eight verses of the law; Samuel wrote his book and Judges and Ruth; David wrote the book of Psalms with the aid of the ten ancients, with the aid of Adam the first, Melchizedek, Abraham, Moses, Heman, Jeduthun, Asaph, the three sons of Korah; Jeremiah wrote his book, the books of Kings and Lamentations; Hezekiah and his company wrote Isaiah, Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes, whose sign is p; the men of the great synagogue wrote Ezekiel and the Twelve (minor prophets), Daniel and the roll of Esther, whose sign is ; Ezra wrote his book and the genealogy of Chronicles unto himself.

GEMARA. This will support Rab, for Rabbi Jehuda told that Rab said: Ezra went not up from Babylon until he had registered his own genealogy, then he went up. (Question): And who finished it (his book)? (Reply): Nehemiah, son of Hachaliah. The author (of the Baraitha) said Joshua wrote his book and the eight verses of the law; this is taught according to him who says of the eight verses of the law, Joshua wrote them. For it is taught: And Moses the servant of the Lord died there. How is it possible that Moses died and wrote: and Moses died there? It is only unto this passage Moses wrote, afterwards Joshua wrote the rest. These are the words of Rabbi Jehuda, others say of Rabbi Nehemiah, but Rabbi Simeon said to him: Is it possible that the book of the Law could lack one letter, since it is written: Take this book of the Law? It is only unto this the Holy One, blessed be He! said, and Moses said and wrote. From this place and onwards the Holy One, blessed be He, said and Moses wrote with weeping. . . .

(Question): Joshua wrote his book? But it is written there: And Joshua died. (Reply): Eleazar finished it. (Question): But yet it is written there: And Eleazar the son of Aaron died. (Reply): Phineas finished it. (Question): Samuel wrote his book? But it is written there: And Samuel died, and they buried him in Rama. (Reply): Gad the seer and Nathan the Prophet finished it.

We have to distinguish the view of the Tanaim in the Baraitha and the view of the Amoraim in the Gemara.2 The Tanaim do not go beyond the scope of giving (1) the order of the Sacred Writings, (2) their editors.

(1) In the order of the writings we observe several singular

1 These are the first letters of the Hebrew names of these books.

2 The Tanaim are the authors of the Mishnayoth, the Amoraim are the expounders of the Mishnayoth and authors of the Gemara (see Mielziner, Introduction to the Talmud, 1894, pp. 22 seq.).

features, which lead us to ask whether the order is topical, chronological, liturgical, or accidental. The Amoraim explain the order generally as topical, although other explanations are given, but their reasons are inconsistent and unsatisfactory. Is there a chronological reason at the bottom? This is clear in the order of three classes, Law, Prophets, and other Writings. But will it apply to the order of the books in the classes? There seems to be a general observance of the chronological order, if we consider the subject-matter as the determining factor, and not the time of composition. In the order of the Prophets, Jeremiah precedes Ezekiel properly. But why does Isaiah follow? Is it out of a consciousness that Isaiah was a collection of several writings besides those of the great Isaiah,1 or from the feeling that Isaiah's prophecies had more to do with the restoration than the exile, and so naturally followed Ezekiel? The Minor Prophets are arranged in three groups, and these groups are chronological in order. Hosea was placed first out of a mistaken interpretation of his introductory words. Malachi appropriately comes last. But this order of the Prophets in the Baraitha is abandoned by the Massorites, who arrange Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel. In the other writings there is a sort of chronological order if we consider the subject-matter, but the Massoretic text differs from the Baraitha entirely, and indeed the Spanish and German manuscripts from one another. We cannot escape the conviction that there was a liturgical reason at the basis of the arrangement, which has not yet been determined. At all events, its authority has little weight for purposes of Higher Criticism.

(2) As to their editorship. The verb "wrote,' 2 cannot imply composition in the sense of authorship in several cases of its use, but must be used in the sense of editorship or redaction. Thus it is said that the men of the Great Synagogue wrote Ezekiel, the Minor Prophets, Daniel, and the roll of Esther. This cannot mean that they were the original authors, but that they were editors of these books. It is not stated whether they edited them by copy from originals or from oral

1 Strack in Herzog, Real Ency., VII. p. 43.

.כתב 2

tradition. Rashi takes the latter alternative, and thinks that holy books could not be written outside of Palestine.1 An insuperable objection to this editing of Daniel and Esther at the same time as Ezekiel and the Twelve, is their exclusion from the order of the Prophets, where they would have naturally gone if introduced into the Canon at that time; Esther with the prophetic histories, and Daniel with Isaiah, Ezekiel, and Jeremiah.2

Again, when it is said Hezekiah and his company wrote Isaiah, Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes, this can only mean editorship, and not authorship. The Tosaphoth on the Baraitha says: "Hezekiah and his college wrote Isaiah ; because Hezekiah caused them to busy themselves with the law, the matter was called after his name. But he (Hezekiah)

did not write it himself, because he died before Isaiah, since Manasseh, his successor, killed Isaiah." The redaction of Proverbs, Song of Songs, and Ecclesiastes by Hezekiah's company, is probably a conjecture based upon Proverbs 25.1 But the whole story is incredible. It carries with it a Canon of Hezekiah, and would be inconsistent with the subsequent positions of these books in the Canon.3

David is represented as editing the Psalter with the aid of ten ancients; that is, he used the Psalms of the ten worthies and united them with his own in the collection. Moses is represented as writing his book, the section of Balaam and Job. The section of Balaam is distinguished probably as edited and not composed by Moses. In view of the usage of the rest of this Baraitha, we cannot be sure whether it means that Moses edited the Law and Job, or whether here. "wrote" means authorship. The same uncertainty hangs over the references to Joshua, Samuel, Jeremiah, and Ezra.

The statements of the Baraitha, therefore, seem rather to concern official editorship than authorship, and it distinguishes no less than eight stages of redaction of the Old Testament Scriptures (1) By Moses, (2) Joshua, (3) Samuel, (4) David,

1 Strack in Herzog, Real Ency., VII. p. 418; Wright, Koheleth, pp. 454 seq. ; Wogue, Histoire de la Bible, pp. 19 seq. 8 See pp. 124 seq.

2 See pp. 123 seq.

(5) Hezekiah and his college, (6) Jeremiah, (7) the men of the Great Synagogue, (8) Ezra.

The Gemara in its commentary upon this passage enlarges this work of redaction so as to give a number of additional prophets a hand in it. Joshua completes the work of Moses, Eleazar the work of Joshua, and Phineas his work; Gad and Nathan finish the work of Samuel, then come David, Hezekiah, Jeremiah, the men of the Great Synagogue; and Nehemiah finishes the work of Ezra.

III. HELLENISTIC AND CHRISTIAN THEORIES

Having considered the Rabbinical tradition, we are now prepared to examine that of the Jewish historian, Josephus. His general statement is :

"We have not myriads of books among us disagreeing and contradicting one another, but only twenty-two, comprising the history of all past time, justly worthy of belief. And five of them are those of Moses, which comprise the Law and the tradition of the generation of mankind until his death. This time extends to a little less than three thousand years. From the death of Moses until Artaxerxes, the king of the Persians after Xerxes, the prophets after Moses composed that which transpired in their times in thirteen books. The other four books present hymns to God and rules of life for men."

"And now David, being freed from wars and dangers, and enjoying a profound peace, composed songs and hymns to God of several sorts of metre: some of those which he made were trimeters, and some were pentameters.'

Josephus' views as to Hebrew literature vary somewhat from the Talmud. He strives to exalt the Hebrew Scriptures in every way as to style, antiquity, and variety above the classic literature of Greece. He represents Moses as the author of the Pentateuch, even of the last eight verses describing his own death. Scholars do not hesitate to reject his views of the number and arrangement of the books in the Canon, or his statements as to the metres of Hebrew poetry; we certainly cannot accept his authority without criticism, in questions of

authorship. Philo agrees with Josephus in making Moses by prophetic inspiration the author of the narrative of his own death, but has little to say about matters that concern the Higher Criticism.

A still more ancient authority than the Talmud, and an authority historically to Christians higher than Josephus, is the Apocalypse of Ezra, from the first Christian century, printed among the apocryphal books in the English Bible, and preserved in five versions, and used not infrequently by the Fathers as if it were inspired Scripture. This tradition represents that the Law and all the holy books were burned at the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and lost; that Ezra under divine inspiration restored them all, and also composed seventy others to be delivered to the wise as the esoteric wisdom for the interpretation of the twenty-four.2

This view of the restoration of the Old Testament writings by Ezra was advocated by some of the Fathers. Clement of Alexandria 3 says:

"Since the Scriptures perished in the captivity of Nebuchadnezzar, Esdras the Levite, the priest, in the time of Artaxerxes, king of the Persians having become inspired, in the exercise of prophecy restored again the whole of the ancient Scriptures."

So, also, Tertullian, Chrysostom,5 an ancient writing attributed to Augustine, the heretical Clementine homilies. Another common opinion of the Fathers is represented by Irenæus : 8 1 Life of Moses, III. 39.

2 Ezra saith: "For thy law is burnt, therefore no man knoweth the things that are done of thee, or the works that shall begin. But if I have found grace before thee, send the Holy Ghost into me, and I shall write all that hath been done in the world since the beginning, which were written in thy law, that men may find thy path," etc. "Come hither (saith God), and I shall light a candle of understanding in thine heart which shall not be put out, till the things be performed which thou shalt begin to write. And when thou hast done, some things shalt thou publish, and some things shalt thou show secretly to the wise. The first that thou hast written publish openly, that the worthy and the unworthy may read it; but keep the seventy last, that thou mayest deliver them only to such as be wise among the people; for in them is the spring of understanding, the fountain of wisdom, and the stream of knowledge" (1421-47). 4 De cultu fœminarum, c. 3.

3 Stromata, I. 22.

5 Hom. VIII. in Epist. Hebræos, Migne's edition, XVII. p. 74.

• De mirabilibus sacræ scripturæ, II. 33, printed with Augustine's works, but not genuine. 7 Hom. III. c. 47. 8 Adv. Hæreses, III. 21, 2.