classes [x]. The first, which they called the law, contained, as was before observed, the five books of Moses. The second originally included thirteen books, which they considered as the works of the prophets. The third comprised four books, called by the Jews Chetubim, and by the Greeks, Hagiographa; these are conceived to have been the Psalms, and the three books of Solomon [r]. The Scriptures were so divided in the time of Josephus [z], probably without any respect to superiority of inspiration, but for distinction, and commodious arrangement. From the time of St. Jerom, the second class has been deprived of some books [A] which have been thrown into the third class, and the Hebrew doctors have invented many fanciful refinements, concerning the nature and degrees of inspiration which are to be ascribed to the books of each class respectively. They assign an higher authority to the books of the two first divisions, though they attribute also the writings included in the third class, to the suggestion of the sacred Spirit [B]. It would be idle to trouble the reader with the discussion of these, and such like rabbinical conceits, and it may be sufficient here to remark upon this subject, that though the

[x] Prolog. to Ecclus. Philo de Vità Contemp. p. 691. [Y] Sixt. Senen. Bib. Sac. cap. vi. p. 313. and Vitrin. Observat. Sac. Lib. VI. cap. vi. p. 313.

[z] Joseph. cont. Apion, Lib. I. § 8. p. 1333.

[A] Job, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, 2 Books of Chronicles.

[B] Maimon. Mor. Nevoch, p. 2. Prophecy, also Misu. Jud. c. iii, n. 5.

ch. xxiv. and Smith on Bava Bathra, cap. i.

scripture mentions different modes, by which God communicated his instructions to the prophets, and particularly attributes a superior degree of eminence to Moses, yet that these differences, and this distinction, however they may affect the dignity of the minister employed, cannot be supposed to increase, or to lessen the certainty of the things imparted. Whatever God condescended to communicate to mankind by his servants, must be equally infallible and true [c], whether derived from immediate converse with him, from an external voice, or from dreams or visions, or lastly from the internal and enlightening influence of the Holy Spirit. The mode of communication, where the agency of Providence is established, can in no respect exalt, or depreciate the intrinsic character of the thing revealed.

Other divisions, besides that already mentioned, were afterwards adopted, and the order of the books was sometimes changed, as design or accident might produce a transposition; but no addition or diminution whatever was permitted to be made among the Jews [D]; "never any man,” says Josephus," hath dared to add to, or to diminish from, or to alter ought in them [E]; though other books were written, which deserved not the same credit, because there was no certain succes[c] 2 Tim. iii. 16. 2 Pet. i. 19, 21.

[D] Hieron. Præf. in Lib. Reg. Bava Bathra, cap. i. Maimon. in Tad. Chan. p. 2. f. 95. and R. Gedalias in Scalsch hakkab. f. 67.

[E] Deut. iv. 2. and Joseph. cont. Apion. Lib. I. § 8. Euseb. Hist. Eccles. Lib. III. cap. ix. x. Præp. Evangel. Lib. VIII.

sion of prophets, from the time of Artaxerxes, and it was a maxim, ingrafted into the Jews in their youth to esteem these writings as the oracles of God, and remaining constant in their veneration, willingly to die for them if necessary." Thus were they consigned to the reverent acceptance of posterity, and consecrated by the approbation and testimony of Christ himself, who stamped as authentic, and as infallibly to be accomplished, the law of Moses, the prophets, and the psalms [F]; (the psalms, comprehending under that title, the Hagiographa) [G]; the apostles likewise confirmed the same [H].

Besides the great temple at Jerusalem, many synagogues were founded after the return from the captivity, and furnished by the industry of the rulers of the church, with copies of this authentic collection of the scriptures, so that though Antiochus Epiphanes in the persecution which he carried on against the religion of the Jews tore in pieces, and afterwards burnt probably the sacred original of Ezra, or at least such copies as he could procure [1]; still, as faithful manuscripts

[F] Matt. v. 17, 18, 39. xxi. 42. xxii. 29. xxvi. 54. Luke xvi. 16. xxiv. 27, 44. John i. 45. v. 39.

[G] Philo de Vit. Contemp. Lib. VI. Joseph. contra Apion, Lib. I. § 8. Hierou. in Prolog. in Præf. in Dan. Epiphan. Homil. xxix. cap, 7.

[H] Acts iii. 18. xviii. 28. xxiv. 14. xxvi. 22, 27. xxviii. 23. xxix. 7. Rom. iii. 2. xv. Heb. i. 1. 2 Tim. iii. 16.

1 Pet. ii. 6. 2 Peter i. 19, x. 4.

4.

Acts viii. 32. Rom. iv. 3. ix. 17.

[1] 1 Macc. i. 57. Joseph. Antiq. Lib. XII. cap. 5. p. 553, Sulpit. Sev. Hist. Sac. Lib. II.

existed in all parts, the malevolence of his intention was baffled by God's providence, and Judas Maccabeus, when he had recovered the city, and purified the temple, procured for it a perfect and entire collection of the scriptures, or perhaps deposited therein, that which had belonged to his father Mattathias [K], and doubtless supplied such synagogues with fresh copies, as had been plundered during the persecution. Many of these, however, must have perished with the synagogues that were destroyed by the armies of Vespasian and Titus, though the religious veneration of the Jews for their scriptures, rescued every copy that could be saved from the general destruction which overwhelmed their country, as the scriptures afforded them considerable consolation in all their afflictions. Josephus himself, we are informed, obtained a copy from Titus [L], when the other Jewish books were destroyed, and the authentic volume, which till this final demolition, had been deposited in the temple, was carried in triumph to Rome, and placed with the purple veils in the temple of Peace [M], so that henceforth, no copy of the Hebrew scriptures was preserved from injury by the vigilance of public guardians, except those copies which were kept in the scattered synagogues of foreign and dispersed Jews [N]. It

[K] 1 Mac. ii. 48. iii. 48. xii. 9. 2 Mac. ii. 14. viii. 23.

XV. 9.

[L] Joseph. Vit. sect. 75. p. 944. edit. Hud.

[M] De Bell. Jud. Lib. VII. cap. v.

[N] The Jewish synagogues in all countries were numerous : wherever the apostles preached they found them; they were

is from this time, probably, that errors and corruptions crept into the sacred text. As there was no longer any established standard of correctness, by which the fidelity of different copies could be tried, faults and mistakes were insensibly introduced; the carelessness of transcribers occasioned accidental omissions: marginal annotations [o] were adopted into the text; and the resemblances between different Hebrew letters, of which many are remarkably similar in form, contributed, with other circumstances too numerous to be here specified, to produce alterations, and imperfections in the different copies, which, from the difficulty of collating manuscripts for correction, were necessarily -perpetuated.

Hence originated those various readings, and occasional differences which we find in the several manuscripts of the Hebrew Bible, and these differences must-have considerably multiplied, since established by the direction of the rabbins in every place where there were ten persons of full age and free condition. -Vid. Megill. cap. i. sect. 3. Maimon in Tephill. Lightfoot's Harmony, sect. 17. Exercit. in Matt. xviii.

[o] The Hebrew Bibles have marginal readings, called keri, which signifies, that which is read, (the text is called cetib, that which is written :) these marginal variations are by some ascribed to Ezra, but as they are found in his books, as well as in those which are inserted in the Canon after his time, they seem to be conjectural emendations of corrupted passages by later writers, probably by the great synagogue, or the Masorites; these words amounted to about 1000, and all except a very few, have been found in the texts of different manuscripts. Vid. Kennicott Diss. Gener. Vitring. Observat. Sac. vol. ii. cap. 19. Capellus, Morinus, Walton, Anan. Punct. Rev. Lib. 1. cap. v. Buxtorf. Vind. Verit. Heb. Par. ii. c. 4.