admitted to
be credible and true, would be like to deciding that the black
spots which have recently appeared in such numbers upon the
face of the sun, do not in reality belong to that body, because, as
they apprehend, it can be nothing but a uniform blaze of glory.

16 §1.

INTKODUCTORY RKMAKKS.

To me this state of mind, Jiovvever undesirable, presents a much
more cheering aspect than that of Mr N., or of his bolder liberal
brethren. My experience has taught me something in relation to
such subjects. In the early part of my biblical studies, some
thirty to thirty-five years ago, when I first began the critical in-
vestigation of the Scriptures, doubts and difficulties started up
on every side, like the armed men whom Cadmus is fabled to have
raised up. Time, patience, continued study, a better acquaint-
ance with the original Scripture languages, and the countries
where the sacred books were written, have scattered to the winds
nearly all these doubts. I meet indeed with difficulties still which
I cannot solve at once ; with some, where even repeated effi)rts
have not solved them. But I quiet myself by caUing to mind,
that hosts of other difficulties, once apparently to me as formid-
able as these, have been removed, and have disappeared from
the circle of my troubled vision. Why may I not hope, then,
as to the difficulties that remain? Every year is now casting
some new light on the Bible, and making plain some things
which aforetime were either not understood, or were misunder-
stood. Why may not my difficulties be reached by some future
progressive increase of light ? At least, in the revolution of the
sun, the dark spots will sooner or later disappear. And, what is
more than all considerations of this kind — speedily the whole
will be known. In the light of heaven no darkness is interming-
led. Soon the anxious and devoted inquirer after truth, will, if
a true Christian, enjoy the opportunity of asking the writers
themselves of the books of Scripture, what they intended, and
what they designed to teach. It is good, I do believe, both to
hope and patiently wait for the light of eternal day, if, after all
our efforts to clear up a few difficulties in Scripture that remain,
we do not succeed to our utmost wishes.

Mr N. evidently regards those who discard all revelation, as
unbelievers. He speaks apparently with much feeling concerning
them. I believe that he has given them an appropriate place in
the category of religious names. The most liberal party, (who
seem hardly to have acquired a distinctive name yet, but proba-
bly would not dislike that of Rationalists), begin with a very
simple process in the way of reasoning. I have it before me, in
a letter from one of the first philologists and antiquarians that
Germany has produced. It is this : " The laws of nature are
merely developments of the Godhead. Cod cannot contradict or

§ 1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS. 17

be inconsistent with himself. But inasmuch as a miracle is a
contradiction of the laws of nature, or at the least an inconsist-
ency with tliem, therefore a miracle is impossible."

Now this is very short, and simple, and intelligible. At least
we know what the writer means who says this. But how it can
he proved, that the God who constituted the laws of nature as
the usual way and method of his operations, is not at liberty to
depart from these, for the sake of ends which he judges import-
ant, or how it can be proved that he has not done so, is what
I am not able to show or explain.

Mr N. calls all such reasoning shallow philosophy. I assent.
But what is the philosophy, which leaves us to select according to
the measure of our light, our own personal feelings, and our
wishes, a part of the miracles of the Old Testament and of the
New, and reject all the rest? In other words : Is a revelation
to prescribe to us, or we to the revelation ? This is the simple
question, divested of all the drapery thrown around it in order
to conceal its real form and lineaments. Such is evidently the
position of Mr Norton. I would not speak with any disrespect
or unkindness ; but I cannot help the feeling, that Mr N. never
travels on Scripture ground without furnishing himself, like some
careful surgeons, with weapons adapted to probing and excision.
He is ever ready to employ them, and prepared to sever a limb
supposed to be withered, or a seeming excrescence, from the
sacred body of the Scriptures, old or new.

Does not Mr N., moreover, give up, yea strenuously oppose,
the doctrine of future punishment, or certainly at least of eter-
nal punishment ? Now if this position of his is true, of what
great consequence can he deem it, whether the New Testament
is believed or disbelieved I For, in the first place, who, on his
ground, can draw the line in all cases between what we are to
believe and what we are to reject ? Then, in the second place,
if the doctrine of all future punishment of sin is rejected, no wise
man can deem it of importance to give himself any solicitude
about religion.

It would surely be a curious phenomenon in the religious world,
and a matter of no small importance to the uninitiated, should Mr
N. publish an expurgated edition of the Scriptures, both New
and Old, and let the public know what true and reasonable
Christianity (as estimated by him) demands and expects of us.
Or if he would even republish selections from some Catechism,

18 § 1. INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

say the Racovian, with additions and alterations suited to these
enhghtened days, might he not do a great service to the cause of
liberal Christianity ? To me, however, at present it seems, that
Mr N. has a very brief creed, which might be expressed in a
single sentence, namely, " I do not believe what the Christian
churches in general do believe."

As to his more liberal opponents among the class of Liberals, I
have but a word to say. I commend their honest and open-
hearted course. They openly and avowedly discard all that is of
a miraculous nature, and by consequence all the books of Scrip-
ture, which either assert things of a miraculous nature, or are
built upon that foundation. As the popular saying is, They go
for the whole. For my own part I like this. We know where they
are, and where we have to meet them. But in controversy with
Mr N. we never know on what ground we are treading. We re-
fer, for example, to facts or declarations recorded in the Scrip-
ture, in order to illustrate or confirm any position that we have
taken. But Mr N. meets us at once with the avowal, that he
does not regard that fact or those declarations appealed to, as
entitled to any credit. So we have, in our efforts to oppose him,
all the while been merely sowing to the wind, and at last must
of course reap — no very promising harvest.

Some of the high Liberals, as it seems to me, would be Strauss-
ites to the full extent, if they well knew what Strauss or Hegel
in all cases really maintains. Alas ! there are few heads among
us, from which spring the prominences appropriate to making
such a discovery. Thus much, however, these Liberals seem to
themselves to understand, and thus much they maintain, viz. that
God is an impersonal being, the rh -ttolv of the universe ; and that
he developes personality only in rational beings, and for a little
season at a time. Li the meanwhile the argument against mir-
acles, which has been stated above, is fully admitted by them,
and the Scriptures are brought before its tribunal. But here I
must demur. If the Godhead is an impersonal and unconscious
being, as they assert, then how can it be impossible that the
laws of nature should change ? If there be no mind, and no al-
mighty power to direct and secure the natural order of things,
what hinders these things from developing themselves in different
ways ? Why may they not assume every shape, and go one
way as well as another? What is it which renders secure and
constant, the uniformity of things ?

§ 1. INTHODUCTOUY REMARKS. 19

But I must desist, or I shall intrench u))on the main object of
my book. I cannot conclude these introductory remarks, how-
ever, without saying, that so far as I know, all who sympathise
with me in their theological views, feel much better satisfied with
the honest and open avowal of the high Liberals, than with the
ambiguous, reserved, non-committal creed of the more moderate
class of Liberalists. The high Liberals or Rationalists are will-
ing to stand before the world in the character which they really
sustain. I do not think the same can be said with truth of their
shrinking and non-committal brethren.

In canvassing the subject of the ancient Jewish canon of Scrip-
ture, it is not my design to exhibit a mere skeleton of the sub-
ject. It is not with the view of answering merely what Mr
Norton has said respecting the Jewish canon, that I have been
induced to take up my pen. I feel as one may be naturally sup-
posed to feel, who has spent his life in the instruction of youth, i. e.
I feel a strong desire to communicate something on this important
subject, if it be in my power, which may aid young theologians
in forming more satisfactory and well-grounded opinions about
the extent and authority and obligation of the Old Testament
Scriptures. I desire to speak of the labours of others before me,
in regard to this matter, with all proper respect and deference;
but is it too much to say, that we have in English no book on
this subject, which is sufficiently historico-critical to answer in a
satisfactory manner all the present demands on sacred literature?
If there be such an one, it is unknown to me. At least I know
thus much, viz. that for years I wandered in the dark in relation
to this matter, not being satisfied with the evidence before me,
and not knowing where to go for better views. If I do not
wholly mistake the true state of the case, there is a great num-
ber of pastors in our country in the same predicament. All young
students in theology must of course be somewhat in the same
predicament. It is an unpleasant one. The mind hesitates not
only as to what kind of reliance to place on certain books, at
least of the Old Testament, but also as to what relation the
whole bears to the New Testament, in regard to authority and
obligation. The use which should be made of much of the Old
Testament must, in this state of the mind, necessarily become a
matter of doubt and perplexity.

My present object is, to aid, if it be within my power, in the
removal of a part at least of these difficulties. I design to pro-

0 § 1,

INTRODUCTORY REMARKS.

duce the evidence that may be gathered from antiquity, as to the
extent of that canon of Scripture which our Saviour and his
apostles regarded and appealed to as Divine and obhgatory. If
this was the canon of the Hebrew Scriptures, as then received
by the Jews in general ; and if it can be shown that this canon
was the same vvhich is now comprised in the Hebrew Scriptures;
then the doubts and difficulties which many entertain in regard
to the Old Testament, or in respect to some parts of it, may be
removed. The authority of Christ and his apostles to determine
such a matter, should not be called in question; I would even
say, cannot be consistently called in question, by any one who
professes to be a Christian.

Some things have been presented to my notice, in the course
of the reading and reflection through which I have passed in
order to prepare for writing the present treatise, which do not
seem to me to have been adequately, or in some respects cor-
rectly, developed in the pages of the leading writers on the sub-
ject of the Old Testament canon. Things absolutely new I do
not promise to bring before the reader. But there are some
things, that have been noticed by even the more thorough inves-
tigators, which ought in justice to be placed in a new attitude,
in order that they should be seen in their true light. Something
of the task of doing this, I would hope to perform. One thing
at least will be achieved by the present work, if it does not miss
its mark, and this is, the presenting in a body, and regularly dis-
posed, the evidence extant respecting the Old Testament canon,
accompanied by a historico-critical examination of the same.
The reader, if this shall be done, will at least have the material
before him, out of which he can make up his own opinion.

I shall not advance to the consideration of this subject by tak-
ing the attitude of one who assumes the point to be proved, and
then pours forth monitions or comminations upon all who may
even seem to doubt. For the present, I take my leave not only
of Calvinists and Unitarians, but of all the sects in Christendom,
yea even of theology itself in its technical sense, and aim to act
merely the part of a historical inquirer, who applies to the appro-
priate sources of information, and endeavours in this way to find
out what he ought to believe. This is the first step. The de-
mands of intellect and reason must be met, in order to satisfy
a reasonable being. Then comes, in proper order, the applica-
tion of results thus won to the conscience and to the heart.

§ 2. DEFINITION OF CANON. 21

§ 2, Definition of Canon.

The meaning of this Greek word, (for such it is, viz. xavoui*), as
now employed by our churches in reference to the Scriptures,
hardly needs an explanation. It is employed as designating that
list or collection of books, either of the Old Testament or of the
New, which we are accustomed to regard as sacred or inspired,
or of Divine authority. But it was not always so employed, in
ages that are past; and the inquirer needs to be put on his guard
with respect to the various uses of this word in ancient times.

In classical Greek, tho original meaning of xacoii/ is straight stick
or rod, staff, measuring- rod or pole, beam of a balance, &c. Hence
tropically, rule, norma ; thence law, prescription, fundamental or
guiding principle. Among the Alexandrine Greek grammarians
xavwc was employed to denote a list or collection of ancient Greek
authors, who would serve as models or exemplars for other writ-
ers. It meant what we should call classical writers.

One sees very readily, how this succession of derivate meanings
sprang from the original sense of the word. The literal idea of
rod, measuring-rod, measure, was applied tropically to whatever
was a rule, guide, model, or exemplar, of conduct or of actions,
of art or of science. The Alexandrine graumiarians employed
the word in a sense so kindred to that which we now give it,
that the mind of every one must be struck by the resemblance.
Those books which are the rule, measure, law, exemplar, of a
moral and pious life, are the canonical books of the Scriptures,
according to the present usage of this word.

Among the Christian fathers the word canon obtained an en-
larged and sometimes a technical sense. It was sometimes used
to designate a list or catalogue of the clergy or of other persons
belonging to a church ; a list of psalms and hymns appropriate
for public worship ; and even a list of furniture belonging to a
church, &c. Very naturally it came to be employed to designate
a list of the Scriptural books which were publicly read in the chur-
ches. It was not, however, until the third century, that these
usages of the word commenced, or at least became common.*

* The various senses iu which the word Canon was used by the Fathers, are enu-
merated and exempUfied at full length iu Suicer's Thesaurus Ecdesiasticus, under
the word Katuv. Compai'e also under the words x,a,io^'i\ia and xavovixis. See like-
wise the article " Canon," iu Kitto's Biblical Cyclopcedia ; and Alexander on the
Canon, § 1. " The early use and import of the word Canon." — Ed.

22 § 2. DEFINITION OF CANON.

Readers of the present day, in perusing the testimony of many
of the ancient fathers and councils respecting the canon of Scrip-
ture, often make great mistakes as to the meaning and foi'ce of
the testimony. It is a fact which lies on the face of ancient
church history, that in the latter part of the second century, and
more in the third and fourth, other books besides those which
were regarded as properly inspired, were read more or less in the
churches. With the Septuagint version of the Old Testament,
which the Oriental and African churches everywhere made use
of, was early intermingled more or less of the books which we
now name apocryphal, and which for the most part were written
in Greek, and not long before the commencement of the Christian
era. The leading reasons for mixing these recent productions
with the books of the Hebrews, seem to have been the following:
first, they were mostly written by Jews, as the tenor of them
demonstrates ; secondly, they were of a religious cast, and parts
of them were adapted to useful instruction, while other parts
communicated narratives of some interest, whether considered
in the light of history or of allegory. But be this as it may, the
Christian churches, at least many of them, in the third century
and onward, admitted a number of the apocryphal books to be
publicly read along with the Jewish Scriptures. Now when the
word canonical was applied in such a sense as to designate merely
the books which were publicly read, the canonical hooks of the Old
Testament, for example, would mean not only the Jewish Scrip-
tures, but also such of the apocryphal books as were combined
with them in the Septuagint version, and were publicly read.
But to say that a book was canonical, and to say that it was in-
spired, at that period and when this usage prevailed, was saying
two very different things. There might be (and were) inspired
books which were not publicly read; e. g. such as the Apocalypse
of the New Testament, and the Canticles of the Old Testament.
On the other hand, several books not inspired were included in
the reading canon of the day, i. e. in the list of books publicly
readable ; e. g. 1 Maccabees, 2 Maccabees, Sirach, Wisdom of
Solomon, Tobit, Judith, the Shepherd of Hernias, the Epistle of
Clemens Romanus, the Revelation of Peter, &c. In regard to
this matter, viz. the extent of the canon or list of books to be
publicly read for profit, there was, for a long time, no fixed rule
among the churches. Each seems to have done what was right
in its own eyes. It was not until the fourth century that coun-

§ 2. DEFINITION OF CANON. 2.3

cils interfered, and limited the number of books to be read in the
churches. And these decided differently, as any one may see by
reading the accounts of the council at Laodicea, at Hippo, at
Carthage, at Rome under Gelasius, and elsewhere, as given by
Mansi, in his great work, Sanctorum Conciliorum nov. et ampliss.
Collection particularly in Tom. i. iii. viii. Indeed, in order to read
these records of ancient times intelligibly, one must keep in
mind what Jerome says, at the end of his enumeration of the
books of the Hebrew canon, in his Prologus Galeatus. After
naming the books in the Hebrew Scriptures, (the same which
we now reckon as belonging to them), he goes on to say: "What-
ever is not included among these, is to be placed among the apo-
cryphal books," [i. e. in his idiom, among the uninspired books\.
After particularizing various apocryphal works, he adds : " One
reads them in the church, but he does not receive them among
the canonical Scriptures. , . . TIibt/ may he read to the edification
of the people, hut not for the purpose of estahlishing ecclesiastical
doctrines.'''' Jerome here plainly employs canonical in the sense
of inspired, contrary to the common usage of the preceding cen-
tury. And from what he says, it is plain that books for edifica-
tion were read in the churches, for which no claims of inspiration
were made, and which could not establish any religious doctrine.
We often see quotations made from the fathers and from the
decrees of councils, in order to show, that there was no prevail-
ing and fixed belief in the ancient churches respecting the defi-
nite number of books which are to be considered as belonging to
the Scriptures. How easy to commit important errors in rela-
tion to this subject, if one does not know the various uses of the
word canon'. To show that a book belongs to the canon, i. e.
was publicly readable, is not to show that it was even regarded as
inspired; less still will it show that it was in fact inspired; on the
other hand, to show that any book was omitted or excluded
from the canon, i. e. was not publicly read, is showing nothing
to disprove its inspiration.

As this is a matter of high importance, I would not deal in
assertions without adequate proof. What Jerome says, goes '
directly to show that many books were publicly read, which
were not at all regarded by the churches as sources of appeal in
cases where doctrines were to be established. On the other
hand, the case of Philastrius of Brixia, the intimate friend of
Ambrose, near the close of the fourth century, illustrates and

24 § 2.

DEFINITION OF CANON.

confirms what I have said concerning books not pubhcly read,
and yet admitted to be inspired. In his book De Haeresihus,
c. 88, he exhibits a catalogue of canonical books, i. e. books
which, as he says, ought to be read in the church, in which is
found neither the Epistle to the Hebrews, nor the Apocalypse.
Yet in c. 60 he says, that " they are heretics who do not receive
the Apocalypse, and that they have no understanding of the
excellence and dignity of this writing."" In c. 88 the same
writer speaks of Scripturas ahsconditw, [i, e. Scriptures apocry-
phal^ in his sense of the word, viz. not to be publicly produced],
" which," he says, "ought to be read for moral improvement by
the perfect [i. e. full grown Christians], but not to be read by
all." In the same way Gregory Nazianzen {0pp. II . p. 44)
says: "I heard John the Evangelist enigmatically saying to
such, h aiToy-ovcpaig^ [q. d. in the apocryphal writings, i. e. private
ones, such as were not publicly read]; I would thou wert either
hot or cold, fcc." Yet this same writer {Life of Ephrem III.
p. 106) calls the Apocalypse r, r0.rj-aia rrjg ;^d^iro; fSijSy.r);, i. e. the
last book of grace, or (in other words) of the New Testament
dispensation. Now this same Gregory, {Opp>. II. p. 98, in some
verses reciting the books of Scripture, omits the Apocalypse at
the end, and concludes his verses by saying: ^' vdmg 'iyjig' I'l n bk
raiirojv sy.roc, o-jk sv yvYicioic, i. e. Thou hast all; if there be any be-
sides these, they belong not to the genuine." There is only one
way to solve this apparent inconsistency, and that is by apply-
ing to his case the same considerations as those which belong to
that of Philastrius. Gregory, in his verses, included the canoni-
cal, i. e. publicly readable, books only; in the other passages he
gives his private opinion respecting the true character of the
Apocalypse.

Nothing is plainer, than that the words canonical and apocry-
phal bear quite a different sense, in the M'orks of different fathers
and councils, in different ages and countries. Athanasius dis-
tributes the so-called Scriptures into three classes of books, viz.
canonical=inspired, apocryphal=spurious or deserving rejection,
and books permitted to be read in the churches; Epist. ad
Tlufin. Tom. ii. p. 89 seq. Rufinus himself, a contemporary
with Jerome, follows the same classification ; see in 0pp. Cypri-
ani, p. 575. After specifying the books belonging to the present
Protestant canon, which he calls canonical==\n8Y)'\re(\, he names
several of the books belonging to our present Apocrypha, toge-

s!} 2. DEFIN'ITION OF CANON. 25

ther with the Shepherd of Hernias and the Judgment of Peter,
and says of them, that they are called ecclesiastical, and " are to
be read in the churches (whence their name), but not to be pro-
duced as authority in matters of faith — non tamen proferri ad
auctoritatem ex his fidei confirmandara." Other books which
have respect to religion, but are not to be read in the churches,
he names apocryplial.

Jerome makes use of phraseology a little different from this.
In the famous passage of his, in his Prologus Galeatus, he speci-
fies the same Old and New Testament books which are now in the
Protestant canon, and then adds, that " the books extra has, i. e.
not included in these, are to be ranked among the apocr^/phal,
and are not in the canon.'''' Then, after mentioning several of the
books in our present Apocrypha, he adds, respecting some of
them: " The church indeed reads them [in public,] but does not

receive them among the canonical [inspired] Scriptures

[reads them] for the edification of the people, not to determine
matters of faith."

Thus it is perfectly apparent, that no one can read the eccle-
siastical fathers or the decrees of ancient councils, on the subject
of the canonical Scriptures, and rightly understand and appre-
ciate them, without narrowly watching the use of the technical
terms employed in describing their classification. Canonical at
one time means publiclt/ readable; at another it is the equivalent
of inspired. A-pocryplial at one time means not publicly reada-
ble; at another, it is the equivalent of uninspired, destitute of
binding authority.

Nor does this different usage belong exclusively to any one
age. We find Origen dividing the religious books of his day
into canonical=-ms]^'n'ed, and apocryphal=:uninspired and (with
him) unworthy of credit. Afterwards we find Eusebius dividing
religious books, in relation to the New Testament, into (a) ' 0;m,-
7.oyo-ofMiwi, i. e. the genuine and acknowledged writings of the
evangelists and apostles, {b) ^ AvriXsyo/xivoi, books whose genuine-
ness was doubted or was unsettled, (c) NJ3&/, books which were
spurious, i. e. were not written by inspired men. Besides these,
he mentions books aro-ra xai Suffcrs/S^, stolid and impious.

The result of this investigation is plain. We can understand
ancient writers only by watching with the closest scrutiny how
they employ the words canonical, apocryphal, ecclesiastical, and
the like, and for want of so doing, many a glaring error has

26 § 2. DEFINITION OF CANON.

crept into the works of some even recent writers on the sub-
ject of the canon. Another consequence is also deducible from
our premises, viz. that, if we mean to be rightly understood, we
must define and uniformly adhere to the meaning which we give
to the words canon and canonical.

We dismiss the subject of the New Testament canon, of
course; for to canvass that, is not our present business. In re-
spect to the Old Testament, what meaning shall we assign to
the phrase, Canon of the Old Testament f

Shall we attach to the word canon the meaning of a list of
hooks that were puhlicJi/ read in the Jeivish Si/nagogue^ in the time
of Christ and his apostles?

Before the Babylonish exile the Jews had no synagogues.
Previous to that time, only the Law of Moses, i. e. the Penta-
teuch, appears to have been read once a-year in the temple.
After the return from exile, and the erection of synagogues, the
Law of Moses was read in them, being distributed into fifty-two
Parashoth or sections, so that each Sabbath in the year might
have its due proportion. When Antiochus Epiphanes (171-1 64
B.C.) invaded Judea, abolished the worship of the temple, and
commanded all the copies of Moses' Law which could be found
to be burned, the Jewish synagogue, according to the Rabbies,
made selections from the prophets., corresponding to the Para-
shoth of the Pentateuch, which they called Ilaphtaroth., (i. e. dis-
missions., because when the reading of these was finished the peo-
ple were dismissed to their homes, see "1^3, to dismiss), and
which were read in the room of the Law. After the death of
Antiochus, the Jews reintroduced the Law with its Parashoth,
and also continued the reading of the prophetical Haphtaroth,
which is still practised by them. At the feast of Purim, once in
a year, the book of Esther is also read. If we should extend,
therefore, the Jewish canon only to the books which the Rabbies
suppose to have been publicly read, our list would comprise but
a moderate portion of the books which were regarded as of
Divine authority. Some books of Scripture, e. g. Canticles, and
the first and last eight chapters of Ezekiel, the Jews did not
permit any person to read, even in private, before he had attain-
ed the age of thirty years. Yet they did not deny the Divine origin
and authority of these acrox^-j^a. We cannot use the word canoni-
cal, then, in respect to the Old Testament books in the apostolic
age, in the sense of including only the books publicly or private-

§ O. COMMENCEMENT OF THE CANON. 27

ly permitted by the Jews to be read. And if we should resort to
the Christian fathers for information, in regard to the extent of
the Hebrew canon, we should find so much variety in the use of
the word canon, and such different usages in regard to the reh-
gious books to be pubhcly read, that we could receive no assist-
ance from this quarter.

It becomes a matter of necessity, then, that we should fix
upon a sense of the word canon which is definite and intelligible;
and this being done, we must uniformly adhere to it. I mean,
then, by the Canon of Jeioish Scripture in the apostolic age, that
class of books which the Jews as a people regarded and treated as
sacred, i. e. of Divine origin and authority/. This agrees with the
present general usage of the churches, as to the words in ques-
tion, and therefore will occasion no embarrassment and no mis-
take in regard to phraseology.

The word canon, I would remark at the close, seems not to
have been in use, in its technical sense as applied to the Scrip-
tures, until the time of Origen. No trace of it can be found in
the second century. In his Prol. ad Cant. Cantic, sub fine,
Origen employs it; also in Schol. ad Matt, xxvii. 9; in a sense like
to that which I have given to it.

§ 3. Commencement of the Canon.

That books of this character existed among the Jews, from
the time of Moses down to a period of some extent after the re-
turn from the Babylonish captivity, few have denied; and none
have been able to show the contrary. It is well known, how-
ever, among critics at least, that the Mosaic origin of the Pen-
tateuch has, since the days of Semler, been called in question by
ix, considerable number of German critics. At the time when
Wolf had assailed the antiquity and genuineness of the Iliad and
Odyssey, and spread far and wide his scepticism on this subject,
the anti<\uity and genuineness of the Pentateuch began to be
attacked on the like grounds, and about the time of Eichhorn's
death, it was considered by the dominant neological party in
Germany, as established beyond reasonable contradiction, that
the Pentateuch was composed at a period near the captivity, or
perhaps even after the return from it. By slow degrees the thou-
sand years over which the Pentateach was made to leap, in or-

28 § 3. COMMENCEMENT OF THE CANON.

der to find an appropriate birth-day, began to be diminished. By
and by it was felt by some to be necessary to assign a date for
it which was antecedent to the time when a copy of the Law was
found by Hilkiah the priest, in the reign of Josiah, b.c. 624.
Of late, the date of the Pentateuch, at least of a large portion
of it, has receded still more, even back to the times of Solomon
or David, b.c 1000-1040. Lately it seems, in part, to have
made another retreat, viz. to the time of the Judges, or possibly
even of Joshua. Such I take to be the view of Ewald and Tuch,
and also of some other distinguished German critics. The next
step may possibly be to a period of time which puts the whole
matter in statu quo. But be this as it may, I must take for
granted the fact now more generally acknowledged, that at least
some parts of the Pentateuch were committed to writing in the
time of Moses. I cannot indeed even conceive how the most
important laws of the Mosaic institution, how the Levitical ritual
in all its minutiae, how the sketch of the tabernacle to be built
with all its apparatus, and the account of it as built and provided
with such apparatus, should have failed to be committed to
writing. The ten commandments, from their importance, would
naturally be engraved on some permanent material. The other
two classes of composition just mentioned, are of such a nature,
that no memory could be trusted with them. No later age, in
case these minute particulars concerning the tabernacle had not
been early designated, yea even by Moses, could have ever dream-
ed of making, and palming upon the Jews as Mosaic, such repre-
sentations as these. No subsequent age could have admitted a
ritual like that of the Jews, provided it was introduced long after
the death of Moses and Aaron, and was attributed to them. It
is not possible to suppose, that any one age or generation after
Moses"" time, could be made to believe that things which they
had never before heard of in connection with their two leaders,
and things which they had never been taught to practise, origi-
nated from them, and had always been obligatory on the Jews.

After the protracted and vehement contest about the origin
and antiquity of alphabetical writing, which grew out of the Ho-
meric Wolfian controversy, and extended itself to sacred as well
as profane books, we have at length come to a result, and that
result seems to be, that no reasonable doubt can be entertained,
that the origin of alphabetical writing among the Egyptians,
Phenicians, and Greeks, dates far back before the time of

§ 3. COMMENCEMENT OF THE CANON. 29

Homer. The Homeric controversy was occasioned by the position
of Wolf in his Prolegomena, which was that the Iliad and the
Odyssey are full of interpolations and probable abscissions, and
that they owe their present form and order and unity to the later
writers of Greece, near or during the time of Pisistratus. To
make this probable, it was necessary to show, that the poems of
Homer were, for several centuries, not reduced to writing, but
only sung by chanters and rhapsodists, aoihni -/m) oa-^'jjooi. Of
course, it became in a manner necessary to show, that the art
of writing, at least among the Greeks, was not as old as the time
of Homer, i. e. did not extend back to about 1000 years before
the Christian era. Every nerve has been strained for this pur-
pose; while, on the other side, have recently been enlisted writers
of the highest reputation. Among the combatants are Wolf,
Heyne, Herder, Voss, Kreuser, W. Miiller, Hermann, Nitzsch,
D. C. W. Crusius, and others. Nitzsch, in his Historia Homeri,
seems to have made an end of the question, whether alphabetical
writing is as old as the time of Homer. This is now, so far as
I know, generally conceded. But whether alphabetical writing
was so common at the time of Homer, that we can reasonably
suppose him to have been acquainted with it, and to have avail-
ed himself of it — that is a question, in regard to which no incon-
siderable number of critics have stood and still stand arrayed in
mutual opposition.

It would be incongruous for me to turn aside for the purpose
of discussing at length this question. Nevertheless, it has no
unimportant bearing on the question which is now before us,
viz.. At what period shall we date the commencement of the Jewish
canon? If the art of writing was not in use among the Greeks,
until the sixth century before the Christian era, then can it be
probable, that the Hebrews, less literary than the Greeks, prac-
tised it before that period?

It is not essential, indeed, to my main design, to show when the
Pentateuch was written, nor even by whom. It may be a book
worthy of all credit, if written by some other hand than that of
Moses, or at some later period. If Christ and his apostles have
sanctioned it as a sacred book, the main question is settled for
us. It should be sacred to us, as well as to them.

But to resume the subject of alphabetic writing among the
Greeks, for a moment. It is said by the advocates of the Wol-
fian theory, that there is no Greek prose writer upon record be-

so § 3. COMMENCEMENT OF THE CANON.

fore the Milesian Cadmus and Pherecydes of Scyros, who flour-
ished about 544 b.c; and that there is no writer of this class
who is of any note, until the time of Hecateeus of Miletus and
Pherecydes of Athens, i. e. about 50 years later. About the
same time, that is, some 350 or more years later than the time
of Homer, the laws of Draco were reduced to writing, and these
are said to have been the first written laws among the Greeks.
Is it probable, then, it is asked, that the poetry of Homer was
reduced to writing at a period some 350 or 400 years earlier?

But on the other hand, we may well ask: Could two poems,
one of about 16,000, and the other of more than 12,000 lines or
verses, be brought down through so many centuries by mere
oral and traditionary communication? Admitting even that
there are a few interpolations in the Iliad and Odyssey, yet the
unity and order of these poems demonstrate an origin from the
same author; as do also their dialect and circle of words and
imagery. How could so much be orderly composed by any man,
without some means of consulting what had already been com-
posed, as he advanced in his work? In fact does not the Iliad
itself (Z. 168 — 9), by its ff-^/xara 'n-oy^a yga-^ac. h 'jhay.i, advert to a
letter addressed to Proetus? At any rate, this gives a more
probable sense to the passage. See Trollope'^s Note in loc.
Euripides (Hec. 856 seq.) makes Hecuba say: "Alas, no mortal
is free! For he is either the slave of money, or of fortune; or
else the mass of the city or written laws (t'&'/a.wi/ yja^a/) coerce
him." In Hippol. 856 seq. (ed. Barnes), the same Euripides
represents Theseus as speaking of an epistle or tablet (oi/.rc;)
written by Phsedra to him: " What then is the meaning of this
appended epistle {oiXroc) from her dear hand? What news does
it communicate?" In the sequel he calls this h'i'Kru: an epistle
(sV/(rT-6Xac; = literas); and still further on, he names it oj/.Tog again.
The time when Euripides represents Theseus as saying what has
been quoted, was some 80 years before the Trojan war. In his
Iphigenia in Aulis (1. 35 seq.), he makes the aged messenger of
Agamemnon, about to be sent with a letter to Clytemnestra,
thus address this king: " Thou writest {yod:pii;) this letter, which
thou boldest in thy hands, and again thou dost erase these let-
ters {y^a[j.iJMra), and dost seal them, and then unseal them, and
cast the tablet on the ground, pouring forth large tears." The
erasing {suyyjTg, dost intermingle) of the letters seems plainly to
point to the corrections made on a waxed tablet, which was

§ 3. COMMKNCEMENT OF THE CANON. 31

done by smearing over or mingling (auyyjoj) the wax. Here then
are all the phenomena of writing, with sealing and unsealing of
the letter. And most graphic is the description; for Agamem-
non is writing to his wife respecting their daughter Iphigenia,
who was to be sacrificed to Diana, in accordance with the direc-
tion of the prophet Calchas. He had already sent her one letter,
requiring Iphigenia to be given up. Now (1. 108 seq.) he says to
the aged messenger: " I now reicriie in this letter (o£/.roi/) what is
proper to be done, which you, old man, saw me by night sealing
and unsealing. But go now, taking this letter [rag s'TnaroXag^
like the Latin plur. litenv] to Argos. Whatever this letter hides
in its folds — I will tell thee by word of mouth all which is written
in it." Several times, in the sequel, is the same letter adverted
to; and so as to leave no possible doubt, that Euripides describes
a veritable letter, (like the epistles of his own time), folded and
sealed in the same way.*

The simple question now is, whether this distinguished poet
would have made out such a description as this, and introduced
Agamemnon in such a manner, if the persuasion had not been
general, and even universal, at his time, that the art of writing

* In like manner, Orestes, the son of Agamemnon, is represented by Euripides
as saying to Hermione: " I came hither, t«; ra; ob f/.i.vuv l-TmrToXas, not waiting for
a letter from you;" Androm. 1. 965. This, of course, is just at the close of the
Trojan war. In Iphig. in Aul. 1. 307, the aged servant says to Menelaus: " Thou
must not open the letter (SeXtov) which I bear." The servant complains to his
master Agamemnon, that Menelaus " had by violence snatched out of his hands the
epistle" (Icr/o-ToXaj) of Agamemnon. In the sequel Menelaus refers to it, and calls
it I'iXrov. In Iphigen. in Taur., Iphigenia speaks of transmitting " a letter {lixrov),
which a captive who pitied her had written to her friends." In the sequel she says,
that " she had no one by whom she could send her epistle''' {i'Tia-ToXd;.) And again
she speaks of " no mean reward for transmitting her liyht letters," (xoJipiuv 'y^afi/u.d-
Tcuv), Orestes afterwards tells her to deliver the letter (SeAtov) to a particular pei'son;
and she in the sequel says: " I will go, and carry a letter (oiXTov) from the temple of
the goddess;" and again (1. 640), " I will send to Argos, particularly to my friends,
a letter QiXTov) which will tell them," &c. The same epistle, (SsXtos, i^ia-ToXai) is
again mentioned in 1. 727, 732, and in 734 she calls it y^a<pd;. A new epistle of
joyous tidings to Orestes is written by Iphigenia, after she is delivered from death
by Diana, which speaks of her iTifroXai as containing the news, " even the things
written b ^iXr/mriv." Again (1. 1446) she requests Orestes to inform himself what
that is which is in her letter, (iTitrroXecs). In the Bacchiie, the servant of Theseus
says to the captured Bacchus: " I lead thee captive, i-pno-roXdTs by the [written]
mandate of Pentheus." Peutheus, it will be recollected, was the grandson of Cad-
mus, who lived, it is supposed, nearly 1500 years B.C. The same woi"d (t'TicrroXii;),
in the like sense, occurs in Hel. 1. 1665. As to SsXth;, besides the instances already
adduced, see in Hippol. 1. 877, 1057. In Iphig. in Aul., (including some instances

32 § 3. COMMENCEMENT OF THE CANON.

was familiar to the Grecian chiefs at the siege of Troy. One
cannot well bring himself to attribute a gross anachronism and
incongruity to such a writer.

In the like manner Sophocles (Trach. 157) makes Dejan-
eira speak of a 6=?.T■o^ yiy^aij.ij.hriv or writien will of Hercules, in
favour of her, when he left her house. This was some time
before the Trojan war. In Sophocles'* Antigone, he makes her
speak of the ayowrra Qiuiv v6,'j,i;j.a, in contrast with the K-/;>u7,xara
of Creon. Does not the nature of the contrast here presented,
allude plainly to the art of writing? And would these two con-
summate poets, distinguished as much for their knowledge as
their skill and taste, commit such an anachronism as the Wolfian
theory would make them guilty of? Suppose a poet of Boston
should write a tragedy founded on the overthrow and death of
one of the native Indian kings in this country some five centuries
ago, and should introduce him as writing letters to his wife?
Would a Boston audience endure this without hissing the play
down?

I know it has been remarked, in the way of answer to the
argument seemingly deducible from this in favour of the early
discovery of alphabetic writing, that the poets have liberty to
feign what they please, in making out the fable of their tragedies.
But I am persuaded that this remark must be limited to bounds
which forbid absolute and palpable incongruities. Very extra-
vagantly and unaccountably the actors of a fabulous age may be
represented as demeaning themselves, and all is well; because
extraordinary actions are expected, and extraordinary powers
of performing them are presupposed. But this is something
exceedingly diverse from evident and monstrous incongruities in
circumstantial matters, which belong not to persons but to things.
There would not be a man or woman in a Boston audience, pre-
sent at the exhibition of such a play as has just been mentioned,
who would not in an instant perceive the gross incongruity of
putting the wild Indian chief to the writing of letters; and who
would not feel that the author of the play was stupidly ignorant,

produced above), we find Hxtov in 1. 35, 109, 155, 307, 322, 891, 894. In Iphig. ia
Taur. 584, 760, (J03, 615, 635, 640, 667, 733, 756, 791. Besides these, several in-
stances occur in the Fragments of Euripides.

In all these cases, let it be called to mind that the writer is speaking of persons
and occurrences at or before the siege of Troy. It is impossible therefore to resist
the impression, that he regarded ei)Vitolary correspondence as a thing then well
known and commonly practised, certainly among persons of the higher rank.

§ 3. COMMENCEMENT Of THE CANON. 33

or else destitute of all taste, or silly enough to believe that his
audience would all be stupidly ignorant. I aver, then, that the
familiar and often repeated usage of Euripides, of Sophocles,
(and even of ^schylus), in introducing epistolary communica-
tion among the ancients at and before the siege of Troy, implies,
of course, a like belief on the part of the Athenian public, who
were so sensitive as to even the minutest things in a player, that
they would spontaneously correct a false accent or a wrong
quantity. But if alphabetic writing began in Greece only about
the middle of the sixth century b.c, then this public could not
possibly have been brought to the general or rather universal
belief, that it was four or five centuries older, to say the least;
for, in a place like Athens, there must have been some well
grounded knowledge in respect to such a matter. The common
usage of the great tragic poets, in the introduction of epistolary
communication among remote ancients, shows with certainty
what the public sentiment at Athens was, in respect to this
matter. And how can any one account for such a public senti-
ment, on the ground that writing began among the Grecians only
in the sixth century? This would be far more difficult, than to
believe that the sentiment was grounded upon matter of fact?

But we have something perhaps more definite and certain,
than these allusions in the great poets. Plutarch {in Lycurg.)^
^lian (Far. Hist. XIII. 4), Dio Chrysostom {Orat. II. p. 87),
Heraclides of Sinope {Gronov. Thesaurus Grcec. Ant. VI. p.
2823), all testify that Lycurgus, the great lawgiver of Sparta,
brought the poems of Homer from Crete, where he met with them
among the posterity of Creophylus, which latter person was, (as
tradition says), a son-in-law, or teacher, or guest of Homer.
Plutarch and ^lian both aver, that in the land of European
Greece, previous to this period, only an obscure tradition about
Homer's poems existed, and one and another possessed some
extracts from them. Lycurgus employed chanters and rhapsodists
to recite them to his people, in order to inspire them with a mar-
tial spirit. Now Lycurgus lived almost nine centuries before
the Christian era; and if he found the complete poems of Homer
in writing., and copied them, (as is most explicitly affirmed by
the historians just mentioned), this would seem to settle the
question as to the antiquity of the icritten works of Homer.
Wolf, Miiller, and others, examine this testimony adunco naso.
No wonder; for it prostrates the fanciful edifice which they have

'S4: § 3. COMMENCEMENT OF THE CANON.

reared. But Crusius (Pref. to his edit, of Miiller) has given
the subject a fair investigation.

The appeal to the so-called Homeridw, chanters, and rhapsodists,
{aotdoi, pa-^'jjdol), as evidence that Homer's poems must have been
diffused and preserved for a long time independently of writing,
is not at all conclusive. The Homeridse were nothing more
than an ancient and higher class of rhapsodists. The chanters
and rhapsodists differed only in name, and perhaps in some
peculiarities in the modes of recitation or recitativo. All were
the vi'va voce reciters of Homer; and, in the earlier times, they
recited without the immediate aid of manuscripts in the act of
recitation. They wandered from place to place, reciting where-
ever they could find encouragement and remuneration. But to
argue from this, as many critics have done, that Homer's poetry
could not at the same time have existed in writing, betrays but
an indifferent knowledge of the customs of antiquity and special-
ly of the East. The mass of Greeks, in Europe and Asia, could
not read in those times. The price of manuscripts ample enough
to comprise the Iliad and Odyssey, was beyond the reach of any
but the rich. Yet the Grecian people were of a romantic and po-
etic turn of mind. The poems of Homer greatly delighted them.
Hence the profitable employment of the rhapsodists. The brief
and popular songs of times more ancient than the age of Homer,
probably were not committed to writing, but were diffused and
preserved merely by oral tradition. They were sung or chanted
of course, without the aid, and without the need, of any loritten
copy. When Homer came to be sung in like manner, and
to be the popular poet of the Greeks, he was recited without
book. This gave an opportunity for the rhapsodists to do,
what their successors in office still do in Egypt and Persia and
other countries of the East, that is, it gave opportunity to act,
as well as recite, the works of Homer. This was a great advan-
tage to the rhapsodists, since they could impart a much more lively
interest to their readers, by adopting such a method of exhibi-
tion.

To my own mind, the fact that there were chanters and
rhapsodists of Homer's works, soon after they were composed,
and for some centuries onward, is far enough from proving that
these works were not reduced to writing. Let us look at experi-
ence and matters of fact. The Thousand and One Nights of the
Arabians has always from the time of its composition been in

§ 3. COMMENCEMENT OF THE CANON. 35

writing, as all agree; for it is a production some centuries later
than the era of Mohammed. Yet in Persia and Egypt, even in
recent times, very few copies of this most entertaining and truly
oriental work exist, since neither of these nations have availed
themselves of the art of printing; at least not until these some
ten years past, and now only to a small extent. Sir John
Malcolm, in his notes on Persia, tells us, that on festal occasions
and at levees, at the court of Persia, the chanters or rhapsodists
are a regular part of the entertainment. He speaks of them as
ready to recite, at an almost indefinite length, the Thousand and
One, the poems of Hafiz, and the works of other distinguished
Persian writers, and as being employed by the nobles and the
rich for this purpose. He describes them as not simply reciting,
but acting. He tells us that no actor on the stages of London or
Paris ever played his part more significantly and satisfactorily.
One of Sir John's attendants, who did not understand Persian,
was about to withdraw, on one of the festal occasions, when the
rhapsodist rose to commence his exhibition. The latter, seeing
him in the attitude of withdrawing, inquired the reason. He
was told, that it was because he did not understand the Persian
language. The actor replied, that this was of little consequence;
for he would make himself quite intelligible to him, notwith-
standing this. The English gentleman remained, and the actor
most amply redeemed his pledge.

This gives us an instructive view of the interest which the
rhapsodists of Homer might, and probably did, impart to their
recitations; and shows that they might find full employ, not-
withstanding the existence of MSS.

The case is the same in Egypt. Mr Lane, in his admirable
work on the Modern Egyptians, has given us a full account of
their rhapsodists. The most numerous class of them is the
SJwara, i. e. reciters of poetry, of which there are about fifty in
Cairo. These confine themselves to the romance of Abu Zeyd,
which is full of poetic passages. The prose they recite with measur-
ed tone; the poetry with accompanying instrumental music. The
next class (about thirty of them in Cairo) are called Mohad-
diteen, i. e. Story-tellers, who recite nothing but the Life^ of
Zahir, a romance founded on the story of an Egyptian prince
who bore that name. It is very voluminous and expensive; and
consequently, a knowledge of the work, such as it is, is mainly
kept up by the viva voce reciters. There is, besides these, a

36 § 3. COMMENCEMKNT OF THE (JANON.

small class of reciters at Cairo, who are called Antereeyah^ in
consequence of reciting the romance of Antar, which has been
recently translated into English. Occasionally this class of per-
sons extend their recitations to other works.

Such then are the oriental modes of entertainment in the way
of reading or recitation. Where the great mass of the popula-
tion are unable to read; where printing is not introduced, and
the price of MSS. is exceedingly dear; where the indolent habits
of the Turks, Arabians, and Persians, forbid or at least dissuade
from the effort necessary to read a book; specially where a book
needs comment and explanation; rhapsodists come in, and find
ample and profitable employment. So it doubtless was in
Greece; so, in western Asia Minor.

But Mr Lane states one fact in regard to these rhapsodists,
which strikes me as of serious import, in respect to the matter
before us. He says, that a few years previous to his sojourn in
Egypt, the romance of 8eyf Zid-l-Yezen^ abounding in tales of
wonder, and the Thousand and One Nights^ were the subject of
frequent recitation. But as these works became very scarce and
very dear, the rhapsodists could not afford to purchase them in
order to prepare for recitation, and so they discontinued the prac-
tice. These last-named works are far superior to the others
which are now recited, and would be preferred by the people, if
they might have them presented. But this cannot be done for
the reasons just stated.

This throws light on the recitations of the Homeric rhapso-
dists. Had they not been able to resort to some MS. copy of
Homer, to refresh their memory, or to store it, they could never,
or at least they would never, have brought down two poems of
nearly 30,000 lines, through so many centuries. I allow that the
force of memory is great, even surprising, where a man of talent
gives himself wholly to the cultivation of it. Xenophon express-
ly asserts {Sympos. HI. 6), that there were several persons at
Athens, in his time, who could repeat memoriter the whole of
the Iliad and Odyssey. So among the Persians and Arabians,
there has been many a rhapsodist who could repeat the whole
of the Thousand and One Nights, or other works of equal length.
But after all, such a gift is occasional, and somewhat rare. On
a succession of such persons, so as accurately to transmit the
Biad and Odyssey down through three or four centuries, one
can plrice no safe dependence. The thing is incredible. The

§ S. COMMKNCEMKNT OF THE CANON. 37

Egyptian and Persian rhapsodists everywhere intermingle, with
what they recite, so much of their own compositions, botli in
poetry and in prose, as may serve to expand, embellish, or ex-
plain their author. Often, men of talents among their rhapso-
dists become so excited by the applause of their audience, that
they improvise, in a manner that exceeds the originals. So it
cannot have fared with Homer; for the present state of his
works — so little being in them which is incongruous or super-
fluous— demonstrates that improvisation has not wrought sensi-
bly upon them by additions or diminutions, and of course that
they can never have been long subjected to its sole influence.

We may get along quite well as to oral tradition, when it is
said to have preserved snort song^, narrations, allegories, or fa-
bles, independently of written records. But to think of an Iliad
and an Odyssey being preserved for centuries substantially invio-
late, in this manner, requires much more credulity, than it does
to believe that alphabetical writing existed a considerable time
before the era of Moses. At least, I cannot bring my own mind
to a state of doubt or hesitation in regard to this whole matter.

I am fully aware of the testimony of Josephus, in relation to
the subject of ancient alphabetic writing in Greece. In his
Contra Apion. I. 2, he draws the contrast between the autiqiiity
of Greek and Hebrew letters, and, as might naturally be expect-
ed from a Jew, greatly to the advantage of the latter. He says
that even the Greeks themselves make their boast of learning
their letters from Cadmus; that they have no monumental in-
scriptions older than the siege of Troy; and no book older than
the poetry of Homer. In respect to this, also, and whether the
Grecians at the siege of Troy were acquainted with the use of
letters, he says questions have arisen, and that the better opi-
nion is, that the Greeks who destroyed Ilium were ignorant of
letters. As to Homer he says: ''' (paah ovb- tovtov iv y^diMixciai rriv
aijTOU 'TToirisiv -AaTa^iitiiv, ocAAa biaiMrt[JiiOVi\jo[jj'ivrtv sx. rojv ccsfj,dru}v bgri»ov
a-ovTi^T^vai, y.ai did rouro voKkdg sv avrfi (Syuv rag dia(puviag' 1. e. they
say that this one [Homer] did not leave his poem in letters
[writing], but that being kept in remembrance by chanting, it
was subsequently adjusted (composed or put together), and that
it was because of this that so many incongruities were found in
it.*" Such was the impression which Josephus received from
Greeks with whom he was conversant, and he was very ready to
receive it, because it made directly for the support of his opinion

38 § 3. COMMENCEMENT OF THK CANON.

in favour of the greater antiquity of the Hebrew literature.
But we learn from him, that it was then a contested question,
whether the Greeks who besieged Troy were acquainted with
letters; so that on the face of his testimony it appears that the
point was regarded as a doubtful one. We have seen, however,
that Euripides and Sophocles make appeals to Athenian audi-
ences in relation to this subject, about four centuries before the
Christian era, which leave no reasonable doubt as to what the
general opinion at Athens then was.

Josephus, by using awri^^nmi in respect to the arrangement of
Homer's poems, doubtless has reference to the story so often
repeated, and from a period somewhat before the Christian era
(Cic. de Orat. HI. 84. Pausan. HI. 26. ^Elian. Var. Hist. XIII.
14), viz.", that Solon, and specially Pisistratus and his sons the
Pisistratidse, put together the disjointed and Sibylline frag-
ments of the Iliad and Odyssey, and first reduced them to writ-
ing, as well as to unity, regularity, and order. All the rhapso-
dists, as the story goes, far and near, were collected by Pisistra-
tus, and from them he obtained all the scattered fragments of
the epic bard, and put them together as well as he could, sum-
moning to his aid all the literary corps of Athens. So much of
all this is doubtless true, namely, that Solon made an arrange-
ment of the parts of Homer, which were to be chanted at the
Ylava^Tivaia, i. e. the feast of Minerva, which was held once in
five years. All could not be then sung, and Solon decided how
much should be sung, and in what order. Pisistratus and his
son Hipparchus pushed criticism much farther. They obtained
all accessible evidence of what belonged to Homer, and of what
quality it was, and arranged the result in the best manner they
could. To the famous Aristarchus of Samothrace (fl. b.c. 200),
is generally attributed the division of the Iliad and Odyssey into
twenty-four books each.

Such is the sum of tradition, in regard to this subject. But
that letters were not known in Greece earlier than the time of
Solon and Pisistratus, (about 550 b.c), no one will now credit,
since the publication of W\tzsch''sHistoriaIfomeri. But how much
the Diasl-euastai just mentioned, or others after them, changed
the text or the order of Homer, it is in vain now to surmise.
Tho internal evidence of Homer's works is most unequivocally
against any considerable interpolation. The unity of his poems,
their dialect, the spirit of .'ill llio parts, (with slight exceptions),

§ o. COMMRNCEMENT OF THE CANON. 39

show a unity of authorship, and a unity of purpose, combined
with a plan and a regularity which could not arise from diverse
minds. A man might us well say, that the different parts of a
watch were, in the first instance, manufactured by different per-
sons without any concert; and that being accidentally brought
together, they all perfectly fitted each other, and made a true
time-keeper, which all succeeding watch-makers have only imi-
tated. Who would believe such an account of the origin of
watches? And yet it is even more credible, than the fabled
composition of Homer by poets of different ages and different
countries. All agree that Homer's is the greatest poem of an-
ti<[uity; most say that it is the greatest of any or all ages. How
was such a rare union of Homer & Co. brought about? We
can find only now and then a solitary example of poetry like his
among nations, during the whole period of their existence; a
Virgil in Rome, a Shakspeare and a Milton in England, a
Dante in Italy. How could Greece, in its barbarian ages be-
tween 600 and 1000 b.c, produce a whole host of geniuses like
to Homer, and never one afterwards?

But I am digressing. The interest of the subject has led me
away from my more direct purpose. I must simply state the
result ; which is, that the use of letters was known in Greece
some time before the age of Homer ; that it was not very com-
mon, however, until the sixth century b.c; that the existence of
chanters and rhapsodists of Homer at a preceding period, is no
proof at all against the existence of his poems in a written form
during that period ; that the unity and diction and dialect of his
works demonstrate unity of authorship, and a good state of pre-
servation in respect to his poems ; and that the thing in itself is
all but absolutely incredible, that poems of nearly 30,000 lines
could have been so preserved for more than three centuries,
without having been reduced to writing.

Appeal then to the case of the Greeks, and confident appeal
such as has been made in respect to the works of Homer, to
prove the later origin of letters among the Hebrews, and conse-
quently the impossibility of Moses having written the Pentateuch,
can no longer be heard with approbation or assent. It is too
late to bring forward such allegations among us. In Germany,
at the time when, through the example of Wolfe and HeyHC,
the recent destructive criticism (as some of our German cousins
now name it), was in the ascendant, one was famous " according

40 § 3. COMMENCEMENT OF THE CANON.

to the number of axes and hammers which he lifted up" against
the ancient temple of the Muses, whether sacred or profane-
Commenta opinionum delet dies. It is too late to palm upon the
literary public any longer the scheme of the Destructives.

We return to the Hebrews. Whether Greece possessed letters
very early, or did not, would in reality affect but little the case
before us. Moses and the Hebrews came out of Egypt, after a
long residence there. Moses was brought up at the Egyptian
court, and was skilled in all the learning of the Egyptians ; and
Gesonius has come, after all his palseographical researches, and
notwithstanding his former opinion that the Pentateuch was
composed near the close of the Hebrew monarchy, fully to the
conclusion, that alphabetical writing was known in Egypt at least
two thousand years before the Christian era, and among the
Phenicians at a period but little later. Nor does he stand alone
even among the Neologists. Ewald and von Lengerke, among
the most liberal of the Liberals, and both now engaged in
publishing a critico-religious history of the Hebrews, have avowed
their opinions in regard to the antiquity of writing among
the people of Western Asia, in a manner not to be misunder-
stood. Ewald, in his Geschichte des Volkes Israel (Israelitish
History, 1843), says, p. 64, " In respect to the time of Moses,
suggestions from the most diverse sources, even those of the
earliest times, agree in this, viz. that writhia was already in use.''''
Again, p. 66, he says, " That writing was practised at the time
of Moses, the two tables of the Law prove beyond contradiction ;
and since the art of writing was then actually in existence, the
beginnings of historical composition must speedily appear, for the
importance of the Mosaic period was a sufficient excitement to
engage in it." In p. 69, speaking of the nations of Western
Asia, he says, " Writing among these nations always appears to
be more ancient than any history is able to disclose." Again, on
the same page, " So much is beyond mistake, viz. that it [the art
of writing] was a privilege enjoyed by the Shemitish nations a
long time before Moses made his appearance in history." Once
more, on p. 71 he says, " So then the position remains firm, that,
since the time of Moses, historical writing in Hebrew might be
practised, and was practised." He means to say, that at least
it must have begun as early as the time of Moses.

Von Lengerke, in his Canaan or national and religious history
of tho .Tows, aftor reforring to the ancient name of Dobir, viz.

§ ,3. COMMKNCFME.VT OF THE CANON. 41

Qirjath Sepher (-yr^ ri*"?p' ^* ^' ^^^^ toion), says, " At all events,
it seems historically to follow, from this ancient name, that the
use of writing among the inhabitants of the land [Palestine] took
its rise in very ancient times, before the exodus of the Israelites
from Egypt ;" p. xxxii. Again (p.xxxiii.) he says, •' Among what-
ever original people of Shemitish origin the invention of writing
is to be sought, or to whatever early period it must be assigned,
still the invention must be supposed to precede Moses by a long
period of time, so far as it respects the Egyptians." Again,
(p. XXXV.) he says, " Undoubtedly at Moses' time, a commence-
ment of historical writing among the Hebrews had been made."

No one who knows the sentiments of these two distinguished
Hebrew scholars and critics, will think of accusing them of any
leaning towards orthodoxy. They have been forced by pure his-
torical considerations, upon the acknowledgment of these facts ;
and so must Mr Norton have been, had he paid but a moderate
attention to the critical history of the art of writing. Even De
Wette, the Coryphaeus of doubters, says, " With Moses the
author and lawgiver of the Hebrew state, the introduction of the
art of writing among them may well be assumed as commencing,"
Ems. ins AH. Test. § 12. Our own countryman, then, Mr Norton,
who so often speaks with not a little severity of the scepticism
of the Germans, plainly outdoes the very leaders of dubitation
among them, in the case before us.*

We may then, in sketching the early history of the Hebrew
canon, assume it as a thing altogether probable, if not quite
certain, that in Moses' time the Pentateuch, or at least the
leading parts of it, were committed to writing. If writing was in

* Highly satisfactory as every one must feel the argument here concluded by Mr
Stuart to be, it is necessary to enter much more deeply into the discussion, in order
to get any adequate idea of the strength of the case which has been made out by
the friends of truth in Gei-many, in favour of the ante-Mosaic origin of alphabetic
writing, and of the existence of this art among the Israelites in the time of Moses.
For the purpose of conveying such an idea, Hengstenberg's Dissertation on the Gen-
uineness of the Pentateuch in relation to the History of the Art of Writing will be found
amply sufficient. It is replete with learning ; and its original researches are as
fundamental, as its statement of the whole case is comprehensive. Compare also
Havernick's Einkilung in das Alte Testament, Erster Theil, Erste Abtheilung, pp.
259 — 283, where this distinguished critic introduces his history of the Text of the
Old Testament, by a discussion, in several sections, respecting the antiquity of al-
phabetic writing among the Semitic nations in general, and in particular among the
Hebrews, including also an account of the writing materials which were in use in
the age of Moses. — En.

42 § 3, COMMENCEMENT OF THE CANON.

use, the fundamental laws and regulations, civil, social, ritual,
or religious, must needs have been recorded. Such parts of the
Pentateuch as the last part of Exodus, which have respect to the
sketching of a plan for the tabernacle, and the corresponding de-
tail of the completion of it in accordance with this plan, it could
never have entered into the mind of an impostor in after ages to
draw out in writing, at least in such a way. That there are a
few paragraphs and some occasional glosses of an ancient word,
added by a later hand to the Pentateuch, one may very readily
concede; e. g. the later succession of the dukes of Edom in Gen.
xxxvi. ; the account of Moses' death and burial, Deut. xxxiv. ;
and here and there the more recent names of several towns ap-
pended to the ancient appellations. But the very fact that
these stand out so prominently from the rest of the composition,
is a good argument in favour of the antiquity and genuineness
of the book at large.

It does not comport with my design to examine with any mi-
nuteness and in particular, the arguments against the early com-
position of the Pentateuch, which are alleged to be drawn from
the internal state of its various books, and especially from those
parts of the several books which wear the appearance of distinct
composition, if not the marks of a foreign hand. Nor can I here
produce the many arguments drawn from the internal state and
character of the Pentateuch, in order to establish its Mosaic
origin. In my own private judgment, I must regard the latter
as far outweighing the former. But all the detail of these mat-
ters belongs only to a critico-exegetical Introduction to the Old
Testament, on an extended plan, like that of Hengstenberg, of
Havernick, and others. Enough for my purpose that the Pen-
tateuch is recognised as the work of Moses, by all the historians
and prophets of the Old Testament; by the Apocryphal writers,
by Philo, Josephus, and all the New Testament writers, and
expressly and repeatedly by Christ himself ; as will be seen when
we come to produce the evidence collected from all these various
sources. Enough that this matter rests on the universal tradi-
tion and belief of the Jews in all ages ; in the same manner as
the authorship of the Iliad, or the Odyssey, or of the ^neid, or
of the Commentarii de Bello Gallico, or the work de Bello Pelo-
ponnesiaco, and the like, rests on the traditionary and universal
belief of the nations to whom these works respectively belong.
What is concerned with the general critical history of the Pen-

§ 3. COMMENCEMENT OF THE CANON. 43

tateuch has already been touched upon. It is clear that it might
have been tvritten, (some small portions of it, and some later ex-
planations of ancient names excepted), by the great Hebrew
legislator. If we may put any faith in united and constant and
invariable ancient testimony, it was wRrrTEN by him. At all
events, it was in the Jewish canon before our Saviour's time, and
was spoken of frequently by him, and by his apostles as the work
of Moses. This is enough for my main purpose, as I am now more
concerned with its authority/ and its right to a place in the canon^
than I am with the detail that is connected with a critical dis-
section of the work, and a discussion of its parts all and singular.
1 must not, however, dismiss it here, without adverting for a
few moments, to the fiery trials through which this portion of
the Hebrew Scriptures has had to pass.

Soon after the era introduced by Semler, doubts began to be
raised concerning the early composition of the Pentateuch. Al-
most every marked period from Joshua down to the return from
the Babylonish exile, has been fixed upon by different writers,
as a period appropriate to the production of this work. To
Ezra some have assigned the task of producing it; in which, if
we may hearken to them, he engaged in order that he might
confirm and perpetuate the ritual introduced by him. To Hil-
kiah the priest, with the connivance of Josiah, Mr N. and others
have felt inclined to attribute it, at the period when a copy of
the Law is said to have been discovered in the temple. Some-
where near this period, Gesenius and De Wette once placed it;
but both of them, in later times, have been rather inclined to re-
cede from this, and to look to an earlier period. The subject
has been through almost boundless discussion, and a great varie-
ty of opinions have been broached respecting the matter, until
recently it has taken a turn somewhat new. The haut ton of
criticism in Germany now compounds between the old opinions
and the new theories. Ewald and Lengerke, in the works cited
above, both admit a ground-work of the Pentateuch (including
Joshua). But as to the extent of this they differ, each one de-
ciding according to his subjective feelings. The leading laws
and ordinances of the Pentateuch are admitted to belong to the
time of Moses. Ewald supposes that they were written down
at that period. Then we have, secondly, historical portions of
the Pentateuch, written, as Ewald judges, not by prophets, but
before this order of men appeared among the Hebrews — com-

44 § 3. COMMENCEMENT OF THE CANON.

positions " not earlier than the second half of the Judges'
period, and certainly not later than this;"' Ewald Volkes Ges-
chicht. p. 79. Then come next, according to him, a prophetic
order of historical writers, about the time of Solomon, or not
long after his reign. Next comes a Narrator, distinguished for
his talents and his religious zeal, who is to be placed somewhere
near the period of Elijah and Joel (about 900 b.c). His
compositions are of a marked character and style, and easily
distinguished from the rest of the Pentateuch. Then comes a
fourth Narrator, different from all the others, whose composi-
tions exhibit references to events so late, that we cannot place
him earlier than about the middle of the eighth century b.c,
not far from the time of Isaiah and Micah. He was followed by
the Deuteronomist, i. e. the writer of Deuteronomy, who, as
Ewald thinks, lived some time during the latter half of Manas-
seh's reign, and in Egypt; p. 160. Besides all these original
authors, and collectors, and redactors, and supplementarists,
there are many pieces of composition in the book of Genesis,
and several in other books of the Pentateuch, which belong to
writers not specified in this statement, and which were selected
from all quarters, domestic and foreign. Thus, just before the
Babylonish exile, the great Collectanemn^ or Corpus Auctorum
Omnium, was brought to a close.

Lengerke, whose work is later (1844), admits a ground-work;
but, with the exception of some laws, it was not composed
until the time of Solomon; p. xci. Next comes a iSupplementa-
rist, who must have lived some time in the eighth century; p. cii.
Then comes the Deuteronomist, as in Ewald; but he is assigned
by Lengerke to the time of Josiah, about 624 b.c. The book
of Joshua has only a ground-work and a supplementarist.

Each of these writers is so confident in his critical power of
discrimination, that he proceeds boldly to point out all the re-
spective portions of the Pentateuch assignable to each author or
supplementarist; not doubting in the least, that the internal
indicia exhibited by the style and matter are plain and decisive
in regard to their respective theories. But here arises a diffi-
culty. Let us admit (as we must), that both of these critics
are fine Hebrew scholars, and very well read in all matters per-
taining to the history or philology of the Hebrews; still the
question comes up: How can these writers, each being sure that
he sees everything so clearly, differ so widely from each other?

§ 3. COMMENCEMENT OF THE CANON. 46

Evvald finds internal evidence of a Ground-work, four Narrators,
a Deuteronomist, and of many miscellaneous compositions of
others that have been introduced by them into the Pentateuch.
Lengerke supposes a Ground- work, a Supplementarist, a Deuter-
onomist. The respective periods of each, (some laws ex-
cepted), are different. And yet each judges from internal evi-
dence and subjective feeling. Each is sure that he can appre-
ciate all the niceties and slight diversities of style and diction,
and therefore cannot be mistaken. Each knows, (in his own
view with certainty), how many authors of the Pentateuch there
are; while still one reckons six and the other three. And all
this — ex cathedra, like a simple ahrh; 'hr,. or dixit Magister.

I will not ask now, "Who shall decide, when Doctors dis-
agree?" But I may, with all becoming deference, be permitted
to say, that two representations so widely different cannot be
both true. This needs no proof. I do most sincerely believe,
that neither of them is true. In some things, howevei', they
both agree; e. g. that writing was known and practised in the
time of Moses; and that some of the laws and the ground-work
of the system must have come from him ; (although these critics
differ as to the extent of this ground- work). They also agree
that the Pentateuch is made up by a nameless multiplicity of
compositions; " here a little and there a little;'' " line upon line,"
after long intervals of time; and that it was not completed until
the latter part of the Jewish monarchy. This Collectaneum, (I
had almost said Olla podrida), is everywhere dismembered, dis-
sected, separated, and descriptively distinguished, in a measure
by the niceties of style and diction. But here is another great
principle which is summoned to the aid of the critical analyzers,
which is common to both, and heartily sanctioned by both, viz.,
that prophecy or prediction, in the strict sense of these words, is
an impossibility, and therefore is out of the question. All the
references, then, in the so-called prophetic parts of the Penta-
teuch, whether to nations, or events, or characteristics of either,
must have been written post eventum, i. e. after the nations arose,
and after the events took place, fcc. This is at least very sim-
ple; it is also very effectual for the purposes of neological criti-
cism. It makes the assignment of dates to the ancient Scrip-
tural writings comparatively quite easy and obvious.

It is out of question for me here separately to can^1ass the

46 § 3. COMM[ENCEMENT OF THE CANON.

particular allegations of these critics. 1 can only make a low
remarks of a general nature, and must then pass on.

That the five books of the Pentateuch were not written in one
continuous succession, like an epic poem, or a continuous piece
of history, or an argumentative discussion, is sufficiently obvious
to any one who reads with discrimination. To me the Penta-
teuch, from the commencement of Moses' active public life on-
wards through the whole, wears the air of a (historic) journal, as
well as a record of legislation, which was engaged in as often as
circumstances called for it. Everything is more or less minutely
recorded, according to its relative importance at the time when
it was written down. It looks exactly like the journal of a man,
who was often interrupted in writing by the pressure of his other
engagements. If Moses was actually the responsible leader of
two and a half millions of people for forty years, through the
Arabian desert, he most assuredly must have been a very busy
man, and have had but little time for writing. His laws were
made, from time to time, as circumstances required, and as the
people could bear them. Some of them were modified or changed
during the journey. All this appears in his journal. It bears
the mark of being a series of brief compositions, written in a
manner independently of each other ; for they were doubtless
written at very different times and places, and some of them
quite remotely from each other. Deuteronomy, which is set so
low by some of the critics, and attributed to a foreign hand
by most of the neologists, appears to my mind, as it did to that
of Eichhorn and Herder, as the earnest outpourings and admon-
itions of a heart which felt the deepest interest in the welfare of
the Jewish nation, and which realized that it must soon bid fare-
well to them. The repetition of laws is to mould them more into
a popular shape, so as to be more easily comprehended and re-
membered. Instead of bearing upon its face, as is alleged by
some, evidences of another authorship than that of Moses, I must
regard this book as being so deeply fraught with holy and patrio-
tic feeling, as to convince any unprejudiced reader, who is com-
petent to judge of its style, that it cannot, with any tolerable
degree of probability, be attributed to any pretender to legisla-
tion, or to any mere imitator of the great legislator. Such a glow
as runs through all this book, it is in vain to seek for in any
artificial or supposititious composition.

§ 3. COMMENCEMENT OF THE CANON. 4f7

As to the book of Genesis, it of course must have been matter
of immediate revelation to Moses, or else of tradition either oral
or written. Now as Luke tolls us, that when he was preparing
to write his Gospel, he investigated all the things which it con-
tains even up to their original sources, so it may have been, and
probably was, with Moses. It was for him to judge, as the tra-
ditions were examined by him, what among them was true, and
what was false. If we suppose him to have been under Divine
influence, (as I do suppose), then the difficulty as to his judging,
would surely not be very great. The accounts of former times,
then, he has brought together. I have no hesitation in believ-
ing that he has combined different ones ; and occasionally, where
the subject was one of deep interest, he extracted from two or
more sources at the same time; e. g. in his history of the flood,
of the creation of man and woman, and so of other particulars.
For nearly fifty years, all Germany has resounded with reports
concerning this matter, which have been greatly diversified. The
most general theory is, that two different writers are the main
sources of the book, viz. the Elohist, i. e. the one who uses Elohim
to designate the Godhead, in his narrations, and the Jehovist
(proh pudor ! to form such a sacrilegious appellation), i. e. the
one who employs Jehovah for the same purpose, Germany is
full of books proclaiming the certainty and the importance of
this discovery. After all, metes and bounds can be drawn with
no certainty between these two sources ; and evidently there are
compositions in Genesis which belong to neither, and which are
of a mixed character. It matters not to us who wrote these
pieces, or when they were written. They have passed, as
I believe, through Moses"" hands, and are authenticated by him.
Nothing, moreover, can be more natural than the composition of
such a book as Genesis, in order to constitute a kind of introduc-
tion to the remaining four books of the Pentateuch.

The account of the creation cannot indeed be considered in the
light of a historical composition of the ordinary cast; for no man
was a witness of the events which it records. It must therefore
be regarded in the light of a composition that depended on Divine
teaching or illumination entirely. At least I look on it in that
light. To call it a creation- song, with recent critics ; or to regard
it as a mere poetic philosophem, or philosophical speculation on
the origin of things in a poetic way; I cannot. The sublime and

48 § 3. COMMENCEMENT OF THE CANON.

awful matter and manner of the composition forbid me to attri-
bute it to mere fanciful conceptions of the mind.

In some such way would I explain the various phenomena of
the compositions, which make up the Pentateuch. That a book
of such claims as it puts forth, viz. as being a work of Moses the
great lawgiver, should be composed at six different periods, as
Ewald supposes, or at three or four, as Lengerke maintains, and
yet admitted each time, by the whole Jewish nation, by prophets,
priests, and kings, as a genuine imrTc of Moses, requires much more
credulity than the generally received scheme of belief. Scepti-
cism and credulity are, after all, more nearly allied than most
persons are ready to suppose. Tiiat king of Prussia who had
Voltaire at his elbow to aid and abet him in his attacks upon
Christianity, and to foster liis scorn of it, was the victim of su-
perstitious deliraments such as are rarely found in the inmates
of a hamlet or a cottage.

Still, the critics now before us are entirely free, as one who
reads them must suppose, from any doubts as to their power to
discriminate between all the various portions of the Pentateuch,
and to separate them one from another. Each moves on, as
though no impediment or obstacle could be thrown in his way.
Lengerke has perhaps even outstripped his compeer, in his march
through the province of the destructives. He tells us that the
promise to Abraham and Jacob, that kings should arise from
their posterity, could have been written only after kings arose
in Israel, p. xci. Among other things he says, that there is no
satisfactory evidence that David composed one single Psalm, in
the book which bears his name, p. Ixiv. And (which I think to
be a rare discovery indeed) he has found out that the 45th Psalm
is an epithalamii(jm on the marriage of Ahah and Jezehel! p. Ixvii.
The tyrant and apostate son of Omri and the Sidonian idolatrous
heathen devotee, Jezebel, hardly claim for themselves, as I wot,
such an honour as this.

Each of our critics, as I have said, appears confident that he
is in the right; although one makes out six redactions for the
Pentateuch, and the other three. But if we inquire of some
other critics, even of the liberal school, about the matter of style
and tone in the Pentateuch, on which all the discerptive process
depends, they give us a very different account of the matter.
Eichhoin, no mean judge by the way in matters of taste or sesthe-

§ 3. COMMliNCKMENT OK THE CAXOV. 49

tics, finds, as he avers, (Einleit.), most palpably one and the sauio
tone and tenor of diction, fron^ the time when Moses comes upon
the stage until he quits it. Deuteronomy he regards as the out-
pourings of a heart ready to burst with interest and solicitude
for the Hebrew nation — such outpourings as could come from
none but Moses. Herder is of the same opinion ; and his taste
and discrimination in oriental matters have not often been sur-
passed. Rosenmiiller has avowed the same convictions, after
writing a commentary on the whole Pentateuch. Others might
be named, to say nothing of the English and other European
critics. What are we to say, then, to assumptions such as those
of Ewald and Lengerke ? Are we, as a matter of course, to give
them our assent I And by what process shall we prove their
judgment to be so much superior to that of Eichhorn and
Herder, in such a matter ?

If it were worth our while, it would be easy to show that men,
even the best scholars, are liable to mistake in judgments of this
nature, which depend on the style and tone of writings. Two
or three notable instances, that are recent, may serve to illus-
trate and to defend this position.

Of Sir Walter Scotfs talents and discrimination nothing needs
to be said. Specially was he au fait in all matters pertaining to
Scotch ballads and border stories. Mr J. H. Dixon, a literai-y
antiquarian, has recently published some remains of MrR.Surtees,
a poet of no mean rank ; and among the rest a morsel of five
pages, entitled the Bald of Featheretonehaugh, a mereyVw d''esprit
of the poet, in which he aimed to imitate the older ballad-makers.
Sir Walter not only believed in the antiquity of the Raid, but
quoted a whole verse from it in his Marmion^ (Cant. I. v. 13 seq.)
and gave the poem at length in his Notes to this work, with a
grave comment upon this work, pointing out its distinctive anti-
quarian traits. Surtees, of course, was convulsed with laughter,
and thought it good pay for what Sir Walter had so often done
to the public, by imposing on them in the way of pretending to
quote old ballads, and particularly that famous author Mr An-
onymous.

A more recent affair of a like nature has just come before the
public. Dr Reinhold of Germany, being revolted by such claims
as Strauss, Ewald, Bauer, Lengerke, and other liberals make, to
the power of discrimination in all cases between what is ancient
and modern, or earlier and later, in writing, in order to put these

E

50 § 3. COMMENCEMENT OF THE CANON.

pretensions and boasts to the test, composed and published the
story of the Amber Witch, as a " tale of olden time." It was of
course furnished with the due apparatus, in the introduction,
for carrying on the hoax with success. No sooner had the book
been published, than the prevailing opinion appeared to pronounce
it to be a genuine production of antiquity, and not a few criti-
cised, and explained, and praised, all in the due and usual order.
In particular, the Tubingen reviewers — the compeers and friends
of Strauss, pronounced their infallible sentence, grounded on their
unerring skill in discriminating the character of any composition,
in favour of the book as a genuine a7icient chronicle. When the
matter had gone so far that there was no retreat, Dr Reinhold
comes out with an avowal, that the whole thing was a mere fic-
tion, got up and carried through solely by himself. Angry and
lacerated critics pretended not to believe him. The evidences of
its antiquity, they averred, were sooner to be believed than his
declarations. Recent report states, that Reinhold has actually
been obliged to resort to the testimony of his neighbours and
townsmen, who were cognisant of his undertaking in the time of
it, in order to confront the assurance of the infallible critics of
the new school. So much for this. What shall we say, then, in
respect to the power of making out all the different authorships
of a book more than 8000 years old, and written in an oriental
tongue I

I have a graver matter still to relate. About 1 824, & facsimile
of an inscription on a stone was sent from Malta to the French
Academy, with a bilingual writing purporting to be Greek and
Phenician, accompanied by some emblematic pictures or outlines
of them, at the commencement and the close. The learned
Raoul Rochette was then keeper of the cabinet of antiquities,
and professor of archaeology at Paris. He sent copies to differ-
ent literati in Europe, and asked assistance to decipher the in-
scriptions. These were dated in the 85th Olympiad, i. e. some
436 years b.c. Raoul Rochette believed in their antiquity,
Creutzer doubted ; Boeckh at Berlin also doubted. But Gesenius
of Halle and Hamaker of Leyden, two of the best orientalists
and antiquarians in all Europe, not only sided with the French
professor, but published comments on the inscriptions, which
were submitted to the European public. In respect to the Greek
part of the inscription, it was written l3oveT^o(pr)86v, in order to
imitate the most ancient Greek ; still there was no difficulty for

§ 3. COMMENCEMENT Ol-' THE CANON. 51

an antiquarian in reading it. But the so-called Phenician part
was a matter of serious difficulty. Each antiquarian made out his
own scheme of interpretation. Finally, however, llaoul Rochette
induced the celebrated Kopp, the author of the Bilder und
Schriften der Vorzeit, to undertake the deciphering of these in-
scriptions. This he did with the most complete and triumphant
success, and exposed the folly of the claims made for them to all
Europe, even to their entire satisfaction. His letter is in vol. vi.
of the Studien und Kritiken; and it has lulled the INIaltese in-
scriptions of the 86th Olympiad into a sleep from which they will
never more wake. Not even the powerful voice of a Gesenius or
of a Hamaker could summon them back from the regions of
Morpheus, or (whither perhaps they may have emigrated) from
the banks of the Lethe in a darker domain.

So much for infallihUity in these antique matters. How can
Evvald and Lengerke expect from us implicit faith in their claims,
while facts like these are before us ?

To sura up my critical creed respecting the Pentateuch in a few
words : I believe that the last four books of the Pentateuch con-
tain a record or journal kept by Moses, during the period of forty
years spent in the Arabian waste ; that this journal is a mixed
composition of laws and ordinances and history, written at pe-
riods and under circumstances so diverse, that parts of it not
unfrequently wear the air of a different authorship; and finally,
that the book of Genesis is composed, in a good raeasui'e, of
different traditions respecting preceding times, either oral or
written, all of which passed under the revising eye and hand of
Moses. The account of the creation may have been derived from
some of the patriarchs, such as Enoch, Noah, or Abraham, whose
minds were enlightened in regard to this matter ; or it may have
come from Moses himself, enlightened in the same manner.
Enough that all is now authentic. Why should I be called upon
then, to believe in the discretive and discriminating powers of
an Ewald or a Lengerke, when these powers are exercised, as
they have plainly been, in separating what God and Moses and
the Saviour of the world have joined together ?

Such was the commencement of the Hebrew canon. The
foundation of the ancient dispensation was laid by it. How the
Pentateuch was diffused and preserved among the Jews remains
to be shown. When and in what manner the other parts of the
Hebrew Scriptures took their rise, still remains for consideration.

52 § 4. I.ITEIIATUKK Ol- TIIK HEnilEW'S.

In order to place this whole subject in an adequate and appropri-
ate light, it will be necessary to take a survey of the state and
means of literature, and particularly of religious writing and in-
struction, from the time of Moses down to the period when the
canon was closed. When all this is before us, it will be easy to
appreciate what is said respecting the composition and preserva-
tion of the sacred books ; and without some adequate and proper
knowledge of these matters, no just and solid judgment can be
formed in relation to the critical history of the Hebrew Scrip-
tures.

§ 4. State of Literature and Means of Instruction among the

Hebrews.

In order to present anything satisfactory in relation to these
topics, it will be necessary to take a distinct view of several
matters, which stand intimately connected with them.

I. It hardly needs to be said, that the art of printing was un-
known at this period, not only among the Jews, but in all hither
Asia and Europe. The Chinese, indeed, boast of knowing some-
thing of it for a considerable period before the Christian era.
But this, as well as many other Chinese boasts, remains to be
further examined.

The diffusion of books, even sacred ones, among any peo-
ple who can employ nothing but manuscripts all written out
by hand, must everywhere and at all times be very limited.
The expense of material on which writing could be performed,
was somewhat considerable; yet this would not compare at all
with the expense of hiring a copyist. It does not appear certain,
what the writing material was, in the earlier times of the
Hebrew commonwealth. The large tahlet ('jV7!l) ^n which
Isaiah (ch. viii.) is required to write, not improbably was a tablet
of light wood smeared with wax. But in the time of Jeremiah
we find that the roll on which Baruch had written his com-
munications, was cut in pieces with a knife, and burned in the
fire by Jehoiakim; Jer. xxxvi. 23. Possibly this was a linen
roll, or it might more probably be leather or parchment. At a
very early period the Egyptians began to write on linen and cot-
ton cloth, smeared over, after the writing, with some diaphanous
substance so as to preserve it. They also wrote on what we may
name ;t)</;?gr, i, e. stuff manufactured from the bark of the papyrus.
Tlie skins of animals, tanned and made smooth, and adapted

§ 4. LITlillATUKK or IIIK II KliltEWS. oS

to the purpose of receiving impressions from ink of different
kinds, were early employed among nations where writing was
practised. One cannot well suppose the Jews to be ignorant
of any of these materials, who had lived so long in Egypt; and
when once known, the use of them can hardly be supposed to be
discontinued at any subsequent period. The best kind of parch-
ment was, to be sure, only a late invention, i. e. in the time of
Attains the king of Pergamus. But tolerably good writing
material may be made from prepared cloth, or soft and smooth
skins of animals that have a thin and delicate cuticle. The roll
which Ezekiel saw (iii. 9, 10), and the flying roll of Zechariah,
disclose to us that either linen cloth or skins prepared, must
have constituted the then usual material of writing. Psalm xl.
7, speaks of a "yr^ T^yC:-' ^'^ ^'^^^ of the hook, in which something
was written that had respect to the Messiah; see Heb. x. 5 seq.
The title of this psalm ascribes it to David, In his time, then,
books were written in such a manner, i. e. on such material, that
they were rolled \ip. Cloth or prepared leather they must have
been, unless indeed the product of the Egyptian papyrus may be
supposed to have been transported to Palestine. To make this
roll of a hook only a decree in the Divine mind, because every-
thing stands as it were recorded in that mind, (so Mr Norton
has explained it), is an application of the bygone doctrine of
accommodation, about as extravagant as anything among the
German critics with whom he finds fault,*

A moment's consideration of the nature of the climate in
Palestine, v,'ill serve to show how perishable the material of
books must have been, unless guarded with extraordinary care.
The severe heat during one part of the year, and the extreme
moisture during another part, must have both been unfavourable
to the cloth and skin material on which books were written. It
is easy to see, how the original autograph copies would soon dis-
appear, in sucli circumstances, and specially such volumes as
were exposed to constant use and to the open atmosphei'e. The
original Pentateuch might reach, perhaps, the time of Samuel,
or of David; but we can scarcely suppose it to have been extant
in the time of Ezra,

* For a full account of the writing materials which were in use among the Egyp-
tians, in the age of Moses, see Hengstenberg on the Pentattiir/i,vo\. i. pp. 44t) — 4b'U,
and for a few additions to that account, sec his Eyi/pt and the lionhs of Moses,
pp. 8!), .'to. Compare also Jahn's Anfi'/'tific-s; (London Edit.) p. 44.— En.

54 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

II. We can make no thorough comparison of the present
state of the Christian world with that of the ancient Hebrews,
in respect to education and knowledge, without at once perceiv-
ing the almost unappreciable difference that exists between
them. Brought up as we are, in a land where from our very in-
fancy the knowledge of letters is impressed upon us, and where
it is a rare thing to find an individual who cannot read and
write, and rare even to find any one who is not habitually a
reader of some kind of book or periodical, or at least of some
weekly or daily journal, it is very difficult for us fully to realize
the condition of a people, among whom books never circulated,
or could circulate, to any great extent, and of whom only a few
priests and prophets, or some of the noblemen or of the rich,
could even read a book. Yet such was the state of the ancient
Hebrews.

If there be any one thing which strikes us with astonishment
in regard to the Mosaic legislation, it is, that no provision is
made by the great Jewish law-giver for the thorough education
and enlightening of the Hebrew nation at large. When viewed
in contrast with the present legislation of most Christian coun-
tries in respect to the subject of education, the Mosaic dispensa-
tion would indeed seem to be one of types and shadows, in com-
parison with that of the gospel. It was only once in seven years,
viz. when the whole population of the country were required to
assemble in Jerusalem at the feast of tabernacles, that the Law
was to be read in the hearing of them all, Deut. xxxi. 10, 11.
The usual period of this feast was seven days ; and diligent must
readers and hearers have been, if all the Law was read during
that period. This is all the direct provision made by Moses, for
the instruction of the people. Three times in a year, it is true,
all the males were to appear before God in Jerusalem, viz. at the
feast of unleavened bread or the passover, at the feast of weeks,
and at the feast of tabernacles, Deut. xvi. 16; Ex. xxiii. 14,
17; xxxlv. 23.* Doubtless there were some selections from the

" I cannot i-efrain from noticing here an important circumstance, added in the
way of encouragement or assurance, in order to show the Hebrews the practicabil-
ity of complying with the injunction to assemble thrice each year at Jerusalem.
What I refer to follows immediately the injunction in Ex. xxxiv. 23, to " appear
thrice in tiie year before the Lord," and it runs thus : " For I will cast out the
nations before thee, and enlarge thy borders, neither shall any man desire thy land,
when thou shalt go up to appear before the Lord thrice in the year." Mr Norton
and others, who speak with undiesemblcd horror of the command to extirpate idol-

§ 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS. 55

Pentateuch read on these occasions; but this is not expressly
ordered by Moses; nor could the reading have been very exten-
sive, because of other duties to be performed.

Besides these means of instruction, judges and officers of the
tribe of Levi, were to bo appointed in all the Hebrew cities;
whose business it was to judge in cases of dispute between man
and man, to solve cases of conscience, and instruct those who
consulted them as to the mode of performing ritual and cere-
monial observances; Deut. xvi. 18, comp. 1 Chron. xxiii. 3, 4.
Of this more will be said in the sequel, when we come to inquire
what part the priests took in the instruction of the people.

The very statute of Moses, which orders all the population of
the land to assemble once in seven years in order to hear the Law
read, does in itself imply, that this was the only means provided
generally for such a purpose. If each family possessed a copy of
the Law, and could read it, of what possible consequence would
be all the trouble and expense and risk of assembling at Jeru-
salem in order to hear it merely ! The defenceless state of the
country, and the heavy expenses of travelling with one's whole
family on these occasions, even from the remotest borders of the
country, show that other more facile and more economical
means of enlightening the people and of giving them full views of
their religious and civil obligations, were no part of the Mosaic
institution. Had they been employed, the general assembling of
the whole mass, so onerous and expensive, must have been
superseded.

We know indeed that in the times of Samuel, and of Elijah
and Elisha, there were something like schools of the prophets,
in which young men were trained up for prophetic service. But
the number of them could not have been very great. Omitting
these, we hear or know nothing of schools for the education of
the mass of the people. They seem never to have existed.
Hence the mass could neither read nor write. Hence too the
revolting fickleness and mutability of the Jews, in regard to the
worship of the true God. A well-informed population must
have viewed with disgust the abominations of the heathen wor-

aters from the land of Palestine, probably may not have turned their thoughts to
this necessary precaution for the safety of the Jewish people, when celebrating their
national feasts during so many days of the year. The withdi-awing of the great
mass of the male population from their homes must of course have left the country
defenceless.

.56 v^ 4. MTEUATURE OK THE IIEBKEW.S.

ship. liut ignorance is always prone to superstition, and ia
ready to believe anything and everything which superstition will
inculcate. The morals of the heathen were of course low ; those
of the JNIosaic system were sound and stern, and as to some fea-
tures perhaps even rigid. Heathen rites, we may suppose, were
naturally revolting to most Jews, so far as bloody human sacri-
fices were demanded. Yet even Moloch was, at times, wor-
shipped by many of the Hebrews with zeal. But what attract-
ed the ignorant and unthinking was, the loose rein that was held
over the passions. Impurity was even a part of the heathen
religious rites. In the journey of the Hebrews toward Pales-
tine, while under the guidance of Moses himself, the people
joined themselves to Baal-peor, the God of the Moabites; and all
this, because they were allured to " commit whoredom with the
daughters of Moab;" Num. xxv. 1 seq. So down through the
whole time of the judges, and, with few exceptions, down to the
Babylonish exile itself, the Jews were continually prone to turn
aside from their more rigid and pure and elevated worship, to
the rites and ordinances of the heathen. Nothing but the gross
ignorance in which they lived can adequately account for such a
phenomenon.

It is indeed true, that Moses commands Jewish parents to
" teach his statutes diligently to their children, and to talk of
them when they sit in the house, and when they walk by the
way, and when they lie down, and when they rise up;" Deut. vi.
6, 7. But the instruction is all oral. No reference is made to
letters or books. What the parents could retain in memory
from hearing the Law read once in seven years, they were to
inculcate upon their children. But how much the mass of the
people ignorant of letters would retain and teach, was but too
manifest in the subsequent ignorance and proneness to idolatry
in all ages of the Jewish commonwealth, down to the time of
the return from the Babylonish exile.

Such is the remarkable difference between the effects of the
Gospel dispensation, and that of the ancient Law. The votaries
of Romish superstition would fain bring the mass of Christians
back to the condition of the ancient Hebrews. With them it is
at least a practical maxim, that ninorance is the mother of devo-
tion; but above all, that ignorance of the Scriptures is the mo-
ther of devotion. Hence the Bible itself is not to be put into
the liamls of the common pr(){>le. lieliftion, therefore, with them

^ -i. LITEKATUUIC 01' TIIIC IIKIJUKWS. 57

must practically mean, a readiness to submit to all which the
Pope and the priesthood prescribe. But here even the times of
Moses were far in advance. All the people were required to
hear the lohole Law once in seven years; and parents were also
strictly enjoined to urge upon their children all the precepts
which they could retain in memory, Moses, of course, did not
leave the whole population to be managed only by the priests.

I have only to subjoin under this head, that we must not judge
of the policy or skill of Moses, in legislating for the Hebrews, by
a comparison of the ancient Jews with our own population at
the present day. The Hebrews as a nation were illiterate; and
they long continued to be so. A command to set up schools
among them, in the then state of things, and to furnish all their
children with books, would at least have been deemed by them
to be a practical impossibility. We, who purchase elementary
books enough at the price of from two-pence up to fifty, can
scarcely feel what a burden the general provision of books for
all the children, and for grown-up readers, would have been in
the Mosaic age. It is one of the things that the great legislator
felt himself obliged to leave untouched, on account of the circum-
stances of the Hebrews, and of the times in which he lived.
Book-making or reading, and the possession of books, could at
that time belong only to a few.*

HI. Let us now look at this subject in another point of light.
I refer to the subject of religious instruction.

We who have enjoyed the privileges of the Christian Sabbath
and of the sanctuary, are but ill-prepared for the due estimation
of the ancient laws of Moses, in respect to these matters. The
Jewish people were forbidden, on the penalty of excision, to
kindle a fire in their dwellings on the Sabbath, Ex. xxxv. 3.

• On the interesting subject of the state of education among the ancient Hebrews,
the reader may be referred with advantage to Jahn's Antiquities, in those articles
where he treats of the state of the arts and sciences among the Hebrews, and of
theii' customs in the treatment of children. See also his Histury of the Hebrew Common-
wealth, chap, ii, § 12, " On the learned class." Michaelis, in his Commentaries on the
Laws of Moses, presents substantially the same views as Jahn, and the impression left
by the statements of both these learned writers is certainly a good deal less unfavour-
able with regard to the state of learning among the Israelites, than that which the
reader receives from our author's observations in the above paragraphs. Compare
also a comprehensive and valuable article on the subject of " Hebrew education,"
in the Biblical Review, for July lo48, (London, Jackson and Walford,) in which the
writer has, with much research and skill, brought together all our available informa-
tion upon the subject. — En.

58 § 4<. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

They were even prohibited from leaving their habitations on that
day (Ex. xvi. 29), although the spirit of this precept would not
seem to extend to leaving their dwellings for the purpose of re-
ligious worship. But all idea of religious social instruction on
the Sabbath is entirely lacking here, and is to be excluded. We
shall soon see that there was no provision for social worship
among the Hebrews on the Sabbath, and no order of men whose
business it was regularly to superintend their habitual religious
instruction. Parents are the only persons required by Moses to
perform this office ; and how well it would be performed by those
who could neither read nor write, and had no books, it is not
difficult to perceive.

Nothing is plainer, than that the very arrangement of the ta-
bernacle, its ritual, its priesthood, (and so in respect to the tem-
ple), presupposes and takes for granted that there is only om
lawfully constituted place of public ritual worship. Three times
in each year are all the males among the Hebrews to repair to
the tabernacle or temple, and spend, on two of these occasions,
a week each time (at the Passover and also at the Feast of ta-
bernacles), and at least one day as sacred time at the feast of
weeks or Pentecost. The reason why no more time was de-
manded on this last occasion, which occurred just seven weeks
after the feast of the passover, is obvious. It was the beginning
of harvest time, and the absence for even a few days of the great
mass of the population from their homes, would occasion the loss
of their main sustenance.

The sacrifices appropriate to these occasions could be offered
" only in the place which the Lord Jehovah had chosen." Spe-
cially was this true of the passover-lamh. It must be killed and
dressed in the outer court of the tabernacle or temple, while its
blood was carried within, and sprinkled upon the altar. Of
course there could have been no other lawful places of worship,
i. e. of ritual worship, which would have rivalled the tabernacle
or temple.

But still, may there not have been houses built in at least the
larger towns for public, social, devotional worship? May not the
Hebrews from Joshua down to the Babylonish exile, have had
their synagogues, i. e. places of social religious meeting, in order
to read and expound the Scriptures, to sing hymns, to commu-
nicate instruction, and to give utterance to exhortations?
Nothing is easier, I answer, than for us, brought up as we have

§ 4. LlTKRATUnE OF THE IIKUREWS. 59

been, to suppose this. Indeed it is even difficult for us to sup-
pose the contrary.

Wo can scarcely credit it, that Moses should have overlooked
or failed to make an arrangement so obviously important and
useful. But still, when we make the most strict and thorough
scrutiny of the Hebrew Scriptures, both in the history which
they contain, and in the prophecies, we cannot find a trace of
any such thing as public social worship, either on the Sabbath
or on any other day of the week, from the time of Moses down
to that of Ezra. There is not a word in all the Pentateuch of
command to the Hebrews to hep the Sabbath, by attendance on
public worship* There is no intimation of even voluntary asso-
ciations of individuals in any part of Palestine, to hold any stated

• It may be useful to bring into view here the following remarks of Micliaelis,
which will serve to account for so Httle being said in the Law of Moses regarding
the religious observances of the Israelites on the Sabbath day. " Moses found a cus-
tom among the people, established from the very earliest period, by which they solem-
nized the Sabbath day, and it is probable that even the Egyptians had left this day
to them as a day of rest ; at least he describes this solemnity as instituted by God
immediately alter the creation, and he nowhere mentions its having been abolished
or become obsolete. It appears therefore that he found it still subsisting as a cus-
tom handed down from their ancestors, and thus it was not very necessary for him
to describe very circumstantially wherem it should consist, that being already fami-
liar thi'ough common use. Hence we have from him no account of the manner in
which they were to worship the Deity on this day, excepting only the statute respect-
ing the public Sabbatical sacrifice in Numb, xxviii. 9, 10, for he adhered, in this
point, to the usual practice from the days of their forefathers, and at the same time
left the people at liberty to regulate their religious worship, which cannot always be
perfectly uniform, and, as it were fitted to one last, as circumstances, events, or ex-
isting abuses might suggest." — Commentaries on the Laws of Moses, vol. iii. pp. 156,
157. However, in point of fact, Moses was not entirely silent upon the subject of
Sabbath worship. He expressly provides in Lev. xxiii. 2 — 8, that the weekly Sabbath,
as well as the first and last days of the yearly Passover, should be a holy convocation,
which cau only mean that it should be celebrated by the people meeting together for
worship in solemn assemblies. If the phrase lioly convocation, \2J"1p"fc^'np72'
denoted such solemn assembling for worship in the case of the Passover, it can only
denote the same thing in the case of the Sabbath, for, in the passage referred to, the
Sabbath and the Passover are put upon exactly the same footing, as " feasts of the
Lord." It should also be well observed that Moses adds to the injunction respect-
ing the Sabbath, " It is a Sabbath to Jehovah in all your dwellings," i. e. as
Rosenmiiller renders the original, ubicunque locorum habilaveritis, wherever you dwell
throughout the whole land. It clearly then follows, that the Israehtcs were com-
manded by Moses to observe the Sabbath by meeting together in devotional assem-
blies in all parts of the land, however remote they might be from the Tabernacle or
the Temple. Our learned author must have overlooked this important passage.
See further Jennings' Jewish Antiquities, Book II. chap. 2 on Synagngves.— Ed.

60 § 4. LITERATURE OT THE HKUKEWS.

public and social worship, or to procure religious instruction for
such occasions.

In the book of Judges, (the brief history of a period of about
SOO years, there is little else but a record of Jewish propensities
to idolatry, and of the chastisement which ensued upon the in-
dulgence of these propensities. There is, however, one notable
woman, Deborah, who is called a lyrophetess, whose histoi'y is
given; but apparently more on account of her political than her
religious achievements; Judg. iv. seq. She, as it would seem,
was the civil head of the Hebrew nation during a period of some
length. Her triumphal song on account of the victory achieved
over Sisera and his array, is on record, Judg. v.; but we hear
nothing of any religious instruction that she gave. After this
period, when the Midianites invaded Palestine, overran it, and
greatly oppressed the Hebrews for seven years, we are told of a
prophet., whose name is not given (Judg. vii. S — 10), who was
sent to administer reproof to his countrymen. This is all re-
specting religious instruction, which the history of 300 years
presents. Can we suppose synagogues to have been extant, and
regular worship to have been carried on during all this time?
Nothing is more unlikely, or more foreign to the demeanour of
the Jewish nation, at that period. Scarcely did they rise up and
free themselves from one neighbouring heathen nation, who had
been commissioned to chastise them for their idolatry, before they
relapsed again into the commission of the same crime, and again
were obliged to undergo the like punishment. Nothing can, to
all appearance, be more true than the last verse of the book of
Judges, in reference to those times: " In those days there was
no king in Israel; evei'y man did that which was right in his
own eyes."

This verse, moreover, seems to show that the book of Judges
must itself have been written after kings arose in Israel.
Whether, as the Talmudists suppose, it was written by Samuel,
or whether more probably by some other and later personage,
we cannot now stop to inquire. But if the whole book, as it
now is, was always the same from its origin, it might seem to
have been written at quite a late period of the Jewish kings; for
chap, xviii. 30 mentions " the captivity of the land," i. e. seem-
ingly of the ten tribes, which was at the commencement of He-
zekiah's reign. But I do not, with De Wette, regard this as
decisive of the age of the whole book, any more than I look upon

§ 4. LlTKRATrUK OT THK IIKHHKWS. 61

the late protracted account of the dukes of Edom (Gen. xxxvi.),
or the account of the death of Moses (Deut. xxxiv.), as decisive
of the age of the Pentateuch in general. Some of the documents
(for several are plainly combined in the book of Judges), beyond
reasonable doubt, are of the more ancient stamp, and might have
been written soon after the events which they describe have
taken place.

In respect to the book of Joshua, which also is made up of
several ancient documents, this could not well have been com-
pleted until the reign of David, inasmuch as we have repeated
references to Jemsalem in it (Josh. x. 1; xv. 63; xviii. 28), which
was, before the time of David, called Jebus (Judg. xix. 11), and
was subdued by David and made his capital, 2 Sam. v. 1 — 9.
But the registers of the division of the country among the twelve
tribes of Israel, and some other matters in the book, it is quite
probable, are of a date contemporaneous with that of the con-
quest by Joshua.

Thus it seems to be plain, that for a period of about three
centuries after the death of Moses (b.c. 1451), there could have
been no other Scriptures extant among the Jews, than the Pen-
tateuch, probably some parts of the book of Joshua, and some
portion, it may be, of the book of Judges. These Scriptures,
instead of being in the hands of the great mass of the people, or
of being read every Sabbath, could have been possessed by very
few even among the priests and rulers. Indeed it is difficult to
find any recognition at all of priests, during the period covered
by the book of Judges. Mention is made. Judges xx. 28, of
Phinehas, the son of Eleazar and grandson of Aaron, at the time
when the Benjamites were nearly destroyed by the other tribes.
But after this we hear no more of priests or prophets, (with the
exceptions above noted as to the lattei'), until the time of Eli
and Samuel. It does not follow, indeed, that there were no
persons of these respective orders among the Hebrews. But
that they performed no conspicuous part, that they were not
numerous or active enough to have much influence on the nation
at large, seems to be nearly certain from the manner and tenor
of the history in the two books before us.

In such a state of things, how was the Pentateuch preserved?
By whom was it watched over and guarded, and how much was
it diffiised among the Hebrews? These questions very naturally
arise; but we cannot stop to answer them now, without inter-

62 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

rupting the history of religious instruction among the Hebrews.
We shall revert to these inquiries as soon as the course of our
discussion will permit.

Let us pursue the inquiry respecting social synagogue worship
from the era of Samuel down to the Babylonish exile.

Not one word in regard to this subject can I find, in the his-
tories comprised in the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles,
or in the Psalms, Proverbs, or works of the prophets who lived
during this period. When Jeremiah pours forth his pathetic
Lamentations over the fallen city and country of the Hebrews,
he describes the ruins of the temple, the metropolis, the strong-
holds, and the villages; he weeps over the multitudes of the slain,
the famishing, and the exiled ; but not a word respecting the
destruction of any synagogues of the land, or places of public
social worship. The comminations of the prophets in regard to
judgments about to be inflicted, all have respect to the objects
first mentioned and not to synagogues. It is affirmed of no in-
vading enemy, whether Babylonian or other foe, that he assault-
ed or destroyed any such buildings or places of worship.

The great public fasts, on extraordinary occasions of distress
and danger, are always proclaimed and spoken of as celebrated
in Jerusalem. Thus Joel, in a time of famine threatened by the
incursion of locusts, proclaims a fast in Zion, and the summon-
ing of the solemn assembly there, Joel ii. 15, seq. When
several enemies had combined, and were on their march to
invade Judea, the pious Jehoshaphat proclaimed and celebrated
a fast of the whole nation at Jerusalem^ 2 Chron. xx. S, seq.
When Jehoiakim, stricken with terror at the approach of Nebu-
chadnezzar's army, proclaimed a fast to all the realm, this fast
was to be held at Jerusalem, Jer. xxxvi. 9. Now as the law of
Moses had made no prescriptions in regard to any temple ritual
for such fasts on extraordinary occasions, what necessity could
there be of assembling at Jerusalem for services merely devo-
tional, in case there were synagogues dispersed through all the
land? The nature of the arrangement, on the very face of it,
imports that there were no such places of public and social
worship, where the people were accustomed to perform their
devotions. And this is plainly confirmed by the fact, that when
Jehoshaphat sent princes and Levites through all Judea, in order
to give the people religious instruction, they carried a copy of the
Law with them, which they obtained at Jerusalem, in order to

§ 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS. 68

aid and confirm their instructions, 2 Chron. xvii. 7, seq. Thia
was surely a needless precaution in case there were synagogues
in all parts of the land, and of course copies of the Law in them.
I am aware that it has been alleged by some advocates of the
early existence of synagogues, that there is a plain reference to
them in Psalm Ixxiv. 8, which contains a lamentation over the
wasting of Judea — probably its desolation by the Babylonish
army. Of the enemy the Psalmist says, " They have burned up
all the synagogues of God in the land." So runs our English
version. The original Hebrew runs thus, V;ii<IL Si^"'"T3;it2'^5.
The word ivi?2j ^^^^ rendered tabernacles, means, first of all, a
Jixed appointed time or season; then, very naturally, the assembling
or convention of men at such appointed seasons; then, thirdly,
(like our word church, which means assembly, and then the place
of assembling), it stands for temple or place of assembling. So.
Lam. ii. 6, "[The Lord] hath destroyed 'i-yj^'Qj ^^^ temple." But
in Ps. Ixxiv. 8, the plural number of this word is employed,
'bt^'^^IJ^ilO. ^^ *^^^ account Gesenius says, in his lexicon, " It
is difficult to say what this means;" and on the whole he thinks
it may refer to the high places at Rama, Bethel, Gilgal, &c.
Rosenmiiller cuts the knot, which he cannot untie. He says,
that the Psalm was doubtless composed in the time of the Mac-
cabees, and refers to the destruction of synagogues by Antio-
chus. More recent criticism seems to have laid aside the idea
of Maccabsean psalms, and we are thrown again upon the diffi-
culty which the case appears to present. But it seems to me
much less formidable than it did to Vitringa, or to the critics
just named. Let us compare the synonymous word ptj,*^, dwell-
ing place, temple, (synonymous with "7^^^ when this means
temple), and see what the usage of the Hebrew is. In Ps. xlvi.
6 ; cxxxii. 5, the word (n;2,^^) is in the plural number, with the
sense of the singular; in Ps. Ixxiv. 7, Ex. xxv. 9, Ezek. xxxvii.
27, the same word with the same meaning is employed in
the singular number. What difficulty then in interpreting
^^-^-y^'^^ after the analogy of p^?^? ^^ cases where both words

have the same sense? The simple truth of the matter seems to
be, that the use of the singular or plural, as to a considerable
circle of words, was a matter left to the choice of the writer.
Thus he might say ^^, or rth^^ or D"^rT^«; ''31N or 131^^;

(J4 tj 4. LITEKATUUE OF THE HEUREW3.

and so in the New Testament ffd,3i3a-ov and cdi33ara, oiouvog and
fj-j^avoi, dvaro}.?! and dvaro/.ai, and the like in many other cases.
Substantially there is no difference of meaning between the sin-
gular and plural forms, where such a usage prevails. The plural
may indeed, almost at any time, be used instead of the singular,
whenever a writer conceives of an object as composiU, i. e. as
consisting of various parts, and he has reference to this circum-
stance in the language which he employs; or, when he means to
designate intensity/. When simple unity is designated, the sin-
gular number only is of course employed. Finally, inasmuch as
the temple, with all its courts, was a large mass of buildings,
the plural of •7^i''^r\ might very appropriately be employed to

designate it, as thus conceived of. How much more easy and
simple this philological explanation is, than those of the critics
just named, every one may easily perceive. If it be said that
^2 stands in the way of this, and requires the real plural, ray
reply would be, that the plural form of the noun may well admit
h^, while the sense of the whole is not substantially affected

T

by it.

If there be any passage besides this in the Old Testament
which has even a seeming reference to spiagogues properly so
called, it has escaped my notice. I am aware, indeed, that some
have supposed that certain other passages migiit refer to them;
but the probability that they do so refer, is so small, that I do
not deem it proper to occupy my own or the reader's time with
the consideration of them.

In whatever way then the Law of Moses, or any other ancient
books of the Jewish canon were preserved, before the Babylonish
exile, it could not have been by the aid of sr/nagogues. When
these arose, and what was done in them with reference to the
Jewish Scriptures, are questions that must be touched upon in
the sequel.*

• It is by no means so clear a case as our author appears to think it, that thei-e
were no synagogues, or at least some ecjuivalent provision for public worship, in use
among the Israelites till after the Babylonish captivity. It is difficult to believe
this, seeing that Moses, as was shown in a preceding note, had appointed holy convo-
cations to be held over all the country upon the weekly Sabbath. The reader will
find very grave reason to question the soundness of our author's reasoning upon the
subject, particularly in the attempt which he makes to nullify the argument drawn
from Psalm Ixxvi. 8, in favour of the early existence of synagogues, by referring
to Carpzov's Apparatus A?iti<juitatum Sacri Codicis, p. 308, where Vitringa's views,
which were the same as those adopted by Professor Stuart, are very solidly refuted.

§ 4. LITEKATURE OF THE IIEIIREWS. 65

One other circumstance of a seemingly extraordinary nature
in regard to the Law of Moses, deserves some special attention.
In the eighteenth year of the reign of Josiah (about 624 b.c.) the
high priest Hilkiah, on occasion of making a thorough repair and
expurgation of the temple, "found the book of the Law of the
Lord by Moses," 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14 seq., 2 Kings xxii, 8 seq.
This he announced immediately to the king's scribe, who took
the book and read it before the king. The surprise and agita-
tion which this occurrence occasioned in all quarters, are repre-
sented as being very great. Josiah immediately convoked the
whole realm, and in person read the book of the law to them, and
exacted from them a promise to obey it. What is to be deduced
from a circumstance so peculiar and extraordinary as this ?

We know what Mr Norton has deduced from this narration.
On p. 87 he says: "The story of its being accidentally found in
the temple may be thought to have been what was considered a
justifiable artifice, to account for the appearance of a book
hitherto unknown." Not a few of the German critics have, in
like manner, traced the origin of the Pentateuch to the transac-
tion in question. If the Pentateuch was before in existence, it
was impossible, they allege, that Josiah and the high priest Hil-
kiah should have been ignorant of it or destitute of it.

First of all, then, as to the probability of such a forgery on
this occasion. What kind of persons were concerned in it? Jo-
siah was the most pious king that ever sat upon the throne of
Judah, from the time of David down to the captivity. He en
tered upon his office at the age of only eight years, and before
he had arrived at his eighteenth year, he had cut off and de-
stroyed all the idols of the land, with their temples, groves, and
monuments of every kind, and in the way of disgrace he had
burned the bones of idolatrous pri*sts upon the altars where
they had ministered. Not only so in Judea, but he went beyond
his own specific boundaries, and destroyed all the insignia of
idolatry to be found in the land of Israel, 2 Chron. xxiv. 3 — 7.
Having accomplished this work, he immediately set about repair-
ing the ruins of the temple, which had been occasioned by the
fifty-seven years of idolatry under his predecessors. Most zeal-
See also Jennings' Jeivish Antiquities, Book II. chap. 2; Jahn's Biblical Antiquities,
p. 174.— Ed.

66 § 4. IJTEKATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

ously did he engage in this work, in which he was seconded by
the pious and distinguished high priest Hilkiah, who was pro-
bably the father of the prophet Jeremiah. In the prosecution
of these repairs, the copy of the Law in question was found.
That there was no concert between the high priest and the pious
Josiah, to introduce a new system of law among the Jews, is
quite clear. When the scribe or secretary of state, Shaphan,
read the Law to that king, the latter rent his clothes in token of
grief and distress ; unquestionably because of the heavy denun-
ciations in that Law against idolatry and such sins as were com-
mon among his people. Immediately he sent to inquire of a
prophetess, what was to be done to propitiate the anger of the
Lord, which had been kindled because of the breaches of his
Law that had so long taken place. The answer returned was,
that " God would visit upon Jerusalem all the evil that had been
done there, but would be propitious to him, on account of his
humility and penitence." Immediately Josiah assembled all
Israel, read to them in person all the words of the Law, solemnly
engaged to obey its precepts with all his heart, and obliged all
the people to enter into the same covenant, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 20
— 32. He extended the reformation to Israel also; and all his
days he departed not from following the Lord the God of his
fathers, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 33. This moreover was the king, who
renewed the passover-rites which had fallen into desuetude, and
kept such a passover " as had not been kept from the days of
Samuel the prophet, nor by any of the kings of Israel," 2 Chron.
XXXV. 18. And as to Hilkiah, the record of his life and actions is
brief, but full of significance. To him were committed all moneys
for repairing the house of the Lord, even without being required
to account for them. The work of repairing was carried on with
great zeal and complete success, under the same high priest.

Were these men, now, and others their associates who were
evidently of the like character, persons who would undertake to
commit a forgery in the name of Moses, and to palm it off, as the
genuine production of that great lawgiver, upon the whole Jewish
people? Then, moreover, were the people so stupid and tame,
as to receive such a book as coming from the hand of Moses,
and to swear fealty to all its statutes and ordinances according-
ly? Did they not know whether such a book had been received
or known by their ancestors, not to speak of themselves afore-

§ 4. LITERATUKE OF THE HEBREWS. 67

time? In short, whatever may be the position in which such a
forgery may be placed, or argued for, it is a manifest and utter
improbability. It scarcely deserves a serious notice. Indeed,
such a thing was all but impossible.

But then all difficulties are not removed, by removing tliis
obstacle from our path. How could the pious Josiah, and above
all, the high priest Hilkiah, have lived and acted so long (some
taghtecn years), without possessing any copy of the Law of Moses?

That all the ordinary routine of temple-rites was well known
and familiar to the priests who ministered at the altar, must be
quite certain. To suppose these to have been regularly perform-
ed by virtue of traditional knowledge, is doing no violence to pro-
bability. It is only what has happened in all ages and in many
countries. I mean not the performance of the same identical
rites, but of others of the like nature, as it respected the religion
of the heathen. It is true, that nearly the time of two genera-
tions preceding the reign of Josiah had passed away, while idol-
atry in its grossest forms had pervaded the land under Manasseh
and Amon, whose reigns lasted fifty- seven years. Manasseh not
only " walked in the ways of Ahab," but he built altars and set
up carved images for his idols in the very temple of the true
God ; he oflFered up his own children to Moloch, and " did even
more wickedly than the Amorites themselves had done." Besides
this, " he shed much innocent blood in Jerusalem from one end
to the other." To him, Jewish tradition (with much probability)
attributes the massacre of Isaiah. He was succeeded by Amon,
who trode in his steps, and withal was so tyrannical, that his own
courtiers formed a conspiracy against him, and put him to death
when he had reigned only two years.

In this history, now, as it seems plain to me, lies the solution
of the problem, arising from the fact that a copy of the Law of
Moses was found, after so long a time, by Hilkiah. Nearly sixty
years of undisguised and most thorough-^oing idolatry, carried
out even to the most bitter and bloody persecution of the true
worshippers of God, had obliterated nearly every trace or monu-
ment of proper religious worship. The number of copies of the
Pentateuch had probably never been great, at any one time,
among the Hebrews. Those moreover which had been in exis-
tence, were written upon perishable materials. Such devoted
idolatry as that of Manasseh, it is probable, would not permit
any copy of the Pentateuch to remain safe, which could be de-

68 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

stroyed. Antiochus Epiphanes, when he wished to extirpate
the Jewish worship and introduce the rites of the heathen into
Judea, ordered all the copies of the Law to be burned. It was
an obvious measure for Manasseh, in order to carry through his
designs. The story of finding the copy of the Law in the tem-
ple, which created so great a sensation in the court and among
the people, is a good voucher for the fact, that Manasseh aimed
at building heathenism upon the ruins of Mosaism and all its
monuments, so far as it lay within his power. In some secret
recess of the temple, it is altogether probable, had some pious
priest hidden the copy of the Law found by Hilkiah, in order to
prevent its destruction by Manasseh. That priest had probably
died, or been martyred, during Manasseh's impious reign, and
the secret died with him, as to the place where the Law was
deposited. In making extensive repairs of the temple, the
secreted volume was discovered, to the astonishment and great
joy of the king, the high priest, and the mass of the Jewish
people, who seem to have been thoroughly disgusted with the
reigns of Manasseh and Amon.

If any one should regard it as quite improbable, that the
copies of the Law could be reduced to a single one at this
period, let him read the religious history of France during the
reign of terror and of atheism. In less than an eighth part of
the time in which idolatry prevailed under Manasseh and Amon,
France had succeeded so entirely in obliterating all traces of the
Scriptures, in and about Paris, numerous as Bibles were in that
city at a period preceding the reign of teiTor, that for many
weeks the Committee of the Bible Society could not find a single
copy from which they might print a new edition. How much
easier to produce a like effect in the time of Manasseh, when the
copies of the Scriptures were so very few, and when almost every
individual who possessed them, must be publicly known as the
possessor !

It is true, indeed, that, according to the book of Chronicles
(chap, xxxiii.), Manasseh was taken captive and carried to
Babylon in chains, and after a while being released, he returned
to his kingdom penitent and humbled, and endeavoured to repair
the mischief he had done to the true religion, by building up the
altars of the Lord, and removing and destroying the images of
false gods. Of all this, it is true, the book of Kings says nothing;
but still, the history is not the less credible on this account.

§ 4, LITERATURE OF THi: HEBREWS. 69

Even the book of Chronicles, however, does not give us any data
by which we can estimate with certainty at what time in the
reign of Manasseh his exile took place. But the probability
seems to be, that it was in the latter part of his very long reign
(55 years), and that he had not then either the time or the
means necessary to repair the mischief he had done. He could
not restore the copies of the Law which had been destroyed,
if it was a matter of fact that he had destroyed them; and it is
altogether probable that he knew nothing of the fact or circum-
stance, that the Pentateuch roll had been secreted in some part
of the temple. Then his son Amon walked in the wandering
steps of his father, and matters remained as they were until
Josiah came to occupy the throne. Mere child as the latter was,
he appears to have been deeply imbued with the spirit of piety,
and to have commenced the work of reformation as soon as his
government was fairly established. The sequel of his history
has already been presented to view.

On the whole, strange as the finding of a copy of the Law of
Moses, after an eighteen years' reign of Josiah, appears at first
view to be, and much as has been made of it by interested critics
against the antiquity of the Pentateuch, it turns out, upon more
careful examination, to be nothing incredible, nor even very
strange. But thus much at least may be gathered from it which
is appropriate to our present purpose, viz., that there were at
that time no synagogues in the land which were depositaries of
the Law of Moses, and that few persons indeed, in a time of
general idolatry and heathenism, possessed copies of the Penta-
teuch. We cannot conclude, for certainty, that no copy was
extant in Judea at that time, except the hidden one in the tem-
ple. There were pious men, beyond all reasonable doubt, among
the idolatrous mass of the people; and some of these might have
a copy of the Law. When Elijah, in the time of Ahab and
Jezebel, complained to God that he alone of all his true worship-
pers was left in the land of Israel, he was told by Him who is
the searcher of hearts, that 7000 were yet left, who had not
bowed the knee to Baal. And so it might be, at least in some
measure, under the reign of Manasseh and Amon. But still,
the fact that Josiah reigned eighteen years before the book of
the Law was found, seems to import, that no other copy of this
book was then procurable in his dominions.

The fact, then, that before the Babylonish exile there were

70 § 4. LITKRATURK OF THE HEBREWS.

no synagogues, and no public, social, devotional worship, lies upon
the very face of the whole Jewish history. An extraordinary
fact, I am ready to confess, it seems to us to be, so different is
it from a state in which a Christian education and weekly devo-
tional worship are general, and are regarded as indispensable.
On what ground the great Jewish legislator omitted to make
provision for the general education of the Jewish people, and above
all for their religious education and for their social devotional
worship, we do not know. But at all events, such a matter goes
fully to illustrate the truth of what the Apostle says, when he
declares, that " the Law was the shadow of good things to come,
and not the very image of those things," Heb. x. 1. It seems
also to illustrate the declarations, that " the Law made nothing
perfect," Heb. vii. 19; and that " the first covenant was not
faultless," Heb. viii. 7, 8. Yea, in view of these matters, one may
even venture to say with Paul, that the Jews, who had only a
public ritual, with all its external pomp and show, instead of a
religious education, and stated social devotional worship and in-
struction, were " under bondage to the elements of the world,"
Gal. iv. 3. Or one may express the feelings which spontaneous-
ly arise in his bosom, after such a survey of the religious state of
the ancient Hebrews, by saying with Paul, " Even that which
was made glorious, had no glory in this respect, by reason of the
glory [of the gospel] which excelleth," 2 Cor. iii. 10.

That the Jews had no regular places of public and social wor-
ship, and no religious services appropriate to these, while in a
state of exile and servitude in Babylonia, need not be shown.
" How could they sing the Lord's song in a foreign land?" No ;
" by the rivers of Babylon they sat down and wept; they hanged
their harps upon the willows," Psalm exxxvii.

One might naturally expect an altered state of things, after
the Hebrews had returned from a seventy years'" exile. The bet-
ter portion of the people would naturally be the portion who
went back to their native land. Some time (about seventy years)
after permission to return and rebuild the temple, Ezra and
Nehemiah appeared as religious and political reformers among
the Jews living in and around their metropolis. The services of
these distinguished men were great and important. Indeed, I
think we can hardly look upon Ezra in any other light than as a
kind of second Moses among his countrymen.

Yet in all the accounts of what these two reformers did, there

§ 4f. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS. /I

is nothing which expressly recognises the institution of the syna-
qoques. Still, the public reading and exposition of the Law, so cir-
cumstantially related in Neh. viii. 1 seq., might very naturally
lead the people and their governors to see and feel the import-
ance of providing the means for employing the like method of
instruction — means that would ensure its being often and stat-
edly given. But of this express mention is not made in the
books of Ezra and Nehemiah; and after these, we have no
Jewish historical writings on which we can rely, until near the
time of the Maccabees, about 170-160 b.c. Nor does even the
first book of the Maccabees (one of the oldest and most credible
of all the apocryphal books,) say a word of synagogues. But it
says of Antiochus Epiphanes, that he burned up ra (3i^}Ja. roD i/ofMu,
and also intimates that copies of the Law, in the hands of indi-
viduals, were not unfrequent, 1 Mace. i. 56, 57. This imports a
very different state of things from that which existed, as we have
seen, in the time of Josiah.

The Jews themselves have nothing more than mere floating
traditions about the origin and introduction of synagogues. Li
1 Mace. iii. 45, 46, mention is made of the Jews, after the sanc-
tuary was laid waste, as assembling for pi'ayer at Massepha
(Mizpeh), because it was formerly a romg 'jpogsv/tj:^ i. e. a place
for prayer. But this merely refers to the occasional worship at
Mizpeh, in the time of Samuel and afterwards, 1 Sam. vii. 5 seq.
In the 8th chapter of Nehemiah we have a history of the read-
ing and explanation of the Law, which might well serve as a model
for synagogue worship ; but still nothing is said of the institu-
tion of synagogues. It is only the Jews of a late period who
refer to Ezra the institution and modelling of synagogue worship.
So does Maimonides fully and without scruple ; but yet he sup-
ports himself merely by appealing to tradition; see in Vitr. JDe
Vet.Synag. p. 414 seq. Josephus speaks repeatedly of synagogues
in the time of Claudius ; e. g. in Antiq. Jud. xix. c. 5. c. 6. Bell.
Jud. VII. c. 21, edit. Colon. Philo speaks of synagogues beyond
the Tiber, at Alexandria, and in other large cities ; De Legat.
ad Caium. Of the fact that these were common and numerous,
there is no doubt, for the New Testament is full of references to
synagogues, both in and out of Palestine. But all this does not
give us anything to depend on, as to the Jirst origin of syna-
gogues. This is lost in antiquity. No Jewish author has given
us any express and credible history respecting this point.

72 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

The Rabbinic tradition about the Parashoth, or sabbatical
lections of the Law, viz. about ceasing to read these in the time
of persecution by Antiochus Epiphanes, and putting the Haph-
taroth or prophetical lections in their stead, seems not improbable
at first view ; and if this was matter of fact, then synagogues
would seem to have been in existence in the time of Antiochus ;
for the Parashoth and Haphtaroth are adapted to synagogue
worship, and not to the ritual of the temple.

We are left then to conjecture as to what time after the return
from the Babylonish exile, the public and social worship of the
synagogues commenced. That it began soon after the time of
Ezra and Nehemiah, if not in their day, would seem to be indi-
cated by the declaration of the apostle James (Acts xv. 21), that
" Moses of old time (Ik yinm a^yaMv) hath in every city (jcara "tcoKiv)
them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every sabbath
day," comp. Acts xiii. 15, 27. I will not say that such a phrase
as 1% jinZiv a^ya'im might not be employed in reference to a custom
which originated even after the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, i.e.
B.C. 170. But such is not the natural import of the phrase in
question, in the mouth of a Jew. One can hardly satisfy him-
self with a period much short, to say the least, of that in which
Ezra, Nehemiah, or Malachi lived. The nature of the case ap-
pears very much to favour this more extended latitude of mean-
ing. From the time of Joshua down to that of the Babylonish
exile, the Jews had been ever prone to fall into idolatry, and to
practise all the rites of the neighbouring nations. What could
be plainer, than that the want of an adequate religious education
was one of the principal causes of their defections? Men of such
learning and skill as Ezra could not help discerning this. What
more rational and probable, than to suppose that he and Nehe-
miah concerted and carried into execution some plan for the
general instruction of the Jewish people, specially as to the nature
of their religious duties ?

I am aware that we should examine with caution the Rabbinic
stories respecting Ezra and his colleagues, who are said to be
the members of what is called the Great Synagogue. But while
I would lend no willing ear to the fTiiiin ^^ romantic conceits of
the Jewish doctors, I cannot persuade myself, as many of the
recent liberalists in criticism have done, that there is no proper
historical basis on which we may repose confidence, in respect to
the existence or achievements of the Great Synagogue. All

§ 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEUREWS. 73

Rabbinic antiquity takes for granted, that in the time of Ezra
and Nehemiah, there was a select body of men in Judea, who
were named the Great Synarjogue^ and who had much to do with
arranging the Jewish Scriptures, making provision for their cir-
culation, furnishing the best text to be had, and, in a word, per-
forming the part which was afterwards performed by the well
known Jewish Sanhedrim. Rau {De Synagoga Magna), and
Aurivillius of Upsala, {Diss. Sac, edit. J. D. Michaelis, p. 139
seq.), have endeavoured to undermine the whole of this tradition,
and to show that it is unworthy of credit. But after all, nothing
but the conceits which the Rabbins have connected with the
tradition, seem to demand rejection. If these were a good reason
for rejecting the tradition itself, then many, or rather most of
the narrations in the Old Testament Scriptures must be rejected
in the like manner; for what is there to which the Rabbins have
not attached some phantasies not unfrequently bordering upon
the ridiculous.

On the other hand; nothing can be more probable, than that
two such patriots and men of ardent piety and sound under-
standing and great zeal, as Ezra and Nehemiah, would call into
council and active co-operation some of the wisest and best and
most influential men among their Hebrew contemporaries and
countrymen? The Jews have ever and always believed this, so
far as we know. I do not aver, that Josephus has expressly
said anything of the Great Synagogue; and the plain reason
seems to be, that he has merely followed the sacred records in
his account of those times. Philo had no occasion to speak of
the formation of the Hebrew canon, in those of his writings now
extant; and the Son of Sirach, in his catalogue of Jewish wor-
thies (Sir. xlv — xlix), has even omitted Ezra himself, probably
because of his lack of political eminence. No certain conclusion
can be drawn from such omission on the part of these writers,
against the fact that there was a Great Synagogue. The Mishna
{Pirqe Abotli, c. 1) expressly appeals to it; and so do the train
of Rabbinical writings in after times.

One striking fact, of a historical nature, will serve to render
probable the supposition, that synagogue instruction and worship
must have been somewhat early instituted after the return of
the Jews fi'om their long exile. We have no knowledge, that
the mass of that nation have, at any period since that, become
the devotees of heathen and idol-worship. Antiochus Epiphanes

74 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

did his best to corrupt them, both by persuasion and force.
He even bestowed the office of high priest on such persons as
seconded his views. But all in vain, as to the mass of the peo-
ple. Only the refuse of the Jewish community hearkened to
him. Judas Maccabeus and his companions made opposition,
roused the Hebrew nation, and finally expelled all traces of
heathen worship from their borders.

What now was it which kept the Jews, for more than five
centuries before the Christian era, from becoming idolaters, as
they had so constantly been (short intervals excepted) during
almost a thousand years before the Babylonish exile? Some-
thing must not only have operated, but operated powerfully.
Their temptations to embrace idol- worship were not stronger or
more frequent before this exile, than after it; specially under
the Syrian kings, the Seleucidse. Yet they remained firm and
imwavering, with the small exception mentioned that took place
during the reign of Antiochus Epiphanes. I cannot imagine any
causeadequate to produce such an effect exceptingthat of religious
instruction. Nor can I see any way in which this could be ac-
complished, excepting in that of reading and preaching in syna-
gogues. The Mosaic institute, that the Law should be read
once in seven years to the assembled mass of the Hebrew nation,
had been tried for almost a thousand years, and had been found
quite inefficacious, particularly as this reading was often ne-
glected. What more probable, than that the enlightened and
patriotic and pious Ezra and Neheraiah devised and established
the social worship of the synagogues, as a preservative from all
inclination to future apostasy and idolatry?

Since we have no express and certain history in regard to this
point; since moreover we know that synagogues were in being
a long time (a^' aoya'ttjiv yiviojy) before the Christian era; since
the Jews were actually preserved from idolatry and heathen
rites, and no means but efficient religious instruction which is
general are adequate to produce such an effect; I see no good
reason why we may not regard it as altogether probable, that
synagogue-worship was devised and commenced under the super-
intendence of Ezra, Nehemiah, and the men of the n'^'ilUrT

nOiS ^^ Great Synagogue.

But there is another branch of this topic respecting religious
instruction^ to which I have hitherto but merely adverted, but

§ 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREW8. 75

which, standing intimately connected as it does with the topic
just discussed, should here be brought more distinctly into view.
I refer to the priests and Levites of the Mosaic dispensation.

Whoever borrows his views of the offices of these from the
functions of a Christian pastor, and regards them as having a
similar employment among the ancieut Hebrews, will find, on
examination, that he is radically mistaken. The fact that there
were no synagogues before the Babylonish exile, i. e. no places
for public reading of the Scriptures and for preaching, of itself
shows, that there could have been no regular order of men
among the Jews, who performed a public part in social and de-
votional worship. Had Moses made provision for such an order
of men, he would have made provision for the means of perform-
ing their proper duties.

A glance at the Mosaic institutes serves to show at once, that
the sura of duties attached to the priestly office, was the per-
formance of those services which were appropriate to the ritual
worship of the tabernacle and temple. These duties required so
much bodily vigour and activity, that they were limited to those
who were between the age of thirty and fifty, Num. iv. 3, 23, 30,
35, 39, 43, 47. To the office of priest, only Aaron and his pos-
terity were consecrated, Ex. xxviii. 1, xxx. 30, xxix. 5 seq. All
the rest of the Levites were given to Aaron and his sons, as mere
subsidiaries in the performance of their duties. Num. iii. 9, viii.
19, comp. iv. viii. throughout. In the time of David, i\\Q priests
had become so numerous, that they were divided by him into
twenty-four courses or divisions, each of which in turn served a
definite period of time in the temple, 1 Chron. xxiii. 3, 6, xxiv.
8 seq. comp. Luke i. 5. As to the Levites, it appears that there
were, at one and the same time, 38,000 males, who were of the
age of thirty and upwards. To these were assigned by that
pious king, duties appropriate to their condition in accordance
with the institutions of Moses, 1 Chron. xxiii. 3, 4, comp. xxvi.
29. The greater part, at that time, were employed in aiding to
build the temple to be erected by Solomon. But still, 6,000
were appointed to be Q^ICC'itri D'^"^I2tl^ '^^^agistrates and judges.
Inasmuch as the verb "y^"^ signifies to write or inscribe, it would
seem quite probable that the Shoterim were magistrates who kept
records for their own use and for the public weal. In a literal
sense, ■^tO'llT would seem to be equivalent to ypaiiiManh;; but it

76 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

is evidently of wider usage in the Hebrew Scriptures, and de-
signates magistrates^ probably those whose business was connect-
ed with records. In Deut. xvi. 18, the very same officers are
named, and Moses gives commandment that they shall be ap-
pointed in all the gates of the Hebrews. Moses does not say
that these respective offices shall be hmited to the Levites only;
but it is quite evident, that since they were the most enlightened
part of the Jewish community, on this account they would most
naturally receive such appointments.

The manner in which the Levites were disposed of by Moses
and Joshua, shows that they were not, and were not designed to
be, teachers among the people in the capacity of school-masters.
God gave commandment to Aaron, that neither he nor his pos-
terity, the priests, should have any inheritance in the land of
Palestine, or any part among their brethren. Num. xviii. 20. At
the same time, provision was made for the maintenance and ac-
commodation of priests and Levites. Unto Moses it was said, that
he should command the children of Israel to assign unto the Le-
vites cities to dwell in, and the suburbs around then. Num. xxxv.
2. Accordingly, after the conquest of Canaan we find Joshua
assigning to them forty-eight cities with their suburbs, scattered
over all the country. As they were restrained from the owner-
ship and cultivation of lands for agriculture, (the suburbs of
their cities being assigned to them merely for gardens,) their
fellow-citizens were bound to provide for them by tithes, first-
fruit offerings, and parts of beasts sacrificed, Deut. xviii. S — 5,
comp. xxvi. 12. Special liberality and charity to the Levites are
strongly enjoined by Moses, Deut. xii. 19, xiv. 27 — 29. In re-
turn for all these contributions, the Levites were to be the judges
and magistrates of the land, in both an ecclesiastical and civil
respect. Indeed the one was inseparably connected with the
other. It was predicted by the dying Jacob, that the posterity
of Levi should be scattered in Israel, Gen. xlvii. 7. This was
necessary, indeed, according to the arrangement made by Moses.
The Levites and priests were the appropriate y?imcowsM?fe of the
nation. They did not go round, and preach and teach in a pub-
lic capacity; but it was their business to settle and adjudicate all
controversies between man and man; to declare the law in all
cases of trespass or injury; to decide all dubious cases of con-
science about rites and ceremonies; to give counsel, whenever
asked, about anything which pertained to duty; and in a word,

§ 4. LITERATURE OK THE HEBREWS. 7T

to perform the office of judges and of religious and civil monitors.
In this light Ezekiel places the matter, xliv. 23 seq. So Mai.
ii. 7. Thus did Jehoshaphat regard their office, specially the
priestly office, 2 Chron. xix. 8 seq. In the same light Moses
has placed the whole matter, Deut. xvii. 8 — 10, xxiv. 9, Lev. x.
10, 11. Ordinarily, to say the least, and at any rate according
to strict rule, the Levites were to abide in the cities assigned to
them, and not go elsewhere to reside. And if this be so, how
could they be religious teachers in synagogues, (if such there had
been), in all the villages of Palestine.

In Judg. xvii. 7 seq. is an account of a wandering Levite, who
at the invitation of Micah at Mount Ephraim, took up his abode
with him, and became his priest. But Micah was an idolater
(Judg. xvii. 4, 5); and the Levite of course must have aposta-
tized from the worship of Jehovah, in order to become a priest
of Micah. This therefore is no example in point, to prove that
the Levites ordinarily wandered through the land, taking up their
residence wherever it might suit their convenience. We have
also an account of Jehoshaphafs sending a special deputation of
princes and Levites " to teach in the cities of Judah," 2 Chron.
xvii. 7 seq., who carried with them a copy of the Law. But this
was an extraordinary, not an ordinary measure. Indeed, there
is nothing in the Old Testament which shows that the priests
or Levites were travelling preachers or teachers; nothing which
shows that they were teachers in their own limited circle, in the
ordinary sense of that word. As judges and jurisconsults, and
expounders of the Law in doubtful cases, and helpers in matters
of religious doubts or scruples, they were indeed teachers. But
this duty they performed only when required to do it. They were
passive in the business of teaching, not active and aggressive. It
was their business to give an opinion when asked, but not to
persuade others to assemble and learn their duty from them.

We must, in justice to the case before us, proceed one step
further still. I know of no passage in the Old Testament which
enjoins upon priests or Levites, as their* ordinary duty, to 'pray
with and for the people, and to give them religious instruction
by sermons or by reading the Scriptures. If there is any pas-
sage in the Old Testament which even hints at prayer for th&
people being a duty of the priests in the temple itself, yea of even
the high priest, it has escaped my repeated and attentive search.
I doubt not that all pious priests did pray in the temple. I

78 § 4, LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

cannot doubt that every pious high priest especially would inter-
cede for the people, on the great day of atonement, and on other
like occasions. But where is this enjoined? What part of the
Mosaic institutes made it their duty?

In Luke i. 10 seq. we have an account of Zacharias in the act
of his official duty. And what did he? He burned incense in
the temple, while all the multitude of the people were praying in
the outer court. If it be said that the angel who appears to
him, promises the birth of a child in answer to his prayers (Luke
i. 13), yet we cannot suppose these prayers to have been then
and there uttered. They would have been unseemly, unbecom-
ing. And besides this, it appears from ver. 1 8, that Zacharias
had for a long time utterly despaired of offspring, and therefore we
cannot suppose him to have been then and there praying for what
he plainly deemed iuiposisible. Of courso his prayer, to which
the angel refers, must have been on some former occasion, and
probably in a place more appropriate to such a request, than
that of the temple of God, where he had an important public part
to act.

Let the intelligent and considerate reader now put all these
things together, and ask himself whether there were any regular
and stated means of instruction, or active instructors, for the
Jewish nation, before their exile. He cannot find them. But
he can find, on extraordinary occasions, fasting, prayers, reading
of the Scriptures, a renewal of the covenant, and other religious
transactions. But all this is nothing to the purpose of establish-
ing the position, that before the Babylonish exile there were
synagogues, and regular and stated religious teachers of the
people.

One remark here forces itself upon me. To argue from a
Levitical priesthood to a Christian ministry^ and to prove the va-
lidity of the latter institution by an appeal to the former, and
specially to compare the official duties of the two respective classes
with an assumption that they are parallel — is out of all question.
The ancient ritual is abolished. The whole of the sacrifices and
offiarings, and of course the whole of the rites and forms belong-
ing to them, is for ever done away by the death of Christ, if any
credit is to be given to Paul, particularly in his epistle to the
Hebrews. And as to the main official duty of a Christian min-
ister, viz. the communication of religious instruction., it stands as it
were even in direct contrast with that of the priest and Levite, so

§ 4. LITERATURE OV THE HEBREWS. 79

far as all its active aggressive functions are concerned. If Chris-
tian ministers are to find any parallel under the Mosaic dispen-
sation, it must be in its prophets, not in ita priests.

To complete the course which we have pursued, in making in-
quiry respecting the state of literature and education and reli-
gious instruction among the Hebrews, it is necessary that we
should take a brief view of the prophetic order belonging to that
nation; and particularly ought we to do this, because of the re-
lation which the prophets sustained to the Holy Scriptures,
whose critical history we are endeavouring to pursue.

The word propliet has had a variety of meanings attached to it
by various critics. The biblical idea, as it seems to me, is fully
unfolded and designated in the definition which Knobel has given:
" A prophet is a person gifted with superior intelligence, and
filled with religious inspiration, who stands in an intimate rela-
tion to God, and as the servant of God is active in the promotion
of religious purposes, specially those which concern the Divine
authority and government;"" Knobel, Projyhetismus, i. p. 113.
The most usual name o^ prophet in the Old Testament Scriptures is
^'^^2.* Other not unfrequent names of prophets are pjf"-y a seer,
and ni^l ^ beholder. Of course the meaning is one par excellence,
denoting a person who sees or beholds what others do not, such

• The verb ^3,-5 employed only in Niphal and Hithpael, Knobel regards, (and

T *

rightly in my apprehension), as related to the Hebrew verbs '^^^^j'TT^.^in^.^'^IS'
all of which mean to pour forth, to pour out, to cry out, i. e. to pour forth words or
sounds, to shoot or stream forth, &c. ; and kindred to these are the Chaldee

i^l^ yr^i rnp ; the Synac V^ J . ^^1 tlie Arabic "J^ ^ «^ ^>aJ

all kindred in meaning to the Hebrew verbs named above. Hence i*^^^ seems to
mean, to pour forth or pour out, i. e. or to utter one's internal excitement or inspiration.
It is not ditKcult, perhaps, to assign a good philological reason, why the verb
|l^^!2' ^55'^nrT? is used only in the reflexive conjugations ; for the generic mean-
ing of these verbs thus employed seems to be, to exhibit one's self as excited or inspir-
ed. Hence the manifold application of the words in question; for they apply not
only to uttering predictions, but to commination, reproof, condemnation, warning,
exhorting, consoling, exciting, promising, and the like. In a word, to prophesy em-
braces every thing which a religious and moral teacher may say or utter by the aid
of inspiration. Of course it applies to sacred music, i. e. to psalms or hymns sung
either with or without instrumental music; see 1 Sam. x. 5; 1 Chron. xxv. 1, 2;
1 Sam. xix. 20; comp. 1 Kings xviii. 23, 29, where the verb is applied to the shout-
ing and cantillation of the priests of Baal, who attempted an imitation of the true
prophets. The Jews, as every reader of the Hebrew Bible knows, have designated
the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings as prophetical books, probably from

80 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

as secret things, future events, and the like. In a number of
cases, prophets are called D"ir)V, i. e. those who espy, explore, &c.
This refers to the appropriate duty of prophets as the moral
guardians and observers of the people. In the same way is the
designation "^^^jj, watchman, employed, and for the like reason.
In reference also to spiritual care for the people, and for their
proper religious nurture, the prophets are occasionally named
D"'i^h' shepherds. In regard to the proper work which a prophet
has to perform, he is also occasionally named man of God, ser-
vant of Jehovah, and now and then angel ov messenger of Jehovah.
Among these appellations, man of God and seer are the more
ancient, (see 1 Sam. ix. 9) ; ^"1^3, an inspired man, is more gen-
eral after the time of Samuel; and spy, watchman, and servant
of Jehovah, appear more frequently in the later Hebrew writers.

If the reader will cast his eye, for a moment, over the various
appellations of the prophets now placed before him, he will
gather at once, with a good degree of certainty, what the pro-
per office and duty of a Hebrew prophet was. Instead of being
a mere (lavrtg, i. e. a superintendent of ritual observances, a
soothsayer, an oracle-monger, or the like, he was the moral
teacher and preacher of his nation. His duty was not like to
that of the priests ; although occasionally some of the prophets
superintended sacrifices and other parts of the ritual, e. g. Sa-
muel, Elijah, and some others. All that was ritual, however,
if resorted to on any occasion by a prophet, was merely subor-
dinate and subsidiary, and not his main or appropriate business.

The Old Testament is full of the history, doings, and sayings
of the prophets. Nearly one half of it consists of their peculiar
discourses or prophetic compositions ; of which only a small part
ia prediction in the proper sense of that word. Prophets were
the principal instruments in keeping alive the Mosaic religion at
all times, whether one looks to the spirit or to the ritual of it.
Inasmuch as the Jewish commonwealth was ecclesiastico-politi-
cal, prophets were politicians as well as preachers. Nothing is
more common, than the history of their interposition in matters
the persuasion that they were composed by prophets. According to the broad
meaning given to ^^^ above, any book composed by an inspired writer might be
named prophecy. And in a similar latitude are the words ■r^ixpnTiia and ■^^txpunvc/
employed in the New Testament. In the language of the Bible, the uttering of
predictions, in the appropriate sense of this word, is only a species under the genus
prophesying.

§ 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS. 81

that concern the poHtical weal of the Jewish state. To give
counsel to magistrates, on occasion of exigency, was regarded as
one of their appropriate duties.

It is singular, that after Moses and Miriam, no prophet or
prophetess is mentioned until the time of Deborah, which was
more than a century after the conquest of Canaan. And even
she seems rather to be called a prophetess on account of her
song of triumph (Judges v.), than on account of her mode of
life. It is clear that she was a remarkable woman ; for she was
at the head of the nation, a niliCtr' ^^hen she led on the Hebrew

T :

army to battle against Sisera; Judges iv. 4. An anonymous
prophet is presented to view in Judges vi. 8 seq., who adminis-
ters severe rebuke. Besides these, we meet with no prophetic
personages until we come down to the time of Samuel, which,
counting from the death of Moses, makes a period of more than
SOO years. If thei'e were no more prophets than appear on the
face of the sacred records during this long period, it is no won-
der that the Jews, who had been partially idolaters in Egypt,
relapsed very often, as the book of Judges tells us they did, into
the idolatry of the heathen. This had its attractions. It put
no restraint on the passions. It might be (although it does not
seem probable) that priests and Levites urged the ritual of the
Law, and exacted all its ceremonial observances ; but if they
did, these would have had but little efficacy in preserving the
nation from corruption, so long as prophets, the preachers of
righteousness, were wanting.

With Samuel opens a new and splendid era, both as to the
civil and religious concerns of the Jews. This distinguished
servant of God acted not only as prophet, but was also a judge
(•^r\ri); and not unfrequently did he act as a priest; see 1

Samuel vii. 9 seq.; ix. 22 seq.; x, 8; xi. 15; xvi. 1 seq. He
commenced his duties about 1100 b.c, and the prophetic order,
founded (if one may use the expression) by him, continued, with
little interruption, down to the time of Malachi, i. e. about 400
B.C. Thus, for some TOO years, was the Jewish nation provided
with religious teachers, by special Divine interposition, and there-
fore they had much less apology for departure during this time
from the institutions of Moses, than they had in former days,
during the administration of the Judges.

Samuel began his career very young, and nobly did he main-

G

82 § 4. LITEBATUUE OF THE HEBREWS.

tain it during a period of some forty years. It was during his
life, that prophetic institutio7is or schools of the prophets first made
their appearance. Doubtless this illustrious reformer saw and
felt the necessity of more efficient and more widely diffused reli-
gious instruction, than had previously been given. The young
men educated at those schools seem plainly to have been design-
ed for the prophetic office. Hence they are frequently named
prophets, (e. g. 1 Sam. x. 5, 10 — 12; xix. 20, 24; 1 Kings xviii.

4, 13; xix. 14; xxii. 6 seq.) in relation to the office for which
they were being qualified. At other times, their discipleship or
relation to their prophetic masters is pointed out by the appel-
lation sojis o/ ^Ae prophets; e. g. 1 Kings xx. 35; 2 Kings ii. 3,

5, 7, 15; iv. 1, 38; v. 22; vi.l; ix. 1, 4. The Hebrews often
called a teacher father (^j^); and of course the pupil or learner
was a son. So in the New Testament, v'log, tskvov, and Tsxmv, are
employed to designate disciples or learners.

The notices of these schools, in sacred history, are confined to
the time of Samuel, and to that of Elijah and Elisha. We find
nothing concerning them at other periods. If such schools ex-
isted after the last-named period, it would seem at least that
they could not have had any considerable notoriety. In SamuePs
time there were large companies of prophetic pupils in several
places, 1 Sam. x. 5, 1 0; xix. 20. Ahab could, in his day, mus-
ter 400 prophets of Baal at a time, 1 Kings xxii. 6. Obadiah,
one of his pious officers, concealed a hundred of the prophets of
Jehovah from Jezebers bloody persecution, 1 Kings xviii. 4, 13.
Fifty of the prophets at Bethel attended on Elijah and Elisha,
2 Kings ii. 3, 7. Those at Jericho, at the same time, appear to
have been still more numerous, 2 Kings ii. 1 6 seq. In Elisha's time
we find a hundi-ed of the prophets at Gilgal, 2 Kings iv. 38 — 43.
Various places also are named as the abode of the sons of the
prophets, viz. Rama, Bethel, Gibeah, Jericho, Gilgal, and Mount
Ephraira. They appear, moreover, to have lived together in the
manner of coenobites, and to have been superintended and in-
structed by some aged prophet. But sacred history gives us no
minute particulars as to the manner of their education. Yet
doubtless, as they were to be moral and religious teachers, the
Law of Moses must have been the subject of their special study.
Even Knobcl, who maintains the later composition of the Pen-
tateuch, asserts that they must have been orally instructed in
the theocratical law (as he names it) that was traditionally cur-

§ 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS. 83

rent at that period, Froph. ii. p. 46. That sacred music, with
the voice and with instruments, was in part an object of special
attention, is clear from 1 Sam. x. 5; xix. 20. Saul, who meets
with a company of these prophetic musicians, is said, by the
sacred historian, to have prophesied along with them, because
he united in their music, 1 Sam. x. G, 10 — 12. It does not fol-
low, however, that all who attended the schools of the prophets
did actually assume the prophetic office after quitting the schools,
but it is altogether probable, that most of the religious teachers
among the Jews, from the time of Samuel down to the death of
Elisha, (a period of about 200 years), were first learners in the
schools of the prophets.

That the notable age of sacred lyric poetry among the Hebrews,
during which David, Asaph, Heman, Ethan, the sons of Korah,
Solomon, and others, were so conspicuous as poets, connects
itself with the instructions given in the schools of the prophets,
one cannot well doubt. During the period, moreover, between
Samuel and Elisha, we find a considerable number of distin-
guished prophets as well as poets; e. g. Gad, 2 Sam. xxiv. 11 — 18;
Nathan, 2 Sam. xii. 15 ; Ahijah, 1 Kings xi. 29 seq. ; Shemaiah,
1 Kings xii. 22; several prophets whose names are not given,

1 Kings xiii. 1—3, 1 1 ; Iddo, 2 Chron. ix. 29 ; Oded, 2 Chron.
XV. 1; Hanani, 2 Chron. xvi. 7; Jehu, 2 Chron. xix. 2; Jahaziel^

2 Chron. xx. 14 ; Eliezer, 2 Chron. xx. 37 ; Elijah, 2 Chron. xxi.
] 2 ; and Elisha, 1 Kings xix. 16. During the lives of these two
last-named prophets, we find repeated mention of hundreds
more of prophets, many or most of whom had probably been
connected as pupils with the schools which they taught.

As to all the prophets now in view, however, although some of
them were most highly distinguished by talents, activity, and
usefulness, we have no remains of works written by them, but
only a brief account by others of their sayings or doings on par-
ticular occasions, which is contained in the historical books of
our present Scriptures. It is an assertion of the Talmudic
Rabbins (Baba Bathra fol, 14. c. 4. comp. fol. 15. c. 1), that
" Samuel wrote the books which bear his name, and also the
books of Judges and Ruth." The two latter, i. e. the substance
of them, it is possible that he wrote. But as to the two books
of Samuel, they are out of the question. The death of Samuel
is related in 1 Sam. xxv. Consequently he could not have writ-
ten the remainder. Nor is it probable that he wrote what pre-

84 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

cedes chap . xxv. The great era of prophetic composition com-
mences with Joel, Amos, Hosea, and Isaiah, about 800 — 730 b.c.

From the more circumstantial history of Samuel, Elijah, and
Elisha, it appears that they continued in their office down to
the time of their decease. In other words, the prophetic office,
as then held and exercised, seems to have been a business of life.
Was this so with all the prophets who have been named or ad-
verted to above? Or did they assume the office merely for a
temporary exigency, and lay it aside when that exigency had
passed by?

With entire certainty we cannot answer these questions. As
to most of the prophets, it seems to me more probable that they
held their office permanently; for the moral necessities of the
people, which called the office into being, seem to have been
such as to render the continuance of it highly important and
useful. We meet with aged prophets; and the tenor of the nar-
rations respecting this order of men favours the idea that the
office was one which was regular and long continued, so far as
it respected the duty of moral and religious teaching. It is un-
necessary to assume that all prophets were endowed with mira-
culous powers. Such was not the case even with Christian pro-
phets, if we may credit the declarations of Paul in his account
of their gifts, in his first Epistle to the Corinthians; and I know
of no testimony more authentic than his. But the fact that the
prophets (n*'^^'^^^) were insp>ired persons, would seem of course to
indicate, that they addressed the people under the special aid
and guidance of the Spirit of God. It need not, and should not
be supposed, that at all times, and on all occasions, these pro-
phets spoke and acted under such a special guidance. So much
was not true of even the apostles of Christ. Enough that at due
times, and in appropriate circumstances, they were specially
guided and aided by the Spirit of God.

Their sermons or addresses to the people they did not, as it
would seem, commit to tvriting at the period in question. We
have therefore, at the present time, only some fragments of what
they uttered, which were collected and recorded by others. It
is natural to conclude from this, that they regarded themselves
as ministers of God and servants of the theocracy, only for their
own day and generation. Hhe permanent monuments of the pro-
phetic class are of a later date, and commence with Joel, Hosea,
and Isaiah.

§ 4. LITEUATUKE OK THE HEBREWS. 85

A glance at facts such as these, specially if we view them as
they stand connected with and related to each other, would seem
to admonish us quite plainly, that in the prophetic order, if we
except Moses the distinguished founder of the Jewish common-
wealth, a gradual advance to higher degrees of culture and use-
fulness is perceptible. Who, except Moses, can compete with
those prophets, whose immortal works are still so conspicuous
in the Jewish Scriptures? We do truly revere and honour such
men as Samuel, Elijah, and others of the like spirit; but we
do more than homage or honour to such men as Isaiah, Joel,
Nahum, and their compeers.

To the canon of Scripture some considerable accession was
made as early as the time of David and Solomon. There might
have been a part of the books of Joshua and Judges extant at
that period ; and if so, these, with the Law of JNIoses, constituted
the then Jewish canon. David and his contemporary sacred
poets made very valuable accessions to the Jewish Scriptures;
especially to the devotional part of them. Down to the present
hour, the compositions of these men are regarded as excelling
those of any or all others, in respect to their adaptedness to be
the medium of praise and of devout meditation. I will not say,
that these compositions introduced a new element into the Jew-
ish religion and worship; but I may safely affirm, that at least
they made a new development of the Mosaic religion, and gave
to all ages then to come some of the most exquisite models of
expressing devout, grateful, humble, and pious feeling. They
will go down to the end of the world with unabated, yea with
increasing honour. The greater part of the book of Psalms was
composed by David and his contemporaries; and the few Psalms
that have been since added, show that sacred lyrics among the
Hebrews had its golden age and also its silver one, and that the
golden age commenced, and attained its highest elevation, under
David and his contemporaries. Only now and then did some
peculiar occasion afterwards call into exercise talents of a lyric
nature, in the composition of devotional psalms and hymns.

The book of Proverbs, moreover, must have been a substantial
aid to the prophetic teachers of morals. It would seem, however,
that from the 25th chapter onward, the composition lay in an
uncopied MS., until the time of Hezekiah; Prov. xxv. 1. But
be this as it may, the preceding portion of the book is exceeding-
ly weighty, particularly on the score of morals and circumspect

86 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

and prudential behaviour. Prophets who lived after the writing
of this, certainly had a somewhat ample store of choice texts, for
discourses on the subject of morality and sober demeanour.

I have distinguished David and his colleagues, the devotional
poets, from the prophets, who were the subject of our preceding
consideration. But in so doing, I have rather followed our own
common usus loquendi than that which is appropriate to the
Scriptures. Whatever is written or uttered by the aid of in-
spiration, the Scriptural writers name prophecy. The ground of
employing the word in this extensive sense, has already been
presented in the preceding pages.

Let us now pass to the next and most splendid period of the
Hebrew prophetic development. It begins with Joel, in the
reign of Uzziah, about 800 b.c, and continues down to the end
of the Assyrian dominion, not far from 700 b.c. It has been
named the Assyrian period by Knobel, because most of the pro-
phets during this period have reference more or less, in their
discourses, to the Assyrian invasions of Palestine, or to those of
the neighbouring countries of the heathen who were under the
dominion of Assyi'ia, or were associated with it.

It would not be consistent with ray main design, to discuss
such questions respecting each prophetic book, as belong only to
the specialities of an ample and scientific introduction to the
Old Testament.* I shall not therefore enter into any minute
discussions, the particular object of which would be to vindicate
the genuineness of those prophetical books ichich hear the names of
their authors. Nor will the plan of my work permit me to can-

" Such an ample and scientific introduction to the Old Testament, embracing full
discussions of all the questions proper both to the (jeneral and special introduction,
is supplied to us in Haverniek's Handhuck der historisch-kritischen Ebdeiluriy in das
Alle Testament, Erlangen 183G; and it is much to be wished that the translation of
this valuable work, announced by Mr Clark of Edinburgh, as a part of his interest-
ing series, the Foreign Theological Librarij, may be given to the public without delay.
We rejoice that the promised translation should have been undertaken by one so
competent to do it justice, as Dr Alexander of Edinburgh. The publication of the
original work was left incomplete by its lamented author, but the remaining portion
of it, which treats of the poetical books of the Old Testament, is announced as being
now in the press.

Still more recently has appeai'ed in Germany, an Introduction to the Old and Neto
Testaments l)y Dr Scholz of Bonn, the eminent text-critic. The first volume, contain-
ing the general introduction, was published at Cologne in 1845. The work is still
in progress, and will prove a valuable addition to this department of Biblical liter-
ature.— Ed.

§ 4. LITEHATUKK OF THE HEBKEWS. 87

vass at length the question, whether particular parts of Isaiah,
for example, or of Zechariah, or of Daniel, are supposititious;
which two last works, however, belong to a later period than the
one with which I am now concerned, unless indeed (with Knobel
and some others) we attribute Zech. ix — xi. to the Zechariah
the son of Berechiah mentioned in Isa. viii. 2. Enough for my
purpose, that the Old Testament books which bear the names
of their authors, were extant, and were acknowledged by the
Jewish nation as genuine works, before and at the period in
which Malachi, the last of the Hebrew prophets, lived; that
they were regarded as inspired and authoritative; and that
Christ and his apostles have sanctioned them as such. On the
general subject of the genuineness of the Hebrew Scriptures, I
shall produce, in the sequel, a striking passage from Eichhorn.
Their authority or sanction does not depend on the fact, whe-
ther this prophet or that one wrote a particular book, or parts
of it, but on the fact that a prophet wrote them. Of course,
this is my main point. And since I am not now writing a critico-
exegetical introduction to the Hebrew Scriptures, I may dispense
in general with all questions which belong merely to minute and
special criticism. My object leads me to bring to view the Jew-
ish sacred books as regarded in a general way; and I may be
permitted to treat them, when they are not anonymous, as pro-
ceeding from the persons whose names they bear.

When I mention then, as belonging to the period in question,
the works of Joel, Hosea, Isaiah, Amos, Micah, and Nahum,
(and perhaps Jonah), I need say nothing more to characterize
this golden age of the prophets in the capacity of writers. Isaiah
is surely without a parallel; and as for Joel and Nahum, all ef-
forts to commend them to readers of taste would be useless. In
the other prophets just named, there are passages of great
splendour; and in all of them there is such a lofty tone of piety,
and zeal for God and his honour, with such inflexible morality,
as almost transports the reader into New Testament times.
Indeed one may well compare the spiritual and elevated views
of these writers, with the leading principles of the gospel dispen-
sation as developed by our Saviour in his conversation with the
woman of Samaria, John iv. 19 seq. Let us listen for a moment
to Isaiah:

" What is the multitude of your sacrifices to me, saith Jehovah ?
I am satiated with the oft'erings of rams and of fatted beasts;

88 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWg.

The blood of bullocks and of lambs and of he-goats I do not desire.

When ye come to exhibit yourselves before me.

Who hath required this at your hands — the treading of my courts?

Bring no more worthless offerings;

Incense! — it is an abomination to me.

As to your new moons and sabbaths and summoning of assemblies,

I cannot endure iniquity and solemn meeting.

Your monthly festivals and appointed feasts my soul hateth;

They are a burden to me, I cannot bear with them.

And when ye spread out your hands, I will hide mine eyes from you,

Yea, when ye multiply prayer, I will not hear.

Your hands are full of blood.

Wash ye; make ye clean ;

Put away your evil deeds from before mine eyes;

Cease to do evil ; learn to do well ;

Seek after justice ; console the afflicted;

Vindicate the orphan ; plead the cause of the widow."

Who cannot easily imagine himself to be listening to the Great
Teacher, the Light of the world, when he hears such a passage
as this? And many such, i. e. of the like tenor with this, are
there in the works of the prophets now before us. In respect to
the so called pseudo-Isaiah and Jonah, placed by recent critics
among the works of the second or Chaldee period of prophecy, I
shall notice them in my remarks on that period.

The last king of Assyria, of whom any mention is made in the
sacred records, was Esar-haddon, who sent colonists from his do-
minions into the land of the ten tribes, about 678 b.c, Ezra iv. 2.
He was the last of the Assyrian kings who appears to have pos-
sessed any great degree of energy and activity. At all events,
we hear no more of incursions into Judea, after his reign ; and it
was but some fifty years afterwards, that Nabopolassar, a tri-
butary king of the Babylonian province, threw off the yoke of
Assyria, and made Babylon an independent kingdom. His son
Nebuchadnezzar enlarged its borders, and became master of the
greater part of Asia west of the Euphrates. To Babylon then
are we to look, from the latter part of the reign of Josiah on-
ward, for most of the annoyances which the Hebrew common-
wealth experienced during its last period before the exile; and
most of the prophets who lived from the time of Josiah onward
to the end of the captivity, in their writings still extant, refer
principally to Babylon, or the land of the Chaldees (which is
the same), or to some of its tributaries or allies, as the enemies
whom the Hebrews have most reason to dread. Hence, in clas-

§ 4. LITEKATURE OF THE llEBUEWS. 89

slfying the prophets with reference to a predominating element
in their discourses, we may name this latter period, in which
the prophetic order were somewhat conspicuous, the Chaldean

PERIOD.

It is remarkable, that from the year 710 b.c. down to 640 b.c.
i. e. for seventy years, scarcely a vestige of any Hebrew prophet
is to be found in the Jewish history. No wonder at this. The
fifty-seven years of unrelenting persecution of the true worship-
pers of God, and the rank and zealous idolatry even of the gross-
est kind, which made up the reigns of Manasseh and of Amon,
must needs have cast off or driven away all the true prophets of
God. At first there seem to have been some who warned Man-
asseh, 2 Chron. xxxiii. 10, but he would not hearken to them.
And so entirely does the Holy Land appear to have been destitute
of prophets, in consequence of persecution and idolatry, that
they did not make their appearance again, so far as we know,
until some time during the reign of Josiah, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 8, 22.
Under him we find Zephaniah predicting the destruction of As-
syria and its capital, Nineveh, ii. 13 — 15, which took place about
that time. Moreover Huldah, a prophetess, is consulted by
Josiah and Hilkiah, on the occasion of finding a copy of the
Law in the temple, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 22. Jeremiah began his pro-
phetic duties in the thirteenth year of Josiah, i. e. 629 b.c. If
Zech. xii. — xiv. belongs to an older prophet than the Zechariah
who lived after the return from exile, it should probably be as-
signed to the period about 607 — 604 b.c. (See Knobel, Proph. ii.
p. 280 seq.) At the same period the prophecy of Habakkuk
may most probably be placed. Ezekiel^ who was carried into
exile about 600 b.c, began his prophetic w^ork about 595 b.c,
and continued it until 573. The greater part of his prophecies
relate to his countrymen who still remained in Palestine, after
the deportation to Mesopotamia in the reign of Jehoiachin.
But some of them relate to his fellow-countrymen in exile with
himself. The brief work of Obadiah seems, by the historical
circumstances to which it refers, plainly to belong to the period
of the exile. His prophecy is directed against the Edomites;
and one may compare with it Jer. xlix. 7 — 22; Ezek. xxv. 12 —
14; xxxv. 1 — 15. Those who maintain the late composition of
Isa. xl. — Ixvi., also compare Isa. Ixiii. 1 — 6 with the prophecy of
Obadiah; and it seems to tally well with this and with the other
prophecies just named.

90 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

The turn which recent criticism has taken among a large class
of commentators and writers on subjects of sacred literature in
Germany, with respect to various and extensive portions of the
book of Isaiah, must be well known to all who are acquainted
with the i-ecent history of sacred literature. As I have already
said, it comports not with my present object minutely to discuss
the questions in regard to this matter, which have recently
sprung up. But I must at least touch upon this topic, although
as summarily as may be.

No allegations are made at present with more confidence by
many, than that Isa. xl. — Ixvi. belongs to a writer near the close
of the exile, to whom Cyrus was known by name, and whose in-
tentions he well understood. To the same period, but (as most
of these critics suppose) to a different author, is to be assigned
Isa. xiii. xiv. In their opinion, to the author of the latter, per-
haps, belongs Isa. xxi. 1 — 10; at any rate, it must be assigned,
as they aver, to the close of the exile. Isa. xxiv. — xxvii. be-
longs, as some of the latest critics say, (e. g. Knobel) to a pro-
phet who lived near the beginning of the exile. Isa. xxxiv. xxxv,
is to be assigned to the middle of the exile. Thus we have, if
we may believe these critics, no less than five or six works of so
many different pi'ophets, in our present book of Isaiah.

A few hints I may be permitted to suggest in relation to this
critical theory. It seems to me to be pressed with some serious
difficulties, from which no adequate relief has yet been found.

(1.) All ancient Jewish and Christian tradition is against it.
So far back as Sirachides, we have express testimony of the
Jewish views. He calls Isaiah " the great prophet, and faith-
ful, (or, worthy of credit, T/ff-o'r) in his vision." He speaks of
him as comforting Zio7Z, and showing " the things that would
happen so;; rou aiojvog, for ever, and hidden things before they
take place, xlviii. 22 — 25. Does not this specially refer to the
latter part of Isaiah ? So Philo, Josephus, and the New Testa-
ment in very many places from the so-called pseudo-Isaiah, (in-
deed altogether most frequently is this part of the book referred
to in the New Testament), which are ascribed to Isaiah ; and
so the Christian fathers, and the Talmud. The discovery of
diverse authors is one that is acknowledged to have been made
but a few years since.

(2.) The discrepancy of diction, which is even confidently al-
leged to be a satisfactory proof of different authorship in the

§ 4. LITEUATURE OF THE HEBREWS. • 91

various parts of the book, in my apprehension has no solid basis
adequate to support this allegation. The several parts of the
book which are conceded to Isaiah, between chap. xiii. and xxxix.
are in general more discrepant from the first twelve chapters
(acknowledged to be genuine), than some of those genuine chap-
ters are from the alleged interpolated portions of the book. In
other words, Isaiah differs more from himself than he does from
others. These portions, moreover, which are said to be inter-
polated, are so widely distant from the idiom of Jeremiah,
Ezekiel, and other Hebrew prophets during and after the exile,
they have so little of the later so-called degenerate Hebrew
idiom in them; that to my mind they present a very serious dif-
ficulty in the way of believing that they could have been written
near the close of the exile, or even at the middle, or the begin-
ning of it. So very different from the work before us are the
productions of this period, in regard to diction and style, that even
the liberalists feel compelled to confess, that the pseudo-Isaiah
was a writer of rare talents at imitation of the ancients, and they
even allege, that he has copied from the true Isaiah. I cannot
here exemplify and confirm the position, that the resemblances
between the confessedly genuine parts of Isaiah and the suspect-
ed parts of his book, are so many and so striking, that even De
Wette confesses that " they must arise from imitation or sontsicie^
i. e. in some other way !" Einl. p. 288. To the some other way in
which these resemblances arose, we may assent ; but not to the
assertion that the writer in question was an imitator. I can
only refer the reader, for an ample statement, to Kleinert's
Aechtheit des Esaias^ p. 220 — 279, and to Havernick's SpezieUe
Einleit. Esai. p. 192 seq. Every discriminating reader well
versed in the Hebrew must feel, as I think, that there is in-
deed, in some respects, a notable difference between the last
twenty-seven chapters of Isaiah and the first part of his work.
It seems to me that candour will not — need not deny this. But,
as I have intimated above, this difference is not so great, in my
apprehension, as the difference between the first twelve chapters
of Isaiah and other acknowledged parts of his work between
chap. xiii. and xxxix. Let any one compare the circle of imagery,
the soui'ces of metaphor and comparison, the historical examples
of ancient times appealed to in both parts of the book, the absence
of particular visions and symbolical actions in both, the insertion
of triumphant lyrical songs, and the like, and he cannot refuse

92 § 4. LITERATUKE OF THE HEBREWS,

to recognise most striking similarities ; see Havernick ut sup.
p. 191. " They that be for the antiquity of the alleged adsciti-
tious portions of the book, are more than they that be against
it." I am persuaded that the Neologists have evidently the
worst of the argument on this ground ; and this is a ground
which they are prone to consider as one of their choice posi-
tions for defence.

(.3.) What example is there, among all the prophets, of a
book so patched up by putting together six different authors, five
of them without any names ? Who did this ? Where, when, was
it done ? If parts of the book are so late as is alleged, why have
we no hint about its compilation, no certain internal evidence of
it ? How can we account for it, that all the minor prophets,
even Obadiah with his one chapter, should be kept separate and
distinct, and this even down to the end of the prophetic period,
and yet Isaiah be made up by undistinguished fragments and
amalgamations ? These surely are serious difficulties ; and they
have not yet been satisfactorily met.

(4.) In numerous places of chap. xli. — xlviii. the prophet ap-
peals to his own predictions concerning Babylon's fall, as uttered
long before the time of fulfilment. Even Rosenmiiller confesses
(iii. p. 5, 6), that " the writer, who lived near the close of the
Babylonish exile, has assumed the personage of some ancient
prophet." This same prophet adverts to localities and 7iations,
to which it would be very strange for a Jew in exile to advert,
e. g. xli. 9, where he speaks of Israel as being " taken from the
ends of the earth," i. e. Ur of the Chaldees ; which would do
well in case he was in Palestine, but be quite incongruous if he
were in Chaldea. As to nations ; Egypt, the land of Sinim,
(xlix. 12) i. e. probably the Pelusiotes, the appeal to offerings of
swine (Ixv. 4) which were made in Egypt but not in Babylon,
the frequent appeals and addresses to Jerusalem and the towns
of Palestine, all seem to betoken the presence of the writer in
the Holy Land, and his familiarity with objects there and in the
neighbourhood. Then the historical relations are to be added to
these. Egypt and ^Ethiopia are joined, and also the Sabeans ;
xlv. 14. In xli. 11, 12, the active and assailing enemies of those
addressed are mentioned; but who were they, during the exile?
In Iii. 4, the writer adverts to the past captivities of the Jews,
and mentions only those of Egypt and Assyria. How could he
omit that of l^abylon, if it had taken place ? In Isa. Ixvi. 19,

§ 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS. 93

the Jewish exiles are represented as being gathered only from
countries connected with Egyptian or Assyrian sway. These
things have not been satisfactorily explained by the recent libe-
ral critics. I am not aware how they can be.

(5.) In chap, xl — xlvii. are very many passages which are ad-
dressed to a people under the influence of idols, and who prac-
tise heathen rites; and they are reproved for not presenting the
offerings due to God. How could this be, while the Jews were
in exile ? They served no idols then and there ; and how could
they be reproved for not presenting offerings there, which could
be lawfully presented nowhere but at the temple in Jerusalem ?
Besides, the people addressed are represented as seeking /oreic/n
alliances. Could the Jews in exile do this ? Chap. Ixvi. 8, 4,
describes the Jews as presenting hypocritical oblations and sacri-
fices. How, where, tvhen, — in the land of Chaldea 1 Even Ewald
feels obliged to concede (in Es. ii. p. 409 seq.) that he finds no
marks of the author's being in Babylonia, but the contrary.

(6.) It seems to be evident, that the latter part of Isaiah is
quoted or imitated by prophets who lived before the exile; comp.
Nail. i. ] 5, and Isa. lii. 1, 7. See also Nah. iii. 7, and Isa. li. 19 ;
Nah. iii. 4, 5, and Isa. xlvii. 5, 9. So Habakkuk, in ii. 18, 19,
comp. with Isa. xliv. 9 — 20. In Zephaniah are several passages
of the same tenor. Jeremiah has strewed passages through his
whole book, which lean upon the latter part of Isaiah; particu-
larly in chap. 1. li. which, one might almost say, are made up
of extracts from this prophet ; see Hiivern. £iiiL p. 180. Finally,
2 Chron. xxxii. 82, not merely refers for authority, as to the
history of Hezekiah, to the Vision of Isaiah (chap, xxxvi — xxxix.)
but also to an old book, the Book of the Kings of Judah and
Israel, which had drawn from the same source ; seeHiiv. ii. 1,
p. 198 seq. At all events, when the author of Chronicles wrote,
the book of Isaiah was a definite and well-known book.

It were easy to add to these evidences of earlier composition,
and of composition in the Holy Land. But my limits forbid. I
would merely repeat, in the way of comment, what I said at the
outset, viz. that the recent opinions respecting adscititious parts
of Isaiah, are embarrassed by very serious difficulties, which
have not yet been satisfactorily met.

As to all the objections made to the early composition of the
alleged pseudo-Isaiah, on the ground that prediction, so long
beforehand as the time of Isaiah the son of Amoz, is an impossibi-

94 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS,

lity^ I have only to say that this is assumption, and not argument
— it is sim]^]y petitio principii. Even if, with most of the neologi-
cal critics, we put off the composition of that portion of the book
to a period little before the exile, it is still prediction ; for how
could any one foresee what Cyrus would do, either as to the de-
struction of Babylon, or the liberation of the Jews? But when
the composition of these parts of Isaiah is brought down very
near to the time of the events described, our sharp-sighted critics
say, that a shrewd political observer might easily conjecture what
would take place, as Burke foretold what would follow in the
train of the French revolution. It happened, as they suggest,
that he made a luch/ guess. But what if it had turned out that
the Babylonians had been victors in the contest with Cyrus ?
" Why then (as they intimate) the pseudo-Isaiah would have
stood in no repute, and his work would never have come down to
us/'

In respect to this, and all that is like it, I have only to say,
that it is not critical argument, but a mere result of the a priori
assumption, that prediction is an impossibility.

An impartial view of the subject before us, however, oblio-es
us to say, that the recent critics who contend for a pseudo- Isaiah,
are not wholly destitute of reasons, some of which, to say the
least, are quite specious. They allege, (1 .) That the later writer
does not so much describe an exile which is to be, as one which
is. In this state, he thinks, and feels, and speaks. He describes
desolations in Judea and in Edora, which had already taken
place; e. g. in chap. Ixiii. Ixiv. and elsewhere. He dwells on
these things, repeats them, goes into minute particulars which
savour of the historical rather than of the prophetical. All this
is contrary to the genius of any prophecy, which for a long time
precedes the events described.

(2.) The mention by name of Cyrus (xliv. 28, xlv. 1) is with-
out parallel. The fact of such a mention shows that Cyrus was
already on the throne.

(8.) Predictions so long beforehand as the time of Isaiah, when
Babylon was a mere provincial and tributary kingdom belonging
to the Assyrian domain, could be of no interest to the then liv-
ing generation. Neither Isaiah nor they knew or cared anythino-
about Babylon. It looks like mere soothsayinrf or fortune-tell in/if,
to utter such predictions at such a period. And above all, how
could Isaiah himself say so much about deliverance from exile, and

§ 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS. 95

dwell so long and minutely upon it, when he has said nothing of
the Jews being carried away into captivity, nor uttered any
threats of this nature ?

(4.) The whole strain is liortatory^ and addressed, in this
shape, to those then living in exile. The writer addresses them
as having present duties to do ; prays for them as already in
distress and danger ; and in fact adjusts his whole discourse as
if it were an epistle to the exiles.

(5.) The writer in chap, xl — xlvii, appeals to ancient prophecy
respecting the Babylonish exile. In Isaiah's time, who was there
that had already written such predictions ?

(6.) Why does not Jeremiah, when he predicts the return
from exile (xxix. xxx. al.), appeal to the predictions of Isaiah,
in the way of confirmation, in case they already existed ?

These are the main arguments on which they rely, with the
exception of those drawn from the impossibihty of miracles, and
from the style and manner of the alleged adscititious parts. A
few remarks only can be made here respecting them.

As to No. 2, which respects the mention of Cyrus by name,
the passage in 1 Kings xiii. 2, is a parallel case. Agag^ in Num.
xxiv. 7, seems to be another. Besides, the name Cyrus is, in all
probability, like that of Pharaoh^ a mere nomen dignitatis, appli-
cable to more than one king. The proper name of Cyrus appears
to have been Agradates. In case the matter is so understood,
nothing more particular than a reference to a Persian king is
contained in the prediction. In respect to No. 8, it cannot be
said with truth that Isaiah and his contemporaries knew nothing
of Babylon, and felt no interest to know anything about it, after
one reads Isa. xxxix. which contains an explicit prediction, that
the descendants of Hezekiah should be carried to Babylon, and
be eunuchs in the palace there. In Micah iv. 9, 10, is a pre-
diction of the same tenor. Of course this involves the destiny
of the nation (Micah expressly applies it to the nation) as well
as of its king. Is not this " saying something" about being
carried into exile ? And does not the deliverance which follows
come in its proper place ?

The hortatory strain, objected to the early composition in No. 4,
would be convincing, if we could show that the spirit of prophe-
cy could not anticipate future circumstances. Most of the
exhortations are of such a nature as to constitute preaching
applicable to any or all periods, in those ancient times. The

96 § 4, LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

appeal to ancient prophecy (No. 5), does not necessarily involve
any thing more ancient than what Isaiah himself had uttered,
or at any rate Micah. In Micah iv. 9, 10, the Babylonish cap-
tivity is very plainly and expressly predicted; and Micah was a
contemporary of Isaiah. In respect to No. 6, Jeremiah no more
appeals to Micah than he does to Isaiah. The argumentum ex
silentio has little force indeed in a case of this nature.

Finally, I deem it proper to add, that the whole dispute in
respect to the pseudo-Isaiah, is after all a matter of less import-
ance, in a theological point of view, than many have deemed it
to be. If real prophets are allowed to have written the alleged
adscititious parts of the book, then the authority of the book is
not impinged, at any rate is not impugned. But most of the
recent critics refuse to admit the existence of such men, i. e.
to admit them as being properly ifispired men. But such as do
admit of the real prophetic origin of the adscititious part (so
called) may ask. If other prophetic works are of Divine authori-
ty, why are not these also ? It is not pretended, even by the
better class of neological critics, that these parts of Isaiah were
written post evenium. If written before, they are predictions.
Merely as a theologian., then, I should have little to object to
the compound nature of the book before us. It is in fact of little
or no theological or doctrinal importance which way this question
is decided. But as a critic, I have serious doubts whether recent
criticism has yet made its way clear. There are obstacles in its
path, which it seems rather to leap over than to remove.

In the mean time, it must be confessed that there are some
obstacles in the way of other and the older critics. The graphic
description of desolations in Edom and Judea, which is contain-
ed in chap. Ixiii. Ixiv. seems to plead strongly in favour of the
idea, that those desolations had actually taken place. Above
all, the difficulty of supposing a deep and present interest, which
the Isaiah of Hezekiah's reign had, or could well have, in the
return from the Babylonish exile, when he has not anywhere
dwelt at length upon the occurrence of being carried into exile;
and the unparalleled length and particularity of the descriptions
or predictions respecting this return ; do constitute difficulties,
it must be confessed, in the way of the older exegesis, which are
entitled to serious consideration. Such, it must be conceded
also, is not the manner of most prophets, in regard to mere
civil or political events. Things of present interest and of im-

§ 4. LITRRATURE OF THE HKDREWS. 97

pending danger, are for the most part before them, and are the
subjects of prophecy. And if Isa. xl — Ixvi. can be viewed as
coming from the pen of a prophet in exile, not long before the
return from it, its graphic descriptions and its many develop-
ments of deep feeling seem to be more naturally and easily
accounted for. Is it not possible that another prophet, who
also bore the name of Isaiah, lived and wrote at this period ?
I must confess that I have sometimes suspected this to be the
case. Most knots which we must now cut, would easily be un-
tied by such a solution. The principal objection to it is, that
history has not said anything of such a man; and it is difficult
even to suppose that the name of such a writer, at so late a
period, could be covered with entire darkness. Did we know
that such a person lived and wrote, we might call him deutero-
Isaiah, but surely not (as recent critics do) pseudo- Isaiah. The
mistake of redactors, in later ages, (in case there were two pro-
phets who both bore the name of Isaiah), in arranging and com-
bining their works together, and placing them under one category,
might be very easily accounted for in such a case. I should feel
some inclination to admit this theory, as the most easy and
ready solution of the difficulties, if it could only be rendered
probable that such a person as the deutero- Isaiah could have
lived, and written such a piece of composition as Isa. xl — Ixvi,
and yet not have been conspicuous in Jewish history. The lack
of any notice of such a writer is certainly one of the unaccount-
able things.

One general remark, which in my own view is of great impor-
tance in regard to the whole matter before us, I must make be-
fore I quit the subject. It is only when chaps, xl — Ixvi. are
viewed in the light of a great Blessianic development — a series
of predictions respecting the person, the work, and the king-
dom of Christ — that the earnestness, the protracted length, the
fulness, the deep feeling, the holy enthusiasm, the glowing meta-
phors and similes, and the rich and varied exhibitions of peace
and prosperity, can well be accounted for. The writer, in taking
such a stand-point, uses the exile and the return from it as the
basis of his comparisons and analogies. It was a rich and deeply
interesting source from which he might draw them. Any other
solution of the whole phenomena is, to my mind at least, meagre
and unsatisfactory. On no other ground can I account for it,
that Isaiah so long beforehand should have dwelt on an exile

98 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

and a return from it, which were more than a century distant
from him and his contemporaries.*

In regard to the book of Jonah, it purports to be the work of
Jonah the son of Amittai (Jonah i. 1); and in 2 Kings xiv. 25,
we have an account of Jonah the prophet, of Gath-hepher, a
town in the district of Zebulun (comp. Josh. xix. 13). Of this
latter personage it appears, that he lived and prophesied during
the reign of Jeroboam II., king of Israel, (825 — 784 b.c); of
course, at the time when the Assyrian power was just beginning
to show its strength in western Asia, and might be dreaded by
the Israelites. To him is attributed, by Hitzig and others, the
prophecy against Moab in Isa. xv. xvi. And inasmuch as Isaiah
himself appears to assign this portion of his book to some other
and older prophet than himself (Isa. xvi. 14), no very urgent
objections against this view of the subject seem to press upon us ;
although I do not deem it necessary.

As to the prophecy contained in the book entitled Jonah, (but
little indeed of the book is prediction)^ there has been an endless
diversity of opinion among modern and recent commentators in
regard to the matter and manner of this work. It is clear from
Tobit xiv. 8 ; 2 Mace. vi. 8, and from Josephus' Antiq. IX. 10.
2, that the ancient Jews regarded the whole book as a narrative
of facts. It seems moreover very much as if the Saviour had
given his sanction to it as such; Matt. xii. 40 seq., xvi. 4; Luke
xi. 30. Most of the Christian fathers have done the same ; and
the great body of the older modern commentators have inclined
to follow in the same path. But not so with all. In recent

" Compare with our author's criticisms on Isaiah in the ahove paragraphs, the
admirable work of his countryman, Professor Joseph Addison Alexander of Prince-
ton College, on the Prophecies of Isaiah, lately reprinted in this country under the edi-
torial superintendence of Dr Eadie of Glasgow. Upon every question connected
both with the criticism and the exegesis of these prophecies, that invaluable volume
is so full and satisfactory, as to leave hardly anything to be further desired upon
these points. Nor will the student, we think, feel much disposed to accept Profes-
sor Stuart's theory of a deutero-Isaiah, after a careful perusal of Pi'ofessor Alexan-
der's Introduction to the later prophecies, for although Prof. A. does not direct his
arguments against that theory, but against the still more objectionable hypothesis
of a pseudo-Isaiah, yet his criticism is equally valid against the one as the other. —
Still more recent than Prof. A.'s work, and of the same conservative character of cri-
ticism, is a volume by Carl Paul Caspari of the University of Christiania, entitled,
Beitr'dge zur Einleitung in das Buch lesaia und zur Qeschichte der jesaianischen Zeit,
(Contributions to the Introduction to the Book of Isaiah, and to the History of
Isaiah's Times.) — En.

§ 4. LITERATURE OP THE HEBREWS. 99

times, the Liberals, almost to a man, reject the simple historical
exposition of the book at large ; and not a few, even of those
who are more strict in sentiment, have felt compelled to regard
it as an allegory or parable.

The difficulties alleged to be connected with the book are very
numerous. First, the mission itself to a very distant barbarian
city, the mistress of the eastern world, buried in luxury and ido-
latry, and looking contemptuously on all foreigners — a mission
totally destitute of anything analogous among all the Hebrew
prophets — is thought to be a serious obstacle to the historical
exposition. Then comes a host of other difficulties. The sud-
den and unexpected penitence of the Ninevites, it is said, is in-
credible. More credible would the story have been, if it had
represented them as taking Jonah as a raving maniac. The
book of Kings (2 Kings xiv. 25 seq.), which gives us some notices
of Jonah, takes no notice of such an event. Jonah, ii prophet too,
is represented as expecting to fly from the presence of the Lord,
by going in a ship to Tarshish ! When the lot falls upon Jonah,
as the cause of the tempest which threatened the safety of all
embarked, with the same indifference which before had made him
sleep quietly in the hold of the ship amidst the agitations of the
storm, he proposes to be cast overboard. He is swallowed by a
whale, and after being three days in his belly, he is vomited up
upon the dry land. The second admonition to go to Nineveh is
obeyed. The consequences of this mission have already been
adverted to. Then comes the repining indignation of the pro-
phet, because Nineveh was not actually destroyed. A gourd
comes up in a single night, and grows to such a size as to shelter
Jonah from the burning heat to which he was exposed in his
watch-station. But the next day, a worm eats it at the root,
and it immediately withers. Jonah then wishes to die, rather
than to see his prophecy unfulfilled. These circumstances, it is
averred with the greatest confidence, are all of them either very
improbable or actually impossible.

So they must have been regarded, it would seem, by many in-
terpreters of the book ; for all manner of devices have been re-
sorted to, in order to make out some meaning for it that would
comport with facts which the interpreter deemed probable or
possible.

The principal difficulty is with the matter of being swallowed
up by the fish or whale. A whale, it is said, has not a gullet

100 § 4'. LlTKRATURIi OF THE HIiHKEWS.

large enough to receive a man. Then, it is asked, how coukl
Jonah live in his interior ? How could such a monster approach
the land near enough to throw him upon it ? These and the
like questions have been discussed, until it would seem that not
much more remains to be said, or even invented.

Of the Rabbinical conceits about Jonah, I need say no more
than to mention, that one of them is, that the whale swam round
the whole continent of Africa in the three days during which
Jonah was within him ; that he came back by the way of the
Red Sea ; and that he went through the subterranean passage
from that sea to the Mediterranean, and thus brought Jonah
safe to his home again. According to some of the Rabbies
Jonah had a not uncomfortable berth for such a long and rapid
voyage ; and, looking through the whale's eyes, he saw a great
many wonders of the deep. Besides this, he performed many
devotional exercises. Even Josephus {Antiq. IX. 10. 2) makes
the whale to throw up the prophet upon the shores of the Euxine.
Others have invented a more facile solution of the whole diffi-
culty. The whale {'x^, Y\i. fish) is turned into a boat with a whale
painted on its stern or how; or it may be a boat of the whalers,
as wo speak of a whale-boat. Even Godfrey Less has broached
such an exegesis; Verm. Schri/t. p. 161. So Jonah, after three
three days' tossing, is represented as being driven to the land,
and thrown upon it by the waves. But the difficulty here is,
that the account of Jonah (i. 17) states, that the Lord had pre-
pared ^'^-f>| ^-\, a great fish, to swallow up the prophet, where
the epithet great has of course a very appropriate meaning. But
how is it with a great boat? Then again, the vomiting (^S'^'^)

upon the land — appropriate enough to the great fish, but how
the boat vomited out Jonah, looks rather problematical. Others,
therefore, not liking these explanations of the narration, say,
that Jonah, when thrown overboard, found a dead fish, on which
he got a station, and was thrown, at last, upon the land un-
harmed. But still, the swalloiving up of Jonah, and the vomiting
of him out, are lost sight of, oven in this exegesis. To remedy
this, ingenuity has contrived to make Jonah cut a hole in the
fish, so that ho could lodge in his interior ; and from this he
came out, when cast upon the land. But even here, Jonah
seems rather to manage the fish, than to be managed by him.
The view attributed to the famous Von der Hardt, who wrote

§ i. LITERATURE OT TIIK IIEHREWS. 101

several volumes upon Jonah, viz. that Jonah put up at a tavern
which had the sign of a whale, is closely allied to this.

Futile, not to say ridiculous, attempts are all these and the
like, to do away the force of a narration, which plainly savours
of the miraculous. Not but that the whole matter, in respect
to the fsh, might be shown to be a natural possibility. The
Ca7iis Carcharias, common in the Mediterranean, can surely
swallow a man, for it has done so ; and so can some other fishes.
That a man should preserve life for a while in the stomach of a
fish, under certain circumstances, is no impossibility. Living
reptiles often spend years in the human stomach ; some of them,
moreover, are such as need air for respiration, (as indeed what
living and breathing creature does not?) As to throwing up
Jonah upon the land, there are places enough of deep water up
to the very edge of the sea-shore, where this might be done by
a large fish. The objection that the stomach of the fish must
have dissolved and digested Jonah, is of no weight ; for every one
acquainted with physiology knows, that living flesh does not di-
gest in the least in the stomach. The gastric juice has no power
over it. And last but not least — the God who meant to punish,
but not to destroy, Jonah, could arrange all these circumstances,
and also preserve his life, in such a way as is stated in the naa^
ration. The same God could cause the fish to throw him out of
his stomach; the Bible affirms that he did ; Jon. ii. 10.

So would I say, moreover, of the gourd, and its withering, al-
though the latter circumstance is pressed by no special difficulty.
Its growth, however, must be supernatural. The panic, the
fast, and the penitence of the Ninevites, are doubtless all circum-
stances extraordinary and without a parallel in sacred history.
Yet surely they cannot be deemed impossibilities. The mission
of Jonah to a distant heathen country, in his day scarcely known
among the Jews, and not yet having made any incursion upon
Palestine, is undoubtedly one of the most serious difficulties that
the book presents. The mission of a man who had such a tem-
per as Jonah, to execute a commission so grave, stands next to
this. And then — what was the object ? What was achieved ?
What had the Jeics to do, at that time, with the Ninevites ? It
is easy to ask many questions of this kind ; but it is not so easy
to answer them satisfactorily. The book itself presents us with
no key to unlock these mysteries.

I cannot much wonder, therefore, that allegory ov parable has

3 02 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

been resorted to by so many interpreters (and of different sen-
timents too in theology), in order to explain the book. Jonah,
they say, designed to teach the Hebrew nation to feel more libe-
rally towards the heathen ; to show them that even the latter
were more susceptible of moral impression than hardened Jews;
and to impress them with the idea that God was the common
Father of all men — of the Gentiles as well as of the Jews. He
wrote this allegory, as they aver, in order to accomplish this end ;
just as the Saviour uttered the parable of the good Samaritan,
and of the rich man and Lazarus, or of the sower, in order to
illustrate and confirm certain moral truths. In itself this exhi-
bits nothing impossible or even improbable. Yet the want of
all intimations of this nature in the book itself, is somewhat of
an objection against this mode of exegesis ; although it has been
adopted, for substance, by such men as J. D. Michaelis, Herder,
Eichhorn, Staiidlin, Meyer, Miiller, Niemeyer, and others. In
the Gospels, and generally in the prophets, the context gives us a
key to the allegory or the parable. I am constrained also to
ask : Can what the Saviour says about Jonah and the Ninevites,
be reconciled with the idea that the book is only an allegory?
The first spontaneous prompting of the mind seems to be an an-
swer in the negative. Yet it is asked : Do we not every day
refer to the Good Samaritan, and to the Prodigal Son, in the
same way, as if they were real historical personages? And in
fact one cannot deny this ; but still there is this difference be-
tween the two cases, viz, that in the Gospels the nature of the
allegory is palpable. However, at all events, this method of in-
terpretation is much preferable to one lately come into vogue,
through Goldhorn, Gesenius, De Wette, and Knobel, viz. that
the book has only a few facts at the basis, simple and credible,
while all the rest is a mythic romance — a narrative made out of
floating popular stories. Jonah, they say, was a prophet. He
uttered oracular threats against Nineveh. He made a voyage
to sea; was shipwrecked; narrowly escaped the sharks; return-
ed to his prophetic duty,- but was indignant that his first pre-
dictions had not been fulfilled, and therefore wished for death,
through fear of disgrace. So much they allow to be fact. Then
as to the mytldc part, it comes, as they think, from the story
among the Greeks, that Hercules, at Sigeum, rescued Hesione,
the daughter of Laomedon king of Troy, from the jaws of the
sea-monster to which she was devoted. In order to do this, he

§ 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS. 1 03

sprang himself into the monster's jaws, was swallowed down, and
there he fought three days and nights in his belly, destroyed him,
and came out alive with only the loss of his hair, which had been
burnt up by the heat within ; Diod. Sic. VI. 42. Ovid. Met. XI.
211 seq. Tzetzes ad Lycoph. Cassand. 33. This myth, as some
of the recent critics suppose, was combined with another, the scene
of which is at the shore of Joppa. There Perseus rescued from a
sea-monster Andromeda, the daughter of king Cepheus; and
Pliny {Hist. Nat. V. 14) and Jerome {Comm. in Jon. I. 3) tell
us, that the people of that place were accustomed to show to
strangers the rock where Andromeda was chained, and the huge
bones of the sea-monster; [whales' bones no doubt]. Both of
these fables are united, and forthwith out comes the onyth of
Jonah. So even Rosenmiiller. To this I have only to say:

" Humano capiti cervicera pictor equinam
Jungeve si velit, et varias inducere plumas
Undique collatis membris ; ut turpiter atrum
Desinat in piscem mulier formosa superne ;
Spectatum admissi, risum teneatis, amici ?"*

What others may do, who have more power over their risihles
than I, is not for mc to say. But for myself, I cannot do other-
wise than Horace supposes his friends would do, when looking
at the strange production of the painter whom he describes.
Winer, (not restrained most surely by any orthodox notions from
admitting neological exegesis), says, in respect to this mythical
explanation: "It always must appear very improbable, that a
Hebrew writer would have found any occasion of working over
the materials of a Philistine Myth ;"" Blh. Lex. art. Jonas. It
is even worse than Horace's supposed picture ; and so we may
emphatically ask: Bisum teneatis, amici? How it is possible thus
to overlook the very genius of the Hebrews, and the nature and
design of the sacred books, and to suppose that the book of Jonah
was written with such views, and admitted to a place in the sa-
cred canon — I leave for those to explain, who have done the deed
of making up the monstrous compound. I wash my hands of such
high treason against the fundamental laws of sacred criticism.

* In English thus: " If a painter should undertake to join a horse's neck to a hu-
man head, and to cover with variegated feathers the limbs collected from all quar-
ters, so that a woman beautiful in the upper part should disgustingly end in a black
fish ; if admitted to such a sight, my friends, could you keep yourselves from laugh-
ingV'—Ars Poet. 1— .'>.

104 §4'. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

Doubtless the question will be put by the reader : And what
then, after such remarks on the exegesis of others — what do you
yourself regard as the object of the book of Jonah I What es-
timate do you put on the narration ? So far as I am able, I am
willing to give an answer; but it must be brief, after dwelling so
long upon this book.

When the scribes and Pharisees said to Christ, " Master, we
would see a sign from thee," he told them that " the men of Nin-
eveh should rise in judgment with that generation, and condemn
it, because they repented at the preaching of Jonah," and then
immediately added that a " greater than Jonah" was before
them ; Matt. xii. 41, Luke xi. 32. Did he not mean now to com-
pare one historical person and transaction with another ? If the
Ninevites had been known and regarded only as an imaginary
people — the offspring of allegory or romance — there would be no
difficulty in the case. The comparison then might be placed on
the same ground on which we now place the conduct and person
of any one actually living, when we compare him and his de-
meanour with the prodigal son, or with the rich man and Lazarus.
But the Ninevites are surely historical and veritable personages,
as much so as the queen of the South, who is joined with them in
Matt. xii. 42 ; and the force of the Saviour's appeal is greatly
strengthened by the supposition that they are real personages.
Not a word from Jesus to make us suspect that he regarded the
matter of the Ninevites in any other light than that of a real
historical fact. Again, when Jesus says to the Pharisees and
Sadducees, who were seeking a sign from heaven and tempting
him, that " no sign should be given them but the sign of the
prophet Jonah," (Matt. xii. 39, 40, xvi. 4), does he not compare
the abode of Jonah for three days in the belly of the fish, with
his own abode in the grave during the same period? Matt. xii. 40.
In other words : Does he not compare one historical fact with
another ? It seems so. I know not how to throw ofi' the im-
pression which these passages make upon my mind. When
Paul tells us, in Gal. iv. 24, that the narrative in Genesis con-
cerning the son of Hagar and also of Sarah is allegorized, we
know where we are and what to expect. But is there anything
in the passages just cited in respect to Jonah, which is adapted
to make an impression that the story of Jonah andof the Nine-
vites is an allegory ? If there be, it has escaped my notice.

The authority of Christ, then, seems to bind me to admit the

§ 4. LITEKATURE 01^ TIIK IlEBKEWS. 105

facts as they are stated in the narrative of Jonah. They are in-
deed strange facts apparently; but not therefore untrue. They
plainlyaro not 'haposslhllitles; although I acknowledge,|very readily,
that they are improbabilities, when compared with the common
course of things. But are not all miracles of this character? Or,
putting aside (as I would) absolute miracles in regard to the things
recognized by Christ with respect to Jonah, do they not border
upon the marvellous? Certainly they do; but is all that the Old
and New Testament contains, which is of the like character, to
be therefore rejected ? Neologists say : Yes. But the believer
in Divine revelation has no need to join in this answer. He may
rank the occurrences in the book of Jonah with other occurrences
related in the Scriptures, which are of a similar, i, e. of a mi-
raculous, character.

So much ioY facts. Now for the object of the book. This is
indeed a problem of difficult solution. What can it be, unless
it is to inculcate on the narrow-minded and bigoted Jews, (there
were many such), the great truth, that God regards the humble
and penitent everywhere with favour; and that even the haughty,
cruel, idolatrous and domineering heathen, in case they repent
and humble themselves, become the subjects of his compassion
and clemency, and are more acceptable than the haughty Jew,
claiming descent from Abraham, but still the devoted slave of
ritual observances and of his own evil passions ?

So much lies on the face of the book. There is no strange
doctrine in it, therefore, but a plain and simple truth is illustrated
and impressively taught by it. No difficulty, indeed, of a doc-
trinal nature attends the work. Whatever difficulty there is, it
lies in the tenor of the narration.

The only question over which darkness seems to a believer in
miracles to hover, is, how Jonah alone, of all the Hebrew pro-
phets, should be a missionary to iho heathen? And, (as connected
with this), why was he sent, in the reign of Jeroboam II. to per-
form such a service? My ignorance as to those things which
would make out a satisfactory answer to these questions, can
prove nothing against the facts themselves. The time when he
was sent, is indeed of no great importance. These facts, more-
over, are in themselves so far from being impossibilities, that, if
admitted, they actually help to commend the prophetic dispen-
sation to our feelings. We are heartily glad, to see in what
manner the Divine Being recognizes the relation of all parts of

106 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

our race to himself, and how willing he is to pardon the penitent.
The unusual occurrence of such an event as the mission of Jonah,
and the apparent strangeness of the whole matter, are about the
only things, in the end, that afford any serious doubts or difficul-
ties to the believing mind. But I do not think these to be sat-
isfactory or vaHd reasons for rejecting the book, or for turning
it into an allegory or an ethnico-Judaic myth.

But I must not pursue any further the examination of these
particular works. I return to our Chaldean period of prophecy,
which extends down to the end of the exile; I have only to add
here, in regard to the prophetic order, that we have no history
of any other than those prophets before mentioned. If there
were men capable of writing such compositions as the so-called
pseudo-Isaiah, then why, as has already been suggested, is no
mention made of them, no hint given respecting them ? Could
men capable of writing in that manner, have lived in entire ob-
scurity, while Zephaniah, Obadiah, Haggai and Malachi, not far
from the same period, are all distinctly recognized and well known?
At least this is something, which those, who feel so free on all
occasions to doubt, may allow us the privilege of doubting, until
the matter is better cleared up.

In addition to the anonymous prophets already adverted to,
(who are brought into being by recent criticism), another pro-
phet, it seems, must be reckoned. Jer. 1. li. is thought by
some critics of name to have been composed about the middle of
the exile, and therefore not by Jeremiah the well-known prophet,
who most probably must have been dead before that time. But
the arguments drawn from the diction, in this case, surely make
against this, if the whole of the resemblances to Jeremiah are
set over against the alleged discrepancies ; and there is no his-
torical or critical necessity of supposing the chapters in question
to be an interpolation.

If we turn now from this brief survey of the prophets who
lived and acted during the Chaldean period, to a moment's con-
sideration of their characteristics of style, we shall be struck
with the greatly altered tone of their compositions. The bre-
vity, simplicity, majesty, and beauty of the golden age, have in
a large measure passed by. The dialect, though still Hebrew in
all its substantial elements, differs much from that of Isaiah,
Joel, and Nahum. Allegory, figure, symbol, and parable, are
frequent almost everywhere ; and in fact they make up almost

§ 4, LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS. 107

the whole of Ezekiel. Jeremiah has a great deal of historic
matter, and is less inclined than his contemporary to allegory
and symbol ; but still the tenor of his style differs so exceeding-
ly from that of the previous writers already named, that one
can hardly persuade himself, that more time than is usually
allowed did not elapse between the Assyrian and the Chaldean
periods of prophetic composition. As to pathos, tenderness,
deep-felt grief on account of the desolations of Judea, and still
more on account of its wickedness, there is nothing in the writers
of any age which exceeds some parts of Jeremiah.

Another circumstance should be noted. Instead of employ-
ing 'poetry as the vehicle of instruction, which for the most part
the prophets of the golden age did, the compositions during the
period in question were generally in prose; but not unfrequent-
ly in a kind of measured prose. Habakkuk is indeed an excep-
tion to this, as well as to the style in general of his times. How
now shall we class Isaiah xl — Ixvi, with the poetry of this Chal-
dean period, when the former consists of some of the most
symmetrical poetry to be found in all the Hebrew Scriptures ?
If the so-called pseudo-Isaiah be indeed of later composition, it
stands out a singular phenomenon amidst the other prophetic
remains of that age. A writer of that day, on a theme so in-
teresting as that which is presented in Isa. xl — Ixvi, who could
with such wonderful success transport himself into the midst of
the golden age, and adopt its general manner, imagery, and
diction, one would be prone to think must have had some
memorial left of him.

Knobel alleges, that the prophets of the Chaldean period ex-
hibit more attachment to the ritual Law, than those of the
preceding era. What little foundation there is for this remark,
seems to me to rest merely on the fact, that Jeremiah and
Ezekiel were both priests as well as prophets. How natural
then that they should look somewhat more to the violated ritual,
as well as to the moral law.

We have no history of the Jews during their exile, excepting
the hints in Jeremiah and Ezekiel respecting them. But these
do not disclose to us any particulars respecting any true prophets
of the Lord, if such there were among them. In Jer. xxix. we
have an account of several false prophets among the exiles, by
the name of Ahab, Zedekiah, and Shcmaiah. The two former
were roasted by the king of Babylon in the fire (Jer. xxix. 22),

108 S 4.

I-ITEHATUIJE OF THE HEBREWS.

probably because they excited their countrymen to uneasiness in
their exile, by false promises made to them. Jeremiah strongly
denounces these false prophets; and in a similar manner does
Ezekiel denounce men of the same class, who were flattering the
exiles with deceitful promises, Ezek. xiii. 1 — 16. In like manner
the false shepherds of Israel, (probably false prophets, see on
p. 80 above) are severely rebuked in Ezek. xxxiv. May we not,
then, in the absence of direct testimony, assume as altogether
probable the continued existence of true prophets among the
Hebrews in their exile? False coin does not usually make its
appearance where there is no true coin. The analogy of former
and of subsequent periods would seem to plead in favour of the
position, that among the exiles in Babylon were more or less of
true prophetical teachers. The people were humbled by this
exile. They grew better under their chastisements. Many of
them sighed for a return to Palestine, and a renewal of their re-
ligious state and privileges. And when they did return from exile,
in consequence of the proclamation by Cyrus who gave them liber-
ty, they had such men for leaders as Zerubbabel and Jeshua the
high-priest ; also the prophets Zechariah and Haggai, Ezra v. 1 .
These, and in the sequel Malachi, contributed important aid in
re-establishing the Jewish commonwealth and worship. We can
hardly suppose, therefore, that the Jews were at any time dur-
ing their exile entirely destitute of true prophets, although we
have no explicit account of such persons among them.

In 536 B.C. Cyrus attained to the sole regency of the Medo-
Persian empire, and during the same year he published his edict,
permitting and even exhorting the Jews to go up to Jerusalem
and rebuild the temple. About 70,000 persons returned to Pal-
estine (Ez. ii. QQ ; Neh. vii. QQ seq.), the same year, in conse-
quence of this edict, having Zerubbabel a descendant of David as
their civil head, and Jeshua as their high-priest. Great trouble
and hindrance were soon given to the Jews by their heathen
and envious neighbours, so that the rebuilding of the temple
and city was often interrupted and long delayed. For the fol-
lowing seventy-five yeai's we have no particular account of their
religious state, and only a few notices of their civil condition.
Who were their prophets, if prophets they had, excepting Haggai
and Zechariah (Ezra v. 1), we know not. After Darius Hys-
taspcs had come to the throne of Persia (521 b.c), i.e. some
fifteen or more years after the edict of Cyrus, those prophets

§ 4. LITERATURK OI' Tllli IIKHIIFAVS. 109

contributed much in stirring up the Jews to go on with their
teniple-builUinir. In the sixth year of Darius, (516 n.c), was
this great undertaking finished. From that time down to the
seventh year of the reign of Artaxcrxes Longimanus (457 n.c. —
or as some maintain 460), we have no historic notices in the
Jewish Scriptures of the state of the nation. In the year just
named, Ezra, " a ready scribe in the law of Moses, which the
Lord had given," came up to Jerusalem from Babylon, by leave
of the Persian king, and brought with him between two and
three thousand of the exiles, Ezra vii. viii. Here Ezra employ-
ed himself for several years in the accomplishment of a reforma-
tion both in worship and in morals; for both of these had greatly
degenerated after the death of Zerubbabel and Jeshua. In
about ten years, Nehemiah, the cup-bearer of Artaxerxes, by
leave of this king, paid a visit to Palestine, and found the walls
of Jerusalem in a ruinous state. These he repaired, and being
made governor (Tirshatha) of the place, he resided there some
twelve years (Neh. vi. 14), and not only did he fortify the city,
but contributed greatly to bring every thing, both civil and reli-
gious, into a state of order and regularity. In this he was much
assisted by Ezra (Neh. viii.) who took the lead in all religious
matters. After twelve years he returned to Persia, according
to agreement, but within a few days he obtained leave to go
back to Palestine, Neh. xiii. 6. There he spent the rest of his
life. But of his further actions, excepting for a short period after
his return, we have no account ; and the history of the Jews
after the Babylonish exile ends with the doings of Nehemiah,
i. e. about 434 b.c.

It is said of Nehemiah (Neh. vi, 7), that he had appointed
prophets to preach in Jerusalem. Who these were is not said, in
the passage to which reference has been made. But that Mulachi
was among them scarcely admits of a doubt. That he was later
than Haggai and Zechariah, and lived after the building of the
temple was completed, is quite manifest to any one who will take
pains to consult and compare the following passages ; viz. as to
the completion of the temple, Mai, i. 10; iii. 1, 10; as to duties
neglected by priests and Levites, comp. Mai, i, 6; ii. 1, 8, 9,
with Neh. xiii. 10, 11, 28 — 30; as to the people's withholding
gifts for the temple, comp. Mai. iii. 8 — 10, with Neh. xiii. 10, 12,
41 ; as to marriage with foreigners, comp. Mai. ii. 10 — 16, with
Neh. xiii. 23 seq. ; as to oppression of the poor, comp. Mai. iii.

110 § 4. LITERATURE OF THE HEBRKWa.

5, with Neh. v. It would seem then that Malachi flourished
440 B.C. When he died we know not ; but it is conceded on all
hands, that he closed the series of that very extraordinary class
of men, the Hebrew Prophets.

We have then, after the return from exile, only three prophets
whose names and works are known to us. These are Zechariah
Haggai, and Malachi. But we find kindred spirits in Zerub-
babel, Jeshua, Ezra, and Nehemiah ; and specially does it seem
to me that Ezra had much to do with the republication, ar-
rangement, and completion of the Jewish canon. But of this
more in the sequel.

I have as yet made no mention of Daniel^ because he was not
a prophet among the people of Palestine, although born in that
land. He was very young at the time when Nebuchadnezzar
came up against Jerusalem (606 b.c), and was carried away to
Babylon as a hostage by the king, Dan. i. 1 — 6. Most proba-
bly he was the son of a nobleman, or perhaps of the royal family.
We have an account of him in the third year of Cyrus (5.34 b.c.)
so that he must have lived to the age of eighty or ninety years,
Dan. X. 1. He might be placed among the prophets of the third
or Chaldean period ; for some of his visions were before the close
of the Babylonish monarchy ; yet some of them also were after
the edict of liberation to the Jews was issued by Cyrus. Recent
criticism has ascribed his book to some writer in the time of the
Maccabees ; and some have even denied that any such distin-
guished person as Daniel lived at the Babylonish court,''and held
an office there. The writer of the book, it is averred, has merely
feigned such a character, in order that he might compose a M-ork
suited to console the Jews who were suffering under the perse-
cution of Antiochus Epiphanes, as the more ancient Jews had
done under their Babylonish oppressors. Of course the book of
Daniel is ranked, by critics of this class, as last of all in the
prophetic Scriptures.

It would be inconsistent with my present object, to turn aside
here, in order to vindicate the genuineness of the book of Daniel.
It has found an able advocate in the work of Hengstenberg on
its authenticity. Authentic des Daniel, 1831; and also in Hiiver-
nick's recent Einleit. ins Alt. Testament. Nearly all the argu-
ments employed to disprove its genuineness, have their basis
more or less directly in the assumption, that miraculous events
are impossibilities. Of course, all the extraordinary occurrences

§ 4. LITERATURE OK THE HEBKEW3. Ill

related in the book of Daniel, and all the graphic predictions of
events, are, under the guidance of this assumption, stricken from
the list of probabihties, and even of possibilities. All that is
said of Antiochus Epiphanes, and other Syrian and Grecian
kings, is prophetia post eventum, i. e. real narration of events
past, rather than prediction of events to come. Beyond the
objections which are founded entirely on these assumptions, there
is little, as it seems to me, to convince an enlightened and well-
balanced critical reader, that the book is supposititious. After
examining the subject with much attention, I must confess my-
self to be far from believing that the objections to the authenti-
city of the book can maintain their stand, before the bar of en-
lightened and truly liberal criticism.

But be this as it may, it matters but little to the main object
of my present work. All agree that the book of Daniel was
written a considerable time before the Christian era ; and none
can well deny that our Saviour has expressly recognised it, in
Mark xiii. 14, Matt. xxiv. 15, as a book of prophecy. Josephus
bestows upon it more commendations than upon any book of the
Old Testament, Antiq. lib. x. I am aware how much has been
said, on account of the Jewish classification of the book in ques-
tion among the Hagiography or □"i^^niD. ^^^^^ indicates, it is
averred, that the book was composed very late, i. e. a very con-
siderable time after the other prophetic books, and that the
Jews did not deem it worthy of a place among their prophetic
books in general. The questions to which these allegations give
rise, are of importance, and some of them will be resumed and
examined in the sequel. But nothing more can be said respect-
ing them at present, inasmuch as we are bound now to pursue
the interesting theme that has so long occupied our attention.
We must not take our leave of the Hebrew prophets without
subjoining a few remarks in respect to the character of these
extraordinary men.

The mental endowments of many of them are sufficiently dis-
closed by the works which they have left behind them. There
is indeed among them, as among the writers of the New Testa-
ment, a great diversity of style, and evidently also of taste and
capacity. The Spirit of God, when he speaks by men, docs not
create new mental and psychological powers, but employs those
already existing, and acts by enlightening, and sanctifying, and
guiding them, still leaving each individual to develope his own

112 § 4, LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

peculiar characteristics of taste and mental endowments. But
if there be any compositions of the kind which exceed many of
the Psalms, much of Isaiah, Joel, Habakkuk, Nahum, and not
a few portions of Jeremiah ; if there ever have been any of any
age or nation down to the present hour, which exceed them, I
have no knowledge of such compositions, and do not expect to
attain to such a knowledge. The prophets need only to be read
with intelligence, with candour, and with some good measure of
oriental taste, (I believe this to be indispensable), to take, in
one's estimation, an exalted, I would say the most exalted, place
among the literary productions of any or of all ages.

Other works of the Old Testament, indeed, besides those
which we of the present day usually name prophecy, most pro-
bably came from the pen of the prophets. But of these, as they
are anonymous, I do not speak at present. I shall come to the
consideration of them, when we have dismissed our present
theme. Let us now, at the close of this view of the Hebrew
writers, teachers, and means of instruction, bring distinctly be-
fore us the question :

What was the moral and religious character of the Hebrew
prophets? My answer must be brief; but I cannot forego it, as
their character stands in so intimate a connection with the rise
of the Old Testament Scriptures. I must say, then, from both
a general and particular survey of their history, that as a body
they stand on a lofty pre-eminence above all their contempo-
raries, whether judges, kings, priests, Levites, or the common
people of the Hebrews. I speak, of course, of true prophets,
not of pretenders, soothsayers, and fortune-tellers. Not a few
of these, from time to time, arose and had a baleful influence.
But the Mosaic Law condemns them, and the true prophets of
God denounce them in unmeasured terras.

From the first appearance of Hebrew prophets on the stage
of action, down to Malachi the last of the series, prominent
traits of character mark them as a distinct class of men. One
sees in them, at all times and places, an animated zeal for the
worship of the only living and true God, and a correspondent, in-
extinguishable, irreconcileable, steadfast hatred and contempt of
all idols and false gods, of their worship, their worshippers, their
rites and ceremonies. Conscious of the integrity and upright-
ness of their own designs, the prophets never shrink from urging
their views upon all around them. Do threats of violence, per-

§ 4. LlTKIlATUUb: OF TUli IIKBUliWS. 113

eocutioii, or even martyrdom, ensue, they never shrink back from
their undertaking. It matters not with them whom they are
addressing, be they kings, princes, nobles, priests, Levites, or
common people. They have but one and the same message for
all, and that is, the necessity of sincere and hearty obedience to
the laws of God. Their courage and resolution never fail, or
even seem to abate. Whether Nathan appears before David to
accuse him of adultery and murder; or Elijah before Ahab to
remonstrate against his oppression and idolatry; or Jeremiah
before Jehoiakim or Zedekiah to admonish them and their cor-
rupt courtiers; or Urijah before Jehoiakim, who persecuted even
unto death; it matters not as to the fidelity, boldness, zeal, and
constancy of the prophet. They do not appear even to have
asked themselves, whether they might not avoid persecution, or
danger, or death, by withholding their message. Enough that
they felt commissioned to say: Tims saith Jehovah. With them
it seems to have made no practical difference, whether the raes-
sasre connected with their commission was to be addressed to the
king on the throne, or to the beggar on the dunghill.

On the side of right, justice, humanity, uprightness, sincerity,
true kindness, we are always sure to find them. The widow,
the orphan, and the oppressed, they are ever ready to succour.
They spare none who violate the sacred principles of the moral
virtues; surely not those who hanker after idols. On the side
of law, order, decorum, peaceful demeanour, we never fail to meet
with them. Their zeal for the only living and true God, his
honour, his worship, his ordinances, never cools, and never per-
mits them to temporize or hesitate, when any of these are in
jeopardy. We always find them, moreover, to possess rational
and spiritual views of religion. Rites and ceremonies they re-
gard as only subordinate means to an ultimate and higher end.
Bigotry and superstition form no ingredients of their character.
Tiie ^losaic rites with them are but rites, and nothing more.
That these were only the shadow of good things to come, is the sum
of all they ever said, or would say, respecting them.

With all this, they were unflinching, undeviating patriots,
having the prosperity of their country most deeply at heart.
When kings and counsellors erred, and formed dangerous alli-
ances, they always remonstrated boldly. They did not even
wait to be sent for and consulted, on such occasions. Urged on
by the fear of God and the love of country, they spake with en-

I

114 § 4;. LITERATURE OF THE HEBREWS.

tire freedom on subjects pertaining to the weal of the common-
wealth, to the king on his throne even when his menacing
executioners were around him, or to the raging multitude who
were ready to tear them in pieces.

With all this boldness, yea, indomitable courage, they do not
appear to have been rash, or impetuous, or foolishly prodigal of
life by exposing themselves unnecessarily to danger which they
might anticipate. Elijah, after delivering his prophetic message,
fled from the face of Ahab and Jezebel, who meant to take his
life; 1 Kings xvii. 1 — 6, The good Obadiah concealed a hun-
dred prophets in caves, and supplied them with nutriment, when
Jezebel persecuted them with relentless fury; 1 Kings xviii. 4.
Elisha bars his door against the approach of an assassin; 2 Kings
vi. SI, 82. Jeremiah hid himself from the rage of his persecu-
tors; Jer. xxxvi. 26. The like was done in other cases; and so
was it afterwards done by the Saviour, and by his apostles.
Yet when duty called, suffering and death were met with equa-
nimity and unshrinking boldness, by these faithful ministers of
virtue and piety. In all this, they differed widely from the rav-
ing fanatics, who now and then, in every age, make their appear-
ance, and rush on death with a fool-hardiness which makes no
distinction between the claims of conscience and duty and those
of mere enthusiasm and momentary excitement.

To have maintained such a character, and this through, it
may be, a long life, required an unshaken confidence in God.
This the prophets did doubtless possess. They were conscious
of something within, to which the world w^ere strangers, and
which, therefore, the world did not well appreciate. Look at
the demeanour of Isaiah, after having severely reproved Ahaz for
his league with the Assyrian king, and predicted the overrunning
of the kingdom by the Assyrian forces; he seals up the prophecy,
and suspending his reputation and not improbably his life on
the issue, he waits quietly the fulfilment of what he had pre-
dicted; Isa. viii. 16 — 18. A most vivid picture is drawn in Jer.
XV. 10 — 21; XX. 7 — 18, of the agonies which this prophet en-
dured in the execution of his office, and also of the fidelity and
confidence which he still exhibited. It would be easy to enlarge
this portion of our sketch, by adding many instances of the like
nature; but our present limits forbid.

It has been brought as a matter of accusation against the
prophets, that they were rigid and severe, not only against the

§ 4. UTERATUBE OF THE HEBREWS. 115

heathen in general, but against their own fellow-countrymen
whenever they betrayed any symptoms of idolatrous inclinations.
This charge I do not feel much interested to repel. If the
Mosaic law can stand before the tribunal of criticism in respect
to matters of this nature, sure I am that the prophets may
maintain their position. Their prophecies against the heathen
are to be regarded in a two-fold light, viz., in that of religion and
in that oi politics. The heathen were all idolaters. They were
of course naturally enemies to the Jews, who despised their idol-
gods. The heathen aimed to destroy both the religion and the
national independence of the Hebrews. With the prophets, it
was a question whether religion and the people of God should
become extinct or not, when they contemplated the invasion of
Judea by the heathen. How could they speak on such occa-
sions, either as patriots or as worshippers of the true God, with-
out strong feeling and much excitement? And with respect to
the vicious and idolatrous among their own people, were not
such far more guilty than the foreign heathen? I know well,
indeed, after all this, that the times in which the prophets lived
stand chargeable with no small portion of the alleged severity of
this order of men. The all but universal persuasion was, that
strenuousness in urging the claims of justice, and in humbling
enemies, was by no means a trait in the rulers of a nation which
could be disapproved of or condemned. The oriental world re-
tain that characteristic down to the present hour. In Persia,
they are even now wont to say, that such a Shah as Mohammed
Aga Khan was the kind of king that Persia needed. In their
view he was the model of a great prince. Yet this same
Mohammed Aga fairly outdid Nero in atrocities. I do not say
this in order to justify undue severity, at any time or in any age.
But it is ever to be remembered, that Judaism is not Christian-
ity. Law and justice were inscribed on the standards of the
Mosaic institutions. We find there " the mount that burned
with fire, and blackness, and darkness, and tempest;" we hear
the trumpet proclaiming the law with a sound that shakes the
earth, fills the people with awful terror, and makes even Moses
himself to tremble; Heb. xii. 18 — 21. On the other hand, the
first proclamation of Christianity is the greeting of the joyful
angels: "Peace on earth, good-will to men." How can it be,
that the principal ministers of the Old Testament dispensation.

11(5 § 4. LirKRATURE OF THE HEBRKWS,

i. e. the prophets, should not conform to the tenor of the dispen-
sation itself?

And now, let the intelligent and honest reader compare the
order of prophets among the Hebrews, with any other class of
men, not of that nation only, but among all the nations of the
ancient world. With the priests and Levites among the Jews
one may most naturally compare them. The offices of both
orders were important to the purposes of the Mosaic dispensa-
tion. But after all, the priests were the ministers o^ form and
ritual — the prophets o{ substantial morality and piety. How little
do we hear of the priests in the Old Testament records, except-
ing now and then in the way of reproof by the prophets for their
malversation. Now and then a high priest, a man of superior
intellect, piety, and patriotism, meets our view. Yet these in-
stances are few and far between. How could the Jewish people
take the same interest in them, as they did in their substantial
and active religious instructors and advisers? Occasionally, yet
quite seldom, Si priest is also ^prophet; and then, of course, we
may expect from him a prominent part. But otherwise we find,
that all the Jewish kings go to the prophets for advice, in their
exigencies; and that no affairs of state are regarded by consid-
erate men as promising good, which have not the concurrence
and co-operation of the prophets. Certainly it was on these,
that all sober and pious people among the Hebrews relied, far
more than they did upon kings and princes with their counsel-
lors, or upon the priests and Levites.

I would moreover solicit a comparison of the prophets, with
the men of an alleged similar office among the heathen. What
are the /xairs/c, the -r^o^Jira/, '^ics'jrisrai, "^^riSiJjOkoyoi., dvsigofjjdvnig,
ovstPo-roXoi, rmiooexo'Toi, and the isoortx.rr-roi, of the Greeks, and those
of corresponding names among the Romans, in comparison with
the Hebrew prophets? The heathen prophets, (if we may so
name them), made an art of soothsaying. They played all man-
ner of tricks, and resorted to all manner of devices, in order to
support the reputation of themselves and their pretended oracles.
Cicero tells us that two diviners could never look each other in
the face without laughing; evidently because both were conscious
of the frauds which they practised, and of the success of their
impositions. And where, in all antiquity, are they presented to
us as the zealous defenders of real piety and good morals?

§ 4. LITERATUUE Ol' THE II liBIlEWS. 117

Where are their missions to guide and instruct the people in
matters of morality and real religion? Superstitious they were,
indeed, to great excess. The persecution and death of all who
were opposed to their views, not unfrequently followed any active
opposition. But neither their office, their lives, their favourite
objects, nor even their influence, at least their influence for f/ood,
will bear any comparison with those of the Hebrew prophets.

To this extraordinary class of men, now, we owe most, if not
all, of the Old Testament Scriptures. What one among them all,
if Ezra and perhaps Nehemiah be excepted, came with any cer-
tainty from the hands of a priest, who was not also a prophet ?
Hence, tracing the history of the rise and progress of the Hebrew
canon, it was necessary to bring before the mind a somewhat
full picture of the class of men who were active in its composition.
They stand on a lofty eminence above all their contemporaries,
Tiiey bear a character which the tongue even of slander cannot
assail with any success. Perfect men we need not and do not
suppose them to have been. But it would be difficult perhaps
to find, under the Christian dispensation itself and among its
ministers, men of more unblemished and exalted character. From
the prevailing vices of their times they plainly stood aloof. It
would seem that in some respects they even went beyond the let-
ter, (yet not beyond the true spirit), of the Mosaic Law. I cannot
call to mind a single instance of polyganiy or concubinage among
them; although the Law of Moses allowed at least the former, or
at any rate did not forbid it. The alleged case of the polygamy
of Isaiah (chap. vii. viii.), turns out to be wholly without proof
or foundation, when the meaning of the prophet is strictly ex-
amined. The virgin who was to conceive and bear a son, in case
we insist on her marriage antecedent to his birth, is not spoken
of still as the wife of the prophet, or as about to become his
wife. I cannot doubt that the great law of monogamy, which the
God of nature has impressed upon our race by dividing it into
halves between the sexes, was practically recognised and complied
with by the prophets as a body.

Such are the men, then, from whom come the books of the
Old Testament. God has put an honour upon them far above
that which belonged to priests and Levites. How could this
have taken place, if the ritual was, in his eyes, entitled to the
most conspicuous place under the Jewish dispensation?

It would be a most interesting topic of discussion, were we to

118 § 5. HISTORY OF THE CANON.

pursue inquiries respecting the times, places, and manners of pro-
phesying or preaching among the Hebrews. The characteristics
of prophetic discourse, its tropical language, its symbol, its alle-
gory, the manner of delivering and of preserving it, the impres-
sion which it made, the topics which were the most usual themes
of it — all these and other matters in relation to the subject it
would be delightful to discuss. But these belong to an appro-
priate treatise on the Hebrew prophets, and must, for the sake
of brevity and unity of design, be excluded from our present
consideration.*

§ 5. Continued history of the Canon ; hooks supposed to hear the
names of their authors.

It is time to inquire in what position we now stand in respect
to the canon of the Old Testament Scriptures. Beginning, as we
have done, with Moses, the greatest prophet of all in ancient days,
and following the books down, whose authors are knoton^ we have,
according to the representations made above, the Pentateuch,
Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel (for I cannot regard this work
as supposititious), and the twelve Minor Prophets. If there be
any exceptions to these, they must be some parts of Isaiah and
of Zechariah, which, as we have already seen, are thought, by
most of the recent critics in Germany, to belong to anonymous
writers; and possibly the book of Jonah may have been written
by a person different from the prophet himself. Whether this
be so or not, is a question which belongs to the special criticism
of the Old Testament, and does not affect at all the nature and
design of my present undertaking; for it is conceded on all hands,
that even the anonymous compositions among these, (if such
there are), must have sprung from so-called prophets; and with
scarcely any exceptions, if any at all, from prophets before the
termination of the Babylonish exile.f With us the question at
present is not, what specific individual wrote this or that book

* The reader will find much that is interesting and instructive upon the subject
of the proijhetic office, and its relations to the civil and religious conditions of the
Hebrew nation, at successive periods of their history, in Professor Alexander's In-
troduction to the Earlier and Later Prophecies of Isaiah. — Ed.

t For an able vindication of the " integrity of Zechariah," in opposition to those
critics who have contended for a distinct authorship of the latter part of the book,
see Ilengstonberg's Dissertation on the subject, translated in Clark's Forviyn Theo-
logical Library. — En,

§ 5. HISTORY OF THE CANON. 119

of Scripture,or this or that part of any book, but whether it was
written by such men as gave to the composition a right to be
placed among the sacred hooks of the Hebrews.

In our historical sketch of the prophets, we have passed in
brief review the works which bear their names, and in respect to
which we do not think there is any reasonable ground of doubt as
to their genuineness. We now come to a second class of books,
which, without bearing the name of their authors, seem to ascribe
their composition to particular individuals, in the inscriptions
affixed to them. In consequence of this, I forbear to put them
among the books which all confess to bo anonymous. Of the
books now before us, some appear to be properly assigned, as to
most of their contents, to particular individuals; while the in-
scriptions prefixed to others are of a doubtful character.

We begin with the first class of these. And to this class
belongs the book of Psalms. That this was principally compos-
ed by David, has been generally acknowledged. (I have found
no one but Lengerke who seems to doubt or deny this). But
there were several coadjutors, some contemporary and others
not, in this work. Thirty-four Psalms only are without any in-
scription; but the inscription does not always give the name of
the author, for sometimes it merely refers to then existing out-
ward circumstances, sometimes to the music to be employed, and
then to some special use of the Psalm. A part of the inscriptions
is probably from the hand of redactors, and is not always trust-
worthy. About one hundred Psalms are usually assigned to
David; some of which perhaps are of doubtful authorship, and
some most probably did not come from his pen. To Moses is
assigned Ps. xc; to Solomon, Ps. Ixxii. cxxvii.; to Asaph, Ps. 1.
Ixxiv — Ixxxiii, making eleven; to Heman, Ps. Ixxxviii; to Ethan,
Ps. Ixxxix. De Wette himself concedes, that a number of the
anonymous Psalms may not improbably be assigned to David
and his contemporaries. Ten Psalms, i. e. Ps. xhi — xlvii.
Ixxxiv. Ixxxv. Ixxxvii. Ixxxviii. are usually supposed to be as-
signed, by the titles, to the sons of Korah; i. e. to Korahites, who
were priests and sons of Levi. The usual title is: To the chief
musician, for the sons of Korah ; but pf^p '^31^ niay also designate

the authorship of the Psalms, inasmuch as "^ often, and even

usually, stands before an author's name, as indicating the source
whence the composition sprang. What inclines one to doubt

120 § 5. HISTORY OF THE CAXOX.

that sense of the expression here, is the plurality or partnership
which it would make in the authorship ; a thing hterally impossi-
ble in compositions so brief, and of such a marked character.
Moreover, one might almost say of the Psalms in question: A
greater than David is here. From one pen and one heart they
must have come; and that the authorship should be assigned in
such an indefinite way as the expression sons of Korah would in-
dicate,— that ^partnership in the composition of such pieces should
be deemed feasible, are serious difficulties in the way of suppos-
ing that authorship is indicated by the title.

For our present purpose, indeed, it matters not who was the
particular author of this or that Psalm. The authors named,
almost without exception, lived at or near the time of David.
A few Psalms are unquestionably of later origin; some of them
were composed at the period of the captivity, and even after the
exile; e. g. Ps. Ixxxv. cvi. probably cvii. cxxvi. cxxix. cxxxvii.
cxlvii. De Wette himself confesses it to be doubtful, whether
any of the Psalms (e. g. xliv,, Ix., Ixxiv., Ixxvi., Ixxix., Ixxxiii.
cxix., reckoned by some as of Maccabsean times) are to be assign-
ed to the period of the Maccabees; EinUit. § 270. 8d ed. That
question I take to be now generally regarded as settled by
Hassler, in his Comm. Crit. de P salmis Maccab. 1827. Eichhorn
and Gesenius moreover doubt so late an origin. Rosenmiiller
imequivocally abandons such a position, in the preface to his
compendious Comm. in Psalmos, 1833: while, in explaining Ps.
Ixxiv. 8, he again adopts it. The fact, that the book of Psalms
was long in the process of formation, (if we begin with David,
about 1050 B.C. and go down to 536 — 457, the time at and after
the return from the captivity in which some scriptural books
were written, we must make more than 500 years for the period
of formation), occasioned it to be compiled in five various books.
Thus we have in the first book, Ps. i — xli; in the second book,
Ps. xlii — Ixxii; in the third, Ps, Ixxiii — Ixxxix; in the fourth,
Ps. xc — cvi; in the fifth, Ps. cvii — cl. At what particular time
these various portions or books were collected and published, we
do not know for certainty. But it is quite manifest, that in ge-
neral the older Psalms, i, e. those of David's time, were first col-
lected; and so in succession, as Psalms worthy of introduction
were composed. Now and then some more ancient compositions
make their appearance in the later books of the Psalms, viz. in
the fourth and fifth, which had been overlooked in the former

§ 5. BOOKS OF DOUBTFUL AUTHOUS. 121

compilations. If any Psalms were added in the time of the
Maccabees, it would seem then to be nearly or quite certain,
that they would be found in the fifth and last book. But as the
alleged Maccabacan Psalms mostly belong to the earlier rather
than the later portions of the book, the improbability of their
late composition becomes too great to support a critical belief.
The early establishment of such musical choirs as belonged to
the temple-service, both old and new, would cause all psalms
and hymns fitted for that service to be early and earnestly
sought for. We may therefore, without any danger of erring,
place the completion of the book of Psalms at a period antece-
dent to the death of Malachi, for it will not be seriously conten-
ded that anything in them obliges us to assume that they are
later. On the question, whether the anonymous Psalms were
properly included among the contents of the sacred books, we
are not competent to pass a judgment which is grounded on his-
torical and minute information, since we have not such informa-
tion, and cannot obtain it. But it is enough for our present
purpose, if we can show that the book of Psalms, as it now is,
comes down from a period near the death of Malachi. The con-
trary of this we may challenge any criticism to establish.

The book of Proverbs may well be referred to Solomon as its
principal author. The Hebrew is of the golden age, and speaks
most decidedly against a late composition. The titles which we
find in Prov. i. 1, x. 1, ascribe the work to Solomon. Possibly
xxii. 17 — xxiv. 84, may have originated from another hand, and
been incorporated by Solomon. Chap. xxv. 1 gives an entirely
new and singular title: "These are the Proverbs of Solomon,
which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, transcribed, or copied
out, ^iTJli^n* ^ understand this of transcription from some MS.
of Solomon, which had not before (so to speak) been published.
The verb ^p"ijri^n cannot possibly be understood of original com-
position, for ^^]-i3 would be the word to designate that. De

■.IT

Wette undei'stands Prov. xxv. 1 as asserting, that the men of
Hezekiah reduced to writinff proverbs that were orally circulat-
ed before, and ascribed to Solomon. But this too would require
^^nm* ^® ^^^^ matter however as it may, it makes nothing to

: IT

our present purpose. That the composition is not late, is agreed
on all hands. Prov. xxx. is ascribed to Agur; Prov. xxxi. to
king Lemuel, as taught by his mother. The time of their com-

122 § 5, HISTORY OF THE CANON.

position we know not. But De Wette himself, (always inclined
to make the origin of books as late as possible), fully concedes
that they could not have been written after the Babylonish ex-
ile; Einl. § 281.

EccLEsiASTEs was regarded by all the ancients as a production
of Solomon. But doubts respecting such an origin have recent-
ly been brought forward, and seem to be of such a nature as
cannot easily be solved. The title (Ecc. i. 1), seems to appro-
priate the work to Solomon. Yet the like language might be
employed by a later writer, whose plan was to repeat the sayings
and detail the experience of Solomon. Peculiarly impressive
does the book become, in respect to the subject of the emptiness
and vanity of all earthly objects and pursuits, when presented
as derived from the experience and reflections of such a king,
who was at the very summit of human greatness. That this,
however, belongs rather to the plan of the book than to the
category of realities, seems to be made probable by arguments
drawn from the matter and manner of the book. The com-
plaints, in many parts of the book, of crushing oppression (Ecc.
iv. 1); of the exactions of provincial rulers (v. 7); of the exalta-
tion of low men to high offices (x. 5 — 7) ; of the present as in-
ferior to the past (vii. 10); of the frequent changes of regents
and their unsuitable behaviour — all seem to betoken a book
written at a very different time from that of Solomon. How
singular it sounds, moreover, when we hear Solomon say : " I
was king over Israel at Jerusalem" (i. 12); singular, I mean, on
the supposition that Solomon was the actual author. Did any
one need to be told this? How singular for Solomon himself to
say, that " he was wiser and richer than all the kings in Jeru-
salem before him" (i. 1 6, ii. 7, 9), when David his father was the
only king who had reigned there. The diction^ moreover, of this
book differs so widely from that of Solomon in the book of
Proverbs, that it is difficult to believe that both came from the
same pen. Chaucer does not differ more from Pope, than
Ecclesiastes from Proverbs. It seems to me, when I read
Coheleth, that it presents one of those cases wdiich leave no room
for doubt, so striking and prominent is the discrepancy. In our
English translation this is in some good measure lost, by running
both books in the same English mould. There is only a single
trait of resemblance, which any one would consider as marked
or noticeable; and this is, the sententious or apothenmatic turn of

§ 5. BOOKS OF DOUBTFUL AUTHORS. 123

the book. In this respect one is often led to direct his thoughts
toward the book of Proverbs, which abounds in, and almost
wholly consists of, sayings of such a sententious nature. Yet
how very different is the diction and style of each book, in the
original Hebrew. And then the general circle of thought is still
more discrepant. The philosophic doubts and puzzles of Ecclesi-
astes, and the manner of discussing them, have no parallel either
in Proverbs, or in any other part of the Hebrew Scriptures.
They remind one of many things discussed by Socrates, in the
Dialogues of Plato. I cannot help thinking that the writer
must have been a Hebrew who had resided abroad, where he
had formed some acquaintance with the philosophic discussions
of the Greeks. So unique is the tenor of his book, and so widely
different from the usual circle of Hebrew thinking, that no very
probable account can be given of these matters, without such a
supposition.

As to the age of Ecclesiastes, critics have widely disagreed,
ranging from Solomon down to the time of the Maccabees. But
the appeal usually made to the language or diction of the book,
in proof of a very late age, will hardly stand the test. Knobel,
in his recent and much praised commentary on the book of
Ecclesiastes, asserts and has endeavoured to show, that the book
is deeply tinctured with Chaldaisms, and words of the later
Hebrew. He even thinks that it savours strongly of the diction
of the Rabbins and Talmudists. But the scores of his Chalda-
isms have been reduced by a later writer, better acquainted with
this idiom, (Herzfeld, a German Jew, in his notable work, Coheleth
translated and explained, 1838), to some eight or ten; and his
later Hebrew words (some scores more), to some eleven or fifteen.
The investigation of Herzfeld is so thorough, that appeal from it
seems to be nearly out of question. And besides the fact, that
the quantity of later Hebrew diction and Chaldaism is so small,
we must take into view the additional consideration, that the
Phenician language, unquestionably of the same character as
the Hebrew in its basis, resembles more what is called the young-
er Hebrew, than it does the ancient. The young Hebrew,
therefore, may in fact be very old. So Gesenius, after all his in-
vestigations of the Phenician; Hall. Lit. Ze'it, 1837. No. 81.

There is nothing, either in the matter or diction of the book,
absolutely and exactly to settle its age. But the course of
thought seems to indicate an acquaintance with philosophical

124- § 5. HISTORY or the canon.

disputes: and the complaints of oppression, of frequent change
of rulers, of the exactions of provincial satraps, and of the toils
and dangers of life — all seem to indicate some period of its com-
position under the Persian government. If the opinion of Jose-
phus is to be relied upon {Contra Apion. I. § 8, which will be
hereafter adduced and examined), Ecclesiastes must have been
composed at some period before the death of Artaxerxes Longi-
manus, i. e. antecedent to 424 b.c. De Wette and Knobel think,
that the end of the Persian period, or the beginning of the Ma-
cedonian one, was the time. But there are many and weighty
objections against such a supposition, as we shall see in due
time.*

The Canticles present a difficulty somewhat like to that which
we have just been considering. The title purports that the book
came from Solomon; at least if rT?:2'^l!jS ^^ ^^ ^® regarded as
indicative of authorship; which is usually the fact. That it may
be regarded in this light, so far as the language is concerned,
there is no doubt. But if the idiom of the book, which differs
not a little from that of the book of Proverbs, is to be taken
into consideration; if moreover such passages as Cant. i. 4, 5,
12; iii. 6 — 11; vii. 5; viii. 11, 12, be attentively examined, the
difficulty of regarding Solomon as the proper author of the book
will not be inconsiderable. That Solomon is the suhject of the
book, there can be no doubt. That some writer contemporary
with him may have composed it, is quite possible, notwithstand-
ing its idiom. The freshness of all its scenery seems to betoken
much in favour of such a view. The diction is neither Chaldaic
nor Aramaean in such a degree as to render this either impossi-
ble or improbable. Herder and Dopke strenuously maintain the
earl;i/ date of the book. De Wette thinks the composition of
the poem may have been earl)% and that it may have been only
oralis/ preserved for a long time; which, moreover, he supposes
may account for the want of regular order and unity in the pre-
sent arrangement of the book. But I cannot deem this pro-
bable, considering that the book obtained a place in the sacred
Canon. It is enough for my present purpose, however, that the
book was, beyond any reasonable critical doubt, included in the

* Hengstenberg has contributed to Kitto's Biblical CychpcEdia a very masterly
article upon the book of Ecclesiastes, in which the inquirer will find discussed with
much vigour not only the question regai'ding its ago and authorship, but also the
still more difficult and vexed question respecting its plan and objects. — Ed.

^ 6. nOOKS ANONYMOUS. 125

canon whenever the same was completed. Josephus, at any
rate, appears most plainly to include it; for without it we cannot
make out the number of sacred books which he specifies.

The theological scruples which have raised, or at any rate
sought for, objections against the Canticles, stand on the basis
of its contents. How, it is asked, can an amatory poem be a
part of Scripture? This question brings into view the main ob-
jection which is felt against the book. On this question I hope
to say something in the sequel; but in order to avoid repetition,
I must omit remarks pertaining to this part of the subject for
the present. One thing seems to be quite clear, viz, that who-
ever they were that inserted this book in the canon of Scrip-
ture, they must have regarded the work as of a religious cast.
There is no other example in all the Old Testament of any work
of a different tenor. If Ruth or Esther should be appealed to
as exceptions to this remark, it would be easy to show, that both
of these books have an important bearing on points of conse-
quence in the politico-ecclesiastical history of the Jewish nation.

§ 6. Continued History of the Canon; Booh which are
Anonymous.

Thus far of books supposed to be inscribed with the names
of their author, with the exception of a few Psalms. We come
now to those which are anonymous.

Among these the book of Job stands the most conspicuous,
whether we have respect to the splendid poetry which it exhibits,
or to the nature of the discussion with which it is occupied.
Who wrote it? When was it written? When annexed to the
canon? These are questions about which there has been and
still is endless dispute. The main difficulty is, first, the w^ant of
any proper historical evidence respecting its authorship; then
secondly, the want of internal evidence of a definite and decisive
character, as to the age in which it was written. It abounds in
references to natural scenery, and to Idumsean and Egyptian
localities and objects; but this does not help to decide, whether
it was written earlier or later. Its idiom, which abounds in
Aramaean diction, and often approaches the Arabic, seems to
betoken an author who lived out of Palestine, or at least in a
border country. But its Aramaean idioms are not sufficient to
settle the question in favour of a later age for the book. Very

126 § 6. HISTORY OF THE CANON.

much in this book closely resembles the diction of most of the
Psalms and of Proverbs. And besides this, it is an acknowledged
fact, that nearly all the poetry of the Old Testament verges to-
wards the dialect in question. The Aramaean hue is to Hebrew
'poetry^ something like what the Doric one is to the choruses of
Greek tragedy. Nothing decisive, therefore, can be made out
from this quarter, as to the age of the book.

It is beyond a question, that the author of this book was ac-
quainted with many of the Hebrew notions of things, with their
opinions, their formulas of speech, and the like. With events
in general before and after the flood, the book manifests an ac-
quaintance. But all this does not decide anything for certainty,
as to the time in which it was written. Carpzov, Eichhorn, Jahn,
Stuhlmann, Berthholdt, and the great mass of English critics, give
to the book a date anterior to the time of Moses. A number
of vvriters have referred it to Solomon, or to some person of his
time. More recently, Gesenius, Bernstein, De Wette (first two
editions of his Introduction)^ Umbreit, and others have set the
work down to the Chaldee period, i. e. to some period after 610
B.C. De Wette now dates it earlier, (as well he may), because
of EzekieFs express recognition of Job, in chap. xiv. 14, 16, 20.
Rosenmuller {Proleg. p. 20) places it before the time of Heze-
kiah. Thus the whole matter is in a floating state; but still,
the only question really important to us at present is, whether it
was composed either before, or during, the time of the Babylon-
ish exile. If so, it then was undoubtedly a part of the Jewish
canon, at the close of that exile.

It is singular to see with what warm zeal the question about
the age of this poem has been, and still is discussed. Not a few
writers set about the work of discussion, as if the matter were
one stantis ml cadentis ecclesiw. How can it be so to us? Of
what consequence is it, whether the book is older or younger, if
it belong to the canon, and did belong to it before it was for-
mally closed? Not a few, moreover, appeal to the speeches of
Job, Eliphaz, Bildad, Zophar, and Elihu, in support of doctrin-
al ^propositions; just as if these angry disputants, who contradict
each other, and most of whom God himself has declared to be in
the wrong (Job xlii. 7 — 9), were inspired when they disputed !
The man who wrote the book, and gave an account of this dis-
pute, might bo (I believe he was) inspired ; he had a great mor-
al purpose in view; but how Job is to be appealed to for a sam-

§ 6. BOOKS ANONYMOUS. 127

pie of doctrine, who curses the day of his birth, and says many
things under great excitement, I am not able to understand.
Are we indeed to follow him in the sentiment of chap. xiv. 7, 10,
12? "There is hope of a tree," says he, "if it be cut down,
that it will sprout again, and that the tender branch thereof

will not cease But man dieth, and wasteth away; yea, man

giveth up the ghost, and where is he? . . . Man lieth down, and
riseth not; till the heavens be no more, they shall not awake, nor
be raised out of their sleep." And are we to appeal to his an-
gry friends, who are in the wrong as to the main point in ques-
tion, for confirmation of a doctrinal sentiment of the gospel ?
The practical amount of the matter is, that those who refer in
such a way to this book, merely select what they like, and leave the
rest. They complain, however, in other cases, of doings like to this.
They accuse the Unitarians and the Rationalists of very unfair
and unscriptural practices, in so doing with other parts of the
Bible. After all, it seems to be quite plain, that one might as
well appeal to what is said by all manner of persons who are
brought to view in the Gospels, as authoritative in matters of
doctrine, because what they said stands in an inspired book, as
appeal to the speeches of Job and his friends for a like purpose.
When will it be understood, that the disputants themselves were
not inspired? Did they, moreover, all speak in foetry^ and all
in the same cast of poetry, exhibiting such a unity of style? A
rare faculty of improvisation those five men must have had, if we
assume such a ground as this.

But I am indulging in digression. I return to our immediate
object. To my own mind, the strongest objection against the
great age of the book of Job is, that it is nowhere referred to in
all the Hebrew Scriptures, except in the case of Ezekiel; and it
appears to have produced no influence upon the manner and te-
nor of the Hebrew sacred writings. I am not able to conceive
how such a book should have existed so long, and have produced
no more effect; for there is not even a single quotation of it, or a
reference to it in the other Old Testament Scriptures. Not so with
the Pentateuch. I must therefore believe, on the whole, that
the book of Job was composed during the troublous times of the
Jews, in the later periods of their kingly government. Yet the
fact, that there is not in all the book a distinct and certain re-
ference to anything belonging and peculiar to the Mosaic insti-
tutions, rites, sacrifices, and feasts, or to Hebrew personages, or

128 § 6. HISTORY OF THE CANON.

history, is almost astounding, and seems to stand in our way
when we assign to the book a later origin. Especially is this so,
when we consider that it was a Hebrew who wrote this book;
which beyond all reasonable question must have been the case.
Yet it is quite possible, that the writer's plan definitely preclud-
ed references of the nature in question. It was apart of his deli-
berate plan to compose a book independent of Jewish peculiari-
ties, and based upon the more general views of the patriarchal
religion. It is certainly easier to believe this, than to suppose
the book to be very ancient, and yet not be able to find a trace
of its existence or influence, until the time of Ezekiel. To al-
lege, as some have done, that the reference in Ezekiel (xiv. 14,
16, 20) is only to an allegorical personage, and therefore proves
nothing — is not alleging what seems to be very probable. Were
Noah and Daniel, who are joined with Job, mere fictitious per-
sonages in EzekieFs view? If not, it hardly seems probable that
this prophet has united real and allegorical personages, and pla-
ced them both in the same predicament. Besides this, the Job
to whom Ezekiel refers, seems plainly to be such a personage as
the book of Job presents to our view.

If, as has been alleged by some critics, the book of Job was
composed by a foreigner, an Aramaean or an Arabian, how came
he by such a knowledge of Hebrew diction and rhythm? It
would be next to an impossibility. Above all, how came the
Jews to admit the book of a foreigner into their sacred canon?

T'FZiO composed the book, whether Job himself or some of his
friends, we have no means of determining. Exactly ichen it was
composed, we cannot decide for want of data. I suppose, how-
ever, that no one well acquainted with the book, will doubt its
claims to a place in the Jewish canon, although, before EzekiePs
time, we can find no certain traces of it.

It makes nothing against this, that the genuineness of the pro-
logue and epilogue to the book, and also of the speech of Elihu,
has of late been often called in question. The criticism of the
Destructives^ as I am inclined to believe, reached its highest point
of culmination some time since. Its sun is now descending.
Whenever it sets, I hope and trust it will set to rise no more.
The same spirit which makes up the Iliad and Odyssey of frag-
ments from a multitude of singing beggars brought accidentally
together, has made up the book of Job in the same way, and
with reasons equally good. The most recent criticism, however,

§ 6. BOOKS ANONYMOUS. 129

seems verging back again toward the opinion of all ages and na-
tions, which knew anything of the book in question, viz. the
opinion that the whole of this book belongs to one author, and
is one and but one work. The numerosity of.the book, i. e. the
divisions throughout into groups of three^ strongly favours the
genuineness of the whole book. Moreover the poem, without
the prologue and epilogue, if not absolutely unintelligible, would
at least lie, in every reader's mind, in a dark, confused, and un-
satisfactory state. De Wette, as usual, not only doubts the
genuineness of Elihu's speech (ch. xxxii — xxxviii), but also of
xxvii. 11 — xxviii. 28. Douhting seems to be an essential element
of this critic's literary life ; and he appears to derive more plea-
sure from it, than he does from believing.

Upon the whole I am disposed to think, that few persons who
are familiar with the course of human mind in ancient times, as
to doubts and reasonings on difficult problems of morals or of the
Divine government of the world, M'ill yield their assent to the
probability of the very early origin of the book of Job. The
main question of the book, whether the Divine Being constantly
and adequately rewards virtue and piety and punishes sin in the
present world, is one that seems to spring from an investigation
and a spirit of philosophizing, which is rarely to be met with
among the most ancient Hebrews. Ecclesiastes is full of a simi-
lar spirit; but as this book is manifestly among the later ones, I
am inclined to place the book of Job in the same age, i. e. in the
Chaldean period of the prophets, or not long before. The diction
decides nothing certain for any particular age. The almost un-
equalled sublimity of the composition, the rhythmical perfection
of its parallelisms, and in general the whole contour of the style,
would seem to mark it as a production of the golden age of He-
brew ; as also do its many resemblances of idiom to the idiom of
the Psalms and Proverbs. But if the German critics are in the
right as to pseudo-Isaiah, we have an eminent example in a late
age of the like graceful and lofty diction and sentiment. At all
events, Habakkuk belongs to the Chaldean period; and he has
few equals even in the golden age of prophecy. So it may be with
the book of Job. Great talents, enlightened and guided by the
Spirit of God, will overcome every obstacle, and present us with
portraits that breathe, and move, and speak.*

• Hengstenberg comes to nearly the same conclusion regarding the age of the

K

1 ')() § 6. HISTORY OF THE CANO>r,

The book of Lamentations is without an inscription. But
from the most ancient times it has been attributed to Jeremiah,
The contents, tone, spirit, diction, and style of the book, accord
entirely with tradition. The Septuagint version has prefixed an
inscription that attributes it to Jeremiah; which at least shows
what tradition taught some 130 or more years befoj-e the Chris-
tian era. Josephus {Antiq. X. 5. 1.) also attributes the book
to Jeremiah; but he avers, that it was written on the occasion
of Josiah's being slain by Pharaoh Necho. This seems to accord
with, and most probably was deduced from, the declaration in

2 Chron. xxxv. 25, viz. that " Jeremiah lamented for Josiah, and
all the singing men and singing women spake of Josiah in their
lamentations to this day." Similar compositions, on like occa-
sions, we find in 2 Sam. i. 1 7 — 27, iii. 83, 34. Critics, therefore,
have been divided in opinion, respecting the question, whether
the book of Lamentations was written before or after the cap-
ture of Jerusalem. I cannot bring my own mind, however, to a
doubt respecting this question. That Jeremiah composed an
elegiac song on the occasion of Josiah's death, as the book of
Chronicles states, T have no doubt. It was altogether a subject
suited to the taste and genius of this writer. But that our pre-
sent book of Lamentations exhibits this elegiac ode, I must
greatly doubt. What is there in it about Josiah ? It is the
holy city, its solemnities, its feasts, its people gone into captivi-
ty, the horrors of the siege, the famine and pestilence that en-
sued, and the like, on which the book dwells, and which consti-
tute the whole burden of the elegies. What concern has all this
with the death of Josiah?

But be this matter as it may, there can be no question that
the Lamentations is a book which existed before the return from
the captivity; and it takes a place in the canon of the Old Tes-
tament Scriptures, because it contains matter so deeply interest-
ing both to the ancient church and people of God. Neological
criticism has little to say about the book, seemingly because it

Book of Job, as our learned author. " Summiug up the whole of our investigations,"
he says, in a valuable article, in Kitto's Cyclopcedia, " we take it to be a settled point,
that the book of Job did not belong to the time of the Babylonish exile; and it is
nearly equally certain that it was not composed prior to the time of Moses. And
it cannot have been composed later than Isaiah, who alludes to it. Thus we come
to the general determination of the age of the book, that it was written not before
Samuel and David, but not later than the era of Isaiah. With this result we must
rest satisfied, unless we would go beyond the indication jiresented." — En.

§ 6. ROOKS ANONYMOUS. 131

contains no accounts of miraculous events, which are sure to pro-
voke an attack.

We have yet a considerable class of historical books, which
bear no name of their authors, but receive a name from the
leading subject of them, viz. Joshua, Judges, lluth, 1st and 2d
Samuel, 1st and 2d Kings, 1st and 2d Chronicles, Esther, perhaps
Nehemiah and Ezra. Of several of these I have already spoken.

The book of Joshua is naturally divided into two parts. The
first part, chap. i. — xii., contains the history of the conquest of
Canaan; the second, chap, xiii, — xxiv., contains the history of
the division of the land, and of subsequent arrangements to pro-
vide for obedience to the laws. According to the account of the
neological critics, it is full of myths [i. e. stories of miracles], of
contradictions, and of a Levitical spirit. It is also pronounced
to be a mere book of fragments, made up of Elohistic and Jeho-
vistic [?] documents, and other scraps and traditions which had
floated down to the writer on the surface of time. Van Her-
werden divides it into ten separate documents; but Koenig, in a
recent work, maintains the unity of the book. This same writer
also maintains, that it was written at or near the time, when the
events which it records took place. Others place its origin at
the time of Saul, others of David, of Josiah, and even of the
exile. If we can place any dependence on internal evidence,
(and why not?) then would Josh. xv. 63, which speaks of " the
Jebusites, i. e. the inhabitants of Jerusalem, as not driven out,
but dwelling with the children of Judah unto this dayl^'' compared
with 2 Sam. v. 6 — 9, which shows that David thoroughly sub-
dued them, seem to render it very probable, that the book was
composed before the reign of David, or at least before his con-
quest of Jerusalem. Nothing can be more natural than to sup-
pose, that a record would be made of the conquest and the divi-
sion of Palestine, soon after those events. How could the divi-
sion and apportionment of it be rendered authoritative and
permanent, unless by some record of the same? That it was
written after \hQ death of Joshua, and of his contemporary elders,
seems to be certain, from Josh. xxiv. 31, where Israel is spoken
of as serving the Lord until after the death of these persons. So
the death of Eleazar the son of Aaron is recorded, (Josh. xxiv.
33), but not of his successor Phinehas. But if the book be so
fragmentary as is alleged, then such declarations would only go
to show the age of the fragment in which they are contained.

132 § 6. HISTORY OF THE CANON.

Mr Parker (in his additions to De Wette, ii, p. 188 seq.) has
exhibited a graphic specimen of the usual neological reasoning.
" The book of Joshua," he suggests, " makes frequent appeals
to the Law of Moses; but this Lato could not have been written
until the time of Josiah ; ergo^ the book of Joshua could not have
been written until after the same time." The main proposition
is plainly a mere pe^iVio ^nMc?|)w. But no matter: Delenda est
Carthago.

The Samaritans^ along with the Pentateuch, have also a book
of Joshua, containing much of what is in the Hebrew book of
the same name, with additional fabulous matter of their own.
Was there not, then, a book of Joshua, when the ten tribes
separated from the two, in the reign of Rehoboam^ Appear-
ances seem to favour this supposition. Those tribes retained the
Scriptures then extant, but never added any more. I would not
deny the probability, that documents of several kinds are con-
tained in the book of Joshua; but that they passed through the
hands and under the revisal of some one compiler, whose office or
name gave authority to the book, I cannot well doubt. Many of
the alleged contradictions and discrepancies are easily removed,
on such a ground; but it comports not with my present object
to enter into the discussion of these matters.

The book of Judges is also anonymous. The main historical
elements of the book end with the biography of Samson, Judges
xvi. 31. Chap, xvii — xxi. contain an appendix, showing how
anarchy and hcentiousness were introduced, after the death of
Joshua, among the men of the following generation. There is
nothing in the diction or style of the book, which would serve at
all to prove a late origin. But such passages as those in Judg.
xvii. 6, xviii. 1, xix. 1, xxi. 25, which attribute certain evils to
the times, because there was no king in the land, seem strongly
to savour of being written after there was some example of an
efficient and orderly monarchical government.

The book is strongly marked with several peculiarities. Ex-
cept reference in the song of Deborah (v. 4, 5) to the appearance
of Jehovah on mount Sinai, there is nothing in the book of
Judges that refers to the Law of Moses, to the priesthood, to the
Levitical rites, nor to any prophets, excepting in one case (vii.
8), and the instance of Deborah, iv. The truth plainly is, that
the writer did not design to give anything like a regular and
connected series of history, during the 300 years which are

§ 6. BOOKS ANONYMOUS. 133

covered by the book of Judges. (De Wette makes them above
400.) The peculiar sins of the people, their exemplary sufferings
in consequence of them, and the signal deliverances which they
experienced under this heroic leader, and that, occupy the whole
book, with the exception of the appendix before mentioned; and
tliis stands in connection with the general subject. As to the
chronoloqy of the book itself, I question if any regular and cer-
tain series can be satisfactorily made out from it.

The most natural origin of such a book would be, during the
prevalence of idolatry in Judah or in Israel. A true prophet
would seize such an occasion, in order to hold up to view past
experiences, as a warning to the idolatrous people of the danger
which they were encountering. That he possessed notices, pro-
bably iDr'itten ones, of the past, seems highly probable. Even
oral tradition would preserve a knowledge of many things related
in the book of Judges, which were of an extraordinary and won-
derful nature. The tone of piety and zeal for the honour of God,
as manifest in the book, is elevated and pure. Bitual services
are plainly quite secondary in the writer's view. But idolatry,
and oppression, and other vices, he censures with unsparing
severity. A spirit kindred to that of David and Samuel, must
have animated his bosom.

The so-called myths (//.D^io/) of the book are numerous. In
other words, (not to speak with the neological critics), the ex-
traordinary and even miraculous occurrences related in it are
not a few. The stories of Gideon and Samson, in particular,
elicit a tempest of objections from recent criticism. Among all,
however, who accuse the book of anile attachment to fables and
myths, I find none who go so far as Dr Palfrey, late Professor of
Sacred Literature in the Theological Seminary at Cambridge, in
the tone and manner of criticism. In his Academical Lectures
(ii. p. ] 94 seq.), speaking of Samson, he says, " The character
of Samson is but a wild compound of the buffoon, the profligate,
and the bravo. With a sort of childish cunning, and such
physical faculties as a fantastic invention has ascribed to the
ogre^ he is without a common measure of capacity to provide for
his own protection," &c. Dr Palfrey, if I am rightly informed,
has a great and unconquerable aversion to such freethinkers as
Mr Parker, the translator of De Wette on the Old Testament.
Yet I recollect nothing in what I have read of Mr Parker,

134 § 6. HISTORY OF THE CANON.

nothing in Strauss, nothing in any of the neological critics of
Germany which I have consulted, (and they are not a few),
which compares with this scornful caricature. Bruno Bauer,
(whom I have not read), if the reviewers fairly represent him,
may, under the maddening influence of the potions which he is
reported to love too well, have said some things more indecorous
than this. I would hope, however, that such is not the case.
How Dr Palfrey can be so displeased with Mr Parker and his
associates for thorough rejection of the Divine authority of the
Scriptures, after writing such a passage as this, is more than I
am able to explain. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews,
who classes Samson with such worthies as Barak and Jephtha and
David and Samuel (Heb. xi. 32), must have viewed the charac-
ter of Samson, taken as a whole, in a very different light from
that in which the Cambridge Professor has placed him. Samson
was not without great faults; can it be proved that he had not
some conspicuous virtues? His zeal against heathenism and
idolatry, at least, will not be called in question.

The book of Judges, however, depends not, for its credit, on
the judgment of Dr Palfrey respecting the character of Samson.
It was, beyond all doubt, among those books which Christ and
the apostles spoke of as being holy Scriptures.

The first and second books of Samuel are but one work,
severed into two parts. The ancient Hebrews always reckoned
them but as one book; and so of Kings and Chronicles. They
contain the history of SamuePs administration, who was the last
of the Judges, 1 Sam. i — xxv ; the partly contemporaneous his-
tory of Saul, an account of whose death terminates the so-called
first book of Samuel; while the second exhibits the history of
David's government.

It is generally conceded, that there is nothing in the idiom of
these books, which indicates with any certainty a late origin.
In 1 Chron. xxix. 29, it is said, that " the acts of David, first
and last, 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."
From this passage, many in ancient and in modern times have
drawn the conclusion, that the so-called books of Samuel were
the work of these three different individuals, 1 Sam. i — xxiv.,
being from the hand of Samuel, and the rest, (containing history
after his death), by the other prophets just named. The fact
that David's death is not mentioned at the close of 2 Samuel,

§ G. UO0K.S ANON Y MO La. 135

would seem to import, that these books wore written before that
event. But I can hardly bring myself to believe, that the author-
ship of these books belongs to three different persons. Much
more probable does it seem to me, that the author made use of
the three works in question, in compiling his book; while the
conception of the plan of the books, and the selection and asso-
ciation of the parts, are the work of one and the same mind.

De Wette ventures to bestow some faint praise upon these
books, on the ground that they have so little of the inijtMcal in
them, and little or nothing of the ritual and Levitical spirit;
Einl. § 178 seq. The story of the witch of Endor, however, he
thinks is an instance of " ideal pragmatism," i. e. a representation
in which the author labours to account for certain phenomena, the
real history of which remains doubtful. The apparent predic-
tions in the book, he says, were written post eventum. Withal,
too, he says there is much disturbance and confusion in these
books; but still, that there is much of genuine history in them,
and that the narrations are lively and true to nature, § 1 78.
The chronology, moreover, he pronounces to be imperfect and
legendary; and he avers, also, that there are some contradictions.
But Mr Parker, his translator and commentator, goes still far-
ther in his critical remarks. " Some passages savour of anthro-
pomorphitic and mean conceptions of God; unworthy actions are
attributed to him; there is a sacerdotal spirit in the books; and
a few miraculous legends are mingled in the story;" Add. to
§ 178.

That different sources from which the writer drew, have occa-
sioned some appearances of discrepancy, the attentive critical
reader will not perhaps deny. Let him compare 1 Sam. xvi. 14 —
23; xvii. 31^ — 40; with xvii. 55 — xviii. 5; and he will perceive
what I mean.* The passage in xviii. 54 wears every appear-

• The apparent discrepancy here alkided to, the reader will find explained in a
very simple manner, by Bishop Ilorsley in his Biblical Crilicisni, vol. i. p. 330.
Instead of rashly cutting the knot with Dr Kennicott, by the violent supposition of a
lengthened interpolation in the 17th chap, from ver. 12, to ver. 31, he ingeniously
and skilfully unties it, by the supposition, that the " ten last verses of chap, xvi.,
which relate to Saul's madness and David's introduction to the court, are misplaced,
and that their true place seems to be between the [)th and Ulth vei-ses of the 18th
chapter." Dr Townsend has adopted this suggestion of Horsley in his useful
Chronological Arrangement. Dr Davidson, in his Sacred Hermeneulics, pp. 541 —
544, does not accept the solution as a satisfactory one ; but the reasons which he
assigns agaiust it are by uo means conclusive. — Ed.

13G § 6. HISTOKY OF THE CANON.

ance of a late and very unskilful interpolation. How could
David carry the head of Goliath to Jerusalem, which came not
into possession of the Hebrews for many years after this period'^
See 2 Sam. v. 6 seq. A fair investigation and candid judgment
of the books in question, as it seems to me, will however re-
move most of the alleged objections against them. I except, of
course, those objections which lie against all accounts of mira-
culous events. But it is not a man's critical judgment or skill,
which leads him to make objections of this nature,- it is his a
priori reasonings and his theology which move him to object on
such a ground.

At all events, no doubt can remain, that these books were
written long before the Babylonish exile. And this is enough
for our present purpose.

The 1st and 2d Kings (one book in two parts) contain the
history of the Jewish kings from the reign of Solomon down to
the exile; and with this is incorporated the history of the ten
tribes, from the time of their separation down to that of their
deportation by the king of Assyria.

De Wette allows to these books a 'prophetic origin. He says,
that " the chief object aimed at, is to set forth the efficacy of the
prophets." It is admitted, that there is a uniformity of style
and a general unity of design. But the neological critics, of
course, are full of objections against the myths of these com-
positions. Some think the accounts are from mere oral and tra-
ditional sources; others, that written documents were employed
by the redactor, as the basis of his work. This latter opinion is
rendered more probable by the fact, that the book of Kings
refers by name to several other books, as containing a more am-
ple account of particular things, than that which the author of
the books in question has given; e. g. the Book of the Acts of
Solomon, 1 Kings xi. 41 ; the Book of the Kings of Israel, 1
Kings xiv. 19; xvi. 5, 20, 27; xxii. 89; and the Book of the
Chronicles of the Kings of Judah, 1 Kings xv. 7. From the
manner in which the writer refers to these, it would seem plain
that he considered them of the same credibility and authenticity
as his own book.

As to the time in which the books before us were written — the
close, at any rate, must have been written late down in the ex-
ile; for 2 Kings xxv. 27 — 80 brings the history down to the
thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachin. In addition

§ 6. BOOKS ANONYMOUS. 137

to this, the remark in 2 Kings xxiii. 25 respecting Josiah,
viz. that " there was no king before him hke to him . . . neither
after him arose any Hke him," shows, tliat when the books were
written several kings after Josiah had arisen. On the whole,
there can be no good reason to doubt, that the compilation, as it
now is, must have been made near the close of the exile. The
arguments mainly employed by Da Wctte, however, to prove
this, amount to nothing in the view of any one who believes in
the reality of prophetic foresight. He says, that the return
from exile is mentioned in 1 Kings viii. 47; the destruction of the
temple, in ix. 7, 8; the dispersion of the people, in xiv. 15; and
the Babylonish exile in2 Kings xx. 17. All these passages, however,
I must regard as merely prophetic anticipations of the events in
question. But as he rejects every thing of this nature, so he inter-
prets the passages just adverted to as being written post eventum.
Who the author was, is not known. The Talmud attributes
the authorship to Jeremiah. But Jeremiah cannot well be sup-
posed to have lived and been active in the prophetic office in the
thirty-seventh year of Jehoiachin's exile, although Havernick
adopts this view; for he must then be at least some 110 years old.
Movers supposes, that Jeremiah wrote an older book of Kings,
from which most of the present one was taken ; De utriusque Vet.
Jer. Indole., &c. There can be little doubt that, whoever was
the author, his work was completed before the return from the
Babylonish exile.

The books of Chronicles, as we might naturally expect, have
been more vigorously assailed, than any other historical book of
the Old Testament. De Wette made his dehut upon the stage
of historic criticism by an attack upon them, in his Kritih der
Israel. Geschichte. He has bestowed particular labour upon them
in his Introduction., occupying some ten pages; which his trans-
lator and commentator, INIr Parker, has, with a special purpose,
spread out into sixty-four pages.

The contents of the Chronicles are genealogies and Jewish his-
tory, from David downward to the exile. The history of David
(1 Chron. x — xxix.) is of course a repetition in the main, of that
in the books of Samuel, but diversified particularly by minute
accounts of Levitical arrangements. The history of Solomon
occupies 2 Chron. i — ix, which stands related in the like manner
to that in 1 Kings. The remainder is the theocratic history of
the kings of Judah, rarely glancing at that of the ten tribes. It

188 § G. HISTORY OF THE CANOIV.

was evidently the writer's design, to make an appropriate history
of only the legitimate kings of Judah, and of them in particular
as they stood related to matters of religion and of the priest-
hood. He brings it down to the period of liberation from exile
by the proclamation of Cyrus, 2 Chron. xxxvi. 21 seq. In
1 Chron. iii. 19 — 24, is a passage of genealogy, which brings us
down to the grand-children of Zerubbabel, who was the leader
of the returning exiles. If this passage be genuine, it will bring
the book down to a period near that in which Nehemiah and
Malachi lived. The orthography (scriptio plena), and the idiom
of these books, also contribute to render probable their very late
origin. De Wette (§ 189) reckons the vmion of the Chronicles
with the Hagiography an evidence of the late origin. But are
the Psalms shown to be of late origin, by the circumstance that
they are classed with the Hagiography?

The gravest objections which are brought against these books,
are founded in their departures from Samuel and Kings, in mat-
ters of a historical nature. E. g. when Joab numbered the peo-
ple, i. e. the military force of Israel, at the command of David,
it is said in 2 Sam. xxiv. 9, that there were 800,000 soldiers in
Israel, and 500,000 in Judah; while 1 Chron. xxi. 5 says, that
the number in Israel was 1,100,000, and in Judah 470,000. In
1 Kings xxiv. 24, David is said to have bought of Araunah a
threshing-floor and a pair of oxen for sacrifice, at the price
of fifty shekels of silver; in 1 Chron. xxi. 25, David is said to
have given 600 shekels of gold for the same. In 2 Kings viii. 26,
Ahaziah the son of Jehoram begins to reign at the age of
twenty-two; according to 2 Chron. xxii. 2 he begins at the age
of forty-two, this book thus making him two years older than
his father, who died at the age of forty, 2 Chron. xxi. 20. In

1 Kings V. 16, the overseers of temple-work are said to be 3,300;
in 2 Chron. ii. 2, they are estimated at 3,600. In 1 Kings xv.
32, it is said that " there was war between Asa and Baasha
king of Israel all their days f in 2 Chron, xiv. 1 it is said, that
under the same king Asa "the land had rest ten years;" and
after the invasion by Zerah the Ethiopian, that " there was no
more war unto the thirty-fifth year of his [Asa'sJ reign." In

2 Chron. xiv. 2, 3, it is said of Asa, that "he did that which was
good and right in the eyes of the Lord; for he took away the
altars of the strange gods, and the high places, and brake down
the images, and cut down the groves," (comp. vi. 5); in 2 Chron.

§ 6. BOOKd ANONYMOUS. 139

XV. 17 it is said, that " the high places were not taken away out
of Israel." Possibly the latter may mean " out of the land of the
ten tribes;" but I cannot think this is probable, for Asa had no
control over that laud. In 1 Kings vii. 15, the two pillars of
brass for the temple are said to be eighteen cubits in height; in
2 Chron. iii. 15 they are represented as thirty-five cubits high;
and the like in some other cases.

Besides these and similar discrepancies, the statement ofnum-
hers occasionally wears the air of something very extraordinary.
E. g. in 2 Ohi-on. xxviii. 5 seq., which gives an account of the in-
vasion of Judah by Pekah king of Israel and Rezin king of Sy-
ria, it is stated that " Pekah slew 120,000 men of Judah in one
day, all valiant men." In this connection we may also note, that
Ahaz was twenty years old when he began to reign (2 Chron.
xxviii. 1); that in the next year of his reign the invasion of
Pekah took place, in which (as is said in 2 Chron. xxviii. 7) a
" mighty man of Ephraim [one of Pekah's captains] slew Maa-
seiah the Mng's son.'''' How could Ahaz, then twenty-one years
of age, have a son old enough to bear arms? The implication
seems to be such; and yet the meaning may simply be, that Pe-
kah's captain destroyed one of the royal progeny (not in arms;)
and this is quite possible, as marriages often take place in the
East, when the husband is only some fifteen or sixteen years old.
In 2 Chron. xiii. 17 it is stated, that Abijah king of Judah smote
of the children of Israel who were led on by Jeroboam, " 500,000
chosen men," in one rencontre. Could the ten tribes have pos-
sibly furnished such an army as this, from their population
and limits at that time? The army of Asa with which he went
out to battle against Zerah the Ethiopian, is said (2 Chron. xiv.
8) to be " 300,000 men out of Judah, and 280,000 out of Ben-
jamin, mighty men of valour," i. e. five hundred and eighty thou-
sand soldiers from only the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. This
would require the population of these tribes, at that time, to con-
sist of two and a half or three millions at least. Could one half
of this number have been supported in the small tract of land —
small at any rate as to fertile land — within the borders of Judah
and Benjamin? 1 Chron. xxii. 14 represents David as having
collected for the use of the temple, 100,000 talents of gold and
1,000,000 talents of silver; which, according to the generally ac-
credited reckoning of Richard, the bishop of Peterborough, are
equivalent, the gold to L. 500,000,000 sterling, and the silver

140 § 6. HISTORY OF THE CANON.

to L.353,000,000; the whole sum amounts to L.853,000,000
sterling, i. e. about 4,265,000,000 dollars. The precious metals
must have been more plentiful at that time, than they ever have
been since, to render it possible for the king of a country some
150 (possibly at that time some 200) miles in length, and from
70 to 90 in breadth, to have amassed such an unexampled sum as
this. The conquests of David, although somewhat extensive,
were still limited to countries not rich in the precious metals.

Such are some of the difficulties that meet us in the books of
Chronicles. But even these are not all. There seems, at least
at first view, to be a design, on the part of the compiler of these
books, to cast into the shade, or to keep out of view, some things
which would detract from the character of the persons who are
concerned with them. In the account of David's domestic rela-
tions (1 Chron. xiv. 3), no mention is made of his concubines;
which last are mentioned in 2 Sam. v. 13. In 2 Sam. viii. 2,
David is represented, after conquering Moab, as " measuring
with two lines to put to death, and with one full line to keep
alive," i. e. as putting to a violent death two-thirds of its inhab-
itants; in 1 Chron. xviii. 3, this circumstance is altogether omit-
ted. The Chronicles make no mention of David's adultery and
murder, in the matter of Bathsheba and Uriah, so particularly
related in 2 Sam. xi. 2 — xii. 26. Little or nothing is said in the
Chronicles respecting David's troubles on account of Amon,
Absalom, and the rebellious Ahithophei, and others. Nothing is
said in the Chronicles of Solomon's 700 wives and 300 concubines,
nor of their causing him to apostatize ; nothing of his building
temples for them around Jerusalem to Chemosh and Moloch;
nothing of all the disturbances that ensued, caused by Hadad,
Jeroboam, and others ; all of which are so fully related in
1 Kings xi. In respect to the impious and tyrannical Manasseh,
the book of Kings (2 Kings xxi. 16. xxiv. 4) twice mentions his
" shedding very much innocent blood, till he had filled Jerusalem
from one end to the other;" all of which the book of Chronicles
omits, (2 Chron. xxiii); and moreover, it gives an account of
Manasseh's penitence, and of his efforts to restore the worship
of the true God (2 Chron. xxiv. 11 — 17), all of which is omitted
in the book of Kings. Like to these traits are many other
tilings in the Chronicles ; and circumstances such as these serve
to show the peculiar texture of these books.

The genealogies in 1 Chron. i — ix. present a variety of dif-

§ 6. BOOKS ANONYMOUS. 141

ficulties, being quite incomplete in many cases, and apparently
at variance with some other portions of the Scriptures in others.
Indeed it is very difficult to discover the specific object of these
genealooies, unless indeed it was to show the descent of some
leading families who had returned from the exile.

We need not wonder, under these circumstances, that those
who speak so freely about other historical books of the Old
Testament, here find occasion to utter much of disapprobation,
and sometimes even to say what is lacking in decorum. E. g.
Mr Parker, in his edition of De Wette, intimates (ii. p. 294),
that the historian who could omit so many notable offences of
kings, as the author of the Chronicles has done, " must write
with some other design than that of telling the whole truth."
He even makes himself merry with some of the alleged mis-
takes of the Chronicler, (as he calls the author). " An amusing
mistake occurs," says he (ii. p. 268), " in 1 Chron. xi. 23, as com-
pared with 2 Sam. xxiii. 21." The cream of the jest is, that in
the book of Samuel it is said of Benaiah, that " ho slew an Egyp-
tian, a man of remarkable appearance" (ni^";)?2 "Itl^t^)' while the
passage In Chronicles says, that " he slew an Egyptian, a man of
great stature, five cubits high." Now what part of this it is
which Mr Parker pronounces amusing, I do not readily perceive.
I can easily see that five cubits = 7^ feet, is an uncommon height
for a man ; yet this is not without a parallel, or rather it is even
surpassed, e. g. by the Kentucky giant, in our own day. That
a man of this height might be called a man of aspect ni<!'l?5 I2)'^t<;'
(for ^-1^ is plainly implied here), as the writer of the Kings has
called him, in a military respect, (which is what the passage
clearly has in view), there is no good reason to deny. The Latin
aspectabilis would give the exact meaning ; while Mr Parker has
translated it, respectable man ! That the writer of the Chronicles
might choose to state with particularity the height of the Egyp-
tian, rather than to say (as in the book of Kings) that he was a
man of aspect, conveys to my mind no impression which is special-
ly amusing. I cannot even suppose a mistake on the part of the
Chronicler, as to the import of ni^'l?:^ "^ Kings. I can only see,
that one writer meant to characterize the Egyptian as a man of
remarkable appearance, while the other gives us the specific
quality which made hira remarkable. After all, there is some-
thing to amuse us in respect to this matter ; and that is, that

142 § 6. HISTORY OF THE CANOX.

Mr Parker has translated the passage which means aspectahilis
as if it meant venerandus. And this is the criticism, then, which
looks at the book of Chronicles with scorn !

To be brief: De Wette and most of the Neoloorists in criti-
cism who sympathize with him, consider and treat the books of
the Chronicles as a mere farrapo of scraps, made up partly from
written records, partly from tradition, partly by a superstitious
reverence for the priesthood and the ritual law, and partly by
the vain-glorious boastings of a Jew in respect to the royal race
of David and the tribes which adhere to the Davidic dynasty.
Hence they give little credit indeed to the testimony of these
books.

The devout and reverential reader of the Old Testament has,
it must be confessed, some difficulties of a serious nature to en-
counter, in regard to such things in the Chronicles as have been
pointed out. The tyro in matters of sacred criticism must cer-
tainly feel, that he has a somewhat formidable task before him ;
specially if he adopts the theory of plenary verbal inspiration.
I will state in a few words what my own impressions are ; for I
have already dwelt so long on these books, that I must not say
much more.

I cannot well doubt, that the Chronicles are the last of all the
historical books, possibly with the exception of Ezra, Nehemiah,
and Esther. That they were written by some Jew, for the use
of the renewed Israelitish commonwealth, and that the author
was a priest or Levite, seems to me, all things considered, to be
nearly certain. Let any one peruse the prophecy of Malachi,
written about the same period as the Chronicles, and he will find
it filled with grievous complaints of the neglect and contempt of
the Mosaic ritual, exhibited by the Jews. The prophet com-
plains that they offer the lame, the blind, and the sick, in sacri-
fice ; that they have snuffed at the offerings to the Lord ; that
they have robbed God in tithes and offerings, besides being guilty
of many other sins. It was not unnatural that some pious priest
or Levite, or prophet, should assay to remedy these evils, by giv-
ing a particular history of past well-known and renowned kings,
as to the efforts which they made to carry the Mosaic institu-
tions into practice. Hence the enlarged account of all David's
arrangements in respect to the ark of God, the sacrifices, the
priests and Levites, the singers and porters of the temple, and
the like ; 1 Chrcm. xv. — xxvii The same is true in regard to

§ 6. ROOKS ANONYMOUS. 143

Solornon. 2 Chron. i — ix.; in regard to Abijah, 2 Chron. xiii.;
Asa, ch. XV.; Jehoshaphat, ch. xvii. seq. ; Joash, ch. xxiv. ;
Uzziah, ch. xxvi.; Hezekiah, ch. xxix. seq. ; and Josiah, ch.
xxxiv. A prominence is consequently given to things of this
nature, which is wanting in the books of Kings, for this was writ-
ten earlier and in different circumstances. The sacred writers
of the Old Testament and the New adapt their works to the
wants of the times in which they live. Why should they not ?

It lies then upon the face of the books of Chronicles, that they
wore composed with special reference to the state of the times,
as to the Mosaic worship and rites. This will account for a
great portion of the differences in the narrations between this and
the books of Kings. It is equally plain, that the history of the
ten tribes, the anti- Davidic government, is purposely omitted.
The writer found so little to his purpose in the examples of the
kings of Israel, with respect to the Mosaic religion, that he
chose wholly to omit them. Moreover, as it respects the kings
of Judah, it is plain that the writer did not purpose to give Vkfull
history. His work is rather what the Septuagint version names
it, viz. naeocXs/crrvjosva, i. e. Supplement, or things that remain,
that is, remain to be recorded. The frame-work of his history
is of course the same as that of Judah in the books of Kings ;
but for a particular purpose he has given to it a different fin-
ishing of costume. It is no more true of Kings and Chronicles,
that what one of them omits is to be considered as fabulous or
unworthy of credit, than it is of the Gospels. Silence proves
nothing, unless in peculiar cases. There is even nothing parti-
cularly improbable, in all the accounts which the Chronicles
give us, of the arrangements in respect to religious matters made
by many of the kings of Judah.

With these considerations in view, we can easily account for
the often-varying narrations in the Kings and Chronicles. It
ought no more to offend us, than it offends a believer of the
Gospels, when he finds such a wonderful variety as there is in
the style of John and of Luke. Beyond this, however, we have
seen that there are apparent contradictions between the Kings
and Chronicles, and some apparent inaccuracies in the latter.
We cannot refuse to acknowledge this: for we see with our own
eyes. It is simply a question of fact, not of theological opinion
or theory. Facts which are presented to us in a record, cannot

144 § 6. HISTORY OF THE CANON.

be altered by any doctrinal theory which we may devise or
maintain.

That the present book of Chronicles is in a somewhat imper-
fect state, I must regard as true. Otherwise, how could Ama-
ziah, the youngest son of Jehoram, be made two years older
than his father? 2 Chron. xxi. 5, xxii. 2. I am inclined to be-
lieve, that some of the excessive numbers of men, and of the
astonishing amount of treasures, have suffered in transcription,
or from marginal addenda. Almost all the discrepancies be-
tween Kings and Chronicles, and almost all of the seeming ex-
cesses in statements, have respect to proper names or numhers.
These are plainly the most liable of all things to error on the
part of copyists. If it could be shown that the old Hebrew
MSS. designated numbers by alphabetical letters, as the later
Hebrew does, it would be very easy to make out the probability
of error in transcription, and to account for it. But inasmuch
as this, though often assumed, has never been rendered very
probable, we must content ourselves with the not improbable
supposition, that at least some of the apparent errors in ques-
tion have arisen from transcription or unskilful redaction. We
cannot prove this, indeed, by appeal to direct testimony; and
the contrary of this, moreover, is not capable of satisfactory
proof. But in such a case as that of the age of Amaziah just
mentioned, it would be preposterous to suppose that the error
came from the pen of the author, for it would prove him to be
destitute of common sense ; a position which the rest of the
book would not permit us to maintain. The like to this might
be said of several other apparent errors of these books.

I regard it as more probable, that the statements in Kings
are in general the more accurate of the two, when there is a dis-
crepancy between that work and the book of Chronicles. One
good reason is, that the book of Kings rarely developes an excess
in point of numbers. Internal probability is therefore in its
favour.

How far the books of Chronicles, in our Saviour's time, were
identical with our present books of the same name, it would be
difficult to show. That these books have in some way been
tampered with, or in some degree negligently transcribed, since
that period, appears to bo not improbable, when we look at the
history of the canon. In Josephus'' time, the Chronicles were

§ (). BOOKS ANONYMOUS. 145

arranged or classed with the other historical books, (as we shall
hereafter see), instead of being where they are now, i. e. at the
close of the Kethuhim^ and therefore at the end of the Old Tes-
tament. What else was done in re-editing them, besides
changing their place of arrangement, we know not. But as
they now are, there are certainly, as we have seen above, several
passages which disagree with other parts of the Old Testament,
and some which disagree with other parts of the Chronicles
themselves.*

It does not strike me, that the omissions in detailing the sins
and weaknesses of David, Solomon, and others, are to be much
accounted of in the way of objection to these books. If the de-
sign of the writer, or a promise on his part, had been to give
the lives of the Jewish kings complete, I see not how we could
then exempt him from the charge of having performed his task
in an unsatisfactory way, at least of having left it very incom-
plete. But this is evidently not his plan. The theocratic policy
and efforts of the Jewish kings are his main object. And so far as
this is concerned, I am not aware that his narrative is open to

* Dr Davidson, in his Sacred Hermeneuiics, has offered suggestions for ex-
plaining several of the discrepancies between the books of Chronicles and those of
Samuel and Kings. But, like Professor Stuart, he does not think that till the dis-
crepancies which have been pointed out can be explained satisfactorily, in any
other way than by the assumption of a considerable degree of deterioration in the
Masoretic text. " It is well known," he remarks in an article upon Chronicles in
Kitto's Cyclopcedia, " that the text of the books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles
is in a worse condition than that of the other inspired writings. The fact is unques-
tionable, in whatever way it may be explained. It is time that the text of these
historical books should be rectified in those instances where an unquestionable ne-
cessity exists." Nor will any enlightened Christian man grudge that concessions
like these should be made, when they come from men whose learning qualifies them
to judge, and authorises them to speak upon such a subject; for, as Dr Kennicott
long ago remarked, in reference to the books of the Old Testament, " Though these
sacred books were at first composed by men who were all directed to truth, and secured
from error by the immediate agency of God himself, yet, \\hat was thus inspired by
God was committed to the care of men, and we must acknowledge that we have had
this treasure in earthen vessels. To suppose an absolute freedom fi-om error in the
transcribers of these books, the most ancient in the whole world, what is it else but
to suppose a constant miracle wi-ought in favour of every such transcriber, and the
Divine assistance communicated in the formation of every letter." ..." Surely, it
must be a proper foundation for satisfaction and joy to every friend of Revelation
to find, that the difficidties and obstructions which he now meets with in the printed
copies of the Old Testament are not so necessarily owing to Moses and the pro-
phets, as to demand his absolute assent and resolute vindication." Vid. The State
of the printed Hebrew Text of the Old Testament considered, pp. 7, 8, 270, 271. — Ed.

L

146 § 6. HISTORY OF THE CANOX.

any serious and well-grounded objections. The few particulars
of incongruity that we have found, amount at the most to no-
thing which is very important.

As to the rest, I have examined the almost innumerable difficul-
ties and incongruities suggested by De Wette, and presented
in English and augmented by Mr Parker. Very many of them,
I am fully persuaded, will not stand the test of a candid critical
scrutiny. Others are more apparent at first view, than real.
De Wette has made capital for himself out of everything, even
out of a change or variation in the diction, phraseology, &c. So
we cannot, or should not, do with the Gospels; so we must not
do with the book of Chronicles, if we mean to preserve the re-
putation of being truly candid and liberal-minded. I will only
add, that after all which Keil has said in his Versuch ilber die
Bucher der Chronik^ 1883; Dahler, de Lih. Paralip. Auctoritate,
1819; and Movers Ueber die Chronik. 1884; in defence of the
books in question, there is still need of some other labourer in
this field, who will do the work more thoroughl}'. Havernick is
reported to have performed this task; but it has not yet been
in my power to examine what he has written.

The book of Ruth has plainly for its object, to trace the ge-
nealogy of David to a source which is honourable. The proba-
bility seems to be, that it was written during the reign of David,
or soon after. The variations of the language from the usual
Hebrew of that period, are not remarkable enough to afford any
ground of argument for the late age of the book. The history
which it gives, belongs to the period of the Judges; as is ex-
pressly stated in Ruth i. 1. Moreover, " the days when the
Judges ruled," is spoken of as a period already passed by. Ear-
lier than the time of David, therefore, it could not have been
written; and as the special reason for writing it seems to be, to
do honour to David in respect to his descent, he must have been
a king before it was written ; for this was the particular induce-
ment to do him honour. The character of Boaz and of Ruth is
truly noble and ingenuous. It is easy to see, moreover, that
the poverty of Ruth was not regarded as a matter of any re-
proach. Riches, in those days, at least in the author's view,
constituted no part of true nobility. The whole picture is a
delightful one. The simplicity, integrity, and kind feelings of
the principal persons exhibited by this book, arc altogether re-
markable in any age or country. David had at least some an-

§ ()'. HOOKS ANONYMOrJS. 147

cestors who were nature's noblemen, if not docked with stars
and garters. That Ruth was a foreigner by birth, is no objec-
tion to the place assigned her. There can scarcely be a doubt
that she became a proselyte to Judaism.

The genealogy, at the close of the book, ends with David.
The writer of the Chronicles has made use of it in his genealogy,
1 Chron. ii. 11, 12. This shows that the book was extant in
his time, and that is sufficient for our present purpose.

On account of the period to which the book of Ruth relates,
it is placed in modern times, and probably in more ancient ones,
next to the book of Judges; for we shall see in due time, that
in the ancient division of the Scriptures, in and before Joscphus"'
age, this book was appended to that of the Judges. The Tul-
mudic arrangement, which tore it away from this connection
and placed it among the Kethubim, was the result of a later
and merely artificial disposition of the sacred books.

The books of Ezra and Nehemiah contain the history of the
restoration of the Jewish commonwealth, after the exile. In
classifying the sacred books, they were usually joined together,
in ancient times, as one book in two parts ; because they both
have a relation to the same subject, viz. the reestablishment of
law and ordei', after the return from the exile. I shall, how-
ever, consider them separately here.

The various matters of which the book of Ezra treats, and
the Hebrew and Chaldee languages which are employed, have
led to a great variety of opinion among critics, as to the author-
ship of the book. Chap, i — vi. contain the history of the return
of the first colony from the exile, and connect closely with the end
of 2 Chronicles. The decree of Cyrus (536 b.c), a register of
the returning exiles, the hindrances to the building of the tem-
ple, and the completion of this work in the sixth year of Darius
the king (515 b.c), form the first part of the book of Ezra.
The principal Chaldee portion of the work comprises iv. 8 — vi.
18. The second part of the book gives an account of the immi-
gration of the new colony under Ezra, in the seventh year of
Artaxerxes, 457 b.c, and of course about 79 years after the
first company of exiles returned under Zerubbabel and Joshua.
The decree of Artaxerxes, permitting Ezra's immigration with
a colony of Jews, is also written in Chaldee, vii. 12 — 26. The
rest of the book details the efforts and arrangements of Ezra, in
reforming the people and the priesthood.

]48 § 6. HISTORY 01' THE CANON.

Evidently the first portion of the book is constituted in part
by two documents, different from the main narrative of the
writer of the book. Chap. ii. is a register of those who first re-
turned from exile, which Nehemiah found in a document by itself,
and from which he took his copy; see Neh. vii. 5, and comp. Neh.
vii. 6 — 73 with Ez. ii. The Chaldee (iv. 8 — vi. 18) seems to have
been from another hand than that of the principal author of the
book in general; and not only the letter to Artaxerxes written
by the enemies of the Jews, and his answer to the same (iv. 11
— 22) are in Chaldee, but also the narrative that follows, on as
far as vi. 18. In the sequel of the book, Ezra speaks sometimes
in the Jirst person, vii. 27 — ix. 15; while chap. vii. 1 — 26 and
X. speak of him in the third person.

The last part of the book is occupied with the narration of
Ezra's efforts to bring about a reformation, in various respects,
among the Jews ; although its chronolop?/ is not distinctly marked.
For aught that appears, these efforts might all have been made
in 457 B.C.; for Ezra came to Jerusalem in the fifth month
of that year; Ez. vii. 8. Twelve years after this, when Nehemiah
came up to Jerusalem from the Persian court, we find Ezra
sedulously engaged in the appropriate duties of his office as
priest and scribe; Neh. viii. 1 — 6, 9, 13. But the history in the
book of Ezra seems to comprise only the first portion of these
twelve years. Whoever wrote the book, then, he seems to have
written it soon after Ezra had taken up his abode in Jerusalem ;
for otherwise we should expect from the author a further account
of Ezra. 1 think we may set it down as nearly certain, that the
book was written not far from 456 b.c.

That Ezra himself wrote vii. 27 — ix. 15, is plain from the fact
that he constantly employs the Jlrst person in his narrative.
Whether he wrote vii. 1 — 11 and x. 1 — 44, where the third
person is constantly employed, is more doubtful; and especially
so from the circumstance, that in xi. 6, it is said of him, that he
was " a ready or expert scribe in the law of Moses." It seems al-
together probable to me, that some one of Ezra's friends, probably
of the prophetic order, compiled the book in question from the
various documents named above ; and that he did this, by pre-
facing and interweaving remarks and narrations of his own. The
book has every appearance of authenticity, and of course of credi-
bility. No reasonable doubt can be critically entertained, of its
being joined with the Jewish canon about the period above named.

§ 6. BOOKS ANONYMOUS. 149

The book of Nehemiah purports to be from one and the same
person. The inscription presents us with the following title:
" The words of Nehemiah, the son of Hachaliah." But the
Heb. ^'^l'^ niay mean matters, affairs, or concerns, as it does in the

title to the book of Chronicles. It may be regarded then as
somewhat uncertain, so far as the inscription is concerned,
whether this book is one of those whose names designate the
author. Still, as all the narration, down to chap. vii. 5, employs
\\\Q first person, so far it is plain that all comes from Nehemiah.
Then follows the register of the names of those who came up
with the first colony to Jerusalem; plainly a repetition for sub-
stance of that which we find in Ezra ii. Yet the discrepancies
between these two registers, as to numbers in particular cases,
is striking. Let the reader compare the following names and
associated numbers in the two registers, viz. Arab, Pahath-Moab,
Zattu, Bani (Binnui, Neh.), Bebai, Azgad, Adonikam, Bigvai,
Adin, Hashum, Bezai, Jorali (Hariph), Bethlehem and Netophah,
Bethel and Ai, Lod, &c., Senaah, Asaph, Shallum, &c., Delaiah
&c., — in the whole, nineteen cases in this single register, in
which the numbers are discrepant in the two copies of it. Yet
in Ezra ii. 64 and Neh. vii. QQ, the sum of the whole is said to be
42,3 (JO — a signal proof that the numbers in one or in both
copies, have, in this case as in many others, suffered as to
accuracy by transcription. The sums of gold and silver given,
on the occasion of colonizing, by the chiefs of the fathers, are
stated very diversely in Ezra ii. 68, 69 and Nehemiah vii. 70 —
7o. Some other and slighter discrepancies occur, in the inser-
tion of names in the one, which are omitted in the other; and
some still slighter in the mode of writing and pronouncing the
names. The sequel (viii. 1 — x. .39) seems plainly to be from
another hand, and speaks of Nehemiah in the third person as
Tirshatha or governor. The register of names, in chap, xi,, of
those who lived at Jerusalem; and in chap, xii., of those priests
who came up from the captivity with Zerubbabel, seems to me
to be from one and the same hand; at all events, xii. 31, 38, 40,
shows that the writer again is Nehemiah himself, who uses the
first person. It may be, however, that the two registers, in xi.
1 — xii. 26, are merely copied by him. Of the same tenor is chap,
xiii., which gives an account, in the first person, of what Nehe-
miah did after his return a second time from Persia. His first

ioO § 6. HISTORY OF THE CANON,

journey to Jerusalem was in 446 b.c, when he had obtained
liberty of absence for twelve years from Artaxerxes, in the
twentieth year of his reign; Neh. v. 14. In the thirty-second
year of the same king (434 b.c), Nehemiah returned to Persia,
and in a few days obtained leave again to go to Jerusalem and
preside there; Neh, xiii. 6. During his absence there had been
a great falling off among the Jews, as to the observance of the
Law; and the book ends with a description of his efforts to pro-
duce a general reformation.

There is no difficulty in the way of supposing that all the mat-
ter of this book passed under the eye of Nehemiah, or was com-
piled by him, even if we admit that other compositions than his
own are inserted. It amounts therefore to the same thing as
his composition, so far as the credit of the book is concerned.
The history contained in the book closes with 434 e.g., or about
that period, and it was therefore probably written as early as
the book of Malachi, if not somewhat before it.

There is indeed one serious difficulty in the genealogy of the
high priests, xii. 10, 11, 22; which is, that (including Jeshua who
was of Zerubbabers time, 536 b.c), there are six generations re-
gistered. Excluding Jeshua, however, as we should do in this
case, the remaining five generations must occupy a period of
some 160 to 170 years, extending to some 376 or 366 years b.c,
i. e. nearly to the time when Alexander the Great came upon the
stage of action. The Jaddua of Neh. xii. 11, 22, is supposed by
many to be the same high priest, who went out to meet Alexan-
der, on his approach to Jerusalem; and in fact, the time is so
near to that period, that one can hardly believe that it is a dif-
ferent person, inasmuch as it may easily be supposed that he
lived at that period. But I could not set down the composition
of the book in general to so late a period, any more than I should
be disposed to regard the book of Genesis as of late composition,
merely because of the late genealogy of the dukes of Edom in
Gen. xxxvi. The tenor of the book, and the time down to which
it brings the narration; the fact that Nehemiah's own hand is
visible in so much of it, and that there is nothing else besides
the genealogy in question which betokens a later origin — all
combine to persuade me, that the protracted genealogy of the
high priests comes from a subsequent and marginal interpola-
tion, or from something of the like kind, at a later period. Why
should a later writer not have continued the history of Nehe-

ij 6. BOOKS ANONYMOUS. 151

miah down to the time of his deaths It is against all probabil-
ity, that he would not have done so.

One book remains, viz. that of Esther. Of this book De
Wette, in his usual manner, says: " It violates all historical pro-
bability, and contains the most striking difficulties, and many
errors in regard to Persian manners," § 198. a. One of the
main difficulties is, that there are no certain data in the book,
by which we can settle its chronology, or (in other words) that
determine which of the Persian kings was called Ahasuerus by
the writer. That he could not have lived hefore the time of Dar-
ius Hystaspes seems to be evident from the fact, that it was not
until his reign that the Persian empire was extended from India
to Ethiopia; to which the statement in Esth, i. 1 alludes. That
Darius himself was not the Persian king, who issued such an
edict against the Jews as that described by this book, seems
probable from his character as known in history, and from his
very favourable regard for the Jews, as developed in Ezra v. 6,
vi. 15.

The objections raised against the book are various, and some
of them, as the text of it now stands, not easily disposed of.
" (1.) Ahasuerus gives to all of his high officers a feast of half a
year; how could they leave their provinces for so long a time?
(2.) His command to Vashti, the queen, to appear unveiled be-
fore the whole company, at a drinking bout, is incredible. (3.)
That Esther is of Jewish descent seems entirely unknown to
Ahasuerus, until after the time when Haman's bloody decree was
sanctioned; and still Mordecai is represented as a daily atten-
dant at the court, in order to carry on some correspondence with
Esther. (4.) Haman himself is n foreigner ; and such could not
be prime ministers. (5.) Mordecai obstinately refuses all court-
eous respect for him. (6.) Haman designs to destroy a whole na-
tion of some two millions of people, and this merely because of
an affront from Mordecai. (7.) He offers the king 10,000 talents
of silver to sign the decree, which is equal to about 17,650,000
dollars ; a thing incredible," &c.

I cannot enter into any discussion here of these and the like
objections to the book; most of which Eichhorn (§ 509 seq.) has
satisfactorily answered. In the sequel this subject will receive
more attention. I merely observe here that there are two or
three circumstances related in the book, which one finds it diffi-
cult to explain in a satisfactory manner. The decree of Haman

152 § 6. HISTORY OF THK CANON.

for the destruction of the Jews was issued on the thirteenth day
of thej^rs^ month in the year (Esth. iii. 12), and this decree is
not to be executed until the thirteenth day of the twelfth month;
Esth. iii. 13. It would seem that Haman betook himself to the
lot, in order to fix upon the proper day; Esth. iii. 7. The diffi-
culty in this case is, to account for it that Haman should adver-
tise the whole empire of the massacre, eleven months before it
was to be perpetrated. " What could be the use," it is asked,
" of putting the Jews on their guard so long beforehand ? The
Sicilian Vespers and the massacre of St Bartholomew were not
conducted thus; and Haman must have been as weak as he was
wicked, to do this." One might suggest, in answer to this, that
Haman probably indulged the hope that the Jews, through fear,
would exile themselves from the kingdom. Perhaps this may
be representing him as more humane than he was ; but even a
murderous tyrant must be supposed to be apprehensive of trou-
ble, from destroying a whole nation that amounted to several
millions of men, and above all, when he had given the intended
victims nearly a year's notice of what he was about to do. If
the decrees of the Persian monarch had not been irreversible, I
should be quite disposed to believe that the whole measure, on
the part of Haman, was designed mainly to terrify and vex the
Jews. But the true solution seems plainly to be, that Haman
having cast lots for a lucky day, could not change it when it was
once fixed by the lot. Superstition did not permit a change.

The decree which Mordecai obtained from the king amounted
to merely a license that the Jews should arm themselves on the
massacre-day, and make defence against any assailants. It is
said in the book before us, that when the day came, the higher
officers of the king befriended the Jews (Esth. ix. 3); which is
not improbable, considering that Mordecai was prime minister.
According to the narration in Esther, the Jews on that day
destroyed 500 men in the palace itself at Shushan (Esth. ix. 6),
and 75,000 in the provinces; Esth. ix. 16. On the fourteenth
day of Adar (the twelfth month), thoy also slew 300 more in
the palace; Esth. ix. 18. Yet in all these rencounters, we have
no information that a single Jew lost his life, or was even wound-
ed. Could a massacre of 75,000 Persians take place, without
any mutual slaughter? And wovdd it be necessary for the Jews
to destroy so many, when the people of the empire at large seem
to have been so favourably disposed toward them, as the book

§ 6. BOOKS ANONYMOUS. 153

represents them to be? It would seem, moreover, that " many
of the people of the land became Jews," while Mordecai was
j>rime minister or grand vizier (Esth. viii. 17); a circumstance,
moreover, not at all improbable, considering the influence which
Mordecai had at court. But that 75,000 Persians were slaugh-
tered in this rencounter, after eleven months"* warning and pre-
parations of the parties, and none of the Jews destroyed, (the
book does not assert the latter, but some have supposed it to be
implied), is one of those facts which can only with difficulty be
admitted, unless some miraculous interposition on the part of
Heaven should prevent the harming of the Jews. But of this
the writer has taken no notice.

Some other difficulties press upon the book. There is not
even once the name of God to be found in it, or any special recog-
nition of his holy providence in the whole affair. This is alto-
gether the more singular, inasmuch as it has no parallel in any part
of the Old Testament, unless in the book of Canticles. All the
other sacred writings of the Jews represent God not only as the
theoretical, but as the practical Sovereign of the universe, dis-
pensing both good and ill, prosperity and adversity. Not so
apparently with the book of Esther. Even the days of Purim,
set apart in commemoration of the deliverance of the Jews, as
related in the book, are to be kept as " days of feasting and joy,
and of sending portions one to another, and of gifts to the poor,"
Esth. ix, 22. This narration, omitting as it does all reference
to an overruling providence, shows how transformed as to his
style of thinking and writing the writer had become, by living
in a foreign country; (for I take the author to be a foreign Jew).
The fasting and weeping (ch. iv.) betoken, indeed, a sense of
religious dependence; and in iv. 14, there is an evident allusion
to the promises of preserving the Jewish nation, let the danger
be what it might. But whatever the writer's reasons were for
a uniform silence on the subject of religion and of Divine interpo-
sition, he has not given them to us. It is certainly with no
small difficulty, that we can make out reasons satisfactory to our
own minds.

On the supposition that Xerxes was the Ahasuerus named in
the book of Esther, there is still further difficulty. That the
same Xerxes, who scoui-ged the sea for carrying away his bridge
over the Hellespont; who ordered the heads of the builders of
the bridge to be cut off, because their structure could not resist

154 ^6. HiSTORY OF THE CANON.

the irresistible tide and storm in the straits there ; who slew the
eldest son of his friend and generous benefactor, Pythias, before
his eyes, because he asked for his release from the army of
Xerxes in which he had five sons; who suspended the headless
body of Leonidas on a cross, because that with a mere handful
of Grecians he had withstood many myriads of Persians; who
offered by proclamation a great reward to any one who would
invent a new pleasure; — that such a man should sanction such
a decree as that of Haman, is to be sure not very strange. But
if, with the great mass of modern and recent critics, we admit
Ahasuerus to have been Xerxes, what shall we do with Esth. ii.
5 — 7, which tells us that Mordecai was carried away captive
from Judea with Jehoiachin, in 599 b.c, and that Esther was
his cousin? Now Xerxes did not begin his reign until 485 b.c,
and the third year of that reign, when Vashti the queen was re-
jected, must bring Mordecai to the age of 117, even if his exile
took place in his infancy. His cousin Esther, moreover, must
at this time have been nearly a century old; while the book of
Esther represents her as a young maiden. How then can we
admit, with Scaliger, Drusius, Carpzov, Eichhorn, Jahn, Ber-
tholdt, Gesenius, Havernick, Baumgarten, and others, that JTerxes
is the Ahasuerus of the book of Esther? If we go back to
Cambyses, and even to Cyrus, we shall, after all, still find Mor-
decai to be some seventy to sixty years old — an age hardly con-
gruous with the part which he acts in the book before us. If
we go still farther back, we must seek for Ahasuerus among the
separate kings of Media or of Persia. But we are forbidden to
go back, for then we could find neither the 127 provinces of the
empire (Esth. i. 1), nor were the Jews under the dominion of
any Persian or Median king, before the time of Cyrus.

All these difficulties, however, are the result of interpreting
the text in Esth. ii. 5 — 7, in such a way as seems, at first view,
to be the most natural and facile. The Hebrew runs thus:
" There was a Jew in Shushan the palace, and his name was
Mordecai, the son of Jair, the son of Shimei, the son of Kish, a
Benjamite, who was carried captive from Jerusalem with the
company of captives who were carried into exile with Jechoniah
king of Judah, who was carried away captive by Nebuchadnezzar
king of Jiabylon. And he brought up Hadassah, (the same is
Esther), who was the daughter of his uncle," &c. The question
which we may naturally rjjise, is whether Mordecai is asserted

§ 6. iiOOKS ANONYMOUS. 155

by this text to be among the exiles that accompanied Jechoniah
(5i)9 B.C.) or whether this exile is affirmed of Kish the Benjamite.
The interpretation which adopts the former meaning, is perhaps
the most facile and natural, in case there is no obstacle in the
way; but plainly it is not a necessary one. The who ("^\rS^), at

the beginning of v. 6, may refer to the noun immediately antece-
dent (Kish), and then we are at liberty to place the period of
Mordecai just where the genealogy demands. The time, reckoned
from the exile of Jechoniah in 59.9 b.c. to the seventh year of
Xerxes, is about 120 years; and this would correspond right
well with the four generations mentioned in Esth. ii. 5. Why
then are we not at liberty to adopt this exegesis? I would not
do so merely in order to avoid a difficulty; for we cannot satisfy
our own minds in that way. But the Hebrew is fairly open to
either construction; and when the question comes up: Which
shall we prefer? what hinders our adopting that which best
agrees with the time and circumstances presented in the book?
Even if the book of Esther be supposititious, it is still a book be-
longing to the period that soon followed the return from exile,
and its anonymous author can scarcely be supposed to have made
Mordecai and Esther contemporary with Jechoniah's exile, and
at the same time with the seventh year of Xerxes' reign, or indeed
with the reign of any Persian prince from the time that Cyrus
began to be sole regent of Middle Asia. The parachronism is
too palpable to be attributed to any one, who could write as the
author of the book of Esther has done.

Some of the most serious difficulties, then, are removed by the
interpretation which I have now suggested. In respect to the
earli/ publication of Haman's decree, commanding the excision
of the Jews, I have already made some suggestions. And as
to the passiveness of the Persians when the day of slaughter
arrives, and the numbers said to be slain by the Jews, while they
apparently remained unhurt; there may be facts, vmknown to
us, which would render these matters altogether credible. Clearly
there is nothing impossible in the case. But it is better to confess
our ignorance, than merely to guess at a ground of explanation,
and then proffer it as something substantial.

The reader will perceive, that I have dwelt much longer upon
the books of Chronicles and that of Esther, than on the other
books of the Old Testament. I have done so because I deemed
it to be necessary. Few readers investigate difficulties of such

156 § 6. HISTORY OF THE CANON.

a nature as these books bring to view; and when they are
brought forward by those who doubt or deny the claims of the
Old Testament to authenticity and genuineness, most readers
feel astounded by them. In presenting these and the like mat-
ters to the reader, I hope to satisfy his mind, that my object is
not to carry a point per fas aiit nefas. Truth needs no pious
fraud to support and commend it. If the Bible is indeed the
word of God, it certainly does not shun investigation, but de-
mands it. The example of the noble Bereans, who searched the
Scriptures daily in order to ascertain whether what an apostle had
preached was true or not, is one which is commended in the
word of God, and worthy to be commended to all who reverence
his word. Much as my own mind has been sometimes rendered
anxious by critical doubts and difficulties thrust upon it, yet I
have never for a moment deemed it best to conceal these diffi-
culties, or to look away from them merely to get rid of the
trouble of studying and examining. On the same ground I do
not think it expedient merely to glance at difficulties, sufficiently
to show that one is not altogether ignorant of them, and then
to dispose of them by a general condemnation of everything
which approaches minute or doubting inquiry. It may be dex-
terous management in a pleader before a court and jury, to
conceal the weak parts of his cause, and to keep out of sight
whatever can be said against his client's interest; but how long
will the same jury continue to confide in such a pleader's decla-
rations, or in his management of causes, if he is wont to do this?
If we, who profess to believe in the Divine authority of the Old
Testament Scriptures, decline to examine and consider the diffi-
culties which attend a minute and critical inquiry into their con-
dition and contents, how can we expect to convince those who
differ from us and reject them? I do not indeed think it to be
the dictate of prudence and sound judgment, to anticipate the
time and circumstances in which we live, and publish to the
world doubts and difficulties that have not yet come before the
minds of the community who surround us. But when they do
come, it is not sound policy to aim at winking them out of sight,
nor to treat them as altogether unworthy of notice, especially
when they are apparently founded upon what the sacred text
itself seems to disclose. But doubts and difficulties have already
been published to our religious community, by the works of De
Wette and of Mr Norton; and no silence on our part will help

§ 6. BOOKS ANONYMOUS. 1 .1 7

this matter. I accede, in my own judgment, to what the cele
bratcd Dr Bellamy of Connecticut used to say to his theological
students, in his parting Lecture, " Gentlemen, on the subject of
polemics I have one piece of advice to give you; and this is, that
you should never raise Satan unless you can lay him." But in
the present case, I have not raised him; that has been the work
of others. Whether I can lay him, is indeed a serious question,
and one which it is not for me to decide.

But to return to our subject; that the book of Esther relates
a story which is substantially true^ tliere is no good reason to
doubt. The feast of Purim, celebrated as a memorial of the
deliverance of the Hebrews from massacre, has confessedly been
celebrated among the Jews ever since the times of the Persian
monarchy. Now this is the same evidence that some signal de-
liverance took place, as our celebration of the fourth of July is
evidence, that our independence as a nation was proclaimed on
that day. The great numbers of Jews in Persia, in the time of
Xerxes; the hatred which foreigners have nearly always borne
towards them on the ground of their peculiar observances; and
the envy and jealousy that would exist among the Persian nobi-
lity, when any of them were promoted or treated with special
favour — are all circumstances which serve to show the possibility,
not to say the probability, of the things related in the book of
Esther. There can be no good ground for doubt, that the hook
has truth for its basis. But the number of Persians slain by the
Jews, and the amount of money promised to the king by Haman,
wears an appearance like to that which sometimes belongs to
numbers in the books of Chronicles. Yet so far as the amount
of money is concerned, it is not very difficult to believe that
Haman may have promised so much to the king, on the ground
that he had liberty to appropriate all the property of the Jews,
when slain, to his own use, Esth. iii. 1 1 . Nor is the amount so
strange a thing. The prime minister of the late emperor of
China is said to have amassed more than L. 25,000,000 sterling,
in jewels, money, and costly furniture and array.

For myself, if I may be allowed to speak in my own behalf on
this occasion, 1 confess that the faith which once has come to
admit miraculous events, in earlier and in later times, is not
seriously staggered by the extraordinary or even apparently im-
probable events related in the book of Esther, To any one who
has become well acquainted with the history of Persian tyrants,

158 i^ 6. HISTORY OF THE CANON.

it will be no matter of surprise, that an intoxicated Xerxes
should order his queen to appear unveiled before a banqueting
company, nor that he should, in a like condition, stimulated by
favouritism and the love of gain, have signed the decree of
Haman. The surprise which Ahasuerus manifests, when told by
Esther of this decree, (Esth. vii. 1 — 6), wears very much the air
of his having signed it in a state when he was unconscious of
what he did. Whoever has read the history of the late Moham-
med Aga Khan, shah of Persia, will readily see, that Persian
tyrants who could sign such a decree are no impossibility.

The most serious difficulty to a mind which is religiously dis-
posed, is the omission, throughout the book of Esther, of all
mention of God or of his providence. And yet it seems to
be plain from iv. 14, that Mordecai is acquainted with and fully
believes in the special promises made in the Old Testament
Scriptures to the Jewish nation. Nor is there room for reason-
able doubt, that the writer of the book means to present the
Jews in the light of a people specially favoured and protected
by Heaven. But he has confined himself to mere simple nar-
ration of facts, and does not undertake to be argumentative or
parsenetic.

So far as the aesthetics of the book are concerned, it has no
small claim to merit. There is no narration so long, in any
part of the Old Testament, which pres^irves a unity so com-
pact and unbroken. There is no bombast, no affected pomp of
diction. All must admit, that the writer has told his story
with much skill, and made it such as to excite a deep interest
in the reader. The impression made by the whole is, that the
Jews, even in their exile, were under the guardian care of
Heaven, and that in the most adverse and threatening circum-
stances, they had abundant reason to trust in God. Such an
impression, moreover, stood intimately connected with the Jewish
religion.

There are, however, some circumstances brought to view in
the book, which at first sight appear somewhat revolting to the
feelings of those who live under the light of the gospel ; e. g.
Esther's being brought, consentingly as it would seem, into the
royal hai-om (ii. 8, seq.), and her vengeance in hanging Haman's
ten dead sons upon the gallows erected for Mordecai (ix. 15).
But are not these easily accounted for, by the state of manners
and the low degree of civilization in Persia? We indeed, with

§ 7. I-OST nOOKS OF THE HEHREWS. 159

our feelings and views, cannot praise, nor even approve of, any-
thing like to either of these transactions ; but we can see, if wo
read the ancient work before us in the spirit of antiquity, that
queen Esther did nothing which she believed to be wrong, or
judged to be inconsistent with justice or decorum. The book,
moreover, does not commend such things as those in question;
it simply relates them. In Persia, the king has a sovereign
right to any woman in his kingdom; and in theory, even the
sacredness of the harem cannot guard it from his entrance.

Of the importance of the book of Esther, and also of some
others in the Old Testament, to us at the present time, I intend
to say something hereafter. But for the present, we must dis-
miss the critical history of particular books, in order to turn
our attention to other circumstances important to the accom-
plishment of the main object in view.

§ 7. Lost Books of the Hebrews^ some of idiich appear to have been

canonical.

According to the views which have been taken of the com-
position of the canonical books of the Old Testament, they were
all in existence as early as 400 years before the Christian era.
But the question when the Jewish canon was actually completed,
has become, in recent criticism, a question of great importance,
and therefore it must receive a separate and distinct investiga-
tion. I must solicit the reader's attention, for the present,
however, to some things necessary in order to render more com-
plete our view of the ancient Hebrew literature, whether sacred
or common.

The point cannot be decided with certainty as to several of
the books alluded to or quoted in the Old Testament, whether
they were considered as sacred, or not. Some, e. g. the loorJcs of
prophets, it seems to be quite plain, were regarded as sacred and
authoritative. Others again, e. g. Solomon's works on botany
and zoology, and his one thousand and five songs (1 Kings iv.
82, So), we are not bound to regard as sacred. But there is a
third class, the character of which, as we shall soon see, is some-
what doubtful. My design is, briefly to mention the works to
which the Old Testament refers, and this in the order in which
they occur to the reader of our English version.

160 § 7. LOST BOOKS OV THB HKBREWS.

(1.) In Num. xxi. 14, the writer appeals, for confirmation of
his narrative, to the Book of the Wars of the Lord. The title
itself seems to import, that the book was of a religious cast, and
it is not unlikely that it was regarded as sacred, in the time of
Moses. Still, a reference might be made to it in the manner of
the Pentateuch, without rendering the point of its sacredness
certain. It is clear that it was regarded as a book of grave
authority.

(2.) The book ofJasher, i. e. of the upright, seems to have been
a book of poetical eulogies, written respecting distinguished
men, actors in distinguished events. The writer of Josh. x. 12,
13, appeals to it as confirming his narration in respect to the
standing still of the sun and moon, at the command of Joshua.
Again, it is appealed to in 2 Sam, i, 18, as exhibiting evidence
respecting David's lamentations over Saul and Jonathan, The
credit of the book must of course have been good; for otherwise
the sacred writers had no inducement to appeal to it. But
whether the book was sacred or canonical at that time, is not
decided satisfactorily by these appeals,

(3,) When Samuel had anointed Saul as king, it is said that
" he wrote the manner of the kingdom in a book, and laid it up
before the Lord;" 1 Sam, x, 25, Undoubtedly this was author-
itative ; but of the book itself we have no further notice or know-
ledge. It has been called, The Book of the Constitution of the
Kingdom; but no name is given to it in Scripture.

(3.) Solomon"'s three thousand proverbs, his thousand and five
songs, and his works on natural history (2 Kings iv, 32, 33),
may have in part been sacred, E, g, the present book of Pro-
verbs may not improbably contain some of the 3000 which he
spoke. Possibly some of the songs may have been sacred ones;
but if they were, we should naturally suppose that some of them
would have been preserved, with his name attached to them, I
suppose no one will contend, that Solomon's works on natural
history belonged to the canon. If the Canticles could be shown
to be a work of Solomon, with any good degree of probability,
they might be regarded, perhaps, as a part of his songs. That
no more of his poems (if any) have been preserved, may not
improbably be the result of that distinction, which the Jews
early made between books of a sacred nature and those on other
topics. Yet all-destroying time has taken from us not a few
books once undoubtedly regarded as sacred.

§ 7. LOST BOOKS OF THE HKnilKWS. 161

(4.) The book oi the Acts of Solomon appears to have been a
copious history of his reign and achievements; to which refer-
ence is made by the sacred writer in 1 Kings xi. 41, as a stand-
ard and authentic work on this subject.

(5.) The hook of the Chronicles of the Kings of Israel is appealed
to in 1 Kings xiv. 19; xvi. 5, 20, 27; xxii. 39, as containing
copious accounts of five several Israelitish kings, in distinction
from those of Judah.

(6.) The hook of the Chronicles of the Kings of Judah is indicat-
ed, in 1 Kings xv. 7, as a more copious source of the history of
Abijam, a king of Judah.

(7.) The Acts of David, first and last, are said in 1 Chron.
xxix. 29, to be written in the Book of Samuel the seer, in the Book
of Nathan the prophet^ and in the Book of Gad the seer. Such a
king as David would naturally have many biographers. In this
case, three contemporary prophets, it seems, wrote an account of
this extraordinary ruler. Possibly our present book of Samuel
may be one of these, or a combination of more than one.

(8.) A copious life of Solomon was also written by Nathan
the prophet, and Ahijah the Shilonite, and Iddo the seer. The
two last books are entitled, respectively, prophecy, and visions;
2 Chron. ix. 29.

(9.) The acts of Rehoboam were also written by Shemaiah
the prophet, and by Iddo the seer, in a work concerning genea-
logies; 2 Chron. xii. 15.

(10.) A copious Life of Uzzlah was written by Isaiah the son
of Amoz; 2 Chron. xxvi. 22.

(11.) The Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah, appealed to
in 2 Chron. xxviii. 26; xxxv. 27; xxxvi. 8, may possibly be our
present book of Kings. Yet I do not think this to be certain.

(12.) The Book of Jehu the son of Hanani (see 1 Kings xvi.
1, 7) contained the history of Jchoshaphat; 2 Chron. xx. 34.

(13.) A special Life of Hezekiah, written by Isaiah the pro-
phet, is mentioned in 2 Chron. xxxii . 32; which is perhaps that
portion of our present Isaiah contained in chap, xxxvi. — xxxix.
Also the Book of the Kings of Israel and Judah is mentioned;
which may be our present book of Kings.

(14.) The biography of Manasseh, that wicked king of Judah,
is said, in 2 Chron. xxxiii. 18, to be written in the Book of the
Kings of Israel. The *>Y\X1 'H^'f "^ ^^^® same passage may
mean, and probably does mean, the icords of Ilozai (a prophet)

M

162 § 7. LOST BOOKS OF THE HEIiREWS,

who spake to Manasseh in the name of the Lord. What he said
is also recorded in same book of Kings. Mr Parker (I. p. 411)
represents these words of Hozai as being of themselves a book.

(15.) Tlie Lamentations of Jereyniah over Josiah's untimely
death, 2 Chron, xxxv, 25, seems plainly to be a different book
from that which we now have under the like title, and which
says nothing of Josiah.

Besides these, mention is made of a book in Exod. xvii. 14,
xxiv. 7; in either case it is probably one of the compositions of
Moses, which are now embodied in the Pentateuch, to which
reference is made. In Isa. xxxiv. 16, the Book of the Lord
seems most naturally to mean, the Scriptures then extant, and
which reveal the certainty that what God had promised he
would perform. As to the passages in Isaiah xxix. 11; 1 Chron.
iv. 22, no particular book is meant, but a book in a genuine
sense. In the last case, perhaps, no book at all is meant, for
D'^J^T^V □'^'^^'^ '^^y? ^^^ probably does, mean ancient matters.

From this brief sketch of ancient Hebrew writings, no
longer extant, it appears that many books containing more am-
ple histories of all the leading kings of Judah and Israel, and
more ample biographies of their distinguished men, have perish-
ed. It is in vain to argue against this; as Hottinger {Thes.
Philol. p. 534 seq.) does, and many other strenuous Protestants
have done. Hottinger assumes the position, that God in his
providence would not permit a canonical hook to be lost; and
that the church, the faithful depository of the Divine records,
cannot possibly have been so deficient in its duty, as to suffer
the loss to take place. But what has become of Paul's (really
first) epistle which he wrote to the Corinthians, and to which he
appeals in 1 Cor. v. 9? What has become of John's letter to
the church with which Diotrephes was connected? 3 John ver. 9.
I know of no a priori reasoning, on such a question, that can
satisfy us. The loss of a writing is a possible thing — in a long
series of exile and misfortune, even a probable thing; and at all
events the question concerning it is one merely oi fact. As
such, in the present case, it is easily decided. Are the books
above named now extant? If they are, nothing is known of
them, either among Jews or Christians. It will not do to say,
as Hottinger and others have said, that the very fact of the
loss proves that the books in question were never a part of the
Jewish canon. As to the technical sense of the word canon., it

§ 7. I.O.ST BOOKS OF THK HKHMKWS. ] H'j

was introduced only after the Christian era had advanced a con-
siderable period. But the main thing aimed at by employing
this word, can, as it seems to me, be well predicated of many,
yea of most, of the lost books in question. What were these
books? Prophecies, or prophetico-historical works, the religious
annals of the Jewish nation, both as to historical and biogra-
phical matters. Plainly the writers, as a body, were of the
order of the prophets. And were not books written by Nathan
the prophet, and Gad the prophet, and Iddo the seer, and
Isaiah the prophet, and by others of the same office, counted
sacred by the Hebrews ? We can hardly imagine the contrary.
But if any one should hesitate to acknowledge this, on the
ground that prophets might write other books than those which
were inspired, still the manner of appeal to the works in question
'which are noio lost, both in Kings and Chronicles, shotvs heyond all
reasonable doubt that they loere regarded as authoritative and sacred.
For how could a writer remit his readers for fuller authentic infor-
mation to those books which he did not regard as standing on
the same basis as his own work, in respect to being worthy of
credit? Had we now those fuller narratives which are so fre-
quently appealed to in the present books of Kings and Chroni-
cles, who can well doubt that many a seeming difficulty, in these
abridgments of Jewish history, would be solved to our entire
satisfaction?

I have called these last-named works abridgments. In truth
all the historical books of the Hebrews that we possess, wear
the appearance of abridgments, if we except perhaps the books
of Samuel, Ruth, and Esther. It is impossible to read, with a
critical eye, the historical books of the Old Testament, without
being struck with the palpable difference between them and the
leading historical works of the Greeks, Romans, and modern
nations of Europe. As to chronology, there is no general era to
which all events are referred, in order to mark the time when
they took place. The localities are everywhere supposed to be
within the knowledge of the reader, with the exception that
sometimes the older and the more recent names of places are
both given. Then as to general plan, the exhaustive, or all-
comprehensive method of modern history is a total stranger to
the Scriptures. It plainly is not the design of the sacred wri-
ters to chronicle civil events because they are civil events and
relate to the civil and social state of the Hebrew nation, but

164 § 7- LOST BOOKS OF THE IltBHtWS.

because they are events connected with the theocracy, and are
more or less connected with the rehgious developments of that
nation. The book of Chronicles, so much decried of late, has
above all others this aspect ; which perhaps is one of the rea-
sons why so much critical displeasure has been shown toward
it. Were it not that the name would sound as a novel thing,
and be considered by some perhaps as a little derogatory to the
sacred histories, we might name nearly all of them Anecdota
Sacra, i. e. brief sketches of historical events, which have a con-
nection with sacred things. This is their character throughout;
with perhaps the few exceptions already named. The tribunal of
modern historical criticism would doubtless have many a fault
to find with them, in respect to historical aesthetics. But this
tribunal is one that has been erected by science, and rhetoric,
and the strict method which a logical connection demands. The
Hebrew compositions cannot fairly be tried by this. The He-
brews never had schools of science, of rhetoric, or of philosophy.
To the technical demands of these they do not respond. All
their compositions have a higher end in view, than that of an-
swering the demands of science or philosophy. The all-pervad-
ing element in them is that of religion and morality. To be
eloquent, to be attractive, to be graceful or amusing in narra-
tion, seem never to have been objects distinctly before the minds
of the Hebrew writers. To record what concerned the worship
of God, the religious state of his people, their chastisements and
their blessings, and not unfrequently what concerned distin-
guished individuals among them; to say or to sing what would
make the people wiser and better — these are the objects always
before the minds of these peculiar writers. They have followed
no models of writing among other nations. All that they have
produced is of spontaneous growth. But is it not a vigorous
one? Has it not borne much wholesome fruit? Has science,
philosophy, rhetoric, the art of criticism — all scientific means
and cultivation united — produced compositions of more power,
and of higher perfection in their kind, than those of the He-
brews? I know of none. I know of no narrations that surpass
in interest some of the scriptural ones; no epics that make a
deeper impression than the book of Job and the Apocalypse; no
lyrics that exceed those of David and the sons of Korah; no
preaching, no moral painting, more elevated, sublime, graphic,
s-oul-stirring, than that which can be found in the prophets.

§ 7. LOST BOOKS OF TIIK IIKHRKWS. 165

In passing such a judgment on these books, I do not and
would not summon them before the tribunal of" occidental criti-
cism. Asia is one world, Europe and America another. Let
an Asiatic be tried before his own tribunal. To pass just sen-
tence upon him, we must enter into his feelings views, methods
of reasoning and thinking, and place ourselves in the midst of
the circumstances which surrounded him. Then we must sum-
mon the books of the Hebrews before us; and if, on a fair trial,
they are not found to exceed in the sterling qualities of good
writing, those produced by any other nation, I can only say that
my partiality for them has misled me.

In the mean time, this matter proffers to the mind of a reflect-
ing person some considerations of serious moment. How came
a people, who never had schools of art, science, rhetoric, or phi-
losophy, to write in such a manner, and to attain to such excel-
lence? This is a problem for the Naturalists or Rationalists,
who doubt or deny all inspiration; a problem which they have
not hitherto satisfactorily solved ; one which we may, without
any great degree of presumption, believe they will not be able to
solve.

But to resume our present theme; it is not difficult to account
for the abridged histories of the Hebrews being preserved, while
the more copious ones, which have been brought to view above,
have perished. During the long exile of the Jews in Babylonia,
they must have been in circumstances very unfavourable to the
cultivation of letters, or to the preservation of their former litera-
ture, either sacred or common. Manuscripts were costly; the
men who could copy them, in their state of slavery, must have
been few. Under such circumstances, the books already writ-
ten, being extant in only a few copies, and these written upon
perishable material, and specially the more copious and therefore
themore costly books, might easily be lost. More particularly may
wo suppose this to have been the case, after the abridged works of
Kings and Chronicles were compiled. It strikes me that both of
these works were mainly compiled during the exile, for the very
purpose of preserving, in a brief and compact form, the memora-
hilia of the Jewish history. Such abridgments could be copied,
and purchased, at a much easier rate than the original and more
ample works to which they continually refer. The very fact,
that the references to ampler sources are so frequent, shows the
honest and buna fide design of the compilers. Tiicy were not

lb" 6 § 7. LOST BOOKS OF THE HEBREWS.

only satisfied themselves that they composed a faithful narration,
but they were willing that others should go to the originals and
see for themselves whether such was the case.

If any one is disquieted still with the idea that many of the
original and more copious sacred books have been lost, he would
perhaps do well to ask the question : " How large would the
Scriptures now be, if all the sacred books had been preserved ?
The apostle John, in apologizing as it were for the briefness of
his narrative, tells us that he has omitted many things which
Jesus said and did, because the world would not contain {y^oionmi)
the books that must be written, if all should be narrated. I do
not understand y^oifn^^ai here in the physical sense, i. e. to afford
place for, to afford physical room for, but in the tropical sense,
viz., that the times would not bear with such copiousness, and
that therefore it would be inexpedient. So of the Jewish histori-
cal books. We possess abridgments of them — such as are worthy
of credit. We have before us the main points of their history
that stand connected with the development of religion and of
moral character. We possess that portion of it which is adapt-
ed to make religious impressions. Curiosity would reHsh more,
but religious exigency calls for no more. The more copious his-
tories, now lost, once had their day of usefulness. They were not
written in vain, for the ancient people of God. But to make the
Scriptures a volume portable, procurable for all, and one which may
be read by all, may have been one design of an overruling Provi-
dence in permitting so many of the more copious books to perish.

If this be still deemed improbable or impossible by any one, we
may ask him to explain how or why such errors in the book of
Chronicles, and in the book of Ezra and Nehemiah, (e. g. in re-
gard to the numbers in the register which they have respectively
recorded, Ez. chap, ii., Neh. chap, vii.), have been permitted to
creep in, and thus deform the sacred text. Why have heresies
been permitted to come into the church? Why has the church
general, and almost without exception, been suffered to wan-
dor far away from the simple and spiritual truths of the gos-
pel, and to substitute rites and forms for penitence and faith?
Would it not be easy to show by a priori reasoning, (at least as
good as that employed to show that no sacred books can have
been lost), that errors in the sacred text or in the chui'ch can-
nf)t be deemed probable or even possible? Where, it may be
asked, are the promises of God to his children, and to his church?

§ 7. LOST IJOOK.S Of THE HEBRKNVS. 167

What shall be said of his assurance that he will teach and guide
them in the way of his testimonies, and make his church always
a pillar and ground of the truth? Those and the like questions
are very obvious ones, and are much more easily asked than
answered. The truth seems to be, that some, perhaps many,
expect too much of a revelation made in ancient times. It must
be absolutely perfect, in all respects, and moreover be immutably
preserved. And although they have read in Paul's epistles that
" the Law made nothing perfect,*" yet they seem not to recognize
the truth of this in any one particular, save in respect to Leviti-
cal rites and ceremonies. It is my belief, that the gospel has a
high pre-eminence above the Law; but also, that the Law was as
really from God as the Gospel. Why should not the Mosaic in-
stitution be viewed as being what it actually was, a mere intro-
ductory dispensation in respect to the gospel? As such it had its
time and place, its means, its regulations, rites, laws, revelations
— all adapted to accomplish the subordinate objects to which
they had respect. Viewed in this light, the institutions of
Moses will bear a thorough examination. The fair question in
respect to anything belonging to it always is: Is that thing adap-
ted to answer the end proposed, in a dispensation which is mere-
ly prefatory, or introductory to a higher and more perfect dispen-
sation? The lost books of the Hebrews may have been subser-
vient to the purpose for which they were composed ; they doubt-
less were. ]3ut if Heaven had judged them to be essential to the
prosperity and well-being of Christianity, we may well suppose
they would have been preserved. They were not judged to be
necessary; at least, if events may explain the designs of Provi-
dence, this would seem to have been the case. There are even
some parts of our Old Testament canon, as it now is, which, if
they had been lost, would not have changed the face of a single
doctrine or duty of Christianity. Yet, while I readily accede to
this view of our subject, I should be far from saying that any of
the books which we have are useless. But on this part of the
subject, I hope to say something in the sequel, when our inves-
tigations shall have come to a close.

I do not pretend that there is nothing mysterious in the dis-
pensations of Providence, which have permitted some of the sa-
cred books to perish, and others to have been in some slight re-
spects marred, in the course of transcription. I am well aware
that a perpetual miracle in order to preserve the Scriptures has

168 § 7. LOST BOOKS OF THE HEBREWS,

not unfrequently been assumed, and zealously maintained. But
facts contradict this. It is of no use to close our eyes against
these. We shall neither convince ourselves, nor any one else, by
such a process. But if I reject the Scriptures as a revelation
from God on this account, I must reject the church as a divine
institution on the like account. There is not a church on earth
there never has been one, in which some of its members did not
entertain erroneous or imperfect views of some truth with which
religion has a more intimate or more remote connection. Yet
after all this is conceded, it remains a truth, that there is, and
always has been, a real and spiritual church on earth, a spiritual
kingdom of God among men. There is nothing which is depen-
dent on the agency and management of erring man, but what
will sooner or later, in one way or another, receive some stain
from the hands through which it passes, or be in some respect
marred by human management. It has been so with Christian-
ity itself. It has been and is so in respect to the rational and
moral powers of man. The Bible, in the long and difficult, and
in some cases even perilous, transition of it from one age to ano-
ther, has come to bear some traces of having been subjected to
a like, — i. e. to human, — care and management. But shall it be
urged as a valid objection against the God-like nature of reason^
that men abuse and pervert this faculty ? Is there no evidence
that conscience is heaven-born, because there are perverted con-
sciences and seared consciences? And by virtue of a similar
process of reasoning, we may also ask: Does it follow that the
Bible, in its origin, is not a Divine book, an authoritative book,
because, in transmitting some parts of its records for a period
of more than 8000 years, and in transmitting all of it, even the
latest books in the New Testament, for a period of some 1800
years, (most of this time, be it remembered, by mere chirography
in MSS., before the art of printing was known), some things of
comparatively small moment have been disturbed, or by mistake
in transcribers and redactors subjected to error? Not one doc-
trine is changed by all this; not one duty affected; not even the
relation of any one historic event has been so disturbed, that the
moral impression which it was designed to make is in any im-
portant degree subverted. There is surely nothing short of a
perpetual miracle which could have prevented some mistakes.
But is there any evidence of such a miracle? I know of no satis-
factory evidence, to say the least. I am well aware that the

§ 7. LOST HOOKS OF THK HEIiREWS. ] (19

time has been, when leading men in the Protestant church main-
tained the absolute inviolability of the Scriptures. The Buxtorfs,
and men of" that class, gigantic scholars too in their way, did not
scruple to maintain, that not only all the Hebrew letters were
the same in all the MSS. the world over, but that even the vow-
el-points and accents were, and always had been, identically the
same from the time of Moses down to the then present hour.
Investigation has dissipated this pleasant dream. In the Heb-
rew MSS. that have been examined, some 800,000 various read-
ings actually occur, as to the Hebrew consonants. How many
as to the vowel-points and accents, no man knows. And the
like to this is true of the New Testament. But at the same time
it is equally true, that all these taken together do not change or
materially affect any important point of doctrine, precept, or even
history. A great proportion, indeed the mass, of variations in
Hebrew MSS. when minutely scanned, amount to nothing more
than the difference in spelling a multitude of English words.
What matters it, as to the meaning, whether one writes honour or
honor, whether he writes centre or center? And what matters it in
Hebrew, whether one writes hh or ^"ip, -^-por-ip, 'ry'^Tp"! or rp^n^^?
Indeed one may travel through the immense desert (so I can hard-
ly help naming it) of Kennicott and De Rossi, and (if I may ven-
ture to speak in homely phrase) not find game enough to be
worth the hunting. So completely is this chase given up by re-
cent critics on the Hebrew Scriptures, that a reference to either
of these famous collators of MSS., who once created a great
sensation among philologers through all Europe and America,
is rarely to be found. So true, cogent, and applicable to the
case in hand, is the old maxim of critical jurisprudence, De
minimis non curat lex.

But still, the ground taken by most of the older Protestant
writers, in regard to the inviolability/ of the sacred text, has
been shown to be altogether untenable. Facts contradict their
theory; and there is no arguing against facts.

Why, moreover, should the advocates of this antiquated view
of the subject before us, (for there are not a few of them even
at the present time, although they are rare among the more en-
lightened part of the religious community), — why should they be
so strenuous in regard to a thing which is not only disproved by
fact, but altogether unnecessary to an enlightened belief in the
Divine authority of the Scriptures, or to the well-grounded ad-

l70 § 7. LOST BOOKS OF THE HEBREWS.

vocacy of this authority? 1 am ready to say, that their fears
about concession here are vain ; their hopes of convincing others,
who examine critically into matters of this kind, are vain; and,
I would add, the confident expectations of those who disclaim
and oppose the Divine authority of the Scriptures, so far as
objections of this nature are concerned, are also vain. We
freely yield our assent to the allegation, that in our present
copies of the Scriptures there are some discrepancies between
different portions of them, which no learning or ingenuity can
reconcile. Humanum est errare. The Bible has passed through
the hands of erring men for a series of ages ; and even the most
sacred waters, flowing through a channel that has some impuri-
ties in it, must contract some stain, or undergo some deprecia-
tion.

But what then ? As I have said once and again, not a doc-
trine is changed, not a duty altered or obscured, not an impor-
tant historical fact perverted. If so, we have no special interest
in labouring with the Buxtorfs and others to establish views of
the sacred text, which are contradicted by facts that lie upon
the very face of the Scriptures. The honesty of their purpose,
and even the warmth of piety which gave birth to it, I readily
acknowledge and approve. But zeal without adequate know-
ledge does not always propose the best ends, nor choose the
best means to accomplish those ends. In the case before us, we
may confidently take the position, that their theory, or at any
rate, their mode of maintaining it, is destitute of solid support-
On the other hand, when Mr Norton, De Wette, or his transla-
tor, and a large portion of the German critics, assail the Scrip-
tures, particularly the Old Testament, on the ground of discre-
pancies and contradictions, (and they habitually do this), we
need not say, in reply to them, that absolutely no discrepancies
and no contradictions exist in our present Scriptural text; but
we may say truly, — at least such is the view which I feel con-
strained to take of the subject, — that these are so easily account-
ed for, they amount in the whole to so few, they are in fact of
so little importance, that they make nothing of serious import
against the claims which the matter, the manner, and the cha-
racter of the Scriptures prefer as the stable ground of our be-
lief, and confidence, and obedience. One thing is absolutely
L certain. There is not in the world — there never has been — any
such book as the Bible. There is none which looks to ends so

§ 8. PKKSEUVATlOiV OF TIIK SACKED BOOK.S. 171

lofty, SO worthy of our highest interest and regard. If the
Bible be not true, the destiny of man still remains enveloped in
more than Egyptian night.

§ 8. Manner of preserving the Sacred Books.

Since the art of printing was discovered in Europe, there has
been little or no difficulty as to the preservation of valuable or
interesting books. Copies being multiplied by thousands at a
time, and this being repeated at intervals of time, such an occur-
rence as the absolute loss of a valuable book has hardly been
possible. It is difficult for us who live amidst the doings of the
printing-press, of Bible Societies, and Tract Societies, to make
a correct estimate of the state of the ancient Hebrews in regard
to the diffiision and preservation of written compositions.

Nothing is clearer, than that the art of writing, and even of
reading, in the time of Moses, and indeed for centuries after-
wards, was very limited among the Hebrews. The Shoteriin
(q^-.-^^^S), however, a class of officers or magistrates among them,
one must naturally suppose, were acquainted with the art of
writing, and of course with reading; for the verb -^^^j;, of which
the above word is a regvdar participle, means, both in Hebrew
and Arabic, to write. The literal translation of "yi^"^ is scriha^
y^a/jjlj^anvg, scrihe. We find this class of men among the people
in Egypt, Exod. v. 6 — 19, and in the desert. Numb. xi. 16. We
trace them down to the latest period of the Jewish common-
wealth; see in 1 Chron. xxiii. 4, xxvi. 29, 2 Chron. xix. 11;
xxxiv. 13. We are not, however, to understand that this class
of men were mere copyists or chirographers, but magistrates,
probably of different gradations, who kept written records of the
things which they transacted. Besides these, the priests, at
least some of them, and probably some of the Levites, were ac-
quainted with reading and writing; for being the jurisconsults o(
the nation, one cannot well divine how intelligent men among
them would think of discharging their duties well, without being
able to read the Law of Moses.

There must be still less doubt as to the prophets among the
Hebrews. They were the pi^eachers of the Mosaic religion.
The office which they performed was, as we have seen in the
preceding pages, altogether analogous to that of ministers of the

] 72 § 8. PllESEUVATIONT OF THE SACRED BOOK.S.

gospel. Priests neither preached nor prayed, i. e. as pubhc
teachers and in their official capacity; but they gave advice,
when consulted, as to matters of law, of duty, and of conscience.
Ministers of religion, in the sense of being its public teachers and
defenders, they were not. Above all the men in the Jewish com-
munity, it behoved the prophets to be acquainted with the
Mosaic Law, and, from time to time, with such other Scriptures
as were added to it. The very essence of their official duty, as
preachers of righteousness, consisted in inculcating the doctrines
which their sacred books and their holy men had taught.

Still, plain as all this seems to be, there is no very definite
and certain evidence, that priests and prophets themselves
always, or even in general, were actually possessed of copies of
the Mosaic Law; and so, after the time of David and Solomon,
in respect to other portions of Scripture written during their
reigns. Had the Mosaic Law been obeyed by all the kings of
Judah and Israel, each king must have written out a copy of
the Law for himself; for so Deut. xvii. 1 8 enjoins. That David,
whose " delight was to meditate on the Law of the Lord by day
and by night," complied with this requisition, there can be no
room for rational doubt. Perhaps as little doubt can be enter-
tained respecting Solomon, who, in the former part of his reign, -
was much devoted to study and to the promotion of the interests
of religion. The like was doubtless done by other kings, who
were distinguished for their piety and the spirit of obedience to
the law.

It will be recollected that, from Moses to Samuel, (about 300
years), we scarcely find mention of a prophet. Only one makes
a momentary appearance in the book of Judges, Judg. vi. 8
seq. Almost as little, also, seems to be said concerning jor/g's^s,
during the same period, as concerning prophets. But from the
time of Samuel down to Malachi, there was a succession oi pro-
phets in all probability unbroken, and priests are not unfrequent-
ly brought to view. Were the Old Testament Scriptures in
their hands? Were the copies of the Law, and other Scriptures,
as they arose, so multiplied that all who wished could have
access to them?

A question not devoid of interest, but one which can scarce-
ly be decided by any direct testimony within our reach. We
can reason quite conclusively in respect to the subject, if we
assume that all classes of tlie Hebrews, the Shoterim, the priests.

^ 8, PRESERVATION OK THE SACRKD HOOKS. 173

the Levites, kings, and other high officers of state, did their
duty in regard to seeking the information requisite to discharge
well and faithfully the functions of their office, under the Mosaic
constitution. But it lies upon the very face of the Jewish his-
tory, that all of these classes of officers did not usually perform
the duty of making themselves familiar with the Mosaic insti-
tutes, except as they gathered them from common and tradi-
tional report. The freciuent lapses of the nation into idolatry,
which are everywhere recorded, are satisfactory proof that the
Hebrews were not well instructed in the Mosaic laws, and that
oftentimes the magistrates who governed them must have been
ignorant as well as themselves. It is impossible to suppose,
with any degree of probability, that the nation would have so
often attached themselves to idol-worship, had the light of the
then existing Scriptures been generally diffused among them.
Moses did not make provision for schools, nor for early and
efficient instruction in the Scriptures. Hence, when there were
no prophets, (as seems to have been the case in the time of the
Judges), or afterwards when there were but few in comparison
with the wants of the people, it is no wonder that the mass of
the nation fell into a state of the grossest ignorance. The
Mosaic provision for reading the Law only once in seven years
to the whole population (Deut. xxxi. 10 — 13), could not possi-
bly be efficient enough to prevent this. Besides, in times of
general declension from the spirit of piety, and above all in
times of devotedness to the worship of idols, it was a matter of
course that this public reading should be neglected. The his-
tory of circumcision, of the passover, and of other public feasts,
shows that such was the case in regard to these institutions. In
times of idolatry, the people would not be duly summoned by
the magistracy or the Levites to hear the Law; and if they
were, they would not listen to the summons. The very fact
that Moses provided for such a public reading, and ordered it,
shows that he did not expect his written laws to he circulated in
manuscript amonri the mass of the people- In times of alienation
from the worship of the true God, when the leaders of the peo-
ple were themselves their misleaders, is it i-ational to suppose,
that they would have subjected themselves to the trouble, and
very serious expense, of procuring for themselves copies of the
Pentateuch? Few, indeed, of the kings, either of Judah or
Israel, (probably none of the latter), ever took pains to copy

1 74 8 8.

PRESERVATION OK THE SACRKI) BOOKS.

the Law; at least, the history of them gives us reason to believe
that such was the case.

A few occasional notices of arrangements made by some of the
pious kings of Judah serve to show that the statements just
made are in all probability correct. The pious Jehoshaphat, in
the third year of his reign, sent out, as teaching missionaries
among his people, some of the princes, Levites, and priests, and
they went round among all the cities of Judah, and carried the
hook of the laiv of the Lord with them, 2 Chron. xvii, 7 — 9. Now
clearly, if these princes, Levites, and priests, had each a copy of
the Law, which was their own property, and if this were a com-
mon thing among them, it never could have occurred to the his-
torian to make mention of such a circumstance. In giving the
history of missionaries now, does any one ever think of specifying
the fact, that they cai-ry a Bible with them in their journeys? If
not, then does it not seem altogether probable, that in the case
before us, the missionaries were required to take the copy of the
Law from the temple, where it was deposited, in order that they
might appeal to it in all their public instructions? Could other
copies of the Law have been accessible among the Jews, at that
time, when this copy in the temple was permitted to be taken?
It seems, at least, to be very improbable. Who should have
such copies, if not princes and Levites and priests who attended
on the court, and who were sent on this mission?

In the great reformation under Hezekiah, we find an express
recognition of celebrating a famous passover " according to the
law of Moses" (2 Chron. xxx. 16); but there is nothing men-
tioned in this connection which would cast light on the subject
before us, excepting the fact, that many came to the passover
unsanctified, and of course unprepared to celebrate it in a legal
manner, 2 Chron. xxx. 17 — 20. Must not this have been in
consequence of ignorance respecting the Mosaic law? It seems
probable, at least; and the more so, inasmuch as Hezekiah ad-
mitted them to the passover, and prayed the Lord to forgive
their sin of ignorance, which prayer was granted. A circum-
stance this, I may add, which is replete with instruction to those
who place too much stress upon the rites, and forms, and exter-
nals of religion.

In Josiah's time, it seems nearly certain that the copies of the
Law were reduced to one; at least that no more could be found
or were accessible. The astonishment of the king and his court,

§ 8. I'UESKUVATION OF THE SACRKI) HOOKS. 1 75

yea of the high-priest Hilkiah himself, who found a copy in the
temple, is such as to show, that none of these persons possessed
a copy of their own, 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14 seq. We have already
seen, that the fifty-seven years of idolatry under the reign of
Manasseh and Anion had probably occasioned this dearth of
copies: and also that the bitter and bloody persecution of that
time, was probably the cause why the copy had been hid which
was found by Josiah. But be this as it may, it is clear enough
that the supposition of a general circulation of the Scriptures in
MS. among the Hebrews before the exile is out of all question.
It seems to be almost equally clear, moreover, that kings, princes,
priests and Levites, did not ordinarily take any pains to possess
themselves of a copy of the Scriptures. Individuals among all
these classes there might be, and more probably still among the
prophets, and some also even in private life, who did possess copies
of the Law; I mean that such might be, and occasionally was,
in all probability, the case. But the perishable materials on
which these copies were written, and the little interest that
would be felt in them in times of deep and general declension
from the spirit of true religion, sufficiently account for the
speedy loss or destruction of most codices once (as we express
it) in circulation.

That the fear of an entire and utter loss of the Pentateuch,
after the occurrence already spoken of in the time of Josiah,
would probably lead to a considerable multiplication of copies,
there can be no good room to doubt. That the brief reigns of
Jehoahaz, Jehoiakim, Jehoiakin, and Zedekiah, (only some
twenty-two years in the whole,) before the exile, would destroy
all, or even most, of these codices, cannot be deemed very pro-
bable. These kings did not persecute in such a furious manner
as Manasseh had done. When the king of Babylon " burnt the
house of God, and all the palaces thereof, and slew the young
men with the sword in the house of the sanctuary,"" (2 Chron.
xxxvi. 16, 17,) it is not probable that he destroyed the sacred
books in the temple; for as the city of Jerusalem had sustained
a siege of about two years' continuance, sufficient warning must
have been given to priests and prophets to take care of those
books.

The story in 2 Mace. ii. 1 seq., respecting the part which
Jeremiah acted, when the temple was burnt, is very curious; and
although mixed with a spicing of fable, in all probability has

176 § 8. PRESERVATION OF THK SACRED HOOKS,

some truth for its basis. The substance of it is, that this pro-
phet took some of the holy fire and the book of the Law, and
committed them to the charge of some of the exiles, with strict
injunction to keep them safely and never neglect them. At the
same time, (which is the fabulous part of the story,) the prophet,
moved by a special revelation, commanded the tabernacle and
the ark of the covenant to follow him to Mount Sinai, where he
hid them, with the altar of incense, in a cave, until the time of
restoration and prosperity should return. The writer appeals to
a^oyaai^a; and to yocj.^ph as containing this account, ver. 1, 4. He
relates moreover what Nehemiah did in collecting sacred books
for the renewed commonwealth of the Jews; but this belongs
to a subsequent part of our subject. In respect to this whole
matter, it seems altogether probable, that such a man as Jere-
miah, himself a priest and having ready access to the temple,
would preserve the sacred records deposited there, and secure
them against destruction. However this may be, it is at least
certain, that Zerubbabel and Jeshua arranged the ritual of Jew-
ish worship according to the Laio of Moses ^ when they came up
with the first colony of the returning exiles, Ezra iii. 2. After-
wards, when it is related that Ezra came up with a second colony
(Ez. vii. 1 seq.), he is spoken of as " a ready scribe in the Law
of Moses, which the Lord God of Israel had given," Ez. vii. 6.
That the Law, therefore, and probably other Scriptural books,
were in the hands of the Jews, i. e. of the literary part of them,
during the exile, seems quite certain. Private individuals doubt-
less possessed some copies; and surely such a man as Ezra must
have had it in his power to be a diligent student of them, while
he was yet in exile.

Let us advert, for a moment, to the account which is given in
the Hebrew Scriptures themselves, of the preservation of at least
some of the sacred books, as they came from the hands of their
authors. In Deut. xvii. 18, Moses speaks of a copy of this Law
in a hook^ to be made by each king with his own hand, and then
speaks of that book as being before the priests the Levites, i. e.
under their inspection or guardianship, and of course in the
temple. In Deut. xxxi. 9, it is said that " Moses wrote this
law, and delivered it unto the priests the sons of Levi," i. e. he
committed it to them for safe keeping. In Deut. xxxi. 26, Moses
is said to have commanded the priests who bore the ark of the
covenant, to " take the book of the Law and put it in the side

§ 8. I'llESERVATIOX OF TIIK SAClliiU liOOK.S. 177

of the ark of the covenant," there to be kept as a permanent
witness against the Israelites, in case they should break the co-
venant. It is not essential to our present purpose, whether the
whole of the Pentateuch or of Deuteronomy, or only a portion
of the latter, is here designated by the phrase p^.-j^^ niinn "1SD5

although no one can give a satisfactory reason, why one portion
of Deuteronomy should be so preserved and not another. But
still, the word -^Qp is employed to designate a writing which is

complete in itself, whether longer or shorter, and it can hardly
mean merely extracts from the Law, or a certain small portion of
it. That there was a book in Moses' time, a record in which
were written important laws, arrangements, and occurrences, and
which was deposited by the ark, seems to be nearly certain from
the manner in which it is so often adverted to; e. g. Moses is
commanded (Ex. xvii. 14) to write an account of the contest
with Amalek "^q^^, in the hook (not in a book), and of course in

some noted or well-known book; in Ex. xxiv. 7, it is said, that
" he took the look of the covenant and read in the audience of the
people," which doubtless means the laws in Ex. xx — xxiv; in
Deut. xxviii. 58, Moses speaks of the words of this Law written
niri "^5Di' ^^^* "^^ ^^^** ^^^^ hook^ (which is the most exact trans-
lation that we can make of the phrase in English); and in
Deut. xxviii. 61, he speaks of the hook of this latv; and in these
two latter cases, what he says was in an address to the people.
To be intelligible, he must have referred to a icell-known book,
probably to one which was held up before them while he was
addressing them. This same book, called the hook of the Law
in Deut. xxxi. 26, was the one which Moses commanded the
Levites, who bore the ark of the covenant, to take and put 5y
the side, or at the side, or on the side (-fj>72! 72 being often used in

Hebrew to denote proximate or dependent localities), of the ark
of the covenant. There is nothing inconsistent with the suppo-
sition that the book of the Law, i. e. the Pentateuch as a whole,
was kept in that place, in the assertion made in 1 Kings viii. 9,
and 2 Chron. v. 10, viz., that "there was nothing in the ark
[when it was transferred to the sanctuary of the newly built
temple], save the two tables of stone which Moses put there at
Horeb." The Hebrew here is I'i'^t^^L' ^'^ ^^^ ^^^'' which is quite
a different phrase from the 'j'i'^^ TJiO' ^'^ ^^*^ ^"^^' ^/ ^^<^ ^''^'^ i^i

N

178 § 8. PRESERVATION OF THE SACRED BOOKS.

Deut. xxxi. 26; although De Wette in his Introduction has
confounded them, and endeavoured to make some capital out of
this circumstance for his purpose of destructive criticism. The
Epistle to the Hebrews (ix. 4) speaks in the same way of only
the tables of the covenant, i. e. the stone tablets on which the
ten commandments were engi-aved, as being in the arJc, see Ex.
xxxi. 18, xxxii. 15, 16, xxxiv. 1, 28, Deut. ix. 10, and particu-
larly X. 1 — 5. Josephus repeats the same idea, Antiq. VIII.
4. 1, " The ark contained nothing else except the two tablets of
stone, which pi'eserved the ten commandments spoken by the
Lord to Moses, and written upon them at Mount Sinai."

Traces of the fact that the law of Moses was deposited in the
sanctuary along with the ark of the covenant, for safe keeping,
may be found in subsequent parts of the Old Testament. In
Josh. xxiv. 26 it is said, that " he wrote these ivords [which most
naturally means the two addresses that he made to the people
near the close of his life. Josh, xxiii. xxiv.] in the book of the
Law of God; and he took a great stone and set it up there [as
witness betweeen him and the people] under an oak that was by
the sanctuary of the Lord;" in other words, he wrote down his
solemn addresses, and joined them to the Pentateuch or words
of Moses kept in the sanctuary.

Again, in 1 Sam. x. 25 it is said, that this prophet "told the
people the manner of the kingdom [of Saul], and wrote it -^rj^^,
in the hook ;"" which of course must mean a well-known book; and
what other one could this be than " the Law of the Lord," to
which Joshua had annexed his admonitions? The solemnity and
importance of the occasion demanded such an authentication as
would be made by this circumstance, and perpetuity, moreover,
would thus be secured to the written constitution of the kingdom.

Of course we are prepared by occurrences like these, to ex-
pect what is related of the Pentateuch in the time of Josiah,
viz., that it was found in the temple; although in this case surely
not in its usual place by the side of the ark. It had been with-
drawn and hidden by some pious hand, to save it from the deso-
lating fury of Manasseh.

Does not, moreover, the passage in Isa. xxxiv. 16 refer to the
holy hihliotheca in the temple, surnamed the hook of the Lordf
After predicting various evils to Edom, the prophet says: " Seek
ye out o^ the hook (-^pd h'^'Kh) ^f i^^<^ Lord, and read; no one of
these shall fail." That this expression does not refer to what

§ 8. I'RKSEUVATION OF THE SACKED BOOKS. 179

tho prophet had himself just uttered, Knobel has clearly shown
in his Commentary on this book; although Rosenmiiller and
others have defended this mode of interpretation. Gesenius
supposes him to advert to a collection of sacred books, with which
his own was to be associated. That he refers to some prophecy
or predictions in other and sacred books, seems to be quite cer-
tain from the tenor of the passage and the nature of the reason-
ino-. But whether these books were a part of our present canon
or not, it would be more difficult to say. Still, the phrase, boo/c
of the Lord, and the certainty of the writer that what was con-
tained therein would take place, show that the book in question
was a well-known and definite one, and one also of sacred au-
thority. There was therefore, at the period when this was writ-
ten, a collection of sacred writings ; and the expression, book of
the Lord, may refer either to the divine origin of the book, or to
the fact that it was kept where God was supposed to dwell, viz.
in the inner sanctuary. It is quite possible, moreover, that the
prophecy referred to, may be virtually contained in the declarations
of Isaac respecting Esau in Gen. xxvii. 37 seq., so that the Penta-
teuch itself is the book of tho Lord to which reference is made.

That what was done in ancient times, in respect to the sacred
books of the Hebrews, was done at a later period, after the se-
cond temple was built, seems to be manifest from various passa-
ges in Josephus. Speaking of Moses' bringing water from the
rock (Antiq. III. 1, 7), he says: That God had foretold this to
Moses, hri'f.cilh riZ UgQ dva-/.iiij.i'jn 7faf'^, the Scripture laid up in
the temple shows." Speaking of the day being prolonged dur-
ing the battle of Joshua with the five kings {Antiq. V. 1, 17), he
says: " This is shown by the writings laid up in the temple, bia
rm dvuKii/jAvcov h t'Sj 'n^uJ y^a/^tz/MT-w!/." This last quotation shows,
that the deposit of books in the temple was not confined to the
Pentateuch, for it has reference to the book of Joshua.

Again, Josephus, in describing the triumphal procession of
Vespasian and Titus at Rome, when the Jewish war had been
completed, says, that the spoils of the temple were made con-
spicuous above all the other things carried in the procession, and
that " last" [and consequently most eminent] " among these
spoils was borne tho Law of the Jews, h n w,j.<ji h rwv 'lo-jbaiujv Irrl
TovToig s^isssro rujv Xa<p'o»uv nXivraToc, Hell. Jud. V il. 5, 5. Again

(§ 7. ib.) he says, that Vespasian erected a temple to Peace, and
there he deposited the furniture of the temple at Jerusalem,

180 § 8. PRESERVATION OF THE SACRED ROOKS.

while he " commanded to keep laid up in the palace their Law
[viz. the Law of the Jews], and the purple veil of the temple, rhv

^aaiXsioig d'xoh,'/,svoug ^LlXa^<rs/^.'" I can scarcely doubt that in both
of these cases the word v6/mc (law) comprises, as it sometimes
does in the usage of other writers of that period, the whole of
the Jewish Scriptures recognized by Josephus as such. The
Rabbinical use of ^'\^p^=^v6>J.oc, in such a sense, is well known to

all Hebrew scholars; see Buxt. Lex. Talmud, and Hettinger
Thes. Phil. p. 94. If there be any doubt of this, it would seem
to be dissipated by Josephi Vita, § 75, where he says, that Titus,
at his request, " made him a present of the sacred books, (SipXlov
li^ojv iXalSov yjy.otsaij.h(i\) tItov.'''' It does not appear with certainty
from the context, whether this copy of the Scriptures was one
taken from the temple or not; but on the whole this is the im-
pression made upon my mind by reading § 75 throughout. If I
am not in an error, there was then, at that time, more than one
copy of the sacred books laid up in the temple; for the copy
given to Josephus and retained by him, must be different from
that which was carried in procession by Vespasian and laid up
in the temple of Peace.

It would seem to be a matter of course, that the Jewish high
priest and Sanhedrim, who were the supreme judges of the na-
tion in all matters pertaining to religion and morality, should
have kept a copy of the sacred books near at hand, i. e. near to
the place where they usually held their meetings; which was
either in a part of the temple, or in the house of the high priest
in its neighbourhood. If so, what place could be so appropriate
for those books as the temple?

There is other evidence also, of an indirect nature, in regard
to the keeping of the Scriptures, after the return of the Jews
from exile. We have already seen (p. 71 seq. above), that syna-
gogues, in which the Jewish Scriptures were read, in all proba-
bility originated soon after that return. In these it would seem,
if we are to credit Jewish tradition, that only the Law of Moses
or Pentateuch was at first read, and that this custom continued
down to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes. That tyrant, in his
persecution of the Jews, compelled them to destroy all the co-
pies of the Law which could be found; in particular he com-
manded, that the public reading of the Law of Moses in the
synagogue, on the Sabbath, should be entirely abolished. The

§ 8. I'llESRUVATION OF TUK SACUKn )JOOKS. 181

reading of the Law in the synagogues being thus prohibited on
pain of death, the Jews chose an adequate numbei- of selections
or extracts from the prophetical books of the Scriptures, as sub-
stitutes for them, and thus continued their scriptural readings.

Such is the usual account given of the origin of the Ilaphta-
roth, or prophetical lections, which are designated in the margin
of all the better Hebrew Bibles. Van der Hooght has given a
catalogue of them at the close of his edition of the Hebrew Bi-
ble; marked the corresponding Parashoth or sabbatical lections
of the Pentateuch, for which the prophetical lections, as said
above, were substituted; and finally pointed out at the same
time the difference in the prophetical selections, in twelve cases,
between the Jews of southern and those of middle and northern
Europe. The tradition about the origin of these, as stated above,
is vouched for and fully stated by Elias Levita (T/iisbi, ad h. vo-
cem), and admitted by the great mass of biblical critics; among
whom are Eichhorn and Bertholdt. The latter makes defence
of Elias. Still the story about the origin of the Haphtaroth is
doubted by De Wette (Einl. § 80), for doubt falls in with his
usual style of criticism; but it is also called in question by Vit-
ringa, Vet. Si/tiaq. p. i 007 seq., and somewhat doubted by Carp-
zov. Grit. Sac. p. 148. The ground of doubt as to the origin of
the Haphtaroth, is the lack of historical testimony. In 1 Mace,
i. 56, 57, the writer, in recounting the persecuting measures of
Antiochus Epiphanes, says that " he burned ra. (3i(3Aia rov vofMu,^''
and that " wherever j3ii37Jov hia'^r,-/.-^; was found with any one, or
any showed pleasure in the Law, the judgment of the king
[Antiochus] condemned him to death." Carpzov remarks on
this, that the object of the tyrant was not merely to destroy the
Pentateuch, or to stop the sab batical readings in the synagogue,
but to heathenize the Jews, and to prohibit all exercise of their
religion; and of course he must have laboured to destroy the
Prophets as well as the Law. Josephus, in his narration respect-
ing Antiochus, says that " he destroyed all those with whom was
found /3//3>.o5 'liocc xat vofioi" (Antiq. xii. 5, 4); which seems to fa-
vour the view of Carpzov and Vitringa.

But, however, or whatever, the origin or the occasion of read-
ing the Haphtaroth on the Sabbath in the synagogue may have
been, it matters not as to our present object. In the apostles'
time the custom of reading them was usual, or rather, as we niav
well suppose, universal among the Jews. Thus in Acts xiii. 15

182 § 8. PRESERVATION OF THE SACRED BOOKS.

''after the reading of the Law and the Prophets,'''' (a frequent
designation of the Old Testament Scriptures in general), the rul-
ers of the synag!)gue asked Paul and his companions to address
the assembly. In v. 27 of the same chapter, it is said of the
persecuting people of Jerusalem, that " they knew not the voices
of the Prophets which are read every 8abhath-dayT This puts the
matter beyond a question as to the prophetical books being kept
in the synagogues for use; and if they were there, they would
of course be in the temple. But these passages do not settle the
question, how loncj the prophets had been so read. Yet the
apostle James, in Acts xv. 21, has decided that the custom of
reading the Scriptures in this way, at least of reading the Lav.\
was in his time quite an ancient one: " For Moses of old time
hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the syna-
gogues every Sabbath day." That he names only Moses here,
results merely, as I apprehend, from the nature of the appeal
which he makes in the passage. The preceding passages which
have just been quoted, (Acts xiii. 15, 27), show the exact state
of the whole matter at that period. Now how long a period
may be comprised under the iz yiviZn a^yjx'tMv of James, it would
be difficult to say with exactness. But that a period farther
back than that of Antiochus (1 7o — 164 b.c.) is meant, seems to
me altogether probable. I must therefore, with Vitringa and
Carpzov, believe it probable that the religious zeal of the Jews,
at or soon after the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, gave birth to
the reading of both the Law and the Prophets in the synagogues.
This being conceded, or even so large a period as that which
reaches back to the time of Antiochus being conceded, for the
reading of the Prophets in all the synagogues, it will be seen at
once what effectual provision had been made for the preserva-
tion of the Hebrew Scriptures, after the return from Babylon.
Such an accident as occurred in regard to the Law of Moses in
the time of Josiah, was no longer possible. In confirmation of
the fact, that the Prophets were read in the synagogues, (James
says. Acts xv. 21, in every ■ToXs/=town or village), we may ap-
peal to Luke iv. 17 — 19. Jesus being in the synagogue at Na-
zareth is invited to read the Scriptures, and the volume of Isaiah
is given him, which he opens at chap. Ixi. and commences read-
ing in it. The suggestion that he did this in an extraord'inary
manner, i. o. merely by virtue of his own peculiar authority, is
favoured by nothing in the narration of Luke, On the contrary,

§ 8. PRESERVATION OF TH R SACKED HOOKS. 183

he is requested to read; is directed wliere, i. e. in what book, he
shall read; and no one expresses any offence at the manner, but
at the matter of his discourse. I understand the Evangelist as
saying, that Jesus had been accustomed to read in the syna-
gogue, antecedently to this occasion : " he entered according to
his custom into the synagogue on the day of the sabbath, and
stood up to read ;" where xara rb iloidhg o.-onZ may naturally, and
I doubt not that it does, qualify both clauses. If the action of
reading had been an unusual one, would the volume of Isaiah
have been given to him, and all in the synagogue have peaceably
and attentively waited for his subsequent discourse i It is true,
indeed, that the portion of Isaiah which he read (Ixi. 1, 2), is
not at present included in the Haphtaroth, for one of them ends
with the preceding chapter. But this is not an argument of any
weight to show that the reading of the passage in question must
be regarded as something singular or extraordinary; for as the
Haphtaroth differ (this we have seen above) among the Jews of
southern and of northern and middle Europe, so, in ancient
times, Isa. Ixi. 1, 2, may have been included in them.

It follows from all the preceding considerations, that the Law
and the Prophets had been read on the Sabbath-day, in every
town in Judea, for a long period, sk yz\im aiyaiwr^ and of course,
that there must have been some established Scriptures from
which the selection for reading was made. The destruction or
even material change of the Scriptures, after such a custom had
commenced, was put out of all question. The destruction of one
copy would only be the loss of one out of a great number; inter-
polations or alterations in one copy would not affect the others
which remained unmutilated. Indeed any one who has read the
Tractaius Sopheriiu may well believe, that Jewish su{)erstition,
if nothing better, would have prevented any considerable change
in the text of the Scriptures at this period.

It is unnecessary to dwell here on the inquiry, how much, or
what portion, of the Scriptures were called prophetic. We have
seen above, that the idea of Si prophet, among the Hebrews, was
not confined to those who predicted future events, but was ex-
tended to all who preached, wrote, or taught, by Divine inspira-
tion. Hence in the division of the Hebrew Scriptures, made
we know not how long before the Christian era, the historical
books, as well as those which wc now call prophetic, were as-
signed to the prophets. Joshua, Judges, 1st and 2d Samuel,

184 § 8. PUESKRVATION OF THE SACRED BOOKS.

and 1st and 2d Kings are called Qi^^tl,^^-^ D^'i^'^l-j ^^^^ /^^^ or
early prophets. This is a Talmudic arrangement. We shall
see, in the sequel, that Josephus, and probably Philo, and Jesus
Sirachides, include the other historical books, viz. 1 and 2
Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, Ruth, and probably Job,
among the projyhets; and these books, with the others now usually
named prophetic among us, and by the Hebrews called the later
prophets, were all comprised under the general appellation of
Prophets. The Haphtaroth or prophetical Lections, extend,
therefore, to the historical booh, as well as to the books now
called prophetic by us. And when it is said, (as it has often
been of late) that the Kethubim or Hagiography was a late col-
lection, so late that no Lections were made from it, the more
ancient division of the sacred books is not only overlooked, but
the fact that the book of Esther has always been publicly read
in the synagogues, since the events which it commemorates took
place, at the feast of Purim in the twelfth month, (which book
is one of the Hagiography, according to the Talmudic division of
the Scriptures), is ignored or very conveniently forgotten.
Whatever might have been the reason, on account of which the
Talmudic Rabbins classed the last named historical books with
the Kethubim, it was not that they regarded them as uninspir-
ed. Nor was the ?a^<?s^ composition the criterion of what belong-
ed to the Hagiography, as classified by them; for most of the
Psalms, the Proverbs, Ruth, Job, Euclesiastes, and Canticles,
(the two last with the Proverbs, according to them, from the
pen of Solomon, the book of Ruth from that of Samuel, and
most of the Psalms from that of David), were regarded of course
as being older than a number of the books among both the for-
mer and latter prophets, e. g.. Kings, Haggai, Zechariah, and
Malachi, and (I may add) Jeremiah, Lamentations, and Ezekiel.

According to the later Rabbinical division of the Scriptures,
then, portions of all the three great divisions of the sacred books
were publicly read in the synagogues, long before the Christian
era. We can have no doubt, therefore, that each and every
part of the Jewish Scriptures was deposited in the synagogues
respectively, and of course in the temple.

As to the more ancient Hagiography, viz. Psalms, Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, and Canticles, (such we shall see is the classifica-
tion of Josephus), I will not undertake to say with certainty
what was the reason that no Lections for the synagogues were

§ 8. I'KKSERVATION OF THE SAf UKD BOOKS. 185

taken from them. But as there is a correspondence, real or
supposed, between the Lections from the Pentateuch and those
from the Prophets, it would seem probable that those who se-
lected these Lections did not find a satisfactory correspondence
in the books just named, and so they omitted to select from
them; at least this may be regarded as probable in respect to
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles. In regard to the Psalms,
many corresjjondences as to matter might indeed be easily
found ; but it should be remembered, that the Psalms were very
extensively employed in the public singing at the synagogue,
and needed not to be read in the Lections.

If tradition has any weight in this matter, it would seem to
be quite plain and certain, that all three parts of the Jewish
Scriptures were used, as the basis of selection, in the Jewish
synagogues, long before the Christian era. This usage, we can-
not reasonably doubt, originated not long after the complete
arrangement of religious matters at Jerusalem, under Ezra and
Nehemiah. The facility of perpetuating the Hebrew code in
this way, is very obvious. For more than 1800 years now past,
it has been perpetuated in the synagogues, in the same way;
and moreover by private copies. The custom of individuals hav-
ing these in possession, so far back as the time of Antiochus
Epiphanes, is clearly adverted to in 1 Mace. i. 57, " And when-
ever the book of the covenant was found with any one (-aja nvi)
. . . the sentence of the king inflicted death upon him." The
deplorable experience of former ages, as to turning away from
the true God to the worship of idols, had taught the Jewish na-
tion, that " to be without knowledge was not good for the soul."
Ezra and Nehemiah appear to have entertained very enlightened
views in regard to this subject. Hence the pains taken to read,
circulate among the people, and inculcate the Scriptures, since
the second establishment of the Jews in Palestine. Hence the
departure from the ancient custom of remaining at home all
day upon the Sabbath, and the resort of worshippers and learn-
ers to the synagogue. And the consequence of all this was,
that the Jews never have relapsed again into idolatry; a few
renegades only excepted in the time of Antiochus, or when
under the yoke of some other foreign tyrant.

To bring our present topic, viz., the preservation of the Scrip-
tures, to a close; I cannot help remarking, that the wisdom of
Providence seems to be conspicuous, in directing matters so that

186 § 8. PHESKRVATION OF THE SACRED HOOKS.

the Jewish Scriptures were laid up or deposited in the temple.
There, constant guardians of them were always found by day
and by night. There, of course, the mutilation or interpolation
of them would be a difficult, if not an impossible, thing. Well
has Abarbanel (on Deut. xxxi. 26) said: God deposited there
[in the sanctuary] the book of the Law, that it might remain as
a testimony faithfully preserved, and that no one might vitiate
or mar it [the Scriptures] ; for no one could act thus basely to-
ward writings which were surrounded by the family of priests."
The absolute impossibility of corrupting the sacred books,
indeed, need not be assumed, and could not well be maintained;
for the priests, the keepers of them, were not all of them at all
times good men and true. But the improbability that such a
thing was done in a place so public and sacred, may well be
maintained.

One other remark is naturally suggested by the topic before
us. This is, that the introduction into such a place, of books as
sacred and as worthy of being kept there, must usually be a
thing of more than ordinary deliberation and solemnity. I can-
not well conceive, since i\\Q prophets were wont to be consulted on
all the graver matters of church or state, that a book could have
been placed there which was not sanctioned by their judgment.
It matters not whether the writer of the book were professionally
a prophet, or not. There might be occasionally inspiration, in some
cases, where the subject of it was not, or at least had not been,
a prophet. But if the advice of a prophet was in fact followed,
in depositing any book as sacred in the temple, then that book
has as much of the ainthentic in it, as the work of the prophet
himself would have. That this was so, viz., that the authority
of prophets was needed and resorted to, in order to give any
book a claim to be considered as scriptural., would seem to be
almost conclusively shown by the fact, that xolicn the succession of
prophets failed., the reception of any more hooks into the canon of
the Old Testament ceased. Indeed, I can hardly imagine a case,
while the order of prophets continued, in which I should deem
it probable that any effort could be made to add supposititious
books, or parts of books, to the holy bibliotheca, without detec-
tion and exposure by some of the prophets, whoso special duty
it was in all things to watch over the interests and preserve the
purity of the Mosaic religion.

If 1 were <lispose(I to 1)ring the usages of other countries, in

§ 8. PRESKUVATION OF TIIR .SACRKD BOOKS. 187

respect to books that were deemed sacred or specially impor-
tant, into comparison with that of the Hebrews, I might show
the probability of the Hebrew usage from analogy, even if no
special reference be had to the fact of their supposed inspiration.
It is well known, that among the ancient Egyptians and Baby-
lonians, the priesthood was the literary or learned class; and to
them was confided the safe keeping of books regarded as holy
or very valuable. Most of these were composed by persons be-
longing to the priesthood. It was a matter of course that such
books, being their own productions, should be laid up in the
temple where they ministered, for safe keeping, and also as a
testimonial of honour to them. The Greeks called these litera-
ry priests of foreign countries, /seo/ea/^/xars/i:, i. e. sacred scribes.
Among themselves, moreover, the Greeks had men of the like
class, whom they named yo^aiLijMnTg 'nboi or ho()tj,vriijA)Vi;\ J^\. Hist.
An. xi. 10; Aristot. Pol. vi. 8; Demosth, pro Cor. c. 27.
Among the Romans, also, the most ancient literature, viz. songs
and annals, was the production of priests; Niebuhr I?(jm. Ge-
schichte, i. p. 247, ed. ii, Biihr, Gesch. d. Bom. Lit., pp. 53 seq,,
250 seq. It is no matter of surprise, then, that Strabo (Lib.
xiv. p. 734, ed. Xyl.) calls temples T^ivayJ^srr/.ai, i. e. tablet or book-
depositories. In accordance with this is the account given of
Sanchoniathon, the Phenician historian, who, about the time of
the Trojan war, or perhaps earlier, compiled a work out of the
temple- archives — a work which was translated into Greek by Philo
Biblius (c. A.D. 100), in nine books, and then was quoted largely
by Porphyry, and also by Eusebius {Prwp. Evang. i. 9). San-
choniathon himself quotes older writers ; all of which, by the
way, has a decisive bearing on the question about the antiquity
of alphabetical writing. Berosus, in the time of Ptolemy Phila-
delphus (c. 280 r.c), wrote, in three books, the Antiquities of
Chaldea and Babylonia, the materials of which he drew from
the archives of the temple of Belus, where he was a priest.
The kings of Sparta, who were also j^riests, kept prophetic writ-
ings in the temple, which had respect to their country; Herod,
vi. 67. At Athens, oracles, and secret compacts important to
the welfare of the city, were kept in the Acropolis, in order to
prevent all falsification; Dinarch. Oraf. cont. Demosth. 91. 20.
Heraclitus deposited his Work upon Nature, in the sanctuary
of Diana at Ephesus, in order to withdraw it from the eyes of
the profane; Diog. Laert. ix. 6. So also the Romans kept their

188 § 9. GENUINENESS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

Libi'i Fulgurales in the temple of Apollo (Sere, ad Aen. vi. 72);
their Libri Lintei, in the temple of Juno Moneta {Liv. iv. 8; ix,
18); the Sibyls, priestesses of Apollo, kept their Carmina in the
Capitol; Niebuhr, Bom. Geschichte, i. p. 256 seq.

A practice of this kind could hardly have become so general,
without some obvious reasons for it. In all cases of this nature
it is quite plain, that the sacredness of the place was relied on
as likely to secure the inviolability of the books; and the perma-
nent structure of the building was also relied on, as affording
good assurance of preservation. In the case of the Hebrews,
many reasons combined to induce them to institute and keep up
such a usage. The priests were the masters of the ritual, which
was exceedingly minute and circumstantial; and they were also
the jurisconsults and ecclesiastical judges of the nation. The ne-
cessity of having the code of laws always at hand, would compel
them to have temple-archives. That they did so, admits of no
reasonable doubt.

§ 9. General Considerations respecting the Genuineness of the BooJcs
in the Old Testament Canon.

I have now gone through with some account of the books
comprised in the canon of the Old Testament, in regard to their
origin and authorship, and also in respect to the manner in
which they were preserved in the early ages. It may not be
improper to introduce, at this juncture, a few considerations of
a general nature, in regard to the collection of books which we
name the Old Testament.

Whoever is acquainted with the works of the late J. G. Eich-
horn of Gottingen, knows full well, that for some thirty years
he was the sun of the neological firmament. Doubtless his
writings, many of them being at the same time both popular
and learned, did more than those of any other person of his
time, to bring forward and consummate the great revolution in
theology and criticism, which has taken place in Germany and
the bordering countries. Such a man no one will suspect of
orthodox prejudice. All his feelings and his writings were alien
enough from this. Still, on mere subjects of critique and of
{esthetics, ho was usually a candid and fair-minded man. At
all events he rarely says anything that is not worth listening to,
and lie may put in a just claim at least to a respectful attention.

§ 9. GKNERAL CONSIDERATIONS. ISO

In his Introduction to the Old Testament, (3d edit. § 12 scq.)
he has ffivcn his views of the genuineness of the sacred books in
o-eneral; and he has expressed them in such a way, that I have
thouo-ht it on the whole better to employ his words than my own,
in reference to the topic under consideration. If I am suspected
of being juratus in verba inagistri, as doubtless I may be by some
who do not know me, he at least is removed far enough from all
possible suspicion of this sort. If the Desiriictives v/iU not listen
to my suggestions, because, as they say, I must talk orthodoxly, at
least they ought to listen to him, who claims so near a relation-
ship to them.

Having described the general nature, names, and order of the
Old Testament books, Eichhorn proceeds as follows :

I. They do not arise from the forgery of any one individual.

Whoever is endowed with adequate knowledge, and investigates with im-
partiality the question, whether the ivritings of the Old Testament are gen-
uine, mu-t surely answer it in the affirmative. No one deceiver can have
forged them all — this every page of the Old Testament proclaims. What a
variety in language and expression! Isaiah does not write like Moses;
nor Jeremiah like Ezekiel ; and between these and every one of the Minor
Prophets a great gulf of style is fixed. The grammatical edifice of language
in Moses, has much that is peculiar ; in the book of Judges occur provincial-
isms and barbarisms. Isaiah pours forth words already formed in a new
shape; Jeremiah and Ezekiel are full of Chaldaisms. In a word, when one
proceeds from writers who are to be assigned to early periods of time, to
those wbich are later, he finds in the language a gradual decline, until at
last it sinks down into mere Chaldaic turns of expression.

Then come next the discrepancies in the circle of ideas and of images.
The stringed instruments sound aloud when touched by Moses and Isaiah ;
soft is the tone when David handles them. Solomon's muse shines forth in
all the splendour of a most luxurious court ; but her sister in simple attire
wanders, with David, by the brooks and the river banks, in the fit-Ids and
among the Iierds. One poet is original, like Isaiah, Joel, Habakkuk ; ano-
ther copies like Ezekiel ; one roams in the untrodden path of genius, another
glides along the way which his predecessors have trodden. From one issue
rays of learning; whilst his neighbour lias not been caught by one spark of li-
terature. In the oldest writers strong Egyptian colours glimmer through and
through ; in their successors they become fainter and fainter, until at last
they entirely disappear.

Finally, there is in manners and customs the finest gradation. At first,
all is simple and natural, like to what we see in Homer, and among the Be-
douin Arabs even at the present time ; but this noble simplicity gradually
loses itself in luxury and effeminacy, and vanishes at last in the splendid
court of Solomon.

Nowhere is there a sudden leap ; everywhere the progress is gradual. None
but ignorant or thoughtless dovhters can suppose the Old Testament to have
been forged by one deceiver.

190 § 9. GENUINENESS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

The colouring which the painter has here employed is vivid,
but the objects are true and real, and are not formed by his
fancy. It is impossible to read the Hebrew Scriptures, with the
exercise of any discriminating judgment and sesthetical feeling,
without acceding in the main to what Eichhorn has stated.
Thousands of nice touches and dashes of light and shade, in the
original objects, are lost in our English version, where all are
mingled together, and melted so as to become one mass in the
Anglo-Saxon crucible. But as to the critical reader of the Heh-
reio — if he has one spark of sesthetical fire in him, or if he car-
ries along with him even the feeblest torch of discrimination, he
must accede to the truthfulness and the sound judgment of
Eichhorn, as to this matter in general. A forgery of all these
books by one person, would be a greater miracle than any which
the books have related. But let us join again the company of
the Grottingen Professor:

II. They are not the forgery of many deceivers.

" But perhaps," some one may reply — " perhaps many forgers have made
common cause, and at the same time, in some later period, have got up the
books in question." — But how could they forge in a way so entirely conform-
ed to the progress of the human understanding? And was it possible in later
times to create the language of Moses? This surpasses all human powers.
Finally, one writer always supposes the existence of another. They could
not then all have arisen at tl\e same time ; they must have existed succes-
sively.

" Perhaps then," it may be further said, " such forgers arose at different
times, who continued onward, in the introduction of supposititious writings
from the place where their deceitful predecessors had stopped. In this way
may all the references to pi'eceding writers be explained ; in this way may
we explain the striking gradation that exists, in all its parts."

But (1.) How was it possible that no one should have discovered the
trick, exposed it, and put a brand upon the deceiver, in order that posterity
might be secured against injury? How could a whole nation be often de-
ceived, and at different periods? (2.) What design could such a deceiver
have had in view? Did he aim at eulogizing the Hebrew nation? Then
are his eulogies the severest satires: for according to the Old Testament, the
Hebrew nation have acted a very degrading part. Or, did he mean to de-
grade them? In this case, how could he force his books upon the very peo-
ple whom they defamed, and the story of whose being trodden underfoot by
foreign nations is told in plain blunt words?

These remarks seem to me to be equally just with the preced-
ing ones. A series of forgers, in such a succession of ages, all de-
veloping an intimate acquaintance with predecessors, and still
true to their own particular age in all their characteristic fea-

§ 9. GENERAL CONSIDERATIONS. 191

tures! And a nation distinguished above all others for activity
and shrewdness, tamely receiving and submitting to all these im-
positions! The thing is unheard of; it is improbable; nay, it is
absolutely impossible, in the common course of things. Impos-
tors and forfjers write Isaiah, and Joel, and Habakkuk, and Na-
hum, and Job, and the Psalms! It is impossible. It is alto-
gether more incredible than any so-called myth in all the Old
Testament. The story of Jonah and of Samson, which have set
in motion the whole circle of obstreperous and vituperative criti-
cism, is a matter quite within the reach of ordinary faith, in
comparison with such a figment as this.

I must solicit the attention of the reader to one point in par-
ticular, to which Eichhorn has adverted, and which is peculiarly
characteristic of the writers of the Old Testament. It is this,
viz. that they disclose \hQ faults as well as the virtues of men
whom they hold up to view, and of the people to whom they be-
long. What shall we say of Adam, Noah, Abraham, Isaac, Ja-
cob, Moses even, David, Solomon, Asa, and others, in every way
so conspicuous as ancestors or as kings of the Jewish nation? Is
there one whose faults are not unveiled? One even whose weak-
nesses are not revealed? And what can we say of the whole his-
tory?— the history of God's chosen j^^ople, distinguished from all
the nations of the earth — the posterity of Abraham — the nation
" to whom belongs the adoption, and the glory, and the cove-
nants, and the giving of the Law, and the service of God, and the
promises?" Is there a history on earth of any people, (unless it
be some caricature sketched by the hand of an enemy), which is
half so full of narrations that respect their perverseness, and dis-
obedience, and rebellion, and gross idolatry and immorality?
Where is there such a history? Who wrote it? Or if such an
one exists, where is there an account of its being received by the
very people whom it characterizes, and regarded as a book re-
plete with truths that are Divine? The challenge to produce it,
may be fearlessly made. The result is beyond a question.

Will any one explain to me, now, how such a matter as the
reception of the Jewish Scriptures as sacred was brought about,
in the natural course of things? The historians and the pro-
phets, one and all, charging the nation with ingratitude and
rebellion, and threatening them with subjugation and exile, with
sword and famine and pestilence — and yet these historians and
prophets admitted as counsellors and guides, and their works

192 § 9. GENUINENESS 01' THE OLD TESTAMENT.

canonized! There is something of the extraordinary in all this,
which is no myth^ to say the least. Naturalists are bound to
untie the knot, we cannot permit them to cut it.

But when one adds to all this the consideration of the matter
as connected with forgery and imposture^ it becomes quite unen-
durable. Forgers and impostors so elevated and honoured for
characterizing a people in such a way, as must cause the cheek
of every ingenuous Hebrew to blush for his nation! Is there
nothing mythic in this? Men too of such a stamp as forgers and
impostors, filled with overflowing zeal on all occasions for the
worship and honour and glory of the true God, and for the holi-
ness and benevolence, and justice and integrity, of the Hebrew
nation! Is this the chai'acter of men of such a stamp? It is a
downright contradiction of all that belongs to the history of our
race. It is neither more nor less than a moral impossibility.
" Quodcunque ostendis mihi sic, incredulus odi."

Romancers have in view the exaltation of their hero. Even
the gravest and most tasteful of them scarcely glance at a fault.
How has Xenophon presented his Cyrus; Homer his Achilles;
Virgil his ^neas? Whatever we, judging by our standards,
may find in them which is faulty, it was not the intention of
these respective writers to hold up any faults to view. Is it so
with the picture of David, in the book of Kings? So with the
picture of even "the wisest of men'"? And if it be said that the
books of Chronicles have kept the faults of these distinguished
personages out of view, the reply is easy : The story was already
told in the book of Kings, and the chronicler had in view prin-
cipally what these Jewish monarchs did to accommodate, arrange,
and complete the worship of God in the manner prescribed by
Moses.

No; the histories of the Jews are unlike those of all other
nations. God and his honour, and worship, and ordinances, are
the nucleus of them all. Men — the vfhole nation — are but secon-
dary actors in this great drama. A David and a Solomon come
before the tribunal of the historian, at his bidding, laying aside
their crowns and their heroism and their wisdom, and standing
there to be judged for their vices as impartially as the meanest
subject in their kingdom. Is this so elsewhere, and in respect
to men whose virtues are preeminent? I cannot find it.

How then was all this brought about? Not by forgers and
impostors; not by the ordinary tactics of national historians and

§ 9. GENERAL CONSIDEKATIOXS. l!)"

the writers of inemoirs. There is an honesty, an integrity, a
boldness, an independence, a love of truth, and a hatred of sin
in every form, which stands out to view so prominently in all the
historians and prophets of the Hebrews, that I feel compelled
to say. The hand of the Lord is here ; his Spirit breathed into
these writers the breath of a piety which could not die; it kindled
a flame in their breasts, whose light all the surrounding dark-
ness could not extinguish.

But I must desist. Once more then let us listen to the for-
mer Coryphaeus of Neology. He gives us some diagnostics by
which we may judge in respect to the genuineness of the books in
question, § 13.

Tlie Old Testament bears all the marks of genuineness enstampeJ upon
it. (1.) The very same grounds which are available in a contest for Homer,
establisli the genuineness of all and particular the books of the Old Testa-
ment. Why should one deny to these the equity which he extends to
heatlien writers? If a profane writer plants himself in some particular age
and country, and if all the external and internal circumstances of his book
accord with this, no impartial inquirer refuses to acknowledge him. Yea,
one does not hesitate at all to determine the uncertain age of any writer, by
internal arguments drawn from his works. Why should not the critical
inquirer respecting the Bible, walk in the same path!

(2.) No one has yet, with any good grounds, been able to overthrow the
integrity and credibility of the Old Testament. On the contrary, every
discovery in ancient literature has hitherto only served for the confirmation
of the Hebrew Scriptures. No one has shown, that any writer of the Old
Testament has exhibited a style, or knowledge, or introduced circumstan-
tial matters, which are not appropriate to the age assigned to him.

(3.) In brief, all the books of the Old Testament, which bear the names
of their autliors, are marked with the stamp of integrity on the part of
these authors. And with respect to the books that are anonymous, internal
grounds demonstrate that we must regard them as genuine. The book of
Joshua, for example, whose author is unknown, goes so deep into the detail
of the most ancient geography, that a forger must have wrought miracle
upon miracle, in order to put himself in a coiadition so as to compose it.

Let one examine this matter in a discriminating way, and without preju-
dice, and I am certain that he must convince himself of the integrity of the
Old Testament.

Eichhorn goes on, in the sequel, to show, that even on the
ground that new accessions have been made to some of the
books, and that several of them are compounded of various
authors, no argument of any force can bo drawn from this source,
to confront the allegation of integrity. Such things have hap-
pened to most of the early writers among other nations. Not a
few books of the Scriptures are professedly drawn from other

o

194 § 10, COMPLETION OF THE CANON.

sources; and others not professedly so, exhibit internal marks
of the fact. But a book compounded in this way may be as gen-
uine and worthy of credit, as any other book.

Thus thought and wrote the great leader of the new array, in
the war against the Divine authority and obligation of the Scrip-
tures. With him, when writing here, the question was one
merely of critical judgment and feeling. Nobly has he managed
the cause of what I believe to be sound criticism, and justly has
he decided it. With all his freethinking and independence of
mind, he is left, in the race of neological criticism, immeasurably
behind De Wette, Ewald, Lengerke, Mr Norton, and their
compeers.

Leaving all theological bearings of our matter out of question
for the present, I do not see how, as fair-minded critics and exe-
getes, we can refuse to adopt the sentiments of Eichhorn, as
exhibited above. I would not undertake to prove, that all which
this writer has published will harmonize with these views. But
I am gratified to have it in my power to express, in language
borrowed from him, the views which I entertain in respect to
this very important subject,

§ 10, Time when the Canon of the Old Testament was completed.

This has, in recent times, become a much contested question.
The criticism that has been moving on in the wake of Wolf,
Heyne, and their compeers, (who discovered that Homer's Iliad
and Odyssey are nothing but a mere farrago of many songs com-
posed in different ages and countries, and that the art of alpha-
betic writing was unknown in the time of Homer, and of course
in the time of Moses), has made the like discoveries in regard
to almost all the books of the Old Testament. According to
recent critics, every book of the Old Testament, with the excep-
tion of Ruth, Esther, possibly Canticles (but here they differ),
Ezekiel, and some of the minor prophets, is a patch-work of
cloth and colours, of all textures and all varieties. The time in
which most of these books were composed, was, according to
them, at or after — in some cases long after — the Babylonish exile.
In particular, the book of Daniel is placed deep down, even into
the time of the Maccabees, i. e, about 160 — 140 b.c; as also
some of the Psalms, and not improbably various other portions
of books the body of which may be older. The question in

§ 10. COMPLETION OF THE CANON. 195

respect to this matter is one of deep interest to sacred criticism;
although it would not be very important to my present main
purpose, which is to show what that canon of Old Testament
books consisted of, which was sanctioned by Christ and his apos-
tles. Even the most loose of the so-called liberal critics do not
pretend that any of the Old Testament books have been added
to the canon since the commencement of the Christian era; so
that, come into being when or how they may, if they existed
before the Christian era, and were sanctioned as of Divine au-
thority by the Author himself of Christianity, and by his apos-
tles, it would be enough for my special purpose. But as I said
at commencement of this treatise, I have a more general object
in view, as well as the particular one just named; and this is,
to give the outlines of the critical history of the Old Testament
canon in general. To do this, it is indispensable to investigate,
with some particularity, the point which is brought before us by
the heading to the present section.

I begin with the testimony of Josephus in relation to the mat-
ter in question, because, although it is not the most ancient, it
is still the most definite and particular that can be found in any
writer of the more remote antiquity. It is found in his work
Contra Apionem, against whom he is defending the credibility
and authenticity of the Hebrew Scriptures. After appealing to
the Agreement between profane and Old Testament history as
to many important facts related in the Hebrew Scriptures, he
then goes on to express himself as follows: —

" We have not a countless number of books, discordant and arrayed
against each other ; but only two and twenty books, containing the history
of every age, which are justly accredited as divine [old editions of Josephus
read merely; " which are justly accredited" — ^i7a. comes from Eusebius'
transcript of Josephus in Ecc. Hist. iii. 10]; and of these ^t;e belong to
Moses, which contain both the laws and the history of the generations of
men until his death. This period lacks but little of 3000 years. From the
death of Moses, moreover, until the reign of Artaxerxes, [Euseb. — ' from
the death of Moses to that of Artaxerxes,' — and so most of the codices omit-
ting a^x'^,i, reign'], king of the Persians after Xerxes, the prophets who follow-
ed Moses have described the things which were done during the age of each one
respectively, in thirteen books. The remaining /bt/r contain hymns to God,
and rules of life for men. From the time of Artaxerxes, moreover, until
our present period, all occurrences have been written down ; but they are
not regarded ns entitled to the like credit with those which precede thetn,
because there xvas no certain succession of prophets. Fact has shown what
confidence we place in our own writings. For although so many ages have

196 § 10. COMPLETION OF THE CANON.

passed away, no one has dared to add to them, nor to take anything from
them, nor to make alterations. In all Jews it is implanted, even from their
birth, to regard them as being the instructions of God, and to abide stead-
fastly by them, and if it be necessary to die gladly for them." (From the
original Greek, see Appendix No. III.)

Of the historian from whom this passage is taken, it is not
necessary to say much. Josephus was perhaps more distinguish-
ed and learned, than any other man of his time belonging to the
Jewish nation. His father was a priest in the regular order of
the twenty-four courses ordained by David ; and his mother was a
lineal descendant of the INIaccabean kings, who also were priests.
His father Matthias was a man distinguished not only for his no-
ble birth, but for his praiseworthy deeds. To his son Joseph or
Josephus, lorn about a.d, 87, he gave the best education in his
power; and so effectual were the means employed, that at the
age of fourteen this boy was consulted by the chief priests and
leaders of the city respecting difficult passages of the Law. So
Josephus himself has told us; and this seems to render altogether
improbable the allegations made here and there not unfrequent-
ly, that Josephus had no tolerable acquaintance with the He-
brew. At the age of sixteen he began his inquiries respecting
the several Jewish sects, and actually spent three years in soli-
tude with Banus one of the Essenes, in order to become thorough-
ly acquainted with the principles of that sect. At the age of nine-
teen he joined the sect of the Pharisees, which was altogether
predominant at that period. At the age of twenty-six he went
to Rome as advocate before Nero Csesar for some falsely-accused
Jewish priests, and procured their liberation. Not long after this
the 'Jewish war broke out, and Josephus, espousing the part of
his countrymen, was put in command, and made a most gallant
defence of Jotapata against Vespasian. But there, at length, he
was taken prisoner, was subsequently kept by Vespasian and
Titus as a medium of communication between them and the
Jews; and finally, when the conquest of Judea had been complet-
ed, he was taken by Titus to Rome, where Vespasian assigned
him a dwelling in a part of the palace, with honorary mainten-
ance. There he wrote his great works, the Antiquities and the
ITutory of the Jewish War. Later in life he wrote his Treatise
orjainst Apion, in defence of the Jewish religion and their sacred
books. Apion was a grammarian of Alexandria, who, under
Caligula's reign, wrote a violent attack upon Philo Judaeus and

§ 10. COMPLETION OF THE CANON', 197

upon the Jewish nation. Near the close of the first century,
Josephus wrote the Treatise in question; so that it is to be re-
garded as the fruit of his most mature reflections and studies.

His knowledge of Greek literature is spoken of by Jerome
with astonishment. There is abundant evidence of it in his
Contra Apionem. His knowledge of the history of his own na-
tion is sufficiently testified, by his two great works in relation to
this subject. It has been thought that he was but moderately
skilled in Hebrew, because he usually appeals to the Sept. Ver-
sion. But for this, two good reasons can be assigned; the one,
that he fully believed in the miraculous rise of the Septuagint,
as is shown by his account of this matter; the other, that the
Romans for whom he wrote the history, could read the Sep-
tuagint but not the Hebrew Scriptui'es.

That of all the men of his time among the Jews, he was best
qualified to give an account of Jewish affairs and Jewish opin-
ions, there can be no reasonable doubt. I can see nothing that
could sway him to give a wrong account of what his countrymen
and himself believed, in regard to the history of the Jewish can-
on. What that belief was, his rank in life, his office as a priest,
and above all his great learning, must have rendered him able
to know. Can any good ground be assigned for the supposition,
that he has not given a true account of this matter?

The sect of the Pharisees, among whom he formed his re-
ligious opinions, were of all men the most tenacious of traditions,
and of the customs of former days; and when he assures us of
this and that opinion among the Jews of his time, I do not
know of any writer among the ancients, the sacred writers ex-
cepted, who is more trust-worthy than he.

Thus much, that the reader may understandingly appreciate
the testimony which we have before us. I return to the con-
sideration of that testimony.

My first remark is, that there is no ground to suppose, that
Josephus gives us any other than the general and settled opinion
of the great mass of the Jewish nation. To the party of the
Pharisees this mass assuredly belonged. The Sadducees were
powerful only by virtue of wealth, and perhaps learning. They
were but a small party. The Essenes lived mostly abroad, in
desert or lonely places, and avoided mixing with the world.
Josephus then gives us not a jjecidico' opinion of his own merelv,
but speaks evidently in behalf of the great mass of the Jewish

198 § 10. COMPLKTION OF THE CANON.

people. Finally, if there were anything merely sectarian in the
views of the Pharisees respecting the Hebrew canon, Josephus
would not have been likely to embrace that in the latter part of
his life, inasmuch as he evidently lost, in later life, his early zeal
for Pharisaism, as appears from many passages in his Antiquities.
On the whole, we can hardly conceive of any one in a better con-
dition to give a clear and impartial account of the light in which
the Hebrew Scriptures were viewed by the Jews of that period.

Secondly, We might be in some doubt what king of Persia
was meant by the Artaxerxes of Josephus, (inasmuch as this
same name is given by some to several Persian kings), had not
the historian been so explicit as to dispel all doubt on this point,
by saying, that the Artaxerxes in question was the follower of
Xerxes upon the throne of Persia. This Artaxerxes (Longi-
manus) began his reign in 464 b.c, and died in 424 b.c. Of
course he reigned forty years. Later than 424 b.c, then, no part
of the Hebrew canon can he, if the testimony of Josephus is well
grounded.

Thirdly, Josephus assigns all the historical books of the canon
to prophets: "The prophets, after Moses, described the events
which took place iu their respective periods, in thirteen books."
The word prophets, therefore, is plainly used by him, in the sense
in which I have defined and employed it in the preceding pages.
What books are included in this enumeration of thirteen, is an
inquiry that will be made in the sequel.

Fourthly, He states in the most plain and unequivocal manner,
that since the reign of Artaxerxes, down to the time in which
he himself lived, passing events had been fully noted — ysy^aTrai
ixh sTtaGra — but " credit was not attached to these histories, in
like manner as to the earlier ones [the canonical books], he-
cause there was no certain succession of prophets''"' during that per-
iod. Here then are two facts on which he rests the opinion
that he gives; the first, that the sacred books were completed in
the reign of Artaxerxes; the second, that other books, continu-
ing the history of the Jews, were composed by those who were
not prophets, and therefore could not claim that credit which
belonged to the former.

How well this view of Josephus accords with what I have
stated in the preceding pages, viz., that books were not admitted
to the Jewish canon unless regarded as of prophetic origin, must
be obvious to every reader. Had Josephus been an ignorant or

§ 10. COMPLETION or THE CANON. 199

unlearned person, who had no knowledge of other books than tlie
Jewish Scriptures, we should attribute less weight to his opinion.
Such a man could have examined only one side of the question.
But here is a witness who, as we may reasonbly say, has read all
the books which pertain to Jewish affairs, and who still draws a
distinction wide and broad between those that are sacred and
fully credible, and those which can be regarded only as the works
of erring men. No reasonable advocate for the claims of in-
spiration at the present day, could ask for stronger or more de-
finite and intelligible expressions, than those of Josephus.

I know not how language can make it more certain than that
of Josephus has made it, that he knew well, and made definitely,
the distinction between the now called a])ocri/phal books and those
of the canon. It is beyond a doubt that he was acquainted with
both; for he has drawn from both in his Antiquities.

In order that we may have no doubts left as to the exact mean-
ing of Josephus, we must advert to the order which he has fol-
lowed in the historical narrations of his Antiquities. In lib. xi.
he presents us with the history of the Jews, from the time when
the decree of Cyrus for their liberation w-as issued (536 b.c),
down to the time when Palestine was overi'un by Alexander the
Great (331 b.c). In chap. v. of this book he has presented us
with an account of events recorded in the book of Ezra, in res-
pect to this distinguished priest and leader of the new colony of
Jewish immigrants; and he places all these events under the
reign of Xerxes I. taking him to be the king, who, in Ezra viii. 1
seq. of our Scriptures, is named Artaxerxes. The journey of
Nehemiah and his friends to Jerusalem, he assigns to the twenty-
fifth year of the same king's reign {Antiq. xi. 5, 7), while the
Bible assigns it to the twentieth year of Artaxerxes; (Neh. ii. 1.
comp.v. 14), i. e. about twelve years after the immigration of Ezra.
Whether the error lies in the reading of the codices of Josephus,
or in his oversight, in this case, it would be difficult to decide,
and it is not of any importance to my present object to make a
decision. Xerxes'* reign lasted but twenty-one years. There
are, moreover, other small discrepancies of the like nature be-
tween Josephus and the Scriptures; e. g. as to the time (fifty-
two days) in which the walls of Jerusalem were completed under
Nehemiah (see Neh. vi. 15), while Josephus assigns two years
and four months as the period of completion; Aiitiq. xi. 5, 8.
But still, nothing is plainer than that this historian abridges and

200 § 10. COMPLETION OF THE CANON.

copies the whole book of Nehemiah, for substance, into his own,
and he represents the death of this distinguished leader as taking
place under the reign of Xerxes I. In xi. 1 seq. he gives, in like
manner, a sketch of the events related in the book of Esther; or
rather, we might say, an account more copious even than that
which is contained in the Scriptures. All these events he assigns
to the reign of Artaxerxes (Longiraanus), who reigned more than
forty years (464 — 424 b.c). The Persian king of the book of Esther,
is unifoi*mly called Ahasuerus* At what time during the reign
of this king, the deliverance of the Jews, as recorded in Esther,
took place, Josephus does not say. I must believe, however,
that if one reads carefully the passage from him, which is print-
ed, on page 195 above, ho will perceive on the whole that it
makes for the position, that it was at a late period of his reign.

If we read the clause: a'Trobi rrjiMuiJosug rsXsurrig /jusyjt rrii' A^ra^i^^oo
rov [lira Ss^^rjv Ui^ffSov (SaffiXsug «g%^?, with an omission of the final
word cl^^TJc, (which is omitted in Eusebius, £Jcc. Hist. iii. 10,
and in most of the manuscripts of Josephus), then it is clear
that Josephus intends to fix his limit at the death of Artaxerxes
(424 B.C.), beyond or since which no book that has been written
has any just claim to beconsidered as a part of the Hebrew can-
on. The manner in which he has drawn up his account of these
times, proves beyond a doubt that he regarded the book of Es-
ther as the last in the canon of Scripture, as well as that he con-
sidered it a sacred book. Beyond this and further on, he draws
indeed from other histories of the Jews; and so in all the latter
part of his Antiquities; but he compiles here much more loosely
than before, and evidently proceeds as considering himself more
at liberty to depart from his sources, as we may learn by com-
paring his history, e. g. of Antiochus Epiphanes, with that in
1 Mace. It is to be deeply regretted that he has not given us a
particular account of his sources, as he had the fairest opportun-
ity for doing it at the close of his Antiquities, xx. 11, 2, where
he has made a statement of the object which he had in view in
the composition of his work, and of his qualifications to accom-
plish it. But he goes no farther in mentioning his sources than

• Josephus seems to have considered A hasuerus as tlie proper name of only one
Persian king; whereas it is plainly an appellative (like Pharaoh, the Czar, etc.), and
belongs to Cambyscs, Ez. iv. (!, and to Astyages the father of Darius the Mede,
Dan. ix. 1 . The meaning of the name, as developed by the cuneiform writing re-
cently decyphcred, is /?o«-/r/«7=hero; see in Ges. Lex.

§ 10. COMPLETION Ol' THE CANO.V, 201

to say, that he has given an account of ancient historical events,

" wg a) ii^ai l3ii3Xoi cse/ 'irdvrujv s^ovdi tTiV avaysafriv, 1. e. in accordance
with the description of them in the sacred books;" ib. 11.2. Of
the estimation in which he held books subsequent to the time of
Esther, he has given us an account in his Cont. Apion. § 8, as
stated above. After having said that the twenty-two books of
the Jews were ra, 8/xa/w$ Ss/a -irsmgrev/j-sva, deservedly regarded as
divine, he says of the others, written after the time of Artaxer-
xes, that ■T/Vrjwj 5s ou^ o/xolag r,^i'jJTai rr/g t^o ahrc^jv, l. e. that they
are not worthy of the like credit with those before them. In
respect to his qualifications for writing \\\b Antiquities^ he says, in
a modest way (xx. 11, 2), that "he was acknowledged by most
of his countrymen as excelling in a knowledge of what belonged
to their country, and that he had given himself to Greek litera-
ture, until everything but the niceties of pronunciation was fami-
liar to him." He says, moreover, that the study of Greek litera-
ture was disreputable among his countrymen ; and for this rea-
son, not more than some two or three besides himself had at-
tained to any eminence in it. Of his knowledge of Hebrew,
the fact that he was employed as interpreter by Vespasian and
Titus, and the fact that he first wrote his Jewish Wars in Heb-
rew, are sufificient evidence. That he was a highly intelligent
Jewish priest, would of itself be a sufficient pledge.

We will suppose now that the opinion of Josephus was merely
the result of his private judgment in regard to the order of the
book of Esther. Let it be that Chronicles, Nehemiah, and Mala-
chi are later; all this will not affect the question now before us.
Josephus does not specificate any particular time during the long
reign of Artaxerxes, when the events related in Esther took place,
nor when the book was written. There might be sufficient time,
for aught we know to the contrary, for writing those several
books after Esther was written, and yet before the death of Ar-
taxerxes. On the other hand the book of Esther may have been
written after them, and therefore the last of all, even in case the
events which it commemorates, had happened some time before
they were written down. The probability as to matter of fact
seems to be, that the events commemorated in Esther happened
during the reign of Xerxes I., inasmuch as he was a king whose
character well fitted him for such actions as are ascribed to the
Pei'sian monarch in the book of Esther. In this respect Josephus
may have formed an erroneous judgment. Still, there is nothing

202 § 10. COMPLETION OF THE CANON.

in the book of Esther, which of itself will determine the date of
the work. The events which it commemorates commenced, in-
deed, in the third year of Ahasiierus, whoever he was; but how
long they were in progress, if we include the whole of them, is
not quite certain; and of course we cannot decide exactly as to
the age of the book itself. But in respect to Nehemiah, we know
that he went a second time from Persia to Palestine, in the thirti/-
second yea.r of Artaxerxes, Neh. xiii. 6. Josephus must have read
this book, therefore, without due regard to the notations of time,
since he represents the death of Nehemiah as taking place under
Xerxes I., Antiq. xi. 5, 8, whose reign lasted only twenty-one
years. But anachronisms in Josephus are no strange thing.

But be it that Josephus has erred, as to the reign under which
the events recorded in the book of Esther took place, it does
not at all affect the statement which he has made, in a manner
so explicit and ample, that the certain succession of prophets ceased
with the reign of Artaxerxes. Much dispute there has been about
the meaning of dz^ijSyi in the phrase /jlti . . . dzPitSr, hiahoyj,v as ap-
plied to the prophets. To me it seems, that the simple meaning
of Josephus is, that the succession of any prophet, after the reign
of Artaxerxes, to the series of earlier prophets, who wrote the
sacred books, is uncertain, i. e. it was a thing which, although
some might regard it as true, in his judgment and in that of his
countrymen (for he speaks their views) could not be established
or rendered certain. Of course, as he regarded those books only
as canonical, which were composed by prophets, or men of a
prophetic spirit, there could be no good ground for admitting
any book, after the period just named, as canonical, j^iahoyjiv
does not mean series or ordo, as it has often been translated, but
the succession of one thing or person after another of the like
kind. ' AzoijBni (from dx^og, pointed, sharp, and this from dzr],
pointy sharpness), literally means pointed, sharp, but figuratively
(as in the case before us) exact, certain. This view of the words
accords entirely with the explanation given above.

It has been said by those who feel an interest in fixing upon
a later period for the closing of the Old Testament canon, that
Josephus cannot mean to assert, what is here attributed to him,
because he himself attributes to John Hyrcanus (prince and
high priest, 185 — 107 b.c.) the gift of prophecy/. Josephus, who
is loud in the praises of Hyrcanus, does say of him, indeed, that
" he alone obtained the three most excellent things, viz. the prin-

§ 10. COMPLETION OF THE CANOX. 203

cipality of the nation, the high priesthood, xa/ ^gof r,r£/af, and the
gift of pro'pliecyr In order to confirm the last declaration ho
adds, " For the Divinity (^-o baiiUviov) was conversant with him,
so that he was ignorant of nothing which was to come;" Jos.
Bell. Jud. i. 2, 8. But let the reader observe, that Josephus
says of John Hyrcanus, that he alone attained to such a union
of gifts as he mentions; and that the stress of this affirmation
falls on proi^liecy is plain enough from the fact, that many others
united in their persons the office of ruler and high priest, and
from the immediate explanation which himself Josephus gives of
what he had meant specially to assert. Besides, although Jo-
sephus admits of dream-interpreters, (e. g. Simon of the Essencs,
Antiq. xvii. IS. 3), and various prognosticators,* specially during
the period near the destruction of Jerusalem, yet it is plain
enough, that after the reign of Artaxerxes, he never introduces
any one in the character of an Old Testament prophet. It is
plain, too, in respect to the case of Hyrcanus, that the gift of
prophecy is ascribed to him rather in a way oi post mortem eulogy,
than of accurate and earnest historical narration. At all events,
Josephus makes no allusion to any icritten prophecies of Hyr-
canus, so that there is nothing in the case of this individual,
which can come in competition with the claims of the earlier
Hebrew prophets; nothing indeed which contradicts, or is op-
posed to the true spirit and meaning of what he says in Cont.
Apion. i. 8. What he there declares is, that there was no proof
of the existence of any prophet (after the reign of Artaxerxes,)
who was the author of a canonical or holy book — that no pre-

" In Antiq. xv. 10. 5, Josephus introduces one Menahem, of the Essenes, as
prognosticating the future dominion and fortunes of Herod, and says of him that
" •^^'oyvuiriv ix. B^ioiJ tuv i^iXXovtum t;^;&'v, i. e. he had fi'om God a foreknowledge of
future things." Agaui (ib.) he says of the Essenes, that " many of them, on account
of their good and honest life, were honoured with skill in Divine things." In BtU.
Jud. ii. 8. 12, he says of the Essenes, " There are among them those who profess
to foretell future things;" and in the sequel he subjoins, "seldom do they err
in their prognostications." In Bell. Jud. I. 3. 5, he relates a prediction of Judas,
one of the Essenes, " who never lapsed or spoke falsely in his predictions." In
Bell. Jud. II. 7. 3, one Simon, of the same sect, is introduced as a prognosticator.
All these cases are of the same character. The Essenes, who were of a con-
templative and enthusiastic turn of mind, gave their attention to prognostication,
and obtained uncommon skill in it. Many cases of the like nature are to be found
among most nations, and in every age. Josephus, no doubt, was a believer in their
occasional extraordinary gift of foresight; but still it is easy to sec, that, with all his
wonder at their attainments in " second sight," he neither thinks nor speaks of
them as being prophets in the sense in which the ancient Hebrew prophets were.

204 § 10- COMPLETION OF THE CANON.

tended succession of such a nature to the former prophets, was
certain^ d-Kp^n- What he says of John Hyrcanus, or of any
other individuals, as prognosticators or the like, does not contra-
dict this, and is not inconsistent with it.

Thus much for the testimony of Josephus, in regard to the
terminus ad quern of the Hebrew prophets. But as this is a point
of great importance, (at least it strikes me in this light) we must
see what others have said and thought, as well as Josephus, in
relation to this matter.

The author of the first book of the Maccabees, (written not
long after the death of Simon, about 135 b.c.) when describing
the calamities that came upon Judea, in consequence of the death
of Judas Maccabeus, says (ix. 27), that "there was great afflic-
tion in Israel, such as was not af' rig 7}/j/s^ag oux w(p'^ri 'T^o(py]r7ig sv
avToTg, from the time since no prophet made his appearance among
themT Comp. Jos. Antiq. xiii. 1, where, in describing the same
events he says, " the Jews had not experienced so great calamity
ij.ira TYtv Bcci3u'/.uvog h-dvohov, since the return from Babylon.'''' That
the author of Maccabees means as much as to say for a very long
time, is altogether plain and evident. In his day, then, it was
counted a long time since any prophet had appeared among the
Jews. From the time of this author back to the time of Artax-
erxes, is about 300 years.

In 1 Mace. iv. 46, the Jews, who had been removing the stones
of the altar in the temple which had been profaned by Antiochus
Epiphanes, are represented as laying them aside, " iJ^syjt roZ 'xa-
^ayivrl:) rival 'XPO(pr,Triv rov aToy-oi^^r^vai 'Trs^i av-Sjv, untu the commg of
some prophet to decide respecting them," viz. to decide what
should be done with them. In 1 Mace. xiv. 41, it is said, that
" Simon was constituted leader and high priest for ever, until rou
dvaerrivai 'r^o(priTr,v 'TTidTov, some faithful prophet should arise;'''' thus
intimating plainly, that they knew of no such one at that time,
but expected one in future; i. e. (as I apprehend) the Messiah.

That Malachi (fl. 430 — 424), in the reign of Artaxerxes, was
the last of the Hebrew prophets, at all events the last who bore
any comparison with the old Hebrew prophets, is a point that
has been almost universally conceded by such as had no particu-
lar purpose to accomplish, by making out a different representa-
tion. " With this prophet," says Knobel in his recent Prophe-
iismus (ii. p. 365), " the Old Testament prophetic office ex-
pires." The author of the famous Rabbinical book Cosri (Pars

§ 10. co-NirLETiON OF Tilt; CANON. 20;'

iii. § 65), speaking of the series of prophets, says, that " Those
whicli remained of them, after the return to the temple [from
Babylon], were Haggai, Zechariah, Ezra, &c. In Seder 01am
Zuther, fol. 35, col. 2, the writer says, " In the fifty-second year
of the Modes and Persians, died Haggai, Zechariah and Mala-
chi; at the same time prophecy ceased from Israel." The
rabbinic author of this book, with most of the earlier Jewish
chronologists, supposes the Persian empire to have lasted only
fifty-two years, instead of more than 200, which is the real state
of the case. The rest of his affirmation, is in unison with the
general voice. Jerome (Comm. on Isa. xlix. 21) says, in a
metaphrase which he puts into the mouth of the Jewish church,
" Quis mihi istos genuit? . . . Post Aggaeum, Zachariam, et
Malachiam, nullos alios prophetas usque ad Johannem Baptistam
videram;" i. e. Who hath begotten me these? . . . Since Haggai,
Zechariah, and Malachi, I have seen no other prophets down
to John the Baptist." So Augustine, " During all that period
since they [the Jews] returned from Babylon, after Malachi,
Haggai, and Zechariah, non hahuerunt Projtlietas usque ad Salva-
toris adventum, i. e. they had no prophets until the advent of the
Saviour;" De Civ. Del. xvii. 24. That the agreement of the
ancients is all but universal, in respect to this matter, no one
acquainted with critical history will pretend to question.

If there be any uncertainty, after all, as to the time when
Malachi lived, it may be removed to any one's satisfaction who
will take the pains to compare this writer with Ezra and Nehe-
miah. («.) As to breaches of the Law by priests and Levites
in taking foreign wives, Mai. iii. 10, comp. Ezra ix. 1, Neh. xiii.
23—29. (i.) Withholding tithes from Levites, Mai. iii. 10,
comp, Neh. xiii, 10 — 12. (c.) Neglect of Divine worship, Mai,
i. 13, ii, 8, comp, Neh. xiii, 15 seq. (d.) The application of
nnQ) p^<x'fect, to Nehemiah the then present governor of Jei'u-

T V

salem, shows that Malachi could not have lived after Nehemiah;
for he was the last ruler there who bore the title in question; [nns

= the modern Pasha]. That Malachi lived after the temple
was completed, and of course after the time of Haggai and
Zechariah, is shown by Mai. i. 10, iii. 1, 10. That he was re-
garded as the last of the Hebrew prophets, is shown by the place
assigned to his book, which closes the series of the prophets.
I cannot refrain here from reminding the reader, how very in-

206 § 10. COMPLETION OF THE CANON.

consistent this historical development in regard to the cessation
of the prophetic gift during the reign of Artaxerxes Longimanus,
is with the favourite theory of De Wette and most of the so-
called liberal critics, viz., that the book of Daniel was written
during the Maccabean times of trouble, and after the death of
Antiochus Epiphanes, whose history it gives. How could the
writer of 1 Mace, say, at the close of these distressing times, that
there was no pi^opliet in Israel, in case a new prophetical book
had then just made its appearance, and been received by the
Jews as authentic? Or was it, that the Jews, in order to admit
the claims of the newly written book, were persuaded by the
writer to believe, that the true work of Daniel, which had Iain
in concealment some three and a half centuries, was now first
brought into the light and edited by him? One or the other of
these positions must be true, viz., either that there was a prophet
at that period, (contrary to the book of Maccabees, inconsistent
with the representations of Jesus the son of Sirach, and at var-
iance with the declarations of Josephus and the voice of all an-
tiquity), whose authority could give authenticity to the book,
or else the forgery must have been accomplished with so much
dexterity as to mislead the whole of the Jewish people. These
considerations are serious drawbacks from the capital of all the
Liberals, in regard to the time when the book of Daniel was
written.

But to return to our theme ; it seems to me, that the dealings
of Providence with the Jews, in regard to the matter of religious
instruction, are worthy of particular consideration. When the
Hebrews had no synagogues, and scarcely any copies of the
Scriptures that were current among them, then were commission-
ed that distinguished order of religious teachers, the 0*1^.^122 and

the D'lj^'i'^. The only copy extant of the Law of Moses might

indeed be hidden in the temple, (as in the time of Josiah), and
yet there must have remained adequate or competent teachers
of true religion, guided by the Spirit of all wisdom and know-
ledge. The Jews, after their exile, were so well satisfied of the
sin and folly of idolatry, that they used efficient means to guard
in future against it; and these were the multiplication of the co-
pies of the Scriptures, and the erection of synagogues, where the
holy books were read every Sabbath-day. AVhcn this custom
was fully established, the order of prophets ceased. I cannot

§ 10. COMPLETION OF THE CANON. 207

doubt that the institution of synagogues was introduced, either
in the latter period of the life of Ezra and Nehemiah, or very
soon after their death. The Scriptures themselves, which were
thus read every Sabbath, occupied the place of the earlier pro-
phets. It would seem, since the Law made nothing perfect, and
was only a dawning toward the gospel-day, that Providence with-
held one of the modes of intruction, to which I have adverted,
during the time that the other was in full force ; while under the
Gospel both methods are employed in combination, and with
much greater success.

Let me be indulged in one remark more, before I dismiss the
present topic. How came it about, that the Jewish nation,
among whom were prophets from the time of Moses down to that
of Malachi (about a thousand years), should all at once cease to
have them at this later period^ It is a conceded point, that
whatever one or another might say of this or that fortune-teller
or prognosticator, at the later period, yet no such persons as Isa-
iah, Jeremiah, Hosea, Joel, Amos, and the like, appeared among
the Hebrews for about four centuries before the Christian era.
Had the Jews become so enlightened at this period, as no longer
to give ear to the pretensions of prophets? as Neology often and
not obscurely intimates. Or was there no true zeal for the Mo-
saic institutions, and for the customs of the fathers, and no long-
er any desire to obtain a knowledge of future events • What
had become of the pride and glorying of the Jews in the order
of prophets, as showing their superiority over all other nations?
These and the like questions may be urged with the more force,
inasmuch as there is no pretence that the Jews, after returning
from their exile, ever relapsed into their love of heathen idolatry.
Unless it were matter of fact, that the order of prophets ceased
with Malachi, I see no way of accounting for the universal im-
pression among the Jews that such was the case. How could
they be brought to disclaim a matter of so much precedence and
honour to their nation, in any way excepting by the impossibili-
ty of establishing any valid claims to an order of prophets beyond
the period of Malachi? I must regard it, therefore, as one of the
best established facts in their ancient religious history, that the
order of prophets ceased at, or very near, the close of the reign
of Artaxerxes Longimanus, i. e. near to 424 b.c.

At all events, this cannot be gainsaid, viz., that we have no
credible testimony to the contrary. It cannot be controverted,

208 § 10. COMl'LETION OF THE CANON.

that Josephus, the most enlightened man at that time of the
Hebrew nation, as to its antiquities and history, gives it as the
established opinion of that nation, that for some four hundred
years they had had no prophets who wrote Scriptures, or who
could properly have the credit of being sacred writers. All the
writers subsequent to the reign of Artaxerxes he explicitly dis-
tinguishes, as to the credit due to them, from the prophets who
preceded; cr/Vrsws dl ov% o'Loiag /yg/wra/ t^s vq}) o/jtuv. Nor is this all.
He says, in the same connection, that " although so great a
length of time has elapsed, [since the days of the ancient pro-
phets], no one has dared to add anything to them, or to take
anything from them, nor to alter anything." How could this be,
if many Psalms, and the book of Daniel, not to mention smaller
portions of many other books, have been addecl^ as the liberal
critics aver, in the time of the Maccabees, or even later? A
matter so recent as the events of the Maccabean times, and es-
pecially a matter of so great importance as that of augmenting
the Holy Scriptures — how could it have failed to bo known to
Josephus, so thoroughly versed as he was in the history of his
nation? But not a word of this nature from him. And yet he
was under strong temptation, in writing his history, to show that
the importance and precedence of the Jews had not suffered any
degradation or decrease in later periods. Still, in spite of this
feeling so natural to the human breast, in spite of all his patri-
otic ardour, he most amply asserts that the end of Artaxerxes'
reign was the close of the prophetic order of his countrymen.
The impartiality of the testimony adds much to the regard which
is due to it. If the witness be interested, it is that he should
say things to the honour of his nation which he does not say.
And how should the proud and vain-glorious and boasting Jews
of his time believe en masse, that no prophets had, for centuries,
risen among them? It is very difficult, at least, to ansvver these
questions on any ground, except that which admits the truth of
Josephus' asseverations.

We may also ask other questions, in respect to the introduc-
tion and reception of new books during this period. Of all the
nations of whom history has given any account, the Jews have
been the most conservative and immutable. Subdued and nearly
destroyed by Vespasian and Titus, the remnant were, and from
that time have continued to be, scattered over the face of the
whole earth. Never have they had a dominion or government

§ 10. COAU'LETION OF Tllli CANON. 209

or country of their own. But after 1800 years have past, what
are they now? The mass is just what they were in the days of
the apostles, bigotted fanatics who are zealous in " tithing mint,
anise, and cummin," and excessively attached to all the rites and
forms that have come down to them by tradition, standing alone
amidst all the nations of the earth, unmingled, and incapable of
being mingled, with the people among whom they live. No na-
tion on earth ever exhibited such a uniformity of character, and
such a tenacity of traditions. Indeed, their separate and distinct
existence, without any approach to amalgamation with other
nations, is in itself a standing miracle, an exception to all ana-
logies among the human race. Have they added to, or dimin-
ished from, their Scriptures during all this period of 1800 years?
Not in the least. Their Rabbles have indeed introduced the
Mishna and the Talmud, and commended them to the study of
all. But they have never assayed to join these to their canon
of Scripture, or to mingle them therewith. Their Bible has
remained inviolate.

Is this the people, then, who, a short time before the Christian
era, stood on the alert to admit new and unheard-of books into
their sacred canon? After enduring all the persecutions of An-
tiochus on account of their religion, just at the close of such a
period would they have admitted a new book among those for
which they were ready to die even joyfully — a book purporting
to have been written by a man at the head of the court, when
the decree of liberation from exile went forth, and which still had
never made its appearance before, during nearly four centu-
ries? How any one can be so yielding as to give a ready as-
sent to historical statements so utterly improbable, and yet, on
account of a few critical difficulties, become so entirely sceptical
and incredulous as to the claims of this book — is a phenomenon
that even neology would find it difficult to account for, although
its disciples in general take such a position.

Nor is even this all that may be said about the later admission
of books into the canon of Hebrew Scriptures. When did the
rigid and punctilious and unchanging sect of the Pharisees take
its rise ? Was it not between the time of Artaxerxes and the
Christian era? On what ground did this sect stand? On the
ground of inflexible adherence to the traditions of the fathers.
And is it not one of those traditions, as Josephus has stated it,
not to add to, diminish from, or alter the sacred books? In

210 § 10. COMPLETION OF THE CANON.

Antiq. xviii. 1, 2, Josephus says of the three sects among the
Jews, viz., Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes, that they had ex-
isted £x Tov Tavj doy^aiou rSjv Tar^iojv, i. 6. from the very ancient
times of the fathers. Under Jonathan a Maccabean prince (1 59
— 144 B.C.), he speaks of this sect as being in full vigour; Antiq.
xiii. 5, 9. That their origin lies so much in obscurity, is in
itself a circumstance which shows their antiquity. The famous
John Hyrcanus, so much extolled by Josephus, being traduced
by one of the Pharisees, abandoned this sect to which he had
belonged, and went over to the Sadducees; as Josephus relates
in Antiq. xiii. 10, 5, 6. On this occasion the historian says of
the Pharisees, that " they had so much influence with the peo-
ple, as to be credited even when they spoke anything against
the king or the high priest." Did this sect, then, admit a new
book among their Scriptures? Or if they had done so, would
they not have been opposed and exposed by the Sadducees, who
were strict Scripturists, i. e. strenuous advocates of the sentiment,
that we must abide by the Scriptures only, without any of the
traditions of men superadded? Plainly it was as much impossi-
ble to inti'oduce a new book (e. g. Daniel), or new Psalms, at
such a period of sectarian jealousy and dispute, as it would now
be to introduce an addition to the New Testament, among the
contending sects of Christians. Whatever may be said by crit-
ics about their difliculties in respect to the earlier composition
of the book of Daniel, they can never meet and overcome the
insuperable obstacles which the history of the religious state of
things in the Maccabean times throws in their way. And if the
sects of Jews described by Josephus, and apparent throughout
the New Testament, were, as he avers, sx rou itdn a^-)(aio\) tSjv 'jar-
^iojv, then is the probability of new books being introduced into
the sacred canon after the time of Malachi, a matter utterly in-
capable of being made out.

If indeed we are still urged by critics to admit the later ad-
dition of books to the sacred canon, why, I would ask, was not
Jesus Sirachides admitted? In Sirach. 1. 27 he says: " I have
written the instruction of understanding and knowledge in this
book, I Jesus, the son of Sirach, of Jerusalem, who poured forth
wisdom from his heart." Nor is this his only claim; for he goes
on to say: "Blessed is ho who shall occupy himself with these
things, and whosoever lays them up in his mind shall become wise.
For if ho shall do these things, he shall become all-powerful, for

s!) 10. COMPLETION OF THE CANON. 211

his footsteps shall be in the light of the Lord." This is a high
claim. Few of the biblical writers have made a higher one. But
this is not all. In xxiv. 32 — 34 ho says: " I will radiate forth
instruction as the morning light, and disclose those things far
away. I will pour forth instruction as propheci/^ I will leave it
to future generations. Behold, I have not laboured for myself
only, but for all those who seek for it" [instruction]. In xxx. 1 6
— 18, he represents himself as gleaning after others (Solomon),
and goes on to say: " Consider that I have not laboured for my-
self, but for all those who receive instruction. Hear me, ye
chieftains of the people, and ye who lead in the assemblies, give
ear." Now as we know from the preface to this work that it was
written in Hebrew, and by a Jew of Jerusalem peculiarly devot-
ed to sacred studies, and written before the time of the Maccabees,
to say the least, what should have prevented the reception of such
a book into the Jewish canon, in case the Hebrews were not ad-
verse to making any additions of this nature? The book exhib-
its a morality that is pure and elevated; the style has a strong
resemblance to parts of Proverbs and Ecclesiastes ; and it is evi-
dent that great regard was entertained for the work by the Jews
in Egypt, where the grandson of Jesus found it and translated it.
The Romanists extol it much, and assign good reasons, as they
think, for the reception of it into their deutero-canon. To me
it seems, that if the Jews were in such a state, in the Maccabean
times, as to admit a forged Daniel and recently composed Psalms
into their canon; and, in a word, if they had no more religious
zeal and no more knowledge than all this implies; the Book of
the Son of Sirach must have taken the place which the above
passages quoted from it seem plainly to claim. No Romanist
or Neologist can give a satisfactory reason, why the Jews did
not admit it. On the other hand; admitting the truth of Jose-
phus' statement, viz., that since the order of prophets had ceas-
ed, no book was admitted into the Jewish canon, then all be-
comes plain and easy. The Jews could not admit the claims of
Jesus the Son of Sirach, because he was no prophet. On the
like ground they could not admit the 1st Mace, into their canon,
although a very credible history and gravely written, and com-
posed indeed only a short time after the book of Sirachides.
Scarcely anything in the Hebrew Old Testament history is a
matter of more interest, to one who seeks after a historical
knowledge of the Jewish nation, than the 1st Maccabees. Its

212 § 1^* COMPLETION OF THE CANON.

covers a period of forty of the most eventful years that the Jews
ever experienced, and exhibits this nation in the most interest-
ing of all attitudes — contending against a force vastly superior,
for their God, their religion, their country, and their homes.
Yet 1st Mace, never had any place in the Palestine Jewish canon,
as all agree. I regard it as equally certain, that it had in real-
ity no place in the canon proper of the Egyptian Jews, at least
in the time of Philo and of Christ and the apostles, notwith-
standing it was originally written in the Hebrew language.
Practically the Jews followed out the principle which Josephus
states. They included in the canon those prophetic or inspired
writers, whom they knew, or supposed that they knew, to have
lived before the close of Artaxerxes' reign. All other writers
they left to stand merely upon the footing, to which the sestheti-
cal or historic worth of their woi"ks entitled them.

Mr Norton has suggested, that all the writings of the Heb-
rews, which were extant at the time of return from the Babylon-
ish captivity, were collected by the Jews, and combined in their
so-called Scriptures, This has often been asserted by Neolog-
ists. But the proof of this has not yet been produced. I doubt
not that literature among the Jews, during the exile, must have
been generally in a low state. But as it will not be contended,
that the Jews were unacquainted with the art of writing at that
time, so 1 cannot but deem it quite improbable, that nothing was
written during the seventy years' captivity, except what appears
in the Old Testament. Is it probable that such men as Sha-
drach, Meshech, and Abednego, brought up at the court of Ba-
bylon, and educated in all the Chaldean discipline, never wrote
anything? Is it probable that such men as Ezra, Nehemiah,
and Mordecai, at the court of Persia, never wrote any thing, ex-
cept the books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, (if these are to
be attributed to them), on any of the subjects which must be of
interest to themselves and their nation ? And Ezekiel among the
exiles on the Chebar — was he the only one of them who could or
would employ his pen I I must deem this to be quite improbable.
But if these men, and other persons in a similar condition as to
information, did engage in the composition of various works —
what has become of them, it may be asked? And if it should
be, the answer is not very difficult. What has become of the
great mass of Greek and Koman writings, at a later period than
this? What has become of many, and some very distinguished.

§ 11. ANCIENT DIVISIONS OF THE CANON. 2 1 ti

works of early Christians? All-devouring time has accomplish-
ed their destruction. And sliould the question bo asked still
further, how some of the Hebrew books came to survive, while
others perished, the answer is not unlike that which might be
given in regard to Greek and Roman works, viz., the most im-
portant, with few exceptions, have survived. In the case of the
Hebrews, such an answer may be given a fortiori. They distin-
guished between books sacred and those which were not so.
The relative importance of the former to a people attached to
their ancient religion, will not be denied. This consideration is
sufficient, without entering upon any comparison of an sestheti-
cal nature, between sacred and other writings. Indeed we can-
not do this, for the character in this respect of books that are
lost, is of course unknown to us. If it be asked : Who made the
selection of books that are preserved? My answer would be —
prophets, i. e. inspired men. If this be not a well-grounded an-
swer, how comes it about, that the reception of hool's as sacred
ceased when the order of prophets ceased? So Josephus directly
asserts; and the history of the canon, so far as we can trace it,
corresponds with this assertion.

§ 11, Evidence that the Canon of the Old Testament was early
completed, arising from the ancient divisions of it which bore
specif c appellations.

Every reader of Hebrew knows familiarly that the Old Testa-
ment Scriptures as presented to us, (and so in the Hebrew MSS.
and in the printed editions ever since the art of printing was
discovered), are divided into three parts, viz., the Law, the Pro-
phets, and the Ilagiography . The last is only a Greek name which
we have borrowed ; for the Hebrew name is D'l^^/^^, i. e. writ-
ings, or (which is equally literal) scriptures. That writings par
excellence or sacred tcritings, are meant by this appellation is
clear; and hence the Greek name Hagiography, which has this
signification. How long has such a division of the Jewish Scrip-
tures been made? A question of no small importance; for these
technical appellations of course imply a well-ascertained and de-
finite number of books which are comprised under them. Such
names could have no tolerable significancy, on the ground that
each or either division was left in a floating or uncertain con-
dition. Discrepancies of opinion there might be, in time, about

21-i § 11. ANCIENT DIVISIONS OF THE CANON.

the question, whether this or that book belonged to this class or
that; but what books were comprised within this Corpus, could
hardly have been a question, at a time when the names before
us were definitely applied. Civilians have no difficulty in believ-
ing that the Pandects of Justinian comprise a definite collection
of ancient Roman laws, nor that the Novelise of the same com-
prise the more modern laws of that empire; although it is quite
possible, that the claims of one and another section to stand
under the former or latter category, might be doubtful.

We begin with the testimony of Jesus Sirachides, because it
is the oldest to which we have access. The controversy about
the age of the Wisdotn of Sirach has never been fully settled.
The main difficulty lies in the fact, that we cannot ascertain with
entire certainty two personages mentioned in the book. In
chap. i. Simon the high priest, the son of Onias, is highly extoll-
ed; and in the preface to the book by the translator, who was the
grandson of the author, he says that he performed his work
of translation in the reign of [Ptolemy] Euergetes. Now it so
happens, that there were two Simons both high priests, and both
sons of Onias; also two Ptolemies with the surname of Euergetes.
About a century elapsed between the first high priest and
king and the second ; so that only the circumstances adverted to
in the book can settle the question of its age with probability.
The current seems recently to run in favour of the latest date,
which would assign the composition of the book to about 170
B.C. Its translation by the grandson of the author, must then
be assigned to about 130 b.c. I will admit, for the present, the
probability of the later dates; for I cannot now turn aside to
discuss the question ; and I do not wish, in fixing on the time,
to go beyond what critics in general will admit, viz., that the
book must have been originally composed before the time of the
Maccabees. It is impossible to believe, had it been otherwise,
that the INIaccabees would have been omitted in the eulogy of
Hebrew patriots and prophets, contained in chap, xliv — 1, and
more especially since Simon the high priest is there lauded be-
yond measure.

In respect to the third division of the Jewish Scriptures which
has been named Qil^r\S = 7?'^?'^'' ^^ '® P^^"^ ^^^^ °"^y ^^ ^'^® "^^'
(jf tiie article with such a name, whether in Greek, Hebrew, or
English, could it have; been made specific. In itself the word is
generic, and may be applied to any kind of writings. But when

§ 11. ANCIENT DIVISIONS OF TilE CANON. 215

it is employed in connection with the Law and the Prophets^ and
has also the definite article before it, the import of the word can-
not well be misunderstood.

Thus much for the name Keihubim, since it has been introduced.
But this was not very early. We first meet with it in Epiphan-
ius, who translates it literally by y^apsTa; in Panario, p. 58. A
strictly technical name the third portion of the Hebrew Scriptures
does not appear to have had, before the Christian era, or during
the early part of it. We shall see, that while the other two
names are very ancient, the ancient designation of the now- named
Kethuhim or Hagiographi/ was very various.

In the preface to Sirach, the translator states, that many and
signal had been the benefits conferred on the Hebrew nation
^ by the Law, and the Prophets, and the other [books] which

folloiC in the same spirit^ rm aXXuv tojv xar avro-ug dx.o'/.ov^yi/ioTUV.''''
Such is the designation of the triplex parts of the Scriptures. It
lacks a proper name for the third division. See the whole of
the Preface in Appendix No. I.

Again, in the same preface, the writer says, that " his grand-
father Jesus applied himself l-r/ '^rXsm, for a long time, or very
much, to the reading of the Law, the Prophets, and of the other
patrical books, ruv ciXXojv -Trar^iojv jSiiSxiuv.'''' I have made a new
adjective here which rather transfers than translates the Greek,
because there may be some doubt, perhaps, whether the writer
means books belonging to the fathers, i. e. books which they re-
ceived, or books of which the fathers were the authors; in either
case the meaning indeed is for substance about the same, or
nearly so ; but at all events and plainly a third division of the
Scriptures, not comprehended in the two preceding ones, is here
designated, although not by a technical name.

Once more, speaking of a variety as to modes of expression
in different languages, he says, that " there is no small difierence,
among the books belonging to the Law, the Prophets, Ttai ra
y.oira ruv i3ij3}Jc>}v, and the rest or remainder of the books." Here
is still another designation of the third division of the Hebrew
Scriptures. The rest of the books must of course be some defi-
nite or well-known remainder of them; else the I'eaders of the
preface could have no definite idea of what the writer meant.
Indeed ra Xo/xa is susceptible of no other certain and definite
meaning, than such an one as I have just assigned to it. It was
not the object of the translator, to assert that his grandfather

216 §11.

A^'CIK^•T DIVISIONS OF THE CANON.

gave himself to the diligent and long-continued reading of all
books without distinction, but only to those sacred books which
would particularly aid him in the composition of his work.
Moreover, if the Law in this case designates a definite and well-
known portion of the Scriptures, and the Prophets another, (as
surely they do,) the ra 'Koi'za ruv jSijSXiojv, in the position and rela-
tion in which it stands, must also be equally definite in the view
of the writer and reader of that day. /Sz/S/./wi/, then, i. e. the
plural of l3ii3'Aiov, is here used just as we employ the word Scrip-
tures, viz. the plural form of the word is used to designate the
idea, that the book as a whole is made up of many separate parts.
Both Greeks and Latins, at a subsequent period, employed [3i[3}Ja.
and bihlia to denote the volume of the Scriptures. It is like em-
ploying the Latin literw, to designate a single epistle, because
it consists of many literw united together. Of course when the
grandson of Jesus Sirachides employs ra Xot-ra rm ^/(Sxiajv, he
uses it just as we should use the phrase the rest of the Scriptures,
immediately after mentioning the Law and the Prophets. Of
necessity this has a definite meaning; and if so, the Bible, at
that time, was a well-known and definite book.

I will not affirm, that what the grandson says for the purpose
of designating the Hebrew Scriptures, renders it certain that
these designations already existed in the time of the grandfather.
Yet I am persuaded that his words imply thus much. At all
events, so much must be plain, viz., that the grandson means to
tell his readers Nvhat and how many books his grandfather dili-
gently studied. If the names which he employs in order to de-
scribe them were not in use in the time of Jesus Sirachides, yet
there must have been some circumscription to the limits of the
original author's study, and some expressions which would mark
it as a well-known and definite circle of reading. Such being
the case in the days of Sirachides, the Hebrew Bible must have
already attained to a definite whole or corpus.

But is there not something in the book itself, as it came from
the pen of Sirachides, which speaks to the like purpose? In the
proem to his Trar'iQojv Zij^voc or Eulogy of the Fathers (chap. xliv.
seq.), he speaks generally of what had been done by the Heb-
rew worthies. Among other things he says: " They gave coun-
sel by their understanding, thoy preached — made public declara-
tions, wTeyyeXzoTEf — hy than prophecies;" 44, S. Again of some
others among them (v. 5), he says : " Thoy sought out the

§ 11. ANCIENT DIVISIONS OF THE CANON. 217

melody of music, they composed poems in writing, hrr/o'j'Liwi 'irrrt
sv y^afri. This latter clause De Wette translates, Dichteien Lieder
schriftlich, (with the same meaning as above); and in its con-
nexion, this seems to me plainly to be the only true meaning.
Here then are the two latter divisions of the Bible ; for, accord-
ing to Josephus {cont. A])ion. i. 8.) the third part consisted
principally oi 'poetry. In chap, xlv., when the writer comes to
speak of JNIoses, ho says, that God " gave him commandments
by personal intercourse, the law of life and knowledge, to teach
Jacob his covenant, and Israel his judgments." Here then, ac-
cording to the view of Sirachides himself, are virtually the same
triplex divisions or portions of the Scriptures, which are men-
tioned by the grandson and translator in his preface to the
book. To make this language intelligible, there must have been
a known and recognised distinction among the Hebrew sacred
books at that time, to which the mind of the reader would of
course advert, when these different portions were named.

PniLo JuDAEus (flor. 40 b.c.) is our next witness, in regard to
the point before us. In his book De Vita contemplativa (0pp.
ii. p. 475 ed. Mang.) he is speaking of the Essenes as peculiarly
devoted to such a life, and as withdrawing into their secret ap-
artments, from which everything pertaining to the refreshment
of the body was excluded, and there, says he, " they receive
only the laws and the oracles uttered by the prophets, and the
hymns and other \hooks'\, by which knowledge and piety are aug-
mented and perfected. '* In other words, they admit to their
meditation-closets nothing but the holy Scriptures. That this
is his meaning, is plain from that which he immediately sub-
joins: " For addressing themselves to the holy Scriptures, {hruy-
yavdvTic, yap ro?; is^oig y^d/j.//,agi), they philosophize after the man-
ner of their country,"" &c. Immediately after this he says:
" They have, moreover, the writings of ancient men, the leaders
of their sect, who have left many memorials of their views, in
regard to allegorical matters." Here the express separation of
their sectarian books from the Scriptures before mentioned,
leaves no room to doubt what the meaning of Philo is; see Ap-
pend, ut supra. Such then, in Egypt, as well as in Palestine,
was the well known division of the Hebrew Scriptures before the
Christian era. How exactly it coincides with the division in
the apostolic age, we shall Hoon see.

• See Appendix No. II. for the whole passage.

218 § 11- ANCIENT DIVISIONS OF THE CANON.

In the New Testament we find the most explicit testimony to
the same purpose. Jesus says to his wondering and doubting
disciples, after his death and resurrection, in order to calm and
satisfy their minds with regard to these events: "All things
must be fulfilled, which are written in the Laio of 31oses, and
the Prophets, and the Psalms, concerning me;" Luke xxiv. 44.
In the 27th verse of the same chapter it is said of Jesus, that
" beginning from Moses and from the prophets, he expounded to
them [to his disciples] in all the Scriptures the things which
concerned himself." This passage is virtually the same with
that above. Two divisions of Scripture are here alluded to by
name, and the third is separated from them by a phraseology
which necessarily imports, that there were other portions of
Scripture besides the two named, which Jesus interpreted for
the disciples, as he first had done in respect to the Law and the
Prophets. That the third portion has not a specific appella-
tion, is the same phenomenon that we have already seen in Sira-
chides and in Philo. Philo, however, adverts to the third divi-
sion under the general designation of hymns (i),ai'o/); and Luke, or
rather the Saviour himself, refers to it in the same way, only he
calls it -^aXfio'i, which is altogether equivalent to the '-oiivbt of Phi-
lo. The obvious reason of this designation seems to be, either
that the Hagiography began (as now) with the book of Psalms,
and then the maxim, a potiori nomenfit, guided the choice of a
designation; or else the third class of books was called Psalms,
because it consisted principally, if not altogether, of poetry.
That the Scriptures in a specific form are here meant, there can
be no doubt; for after speaking of the things written in the Law,
the Prophets, and the Psalms, concerning Christ, it is said of
Jesus, that " he opened the mind [of the disciples] to under-
stand rag y^acpdg, the Scriptures,'" viz. those Scriptures which he
had quoted and explained.

We have already seen, that Josephus, after naming the Law
and the prophets as constituting the first two parts of the Jew-
ish Scriptures, says of the other books: " A/ bl Xoi'irai rsegagig
u,avoug sic rhv ')fov, xai roTg av^oui'roig 'vrro^riTtag toZ (3iou <7rs^iiy^ox)(Siv, 1. e.
the other four books contain hymns to God, and maxims of life
for men;" cont. Ap. i. 8. See Append. No. III. Here again is
plainly the same thing which we have found in Philo and in the
Now Testament, with only this difference, that Josephus, in add-
ing maxims of life for men, has definitely alluded to the books of

§ 11. ANX'IENT DIVISIONS OF THE CANON. 219

Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, while the other writers have merely
comprised them under generic names.

In the later catalogues of the Old Testament books among
Christians, viz. that of Melito in the second century, and of Ori-
gen in the first part of the third, the names of the books are
merely given, without mention of the general triplex division ad-
verted to by all the preceding writers who have been quoted
above. Melito, however, adverts in the context to the Old
Testament Scriptures (See in Euseb. Hist. Ecc. iv. 26), under
the designation of the Law and the Prophets^ in the same man-
ner as is sometimes done in the New Testament. But in Jer-
ome, incomparably the best Hebrew scholar and critic among all
the ancient Christian fathers, (indeed we may say, the only really
thorough Hebraist among them all), who spent some twenty years
in Palestine and made himself familiar with everything pertain-
ing to the Hebrews — in Jerome's Prologus Galeatus^ the same
triplex division reappears: " Ita fiunt pariter Veteris Legis libri
mgintl duo, id est, Mosis quinque, et Propheiarum octo, Hagio-
graphomm novem; i. e. thus at the same time are made twenty-
two books of the Old Testament, that is, of 3Ioses five, of the
Prophets eight, of the Hagiogra'phy nine." Down then to the
time of Jerome this ancient division of the Jewish Scriptures
was in full use, although, as we shall hereafter see, the books
assigned to the second and third divisions had suffered some
change of location respectively since the time of Josephus, who
reckons the Prophets as comprising more books than Jerome
assigns to them, and the Hagiography of course as comprising
fewer.

Lastly, the Talmud, in the fifth or sixth century, put the final
seal upon this usage, so far as the Jews and the Hebrew Bible
are concerned. This compilation by learned Babylonish Jews
of all the traditions among their Rabbies in respect to the Scrip-
tures and to the subject of religious rites and ceremonies, was
probably made in the latter part of the fifth and the beginning
of the sixth centuries, (some portions of it possibly earlier, and
some still later). In the Gemara of it, Tract Baha Batlira, fol.
IS. c. 2, we find the following declaration: " Our wise men say,
that the whole is one, and each part is one by itself; and they
have transmitted to us the Law, Wwi Prophets, and the Kethuhim,
united together as one, Q^mnDI D^t<^n2 Hlin M^^l^ "Ifc^^nm
int^D D"'pl1"Tt2." After this, the passage goes on to recite the

220 § 11. ANCIENT DIVISIONS OF THE CANON.

order in which the books are arranged, and to specificate those
which belong to the three divisions respectively. The Law is of
course the same in all the arrangements of the ancients; the
Prophets contains, as usual, Joshua, Judges, 1 & 2 Samuel, 1 & 2
Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, and the twelve Minor Pro-
phets, thus making eight books for the second division, as in our
common Hebrew Bibles, and as in Jerome quoted above. In
the Kethuhim or Hagiography, the Talmudists reckon eleven books,
v/hile Jerome makes but nine. The difference consists merely
in the mode of combination. Jerome joins Ruth to Judges as
one book, and thus brings the former into the circle of the Pro-
phets; he also joins Lamentations with Jeremiah, and arranges
it of course in the same way; while the Talmudists separate these
two small books, and throw them both into the third division.
Jerome's division is more in conformity with the ancient number
of the Scriptural books. That of the Talmud depends on a new
mode of numbering these books ; of which more in due time.

What the Talmud thus sanctioned, has come down to the
present hour, among the Jews, substantially the same. The on-
ly exception is in the order of some of the books; which has al-
ways been a matter that admitted of change, and has indeed
been very various in different countries and in different ages.
The Talmudists have one arrangement; the Masorites another;
the German MSS. follow the former, while the Spanish MSS.
exhibit the order of the latter; and thus with the editions of the
Hebrew Bible that are respectively copied after each.

From a remote time, then, even before the Christian era, a
triplex division of the Jewish Scriptures has been made, which
necessarily involved a special relation of each part to the other,
and of course rendered it necessary that the extent of each part
should be definitely and well known. If the Laio was definite, if
the Prophets was definite, then the Kethuhim also was definite.
For when Sirachides (in his preface) speaks of " the Law itself,
and the Prophecies, xa/ ra Xoi'xa rcov fSiiS'Aluv," if the first two
parts are circumscribed, definite, and intelligible, then the third
division must be equally so; for otherwise it would mean simply
all other booh. To suppose this last to be the meaning, would
be an absurdity.

This brings us then again to the position, that for a long time
antecedently to the Christian era, the Old Testament was a de-
finite, well-known, accredited collection of writings, regarded by

§ 11. ANCIENT DIVISIONS OF THE CANON. 221

the Jews as their sacred code of laws, and distinguished by
them from all other books. But of the estimation in which
these books were held, it will become necessary hereafter again
to speak.

In order to render this view of the manner in which the Old
Testament Scriptures were designated, even in very ancient
times, more complete, I must not omit to mention, that as all
names of things, of which frequent use must be made in com-
mon parlance, become, in case they are long, almost without ex-
ception abridged for the sake of convenience, so it fared with the
triplex and full designation of the Holy Scriptures. Oftentimes
the Old Testament was spoken of merely as one book, or one
code of religious laws and history, and then a single name of a
generic nature was applied — the very same that was technically
employed, at a later period, to designate the third division of
the Scriptures, viz., y^ct<pai = D'^l^PS' exactly in the sense of
our word Scriptures. Examples of this are easily found in the
New Testament; e. g. Matt. xxi. 42; xxii. 29; xxvi. 54, 56;
Luke xxiv. 32, 45; John v. 39; Acts xvii. 2, 11; xviii. 24, 28;
Rom. XV. 4; xvi. 26; 2 Pet. iii. 16. In Rom. i. 2, Paul names
the Old Testament ygaf «/ ayiai, in reference to their inspiration
by the Holy Spirit, and to the same purpose h^a y^dixij^ara in
2 Tim. iii. 15. When the speaker wished to appeal to Scrip-
ture in a still more generic way, (leaving out of view its various
component parts), he employed the singular number of the noun
yia(pri, specially when he cited a passage from Scripture without
stopping to designate the particular place whence he took it;
e. g. Mark xii. 10; xv. 28; Luke iv. 21; vii. 38; x. 35; xiii. 18;
xvii. 12; xix. 28, 37; xx. 9; Acts i. 16; viii. 32, 35; Rom. iv.
3; ix. 17; x. 1; xi. 2; Gal. iii. 8; 1 Tim. v. 18; James ii. 8;
1 Pet. ii. 6. In a way a little different from this usage, and in
the mere generic sense of Scripture generally, we find /fa^^ em-
ployed John ii. 22; x. 35; Gal. iii. 22; 2 Pet. i. 20. In 2 Tim.
iii. 16, Paul speaks of "Trao-a ygafir/, i. e, every component part or
portion of Scripture, (rrasa ri y^cupyj would mean the whole of
Scripture, a totality, Winer, N. Test. Gramm. § 17. 10), and
avers that it, i. e. each part or portion of Scripture, is SeoVi/si/ffro;,
divinely inspired.

The Laio, as being the leading and preeminent part of the
Old Testament, is not unfrequently employed to designate com-
prehensively the Scriptures in general. Nothing is more com-

222 § H- ANCIENT DIVISIONS OF THE CANON.

mon than such a metonymy or synecdoche, where the name of a
part stands for the whole, and especially of a preeminent or
leading part. The old maxim: A potiori nomenjit, also explains
this. In such a generic sense does the word seem plainly to be
employed in Luke xvi. 17; John x. 34, xii. 34, xv. 25, for the
Law (to which the speakers in these cases refer) is not any pas-
sage in the Pentateuch, but in other parts of Scripture. So is
it, also, with 1 Cor. xiv. 21, where a quotation from Isaiah
xxviii. 11, 12, is named the Law. In John i. 17, however, we
have a plain recognition of the word Law as employed in the
limited and technical sense: "The Law was given by Moses."
Rabbinic usage agrees with the custom of the New Testament
writers, in the employment of the word law in a general sense;
and so does the usage of our own theological dialect at the pre-
sent day, e. g. in such cases as ' the Law and the Gospel,' ' the
Divine Law has forbidden or sanctioned this or that,' &c. comp.
2 Mace. ii. 18.

It will be no matter of surprise, after this view of the manner
in which appellations are bestowed on the Old Testament Scrip-
tures, to find that the second portion of them, i. e. the Prophets,
as well as the first and third, sometimes lends its name to de-
signate the whole collection. Examples of such a usage may
be found in Mark i. 2; Matt. xxvi. 56; Luke xviii. 31, xxiv. 25;
John vi, 45; Acts iii. 21, xiii. 27, 40, xv. 15, xxvi. 27; 2 Pet.
iii. 2. This accounts for the use of the plural number, T^o^^ra/,
in some cases where merely one single prophet is quoted; e. g.
Matt. ii. 23, and many of the passages to which reference is
made in the preceding sentence.

The reverse of this, viz., the use of the singular number, tpo-
(prirrig, to designate the whole of Scripture, (like yfcc^^ instead of
'y^a(pai), I believe cannot be found in the New Testament. There
is an obvious reason for this. All the writers of the Old Testa-
ment, in the language of the Jews, were called Prophets; so that
all were virtually placed on the same basis or in the same rank.
No one of these, (the singular number would indicate only a sin-
gle individual), was so preeminently or exclusively the author of
the Scripture, as to cause them to be named from him. Be-
tween yocKpr] and y^a(pai there is no such contrast, because neither
of the words is indicative of persons. We cannot solve the
difficulty then in Mark i. 2 seq., where passages in two prophets
are quoted, while they are introduced by the formula: " As it

§ 12. SAMENESS or THE JEWISH CAN'OX. 223

is written in the prophet,'''' by saying that the singular number,
irpo^priTri;, stands for the whole collection. The solution lies in
another quarter. Griesbach, and those who follow him, employ
the singular number here, T^ofj^T^j. But Hahn, the Vulgate
text, and the earlier critical editions, read v^op^Taig; Lachmann
himself confessing that the authority of it is equal to that which
adopts the singular number. In such a case, to prefer the more
difficult reading, as it is called, to the one which is congruous
with the context and with good sense, is what I must name an
ahuse of a good thing — a real perversion of the rational laws of
criticism. But we cannot dwell on such matters.

Finally, the two leading appellations of the triplex division of
the Scriptures are not unfrequently joined together, in order to
make the name somewhat more complete than one appellation
only could make it. Thus the Laio and the Prophets in Matt.
xi. 13, xxii. 40; Luke xvi. 16; John i. 45; Acts xiii. 15, xxiv.
14; Rom. iii. 21. Exactly in the same sense, and for the same
purpose, Moses and the Prophets is used in various passages;
e. g. Luke xvi. 29, 31, xxiv. 27; Acts xxviii. 23.

I would merely remark, at the close of this exposition of
Scriptural usage as to names, that the New Testament writers
could never have employed all these different appellations, and
so often interchanged them, without superadding any explana-
tions, if the definite import of each and all had not been well
understood by themselves and by those whom they addressed.
The Old Testament must have been as definite then, as it is
now, and its limits as well known. Every Jew that could read
must have known what books belonged to it, when copies of
the Scriptures had become common.

§ 12. Sameness of the Jewish Canon in early times shown hy the
Number and Names of the Books.

We have seen that Jesus Sirachides adverts only to the tri-
plex division of the Holy Scriptures in his time, but does not
give us either the names or the number of the books contained
in them. This division is brought to view so frequently in the
Wisdom of Sirach (including the preface), that there can be
no reasonable doubt of its designating a limited and definite
collection of books; and by comparison of the same triplex divi-
sion, brought to view also by subsequent writers in early times,

224 § 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON.

and this in connection with the number and names of the books,
we learn what estimate we should put upon the designations by
Sirachides of the various portions of the Scriptures. We argue
from the nature of the case, that his designations must imply a
definite and ascertained number or circle of books; but we must
go to other writers to learn with exactness the dimensions of
this circle.

Josephus has testified, (in the passage cont. Apion. i. § 8, as
fully quoted above, p. 195, see Append. No. iii.), in the follow-
ing manner: " We have twenty-two hooks, comprising the history
of every age, which are justly credited as Divine.'''' Five of these
he assigns to Moses; thirteen to the prophets; and of course
four to the Hagiography. Would that he had given us the
names of each, and of those to be classed under each division !
But as he has not, we must supply this deficiency in the best
manner that we can. I believe it may be done to the entire
satisfaction of every reasonable reader.

The earliest writer after Josephus, who has given us an ac-
count of the sacred books of the Jews, is Melito, bishop of Sar-
dis, (flor. 170 A.D.). He travelled from Sardis to Palestine,
mainly, as it would seem by his own statement, for the purpose
of ascertaining the exact names, number, and order of the Jew-
ish Scriptures. The result of his visit he communicates to his
brother Onesimus, in the following letter, preserved by Eusebius
in Hist. Ecc. iv. 26. (See the original in App. No. IV.)

" Melito, to Onesimus his brother, greeting. Since you have
often requested, through the earnest desire that you cherish for
the word [of God], that you might have a selection made for
you from the Law and the Prophets,* which has respect to our
■Saviour and the whole of our faith ; and since, moreover, you
have been desirous to obtain an accurate account of the ancient
hools, both as to their number and their order; I have taken
pains to accomplish this, knowing your earnestness in respect to
the faith, and your desire for instruction in regard to the word;
and most of all, that you, while striving after eternal salva-
tion, through desires after God, give a preference to these things.
Making a journey therefore into the east [Palestine], and hav-
ing arrived at the place where these things [i. e. scriptural
events] were proclaimed and transacted, I there learned accu-

• These plainly stand for the whole Scriptui'es, according to the New Testa-
ment usage, pointed out on page 223 above.

§12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON. 225

rately the books of the Old Testament, which I hove arrange
and transmit to you. The names arc as follows: The five
books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deutero-
nomy. Then Joshua of Nun, Judges, Ruth, four books of Kings,
two of Chronicles. The Psalms of David, the Proverbs of Solo-
mon (also called Wisdom), Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, Job.
Prophets: Isaiah, Jeremiah, the Twelve in one'book, Daniel, Eze-
kiel, Ezra. From these I have made selections, distributing them
into six books."

It will not be pretended, I presume, by any considerate man,
that the Jews in Palestine had altered their Scriptures between
the time of Josephus (born a.d. 87) and that of Melito. The
thing was impossible; first, on the ground of their own oppos-
ing parties, the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes; secondly, on
the ground of rivalship between Jews and Christians. I might
add a third consideration, peculiarly applicable to those times,
and this is the sectarian zeal with which the Pharisees guarded
all the traditions and customs of their forefathers.

(1.) My first remark on this testimony of Melito is, that it
comes from a very distinguished and enlightened man. Cave
says justly of him: " Vir pietate non minus quam doctrina cla-
rus;" and Tertullian (a contemporary) testifies of him, that
most Christians called him a prophet; in Hieron. de Script, c. 2,
4. His knowledge was acquired, moreover, by a special eff'ort
and much caution; for he was not content with what he learned
at Sardis, but must needs go to Palestine itself, in order that
he might know the dx^/jSudv, the exact truths of the whole matter
respecting the Jewish Scriptures.

(2.) It seems quite probable, if not altogether certain, from
the names of the books, as given by Melito, and from their order.,
that he learned them by consulting a Greek copy or copies of the
Scriptures, and not a Hebrew one. Neither the names, in some
cases, nor the order, nor the classification, compares altogether
with the Hebrew, but rather with the version of the Seventy;
yet in some respects, not even with the Septuagint as we now
have it in our printed copies. But in making the four books of
Samuel and Kings into one book with one and the same desig-
nation, viz. Kings., he plainly follows the Septuagint; in placing
Chronicles next to them, he does the same, but here it is far
from certain that the Hebrew at that time differed in respect to
this from the Septuagint. The sequel of his catalogue differs,

Q

226 § 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON.

as to order, both from the Jewish and Septuagint Hats of the
books of the Old Testament which have come down to us; as
also from the order of these books as given by Origen, Jerome,
and others. But as I have already remarked, the order of clas-
sification has always been subject to variation in the second and
third classes of the Hebrew books; and that of Melito helps to
confirm this view of the subject.

(3.) As the copy or copies of the Greek Scriptures, from which
Melito took his list, contained none of the apocrypltal books (so
called), so it is plain and quite certain, that near the close of the
second century the Greek Scriptures, as circulated and used in
Palestine, contained none of the so-called deutero-canonical books,
i. e. apocryphal books. Whatever may have been the condition
of the Old Testament Greek Scriptures at Alexandria, at the
period in question, the " books written after the time of Artax-
erxes Longiraanus" were not included in the Scriptures which
Melito consulted. The Romish church will find, therefore, in
this almost primitive father, but a very slender support, (indeed
none at all, but the contrary), for their deutero-canon. If it be
said, (as it has been), that the clause in Melito, Sa/.o/xwi/og Traooi-
fj^iai ri 7MI c(j(pia means the Proverbs of Solomon, and also Wisdom,
(i. e. the Wisdom of Solomon, one of the apocryphal books,) the
reply to this suggestion is easy. " Nearly all the ancients," re-
marks Valesius on this passage, " called the Proverbs of Solo-
mon Wisdom, and sometimes 6o(ptav Trava/^sroi." Accordingly
Dionysius of Alexandria, calls the book of Proverbs r, copvi iSi^Xog;
Cap. 28, Catena in Jobum. The author of the Jerusalem Itine-
rary, speaking of a certain chamber in Jerusalem, says that
" Solomon sat there, and there he wrote Sapientiam,'''' i. e. the
book of Proverbs. Melito means then merely to say, that the
work of Solomon called -xu.ooiiuai, had also the name of co^piu.
The pronoun jj also imports this. We cannot alter the accen-
tuation and make it an article; for to a title of a book the
article does not in such a case belong.

(4.) Counting the books as arranged by Melito, we find them
twenty-one in number; which lacks one of the number as given
by Josephus. As the list of the bishop now stands, the books
of Nchemiah and Esther seem to be omitted. Tlie solution of
the difficulty in respect to Nchemiah is easy. Both Jews and
Greeks, at that time, reckoned the books of Ezra and Nchemi-
ah as being but one; for so it appears by the lists of the sacred

§ 12. SAMENRSS OF THE JEWISH CANOX. 227

books among the ancients, Orlgen, Jerome, Concilium Laod.,
Canones Apost., Hilary, &5C. Only one book then is lacking in
Melito; and this is the book of Esther. How the problem
which this omission raises is to be solved, critics have not been
agreed. Eichhorn supposes Esther to be included by Melito
under the denomination ' Effcj^ac; but the like to this is not found
elsewhere among the ancient modes of reckoning the sacred
books. Herbst, in his recent Einleitung, supposes Melito to
have had access to a Greek Manuscript which contained the
apocryphal additions to Esther, and which, as he was told by
the Jews that they did not admit the authenticity of the book
in that interpolated state, he rejected from his canon. I deem
it more satisfactory to suppose, with others, an omission here of
the name of Esther by Eusebius, in copying the document. Pre-
cisely such an one occurs in his copy of Origen's canon, Ecc. Hist.
vi, 25. Origen says, even as copied by Eusebius, that twenty-
two books belong to the canon, and he then proceeds to name
them. But in doing this, the twelve minor prophets (in one
book) are omitted by Eusebius, so that, as represented by this
historian, Origen makes only tioenty-one books. Besides this,
Rufinus'' translation of Origen gives us the missing book, and
restores the minor prophets to their proper place. Herbst
thinks that Melito himself must have omitted Esther, because,
as he avers, Athanasius and Gregory Nazianzen reject it. But
Gregory remarks in respect to it: " -&j-o/; [i. e. to or with the
other books of the Old Testament], rrpoayz^mvffi rr^v 'Ec^ns; rmg,
i. e. with these some reckon Esther; ' Carm. xxxiii. torn. ii. It
would seem probable that he himself doubted of the book. Ath-
anasius also omits it, probably on a similar ground; but Ori-
gen, the Council of Laodicea (about 360 — 364) Can. 59, Can-
ones Apostol. Ixxxv., Cyrillus Hieros. Catech. iv. No. S3 — 36,
Epiphanius, de Mens, et Ponder, c. 22, 23, Opp. ii., Jerome in
Prol. Gal., in their respective lists, all expressly insert it. It
must be admitted, I think, that either Gregory and Athanasius
both had doubts about the canonical authority of Esther; or
that in their lists of sacred books, they have merely copied from
Eusebius, who, it seems plain, had accidentally omitted it. The
whole current of Christian antiquity is evidently in favour of
such a view. And as to the Jeu's, the very copious extracts
which Josephus has made from the book of Esther, as also the
time in which he supposes it to have been written, render it al-

228 ^ 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON.

together certain that it was in his canon of the Jewish Scrip-
tures.

Thus much for Mehto. A most important witness moreover,
he is, because he is so early, and withal so intelligent and can-
did. We have then the books which Josephus' number twenty-
tipo comprised. We cannot omit Esther at all events, so far as
Josephus is concerned; and our next object is to inquire how
these books in question came to be reckoned at twenty-two.

In whatever way we regard the number of the sacred books
of the Old Testament, as reckoned by the ancient Jews or Chris-
tians, we are obliged to confess that there is something of the
arbitrary and the fanciful in it. Still, it is a circumstance in
itself so immaterial, that we need not take any alarm at the
phantasies which have controlled this matter. Jerome, who
spent many years in Palestine in studying the Hebrew language,
customs, and opinions, and who, as I have said, was by far the
best critic and exegete of all the ancient fathers, has doubtless
given us the true secret of the number twenty-tim, as applied to
the Hebrew Sci'iptures. Let us hear him, as he speaks in his
Prologus Galeatus: "Vigintiet duas literas esseapud Hebraeos,
Syrorumque quoque lingua et Chaldaeorum testatur quae Heb-
raeae magna ex parte confinis est. Nam et ipsi viginti duo ele-
menta habent, eodem sono et diversis characteribus. . . . Quo-
modo igitur viginti duo elementa sunt, per quae scribimus Heb-
raice omne quod loquimur, et eorum initiis vox humana com-
prehenditur ; ita viginti duo volumina supputantur, quibus, quasi
Uteris et exordiis, in Dei doctrina tenera adhuc et lactens viri
justi eruditur infantia; i. e. that there are twenty-tioo letters
among the Hebrews, the Syriac and Chaldee languages testify,
which for the most part are kindred with the Hebrew. For they
have twenty-two letters, the same [as the Hebrew] in sound but
differing in form. . . . As then there are twenty-two letters by
which we write in Hebrew everything that we utter, and the
human voice is comprised within their constituent initial ele-
ments: so twenty- two volumes are reckoned, by which the ten-
der and as yet unweaned infancy of the just man is instructed,
as by elementary letters, in the doctrine of God."

It is in vain to ask what could have directed the minds of
those who arranged the Scriptures to such a fanciful compari-
son. But to say the least, it is certainly not an unnatural mode
of reckoning. "Letters instruct, and there are twenty- two of

§ 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON. 229

them; the Scriptures instruct, and tliere are twenty-two of
them." Such was the analogical reasoning, I do not know
that critics have taxed Aristarchus with folly or weakness, be-
cause he divided the Iliad and Odyssey into twenty-four books
each, according to the number of letters in the Greek alphabet.
It was an easy way of designating and distinguishing the differ-
ent parts of those poems. Why should it be thought strange,
that not far from the same time some zealous student of the
Jewish Scriptures divided them in a similar manner \ Even if
you reply, and say that unnatural combinations of different books
into one were resorted to, in order to make the number twenty-
two; still this has no solid foundation. Aristarchus has com-
bined the poems of Homer, in some cases, in the like manner,
where the matter would have pointed to a division different from
that which he has made. Yet his division is without any seri-
ous inconvenience. So the Jews in several cases combined books
together as one which seem to be tmo^ and are so reckoned in
our present Bibles, The ancient lists of the scriptural books
show, that at first this combination was made thus: Judges and
Ruth were united as one; 1st and 2d Samuel as one; 1st and
2d Kings as one; 1st and 2d Chronicles as one; Ezra and Ne-
hemiah as one; Jeremiah and the Lamentations as one; the
twelve prophets as one. The reason of the combination in the
first five cases is very plain. The historical matter of the books
is continuous and successive. In the sixth case, it is very plain
that Jeremiah is reckoned as including the Lamentations, be-
cause both are the work of one author, and the latter is an ap-
pendix which shows the fulfilment of his prophecy. As to the
twelve minor prophets it would seem that they were comprised
in one, i, e. in one roll or volume, on account of their brevity,
Jerome (ut sup,) speaks of the Hebrews as usually counting
five of the books as double, because they have the same number
of letters in the alphabet which have two forms, viz. -r^, q^, >j^,
flQj V^' ^^^' corresponding with these, they reckon Samuel,
Kings, Chronicles, Ezra, and Jeremiah, as being double, or con-
sisting of two parts.* But this is somewhat more fanciful or
arbitrary than the numbering of the books in general according
to the letters of the alphabet; inasmuch as it does not reach or
account for all the cases of combination. The union of Judges

• See the passage of Jerome in the Appeudix, No. XIV.

230 § 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON.

and Ruth, and also of the twelve minor prophets, still remains to
be accounted for.

With the light which we obtain from Jerome, we may now
go back to Josephus, and ask how he must have made out his
triplex division, viz. the Law, the Pi'ophets, the Hymns and
Maxims of Life, and at the same have made only twenty-two
books in the whole.

The matter is easy and obvious. ( 1 .) The Jive books of the Pen-
tateuch, in the order in which they have always stood and still stand.
(2.) We must call to mind, that i^t'ophets is a designation, among
the Hebrews, of any writer who is, or is believed to be, inspired;
and that of course it may, and does, comprehend the historians
as well as those who uttered predictions. According to Jose-
phus, then. Prophets comprises all the books which are historical
or predictive. Of course his second division, which, as he tells
us, is comprised h r^ici %ai d'sxa ^ijSXiok:, i. e. " in thirteen books,"
must include (1.) Joshua. (2.) Judges and Ruth. (3.) 1st and
2d Samuel. (4.) 1st and 2d Kings. (5.) 1st and 2d Chronicles.
(6.) Ezraand Nehemiah. (7.) Esther. (8.) Isaiah. (9.) Jere-
miah and Lamentations. (10.) Ezekiel. (11.) Daniel. (12.)
The twelve minor prophets. (IS.) Job. All these are histori-
cal or predictive. The book of Job is not an exception; be-
cause Josephus doubtless regarded it in the light of a real
history of Job, and as much a history as the book of Ruth, or
Esther, although written poetically. That he did so reckon is
plain, because the «/ Xoivai rsaaaos;, i. e. the other remaining four
hool's, he describes as consisting of v/jyvoi -/.a! v'jo^rix.ai rov fSiou^ i. e.
hymns and maxims of life. I suppose it will not be contended
that v/xvoi does not characterise the Psalms; and the other books
must of course be the Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles. And
although the designation hymns^ or maxims oflife^ will not strictly
apply to Canticles, yet here, as is common in other cases, a potiori
7iomenJit, the name is given to four books from the altogether pre-
dominant part of them. Canticles is neither predictive nor his-
torical, and so it would not class with the Prophets or second
division of the Scriptures. The conclusion seems to be a neces-
sary one, therefore, that Josephus arranged his twenty-two
books in the manner that has now been specified.

This conclusion seems to amount to satisfactory certainty,
when we examine all the early lists of the Old Testament books,
which other writers have transmitted to us. The list of Mclito

§ 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON. 231

combines the books of the Old Testament in the same manner
as that which wo have attributed to Joscphus, with the single
exception, that Judges is separated from Ruth, and 1st and 2d
Samuel and 1st and 2d Kings are combined into one book in
four parts, as they were in the Septuagint, and are still, even
down to the present time. Origen, who was familiar with the
Hebrew MSS. of his day» gives the combination of books in just
the same way as that which has been attributed to Josephus.
The Council of Laodicea (360 — 364), in Can. 59, follow in tho
same track, making txoenty-two books, in the same way as Jose-
phus docs. The only departure is in the case of Jeremiah,
where they join Baruch and the epistles in the same book with
that prophet, as well as the Lamentations. It has been sup-
posed, that the apocryphal Baruch was the one here designated,
and so that it was anciently included in the book of Jeremiah.
But of this I must doubt. Whoever reads Jer. xxxvi. xlv. will
be satisfied, specially if he reflects on the disjointed condition in
which the writings of this prophet formerly were, that the por-
tions of Jeremiah''s words which were written down by Baruch,
and on a separate roll, might occasion the mistake hei-e supposed
to be made in the enumeration.

In the same manner as Origen, Cyrill of Jerusalem reckons in
his Catech. iv., thus making expressly twenty-two books. Gre-
gory of Nazianzen iJJarm. xxxiii.) follows in the same steps.
Athanasius, {Epist.fest. 0pp. i. 961), has the same reckoning as
Cyrill, only that Ruth is separated from Judges, and Esther is
omitted, still making the number of books to be ticenty-tico, as
usual.

If we go to the Latin church, we find Jerome, the real head
of that church and of all the fathers, as to criticism, making (in
Prolog. Gal.) as has already been stated, twenty-tico books, and
coupling and combining several of them in the same manner as
Origen. It is true, indeed, that he makes a somewhat different
division of the books in so far as they belong respectively to the
Prophets or to the Kethubim; but this division exhibited by
Jerome was a more recent affair among the Hebrews; for so I
think we shall, in the sequel, see reason to believe; just as the
practice of counting ttcenty-four books (instead of twenty-two)
had recently begun in the time of Jerome. This last usage, sanc-
tioned by the Talmud, occasioned of course a separation of some
of the books which had been combined together, in order to

2-32 § 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANOV.

make out the number tioenty-two. Important consequences are
connected with the establishment of these suggestions, and on
this account they must, in due time, occupy some of our atten-
tion.

What is wanting in Josephus, in respect to specification of
particulars, (and also in Sirachides and Philo), is fully and ade-
quately supplied by writers who lived shortly afterwards, and by
some who had an undoubted acquaintance with the Jewish lan-
guage and literature, viz, Origen and Jerome, There is, as we
have seen, such a uniformity in ancient testimony, as to the
books which were combined and thus counted as one, that no
reasonable doubt can remain in respect to this point; above all,
it would seem that none could remain, when nearly all the an-
cient writers, who have given us lists of the sacred books of the
Old Testament, have, in the same manner as Josephus, made
out Umnty-two books as belonging to it, and told us what several
books were combined in order to count respectively as one.

One consequence, of no small importance in criticism, may be
drawn from the result of this investigation. This is, that the so-
called Haciioqrapliy^ or third portion of the Hebrew Scriptures,
was not, very anciently, what it is now, or what it was reckoned
to be about the time of Jerome, and of the origin of the Baby-
lonish Talmud, which was not long after. If this can be estab-
lished, tlien the leading argument employed by the Liberalists
to show the lateness of the composition — a lateness extending
even down to the Maccabean times, of Daniel, Chi'onicles, many
of the Psalms, and perhaps some other scriptural books, or parts
of books — is deprived at once of all its force. The argument
runs thus: "No reason can be assigned, except the lateness of
the composition, why Daniel and the Chronicles should be placed
among the Kethubim or Hagiography, since the first belongs to
the class of the latter prophets, and the second, like Samuel,
Kings, &c,, to the class of the former prophets. The fact, then,
that Daniel and Chronicles are joined with the Kethubim, shows
that they were written after the second class of the scriptural
books, viz. the Prophets, was fully defined and completed. Now,
as this class comprises Haggai. Zechariah, and JNIalachi, so we
have conclusive evidence that Daniel and Chronicles must have
been composed, or at all events introduced into the canon, at a
poriod subsequent to that of Nehemiah and Malachi, which was
about 430—420 d.c.

§ 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON. 233

This is specious, to say the least, at first view. But then it
takes for granted some things which cannot be proved ; nay, I
will venture to say, the contrary of which can be proved, or at
least rendered highly probable. It takes for granted, that the
Hieronymean and Talniudic limits of the Prophets and the
Hagiography are the ancient and original limits; which is far
enough from being capable of proof. It takes for granted, that
the main reason for inserting books among the class called the
Hagiography, was the recent origin of the books, which must have
been written, as they say, after the Prophets had become a defi-
nite and completed class. But, not to speak of the doubtful
age of the book of Job, what shall be said of the great body of
the Psalms, and of the book of Proverbs I David and Solomon
surely were not Maccabean writers; not to mention that the
Jews, so far back as we know anything of their opinions, have
always held the books of Ecclesiastes and Canticles to be the
work of Solomon. AVhy were these then put into the Hagio-
graphy ? for there they have been, ever since the triplex division
of the Jewish Scriptures was made. Such an argument, there-
fore, hits wide of the mark. Lateness of composition is not essen-
tial to a classification with the Hagiography. Moreovoi-, the Ne-
ologists take for granted, that the Prophets and the Kethubim
have been, since their completion, fixed and uniform as to the
number of books in each, and these always the same as they
were at first; so that one may even build an argument on this
assumption. But the sequel will show how little foundation
there is, on which any one can erect such a superstructure.

I am fully aware to what extent the Talmudic apportionment
of the Hagiography has been admitted and sanctioned. Even
Buxtorf, when he quotes the words of Josephus, descriptive of
the third division of the sacred books, viz. " a/ hi XoitoI rsffsaosg
v/jbvoug iJg rbv ^lov, -/.at roTg av^^wrroig tiTo^/jzag rov (3iov 'Zi^n'/ovsiv, i. e.
the remaining four [books] contain hymns to God, and maxims
of life for men,''^ feels compelled to add : " Obscure hoc, ncc satis
distincte," Comm. Mas. p. 28. He takes it for granted, that the
Talmudic arrangement and partition of the books is the genuine
and most ancient one. So have the great mass of writers done;
as it would seem, without investigating the subject de novo.
Josephus, it has been said, makes a classification peculiar to him-
self, and one which he constituted merely by having respect to
the contents or matters discussed in the several books. But

234 § 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANOIV.

when the proof of this is demanded, we are merely referred to
Jerome and to the Tahiiud. To such a reference, however, I
must beg leave to take some exceptions.

It is clear at all events from Josephus, since he has affirmed
that the Hebrews have only Uoenty-tvoo books, and also that five
of these belong to the Pentateuch and thirteen to the Prophets,
that, of course, ow\y four books can be left for the Hagiography.
These he says consist of hi/mns and i^ractlcal maxims. This
limitation of the number and description of the contents obliges
us to resort to and fix upon the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,
and Canticles, as the constituent elements of the ancient Hagio-
graphy. This classification comes from a man, let it be remem-
bered, who had a more intimate knowledge of Hebrew opinions
and history, than any other man of his time. He had no temp-
tation, in this case, to represent the matter different from what
it was. Nothing in regard to the interests of himself, or of his
nation, depended on his mode of representing the Hagiography.
He must have been acquainted with the custom of his nation, in
regard to the matter of making the appointment or division of
the sacred books. There was no inducement that we can con-
ceive of to depart, in his representation, from the usual opinion
— usual among the priests — in respect to the whole affair. A
competent, an enlightened, an impartial, an honest, a disinter-
ested witness, has always a fair claim to be heard, and to be be-
lieved too, so long as what he testifies is neither impossible nor
impi'obable. Josephus was all this as a witness in the present
case, and the thing testified looks altogether more probable and
more inviting to confidence, than the Talmudic division of the
Prophets and Kethuhim. The division of Josephus, (the word
Prophets being understood in the sense which the Hebrews at-
tached to it), is founded on a rational ground, viz. on the ground
of the respectively different materials or contents of the several
classes of the sacred books. Hymns and Maxims of life are
neither history nor prediction, and so they are classed by them-
selves, according to Josephus. But the Talmudic division of
the sacred books depends on some conceits about the different
gradations of inspiration, which are not only incapable of any
satisfactory proof, but are in themselves quite improbable. The
story of the Jewish doctors is, that the books of Moses take the
precedence above all others, because God spake with him mouth
to mouth ; that the Prophets who came after him, were such as,

§ 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON. 235

whether sleeping or waking when they received revelations, were
deprived of all use of their senses, and were spoken to by a
voice, and saw prophetic visions in ecstacy ; that the third and
lowest class of the sacred writers were those, who, preserving
the use of their senses, spake like other men, and yet in such a
way that, although not favoured with dreams or visions in ec-
stacy, they still perceived a Divine influence resting upon them,
at whose suggestion they spoke or wrote what they made public.
Of this last class, according to the Rabbins, were the authors of
the Kethubim ; see Carpzov. Introd. ad Lib. Bib. V. Test. c. II.
§ 4 ; Abarbanel, Praef. Comm. in Job ; D. Kimchi, Praef. in
Psalm. ; Maimon. Moreh Neb. II. c. 45.

Now that Moses, as the founder of the Jewish religion and
leader of the nation when achieving its independence, whose
laws were to be their statute-book in all future generations until
the coming of Christ — that such a distinguished personage is
entitled, from these considerations, to be placed at the head of
all the Jewish teachers and leaders of ancient times, no one will
doubt. That extraordinary revelations of God were made to
him in a peculiar way, we need not call in question. Certainly,
if we take the Pentateuch as our guide in such a matter, this
must be conceded. But still, although the manner of communi-
cation with him was peculiar, it does not follow that what he
uttered was more worthy of credit, than that which was uttered by
other scriptural writers. Truth is truth, and cannot be any
more than this. If the hagiographal writers uttered what was
true, (and the Jewish doctors all with one voice affirm that they
did), then the Hagiography stands on the same level with the
Pentateuch, in regard to its authenticity, and of course in re-
gard to the credence which we should give to it and the respect
that is due to it. I am far enough from asserting, that the con-
tents of any and every book in the Old Testament are all of
equal intei'est and importance. This is not and cannot be the
case. In a great temple, built by one and the same architect,
there are many parts of the edifice that retreat from notice, and
are scarcely thought of by the beholder, and yet they are essen-
tial to the completeness of the building, and were as really the
result of the architect's skill and plan, as the more prominent
portions which throw themselves into the notice of all. So is it
with God's ancient edifice. The Pentateuch constitutes, if you

236 § 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANOX.

please, the portico, the pillars, the facade^ and the main apart-
ment ; but there is many and many a subordinate portion of such
a building, presenting itself scarcely at all to our notice, which
is as really necessary to its full completeness, as the most con-
spicuous parts of the same.

Even granting, then, that the Hagiography was written by
men who, according to the Rabbins, used their senses, and were
only occasionally inspired, it would not follow, that any deroga-
tion from its authenticity or credibility can be made out from
this circumstance. Indeed they do not even pretend to say this.
But still it is difficult, after admitting their grounds of classify-
ing the Scriptures, to avoid the idea of a difference in the
authority of each class, and in the credence due to each. Yet
if the suhject-maiter of the scriptural books is really to be taken
into account, and at the same time if it be conceded (as it is
by them), that all the books are inspired, then we have a
right to call on them to show us, how and why the book of
Psalms and that of the Proverbs, (each included in the Hagiogra-
phy), are, or are deemed to be, of inferior station or consequence.
Nay, so far is the true state of the case from this, that we may
safely say, that these two books are of more practical avail under
the Christian dispensation — more to the purposes of devotional
piety and a well regulated life, than any other portion, I had
almost said, more than all the rest of the Old Testament.

Thus much for this renowned Rabbinical division of the
Scriptures, as to this point of view. But there are other
difficulties with it. " The prophets, forsooth, were men who were
deprived of all use of their senses when in an ecstatic state, and
report to us only what they saw in visions and heard addressed
to them!'" And is this so? What then is the seeing or the
hearing, in this case ? But passing by this, I would ask : Had they
no use of their senses, when they wrote down the revelations
made to them I Besides ; Paul taxes the Corinthian prophets
with the abuse of their miraculous powers or gifts ; how could
they abuse them, if they were not free agents when possessing
them ? Paul says, too, that " the spirits of the prophets are
subject to the prophets," (1 Cor. xiv. 82); which could not be
true of such prophets as the Rabbins imagine. Besides, what
evidence is there to show, that such extraordinary and peculiar
revelations were made to the writers of Joshua, Judges, Samuel,

§ 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANO.V. 237

and Kings, while the Divine influence was altogether of a lower
kind which rested upon the writers of the Psalms, the Chronicles,
Ezra, and the other books of the Jewish Kethubini ?

In fact, the lowest gradation of inspiration, ascribed by the
Rabbins to the authors of the Kethubim, is as high as Christian-
ity demands, or, one may say, even permits us to ascribe to men.
No man, not even Moses or Isaiah, was uniformly and always
inspired. Of all God's messengers, only one received the gift of
the Spirit without measure ; and he was the only one who never
erred and never sinned. Others were inspired for a particular
purpose, and (it may be) remained so, until that purpose was
accomplished. Then they returned to their usual state. So it
was with even INIoses; and so with all the other prophets or
priests concerned with the writing of the Old Testament Scrip-
tures. How is the higher inspiration of the authors of Joshua,
Judges, Samuel, and Kings, to be proved, when no one can even
tell who wrote these books? Or in what respect, as to the cre-
dence due to them, do these compositions differ from those of
Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and Chronicles?

In fact, the whole affair is a mere Rabbinical conceit, hatched
out during the dark ages of Rabbinisra that preceded the com-
position of the Babylonish Talmud.

Nor is the fact that there is no justifiable ground for the po-
sition of the Jewish doctors in respect to the Prophets and the
Kethubim, the only thing to be considered. Such a division,
I acknowledge, might exist at an earlier period, although founded
on phantasy or on caprice ; for there is enough of both these in
the Mishia itself to show us, that a talent for the production of
such things abounded among the Rabbins of earlier times. The
question recurs, after we have seen the division which Josephus
made of the sacred books : Whether others of the more ancient
authorities agreed icitli him ? If they did, then has Josephus given
us the usual division of the Scriptures at his time.

The grandson of Jesus Sirachides, in describing the third class
of Scriptures, or the Hagiographi/^ calls them " the other [books]
which follow -/.ar a-jToZg, in accordance with them [the Prophets]
or of a like spirit;" also "the other patrical {Tarpuv) books;
and finally, " the rest of the Bible, ra Xoirra tuv iSiiSyJuv ;" see
p. 215 above. Sirachides himself describes the third division,
by saying of the ancient Hebrew worthies, " They sought out
the melody of music, they composed poems in writing ;" Sirach

288 § 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON.

xliv. 5. Philo says of the Essenes, that they read not only the
Law and the Prophets, but " h/mns and other [booJcs]^ by which
knowledge and piety are augmented and perfected ;" see p. 215
above. In the New Testament, Jesus himself speaks of " the
Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms ;" Luke xxiv. 44, comp.
24, 27. The Psalms was in the same manner the leading book
in the Hagiography of Josephus.

In Melito, who comes next after Josephus, we find no express
designation of the triplex portions of the Old Testament; for
we find him following in all probability the arrangement of the
Greek copy which he consulted, and which may or may not have
agreed with some Hebrew copies of that time. Still he makes
only tiventy-two books, even if we include Esther, (which is now
omitted in his list as represented in the extract from Eusebius,
but) which was in all probability originally included by Melito
himself; see p. 225 above. In fact he makes, as we may say, a
quadruplex division, the Law, the Historical Boohs (including
Chronicles, but excluding Ezra), the Hagiograpliy (which he ar-
ranges in one continuous body, Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes,
and Canticles), and the Prophets. But he has evidently gone in
the steps of Josephus as to the mmiber of the books, and the
combinations of them in order to make twenty-two. See Ap-
pendix No. IV.

So is it too with Origen, who expressly declares there are
twenty-tioo books, and who arranges the historical books in like
manner as Melito, i. e. after the tenor of the order in the Sep-
tuagint. Notable is it, that he places Job and Esther last of
all. He also hrings the Hagiography of Josephus into immediate
and local connection and consecution. In his list, moreover, which
is cited by Eusebius, (as in the case of Melito above), one link
in the chain of twenty-two is omitted, viz. the twelve minor
prophets; doubtless by mere mistake in transcribing; see p. 227
above. There can be no reasonable doubt that the canon of
Josephus is the canon of Origen, although he has yielded some
deference to the Septuagint as to the arrangement of some par-
ticular books. See the original in Appendix No. V.

Exactly in the same way are the books of the Old Testament
reckoned in the fifty-ninth Canon of the council of Laodicea.
These books are expressly said to be twenty-two ; and moreover
the Chronicles immediately follow the Kings, and are followed
themselves by Ezra, just as they are in the list of Origen ; i.e.

§ 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON. 239

here also the arrangement is partly in conformity with that of
the JSeptuagint. In the same manner the canon of the Council
ranges together the books of the Hagloqraphy, in conformity
with what is indicated by Josephus. See Appendix No. VI. for
the original.

Cyrill of Jerusalem {Cat. iv.) presents another list in which he
says expressly that there are but twenty-two books. His arrange-
ment also is Septuagintal, and is the same as that of Origen,
save that he assigns an earlier place to the book of Esther, along
with the other historical books; see App. No. VII. So is it with
Gregory Nazianzen, ii. Carm. xxxiii; see Appendix No. VIII. The
like is true of Athanasius; who, (in his Epist. Fest. i. p. 961),
makes in general the same number and order of books as Cyrill
of Jerusalem, i.e. twenty-two books, arranged generally in the
manner of the Septuagint. But there is this difference between
them, viz. Athanasius counts Ruth by itself, and omits Esther;
which seems to favour the supposition that he meant to omit
Esther, inasmuch as he makes twenty-two without it. Indeed
in the sequel, he expressly mentions Esther among the books
" oh yMvoviZ.6fiim ix,h . • . avayivoicxiij.zva. 6s, not canonical, but per-
mitted to he read,'''' viz. by the catechumens, and these books, he
tells us, were such as the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of
Sirach, Judith, and Tobit. See Appendix No. IX. In the
Synopsis Script. Sac, in Athanas. 0pp. ii. p. 126 seq., the very
same thing is said respecting Esther and the apocryphal books,
with the declaration that " they are read only by catechumens,"
i.e. they are not publicly read with the proper Scriptures. See
Appendix No. X.

Epiphanius {De Mens, et Ponder, c. 22, 28) avers, that the
Hebrews numbered only twenty-two books, so as to correspond
with their alphabet, making five of the books double, "just as
five letters of the alphabet are double," i.e. have two forms. He
includes Esther in his list; but he makes a different division of
the books from that of any other ancient writer. Job is placed
after Joshua, the Psalms after Judges and Ruth, the Chronicles
before Samuel and Kings, the Twelve Prophets befoi'e the others,
&c.; evidently an attempt at a kind of chronological arrange-
ment in conformity with the views of the author. See Appen-
dix No. XI.

The Council of Hippo (a.d. 393), in Can. xxxvi., admit indeed
several of the apocryphal books into their canon; but they pre-

240 § 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON.

serve all the Jewish ones, and put Daniel between Jeremiah and
Ezekiel, and Chronicles next after Kings ; thus showing that no
regard was paid by them to such an order as the Talmudic. See
Appendix No. XII. With this agrees cap. 47 of the tldrd Coun-
cil of Carthage (a.d. 397); Mans% Concil.] Coll. iii. 891. See in
Appendix No, XIII.

Jerome, {Prol. Gal.) as we have seen p. 219 above, makes
twenty-two books of the Hebrew Scriptures, and arranges the
Law, the Prophets, and Hagiography mostly in like manner with
the Talmud; but still he comprises only nine books in the Kethu-
bim, while the Talmudists make eleven. He then goes on to
say, that " some [so did the Rabbins of that day] enrol Ruth
and Lamentations among the Hagiography, [instead of uniting
them with Judges and Jeremiah, as he does], and think that
they should be reckoned among their number, and thus the books
of the Old Testament would amount to twenty- f our ^'' Here then
is the very first notice of this novel method of making out ttcenty-
four books ; and at the same time it is the first express informa-
tion which we have of a triplex division of the Scriptures differ-
ing, as to the particular books comprised, from that of Josephus.
The Rabbins of his day, with whom he studied so long in Pales-
tine, had, as it would seem, already made this innovation upon
the ancient arrangement both as to order and as to number, and
from them he learned it. See the whole passage in Appendix
No. XIV.

Hilary {Prol. in Psalm.) states the books of the Old Testa-
ment to be twenty-two; but he adds, that "to some it seemed
good, by adding Tobit and Judith, to make out twenty-four
books, according to the number of letters in the Greek alphabet."
The so7ne here spoken of must of course have been found among
Christians ; for that the Jews admitted the books in question to
their Palestine canon, there is not one spark of evidence.
Everything shows the contrary. See Appendix No. XV.

Rufinus {Expos, in Symh. Apost.), a contemporary of Jerome
and Hilary, reckons twenty-tivo books, following in the main the
order of the Septuagint. In his canon all our present scriptural
Hebrew books are included; Daniel is placed where we place
him, and Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles come
last; the very copy, in this respect, of Josephus' canon. See
App. No. XVI.

From this somewhat extensive range of investigation, it seems

§ 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANOX. 241

perfectly evident, that the HagiograpMcal division of the Scrip-
tures, as taught by Rabbies to Jerome, and afterwards sanc-
tioned by the Talmud, belonged at this period only to some of
the Jewish schools, and had no concern with the usual and ge-
neral classification. I can find nothing in all antiquity that hints
at such a classification as theirs, before the notice which Jerome
takes of it; although it has so often been talked about, and rea-
soned from, as if it had long preceded the Christian era.

The question I take to be now finally settled, that the Baby-
lonish Talmud itself was not originated until after or about the
time of Jerome, i.e. at the close of the fourth and the beginning
of the fifth century, and not completed at least until the sixth
century. The traditional authors, who commenced the work,
were Rabbi Ashi and Rabbi Jose. The huge Mish-mash which
this work contains, must have been the production of many
heads and many hands. But the authority, which it has ever
retained among the superstitious and Pharisaic Jews, is almost
without limits. In fact, like the Romish traditions, it has been
placed above the Scriptures themselves. The Rabbins are accus-
tomed to say: " The Scripture is water, but the Talmud is wine."
Hence it is easy to see why it has had so much influence on the
arrangement of the Hebrew Scriptures, for some 1200 years.
The passage which has settled this matter for the Jews is in the
Tract. Baha Bathra, fol. 14. col. 2, and runs as follows: p-fD

h^'p^rr^^ 'n^n-i-- u^-^hiys ^t^i?2tr o^t^Ditr?"! y!'^^rv d^«^i3 h\iy
ni^«i D^^nn nry D^iin^ h\i} pno . . . "iu?i^ d'':^i rry^'^
: D^r^^n •'ni-ri ^nD« h^^T[ m^pi nn^trn -^^t^ nSnpi ^Str^m

i.e. "the order of the Prophets is thus: Joshua and Judges,
Samuel and Kings, Jeremiah and Ezekiel, Isaiah and the Twelve
[minor prophets] . . . The order of the Kethubim is thus: Ruth,
Psalms and Job, and Proverbs, and Ecclesiastes, the Song of
Songs and Lamentations, Daniel, Esther, and the Chronicles."

I have omitted the Pentateuch, because the order of that is
every where and always one and the same. I would further
remark, that as to the order of the books in the Prophets and
Kethubim, and even the number of them respectively, there is no
uniformity among the highest Jewish authorities. The Talmud-
ists make twenty-four books, and arrange them as above. But
the Masorites, whom I should regard as of higher authority,
arrange the leading prophets thus: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel,

242 § 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON,

the Twelve; while the Kethubim are thus arranged: Psalms,
Job, Proverbs, Ruth, Canticles, Ecclesiastes, Lamentations,
Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Chronicles. Both make twenty-four books,
but in quite a diverse order. The Spanish MSS., and all the
Hebrew Bibles printed from them, follow the Masorites with some
slight variations under the Kethubim; the German MSS., and
printed editions, mostly follow the Talmud, but also with varia-
tions of the like kind. In making out twenty-four books, Ruth
is separated from Judges, and Lamentations from Jeremiah;
which, on the contrary, Jerome unites respectively in one book,
and so makes twenty-two of the whole. Nearly all antiquity
counted 1st and 2d Samuel, 1st and 2d Kings, 1st and 2d Chro-
nicles, and Ezra and Nehemiah, respectively, as one book; the
Septuagint count the first four of these as four parts of one and
the same book, which they name Kings.

Different from the order both of the Talmud and the Maso-
rites, is that of Origen and Jerome. Both of them make only
twenty-two books. But Origen places Chronicles and Ezra im-
mediately after Kings; Jerome, near the end of the Kethubim,
(for with him the closing part of the canon stands thus : Chro-
nicles, Ezra, Esther). Origen places Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesi-
astes, Canticles, Job, next after Ezra (including Nehemiah);
Jerome's arrangement after the book of Kings is thus : Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, the Twelve. Origen arranges after Job thus :
the Twelve, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel; Jerome puts
Daniel among the Hagiography, and next before Chronicles.
As the extract from Origen in Eusebius omits the Twelve^ we
should not know how Origen arranged them, had not Rufinus
given us a version of him. In this, the Ticelve stands next after
Canticles and before Job. Comp. the hsts of Origen and Jerome,
in App. Nos. V. XIV.

I have now given the reader a fair specimen of the leading
arrangements of the Hebrew Scriptures in ancient times, as it
respects the Prophets and the Kethubim. No two are alike.
Even the Masorites and the Talmudists differ from each other;
Jerome differs from both, and Origen from him. And so, if we
compare Melito, the Laodicean Council, the Apostolic Canons,
Cyrill, Gregory Nazianzon, Athanasius, Hilary, Epiphanius, the
Council of Hippo, Jerome, Rufinus, &c., scarcely any two of them
are alike throughout. And this is almost the case even with
MSS. and editions in later times.

slj 12. SAMENESS OF THli JEWISH CANON. 243

As to the conceit of twenty-four books, instead of twonty-two,
it must have been a late affair, as has ah-eady been suggested.
The Talmud made out this by separating Judges and Ruth,
Jeremiah and Lamentations. Sixtus Senensis, in his Biblioth.
Sanct. i. p. 2, has given us the alleged reasons of the Jews for
such an arrangement. These are a fit accompaniment of the
arrangement itself. The substance is, tiiat the ancient Jews
wrote the unpronounceable name of Jehovah thus '^'1% i. e., with
three Yodhs, (which of course comprise great mysteries), and so
they added two more books to the number 22, in order to corre-
spond with the Yodh thrice repeated in honour of the name of
Jehovah. The Greek versions would naturally and easily adopt
the number twenty-four, because it corresponded with the Greek
alphabet. The Christians had another reason, according to
Sixtus, for admitting twenty- four books; which was, that John,
in the Apocalypse, has introduced twenty-four elders as adoring
him who was about to open the sealed book!

Trifling and futile as all this is, yet from the authority and ex-
ample of the Talmud, the Twenty-four has even become a tech-
nical name of the Hebrew Scriptures; and it stands on the first
page as a title (ni^l"^b^i D*''ltoi?) to the majority of MSS. and
editions. All antiquity however, made, as we have seen, but
twenty-two; and in this respect the assertion of Josephus, that
the Jews have twenty-two sacred books, stands most amply sus-
tained and justified.

Important consequences flow from these investigations and
conclusions. I can mention only a few of them, which have
respect to views often presented by some recent critics, and which
have a slender support indeed in the history of the canon.

(1.) It has become general to speak of Chronicles, as the last
book in the Hebrew canon, and to draw important conclusions
as to the authenticity of this composition from this source.
Eichhorn {Einl § 7), De Wette {^Einl. § 10, and Comm. in
Matt, xxiii. 35), and many others, appeal to Matt, xxiii. 35 as
certain evidence, that the book of Chronicles was the last in the
Old Testament in our Saviour's day. The words in question
are: " That on you [the Jews] may come all the righteous blood
shed upon the earth, from the blood of the righteous Abel unto
the blood of Zacharias, son of Barachias, whom ye slew between
the temple and the altar." Here, says Eichhorn, and others
after him, is an example taken from the first and the last part

244 ^12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON.

of the Jewish Scriptures; and the design of Jesus evidently is
to say that on the Jews should come the consummation of punish-
ment for all the martyrdoms related from first to last in their
Scriptures, Consequently the book of Chronicles must have
stood last in their sacred volume.

Notwithstanding the all but universal assent to this method
of reasoning, I must still believe that it has not any solid basis.
How does it follow, that the book of Chronicles is the last in the
whole volume, when the Kethubim of Josephus, viz. Psalms,
Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, yea all the books that we com-
monly name prophets, might have stood after the Chronicles, and
yet the reasoning have still been the same as most critics now
suppose it to be? The reasoning is founded on the historical
part, and that only, of the Old Testament; and it is enough of
course to answer all its demands, that the book of Chronicles
was the last in the historical series. It is mere gratuitous as-
sumption to suppose any more; for the present arrangement in
our English Bibles w^ould support the reasoning in question, just
as well as the present Jewish arrangement of the Hebrew Scrip-
tures.

But there are several things, on the other hand, to show that
the whole process of the reasoning here, as well as the assumed
historical basis of it, is altogether incapable of any adequate
defence, (1.) The Zechariah of 2 Chron. xxiv. 19 — 22, to which
the critics in question appeal, was the son of Jehoiada, and not
of Barachias as Christ declares. The conciliation of the two
passages, by supposing that Zechariah's father bore both the
names of Jehoiada and Barachias, is unsatisfactory in this case;
for why should we suppose that the Saviour appealed to any
other name of Zechariah's father than that which is mentioned
in the Old Testament, in case he really meant to designate the
Zechariah of 2 Chronicles ? But the Neologists have a shorter
method: "The Evangelist's recollection was faulty, and he wrote
Barachias where Jesus had named Jehoiada.'''' I am not pre-
pared, however, to admit this solution. I cannot bring my-
self to believe that Jesus would have made such an appeal as is
here supposed. Examine for a moment the chronoloqy of this
martyrdom ; for its date must at least be some 840 years before
Christ. And are eight centuries and a half to be leaped over, in
such a representation, because no martyrdoms, no persecutions
by the Jews, could be found in all that period ? This is contrary

§ 1 2. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANOX. 245

to probability, and contrary to fact. I affirm the latter, becauso
Jeremiali (xxvi. 23) tells us, that Jehoiakim (about 600 u.c.)
brought Urijah the prophet out of Egypt, whither he had fled,
and slew him with the sword. Hei-e then is a martyr-murder
200 years and more after that of Zechariah the son of Je-
Iioiada. What is to be said also of Manasseh's murders, who
filled Jerusalem with innocent blood more than a century after
the murder of Zechariah? And besides all this, did not the
partizans of Antiochus Epiphanes, such men as Jason and
his compeers, persecute and destroy pious persons living in their
days ? The denial of all this would be in part a denial of
what is certain, and in part of what in all respects is proba-
ble. Jews who could sell themselves to Antiochus in order to
introduce the heathen rites, must needs persecute those who
stood in the way of their nefarious designs. In a word, to
terminate the history of Jewish persecutions at a period of
800 and more years before the Christian era, in an indignant
charge of accumulated guilt upon the nation, is in itself incredi-
ble ; I must say, to my mind it is preposterous. Yet such is the
reasoning of the critics in question.

(2.) It is not at all essential or capable of proof, that the his-
tories which we have of the Jews after their return and down to the
Christian era, altogether imperfect and few as they are, should
have preserved an account of the murder of Zechariah, as men-
tioned by the Saviour. A comparatively recent murder of such
a man might have taken place, and yet not have been related at
all by Josephus ; for we well know that his silence is not any
proof that certain things did not take place, e. g, the massacre
by Herod at Bethlehem, the Saviour's appearance, claims, mira-
cles, &c.* That we lack the history of the son of Barachias, is
no evidence that there was no such person. A prophet he is not
said to be in ^latt. xxiv. 35 ; it is only said that his blood was
that of the righteous. And if in Luke xi. 51 he seems to be
called a j)rophet, yet it is plainly in that sense in which distin-
guished pious men in general are sometimes called prophets in
the Old Testament ; (e. g. in 1 Chron. xvi. 22, Ps. cv. 15); for
here Ahel is also named as a proj)het, in the same sense as
Zechariah. No good reason can be given, then, why Jesus

" After all the defences that have been made of the passage in Josephus respect-
ing Christ, I feel constrained to say of it: Sapit eniendatoreni. To me it seems that
Josephus must have said more, if he said anything.

246 § 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON,

shoulil not, or did not, refer to some recent event in the way of
murderous persecution. The very nature of the case renders
this highly probable. Particularly does the mention of the mi-
nute circumstance, that "■ Zacharias was slain between the temple
and the altar," savour of an event which was fresh in the recol-
lection of the Jews who were addressed. And then the charge
implied in Icprnzhean, ye slew^ has all the appearance of imputing
personal guilt. In fact, it must involve it.

(3.) But if any one insists that we must needs have some other
historical account of the murder of a later or recent Zacharias,
than that apparently contained in the Evangelist ; why may we
not give credit to Origen, who (in Tract xxvi. in Matt.) states
that Zacharias^ the father of John the Baptist, was murdered by
the Jews in the temple? He again asserts this in Tom. xi. in
Matt. p. 225 ed. Huet. Basil, Gregory of Nyssa, Cyrill of Alex-
andria, Peter of Alexandria, Theophylact, and others, agree with
Origen in this statement; Thilo, Cod. Apoc. N. Test. T. Prol.
Ixiv. In the Protevangelium Jacobi, the most respectable and
perhaps the oldest of all the apocryphal gospels (Origen makes
mention of it), the murder of the same Zacharias is circumstan-
tially related, cap. xxiii. seq. It is plain, then, that a very
general tradition existed in ancient times, as to the murder of
Zacharias the father of John, by the Jews, and probably by
Herod's instigation. It is no objection to the truth of this, that
the fatlier of Zacharias is not mentioned in Luke i. 5. Barachias
was a very common name among the Jews, and might well have
been the name of Zacharias' father. The probability that the
opinion of Origen and other ancients is correct here, is even
strengthened, by that exegesis of Luke xi. 51, which would make
Zacharias a prophet in the usual sense of that word ; for Luke i.
67 — 79 plainly represents him as uttering prophecy.

Why may we not conclude now, that neither the evangelists
have made a mistake about the son of Barachias; nor the Saviour
charged on the Jews the commission of a deed done more than
eight centuries before? And above all, why may we not say,
that the whole of the conclusions about the book of Chronicles
and its location, which are built on assuming for it the last place
in the Hebrew Scriptures, is " such stuff as dreams are made of?"
Nay, I venture to say, that the assumption in question is histori-
cally and demonstrably false. Josephus so represents the Ke-
thubim, that the Chronicles are excluded, and must have been

§ 12. SAMENESS OK THE JEWISH CANON. 247

united with the division of the Prophets; as Philo had done be-
fore him, and also the New Testament. The first Hst of the
successive and particular books of the Hebrew Scriptures which
we have, is that of MeHto (about 170 a. d.), which places
Chronicles next after Kings; the same does Origcn in his list ;
the same does the Council of Laodicea, the Canones ApostoL,
Oyrill of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen, Athanasius, the Synopsis
Scripturae in Athanas. 0pp., Epiphanius (who even puts it before
Kings), the Council of Hippo (a-d. 393), Hilary, and Rufinus.
Jerome, who drank in Rabbinical lore for twenty years, is the
only father among all of any name, who puts Chronicles among
the Kethubim ; and he puts after it Ezra (including Nehcmiah),
and Esther. Besides all this, the very fact that the Septuagintal
arrangement preserves the same order as all the early fathers,
in regard to the book of Chronicles, shows that the Hebrew MSS.
from which they translated did not exhibit the Tahnudical ar-
rangement, but plainly that of Josephus. Most of the lists of
books, to which I have now referred, specifically declare, that
thei/ give the books as iliey are arranged by the Jews.

It is out of all ci'itical question, then, to admit that Chronicles
was the last book of Scripture in our Saviour's time ; and out of
all question to admit those views in criticism, which are built
merely on the assumption of such a fact. The Liberalists must
give us some reasons better than such ones, in order to induce
us to walk in the paths that they pursue.

In this connection, let us return once more, for a moment, to
the book of Daniel. As I have already stated, the main argu-
ment against the genuineness of the book, independently of its
account of miraculous or strange events, is that which is drawn
from the alleged fact, that the work has been assigned to the
division of the Kethubim; and so, as the process of reasoning
is, it must have been composed long after the time when Daniel
is said to have lived, and after the division embracing the Pro-
phets was brought to a close and completed. But what says
fact? Josephus'' arrangement necessarily, as we have seen, in-
cludes Daniel among the Prophets. Of course when this is settled,
it follows with almost absolute certainty, that the son of Sirach,
Philo, and the New Testament writers, do the same, inasmuch
as they classify the s&,cred books in the same manner as ho does.
We know for certainty this fact in respect to the book of Daniel,
as it concerns the later writers ; for we have their lists both of

248 § ^2. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON.

the names and the order of all the books, Melito places Daniel
among the prophets and hefore Ezekiel. The same does Origen.
The Council of Laodicea place Daniel next after Ezekiel, and of
course among the prophets. The same do the Canones ApostoL,
Cyrill of Jerusalem, Gregory Nazianzen, Athanasius, Synopsis
Scripturae in Athanas. 0pp., (in Epiphanius, de Hens, et Pon-
der, the book is by some mistake omitted). The Council of
Hippo, like Melito and Origen, place it hefore Ezekiel, as also
does Hilary; and Rufinus places it next after Ezekiel. Like
Josephus, too, this last writer puts at the close of the sacred
volume the Hagiographical books, viz. Psalms, Proverbs, Eccle-
siastes. Canticles. Jerome alone, in giving an account of the
Rabbinical usage in his day, puts Daniel among the Hagiogra-
phy; and after it he puts Chronicles, Ezra (with Nehemiah),
and Esther.

The Talmud then stands alone in placing the book of Daniel
among the Hagiography, with the exception that Jerome makes
the like arrangement, in giving an account of what was custom-
ary in his time among the Rabbins who had taught him. But
even he does not accord with the Talmud, either as to the num-
ber or the order of the books in the Prophets and Kethubim.
All this proves, beyond a question, what a variety there was in
the arrangement of particular books of the Scriptures, and how
little of significance was originally attached to this circumstance.
The Septuagint Version, it must surely be admitted, was made
from Hebrew MSS. ; and how comes it to pass that the arrange-
ment is so different here from that of the Talmud ? The proof
that Daniel, among the ancients universally was regarded as one
of the lyropheis., is above all exception. The fact, that Josephus
extracts so copiously from him, and speaks of him as one of the
greatest of all the prophets, cannot be disguised. Near the close
of Antiq. x. he says : " Daniel was distinguished and illustrious
because of the glory of being the friend of God. . . . He was
wonderfully fortunate as one of the greatest prophets ; and during
his lifetime he had much honour and fame from kings and from
the multitude; and now when dead he has an everlasting remem-
brance.*" Our Saviour too has said of a certain prediction, that
it was " uttered by Daniel the prophet^''"' Matt. xxiv. 1 5 ; Mark
xiii. 14.

We have now had opportunity to see how utterly incongruous
the Talmudic arrangement of the Scriptures is with all the other

§ 12. SAJMICNESS OF THE JFAVISII CANON. 2.")f)

ancient testimony respecting this matter — testimony, by tlio
way, which is ail of it older than that of the Talmud. Even
the Masorites of Tiberias, although they agree with the Tal-
mudists as to the twenty -four books of Scripture, and as to the
number of books respectively belonging to the Ilarjiograpliy and
to the Prophets^ do still refuse to accede to the preposterous
arrangement of placing the greater Prophets in the order of
the Talmud^ viz. Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah. The Masorites, and
every ancient authority, one and all, unanimously declare the
order to be thus : Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. It is worth our
while to listen for a moment to the reason of the Talmudists for
their peculiar arrangement, in order that we may learn how to
appreciate their decision in such matters : n''D"^D D'^^^?;2'7 1V3

n^D^-Di i^::i"^in ni^ti?''"! ^b^ptn^i «3i-^^n ryh^-^ n^n^^i ^^:n-^in
t^n-iinS i^iinin pi::?2D_ «nnTO rr^^iiD^n^iiirt^^i t^n^m

i*5r\^ni7 t^nDTOI » '•*5- " since the book of Kings ends in deso-
lation, and all of Jeremiah is desolation; and Ezekiel in the
commencement is desolation, and at the close, consolation ; and
Isaiah is all consolation, they [the men of the Great Synagogue]
joined desolation to desolation [Jeremiah to the close of the book
of Kings], and consolation to consolation [Isaiah to the last part
of Ezekiel]."" Yet so incongruous is this, that Abarbanel {Pre/,
in Com. in Is.) does not hesitate to say : " Truly our predeces-
sors, the sons of the captivity, did not arrange the books thus
[viz. as the Talmud does], but they placed Isaiah at the head."

Enough for this topic. Clear as the light is it, that if any
regard is to be paid to all the testimony of antiquity which pre-
cedes the Talmud, the decisions of the latter as to the number or
order of the books in the Prophets and Hagiograpliy., are entitled
to little or no authority. All the reasoning and conclusions about
certain books in the Bible, which are built on the Talmudic ar-
rangement of particulars, must of course be without any good foun-
dation. In fact, as already remarked, the Septuagintal arrange-
ment of the Scriptural books, which at all events preceded the
Christian era, does of itself demonstrate, that when it was made,
the Hebrew originals did not follow the Talmudic order.

If the reader has still any scruples whether he is not to be
bound by the decisions of the Talmudic doctors, in relation to
critical matters of this kind, it is proper that he should turn his
attention for a moment to their decision in regard to the autJior-
ship of the Old Testament books. It runs thus : " And who

250 12. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON.

wrote them? [the Old Testament books]. Moses wrote his
book, and the section of Balaam, and Job; Joshua wrote his
book, and eight verses in the Law; Samuel wrote his book.
Judges, and Ruth; David wrote the book of Psalms, with the
assistance of ten of the elders, by the aid of Adam the first man,
of Melchizedek, of Abraham, of Moses, of Heman, of Jeduthun,
of Asaph, and of the three sons of Korah. Jeremiah wrote his
book, and the book of Kings and Lamentations. Hezekiah and
his assistants wi-ote Isaiah, Proverbs, Canticles, and Ooheleth
[Ecc.]; the symbol of which is p^'^}yi. The men of the Great
Synagogue wrote Ezekiel and the twelve, Daniel, and the volume
of Esther; the symbol of which is yS^p, Ezra wrote his book,
and the genealogy of the book of Chronicles down to himself."*
Talm. Bab. Megil fob 10. c. 2.

Much comment on this would be unseemly here. The asser-
tion that Moses wrote Job, will hardly stand before the tribunal
of criticism. That Samuel wrote his book (which of course in-
cludes 1st and 2d Sam.), which continues the Jewish history down
to more than forty years after his death, it would require strong
faith to believe. What psalms Adam, Melchizedek, and Abra-
ham wrote, the Talmudists might find it somewhat difficult to
show. That Jeremiah wrote the book of Kings, which carries
the history down to the thirty-seventh year of Jehoiachin's cap-
tivity, is very improbable. He must, at any rate, have been
more than a century old by that time. That Hezekiah and his
helpers wrote Isaiah, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles, is
downright folly to assert, in any other sense than that they
made a copy of these books, or (as we say) copied them out. It
is singular, that the word ^^;^;3, which the Talmudists have here

: IT

employed, should have been so much controverted. Bertholdt,

nn!3 v'^'w : ir«i nvh:i nti>^5i r\^o nn^ rwn pn^ ^iy\ *

D-T« ^1^ hv D"':ipf nnir^y ''T'^ hv uhr^r^ icd irs^ ^i : m*ii

: rrsp '^ii rwhxiy ^t hv^ ^o^ ^t hv^ X\r^yv ^^'^ hv^ p^n
in]i3 ^rs:)^D^ rvpTi :ni::p"i ^:hi2 noDi iiqd in^ rs^iyy^
rsDr2 ^u>3« : n^npi n^n^tr^n "i^tr ^h'^r^ n^i^tr^ ]n^D p ""oyiy^

J ^ IV D^nTi mn h^ Drr*-"! T\^o ir\'2 vrsw : ir\D«

§ 12. SAMENESS OF THK JEWISH CANOX. 251

and after him Hiivernick and others, insist upon its being ren-
dered introduced, as if it were the equivalent of ^i^'^in which
seems to me little short of a monstrosity in philology. Others
have supposed '^^p3 to mean, as often elsewhere, torote in the

sense of coviposing; which would be attributing more absurdity
to the Talmudists than they were probably guilty of. The trutii
of the matter seems to be very simple, ^n;^ in Hebrew, like
the verb write in English, may mean either the composition of a
book including the act of writing it down, or it may mean mere-
ly the act of an amanuensis or copyist which reduces it to writ-
ino". There can be no reasonable doubt, that the Talmudists
borrowed the sentiment respecting the doings of Hezekiah and
his assistants from Prov. xxv. 1, where it is said: "These
are the Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah
king of Judah ^p*i]nj;p,, copied out." So our English Version;

and it seems to have hit the mark exactly. The verb pn^», in

conj. Hiphil, means to transfer; hence to transfer from one
book into another, i. e. to copy out; see Ges. Lex. The Talmud,
instead of saying the men of Hezekiah (as the Bible does), says
Hezekiah and his assistants (lJii^*^D)i ^^^ instead of ^pijn^rn^ they
employ ^^P-) ^® ^^^ equivalent. But as the part of Proverbs thus
copied out comprises only five chapters, where they obtained
ground for naming the whole book as copied out, and for adding
Canticles and Ecclesiastes to this, i, e. adding all the supposed
works of Solomon; above all, whence they obtained the informa-
tion that Isaiah was also copied out by Hezekiah and his assist-
ants; is more than I can conjecture. Not improbably the inter-
est which that good king took in this renowned prophet, and the
deference that he paid to him, may have occasioned the guess in
question; for more than guess it does not seem to be.

The men of the Great Synagogue are said " to have copied out
[for public use?] Ezekiel, the Twelve, Daniel, and the volume of
Esther." Here xiT\^ ^^ employed in the same way as before,

: IT

beyond all reasonable doubt. So De Wette, Einl. § 14; and
to the same purpose Rashi, i.e. Rabbi Solomon Jarchi (-}- 1 1 05),
who undertakes to explain and to vindicate this passage of the
Talmud in his Comm. in Bala Bathra. His words are worth
quoting, in order to display the genius of Rabbinic commenta-
tors : '• The men of the Great Synagogue wrote out (or copied

2'")2 § 12. SAMENESS OP THE JEWISH CANOV.

Ezekiel, who prophesied in exile. And I know not why Ezekiel
did not write it [the book] out himself, except that prophecy is
not given for any one to write it in a foreign country. They
[the Great Synagogue] wrote it out after they returned to the
holy land. And so, in respect to the book of Daniel who lived in
exile; and so, in regard to the volume of Esther. And as to
the Twelve Prophets, because their prophecies were brief, the
prophets did not themselves write them down, each one his own
book. But when Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi came [to the
holy land], and saw that the Holy Spirit was about to depart,
inasmuch as they were the last prophets, then they rose up and
wrote down their prophecies, and joined those of the minor
prophets with them, and thus made one large book, so that they
might not be destroyed (or lost) on account of their smallness.""*
It is with great difficulty that one can be brought to believe,
that a man of so much intelligence as Jarchi was really serious
in giving such an account of this matter. Men, forsooth, ac-
cording to him, could be inspired as prophets, when in exile,
but it w'as unlawful to write down their compositions while in
that state ! And then nine prophets of the twelve did not write
down their own compositions, because they were short! AVere
the Psalms, then, which are shorter still, not written down by
their authors? And could not the nine prophets who composed
without writing, foresee the danger of their works being lost or
perverted, while committed to the keeping of merely oral tradi-
tion, as well as the three who provided against such a catastro-
phe ? But it is useless to reason against the putid conceits of
Rabbins devoted to the Talmud. And besides all that has been
now said, I would merely ask the question: Is it not plain that,
even on Talmudic ground, the real authorship of many of the

n^n: «^^ ""^sr^ ^ Db^ ya^v'2. h'i'^p'^rv innD ^h nrh v^"^
\y\ Y"i«^ i«:i'^ "^n«^ i^« nrsy\ pt^^ min irsyh n^in::
ynr^ 'wv a^:^") "iriD^ rh^:^^ pi n^i:Q rvn^ h^'^'n iqd
1-iDD ^^« ^"^b^ DD!JV Q^^'^nin "inn^ «^ mitop n^m«in3 vrrtir
an rrw p'^no^ \n'r\pn nr\ i«^i ^'2\hiy\ n^n:]^ ^t\ ^'^y\
ni2t:)p ni«ii2 iD"i*'!ii an^m^ii] iin^i rv2>v^ ^"^Tnu^ ^y^vf^ii
\ D2iop n?2n?2 1-Qt^^ N^tr? ^11:1 "idd Di«ir>i>i onv

§ 12. SAMENESS OF TIIK JFAVISH CANON. 253

Old Testament books, and parts of books, remains undisclosed ?
The information given is neither extensive enough to cover the
ground which it professes to cover, nor in any measure satisfac-
tory as to that which it does cover.

Such are the authorities, then, for the ancient division of
the Hebrew Scriptures into tioenty-four books; such for arrang-
ing Isaiah after Jeremiah and Ezekiel; such for mixing together
prophecy, history, and lyric poetry and proverbs, all under one
category, the Kethuhim, when the nature of the case and the
voice of antiquity were against it. It is in vain to inquire now
what conceits led them in such a direction. No one can fathom
the depths of Talmudic criticism. The only possible way to re-
ceive it, is to take it upon credit and without examination.

Is there not abundant reason then to say, that arguments
against the genuineness of Daniel, of Chronicles, or of any other
book in the Hagiography, on the ground of its present arrange-
ment, are utterly futile, inasmuch as they have no solid basis?
Indeed this is one of those cases, in which we may say, that the
negative is capable of critical demonstration.

After a minute investigation of this whole matter of the classi-
fication and order of the sacred books, one may well be surprised
at finding such an intelligent critic as Hengstenberg, in his
Authentic des Daniel (p. 23 seq.), admitting, as it would seem
without any question, the antiquity of the Talmudic arrangement,
and striving to explain the location of Daniel among the Hagio-
graphy, on the ground that the book was not written in Pales-
tine, and was not from the hand of one who was a prophet by
office, or who could claim the highest degree of inspiration.
Certain it is from all the authorities before Jerome and the
Talmud, that Daniel was never classified in this manner by the
more ancient Jews. This is the shortest and best answer to all
arguments against the genuineness of that book, on the ground
of its location. In fact this matter is so plain, that I am strongly
tempted to believe, that in the disputes between Christians and
the Jews about the Messiah, and the time of his coming, during
the first three and a half centuries, the Jews felt themselves to
be so pressed by the apparent prediction in Dan. ix. respecting
the seventy weeks before his coming, that they sought to give
the book a lower place than it had occupied before, and thus to
remove it somewhat from an association with the other prophets.
It was too late to exclude it from the canon.

254 § -I 2. SAMENESS OF THE JEWISH CANON.

Havernick, in his recent Introduction to the Old Testament
has made the same admission of the antiquity of the Tahnudic
arrangement in respect to the Kethubim. And he has not only
done this, and in addition to it maintained that the Talmudists
made distinctions in the order of the prophets, which were found-
ed on the degree of their inspiration and the continuance of it,
but he has laboured at length (p. 54 seq.) to show, that even the
Scriptures themselves make a distinction — a palpable one — be-
tween ^'1^2 a prophet^ T\^'\ or rTjn ^ ^^^^'- Labour surely be-
stowed in vain; and, on account of the fundamental error which
it involves, having a tendency only to make his readers distrust-
ful in regard to statements of this nature when made by him. How
easy to have prevented such a mistake as he has made, by duly
consulting a Hebrew Concordance. Had he done this, he must
have seen that ^.^i^^ and j-fj^*^ or p^fj-] are undistinguishingly

used to designate the very same individuals; e.g. Samuel is ^^'^23
in 1 Sam. iii. 20; 2 Chron. xxxv. J 8: and ni^l ^^ ^ Sam. ix. 11,
18, 19; 1 Chron. ix. 22, xxvi. 28, xxix, 29. Gad is ^'^^3 in
1 Sam. xxii. 5; 2 Sam. xxiv. 11; and xX(n ^"^ Chron. xxix. 29;
Iddo is prophet in 2 Chron. xiii, 22, and seer in ix. 29; Jehu is
prophet in 1 Kings xvi. 7, 12, and seer in 2 Chron. xix. 2. So
Amos is called a Xlin ^^ Amos vii. 12, and the whole body of
the prophets collectively appear to be called seers in 2 Kings
xvii. 13; 2 Chron. xxxiii. 18; Isa. xxix. 10; xxx. 10; Mic. iii. 7.
In 1 Sam. ix. 9, it is expressly stated that 4^*1^3 and pji^h ^^"^

equivalent by usage, the latter being the more ancient word, and
the former being then but recently employed. Both designate
the same class of persons, although etymologically considered the
words bear diverse shades of meaning, ^.^''i^ marks one as an
inspired person uttering the thoughts which his inspiration sug-
gests; pj'jn or ;-|i^'-^ designate a person as seeing things concealed
from others, whether by being future, or because they are diffi-
cult to find out. Pity that a writer of so much learning and
vigour as Havernick should take such a false position, specially
when it was so easy to shun it !

It is true, indeed, that neither Hengstenberg nor Havernick
appears to lay and stress upon the Rabinic conceit of different
gradations of inspiration, as being matter of fact. They intro-

§ 13. GENERAL RESUI/f. 255

duce this view of the Talmudists, in order to account for the ar-
rangement of so many books among the class of Kethubim. Yet
even this will hardly be accomplished by it; for how came La-
mentations to be put among the Kethubim, and Jeremiah among
the Prophets? What sort of inspiration was that which was
given to David, in his Messianic views as exhibited by the
Psalms? Or what, in respect to devotional feeling and instruc-
tion? There is no view that we can take of this subject, which
does not show its futility. And when the question is once asked:
By what diagnostics could the Rabbies discern and decide the
gradations of inspiration? all the answer is made to this whole
matter, that needs to be made, or which it deserves. It is like
a thousand thousand other conceits with which the Talmudic
writers abound, and which even the later Jewish writers virtually
acknowledge, by calling them Haqgadoth^ i. e. tales or stories,
meaning pleasant or entertaining stories.

With good reason, then, do we take the position, that the son
of Sirach, Philo, the Neio Testament, Josephiis, and all the earlier
Christian writers, doion to the middle of the fourth century, testify
in favour of an arrangement of the Hebrew Scriptures, which
classes four books together that are of like composition and matter
in some important respects, and regards only these as belonging to
the Hagiography. All that differs from this is later, and is the
invention of those who have sought for or made distinctions
that are only imaginary, and shown more of the ingenuity of
romancers than of the sound judgment and discretion of sober
critics,

§ 13. General results of preceding Investigations.

There are some results which are so plain, and lie as it were
so much on the very surface of what has been exhibited, that
they cannot well escape the notice of the reader, even such a
reader as may be unskilled in criticism. These are, that the
books, which for ages past have belonged to the Hebrew canon,
and which now belong to it, are the very same books which be-
longed to it in the time of Christ and the apostles, and for
several centuries before this period. There are some particulars
in the history of them which has now been traced, that place
this position beyond all reasonable contradiction. The Son of
Sirach refers to them, at least 180 years (perhaps 280) before

256 § 13. GENERAL RESULTS.

the Christian era, precisely in the same manner, and by sub-
stantially the same names or designations, as does Philo (fl. 40
B.C.), the writers of the New Testament, and Josephus. The
manner of the reference implies of necessity a defined and well-
known collection of books, intelligible to every educated reader,
and no more liable to be mistaken, than our word Scripture or
Bible now is among us. The Christian fathers who follow, down
to the fifth century, have made the limits of the Jewish canon
entirely definite by specifying, in different countries and by many
distinguished persons, the identical books which belong to the
Jewish Scriptures, No room is left for mistake on this impor-
tant point. Such is the state of facts.

In the next place, we argue that such must necessarily have
been the case, from the circumstances of the Jews, their views
and feelings in relation to religious matters, and the opposing
party-divisions which existed, first among themselves, and then
between the Jews and Christians. To begin with the Jews ; it
is certain from the repeated testimony of Josephus, and indirectly
of Philo, that the sects of Pharisees and Sadducees existed long
before the birth of Christ. The Saviour and his disciples found
these sects in full vigour, and in strong action, at the time of
their ministry. When we go further back, we find ourselves un-
able to trace their history to its origin. Josephus first mentions
them in Antiq. xiii, 5. 9. under the high-priest Jonathan (159
— 144 B.c); but he mentions them (together with the Essenes)
as sects already fully and definitely formed, Winer thinks, and
with good reason, that the spirit of Judaism, soon after the return
of the Jews from their Babylonish exile, gave rise to a feeling
which led to the formation of the Pharisaic party ; and that this
very naturally called forth an opposition, which embodied itself
in the Sadducaean party ; art, Pharisiier, in Bih. Lex. In the
time of John Hyrcanus, nephew of Judas Maccabaeus, Josephus
speaks of the Pharisees as having such influence with the com-
mon people, that " they would be believed even in case they
uttered anything against the king or high-priest," To them were
opposed the Sadducees; and the main subject of division between
them, was not the denial of angel or spirit, or the Sadducaean
rejection of the Pharisaic doctrine of predestination, (as has
been often alleged), but the cardo rei was that the Scriptures are
the only rule of faith and practice. In opposition to the Pharisees,
the Sadducees rejected all traditions and ordinances of men, not

§13. GENERAL RUcJULTS. 257

expressly sanctioned by the Scriptures. So Josephus most ex-
plicitly : " Their custom was, to regard nothing except the Laws
[i. e. the written Laws^=the Bible] ; for they reckon it as a virtue
to dispute against the doctors in favour of the wisdom (iroflry.;)
which they follow;" Antiq. xviii. 1. 4. Again in Antiq. xiii.
1 0. 6. he says : " The Pharisees inculcated many rules upon the
people, received from the fathers, which are not written in the
Law of Moses ; and on this account the sect of the Sadducees re-
ject them, alleging that those things are to be regarded as rules
which are written [in the Scriptures]," but that the traditions
of the fathers are not to be observed. In a word; the Sadducees
of old were Scripturists; and in respect to this point they occu-
pied the same ground in opposition to the Pharisees, which Pro-
testants now occupy in relation to the Roman Catholic traditions.
That sect has long been defunct among the Jews ; but it has
notoriously been succeeded by the so-called Karaites (\^^'^^,

Scripturists); see Triglandius, Syntagma de Sectis Judeorum^ &c.
The idea that has been broached and defended by some, that the
Sadducees admitted the authority of only the Pentateuch, is en-
tirely without foundation. How could they have been, as they
often were, members of the Sanhedrim, and high-priests, and no
objection of this nature have been brought against them by the
Pharisees ? That their speculations led them to reject the exis-
tence of angels and unembodied spirits, is true indeed ; but, as I
have already said, the cardo m, in respect to the dispute be-
tween them and the Pharisees, was what has just been stated ;
see Winer, Bih. Lex. art. Sadduciier, who has taken considerable
pains in the investigation of these matters.

Back then to a time which preceded the Maccabees, at all ad-
ventures, we must put the rise of the Pharisees and Sadducees.
From the moment that the parties were fully formed, the extent
of the Jewish Scriptures was of course a matter fully and per-
manently decided. It is impossible to suppose, that the Saddu-
cees would concede to their antagonists the right or the power
to introduce new books into the canon. This would be giving
up the very essence of the matter in dispute. No one but a
prophet divinely commissioned, and so endowed as to be ac-
knowledged by both parties, would or could be entrusted with
the introduction of a new sacred book. But no such prophet,
as is conceded by all, made his appearance at that time. Of
course we cannot listen to the affirmations of Neologists, however

8

258 § 13.

GENERAL RESULTS.

confident and oft repeated, that Daniel, Chronicles, Jonah, many
of the Psalms, and what not, first made their appearance at the
Maccabaean period. It was impossible to procure admittance
for them to the canon, if such were the case. The very essence
of the dispute between the two great parties among the Jews,
turning as it did on the specific point of adherence to the Scrip-
tures only, must of course have rendered it impossible for either
party newly to introduce a sacred book, which would be acknow-
ledged by the other. Yet we have not a whisper in all antiquity,
that tells us of any dispute in relation to the rejection of any
book now in the Jewish canon, or of any doubt about its authen-
ticity by either party. Even the Pharisees never attempted to
add their traditions to the Scriptures, in the way of incorporating
them together. They produced them at first as oral law, brought
down merely by oral tradition. They formed, at last, their
Mishna, and their Talmud, in order to embody them and make
them permanent ; but in this they meddled not with the integrity
of the Scriptures. In forbidding the young to read Canticles
and the first and last part of Ezekiel, they did not pretend to
undervalue these books, but merely manifested their opinion that
they were not adapted, by reason of their peculiar style and
matter, to the capacity, comprehension, and profit of youthful
readers.

We may in a moment realise the validity of the argument
under consideration, by asking the question : AVhether any one
of the sects of Christians, at present, could introduce another
book into the New Testament, which would be acknowledged by
all? Has it yet ever been possible to make Protestants receive
Judith and Tobit, and the Apocrypha in general, since the be-
ginning of the Reformation ? The Council of Trent did their best
to effect this ; and in what has it resulted ?

We have seen how matters stood before the Christian era ;
let us now inquire into the state of them since the commence-
ment of that era. Two parties existed among the Jews. Many
of the Jews became Christians, and were not only opposed and
controverted by the others, but persecuted even to death. The
Scriptures were in the hands of both. Which party could add
to or diminish from them, and yet persuade the others to accede!
Surely neither. When the Alexandrine Christians, (whether
Jewish or Gentile Christians we cannot perhaps decide with
certainty,) after the lapse of some time, introduced slowly and

§ 14. CANON OF EflVrriAN JKWS. 259

gradually the Apocr}'phal books into their churches, did the
Jews ever receive or admit them as Scripture ? Not in the least.
Melito, Origen, and others tell us specifically what the Jewish
canon was, at an early period ; Hilary, Epiphanius, Jerome,
Rufinus, the Talmud, tell us what it continued to be at a later
period. No one will even pretend to say that it has been changed
since. Jews and Christians have always been too sharply opposed
to admit of any change in the Scriptural documents, since the
fifth century. It would bo useless to attempt any proof of a
matter so obvious, certain, and acknowledged by all. Whatever
a part or a party of Christians have done, in the way of foisting
in the Apocrypha, has never produced the least influence upon
the Jews, nor upon the limits of their canon. The books which
we now have as theirs, and which are appealed to and quoted in
the New Testament, still remain as documents which are quoted
and referred to by Christians, and by all the Jews the world over.
If there ever was a people on the face of the earth, whose super-
stitions even, to mention nothing better, would have put it out
of all question either to add to, or take from, their sacred books,
that people was the Jews. With what unbending obstinacy
have they adhered, for more than a thousand years, even to all
the conceits and egregious trifling of much that is in the Talmud !
Have they been less superstitious in regard to their Scriptures ?

Whatever may be the difficulties existing in the minds of some,
and even of some conscientious persons, about a part of the Old
Testament books, they have no bearing on the historico-critical
question before us. Our inquiry respects a matter of /act, not of
doctrine. And this fact stands before us, not in the obscurity
of night, nor in the doubtful glimmerings of twilight, but in the
full blaze of a noon-day sun.

The question how much authority is to be attributed to the
Old Testament, or any part of it, has not yet been distinctly
considered. It remains for more particular discussion; and to
this we shall proceed, as soon as one more inquiry has been made.
This is:—

§ 14. Bid the Egyptian Jews admit the same Canon as the Jews of

Palestine?

In order rightly to appreciate the importance of this question,
it will be necessary to glance at the condition and the number of

260 § 14. CANON OF THE EGYPTIAN JEWS.

the Jews in Egypt, at the period of about 320 b.c, and thence
downwards to the Christian era.

To Ptolemy Lagus, one of the mihtary officers of Alexander the
Great, was assigned, after the death of that king, the govern-
ment of Egypt. In the contests which followed, among the
ethnarchs of Alexander's empire, Ptolemy overran and took
possession of Judea, Samaria, Phenicia, and Coelo-Syria. Jose-
phus relates that Ptolemy came in person to Jerusalem, and
offered sacrifices in the temple there. In order to secure the
tranquillity of the newly conquered countries, he took with him a
great number of hostages to Egypt, and among these were many
thousand Jews. Some of the latter were sent to Gyrene, (then
under Ptolemy), but the body of them settled in the newly built
city of Alexandria.

From time to time, after this, great accessions were made to
their numbers ; for they were treated with special favour by most
of the Egyptian kings, in order to secure their fidelity and their
aid. Finally, about 153 b.c, Onias, a son of the high priest
Onias III. who was massacred at Daphnae under the reign of
Antiochus Epiphanes, fled to Egypt; and not long after this, he
so gained the favour of Ptolemy Philometer, then king of that
country, that he was made commander-in-chief of the Egyptian
army, and governor of the Nome of Heliopolis; while the second
in command was Dositheus, another Jew. Onias, on account of
the great number of the Jews in Egypt and its dependencies,
conceived the idea of having a temple built in that country, in
order to accommodate Hebrew worshippers, and save the ex-
pense and trouble of journeying to Palestine, in order to pay their
devotions there. The king consented, and a temple was built at
Leontopolis, in the Nome of Heliopolis, in which Onias became
high priest, and subordinate priests and Levites were gathered
around him. The temple itself was built after the model of that
at Jerusalem ; and the whole routine of worship in it was simply
copied from that at Jerusalem. This state of things continued,
until the temple of Leontopolis was destroyed by Vespasian, dur-
ing his war with the Jews.

Now there is not the least intimation from any quarter, that
either any new books or new ritual of worship were ever intro-
duced here. The whole arrangement bespeaks the contrary.
Even so late as the time of Philo- Juda^us (40 b.c), the attachment
to the religion of the father-land was not diminished among the

§ 1 4-. CANON OK THli KGYl'TJA.N JEWhf. 201

Jews of Egypt. Tiiey sent Philo to Jerusalem, there to make
offerings in the name of the people, i. e. of the Egyptian Jews.
Philo himself was descended from a family of the priesthood. He
was a Pharisee, and zealous for the rehgion of his fathers. Yet
in all his voluminous works, he never once refers to any of the
apocryphal books as Scripture, nor ever makes them the basis of
any of his allegorizing; and all this, when at the time it is mani-
fest from numerous hints, and occasionally from his diction, that
he was familiarly acquainted with the apocryphal writings. Of
this indeed there can be no doubt, considering his station and his
literary ardour. How is it possible, that neither he, nor Jose-
phus, ever intimates a word of any difference of views about the
Jewish Scriptures between the Jews of Palestine and Alexan-
dria, if any such difference really existed? The fact that Philo
has quoted most of the Jewish books as authoritative and divine,
is a pledge that he recognised the Jewish Scriptures in their
usual extent. The fact that Josephus never intimates any de-
parture from Jewish views on the part of Egyptian Jews, proves,
beyond any fair contradiction, that he was not aware of any such
departure. After the minute account he gives of the Pharisees,
the Sadducees, and the Essenes, should we not of course expect
him, when he describes the building of the temple at Leontopolis
and its ritual, to take notice of any peculiarities in the views of
his Egyptian brethren in regard to the Scriptures?

It seems probable, indeed, that most of the books which we
now name ApocrypJia, first came into being, or at least into cir-
culation, in Egypt. Alexandria was, for a long period, the great
literary workshop of the times. Such of them as were written
before the Christian era, (which seems to have been the case with
most), must of course have been written by Jews. But they were
nearly all written in Greek; and no Jew ever thought of uniting
a Greek book with the Hebrew ones. Hence, although some of
the apocryphal books made their way to an association with the
Septuagint version, yet they were never joined to the Hebrew
Scriptures. Even the production of Jesus the son of Sirach, who
was a Jew of Jerusalem and wrote in Hebrew, made no claim, at
least none which was admitted, to Scripturalauthority, Much
less could the books written originally in Greek prefer such a
claim. Vulgar and uneducated readers, who had no discrimi-
nating taste or judgment, and who knew only the Greek Scrip
tures, might unwittingly unite the apocryphal books with them,

262 v^ 15. ESTIMATION 01' SCRIPTURES,

because of their religious tone. Yet it would be difficult to
prove that this was done, before the Christian era. At all events,
such men as Philo, although he quotes only the Greek Scriptures,
never once thought of doing any such thing.

We may safely come to the conclusion, then, that the canon
of the Hebrew Scriptures was the same among the Jews both of
Egypt and Palestine. Our next step is the inquiry: —

§ ! 5. In what estimation were the Ilehreio Scriptures held hy the
Jews, at, before, and soon after the commencement of the Chris-
tian era?

We begin with the testimony of the son of Sirach. In the
proem to the Greek version of his book, his grandson has told us
respecting him, that " he gave himself h-i rrXsm, for the greater
part of the time, or very much, to the study of the Law, the
Prophets, and the other patrical Books," in order to prepare
for writing his own book. At the outset the translator speaks of
the " ToXXuv xal //.iyaXuv, many and important things which were
imparted to the Jews by the Law, the Prophets, and the other
Books of Hke tenor." The estimation put upon the Scriptures,
by Sirachides and his grandson, is very plainly disclosed by these
declarations. The Bible, for the first, was the highest source of
all true wisdom and knowledge; in the view of the second, it was
the efficient cause of procuring the distinguished blessings and
privileges enjoyed by the Hebrews.

Everywhere does Sirachides refer to the Scriptures, either by
borrowing their phraseology, or by appealing to them, mostly in
an indirect way, as the source of all true wisdom, virtue, piety,
and happiness. The Law is often the subject of reference, and is
regarded as an authority in all matters. In the eulogy of wis-
dom (ch. xxiv.), there is a manifest and designed imitation of
Prov. viii. In the -Trars^uv u//.voc, i.e. Eidogy of the Fathers (xliv. —
1.), there is everywhere the most plain and manifest recognition
of the authority, credibility, and excellence of the Scriptural re-
presentations. The writer begins with Enoch, and follows the
train of Biblical history, down to Nehemiah. He quotes the
promises to Abraham. Moses was beloved of God, and to him
commandment was given in respect to his people. Joshua was
a follower of Moses in the prophetic office. Most of the kings of
Judah sinned by forsaking the Law. Jeremiah was consecrated.

§ 15. SlRACHIDEci I'HILO. 263

while in his mother's womb, to the prophetic office. Ezekiel saw
visions of glory, which were shown to him by him who rode upon
the cherubim. All the offerings and rites of the Lovitical ritual
are excellent and deserving of veneration; strong attachment to
them, and particularity in the observance of them, is worthy of
high commendation. This and the like matter in the book of
Sirachides show beyond the possibility of doubt, that with him
the sacred books were rb Taw, the all in all. Philo and Josephus
have designated their views much oftener by the use of significant
attributives applied to the Scriptures, (as we shall soon see); but
they have shown no deeper reverence for the authority and ex-
cellence of the Scriptures, than the son of Sirach. " He that run-
neth, may read" this, in every part of his work.

We come next to Philo. He has been more explicit in stat-
ing his view of the matters under consideration. Nothing can be
more certain than his belief in the divine inspiration and authority
of the Scriptures, in the very highest sense that can be affixed to
these words. The edition to which I refer in the view subjoined,
is that of Mangey, 2 vols. fol.

I. Philo''s view of the prophetic office and of inspiration. In
0pp. i. p. 222, speaking of Moses as a prophet, he subjoins:
*' *RgiJjriviTg yd^ usiv o'l 'Trgofj/jrai i^JoiJ, /cara^PC/j/jusvov roTg s-abivoov opydvoig T^bg
b'/jXusiv S)v av i':^7]Xrias, i.e. Prophets are the interpreters of God, he
employing their organs for the disclosure of whatever he pleases."
In his De Legihus Special., ii. p. 343, he comes out most fully and
explicitly with his views: " IlPO(prirr\g hs iJ.h yd^ ouhh 'thiov diro^pahiTai
rb ira^d-irav, dXX leriv s^/^rivivg, ■o'Xo^dKKovrog sri^ou Tav'^ clffa Toofi^n, Kai
xa^ ov y^g'ivov sv'i^ovfficc ysyovug sv dyvoia, /MSTccviffrocfxivou /x,h tov Xoyifffx^ov -/.al
rra^azsy^cij^riyiorog rr^v rrig -^w/rig d'/.^o'xo'kiv. E'Xi'm(poirrjx6Tog Os xai svoixrjxb-
rog rou '^siou Ti/sv/xurog, xai Tuffav TTJg (puvr^g ooydvoToiiav K^ovovTog^ ds xa/
svi^y^ovvTog ug hagyri BrjXusiv oiv T^o(j^g(rT/^2/, i.e. a prophet exhibits no-
thing at all which is his own, but is an interpreter, another sug-
gesting whatever he utters; and so long as he is inspired, he re-
mains unconscious, his reason departing and quitting the citadel
of the soul, and the divine Spirit entering and inhabiting it, and
giving impulse to all the organism of the voice, and uttering
sounds for the clear discourse of those things which he prophe-
sies." Here, then, is a representation that will satisfy even the
warmest stickler iov positivity in persons inspired. 1 regret to
add, that down to the present hour there have been, and are not
a few, who have laboured to support the like extreme view of this

264) § 15- ESTIMATION OF SCRIPTURE.

matter. Even Hengstenberg tells us, that " when the Spirit
of God comes in, the spirit of man goes out ;"" the mere echo of
what Philo said more than 1 800 years ago. It is not my pre-
sent business to examine theologically this view of inspiration.
How the weight or authority of what is communicated, is aug-
mented by the supposition that the organ of communication
ceases to be a rational and conscious being, is what no one has
yet shown. At all events Paul did not believe in such a view of
this matter, when he declared, (for the purpose of enforcing
obedience to his injunctions among the Corinthian prophets, and
of showing their obligation and ability to obey), that "■ the spirit
of the prophets is subject to the prophets." To Philo such a
suggestion, it seems, would have appeared little less than blas-
phemy. My view of it is indeed very different. It appears to
me to be simple Christian rationality and truth. But enough of
this.

No one will deny, then, that whatever books Philo considered
as Scripture, or as revealed, they, in his view, bore the stamp of
the highest possible authority and credibility. He often repeats
this sentiment. In his Quis Ber. divin. Hwres sit, {0pp. i. 510),
he says, '"A prophet utters nothing of his own, but all things
are from a foreign source, another giving them utterance," And
again in ii. p. 417, " A prophet is an interpreter, uttering from
within the things that are spoken by God." Whoever then is
called a, prophet by him, is of course regarded as an instrument
of divine and authoritative communication. Whatever books
were ranked by him as Scripture, were also, of course, in his
view, entitled to all the authority and reverence which such a
cliaracter of their authors could claim. It remains for us to see
how he characterizes, in particular, both the sacred writers and
their books.

II. Philo s particular mew of sacred authors, and of their hooks.
The most general designation of the authors \9, prophets, Tr^ofiriTat.
With this word, and for the sake of variety in his diction, he
not unfrequently exchanges other names, which, as he employs
them, are altogether equivalent. For example, we find frequent-
ly in him, T^o^^^rjj; dv?iP, prophetic man, h^ofavrvig, hierophant, i. e.
exhibitor of sacred things, ^^sffTEff/o? dvn^, oracular man, 'Muusiug
ivaho:^ disciple oT companion of Moses, MwuVjwc ':)iasurrig, a follower
of 3f OSes, (lit. a thiasos associate), rig ruv (poirriruv Mua'sug, one of
the folloicers or frequenters of Moses, rov t^o^ptititcou S/affwrjjg ^o^ou, a

§ 15. PHiLo. 265

companion of the prophetic choir; all of which names arc applied
to various sacred writers, and which an artificial eloquence led
Philo thus to vary, while his meaning is ever the same. Moses
is referred to in some of the cases above, as the perfection of the
propheticcharacter, the ideal of an inspired person.

The books written by such men he calls h^ag y^a.(pdg, sacred
Scriptures^ h^ag j3i(3Xoug, sacred books, k^uirarov y^oLfj^ixa, most holy
writing^ /'sgoipavrTji^sira, sacred disclosures, crgo^?)r/xM Xoyov, prophetic
wordy '7r^o(p7jTixa '^/ifMara, prophetic sayings, sometimes X6ym, oracle,
Xoyiov rou ^^sov, Oracle of God, and sometimes ^^i^g/Mv, oracular res-
ponse, or TO %»)(3''>£i', what is tittered oracularly. Like the preceding
designation of prophets, all these, as employed by him, are
entirely synonymous, and the variety belongs merely to his rhe-
toric.

Any of these names bestowed on writers, or on their books,
indicate, of course, the fullest belief on the part of Philo, that
they were divinely inspired, and therefore of paramount author-
ity. Our next object then will be, to inquire in what manner
he has bestowed these appellations.

III. Books and persons designated by Philo as inspired. Moses
he almost everywhere names 'rgo(pyiTr}c, prophet, or /s§o(pdvTric, hiero-
phant. His inspiration is of the highest stamp; his books are
the prophetic word or sacred books. Genesis he calls 'n^dg y^a^pag,
sacred Scriptures, {De Mundi Opif. i. p. 18); Exodus is 'nod
jSijSXog^ sacred book, (De Migrat. Abrah. i. p. 438); Leviticus is
li^hg Xoyog, sacrcd tvord, (Allegor. iii. tom. i. p. 85); Numbers
he calls 'n^urarov yed/x/Mu, tnost sacred writing, (Deus sit immut. i.
273); and Deuteronomy yjir^sixm and Ugov Xoyov, oracle and sacred
word, (De Migrat. Abraham, i. 454, and De Somn. i. 657).

Joshua he cites as Xoyiov rov iX'iou ^£ou, the oracle of the merciful
God, {De Confus. Ling. i. 430).

1 Samuel, (which, following the designation of the Septuagint,
he calls 1 Kings), is cited as /s^oj Xoyog, {De Temulent. i. 379).

Ezra is cited as containing rd h ^aSiXixaTg (SiSXoig hgo<pavrri^hra,
things sacredly revealed in the royal books, {De Confus. Ling. i.
427).

Isaiah he names rhv rrdXai '7r^o(pr]rriv, the ancient prophet, {De
Somn. i. 681.) His prophecies are x^of^r/xa hn'Mara, prophetic
sayings, {De Mutat. Nom. i. 604).

Jeremiah he calls prophet, hierophant, and iMunrrig, one initiated
in sacred mysteries ; and his work is y^ricijJtg, oracle, {De Cherub.

26G ^15. ESTlMATlOiX OF SCIUPTURE.

i. 147, 148). Again he says of this prophet, that he was roy
T§o(pyiT/'zou ':hasu)rrjg %o^ou, og zara'rvsus'^slg sv^o\j(Siuv dvs(p''^iy^aro, i. e.
an associate of the prophetic choir, who being animated by the Spi-
rit, spaJce in ecstacy, {De Confus. Ling. i. 44). In another place
he says, " The Father of the universe predicted by the prophetic
mouth of Jeremiah,'''' {De Prof, i, 575.)

In respect to the Minor Prophets, (always one book in ancient
times), he refers to two of them, viz. Hosea and Zechariah. A
passage in Hos. xiv. 8 he names xin'^'-Ssv cra^a rm ruv 'x^ocpyjruv,
spoken oracularly by one of the prophets, {De Plant. Noe, i. 350).
Again he calls Hos. xiv. 24, " a glowing oracle predicted by a
prophetic mouth," {De Mutat. Nom. i. S50). Zechariah he calls
the companion of Moses, Muijffsug krar^og, (Pe Conftis. Ling. i. 414).
Of course, in referring to these two prophecies, or to either of
them, he recognises the whole book of the Twelve, which was
always counted as one book, so far back as we can trace the his-
tory of the canon.

The Psalms are often quoted by Philo as Scripture; and
David, whom he regarded as the principal author of them, is
called by him Tgo^jjrjjs, prophet, {Pe Agr'ic. i. 308); ■-^opyjrrig dvr/^,
prophetic man, {Quis Per. div. Hceres, i. 515); ^iscrvrk/os ai/^^, ora-
cular man, {Pe Plant. Noe, i. 344, comp. Pe Mund. 0pp. i. 362);

Mu'o(Ssoig'^iaGuir7ig og ohyj rujv riiiikriiJ.ivm r,v, an associate of Moses loho

was not of those that are lightly regarded, {Pe Plant. Noe, p. 219,
edit. Francof.); and sometimes i-raTsog Muaiug, the friend of
Moses, {Quod a Peo mitt. Somnia, i. 691).

In like manner he speaks of Solomon, whom the Jews of that
day regarded as the author of Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Can-
ticles. He says that he is Ik rov 'hloO %ogoj, of the divine choir,
{Pe Ebriet. i. 362); and he names him ni/a tuv (poirnruv Musiug,
one of the disciples of Moses, {Pe Cong, quaer. erud. Grat. i. 544.)

The book of Judges, viii. 9, he quotes in Pe Confus. Linq. i.
424. Job xiv. 4 is quoted in Pe Mutat. Nom. i. 584. Our first
book of Kings, (Philo names it as in the Sept., the third), is
quoted in Pe Gigant. i, 274, and in six other places. The book
of Psalms, already mentioned as quoted by him, he quotes in all
the five parts or divisions of the books, so as to show that it
was the same in his day as in ours; see in Eichh. Einl. i. p. 97,
ed. 3d.

Quotations arc not found in him from Ruth, Esther, Chroni-
cles, Daniel, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles. But

§ 15. I'liiLo. 267

the two latter are doubtlegs acknowledged by the reference to
Solomon as " of the divine choir." Of the others it is sufficient
to say, that he did not find occasion to quote them. It is no
argument against their existence and canonical rank, that they
are not quoted by him, when he nowhere undertakes to give us
a list of the Scriptures, but only to refer to such passages in
them as are to his purpose. Would any man think of drawing
the conclusion in these days, that certain books of the Old Tes-
tament were not acknowledged by this theologian, and that,
because they have not quoted them in their publications? No-
thing could be more weak and false in reasoning than this.
And equally so is it, when applied to Philo.

After all, in fact, the books not quoted by him are almost
none, if we reckon the universal manner of the ancients in dis-
ti'ibuting the books. E. g. Judges and Ruth were by them re-
garded as one book, and he quotes Judges; Jeremiah and
Lamentations were one book, and he quotes Jeremiah; the
books of Ezra and Neheraiah were one, and he quotes Ezra.
There is left then only Chronicles, Daniel, and Esther, which he
has not quoted. The wonder is, not that so many remain un-
quoted, but that so many have been quoted .

Moreover, as the grandson of Sirachides had, long before Philo's
time, repeatedly adverted to the triplex division of the Jewish
Scriptures, the Law, the Prophets, and the Other Books; and as
Philo acknowledges the same division, in speaking of the studies
of the Essenes {0pp. ii. 475); we may conclude that he has vir-
tually referred to every part of Scripture, inasmuch as this tri-
plex division must have consisted of books whose number and
order were well defined and well known at that time. Philo was
a Pharisee, and of priestly origin. He was zealous, also, in
matters pertaining to the Jewish religion. His embassy to
Palestine shows this ; and his works everywhere bear ample
testimony to it. In fact, it seems impossible rationally to doubt,
that the canon of Philo was the same as that of Josephus and the
New Testament writers, considering how near he lived to the
times in which they lived, and in what manner he has described
the contents of the Scriptures which he regarded as divine.

That Philo was, as has already been said, acquainted with the
apocryphal books, there can be no doubt. Yet he never quotes
THEM, not even FOR THE PURPOSES OF ALLEGORIZING. No imaginable
reason can be given for this, excepting that, like Josephus, he

2^8 § 15. ESTIMATION OF SCKIPTrjRE.

made a distinction wide and broad between inspired and other
books. This account of Philo's practice in regard to the apocry-
phal books may be relied on, for Hornemann {Ohservatt. ad illmtr.
Doctrinw de Canone Vet. Test, ex Philone) assures us of this ;
and he read through the whole works of Philo, as he states, in
order to ascertain this very point. His competency and his
candour as a witness will not be called in question. Eichhorn
gives him full credit; Einl. i. § 26. In fact, Philo shows his
contempt of the apocryphal books, (for which some in his day
doubtless began to entertain a high regard, so as to treat them
as a kind of Scripture), by treating them with more neglect than
he has even the heathen productions; for he often quotes Plato,
Philolaus, Solon, Hippocrates, Heraclites, and others, while he
never does this honour to the Apocrypha.

Such then was the state of this matter respecting the canon
in Egypt, the very hot-bed of apocryphal Scriptures, at a period
antecedent to the Christian era. The most distinguished philo-
sopher and writer of the Jewish nation, at that time, takes no
cognizance of apocryphal scriptures, when, if he regarded them
as other Alexandrians afterwards did, even Christian writers, he
must have found very numerous occasions for quoting them, or
referring to them. But this is an honour which he utterly with-
holds.

Next, as to the Opinion of Joseph us. We have already ex-
amined the testimony of Josephus, as to the number and nature
of the sacred books (pp. 195, 203 above), and but little more
seems necessary to be here said, under the present category.
My particular object now is, to render more prominent the dis-
tinction which he makes between the books of Scripture and
other works.

The famous passage in cont. Apion. i. § 8, (see p. 195 above),
presents this distinction to us in a very clear and commanding
light. After enumerating the various portions of Scripture and
reckoning the number of the feacred books, he says, " From
Artaxerxes until the present time, every occurrence is recorded;
but these [narrations] are not regarded as worthy of the credit
due to those which preceded them, because there was no certain
succession of prophets. By our conduct we show what credit we
give to the proper Scriptures; for although so long a period of
time has passed away, no one has ventured to add anything to
them, or to take anything from them. It is implanted in every

§ 15. josEPHus. 269

Jew, from his birth, to regard them [the Scriptures] as the sta-
tutes of God, to abide by them, and (if necessary) gladly to die
for them." See App. No. III. A broader and more palpable
distinction no Protestant pen could now sketch.

Elsewhere he testifies the same feelings and views. He calls
the Scriptures 'n^ag (3ij3Xov;, sacred hooks; ra: tuv H^mv yoafiuv (3li3-
Aovg, the books of the sacred Scriptures; hod y^u^iiiiara, sacred writ-
ings; rd iv rw h^ui' di/ax£///.£i/a y^dijj'jMru.^ the writings laid up in the
temple; and also jSi'iBXovg Tpcpjjrs/ac. Besides these appellations,
he names the Scriptures dpy^aJa jBijSxia, ancient books; ^llSXoi 'E(3^a-
iMv and iSijSXoi ' E,3^a/xa/, Hehreio books.

If now there be any suspicion, (arising from the fact that the
books of Daniel and Esther are not quoted by Philo), that those
books did not belong to the Jewish canon at that period, it is
entirely dissipated by the course which Josephus pursues. Of
no books in the Old Testament has he given more copious ex-
tracts, in proportion to their length, than he has from these.
In all respects he credits the accounts which they give. And as
he unquestionably assigns these writings to a period antecedent
to the close of Artaxerxes' reign, so no doubt can remain that
they were a part of what he recognises as Scripture. The same
is true of the book of Jonah^ to which so many exceptions have
recently been taken. In Antiq. ix. 10. 2, he gives an account
of Jonah at length, and says that " he tells the story of this
prophet just as he finds it written h 'E/Sga/jca/j (3il3Xoig, in the
Hebrew books;'''' and at the close he repeats the declaration, that
" he has gone through the narration as he found it in writing."
The manner in which Josephus expresses himself in regard
to books before and after the close of Artaxerxes*' reign, shows
that all the Hebrew books which were within the circle of his
acquaintance, and were written before the death of Artaxerxes,
were included within his canon. It is indeed doubtful, whether
any of the more ancient Hebrew writings, the sacred books ex-
cepted, were really extant in the time of Josephus. But be this
as it may, it seems evident that none of the more ancient He-
brew books, the Scriptures excepted, were known to him.

The Pentateuch he often speaks of in the highest terms, and
bestows upon it appellations like those employed by Philo ; e. g.
he calls it issdg t3ii3Xoug, Antiq. i. end of Pref. iii. 5. 2.; iv. 8. 48.;
ix. 2. 2.; X. 4. 2. An other appellation is d' ruv is^uv yao(pm
8/3>.r;/, cont. Ap. ii. 4. Compare with these the various declara-

270 § 15. ESTIMATION OF THE SCRIPTURES.

tions of a similar tenor respecting the sacred nature of the Pen-
tateuch, in Antiq. i. p. 4.; xx. 5. 4. ; iii. 6. 5.; iv. 8. 44. ; x. 4. 2.;
xvi. 6. 2.

Of Isaiah Josephus says, "Cyrus read the book of the •prophecy
of Isaiah, which he composed 210 years before;" Antiq. xi. 1. 2.
Elsewhere he calls Isaiah, a ■-^o(prirri;, 'prophet ; x. 2. 2. Speak-
ing of Hezekiah he says, that " he learned accurately of the
prophet [Isaiah] the things that were to come; xi. 13. 3.

He calls Jeremiah " a prophet, who predicted terrible events
which were to take place in respect to the city;" x. 5. 1.

Of Ezekiel he says, " Not only did he [Jeremiah] foretell these
things to the multitude, but also the prophet Ezekiel ;" x. 5. 1.

The book of Daniel he classes among the '/s^d ypaiM/Mura, i. e.
the sacred wrltinc/s; x. 10. 4. He speaks of his ■-^o:prtruav, prophecy,
as being " uttered 408 years before ;" xii. 7. 6. In x. 11. 7. he
says : " All these things he [Daniel] left in writing, God exhibit-
ing them to him; so that those who read, observant of the events,
must needs look on Daniel with wonder on account of the honour
done to him by God." Besides, Josephus has made copious ex-
tracts from all the historical parts of Daniel, with some com-
ments of his own. He makes this prophet a leading character
among the men of the prophetic order ; see Antiq. x. 10. and 11.

The twelve Minor Prophets Josephus I'egards as one book,
and places them by the side of Isaiah. In Antiq. x. 2. 2, he
says, " Not only this prophet [Isaiah], but the other Twelve
as to number did the same thing. Everything, whether good or
evil, that has taken place among us, has happened according to
their prediction, 'T^o(priTiiav.''''

Of Jonah we have already spoken above. He places his
book among the j3il3Xou; 'EiS^a'/Kd;, the Hebrew hooks, ix. 10. 1.
Nahuin is called 'x^o<prirri;, a prophet, and the fulfilment of his
predictions is lauded; ix. 11. 3. Haggai and Zechariah are
called ttvo prophets, dvo -ffgop^ra/; xi. 4. 5.

Of Joshua, he says, that it is '• among the books laid up in the
temple;" V. 1. 17.

The history of Elijah contained in the book of Kings, he
couples with the history of Enoch ; and says that these histories
" are written in the sacred books ;" ix. 2. 2.

The Psalms he calls v/Mvovg iSg tov ^ih; cont. Ap. i. 8. He
speaks of them as " the songs of David," because David was the
principal author, vii. 12. 3.

§ 16. .SUMMAUY Ol' TESTIMONY. 271

In Antiq. X. 5. 1. he speaks of Jeremiah as the author of the
Lamentations. And as to all the historical books, Joshua, Judges,
1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, 1 and 2 Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemi-
ah, and Esther, he everywhere extracts from them at great length
in his Antiquities, following them step by step in their narrations,
and only here and there intermingling something of his own, oc-
casionally, but rarely, a wonderful story, and sometimes glosses
of the Hebrew narrations. He appeals to them as of the highest
and most undoubted authority.

Josephus' historical office did not lead him to quote all of the
ancient Hagiography, He has not made excerpts from Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, or Canticles. But he speaks of Solomon as having
composed ^/3X/a i^jdoov kui /mbXuv, books of songs and chants, and as
having " written SOOO books of parables and similitudes."' No
doubt can remain, that he regarded him as the author of several
of the sacred books.

The book of Job, being foreign to the objects of his history,
is not at all mentioned by him. But there can be no doubt,
that this book was included in his canon. Ezekiel makes re-
cognition of this book, xiv. 20. Philo quotes from the book of
Job; De Mutat. Nom. i. p. 584. It is necessary to include it,
in order to make out the thirteen books which Josephus includes
under the second class, viz. the Prophets. It is recognised in the
New Testament; James v. 11. It is reason enough that Jose-
phus does not speak of the book, that the history of Job is that
of ^foreigner, probably an Arabian, who, if a Jew by descent,
(as seems not improbable), has not once in all his work adverted
to Jews or Judaism. The silence of Josephus, in such a case,
makes nothing against the book. The positive testimony of
Ezekiel, Philo, and the New Testament, makes the point alto-
gether clear, that the book was written before Artaxerxes' time,
and was therefore regarded as one of the sacred books by Jose-
phus, according to the rule which ho lays down in cont. Apion.
i. 8.

§ 16. Summary of tlie testimony of Sirachides, Philo, and Josephus.

It needs but a brief space to exhibit this. The book of Sirach
presents to our view a then (at least ISO n.c.) well-known and
definite triplex division of the Jewish Scriptures, in which all
the books deemed sacred were included. Philo has presented

272 § ^^- SL'MMAKY OF TESTIMONY.

US with the hke divisions of the same books, in his notice of
books which were studied by the Essenes. Josephus has also
presented us with Scriptures which exhibit the same division,
viz. the Law^ the Prophets, and the other Books.

Sirachides has furnished us with no adequate means of ascer-
taining what, or how many, the sacred books of each division
were. Philo has not told us of the number ; but he has referred
to the books themselves as being parts of Scripture, and in such
a way, that, if we reckon in the ancient manner of combining, in
several cases, two or more books and naming them as one, we
make out in him a distinct recognition of all the books excepting
Esther, Daniel, and Chronicles. The want of a reference in him
to these books, however, proves nothing against their canoni-
cal credit. The only case in which it could do this would be,
where he should undertake to make out a list which in his view
would be complete, and still omit the books in question. But
this he has nowhere undertaken.

Josephus has told us the number of books in the whole collec-
tion, viz. twenty-tico. Of these, jive belong, according to his
statement, to the Law ; four to the Hagiography; and the rest
(of course thirteen) to the Prophets. His description of the
Hagiography of necessity limits it to Psalms, Proverbs, Ec-
clesiastes, and Canticles, with which agree all the most ancient
lists of books, among the Christian fathers, down to Jerome.
The same Josephus has revealed to us, in another way, what
books he regarded as sacred. The Pentateuch, and all the his-
torical books he quotes, and makes excerpts from them at large.
The only books which he does not quote, are Proverbs, Ecclesias-
tes. Canticles, and Job. But what he says of Solomon as an
author, in Antiq. viii. 2. 5. seems plainly to show, that he re-
garded him as the author of the first three of these books;
for so he has been generally regarded by the Jews in all ages
since the beginning of the Christian era. Job then is the only
book left ; but this is vouched for by Ezekiel, by Philo, and by
the New Testament.

Our Old Testament canon, then, is complete, if we rest the ques-
tion respecting it upon Jeicish testimony. The witnesses before
us can neither be impeached for incompetence, partiality, or a
proneness to state what is false. What reason is there, that they
should not be believed ? Their testimony is disinterested. They
have no party ends to accomplish by it, in this case. They were

§ 17. NKW TESTAMKNT TESTI.MONY. 27*>

Jews; and none could so well understand the matter in question
as Jews. Moreover they were all priests, or the descendants of
priestly families. At most, only Sirachides can be excepted
from this ; and I doubt seriously whether we should be justified
in excepting him. Intelligent priests, one would naturally sup-
pose, must know what were deemed sacred.

§ 17. Nature and importance of the testimony/ of the New
Testament, in respect to the Old Testament.

We come now to the consummation of our work — to the great
point toward which all else that has been examined converges.
Of a considerable number of books in the Old Testament, we do
not even know who the author was. Respecting others no ex-
planatory declaration is made by each particular book itself, or
by other sacred writers, and we fi^nd no special assertion that
their origin is divine. Who tells us expressly, that Joshua,
Judges, Ruth, Samuel, Kings, Chronicles, are of divine author-
ity? Who has told us the secret of the authorship? In what
light have any of the Old Testament writers placed Esther, Ec-
clesiastes, or Canticles? Or what do these books say respecting
themselves? It seems, indeed, at first view, as if the authorship
of Canticles and Ecclesiastes was assigned to Solomon; yet a
nicer critical examination shows, that this conclusion is probably
not well grounded. The books have respect to him — he is the
leading personage in them — but this seems to be all that we can
necessarily make out from the inscriptions and the tenor of the
books themselves. And besides all this, the three books last
mentioned seem to present not a few serious difficulties, from
various sources, to the mind of even a grave and impartial in-
quirer. What then has given sanction to them ? What obliges
us to receive and admit them as divine? Not one new doctrine
in morals or theology is added to the general stock by them. If
they were dropped from the Scriptures, our systems of divinity
and morals would remain the same as they are now. Why then
perplex our minds with these books, which present problems and
paradoxes, some of which have never yet been satisfactorily solv-
ed? Why not leave them to the Jews, to be put with the Mish-
na and the Gemara, and to augment the Rabbinical store-house
of wonders? Even the New Testament writers (as we shall see)
have not once adverted to them; and if they did not pay any

T

274 § 17- NATURE AND IMPORTANCE

more regard to them, why should we consider and treat them
as sacred?

In this manner many minds have thought and argued; and
even some which are honest and upright, and to all appearance
earnestly desirous of knowing the truth. For the scruples of
such men I must always have respect. Even if I cannot regard
their scruples as indicative of much knowledge concerning the
matter that excites them, still, a conscientious pursuit of truth,
and a readiness to receive it whenever good sound reasons for
believing it are proffered, is a disposition of mind always entitled
to respect, and has a claim to be treated with much Christian
courtesy. There is a sentiment of Paul, which I would were
oftener remembered and respected ; this is, that we ought " to
receive him that is weak in the faith, but not to doubtful disputa-
tions." I can easily suppose a sincere and earnest Christian,
whose mind has never been duly enlightened in regard to the
canon of Scripture, to be in a doubting state with respect to
some of the anonymous Old Testament books, while he heartily
admits that the rest belong to a divine revelation. So it was
with Luther in regard to some books of the New Testament.
His dspute with the Romanists about justification by faith alone,
led him to regard the Epistle of James as spurious, yea as even
an epistola straminea, i. e. a strawy epistle. The Apocalypse he
could not receive, because he " thought there was no Christ in
it." So he threw these books into an apocryphal appendix.
Yet, mistaken as he was, and poorly as he reasoned in this case,
he was still a most hearty believer in the divine word of God.
The Scriptures were to him the supreme, the all-sufficient, the
only rule of faith and practice.

So, with minds scantily informed in respect to the true basis
of credibility in the Old Testament canon, I can easily suppose
other good men may act, in regard to some of the books in our
Old Testament canon; some which are never expressly quoted
in the New Testament as Scripture, and which, therefore, may
possibly be regarded, by one class of inquirers, as having never
been duly authenticated. I know of some persons in this atti-
tude of mind, for whom I cherish a high regard, and whose
piety I should not think of calling in question. To them I would
hope to be useful in the present investigation. I cannot agree
with them in their views respecting the Old Testament; but I
can look on them with fraternal feelings, and say in the most

01' THE NEW TESTAMENT TESTIMONY. 276

brotherly manner to them: Permit me, in this Httle work,

Very different is the position of those who abjure the Okl
Testament en masse; who even cast it away with contumely, and
will listen neither to Moses nor the Prophets. I must regard
this as substantial unbelief. I apprehend it may be shown, that
what they do is virtually to set aside the authority and express
declarations of the Saviour and of his apostles. There are even
some, who would not consider this as infidelity. But while I
am not fond of applying harsh and ungrateful epithets to any
man or body of men whatever, I know not how to call the deny-
ing, or the designed evading, of the authority or the decision of
Christ and of his apostles respecting the books of the Old Tes-
tament, anything less than unbelief. It is not for me to examine
and characterise the motives., which lead to such an unbelief.
In my opinion they belong to the cognizance of the Supreme,
the Searcher of all hearts. Nor am I desirous of finding or be-
lieving grounds of making criminal charges against any one.
This whole province I would leave, and most gladly do leave,
to the prerogative of the supreme Judge. So much of the
guilt of unbelief, where unbelief in reality exists, or where I
may think it to exist, depends on the tone and temper and mo-
tives of the mind and heart, and on the light and means of in-
formation respectively possessed and enjoyed by different indi-
viduals, that I do not see how a human tribunal can take any
adequate cognizance of such a matter, even if it possessed a
right of cognizance. For one, I do not claim the right; nor do
I concede it to others.

But when all this is said, and even conceded, there still re-
mains a most formidable evil, fairly attached to and chargeable
upon unbelief. If the Saviour and his apostles, for example,
regarded and have treated the books of the Old Testament as
of divine authority and obligation, then it is an affair of the
gravest nature to decide against them. Those who do not pro-
fess to be Christians, and who regard neither the Old Testament
nor the Now as of divine authority, act consistently, to say the
least, in rejecting the Old Testament as a revelation from God.
For unbelief they too are accountable. If they are in the right
as to their views and opinions, of course they will escape both
guilt and punishment. But if they are verily in the wrong, and
voluntarily shut their eyes against the true light which Heaven

276 § 17. NATURE AND IMPORTANCR

has kindled up to illuminate our darkened path, he who has said
that unbelief is in his estimation a crime of the darkest hue in
the catalogue of our sins, cannot be expected to omit a due cog-
nizance of it, in his own proper time.

Having presented this matter in such a light, it becomes me
now to make the inquiry, Whether the writers of the New Tes-
tament do acknowledge and inculcate the authority and obliga-
tion of the Old Testament Scriptures? In other words. Whether
Christ and the apostles did appeal to the Scriptures as of Divine
authority and obligation ; and ivhether those Scriptures consisted of
the same books which are now exhibited in our Old Testament can-
on^ The way will then be prepared for coming to our final con-
clusion.

All early testimony, Jewish and Christian, exhibited indepen-
dently of the New Testament, is accordant in regard to the na-
ture and number of the Jewish sacred books. No one acquaint-
ed in any tolerable measure with the subject, will think of deny-
ing, that both Jews and Christians, at and after the earliest
part of the Christian era, fully believed in the Divine authority
and obligation of those books which belonged to the Jewish can-
on. None will deny, that before this period the same belief per-
vaded the Jewish nation. We have only to ask, then, at pre-
sent, whether the highest court of appeal sanctions this decision ;
in other words, whether Christ and the apostles, the authors of our
religion, have sanctioned the Jeioish views of the Hebrew Scriptures^

In canvassing the testimony of Jewish and Christian witness-
es, we have found occasion to look at the subject in a twofold
light; first, as having respect to the Scriptures as a whole or one
composite body of writings; and secondly, as having respect to in-
dividual and particular works which go to constitute the mass.
The same method I shall still pursue, in the present investiga-
tion.

I ask the reader for no special deference, on the present oc-
casion, to the lists of books contained in the creeds and confes-
sions of Christian churches or Jewish synagogues, in later ages.
These lists may indeed be correct. In the main I believe that
they are. But we do not here defer to them as an authority.
We make inquiry after the substantial grounds or reasons by
which these lists of sacred books are supported, and their claims
to confidence vindicated.

Our main object, moreover, is to inquire after a matter of fact.

OF THE NEW TESTAMENT TESTIMONY. 277

That matter is: What did Jesus and his apostles say respecting
the Old Testament? What constituted the Old Testament of
their day, and in what manner have they appealed to it?

It is needless to say, that the usual process of ascertaining
facts in ancient times, must be resorted to on this occasion. We
take nothing for granted, but what all reasonable men feel ob-
liged to concede. We take for granted, after the preceding in-
vestigations, that there were Jewish Scriptures at the period in
question; that they were united together in a collection of books
well known and defined; that the Jews, one and all, (sceptics
or heathenish persons excepted), regarded these books as of
Divine authority in all matters of faith and practice, spoke of
them as such, appealed to them as such, and remained, and have
continued down to the present hour (with the exceptions just
noted) to remain, steadfast in the belief that such is the charac-
ter of the books in question. So much will not be denied.

Did Christ then, and his apostles, agree with the Jewish na-
tion in regard to the matter before us? If not, have they ever
taught us the contrary? Did they establish a new Hebrew can-
on? Or did they select one part of the Jewish canon, and re-
ject the rest? Is there any conclusion to be drawn from their
teaching and example, as to the duty of Christians in this mat-
ter?

If now we wish to pursue our inquiries with regard to these
points in a satisfactory way, we must do no violence to the laws
of exegesis. We must search after evidence, in the same can-
did and dispassionate manner which we would approve of in the
investigation of any and of all matters of fact in ancient times.
We are neither to force our own views upon the New Testa-
ment writers, nor do any violence to their representations, in or-
der to make them speak in our behalf, or in order that they
should not testify against us. There is need of this caution.
The principles by which it is justified, have so often been for-
gotten or violated, that there is great need of our keeping a
watchful eye upon the whole process of investigation. And now
to the work.

278 § 18. DIVEBSE APPEALS OF NEW TESTAMENT TO THE OLD.

§ 1 8. Appeals of a general nature, which are made to the Old
Testament in the New.

I name all those general, which refer to the body of Scripture,
or to the Scripture as a whole considered in its collective capa-
city. A reference of such a nature may be made in a variety of
ways, as the sequel will show. I have only to remark here, that
throughout the appeals to testimony, the twofold object of the
authority of the Scriptures and of the hooks of which it consists,
go hand in hand, and need not, and should not, be separated
from each other.

(1.) Let us examine the Scriptures, as arranged by the Jews
under the usual triplex division. The Saviour says (Luke xxiv.
44) to his doubting disciples, "All things must be fulfilled con-
cerning me, which are written in the Law of Moses, and the
Prophets, and the Psalms!''' Now here is a distinct recognition
of the threefold division of the Hebrew Scriptures, which is so
expressly recognised in Sirach, by Philo, and by Josephus. It
is impossible to entertain any reasonable doubt of this, consider-
ing the time and circumstances in which the words were uttered.
And as we have already ascertained what books were included
in this division, we of course must regard this as an appeal to
the Jewish canon, such as it now it is. On any other ground
than a definite and well-known collection of sacred books, the
disciples could not have understood their Master, nor the Mas-
ter have spoken with simplicity and in good faith.

There is one other thing directly and positively declared here,
which most of the Neologists call in question, and in which Mr
Norton has expressed his unbelief, (see p. 9 above). This is,
that each of these divisions or parts of the Scripture is affirmed
to contain predictions respecting the Messiah. Those who call in
question the existence of prophecy, in the sense of prediction,
and those who limit it to some few passages in one, or at most
in two, of the Jewish divisions of Scripture, are placed by this
passage in direct opposition to the Saviour. To suppose him to
have said this merely in the way oi accommodation to Jewish pre-
judices about the meaning of the Old Testament, is neither
more nor less than to suppose him guilty of fraud. If we should
call it pious fraud, this would not better the case, in the view of
any ingenuous and truth-loving mind. Or, as the only alterna-

§ 18. DIVERSE APPEALS OF NEW TESTAMENT TO THE OLD, 279

live, they must suppose the Saviour, like the Jews in general, to
have either trifled with the meaning of the Scriptures, or to
have been really ignorant of their true import. The responsibi-
lity of either or any of these assertions or suppositions, is what
I would not desire to incur ; and above all at the time when he
who is thus virtually accused of fraud or of ignorance, shall sit
as my Judge, in a trial whose results are to last for eternity.

There is indeed one other way of escape; which is, by deny-
ing that Luke has correctly reported the words of Christ.

But as the New Testament is full of the same kind of words,
from beginning to end, either the credibility of it throughout, in
regard to this subject, must be rejected; or else it must come
simply to this, that we are to believe only such parts, and so
much of it, as we may a 'priori judge to be probable and credi-
ble. This appears to be the exact position of Mr Norton and
many others. But I regard the entire rejection of it as more
creditable to the understanding, and even to the heart, than
this position; for it virtually abjures faith in the testimony of
past ages to such an extent, as must render all the past but a
dark and troubled sea of elements eternally fluctuating, on which
no one can ever launch with any good ground of hope that he
may reach a safe and peaceful harbour. The unbelief that con-
sistently sets aside the whole, shows a more manly and energetic
attitude of mind; and in my opinion, it is much more likely to
be convinced at last of error, than he is who thinks that he is
already a believer and is safe, while he virtually rejects from the
gospel all which makes it a gospel, in distinction from the teach-
ings of Socrates, of Plato, of Plutarch, of Cicero, and of Seneca.

I add only one remark, which is but a repetition of what has al-
ready been said. The names here given to the various divisions
of the sacred books, (and which have already been explained),
must, from their very nature, indicate a definite and icell-hioicn
collection of books ranked under each class; for otherwise they
could have no real significance to the disciples. When the civil-
ian says, that the Pandects and Novellcc of Justinian have decid-
ed a certain point so, or so, does any other civiUan, or any body
else who knows any thing of the work in question, entertain any
doubt as to what and how many books or treatises are meant?
When I speak of the works of Virgil at one time, and at an-
other speak of the Bucolics, the Georgics, and the Eneid, am I
not well and definitely understood by classical readers in both

280 § 18. DIVERSE APPEALS OF NEW TKSTAMENT TO THE OLD.

cases? The decision, however, of questions so easy and obvious
as these, does not call for any enlargement on this topic.

(2.; Another mode of general reference to tlie Scriptures as a
body, or as a collection of books fixed and definite, is by giv-
ing to the whole in union a general name, which usage has ap-
propriated to them in order to distinguish them; which name
of course comprises within its import all the books that are thus
united.

Such in particular is the word i^ y^a(pri, or its plural «; y^afai,
corresponding exactly to our word Scripture and Scriptures^ i. e.
the writing, the writings. Every one sees what part the article
plays here. It specificates, and distinguishes the meaning of the
word to which it applies from its common or generic significa-
tion, viz. a tcriting, i. e. any writing. The writing is one which
stands distinguished from other writings. The same also may
be said of a/ ygapa, (plur.) the Scriptures, i.e. the writings which are
distinguished from all others. In the same manner the Moslem

calls his Koran the Scripture (3(i:c3 jT); indeed the word Kor-
an itself has virtually the same meaning, viz. the reading, or
that which is to he read. As to the singular /^a^'/j, or the plural
yi'icipci/, there is no appreciable difference in the meaning. The
singular is employed merely with reference to the whole collec-
tion in its unity; the plural, in reference to the same, but as be-
ing made up of many parts. In like manner the Latins might
and did say of a letter, for example, that it was cpistola or literce.
Of course, in my references to the New Testament passages, I
shall pay no regard to the number, whether singular or plural,
of the noun which designates the Scriptures. In English we
have to all intents and purposes the same idiom ; for we say the
Scripture, and the Scriptures, without any other distinction of
meaning than the one already pointed out. Let us follow the
New Testament in order.

Matt. xxii. 29, Jesus says to the Sadducees, " Ye do err, not
knowing the Scriptures, nor the power of God." In other words,
a knowledge of the Scriptures would save you from error, viz. in
regard to the things of a future state. The same in Mark xii.
24.

Matt. xxvi. .54, Jesus had just said, that he could pray to his
Father, and obtain more than twelve legions of angels to deliver
him from the sufferings which were at hand; he then adds, " But

§ 18. DIVERSK Al'l'KALS OF NEW TKHTAMENT TO I HE OLD. 281

how then could tlio Scriptures bo fulfilled, that this must so be?"
i. e. that he must so suffer. Of course this is a declaration, that
what is predicted in the Old Testament respecting his sufferings
and death, must of necessity have a fulfilment.

Matt. xxvi. 56, the writer is speaking of the apprehension of
Jesus by the enraged multitude, and the violence done to him;
he then adds, " Now all this took place, that the Scriptures of
the Prophets might be fulfilled." Prophets, in the language of
the Jews, were, as we have seen, all the writers of the Old Tes-
tament, i. e. they supposed them all to be inspired, which is the
true original idea of a prophet. Here, by the prophets are meant,
those writers in the Bible who had predicted the sufferings of
Christ. The same in Mark xiv. 49.

Mark xii. 10, " Have ye not read this Scripture? the stone
which the builders rejected," &c., where Jesus quotes from the
body of Scripture a particular passage, (which he names Scrip-
ture, just as we now name such a quotation). The object is to
show, that the Scriptures had predicted what must be fulfilled.

Mark xv. 28, " The Scripture was fulfilled which says. He
shall be numbered with the transgressors " If the fulfilment
here is not predicated of a direct prediction, but the happening
of an event of the like nature with one recorded in Scripture,
still the reference to the authority of Scripture stands substan-
tially on the same ground as if the prediction were more direct.

Luke iv. 21, Jesus, in the synagogue at Nazareth, had read a
passage from Isa. Ixi. 1 seq., which he applies (as a prediction)
to himself, and then adds, " To-day, in your hearing, is this
Scripture fulfilled." In other words, the predictions in the Old
Testament have respect to him, and he it is who fulfils them.
Of course, they are acknowledged as divine.

Luke xxiv, 27, Jesus is addressing his wondering and incre-
dulous disciples, after his resurrection, " Beginning from Moses
and from all the Prophets, he explained to them the things con-
cerning himself in all the Scriptures." Here are two recogni-
sances of Scripture which are worthy of attention; (1.) Moses
and all the Prophets. (2.) There are things respecting Christ
in all the Scriptures.

Luke xxiv. 45, " Then opened he their minds to understand
the Scriptures." The preceding verse speaks of the Law, the
Prophets, and the Psalms. These then constitute the Scrip-

282 § 18. DIVERSE APPEALS OF NEW TESTAMENT TO THE OLD.

tures, which appellation of course means in such a case the
whole of them; for nothing short of this is designated by rdg
'yga(pdg here.

John ii. 22, The disciples are said, after his resurrection, to
have remembered the words of Jesus, (destroy this temple, and
in three days I will raise it up), and then " they believed the
Scripture ;" viz. the Scripture which predicts his death and re-
surrection.

John V. 39, Jesus bids the Jews to " Search the Scriptures,
because in them they think they have eternal life, and these
very Scriptures are those which testify of him.'" In other words,
the Scriptures, i. e. the Old Testament, is the authority which
is to decide between him and the Jews in respect to his claims.

John X. 35, Jesus says to the Jews, " If it [the Law, which,
however, is here used to designate the Scriptures in general]
called them gods to whom the word of God came, and the Scrip-
ture cannot be broken," &c. Why cannot the Scripture be
broken? Plainly, because it is the word of God. Is not this
then of paramount and divine authority ? And here Scripture
stands for the whole Hebrew Bible, because the proposition
plainly amounts to this, viz. that no part or portion of the
Scripture can be broken.

John xiii. 18, " But [this takes place] that the Scripture
might be fulfilled, He who eateth bread with me," &c. In
other words; whatever is directly or indirectly foretold or pre-
figured in the Scripture, must needs be fulfilled.

John xvii. 12, None of the true disciples are to perish, but
the son of perdition must perish, " that the Scripture might be
fulfilled." That is, all the predictions of the Old Testament
must have a completion.

John xix. 24, " That the Scripture might be fulfilled which
saith. They divided my garments among themselves," &c. To
the same purpose as the preceding quotation.

John xix. 36, The soldiers broke not the limbs of Jesus,
" that the Scripture might be fulfilled, which saith. Not a bone
of him shall be broken." The Scripture here is the injunction
respecting the paschal lamb, the prototype of Jesus, Ex. xii. 46.
But the reference to its authority/ is not the less, because the
fulfilment appertains to a typical prediction. Nay, the case is
even stronger than that of a direct prediction. It stands thus:

§ 18. DIVERSE APPEALS OP NEW TESTAMENT TO THE OLD. 283

Not only direct predictions must be fulfilled, but even indirect
or typical ones. In other words: Nothing of the Old Testament
Scriptures can fail.

John xix, 87, " Again another Scripture saith, They shall
look on him whom they have pierced." The piercing of Jesus'
side by one of the soldiers, is the occasion of this quotation. It
isregarded as being a prediction of the Scripture, and therefore
it must needs be fulfilled.

John XX. 9, "As yet they [the disciples] knew not the Scrip-
ture, that he must rise from the dead." Whatever the Scrip-
ture has determined must of course take place, is the tenor of
the sentiment.

Acts i. 16, Peter says, in his address to the apostles,
" Brethren, the Scripture must needs be fulfilled, which the
Holy Ghost foretold by the mouth of David." This involves
the necessity that the predictions should be accomplished, and
the express idea of the inspiration of the writer of it by the
Holy Spirit.

Acts viii. 35, Philip, beginning " with this Scripture [Isa. liii.
7 seq.], preached to him Jesus." That is, Philip showed to the
eunuch that Christ is the subject of description in Isa. liii.

Acts xvii. 2 seq., Paul " as his custom was . . . discoursed to
them from the Scriptures, explaining [them], and setting forth
that Christ must needs suffer and rise from the dead." In
other words, the Messianic predictions in the Old Testament
must be fulfilled.

Acts xvii. 11, the historian praises the Bereans, not only be-
cause " they received the word with all readiness, but inves-
tigated the Scriptures daily, whether these things were so," i. e.
they put the preaching of Paul to the test of the Old Testa-
ment Scriptures; and they are called by him more nolle for so
doing.

Acts xviii. 24, Apollos is commended as an eloquent preach-
er, because " he was mighty in the Scriptures." If the Old
Testament, as Mr Norton avers, is a book utterly inconsistent
with Christianity, how could Apollos be an excellent preacher
from the circumstance of being uncommonly versed in it?
Moreover, it is said of him again, in ver. 28, that " he showed
from the Scriptures that Jesus is the Christ."

Rom. i. 2, Paul asserts that " the Gospel was before announ-
ced by the prophets in the holy Scriptures."

284 § 18. DIVERSE APPEALS Of NEW TESTAMENT TO THE OLD.

In Rom. iv. 3, the same apostle appeals to " what the Scripture
saith," in order to establish the doctrine of justification by faith.
In Rom. ix. 1 7, he does the same thing in order to establish the
divine sovereignty : " For the Scripture saith to Pharaoh/' &c.
In Rom. X. 11, he makes the same appeal, "for the Scripture
saith;" this he does in order to establish the certainty that the
believer shall be rewarded. In Rom xv. 4, he speaks of our
possessing hope, " through the consolation of the Scripture." In
Rom. xvi. 26, he speaks of the gospel as being made known to the
Gentiles " by the prophetic Scriptures, according to the com-
mandment of the eternal God, unto obedience of the faith." And
are these the books, then, which we are at liberty to pronounce
inconsistent with the gospeH

In 1 Cor. XV, 8, Paul says that " Christ died for our sins accord-
ing to the Scriptures ;" and in ver. 4, that " he was buried,
and rose again on the third day, according to the Scriptures.'"
In Gal. iii. 8, he says that " the Scripture .... before announced
the gospel to Abraham, that in him all the nations should be
blessed." In 1 Tim. v. 18, he appeals to Scripture as confirming
the sentiment, that " the labourer is worthy of his hire."

James, in ii. 8, speaks of " the royal law," (Thou shalb love
thy neighbour as thyself), as being obligatory, because it is con-
tained "in the Scripture." In ii. 28, he appeals to Scripture as
confirming his doctrine of justification by faith. In iv. 5, he
reproves those who think that the Scripture speaks zsvuc, i. e. to
no purpose.

Peter refers to the Scripture as containing the revelation of a
Saviour precious and all sufficient, 1 Pet. ii, 6. In 2 Pet. iii. 16,
he speaks of those who pervert the words of Paul to their own
destruction, " as they do the other Scriptures;" i. e. the Old
Testament Scriptures are put beside the writings of Paul, and
are ranked with them.

Thus much under the single category of appeal to the Old
Testament Scriptures, by naming thera as a w hole, or as a collec-
tion of sacred writings under the distinctive appellation of tj ypcicpf)
or ai y^a<pai, the Scripture or the Scriptures. In several of the
passages, their inspiration is expressly declared; in all of thera
their paramount authority is openly and plainly assumed or
avowed. It is impossible to call this in question, when the matter
and manner of the appeal are fully taken into view.

(3.) Passages which directly declare, or plainly imply, the
impirafion of the Old TostanuMit writers.

§ 18. DIVKHSK APJ'K.AI.S Ol" NKW I'lCSTA M RNT TO TMK OLD. 2So

2 Tim. iii. 14 — 1 7. " Do thou continue in the things that thou
hast learned and believed, knowing from whom thou hast learned
them, and that from childhood thou hast known the holy Scrip-
tures, which are able to make thee wise unto salvation, through
faith in Christ Jesus. Uasa yoa^r, ':)io-rv2vG-o;, every Scripture is
inspired of God., and is profitable for doctrine, for conviction, for
correction, for instruction in righteousness, that the man of God
may be perfect; thoroughly furnished unto every good work."

On this notable passage but few remarks are needed. (1.)
Every Scripture, Tacra y^ap-/;, i. e. every constitutent part or
portion of the Scriptures, as the omission of the article of course
implies, (not ■rraffa n y^a(pyi all the tScri2)ture, spoken of as merely
a collective unity), is inspired of God. &so'rvivGrog cannot mean
less than this. If we might coin a new English word, to meet
the Greek one here employed, we might render it God-inspirited,
which would be altogether literal and exact. All attempts to
fritter away this plain meaning are but vain. To appeal to the
inspiration of heathen poets, and to the loose meaning of inspired
among some of the Christian fathers, is nothing to the purpose.
What did Paul mean? is the question. And of this there can
be no philological doubt. Even De Wette, with all his predo-
minating incredulity, says of 'SubTrvsugros, that " it is an expression
and idea w-hich stands connected with rrnZijM, lit. hreath, since
one regarded the energy of the divine Spirit as causing the
breath of life ; and here it means inspired, durchgeistet, i. e. ani-
mated through and through by the Spirit, peistvoll, i. e. full of
the Spirit." The manner in which the Spirit operated is not
here described by Paul, and must be learned, if learned at all,
from other passages of Scripture. (2.) These Scriptures are not
only issc/.i, holy, sacred, but " they are able to make wise unto
salvation," even that salvation which is " by faith in Christ
Jesus." And is such a book, then, in oj^position to Christianity?
And must it be proscribed and rejected by an enlightened Chris-
tian? So Mr Norton says; but Paul has presented the matter in
a very different light.

(3.) "Every Scripture is profitable for doctrine, for conviction,
for correction, for instruction in righteousness." How all this
can be, in case the Old Testament is even contrary to the Gospel,
and unworthy of our regard, is for those to explain who main-
tain the latter position. Then again, " the man of God becomes

286 § 18. DIVERSE APPEALS OF NEW TESTAMENT TO THE OLD.

perfect, and thoroughly furnished for every good work,"" by the
use of these same Scriptures,

No one who is acquainted with ancient critical and religious
history, will venture to maintain that any other Scriptures than
those of the Jews, were then in general circulation, when Paid
wrote the second Epistle to Timothy. Of course Paul has said
all this of the Old Testament. More cannot be said by any one,
and more need not be said.

The only alternative is to deny the genuineness of the epistle,
or to reject the authority of Paul. Objections, 1 am aware,
have of late often been made against the genuineness of the
epistle; but they cannot stand before the tribunal of criticism.
And as to rejecting the authority of Paul, I have only to say,
that he who does this, raises the simple standard of infidehty,
and enlists under it. It is not my present object to dispute
with such.

2 Pet. i. 20, 21, " Knowing this first, that no prophecy is of
one's own power of disclosure ; for prophecy in time past was
not introduced by the will of man, but holy men of God spake
as they were moved by the Holy Ghost." I have translated
Idiag s'TTiXuaiug by one's power of disclosure. This locus vexaiissimus,
I am well aware, has been moulded into almost every shape, and
made to mean a great variety of things. Among the rest it has
been made to patronize the doctrine, that no prophet under-
stood or could explain what he himself, or at least his own words,
meant ! Of such an absurdity I say nothing. The plain sense
is, that prophecy comes, not by the prophet's own power of dis-
closure, or of removing the veil from the future, but by the in-
spiration of the Holy Ghost. Let it be noted, that Peter employs
the generic appellation Tfo^Tjrs/a (without the article), prophecy
in general, all that is prophetic in the Old Testament ; and in
the Jewish sense, everything there is the work of prophets. The
prophets were uto -rviv/MaTog aykn ps^o/^tsfo/, home along., moved., in-
fluenced^ by the Holy Ghost. Thus does Peter exactly corres-
pond with the Ik&Vi'suffrog of Paul.

In the preceding context Peter speaks of the prophetic word.,
i. e. the Old Testament Scriptures, as a " light shining in a dark
place," and as something [SilSaiors^ov, more steadfast, sure, more to
he depended on, than what the three disciples had seen and heard
in the mount of transfiguration ; at least such seems to be his

§ 18. UIVEHSE AP1>EAL.S OF NKW TESTAMENT TO THE OLD. 287

sentiment, in the connection in which his words stand. This is
a very striking passage, and must be quite revolting to the feel-
ings of Mr Norton and those who sympathize with him.

In Heb. iii. 7, Paul cites a text of Scripture, and says con-
cerning it, " As the Holy Spirit saith." He does the same in
Heb. xii. 15, and introduces it by saying, "The Holy Spirit tes-
tifies to us."

In 1 Pet. i. 10 — 12, is a passage, which affirms that "respect-
ing [sfospel] salvation, the prophets have sought out and made
diligent scrutiny, who prophesied respecting the grace that was
to be revealed ... To whom it was revealed, that not unto
themselves, but unto us, they ministered the things which," &;c.
The idea of a revelation supernaturally made, lies upon the very
face of this representation.

Heb. i. 1 declares, that " God at sundry times and in divers
manners spake to the fathers by the prophets." If God spake
by them, then who shall be absolved from listening to what he
said? If God spake by them, then they have not said what is
contradictory to Christianity, or subversive of it.

In 1 Cor. ix. 9, 10, Paul, after quoting a passage from the
Mosaic Law, forbidding to muzzle the ox which treadeth out the
corn, adds, " Doth God care for oxen 1 Or does he say this
truly for our sakes ? On our account it icas written, that he who
plougheth should plough in hope, and he who reapeth should be
a partaker in hope." On this I remark that the apostle says,
(1 .) That God says what is here quoted. (2.) That he says it
mainly on our account; and of course it follows, that we are to
read and profit by it.

In Rom. i. 1, Paul says, that "God before declared the gospel,
by his prophets, in the holy Scriptures." The authority of these
Scriptures, then, consists in this, viz. that they contain the de-
clarations of God.

But enough on the topic of inspiration. It is impossible, after
acquiring a proper knowledge of what Philo and Josephus have
unequivocally taught us in regard to the belief of the Jews in the
inspiration of their Scriptures, to read the New Testament and
overlook the fact, that everywhere and always the supreme au-
thority of the sacred books is either directly asserted, or con-
ceded by implication. Scripture is the supreme arbiter, in all
cases where a decision is required. The vaHdity of the Redeem-
er's mission, and his claims, are tried by it; the doctrines which

288 § 18. DIVERSE A1'I'P:ALS of new testament to i'HK OLD.

the apostles preached are tried by it; every virtue either of
morality or piety is sanctioned by it. It is impossible to doubt
what the apostles and evangelists have taught, in respect to this
subject, without at the same time assuming, that our own sub-
jective views are to be the paramount authority, in all cases
where authority is needed.

(4.) Under the head of miscellaneous I'ecognitions of the au-
thority of the Old Testament Scriptures, it were easy to produce
texts almost without number. I must content myself, however,
with a general exhibition of them, thus putting the reader in a
condition easily to pursue this investigation in its minuter par-
ticulars, by giving him an index to the passages of the Old Tes-
ment which are cited or alluded to in the New.

Matlheiv.
i. 23— Isa. vii. 14.
ii. 6 — Mic. V. 1.
ii. 15 — Hos. xi. 1.
ii. 18 — Jer. xxxi. 15.
iii. 3— Isa. xl. 3-5.
iv. 4 — Deut. viii. 3.
iv. 6 — Ps. xci. II.
iv. 7 — Deut. vi. 1 6.
iv. 10— Deut. vi. 13.
iv. 15 seq. — Isa. viii. 23,

ix. 1.
V. 5 — Ps. xxxvii. 11.
V. 21— Ex. XX. 13.
V. 27— Ex. XX. 14.
V. 31 — Deut. xxiv. 1.
V. 33— Ex. XX. 7.
V. 38— Ex. xxL 24, Lev-

xxiv. 20.
V. 43— Lev. xix. 1 8.
viii. 4 — Lev. xiv. 2 seq.
viii. 17 — Isa. liii. 4.
ix. 13— Hos. vi. 6.
X. 35, 36— Mic. vii. 6.
xi. 5 — Isa. xxix. 18 seq.

Ixi. 1.
xi. 10— Mai. iii. 1.
xi. 14— Mai. iv. 5.
xii. 3—1 Sam. xxi. 6.
xii. 5 — Num. xxviii. 9.
xii. 7 — Hos. vi. 6.
xii. 18 seq. — Isa. xlii. 1

seq.
xii. 40— Jon. i. 17.
xii. 4 1 . — Jon. iii. 5 seq.
xii. 42 — 1 Kings x. 1.
xiii. 14 seq. — Isa. vi. 9.

seq.
xiii. 35 — Ps. Ixxviii. 2.

XV. 4 — Ex. XX. ] 2, Deut.

V. 16.
XV. 8, 9 — Isa. xxix. 1 3.
xix. 5 — Gen. ii. 24.
xix. 7, 8 — -Deut. xxiv. 1.
xix. 18 seq. — Ex. xx. 12

seq. Lev. xix.
xxL 5 — Zeeh. ix. 9.
xxi. 13 — Isa. Ivi. 7. Jer.

vii.
xxi. 16 — Ps. viii. 2.
xxi. 42 — Ps. cxviii. 22.
xxi. 44 — Isa. viii. 14 seq.
xxii. 24 — Deut. xxv. 5.
xxii. 32 — Ex. iii. 6.
xxii. 37 — Deut. vi. 5.
xxii. 39 — Lev. xix. 18.
xxii. 44 — Ps. ex, 1.
xxiii. 35 — Gen. iv. 8.
j xxiii. 39— Ps. cxviii. 26.
'xxiv. 15 — Dan. ix. 27.
xxiv. 29 — Isa. xiii. 10.
xxiv. 37 seq. — Gen. vii. 4

seq.
xxvi. 31 — Zech. xiii. 7.
xxvii. 9 — Zech. xi. 1 2 seq.
xxvii. 35 — Ps. xxii. 18.
xxvii. 43 — Ps. xxii. 8.
xxvii. 46 — Ps. xxii. 1.

Mark.

2— Mai. iii. 1.

3— Isa. xl. 3.

44 — Lev. xiv. 2 seq.
ii. 25, 6 — 1 Sam. xxi. 6.
iv. 12 — Isa. vi. 9.
vii. 6,7 — Isa. xxix. 13.
vii. 10— Ex. XX. 12.
ix. 14 — Isa. Ixvi. 44.

X. 4 — Deut. xxiv. \.

X. 7 — Gen. ii. 24.

xi. 1 7 — Isa. Ivi. 7. Jer.

vii. 11.
xii. 10, 11— P.s. cxviii. 22.
xii 19 — Deut. xxv. 5.
xii. 26 — Ex. iii. 6.
xii. 29 seq. — Deut. vi. 4

seq.
xii. 31 — Lev. xix. 18.
xii. 36 — Ps. ex. 1.
xiii. 14 — Dan. ix. 27.
xiii. 24 — Isa. xiii. 9 seq.
xiv. 27 — Zech. xiii. 7-
XV. 28— Isa. liii. 12.
XV. 34 — xxii. 1.

Luke.
i. 33— Dan. ii. 44.
i. 55 — Gen. xvii. 19.
i. 73 — Gen. xxiL 16.
ii. 21, 22— Lev. xii. 3, 4.
ii. 23— Ex. xiii. 2.
ii. 24 — Lev. xii. 6.
iii. 4 seq. — Isa. xl. 3 seq.
iv. 4 — Deut. viii. 3.
iv. 8— Deut. vi. 1 3.
iv. 10, 11— Ps. xcL 11.
iv. 1 2— Deut. vi. 1 6.
iv. 18, 19 — Isa. Ixi. 1 seq.
iv. 25,26—1 Kings xvii 1,9.
iv. 27 — 2 Kings v. 14.
V. 14 — Lev. xiv. 2 — 4.
vi. 3, 4 — 1 Sam. xxi. 6.
vii. 27 — Mai. iii. 1.
X. 27 — Deut. vi. 5. Lev.

xix. 18.
X. 28 — Lev. xviii. 5.
xi. 31 — 1 Kings x. 1.

§ 18. Ari'EALS OF NliW TESTAMKNT TO IIIK Ol.l). 2Hi)

xi. 51 — Geii. iv. iJ.

xiii. 35 — Ps. cxviii. '2(k

xvii. '27 — Gen vii. 7.

xvii. 2.') — Gen. xix. 15.

-wii. 32 — Geu. xi.\. 2(!.

xviii. 20 — Ex. xx. 12 seq.
xix. 46 — Isa. Ivi. 7. Jer.

vii. ] 1.
XX. 17— Ps. cxviii. 22.
XX. 2H — Dt'ut. XXV. 5.
XX. 37 — Ex. iii. (>.
XX. 42, 43— Ps. ex. 1 .
xxii. 37 — Isa. liii. 12.
xxiii. 30 — Hos. x. H.

John.
i. 23— Isa. xl. 3.
i. 51^Gen. xxviii. 12.
ii. 17— Ps. Ixix 9.
iii. 14 — Num. xxi. !!, .9.
vi. 31— Ps. Ixxviii. 24.
vi. 45 — Isa. liv. 13.
vii. 22 — Lev. xii. 3.
vii. 38 — Isa. Iviii. 1 1 .
vii. 42 — Ps. Ixxxix. 4. Mic,

V. 1.

viii. 5 — Lev. XX. 10
viii. 17 — Deut. xvii. 6.
X. 34— Ps. Ixxxii. 6.
xii. 13— Ps. cxviii. 25, 26.
xii. 15 — Zeeh. ix. .9.
xii. 34 — Ps. ex. 4.
xii. 38 — Is. liii. 1.
xii. 40 — Isa. vi. 9. 10.
xiii. 18— Ps. xii. 9.
XV. 25— Ps. XXXV. 19.
xvii. 12 — Ps. cix. 8, 17.
xix. 24— Ps. xxii. 4 8.
xix. 28— Ps. Ixix. 21.
xix. 36 — Ex. xii. 46.
xix. 37 — Zecli. xii. 1 0.

Acls.
i. 16, 20— Ps. Ixix. 25; cix.

8.
ii. 1 6 seq. — Joel ii. 28 seq.
ii. 25 — -Ps. xvi. 8.
ii. 31— Ps. xvi. 10.
ii. 34— Ps. ex. 1.
iii. 22 — Deut. xviii. 15.
iii. 25 — Gen. xii. 3.
iv. 11 — Ps. cxviii. 22.
iv. 25 — Ps. ii. 1.
vii. 2 — Gen. xii. 1.
vii. 6, 7 — Gen. xv. 1 3 seq.
vii. 8 — Gen. xvii. 10.
vii. 9 — Geu. xxxvii. 28.
vii. 1 7— Ex. i. 7.
vii. 20— Ex. ii. 2.
vii. 24— Ex. ii. 11.

XI,

ixi.
37 xi.

vii. 30 — Ex. iii. 2.
vii. 37 — Deut. xviii. 13.
vii. 38 — Ex. xix. 3.
vii. 39 — Ex. xxxii. 1.
vii. 42 — Amos v. 25.
vii. 45 — Josh, iii. 14.
vii. 46 — 2 Sam. vii. 1 seq
vii. 48 — Isa. Ixvi. 1.
viii. 32 — Isa. liii. 7.
X. 34 — Deut. X. 1 7.
xiii. 17 — Ex. i. 7. xii

seq. [ XI

xiii. 18 — Deut. i. 31. ixi

xiii. 22 — 1 Sam. xvi. 13. xi,

Ps. Ixxxix. 20.
xiii. 33 — Ps. ii. 7.
xiii. 34 — Isa. Iv. 3.
xiii. 35 — Ps. xvi. 10.
xii. 36 — 1 Kings ii. 10.
xii. 41— Hab. i. 5.
xii. 47 — Isa. xlix. 6.
XV. 1 6 — Amos ix. II.
xxiii. 5 — Ex. xxii. 28.
xxviii. 26 — Isa. vi. 9 seq

Romans.
i. 17— Hab. ii. 4.
ii. 6 — Prov. xxiv. 12.
ii. U— Deut. x. 17.
ii. 24 — Isa. Hi. 5.
iii. 4— Ps, Ii. 4.
iii. 10 — Ps, xiv. 1 seq.
iii, 1 3— Ps. V 9. exl. 3.
iii. 14— Ps. X. 7.
iii. 15-17 — Isa. lix. 7,8.
iii. 18 — Ps. xxxvi. 1.
iv, 3 — Gen. xv. 6.
iv. 6 seq. — Ps. xxxii. 1 seq.
iv. 11 — Gen. xvii. 10.
iv. 17 — Gen. xvii. 5.
iv. 18 — Gen. xv. 5.
vii. 7 — Ex. XX. 1 7.
viii. 36— Ps. xliv. 22.
ix. 7 — Gen, xxi. 12.
ix. 9 — Gen. xviii. 10.
ix. 12— Gen. XXV. 23.
ix. 13— Mai. i. 2, 3.
ix. 15 — Ex. xxxiii. 19.
ix. 17 — Ex. ix. 16.
ix. 20— Isa. xlv. 9.
ix. 21 — Jer. xviii. 6.
ix. 25 — Hos. ii. 23.
ix. 26— Hos. i. 10.
ix. 27 seq — Isa. x. 22 seq.
ix, 29 — Isa. i. 9.
ix, 33 — Isa. viii. 14. xxviii.

16.
X. 5 — Lev. xviii. 5.
X. 6 seq. — Deut. xxx. 12

seq.

1 1 — Isa. xxviii. 16.
1 3— Joel ii. 32.
15 — Isa. Hi. 7.
16 — Isa. liii. 1.
18— Ps. xix. 4.
19 — Deut. xxxii. 21.
20 seq. — Isa. l.xv. 1 stq.
3—1 Kings xix. 10, U,
3 — 1 Kings xix, 18.
8 — Isa. xxix. 10. vi. 9.
9 seq. — Ps. Ixix. 22 beq.
26— Isa. lix. 20.
27 — Jer. xxxi. 33 .seq.
34— Isa, xl, 1 3,
35 — Job xii. 11.
9 — Amos v. 15,
19 — Deut, xxxii. 35.
20 — Prov. XXV. 21 seq.
. 9 — Ex. XX. 13 seq.
. ] 1— Isii. xlv. 23.
3— Ps. Ixix. 9.
9— Ps. xviii. 49.
10 — Deut. xxxii. 4 3.
1 1 — Ps. cxvii. 1.
12 -Isa. xi. 10.
21— Isa. Hi. 15.

1 Corinlliiuns.
i. 19 — Isa. xxix. 14.
i. 20— Isa. xliv. 25.
i. 21— Jer. ix. 23.
ii. 9 — Isa. Ixiv. 4.
ii, 15 — Isa. xl. 13.
in. 19— Job V. 13.
iii. 20— Ps. xciv. 1 1.
V. 13 — Deut. xvii. 7.
vi. 16— Gen. ii. 24.
ix. 9 — Deut. XXV. 4.
ix. 13 — Deut. xviii. 1.
X. 1— Ex. xiii. 21. xiv. 22.
X. 3, 4 — Ex. xvi. 1 5. xvii. 6.
X. 7 — Ex. xxxii. 6.
X. 8 — Num. XXV. 1, 9.
X. 9 — Ex. xvii. 2, 7, Num,

xxi. 6,
X. 1 0 — Num. xiv. 2, 27. 29.
X. 26— Ps. xxiv. 1.
xiv. 21 — Isa. xxviii. 1 1.
xiv. 34 — Gen. iii. 1 6.
XV. 3— Lsa. liii. 8,9. Ps.x.xii.
XV. 4 — Ps. xvi. 10.
XV, 25 — Ps. ex. 1.
XV. 27— Ps. vin. 6.
XV, 32 — lsa. xxii. i 3.
.XV. 45 — Gen. ii. 7.
XV. 54, 55 — Isa. xxv. 8.

Ho.-;, xiii. 14.

2 Corinthians.
iv. l.'J- Ps. cxvi. 10.

290 § 18. DIVERSE APPEALS OF NEW TESTAMENT TO THE OLD.

vL 2 — Isa. xlix. 8.
vi. 16 — Lev. xxvi. 12.
vi. 17 — Isa. lii. 1 1.
vi. 18 — Jer. xxxi. 1, 9.
viii. 15— Ex. 16, 18.
ix. 7 — Ex. XXXV. 5.
ix. 9 — Ps. cxii. 9.
ix. 10— Isa. Iv. 10.
xi. 3 — Gen. iii. 4.

i. 10 se(|. — Isa. xxxiv. 4. xii. 12 seq. — Is. xxxv. 3.

ii. 16
iii. 6-
iii. 8—
iii. 10-
iii. 11-
iiL 12-
iii. 13
iii. 16
iii. 17
iv. 22
iv. 27
iv. 30
v. 14-

26

Galatians.
-Ps. cxliii. 2.
Gen. XV. 6.
Gen. xii. '6.
Deut. xxvii
Hab. ii. 4.
Lev. xviii. 5.
Deut. xxi. 23.
Gen. xvii. 7.
■Ex. xii. 40 seq
—Gen. xxi. 2, 9.
-Isa. liv. 1.
-Gen. X. 12.
Lev. xix. 18.

Ephesiaiis.
ii. 17— Isa. IviL 19.
iv. 8 — Ps. Ixviii. 18.
iv. 26— Ps. iv. 4.
iv. 30 — Gen. ii. 23 seq.
vi. 2— Ex. XX. 12.
vi. 9 — Job xxxiv. 19.

Philippians.
ii. 10 — Isa. xlv. 23.

Colossians.
ii 11 — Deut. XXX. 6.
iii. 25 — Job xxxiv. 19.

2 Thessahnians.
ii. 4 — Dan. xi. 36.
ii. 8 — Isa. xi. 4.

1 Tinwth/.

ii. l3_Gen. i. 27. ii. 1
ii. 14 — Gen. iii. 6.
ii. 18 — Deut. XXV. 4.

xix. 1 3.
VI. 7 — Ps. xlix. 17.

2 Timothj/.
ii. 19 — Num. xvi. 5.
iii. 8 — Ex. vii. 11, 22.

Jfebrews.
I. 6-Ps. ii. 7.
i. 6— Ps. xcvii. 7.
i. 7 — Ps. civ. 4.
I. 8— Ps. xlv. 6 seq.

Ii. 6.
i. 13— Ps. ex. 1. I

ii. 2 — Deut. xxvii. 26. !

ii. 6 seq.— Ps. viii. 4 seq.
ii. 12— Ps. xxii. 22.
ii. 13— Ps. xviii. 2.
ii. 13— Is. viii. 18.
iii. 2 — Num. xii. 7.
iii. 7 — Ps. xcv. 7.
iii. 17 — Num. xiv. 32 — 37.
iv. 3— Ps. xcv. 11.
iv. 4 — Gen. ii. 2.
iv. 7 — Ps. xcv. 7.
V. 4 — 1 Chron. xxiii. 13.
V. 5— Ps. ii. 7.
V. 6 — Ps. ex. 4.
vi. 14 — Gen. xxii. 16.
vii. 1 — Gen. xiv. 18.
vii. 17, 21— Ps. ex. 4.
viii. 5 — Ex. XXV. 40.
viii. 8 seq. — Jer. xxxi. 31

seq.
ix. 13 — Lev. xvi. 14.
ix. 20 — Ex. xxiv. 8.
X. 5 seq. — Ps. xl. 7 seq.
X. 12, 13— Ps. ex. 1.
X. 16 seq. Jer. xxxi. 33

seq.
x. 28 — Deut. xvii. 6.
X. 30 — Deut. xxxii. 35.
X. 37 seq. — Hab. ii. 3 seq.
xi. 3 — Gen. i. 1. Ps. xxxiii.

6.
xi. 4 — Gen. iv. 4.
xi. 5 — Gen. v. 24,
xi. 7— Gen. vi. 14—22.
xi. 8. — Gen. xii. 1, 4.
xi. 13 — Gen. xlvii. 9.
xi. 17 — Gen xxii. 1 seq.
xi. 18— Gen. xxi. 12.
xi. 20 — Gen. xxvii. 27 seq
xi. 21 — Gen. xlviii. 16.

xlvii. 31.
xi. 22— Gen. 1. 24,
8. ; xi. 23— Ex. ii. 2,

xi. 28 — Ex. xii. 1 1 seq.
Lev. xi. 29— Ex. xiv. 22.
i xi. 30— Josli. vi. 20.
Ixi. 31— Josh, iL 1.
jxi, 32— Judg. vi. 11 seq.
! iv. 14. xiv. 1 seq. xi.

I 1 seq. 1 Sam. vi. 1 3

seq. l.-ani. iii. 19 seq,
Judg. xiv. 5 seq. Dun.
I vi, 16 seq.

xi, 34— Dan. iii. 20 seq.
I xi. 35—2 Kings iv, 20.
xii. 5 seq. — Prov. iii.l 1 seq.
xii. 9 — Num. xxvii. 16.

xii. 15 — Deut. xxix. 18.
xii. 16 — Gen. xxv. 31 seq.
xii. 18 — Ex. xix. 12 seq.
xii. 20 — Ex. xix. 13,
xii. 21— Deut. ix. 19.
xii. 26 — Hag. ii. 6.
xii. 29— Deut. iv. 24.
xiii. 5 — Josh. i. 5.
xiii. 6 — Ps. cxviii. 6.
xiii. 11 — Lev. iv. 11 seq.

xvi. 27.

14 — Mic. ii. 10.

James.
i. 19 — Prov. xvii, 27
ii. 1 — Lev, xix. 15.
ii. 8 — Lev, xix. 18.
ii. 11 — Ex. XX. 13 seq.
ii. 21 — Gen. xxii. 9 seq.
ii. 23 — Gen. xv. 6.
ii. 25 — Josh. ii. 1.
iv. 6 — Pi'ov. iii. 34.
v. 11 — Job i. 20 seq.
V. 17 seq. — 1 Kings xvii. 1
seq.

1 Peter.
i, 16 — Lev. xi. 44.
i. 24 seq. — Is. xl. 6 seq.
ii. 3 — Ps. xxxiv, 8,
ii. 4 — Ps. cxviii, 22,
ii, 6 — Is. xxviii. 16,
ii. 7 — Ps. cxviii. 22.
ii. 9 — Ex xix. 5 seq.
ii. 10— Hos. ii. 23.
ii. 17 — Prov. xxiv. 21.
ii. 22 — Is. liii. 4 seq,
iii, 16 — Gen. xviii. 12.
iii. 10 seq. — Ps. xxxiv. 12

seq
iii. 14 seq. — Is. viii. 12

seq.
iii. 20 — Gen. vi. 1 3 seq.
iv. 8— Prov. x. 12.
iv. 18— Prov. xL 31.
v. 5 — Prov. iii. 34.
V. 7— Ps. Iv. 22.

2 Peter.
ii. 5— Gen. vii. 23.
it 6 — Gen. xix. 24 seq.
ii. 15 seq. — Num. xxii.
ii. 22 — Prov. xxvi. 1 1 .
iii. 4 — Ezek. xii. 21 seq.
iii. 5, 6— Gen. ii. 6, vii. 21.
iii. 8— Ps. xc. 4.
iii. 10 — Ps. cii. 26 seq.

1 John.
i. 8— Prov. XX. 9.

§ 18. DIVKRSK Al'l'KAl-S OK NEW TESTAMKNT TO THE OLU. 291

iii. 5 — Is. liii. 4.
iii. 12 — Gen. iv. 8.

Jiuh.
V. 5 — Num. xiv. 35 seq.
V. 7— Gcu. 1.0.
V. 11 — Gen. iv. 5 seq.
Num. xvi. 1 seq.

Apovnh/pse.
i. 6 — Ex. xix. 0.
i. 7 — Zech. xii. 10.
i. 14, 15— Dan. x. 5, 6.

vii. 9. Ezek. i. 27.

viii. 2.
ii. U — Num. xxv. 1, 2,

xxxi. 10".
ii. 20—1 Kings xvi. 31. 2

Kings ix. 7.
ii. 27— Ps. ii. «, 9.
iii. 7 — Is. xxii. 22.
iii. 9 — Is. xlv. 14.
iii. 19— Prov. iii. 11, 12.
Chap. iv. v. — Ezek. i. ii. Is.

vi.
iv. 6— Ezek. i. 22. Ex.

xxiv. 10.
V. 11— Dan. vii. 10.
vi. 8— Ezek. xiv. 21.
vi. 12— Is. xxiv. 18—23.

xxxiv. 4. Joel ii. 31.
vi. 14 — Is. xxxiv. 4.
vi. 15— Is. ii. 19—21.
vi. 1 6— Hos. X. 8.
vii. 3 — Ezek. ix. 4.
viii. 3 — Lev. xvi. 12, 13.
ix. 3 — Joel i. 6 seq. ii. 4

seq.
ix. 14 — comp. Dan. x. 13,

20.
ix. 20 — Ps. cxv. 4, cxxxv.

15.
X. 2— Ezek. ii. 9, 10.
X. 3 — Is. xxi. 8.
X. 4 — Dan. viii. 26. xii.

4—9.
X. 9-11— Ez. ii. 8, iii. 3.
xi. 4 seq. — Zceli. iv. 2—14.
xi. 5-2 Kings i. 9—12.
xi. 6 — 1 Kings xvii. 1 Ez.

vii. 19,20.

xi. 7 — Dan. vii. 7, 8.
xi. 10— Esth. ix. 19, 22.
xi. 15 seq. — Dan. ii. 44, vii.

27.
xii. 1 seq. — Mic. iv. 9, 10,

V. 2, 3.
xii. 5 — Ps. ii, 9.
xii. 7 — Dan. x. 13, 21. xi.

1. xii. 1.
xii. 10 — Job i. 6 seq. ii. 4

seq. Zech. iii. 1.
xii. 14 — Dan. vii. 25. xii. 7.
xiii. 1 seq. — Dan. vii. 3 seq.
xiii. 10 — Gen. ix. 6.
xiii. 14 — Dan. iii. 1 seq.
xiv, 8— Isa. Ii. 9. Jer. Ii. 8.
xiv. 10 — Ps. Ixxv. 8. Isa.

Ii. 22. Jer. xxv 1 5.
xiv. 14 — Dan. vii. 13.
xiv. 15 — Joel iii. 13.
xiv. 19, 20— Isa. Ixiii. 1

seq.
.XV. 3 — Ex. XV. 1 seq.
XV. 4 — Jer. x. 7- Isa. Ixvi.

23.
XV. 8— Ex. xl. 34 seq. 1 K.

viii. ] 1. Isa. vi. 4.
xvi. 2 seq. — Ex. ix. 8 seq.
xvi. 9 — Dan. v. 22 seq
xvi. 12 — Isa. xi. 15, 16.
xvi. 19 — Isa. IL 22 Jer.

xxv 15, 16.
xvii. 1 — Jer. Ii. 13.
xvii. 3— Ezek. 8, 3.
xvii. 4 — Jer. Ii. 7.
xvii. 12 — Dan. vii. 20.
xvii. 15 — Isa. viii. 7. Jer.

xlvii. 2.
xviii. 2 seq. — Isa. .xxi. 1 —

10, xiii. 21. xxxiv. 14

seq. Jer. 1. 39. Ii. 8.
xviii. 4 — Isa. xlviii. 20.

Jer. 1. 8. Ii. 6, 45.
xviii. 6— Jer. 1. 15, 29. Ps.

cxxvii. 8.
xviii. 7, 8 — Isa. xlvii. 7-9.
xviii. 1 1 seq. — Ezek. xxvii.

Isa. xxiii.
xviii. 18 — Isa. xxxiv. 10.
xviii. 20 — Isa. xliv. 23,

xlix. 13. Jer. Ii. 48.

xviii. 21 — Jer. Ii. 63, 64.
xviii. 22 — Isa. x.xiv. 8. Jer.

vii. 34. xxv. 10.
xviii. 23 — Isa. xxiii. 8.
xix. 2 — Deut. xxxii. 43.
.\ix. 3 — Isa. xxxiv. 1 0.
xix. 4 — 1 Chron. xvi. 3().

Neh. V. 1 3.
.xix. 6 — Dan. iL 44. vii. 27.
xix. 1 3 — Is. Ixiii. 1 seq.
xix. 15 — Ps. ii. 9. Isa. Ixiii,

3.
xix. 17, 18 — Ezek. xxxix,

17,18.
xix. 20 — Isa. XXX. 33.

Dan. vii. 11, 26.
XX. 4— Dan. vii. 9, 22, 27,
XX. 8 seq. — Ezek. xxxviii.

1 seq.
XX. 11, 12— Dan. vii. 9, 10.
xxi. 1 — Isa. Ixv. 17. Ixvi.

22.
xxi. 2 seq. — Ezek. xl-xlviii.
xxi. 3 — Ezek. xxxvii. 27.
xxi. 4 — Isa. xxv. 8. xxxv.

10.
xxi, 5 — Isa. -xliii. 19,
xxi. 10— Ezek, xl. 2.
xxi. 1 1 seq. — Ezek. xlviii.

31 seq.
xxi. 15— Ezek. xl. 3.
xxi, 19 seq. — Isa. liv. 11,

12.
xxi. 23— Isa. xxiv. 23, Ix.

19.
xxi. 24 — Isa. Ix. 3 seq.

Ixvi. 12.
xxii. 1 seq. — Ezek. xlvii. 1 ,

12. Zech. xiv. 8.
xxii. 3— Zech. xiv. 1 1.
xxii. 5 — Isa. xxiv. 23. Ix.

19.
xxii. 10 — Dan. viii. 26. xii.

4.
xxii. 16 — Isa. xi. 1, 10.
xxii. 17 — Isa. Iv. 1.
xxii. 19 — Deut. iv, 2. xii.

32,

Large as this list is of passages from the Old Testament
which are cited or alluded to in the Now, it is far from compre-
hending all of this nature, which the New Testament contains.
The truth is, that there is not a page, nor even a paragraph of
any considerable length, belonging to the New Testament, whicn

292 {^ 18. APPEALS OF NKW TESTAMENT TO THR 0[,D.

does not bear the impress of the Ohl Testament upon it. What
else is the so-called idiom of the Hebrew Greek of the New Tes-
tament, but an impression of this kind? It is indeed true, that
some few peculiarities in the forms and grammatical structure
of the Hebrew Greek, led in part to the bestowment of this
appellation upon it. But after all, the grammatical departures
i'rom common Greek are now known and acknowledged to be but
few; while the lexical ones arise mostly from the necessity of the
case, (new things demanding either new names^ or new meanings
of old words, to designate them), or else from the manner in
which the kindred Hebrew verbs, &c. are employed in the Old
Testament. In the latter case they help to exhibit the influ-
ence which the Old Testament has had upon the New through-
out.

No one who has an intimate acquaintance with both Testa-
ments, in their original languages, can possibly fail to recognise
the numberless transfers of the spirit and the modes of expres-
sion from the Old to the New. It is a thing to he felt, and not
to be adequately described. It occurs so often, everywhere,
and in respect to everything, that one would not know where to
begin, or where to end, such a description. No one must ima-
gine, that the list of quotations or cases of allusion above con-
veys to him any really adequate view of the subject. The truth
is, that it is no more than the mere beginning of such a view.
But it presents to every reader, whether learned or unlearned,
what is palpable and undeniable, and what must serve to con-
vince a candid mind, that the New Testament writers every-
where loan upon, or stand closely connected with, the writers of
the Old Testament.

It may be proper to remark, in order to prevent any mis-
understanding on the part of the reader, that oftentimes he
will find only some particular part of a verse in the Old Testa-
ment which is referred to — some expression in that verse — the
object of comparison between the New Testament and the Old:
and so in respect to verses in the Old Testament which I have
taken as being related to expressions in the New. If he does
not at once see the point of comparison, (which may sometimes
happen), let him not forthwith conclude that there is none. Some
mistakes I may have made, in recording so many quotations;
for in a work so laborious as such a comparison, and trying to
the patience, who might not make mistakes? It may be. that

§ 18. Al'l'ICALS OF NEW TESTAMENT TO IMK OIJ). 29'5

ill soiuo cases whoi-c 1 have supposed a reference to the OKI
Testament, it might not have been so in the mind of the writer.
There is room, in a few cases, for difference of opinon with re-
gard to such a matter. But, on the whole, I hope and trust
the list will be found to be as accurate as could be reasonably
demanded. Possibly there are a few instances, that should be
struck from it; but should this be done, I have only to say,
that there are hundreds of expressions and thoucihts, in the New
Testament, modelled after the Old Testament, to which I have
made no reference. I have even stricken out not a few of
Knapp's list of quotations, at the end of his Greek Testament,
because I wished to retain none which did not seem to be pal-
pable.

Among the several writers of the Gospels, the reader will
perceive that there is not much difference in regard to the fre-
quency of resort to the Old Testament, if one takes into view
the comparative length of their productions. The book of Acts,
the Epistles to the Romans and to the Hebrews, 1st Peter, and
the Apocalypse, abound most in references to the Old Testa-
ment. Above all is the Apocalypse the most remarkable for
this. While John has not made, in this book, a single quota-
tion in the usual way of express appeal, he has, in more than
one hundred cases, beyond all doubt drawn his modes of ex-
pression and thought from the Old Testament Scriptures, using
every part of them indisci'iminately, but mostly the books of
Isaiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and Zechariah. Nearly one fifth part of
all the references in the New Testament to the ancient Scrip-
tures, belong to the Apocalypse. Thus much in the way of ex-
planation.

After this general view of the subject, I proceed to make a
few special remarks on the list above exhibited.

(1 .) Many of the passages here noted, in the same manner as
those before cited at length, have respect to Old Testament
prophecies which are declared to have been fulfilled. An intelli-
gent reader will easily perceive, that this statement covers much
ground. The New Testament writers make use of the formula
ha 'prXrj^u^r, (that] it might he fulfilled, or so that it was fulfilled),
to a wide extent. Not only predictions, in the proper and limit-
ed sense of the word, are said to be fulfilled, but also in cases
where the type is answered by the appearance of the antitype,
(e. g. Christ our passover-lamb) ; and also in cases where the

29-i § 18. APPEALS OF NEW TESTAMENT TO THE OLD.

event related in the New Testament corresponds closely to the
leading features of similar events related in the Old Testament.
For an example of the last, we may appeal to Matt. ii. 15, where
the statement is, that Jesus was carried away to Egypt, for the
sake of avoiding the massacre at Bethlehem, in order that the
Scripture might be fulfilled which saith, " Out of Egypt have I
called my son,'"' Now, if we turn to Hosea xi. 1 (the passage
here cited), we find it to run thus: " When Israel was a child,
then I loved him, and called my son out of Egypt." Now here
is a mere historical declaration respecting a past event, and no-
thing at all of prediction in the proper sense. The ctXtj^wo-/;, in
this case, consists in the striking points of resemblance between
the exile in Egypt and the deliverance from it, as it respects
both of the parties in view. And so, of many other texts re-
ferred to in the New Testament.

It is deeply to be regretted, that more narrow and confined
views of this subject, (by which every fulfilment, 'x7.nt(^sn, was
made to correspond with some real and direct prediction), should
have given occasion to boundless allegorizim, and to the making
out of a douUe sense for the words of the ancient Scriptures, and
to helping out thee onstruction of supposed predictions, con-
tained in simple historical narration, by inventing a bmyoia or
occult sense for the words of the narration. More enlarged views
of the habitude of the Jews, in regard to the use which they
made of the Old Testament, specially in respect to what they
called a fulfilment of it, might have prevented all this. But
now it will be a long time, (so deep has the infection taken root),
before the malady can be cured. But on this I cannot dwell.

(2.) In every part of the New Testament, facts related in the
Old Testament history are appealed to; not common and civil
occurrences only, but miraculous ones. Such are the flood, the
destruction of Sodom, the passage of the Red Sea, the manna
of the desert, the feats of Samson, the miracles of Elijah and
Elisha and others, the swallowing up of Jonah by the whale, the
deliverance of Shadrach and Meshach and Abednego from the
fiery furnace, the safety of Daniel in the lions' den, and other
things of the like extraordinary nature. In a word, the whole of
the Old Testament history, with all its extraordinary narrations,
and all the miraculous events which many of them implv, are
everywhere apjiealcd to, and are regarded by the Saviour and his
apostles as aV)solute verities.

§ 18. Al'l'KALS OF NEW TESTAMENT TO IIIE OLD. 29o

(3.) Principles and precepts inculcated by the gospel are every-
wlrere established, or enforced, or illustrated, by an appeal to
the Old Testament. There is a great variety here in the method
of appeal, according to the object which the writer has in view.
Sometimes it is made simply on the ground of the authority which
is conceded to the Old Testament. Sometimes merely to compare
ancient with recent things, and repel any accusation of novelty.
Sometimes merely to cast llcjht on anything which may seem to be
obscure. But in whatever way the appeal is made, there is still
at the basis of it the idea of a standard authority — a tribunal
before which causes are to be judged — in the scriptures of the
Old Testament. " All Scripture is inspired of God," is not a
sentiment of Paul only, but it rules and reigns in every part and
parcel of the New Testament.

(4.) In regard to the Epistle to the Hebrews, notwithstanding
the writer has undertaken to show the superiority of the Gospel
over the Law, the divine origin of the Old Testament Scriptures
and institutions is as fully acknowledged as in other parts of the
New Testament, and the writer builds as much upon it. He has
laboured everywhere to show, that the Jewish law and ritual
were ordained, on the part of Heaven, as introductory to the
Christian dispensation. The significance and importance of
the ritual is confined mainly to this: " The law was a shadow of
good things to conned So that whether the author was Paul, or
some other person, it is certain that there may be found the
same opinion which Paul expressed when he said, " The law is
our schoolmaster, to bring us to Christ." Why should it be
any more inconsistent for the Godhead to make arrangements
for the introduction of the gospel, by a series of preparatory
measures, than it is to bring about many other things, and even
extraordinary ones, in the like way? Our present life itself is
but a preparatory arrangement for another.

(5.) There is something in the closing scene of Jesus' life,
which is adapted strongly to impress our minds with the idea,
that he gave the fullest credence and sanction to the Old Tes-
tament Scriptures. All the prominent circumstances of his suf-
ferings and death are so arranged, that every one of them is the
fulfilment of some portions of the ancient Scriptures. When he
was disrobed, and the soldiers disputed about the possession of
his garments, they cast lots to determine to whom the seamless
coat should belong; and all this in fulfilment, as the evangelist
declares (John xix. 24), of the Scripture in Ps. xxii. 18. When

296 ^ ^^- KESULT.

liis agony on the cross created an intense thirst, he disclosed
this to the bystanders, in order that the Scripture might be ful-
filled (Psa. Ixix. 21) which saith, "They gave me gall for my
meat, and in my thirst they gave me vinegar to drink,'" John
xix. 28 seq. The vinegar that was given him was mingled with
gall, Matt, xxvii. 34. The demeanour of the populace and the
priests, wagging their heads and saying, " He trusted in God;
let him deliver him now, if he will have him," is all specifically
described in Ps. xxii. 7, 8. When agony beyond endurance
forced from the expiring Saviour the bitter cry : " My God, my
God, why hast thou forsaken me V the words were chosen from
the twenty-second Psalm (v. 1), which contains a prophecy re-
specting his sufferings and death so strikingly descriptive and
historical. His last dying breath came forth with the voice of
prayer, " Father, into thy hands I commend my spirit ;" words
taken from Ps. xxxi. 5. The soldiers, who brake the limbs of the
malefactors that were crucified with Jesus, refrained from break-
ing his, seeing that he was already dead ; and all this (John xix.
36) in accordance with the symbolic and prophetic passover-lamb,
not a bone of which was to be broken, Ex. xii. 46. One of the
soldiers pierced his side with a spear (John xix. 34 seq.), and
this was in fulfilment of a passage of Scripture in Zechariah
(xii. 10), whicli says, " They shall look on him whom they have
])ierced." And can the Evangelist and the Saviour thus appeal
to the Scripture in confirmation and illustration of all these cir-
cumstances, and yet the Scripture contain no predictions respect-
ing Christ, and no declarations on which we can rely i Can the
Saviour himself, in his highest agony, and witli his expiring
breath, have expressed his feelings by quoting tlie language of a
book unworthy of our credence and our confidence? — But I desist,
lest I should be thought to appeal more to feeling than to argu-
ment. Certain it is, that no book could be thus honoured bv
Jesus, in which he had not the highest and most entire con-
fidence.

§ 19. Result.

And now, what shall we say to these things ? The New Tes-
tament not only appeals to the Old in the way of illustration,
and for the sak<> of comparison, but everywliei-o appeals to it as

§ 19. RRSULT. 297

the word of God, as the testimony of his Holy Spirit, as the
oracles of his prophets, as the ride of life, as the foundation of
the spiritual building which Christ came to erect. Its pre-
dictions, its precepts, its narrations, are interwoven with every
part of what apostles and evangelists have written. It is incor-
porated with the very material of religious thought, in the minds
of all the New Testament writers. Even when they do not quote,
and do not seem, as the hasty reader might suppose, at all to
allude to the Old Testament, its ideas and its idioms are incor-
porated with all their productions. In the Apocalypse, John
has not made one formal quotation of Scripture ; yet no book of
the New Testament, as has already been remarked, so abounds
in and overflows with the spirit of the Old Testament, as this
book. The writer had, if I may be allowed the expi'ession, steep-
ed himself in the ancient Scriptures, until he was thoroughly
imbued with them. I know not how I can better express my
views of the style of his production, than in tliis way. And so
it is indeed, with all the evangelists, with Paul, with Peter, and
with James. It is impossible to conceal this, or withdraw it
from sight. It is in vain to deny it before any candid reader.
The most sophisticated reasoning cannot even make out an in-
genious case to the contrary.

What shall we say then \ What can we say less than what
the Saviour himself said to the Jews i " Had ye believed Moses
ye would have believed me ; for he wrote of me. But if ye
believe not his writings, hoic shall ye believe my words ?''"' John v.
46, 47. It is in vain to make the effort to avoid this. The ex-
pedient to which Mr Norton resorts, in substituting spoke for
wrote, and icorcls for writings, (see above, p. 8,) is one which
shows the desperate nature of the cause which he is labouring to
defend. On this ground no declaration of Scripture anywhere
in any passage, on any subject, is exempt from any arbitrary
alteration, at the will and pleasure of every reader. Of course the
Scripture is not the rule of our faith, but our faith is the rule of
Scripture. Much more ingenuous are those who come out at once
and say, " The light within is more perfect than the light without
us, and much easier seen and apprehended; we know of no other
supreme rule but this. Scripture itself must be tried by this test;
and we accord to it our respect and regard only so far as we deem
that its decisions agree with our own." They say this openly,
while Mr Norton only acts it, Init will not venture to sav it.

298 § 19. RESULT.

Why may we not ask, then, in the words of Jesus, " If ye
believe not Moses' writings, how shall ye believe the words of
him concerning whom Moses wrote V He has decided that
this cannot be. The authority of this decision rests not on my
reasonings, but on his own words. He has said of the Old Tes-
tament Scriptures, that the sum of the whole is, that we should
" love God with all the heart, and our neighbour as ourselves,'"'
Matt. xxii. 37 seq. " On these two commandments," moreover,
for such are his words, " hang all the law and the prophets ;"
Matt. xxii. 40. That is, this is the very sum and substance
of the Old Testament. And are these commands, then, to be
regarded as nullities ? Are these in their nature repealable ?
Can they be set aside? Knot, then Jesus has sanctioned the
books which contain them. If you deny this, then you charge
him with prevarication, or with ignorance. I cannot believe him
to be impeachable on either ground.

Did Jesus suspect or call in question the moral efficacy or in-
fluence of these writings ? Let us listen to him, in the parable
of Lazarus. The rich man in hell requests father Abraham that
he would send Lazarus to his five brethren yet Hving, to warn
them, so that they might not come into that place of torment.
Abraham's reply is, " They have Moses and the prophets ; let
them hear them." The rich man still urges his request : " Nay,"
says he, " but if one went unto them from the dead, they would
repent." And what does the father of the faithful, amid the
glories of the upper world where no darkness is, answer? He
says, " If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will
they be persuaded, though one rose from the dead," Luke xvi.
23 seq. The Old Testament Scriptures, in the estimation of
Jesus, (for surely he does not put words into Abraham's mouth
winch he would not adopt as his own,) were more efficient in the
moral instruction and conviction and conversion of men, than the
rising of one from the dead would be, who should lay before
them all the joys of the blessed and the torments of the damned.

Shall this book, then, be spurned away, and treated as a col-
lection of fables, of barbarous maxims, and of trifling ritual or-
dinances ? This is the question. It is this very question which
lies between the declarations of the Saviour and his apostles on
the one hand, and the scepticism of so-called Rationalists on the
other. Whom shall wo believe? There is no compromise in this
case. He that is not for Christ is assuredly against him. He who

§ 20. CONCLUSION. 299

rejects his authority on this point, virtually rejects it on all others.
Christ was either in the right or in the wrong, as to the estimate
which he put upon the Old Testament. It is impossible to doubt
what that estimate was, after the evidence which has come before
us. If he was in the right, then is the Old Testament a book
of divine authority — the ancient revelation of God. If he was
in the wrong, then we can put no confidence in his teaching. He
might be in the wrong, with respect to every command and
opinion which he gave ; and of consequence the whole system of
Christianity is nothing more than an airy figure moving in the
mirage, or one which fioats along upon the splendid mists which
surround it.

§ 20. Conclusion.

The history of the canon, from its inceptive state down to its
completion, has been traced. We have seen, that when testimony
and historical circumstances are fully taken into view, there is
no good reason to doubt, that the scriptural canon was completed
during the reign of Artaxerxes, i.e. during the time of Malachi,
the last of the prophets. Somewhat more than 400 years old,
then, were all the books of the Jewish Scriptures, in the time of
Christ and of his apostles. The division of those books, with
appropriate names for each portion, we can trace to nearly 200
years B.C., if not still higher. That division must have been
definite and well known. No new books could be added, after
it was completed, without the knowledge and concurrence of at
least the priesthood among the Jews. That state of parties
— Pharisee and Sadducee — who differed on the very point of
exclusive Scripture authority, rendered it impossible for either
party to augment or diminish the books of Scripture. The state
of party can be traced back to a time beyond the period of the
Maccabees, and probably the origin of it should be dated at a
period not long after the closing of the canon. We are of ne-
cessity compelled to admit, that the sacred books among the
Jews have been unchangeable since that period. Sirachides,
Philo, Josephus, the New Testament writers, know of no other
scriptural books than those which we now have. The appeal to
such books, in all their writings, is limited to these ; for when
Josephus comes to later history than what they contain, he tells
us expressly, that the other books to which he appeals are entire-

300 § 20.

CONCLUSION.

ly of a different character and credit from those which belong to
the Old Testament Scriptures.

Besides, Josephus has told us liow many books there were in
the Hebrew canon. We have traced these in quotations made
by him, and Philo, and Sirachides, and the New Testament writ-
ers; and with still more certainty in the lists of individual books,
by Melito, Origen, Gregory Nazianzen, Hilary, Athanasius, Jer-
ome, Rufinus, the Talmud, and others. We find them to accord
with our present Old Testament. There cannot be any doubt
left, then, that the Jews of our Saviour's time did receive and
regard these books as of Divine origin. And inasmuch as Christ
and his apostles have never intimated, directly or indirectly, that
the Jews were in an error with regard to this subject, what
grounds have we for supposing that they were? Christ and his
apostles everywhere quote, appeal to, and use the Jewish Scrip-
tures, as of Divine and paramount authority and obligation.

What then of him who rejects them as a part of our present
Scriptures? He follows not the example of Christ, or of his apos-
tles. Nay, more. He acts in direct opposition to their autho-
rity and example. In so doing, as far as in him lies, he repeals
or abrogates the decisions of the Gospel. Mr Norton has aver-
red, (p. 4 above,) that no enlightened person can be a Christian,
and admit the claims made in behalf of the Jewish Scriptures.
He has given his reasons for such an opinion. I have come to
a very different conclusion, viz., that no enlightened person can
well be deemed a Christian, who rejects the claims made in behalf
of the Old Testament. I have given my reasons for it. If obe-
dience and submission to the decisions of Christ and his apos-
tles be an essential ingredient of Christianity, then is my conclu-
sion inevitable, in case I have duly shown that Christ and his
apostles did receive the Old Testament Scriptures as Divine and
authoritative. If this be not fully shown, then must I despair
of ever seeing any point established in sacred criticism, either in
respect to facts or opinions. There is not a circumstance in all
the history of true religion, appertaining to ancient times, that
is capable of more absolute demonstration than this.

I have now done this part of my work, and must commit the
wliole to the judgment of the reader. I ask neither more nor
less of him, than to scan the whole process of proof with a scru-
tinizing eye, to weigh well the historical evidence, which we
nuist receive, or else reject all ancient testimony ; and then to

§ 21. CONSCIENTIOUS SCUUPLES. 301

decide with candour, and without pi'ejudice or partiaHty, I have
a right to ask for so much, in respect to such a cause. It is no
light matter what judgment we form on a subject of such high
and holy import as this. It is a case in which direct demand is
made upon us for submission and deference to Christ and his
apostles; and we cannot thrust it aside. The simple and ulti-
mate question is: Are we to admit their authority/ and example, or
to gainsay the one, arid shun an imitation of the other?

§ 21. Remarks hi regard to the conscientiotis scru2}les of those who
have doubts and difficulties as to the authenticity of some Old Tes-
tament books.

It is one thing to reject the Old Testament en masse, without
paying any deference to the declarations and opinions of Christ
and the apostles; it is another and very different one merely to
doubt whether some two or three books of our present Old Tes-
tament belong properly to the canon, or did belong to it in the
time of our Saviour. The first class reject it on account of the
many, and (as they allege) incredible miracles which it relates;
on account of the imperfection, and contradictions, and incon-
gruities to be found in its history; because of the burdensome
and trivial rites and ceremonies which it enjoins; because of the
very imperfect morality in respect to some important matters
which it inculcates; and because of the violations of the law of
love which it commands, and of the cruelty and spirit of revenge
which it breathes forth. They find no other evidence oi predic-
tion, even in the leading prophets, than the shrewd conjectures
of sagacious men about the future, or the patriotic hopes and ex-
pectations which are breathed forth in the language of impas-
sioned poetry. The Old Testament is, with them, merely an
undistinguishing Collectaneum of the remains of Jewish literature
down to the time of Antiochus Epiphanes, styled sacred or holy
because the subject of holy things so often comes into view,
and because the pragmatism'^ of the writers so often introduces
the providence and decrees of the Godhead, in order to account

• I use this word in the usual German critical sense. Pragmatism, in a historian,
would be any undertaking to account for certain facts. His simple business as a
historian is to relate facts ; aud so praymatism and pragmatic, thus employed, become
very significant.

302 § 21. CONSCIENTIOUS 8CKUPLES

for this and that event. And as to Christ and his apostles, they
allege that every thing was done in the way of accommodation to
Jewish views and feelings. These teachers did not mean to excite
the jealousy or hatred of the Jews, by contradicting or opposing
any of their capricious notions or superstitious conceits. Hence
they often acted and spoke -/mtu, guyy-ardiSaaiv, or in the way of
accommodation or condescension to their countrymen. And the
notions of the latter about the Scriptures were of the extreme
kind, so that the former felt obliged to spare the mention of those
things respecting these books, which would wound the feelings
of the Jews.

To this class principally the preceding pages have been devoted.
I cannot quit my subject, however, without saying a few things
to the second class, i. e. to those who only doubt of some two or
three books of the Old Testament, but believe in the canon-
ical authority of the rest, and rely upon the ordinary considera-
tions that are alleged in favour of it.

It seems hardly necessary to say, that this latter class may
consist not only of sincere and earnest inquirers, but, as I
would hope and trust, of sincere Christians. Enlightened ones
they may also be, in respect to most other subjects of a religious
nature; but in regard to this, I must think that they have taken
but partial views of the matter.

If the Old Testament stands justly chargeable with all the
things which are objected to it, by the first class above named,
then indeed we might safely conclude that it is not a Divine
book. If Christ and the apostles looked on the Hebrew Scrip-
tures in that light in which some recent critics place them, how
could they possibly refrain from advertising the Jews of the
great error and superstition which they fostered? As public
teachers, bound to be faithful and thorough, how could they
acquiesce in such views of a book that contains, if we may trust
Mr Norton and others, many things unworthy of God, and sub-
versive of his justice, his equity, and his compassion, not to speak
of incongruities, and trifling rites and ceremonies. Above all,
how could Jesus, and Paul, and Peter, and John, leave the
Christian church to feel under obligation to hold such a book as
the Old Testament sacred, even after they had renounced all
allegiance to the rites and forms of the Mosaic Law? Certain
it is, that Christ and his apostles combated and refuted many
of the Jewish notions, both of a doctrinal and a practical nature.

A8 TO A PART OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 303

How came they to spare this substantial and fundamental error
(if it be an error), not only without a word of correction and
admonition, but even to do as the Jews did in respect to their
Scriptures, i. e. to appeal to them as divine and authoritative,
and thus to encourage and persuade all their disciples to follow
their example?

For myself I see no satisfactory way in which these questions
can be answered. I must put them to the minds and consciences
of all who profess to reverence Christianity as a religion from
God, and I must leave them to make out an answer as best they
may.

But to the scruples of some minds about this or that par-
ticular book — to doubts whether this or that was a part of the
canon sanctioned by Christ and the apostles — while, at the
same time, there is a ready deference to their authority in all
cases where persons in this state can see it to be clearly
shown, it would be unreasonable and disrespectful not to pay
some ready and cheerful attention. Luther rejected the epis-
tle of James and the Apocalypse from his canon, as we have
seen above; but Luther had no doubt of the divine authority
of the New Testament as a whole, with this exception. He also
admitted the Old Testament to the same rank. Now, some other
Christian, in the like spirit, may admit the Law, and the Pro-
phets, and the Psalms ; but he might possibly reject Esther,
Ecclesiastes, and Canticles ; or at least he might deem it doubt-
ful whether these books ought to be ranked with those. Of such
an one I could easily say that I regarded him as a Christian, if
his demeanour and his principles in other respects were such as
become this character. If he had no dark spirit of scepticism as
to the books of Scripture in general, but accorded to it a sincere
and hearty belief, then I could easily suppose, that his head was
rather in fault than his heart, (if indeed he be in fault,) and I
should feel it my duty rather to labour to enlighten his mind,
than to reprove the state of his feelings.

With such I suppose myself, at present, to be concerned; and
to them I must take the liberty to address a few considerations.
That there are peculiar difficulties in respect to the books just
named, I confess myself often to have felt, as well as they. It
is difficult to account for it, how the book of Esther could be
written even by a pious Jew who was uninspired, and yet this
book relate events of a most surprising nature — deliverances of

S04 § 21. CONSCIENTIOUS SCRUPLES

the most extraordinary kind — without one recognition of the
hand of Providence here, or even once mentioning the name of
God. This is almost the only book in the Old Testament, which
has completely escaped the charge by the Neologists oi pragma-
tism on the part of the writer. And besides this, some of the
circumstances related in it are certainly peculiar. I have already
mentioned them, (p. 151 seq.) but I must beg leave again to
bring some of them into view, in the present connection. That
75,000 Persians should have been killed by the Jews in one day,
apparently without any loss of life on their part, (Esth. ix. 16,)
that Haman should by proclamation diffused all over the king-
dom, give them nearly a year's notice of the attack to be made
upon them, (Esth. iii. 7 seq.,) appears, I acknowledge, to present
some historical paradoxes of no easy and ready solution. And in
view of such matters, it would be natural for the doubters, to
whom I now refer, to put back the question upon me. How do
you satisfy your own mind, that these things do not entitle ua
to reject the book as not canonical?

I feel bound to meet this question, and am ready to do it, so
far as I may be able.

Let me say then, first of all, that I do not regard the ques-
tion respecting the canonical authority of this book, in the same
light, in all respects, as I should the question whether the Pen-
tateuch, the Psalms, or Isaiah, is canonical. The book of Esther
teaches us no doctrine, in a direct way; it gives us expressly no
moral precepts. If it were struck out of the canon to-day, not
a single doctrine or ethical principle would be changed, or be
found lacking. It is in vain to say, that all the books of Scrip-
ture are alike, or are alike profitable to us, although they may
all be inspired. The exegesis that can draw from 1 Chron. i — ix,,
which is a register of names in a series of genealogies; or from
Ezra ii. and Neh. vii. (lists of those who returned from the cap-
tivity;) as much instruction and edification as from the ten com-
mandments, or from the history of the creation, or from many of
the Psalms, or the Proverbs, or the prophecies — maybe consistent
with piety, and sometimes may even spring from excessive notions
about the inspiration of the Bible, and of the peculiarly holy
nature of all its books : But intellect and reason never can find
any satisfaction in such interpretation of the Scriptures; if in-
deed it may be called interpretation, and not caricature. The
Bible is a book that, we may take it for granted, was made to

AS TO A I'AUT OF THE OLU TESTAMENT. 305

satisfy the intellect and enlightened reason, as well as devotional
feeling. It is only when we misconceive of the design and object
of any particular part of it, that it fails to satisfy the intellectual
and rational demands of our nature,

I set it down as certain, that inasmuch as the Jewish dispen-
sation itself was one of types and shadows — a preparation for
good things to come — a schoolmaster to lead us unto Christ —
and inasmuch as all that was in its nature ceremonial, ritual,
temporary, appropriate only to the Jews as one and a peculiar
nation, was to be superseded and abolished when Christ should
come, so there might be parts, even many parts, of the Old Tes-
tament, which would cease to have any more immediate impor-
tance and value, whenever a Christian revelation, by which the
will of God is perfectly made known, should supervene. It has
supervened; and that which once was perfectly adapted to the
exigencies of the Jewish nation, and (although " a ministration
of condemnation") was still glorious (2 Cor. iii. 9,) " has now no
glory by reason of the glory that excelleth"'"' (verse 1 0,) i. e. by
reason of the Gospel.

But be it so, that this glory is now comparatively like that
of the stars after the sun has made his appearance; yet in the
twilight of Judaism the stars did shine, and the same stars still
radiate light, although we may not easily discern it when we
undertake to look for it by sun-light. There is not even a
genealogy in the Old Testament, which did not once possess
importance. It settled all questions of inheritances; it marked
the bounds of property; it designated the right to this or that
privilege. There is not a narration in the Old Testament, which
had not once its use. Examine the story of Er and Onan and
of Judah's connection with his daughter-in-law Tamar; which
surely is among the narrations that at first sight we should be
inclined to spare, and even be prone to wonder, perhaps, how
it came there. Yet in Matt. i. 8, we find the fruit of that un-
lawful connection, Pharez and Zara, in the genealogical register
of the evangelist. It is one link in counting the genealogy of
Joseph from Abraham downwards. So it is, also, as to the
story of the Levite and his concubine in Judg. xix. The minute
account given of the journey of this couple seems, at first, to be
somewhat strange, and perhaps even revolting to our feelings,
considering how we are taught by the gospel to I'egard concubi-
nage. But still, the horrid murder committed upon the poor

X

306 § 21. CONSCIENTIOUS SCRUPI.KS

woman by forcing her to gratify the kists of a multitude of men
successively, was the direct cause of a civil war, in which the
Benjamites, who had committed the crime in question, became
neai*ly extinct. And so I might go on with all the narrations of
particular occurrences — the family histories — contained in the
Old Testament. A deep interest they once had to many. Ad-
monition, too, may be drawn from most of them. It is with
most or all of them, as Paul says it is with the ancient history
of the Israelites in the desert: " These things were our ensam-
ples, and they were written for our admonition, on whom the
ends of the world have come;"" 1 Cor. x. 11.

Who now will venture to say, that the histories of the Old
Testament are not of a different tenor from any other that were
ever written by any of the heathen nations ? First of all, they are
throughout of a religious cast. The Hebrews, whoever adminis-
ters the government, are always under a tlieocracy. Providence
guides, admonishes, rewards, and punishes. God is the all and in all.
Then, secondly, the Hebrew historians have no favourite heroes,
about whom romance throws its gorgeous vestments. The faults
and follies of Abraham, Isaac, Jacob, Moses even, Saul, David,
Solomon, Asa, Joash, Hezekiah, Josiah, — and all whose history
is minutely written, are not concealed. Here are no mythic and
romantic personages — not any one even like the Cyrus of Xeno-
phon, David and Solomon, at the very zenith of all that was
splendid and commanding in royalty, in triumphs, in wisdom, in
riches, in honours, are placed at times in attitudes that cover them
with darkness, and subject them to degradation. And is there
nothing in all this pi-actical acknowledgment of God's providence
and retributive justice exhibited by the history of the Hebrews,
nothing in the exposure of the crimes and vices of the most re-
nowned kings, and ethical philosophers, which is adapted to
our instruction ? Well may we say with Paul, " They serve for
our admonition.'"

When I read the Old Testament, then, and there meet with
genealogies which have no concern with the Gentiles, and family
histories that must have been particularly interesting only to
family relatives; when I peruse all the detail of the Levitical
rites and ceremonies, and all the architectural details of the ta-
bernacle and the temple; or when I read predictions respecting
Edom, and Moab, and the Ammonites, and the Philistines; if I
am tempted to ask, for what purpose were these things recorded

AS TO A I'AKT OK TIIK OLD TESTAMKNT. 307

in a book of public and permanent instruction, I then ask my-
self, how the Bible would have appeared to us, in regard to the
matter of credibility, in case all such things had been omitted ?
The only answer I can make is, that it would have assumed a
mythic appearance — like a selection and dressing up of persons
and things in the way of romance. If all actors are paragons
of piety or of wickedness; if all historical circumstances pertain
only to choice events of a thrilling nature; if all prediction be
only Messianic or eulogistic of the church ; then would such a
book wear the air of havhig been written by designing men, who
meant to invest all personages and events with a costume splen-
did and attractive. As it is now, all looks like veritable reality.
Human nature is, and continues to be human. In some cases
great virtues are conspicuous, not unmingled with faults ; in
others great vices, with occasional touches of alleviation by
reason of social or patriotic qualities. In a word, the law-giver
commands; the historian relates circumstances interesting to
liimself, or to the times in which he lived, or useful to all, ac- j
cording to the nature of the case; the prophet predicts things
near, first and principally, then things far distant, such as per-
tained to the Messianic times; the genealogist gives in his re-
gister; the Psalmist pours out the language of devotion in the
sweetest and most engaging manner; the lover of ethical pro-
verbs records his discriminating thoughts; — and all this makes
up a Hebrew Bible. There is something in it to interest all, to
allure all, to do good to all; at least this was so at the time
when it was written. How can I doubt that all this is a reality?
No farce is acted here. There is not a fictitious personage upon
the stage. All is reality; and such reality as early ages and the
state of society would seem to have afforded. I become im-
pressed more and more with the idea, that here is no imposture.
If it were a description merely of the fortunate or blessed islands,
of an Elysium, of the garden of the Hesperides, of some El
Dorado ever hoped and wished for but never actually found —
then my suspicions would be instinctively awakened. But now,
as it actually is — how exceedingly different is the Oid Testa-
ment from everything of this kind !

If I allow then, as I readily do, that many parts of the Old
Testament have now but a very small and subordinate interest
to me, in a doctrinal or ethical respect, yet am I far from saying,
that those facts are of no value, much less that they have never

808 § 21. CONSCIENTIOUS SCRUPLES

been valuable. I have pointed out their value. They aid in the
authentication of the book. They lead me to the persuasion,
that what it describes is a reality and not romance. They show
how God's chosen people lived, and thought, and acted, in pub-
lic and in private life. They present human nature as it has
been and is, and not simply draw a picture of what it would be
in a state of perfection. Why may I not conclude, with the
apostle Paul, that even now " all Scripture is profitable""?

But the Jewish dispensation has passed away, and all that
was ritual, and ceremonial, and merely external, and temporary,
and peculiar to one nation only, has gone with it. All Old Tes-
tament Scripture which is exclusively occupied with things of
this nature, has ceased to have any other interest for us, than
that which I have stated above. In this light we may and
ought to regard it. Its day has gone by. But it has had its
day, and its usefulness, and its interest. Be it that I must now
look upon it as I do upon the burning of incense, and the sacri-
fice of goats and bullocks, and the washings and purifications of
old; yet even all these had their use and significancy. Nay, are
they not still symbolic, even to us, of the great atoning sacrifice,
and of that purification of our minds which is required by the
gospel?

In such a light would I place those parts of the Old Testa-
ment toward which the scorn of some, the severe satire of others,
and the wonder and perplexity of many, are directed. Enough
that they once had their usefulness and their interest in the then
existing church ; enough that they are still far from being alto-
gether useless to us. I honour them as connected with a dis-
pensation that was a type and shadow of the present. And
while their light is now hardly seen, by reason of the sun which
pours its flood of glory upon us, I call to mind, that when the
ancient twilight was, they shone and twinkled in the sky, and
gave sufiicient light to guide the traveller on his way.

But let us return to the book of Esther. We have difficulties
here; but are they invincible?

The fact that the feast of Purim has come down to us, from
time almost immemorial, (clearly it was an ancient custom in
the days of Philo and Josophus), proves as certainly that the
main events related in the book of Esther happened, as the de-
claration of independence and the celebration of the fourth of
July prove that we separated from Great Britain, and became

AS TO A PART OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 309

an independent nation. And if such events, in the main, as
the book of Esther relates, did actually happen, they were of
the deepest interest to the Jewish nation. The book of Esther
was an essential document to explain the feast of Purim. Hence
the Jews have always had it read, when that feast is kept. In
this light, no one can well regard it as unimportant.

As to most of the circumstances respecting Ahasuerus''s ex-
travagancies and follies, there will be nothing improbable in the
story, to any one who will read the history of Mohammed Aga
Khan, not long since on a throne in the same country.

As to the fact, that Haman gave the Jews eleven months'
warning of his assault, I have already discussed the subject in
part, p. 152 seq. above. The thing looks improbable at first;
yet when we read Esther iii., we see that Haman, like others
of his time, was the slave of superstition, as well as cruelty. He
must needs cast lots, in so great an affair, in order to hit upon
the lucky day. In this way an appeal to his gods must of course
be made. " He who disposes of the lot*" ordered it, that it should
fall as late in the year as it could well be. Thus the Jews had
time to prepare for the assault, or to remove from the country
at their option. Haman, although doubtless dissatisfied with
the falling out of the lot, could not venture to change a matter
thus solemnly determined by an appeal to his gods.

The number slain by the Jews remains — 75,000. Extraordi-
nary it doubtless is, and it must still appear to be so. But it is
not impossible. Improbable, I would concede, it might appear
to be, at first view ; but, as I have stated before, if one calls to
mind, that the Persian court was under the control of Mordecai
and Esther ; that the Jews were widely diffused at that time
over the Persian empire; and that the Persian magistracy aided
them; and that a bitter hatred existed between the Jews and
many of their neighbours, the improbability of the thing is greatly
diminished. And with respect to the allegation that no Jews
were killed or wounded in this terrible rencontre, it is true that
no mention is made of any harm on the part of the Jews ; but
I do not deem this circumstance at all conclusive to prove that
none was done. Luke, so circumstantial in his narrative of
Christ's infancy, says not a word of the massacre at Bethlehem;
nor does Josephus record it. The author of the book of Esther
is wholly intent upon the victory and the deliverance of the Jews.
The result of the encounter he relates, viz. the groat loss and

310 § 21. CONSCIENTIOUS SCRUPLES

humiliation of Persian enemies. But how much it cost to achieve
this victory, he does not relate. Had he been simply a historian,
professing to give a full account of matters, he would have told
this part of the story. But as he is only showing why the feast
of Purim is kept as a day of joy and gladness, it was hardly to
his purpose to tell the story of Jews who might have been
wounded or destroyed on this occasion. It is the main result
only which he throws into prominent notice. And here he leaves
the matter. We can scarcely doubt that many Jews were killed
or wounded. But why need we discredit the historian as to what
he has communicated, because he has not told this part of the
story?

That the writer has said nothing of the providence of God,
in the whole matter of dehverance from dangers so imminent, all,
as I have acknowledged, will concede to be extraordinary, who
are conversant with the Hebrew Scriptures. But it is almost
as extraordinary, in case we suppose the writer to be miinspired,
as it is if we regard him as inspired. It is without any parallel
among the writings of the ancient Jews, whether sacred or not,
Canticles only excepted. The confidence which Mordecai shows
(Esth. iv. 14), that the Jews will experience "enlargement and
deliverance" in some other way, if Esther should refuse her in-
terposition, plainly shows, either that he had had some divine
monition of this, or else that he relied on God's promises to the
fathers respecting their posterity. But why the writer does not
plainly and openly recognize the hand of God, in all that hap-
pens, is still a difficulty that we know not well how to remove.
Was the author a foreigner, I mean a Jew born and dwelling in
a foreign land, — then why, in case he wrote a book which he wish-
ed his heathen neighbours to read, did he not bring the doctrine
of a special providence to view. Was he a native and an inhabi-
tant of Palestine, — how could he so depart from the manner of
all the historians of his country? But as this difficulty presses
almost as hardly upon the book, when considered as uninspired,
as it does when we consider it as inspired, we do not seem
to obtain any serious relief from our perplexity by denying
the canonical authority of the book. There cannot be a mo-
ment's question, whether the author is a Jew, sympathizing
in the highest degree with his nation, and fully believing in
their title to precedence over heathen nations. These things
lie upon the face of the whole narration. The impression of a

AS TO A TAKT 01" THE OKU TESTAMENT. 81 1

special providence, which is made by the book, is a thing that
admits of no doubt. What remains of difficulty is, a departure
so marked from the usual style and manner of the Hebrew his-
tories. We might conjecture various reasons for this; but what
security could we give, that our conjectures would be well found-
ed ? Better to let the matter remain where it is, better to con-
fess the difficulty and not make any attempt to conceal it, than
to indulge in mere idle conjectures. Why can we not rest a
matter about which we are in doubt, upon the authority of
Christ and of the apostles, as to admitting the claims of the
book before us to a place in the canon ? It was most surely in
the canon which they have sanctioned.

I cannot conclude my remarks on the book of Esther without
saying, that notliing can be plainer than that, had the work
been supposititious, the writer would beyond all doubt have been
pragmatic in a more than usual degree, in order to deceive his
readers by the guise of piety. The present character of the
book proves beyond all reasonable suspicion, that it is not sup-
posititious.

We come next to Coheleth, or, as we name it after the fashion
of the Greeks, Ecclesiastes.

The ancient Jews doubted somewhat about admitting this
book among those which might be indiscriminately read by all
classes. Several of the later Jewish writers confess this, and
variously state the reasons. In Vayyihra Rahha, § 28, f. 161 c. 2,
it is said, " Our wise men were desirous to keep back (or conceal,
tii57) the book of Coheleth, because they found in it words
which might lead to heresy." The Talmud speaks of some
" who found contradictions in it," (^tj ]-|^ ^•j linjlID' inclining
this loay and tliat^. Other Jewish writers have objected, that
" it teaches the eternity of the world." But still, the party who
admitted the book without scruple, have always been predomi-
nant, because, as the Talmud (Shabbath, fol. 30. c. 2) asserts,
rrrin "^121 IDIDT inSnrij i- ^- '^^^ beginning and end of it are
the words of the law. In other words, its main doctrine is ac-
cordant with the other Scriptures. On this basis the Jews have
always remained, with the exception of individuals sceptically
inclined. Some such have I seen among them, who maintained
that the book teaches the doctrines of Epicurus.

Not exactly this, but not very unlike it, is the prevailing

312 § 21. CONSCIENTIOUS SCHUPLES

opinion of Neologists. The book was written, they say, by u
sceptic; at least, by one who doubted or denied the immortality
of the soul and a future retribution. By " the spirit's returning
to God who gave it" (xii. 7), they say, is meant only that God,
who gave the natural breath or spirit, withdraws it and our
death ensues. And all the declarations about retribution, they
limit of course to the present world.

Of the justness and correctness of such an exegesis I am not
persuaded. The book begins with the most emphatic declara-
tions concerning the vanity and brevity of human life, and the
unsatisfying nature of all earthly good. It exhibits the truth
of this in the most vivid manner. It ends with the declaration,
that the whole sum and conclusion of the matters discussed is
this, viz. " Fear God, and keep his commandments : for this is
the whole of man;"" i. e. it is that for which man was created,
and is his all for which he lives, or ought to live, Eccl. xii. 13,
14. This, which is the literal meaning of the Hebrew, is much
stronger and more expressive than our common English version,
" This is the whole €luti/ of man." But why should men fear
God and keep his commandments? The writer gives us the
reason, in the next and last verse of the book, " For God
shall bring into judgment every work, with every secret thing,
whether it be good or whether it be evil." What can this
mean, if it do not mean a future judgment? The w^riter often
avers, in the body of his work, that in the present world the dis-
tinctions between virtue and vice oftentimes are not made, or
are not discernible by us; and of course, that the retributions of
virtue and vice are not made here. If not — where are they to
be made? I do not see but one answer to this question; and
that answer bids me to believe, that the writer had a fious in-
tention in writing the book.

Herder, Eichhorn, and others, have supposed the book to
be dialogistic^ and that one of the colloquists is a sceptic. In
this way they solve the apparently sceptical sentiments found
in it. Others have supposed that Koheleth (jn^np) nieans as-
sembly, and that the book is written as a representation of what
passed in a company of ethical literati, in regard to the sum-
mum bonum of life. They compare it to the Arabic Mecamath,
i. e. literary society. But with all this we may dispense. A
dialogue cannot be carried through, without the greatest incon-
gruity, in many cases; and the conflicting opinions of an assent-

AS TO A PAKT OF THE Or.D TESTAMENT. 313

blage of men is encumbered with the same difficulty. Tiiere is
a more obvious and natural solution. The writer is one who
had been through all stages of doubt in respect to the chief good ^
and the end of human life, and the doctrine of an overruling
providence, and of retributive justice. He tells us, in the most
frank and impressive manner, the tenor and the drift of his
cogitations on these various subjects, while he was in doubt. He
tells us what he thought and said, in regard to them. In so
doing ho has disclosed many a sceptical thought which passed
through his mind. In all this, he has his eye upon those who
are in that doubting state. He sympathizes with them, and
lets himself down to their condition, so as to interest them and
get their ear. Then he tells them in serious earnest of the
vanity of human life, of the impossibility of escaping retribu-
tion, and distinctly lets them know, that the sum of all his
thoughts and reflections, after passing through all the stages of
doubt and perplexity, is, that " the whole of man, [all in which he
has any deep and lasting interest], is to fear Gotland keep Ms com-
mandments; and the ground of this conclusion is, that " all their
actions, good or evil, will assuredly be brought into judgment."
I need not stop here to say how much this book has been
misinterpreted by those who had no true discernment of its real
tenor and design. Perhaps no book in the Bible, if we except
the Apocalypse, has suffered so much violence. All its scepti-
cal declarations have been tortured, until they would confess
thorough orthodoxy. Even the question which the doubter asks
(iii. 21), in order to impress the idea that we have no certain
knowledge of the future, viz. " Who knoweth whether the spirit
of a man goeth upward, and the spirit of a beast downward f
(which assuredly must be the meaning of the original Hebrew)
— this question has been turned into an argument to prove, that
the spirit of a man does go upward! So our translators seem
to have understood it; but so did not Luther and many others.
There is nothing, in short, which stands in the way of this spiri-
tualizing and analogical exegesis. It can make strenuous ortho-
doxy even out of Koheleth's doubts and sceptical musings. It
can convert all the words of Job's occasional impatience and ex-
citement, into meekness and unqualified submission. In its cru-
cible all ores are melted together, and seemingly sublimated so
as to form but one purified and valuable substance.

When all is done and said, however, the understanding and

314 § 21. CONSCIENTIOUS SCUUPLES

the reason remain to be satisfied. Nothing will stand that does
not compose these to peace. And why may we not be satisfied,
that Koheleth has given us a picture of all the doubts and diffi-
culties through which his mind had passed, and then subjoined
the final result? In these times, we count those books very inter-
estino- and useful, in which writers give us faithful pictures of
their former infidelity or scepticism, and then tell us that it was
followed by an entire conviction of the truth and the power of
the gospel. Two things are taught by this ; the one, that scep-
ticism never satisfies and quiets the mind; the other, that de-
liverance from it is the greatest of all good, as well as the high-
est duty. What forbade Koheleth to enter upon the like method
of instruction? There is, and always has been, among reflecting
and enquiring men, a class of minds to which such a book is
admirably adapted. It enters into all their sympathies and
views; it shows a familiar acquaintance with them all, and abi-
lity to appreciate them in a feeling manner; and finally, it pre-
sents, in a strong and powerful light, the necessity and the duty
of " fearing God and keeping his commandments." Had not
this book been so much abused, as to its exegesis, by commen-
tators and preachers who did not understand its plan, it might
have been vastly more useful to the church. As matters now
are, the violence done to it by interpreters revolts the candid
and ingenuous mind, and turns many away from the book, because
they are led to despair of obtaining anything satisfactory from it.
I would hope that the time is not far distant, when we shall
have some more enlightened views of this production laid before
our religious public, than have yet been presented. When this
shall be done, I think the doubts of conscientious inquirers will
be removed, and they will cheerfully accord to Koheleth a place
in the canon. Certain it is that the book had such a place, in
the time of Christ and the apostles. Whenever it shall be na-
turally interpreted, and the plan of it fully understood, objec-
tions to it must cease, except on the part of those who reject all
revelation.*

' The following is the view very recently given of the scope and argument of the
book of Ecclesiastes, by Professor CEhlur of Bi'eslau, in an interesting little work,
entitled Ve/eris Testamenti Sententia de rebus post mortem futuris illustrata, pub-
lished at Stuttgard in 1846 :—" Ecclesiastes hoc vult demonstrare, hoininein
bonoruin finem et omuino rorum terrestrium certura ordinem neque vita experiri,
ncque cogitationc asscqui posse; quanuiuam non ncgat, esse quoddam divinuni con-
silium, ad cujus normani res mundanu", huniaiuv j>rif8ertini, certo ordinc progre-

AS TO A PART OF THE OLD TESTAMENT, 315

Last, but not least in point of difficulty, comes the book of
Canticles, or, as tho Hebrews name it, the Song of JSonc/s, i. e^
the Most Excellent Song.

The history of what has befallen this book, and how it has
been treated, would of itself occupy a volume of no inconsiderable
extent. With one class, it is a book of a mysterious nature
full of real spirituality under the images of fervent conjugal love.
With another it is altogether aphrodisiac or amatory^ like some
of Horace's Odes, or Anacreon, or TibuUus, or Ovid's Art of Love.
Others choose a kind of middle path, supposing the design is to
commend chaste conjugal love, and to hold up in an attractive
light the advantages of monogamy in distinction from polygamy.
Each of these classes have much to say in defence of their re-
spective opinions. To canvass the subject at length, is out of
question here. Only a few things that seem to be among the
more important ones, can be discussed on the present occasion.

Amatory nearly all the German Neologists suppose it to be.
And considered as such, the book, I suspect, has had more than
its equal share of attention, in the way of illustrating its
language and of unfolding its supposed amatory scenes. Young
adventurers are very apt to choose this book as their theme.

diantur. Etenim, ut accuratius exponam quid sentiam — Ecclesiastse animus quasi
distrahitur in duas contrarias seutentias. Altera ex parte religiose ea ampleetitur
quoe ex Mosaica disciplina percepit, omiua ex Dei numine pendere, nihil non certa
lege evenire, Dei opei'a omnia perfecta esse, eundeni omnes homines in justum judi-
cium esse vocaturum, quiB omnia ut pro falsis habere audeat, tantum abest, ut ea
etiam atque etiam urgeat. Altera ex parte, qnomodo ilia vera sint, intelligerenequit.
Quamvis multum in rerum iuquisitione elaboraverit, hoc tamen negat se assecutum
esse, ut jam perspiciat qua ratione rerum cursus moderatrieem omnium providentiam
ac divinam justitiam declaret. Confitetur se omnino nescire, quid proficiat univer-
sus rerum mundanarum decursus, quem verae felicitatis fruetum homo ex rebus
lerrestribus reputare possit; nam qute ipseexpertus est et meditando invenit viden-
tur indicare, omnia vana et consilii expertia esse. Itaque, quoniam in Ecclesiastse
animo pia fides quam non vult abjicere, atque intelligentia inter se discordes sunt,
necesse est fieri ut alias aliud eadem de re sentiat et seeum ipse pugnet." With
these views of the scope of the book. Professor CEhler looks upon this remarkable
part of the Old Testament as an insti'uctive intimation to us of " quid sub Vet. Tes-
tamento mens humana assequi non potuerit" — " quasi negativn via Vet. Testament!
disciplinam absolvit." Two new Commentaries upon the book have recently ap-
peared in Germany, in addition to those mentioned by Professor Stuart on p. 123.
viz., Der Prediger Salomo's Er/dilrt \onDr F. Hitzig, Leipzig, 1847; and Commen-
tarius in Ecclesiasten et Cantiaim Canlicorttm, scripsit Augustus Heiligstedt, Lip-
site, 1848; being the concluding part of Maurer's Commentnrins Grammatiais His-
toricus Criticus in Vet. Test. These will pi'ove useful philological helps to the inter-
pretation of the book; but their standpunht is rationalistic. — Ed.

316 § 21. CONSCIENTIOUS SCRUPLES

Ewald, Urabreit, Doepke, and others, put their hands to it while
young ; and they seem to have become rather shy of it since, as
the book, on further consideration, seems not altogether so plain
and obvious as they had once supposed. Those who regard it
as a picture of chaste monogamic affection, are fewer, and are
less able to make out, from the language of the book, the prob-
ability of such a meaning, than the preceding class. The scen-
ery is oriental. One must do violence to his own mind to get
away from the impression, that, if it is amatory at all, love is the
subject as it exists in a Harem, rather than in connection with a
single wife.

But notwithstanding the confidence of not a few critics of
late, I would ask, Is it, was it originally, designed to be regarded
as amatory ?

Herder, who seems rather to have taken the lead among the
recent critics in Germany that favour the amatory exegesis, has
boldly avowed his sentiments respecting it: " The whole book,"
he says, " is love, love. It begins with a kiss, and ends with a
tender sigh." And so Eichhorn and many others, who have fol-
lowed on in this train. Even in ancient times, the Jews had
some difficulty with the contents of Canticles. Origen {Prol.
ad Cant.) and Jerome {Praef. ah Ezecli.) inform us, that the
Jews of their time withheld this book, and also the beginning
and ending of Ezekiel, and the first part of Genesis, from per-
sons under thirty years of age, lest they should abuse them.
Theodoret mentions, that in his day there were some who denied
its spiritual meaning. Theodorus of Mopsuesta was condemned
by the second Synod of Constantinople for saying, that " he was
ashamed to read through the Canticles." In modern times,
Clericus and Grotius avowed sentiments not unlike to those of
Herder ; and now this kind of exegesis has become the reigning
fashion.

Were one to come to the reading of this book, without any
previous knowledge of the habitudes of the Jews in connecting
the conjugal relation and conjugal affection with religious sub-
jects, and without any knowledge of the extent to which this is
carried in the Eastern countries, I should doubt whether he
would ever suspect the poem before us of being a religious one.
The name of God, or any reference to him, does not once occur
in the whole book. From beginning to end is apparently the
language of love ; and this without any explanation. Yet, after

AS TO A I'ART OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 31 7

all, there is ground to doubt whether an interpretation that
would convert the book into an Idyll, or an .amatory Eclogue, is
well grounded.

(1.) First of all — in what part of the Hebrew Bible can we
find any composition of an analogous nature I All — every
Psalm, every piece of history, every part of prophecy — has a
religious aspect, and (the book of Esther perhaps excepted) is
filled with theocratic views of things. How came there here to be
such a solitary exception, so contrary to the genius and nature
of the whole Hebrew Bible I It is passing strange, if real amat-
ory Idylls are mingled with so much, all of which is of a serious
and religious nature. If the author viewed his composition as
being of an amatory nature, would he have sought a place for it
among the sacred books ? And subsequent redactors or editors
— would they have ranked it here, in case they had regarded it
in the same light? I can scarcely deem this credible. So dif-
ferent was the reverence of the Jews for their Scriptures, from
any mere approbation of an amatory poem as such, that I must
believe that the insertion of Canticles among the canonical books,
was the result of a full persuasion of its spiritual import. Had
the case stood otherwise, why did they not introduce other
secular works, as well as this, into the canon ? Nor is this
estimate of the book a figment of allegorical exegesis, introduced
by Philo, and spread far and wide by Origen. The book had
a place in the canon, at all events before the time of the Macca-
bees ; so that the judgment of very ancient times, in the Jewish
church, must have coincided with the judgment, in later times,
of a large portion of Christian interpreters.

(2.) It is now generally agreed, as Rosenmiiller concedes
(Proem, ad Comm. ii.), that all the parts of this book are co-
herent and have a mutual relation, and that the same personages
are introduced and continued as speakers through the whole.
The tone of the language, the style, the idiom, the special formu-
las of expression (such as adjuring by the does and the goats,
&c.), are of the same tenor throughout. From the same hand
and mind the whole composition doubtless came, whoever the
author was.

If now it is an amatory/ Eclogue, methinks there must be some
plan, some progress, some denouement, that is not only appreciable
by a critical reader, but discernible by an ordinary reader. Yet
such a plan has never been developed, at least to any general satis-

SIS § 21. CONSCIENTIOUS SCRUPLES

faction. One set of interpreters, (even such men as Velthusen,
0. F. Amnion, Lindemann, Umbreit, Michaelis, Jacobi), have
endeavoured to make out from the book, that it consists of ama-
tory epistles addressed by Solomon to a shepherd's beautiful wife;
who retains, however, her fidelity, and remains true to her hus-
band. But how is this any less than to say, that Solomon's
amatory effusions, designed for seduction, are incorporated with
the Holy Scriptures? No refutation of this is needed. Others
make the book a series of epithalamia on the marriage of Solo-
mon with Pharaoh's daughter; which, as it was an open and
palpable transgression of the Law of Moses, does not much mend
the matter. This seems to be kindred with the view which some
recent critics {e. g. Lengerke) take of the 45th Psalm, viz., that
it is an epithalamium on the marriage of Ahab with Jezebel, or
{e. g. De Wette) of Xerxes with some Jewess ! Ewald finds in
the book a beautiful country girl, wandering in the pleasant fields
of Engedi, seen, and forcibly carried ofl", by King Solomon, who
attempts to seduce her by his amatory poetry. But what then
are all the tender expressions of affection on the part of the
woman, in i. 9 — 11 ; ii. 10—15 ; iii. 1 — 5, et al. ? Bossuet found
in the book a pastoral drama of seven acts. And these are not
a tithe of the conceits which have been thrown out before the
public, in regard to the work before us.

How difficult it is to make out any plan of an Eclogue, these
perpetual changes and variations of opinion may serve to show.
But let us go, for a moment, to the book itself. At the outset
we find the fair one in the harem of the king's palace, exulting in
the love of Solomon. Then (i. 7 seq.) we find her in the country
tending flocks, and her lover a shepherd. But this shepherd has
a domicil, whose beams are cedar, and the rafters fir (i. 17).
Next, we find the lover leaping among the mountains, and skip-
ping among the hills ; ii. 8. Then the fair one has lost her lover,
and she goes forth to seek him by night, and brings him back to
the house of her mother; iii. 1 seq. Next, Solomon is coming
out of the wilderness, on a palankeen with sixty bearers ; iii. 6
seq. Next, he is with his beloved on Lebanon ; iv. 8. Again
she loses him, and goes out to seek him in the city, and is mal-
treated by the watch ; v. 1 seq. Then we find him in the garden
of spices (vi. 1 seq.), where she meets him, and they go to the
harem, where are threescore queens, and fourscore concubines,
and virgins without number, all of whom she excels, and they

AS TO A I'AHT 01' THE OI.U TESTAMENT. 319

praise her beauty ; vi. 8, &c. Throughout the whole, there is a
mutual interchange of the language of passionate affection, rarely
interrupted by any other speakers. A drama surely it is not,
(although it has often been called so), unless a colloquy in which
there is no change of speakers is a drama. Besides, there is no
plot, no denouement, no crisis. The whole book is neither more
nor less than the seeming exchange of expressions of endearment,
with localities and shifting of scenery adapted to call forth new
and lively emotions.

Is it the custom, now, of any nation to write amatory eclogues
in such a manner as this ? If literally interpreted, the whole
book, while it has some beauties of description, is still nothing
less than a mass of incongruities, without plan, and without the
accomplishment of anything saving the outpouring of amorous
desire.

It was on this ground that Rosenmliller abandoned the literal
exegesis, although he was nearly alone in doing so among the
Neologists ; Proem. III. I must confess for myself, that the
words of the celebrated Rabbi, Aben Ezra, in the Pref. to his
Comm. on this book, appear to me very just and striking:

l^n hv Di^ ^^ pti?n m-Q D^"i^u>n "^^trr nvn^ rhhn rhhn
]^«i ii>-rpn ^nn:: niDi irai \h irriSj^n h-v. "hh^ h^r:^

'•'p^^XyCl 1 vi? ' ^- ®' "Profanation! profanation! to place the
Canticles among amatory compositions ; but everything is said
in the way of allegory. And unless the dignity of it [the book]
had been great, it had not been incorporated with the holy books.
Nor is there any controversy respecting it." He means to say,
that this was not, and could not be, faii'ly called in question.
And why is he not in the right ? " The universal genius and
method of the sacred books," says Rosenmliller, " exclude the
idea of admitting among them songs about the ordinary love of
man and woman."

But is there any example in the other Scriptures, of allegoriz-
ing as to spiritual things, by employing such language and such
conceptions as are to be found in Canticles I I answer, yes, with-
out hesitation. This sort of imagery is frequent in the Old
Testament, and in the New. Frequently are the Jews charged
with "going a ichoring after other gods;" Ex. xxxiv. 15, 16.
Lev. XX. 5, 6. Numb. xv. 39. Deut. xxxi. 16. 2 Chron. xxi.
1 3. Psa. Ixxiii. 27. Ezek. vi. 9. Here the idea is, that they were

320 § 21. CONSCIENTIOUS SCRUPLES

afHanced to the true God, and could not seek aftei' idols without
incurring the guilt of adultery. So God calls himse\f the husband
of the Jews ; Isa. liv. 5. The nation of Israel is his bride ; Isa.
Ixii. 4, 5. In Isa. 1. 1, Jehovah asks where is the bill of divorcement
on his part, that Israel have departed from him. Jeremiah
speaks of the espoibsah of Israel, when young, in the wilderness.
In Jer. iii. 1 — 11, the prophet speaks of Israel as playing the
harlot and committing adultery, in forsaking Jehovah. In Eze-
kiel, two long chapters (xvi. xxiii.) are occupied with carrying
through the imagery drawn from such a connection. Hosea
(i. — iii.) recognizes the same principle, and carries out the
imagery into much detail. These are merely specimens. Psalm
xlv. presents the Mediator, the King of Zion, in the attitude of
a husband to the church, and celebrates the union between the
former and the latter. So in the New Testament this imagery
is very familiar; See Matt. ix. 15. John iii. 29. Rev. xix. 7 ;
xxi, 2. Specially consult 2 Cor. xi. 2, and Eph. v. 22 — 32, where
the apostle has gone into much particularity as to the duties of
the marriage relation, and then avows, that he " speaks con-
cerning Christ and the church."

Such is the custom of the Hebrew w^riters, and of the apostles.
If now this imagery is so often employed, in all parts of the
Bible, what forbids the idea, that there may be one short book
in which it occupies an exclusive place, and is designed to sym-
bolize the love that existed between God and his ancient people
or the church, or rather, which ought to have existed on their
part between God and his spiritually regenerated people, who
have become one (in a spiritual sense) with him, and are for ever
united to him I It cannot be shown, a priori^ that this is even
improbable.

Yet I would not wish to represent the case, in regard to Can-
ticles, as different from what it really is. In other books these
conjugal allusions and relations are only occasional nn^ local, like
other comparisons or similes introduced merely for the sake of
illustration or of vivid representation ; in Canticles they are sole
and exclusive — the all in all. Nor is there even a single refer-
ence to simple spiritual things expressly given in the whole book.
The reader finds not a hint, that he is to interpret the book in
this way. It is this which constitutes the main strength of those
who assert the book to be altogether amatory in its character.

I should feel more pressed by this circumstance, did I not

A.S TO A PART Ol' I H IJ OLD IKSTAMliNT. 'i'li

know, that extensive usage of a similar nature exists, and haa
for a long period existed, in the oriental countries, e. g. among
the Persians, the Turks, the Arabians, and the Hindoos. In the
Musnavi of Jellaleddin, the poems of Jami, and above all in the
odes of Hafiz, are many productions apparently of an amatory
nature, which the Persians (there are some dissenters) regard as
expressive of the intercourse of the soul with God. Hafiz, whose
odes, as has been remarked, are sung to excite youth to pleasure,
and chanted to remind the aged of the raptures of divine love,
was a Sufi devotee of the most strenuous cast. Hence his poetry
is regarded as expressive of the longings of the soul after God,
and of the enjoyment that results from communion with him.
The loves of Meguoun and Leilah have been celebrated in the
Arabic, the Persian, and the Turkish languages ; yet with the
understanding, in all cases, that these personages are mere alle-
gorical characters — i. e. mere personifications of religious affec-
tion.

Mr Lane, in his admirable work on the Modern Egyptians, has
given us an opportunity of presenting this subject a little more
in extenso, than I have yet done. While in Cairo he attended
the religious exercises of the Dervishes of the highest order, on
the birth-day of the prophet (Mohammed). Of course the de-
votional exercises of that day were designed to be of the very
highest cast. A company of the leading Dervishes met, by
moonlight, and after a variety of chants out of the Koran, they
proceeded to the exercises thus described by Mr Lane:

" I shall here give a translation of one of these Moowesh'shahhs, which
are very numerous, as a specimen of their style, from a book containing a
number of these poems, which I have purchased during the present Moo'lid
from a durwee'sh who presides at many zikrs. He pointed out the follow-
ing poem as one of tliose most common at zikrs, and as one which was sung
at the zikr which 1 have begun to describe. I translate it verse for verse;
and imitate the measure and system of rhyme of the original, with this dif-
ference only, that the first, third, and fifth lines of each stanza rhyme with
each other in the original, but not in my translation.

With love my heart is troubled;

And mine eye-lid hind'reth sleep:
My vitals are dissever'd;

While with streaming tears I weep.
My union seems far distant:

Will my love e'er meet mine eye?
Alas! did not estrangement

Draw ni}' tears, I would not sigli.

322 § 21. CONSCIENTIOUS SCRUPLES

By dreary nights I'm wasted:

Absence makes my hope expire:
My tears, like pearls, are dropping;

And my heart is wrapt in fire.
Whose is like my condition?

Scarcely know I remedy.
Alas ! did not estrangement

Draw my teai's, I would not sigh.

O turtle-dove! acquaint me

Wherefore thus dost thou lament?
Art thou so stung by absence?

Of thy wings depriv'd, and pent?
He saith, ' Our griefs are equal :

Worn away with love, I lie.'
Alas! did not estrangement

Draw my tears, I would not sigh.

O First and Everlasting !

Show thy favour yet to me;
Thy slave," Ahh'mad El-Bek'ree,*
Hath no Lord excepting Thee.
By Ta'-Ha',t the great Prophet!

Do thou not his wish deny.
Alas ! did not estrangement

Draw my tears, I would not sigh.
I must translate a few more lines, to show more strongly the similarity
of these songs to that of Solomon; and lest it should be thought that I have
varied the expressions, I shall not attempt to translate them into verse. In
the same collection of poems sung at zikrs is one which begins with these
lines.

0 gazelle from among the gazelles of El-Yem'en!

1 am thy slave without cost:

O thou small of age, and fresh of skin !

0 thou who art scarce past the time of drinking milk!

In the first of these verses, we have a comparison exactly agreeing with
that in the concluding verse of Solomon's Song; for the word which, in our
Bible, is translated a ' roe,' is used in Arabic as synonymous with ghaza'l
(or a gazelle); and the mountains of El-Yem'en are 'the mountains of spi-
ces.'— This poem ends with the following lines.

The phantom of thy form visited me in my slumber :

1 said, ' O phantom of slumber ! who sent thee ?'
He said, ' He sent me whom thou knowest;

He whose love occupies thee.'

The beloved of my heart visited me in the darkness of night:

* The author of the poem. The singer sometimes puts his own name in the
place of this.

t Ta'-Ha' (as I have mentioned on a former occasion) is a name of the Arabian
Prophet.

AS TO A PART OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 323

I stood, to show him honour, until he sat down.

I said, ' O thou my petition, and all my desire !'

Hast thou come at midnight, and not feared the watciimen!

He said to me, ' I feared; but, however, love

Had taken from me my soul and my breath.'

Compare the above with the second and five following verses of tlie fifth
chapter of Solomon's Song. — Finding that songs of this description are ex-
tremely numerous, and almost the only poems sung at ziki-s; that they are
composed for this purpose, and intended only to have a spiritual sense
(though certainly not understood in such a sense by the generality of the
vulgar*), I cannot entertain any doubt as to the design of Solomon's Song.
The specimens whicli I have just given of the religious love-songs of tlie
Moos'lims have not been selected in pi'eference to others as most agreeing
with that of Solomon; but as being in fi'equent use; and the former of the
two, as having been sung at the zikr which I have begun to describe."

Such then is the custom of the Arabians, in their most sub-
limated devotions, and on occasions the most solemn. Who will
deny that Mr Lane has some good reason for saying, as he does,
that " he cannot entertain any doubt of Solomon's Song."

Was it impossible, now, for the neighbours of the Arabians to
have a similar custom, in their flights of highest devotion ? From
some of the deepest affections of our nature they drew their col-
ouring, in order to portray the longings and the enjoyments of
the soul. It will be allowed, on all hands, that no material for
colouring could be of a more vivid nature. The moral tendency
is the only drawback in regard to the whole matter. On this
I must say a few words more, and then leave the matter to the
reader.

For one, I feel obliged to say, that the state of feeling in our
western world, which has been consequent on elevating the rank
of women in society, and giving them a place among assemblages
either for instruction or entertainment, stands in some measure
opposed to the tenor of such a book as Canticles. As a book of
amatory odes we might praise and admire it ; for. in the original,
it is much more delicate than our EngHsh version represents it
to be. But we shrink instinctively from connecting amatory
ideas and feelings with a devotional frame of mind. We find
the temptation to dwell on the carnal imagery sometimes, perhaps
often, leading us away from pure and spiritual devotion. This I
believe to be the general — the all but universal feeling among

* As a proof of this, I may mention, that, since the above was written, I Lave
found the last six of the lines here translated, with some slight alteration, inserted as a
common love-song in a portion of the Thousand and One Niijlitu printed at Calcutta
(Vol. i. p. 425).

824 § 21. coNSCiENxrous scrupirs

us. I do not, I cannot disapprove of this feeling. I commend
it. It shows what progress Christianity has made, in inspiring
the mind with quick and powerful sensitiveness, in regard to a
matter which is always fraught with danger, and particularly to
the young. Where promiscuous assemblage of the two sexes is
so frequent as it is among us, nothing but a quick and high
sense of delicacy could prevent the multiplied evils that might
easily grow out of it. Our state of manners, our usages in re-
gard to female privileges and companionship, render that kind
of cautious feeling on the subject of amatory descriptions and al-
lusions, necessary to us as a safeguard.

I take it for granted, that such a book as the Canticles pre-
supposes a state of society which is far from the highest Christian
refinement of manners. In the New Testament, such a book,
i. e. one exclusively of such a tenor, would be an utter stranger.
It could hardly be recognised as one of this collection. But
when all this is said and conceded, it does not follow, that such
a book as Canticles might not have found a place in the ancient
canon. Different — very different — was the state of the Jews in
ancient times. Language that we could not now tolerate, above
all, could not tolerate in any company composed of both sexes,
gave no offence to delicacy in the times of general simplicity
and rude cultivation. It might be employed, then, much more
unexceptionably among the ancient Hebrews, than it can be
among us. Certain it is, that the Old Testament Scriptures
abundantly illustrate this position, by the not unfrequent expres-
sions found in them, which we feel obliged to mollify in transla-
ting, but which, when first uttered, needed no such process.
Every thing almost of this nature depends on the state and hab-
itudes of a nation or people. Some things there are, which
must always be indecent, at all times, and among all nations.
But other things, e. g. phraseology, manner of dress, and all
that may be classed under the doidipo^a of morals, is mutable,
and may be proper or improper pro re nata. Nor is this pecu-
liar to the Old Testament. In 1 Cor. xi. 13 seq., Paul says
that it is a shame for a man to wear long hair ; that a woman
must not pray unveiled in public assemblies ; that women must
wear their hair long in the way of ornament and covering ; and
the like. Is so much of this, now, as pertains merely to costume
or nianner of wearing the hair, matter of perpetual obligation to
all churches ? Certainly not. And why I Because the things
commanded or forbidden are among the ddidfooa, i. e. things in

AS TO A I'AUT 01' TllK OLD TKSTAAIKNT. u20

themselves neither good nor evil, but still things tliat may be
indecorous, if practised under certain circumstances and among
a people of such usages as the Greeks. In public, no woman
could decently appear unveiled ; a usage widely extant even now
in Asia. For men to wear long hair, was an indication among
the Greeks of an effeminate, imbecile character, who courted
adornment like a female, and was probably one of the Ta'i/xo/.
But in our country, the state of manners and customs is so dif-
ferent, that so far as decency of appearence is concerned, the
matters of which the apostle here treats, are things indiffer-
ent. In respect, however, to the public praying of females, the
apostle, in the same epistle, becomes so impressed with the sub-
ject, when he comes to treat of the exercise of the gift of speak-
ing with tongues in public, that he positively and plainly forbids
the whole thing: " Let your women keep silence in the churches :
for it is not permitted them to speak ;" 1 Oor. xiv, 34. And
so again in 1 Tim. ii. 11, 12, " Let the women learn silence with
all subjection ; but I suffer not a woman to teach \i. e. in public,
or to preach], nor to usurp authority over the man, but to be in
silence." Some have thought that these two passages are oppos-
ed or contradictory to the preceding. I do not understand
them so. In the first passage, Paul is merely correcting abuses;
and he so liaiits the public speaking of women, that, if done at
all, it should be done with entire decorum. In the last two, he
gives his opinion what ought to be and should be the established
principle of the church, in regard to the matter of public female
addresses. Of course he must be understood as speaking in I'e-
ference to mixed assemblies.

There are several things to be learned from cases of such a na-
ture as this. Firht of all, that even Christianity, which is always
watchful over the t6 kccXov and -6 '::A-::ov, niay forbid things in cer-
tain circumstances, which are matters of perfect indifference in
others. The like was the eating of meats that had been present-
ed in the temple of idols ; the circumcision of Christians stand-
ing in a peculiar relation to the Jews, e. cj. of Timothy, &c. So
there may be, and there are, some things which are local and tem-
porary in the Gospel, as well as in the Law. Secondly, that
which is not malum in se may be tolerated for a while, and
regulated, even in cases where, in the sequel, it may be judged
necessary or best entirely to forbid it. Such was the temporary
toleration of the public addresses or prayers of women at Corinth,

326 § 21. CONSCIENTIOUS SCRUPLES

in promiscuous assemblies. The precept forbidding this, is of
course not to be regarded as extending to exercises of this nature
in assemblies exclusively female ; but that it is designed to be a
general and permanent precept, in regard to mixed assemblies,
would seem to be plain from the reasoning of Paul when giving
his grounds for such a precept; see 2 Tim. ii. 13 seq. The rea-
soning, in this case, is founded on a permanent state of things.

If now we find in the New Testament things about which
certain directions are given, but which are plainly and evidently
obligatory no longer than while certain circumstances exist ; why
may there not be some books in the Old Testament, once well
adapted to the state of the Jews, and useful to them, but which
have now become obsolete, by reason of the great changes which
Christianity has wrought ? All concede, that the Levitical rites
and ceremonies are done away ; that circumcision, and the pass-
over, and sacrifices and oblations of every kind, are no longer
obligatory. Of course, all that part of the Old Testament which
prescribes and regulates these things, is no longer a matter of
'practical moment to us, but only a portion of the history of
God's former dealings with his church. We have no hesitation
in adopting all this ; specially after reading the Epistle to the
Hebrews, the principal object of which is to show, that a new
and better covenant than the old has been introduced, and one
established on better promises, and of a more liberal nature.
But v/hen we have gone thus far, is there any obstacle in the way
of taking one more step? May there not have been some books,
neither ritual nor politico-ecclesiastical, written for the time being,
and the circumstances then existing, and which were wisely
adapted to do good in this state of things — which books, by the
introduction of a better and more perfect system of rehgion,
have become in a good measure obsolete, or no longer useful to
us, because our circumstances, habits, manners, and modes of
thinking, are so different from those of the Jews in their pai'ti-
ally civilized state ? I do not see how this question can be con-
fidently answered in the negative.

Why may it not be, then, that the Canticles were written for
Jewish pietists of a contemplative order, and somewhat of the
temperament of the Essenes, %. e. able to control and keep in a
state of entire subjection their animal passions? There were
doubtless some Baxters and Thomas a Kempises among the
Hebrews; we know that there were such men as could write the

AS TO A I'AKT OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. S27

most devotional Psalms. Might it not have been customary
among the Hebrews, so to speak of the marriage relation and
its endearments, as not to excite in them the same feeling that
it is apt to do among us, or at least not the same in degree ? 1
must take it for granted that such was the case, when I call to
mind how often Jehovah employs language of this kind, when
addressing the Israelites. Nay more, I find the same thing, to
some extent, even in the New Testament, on the part of Jesus
and his apostles. It is clear that no indecency is intended;
and equally clear, as it seems to me, that no improper feelings
were excited by the language in question, in the minds of those
who were originally addressed. But that time, those circum-
stances, that state of manners, and those usages, all of which
contributed to render imagery of the kind in question harmless,
and even useful — have all passed away. Orientals may read
Hafiz's Odes, and the Loves of Megnoun and Leilah, or may
sing as the Dervishes did, when Mr Lane heard them, and
through the force of education appropriate to themselves reli-
gious nourishment from these elements. Why then should they
be forbidden to them? Why might not the Jewish sacred wri-
ters provide for that class of devotees, who could be profited by
this style of writing? The thing is neither impossible nor im-
probable. Everything in this matter depends on education and
custom. Is not the Bible so written as to offer something
attractive to all classes of readers, to all kinds of taste that are
not in themselves vicious? If so, why may not provision have
been made to allure the class of the contemplative, the devotees
in the East, and to attract the attention of even the Sufi and
the Dervish?

Thus much, I think, may fairly be said in regard to the exis-
tence and canonical rank of such a work as the Canticles. But
now as to the Occidentals — the western world who have been
christianized, and brought to a totally different state of manners.
Mixed society in the East, is a thing that time out of mind has
never been allowed and practised. Hence their freedom of lan-
guage, in speaking of delicate matters. The restraints of the
female sex were not felt, of course. Language assumed a fuller
tone without offence, where only one sex was present. But
among us, where both are present, (a matter which Christian-
ity has brought about, unspeakably to the advantage of both
sexes), we cannot read or sing the Canticles with the same free-

o28 § 21. CONSCIENTIOUS SCKUPLKS

dom as a company of monks or nuns oould do. It is well. For
ono, 1 rejoice in this triumph of Christianity in prohibiting every-
thing that may even seem, to the unlearned or to the passion-
ate, as adapted to excite unhallowed feelings. Innocent in
themselves, with all the needful restraints and decorous limita-
tions, some of these feelings may be. But we needno excite-
ment, additional to what by nature we possess, to rouse them.
It is not best to tamper with even a dubious matter. I have
often heard it said by the friends of President Edwards, that
he was peculiarly fond of the book of Canticles, and read and
meditated much upon it. His character for piety was such, as
entirely forbids the supposition that he was secretly nourishing
his animal passions by this. Nay, I must believe that if he had
found such to be the effect of his reading Canticles, he would at once
have desisted. His example shows, then, what is possible, and
what may be achieved by purified and exalted feeling. But as
such men are not very rife in these days, and are not likely to
be so, it is better for those who have not attained an elevated
state of piety like his, to abstain, for the most part, from the
book before us. The reason lies in our excitability, in conse-
quence of our manners and our education. There is the same
reason, for substance, why we should desist from this book, as
there is why we should cease to hold obligatory the local and
temporal in the New Testament. The book has had its day. I
venture to believe, that many rejoiced in it, and were made glad
by it. But it was only twilight when it was written; it is now
broad daylight. We who know and feel this, need not go back
to the twilight, in order that we may see.

Still, there is yet an oriental world, and one that is to be con-
verted to Christianity. Let the book stand for those, who hav-
ing been trained to read Hafiz, and Megnoun and Leilah, and to
sing the odes of the Dervishes, with nothing but a spiritualized
ptateof feeling, can enjoy the pleasure of finding such a book in the
canon of Scripture. For us, men of occidental taste and habits,
and of only ordinary growth in piety, (to say the best we well can),
— for us, (excepting the few that have reached the lofty heights
of a Baxter or an Edwards), who have a task difficult enough to
keep our passions in due subjection even when we shun all the
temptation and excitements that wo can — it is the safer and
better course, to place the Canticles, as the Jews did, among
the 0'"t'^22 '^i" books withdrawn fVom ordinnry use, and bt'take

AS TO A PART OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 529

ourselves rather to the Psahns, and the Proverbs, and the Pro-
phets, and the New Testament. Canticles, as a means of devo-
tion— doctrinal it surely is not — is superseded for us by better
means. This is reason enough, independently of the danger of
being excited in an undue way, to prefer other parts of the Scrip-
ture. And all this brings no just reproach on Canticles, any
more than the argument of Paul in his epistle to the Hebrews,
against all the rights and forms of the old dispensation, brings
reproach on them while they lasted.

I am aware, that those Christians (and some such there are)
who, because all the Bible was written by inspiration, l.old it to
be all alike valuable to us, and obligatory upon us, and who read
it in course, even through and through, in their families, (and
perhaps in the pulpit), with the best of intentions, will probably
not receive these remarks with much approbation. Still, while
I doubt not that they may mean right, I am fully persuaded
that their practice is altogether wrong, or at least injudicious.
What have we to do, in the way of Christian edification, with
the details of building the tabernacle and temple; with the ge-
nealogies and lists of returning exiles; with all the prescriptions
about offerings, libations, purifications, priests, &;c., in the Levi-
tical law; and with many a piece of family or individual history
which developes nothing special of a religious nature? Even the
prophecies against Egypt, Moab, Edom, Philistia, Tyre, Baby-
lon, and Assyria, have but a subordinate interest for us. Why
occupy our public or our family devotions with such parts of the
Old Testament Scriptures? What moral and practical ideas
would a family or a church obtain, from having Ezek. xl — xlviii.
read in course? General usage has decided all these questions,
among the more intelligent Christians, and decided them rightly.
I do not wish the decision to be revoked.

Nor is all this saying one word against the Canticles, or the
other parts of Scripture to which reference has been made. I
have already pointed out what use is to be made of such parts
of Scripture, and what estimate is to be put upon them. I need
not repeat here what I have already said. The whole thing lies
in a very small compass. There was an ancient preparatory/
dispensation — a shadow of good things to come — many things
were necessary to arrange and give it a successful trial; that dis-
pensation has passed away, and has now comparatively " no glory
by reason of the glory that excelleth;" and along with it has

330 § 21. CONSCIKNTIOUS SCRUPLES

passed away all such parts of the Old Testament as were local
and temporary — all which belonged merely to Judaism. Why
can we not receive the simple truth, that the hand of God was
in all these movements, and that the same hand has now intro-
duced us to a much higher and better state, furnished us with
better means of understanding truth, and of promoting our own
personal piety?

Considerations such as these, and like to these, I would most
heartily commend to those who are halting and doubting in re-
gard to the book of Canticles. I do not perceive the need of
such a state of mind. Certain it is, that the Canticles were a
part of the canon sanctioned by Christ and the apostles. No-
thing as matter of fact in ancient criticism is more certain. It
is of no use to deny this, or to make efforts to evade it. Better
is it to meet it directly, and canvass the whole matter with an
open and liberal and candid mind. If the Orientals still want
such a book, let them use it, as the ancient Jews did. If the
Occidentals can do better, on the whole, without making the use
of it public and common, let them have the liberty of the Gospel.
Our preachers, in general, have long since ceased to make it a
text-book; families do not generally read it in their devotions;
and if the remarks which I have made above are well-founded,
they are to be commended rather than blamed for this. The
book has had its day in the East, or (if you insist upon it) is to have
it there; in the West, it seems to me that it must continue to hold
much the same place which general practice has assigned to it.

I cannot conclude these remarks vv'ithout adding, as I have
already hinted, that the perusal of the original makes much less
impression on rae of an exceptional kind, than the perusal of our
version. It is far more delicate, at least to my apprehension.
It were e?vsy to exhibit particulars, which would justify this
statement. But I refrain because of the nature of the case.
That there are many passages in this pastoral^ if any must
needs so call it, which are highly beautiful and tender and
delicate, is quite certain. A heathen poet who had sung carnal
love in like manner, would have doubtless been immortal among
the Cythereans. But other passages, which are minutely de-
scriptive of the person of the bride, oblige us to look well to the
mastery of our feelings. It needs something of the tone of mind
which a Sufi or a Dervish attains to, by long and exclusive spirit-
ualizing and meditation, or (which is much better) the elevation

AS TO A PART OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 331

above all that is carnal, of an Edwards or a Baxter or an Owen,
in order to make any spiritual gain by the exercise. Something
might be done to give the book a better dress than it has in our
English version ; but the general state of the case will remain as
developed above. While I would say, with Aben Ezra, Tlh'^h'n
Pf^i'^pf to all profane rejection of the book, I think we may say
with Virgil, on a somewhat different occasion: Procul, O procul,
este profani !

Is it not strange that the mere Elenchus Interpretum^ or list of
commentators on this book, occupies more than twenty octavo
pages in Rosenniuller's Commentary? And I presume he has
not recorded anything like the one half of them. Jews, Christ-
ian Fathers, Romanists, and Protestants, have all rushed upon
this little book, by virtue, as it would seem, of some mysterious
attraction. Yet the mystery does not probably lie very deep.
Origen, as we might expect from his allegorical inclinations,
wrote ten volumes of Comm. on Canticles. " As in other works
of his," says Jerome, " he has surpassed all other expositors ; in
this he has outdone himself." " Here," says he on another oc-
casion respecting Origen in this work, " here he sails cum pleno
xiehr We have also among these expositors an Ambrose, Gre-
gory of Nyssa, Theodoret, Cassiodorus, and many others. Among
the Romanists there is no end of expositors. Poor monks ! This
book was converted into nectar and ambrosia to refresh and
strengthen them in their mental revellings, and to compensate
in some measure for the loss of realities. So they rushed by
troops to the prey. Germans (as we should expect), Frenchmen
not a few (as we should spontaneously conjecture), even English-
men, although with some good degree of sobriety in most cases,
and last of all the very Dutchmen, have revelled in this book; for
what else shall I say of the matter of many of the commentaries
that have been produced^ There are, not improbably, a class
of occasional readers of the Bible, who would sooner give up any
book belonging to it than this. Their real reasons for this pre-
ference, they would not perhaps be fond of proclaiming.

Christianity, then, with that state of manners and society
which it has introduced, has changed our relation to many
things belonging to the Old Testament dispensation. All con-
cede this, as to rites and forms and peculiarities of the Levitical
worship and purifications. We have no temple at Jerusalem;
no assemblages there to kill the passover, to celebrate sacred

So2 § 21. CONSCIENTIOUS SCRL PLtS.

feasts, and to hear the Law once in seven years. We have it
every Sabbath, we may read it every day. It costs but a pit-
tance to put it in our possession — the fruit of a single day's
labour, at most, will accomplish this, for the poorer classes ;
while a pious Jew, to obtain the same privileges, must almost
have expended a handsome little fortune. The consequence of
all this is, a state of things and of manners exceedingly different
from that of ancient times. It does not follow, that all which
was permissible, or available, or useful then, is of course so now.
Even some books, which are not conversant with Hebrew rites
and forms, are not of course profitable to us, as they were, or at
any rate might have been, to them. Why should we lay stress
on these, and urge them into present usage, when little or no
moral gain, comparatively, is to be made from them ? I hesitate
not for a moment to say, that we should not. Let them be —
specially let the Canticles be — for Oriental Christians, brought
up very differently from us. I doubt not that many of them
might find spiritual food, instead of poison, in them. At all
events, we may consent to let a book stand where Christ and
his apostles found it and left it, and against which they have
nowhere testified, but, on the contrary, sanctioned it in connec-
tion with other Old Testament books. It is safe for the doubt-
ing and wavering at least to let it alone. If they find that they
cannot safely read it, they are bound to let it alone; at least I
should not hesitate in my own case.

All things considered, we may settle down, as it seems to me,
in the conclusion, that the Canticles is a book rather to be re-
garded in the light of a local one, and adapted to partial usage,
than as a book now, under the full light of the gospel, specially
adapted to our use. It had its day. That its use was relialous,
I cannot doubt, from the company in which it is found, and the
ordeal through which it has passed among the founders of
Christianity. It may have still another day of usefulness,
among the Asiatics. Let us not disown it, or set it aside. But
persons of timid consciences, who have an idea, that, since all
parts of Scripture are inspired, they all must of course be equal-
ly/ useful, may be set free from this bondage. Are we to hold
that the sketches of tabernacle and temple buildings, of ritual
ordinances and customs, and catalogues of names and places,
are as edifying as the Epistle to the Romans, or the Gospels, or
the Psalms? If we answer in the negative, then 1 would ask,

§ 22. USE OF THE OLD TKSTAMENT. 333

whether, in other compositions, once adapted to the state of
things then existing, there may not be a lack of former useful-
ness, since the light of the Gospel has become fully diffused;
As I have once said, I would say again, May not a star, that
once shone brightly in the dim twilight, become no longer visible
when the sun is shining in his strength? But why should we
deny that it has once shone, and that it is still a star?

I have not undertaken to decide exactly of what tenor the
spiritual exegesis of Canticles should be. • It is a question of no
small difficulty. Does it refer to the church as a body? Or is
it to be applied to the converse of the soul with God, and the
delight of communing with hira? If oriental analogy may speak
on this occasion, it would lift up its voice in favour of the latter.
This I also prefer, because I can hardly regard the book of Can-
ticles in the light of a series of ^:>r^(/idio?is respecting a future
Christian church. As far as what pertains to individuals, who
are pious, is common to the church, whether Jewish or Chris-
tian, so far Canticles may be applied to the characteristics of
the church, ancient or modern. But to me it seems better and
firmer ground, to regard the Canticles as expressing the warm
and earnest desire of the soul after God, in language borrowed
from that which characterises chaste affection between the
sexes. But this is not the place to vindicate an opinion of this
nature.

§ 22. Use of the Old Testament under the Gospel Dispensation.

The most difficult and delicate part of my task remains. In
many respects this is also the most important; for it is i\\e prac-
tical result of all which has been hitherto laid before the reader
and defended.

Where shall a Christian teacher or reader draiv the line hettceen
lohat IS ABROGATED hi the Old Testament, hy the coming of Christ
and hy the revelation of his will in the New Testament, and that
which REMAINS IN FULL FORCE, and to tcMch appeal may he made
as heinq at the present time of divine authority and ohligation?

If by this question is meant, a requisition to draw a boundary
line between the two, which is always practically palpable, and
always visible and plain even to the weakest eye, no intelligent
and considerate man would undertake the task. The New Tes-
tament has passed sentence of abrogation on no specific book

834 § 22. USE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

or part of a book, as such, which is contained in the Old Testa-
ment. To its decision, viewed as designating this or that parti-
cular portion or book of the Old Testament, as no longer having
authority to decide matters pertaining to religion for us, we can-
not appeal. All which it has done is to lay down and establish
general principles, by the aid of which we must decide what still
remains obligatory, and what is virtually repealed.

The ultimate appeal, then, is to understanding and reason;
not in order to establish the principles in question, for Christ
and his apostles have established them, but to make a discri-
minating and judicious use of these principles, in determining
what still remains in full force. So does the Bible in respect
to its interpretation. It narrates, it commands, it threatens, it
promises, it encourages, it consoles, it holds out views of a fu-
ture state of reward and punishment; but the language in which
all this is done, is addressed to men in the usual way, and they
are expected to give it a rational interpretation. The Bible
teaches no system of hermeneutics ; it instructs no one in the
principles of rhetoric ; it never descants on the use of figurative
language; it never lays down any theory of exegesis which may
serve as a certain guide to those who become acquainted with it.
All these are presupposed to be understood or felt by the read-
ers; and then it is expected of them, that by their discrimina-
tion and judgment they should give a sound interpretation.

Exactly like to this is the case before us. The new dispen-
sation is fully set forth in the New Testament. Its departures
from the peculiarities of the Jewish religion, its true spiritual
nature, its universality, its freiedom from all pomp and rites and
ceremonies, and (if the word had not been abused, I might say,
in a good sense), its cosmopolitism, stand in high relief upon the
portico of the new temple which has been erected. On the very
foundation stones of this temple are inscribed, in letters so plain
that he who runneth may read: God is a Spirit, and they that

WORSHIP him must WORSHIP HIM IN SPIRIT AND IN TRUTH. On tllC

next tier of foundation stones stands inscribed, in letters equally
plain and prominent: The Father seeketh such v*^orshippers.
On the third stands the inscription: The hour is come when

NEITHER ON THE MOUNTAIN OF SaMARIA, NOR OF JERUSALEM, ARE MEN
REQUIRED TO WORSHIP.

This last inscription contains the germ of all that I have or
wish to say. The two former inscriptions wore virtually en-

UNDER THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 335

graved of old on the Jewish temple. But they were in the
sanctum sanctorum, and common worshippers rather heard in-
distinctly of them, than saw them. On the temple of the new
Jerusalem they stand, as I have said, in relief so high and pro-
minent, that no worshipper who approaches can fail to see them,
unless he shuts his eyes.

It is the third inscription which we are now called to read
and interpret. Let us address ourselves to this grave and in-
teresting task, with becoming seriousness and candour.

All social religion, under the Mosaic code, centred in the tem-
ple at Jerusalem and its ordinances. The claims of the Sama-
ritans to make their mountain the central point of all religious
rites and services, was settled by the Saviour himself, in his
conversation with the Samaritan woman : " Ye worship ye
know not what ... for salvation is of the Jews." We may
therefore dismiss Mount Gerizim, and all its pretended services,
from any further consideration.

To declare that men should no longer worship the Father at
Jerusalem, is to declare that the whole system of Jewish social
worship, with all its pomp, its rites and ceremonies, its sacrifices
and oblations, is abrogated. What made the Jewish religion
peculiar and appropriate only to one nation, was its locality and
its externals. From its very nature the Jewish religion could be-
long only to one nation. Three times in each year were all the
males of the nation to appear before God in Jerusalem. Once
in. seven years the whole population, men, women, and children,
were to go up thither to hear the Law. How could Judaism be
a practicable religion, except to a small nation within very cir-
cumscribed limits \ It was plainly impossible.

This solves the great problem contained in the question,
Why was not the Jewish religion aggressive? Why did not the
pious part of the Hebrew community send missionaries to the
heathen, and endeavour to convert them? Jonah once preached
abroad with signal success ; why did not the Jewish prophets
repeat the experiment ?

Without attempting to assign all the reasons which they had
for abstaining from attempts of this nature, I merely remark,
that the prophets could not fail of seeing, that an extensive pre-
valence of the Jewish religion would involve impossibilities.
How could the Hindoos and the Chinese repair thrice in a year
to Jerusalem ; How could the population of a world assemble

336 § 22. VSii OF THE OLD TKSTAMENT

in one small city, which never could have contained above one
hundred thousand inhabitants, if indeed so many can be sup-
posed ? The prophets knew, by circumstances such as these,
that God did not design Judaism for a universal religion. Con-
sequently they engaged in no foreign missionary enterprises,
and never exhibited any special zeal for the conversion of the
heathen.

We come then to the great question, which is the nucleus of
the whole matter : What is there in the Old Testament, which
belongs to Judaism as such; and what is there which belongs to the
NATURE OF TRUE RELIGION, at all times, among all nations, and in all
places?

That which belongs merely to Judaism, as such, is wholly
abolished by the Gospel. What belongs to all nations is fully
RETAINED. The propcr application of these two simple principles,
is all that is necessary to a right understanding of this whole
subject. The task needs, indeed, some good measure of discri-
mination and judgment. In some few cases it needs a more
than ordinary knowledge of both the Jewish and the Christian
religion. But in the main, the thing can be made intelligible to
all; and it may fairly be considered as feasible for the mass of
Christians even tolerably well instructed, to draw the lines of
separation in most of the important cases.

The Jewish dispensation was introductory. To use the ex-
pressive language of Paul: " The Law was the shadow of good
things to come, and was not the very image of those things."
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the substance of all that I aim
at saying is fully exhibited. There we are most explicitly taught
that all the rites and ceremonies and sacrifices of the Jewish
dispensation were utterly inefficient in themselves to remove the
burden of sin from the conscience, or to cancel the guilt of the
offender. It is not possible that the blood of bulls and of goats
should take away sin. And again: "Sacrifice and burnt-of-
ferings and sin-offorings thou wouldest not, neither hadst plea-
sure therein." So even the prophets of old said to the formal-
ists and the ritualists among the Jews. But there lay at the
basis of all the rites and sacrifices of the old dispensation, an
important principle, a prefiguration of the great and leading
truth of the Gospel, viz., that without the shedding 0/ blood there
is no remission of sin. But that blood " which taketh away the
sin of the world," was not the blood of bullocks and of goats.

UNDEn THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION, 337

but " the blood of Christ, who, through the eternal Spirit, offer-
ed himself without spot to God, that he might purge our con-
sciences from dead works, to serve the living God." Of this
great atoning " sacrifice," all the victims slain at the altar of the
Jewish dispensation, were only symhols or types. The pious Jew,
who presented the sacrifices in question, if he presented thera
with a penitent and believing mind, might obtain remission of
his sins, even spiritual remission. Yet not by virtue merely of
his sacrifices, but only by virtue of that which they symbolized.
Even the impenitent Jew, who complied with the letter of the
Mosaic law, might and did obtain civil and ecclesiastical remis-
sion. And this was all that any rites, ceremonies, or sacrifices,
could ever procure in themselves for any one.

That all this scheme of the Jewish ritual was, and was design-
ed to be, symholic and typical of a new and better state or dis-
pensation, must be conceded, as it seems to me, by every candid
mind. The utter inefficacy of all sacrifices of beasts to lighten
the burdened conscience or to atone for sin, is a matter past all
question. Then for what purpose did the Divine Being institute
such a religion as that of Moses? No answer can be given to
this question, which is reasonable and satisfactory, except it be,
that God designed all these things to he preparatory to another and
better dispensation. It is then, and only then, when we admit
this, that any significancy or importance is attached to the Jew-
ish religion, so far as all its externals are concerned. In every
other point of view, it would be little more than solemn trifling.
Mr Norton, who denies the atonement of Christ, and all the pro-
phetic anticipations of him and his sacrifice, must of course think
very meanly of the Jewish religion. The contemptuous manner
in which he repeatedly adverts to the Levitical ritual, shows
clearly that such is the state of his feelings. Believing as he un-
doubtedly does and should do, that no blood of bulls or of
goats can take away sin, and acknowledging no symbolic and
typical design in the Jewish oflTerings and sacrifices — what re-
mains but to draw the conclusion, that the whole fabric was one
reared merely by superstition? How different from this is the
view of the thorough believer in God's ancient revelation ! He
sees in all the rites and forms of the temple, and all the purifi-
cations of temple-worshippers, the symbols of the all-important
and distinguishing truths of the Gospel.

338 4} 22. USE OF THE OLD TRSTAMKNT

The way seems now to be prepared for further progress. Ta-
bernacle and temple are no more. Jerusalem is no longer our
spiritual metropolis. God's temple is everywhere, on the land
and on the sea. The whole earth is its area, and its vaulted
roof is the arch of heaven lighted up with its suns and stars.
The sacrifices and oblations now accepted and required, are on-
ly a broken, contrite, grateful heart. No hyssop branch nor
sprinkling priest has any office of lustration to perform. No
priest is needed to sprinkle the altar with blood; no high priest
to remove the veil and enter the most holy place. Christians
are all Hnps and are all priests unto God, as to privileges and as
to rank; whilst the peculiar offices of ancient kings and priests
are no more connected with the church.

The high road, therefore, in which we are to travel, while
searching out Old Testament ground, is plain and straight and
broad. All in the Jewish Scriptures that pertains to rites and
forms of worship, to sacrifices and oblations, to washings and
purifications, to meats clean and unclean, to feasts annual or
monthly, to circumcision and to the passover — all which is com-
prised within these, and all which are accidents or things at-
tached to them or dependant upon them — all of this is abrogat-
ed, is repealed. It remains now, only as the history of what is
past, not the rule of action for the present or the future. And
in this point of view, it will always be interesting to the pious
reader. It will unfold to him, in what manner Divine Provid-
ence has been educating the human race; by what slow and
cautious steps religion has advanced, and how utterly impossi-
ble it is for a religion that abounds in rites and forms to make
much effectual progress anywhere, either among Jews or Gentiles;
still more impossible that it should be a religion to convert the
world. God had reserved that work for his own dear Son.

It is easy for us, in view of what we may see from our present
stand-point, to account for it, that Paul rebuked so sharply the
Galatian Judaizers. The whole system of Levitical rites and
ordinances, compared with the truly Christian and spiritual
service, he names a hondacje under the elements of the loorld. That
Christians, having once tasted the sweets of gospel-liberty, should
turn back to these elements, rouses even his indignation. "How,"
says ho in the strength of his displeasure, " how turn ye again
to the weak and beggarly elements, whereunto ye desire to be

UNDEU THE GOSPEL DISPE.XSATIOX. S39

in bondage?" The law, he tells them, was only a school-master
to bring them unto Christ." And when they are inti'oduccd to
him, he is the only master by whom they are to be guided.

All, then, which is merely external in religion, everything per-
taining to mere manner of worship, either as to preparation for
it by ritual observances or as to the costume in which it is of-
fered, or the place where, or the manner in which it is offered,
is all repealed. Along with this, too, must be classed all the
statutes and ordinances of the Old Testament, which pertain
merely to the form of the Jewish ecclesiastical and civil state.
The substantial relations of individuals to the church of God
and to the civil government, have indeed suffered no change, and
never can be changed while the nature of man continues to be
what it is. But the manner in which these relations are to be
indicated or developed, is for the most part greatly changed by
the Gospel.

We are not obliged to arrange our civil government after the
model of the Jewish; and as to priesthood, in its distinctive char-
acter as offering sacrifices and prescribing external purifications,
it is for ever done away. It is surprising to see how frequent
mistakes are among writers even of the present day, in relation
to this matter. A priesthood, in the literal sense, under the
Christian dispensation, is out of all question. It is only in the
figurative sense that Christians are priests, as well as kings; and
let it be noted well — they are all priests. There is no distinct
order among them. A priest's business was to prepare and pre-
sent offerings and sacrifices; to solve doubts and difficulties
about ritual observances, and concerning clean and unclean ; but
he was no religious teacher in the higher sense, no preacher, no
public guide or exemplar in prayer, no minister of instruction
with regard to the spiritual duties of devotion and piety in gen-
eral. What has been said in the former part of this work in
relation to priest and prophet, abundantly establishes all this.
The PROPHETS were the only order of men, in ancient times, who
can be compared with the ministers of the gospel. In all the
New Testament, often as the various classes of officers in the
church are mentioned or alluded to, such a class as literal priests
never once occurs. The great High Priest has made an end
for ever of all the rites of the priesthood, by offering up a sacri-
fice, in which all of this nature that could be needed, was consum-
mated and fulfilled. All reasoning from the Levitical priesthood.

340 § 22. USE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

then, to the Christian ministry, is out of question. It is without
any foundation ; and mistake and error are inevitable, where it
is carried to any considerable extent.

All the arrangements in the Old Testament, which respect the
investitures and forms of office, civil or ecclesiastical, among the
Hebrews, are of no binding force upon us. All in their statutes
and ordinances which respected merely the earthly Canaan as
their land of promise, which related to their inheritances, their
modes of acquiring or parting with property; all that pertained
to dress, manners, customs (not of an ethical nature), houses,
furniture, arts, occupations, and the like; in one word, all that
belongs to the external and phydcal^ whether of convenience or
inconvenience; all this is done away, i. e. it is no longer binding
on us. It has now become the history of what God's ancient
people did, and how they demeaned themselves, and what were
their outward circumstances ; but not a rule of action for us, or
an exemplar of the condition in which we must place ourselves.

I am aware that some difficult questions may be raised, in re-
spect to the metes and bounds of political, civil, and ecclesiasti-
cal laws, ordinances, or arrangements. For example: Shall we
have a monarcliy, because the Jews had one ? IMy answer to
this would be, that Moses wished for no such thing ; he merely
made provision to regulate it, in case it should be established.
Samuel opposed a monarchy ; God himself severely reproved the
Jews for desiring it, 1 Sam. viii. On the other hand, we can-
not deny that David was set over the Jews as king, with special
Divine approbation. But is a republic on this account unlawful ?
One method of arguing, in this case, seems on the whole to be
equally good with the other. In fact*it is so; but then, neither
mode exhibits the least force of argument. What the Jews did,
or did not, in their civil and social capacity, is nothing to us,
except as a matter of history. It may be very useful to us in
the way of teaching us what consequences are connected with
certain modes of government, or of administration, so that we
may learn to imitate or avoid, as the case may require. Our
ohlifiation to follow them politically^ amounts to nothing.

If this be correct, (as plainly it is), can any more obligation,
then, be shown to follow them ecclesiastically ? I should answer
this question almost as readily as the other. Their ecclesias-
tical state was so implicated and connected with their civil or-
dinances, that they could not be separated. Their government

UNDER THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 341

whether under Judges, Kings, or Priests, was theocratical. The
State was the Church, and the Church the State. All persons
initiated into their civil community were initiated into their
ecclesiastical one, at the same time. Circumcision was the seal
of admission to both. Hence all the males that were circum-
cised, were Jewish church-members, and at the same time Jewish
citizens. (I do not take into view the slaves or servants in this
case.) As a matter of course, all citizens were church-members.

But can we carry over the analogy into Christian commu-
nities? It has been done. The Romish church virtually ac-
knowledges the principle as obligatory. So does the English
national church ; so do the Lutheran churches generally in
Europe. But would not the argument be equally valid, in I'e-
spect to all the fasts and feasts and holidays and sacrifices and
oblations and purifications ofthe Hebrews? Surely it would;
and so the Judaizers of Paul's day actually argued. But what
was his reply? The epistles to the Romans, Galatians, and Heb-
rews, answer this question.

Must we say, that all children are to be baptized, because
the Jewish children were all circumcised? How then shall we
make out the all^ in this latter case ? None but male children
were circumcised. Then again all servants, %. e. slaves, were
also to be circumcised. What becomes of the analoay then ? It
is out of question to maintain it ; at least in any tolerably strict
sense. Besides, what is plainer, than that the Jewish males
and servants were all to be circumcised, in order that all might
be engrafted into the politico-ecclesiastical community ? Every
citizen was bound by religious as well as civil ordinances; and
circumcision subjected him to both. But Christianity, adapted
to all countries, times, and nations, of necessity gives up the
idea of regulating Wvq forms of government, and all that pertains
to customs and manners in regard to things indifferent, or not
of a moral nature. " The kingdom of Christ is not of this world."
A body 'politic^ in its view, is not of course a body ecclesiastic.
Above all, we may say, the New Testament commits no power
over the church as such, to the body politic. How could it ? If
it had so done, then Nero must have been Pontifex Maximus
for the Christian church, in PauFs day. And not unlike to this,
so far as jyrinciple is concerned, is the doctrine, that kings and
potentates are now the head of the church, in Christian coun-
tries. Were even Jewish kings the head of the Jewish church,

342 § 22. USE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

and because they were kings ? I trust not. Where then is the
present right of kings to such a place I They do not obtain any
patent for this from the Jewish institutions. Most surely
they do not find it in the New Testament. They obtain it only
by virtue of papal example. Henry VIII. usurped the pope's
place, and his heirs have inherited what he usurped. And what
is the necessary consequence ? It is that a Charles II. and a
George IV. have been the supreme Head of the national church
of Great Britain, — a consequence fitly joined with the arguments
by which the whole matter is supported.

How unwary, too, are many excellent men, in contending for
infant baptism, on the ground of the Jewish analogy of circum-
cision! Are females not proper subjects of baptism? And
again, are a man's slaves to be all baptized because he is? Are
they church members of course, when they are so baptized? Is
there no difference between engrafting into a politico-ecclesiasti-
cal community, and into one of which it is said, that " it is not
of this world''? In short, numberless difficulties present them-
selves in our way, as soon as we begin to argue in such a man-
ner as this.

The doctrine, that a civil power is of course in some good
measure an ecclesiastical one, is merely an Old Testament and
Jewish doctrine, not one which belongs to the New. It may, it
does suit well the ambitious and aggrandizing views of kings and
potentates, to be placed at the head of the churches, to manage
all their concerns, to have at their disposal all ecclesiastical
places of profit and honour, and to direct matters in such a
way, that all the measures of the churches shall tend to estab-
lish and secure their power and influence. Hence the eager-
ness with which they cleave to this arrangement, and their aver-
sion to any interference with claims on their part of this nature.
But the will and wishes of kings and princes and popes are one
thing; the precepts and doctrines of the Great Head of the
church are quite another.

Of all the analogical reasoning from the ancient dispensation
to the new, that which respects the riglits of kings and priests
has been the most mischievous, and is the most fallacious.
Constantino paved the way for all that has been assumed by
civil potentates, since his time. The dark ages concentrated
all power, civil and ecclesiastical, in the Roman pontiff. Luther,
that morning star of the Reformation, dissolved the spell of

UNDER THE GOSPEL UISI'ENSATIO.V. o43

false doctrine, which laid to sleep the spiritual energies of all the
churches. The political relations of the church, however, he
never touched. He left her with as many popes as there were
kings and petty princes in Germany, or elsewhere. Zuingli, and
Calvin, and Knox understood this matter much better, but were
able only partially to effect what they wished. Another Luther
is needed in Europe; not merely to free the church from the
spirit of rites and ceremonies, and penances and pilgrimages,
and self-righteousness and formality, but to free it from all that
domination which has no right to control it. Am I reproached
with being republican in these views, and with proclaiming my
own particular politics rather than the New Testament? My
answer is, that I belong to a commonwealth, where '■'' all are
kings and priests;" to one also, " where there is neither Jew nor
Greek, bond nor free. Barbarian nor Scythian," but where " all
are one in Christ Jesus." I belong to a republic, one of whose
fundamental laws is, that I " should call no man Master on
earth." We are not forbidden to do this in a civil sense; such
is no part of the Saviour's meaning. It is in a religious sense,
that we are to acknowledge no supreme head of the church, ex-
cept him who redeemed it.

It is true, I am a republican even in matters of civil govern-
ment. But I am no bigot to this or to any other particular
form of civil government. All governments cannot be alike in
all respects, so long as nations differ so much from each other in
cultivation, habits, and manners. I believe, too, that in general
the best government is that ichich is best achninistered. I speak
disparagingly of no monarchist, provided he is not a sycophant
to those in power. But I do not envy him his opinions, and
cannot gratulate him on the ground of his political relations.

But to my immediate object. All claims oh the Old Test-
ament for the support of civil domination over the spiritual king-
dimi of Christ, are futile. How can the king of one country,
be king over the Christian church, since this church belongs to
all countries? The claim is groundless ; it is utterly without any
good support. God speed, then, to the noble advocates of " the
glorious liberty of the children of God," wherever they are or
may be! God speed to the noble movement in the Scottish
Church, to the new race of Zuinglis and of Knoxes! No move-
ment since the days of Luther has promised so much to the
libei'ty of the churches in Europe, as this. In fact, it is an ef-

34-i § 22. USE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

fort at Reformation such as Luther never made. He left this
great point untouched. Ten thousand thousand voices on this
side of the Atlantic, in accents which I would hope will reach
even across the mighty deep, bid the advocates of church freedom
in Scotland God speed! The experiment is, as our political
fathers judged theirs to be, when they met to declare and defend
their liberties, worthy of pledging "their lives, their fortunes,
and their sacred honour." May those engaged in making it
succeed as well as our ancestors ! The time has come to avow
their principles, in the face of heaven and earth. The time,
as I would hope in God, has come, in which they may successful-
ly defend them. If my feeble voice could reach across the
Atlantic, I would say. All hail ! ye noble soldiers of the cross !
Fight manfully the battles of the Lord. STAND FAST in the

LIBERTY WHEREWITH ChRIST HAS MADE YOU FREe!

But I am losing myself in this interesting theme. Let us re-
turn, and see if there be not some additional considerations
that will help us to decide, in all cases of importance, what in
the Old Testament is binding on us, and what is not.

Thus far we have gone upon the ground of specifying par-
ticulars, which are exempted from the category of perpetual ob-
ligation. Let us shift our position, and look at the matter from
another point of view.

It is not difficult to lay down some simple and general prin-
ciples ; and the application of them, in the main, is very easy.
But in some cases, it requires indeed a nice discrimination, and
an extensive acquaintance with both the old and new dis-
pensations, in order to decide with any good degree of certainty.
But these cases are not numerous, and will occasion no serious
embarrassment to those who are intent upon their actual and
practical duties.

I would lay it down, then, as a plain and palpable principle
or maxim, in regard to the binding authority of the Old Test-
ament, that all in it of the nature of precept or doctrine, which
concerns the permanent relations of men to their God, their fellow-
beings, or themselves, stands unaltered and unrepealed hy the
Gospel.

In view of such a principle the Saviour declared, that "heaven
and earth should sooner pass away, than one jot or one tittle
should pass from the Law, until all be fulfilled." True religion
has always been, and always will be, the love of God and man.

UNDER THE C.OSPEL DISPENSATION. 34')

True religion always demanded, then, and always must demand,
those duties which stand necessarily connected with the exhibi-
tion of love. To love God with all the heart, demands of us to
reverence and obey him. To love our neighbour as ourselves,
demands the performance of many duties connected with our re-
lation to him. Now as to some of these duties, it is true that
the manner of performing them may in some respects vary; but
that manner, when not necessarily connected with the substance
of the duty, is not a subject of prescription. The Jew, in order
to pay his highest devotions and homage to God, must present
his paschal lamb in the temple, and cause its blood to be
sprinkled at the altar. But all that was external and cere-
monial, in a word all that pertained to the manner of paying his
devotions and his homage, is now done away. And the same, of
every thing that concerns the manifestation of religious feeling,
or of love to our neighbour. Whatever in the manner of any or
all of the duties required of us, was Jewish, local, temporary, or
dependent on, or modified by, time and place and external cir-
cumstances— all of this nature is no longer obligatory. We
have only to inquire in every case, either of a doctrine or of a
precept, what there is in it which pertained to time or place
and external circumstances ; and if we can find what that is,
then so much of that precept or doctrine as pertains to the local
or the temporary, is to be abstracted, when we appropriate
either of these to our own use. The principle is plain; it is sound ;
it is beyond fair question. We are no more bound to look toward
Jerusalem when we pray, as Daniel did (vi. 10), than we are to
present our sacrifices and oblations there. The duty of prayer
remains obligatory, because it depends on the permanent and
unchanging relations of man to God; but the manner of it is not
prescribed by anything which the Old Testament (or even the
New) contains.

How futile then are all appeals to Jewish altars and incense
and priestly vestments, and pomp of worship, in order to justify
and even to insist upon corresponding things in a Christian
church! God has lighted up and adorned his own magnificent
temple — even the whole earth. His altar is on every spot,
where the sacrifice of a broken and contrite heart is offered.
The sweet incense that he accepts is " the prayer of all the
saints."" How little do the advocates of all these externals seem

o46 § 22. USE OF THE old testament

to consider the true nature of that Being '• who is a Spirit, and
must be worshipped in spirit and in truth" !

Almost everywhere, through the Old Testament, lie scattered
principles and precepts which are of a permanent and enduring
nature. On the other hand, seldom can we find any extensive
portions of these Scriptures, which do not contain something
that is merely local and temporary.

It is important to illustrate this; but it must be briefly done.
I will select, as a specimen from the prophets, the brief work of
Obadiah, consisting of only twenty-one verses. These are occu-
pied with threatening evil to Edom, the old and bitter enemy of
Israel. As the nation of the Edomites has been extinguished
for more than 2000 years, it would seem that we had very little
interest in such a book as this. Still, an attentive perusal of it
will enable us to correct such a judgment. In that little book
stands pourtrayed, in glowing colours, the doctrine of retribu-
tion for enmity and injury done to others. There stands too,
in high relief, the sentiment that God is King of nations ; that
they are in his hands as clay in the hands of the potter; and
that although he may delay, he will not remit, the claims of a
just retribution. There too may comfort be found. The poor
oppressed and injured Jews, who had been attacked with fury
by the Edomites, when broken down and crushed to the dust
by the Chaldean power, are cheered with the certain promise of
deliverance from the Edomitish aggression, and with the assur-
ance that Edom shall be trodden down and utterly unable to
rise up any more against them. In short, God is King of na-
tions ; God will vindicate the cause of the oppressed; and " God
is angry with the wicked every day." To attack and oppress
the suffering and the humbled, is matter of high treason in his
sight. We cannot exult over the calamities of others, without
exposing ourselves to the righteous indignation of the supreme
Judge of all.

Many other deductions might be made from this brief pro-
phecy, which seems at first to promise so little that is interest-
ing to us; but I have purposely confined myself only to those
things which lie upon the very surface of the composition.

Once more; let us select a portion of Scripture, which is
seemingly, or at first view, one of the most unpromising of all
which the Old Testament exhibits. The last fifteen chapters of

UNDEU THE GOSPKI, DISPENSATION'. 347

Exodus are occupied almost entirely with a sketch or plan of
the tabernacle, its apparatus, and its appurtenances, and with
an account of the manner in which the whole of this plan was
carried into execution. A great portion is simple detail of
architectural designs, and of the materials with which various
things were to be constructed. What possible interest now can
we have in all this?

If I may be permitted to answer this question, I would say:
There are several points of view, in which we may look at this
with some interest. Does the architect take any interest in the
Msioty o^ his avfi Here is rich material; and this in respect
to things some 1500 years before the Christian era. Let him
compare the whole with the remains of ancient art in Egypt.
Does the historian, who relates the progress of invention in the
arts, manufactures, luxuries, and conveniences of life, wish for a
view of what existed at a most remote period, in each of these
respects ? Here he has ample material, in this sketch by ^Moses.
Does the historian of the Hebrew nation wish to trace the pro-
gress of its improvements in the arts, and conveniences, and the
luxuries of life ? Here he has an important document. If there
were no other uses than these of the document in question, they
would be enough to make it very welcome to all the lovers of
antiquity. But there are other important considerations still
remaining.

For what purpose was such a magnificent and costly structure
required? Was it that God dwells in temples made by hands?
No, nothing of this. But still, when God reveals himself to
men, and (so to speak) takes up his abode with them, he must
do this in a manner worthy of his nature and of the occasion.
Even idols had their magnificent temples. The true God is not
to be placed below them. Under a dispensation where so much
of the external was necessary, in order to meet the demands of
the times and the ignorance of the people, God must be en-
throned in a palace worthy, as it were, of his presence. An im-
pression of his majesty and of his high and holy nature must be
made, by such a use of externals as will command respect and
homage. Nor is this all. God must be approached and wor-
shipped, by a presentation of the best gifts, the most costly and
precious offerings. The most valuable and costly substances are
therefore put in requisition for his worship. Men are called
upon to acknowledge him as the author and the rightful lord

348 § 22. USE OF THt: old tkstamext

and proprietor of all that belongs to them, even of their most
precious things, A la^v disjjensation called in a special manner
for veneration of the Law-giver, and sacred awe in his presence.
The King and Lord of the Jewish nation deemed it proper to
appear among them as their monarch, in his splendid and holy
palace. God designed that the Israelites should feel his claims,
and his perfect right, to the best which they could offer him.
Nothing ordinary, common, valueless, impure, could be present-
ed as material for his tabernacle, or to constitute the oblations
and gifts there offered. The impression of all these arrange-
ments upon the simple and untutored mind was salutary in a
high degree, and filled it with a deferential respect which would
check the spirit of disobedience. And from all may we not
draw the inference, even at the present time, that men are
bound not to withhold even their choicest substance and gifts
when the service of God requires them ? Truly we may, and
with good reason. God, whose temple is everywhere, does in-
deed no longer require us to rear magnificent edifices for his
dwelling-place. But the spirit of tabernacle and temple build-
ing admonishes us, that churches should not be constructed so
as to convey an idea of grudging and of avarice in the builders,
or so as to inspire those who repair to them with disrespect or
contempt. All should be done decently, as well as in order.
Let the external not be at variance with the interned. Let both
be such as becomes the nature of the worship and of the Being
to whom it is paid. And this very consideration forbids all that
is gaudy and finical, or fraught with mere display, and demands
the simple and chaste, the neat, the sober, the grave, the im-
pressive.

And are these instructions, now, matters of no account ? Is
not the practical exhibition of them as striking and impressive
as the mere abstract statement of the principles exhibited in
them would be ? Nay, is it not far more so ' I understand,
indeed, what is meant, when we are forbidden to approach our
neighbour's house, with hostile feelings, in the day of his cala-
mity, or to exult over his misfortunes. But when Edom is held
up before my eyes by Obadiah as having rushed upon the Jews,
in the day of their humiliation by the power of Babylon; when
the embittered enmity, the spirit of vengeance and of rapacity,
and the unspeakable meanness of the Edomites, and their con-
sequent punishment, are embodied and made palpable and hold

UNDER THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 341)

up to open view in this way; I am far more affected, and even
instructed by it, than I am by the abstract precept in question.

And when the splendid gifts of all who had a willing heart
among the Jews are made, and the magnificent structure of the
tabernacle is reared, and God descends in a shining cloud which
fills and covers the building, and speaks from his awful sanctu-
ary there; who wonders that even Moses was unable to enter in
because of the excess of glory, or that all the people should fall
prostrate on their faces and worship I And when we read all
this, are we not as deeply impressed with a sense of the majesty
of God, and of the reverence and obedience due to him, as we
are with the simple declaration, that God is great, and greatly
to be feared and had in reverence by all who approach him?
Whoever decides, that nothing is to be learned from even such
narratives as these, decides hastily and without becoming consi-
deration of the whole matter. Still, the instructions of the
Gospel are more palpable and forcible; at least they are so to
most minds.

May we not conclude, then, that fruit may be gathered from
all parts of the Old Testament prophecy, and history, and even
from the structure of sacred edifices? Are they not in some
respects all " ensamples, written for our admonition, on whom
the ends of the world have come?" I believe them to be so. I
think Paul looked upon them in this light. And where are there
now, in all the historical books of Scriptui'e, any narrations from
which something may not be learned? I do not say something
new, but I mean to say, that some truth is taught, illustrated,
or confirmed, which is a truth of permanent interest, at all times
and in all places. Is not all the Jewish history theocratical? Is
not all Hebrew prophecy theocratical? It is truly so; in prophecy
and in history, God is all and in all. His providence, his retri-
bution, his pleasure or displeasure, his hatred of sin, his love of
justice and holiness, his supremacy, his requirements, are every-
where directly or indirectly taught. Even where nothing more
than simple national or individual events are related, whether in
history or in prophecy, there still lies in this an account of the
Divine dealings with men, or of the wickedness of the human
heart, or of its penitence and obedience and holiness. There is
always something to imitate, or something to be shunned. Even
the most moderate intellect cannot fail to observe this.

^•^^ § 22. USE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

It needs, I readily concede, some skill always in a successful
manner to divest the kernel of its shell or its husk; more than
some of those expositors have exhibited, who have the faculty of
making one passage of Scripture just as fruitful as another, and
even of deducing a whole system of theology from any given
passage. But still, common sense and a moderate share of taste
may suffice for the matter in question. The maxim of philoso-
phizing civilians is, that history is precept teaching hy example.
If that is true of profane history, is it not more so of sacred'?
So, I must think, Paul believed and taught; and so we may be-
lieve and teach after him.

Then, what a boundless variety is given to the themes of a
skilful preacher! Without any double sense, or occult meaning,
or forced allegory, or anagogical process, he can go anywhere in
the wide field of Scripture, and find something that is useful and
instructive. Such a preacher would be among the last to part
with the Old Testament.

Thus far I have given mere hints; and these are all which
time and place permit. I must not quit the subject, however,
without a few more.

I have said, that rarely will one find any considerable portion
of the Old Testament, where there is nothing in it of the local
and temporal that must be abstracted, in order for us to reduce
it to practice or present use. In the devotional Psalms even,
there are references to places and modes of worship, which we
must separate and distinguish from those sentiments by which
we are now to be profited. The Psalms of complaint, of thanks-
giving, of imprecation, and others, all have something which
savours of time and place and circumstances. These we must
omit; excepting that in the exegesis of the Psalm we must treat
them as essential, but not in the practical use of it.

It is so with the Mosaic laws. Many, even most of them,
have something attached to them or connected with them, which
is Jeioish, and therefore local and temporary. Even the ten
commandments are not altogether an exception to this. When
we are required to honour our father and mother, we are com-
manded to do what will always be a duty, at all times, among
all nations. But when the promise is added, that we shall have
long life in the land of Canaan, in consequence of filial duty, this
is a part which belonged only to the Jews. The gospel holds

UNDER THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 351

out no mere earthly promises other than what virtue generally
holds out, by pointing us to the consequences which follow the
practice of it.

I would say also, that " visiting the iniquity of the fathers
upon the children, to the third and fourth generation," (which is
a part of another commandment), has an oriental shape; for in
the East, punishment for any high misdemeanour usually involved,
as it still does, the whole of one's posterity in the same conse-
quences which himself must suffer. What remains for us, is
to regard the command as threatening severe and unmitigated
punishment.

So I might go through the whole Pentateuch, yea, through all
the historical and prophetical books, and apply the same princi-
ples with the like results. It does indeed require some good
measure of sobriety, of discretion, and discrimination, always to
make the separation between the local and temporal, and the
permanent, in a proper manner. And so it does rightly to ap-
preciate the figurative language of Scripture, its metaphors and
its allegories. The man whose mind is adequate to this task,
may surely be fitted to perform the other. Indeed, most men
of any tolerable education and of good common sense, can per-
form the task in question with little danger of erring, except in
a few of the more difficult cases. To make the distinctions in
question, is a matter, I may also remark, which really belongs
to the practical commentaries upon the Scriptures; and some of
them have in part performed it. But alas! how few of the
authors of these have been distinguished for a profound critical
and exegetical knowledge of the Scriptures? How few have sa-
tisfied the claims of the reason and understanding of men ! Many
of them abound in remarks full of pious feeling; and some of
them show an extensive knowledge of Christian experience in
matters of religion. But all this may be, without shedding any
new light on the path of the ignorant and the inquiring. Pages,
I had almost said volumes, of some of them may be read without
meeting with any such light. The consequence of course is, that
in many, perhaps in most cases, reading of this sort begins, after
a while, to weary him who performs it, and he comes to it as to
a task prescribed, rather than a privilege to be desired. It can-
not be expected that such reading will be long practised. A
commentary that would give us simply what is to be fairly learn-
ed from every part of the Old Testament, in respect to present

o52 § 22. USE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

duty, or as to doctrine, and which would do this throughout the
Scriptures, is one of the things yet to be; for I cannot think
that it now is. God is preparing men, I doubt not, for the ac-
comphshment of such a work; one in which all the results of
critical and exegetical study shall be embodied, and united with
all that eminent Christian experience may suggest or teach.
May such a work be hastened in its time!

Many good men, in treating of Old Testament matters, and
explaining the contents of these books, seem to think that they
are at liberty to pursue allegory and type and anagogical pro-
cesses, to any extent that they please. A greater mistake can
hardly be made, in so important a concern. The moment a
reader or hearer gets possession of the idea, that a writer or
preacher is merely addressing himself to his imagination and
fancy, he ceases to give him his serious confidence. He may be
amused — greatly amused, if we must concede it, by the ingenuity
and vivid fancy of his interpreter; but after all, he will with dif-
ficulty be brought to believe, that the sacred writers addressed
themselves to readers in the way of amusement. His first feel-
ing, after a little of wonder or perhaps of admiration is over, is
indifference. His next is uneasiness in reading or hearing
things of this nature. It is well if the matter does not end in
contempt of the whole.

I would that the Old Testament were employed oftentimes in
quite a different way from that which is not uncommon in re-
sorting to it. What can we say of those teachers, who find just
as full and complete a revelation in the Old Testament, of every
christian doctrine, as in the New? For example, the doctrine of
the Trinity is found as completely there as in the New Testa-
ment. Yet the Saviour, in reference even to Moses, says, that
"no man hath seen God at any time; the only-begotten Son,
who is in the bosom of the Father, he hath declared him,'''' John
i. 18. Were the Jews Trinitarians before the coming of Christ?
I know of no satisfactory evidence of this fact. All the efforts
to prove it have ended in mere appeals to cahhalizing Jews, who
lived long after the New Testament was written. It is the light
which the New Testament casts upon various passages of the
Old, and that only, which enables us to bring the Old Testament
to bear upon this doctrine. It remained for Ciirist to make the
full revelation of this. It was only by the incarnation that the
Trinity of the Godhead was fully developed. And when the New

UNDER THE GOSPEL DISPEN'SmOV. 355

Testament asserts, that this or that thing was done by Christ,
or the Logos, under the ancient dispensation, or that this or
that was spoken by him, it is only then that we come to a full
knowledge of any specific nature, as it respects the Old Testa-
ment, concerning the persons of the Godhead. In this way, the
Old Testament does indeed contribute important aid in making
us acquainted with the doctrine of the Trinity.

Take another instance, in respect to the immortality of the
soul and a future state. Paul says of Christ, that " he has abo-
lished death, and hrought life and immortality to light through the
gospel," 2 Tim. i. 10. But if all this was revealed and under-
stood before the coming of Christ, on what can this assertion be
grounded? Not that the Hebrews were entirely ignorant, as
many have asserted, of a future state. Were they inferior in
this respect to their neighbours, the Egyptians and the Greeks?
Not that some such men as Enoch, and Abraham, and David, and
Tsaiah, had no proper views of future rewards and punishments.
The apostle explicitly asserts (Heb. xi.) that they had. But
still it was reserved for the Gospel to turn Jewish twiliofht into
broad Christian day. It has done so. But in expounding the
Bible under its influence, we must attribute no more to the Old
Testament than belongs to it. The glory of the gospel is not
to be taken away, and given to a mei'e introductory dispensation.
The ministration of the Law had indeed its glory; but the apostle
assures us, that " it now has [comparatively] no glory, by reason
of that which excelleth."

Let these and the like great principles be always kept in view.
We need not become Judaisers because we maintain the authen-
ticity of the Old Testament. Its day has passed. But how could
a divine religion be revealed in it, and yet none of the principles
incidcated by the Gospel be exhibited? The thing was impos-
sible. That we should love God supremely, and our neighbour
as ourselves, was always taught — always urged. But a thousand
things in respect to the detail of all the developments of these
great principles are different in the Old Testament from what
is demanded by the New. Let us fully recognise this, and thank
God for our better light. But our gratitude for the Gospel need
not lead us to scepticism about the Jewish Scriptures, nor to
any undervaluing of them. Very different must the state of our
minds be which would lead us to do this, from that of Paul, who
so often resorted to them in order to show that Jesus was the

2 a

ool § 22. USE OF THE Or.D TESTAMENT

Christ. We sliould regard thf^in in the light of a preface or of
an introduction to the Gospel. Why should the book be ad-
mitted, and the preface, which explains the nature of it, be
thrown away^

It would be endless to particularize all the wrong uses which
are made, even by many Christian ministers, of the Old Testa-
ment, and the violence often done to it in order to make it speak
as men wish. It might be a profitable employment, to present
" the cry of injured texts," and plead their cause before an im-
partial tribunal. But my present object forbids me to enlarge
upon this part of my subject.

I cannot well doubt, that not a few intelligent minds are ren-
dered somewhat averse to the Old Testament, on account of the
many irrelevant appeals to it which are made both in and out of
the pulpit, and the irrelevant quotations made from it. Books
of such a peculiar nature as Job and Ecclesiastes, for example,
are resorted to with as much confidence ior proof-texts, as if they
were all preceptive, and not an account of disputes and doubts
about religious matters. Job xix. 25 seq. is consequently quot-
ed, to show the patriarch's knowledge of a Messiah to come, and
of the doctrine of the resurrection, notwithstanding the context
and the tenor of the whole book are totally of a different nature.
The Psalms that breathe forth imprecations are appealed to by
some, as justifying the spirit of vengeance under the Gospel, in-
stead of being regarded as the expression of a peculiar state of
mind in the writer, and of his imperfect knowledge with regard
to the full spirit of forgiveness. Thanks for national blessings,
and gratitude for individual deliverances from personal danger,
are turned into expressions of gratitude for blessings purely
spiritual, and for deliverances merely spiritual. There is indeed
not much if any harm in this; but still, it is on the whole better
always to let the Bible speak just what it simply says, and no
more. The practice of straining the construction of it in any
way, gives rise to many improper liberties with it. Sceptics are
always ready to take advantage of this; and it is not best to give
them occasion to exult over the weakness or the prejudices of its
advocates.

I have hardly touched upon the subject of unlimited license in
the matter oUypes and double sense andaUeporical exposition. The
boundless liberties of this nature, which have been taken in days that
are past, are too well known to need description. Every conspic-

UNDER THF (JOSPKI. niSPENSATION. 355

IIOU9 person and thing has been regarded as a type of Christ, or
of his church, until at last it comes to this, that all the ancient
world existed and acted only in the capacity of types or fore-
shadowings of persons or events to come. All the articles of or-
nament or furniture for the tabernacle and temple, were mere
patterns of something that was to be attached to the new tem-
ple under the new dispensation. Even the trays, and bowls, and
tongs, and snuffers, and candlesticks, bore a significant and not
unimportant part, as it respected the Messianic times; and of
course all offices and duties, of priests and Levites and servitors,
must have their proper significance. Any thing which befell
Moses, or Joshua, or David, or other conspicuous personages, the
story of which is found in the Old Testament, becomes, under
such a process, and by virtue of a h-7:fjmu. or occult sense, full of
significance under the new order of things. Launched on a
boundless ocean, and without chart or compass, the allegorists
seem intent only upon rapid sailing; it matters little in what di-
rection.

Public taste has, some time since, begun to correct these ex-
travagances. But every now and then the doubter of the an-
cient Scriptures meets with them still, and curls his lip in proud
disdain. No wonder. " Si naturam furca expellas, usque re-
curret." Violence done to the understanding and to sober com-
mon sense, although it may be slow-footed, will be certain to
avenge itself at last. If there is any book in all the world ad-
dressed to the sober reason and judgment of men, that book is
the Bible. It is written by men, addressed to men, and designed
for men. Of course it adopts a human and intelligible manner
of address throughout. God has shown his paternal condescen-
sion to the weaknesses of men, in all this. The Scriptures, writ-
ten in any other manner, could be of but little profit to us. And
when we see methods of interpretation applied to them, which
no other book will bear, and which would hold any one up to
scorn if he should adopt them in explaining a classic, how can
it be expected, that the understanding and reason will not dis-
trust them, and sooner or later be sure to revolt against them?

Among all the abuses of the Old Testament, none are more
conspicuous than those which result from sectarian views and
purposes. What a mere lump of wax does the Bible become in
the hands of a zealous defender of sect, — perfectly mouldable at
his pleasure. No laws of language or of grammar stand in his

356 § 22. I'SE 01' THE OLD TESTAMENT

way. The original intention of the writer of the Scripture is
little or nothing to the purpose. The occult meaning is sum-
moned to his aid; and this is always ready, at his bidding, to as-
sume every possible form. Armed in this way, his antagonists
are cut down by whole ranks at a blow, and the standard of sect
waves speedily over that of the Bible.

Perhaps the prophecies suffer most of all from party spirit and
narrow partial views of exegesis. A popular writer, who is much
more conspicuous for eloquence and imagination than for philo-
logy or discriminating powers of mind, rises up and proclaims
great events at hand, or not far distant. The book of Daniel
and the Apocalypse, above all, are thrown into the furnace,
" heated seven times" more than it is wont to be, and there
comes out from the crucible a new and splendid metal, the result
of wondrous combination and composition. The nations, the
events, the ecclesiastical establishments, the heresies, of modern
Christian countries, are all discovered in the reflection of this
shining compound. Above all, the successor of St Peter finds
himself placed at the head of all the indications that are pro-
phetic. It matters not whether a book is written to instruct a
church, or to console one amidst the evils and suff'erings of per-
secution; nor even whether it was addressed to the Babylonian
Jews in exile; the same conspicuous personage, Peter's successor,
and his attendants, fill all the foreground of every picture. The
question as to the edification of those to whom the prophecies
were originally addressed has nothing to do with the exposition
of the prophet's work. The only thing or personage that can
fill the eye of a prophet, when he takes into view the New Dis-
pensation, must be the Fope. No other beast of " seven heads
and ten horns" ever made or could make its appearance; no
other " scarlet beast, full of the names of blasphemy,"''' has ever
presented itself before the eyes of a prophetic seer; none other
but she whom this beast bears, " the mother of harlots," has
ever held in her hands the " cup of abominations," and been
*' drunk with the blood of saints." And then the partizan, in his
overflowing zeal, would fain compel us to say whether we can
suppose that Daniel, or John, or any other prophet, was not a
full-blooded Protestant? And such being the case, he wishes to
know whether such a prophet could ever think or prophesy con-
cerning any other beast than the Pope?

Such a use of the prophetic writings is what wo are called to

IJNDKR THE GOSPKL DISPKNSATIOX. 357

witness every day, even in these times, when the rage for type,
and allegory, and double sense, and occult meaning, has in a
very considerable measure abated. Protestants, not well fur-
nished with other arms against the papacy, resort to this weapon,
which is always ready at hand, and kept indeed tolerably well
burnished by use. Alas! the misfortune is, that the weapon has
two edges; and in its reverberating stroke, (for it is sure to make
one), cuts the assailant as deeply as ho had wounded his anta-
gonist. Another generation must pass before this battle will be
over. And then, when time has shown, beyond contradiction,
that all the calculations of prognosticators about the times de-
signated in Daniel and the Apocalypse are clearly frustrated,
confidence in such interpretations will vanish as a matter of
course. The Pope seen by John, and described by him ! Then
in John's time (i. e. about a.d. 68, when the Apocalypse was
written) there had, according to Rev. xvii. 10, already been five
popes who were dead, one was then living and reigning, and one
then to come whose time would be short. And besides this —
what a precious consolation to the poor bleeding and disconsolate
churches of that period, to be told, that out of the bosom of that
very church and religion which they so loved and honoured,
would spring the most wicked, formidable, persecuting, and per-
manent enemy that the church had ever seen ! Consolation, with
a witness!

Sed manum — there is no end to abuses of this sort, whether
of the Old Testament or of the New. Yet even the sacred cause
of true Protestantism cannot defend them, or apologize for them.
It must be true, that this cause invites to the use of no false
armour; it asks for no pious fraud to support it. It regards the
oracles of God as so immeasurably elevated above all human
conceits or party feeling or effort, that it would scorn to employ
means so little worthy of confidence as those in question.*

" It is much to be regretted that our author should have indulged in the above
painful strain of remark upon the Protestant interpretation of the Apocalypse,
especially as he contents himself with mere ridicule, and does not bring forward a
single serious argument to prove that that interpretation is a false one, and that his
ridicule is just. It is strange that he should jest at the idea of the Papacy having
been foreseen and described by the apostle John. A power which has occupied so
large and so fatal a place in the actual history of the church might well form a
prominent figure in the visions of premonitory prophecy, and if the Protestant read-
ing and understanding of its history as past and accomplished, would be no fit subject
for contempt and ridicule, it is difficult to see how the Protestant interpretatiou of

358 § 22. USE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

I must say one word, before I lay down my pen, in respect to
some GENERAL VIEWS of this great subject, viz. the use of the Old
Testament.

There are not a few persons, who seem to feel, that if the
Old Testament is a work of inspiration, it must stand on the
same level with the New, and be equally obligatory. There is
something of truth in this, and not a little of error. It is true,
that whatever God has sanctioned, is of Divine authority. It
is true, at any rate in my apprehension it is, that the writers of
the Old Testament " spake as they were moved by the Holy
Ghost," 2 Pet. i. 21. But then comes the all-important inquiry,
Did what tliey said have relation to the church Jewish, or the church
Christian? Did it concern the Hehreiv nation only for a time, and
in their peculiar circumstances; or did it relate to the immutable
principles of piety and sound morality? God may give commands
respecting things that are temporary, as well as those which are
lasting. It is no derogation from his authority, or from the im-
portance of the Old Testament, that temple, and priesthood, and
sacrifices, and oblations, and purifications, and distinctions be-
tween clean and unclean, have passed away and are no more.
And so all that was peculiar to the Hebrew nation and their
particular condition has passed away. Our only difficulty con-
sists in finding the boundaries between the local and temporal,
and the permanent. But there is one simple principle that
covers all this ground. The main difficulty left, is the applica-
tion of it in some of the nicer cases. The old maxim of the
civilians, in regard to laws that are ancient, when the question
arises, whether they are still in force, is, Manente ratione, manet
ipsa lex, i. e. so long as the reason of the laiv continues, the law
itself is in full force. This is the compass to guide us, in tra-
versing the whole ground from the beginning of Genesis, to the
end of Malachi. All that is founded in the perpetual rela-
tions OF MEN TO God, to each other, and to themselves, and

WHICH IS the subject OP PRESCRIPTION, COMMAND, OR INSTRUCTION ON
THE PART OF HEAVEN, IS PERMANENT.

But even in cases of this nature, whatever there is in any
command or instruction, which concerns merely the manner of
the thing, and not the essential nature of the duty, is no longer

its history as propheticalli/ fhreshadotred, can bo justly liable to such sevei-e ceiisui'e,
if the interpretation proceed ui)on Round hermeneutical principles, in other respects.
—En.

IJNDKK THE GOSPEL DISPENSATION. 359

obligatory on us. We have a neio and a better Testament than
the ancient. In itself it is a sufficient guide. But we should
thankfully accept whatever of confirmation or illustration of our
Christian duties, there is in the ancient Hebrew Scriptures,
Even from the ten commandments, as we have seen, something
in respect to the manner of promised reward, or of threatened
punishment is to be abated.

If any one now should demand of me, to lay down a rule so
precise and particular, that every reader of the Old Testament
may judge with certainty in every possible case, what is local
and temporary, and what is permanent, I can no more do this,
than I could prescribe a rule in hermeneutics, which woud ex-
empt all men from actual error in the interpretation of the figu-
rative language of the Bible. The general principles that I have
now developed are plain, practical, and certain in their result,
when rightly applied. The power to make such an application
of them depends not on me, but on the gift of Heaven, and the
efforts of the inquiring to qualify themselves for the work. I can
only speak my good wishes for inquirers; which are, that they
may meet with desired success. Nothing but the want of skill
or tact stands in the way of acquiring that which they seek.

Of one thing I am fully persuaded, which is, that a proper use
of the Old Testament will be made in all cases, by no one who
cleaves to the notion, that because the Hebrew Scriptures were
inspired, they therefore are ahsolutely perfect. Such perfection
belongs not to a prefatory or merely introductory dispensation.
It is only a relative perfection that the Old Testament can claim;
and this is comprised in the fact, that it answered the end for
which it was given. It was given to the world, or to the Jewish
nation, in its minority. It was given to " the heir, when he was
under tutors and governors, and differed not from a servant, al-
though he was lord of all." It seems difficult for some to be-
lieve, that God has dealt with the world, as he does with each
individual. There is a state of infancy, of childhood, of youth,
of maturity, of old age. The same person is an actor in all these
stages. And so it has been, and will be, with the world of man-
kind. The world has had its infancy, its childhood, its youth;
it is slowly approaching its maturity. As to its old age^ I trust
it will be like the hoary head of him who is found in the way of
righteousness — a crown of glory. Why now should any one insist

SCO § 22. USE Of THE OLD TESTAMENT

that a revelation adapted to its minority should be as ample and
complete in its requirements, as a revelation intended for its most
perfect state? Divine Providence does not convert whole na-
tions in a day, from their sin and ignorance. Slow has always
been the process and progress. One third or more of the time
that the race of men have existed, they had no Bible. It was
not until more than a thousand years after the composition of
the Old Testament commenced, that it was completed. Why
was it not all given at once? And why was not a revelation in
writing given to the antediluvians? Why did not Enoch, Noah,
Abraham, write one? Can any one answer these questions, ex-
cept in the way in which I have already answered them? The
race of man, as a whole, has all the different stages of develop-
ment assigned to it.

Let us now proceed a step farther. With the exception of
such sins as were highly dishonourable to God and injurious to
tlie welfare of men, the rules of duty were not in all cases strict-
ly drawn. So our Saviour seems to have regarded the matter.
When he reproached the Pharisees for the frequency of divorces
which they allowed, and they appealed to Moses as sanctioning
it, Jesus replied and said, " Moses, because of the hardness of your
hearts, suffered you to put away your wives; but from the begin-
ing it was not so," Matt. xix. 8. I am well aware, that there
are casuists at the present day, who think Moses to have judged
very wrongly in this case. And so in regard to his permission of
slavery, and some other things. We cannot reason, I allow, in
all cases with entire certainty, as to what is allowable under the
Gospel, because it was allowed under the old dispensation. Po-
lygamy was allowable; and if concubinage was not, it was gen-
erally practised, and does seem to have been regarded as not
forbidden, but only regulated. Slavery was allowed. Great
latitude of divorce, at the will of the husband, (but not of the
wife) was allowed. Does the gospel allow any of these? I know
that some serious and well-meaning men are disposed to argue,
that the gospel allows of slavery. It is my opinion also, that
where it has become a part of the constitution of any society of
men, the Gospel does not require the whole system to be broken
up and abandoned in a single day; for this might endanger the
welfare of the whole. Uut I can never entertain a doubt, that
the precepts and principles of the Gospel forbid the making of

UNDKR THK GOSPEL DI3PEN6ATION. 361

slaves. When it is required of us, that we should love our neigh-
hour as ourselves; and in explanation of this it is also required, that
we should do to others ichatever we would that others should do to us;
and when, with all this, it is expressly declared that God has made
of osE. BLOOD all the nations that dicell on all the face of the earth; I
understand this as settling all questions respecting any slavery,
which is not the result of crime, or a forfeiture of liberty by evil-
doing, or of voluntary compact on the part of the slave.

JSloses then did allow — the aiicient dispensation did allow —
of some things which are no longer permitted. In this an im-
portant principle is involved. The Old Testament morality, in
respect to some points of relative duty, is behind that of the
Gospel. Why then should we regard the Old Testament as ex-
hibiting an absolute model of perfection, in its precepts and its
doctrines? In some cases, most plainly, this is not true. It
needs discretion and judgment, then, to know how to argue pro-
perly from the Old Testament to the New. But why should the
Old Testament be reproached for not having accomplished all
which the Gospel has? Was it designed for such an end? Cer-
tainly it was not. Is it just matter of reproach, then, that while
it is adapted to all the purposes which it was designed to sub-
serve, it falls short of the higher mark which the Messianic le-
gislation has reached? I trow not.

If preachers and teachers would but remember these plain and
simple facts, they would be less troubled with that in the Old
Testament which now presents them with difficulty. The Gospel
is ever and always the ultima ratio in all matters of religion and
morals. It is the supreme court, the highest tribunal. What-
ever there is in the Old Testament, which falls short of this, or
is at variance with this, is of course not obligatory on us. With
certain states of society, and certain prejudices of men in regard
to matters toward which they are naturally inclined, God has
dealt more leniently in his ancient legislation, than in the Gospel.
" The times of ignorance God winked at." But where light
and knowledge abound, he will no longer do this.

If you ask then, as many will doubtless be inclined to do, what
test shall we apply in all cases to the Old Testament precepts ?
My general answer would be: Apply to them the rules of the
New Testament. Is it not certain, that the New Testament is a
more perfect rule of doctrine and of duty? What hinders us then
from putting the Old Testament always to such a test ? And if

302 § 22.

USE OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

there be cases that are not specifically touched upon in the New
Testament, which are brought to view in the Old, yet analogy
may always guide us in inquiries of such a nature. The spirit of
New Testament doctrine, morality, modes of worship (so far as
modes are touched upon), is always to be applied to judging of
our obligations to the ancient Scriptures.

Will you ask me then: "Of what use is the Old Testament to
us? If it is thus to be altogether subordinate and secondary,
why not dismiss it from the lofty eminence of an authority ? I
feel no difficulty, at least in satisfying myself, in relation to these
questions. Is it of no advantage, to be able to appeal to the an-
cient revelation in all cases of religious and moral precept or doc-
trine, and to find there the immutable principles of virtue and
piety sanctioned, and thus to know that they are the same in
every age? Is it no advantage, to learn how God dealt with his
ancient church for some 1500 and more years? Is there no ad-
vantage in having a reUmous history of the past, which is sketched
by an unerring hand ? A church history which has a Divine au-
thor ? Is there no gain to the devout Christian, in seeing em-
bodied in the Psalms and in the prophets, the workings of piety
in the distinguished minds of ancient days ? Is there no gain to
the ethical teacher, in having before him the inexhaustible store
of prudential and practical maxims in the book of Proverbs ?
Have Christian preachers no sympathies in common with the
preachers, i. e. the prophets, of old ? The New Testament
gives us a precept, or teaches a doctrine; is it no satisfaction to
find practical exhibitions of the precept, and confirmations of the
doctrine, in the Old Testament ? The Christian church is built
upon the Jewish ; not by destroying the foundations of the latter,
but only by demolishing parts of the superstructure, in order to
make the whole more perfect; and hast thou no holy curiosity
to know what the ancient fovmdations were? In a word, the
Old Testament teaches that God is all and in all, as well as the
New; but from the Old Testament we learn in a peculiar manner,
that he may develope himself in a variety of way.s, and that he has
so done. True Christian liberality may be learned and enforced
by considerations of this nature, as well as the duty of submission
and obedience.

There are imperfections in the ancient system; but they are
such as the nature of the case rendered necessary. They are in
accordance with the principle of the slow and gradual amendment

UNUKK THE GOSl'KL UISPKNSATION. 3()3

of the race of" man. The record of our infancy and childhood, if
it could be fully placed before us, would create a deep interest
in the breast of every individual so far as his own story is con-
cerned. Why then should the record of the church's infancy be
spurned at, as though it was not deserving of our attention.

But I have said enough. It is time to withdraw my hand.
And this I will do, as soon as I have said a few words on the
general subject of charges made by Mr Norton, against the
morality and the spirit of the Old Testament writings.

It is not my object to enter at all into any discussion on these
points. I have said, at the first, that I should leave these mat-
ters to be canvassed by others. Enough that I have shown the
fact, that the Hebrew Scriptures were admitted as divine and
authoritative by Christ and his apostles. They must have had
the same difficulties before their minds, that we now have. But
these did not hinder their forming an opinion in favour of the
divine origin and authority of the Hebrew Scriptures. How
can the Old Testament be so vile a book as Mr Norton repre-
sents it to be? Why have not Christians of every age been
stumbled by it? And yet they have not. In some way or
other, they have been brought to feel very differently from Mr
Norton in respect to it. Is it that they have had no sensitive
consciences? No keen discernment of rh y.oXljv and rh ^^e-rrcnl I
trust not. Mr Norton has scanned Old Testament matters in
the light of New Testament revelation, and then passed sentence
of condemnation upon the imperfect, because it is not perfect.
Is this equitable dealing ? Is it any proof that sacrifices and
offerings were not Divinely authorised of old, because they are
abolished now ? Is it any satisfactory objection against this or
that specific thing in the Old Testament, that the New has bet-
ter arranged or modified it ? Is it conclusive against the history
or character of David and other potentates, that they did things
in war, which were common in those days, but which the Gos-
pel and a better state of things now forbid?

But I have done. Others will doubtless meet Mr Norton, on
grounds of this nature which he has occupied. If they have
enlightened and adequate views of the real difference between
the Christian and the ancient dispensation, they need not fear
the issue of the contest. How can we properly claim wisdom
and light so superior to that of the founders of Christianity, as
to reject the books which they have sanctioned ? This is the

364 § 22. USE OF THE OI,U TESTAMENT

direct, fair, and simple question. Let those affirm that we may
make such a claim, who have made up their minds, that we are
not bound by their decision. I must believe, that the disciple
is not above his Master.

One thing is plain from the present state of religious dispute
among us; and this is, that the time has now come, when the
advocates of revelation are to be separated from its opposers.
How can two walk together, unless they are agreed? 1 do not
say, agreed in all the minutiae — the detail of religious sentiments,
but in respect to the very basis of all which is properly called
Christianity. If there be no revelation, there is no Christianity;
and if there be a New Testament and a Christian religion, then
there is an Old Testament which is entitled to our hiffh reffard,
our attentive stud}', and a listening ear.

It has become plain, that the battle which has been going on
over most European ground for these forty or fifty years
past, has at last come even to us, and we can no longer de-
cline the contest. Unbelief in the Voltaire and the Thomas
Paine style we have coped with, and in a measure gained the
victory. But now it comes in the shape of philo-^ophy, litera-
ture, criticism, philology, knowledge of antiquity, and the like.
Hume''s arguments against miracles, which some had thought to
be dead and buried, have been exhumed, clothed with a new and
splendid costume, and commended to the world by many among
the most learned men in Europe. Before these, all revelation
falls alike, both Old Testament and New. And if Mr Norton
remonstrates, as he does, against the sophistry of these argu-
ments, yet he leaves us, after all, just where he found us. None
of the Old Testament, according to him, can be relied on. The
New can be trusted only in cases where what is said agrees with
our own view of things. This is honestly and plainly his simple
position. I prefer to meet De Wette and Mr Parker's views.
We know where to find them. We cannot well mistake them.

Will it be taken in good part, (as it is meant), if I say one
word to another and different class of men? Cum pace omniian,
I would say: Let those, now, who have stood aloof so long as to
the matter of acquaintance with German productions, ask what
is to be done with the contest in hand, in the shape that it has
assumed. Have we not a right to expect from them, at least,
that they will show their faith by their works? What I mean
is: Have we not a right to expect that they will enter into the

IINDFU TUF (lOPPFl. DISl'KNSATION. 305

battle which is going on, clad witii the panoply of days of yore,
which they regard as the only trusty armour? For one, I will
bid God speed to every stroke which they may strike in this way,
provided it does any execution. It does not look well for them
to shrink from the contest, after all that they have so long and
often said to excite suspicion of others who have pursued a
somewhat different course of study, and to cover their names
with a kind of reproach. The time of trial for both parties, (if
they must be so named) has now come. No one will deny this.
For myself, I shall with all my heart rejoice, if they show them-
selves ready and prepared to meet it. At least they have had
sufficient time to make preparation: and the religious public
have long since expected something to meet the allegations of
^Ir Norton. In the meanwhile, I have had other engagements
that must be met, and waited anxiously for some other and bet-
ter advocate of revelation to make his appearance. I hope it
will not be deemed a matter of reproach to me, that I have
thouglit it important for defence, to find out if possible whence
the armour of our assailants comes, and to meet them, if it may
be, w ith arms adapted to new times and new methods of attack.
I am indeed slow to believe, that we of the present day are
bound to keep ourselves ignorant of the strength and resoui'ces
of our assailants. The contest has truly become one, as I have
said, PRO ARis ET Focis. The question, whether Christianity is to
be the predominant religion of this country, or to yield to philo-
sophic infidelity, is soon to be settled. Bowed down in some
measure under the weight of years, and tottering under the
long-continued pressure of bodily infirmities, I have still, perhaps
most rashly, thrown myself into the arena of contest; and there
I mean to remain, so long as I can wield a weapon however
light, or lift up a prayer to the great Head of the church for
the success of his cause. The standard under which I have en-
listed waves aloft over the battle-ground, and bears the inscrip-
tion in characters of light: Christ and the church; the New
Testament and the Old. I hope and trust in God that I shall
never — never desert it.

APPENDIX.

CONTAINING AND EXHIBITING THE MOST IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS,

EXCEPTING THE NEW TESTAMENT, TO SHOW WHAT WERE

THE ANCIENT CANONICAL BOOKS OF THE HEBREWS.

No. I.

Proloyue to the Wisdom of Sifach*

TloXXuv x.a,i (hiyaJkMV rjfiTv dia rou !/6//-oi; /lai ri/jv Tooft^rc/jv kcci tojv aX/.wv
ruv xar avTovg rj'/.oXov'^ri'/.oTCiJv dido/j/ivuv, xj-~s^ S)v diov sffriv s'jrainTv rov
'ifffa^^A 'xaihiiag xai tfo^/aj" xa/ w$ ou /xoi/of ahrovg roug dvayivuay.o'jrag diov
effTiv iTiGryi'j.ovag yivislSai, dX'Aa xai ro7g sxrhg duvaff'^ai roug ^iXo^'Mu'^ovvrag
^^rj(rl/j.ovg iivai xa/' Xkyovrag zai y^dcpovrag' 6 vd'TTog f/^ov ^Irjffovg s-tti rr'/.sTov
iauTov 8oug i'ig n rrtv rov )i6fj^ou nai rojv 'Trpocpyjrojv kuI rojv aXXojv TarPiojv
(Si^Xiuv dvdyvugiv, y.ai sv rovroig 'ixavriv s^iv TiPiToirjird/jjSvog, 'XDO'/]^.)ri xa/
aurog <S\)yy^d-^ai ri ruv ug rraidilav xa/ ffo^lav dvTjzovrciJv, oTojg ot p/Ao/i-aSs/j,
xa; Tovroiv 'ivoy^oi yivo/Mivoi, ToXXu/ /j^dXXov s'zi'T^oo^SjSi Old rrig ivvo/Mou /3/co-
(TEwg. Yla^ax'i'/.Xrirf^i oui/ jMir svvoiag xa/ 'XPoeoyjig rriV dvdyvusiv '7roiiT<^ai,
xal ffvyyvdj/MTiV syjiv e(p' oig av doxSj/Mv ruv xara rrjv i^fMrtViiav tj^/Xotoc^j/xsi/oi/
ridi ruv Xi^sojv dbuvaf/^iTv, oh yd^ /(Todwaf^sTavrd Iv savroig slS^aicri Xsy6ijL,sva,
xa/ orav iiirayjifi I'lg Wzgav yXuSGav. Ob (JjOvov 6s ravra, dXXd xa/' avrog
6 vofjjog, xa/ a) 'xoocpr^riiai, nai rd 'Koirtd roov j3ij3Xic»v oh [ux^dv iyn rr^v 0/a-
<po^dv sv savroTg /.iy6i/,sva. 'Ei^ yd^ rw oydoui '/.at roiazoffrM 'ini sti rou
'Ehi^yirov jSaffi/Jug -Tra^ayivr^sig slg A'/ywrrov xa/' Guyy^ovleac, sv^ov oh /mik-
fag 'xaihiiag d(p6[Moiov. ^ Avay/.ai6rarov s^bijjTiV ahrog T^oSivsyTiccc^ai rivd
CToudriV zai (piXoToviav rov /Ms^y^p/Movivaai rrjvdi rriv jSijSkov' rroXXriv yd^ dy^vr-
v'lav xa} sTKSrrnj.TiV rr^offivsyxd/j.ivog sv rip diaffr-^/ji,ari rov ypovov rr^bg rb
stI 'TTs^ag dyovra rb /3//SX/oi' ex^&Viia/, xa/ ro7g sv r-^ Tapoixicc (SovXo/jbsvoig
(piAOf/^a'^sTv, 'ff^o'A.a.raSKivaCoiJj'svoig rd ri^rj sv i/o/iw j3iorsvsiv.

English Translation. Since so many and important things have
been imparted to us by the Law, the Prophets, and other \worl<s\ of the
like kind which have followed, for which one must needs praise Israel on
account of learning and wisdom; and inasmuch as not only those who
read ought to be well informed, but those who are devoted to learning
should be able to profit, both in the way of speaking and writing, such
as are foreigners; my grandfather, .Tesus, having devoted himself very
much to the reading of ^Ae Law, the Prophets, and the Other Books of his
country/, and having acquired a good degree of experience in these things,

• This Prologue was probably written about 1 .30 b.c The book itself probably
about 181) B.C.

368

appendix: SIRACH.

was himself led on to compose something pertaining to instruction and
wisdom, so that those desirous of learning, being in possession of these
things, might grow much more by a life conformed to the Law.

Ye are invited, therefore, with good will and strict attention to make
the perusal, and to take notice whenever we may seem to lack ability, in
respect to any of the words which we have laboured to translate. For
things in themselves the same, expressed in Hebrew, have not the same
force when they are translated into another language. Not only so, but
the Law itself, and the Prophets, and the remaining BooJcs, exhibit no
small diversity among themselves as to the modes of expression.

When, in my thirty-eighth year, while Ptolemy Euergetes was king, I
came to Egypt and took up my residence there, I found an exemplar of
no small learning. I deemed it altogether necessary for myself to apply
some diligence and industry to the interpretation of this book; for 1 ex-
pended much vigilance and study, during that interval of time, that,
bringing to an end this book, I might publish it for those in a foreign
country who wish to be learners, and so to regulate their habits as to
live in conformity with the Law.

Remarks. It seems somewhat remarkable, that this grandson of Sir-
achides, who appears not to have visited Egypt until he was thirty-eight
years of age, should not have found a copy of his grandfather's book in
Palestine; particularly since the latter assures us (I. 27), that he was an
inhabitant or native of Jerusalem. The fact that he wrote in Hebrew,
is enough to render this altogether probable; for the Egyptia^.i Jews, if
we may judge of them by the case of Philo the greatest of them all, were
moderate proficients in this sacred tongue. However, the fact that the
Wisdom of Sirach had a currency, and probably some weight of authority
in Egypt, falls in well with the history of the other apocryphal books.
Egypt was the hot-bed in which nearly all of these somewhat sickly
plants sprung up and were nurtured. This was natural. The Palestine
Jews were rigid canonists. Even the weight of character and learning
which Sirachides possessed, could give his book no great currency and
no authority there. There the Jews all partook of the spirit of their
leaders; and so it was out of question to add another book to the canon.
But the Egyptian Jews were far removed from the mother country.
They had intercourse ' with Greek schools, philosophers, and literati.
Their views o^ canonical limits were probably less strictly defined, or at
any rate less rigidly adhered to, than those of their Palestine brethren.
So, while the grandson of Sirachides found no acpli'Lotoi (as he calls it),
i. e. no copy, exemplar, or (as one might translate) fac-simile of his
grandfather's work in his native land, he found one at Alexandria, where
was more of a literary taste, and less of the feeling which dictated a rigid
adherence to the views and traditions of the elders, Qi^pt.

For the rest, the translator well appreciates the difficulty of translat-
ing Hebrew into Greek; confesses his fear of occasional error, and begs
for the indulgence of the reader, as well as for the exercise of his discri-
mination. He does not, therefore, lay claim to any inspiration on his
part. But how is this matter in respect to the author of the book?
The reader, by referring to p. 211 above, will see, that while he omits
making a direct claim to the office of a 'prophet, (which he doubtless

APPKNDIX: SIUACH.

369

knew would be controverted and denied), he has still intended to be
placed at the side of prophets, and take rank among the favourite disci-
ples of Solomon. The whole work is an ambitious imitation of this
king's writings. Even the -ar'i^cjv 'j/Mr,g near the close, appears to have
had its origin in the eulogy in Prov. viii. Moreover the book has many
very fine sayings and sentiments in it. I doubt not that it was much
better written in Hebrew, than it now appears to be in Greek; and I
fully accede to what the translator says about his inability adequately to
express the Hebrew original in the Greek language. The Greek of his
preface at least, (which of course is all his own), has so near an approach
to barbarism in its idiom, in the disjointed connection of the sentences,
and in the use of some of the particles (e. g. yd^), as to show that the
writer expressed himself with much difficulty, and in the true style of
a foreigner. And so it is with much of his translation. Still, it is He-
hrew-Qveek, and even better than some of the Septuagint. I have done
my best to give the ideas of the preface, but 1 have been compelled to
use some freedom in translating, in order to make the version bearable.
Whether I have hit the exact shade of the original meaning in all cases,
is of no importance to my present object. That part for which the whole
is translated, is quite plain and intelligible.

I cannot refrain from asking here: If the Jews were so facile as to the
admission of new books into the canon, (e. g. Daniel, many of the Psalms,
Jonah, (fee), at a period so late as the Maccabean times, how came it
about, that the Wisdom of Sirach, written at Jerusalem and before these
times, and making, as we have seen, no small claims on admission to an
elevated place, was not even to be found in Palestine some fifty years
after this, but was lighted upon only among the distant Egyptians'?
Consistencjj is a jewel of some value; and if so, why do not those confi-
dent neological critics, who so often hoist the standard on v.'hich is
inscribed MACCABEAN, and fight in earnest under this banner, — why
do they not show us some good and satisfactory reason for the exclusion
of such books as the 'S.of'ia 2j/ca;/ from the Palestine canon (and even the
Jewish Egyptian one), while books which they place far below this, now
occupy, and for more than 1900 years (as they concede) have occupied a
place among the sacred Scriptures of the Jews'? The whole affair makes
greatly against their confident assumptions.

I have only to remark, that in the first sentence of the Prologue, if
'7r^o<priroiv be regarded as referring to 'pro'phetical boohs, (and so 1 have
taken it), then the u/Samv which follows must also mean other hooJcs. I
sujipose the cf.-/.oKo\f^ri/(.(')rc>iv, in this case, to refer to the order of arrange-
ment in the canon, which had been and still continued, (the appropriate
sense of the Perf ), rather than to the time of writing. Frophets, accord-
ing to the Hebrew idiom, were all the writers of the Scriptures; so that
T^dfi^TcJv specially if compared with the preceding i-o/xot;, would seem to
mean the books so called, in the case before us. But still the participle
d-/.oXo-j':)r}x6Tc>j}/ may appear rather to indicate persons who followed the
so-called prophets (also considered as persons), if we look to the y.ur
ahro'oc by which it is accompanied. So De Wettc has taken it. I do
not consider this construction, however, as being certain; for the gender
of avrovg, if it refers to books, would in this case be regulated by its an-
tecedent T^of ))rcoi/. In case prophets means persons, then the prophets,

2 n

370

appendix: phit.o.

who were the authors of the books belonging to the Old Testament
which bear their names, are meant, and the others who have followed
must mean other writers of the Jewish Scriptures who lived after them.
But this can be understood only as to the greater portion of them; for
Haggai, Zechariah, and in particular Malachi, have always been regard-
ed by the Jews as among the latest writers in their canon. Difficulties
therefore lie in the way of De Wette's interpretation. Analogy with
the passage in the second sentence — " the law, the prophets, and the
other patrical books" — would rather plead for the interpretation which
I have put upon the passage, notwithstanding the difficulty in respect
to the participle axoJ^ou.^rixoroiv.

Finally, rwi/ aXXuv 'Trar^luv fSijSXicijv, with the definite article prefixed,
and placed by the side of rou vo/mou and tojv -r^ri^riruiv which must in their
very nature be definite, does beyond all reasonable doubt limit the other
hooks in question here, to the complement or remainder of the books
which made up the holy Scriptures. The triplex division therefore, as
in later times, lies on the very face of this whole representation. The
nature of the appeal takes it for granted, that this was well known, and
would be universally understood. Of course, the usage of thus dividing
the Scriptures, must have been established for a considerable period, an-
terior to that in which the translator wrote, and anterior to the age of
his grandfather.

No. II.

Passages in the Vita Contemplativa of Philo Judceus. — 0pp. ii. p. 475.
edit. Mangey. (flor. a.d. 40.)

Philo, in praising a contemplative life and in giving various examples
of it, comes at last to the Therapeutae or Essenes (= QilJ^i^, medici,

healers), whose devotional practices he thus describes: 'Ev ixaGrrj ds olxia,
'ii^ov, 0 TiaXirrai 6i[x,vi7ov xai iMovaGry^^tov, h tp (Jjovoxj/Jjivoi ra roZ esiMvov fSiov
fjLudrTj^ia rsXouvrai' /Jbi^blv haxo/jbiZ^ovnc, fju/j Torov, /xrj dlrov, /xi^bsv ri ruiv aXXcjv
o<Ja, Tphg zag rou Suifiarog -y^uac, dvayxaTa, aXXa, v6//,ovc, xai Xoyia ^sffTiff-
^svra dia crgop)]rwi/, xa.'i v/J^vouc xai ra aXXa olg k'XierriiMyj xai si/ffs/S/a Gvvah-

^ovrai xai nXiioZvrai ^'EvTuy)(avovrig yd^ ro7g 'ii^nTg y^diJ.[jja,Gt,

a)iXoffo(pouffi rriv tolt^iov <piXo6o(piav aXXriyoQ^ovvng, sTud^ Ciuf/,j3oXa rd r^g
PTjTT^g i^/^rivsiag vof/jit,ouffi <p\j6iug d'roxix^xjij.iMivrig, sv v'ro'joiaig driXov/Hivrig.
"Effr/ bs avToTg xai (Tuyy^a/z/zara iraXaiZiv^ dvd^uiv, o'i rJjs a/^lcgwg dg^i^ys-
rai yevofi^ivoi mXXa /j^vrj/XiTa rrig dXXsyo^ovfJt^ivrjg ibsag d'TsXi'Xov.

Translation. In every house is a sanctuary, which is called sacred
place or monastery, in which, being alone, they perform the mysteries of
a holy life; introducing nothing into it, neither drink, nor bread-corn,
nor any of the other things which are necessary for the wants of the
body, but the laws and oracles predicted hy the prophets, and hymns and
other [writings] by which knowledge and piety are increased and perfect-
ed. .. . Addressing themselves to the sacred writings they philosophize
their country's philosophy, interpreting allegorically, inasmuch as they
regard those things which admit a plain interpretation, as symbols of
something that is hidden and is indicated merely by i/aow/a, [i. e. an

Ai'l'KNDlX: PHILO.

371

under or secondary meaning]. They have also writings of their elders
who, being leaders of the sect, left many monuments of their allegorical
notions.

A doubt has been raised here, whether hymns and other [^writings'] by
which knoivledge and piety are increased and perfected, is meant to de-
signate a portion of the Scriptures. I do not see that there is good
room, however, for reasonable doubt. The intimate junction of these
with the Law and the Prophets; the manner in which their contents are
described; and above all, the express distinction between these books
and others which were peculiar to the sect of the Essenes, and which
were composed by the elders and leaders of the sect, make it quite plain
that the hymns and other ivritings belonged to the Scriptures. Even if
these circumstances did not decide the case, the fact that Philo, immedi-
ately after having mentioned these three classes of books, speaks of them
as lic-a yoa.ij.<icj.Ta., sacred writings, decides the point. In the days of
Philo, then, the Jewish Scriptures in the hands of the Therapeutaj con-
sisted of three great divisions, in the same manner as we have seen in
the book of Sirach. No intimation is anywhere given, that the Essenes
had a different canon from that of the other Jews. Indeed, all the know-
ledge we have of them, would lead us to reject this idea. And as the
sect was ancient, and rigidly adhered to the practices of their fathers,
we may well draw the conclusion, that the triplex division of Scripture here
described by Philo, had long existed in the usages of the Jewish nation.

No. III.

Passage from Josephus contra Apionem, lib. i. § 8. (Born a.d. 37.)

Oh yag iMX)gt6i.big l3i(3Xiuv iisi -rag' i^fJ^Tv, aeyfjitffjjvuv xai fjjCf^o/MsvojV duo
di fjuova Tg05 To7g UTtosi BijSXia, rov rravrhg s^ovra ^govou rriv dvay^a(pr;v, ra
dixalug ©s/a TSTisrsv/Msva. Kal tovtojv ttsvtb fisv sffTi ra MouVsw;, a roug
n vo/Moug TSgis^ii, xai rrjv r^g av^goj-joyo/iag Tccgadoaiv /J^i^gi '">JS aurou
TiXsvTT^g. OvTog 6 yj^ovog ocxoXuth rgicy^iXiuJv hXiyov stuv. 'A-rb ds rr^g

"■i'X/^i {."-iYJii is omitted in Euseb.], o'l /xfra MorJariv 'xoo;p7jTai ra xar
av'ovg 'xoay^hra 6uvsyga-^av £^ rgiai xai b'ixa l3i[3}Joig. A/ ok Xoi'rai tig-
Cagig 'xjiJjMOvg ug rov ^ih xai roTg d\i':)oui'roig ■o'xo'^rixag roZ (3iou --i^/syouGiv.
^Ato ds ' Agrat.igS,ov fJ^'sygi rov xaW yi/J'dg yoovov, ysyga-Trrai /j^sv sxasra'
mSriojg ds ohy^ o[Loiag ri^iura/ roTg T^h aurcjv, did rb [juri yivi&^ai rriv ruv
Tgncpriruv ax^ijSri diahoyjiv. Ar^Xov rV 'isriv egyw Tug rifxsTg roTg ibioig ygdfj.-
/jjacii TST/ffrsuxa/jtif, roaouro ydg aiumog ridrj 'Traguiyrjxorog, obrs Tgoo^s/Va/ rig
oi/Ssv, oiirs dfiiXi/v avruiv, o'Jn ijjira^.)sTvai nrdXi^'riXiv. lldsi hs cvfMfurov
sffriv Bv'^vg Ix rrig vguirrig ysngsuc ^lovdaioig, rb moij^iZ^hv ahrd 3eoD hdyiLara,
xai roxjTOig sij,/j:,ivsiv, xai ii-'i^ axiroov s/ h'sQi ^^\ir,sxsiv r,hi'j}g.

Translation. We have not a countless number of books, discordant
and arrayed against each other; but only iivo and twenty books, contain-
ing the history of every age, which are justly accredited as divine [old
editions of Josephus read merely: "which are justly accredited" — :}£?«
comes from Eusebius' transcript of Josephus in ^\'c. Hist. iii. 10]; and
of these, ^ye belong to Moses, which contain both the laws and the his-
tory of the generations of men until his death. This period lacks but

372 APPENDIX : MEMTO.

little of 3000 years. From the death of Moses, moreover, until the reigu
of Artaxerxes, [Euseb. — ' from the death of Moses to that of Artaxerxes'
— and so most of the Codices omitting a^yjiz, reign], king of the Persians
after Xerxes, the prophets who followed Moses have described the things
which were done during the age of each one respectively, in thirteen
books. The remaining/o»r contain hymns to God, and rules of life for
men. From the time of Artaxerxes, moreover, until our present period,
all occurrences have been written down; htit they are not regarded as en-
titled to the like credit ivith those ivhich ^:>recerfe them, because there tvas no
certain succession of prophets. Fact has shown what confidence we place
in our own writings. For although so many ages have passed away, no
one has dared to add to them, nor to take anything from them, nor to
make alterations. In all Jews it is implanted, even from their birth, to
regard them as being the instructions of God, and to abide steadfastly by
them, and if it be necessary to die gladly for them.

Remarks on this passage are unnecessary, as they are so fully made in
the preceding pages, viz. p. 19-5 seq. Of all the testimony among an-
cient writers about the Old Testament, this is unquestionably the most
important. The intelligence, the connections, the official character, and
the integrity of Josephus, all conspire to render him worthy of the most
entire credit. The matter is not one about which he could be in doubt,
when he speaks the views and feelings of his countrymen. The latter
part of his testimony makes it quite certain, that he did so speak; for
he tells us explicitly what the views and feelings of the Jews had always
been, in reference to their sacred books. To say as Herbst, many other
Romanists, and some of the Neologists do, that Josephus only gives us
his own 2^i'i^(>'t^ opinion, is saying what is contradicted by his own ex-
plicit statement. The appeal to the Talmud, rather than to him, to de-
termine the ancient number of the sacred books, respectively contained
in the division of the Prophets and of the Ilagiography, is altogether un-
critical and inadmissible. The admission of such an appeal by Neolo-
gists, in order to maintain their favourite views about the lateness of
Daniel and the Chronicles, shows fully that the spirit of party and of
prejudice is not by any means confined to the so-called orthodox.

No. IV.

Testimoni/ of Melito, bishop of Sardis, (flor. a. d. 170), p)'esented hy
Etisehitis in his Histo7'ia Ecc. lib. iv. c. 26.

'TT^og rhv Xoyov ^^oj/nsvog ytvsd^ai aoi sxXoydg, $k n rov vo/nou zai ruiv 'tt^o-
(prjTcov Vi^i rnu truTrj^og xai 'irdtsrig rrig Tidri'jjg 7jfjt,Si)V sri ds vtai f^a^^iTv rr^v ruv
'TraXaiuv /3//3X/coi/ sj3fjvX^''~)rjg dz^ij3iiav, Toffa rh d^i'^/Mv xai OTToTa rriv rd^iv
iJiv, sg'TTovdaSa to toiouto -r^a^a/, BTiffTa/JAVog dot to ffToudam in^i ttiv TtffT/v,
xai (piAo/iMa'^ig 'Xigi tov XoyoV oti ts //.aX/tfra rravruv rro'^w too T^og Qshv
TuuTa 'Tf^ox^img, Tigi Trig aJuvlov duTrj^iag dyuitii^ojubsvog' avsXSwi/ ovv iig ttjv
dvaTo}.rjv, xai 'iug tov tottov yivo/jjivog h'^)ot, £xy}^u^)rj xai s'X^dypri, xai dxp-
/Sw5 (j.a'^ijv Ta Trig vaXaidg bia^^rjxrig jSijSXia, u'roTdB.ag s'jri/M'^d dor (hv soti
ra 0)i6/j,aTa' MojiJaeojg t=v7£* yhiSig, 'i^oboc, XiuiTixov, d^i'^'ioi, dsuTi^ov6/j,iov.

appendix: mkuto, 873

'iriffovg NavTj, Kotrai, 'I'oul), MaaiXnuv rsaaa^a, Ta^a>.^/To//,£^w^ h-jo. f a/ -
//.uv AaiSid, 26Xoij,ojvos ■xa^o/f/yiai ri xal ao(pia, sTiKXi^ffiaS'rTjg, ac/xa dd/Maruv,
'lw/3" IlgotprjTci/v, ' Hgaiou, 'Isgsfilov, ruv dudsx.a sv fji,ovo^i[3Kw, AavirjX, 'Is^£-
xi^X/'Eadgag' f^ JJv xai rag sxXoyag s'Troirisafiriv, i'lg s^ ^//3X/a biiXu}v.

Translation. Melito to Onesimus his brother, greeting. Since you
have often requested, through the earnest desire that you cherish for the
word [of God], that you might have a selection made for you from the
Law and the Prophets, which has respect to our Saviour and the whole
of our faith; and since moreover, you have been desirous to obtain an
accurate account of the ancient hooks, both as to their number and their
order, I have taken pains to accomplish this, knowing your earnestness
in respect to the faith, and your desire for instruction in regard to the
word; and most of all, that you, while striving after eternal salvation,
through desires after Godj give a preference to these things. Making a
journey therefore into the east [Palestine], and having arrived at the
place where these things [i. e. scriptural events] were proclaimed and
transacted, I there learned accurately the books of the Old Testament,
which I here arrange and transmit to you. The names are as follows :
The five books of Moses, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuter-
onomy. Then Joshua of Nun, Judges, Ruth, four books of Kings, two
of Chronicles. The Psalms of David, the Proverbs of Solomon (also
called Wisdom,) Ecclesiastes, the Song of Songs, Job. Prophets : Isaiah,
Jeremiah, the twelve in one book, Daniel, Ezekiel, Ezra. From these I
have made selections, distributing them into six books.

Remarks on this passage, sufficiently copious, the reader will find on
pp. 225 seq. above. As the earliest Christian writer who has given us a
list of the Old Testament books, and as a man of much learning and
distinguished piety, his testimony deserves especial consideration.

No. V.
Testimony of Origen preserved in Eusehiiis Hist. Ecc. lib. iv. c. 25.

T&i' /X.S1/ roiyi ■t^utov st,rjyouf/,ivog YaX//,b)i, sx^^iOiv m'xoirirai {^ ilpyi]/r,g)
rou Tuv li^uv y^acpojv r^j TaXa/aj dia^rjxrjc /laraAoyov, clids ':TCfjg y^dfuiM
VMTa Xs^/v „oux dyvftfiTiOM 5' ihai rag ivdia^Tixouc ^//3?.0i/j, ug 'E/3^a7b/
'TTa^adidoaffiv, duo xal I'/xoffi' offog 6 d^i^f/^og ruv Tag' avToTg aroi-^iic/jv sariv."
Eira fMsrd riva sTKp's^si XsyMV „usi bi ai i'lxoffi dvo ^i(3Xoi xa'^Y ' Ef3^aioug
aids' Tj Tag' j^/a/v Thidig I'Xiyiy^afijix.svri, craga hi 'E^^aioig dith ri^g d^yr\g
rr\g /3//3Xou Bgjjff/'^, oTse soT/V h d^'/^fj' "Et,odog, Ohal.iCiJbu'^, ocrsg sari
raOra rd ovoiMara' AiuiTixiiv, OiJ/x,^d, xai JjcaXsffsi/' 'Ag/^,ao/, ' A,a,ae<!pi x-
u)8sifji,' AiVTi^ovofMiov/'EXXi d6^s/3ag//i, ohroi o'l Xoyor IridoZg v'tog Nau^,
"icjjrtouls I3sv Not/i/' Kg/ra/', 'Pou^, -rra^ ahroTg ev ivi, 2 uj (p s ti fj,' BaffiXiiMv
■TTPuirri, divri^a, Tag' avroTg h 2 a ,'Jj o u rj }., o ^soxXjiroc* BaffiXiiua r^irri, rir-
d^rri, sv hi, 0\jaijbij/i}.s^ Aa/3/^, oTsg sdri j3a(ri}.siZiv AafSid' IlagaXs/To-
/xsvcajv Tgw7-)5, dsurs^a, sv hi, AiiS^fidia'/, i /x,, orrsp sari JSnyoi Ti'ms^ooV "Eff-
8pag Tgwrog xai bsvrs^og h hi, 'E^^ga, o strri ^nr^og' /3//3Xoc Ya\aS^jv,
2sp = g 0/X?./,a" loXniimTog TlKonifj/iai, M/frXw^)' "Exx/.r/ff/aoTT^c, K w £-

374 appendix: origen.

XeS" dff/Aa agf/jdruv, 2/g aBai^ifj,' ' Uffaiag, 'ijffa/a' 'li^2/Miag ffuv Hgii-
vo/g xa/ rfi i-TTiffToXfi, h hi, 'legs/x/a' Aav/i^X, Aav/i^X' 'Is^ex/j^X, 'l£^£-
xirjX' 'lw/3' 'lw/3' 'EffSjie, 'Effi^^^g' "E^w os tovtuv ssti tu Maxxa/3a/'xa,

Teanslation. Iu explaining the first Psalm, he [Origen] sets forth
a catalogical view of the sacred books of the Old Testament; describing
them in the following manner : " One must not be ignorant, that there
are twenty-tivo hoolcs of the covenant, as the Hebrews reckon them; which
is the number of letters in their alphabet." Then, after some remarks,
he adds : " Moreover the twenty-two books of the Hebrews are these; the
book entitled Genesis by us, but by the Hebrews JBi'esith, from the begin-
ning of the book, for this means in the heginning ; Exodus, Oualesmoth,
i. e. these are the names; Leviticus, Ouilcra, i. e. and he called; Numbers,
AmmesjjheJi-ocUm; Deuteronomy, Ulle Haddeharim, i. e. these are the
words; Joshua the son of Nun, Josue hen Noun; Judges, Ruth, with
them [the Hebrews] in one, ASophetim; Kings first and second, among
them one, Samouel, the called of God; Kings third and fourth in one,
Ouammelech David, i.e. the reign of David; Chronicles [or Supplement]
first and second, in one, Dibre Aiamim, i.e. accounts of the times; Ezra
first and second, in one, Ezra, which means helper; the book of Psalms,
Sepher Thillim; the Proverbs of Solomon, i/Js^^A; Ecclesiastes, /I'oe^e^A;
the Song of Songs, Sir Ilassirim.; Isaiah, Jesaia; Jeremiah with La-
mentations and the epistle, in one, Jeremia; Daniel, Daniel; Ezekiel,
leezkel; Job, Joh; Esther, Esther. Besides these, there are the Macca-
bees, which are inscribed Sarheth Sarhene El.

The names in Italic are the representatives of the Hebrew names of
the books. Of the twenty-two books, said by Origen to belong to Hebrew
Scriptures, he produces (as related by Eusebius), only twenty-o?«e. But
there can be no doubt that this is an error either in the copy of Euse-
bius, or of some of his transcribers. (See on this subject p. 227 above).
The fact that Rufinus, in his translation of Origen, specifies the Twelve
Minor Prophets (in one book, as always in ancient times), which are
omitted in the catalogue above, and also the nature of the case, (since
Origen has said that there are twenty-two books,) make it entirely clear
that Origen s catalogue originally contained, or was intended to con-
tain, the Prophets in question.

In respect to the Maccabees, the Hebrew title which Origen has
given it, (the first book only is meant), shows that he was acquainted
with the work in Hebrew; in which, no doubt, it was originally com-
posed. So says Jerome : " Maccabaeorum primum librura Hebraicum
reperi. Secundus Graecus est; quod ex ipsa quoque phrasi probari po-
test; i. e. The first book of the Maccabees I found in Hebrew. The sec-
ond is Greek; wliich is evident from its phraseology." In Prol. Galeato.
This is the reason why Origen speaks of it as being among the books of
the Hebrews. But he expressly separates it from their canonical books:
V^ij) (ji rouruv ■/,. r. X. To count upon Origen as including the Maccabees
in his canon, as lierbst does, is strange enough, after Origen himself has
separated it by an s'ijw, i. e. extrinsic, abroad, foreign. In respect to the
meaning of the Hebrew title, as given in the unskilful manner of Origen,

APPENDIX : ORIGEN. 375

who makes the Greek letters the representatives of it, not improbably it
may be; History of the Princes of the sons of God, i. e. "''it!? nil"\to'
7^ 'i^^ the first word being employed in its Aramaean sense; which
would be no improbability, at the time when the book was written.
Other explanations may be seen in Eichh. Einl. iv. p. 222; but they
are less probable. The lyrinces seem to be the Maccabaean leaders, and
the sons of God means the party of the pious who clave to these leaders.
There was another apocryphal book also, extant probably in Hebrew, in
Origen's day, namely, the Wisdom of Sirach. But he does not appear
to have seen anything but the Greek copy, when he wrote the catalogue
above.

I would merely remark at the close, that Origen, from his long con-
tinued critical study of the Scriptures, his enlightened views iu relation
to this subject, his integrity, and his long residence both in Egypt and
in Palestine, must have fully known what the Jews in general, in both
countries, thought in respect to their canon. One difficulty only remains :
This is, that Origen not only includes Lamentations with Jeremiah, but
also an epistle, or rather the epistle. What is this? Is it the so-called
Epistle of Jeremiah to the captives at Babylon, which constitutes one of
the apocryphal books, and consists of seventy-three verses? So the Ro-
manists affirm. But of this I must doubt; because no other ancient list
of the sacred books has comprised this with Jeremiah and Lamentations,
excepting such as appear to be copied from him. That Jeremiah wrote
letters to the exiled Jews, is certain; see Jer. xxix. That some of his
predictions were written by Baruch separately, is plain from Jer. xxxvi.
1 cannot but feel, that some of the epistles named in the book of Jeremiah
were added to it, at least in the copy which Origen had, in the way of
an appendage, instead of being incorporated with the main body of the
work. In the time of Jerome, the apocryphal Epistle of Jeremiah, as
Herbst confesses (Einl. p. 14), was incorporated with Baruch, as a sixth
chapter, (and so oftentimes since); and yet of this Jerome says expressly:
" Librum Baruch, qui apud Hebraeos nee legitur nee habetur, praeter-
misimus, i. e. the book of Baruch, which the Hebrews neither read nor
possess, we pass by." We must, therefore, either attribute error to
Origen in respect to the Epistle in question, or explain it in some such
way as I have done. The Council of Laodicea, as will be seen in the
sequel, Hilary, also Cyrill of Jerusalem, Athanasius, and Synopsis Scrip-
turae (in 0pp. Athanas.), all exhibit the same, or the like difficulties, in
regard to the component parts of Jeremiah, probably copying in this
respect the representation of Origen. The disjointed and as it were
fragmentary state of Jeremiah in ancient times, (witness the Septuagint
Version), is in all probability the basis of this peculiarity in some of the
ancient lists of the scriptural books. The matter has not yet been fully
cleared up; but the weight of testimony is altogether against the suppo-
sition of an apocri/phal book being meant.

376 APPENDIX : ORICIEN.

No. VI.

List of Canonical Books as made out by the Conncil of Laodicea;
(between a. d. 360 — 364. >

Can. 59. On oh hit Jdiunxovi -^aXfioug '/.'iyio'^ai sv rfi sKKXrielcc, ohdi
d-/.avbvigra jSilSia, aXXa iJ,6va to, xavovr/.a rric, -/.aivrig -/.ai iruXaiac, dia':!i7ix.7ig.
Can. 60. "Oca dsT j3ij3}Ja dvayivdJeKsc^ai rrig 'raXaiag biaS)n-/.r\g- a, YhiCig
xoai^ov. (3',"ES,obog s^'Aijv'rrou. y' , Aiuirixov. B' , ' Ap^fJboi. $, Asurs^o-
vof/yiov. ffr', 'Iriffovg Nau^. ^', Kgirai. 'Po6^. ri, 'EoS^g. ^', BaSiXsiujv a,
j3'. I, BaSiXiim y , 6'. id, nagaXs/To/Agca a, /3'. ijd', "Esb^ag, a, j3' . iy\
j3il3Xog -vl/aX/Awi/ gv . id', Ua^oi/j,iai 'S.a.XofLuvrog. is, Exx>.?i(r/affr'/j$. idr' ,
"^ A(ffx,a dSfJi^druv. /^', 'lw/3. iri, Aw^sxa T^o^^ra/. /S', 'Hsaiag. x', 'l£g£-
fMiag xai Bu^ovy^, '^^r^voi nai sTiffroXai. xd, 'is^sx/JjX. xj3', AaviyjX.

Translation. Canon 59. Private Psalms must not be read in the
church, nor uncanonical books, but only the canonical ones of the New
and Old Testaments. Canon 60. The books of the Old Testament
which ought to be read : (1.) Genesis of the world. (2.) Exodus from
Egypt. (3.) Leviticus. (4.) Numbers. (5.) Deuteronomy. (6.) Joshua
of Nun. (7.) Judges, Ruth. (8.) Esther. (9.) 1st Kings, first and
second [1st and 2d Samuel.] (10.) 2d Kings, first and second. (11.)
Chronicles, 1st and 2d. (12.) Ezra, first and second [i. e. Ezra and
Nehemiah.] (13.) The book of Psalms, 150. (14.) Proverbs of Solo-
mon. (15.) Ecclesiastes. (16.) Song of Songs. (17.) Job. (18.) Twelve
Prophets. (19.) Isaiah. (20.) Jeremiah and Baruch, the Lamentations
and the Epistles. (21.) Ezekiel. (22.) Daniel.

The Hagiography are here all put in junction together; Chronicles is
joined with the historical books; Esther is placed before them; Job
after the Hagiography ; the twelve Prophets before the others ; and
Daniel along with them; as in our Bibles. But as this council used
the Septuagint, we cannot say with certainty that they followed any of
the usual Hebrew copies in arrangement. How near they come to Ori-
gen, is plain from the peculiar alleged contents of the book of Jeremiah.
Baruch and the (apocryphal?) Epistle both are included. These were
probably now joined in one book, (as in Jerome's time), and so they are
here named. The solution of this phenomenon which appears most pro-
bable to me, I have already given in my remarks on the list of Origen.

No. VII.

C'l/rill of Jerusalem., (flor. A. D. 350), in Ilierosol. Catechesis I V.
JS'^o. 33-36. Opp. p. 69, edit. Touttei.

' Aiayivuxfm rag ^eiag y^a<pdg, rdg i'/nosi djo ^iiSXoug rr^g '!ra>.aidg 6ia-

^yj^rjg, rdg xjvh rm i^boiJ^riKnvTa bvn s§/ir,vivTuv 'i^fj,rjvi[jS)iiffag. ToD

v6/Jt,ou fMiv yd^ ciifiv a'l Muffiojg v^wrai irhn ^IjSXo/. i^^g b\, lyjirovg

appendix: OIUGEN.

377

hi XoiTuv 'idro^txojv ^ijSXiuv, 'Z^uirri xcx,i divr's^a tuv jSagiXuZiv, fiia Ta^'
'EjS^aioig sffri /3//S?.os" fiia ds xa/' r) r^kri xai 55 Tera^rrj- o/xo/w; 6s crag'

iirraxaibiyiarov ^ijSXiov' sti h rouroig ra rr^o<priTr/.a, 'Trsvri' ruv buibi/ta
rrpdfriTojv jMia (3ij3Xog, xa/ 'lisaiou fiia, xa/ 'U^s/jbiou /Mra Ba^oij-/^ xa/'
^^rivMV %ai iriSro/.rig' sha 'JiZ^iXiriX' xai rj roD AaviriX iixoSrridiVTS^a 0ij3}.cg
Trig Ta>.a/ac dia:}^xng.

Translation. Make yourself well acquainted with the divine Scrip-
tures, the twenty-two books of the Old Testament, which were translated
by the seventy-two interpreters. . . . The first five books are of Moses,
which is the Law. ... Then comes Joshua of Nun; Judges with Ruth,
numbered the seventh book; of the remaining historical books, first and
second of Kings, [1st and 2d Sam.], one book among the Hebrews. One
also is the third and fourth of Kings; with them also the Chronicles, first
and second, are one book; the first and second of Ezra [Ez. Neh.] are
reckoned as one; the twelfth book is Esther; and these are the historical
ones. The poetical books are five ; viz. Job, the book of Psalms, Pro-
verbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Songs, the seventeenth book. To
these must be added five j^^ro^j/ie^ic ones; the twelve Prophets, one book;
one also of Isaiah; of Jeremiah with Baruch, Lamentations, and the
epistle; and Daniel, the twenty- second book of the Old Testament.

Here is a different arrangement still, which is the same for the most
part as in our present English Bibles. The only exception is, that the
Minor Prophets are placed before the others. The books of the Hagio-
graphy, as described by Josephus, are here all associated and called (T-oi-
X^iiii, i- 6. measured, in metre, or poetic. The same difficulty also ap-
p^ears here, as in the canon of the Laodicean council, in respect to the
constituent parts of Jeremiah. I have nothing more to say concerning
this difficulty, than what I have already said. The list of books was
evidently copied from the like source with the list of the council, i. e. it
was probably made out from Origen's catalogue.

No. YIII.

Gregory Nazianzen (flor. 370). Opp. 11. Carmina, xxxiii.

In this 33d Carmen or sacred Ode, Gregory has undertaken, in ac-
cordance with the taste and fancy of the times, to throw the names of all
the sacred books into measured verse. He thus proceeds with the Old
Testament:

'Itfrof/xa/ [liv 'iaffi jSifSXoi dvoxaibixa rraffni,
T5jg d^'X^aiOTi^rjg ' K,'3_fa/'x^j aofiric.
ngwr/ffrr) Vivigig, bIt " E^odog, Anjirr/iovri,
"Etsit 'Af/^,'/.o/, s/Va divn^ng NofMg.

378 appendix: origex.

'H hi svdrTj hixarr^ n /3/'/3ao/, ■r^ags/j Baff/ATjw)/,
Ka/ TLaoaXii'TrofMvar sg^arov'Kffdgav iy^ni-
A/ 8s dTiyjr^oal t'svts, Siv 'Tr^corog ys 'Iw/S,
"Exs/ra Aavid, i'lra roiTg ^oXofX'jjvniai,
^ E/tyJ-riSiaSTy] ;, dg/JM., xai 'TraQoi/jjiai.
Ka/ Ts^S' 6,ao/wj '7TVi\)[i,arog T^o^riTixov'
Miav fji^ev sieiv ig yoa(priv o'l huibi'/.a,
nsrji, Kai 'A//.W5, xa/ M/p^a/aj 6 r^irog,
"E'TTiir 'IwJjX, sJV' 'Iwi'as 'A/3o/ac,
NaoufM ri, ^ A(3j3azou/x n, zai '2,of:oviag,
'AyyaTog, iJra Zaya^iag, 'MaXocyiag'
Mia /MV Olds. i:\iUTS^a ds ^Hffatag,
"Ete/^' 6 xXtjSe/'s 'liPi/j,iag hx jS^sfoug,
EJt 'Is^/x/;5>., xa/ Aavr/j7^ov yd^ig.
^ K^yjaiag //.b s^jjxa Siw xa/ s/'xoff/ (3i(3Aovg,
To7g ruv 'E(3^aiajv y^d/M/Jiaffiv dvri^irovg.

Translation. All the historical books are twelve, of the ancient
Hebrew wisdom. First Genesis, then Exodus, and Leviticus, then Num-
bers, then Deuteronomy. Then Joshua, and Judges; Ruth is the eighth;
the ninth and tenth books are the acts of Kings; then Chronicles; the
last is Ezra. There are Jive books in metre; the first of which is Job,
then David [Psalms], three belong to Solomon, viz., Ecc, Canticles, Pro-
verbs. In like manner there are Jive of the prophetic spirit; twelve of
these are comprised in one, viz. Hosea, Amos, Micah, then Joel, Jonah,
Obadiah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Mala-
chi; these make the first. The second is Isaiah, then Jeremiah who was
called from the womb, Ezekiel, and the grace of Daniel. I have ex-
hibited twenty-two books, corresponding with the twenty-two letters of
the Hebrews,

It will be perceived, that in making out twenty-two books, Gregory
has separated Ruth from Judges, and omitted Esther. The same omis-
sion we find in Athanasius, and in some other cases; but the testimony
of Josephus, and of the feast of Purim, in behalf of the antiquity of this
book, place it beyond our reach to call in question its place in the canon.
We have found the same omission in Melito, (p. 227 seq.), but have sup-
posed it to belong, in that case, merely to error in transcribing. In
Melito and in Gregory, Ezra no doubt comprehends Nehemiah; for such
was the usual custom of the ancients. But in Gregory, there is an evi-
dent pui'pose of omitting Esther; for he has separated Judges and Ruth,
in order to make out the tiventy-two books which are the usual number.
It is difficult to say what was the inducement to this, unless it was, that
the Greek copy of the Scriptures in his hands, embraced Esther with all
the Alexandrine interpolations. No wonder he (having no acquaintance
with the Hebrew) rejected it, if such were the case. Not a word in
Gregory about any of the apocryj)hal books; and yet he entitles his
Ode: 'TTi^i ruiv y\/rj(riMv (SijSXiuv tyjc ':)iO'rvsv(rT(iu V^a(prig, i. e. concerning the
genuine books of the inspired Scriptures. Of course he regards books
not named, as not belonging to this category; and therefore he must
have rejected the Apocrypha.

appendix: atuanasius. ,ir-)

One other thing is worthy of note here, viz., that both Cyrill of Jeru-
salem and Gregory Nazianzen make a triplex division of the Scriptures;
but not on Talmudic ground. They divide them into twelve historical,
five poetical, and five 2^rophetical books; for, on the ground of their
ignorance of the true nature of Hebrew poetry, they never dreamed that
the prophets were mostly ^wf^i'c. Their division is not a bad one, inas-
much as it is built on the matter and manner of the books; with the
exception of their error about the form of prophetic composition. It is
substantially adopted in our English Bibles. Let the reader note well,
in examining all these lists of the Old Testament books, that not one of
them joins Chronicles or Daniel with the Kethubim or Hagiography.

No. IX.

Athanasius of Alexandria {Jlor. a.d. 326), in an extract from his 37th
Festal Fpistle, inserted in 0pp. i. p. 961.

Athanasius prefaces his list of sacred books by the following re-
marks:—

" We fear lest, as Paul wrote to the Corinthians, a few of the simple
may wander away from their simplicity and purity by reason of the
craftiness of certain men, and finally may begin to take themselves to
the books called apocryphal, being deceived by their likeness to the true
books. 1 beseech you to bear with me, if I write to you reminding you
of things already known, on account of the necessity and the edification
of the church. Being about to do this, I shall employ, for the support
of my undertaking, the formula of Luke the evangelist, saying as he did,
— Forasmuch as there are some M-ho have undertaken to compose for
themselves books called apocryi^hal, and to mingle these with the in-
spired Scripture, respecting which we have been fully persuaded, as eye-
witnesses and ministers of the word from the beginning have delivered
to the fathers, it seemed good to me also, being exhorted thereto by my
genuine brethren, and having made myself acquainted with the subject,
to set forth from the beginning, and in due order, the canonical books
which have been delivered to us, and believed to be divine; so that every
one, if he is led away by deceit, may learn well to know those who have
seduced him, while he who remains pure may rejoice in having this ad-
monition again repeated.

" All the books of the Old Testament, then, are twenty- two; as many,
according to report, as the alphabetic letters of the Hebrews. In order
and name they are thus: — First the Genesis, then Exodus, next Leviti-
cus, after this Numbers, and finally Deuteronomy. In the sequel of these
are Joshua of Nun, and Judges, and after this Ruth; and then follow the
four books of Kings, and of these the first and second are numbered as
one, and the third and fourth likewise as one. After these is the book
of Psalms, then Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs; then comes Job,
and finally the Prophets. Twelve of these are reckoned as one book;
then comes Isaiah, Jeremiah with Baruch and Lamentations and the
Epistle; after these Ezekiel, and Daniel. Thus far are set forth the books
of the Old Testament."

380 APPENDIX : ATHANASIUS.

I have deemed it unnecessary to transcribe the original Greek here,
as it is so exactly like the preceding lists, except in some trifling par-
ticulars. One of these is, that Athanasius places Job after the Kethu-
bim, and next before the Prophets. He also omits, as has before been
remarked, the book of Esther. That it is designed in him will be clear
from the passage which follows, and which he subjoins to his catalogue
of the New Testament books that follow those of the Old Testament as
given above. The concluding part runs thus: —

" These are the fountains of salvation, so that he who thirsts for these
oracles may be filled with them. By these only is the doctrine of godli-
ness taught. Let no one add to these, or take anything from them. By
these our Lord confounded the Sadducees, saying, ' Ye do err, not know-
ing the Scriptures.' To the Jews he said, in the way of exhortation,
' Search the Scriptures, for these are they which testify of me.' But for
the sake of more accuracy, I have deemed it necessary also to set forth
in this writing, that there are other books besides these, which are not
canonical, designated by the fathers to be read by those who have re-
cently joined us, and are desirous to be instructed in the doctrine of
piety; viz. the Wisdom of Solomon, the Wisdom of Sirach, and Esther,
and Judith, and Tobit, and (as we call it) the Apostolic Doctrine {hibayji
rm acrorrroXwi), and the Shepherd. Those then heing canonical, and these
being read, let there be no mention even of any apocryphal book. These
are the inventions of heretics, who compose them at their pleasure, as-
signing and adding to them dates, so that they may have the semblance
of ancient books, and that by this means they may find occasion to lead
the simple into error."

This remarkable passage places the books which we name apocryphal,
in their position as estimated by the fathers in general. They might be
read in order to enlarge our Christian knowledge of religious things; but
they were merely subordinate and secondary. The canonical books were
separated from them by a wide distinction.

Athanasius evidently uses apocryphal in the sense of sjmrious, worthless,
and not merely to designate books not publicly read, as some of the earlier
fathers used it. I get the impression from what he has said, in the last
paragraph quoted from him, that he intends and expects the second class
of books only, to be read in private, by recent converts desirous of acquir-
ing more enlarged religious knowledge; for how otherwise could he limit
the reading to new converts ? As he has expressly named Esther among
these, I do not see how we can avoid the conclusion, that he positively
rejected it from the proper canon of the Old Testament. He makes
twenty-two books, by separating Judges and Ruth, and omitting Esther.
This is a peculiar circumstance, both in Gregory and Athanasius; but
the reasons of it we can only conjecture, for we have no certain clue by
which we can come to a proper historical knowledge of them. At all
events, they can have no influence, (in the face of so much other testi-
mony to the canonical rank of Esther,) in moving us to reject the book
as they have done.

APPENDIX : .SYNOPSIS SCBIPTUR^i SACU,i;. 381

No. X.

Si/no2ysis Scripturce Sacrce, by an %(,nhnown writer of the times of Athana-
sins, attributed by some to him, and jmhlished in his tvorks, Vol. ii.
p. 12G seq.

The Benedictine editors of Athanasius speak in exalted terms of the
erudition and judgment of the writer of this Synopsis, whom they think
not to be Athanasius. He has shown an accurate acquaintance with the
holy books, and particularized each, by an extract from the commence-
ment of each book, which he subjoins to the name of the book. To
spare room, I omit the Greek original and the extracts, and give here the
list of books, in his own language.

Translation. " Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy,
Joshuathesonof Nun, Judges, Ruth. Istand2d Kings [1st and 2d Samuel]
reckoned as one book, 3rd and 4th Kings numbered as one book, 1st and 2d
Chronicles reckoned as one book, 1st and 2d Ezra [Ezra and Nehemiah]
reckoned as one book. Psalter of David having 150 Psalms, Parables of
Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Job, Twelve Prophets, viz. Hosea,
Amos, Micah, Joel, Obadiah, Jonah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah,
Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi, (these are comprised in one book,) Isaiah,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel. The canonical laooks of the Old Testament
are twenty-two, equal in number to the Hebrew letters; for they have so
many elementary signs.

" Besides these are other books of the Old Testament, which are not
canonical [inspired;] and these are read only by catechumens; viz. Wis-
dom of Solomon, Wisdom of Jesus the son of Sirach, Esther, Judith,
Tobit. Thus many are the books of the Old Testament not canonical.
Some of the ancients have affirmed Esther to be canonical among the
Hebrews; and also that Ruth is joined with Judges and reckoned as one
book. In this manner they make out the complement of twenty-two
books.

" The books of the Old Testament, canonical and uncanonical, are so
many, and of such a kind."

It is easy to see, that this is little else than an exact copy, throughout,
of the list of Athanasius. But the writer is more explicit. While he
omits Esther in his list, he gives us an account of a different opinion,
viz. in favour of inserting it. So he also notices the usual manner in
which Ruth was united with Judges. He also tells us that only the cate-
chumens read the uncanonical, i. e. uninspired books, which had been ap-
pended to the Old Testament. This seems of course to exclude the pub-
lic reading of them, at least in the churches within his circle of knowledge.

Having completed his list, the writer proceeds to give a synopsis of the
contents of each book; and when he has completed his summary of the
canonical books, he again mentions that the others are not read, except in
the limited manner already described; p. 1G8. It seems singular that no
mention is here made of the Maccabees, Baruch, the additions to Daniel,
Ezra, &c. Nothing can be clearer, however, than that Athanasius and
the author of the Synopsis reject the idea of insjnration, in regard to
what we now name apocryphal books. But at the close of his work the
author of the Synopsis says, " The books of the Old Testament which

S82 appendix: epifhanius.

are doubted {avTiXiyo'Mi^u = denied), are Wisdom, Sirach, Esther, Ju-
dith, Tobit. With these also are numbered Maccabees, four books,
Ptolemaici (?), Psalms, Canticles, Susanna. These are the books of the
Old Testament which are denied (air/^.jj/J/xjva)." As this is quite an
enlargement of his previous list of uncanonical books, so it serves to show,
that the latter class just mentioned did not attain even to the privilege
of being allowed to the catechumens. An inauspicious passage to the
Romish deutero-canon !

No. XI.

Epipiianius (Jior. a.d. 368), de 3fevsuris et Ponderibus, c. xxiii. vol.
ii. p. 180, edit. Petav.

Epiphanius has spoken in three different places respecting the Canon
of the Old Testament: viz. in the passage named above, in Haeres. viii.
and Haeres. Ixxvi. In the first two passages he gives a catalogue of
the books. The most complete is the one here selected.

He prefaces his list with the following remarks : " The Hebrews have
twenty-two letters; according to these they number their books, although
they are in reality twenty-seven. But since with them five letters are
double, making in fact twenty-seven, they contract them into twenty-
two; and so the books which are twenty-seven are contracted into twenty-
two." He then goes on to give a list of the books; which I copy here,
because the curiosity of the Hebrew student will be gratified to learn
how Epiphanius pronounced Hebrew, and in what way he represented it.

^Ig^UYiX it, ' Ah/vTrov' ovdMiiX^a, yj l^/x^vivsrai XiiiiTixoV iovbajSrig, v s6tiv
'' A^i^ijjo'r sXXsdil3agii/j,, ro Aivn^ovo/Jjiov. AiTidoiJ, rj rou 'Jjjffou rov Naujj' diu(3,
7] TOii 'luij3' diaffoip^si/j., 55 tSjv Koitu)v' dia^ov'^, ^ rov Poi^" (f^igrsXs/f^, to

ToiJjivwj hsuTioa' hi[j.o-JiX, BaffiXsiuv T^obry}' dadouds/xovlX, BaffO.iiaiv dsurs^a'
d/j^aXa^si, BaolXnuv r^irri' hiJ^aXayjl^ BasiXsiuiv nrd^rrj' d/M(x.7.ui^, 75 Ha^-
oi'JjIUv' bi7.Ms}.i^, 'ExJcX'/jfT/affr^^j" ffi^asiasi/j,, ro" Aiff/Ma ruv ^AiS/MdrooV da^a-
e/affa^a, ro Aoihi/ia-r^ofrirov dyjgahu, rou T^opyjrou 'Hffa/'oi;" dis^s/jyiou, i] roZ
'Ifge/x/6U' disl^sziriX, rj rov 'Es^sx/^X" hihaviriX, rj rov i\avirjX' didsad^u, rj rov
"JLcboa T^urrj' dio'scdga, r; rov"'E(yd^a bivr's^a' hic^riP, rj rr/C 'Eff^jj^.

Translation. " First Genesis, which is called Genesis of the world;
Exodus, i. €. departure of the sons of Israel from Egypt; Leviticus,
Numbers, Deuteronomy, Joshua of Nun, Job, Judges, Ruth, the Psalter,
1st and 2d Chronicles, 1st and 2d Kings [ 1st and 2d Samuel], 3d and
4th Kings, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Minor Prophets, Isaiah, Jere-
miah, Daniel, 1st and 2d Ezra, [Ezra, Nehemiah], Esther."

I have omitted in this version all the Hebrew names, and such words
as are connected merely with the representation of them. Although
Epiphanius was born and brought up in Palestine, and must have had
some knowledge of the Hebrew language, the Hebrew names inserted in

appendix: epiphanius. 383

this list are but a sorry testimony to the accuracy of tliat knowledge.
However, there is no doubt that he has suffered from transcribers; e. (j.

6i^a(ri6iiiL, for □"^"^"'IL'*!!' where -ffs///. in Epiphanius's present text stands
clearly for -jj'/^j ^y ^ mistake of copyists. The a, here and elsewhere,
represents the long Hhireq in Hebrew. Peculiar is his prefixing the
Aramean "7 to most of the names, which he writes h, ha, os, and even
di6, dia, and which means of, i. e. book of such or such a name. The
name of Psalms, afierf/.il/M, = 0*^71^X1 1CD. In some other cases,
which I cannot here particularize, the Hebrew names are doubtless de-
formed by the ignorance of copyists; e. g. (h/MjvsX = 7^>^1?2U?j hahuhi-
fM-j'i'/. ■=. David-Samuel? But — to my direct object.

Epiphanius adds to the list translated above, after some remarks which
we need not here repeat : " There is another little book, named Kinoth,
which means the Lamentations of Jeremiah. The same, which exceeds
the due number, is joined and united with Jeremiah." He then goes on,
in the fashion of the day, to find corresponding twenty-tiuos, in a variety
of things presented in the Scriptures.

We perceive that the list of Old Testament books is here complete; al-
though the order is diverse from all others which have been presented.
Job is placed, for example, after Joshua; but in^his other list (Haeres. viii
tom. i. p. 19,) he puts Job after Judges and Ruth. In the list above
we have Judges, Ruth, Psalter, 1st and 2d Chronicles, Kings, <fec.; in the
other list Judges, Ruth, Job, Psalter, Proverbs, kc. There are also other
varieties. Altogether compared and considered, this father appears to
have been probably an honest, but yet a very hasty and blundering critic.

We must not omit what he says of the deutero-canonlcal books. It
runs thus : " There are two other books doubtful among them, the Wis-
dom of Siracli and the Wisdom of Solomon; besides certain other books
which are apocryphal." By this I understand Epiphanius to say, that
the two books mentioned are doiibtful, and the others clearly nninspired.

It will be seen by our next document, that the reception of the Apo-
cryphal books as deutero-canonical, had begun about this time to make
some progress among the churches. There is no doubt that it had been
gaining among the more unlearned and undiscerning, during most of the
fourth century. Hence we are prepared for the first manifestation of it,
in a public and a kind of authoritative way, in the manner announced
by our next extract.

No. XII.

Extract from the Statuta of the Council of Hippo, a.d. 393. Mansi,
Concil. Coll. iii. p. 924.

The 36th Statutum runs thus : Ut praeter Scripturas canonicas nihil
in Ecclesia legatur sub nomine divinarum Scripturarum. Sunt autem
canonicae Scripturae, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numeri, Deutero-
nomium, Jesu Nave, Judicum, Ruth, Regnorum libri quatuor, Para-

884 APPENDIX : JEROME.

lipomenon libri duo, Job, Psalterium Davidicum, Salomonis lihri quin-
que, duodecim libri Prophetarum, Esaias, Jeremias, Daniel, Ezechiel,
Tobias, Judith, Hester, Ilesdras libri duo, Macchahaeorum libri duo.

This needs no translation. I have marked those books which are
additions to all the catalogues hitherto exhibited. The five books of
Solomon of course are Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, the Wisdom of
Solomon, and Sirach. Then we have Tobit, Judith, and 1st and 2d Mac-
cabees. Here all the books are mingled together and stand under the cate-
gory of canonical. There can be no doubt, that this council meant so to
decide.

No. XIII.

Council of Carthage, held a.d. 397. Extract from Ga,^. xlvii. of
their decrees; Mansi iii. p. 891.

This council have repeated totidem verbis the list of the council of
Hippo, in No. xii., and doubtless consisted mostly of the same bishops.
It is therefore unnecessary to repeat their words. On these two councils
the Romish Church depend for the establishment of their deutero- canon.
And yet even these do not reach the whole of it.

No. XIV.

i> O. Al V .

Testimony of Jerome extracted from his Prolog us Galeatus ;
(flor. A.D. 380.)

Viginti et duas litteras esse apud Hebraeos, Syrorum quoque lingua et
Chaldaeorum testatur, quae Hebraeae magna ex parte confinis est. Nam
et ipsi viginti duoelementa habent, eodem sono et diversis characteribus.
— Porro quinque litterae duplices apud Hebraeos sunt, Caph, Mem, Nun,
Pe, Sade. Unde et quinque a plerisque libri duplices existimantur,

Samuel, elachim, Dihre hajammim, Esdras, Jeremias cum Cinoth, id
est lamentationibus suis. Quomodo igitur viginti duo elementa sunt, per
quae scribimus Hebraice omue quod loquimur, et eorum initiis vox hu-
mana comprehenditur; ita viginti duo volumina supputantur, quibus
quasi litteris et exordiis in Dei doctrina, tenera adhuc et lactens viri justi
eruditur infantia.

Primus apud eos liber vocatur Beresith, quem nos Genesin dicimus.
Secundus Veele Semoth. Tertius Vajicra, id est, Leviticus. Quartus
Vajedabber, quem Numeros vocamus. Quintus Elle haddebarim, qui
Deuteronomium praenotatur. Hi sunt quinque libri Mosis, quos pro-
prie Thora, id est. Legem, appellant.

Secundum Prophetarum ordinem faciunt, et incipiunt ab Jesu filio
Nave, qui apud eos Josue ben Nun dicitur. Deinde subtexunt Sophetim,
id est Judicum librum, et in eundem compingunt Ruth, quia in diebus
Judicum facta ejus narratur historia. Tertius sequitur Samuel, quem
nos Regum primum et secundum dicimus. Quartus Melachim, id est

APPENDIX : JEROME. 385

Regum, qui tertio et quarto Regum volumine continetur. Meliusque
multo est Melachim, id est Regum, quam Melachoth, id est Regnorum,
dicere: Non enim multarum gentium describit regna, sed unius Israeli-
tici populi, qui tribubus duodecim continetur. Quintus est Esaias.
Sextus Jeremias. Septimus Ezechiel. Octavus liber duodecim Prophet-
arum, qui apud illos vocatur Thereasar.

" Tertius ordo Hagiographa possidet. Et primus liber incipit a Job.
Secundus a David, quern quinque incisionibus et uno Psalmoram volu-
mine comprehendunt. Tertius est Solomon, tres libros habens, Prover-
bia, quae illi Misle, id est Parabolas appellant: Quartus Ecclesiastes, id
est Coheleth. Quintus Canticum Canticorum, quem titulo Sir hassirim
praenotant. Sextus est Daniel. Septimus Dibre hajammim, id est Verba
dierum, quod significantius Chronicon totius divinae historiae possumus
appellare, qui liber apud nos Paralipomenon primus et secundus inscribi-
tur. Octavus Esdras, qui et ipse similiter apud Graecos et Latinos in
duos libros divisus est, Nonus Esther.

" Atque ita fiunt pariter Veteris Legis libri viginti duo, id est, Mosis
quinque, et Prophetarum octo, Hagiographorum novem.

" Quanquam nonnulli Ruth et Cinoth inter Hagiographa scriptitent, et
hos libros in suo putent numero supputandos, ac per hoc esse priscae

Legis libros viginti quatuor

" Hie prologus scripturarum quasi galeatum principium omnibus libris,
quos de Hebraeo vertimus in Latinum, convenire potest: ut scire valea-
mus, quicquid extra hos est, inter a^pocrypha esse ponendum. Igitur
Sapientia, quae vulgo Salomonis inscribitur, et Jesu Jilii Sirach liber, et
Judith, et Tobias, et Pastor, non sunt in Canone. Macchabaeorum pri-
mum librum hebraicum reperi. Secundus graecus est, quod ex ipsa quo-
que phrasi probari potest."

It was my intention to subjoin a full translation of this, for the con-
venience of some readers; but my limits forbid. Indeed a translation of
such plain Latin is in a good measure unnecessary. I subjoin, however,
the substance of what Jerome has here said.

(1.) He has given, in words that cannot be misunderstood, a list of the
canonical books, just as they are in our present English Bibles ; the
Protestant canon, and not the Romish. He has so designated the books
by Hebrew names, represented in Latin letters, (printed above in Italic,)
that there is no room for mistake. (2.) He has made the Rabbinic divi-
sion, in the main, of the Prophets and the Hagiography; but still he
makes only tweuty-two books, and of course includes Ruth and Lamenta-
tions among the Prophets (as attached to Judges and Jeremiah,) which the
Talmud throws into the Kethubivi, and thus makes twenty-four books;
see p. 219 seq. above, where this whole matter is discussed, and the tes-
timony of Jerome adduced. (3.) The passage of his, exhibited above,
concerning the books which we name apoa^yphal, runs thus :

" This prologue may serve as an introduction to all the books of Scrip-
ture, which we have translated from Hebrew into Latin; so that we may
be able to know, that whatever is beyond (or extrinsic to) these is to be put
among the apocryphal books. Wherefore Wisdom, commonly ascribed
to Solomon, the book of Jesus the son of Sirach, and Judith, and 7'ohit,
and the Shepherd, are not in the Canon. The first of Maccabees I

2c

386 APPENDIX : JEROME.

have found written in Hebrew; the second in Greek, which indeed is
manifest from its phraseology."*

Now since we know that Jerome uses the word canonical as equivalent
to inspired; and as he avers the so-called dexUero-canonical books to be tiot
canonical, of course he pronounces them to be uninspired. It is to be re-
membered also that Jerome says all this, some twenty or more years after
the Councils of Hippo and Carthage had pronounced their decrees in fa-
vour of the canonical rank of most of these books. Jerome, who lived in
the midst of the bishops that constituted these Councils, (on whose decision
the Romish Church in a great measure rely for the credit of their deutero-
canon,) decides fearlessly against them, as does Rufinus also. The
opinion of one such critic as Jerome respecting this subject which he
fully understood, is worth more than that of scores of Hipponensian and
Carthaginian Councils, respecting a matter which they did not under-
stand. How can such matters be decided, without any of the critical
and philological knowledge which is necessary to judge rightly?

No. XV.

Hilary of Poictiers {flor. a. d. 354) Prologus in Lib. Psalm.; § 15.

0pp. p. 9.

I shall merely give a translation of this section; as it seems to be little
more than a repetition of Origen's list.

" The reason why the Hebrews make twenty-two books, is because their
alphabet hsas so many letters. The books, according to the tradition of
the ancient, are thus designated: There are jive books of Moses. (6.)
Joshua the son of Nun. (7.) Judges and Ruth. (8.) 1st and 2d Kings,
[1st and 2d Samuel]. (9.) 3d and 4th Kings. (10.) 1st and 2d
Chronicles. (11.) Ezra. (12.) Psalms. (13.) Proverbs. (14.) Ecclesias-
tes. (15.) Canticles. (16.) Twelve Prophets. Isaiah, Jeremiah with the
Lamentations and Epistle, Daniel, Ezekiel, Job, Esther. These com-
plete the number of twenty-two books. To some it seems good to add
Tobit and Judith, and thus make out twenty-four books, according to
the number of the letters in the Greek alphabet."

We see how -/Mra ■irhda Hilary has followed Origen, from whom he
draws most copiously, in his remarks on the Psalms. It is unnecessary,
therefore, to say anything more than what has already been said, respect-
ing the testimony of Origen. One thing, however, is worthy of note, as
to the order of books. Job and Esther are here put last of all; the
twelve Prophets before the others; and Daniel before Ezekiel. He has
also disclosed a new project for enlarging the Scriptures, viz. taking in

* It was my intention to add to this Appendix a chapter, in which the claims of the
Apocrjiplia (as we call it) would be critically examined, and some brief view of the na-
ture aiid object of the books respectively be subjoined. But as I understand that the
publishers of this volume design, if they find encouragement, to print an Jingluh edition
of the Apocrypha, for the use of such persons as have a desire to investigate these an-
cient recordsj and ui such a way as to embrace something of the literary history of the
Apocrypha, and particularly of its claims to a place in the Canon, I have thought it best
to omit the addition named above.

APi'KNUIX: KUl'XNU.S. 387

Tvi'd and Judith — the most apocryphal of all the apocryphies. This
only shows what a floating affair this whole matter of the deutero-ca-
nonical books was, in those times. Nothing is fixed and stable. In
short, it is most manifest that the churches had not yet been brought to
a general consent, that these books should be admitted.

No. XVI.

RuFiNUS (flor. A. D. 390), (he distinguished friend and opponent of Je-
rome; JUxpos. in Symbol. Apost. ad Calcem 0pp. Cypriani, ed. Oxon.
p. 2Q.

He thus commences; " Those volumes which belong to the Old and
New Testament, which are, in accordance with the tradition of our an-
cestors, believed to be inspired by the Holy Spirit, and have been handed
down to the churches of Christ, it seems appropriate to designate in this
place." After this he proceeds as follows:

"Itaque Veteris Instrument! primo omnium Moysis quinque libri sunt
traditi — post hos Jesu Nave, et Judicum, simul cum Ruth; quatuor
post haec Regnorum libri quos Hebraei duos numerant; Paralipomenon,
qui dierum dicitur liber; et Esdrae libri duo, qui apud illos singuli
computantur; et Hester. Prophetarum vero Esaias, Hieremias, Ezec-
hiel, et Daniel; praeterea xii. Prophetarum liber unus. Job quoque,
et Psalmi David, singuli sunt libri; Salomonis vero tres."

The order then in Rufinus is thus: Pentateuch; Joshua; Judges with
Ruth; 1st an d 2d Samuel in one book, viz. 1st Kings; 1st and 2d Kings in
another, viz. 2d Kings; Chronicles comprising two books; Ezra [Ezra and
NehemiahJ; Esther; Isaiah; Jeremiah; Ezekiel; Daniel; Twelve Prophets;
Job; Psalms; Solomon, three books [viz. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Can-
ticles]. Here we have the true order, as seems plain, of Josephus'
Hebrew Scriptures. After completing the list of the New Testament
books he goes on to say: " These are the hooks which the fathers have in-
cluded within the canon, by which they woidd establish the assertions of
our faith. One should know, however, that there are other books ivhich
are not canonical, but which our ancestors called ecclesiastical; e. y. the
Wisdom of Solomon, of Sirach, called by the Latins Ecclesiasticus ....
Of the same order is the little book of Tobit and Judith, and the books
of the Maccabees." Nothing can be more decisive or discriminating than
this; and in this Rufinus agrees with all the leading fathers.

INDEX OF PASSAGES

WHERE THE DIFFERENT BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT ARE
TREATED OF,

ARRANGED IN THE ORDER OF THESE BOOKS.

Pentateuch, 27 — 52. Mosaic origin of, called in question by Semler, 27;

Later tendencies of German criticism to return to the Mosaic origin of,

28, 43 ; Ewald's theory of its authorship, 43, 44 ; Lengerke's theoiy, 44 ;

Manner in which it was probably composed, 46.
Genesis, 47.

Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, 61.
Joshua, 131, 132.
Judges, 132—134.
Rulh, 146, 147.
1st and 2d Samuel, 134—136.
1a-^ and 2d Kings, 136, 137.
1a'^ and 2d Chronicles, 137 — 146. Examples of difficulties in, 138—140;

State of text of, 144, 145.
Ezra, 147, 148.
Nehemiah, 149, 150.
Esther, 151 — 159 ; 303 — 308 — 311. Objections raised against, and difficulties

of, 161 — 164; 304; Replies to objections, and solutions of difficulties,

154, 157, 158, 304—311.
Job, 125—129. Probable age of, 129.
Psalms, 119—121.
Proverbs, 121, 122.

Ecclesiastes, 122—124, 311—314. Authorship of, 122; Age of, 123; Mis-
taken views of its tendency, 311 — 312. The author's views of its scope

and design, 313, 314.
Song of Solomon, 124, 125, 315—333. Its authorship, 124. Different views

of its structure and design, 315. Defence of its allegorical and spiritual

character, 319 — 323. Its adaptation to the oriental mind and usage, 327,

to what the allegory is to be referred, 333.
Isaiah, Age of, 87. German theories opposed to its unity and integrity, 90.

Defence of its unity and integrity, 90 — 94. Difficulties connected with

this defence, 96 — 97.
Jeremiah, belongs to the Chaldean period of prophetic composition, 89.

Style of, 107.
Larnentations, 130.

390 INDEX.

Ezehiel, belongs to the Chaldean period of prophecy, 106—108.

Daniel, 110, 111.

Hosea, belongs to the Assyrian period of prophecy, 86, 87.

Joel, the same, 87.

Amos, the same, 87.

Obadiah, the same, 106.

Jonah, 98—106. Difficulties of, stated, 99. Futile attempts to remove these,

100—102. The miraculous character of the facts of the book asserted,

104. Object of the book, 105—6.
Micah, belongs to the Assyrian period of prophecy, 87.
Nahum, the same, 87.

Habakkuk, belongs to the Chaldean period, 106 — 7.
Zephaniah, the same, 106.
Haggai, the same, 106 — 8.
Zechariah, the same, 108. *

Malachi, the same, 109 — 10.

ANDREW JACK, PRINTKR

University of California

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