Books of the Bible

Order and Divisions of the books.

The Old Testament. The Books of the Law: — Genesis. Exodus. Leviticus. Numbers. Deuteronomy. The Covenant-History: — Joshua. Judges. Ruth. Kings: — First Book (Samuel). Second Book (Kings). Captivity-Books: — Ezra. Nehemiah. Esther. Chronicles. The Prophets: — Isaiah. Jeremiah. Lamentations. Ezekiel. Daniel. The Book of Minor Prophets: — Hosea. Amos. Micah. Joel. Obadiah. Jonah. Nahum. Habakkuk. Zephaniah. Haggai. Zechariah. Malachi. The Psalm-books: — The Psalms. Job. Solomon's Song. Ecclesiastes. Proverbs. The New Testament. The Gospels: — Matthew. Mark. Luke. John. The Acts. The Pauline Epistles: — Romans. Galatians. Ephesians. Colossians Philemon. Philippians. Thessalonians First & Second Epistles. Corinthians First & Second Epistles. Hebrews. Timothy First & Second Epistles. Titus. The Catholic Epistles: — Peter First & Second Epistles. James. John First, Second & Third Epistles. Jude. Revelation.

There is neither book nor monument to which you can refer within several centuries of the time when Moses wrote the first portion of the Bible. Then, after a quarter of a century, Joshua, the second inspired penman, wrote the book to which his name is attached. Then comes another interval, a lengthy and sorrowful one, of more than 300 years, covering the times of the Judges, and well termed "the dark ages" of Israelitish history, when Samuel, the third inspired writer, brought up the Jewish annals to the times of David — the sweet Psalmist of Israel — his co-adjutors in the work being the prophets Gad and Nathan (1 Chron. 29:29). Another interval of 300 years, and we listen entranced to the grand and glowing strains of Isaiah — the prince of Hebrew prophets; perhaps the most magnificent piece of writing ever penned is the sixtieth chapter of Isaiah, and of course divinely inspired like every other line and word of Scripture. Yet another period of nigh 300 years, during which the voices of the prophets were lifted up in the land of Immanuel, or amongst the captives in Babylon and Mesopotamia — when their tears bedewed the sacred soil, and their sufferings and exercises are written on high, and Malachi closed the inspired records of the Old Testament; the editor of the whole being Ezra. A long and dreary blank of 460 years, unwritten in the pages of God's most holy Word — save in a few prophetic passages (Dan. 8, 10, 11) — brings us to a few years at most after the death of Jesus, when Matthew wrote of Christ — His messianic rights, glories, and sufferings. Within thirty years after, the whole of the New Testament was completed, save the Revelation, which was written about A.D. 96. Thus the whole Bible was finished and in the hands of the Christian, and in the keeping of the Church, or rather of God, ere the first Christian century closed.

A reader of our English Bible finds one invariable arrangement of the books throughout, and is naturally apt to think this as much inspired as are the books themselves; but this is only the result of such a uniformity of copies as has been brought about by printing. The order in our books is, in general, as to the Old Testament, the order of the Septuagint, the Greek translation, which was in general use in our Lord's time among those that spoke Greek. But this is very naturally spoiled, for many, by the introduction of apocryphal books among the canonical ones. The Hebrew has also, as being such, quite intelligibly, the preference in the minds of most. In the Hebrew arrangement, there is a classification of books under three heads, — "the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings." Here, the Prophets come next to the Law, — i.e., the five books of Moses; but the four historical books — Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings, — these, and no more than these, — are counted among these as "former prophets," clearly upon the ground of their being presumed to be written by such. The rest of these are referred to the Kethubim, or "Writings," as well as Daniel and Lamentations from the Prophets; and the "Writings" fall thus into three divisions: first, the Psalms, Proverbs, Job; secondly, the Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther; thirdly, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Chronicles.

The three great classes here are thought to be recognized by our Lord Himself in Luke 24:44, where He says to His disciples that "all things must needs be fulfilled which are written in the Law of Moses, and the Prophets, and the Psalms concerning Me." Here, there are three divisions; and the Prophets come, as in the Hebrew, before the Psalms. This much is clear; but it is not certain, from this, that He meant to put the historical books among the prophets, nor would they come so naturally to be mentioned where He is speaking of fulfillment of prophecy. And again, the mention of the "Psalms" still less sanctions the whole division of Kethubim, strangely composite as it is. The numerical arrangement recognizes the divisions in general, and the order, as the Lord appears to do, while it restores the two prophetic books to what surely seems their natural place, and the five historical books also to their natural connections.

The following statements are important to remember: No portion of the Apocrypha was written in Hebrew, but all in Greek, although by Jews, and never formed part of the Hebrew canon. It was written more than a century after the completion of the Old Testament. It was never regarded by the Jews or their writers as possessing the slightest claim to inspiration. Neither the Lord nor Apostles ever cited from, or referred to, the Apocrypha.

The composition of the Books of the Bible was begun by Moses on the plains of Moab in the 15th century B.C.; the subjects of which they treat were completed by Paul during his Roman imprisonment in the latter half of the first Christian century (Col. 1:25); while John, the last of the Apostolic band, had those wondrous visions and sights vouchsafed to him in the rocky isle of Patmos, and the whole, known to us as "The Revelation," committed to writing by the close of the century.

We are not aware that John left any authoritative declaration of what writings were canonical. If each of the 66 books of the Bible do not carry with them their own evidence to the soul and conscience of men, then no external proof will convince. It is an important circumstance that John survived the completed revelation of God by several years. He was there to distinguish, on his Apostolic authority immediately derived from the Lord Jesus Christ, the inspired from the uninspired books then in circulation amongst the Churches. He could be appealed to if necessary on any point involving the Divine authority of any book of Holy Scripture.

In the case of the books of the Old Testament our inquiry is really enclosed within narrower limits than might at first sight appear: for the very greatest authority we could possibly have is that of our Lord Jesus Christ, who was indeed Jehovah incarnate. He frequently refers to the Old Scriptures, as containing the word of life; and as being a certain collection of books, then accounted sacred by the Jews. If we can ascertain what the recognised Canon of Scripture among the Jews was in his time, we know at once what we are to receive as canonical. Now there is no doubt whatever upon this point. We, and all reformed churches, are quite in agreement with the Jews here. It is a matter undisputed by any one, that those books of the Old Testament which we venerate as canonical, were the only Scriptures known to the Jews, when our Saviour preached in Judea.

The Roman Catholic Church receives as canonical, certain books which are rejected by the Reformers, and called by them The Apocrypha. This word signifies what is concealed, and seems originally to have been applied to those books which were not published and universally known as canonical Scriptures; but were confined to some few heretical congregations, known only to them, and concealed except from the initiated. And then it came to mean, as with us, specially those books sometimes classed as belonging to the Old Testament, but never received by the Jews as such. These books were appended to the ancient Greek translation of the Old Testament, called the Septuagint, and thence transferred to the Vulgate or Latin translation made from the Septuagint. Some of these books, as Wisdom and Ecclesiasticus, are in every way to be recommended, as containing wise and pious precepts, though not directly sanctioned by Divine authority. The books of Maccabees are good and reliable history. While others are mere extravagant romances, of no value whatever.

The Prophets, taking the minor twelve as one book (as was done of old), and Lamentations as an appendix to Jeremiah, fall, then, into another series of five — another Pentateuch. Nay, the historical books, as we have seen, fall into still another pentateuchal series; while the books of the New Testament easily divide into a similar one of Gospels, Acts, Pauline Epistles, Catholic Epistles, and Revelation. Thus the Pentateuch is the basis and model of the whole of Scripture.

It is true that numerous Christian books were in circulation, even in the days of Luke, the writer of the third Gospel and of "The Acts" (Luke 1:1), some of them attributed to the Apostles and their companions, but they were not regarded as inspired, however highly esteemed otherwise. So numerous are the quotations from the New Testament in the writings of the fathers of the first seven centuries, that the whole of the New Testament might from thence be recovered, if needs be. We frankly admit, however, that certain Epistles, as Hebrews, 2 Peter, Jude, and Revelation were not at first universally received as canonical, owing to the difficulty of communication existing in these early times. It was no easy matter then for Churches or individuals at a distance to hold mutual intercourse, and it must be borne in mind that Epistles were addressed to persons or assemblies in some instances 1000 miles apart; besides which the transcribing of accurate copies of the originals required time and care. These facts remembered, we are thankful for the extreme caution with which the canon of the New Testament was finally accepted.

They call this kind of criticism scientific. It surely has all the marks of so-called science. Speculation, uncertainty and complicated statements are the leading characteristics of this criticism. They claim now that the Pentateuch (the five books written by Moses) was never written by him, but that these books consist of four diverse documents. These they designate as follows: 1. The Jehovist. 2. The Elohist. 3. The Deuteronomist. 4. The Priestly Code. The authorship of Moses has been completely given up and it is claimed that the earliest part of the Pentateuch was written perhaps six hundred years after Moses' death. They put the date of the greater part of these five books after the Babylonian captivity.