The uniform Jewish tradition is, that the collection and seal- ing of the Old Testament canon was accomplished by Ezra and a number of other holy men, who, after the building of the second temple, formed with him the " Great Synagogue," consisting of one hundred and twenty members, among whom, however, they enumerated many who lived in far separate ages.
"The more probable conclusion is," says Dr. Alexander," "that Ezra (B. C. 457) began this work, and collected and arranged all the sacred books which belonged to the canon before his time, and that a succession of pious and learned men continued to pay at- tention to the canon," (the last prophetical writer being Malachi, B. C. 400,) " until the whole was completed about the time of Simon the Just," (B. C. 300,) who appears to have carried
92 THE CANON OF SCRIPTUKE.
down the genealogical lists to his own day. — Neh. xii., 22 ; 1 Chron. iii., 19, etc.
5. Give a synopsis of the argument by which the genuineness of the boohs constituting our received canon of the Old Testament is established ?
1st. The canon of the Jewish Scriptures, as it existed in the time of our Lord and his apostles, was abundantly witnessed to by them as both genuine and authentic. (1.) Christ refers, to these writings as an infallible rule. — Mark xiv., 49 ; John v., 39; x., 35. He quotes them by their comprehensive and generally recognized title — the law, the prophets, the holy writings — the last division being sometimes called the Psalms, from the first book it contained. — Luke xxiv., 44. (2.) The apostles refer to these books as divine, and quote them as final authority. — 2 Tim. iii., 15, 16 ; Acts i., 16, etc. (3.) Christ often rebuked the Jews for disobeying, never for forging or corrupting, the text of their Scrip- tures.— Matt, xxii., 29.
2d. The canon of the Old Testament Scriptures, as it is received by all Protestants, is the same as that which was authen- ticated by Christ and his apostles. (1.) The New Testament writers quote as Scripture almost every one of the books we now recognize, and they quote no other as Scripture. The number of direct quotations and implied allusions to the language of the Old Testament occurring in the New have been traced in up- wards of six hundred instances. (2.) The Septuagint, or Greek translation of the Hebrew Scriptures, made in Egypt B. C. 285, which was itself frequently quoted by Christ and his apostles, embraced every book we now recognize. (3.) Josephus, who was born A. D. 37, in his first book in answer to Apion, enumerates as Hebrew Scriptures the same books by their classes. (4.) The uniform testimony of the early Christian writers, e. g., " Melito, A. D. 177 ; Origen, A. D. 230 ; Athanasius, A. D. 326 ; Jerome A. D. 390 ; Augustine A. D. 395/' (5.) Ever since the time of Christ, Jews and Christians have been severally custodians of the same canon. Their agreement with us to-day demonstrates the identity of our Scriptures with those of the Jews of the first century.
APOCRYPHA, 93
6. What are the Apocrypha ?
The word Apocrypha, from dnb and fcpvrrrG), signifying any- thing hidden, concealed, has been applied to certain ancient writ- ings whose authorship is not manifest, and in behalf of which unfounded claims have been set up for a place in the canon of (Scripture. Some of these are associated with the Old and others with the New Testament canon. This name, however, is more prominently associated with those spurious writings for which a place is claimed among the Old Testament Scriptures, because an active controversy concerning these exists between Komanists and Protestants. They were also styled by the early church ecclesi- astical, to distinguish them from the acknowledged word of God. In later times they have been styled by some Komanists Deutero-canonical, as occupying a certain secondary place in the canon, some say as to authority, others merely as to succession in time.
These are Tobit, Judith, Wisdom, Ecdesiasticus, Baruk, and the tiuo boohs of Maccabees. They also add six chapters to the book of Esther. They prefix to the book of Daniel the History of Susannah, and insert in the third chapter the Song of the Three Children, and add to the end of the book the History of Bel and the Dragon. The Romish church, on the other hand, rejects as spurious certain other books which are found side by side with the above in the early Greek Scriptures, and in their Latin trans- lations, e. g., the third and fourth books of Esdras, the third book of Maccabees, the 151st Psalm, the appendix to Job, and the preface to Lamentations. — Council of Trent, Sess. 4.
See Alexander on Canon, and Kitto's Bib. Ency., Art. " Deu- tero Canonical."
7. Hoiv did they become associated witli Holy Scripture, and upon what ground do the Romanists advocate their place in the canon ?