Other Questions Concerning The Same Books: Namely, Whether They Were
Completely Finished By Ezra, And, Further, Whether The Marginal Notes Which
Are Found In The Hebrew Texts Were Various Readings.
(1) How greatly the inquiry we have just made concerning the real writer of the twelve
books aids us in attaining a complete understanding of them, may be easily gathered
solely from the passages which we have adduced in confirmation of our opinion, and
which would be most obscure without it. (2) But besides the question of the writer, there
are other points to notice which common superstition forbids the multitude to apprehend.
(3) Of these the chief is, that Ezra (whom I will take to be the author of the aforesaid
books until some more likely person be suggested) did not put the finishing touches to the
narrative contained therein, but merely collected the histories from various writers, and
sometimes simply set them down, leaving their examination and arrangement to
posterity.
(4) The cause (if it were not untimely death) which prevented him from completing his
work in all its portions, I cannot conjecture, but the fact remains most clear, although we
have lost the writings of the ancient Hebrew historians, and can only judge from the few
fragments which are still extant. (5) For the history of Hezekiah (2 Kings xviii:17), as
written in the vision of Isaiah, is related as it is found in the chronicles of the kings of
Judah. (6) We read the same story, told with few exceptions, [Endnote 11], in the same
words, in the book of Isaiah which was contained in the chronicles of the kings of Judah
(2 Chron. xxxii:32). (7) From this we must conclude that there were various versions of
this narrative of Isaiah's, unless, indeed, anyone would dream that in this, too, there lurks
a mystery. (8) Further, the last chapter of 2 Kings 27-30 is repeated in the last chapter of
Jeremiah, v.31-34.
(9) Again, we find 2 Sam. vii. repeated in I Chron. xvii., but the expressions in the two
passages are so curiously varied [Endnote 12], that we can very easily see that these two
chapters were taken from two different versions of the history of Nathan.
(10) Lastly, the genealogy of the kings of Idumaea contained in Genesis xxxvi:31, is
repeated in the same words in 1 Chron. i., though we know that the author of the latter
work took his materials from other historians, not from the twelve books we have
ascribed to Ezra. (10) We may therefore be sure that if we still possessed the writings of
the historians, the matter would be made clear; however, as we have lost them, we can
only examine the writings still extant, and from their order and connection, their various
repetitions, and, lastly, the contradictions in dates which they contain, judge of the rest.
(11) These, then, or the chief of them, we will now go through. (12) First, in the story of
Judah and Tamar (Gen. xxxviii.) the historian thus begins: "And it came to pass at that
time that Judah went down from his brethren." (13) This time cannot refer to what
immediately precedes [Endnote 13], but must necessarily refer to something else, for
