Some of the most important manuscripts of the Holy Scriptures which have descended to us were written soon after this period. The very ancient Alexandrian MS. now in the British Museum contains the follow- ing books in the order which we here give them, to- ■'cther with the annexed catalogue : " Genesis, Exodus,
Leviticus, Numbers, Deoterononiy, Jodna, Jb^^ Ruth— 8 books. Kingdoms, 4 ; Bemama, 2-6 boob Sixteen Prophets, viz. Hosea, 1 ; Anwe^ 2; Mieili,^; Joel, 4 ; Obadiah, 5 ; Jonah, 6 ; Kahmn, 7 ; Aste 8; Zephaniah, 9; Haggai, 10; Zecfaariah, U;)lik. Chi, 12; Isaiah, 18; Jeremiah, 14; Eariciel, 15; D» iel,16; Esther; Tobit; Judith; Ecxb, 2; Macaka 4; PMdter and Hymns; Job; Proverbs; Ecdcsf. tes; Canticles; Wisdom; Wisdom of Jesas SoA; 4 Gospels; Acts, 1; 7 CathoUc Epistles; 14 EfMb of Paul ; Revelation ; 2 Epistles of Clement; lo^ete . . . . books; Psalms of Solomon." These bmbn equally incorporated in all the manoscripts of iti Latin Vulgate (which was ori^nsllj tnmdaled fai the Septuagint). Those which Jerome did net ta» late trim the Hebrew or Greek, as Wisdom aadEock> siasticus, were adopted from the older Latin ymm.
Although the Canon of Scripture seemed turn te be so far settled by the decrees of these eoondk. al M not conceive themselves bound by them ; and it is e^ served by Jahn (/nfrod) that the j were not otfacrvk to be understood than *' that the ecdeeiastical boskt enumerated in this catalogue were to be heid as uerfti for the edification of the people, but not to be apfiri to the eonfirmation of doctrines of iaith.*' SmA ^ pears at least to have been the sentuneot of ns? eminent divines between this period and Hm IM century.
8. Bishop Cosin, in his excellent Sdkoiaslk B^ of the Canon, furnishes to this elfeet a host of tpa^ tions firom writers of the Middle Ages, indndxig T«a. Bede, John of Damsscus, Alcnin, Peter HaantaH. Hugh de St Victor, cardinal Hugo de St. Ghov Es- ther of the ordinary Gloee, and Nicholas Lyiaam. Of these, some call the dentero-canonical books ^exccl> lent and useful, but not in the Canon ;" etiiefs ipeik of them as "apocryphal, that is, doubtful Scriptne," as not having been ** written in the time of the p^ ets, but in that of the priests, under Ptoleny,'' etr. as not "equalling the sublime dignitj of the o&er books, yet deserving reception for their landabk is- struction,*' classing them with the writings of JeieaK, Augustine, Ambrose, and Bede, and w»«fc-i«g a wked distinction not only between the Jewish sad Qntiaa Canons, but even between parts of die deQter»<mni cal writings. Dr. Archibald Alexander also (Cbns of the Old and New Te$tament ascertained) cites semil of the same authorities ; he has, however, in oae is- stance, evidentiy mistaken Peter Lombszd far Pets Comestor, the author of Scholaetie Hietetry. At t^ era of the Reformation we find Faber, Stapulea«, od cardinal Cajetan expressing themselves to tfat tsm eflfect, and tiie learned Sanctos Pagnini, in Ui tnsh lation of the Bible from the origiaal langisgei, p^ lished at Lyons in 1528 (the first Bible that ceitiii- ed the divisioif into verses witii the present fga«i\ dedicated to pope Clement VII, distinguished tke ecd^- siastical books, which he says were not in the Gane^ by the term Ha^iographa, For a descripCioa of tfcs rare work, see Christian Remembrancery iv, 419, ii s treatise On the dwition ffverm* tin the BSbie^ by Bev- W.Wright, LL.D.
4. We now arrive at the period of the Bc^mbs- tion when the question of the Canon of Seriptmc vai warmly discussed. Long before this period (ris. a 1880), WickliffiB had published his translatifln of tbt Bible, in which he substituted another prokfse te Jerome's; wherein, after enum^ating the ^'tventv- five" books of the Hebrew Canon, he adds: <'Wltf- ever bo<^ is in the Old Testament, besides ^Mse tsis* ty-five, shall be set among the Apoorpba, thst k without authority of belief." He also, in order to ^ tingnish the Hebrew text from the Greek iBleqpob- tions, inserted Jerome's notes, rsirKatai^ into ti» bodr of the text
Although Martin Luther commenced the pab&itiB of his translation of the Bible in 1528, y^ as it va
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lUiahed in parts, he had not yet made any distinc* >n between the two classes of books, when Lonicer ibliahed his edition of the Greek Septoagint at Stras- ir^ in 1526, in which he separated the Deuteio-ca- >nicaly or Apocryphal, books from those of the Jewish anon, tar which he was severely castigated by Mo- avta (see Masch's edition of Le Long's BibUotAeca tbUca, ii, 268). Arias Montanus went still fnrtker, id rejected them altogether. In lo84 the complete lition of Lather's Bible appeared, wherein those books hich Jerome had placed inter c^ocrypka were sepa- ited, and placed by themselves between the Old and ew Testament, under the title * 'Apocrypha; that is, ooks which are not to be considered as eqaai to holy cripture, and yet are osefkil and good to read."