The follo^vinj? haa been ^iven (Cambridge Companion, p. 7) aa a useful clasaitu-atiori of the OT booka accordiri^f to subject- matter. A. /iwfon<:ni ; ^1) Pentateuch and Joshua, the oritjin of the people, the foundation of the IsraeUte constitution, and the settlement in Palestine ; (2) Jg, S, K, the history of the people to the downfall of the monarchy ; (3) Kzr, Neh, t>ersonal memoirs of the Captivity and the Return ; (4) Ru, Est, Ch, special incidents in, and aspect* of. the history. IJ. Prophftical ; 1b, Jer, Ezk, Min. Proph. (except Jon). 0. Poetinii : (1) I's and I,a Oyrical); (2) Canticles (idyllic). D. Didactic: (1) Ji.h (dramatic) ; (2) Jon (allegoriail). E. Sajiienlial : (1) Pr (jfnomic) ; (2) Ec (speculative), F. ApoccUyptie : Dn, and part of Ezk (40-48) and Zee (1-U»).
The NT presents no serious difliculty in regard to the arrangement of its books. These, 27 in number, fall naturally into the following groups. 1. The Gospels. 2. 1 he Acts of the Apostles. 3. The Epistles of St. Paul, among which the Epistle to the Hebrews may for this purpose he included. 4. The General E[iistles. 5. The Book of Reve- lation. This distribution, which has passed from the Vulg. into general acceptance by the Christian Church, is commended by its conformity with the order of contents of the several books. First, the Life of Christ ; then the Activity of His Apostles, and the foundation of the Church of Christ ; then the correspondence of those engaged in this work ; and lastly, the sole monument of the apocalyjitic spirit and its activity within the Church. The arrangement found in the MSS presents some interesting and suggestive variations, and has been held to point to an early division into four groups — the Gosiiels, the Acts and Catholic Epistles, the Pauline Epistlw., and the Apocalypse. Usually
288
BIBLE
the Catholic Epistles precede those of St, Paul, and among the latter the Epistle to the Hebrews Ib often found coming before the Pastoral Epistles. The order of the Gospels also varies ; probably from a feelinc that those written by apostles should have preceuence of those by * apostolic men/ they are Frequently arranged (e,g, in Codex Bezae), Mt, Jn, Lk. Mk. For the purpose of folloA\'ing the develop- ment of thought and doctrine in the NT, it la desirable to keep in view not only the arrangement determined by contents, but approximately the chronological order in which its oooks appeared. The following is such an approximate order : the great Epistles of St. Paul to the Thess, Cor, Gal, and Rom ; the Ep. of St. James ; Ph, Eph, Col, Philem ; 1 P. the Synoptic Gospels, Ac, the Pastoral Epistles, Jude, Rev, He— ail prior to the destruction of Jems, by Titus, A.D. 70. 2 P and the Gospel and three Epistles of St, John come after the destruction of Jems., th« last towards the end of the 1st cent.
Minor dlrlBioni of tht ucr«d text, which ar« for the most part also modem divisioni, have been made for two distinct purposes— (1) to adapt it for use In the public services, whether of the Synagogue or of the Church ; ana (2) for convenience of reference. Upon the elementary expedient of separatinp words and sentences by short spaces to promote facility in reading, or upon that of indicating the memners of a poetical composition, either by an interval between them or by writing; them on different lines. It is not neceaaary to dwell. It is only remark- able how long the inconvenieat $criptio eontinua maintained itself, especially in the M3S ot the Greek text. To the first of the two classes of divisions mentioned belong the Parshioth and Hapbtaroth of the Hebrew Scriptures. The former (nVpng^ eing. n^'^.S Parashah) are sections mainly of the Pentateuch, though extended in principle to other parts of the OT. They are distini^uished as Smaller and Larger Parshioth, and the smaller are again divided into closed and open. Of the smaller there are 609 (379 closed and 290 open) in the Pentateuch ; of the larger 64, the latter being commonly called Sabbath Parshioth, one being appointed to be read on uach Sabbath of the year. In certain years, according to the Jewish reckoning, there were 64 Sabbaths ; when there were less than that num- ber, two Parshioth were read on one Sabbath. The open Parashah (indicated by B, for niTinB), generally introducing a subject of greater irjportan&a, was begun on a new line ; the closed (indic&twi by D, for rtcirty)) might begin in the middle of a iine. The Hapbtaroth were nelected sections from the prophetical writings, read in connexion with the appointed sections of the Law, and usually stand- ing in some correspondence with the latter. They were analogous to the Pencopfe of later ecclesiastical usage. It was conunon to refer to these Hebrew sections by words denoting the subject, — as the Paraahah Balaam, red hei/er, etc., compare Mk 1226 iwi rUt ffcLTou, in the Bush ; Ro 112 ;» 'Hx/., in Elijah (RVm), — or sometimes by the worda beginning the section. Divisions more nearly corresponding to our present verses are referred to in the Talmud as Pe^ukim (D'p;::?), and perhaps were early denoted by the Soph-pasuk (;) now used at the end of ve»9e8 in our Hebrew Bibles, There is some doubt as to how far Jerome's capitula and versus cCiTespond to the Parshioth and Pesukira of the Jawg. Sometimes his versus seem to indi* cate whole verses, sometimos only the rrix** or members of a verse in the poetical books.