What are the Five Festival Scrolls? What are theMegillot?

This book, containing the beautiful story of Ruth, is closely linked with Judges. The beginning of the book makes this clear: "Now it came to pass in the days when the judges ruled." The events happened during the period of the judges. It therefore belongs next to that book. In the Hebrew Bible it occupies another place. We find it there next to the Song of Solomon, followed by Lamentations. Five books are called by the Jews "Megilloth" and are read by them at different feasts commemorating past events. The Song of Solomon is read during Passover; Ruth at Pentecost; Lamentations on the ninth day of the month Ab in memory of the destruction of Jerusalem; Ecclesiastes is read during the feast of Tabernacles and Esther they read when they celebrate Purim.

"As the work of the Chokma [the didactic class], the book of Job stands, with the three other works belonging to this class of the Israelitish literature, among the Hagiographa, which are called in Hebrew simply the Kethubim. Thus, by the side of the Law and the Prophets, the third division of the canon is styled, in which are included all those writings belonging neither to the province of prophetic history nor prophetic declaration. Among the Hagiographa are writings even of a prophetic character, as Psalms and Daniel, but their writers are not properly prophets. [?] At present, Lamentations stands among them, but this is not its original place; as also Ruth appears to have stood originally between Judges and Samuel. Both Lamentations and Ruth are placed among Hagiographa, that there the so-called MEGILLOTH, or scrolls, may stand together; the Song of Songs, the feast-book of the eighth passover-day; Ruth, that of the second Shabuoth-day; Lamentations, that of the ninth of Ab; Ecclesiastes, that of the eighth tabernacle-day; Esther, that of Purim … The position which [the book of Job] occupies is, moreover, a very shifting one. In the Alexandrine canon, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, follow the four books of the Kings. The historical books, therefore, stand, from the earliest to the latest, side by side; then begins, with Job, Psalms, Proverbs, a new row, opened with these three, in stricter sense, poetical books. Then Meli to of Sardis, in the second century, places Chronicles with the books of Kings, but arranges immediately after them the non-historical Hagiographa in the following order: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Job. Here the Solomonic writings are joined to the Davidic psalter, and the anonymous book of Job stands last. In our editions of the Bible, the Hagiographa division begins with Psalms, Proverbs, Job, (the succession peculiar to MSS. of the German class); in the Talmud, with Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs; in the Masora, and in MSS. of the Spanish class, with Chronicles, Psalms, Job, Proverbs. All these modes of arrangement are well considered."

They are at least very instructive, as they show us how little divine authority was even supposed to be in any one of them. They show us, moreover, how the original arrangement had been broken through, as in the case of the five Megilloth so called, for mere liturgic purposes. Thus we are surely free to accept an arrangement which, while it is substantially that of the Septuagint and of our present Bibles, seems to be as natural as it is conformable to the character and requirements of numerical structure.

"As the work of the Chokma [the didactic class], the book of Job stands, with the three other works belonging to this class of the Israelitish literature, among the Hagiographa, which are called in Hebrew simply Kethubim. Thus, by the side of the Law and the Prophets, the third division of the canon is styled, in which are included all those writings belonging neither to the province of prophetic history nor prophetic declaration. Among the Hagiographa are writings even of a prophetic character, as Psalms and Daniel, but their writers are not properly prophets. At present, Lamentations stands among them but this is not its original place, as also Ruth appears to have stood originally between Judges and Samuel. Both Lamentations and Ruth are placed among Hagiographa, that there the five so-called Megilloth, or scrolls, may stand together: the Song of Songs, the feast-book of the eighth passover-day; Ruth that of the second Shabuoth-day; Lamentations, that of the ninth of Ab; Ecclesiastes, that of the eighth Tabernacle-day; Esther, that of Purim….The position which [the book of Job] occupies is, moreover, a very shifting one. In the Alexandrine canon, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Tobit, Judith, Esther, follow the four books of the Kings. The historical books, therefore, stand, from the earliest to the latest, side by side; then begins with Job, Psalms, Proverbs, a new row, opened with these three in stricter sense poetical books. Then Melito of Sardis, in the second century, places Chronicles with the books of the Kings, but arranges immediately after them the non-historical Hagiographa in the following order: Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Job. Here, the Solomonic writings are joined to the Davidic psalter, and the anonymous book of Job stands last. In our editions of the Bible, the Hagiographa division begins with Psalms, Proverbs, Job (the succession peculiar to MSS. of the German class): in the Talmud, with Ruth, Psalms, Job, Proverbs; in the Masora, and in MSS. of the Spanish class, with Chronicles, Psalms, Job, Proverbs. All these modes of arrangement are well considered."

Perhaps; but the only thing they leave plain is that the later arrangement of books differs from the earlier, that at any time perhaps arrangements differed; that that of the "five rolls" is simply a more or less recent one for liturgical purposes; and that we have no recognized divine one at all, save only that of the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, which the Lord recognized in the last chapter of Luke.

Ecclesiastes belongs to the last part in the Hebrew Bible, the "writings" (Hebr. ketubim) and further to the so-called five scrolls (Hebr. megillot), which are still read at Jewish feast days. Ecclesiastes is being read in the synagogue for the feast of tabernacles.

Yet these questions have never arisen with the Jews. It is true that the Talmud-tradition says Hezekiah is the author of the book (probably so because during his time many an old tradition from the first period of kings came to honour; compare 2 Chron. 30:26; Prov. 25:1). But the place of the Song of Songs in the Hebrew canon of the AT has ever been in the third main part, that is the "writings" (Hebr. ketubim). Here the book belongs to the five scrolls (Hebr. megillot) for special feast days and is been read on the eighth day of the Passover.

In most of the modern Bible editions the Lamentations follow upon the book of Jeremiah. In the Hebrew Bible however they are set in the third part, the so-called "writings" (Hebr. Ketubim). There they belong to the so-called "rolls" (Hebr. Megillot), which are read on certain festive days. The reading of the Lamentations happens on the 9th day of the month of Ab (July/August) that is the fasting-day on the occasion of Jerusalem's destruction (compare Jer. 52:6).

In the Hebrew Bible the book of Esther is placed in the third main part, that is the "writings" (hebr. ketubim). The book belongs to the so-called five "scrolls" (hebr. megilloth), which are still read today at certain feast days in the synagogue. Esther is read during the Purim feast on 14th and 15th Adar (February/March). Hence it belongs to the best-known OT-books with the Jews and it is also the book, which has the oldest copies. The book of Esther has served the Jewish people as support of their national hope and especially so in the days of persecution.

The book of Esther is one of the five books which the Jews call Megilloth (Rolls). They appear in the Hebrew Bible in the following order:

It is not our task to search into the motives which led the later Jews to take the book of Ruth from its place, as indicated in our Bibles as well as in the Septuagint (the Greek Version rendered long before our Lord came), and class it with the Lamentations, Canticles, Esther, and Ecclesiastes, as the five Megilloth, part of the Khetubim or Hagio-grapha. Following Judges and preceding the books of Samuel, it is just where it should be. It falls within the days of the judges, and most fittingly points on to the Beloved whom Jehovah chose to be His anointed, coming to the throne when Saul fell.

All the rest of the Books, except Daniel, are supposed to have constituted the 'Psalms' (The Hagiographa, or 'Holy Scriptures', κατ εξοχην (kat exoken.)) in this classification. It is thought that the Lord, according to a Jewish custom, referred to a series of Books by naming only the first of such series, which would at the same time explain Matt. 16:14, 27:9: see 'Irrationalism of Infidelity' p.322. The ancient Hebrew hymnal, 'the Book of Psalms' (Acts 1:20), in the modern Hebrew Bible does come, as in the German MSS., at the head of the 'Hagiographa,' the name by which these Books, together with Daniel, are generally known amongst critics. Mr. Smith (Smith's Lecture VI, p.165.), in objecting to this view, cannot deny that the 'Psalms' may here at least be taken as representing the class of Books to which they belong. The division of the Psalms into five Books, respectively ending at Psalms 41, 72, 89, 106, 150, is of Jewish authority. The Miscellaneous Books are by the Jews designated Chetubim, or Writings;* and Hagiographa, which is taken from Patristic Greek, means sacred writings. Of these again, Ruth, Canticles, Lamentations, Esther and Ecclesiastes are called Megilloth, Rolls (cf. Hebrew of Ps. 40:3; Jer. 36:14).