1. The Law, Torah', iT"HFl, j'o/joc, naturally con- tinued to occupy the position which it must have held from the first as the most ancient and authoritative portion.. Whatever questions may be raised as to the antiquity of the whole Pentateuch in its present form, the existence of a book bearing this title is traceable to a very early period in the history of the Israelites (Josh. i,*8 ; viii, 34 ; xxiv, 2G). The name which must at first have attached to those portions of the whole book was applied to the earlier and contemporaneous history connected with the giving of the law, and as- cribed to the same writer. The marked distinctness of the five portions which make up the Torah shows that they must have been designed as separate books ; and when the Canon was completed, and the books in their present form made the object of stud}', names for each book were wanted and were found. In the. He- brew classification the titles were taken from the initial words, or prominent words in the initial verse ; in that of the Sept. they were intended to be significant of the subject of each book, and so we have —
(1.) r.i'isoa . . . . rii'iaic, Genesis.
(2.) rrrara (rtbxi) . "e$ocoq, Exodus.
(3.) Stlp1?! An/'iYucoV, Leviticus.
(4.) 12TC3 'AmOfioi, Numbers.
(5.) O"1"!— 'n Atvrtpovojituv, Deuteronomy.
The Greek titles were adopted without change, except as to the fourth, in the Latin versions, and from them have descended to the Bibles of modern Christendom.
2. The Prophets. — The next group presents a more singular combination, follows :
r
The arrangement stands
JV< hum' . Prophetaj.
(priorcs)
(posteriores) |
r Joshua. I Judges. j land 2 Samuel. ( 1 and 2 Kings. ^ (Isaiah. : - Jeremiah, (majores) (EzekieL
p ( The twelve mi-
(ininores) 1 nor prophets.
The Hebrew titles of these books corresponding to those of the English Bibles ; so also in the Septuagint, except that this version (like the Vulgate) reckons 1 and 2 Sam. as 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Kings as 3 and 4 Kings.
The grounds on which books simply historical were classed under the same name as those which contained the teaching of prophets, in the stricter sense of the word, are not, at first sight, obvious, but the O. T. pre- sents some facts which may suggest an explanation. The sons of the prophets (1 Sam. x, 5 ; 2 Kings v, 22; vi, 1), living together as a society, almost as a caste (Amos vii, 14), trained to a religious life, cultivating
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sacred minstrelsy, must have occupied a position as I instructors of the people, even in the absence of the Bpecial calling which sent them as God's messengers to the people. A body of men so placed naturally be- come historians and annalists, unless intellectual activ- ity is absorbed in asceticism. The references in the historical hooks of the 0. T. show that they actually were such. Nathan the prophet, Gad, the seer of David ^1 Chron. xxix, 29),Ahijah and Iddo(2 Chron. ix, 29), \ Isaiah (2 Chron. xxvi, 22; xxxii, 32), arc cited as chroniclers. The greater antiquity of the earlier his- torical hooks, and perhaps the traditional belief that they had originated in this way, were likely to co-op- ' crate in raising them to a high place of honor in the arrangement of the Jewish canon, and so they were looked upon as having the prophetic character which was denied to the historical books of the Hagiographa. The greater extent of the prophecies of Isaiah, Jere- miah, Ezekiel, no less than the prominent position which they occupied in the history of Israel, led natu- rally to their being recognised as the Prophetaa Ma- | jores. The exclusion of Daniel from this subdivision is a more remarkable fact, and one which has been ! differently interpreted, the Rationalistic school of later criticism (Eiehhorn, De Wette, Bertholdt) seeing in it an indication of later date, and therefore of doubtful authenticity, the orthodox school on the contrary, as ] represented by Hengstenhcrg (Dissert, on Ban. ch. ii, § iv, v), maintaining that the difference rested only on the ground that, though the utterer of predictions, he had not exercised, as the others had done, a prophet's office among the people. Whatever may have been its origin, the position of this book in the Hagiographa led the later Jews to think and speak slightingly of it, and Christians who reasoned with them out of its pre- dictions were met by remarks disparaging to its au- thority (Hengstenberg, /. c). The arrangement of the Prophetas Minores docs not call for special notice, except so far as they were counted, in order to 1 ring the whole list of canonical books within a memorial number, answering to that of the letters in the Hebrew alphabet, as a single volume, and described as to Scjcc- Kairp6tj>r]Tov±
3. The Hagiographa. — Last in order came the group known as Kethubim', C^DS (from 2rS, to write), ypatytia, ayloypatpa, i. e. "holy writings," in- cluding the remaining hooks of the Hebrew canon, ar- ranged in the following order, and subordinate di- visions: (a) Psalms, Proverbs, Job. (b) 'J he Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Eeclesiastes, Esther, (c) Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, 1 and 2 Chronicles.
Of these, (a) were distinguished by the memorial word r"X, "truth," formed from the initial letters of the three books; (.//) as r"ir.yc -~n, the Jive rolls, as being written for use in the synagogues on special fes- tivals cm five separate rolls. Of the Hebrew titles of ks, thi se which are descriptive of their con- tents are: E"r~?, Tehillim', the Psalms; "&iao, Dfishley', Proverbs; ~:"X, Eykah', Lamentations (from the opening word of wailing in i, 1); the Song of Songs, - — -y~ --J, Shir hash-Shirim' '; Eeclesias- tes, Tbnp, Kohe'h h.tl>< Preacher} 1 and 2 Chronicles, c"" '" "~-"', Dibrey' h iy-yamim', words of the days = records.