2. Among the early Christian writers, Jerome, in his Prefiices, gives us the most complete information that we possess regarding the authority of these books in his time. After enumerating the twenty-two books of the Hebrew Canon, consisting of the Law, the Prophets, and the Hagiographa, he adds : " This pro- logue I write as a preface to the books to be translated by us fh)m the Hebrew into Latin, that we may know thnt all the books which are not of this number are apocryphal i therefore Wisdom, which is commonly ascribed to Solomon as its author, and the book of Je- sus the son of Sirach, Judith, Tobit, and the Shepherd, arf, not m the Canon.^^ A^rain, in the preface to his
^ation of the books of Solomon from the Hebrew,
he observes: "Theee three books O^*roverba» Err- astes, and Canticles) only are Solomon'a. Tb* also the Book of Jemt the son of'SsrodL. maA met pseud-epigraphal book, called the Wisdom efS^-m the former of which I have seen in Befarev. a2e^j Ecdesiasticus, as among the lAtiTiK, but the Fkc^q with which likewise have I^een Joined EcdeaivtBa the Song of Songs, that the collec^on mlg^ ibem resemble the books of Solomon both in m^ter aa^i sign. The second is not to be found mt aD Hebrews, and the style plainly evinces its GreA inal : some ancient writers say it b a -work of Ptitfl Jew. As, therefore, the Chorcfa reads Jtufi^ as^'i bit, and the books of Maccabees, bat. does ^aH them among the Canonical Scnptorefi, so Iftevki may read these two books for the edifieatsos of & n pie, but not as of authority for proving any of religion (ad cBdificaHonem pldns, aoo ad am ecclesiasticorutn dogmatum conjirmaadamyj^ Of k rach he says that he does " not translate it becs»i was not in Hebrew, nor received by tbe Jews.* & never translated Wisdom, Ecdesiasticitt, or elth the books of Maccabees, and observes ttat ^ boolu as are not of the twentr-Zonr letters are ts^ utterly rejected" (Prof, ad Ezram), In his Prtfaa% Judith he says, in like manner, "Among the Heiffv this book is read among the hagiogropha (fx, ing to some manuscripts, apocrypha^ whose anlkd? is not judged sufficient to support dif^poted bs^il He adds, at the same time, that " the CouscS of 5x1 is said to have included it in the catalogne of the ki; Scriptures." We have, however, no astboi^ fe supposing that the Council of Nice ever formed sci a catalogue. There is no account of the mattff x any of its acts which have reached ns. There is, it- deed, a catalogne, as is observed by Mr. Janci, ifi?d> uted by Pappus, in his Synodicon, to this cooodL lii this relation : "That the bishops there assemfafed vsf. by a very extraordinary miracle, convinced wiki were inspired and which were apocryphal bcsAi, af- ter this manner : Having put all the books thit hii claim to inspiration under the commnnkm-taUf (rf 9u^ rpaTriZy) in a church, they prayed to God^ those which were of divine inspiration migfat be i(mi above or upon the table, and those which wert s^ rj'phal might be found under ; and, aceorfii^, « they prayed, it came to pass." This is mnrrrs^j acknowledged to be a fable, and cardinal Bdlsnoi (De Verho Dei) admits that there could have bees te canon determined on by the Nicene Coandl, as h that case none would have- ventured to reject it; te he supposes that Jerome may have found is n& of its acts, now lost, some citation from the heck d Judith. Bellarmine ftirther admits that in Jerwf^ time the ecclesiastictil books, although read a ^ churches, were neither in the JewUh norCkrislimCaS' on^ inasmuch as no general council had yet detent anything concerning them.
Rufinus made the same dis^nction witii regaii to He books of Scripture that Jerome did. Afta* eia^D- ting the books of the Old and New Testaments ex*e^ according to the Jewish Canon, saying, ** Tbe» ne tk volumes which the fathers have included in tbt CbMi and out of which they would have us prove ftt d»- trines of our fiiith," he adds, " however, it osgi^ Isbe observed that there are also other books whicb sr vi canoniccdy but have been called by our t&nhAm «- ) clesiastical, as the Wisdom of Solomon, and asflte called the Wisdom of the Son of Sirach, wbicb •■■$ the Latms is called by the general name cf Ecdeoi- ticus, by which title is denoted not the author of Ai book, but the quality of the writing. Of the stor^ der is the book of Tobit, Judith, and the books cf th Maccabees. In the New Testament is the bock ef tk Shepherd of Hermas, which is called *Two Wst»,* the Judgment of Peter ;' all which they woold hfi* to be read in the churches, bat not alleged hjwtsfi
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163
DEUTERO-CAXONICAL
borit^r for proving articles of faith. Other Scrip- ts they call apocryphai^ which they would not have »e read in churches" (/n Symb. Apott.), There have thus been three divisions made by the ients, vi2. the Canonical Scriptures, the Ecclesias- il, and the Apocryphal ; or, otherwise, the Canon- I and the Apocryphal, of which latter there are two ds, vis. those which, having nothing contrary to faith, may be profitably read, although not authen- and those which are injurious and contrary to the th. It is, however, maintained by professor Alber tt, -when Jerome and Rufinus said the ecclesiastical )k8 were read for edification, but not for confirming idea of £Euth, they only meant that they were not be employed in controversies with the Jews, who 1 not acknowledge their authority. These fithers, wever, certamly put them into the same rank with