2. The Scripture of the Old Testament they call 81?, and divide it into three parts:—(1.) MM, “The Law;” (2.) 08°23, “ The Pro- phets;” (3.) 21N3, “'The Writings by divine Inspiration,” which are usually called the “ Hagiographa,” or holy writings. And this distri- bution of the books of the Old Testament is in general intimated by our Saviour, Luke xxiv. 44, Mdvra ra yeypammiva ev ry Néuw Mactws, xo) Upoph ras, xud Yarwors'—“ All things written in the Law, and the Prophets, and the Psalms;” under which last head all the poetical books of the Scripture are contained. Thus Rabbi Bechai, in Cad Hakkemach: o'21n> DN’) TIN OPN Aww mynn;—“ The Law” (so sometimes they call the whole volume) “is divided into three parts, the Law, the Prophets, and the Holy Writings.” All are comprised generally under the name of the Law; for so they say in Midrash Tehillim, Ps. Ixxviii. 1, FN ON IIAY ANN OD ;— The Psalms are the Law, and the Prophets are the Law ;” that is, the whole Scripture.
This distribution, so far as it is intimated in the words of our Saviour, doth evidently arise from the nature and subject-matter of the books themselves. And this was the received division of the books of the Old Testament whilst the Judaical church stood and continued; but the post-Talmudical doctors, overlooking or neglecting
126 JEWISH DISTRIBUTION OF THE [EXERC. VIL.
the true reason of this distribution, have fancied others, taken from the different manners and degrees of revelation by which they were given out unto the church. Amongst these they make the revela- tion to Moses the most excellent, and are very vain in counting the privileges and pre-eminences it had above all others; which are else- where examined. In the next degree they place those which pro- ceeded from the spirit of prophecy, which they distinguish from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost; yea, in the eleven degrees of divine revelation assigned by Maimonides, More Nebuch., par. i., that by in- sptration is cast into the last and lowest place! But this distinction is groundless, and merely fancied out of the various ways that God was pleased to use in representing things to the minds of the pro- phets, when it was, in them all, the inspiration of the Holy Ghost alone that enabled them infallibly to declare the mind of God unto the church, 2 Pet. i. 21.
Now, the books thus given by the spirit of prophecy, [in the second degree, | they make of two sorts:—(1.) D7 D2), “ The former Prophets,” which are all the historical books of the Old Testament written before the captivity, as Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Ruth only excepted. (2) ON OD, [“The latter Prophets,” ] which are all the prophetical books, peculiarly so called, Daniel only excepted,—that is, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets. Of the last sort, or DN}, “ Kethu- bim,” books written by the inspiration of the Holy Ghost, are the poetical books of the Scripture,—Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Canticles, Lamentations, with Ecclesiastes; whereunto they add Ruth, Daniel, and the historical books written after the captivity, as the Chronicles, Ezra, and Nehemiah; which make up the canon of the Old Testa- ment. Why sundry of these books should be cast into the last sort, as the story of Ruth and the prophecy of Daniel, they can give no tolerable account. The other books also written after the captivity are plainly of the same nature with those which they call “The former Prophets;” and as for that of Daniel, it contains in it almost all the eminent kinds of revelation whereby themselves would distinguish the spirit of prophecy from the inspiration of the Holy Ghost. Neither have they any reason for this distribution; but, finding the general division before mentioned to have been received in the church of old, they have disposed of the particular books into their orders at their pleasure; casting Daniel, as is probable, into their last order, because so many of his visions and prophecies relate unto other nations besides their own. bs
The Law, or the books of Moses, they call “210, or the Pentateuch, from the number of the books; or 7A ‘win NINN, “The fives,” or “The five parts of the Law;’ whereunto Jerome, in his epistle to Paulinus, wrests those words of the apostle, 1 Cor. xiv. 19, “I had
SECT. 3, 4.] BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT. 127
rather speak sévre Adyous, five words, in the church,” as if he had respect to the Law of Moses.
These five books they divide into paraschee, or sections, whereof they read one each Sabbath-day in their synagogues ;—Genesis into 12, Exodus into 11, Leviticus into 10, Numbers into 10, Deutero- nomy into 10,—which all make 53; whereby, reading one each day, and two in one day, they read through the whole in the course of a year, beginning at the feast of tabernacles. And this they did of old, as James testifies, Acts xv. 21, “ Moses of old time hath in every city them that preach him, being read in the synagogues every Sabbath-day.” Some of them make 54 of these sections, dividing the last section of Genesis into two, beginning the latter at chap. xlvii, 28, constituting the following chapters a distinct section, though it have not the usual note of them prefixed unto it, but only one single samech; to note, as they say, its being absolutely closed or shut up, on the account of the prophecy of the coming of the Messiah, chap. xlix., whose season is unknown to them.