An Examination Of The Remaining Books Of The Old Testament According To
The Preceding Method.
(1) I now pass on to the remaining books of the Old Testament. (2) Concerning the two
books of Chronicles I have nothing particular or important to remark, except that they
were certainly written after the time of Ezra, and possibly after the restoration of the
Temple by Judas Maccabaeus [Endnote 19]. (2) For in chap. ix. of the first book we find
a reckoning of the families who were the first to live in Jerusalem, and in verse 17 the
names of the porters, of which two recur in Nehemiah. (3) This shows that the books
were certainly compiled after the rebuilding of the city. (4) As to their actual writer, their
authority, utility, and doctrine, I come to no conclusion. (5) I have always been
astonished that they have been included in the Bible by men who shut out from the canon
the books of Wisdom, Tobit, and the others styled apocryphal. (6) I do not aim at
disparaging their authority, but as they are universally received I will leave them as they
are.
(7) The Psalms were collected and divided into five books in the time of the second
temple, for Ps. lxxxviii. was published, according to Philo-Judaeus, while king Jehoiachin
was still a prisoner in Babylon; and Ps. lxxxix. when the same king obtained his liberty: I
do not think Philo would have made the statement unless either it had been the received
opinion in his time, or else had been told him by trustworthy persons.
(8) The Proverbs of Solomon were, I believe, collected at the same time, or at least in the
time of King Josiah; for in chap. xxv:1, it is written, "These are also proverbs of Solomon
which the men of Hezekiah, king of Judah, copied out." (9) I cannot here pass over in
silence the audacity of the Rabbis who wished to exclude from the sacred canon both the
Proverbs and Ecclesiastes, and to put them both in the Apocrypha. (10) In fact, they
would actually have done so, if they had not lighted on certain passages in which the law
of Moses is extolled. (11) It is, indeed, grievous to think that the settling of the sacred
canon lay in the hands of such men; however, I congratulate them, in this instance, on
their suffering us to see these books in question, though I cannot refrain from doubting
whether they have transmitted them in absolute good faith; but I will not now linger on
this point.
(10) I pass on, then, to the prophetic books. (11) An examination of these assures me that
the prophecies therein contained have been compiled from other books, and are not
always set down in the exact order in which they were spoken or written by the prophets,
but are only such as were collected here and there, so that they are but fragmentary.
(12) Isaiah began to prophecy in the reign of Uzziah, as the writer himself testifies in the
first verse. (13) He not only prophesied at that time, but furthermore wrote the history of
that king (see 2 Chron. xxvi:22) in a volume now lost. (13) That which we possess, we
have shown to have been taken from the chronicles of the kings of Judah and Israel.
