8. Ruth.

This book gives us an account of the fortunes of Ruth and her family, during a space of ten years, immediately preceding the time at which the book of Judges ends.

9. 10. The books of Samuel.

The first of these books records the history of Samuel, who judged Israel immediately before the election of a king, together with the reign of king Saul, a period as is supposed of about 115 years, from 1170 to 1055.

The second book of Samuel comprises the reign of David, which lasted 40 years, from 1055 to 1015.

11. 12. The two books of Kings.

of David's

The narrative is continued from 1016, the year death, in the first of these books, down to the death of Jehoshaphat, in 889, and, in the second book of Kings, from the year last-named, to the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachim king of Judah, coinciding with the 562nd year before Christ.

13. 14. The two books of Chronicles.

The first book of Chronicles contains a series of genealogical tables, followed by a variety of events that happened in the reign of David, which is stated to have lasted 40 years, from 1055 to 1015. The second book of Chronicles contains the whole Jewish history from the accession of Solomon in 1015 to the decree of Cyrus in 536. Many of the facts which it relates are mentioned in the books of Kings; but others are new.

15. Ezra.

The book of Ezra comprehends the space of 80 years from the decree of Cyrus to the year в. c. 456.

16. Nehemiah.

This book takes up the history ten years after the conclusion of Ezra, i. e. in 446, and brings it down to about the year B. c. 434.

17. Esther.

This book comprises the history of only 12 years from

B. C. 521 to 509. A book, purporting to be the concluding portion of Esther, is found in the Apocrypha.

18. Job.

The chronology of this book is altogether unknown; and it partakes of a didactic, if not a poetic, rather than of an historic character.

19. Psalms-20. Proverbs-21. Ecclesiastes 22. Solomon's Song.

These four books contain few direct historical allusions: they are supposed to have been mostly written by David and his son Solomon; i. e. between the years 1056 and 975 before Christ; though some are of a later date, as for instance the 137th Psalm, which was certainly written after or during the Babylonish Captivity.

23 to 39. The seventeen prophetical books.

The seventeen prophetical books contain many historical facts, though they are not of a strictly historical nature. They are not arranged chronologically in our Bibles, but as they will be cited in this work for historical purposes only, it will be useful to place them in the order of time, as follows:

Jonah is said to have written between 856 and 784

As the present enquiry is not extended to the Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament, it is unnecessary to include them in this chronological summary.

CHAPTER III.

THAT THE BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT ARE NOT 39 IN NUMBER, BUT 17 ONLY.

Although the Old Testament is divided into 39 parts or books, yet we must not understand that it contains 39 separate works, unconnected in their subjects, or written by 39 different authors. In the Hebrew Bible are 22 books only, which is also the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. These 22 books were divided "into three classes; the first class consisted of five books, namely

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, which they called the Law: the second class consisted of 13 books, namely Joshua, Judges and Ruth, in one book; the two books of Samuel, of Kings, and of Chronicles respectively, in single books; Ezra and Nehemiah in one book; Esther, Job, Isaiah, the two books of Jeremiah in one; Ezekiel, Daniel, and the twelve minor prophets in one book; these thirteen books they called the Prophets : the third class consisted of the four remaining books, namely Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon, which four books the Jews called Chetubim ; and the Greeks Hagiographa; this class was also called the Psalms, from the name of the first book in it. *»

But we must not conclude that there are even 22 separate works, in the Hebrew Bible, but rather that this division was adopted for the convenience of reference, which would naturally be required in the case of so bulky a volume as the Hebrew Scriptures.

The connection between the number of these books, and the number of letters in the Hebrew Alphabet, demands to be noticed. We are not informed to what origin this fact is to be referred; but the Jews have always been fond of allegory and similitude: hence we may suspect that the coincidence was not undesigned, but that it was contrived at the time when the Masoretic notes and points were invented, and when the Jewish doctors took so much pains to count the words and even letters contained in their Sacred Books. But this subject will be noticed more fully hereafter.

Some of these 22 books are to be considered as portions of the same work rather than separate works; for, "though Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteromy stood as separate books in the private copies used by the Jews in the time of Josephus, they were written by their author

*Tomline's Elements of Christian Theology, vol. 1, p. 3.

"It is not known when this division took place, but probably it was first

Moses," says Bishop Tomline, "in one continued work, and still remain in that form, in the public copies read in the Jewish Synagogues. These five books are now generally known by the name of the Pentateuch." As the public copies read in the Synagogues are undoubtedly more likely, than the private copies, to retain the original form of these writings, we may consider the number 22 to be reduced to 17, by the union of the first five, namely Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, into one.

But there is an ambiguity in the use of the word book, which must be carefully guarded against. Sometimes it means a whole work, whether divided into parts or not; sometimes it means a separate volume, and it has also a third meaning, that of part or division of a work, in which sense it is analogous to chapter, canto, part, &c. which are terms used arbitrarily by writers to denote the separate divisions of the same work.

Looking at the contents of the second or Prophetical class into which the Hebrew Scriptures were divided, we may enquire why the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and others, which certainly are Historical and not Prophetical, at least in our acceptation of the word, are included in the same class with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest, whom we now, more appropriately, as might be thought, designate as Prophets. The answer to this question is suggested by the meaning which the Jews ascribed to the word Prophet, by which term they designated a teacher or poet, and not merely one who foretold future events. In this sense, Joshua and the Judges were called Prophets with no less propriety than Daniel, Jeremiah or Isaiah. That the Pentateuch was kept apart from that which follows it in the Hebrew Canon arose partly from the higher honour

adopted in the Septuagint version, as the titles prefixed are of Greek derivation. The beginnings of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, are very abrupt, and plainly shew that these books were formerly joined to Genesis." NOTE by Bishop Tomline: