The Arguments, Authors, and Times of the Books of the Old Testament

ON THE ARGUMENTS, AUTHORS, AND TIMES of the books of the old Testament which are computed in the first order of the canon

Hitherto we have reviewed in general the diverse enumerations and the various partitions of the ancient books of the first order, which alone the Hebrews receive, and read written in Hebrew: now we shall explain one by one (particulatim) the authors of each, their arguments, and the times of the matters described in them.

PENTATEUCH

The book of the Law of the Lord, or the volume of the law of Moses (for by both names the sacred letters call it), is named by the Hebrews תורה Thora, that is, “Law,” and by the Greeks πεντάτευχος, Pentateuchus, that is, the Fivefold volume. This Moses — the son of Amram, grandson of Caath, great-grandson of Levi the patriarch, the leader of the Hebrews and their lawgiver — composed. ¹ Which he himself also testifies thus in the book of Exodus: “And Moses wrote all the discourses of the Lord, and taking up the volume of the covenant of the law, in the hearing of the people…” ² And again in Deuteronomy he adds: “After Moses had written the words of this law, and had completed them, he commanded the Levites who carried the ark of the covenant of the Lord, saying: Take this book, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God.” ³ But that which is added at the end of Deuteronomy concerning the death and burial of Moses, down to the close of the book ⁴, some believe Esdras to have adjoined. Moreover, by what plan Moses digested this whole work into parts, and gave it its titles, is not sufficiently established. The Hebrews (as Philo the Jew in the book On the world, and Josephus in the first book against Apion, relate) divide the whole volume into five books, and inscribe them from the opening of those same books.

The first book, then, containing the succession of the human stock down to the death of Joseph — that is, the deeds of two thousand three hundred and eight years ⁵ — is called among them Berescith, that is, “In the beginning,” because the book begins with these words. The second, containing the deeds of one hundred and forty-six years ⁶ — namely from the death of Joseph to the construction of the tabernacle in the desert — is called Veellecemoth, that is, “These are the names.” The third, containing the history of one month ⁷ — that is, from the erection of the tabernacle in the desert to the numbering of those who were apt for war — is called Vaiikra, that is, “And he called.” The fourth, containing the narration of 38 years, nine months, and twenty days ⁸ — that is, from the first day of the second month of the second year of the going-forth from Egypt, to the encampment in the plains of Moab upon the Jordan, where Moses afterward died — is called Vaedaber, that is, “And he spoke.” The fifth, setting forth the deeds of the two last months of the life of Moses in the plains of Moab ⁹, is called Helle hadde varim, that is, “These are the words.”

But the Greeks, though following the same partition, inscribe the books far otherwise. For the first among them is called Genesis, that is, “generation,” because the beginning of the world and the generation of the age are contained in it. The second Exodus, that is, “exit,” which narrates the exit of the Israelite people from Egypt. The third is inscribed Leviticus, because it comprehends the ministries of the Levites, the sacrifices, the laws, and the rites. The fourth Arithmi, that is, “Numbers,” because in it those who came out of Egypt are numbered by tribes, and the number of the forty-two halting-places through the wilderness is reviewed. The fifth Deuteronomion, that is, “the second law,” is so inscribed because in it a repetition of the law is made anew. Philo the Jew thinks that Moses was the author of these latter inscriptions ¹⁰, writing thus in the book On the world: “MOSES asserted the world to be begotten and incorruptible, in the sacred books; and they are five, of which he himself inscribed the first Genesis, which begins in this manner: In the beginning God made heaven and earth.” And in the book On the migration of Abraham: “Rightly,” says he, “did the sacred seer Moses entitle one entire book of the law Exodus, by a name agreeing with the oracles contained in it.” Thus far he. To me, however, it seems more likely that not Moses, but the seventy interpreters — being Greeks — devised these new and Greek inscriptions of the books. ¹¹

Now Moses gathered together in these books the history from the beginning of the world down to the hundred-and-twentieth year of his own life — in which, his teeth not loosened nor his eyes grown dim, in his whole body he put off mortality — that is, down to the year after the founding of the world two thousand four hundred and ninety-two, and before the birth of Christ one thousand four hundred and seventy ¹², according to the Hebrew supputation of the holy scriptures and of Philo the Jew. But the remaining eight verses, from that place, AND MOSES DIED, to the end of the whole volume, Joshua is believed to have supplied after the death of Moses ¹³: although Josephus asserts that Moses, being presently to die, wrote of himself in the sacred volumes as dead ¹⁴, fearing lest, on account of his excellent virtues, the Jews should proclaim that he had been caught up [rapt] by God.

The Hebrews divide the whole Pentateuch into two-and-fifty distinctions, or titles ¹⁵: that is, Genesis into eleven, Exodus into eleven, Leviticus into ten, Numbers into ten, Deuteronomion into ten. And these distinctions too they inscribe from their initial words, calling the first בראשית berescit, that is, “in the beginning”; the second נח Noach, or Noe; the third לך לך lec leca, that is, “going forth, go forth [get thee out]”; and so on with the others, down to the last. And all the Pesukim — that is, the verses — into which the Jews divide the whole Pentateuch, are five thousand eight hundred and thirty. ¹⁶

The same Moses wrote, as Jerome testifies in the epistle to Cyprian ¹⁷ — besides these five books (which Philo reports to have been composed by their author in the Chaldaic tongue ¹⁸) — also eleven Psalms ¹⁹: that is, from the ninetieth Psalm, whose title is THE PRAYER of Moses the servant of GOD, to the hundredth Psalm, which is fore-titled IN Confession. He composed also, as the Rabbins of the Jews hand down, the book of Job ²⁰ — although the vulgate edition of the Greeks, at the end of that same volume, asserts that Moses translated the history of Job out of the Syrian speech into the Hebrew tongue. ²¹ There are also other writings borne about under the name of Moses, of which something is to be said in the following book.

JOSHUA

The book of Joshua (which the Hebrews call יהושע Ieoscua, the Greeks Jesus [son of] Nave) took its name from Osee, the son of Nun, whom Moses, changing his name, called Josua ²² — a leader most illustrious in the glory of war as well as of peace; who, as is read in the last chapter of this book, wrote after the death of Moses all the words which the Lord spoke to him, in the volume of the law of the Lord ²³, adjoining to it the history Of the passage of the sons of Israel through Jordan, Of the subversion of the impious kingdoms, Of the division of the land of promise, and the other memorable sayings and deeds from the death of Moses down to the seventeenth year of his captaincy: in which year — Josephus being witness — this man, renowned in arms and in religion, died, in the hundred-and-twentieth year of his age; that is, in the year from the founding of the world two thousand five hundred and ten, and before the coming of Christ one thousand four hundred and fifty-two. ²⁴ The rest, which stand written from the death of Joshua to the end of this book, Esdras is by report said to have adjoined. ²⁵ Theodoret, however, judges ²⁶ that the whole book, too, was compiled long after the death of Joshua out of an ancient commentary whose title was THE BOOK OF THE JUST — being led by the authority of the words which stand in the tenth chapter of this volume, namely: “Are not these things” (no doubt, the deeds of Joshua) “written in the book of the Just?” This book contains, among the Jews, six thousand and forty-five verses. ²⁷

JUDGES, AND RUTH

The book of Judges (which by the Jews is called שופטים Sciophtim, by the Greeks κριταί) is so named ²⁸ because in it are contained the deeds of the judges and princes of Israel who were set over the people in the holy land after Joshua, down to the beginning of the kingdom of the Hebrews, in which kings reigned. And it is said that Samuel gathered this book together ²⁹, and to have adjoined to it the history of Ruth the Moabitess. There are those who think Ezechias, and those who think Esdras, the authors of both volumes. ³⁰ Now these two books contain the successions of three hundred and seventeen years ³¹ — namely from the death of Joshua to the first year of the principate of Heli, who began to judge Israel in the year from the founding of the world two thousand eight hundred and ten, that is, before Christ one thousand one hundred and fifty-two. The Jews divide the volume of Judges into six hundred verses, but the book of Ruth into eighty-five. ³²

KINGS FIRST, AND SECOND

The book of Samuel (which the Hebrews call שמואל Scemuel, and the Greeks and Latins the first and second of Kings) is believed to have been composed partly by Samuel the prophet, partly by the prophets Nathan and Gad. ³³ For Samuel gathered the deeds of Heli, of Saul, of David, and of himself, which are related in the first of Kings down to his own death — that is, down to the twenty-fifth chapter. But Nathan and Gad the prophets wrote the books of Kings from the death of Samuel to the end of the second book: which the first book of Paralipomenon seems to indicate plainly enough, at whose close these words are read: “The deeds of David, the first and the last, are written in the book of Samuel the seer, and in the book of Nathan the prophet, and in the volume of Gad.” ³⁴ And although the latter part of this first volume, from the twenty-fifth chapter to the end of the second book of Kings, comprehends the history of Saul and of David, the whole is nevertheless referred to Samuel, and is inscribed from his name — because he himself established Saul, the first king, in the kingdom ³⁵, and chose David for the king to be, and anointed him. Isidore, bishop of Seville, however, is of opinion that king David wrote [the history] down to the beginning of the third book — that is, down to the year from the founding of the world two thousand nine hundred and thirty, and to the year before the birth of Christ one thousand and thirty-two. The first book of Kings has among the Hebrews seven hundred ninety-seven verses; the second, six hundred seventy-nine: and each embraces the history of almost one hundred and twenty years. ³⁶

KINGS THIRD, AND FOURTH

The third and fourth book of Kings (which the Hebrews name מלכים Melachim, because in these the deeds of the Kings of Juda and of Israel are set forth in order) — by whom it was written is not sufficiently established. ³⁷ Some hand down that Esdras, others — among whom Procopius of Gaza, and Rabbi Moses Kimchi, and Isidore — that Jeremias collected this work into one volume. ³⁸ And this seems to me the nearer to truth, because the last chapter of the book of Kings agrees with the last chapter of the book of Jeremias in style, in words, and in narration. It appears that this volume was collected, by way of compendium, partly out of the books of the Days of the Kings of Juda and Israel, partly out of the writings of the prophets Nathan, Ahias the Silonite, Addo the Seer, and Semeias, Hozai, Jehu, and Esaias, which are very often cited in the third and fourth book of Kings. Now the present work contains the history of five hundred and thirty-seven years ³⁹ — that is, from the last old age of David down to the destruction of the city of Jerusalem, which befell in the year after the world was founded three thousand three hundred forty-seven, and before Christ six hundred and fifteen. ⁴⁰ The third book of Kings has among the Hebrews eight hundred and nine verses; the fourth, seven hundred and twelve. ⁴¹

THE TWO BOOKS OF PARALIPOMENON

These two books (which the Hebrews call דברי הימים Diure haiamim, that is, “Words of the days,” or Annals, or Chronicles) the Greeks call Παραλειπομένων, Paralipomenon, that is, “of things passed over” ⁴²: because they explain, briefly and summarily, those things which, either in the Pentateuch, or in the books of Joshua, of Judges, and of Kings, were either omitted or not fully described. These books have no certain author ⁴³; yet Rabbi Salomon and Rabbi Moses Kimchi write, from the judgment of the elders, that Esdras was the author of both ⁴⁴, and that he compiled in them an epitome and chronicle of all the preceding books — namely, from the beginning of the divine scripture to the end of the fourth of Kings. Among the Hebrews the present history is contained in but a single book; which, by the Greeks as well as by the Latins, was divided on account of the greatness of the volume into two books ⁴⁵ — as some have done even with the dialogue Brutus of Cicero, distinguishing it into three parts. These two books, then, contain the sum of three thousand three hundred and forty-seven years. ⁴⁶

THE TWO BOOKS OF ESDRAS

Esdras, or עזרא Ezra (whom the first book of Paralipomenon calls [the son of] Josedech the priest, and whom the Hebrews think to be Malachias, the last of the prophets) ⁴⁷, son of Saraias, the son of Azarias, twelfth [in descent] from Aaron the high priest, a scribe of the law of the Lord, ingenious and swift, published the book fore-titled with his own name — [written] indeed in Hebrew letters, and those first devised by himself ⁴⁸, but digested in the Chaldaic speech: in which he described the return of the Israelite people out of the Babylonian captivity into Judaea, and the restoration of the city of Jerusalem, and the building-up of the new temple. But the other book, which is inscribed the Second of Esdras, and treats through the same history, Nehemias wrote ⁴⁹ — the son of Helchias, a priest, and, in the captivity, cupbearer of king Artaxerxes; whence also the preface of his book is: The words of Nehemias, the son of Helchias; and he, in almost all the chapters of his book, speaks of himself in the first person. Now this book is allotted the name of Esdras for two causes: first, because it contains the things which were done jointly by Esdras and Nehemias; next, because the two books, among the Hebrews as among the Greeks, are joined together into one volume, [though] among the Latins divided into two. Yet the Greek fathers dissent from us in this part: for the book which we inscribe the third of Esdras, and cast back among the Apocryphal writings, they place in the sacred canon ⁵⁰, and set it first in the order of the books of Esdras — deciding that the things which are narrated in it were done before those which are contained in the books of Esdras and Nehemias; and these [latter], which among us are the first and the second, they comprehend both under the second volume of Esdras. Wherefore among them the beginning of the first of Esdras runs thus: Καὶ ἤγαγεν Ἰωσίας τὸ πάσχα ἐν Ἰερουσαλήμ — that is, And Josias kept the pasch in Jerusalem; and it is divided into one hundred and nine chapters. But the second begins thus: Καὶ ἐν τῷ πρώτῳ ἔτει Κύρου βασιλέως Περσῶν — that is, And in the first year of Cyrus, king of the Persians; and it is cut into eighty chapters. There are borne about also other volumes under the name of Esdras, which you will find in the second book of this work. Esdras flourished together with Nehemias, restoring the city and the temple, in the year from the founding of the world three thousand four hundred and twenty-one ⁵¹ — which was the third of the Jewish liberation, and before Christ the five hundred forty-first. And he died in extreme old age, after he had most faithfully restored from memory — and not without the divine power of the Godhead — almost all the divine scriptures ⁵², burned by the Chaldaeans in the destruction of Jerusalem, as they were before; new letters, readier for writing, having been devised — lest the Jews should be mingled with the Samaritans, who had come from the gentile nations into Judaea; for before, down to that very time, they had had other letters, delivered namely by Moses, in common with the Samaritans ⁵³; and the letters which the Jews now use differ only in figure [shape] from the Samaritan, or Mosaic.

ESTHER

The book אסתר Ester — although according to the order of the Hebrew canon and of Jerome’s partition it should be reviewed in this place — nevertheless, because Melito bishop of Sardis, St. Athanasius, and Gregory the Theologian, on account of certain ████ [word inked out by the censor] additaments (as we have already advised above) separated it by name from the other Testamentary writings, we too shall describe it in the following Section, in the very first place among the writings pertaining to the second order of the canon. ⁵⁴

JOB

Of the book איוב Iiob, some judge the author to be Job himself ⁵⁵, the son of Zareth, of the sons of Esau, fifth from Abraham, fourth from Esau; who, after the happy issue of his afflictions, by his own hand fulfilled [the desire of] writing down his victories — the very thing he had chiefly wished for in his calamity, saying: “Who will grant me that my discourses may be engraved in a book — or with an iron stylus, and a plate of lead, and a chisel — that they may endure forever, be hewn out in the rock?” ⁵⁶ And in another place: “Who will grant me that the almighty may hear my desire, and that he who judges would himself write a book, that I may carry it on my shoulder, and put it round me as a crown; and proclaim it at my every step, and offer it as to a prince?” ⁵⁷ There are those who think it was written either by the friends of Job, or by some one of the prophets. Origen — with whom the Rabbins of the Jews also agree — says that Moses first translated this holy history ⁵⁸, composed either by Job or by his friends, out of the Syrian eloquence into the Hebrew speech, for the consolation of the Hebrews who, captives in Egypt, were oppressed by Pharao with unworthy servitude: that reading the vehement and terrible pains of the blessed man they might console one another; and might bear with patience and giving of thanks the evils that had encompassed them; and that, hearing of the most excellent recompense which God bestowed upon blessed Job after his endurance, they too might hope for deliverance and await the benefits of the blessed reward of their labors.

This book was written, as Jerome testifies, in the Hebrew tongue, with Arabic and Syriac locutions at times intermingled ⁵⁹; and from the beginning of the volume to the start of the third chapter it proceeds, among the Hebrews, in loose [prose] oration; but from the beginning of the third chapter to the beginning of the forty-second chapter it glides along in Hexameter verses; from which place to the end the book concludes in prose. Rabbi Levi Ben Gerson, in his commentaries upon Job, writes that there were formerly those who rejected the eleven later chapters of this book — that is, from the thirty-second to the last — as adventitious ⁶⁰; for the reason that at the end of the thirty-first chapter, in the Hebrew codices, there is found written תמו דברי איוב thammu diure Iob, that is, “The words of Job are ended.” ⁶¹ Their opinion the same Rabbi Levi disapproves, saying that that versicle is to be referred, not simply to the end of all the discourses of Job, but only to the end of the disputations which Job had had with his three friends, Elipha, Baldad, and Sophar: after which disputations there follow at once the colloquies of the same Job with Eliu, the fourth of the friends. Now Job wrote the present book about the year of the founded world two thousand three hundred ⁶², comprising in it all the battles, victories, and triumphs of his spiritual warfare in most learned and most eloquent speech. And he suffered, as Athanasius witnesses, when he was seventy years old — so that all his years were two hundred and forty ⁶³; for after the plagues received he lived yet a hundred and seventy years: albeit the Hebrew verity testifies that from his recovered health he lived but a hundred and forty years. The Greeks divide the volume into thirty-two chapters; the Latins into forty-two. And there are those who among the Greeks distribute the same into twenty colloquies, in this order:

THE PSALTER

Concerning the author of the volume of the psalms (which in Hebrew is called ספר תהלים Sepher theillim, that is, the Book of Hymns; in Greek, Ψαλτήριον) there is a twofold opinion. ⁶⁴ Chrysostom and Augustine judge that David, king and prophet, was the author of all the psalms ^{65 66}; of which he himself sang some with his own mouth, but of the rest of the psalms put forth only the arguments, and delivered them to the singers ordained by himself in the temple of God: who, taking the arguments received, wrote them out in songs, and fitted them to various chants and musical instruments, and inscribed them with their own names. This opinion appears to be drawn from the books of Kings and of Paralipomenon ⁶⁷, in which David is read to have been the distinguished psalmist of Israel, who with his own mouth sang to the lord certain psalms — as psalm 17, when the lord had delivered him out of the hand of Saul and of all his enemies, and psalm 104, when the ark of the lord was being brought back. And the same [David] appointed in the temple four thousand psalmists, singing to the lord upon instruments; among whom the chief were three who, beside him, should sing canticles in the temple on harps, psalteries, and cymbals — namely Eman, Idithun, and Asaph; who, Esdras testifies, praised God “by the hands of David the king,” that is, by psalms written by the hand of king David ⁶⁸. But Jerome

Hieronymus, in the epistles to Sophronius and to Cyprian ⁶⁹, following the opinion of Athanasius, determines that they err who judge all the psalms to be David’s ⁷⁰, and not [the psalms] of those with whose names they are inscribed — namely of Asaph, of Idithun, of the sons of Corhe, of Eman the Ezrahite, of Moses, and of Solomon, and of the rest, whom Esdras comprehends in the first volume of Paralipomenon. ⁷¹ According to this opinion, then, there will be ten authors of this volume, whose names are set in the titles of the psalms: namely David, Salomon, Moses, Asaph, Ethan the Ezrahite, Eman the Ezrahite, Idithun, and the three sons of Corhe. Of whom:

DAVID, the son of Isai the Bethlehemite, king of Jerusalem, and prophet, put forth seventy-three psalms, fore-noted with his name in the Hebrew exemplars, namely:

III. IIII. V. VI. VII. VIII. IX. XI. XII. XIII. XIIII. XV. XVI. XVII. XVIII. XIX. XX. XXI. XXII. XXIII. XXIIII. XXV. XXVI. XXVII. XXVIII. XXIX. XXX. XXXI. XXXII [printed “XXII,” a second time — a misprint]. XXXIIII. XXXV. XXXVI. XXXVII. XXXVIII. XL. XLI. LI. LII. LIII. LIIII. LV. LVI. LVII. LVIII. LIX. LX. LXI. LXII. LXIII. LXIIII. LXV. LXVIII. LXIX. LXX. LXXXVI. CI. CIII. CVIII. CIX. CX. CXXII. CXXIIII. CXXXI. CXXXII. CXXXIII. CXXXVIII. CXXXIX. CXL. CXLI. CXLII. CXLIII. CXLIIII. CXLV.

He founded also, besides these, another nine-and-thirty psalms anepigraphoi — that is, which are placed in the psalter without anyone’s name — namely:

I. II. X. XXXIII. XLIII. LXVI. LXVII. LXXI. CII. CIIII. CV. CVI. CVII. CXI. CXII. CXIII. CXIIII. CXV. CXVI. CXVII. CXVIII. CXIX. CXX. CXXI. CXXIII. CXXV. CXXVI. CXXVII. CXXVIII. CXXIX. CXXX. CXXXIII. CXXXV. CXXXVII. CXLVI. CXLVII. CXLVIII. CXLIX. CL.

Of which seven are cited under the name of David in the divine scriptures, namely:

• The second psalm, in the book of Acts, chap. XIII.
• The seventeenth psalm, in the second of Kings, chap. XXII.
• The hundredth psalm, in the first of Paralipomenon, chap. XVI.
• The hundred-and-fifth psalm.
• The hundred-and-sixth psalm.
• The hundred-and-seventeenth psalm.
• The hundred-and-thirty-fifth psalm — of which [last four] mention is made in the first volume of Esdras.

SALOMON, the son of king David, wrote one psalm ⁷², namely the seventy-second, which begins, “O GOD, give thy judgment to the King” — which some think was put forth by David on behalf of Solomon his son. Athanasius in the Synopsis, besides this psalm, attributes also two others to Solomon: that is, the sixty-sixth, whose beginning is, “May GOD have mercy on us, and bless us”; and the hundred-and-twenty-seventh, which begins, “UNLESS the lord build the house.” Origen, in the third book Peri Archon [περὶ Ἀρχῶν, On First Principles], relates that there were not wanting those who said that the psalms which are inscribed THE CANTICLES OF THE STEPS [Gradual psalms] were composed by Solomon. Among the Hebrews, however, the seventy-second psalm alone is inscribed to Solomon.

MOSES, the man of God (whom Aben Ezra the Jew thinks to have been one of the singers of David; but Jerome, in the explanation of the ninetieth psalm, to Cyprian, asserts that he is Moses the writer of the divine law and leader of the Hebrews), wrote eleven psalms ⁷³ — that is, from psalm XC, whose title is THE PRAYER OF MOSES THE MAN OF GOD, and whose beginning is, “LORD, thou hast been made our refuge,” up to the hundredth, which is inscribed IN CONFESSION, and begins, “SHOUT with joy to God, all the earth.” And since what is read in psalm XCVIII concerning Samuel the prophet — who was born many ages after Moses — seems to oppose his [Jerome’s] opinion, he says that the name of Samuel, on account of the excellence of his merit, was foreseen by Moses at the instinct of the prophetic spirit, and noted down in the letters [text].

ASAPH, the son of Barachias, chief of the singers who sounded upon cymbals of brass, and praised the lord, and ministered in the sight of the ark, composed twelve psalms ⁷⁴, namely:

L. LXXIII. LXXIIII. LXXV. LXXVI. LXXVII. LXXVIII. LXXIX. LXXX. LXXXI. LXXXII. LXXXIII.

EMAN the Ezrahite — or, as the Greeks read, Heman the Israelite — a singer, son of Joel of the sons of Caath, most skilled with cymbals and trumpet, and in erudition and wisdom in a certain manner the equal of Ethan himself, composed one psalm, namely the eighty-eighth, whose beginning is, “O LORD, the God of my salvation.” And because he gave it to the sons of Corhe to be sung, he inscribed it as well with his own name as with theirs. Philo, however, in the book On the times, hands down that this psalm was put forth long afterward, in the captivity of Babylon, and chanted assiduously through the seven years in which Joakim, king of the Jews, was unjustly oppressed in the prisons of Babylon.

ETHAN the Ezrahite, son of Chusi, of the sons of Merari, sounding upon cymbals of brass, endowed with such wisdom that — as the third book of Kings testifies — no mortal ever, save Solomon alone, was wiser than he ^{75 76}, put forth one psalm ⁷⁷, namely LXXXIX, whose title is THE ERUDITION [Maschil] OF ETHAN, and its beginning, “The MERCIES of the lord I will sing forever.” Which psalm the same Philo, in the book cited a little before, writes was put forth many years later, for an act of thanksgiving, when Evilmerodach, king of the Assyrians, brought Joakim the king out of prison and began to hold him in honor at his court. There are those who affirm that Eman and Ethan — to whom Solomon is preferred in the third volume of Kings — neither put forth psalms nor were singers of psalms; but that the authors and psalmists both of this and of the foregoing psalm were that Eman and Ethan whom the first of the Annals [1 Paralipomenon], in the sixth chapter, reviews among the singers of the family of Levi. Let others more diligent than I sift this opinion.

The THREE SONS of Korach, or Chorhe, whose names are reviewed in the first of Paralipomenon — namely Asir, Elkana, and Abiasaph — these three with common labor composed eleven psalms ⁷⁸, that is:

XLII. XLIIII. XLV. XLVI. XLVII. XLVIII. XLIX. LXXXIIII. LXXXV. LXXXVII. LXXXVIII.

IDITHUM, a most eminent singer, who upon the harp prophesied over those who confessed and praised the lord, set to melody one psalm ⁷⁹, which is the thirty-ninth in number, and begins, “I SAID, I will keep my ways.”

AND these are the authors of the whole psalter, inscribed at the heads of the psalms according to the Hebrew verity: besides whom certain others also are set at the beginnings of the psalms in the Greek codices, as for instance:

EZECHIEL AND JEREMIAS, to whom is ascribed the sixty-fifth psalm, “A hymn, O God, becometh thee in Syon.”

The SONS OF JONADAB, with whose name is inscribed the seventy-first psalm, “IN thee, O lord, have I hoped; let me not be confounded forever.”

JEREMIAS the prophet, to whom is ascribed psalm CXXXVII, “UPON the rivers of Babylon.”

AGGAEUS AND ZACHARIAS, the prophets, with whose names are inscribed the psalms written below, namely:

Thus far of the authors of the book of Hymns — which Jerome affirms to consist, among the Hebrews, of various kinds of verse ⁸⁰, not otherwise than the poems of Pindar among the Greeks and of Horace among the Latins. Rabbi David Kimchi teaches that this is the custom of the Hebrew poets: that the songs in which certain illustrious arguments are treated they dispose according to the series of the Hebrew alphabet, that they may be more easily imprinted on the memory, and, once imprinted, may cleave the more tenaciously. And in this order, as Cardinal Cajetan also shows, seven of the more excellent psalms of this volume were composed ⁸¹, namely:

Jerome, however, in the epistle to Paula Urbica ⁸², writes that only five psalms are found disposed alphabetically ⁸³, and that they are deceived who reckon more. Epiphanius, in the book On weights and measures, writes that the volume of the psalms is distinguished among the Jews into five small books, or sections: of which the first runs from the first [psalm] to the fortieth; the second from the forty-first to the seventy-first; the third from the seventy-second to the 88th; the fourth from the eighty-ninth to the hundred-and-fifth; the fifth from the hundred-and-sixth to the last. And at the end of all of these is set a double Amen, which the LXX rendered Fiat, fiat [So be it, so be it]. Chrysostom judges that Esdras, after the Babylonian captivity, gathered these psalms, dispersed here and there, into this volume which we now have. ⁸⁴ But Athanasius in his Synopsis writes that this was done before the captivity by the friends of king Ezechias — asserting that out of the psalms of David, which he affirms to have been three thousand, they collected only a hundred and fifty ⁸⁵, the rest being hidden away, lest they should come into the hands of all. All the aforesaid ten psalmographers flourished at nearly the same times ⁸⁶ — namely about the year of the founded world 2940 [printed bis 1940], but before Christ 1400 [so printed; the figures do not agree]. There are borne about also other writings under the name of David, which are reviewed in the following volume.

THE THREE BOOKS OF SOLOMON

SALOMON — or שלמה Scelomo, who in the sacred letters is called also ידידיה Iedidia, and קהלת Koeleth — son of king David, and king of Jerusalem ⁸⁷; whose like God himself testified never to have been before, nor to have been after, nor to be hereafter: he composed, according to the number of his names, three books. ⁸⁸ Of which the first the Hebrews call משלי Misle, the Greeks Παροιμίαι, the Latins Proverbia [Proverbs]; because in it adages, similitudes, and certain common sentences concerning the various events of human affairs

eventibus are referred [gathered], necessary for the ordering of life. Its latter part — namely from the twenty-fifth chapter to the end — Sebna and the other scribes of Ezechias, king of Juda, collected out of other volumes. ⁸⁹ Now the book of Proverbs contains, as the author of the Hebrew Questions upon the third book of Kings writes, nine hundred and fifteen verses; in which three thousand parables are comprehended ⁹⁰ — those, no doubt, of which it is written in the third volume of Kings: “And Salomon spoke three thousand parables.” ⁹¹

The SECOND book Salomon himself inscribed קהלת Coheleth; the Greeks, Ἐκκλησιαστής, Ecclesiastes; we may call it the Preacher (Concionator) ⁹²: because his discourse, as Jerome says ⁹³, is directed not to one man in particular, as in the Proverbs, but to all men generally — teaching that all things which are in the world are perishable and brief, and for this cause to be desired not at all. But the Hebrews, judging a little otherwise, will have both Salomon himself and this book to be called קהלת Koeleth on account of the admirable wisdom which was copiously gathered together in Salomon and in this volume.

The THIRD is called by the Hebrews שיר השירים Scir hascirim, by the Greeks Ἆισμα ᾀσμάτων, by us the Canticle of Canticles ⁹⁴: because it is more excellent and more illustrious than the other canticles, whether of Salomon or of other authors — containing, under the metaphor of the bridegroom and the bride, wondrous mysteries, and the ineffable philanthropy [loving-kindness] of God toward the soul of man. This book — together with the exordium of the book of Genesis, and the beginning and end of Ezechiel — the ancient hebrews, on account of its hidden senses, attended with such veneration that they would not have it read except after the thirtieth year of age. ^{95 96} And among Christians very many expositors of no contemptible name, led by the same reverence, have judged that the explanation of this little book is not to be touched in youth, but to be reserved as a solace of Christian old age and a viaticum of the holy passage — after the example of those holy men Bernard of Clairvaux, Gilbert of Hoyland, Thomas Aquinas, and John Gerson, to whom it befell happily to put off mortality in the meditation and exposition of this work. ⁹⁷ There are those who say that the sentences of these three books were collected by Esaias the prophet ⁹⁸ out of the various books of Canticles and of Proverbs which the divine scripture records to have been composed by Salomon; and that they were preserved by the instinct of the holy spirit, as being more useful than the rest, and compacted into these three little books. These Isidore, from Josephus and Jerome, affirms to have been written by Salomon in hexameter and pentameter verses ⁹⁹, and that the last part of the book of Proverbs is closed with an alphabet [acrostic], which is reckoned in Iambic trimeter. It is agreed that Salomon, besides these books, wrote other volumes also, among which the book of Wisdom is counted; but of these we shall speak in the following volume. Salomon died in the year from the founding of the world two thousand nine hundred and seventy, in the ninety-second year before the nativity of Christ [so printed; read: the nine hundred ninety-second].

ESAIAS

IESCAEIAHU ישעיהו — or, as we say, Isaias, or Esaias, or Jesaias, which is interpreted the Salvation of the lord — prophet, son of Amoz, a citizen of Jerusalem, noble in race, of the tribe of Juda, wrote the book of his prophecies: which, the holy spirit enlightening him, he pronounced under four kings of Juda succeeding one another ¹⁰⁰ — namely Ozias, Joatham, Achaz, and Ezechias — against Judaea and Jerusalem, and against the nations, chiefly the Babylonian, Philistine, Damascene, Egyptian, Idumaean, and Tyrian. And in this book, as Jerome says, whatever of Physics, of Ethics, of Logic — whatever of the mysteries of the holy scriptures the human tongue and the sense of mortals can receive — he embraced, with a grace of speech and an elegance of polished diction supreme above the other prophets. ¹⁰¹ The narration of the whole book is prose, distinguished by cola and commata and finished in all its rhythms, except three canticles — namely of the Vineyard, of the city of Syon, and of king Ezechias — which, together with the prayer of Esaias, Isidore testifies to march in hexameter and pentameter verses. Now Esaias brought forth, concerning the advent of Christ our savior, his incarnation, miracles, preaching, life, passion, death, resurrection, and glory, testimonies so many, so magnificent, and so open, that he seems not to prophesy of his events to come, but rather to write a history of his deeds already past — and to fill the part of an evangelist rather than of a prophet. ¹⁰² And hence, I judge, our lord JESUS Christ chose for himself this one among all the prophets, to read and expound publicly first in the synagogue of his own country. ¹⁰³ Esaias dies under the most impious king Manasses, cut asunder into two parts by his command ¹⁰⁴, because he had called the nobles of the royal house princes of the Sodomites, and had said that he had seen God sitting upon a lofty throne. And he was buried under the oak of Rogel, in the tribe of Benjamin, about the year from the founding of the world three thousand two hundred and forty, and before the birth of Christ the seven hundred twenty-eighth. He is said to have written besides these things others also, which we shall note in the book next following.

JEREMIAS

IRMEIAHU ירמיהו — or, as we say, Jeremias, that is, the Exalted — prophet and priest, from Anathoth, a hamlet three miles from Jerusalem, son of Helchias the high priest, who in the eighth year of Josias, king of Juda, found in the house of the lord the book of the divine law ¹⁰⁵, lost for many years through the negligence of the preceding kings: he began, when still quite a youth, to prophesy, and to commit his vaticinations to letters — in a speech indeed unpolished, and well-nigh rustic ¹⁰⁶, but sublime in the majesty of its senses. Now he wrote — Baruch, the son of Neerias, taking it down from his mouth ¹⁰⁷ — the book of his prophecies and visions, which he received from heaven, concerning the disaster of the Jews and the future church of Christ, through two-and-forty years: that is, from the thirteenth year of king Josias down to the destruction of the city and the removal of the remnants of Juda into Egypt. To which volume Baruch adjoined a last chapter, borrowed in almost the same words from the end of the fourth book of Kings, so that, by the commemoration of the disaster of Jerusalem which is related in that chapter, he might pave a way for readers to the next following book — איכה Eca, or קינות Kinoth, that is, the book of Lamentations: in which Jeremias the prophet bewailed with mournful song the lamentable overthrow of the city and the captivity of the people, [the songs] being digested into Alphabetic order by verses, in such a manner that the first should begin from Aleph, the second from Beth, the third from Ghimel, and so on to the end — imitating in this David and Salomon, of whom the latter composed the last part of the Proverbs, the former seven psalms, in metrical alphabets. Now in these lamentations there are four alphabets: of which the two first, as Jerome testifies, are written in a verse not very unlike the Sapphic meter, since a comma [closing colon] of heroic verse concludes three versicles which are joined to one another and begin from a single letter; but the third alphabet is woven in trimeter, and the triple verses begin from three letters each — but the same [letter thrice]; the fourth alphabet is like the first and the second. Rabbi Salomon judges this book of Lamentations to be that which — as you have it in Jeremias, chapter thirty-six — the profane king Joachim, when its beginning had been read, cast into the fire, and in hatred of the prophecy burned up; and that Jeremias, summoning Baruch the scribe, at God’s command dictated it anew, and added the fourth alphabet with its threefold series of letters, whereas in the earlier exemplar he had set down only three simple alphabets. Jeremias lived under the kings Josias, Joachim, and Sedechias, down to the removal of the remnants of Juda into Egypt — whither he too was carried off by Joanan, son of Caree; and he perished in Taphnes [Thaaphnes], overwhelmed with stones by his own people ¹⁰⁸, and was buried in that same place, about the year from the founding of the world three thousand three hundred and fifty: although Victorinus the martyr and very many other most ancient fathers opine otherwise, who taught that he is still alive ¹⁰⁹, and is to be slain, together with Elias, by Antichrist in the last age of the world. There are borne about also certain other writings under his name, of which we shall speak in the following book.

EZECHIEL

IECHEZKEL יחזקאל, or Ezechiel — which is interpreted the strength or the dominion of the lord — prophet and priest, son of Buzi a priest, and himself a priest, of the land of Sarera, wrote a prophetic book of the visions and oracles revealed to him by God within the space of twenty years — that is, from the fifth year of the deportation of king Jechonias, with whom he himself was led away into Chaldaea (and he began to prophesy by the river Chobar), down to the twenty-fifth year of the same deportation, which was the first captivity of Juda, when the wrath of God dropped down upon Jerusalem. His style is neither eloquent enough, nor altogether rustic, but tempered out of both. Moreover, the mysteries of his narration are wrapped in such obscurities that among the Hebrew Rabbins it has been provided by tradition that no one should ever dare to explicate the first chapter of the book, nor the end — that is, the eight later chapters — unless he have completed the 30th year of his age. ¹¹⁰ Jerome — who first of all expositors dared to compose commentaries on the whole of Ezechiel ¹¹¹ — expressed the most abstruse difficulty of this book by the most apt similitude of the Cretan labyrinth ¹¹², in these verses of Virgil:

Here is the toil, that house, and the inextricable maze; as once in lofty Crete, the labyrinth, they say, held a path woven between blind walls, and a doubtful deceit of a thousand ways, whereby the unretraced and irretraceable wandering might baffle the signs of those who followed. May the Spirit himself unloose the wiles and windings of that house; and, I pray, its blind traces — thou being our guide, O Christ!

Ezechiel dies in Chaldaea, cut down by the leader of his own nation ¹¹³, whom he had rebuked for the worship of idols; and he was buried in the land of the Spyrians, in the field of Maur, in the tomb of Sem and Arphaxad, the forefathers of Abraham, about the year from the founding of the world three thousand three hundred and sixty. Josephus, in the tenth of the Antiquities, relates that Ezechiel, besides this book, composed also another volume of vaticinations; concerning which, see in the book that follows next after this one.

DANIEL

DANIEL דניאל, that is, Judged by the lord, a prophet of the tribe of Juda, born of the royal nobles in upper Bethebero, not far from Jerusalem — while he was yet a boy, was led away to Babylon with Joakim, king of Juda, in the third year of his reign; and he was made an eunuch of the king of the Chaldaeans, that in him might be fulfilled the vaticination of Esaias, which he uttered over king Ezechias, saying: “Of thy sons, who shall be born of thee, they shall take away, and they shall make eunuchs in the house of the king.” ¹¹⁴ He put forth the book of his prophecy, in which he comprehended illustrious and most certain vaticinations concerning all the kingdoms of the whole world, and especially concerning the glorious and eternal kingdom of Christ ¹¹⁵; and he compressed into the same volume all the histories of all nations which were written after his times. For the exact understanding of which, Jerome admonishes that a manifold history of the Chaldaeans, Greeks, and Latins is necessary ¹¹⁶ — namely of Sutorius [Callinicus], Diodorus, Hieronymus [of Cardia], Polybius, Posidonius, Claudius Theon, Andronicus, and Josephus, and of those whom Josephus adduces; but chiefly of Titus Livius, Trogus Pompeius, and Justin, who narrate the whole history of Daniel’s last vision, and describe, from Alexander down to Caesar Augustus, the wars of Syria and Egypt — that is, of the Seleuci, the Antiochi, and the Ptolemies.

It is to be observed, moreover, that this whole book is completed in four parts: of which the first — that is, from the beginning to those words of the second chapter, namely, THE CHALDAEANS ANSWERED THE KING IN SYRIAC ¹¹⁷ — is narrated in the hebrew speech. The second, which proceeds thence to the vision of the third year of Balthasar — that is, to the end of the seventh chapter — is written in Hebrew letters indeed, but in the Syrian, that is, the Chaldaic, tongue. The third, to the end of the twelfth chapter, is written again in hebrew eloquence. The fourth and last, concerning Susanna and Bel, was written in greek, out of the Greek edition of Theodotion of Ephesus — who also inserted the prayer of Azarias and the hymn of the three children, put forth by himself in greek, into the third chapter of the same book. This book, moreover, begins, among us as among the Hebrews, thus: In the third year of the reign of Joachim, king of Juda, came Nabuchodonosor, king of Babylon, etc. But the vulgate edition of the greeks, and the very Synopsis of Athanasius (in which the beginnings of all the sacred volumes are recorded), take the beginning of the book from the history of Susanna — because it befell while Daniel was yet a boy ¹¹⁸ — in these words: Καὶ ἦν ἀνὴρ οἰκῶν ἐν Βαβυλῶνι, καὶ ὄνομα αὐτῷ Ἰωακείμ, that is, And there was a man dwelling in Babylon, and his name was Joachim, etc., down to the end of the same history, which in our codices also is contained in chapter 14 [so printed; the history of Susanna stands as chapter 13 in our codices]. Which being completed, there follow immediately those words, In the third year of the reign of Joachim — whence our exemplars, together with those of the Hebrews, take their beginning. Now this same book, according to the hebraic verity, ends in those words: But thou, Daniel, go to the appointed end, and thou shalt rest, and shalt stand in thy lot at the end of the days — which among us are read at the close of the twelfth chapter; but the Greeks, together with us, finish the present book in those words of the history of Bel and the dragon: Καὶ κατεβρώθησαν παραχρῆμα ἐνώπιον αὐτοῦ — that is, And they were devoured in a moment before him. Daniel lived in the captivity of Babylon, most acceptable to the kings of the Assyrians; and he died in the times of Cyrus, king of the Persians, in Babylon, and there was buried with great honors, about the year from the founding of the world ter 1400 [thus mixed in the print; i.e. three thousand four hundred]. ¹¹⁹ His book, together with the volume of Ezechiel, Isidore reckons to have been written down by the wise men of the Hebrews. The Greeks divide the whole volume into twelve visions: of which the first contains the history of Susanna, the last the destruction of the Dragon and the rapture of Abakuk.

OSEA

HOSCEA הושע, that is, Saviour, son of Beeri, sprung from the town of Belometh, in the tribe of Isachar, wrote a book commatice [in short clauses], and as it were digested by sentences, of the prophecies put forth by himself against the ten tribes of Israel under the name of Ephraim, of Samaria, and of the house of Joseph: in which, beyond the other prophets, he vaticinated of the vocation of the gentiles and the reprobation of the Hebrews. ¹²⁰ He lived under Ozia, Joathan, Achaz, and Ezechia, kings of Juda, synchronous with Esaias the prophet; and he died, and was buried in his own country, about the year from the founding of the world three thousand three hundred and forty. ¹²¹

JOEL

IOEL יואל, that is, Beginning, son of Pethuel, sprung from the field of Bethor, of the tribe of Ruben, wrote a little book of prophetic forewarnings; in which he foretold what great evils hung over the world ¹²², and especially over the two tribes which are called Juda and Jerusalem, and Jacob, on account of its many and grievous crimes — announcing also mysteries concerning the kingdom of Christ and the mission of the holy spirit. He was famous under king Joram, son of Achab, king of Israel: in whose times he both foresaw and experienced the great famine that was to be in the land; and he departed this life a little after, and with glory and honor was buried in Bether, about the year from the founding of the world three thousand and fifty, but before Christ the nine hundred and eighth. ¹²³

AMOS

AMOS עמוס, that is, Bearing, from the town of Thecue — which Epiphanius places in the tribe of Zabulon, but Jerome hands down to be six miles distant, toward the southern quarter, from holy Bethlehem, in the tribe of Juda ¹²⁴ — since he was not a prophet, nor the son of a prophet, but a plebeian man and a shepherd ¹²⁵, plucking the mulberries of the brambles, suddenly and by divine miracle called into the order of prophets: he prophesied against the ten tribes of Israel, some things also against the nations neighboring the land of Israel, and against the kingdom of Juda, preaching even against the temple itself; and he transmitted his vaticinations to posterity in a single volume. He was famous under Ozia, king of Juda, and Jeroboam, son of Joas, king of Israel: by whom, and by the son of Amasias, priest of Bethel — whom he himself had rebuked concerning the two golden calves — he fell, transfixed with a nail through the temples, about the year from the founding of the world three thousand one hundred and ten. ¹²⁶

ABDIAS

OVADIA עבדיה, or Abdias, that is, the Worshipper of God, was born, as Epiphanius writes, in Sichem [Sichera] in the field of Leththacmar. He, before he began to prophesy, bore the dignity of a Semicenturion, or Quinquagenarius [captain of fifty], under Ochozias, king of Israel: by whom when — after two companies of fifty had been consumed by celestial fire — he had been sent to apprehend Helias the prophet, deserting the king he adhered to him, and was made his disciple. But Jerome judges that he was that man who ¹²⁷, as is read in the third book of Kings ¹²⁸, in the times of Achab and Jezabel fed a hundred prophets hidden away in caves. Certain of the Rabbins think that he was a proselyte from Idumaea [Aedomea], because his little book of prophecy was written chiefly against the Edomites [Aedomeos] — that is, the Chaldaeans [so printed] — and the nations which afflicted Israel. He lived about the year from the founding of the world three thousand and sixty ¹²⁹: whose sepulcher in the times of Jerome was to be seen in Sebaste, which of old was Samaria, together with the mausoleum of Heliseus the prophet and of John the Baptist.

JONAS

IONA יונה, whose name signifies a Dove, as is had in the third volume of Kings ¹³⁰, was the son of Amithai the prophet, from the region of Opher, from the hamlet of Geth — which in the times of Jerome was called Diocaesaria [so printed; Jerome says rather that it lay at the second milestone from Sepphoris, itself then called Diocaesarea], situated at the second milestone from Sephorim toward Tyberias, in the tribe of Aser. Yet Epiphanius hands down that he was born in Gath, or in Chauathamaum, in the tribe of Dan, not far from Azotus, a city of the Palestinians, near the sea; and that he was the son of the widow of Sarepta, whom Helias the prophet raised up when dead at Sarepta of Sidonia ¹³¹ — the mother afterward saying to him, NOW I have known that thou art a man of God, and the truth is in thy mouth ¹³²: and for this cause the boy was called the son of Amithai, that is, of truth, because, Helias the prophet speaking true, he was brought forth again into this light. He, when he had come to man’s estate, prophesied first of the restitution of Damascus, and of Hemath, and of the borders of the kingdom of Israel, made through Hieroboam, king of Israel; then, sent to Ninive, the metropolis of the Assyrians, founded by king Ninus beside the river Lycus, he converted that city by his preaching to penitence: and this history — in which the death and resurrection of Christ is figured — he committed to a small book. He lived in the times of Osea, Amos, and Esaias; and he died in the land of Saar, and in the same place was buried in the cave of Cenezaeus the judge, about the year from the founding of the world three thousand two hundred and forty. ¹³³

MICHAEAS

MICHA מיכה, that is, Humility, prophet, born in Morasti [in Morastite] — which, near Eleutheropolis of Palestine, in the tribe of Ephraim, is a hamlet not great; or, as Jonathan the Chaldaean hands down, from the city of Maresa, which is in the tribe of Juda — wrote a book of the vaticinations which the days of Joatham, Achaz, and Ezechias, kings of Juda, he pronounced over Samaria and Jerusalem — vaticinating against the kings, judges, priests, and false prophets, who had cast away the word of the lord and had followed impiety; and the advent also of Christ the Saviour, and the place of his nativity, he openly foretold. ¹³⁴ He dies cast headlong from a high place; and he was buried in Morasti, his own country, near the Polyandrium [common burying-place], in the year from the founding of the world almost three thousand two hundred and forty. ¹³⁵

NAHUM

NACHUM נחום, or Nahum, that is, the Consoler, as Epiphanius asserts, born in the town of Elkesei beyond the river Jordan toward Begabar, of the tribe of Simeon — or, as it pleases Jerome, from Helchesei, which was a ruined hamlet in Galilaea ¹³⁶ — vaticinated, after Jonas the prophet, against the Ninivites, because, after the pardon obtained from God, they had again perpetrated heavier crimes; and he concluded in a small volume his prophecy Of the subversion of Ninive and of the whole kingdom of the Assyrians — which is thought to have been afterward accomplished by Nabuchodonosor in the first year of his empire. ¹³⁷ He dies under the impious king Manasses, and was buried in Bagabar, about the year from the founding of the world three thousand two hundred and forty-five. ¹³⁸

ABACUCH

CHAVAKKUK חבקוק, or Abacuch, that is, the Wrestler, prophet, sprung from the field of Bezochar, of the tribe of Simeon: at God’s command — as is written in the second chapter of his own prophecy — he drew up a book of vaticinations against Babylon and Nabuchodonosor, king of the Chaldaeans, who overthrew Jerusalem and the temple, and brought upon the kingdom of the Jews evils so great as they had never suffered from any tyrant. He lived in the age of the Babylonian captivity ¹³⁹; at which time also he was carried off with a dinner by an angel into Chaldaea, to Daniel shut up in the den of the Lions ¹⁴⁰; and he departed this life two years before the return of the Judaic people from Babylon, and with great honors was interred in his own field, in the year from the founding of the world ter 1400 and 16 [thus mixed in the print; i.e. three thousand four hundred and sixteen]. ¹⁴¹ There is numbered also another Apocryphal writing of Abacuch, in the following volume.

SOPHONIAS

ZEPHANIA צפניה, or Sophonias, that is, the Secret [hidden one] of the lord, prophet, a Sarabathide — that is, from the mountain Sarabatha — son of Chusi, grandson of Gedalias, great-grandson of Amarias, great-great-grandson of Ezechias, composed one book, in which with wondrous and luminous brevity he ran through the vaticinations put forth by himself concerning the overthrow of Jerusalem and the devastation of the whole kingdom of the Jews. He was famous under Josias, king of Juda, synchronous with Jeremias the prophet, in the year from the founding of the world three thousand three hundred and thirty. ¹⁴²

AGGAEUS

CHAGGI חגי, or Aggaeus, that is, Festive and Glad, returned while quite a youth from Babylon into Judaea, and by his vaticinations impelled the people to the re-edification of the temple of God, threatening them with innumerable evils unless they pressed on with the building: and he saw with his own eyes the structure of the temple completed, and there, first of all men, sang ALLELUIA in the praise of God ¹⁴³; and his joyful prophecies — of the return of the people, of the re-edification of the temple, and of the overthrow of the hostile nations — he left digested in a very short book. He dies at Jerusalem fifty years after the return from Babylon, in the year from the founding of the world ter 1469 [thus mixed in the print; i.e. three thousand four hundred and sixty-nine]. ¹⁴⁴

ZACHARIAS

ZECHARIA זכריה, that is, Mindful of the lord, prophet, and son of Barachias, grandson of Iddo, from the land of the Chaldaeans [printed Chalstęorum], wrote a book, beyond the other twelve prophets the longest and the most obscure, having almost the same argument as Aggaeus — of the re-edification of the temple, yet treating more fully of the city of Jerusalem than of the temple — and containing visions exceedingly obscure, not unlike the visions of Daniel; in explicating which many illustrious wits, as well of the Jews as of the Christians, have sweated. He passed away, worn out with long old age, in Judaea, and was interred next to Aggaeus the prophet, about the year from the founding of the world ter 1450 [i.e. three thousand four hundred and fifty].

MALACHIAS

MALACHI מלאכי, or Malachias, that is, my Angel or my Messenger: he is thought by some to have been an Angel, who coming from heaven assumed a body, that he might vaticinate to Israel the things which had been commanded by God — which opinion Jerome fastens upon Origen. ¹⁴⁵ But Epiphanius writes that he was born in the town of Sopha, in the tribe of Zabulon, and obtained the name of Angel because he was of surpassing beauty, and endowed with most blameless manners. Jonathan the Chaldaean and the rest of the Hebrews hold that he was Esdras the scribe and priest, because all the things which are contained in his book this prophet also commemorates, saying: THE LIPS of the priest keep knowledge, and they require the law from his mouth, because he is the angel of the lord. ¹⁴⁶ But whosoever he may have been who wrote the book under the name of Malachias, it matters little; since the authority of his book labors under no suspicion, but is cited by the Evangelists in testimony of the truth. Malachias was famous about the year from the founding of the world three thousand four hundred ¹⁴⁷, in the year before Christ almost the five hundredth; and he wrote this book against the impure life of his people, and especially against the wicked manners of their priests: who, after the return from Babylon and the restoration of the temple, having turned back again to their former foulnesses, had begun to offer the oblations and the divine sacrifices with contaminated souls and bodies.

APPENDIX

APPENDIX FROM THE BOOK OF THE WAYS OF THE HOLY TONGUE of Rabbi Moses Kimchi: in which, according to the tradition of the Rabbins, are most briefly run through the writers of the holy books of the first order, which alone are in authority among the Hebrews.

MOSES, the man of God, wrote the five fifths of the law — that is, the Pentateuch — except eight verses, from these words, AND MOSES DIED, etc., to the end of the law; and the book of Job.

JEHOSCUA [Joshua] wrote his own book, and the eight verses of the law.

SAMUEL wrote his own book — that is, the first and second of Kings, as we call them — and the book of Judges, and Ruth.

ISAIAS wrote his own book, and the book of Proverbs, and the book of the Canticle of Canticles, and the book of Ecclesiastes.

JEREMIAS wrote his own book, and the book of Kings, and the book of the Threni [Lamentations].

THE MEN OF THE GREAT SYNAGOGUE wrote the book of Jehezekel, and the book of the Twelve — that is, of the Twelve minor prophets — and the book of Daniel, and the volume of Esther.

DAVID AND THE TEN PROPHETS wrote the book of Hymns, that is, of the psalms.

EZRAS wrote his own book, [and] the genealogies of the words of the days — that is, of Paralipomenon — as far as those words, AND THE SONS OF JOSAPHAT HAD BRETHREN.

THE NUMBER of the verses of the law: five thousand eight hundred and forty-five.

OF THE PROPHETS: nine thousand two hundred and ninety-four.

OF THE HAGIOGRAPHA: eight thousand and sixty-four.

THERE IS FOUND, therefore, as the sum of all the verses of the reading of the Bible: twenty-three thousand two hundred and three verses.