[3] Including, of course, the historical books, Joshua to 2 Kings, which were known as "the Former Prophets"; while what we call the prophets Isaiah to Malachi were known as "the Latter."
[4] עשר תרי ספר, the Aramaic form of the Hebrew עשר שנים, which appears with the other in the colophon to the book. A later contraction is תריסר. This is the form transliterated in Epiphanius: δαθαριασαρα.
[5] See Ryle, _Canon of the O.T._, p. 105.
[6] So Josephus, _Contra Apion_, i. 8 (_circa_ 90 A.D.), reckons the prophetical books as thirteen, of which the Minor Prophets could only have been counted as one--whatever the other twelve may have been. Melito of Sardis (_c._ 170), quoted by Eusebius (_Hist. Eccl._, iv. 26), speaks of τῶν δώδεκα ἐν μονοβίβλῳ. To Origen (_c._ 250: apud Ibid., vi. 25) they could only have been one out of the twenty-two he gives for the O.T. Cf. Jerome (_Prolog. Galeatus_), "Liber duodecim Prophetarum."
[7] Οἱ Δώδεκα Προφῆται: Jesus son of Sirach xlix. 10; Τὸ δωδεκα-πρόφητον.
[8] Augustine, _De Civ. Dei_, xviii. 29: cf. Jerome, _Proem. in Esaiam_.
[9] The German usage generally preserves the numeral, "Die zwölf kleinen Propheten."
[10] See Vol. II. on Zech. ix. ff.
[11] _Talmud_: Baba Bathra, 14_a_: cf. Rashi's Commentary.
[12] _Talmud_, _ibid._
[13] So the Codices Vaticanus and Alexandrinus, but not Cod. Sin. So also Cyril of Jerusalem († 386), Athanasius (365), Gregory Naz. († 390), and the spurious Canon of the Council of Laodicea (_c._ 400) and Epiphanius (403). See Ryle, _Canon of the O.T._, 215 ff.
[14] By a forced interpretation of the phrase in chap. i. 2, _When the Lord spake at the first by Hosea_ (R.V.), _Talmud_: Baba Bathra, 14_a_.
[15] For further considerations on this point see pp. 142, 194, 202 ff., 223 ff., 308, etc.
[16] Psalm lxxiv. 9.