2.

contain hymns to God, and precepts for the 'conduct of human life.'* According to this distribution the books may be enumerated in the following manner. I. The Law. 1. Genesis. 2. Exodus. 3. Leviticus. 4. Numbers. 5. Deuteronomy. II. The Prophets. 1. Joshua. Judges and Ruth. 3. Samuel. 4. Kings. 5. Chronicles. 6. Isaiah. 7. Jeremiah, including the Lamentations. 8. Ezekiel. 9. Daniel. 10. Twelve Minor Prophets. 11. Ezra and Nehemiah. 12. Esther. 13. Job. III. The Hagiographa. 1. The Psalms. 2. Proverbs. 3. Ecclesiastes. 4. Song of Solomon. The descriptions given by Josephus of the books of the second and third classes leave room for some doubt to which he meant to refer the book of Job: but if he included it in the third, he must have reckoned two of Solomon's books, perhaps Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, as one; and may have made up the number he assigns to the second class by counting Ezra and Nehemiah as two books. There is much probability in the supposition of Dean Prideaux,† that this numeration was adopted for the sake of reducing the books to the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet.

The writings comprehended in the Jewish canon have been neither increased nor diminished, and the same threefold division is still retained; but some books included by Josephus in the second class are now found in the third, and the separation of Ruth from Judges, and the Lamentations of

* Contra Ap. L. i. S. 8.

+ Connect. P. i. B. 5.

Jeremiah from his Prophecies, has increased the number to twenty-four. No record enables us to ascertain either the time or the cause of this alteration but that it was prior to the twelfth century of the Christian era, is evident from a passage of Maimonides;* and an expression of Jerome† affords some reason to believe that the division into twenty-four books may be traced as high as the fourth century. Some Jewish copies of the scriptures differ from others, as to the order of the several books in the classes to which they are assigned, especially the Prophets; but they are most generally arranged in the following manner. First-THE LAW, Five Books. 1. Genesis. 2. Exodus. 3. Leviticus. 4. Numbers. 5. Deuteronomy. Secondly-THE PROPHETS, Eight Books.-The former prophets four. 6. Joshua. 7. Judges. 8. Samuel. 9. Kings. The latter prophets four. 10. Isaiah. 11. Jeremiah. 12. Ezekiel.

* Mor. Nev. P. ii. cap. 45.

13.

+ Præf. in Esdram, cited by Simon, Cr. Hist. O.T. B. i. c. 9. Many of these variations may be found in some Tables of the number and order followed by different Jewish writers, in enumerating the sacred books, and in several Hebrew Bibles, both printed and manuscript,-compiled by Hody, and inserted in Wolf. Bib. Heb. vol. ii. p. 50-53. The seven following pages contain similar tables of variations in the arrangement of the sacred canon, by the Councils and Fathers of the Christian Church, both Greek and Latin.

In the catalogue of the sacred books given in the Talmud, Isaiah is placed after Jeremiah and Ezekiel; and the order of the Hagiographa is as follows: Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs, Lamentations, Daniel, Esther, Ezra and Nehemiah, Chronicles. The same order is observed by Maimonides. Raymundi Martini Pugio Fidei, p. 115, 116. Lipsiæ, 1687.

Twelve minor prophets-Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, Malachi. Thirdly— THE HAGIOGRAPHA, Eleven Books. 14. Psalms. 15. Proverbs. 16. Job. 17. Song of Songs. 18. Ruth. 19. Lamentations. 20. Ecclesiastes. 21. Esther. 22. Daniel. 23. Ezra and Nehemiah. 24. Chronicles.*

Some learned Christians have charged the Jews with altering the distribution of their scriptures for the sake of degrading the authority of Daniel ; whose writings the universal reception of them by their forefathers forbad them to reject, but whom they were desirous of expunging from the list of prophets, because they found it impossible to make his predictions consist with their notions of a Messiah yet to come. But to sustain so serious a charge appears to me to require stronger and more direct evidence than any that has been adduced. Maimonides, indeed, in a passage just referred to, says: Our nation has unanimously 'agreed in ranking the book of Daniel among the 'books called Hagiographa, and not among the

6

Prophets.' It would be easy to shew, that some of the reasons alleged for this denial of Daniel's prophetical character are destitute of any foundation in truth, and that others furnish nothing more than frivolous distinctions without any real difference. But it will be sufficient to cite a confession of Maimonides himself, in the same work,- that Daniel wrote by the Holy Spirit. The testimonies

* Bib. Heb. a Vander Hooght. Wolf. Bib. Heb. vol. ii. p. 47-49.

Raym. Mart. Pug. Fid. ibid. Frey's Narrative, p. 9.

of some of the most learned Jews are highly in his favour. Abarbinel maintains, that his spirit of comprehension was that of true prophecy; Jacchiades states, that he attained to the highest pitch of prophecy; and the Talmud ranks him with Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. The reader who is desirous of further information on this point may consult the works referred to below.*

The Jews have been accused, or at least suspected, of wilfully corrupting various parts of the Hebrew text. This suspicion seems to have originated in the difference between many passages in the Septuagint version, and the correspondent passages in the version of Aquila, a Jewish proselyte, who, in the second century of the Christian era, undertook to furnish an improved translation for those Jews who used the Greek language. Assuming that the Septuagint was invariably correct, the early Fathers of the Christian church were very severe in their censures of every variation from it; which they imputed to a desire of evading the real force of those parts which were favourable to Christianity. But whatever truth there may have been in this imputation, no evidence has been adduced of their wilful alteration of any part of the Hebrew text. Many differences exist between different copies; but this circumstance can excite no surprize. From the last of the prophets under the Old Testament, to the invention of printing, were more than eighteen hundred years. During

Raym. Mart. Pug. Fid. p. 121, 122. Bartoloc. Bib. Rab. tom. ii. p. 295-298. Wolf. Bib. Heb. vol. ii. p. 46. Simon Crit. Hist. O. T. B. i. c. 9. Jewish Repository, vol. ii. p. 441–448.

this long period numerous transcripts were made, both for public and for private use. Nothing but an immediate divine inspiration of each transcriber of the whole or any part of the scriptures could have secured the perfect accuracy of every copy. When errors had crept into one copy, they were likely to be retained in other copies made from it; and future transcribers were liable to new errors. In the last century, all the manuscripts that could be obtained were collated with the greatest care; and collections of the various readings have been published to the world. Similar varieties are detected in the copies of all ancient writings, especially of the New Testament. But among all the various readings, none have been found to affect any point of doctrine or moral practice : so that the sacred volume has been handed down to our times in such a state as to demand from all its friends a grateful acknowledgment of the divine providence in its preservation.*

There are not wanting proofs of the most scrupulous care of the Hebrew text on the part of the Jews they have counted the large and small sections, the verses, the words, and even the letters, in some of the books. Father Simon says he had seen a manuscript of Perpignan, which contained the following computation. +

Augustin. De Civ. Dei,

Simon Crit. Hist. B. i.

* Raym. Mart. Pug. Fid. p. 147-149. c. 13. ibidem. Walton. Prol. v. vi. vii. c. 1. 18. 23. Kennicott. Dissert. 1. + Simon Crit. Hist. B. i. c. 26. seeing the original of this book, I quote from the English Translation, in which the number of words in Exodus is not stated.

Having had no opportunity of