What is the Jewish Bible?

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.

III. Ketubim (the Writings): Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Solomon, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles.

The Jews divided the Old Testament into three parts:

The Law (Torah), the five books of Moses.

The Prophets (Nebiim), including Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and

The division of the Old Testament Scriptures into the Law, the Prophets (former and latter) and the Hagiographa or Kethubhim, (the Sacred Writings) has always been recognized and is the division implied by our Lord Himself where He says: "That all things must be fulfilled which were written in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning Me" (Luke 24:44); the "Psalms" here including the other poetical books.

The Prophets' (Heb. Nebiim) were divided by the Jews into the 'earlier' and 'latter'; the earlier comprising Joshua, Judges, and the Books of Samuel and Kings, now together generally called the 'Historical Books,' to which, it may be, reference is made in Zech. 7:7, 12 (see the Heb.); and the latter, Isaiah to Malachi, omitting Lamentations and Daniel. Of 'the latter' Prophets, Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel were called 'the greater;' and the order observed in our Hebrew Bibles of the Books bearing their names is that of the Spanish Hebrew MSS. The Talmudic or old Rabbinical arrangement places Jeremiah first. The other Prophets are called 'minor.'

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).

The books are in this order in the Hebrew Bible. The above triple division is doubtless alluded to by the Lord, in Luke 24:44, "All things must be fulfilled, which were written in the law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me;" cf. Luke 24:27. 'The Psalms' being the first book in the third part, may have been used as a title to express the whole of the division.

The Talmud and later Jewish writers reckon twenty-four books in the O.T. To make out this number they count the two books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles as one book each; Ezra and Nehemiah as one; and the twelve Minor Prophets as one. The earlier Jews reckoned the books as 22, according to the letters in the alphabet: they united Ruth with Judges, and Lamentations with Jeremiah. But all such arrangements are arbitrary and fanciful.

The number of the Old Testament Books, which, we may here say, conduct us over a period of 1200 years at the least, is given by Josephus — representing Palestinian ideas — as twenty-two, being the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet; by the Talmud — representing rather the opinions of Babylonian Jews — as twenty-four: cf. amongst others, Leeser's Translation (Jewish) of the Old Testament. Some information will be given afterwards as to the old Jewish authorities. In the number twenty-four, Ruth and Lamentations were reckoned as separate Books. The Christian 'Fathers' that give lists of the Books generally reckon twenty-two. The number thirty-nine in the English Bible is due to the obvious fact that the Books of Ruth, 2 Samuel, 2 Kings, 2 Chronicles, Nehemiah, Lamentations, and each of the Minor Prophets are counted separately.

§ 3. The Division and Order of the Old Testament Books.

The order in which the Books appear in modern Bibles is based upon that of the Septuagint as far as the Canticles; but the arrangement of the Prophets — Daniel with Lamentations excepted — is that of the common Hebrew Bible.

There are thirty-nine books in the Old Testament, but the ancient Jewish writers reduced the number to twenty-two so that the sacred books might correspond in number to the twenty-two sacred letters of the Hebrew alphabet.

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 Jews did not receive the Apocrypha as any part of scripture, and to 'them were committed the oracles of God.'