LECT. I. "he is in a state of ignorance (or mental alien" ation); reason has retired; the citadel of the "soul has capitulated: the Spirit of God coming "into and occupying it, acts upon the whole « mechanism of the voice, and imparts to it "those sounds by which there shall be a clear "enunciation of the things predicted."* To Moses the highest place is assigned by Philo, who not only designates him a Prophet † and a Hierophant, ‡ but "the most eminent of prophets,"§ and makes the prophetic spirit with which he was endowed the standard to which that of all other prophets was to be referred. His books he calls “ the prophetic word,” || " sacred books,” [ " oracles,” * * and scarcely ever cites them without introducing his quotations by the use of the most exalted terms. He likewise mentions most of the other sacred writers in language which indicates his perfect conviction of their having enjoyed a special Divine inspiration. Entertaining such ultra views on the nature of inspiration, it cannot occasion surprise that he * Προφήτης τε μὲν γὰρ οὐδὲν ἴδιον ἀποφαίνεται τὸ παράπαν, ἀλλ ̓ ἔστιν ἐρμηνεὺς, ὑποβάλλοντος ἑτέρου πανθ ̓ ὅσα προφέρει, καὶ καθ ̓ ὃν χρόνον ἐνθουσιᾷ γεγονὼς ἐν ἀγνοία, μετανισταμένου μὲν τοῦ λογισμοῦ, καὶ παρακεχωρηκότος τὴν τῆς ψυχῆς ἀκροπόλιν· ἐπιπεφοιτηκότος δὲ καὶ ἐνοικηκότος τοῦ θείου πνεύματος, καὶ πᾶσαν τῆς φωνῆς ὀργανοποιΐαν κρούοντος, καὶ ἐνηχοῦντος εἰς ἐναργῆ δήλωσιν ὧν προθεσπίζει.—Tom. ii. p. 343. + Προφήτης. § Δοκιμώτατος τῶν προφητῶν. † Ιεροφάντης. || Προφητικός λογός. ** Χρήσμοι. should eagerly have adopted the fable of Aristeas, LECT. I. and ascribed to the Seventy Greek translators the same supernatural influence which he does to the original writers, or that he should lay great stress on the selection and collocation of the Greek words, and even the etymologies of Greek words, between which and the Hebrew he could trace any resemblance. He evidently held the universal verbal inspiration of Scripture in the strictest sense of the term. Though the dogma is nowhere expressly Josephus. treated of by Josephus, yet his works contain numerous recognitions of his belief, and that of his nation, in the fact, that their sacred books were not of human invention, but the result of express communications on the part of the Deity. That Moses enjoyed immediate intercourse with heaven is implied in phraseology occurring on almost every page, which describes him as holding a Divine commission,* receiving Divine commands,† acting by Divine authority,‡ favoured with Divine manifestations, § and endowed by God with the gift of predicting future events. The laws which he ordained were of Divine dictation. What he inculcated he was * ПeμpОεis v' pov.-Antiq. Jud. lib. ii. cap. xii. 3. † Θεοῦ προστάγματα.—Cap. xiii. 4. † Θεοῦ κελεύσαντος.-Cap. xv. 3. § Ορῶν τὴν ἐπιφάνειαν τοῦ Θεοῦ.—Cap. xvi. 2. || Δηλοῖ δὲ ἐν τῷ ἱερῷ ἀνακειμένη γραφὴ τὸν Θεὸν Μωϋσῃ πроειπεν.-Lib. iii. cap. i. 7. [[ Κατὰ τὴν ὑπαγόρευσιν τοῦ Θεοῦ συνετάττετο.—Cap. viii. 8. LECT. I. himself taught by God,* and the whole Jewish Talmud. constitution of which he was the administrator, and which he consigned to writing, he received by Divine communications at Sinai.t The sacred books of the Jews, which he enumerates, he declares to be justly believed to be divine,‡ and accounts for the discontinuance of inspired communications by the circumstance, that, after the reign of Artaxerxes, there existed no prophets who could regularly establish their claim to a Divine commission. He adds, that it was, so to speak, an innate principle with all the Jews to regard the contents of these books as instructions from God, § to which they adhered with constancy, and for which, if required, they would willingly lay down their life. From the professed respect which the later Jews have uniformly manifested for the sacred books of the Old Testament, it might be expected that the subject would be fully discussed in the Talmud; but the ponderous load of traditionary rules and precepts with which that immense work is charged, has left little or no room for the introduction of this or similar topics. At the same time occasional hints are dropped, or general statements are made, from * 'Aveμáv¤ave tаρà тоũ Оɛoũ.—Antiq. Jud. lib. iii. cap. 12. † Εξέμαθε παρὰ τοῦ Θεοῦ, καὶ τοῖς Εβραίοις γεγραμμένην παραδίδωσιν.—Cap. xii. 3. * Τα δικαίως θεῖα πεπιστευμένα.—Contra Apion. lib. i. 8. § Θεοῦ δόγματα.—Ibid. which we may fairly infer what were the opinions LECT. I. of the writers. Thus, when they assert, that of five things in which the second temple was deficient, one was, the Holy Spirit,* it is clearly implied that the nation formerly enjoyed the benefit of that divine influence. They, in fact, vindicate this influence to the writers of the Old Testament, by declaring, that, when the last of the prophets, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, died, the Holy Spirit was taken away from Israel. That they believed in absolute verbal inspiration appears from a passage in the Gemara on the Treatise Sanhedrin, in which they scruple not to denounce the loss of paradise against any who should be of a different opinion.‡ By no Jewish writer has Inspiration been Maimonides. treated of to a greater extent than by the celebrated Rambam, or Moses Maimonides. This author, who was of an illustrious family at Cordova in Spain, flourished in Egypt in the latter half of the twelfth century, and distinguished himself by his proficiency in all kinds of sacred and profane learning. Both in his work entitled Moreh Nevochim, which he composed for אלו חמשה דברים שהיו בין מקדש ראשון למקדש שני * אלו הן ארון וכפורת וכרובים אש ושכינה ורוח הקודש משמתו נביאים אחרונים חגי זכריה ומלאכי נסתלקה + : D'INI D'IN-Cod. Ioma, fol. 21. 6. : barwia wtipa -Rab. Azariah in lib. Imre binah. Töllner's göttliche Eingebung der heligen Schrift, p. 21. LECT. I the purpose of reconciling the doctrines and institutions of the Hebrew Scriptures with the principles of human philosophy, and in his Yad Hahhazakah, he expatiates at some length on the topic. According to the system which he lays down, there were, properly speaking, two degrees of inspiration-the Gradus Mosaicus, which was the highest and most perfect, and consisted in a direct divine illumination of the intellect without the intervention of angelic agency, or the influence of the imaginative faculty; and the other, the Gradus Propheticus, which he divides into the following subordinate degrees. 1. The illapse of the Spirit of power, as in the case of the Judges, who were thereby qualified to perform supernatural deeds. 2. The assistance afforded to some of the sacred writers and others, by which they were enabled, in a calm and serene state of mind, to compose psalms, moral precepts, and matters of a political and ecclesiastical character. 3. The presentation of parabolic visions and their interpretation to the mind of a prophet in dreams. 4. The production of a prophetic dream, strictly so called, in which the person inspired distinctly heard a voice, but did not perceive the speaker. 5. The appearance of a human being, who conversed with a prophet in a dream, as Ezek. xl. 4, 6. 6. Angelic communications in a dream. 7. The appearance of Jehovah himself in a dream. 8. The impartation of prophetic matter |