They are believed to have been written by Alexandrian Jews between the ages of Malachi and Christ. They first appear in certain history in the Greek language, and in connection with the Septuagint translation of the genuine Scriptures, among which it is probable they were surreptitiously introduced by heretics.
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The Eomanists argue, 1st. That they appear in the first Greek copies of the Old Testament, and in the Latin translation from them. 2d. That they were highly reverenced and quoted by the early fathers. 3d. That the church in her plenary authority has authenticated them at the Council of Trent, A. D. 1546.
8. Give a synopsis of the argument by which their right to a place in the canon is disproved ?
1st. These books never formed part of the Hebrew Scriptures.
2d. The Jews were the divinely appointed guardians of the ancient oracles. — Eom. iii., 2. Christ charged them with making the written word of none effect by their traditions, but never with mutilating the record. — Matt, xv., 6. Yet the Jews have uni- formly denied the spurious books in question from the time of Josephus to the present. — Josephus' Answer to Apion, Book I., sec. 8.
3d. These books were never quoted either by Christ or his apostles.
4th. Although held by the early fathers to be useful as his- tory for the general purposes of edification, they were never held as authoritative in settling matters of faith. They were not em- braced in the earliest lists of the canon. Jerome, the most learned of the fathers, living in the latter half of the fourth century, re- jected their claims. They were held as of very doubtful and secondary authority by many prominent Komanist teachers up to the very time of the Council of Trent, e. g., Erasmus, Cardinal Cajetan, etc.
5th The internal evidence presented by their contents confirms the external evidence above set forth. (1.) None of them make any claim to inspiration ; the best of them plainly disclaim it, e. g., Ecclesiasticus, 1st and 2d Maccabees. (2.) The contents of many of them consist of childish fables ; they are inconsistent in fact and defective in morality.
6 tli. All Protestants agree in rejecting them. — See 6th Article of Keligion in the Episcopal Prayer-Book, and Confession of Faith, chap, i., sec. 3. Alexander on Canon, and Home's Introduction, Vol. L, Appendix 5.
9. What is the Talmud, and how is it regarded by the Jews ?
TALMUD. 95
The Jews pretend that when Moses was with the Lord in the mount he received one law which he was to reduce to writing, and another law, explanatory and supplementary to the former, which he was to commit to certain leaders of the people to be transmitted through oral tradition to the remotest generations. This oral law he did thus commit through Aaron, Eliezer, and Joshua, to the prophets, and through the prophets to the rabbins of the early centuries of the Christian era, who reduced it to writing, because such a precaution was then necessary for its pre- servation under the dispersed and depressed condition of Israel. This oral law, as written, constitutes the Mishna, or text, which, together with the Gemara or commentary thereon, constitutes the Talmud.
There are two Gemaras, and, consequently, two Talmud s. The Jerusalem Gemara, compiled some say in the third, and others in the fourth century. The Babylonian, compiled in the sixth century. This last, together with the Mishna, constitutes the Talmud which is most highly esteemed by the modern Jews, and is really, to the exclusion of the Holy Scriptures, the fountain of their religion.
It is reputed by competent scholars as beyond parallel trivial, and full of intellectual and moral darkness. It derives not one iota of support from a single word of Scripture. Its incipient spirit was severely condemned by Christ in the Pharisees of his day.— Matt, xv., 1-9 ; Mark vii., 1-13.
10. When teas the canon of the New Testament settled, and by what authority ?
The authority of every inspired writing is inherent in itself as God's word, but the fact of its being the work of inspired men is ascertained to us by the testimony of cotemporaries, who were the only competent witnesses on the subject. Every gospel epistle or prophecy written by an apostle, or by a known companion of an apostle, and claiming scriptural authority, was received as such by all Christians to whom it was known. Considering the pov- erty of the early Christians, the persecutions to which they were subject, the imperfect means of multiplying copies of Scripture at their disposal, the comparative infrequency of intercommunication in those days, the apostolic writings were disseminated with a
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