Διόπερ τοῖς πειθομένοις μὴ ἀνθρώπων εἶναι συγγράμματα τὰς ἱερὰς βίβλους, αλλ' εξ ἐπιπνοίας τοῦ Ἁγίου Πνεύματος βουλήματι τοῦ Πατρὸς τῶν ὅλων διὰ ̓Ιησοῦ Χριστοῦ ταύτας αναγεγράφθαι καὶ εἰς ἡμᾶς ἐληλυθέναι, τὰς φαινομένας ὁδοὺς ὑποδεικτέον. ORIGENES, De Princip., lib. IV. ix. 66 Duo vero Cherubim pennis suis obumbrant Propitiatorium, id est honorant velando; quoniam mysteria ista ibi sunt: et invicem se adtendunt, quia consonant; duo quippe ibi Testamenta figurantur: et vultus eorum sunt in Propitiatorium, quia misericordiam Dei, in qua una spes est, valde commendant." S. AUGUSTIN., Quæst. in Exodum, lib. II. qu. cv. "Vox in excelso audita est lamentationis, fletus et luctus, Rachel plorantis filios suos.' Nec juxta Hebraicum, nec juxta Septuaginta, Matthæus sumsit testimonium * * * Ex quo perspicuum est, Evangelistas et Apostolos nequaquam ex Hebræo interpretationem alicujus sequutos; sed quasi Hebræos ex Hebræis, quod legebant Hebraice, suis sermonibus expressisse." S. HIERON., Comm. in Jerem., lib. VI. Τὴν θείαν αἰτιῶνται γραφὴν, μὴ τῷ περιττῷ καὶ κεκαλλωπισμένῳ χρωμένην λόγῳ, ἀλλὰ τῷ ταπεινῷ καὶ πεζῷ. S. ISIDOR. Pelus., Epist. lib. IV. lxvii. Οἱ θεσπέσιοι καὶ ὡς ἀληθῶς θεοπρεπεῖς, φημι δὲ τοῦ Χριστοῦ τοὺς ̓Αποστόλους, ἀρετή πάσῃ τὰς ψυχὰς κεκοσμημένοι, τὴν δὲ γλῶτταν ἰδιωτεύοντες, τῇ γε μὴν πρὸς τοῦ Σωτῆς ρος αὐτοῖς δεδωρημένη θείᾳ καὶ παραδοξοποιῷ δυνάμει θαρσοῦντες, τὸ μὲν ἐν περινοίᾳ καὶ λόγων τὰ τοῦ Διδασκάλου μαθήματα πρεσβεύειν, οὔτε ᾔδεσαν οὔτε ἐνεχείρουν. EUSEBIUS Pamph., Eccl. Hist. lib. III. xxiv. LECTURE VII. THE COMMISSION TO WRITE. THE FORM OF WHAT WAS WRITTEN. YEA, THEY MADE THEIR HEARTS AS AN ADAMANT STONE, LEST THEY SHOULD HEAR THE LAW, AND THE WORDS WHICH THE LORD OF HOSTS HATH SENT IN HIS SPIRIT BY THE FORMER PROPHETS.-Zechariah, vii. 12. HAVING examined those statements of the New Testament which, in express terms, ascribe Inspiration to our sacred books taken collectively, or from which the influence of the Holy Ghost upon their authors may be inferred,-it still remains for us to inquire whether the Old Testament, either by its own intimations confirms, or by the manner in which its language is made use of in the New, tends to support, the views hitherto maintained as to the co-operation of the Divine Spirit in the composition of the Bible. To the consideration of these questions the present Discourse must be chiefly devoted. The words of the text form a portion of an immediate revelation from God; the passage from which they are taken opening with the customary formula, "The word of the Lord came unto Zechariah, saying, Thus speaketh the Lord of Hosts." In this prophetic announcement two important facts are implied. It is implied, in the first place, that a collection of sacred writings was already in existence when Zechariah received this communication, -for not only "the Law," but also "the words which the Lord of Hosts hath sent by the former prophets," are expressly referred to and secondly, that those writings had been composed under Divine guidance,-for, with respect to the words of the prophets, Jehovah declares that He had sent them by "His Spirit ;" while the Law, strictly so called, is on all occasions represented in Scripture as the voice of God Himself. We meet with statements of a similar character in other portions of the Bible which were written at this same period ;-statements which possess the greater importance from the fact that they proceeded from those men to whom both Jewish tradition, and the most advanced criticism of modern times, unite in ascribing the formation of the Old Testament Canon: I mean Ezra and Nehemiah.1 ”.(מדובקים כאחד) one 1 This fact is conclusively established by Hävernick, "Einleitung," Th. 1. Abth. is. 27 ff. "All reasons," he observes, "if correctly estimated, lead us to the time of Ezra and Nehemiah, as that which can alone accord with the closing of the Canon:”— e. g. the circumstances of Jewish history (see infra, p. 284); the reverential allusions for the first time to the Canon, taken collectively as a sacred document, in the period which followed Ezra and Nehemiah (see supra, Lecture ii. p. 61, &c.); the refusal to receive as canonical such a work as the book of Ecclesiasticus, of which the claims to authority are so prominently advanced (see supra, p 55, note 2); the testimony of Josephus to the failure of a "succession of prophets" (see supra, p. 68) &c. Hävernick appeals, in the next place, to the Tradition of the Jews, the importance of which he justly insists upon. This Tradition expressly refers the collection of the sacred books to Ezra, and "the Great Synagogue." (1.) One of the oldest parts of the Talmud, the "Capita Patrum," or "Sayings of the Fathers" (see Mischna, ed. Surenhus. iv. p. 409), begins with the words: "Moses received the Law from Sinai, and transferred it to Joshua; Joshua to the Elders; the Elders to the Prophets; the Prophets to the men of the Great Synagogue," which consisted of one hundred and twenty Elders in the time of Ezra; among whom were Zerubbabel, Seraiah, the prophets Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi, &c.: see Surenhusius, ibid. (2.) The important passage in the Gemara of Babylon (Tr. Baba Bathra, fol. xv. col. 1), declares that "the Wise Men" "have left to us the Thorah, the Prophets, and the Kethubim, collected into one whole ( )." "Who," asks the Talmudists, "has inserted these books in the Canon (2)?" in which phrase, as Hävernick proves conclusively—and here he follows Vitringa (" In lib. Isai." t. i. p. 13) and Gesenius ("Der Proph. Jesaiah," i. s. 16), in opposition to De Wette ("Einleit." § 14, s. 17) and Hengstenberg ("Beiträge," i s. 2),-n can only mean "inserted" (i. e. in the Canon) or "edited." Thus n is employed in this passage to express that "Hezekiah and his College wrote out (or formed into one collection) Isaiah, Proverbs, Canticles, and Ecclesiastes,"-clearly referring to the statement of Scripture itself: "These are the Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah King of Judah copied out."-Prov. xxv. 1. It surely cannot be imagined that the Talmudists regarded "Hezekiah and his College" as the authors of the Book of Proverbs! This extract from the Gemara ends by ascribing to Ezra the book which bears his name, and the genealogies in the books of Chronicles; the completion of the Chronicles it ascribes to Nehemiah. "Jewish Tradition, therefore," concludes Hävernick, "concurs with historical, positive testimony in proving that Ezra, in connexion with other famous men of his time, completed the collection of the Sacred Writings."-loc. cit. s. 49. To his labors in arranging the Canon is clearly to be referred the origin of Ezra's title "A Scribe of the words of the commandments of the Lord and of His statutes to Israel;" A Scribe of the Law of the God of Heaven."-Ezra, vii. 11, 12; on which passages, taken in connexion with the Jewish Tradition already considered, was founded the opinion of the primitive Church. Thus S. Irenæus writes: [eòs] évétvevσev "Eodpa τῷ Ἱερεῖ * * * τοὺς τῶν προγεγονότων προφητῶν πάντας ἀνατάξασθαι λόγους, καὶ ἀποκαταστῆσαι τῷ λαῷ τὴν διὰ Μωσέως νομοθεσίαν. Contr. Har. iii. 21, p. 216; words which have been erroneously understood to imply that S. Irenæus adopted the modern fiction (2 Esdras, xiv. 21) that Ezra "composed anew" all the books of the Old Testament which had perished during the Exile. Thus the old Latin version renders ávarú§aobai by rememorare; and Valesius (Euseb. H. E., lib. v. c. 8, p. 222) by "denuo componeret." D. Massuet (in loc.) justly observes: "Verterem ego, digerere;" giving to úvarú§. its legitimate meaning. To the same effect Feuardentius (in loc.) quotes Tertullian: "Hierosolymis Babylonia expugnatione deletis, omne instrumentum Judaicæ literaturæ per Esdram constat restauratum."--De cultu mulier., c. iii. p. 171. Cf. Clemens Al., "Strom.," i. 22, p. 410. |