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all Israel, dwelt in their cities; and when the seventh month A.C. 444 came, the children of Israel were in their cities.

NEHEMIAH VIII.

1 The religious manner of reading and hearing the law. 9 They comfort the people. 13 The forwardness of them to hear and be instructed. 16 They keep the feast of tabernacles.

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1 And all the people gathered themselves together as a Ezra iii. 1. one man into the street that was before the water gate; and they spake unto Ezra the scribe to bring the book of the r Ezra vii. 6. law of Moses, which the LORD had commanded to Israel.

2 And Ezra * the priest brought the law before the con

37 By virtue of the commission he had from the king, and the powers granted him thereby, Ezra had now reformed the whole state of the Jewish church, according to the law of Moses, in which he was excellently learned, and settled it upon that foundation upon which it afterwards stood to the time of our Saviour. The two chief things which he had to do, were to restore the observance of the Jewish law, according to the ancient approved usages which had been in practice before the captivity, under the direction of the prophets; and to collect together and set forth a correct edition of the Holy Scriptures: in the performance of both which, the Jews tell us, he had the assistance of what they call the Great Synagogue, a convention consisting of 120 men, who lived under the presidency of Ezra, and assisted him in both these works. The truth of this matter seems to have been, that these 120 men were principally elders, who lived in a continued succession from the first return of the Jews, after the Babylonish captivity, to the death of Simon the Just, and laboured in their several times, in the carrying on of the two great works above mentioned, till both were fully completed in the time of the said Simon the Just (who was made high priest of the Jews in the twenty-fifth year after the death of Alexander the Great,) and Ezra had the assistance of such of them as lived in his time. But the whole conduct of the work, and the glory of accomplishing it, is, by the Jews, chiefly attributed to him, under whose presidency, they tell us, it was done. And therefore they look on him as another Moses: for the law, they say, was given by Moses, but it was revived and restored by Ezra, after it had been in a manner extinguished and lost in the Babylonish captivity. And indeed, by virtue of that ample commission which he had from king Artaxerxes, he had an opportunity of doing more than any other of his nation; and he executed all the powers entrusted to him to the utmost, for the re-settling both of the ecclesiastical and political state of the Jews, in the best posture they were then capable of; and from hence his name is in so high esteem and veneration among the Jews, that it is a common saying among their writers, that if the law had not been given by Moses, Ezra was worthy by whom it should have been given.

But the great work of Ezra was his collecting together, and setting forth a correct edition of the Holy Scriptures, which he laboured much in, and went a great way in the perfecting of it. In the time of Josiah, through the impiety of the two preceding reigns of Manasseh and Ammon, the book of the law was so destroyed and lost, that besides that copy of it which Hilkiah found in the temple, (2 Kings xxii. 8. 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14.) there was then none other to be had; for VOL. II.

3 M

A.C. 444 gregation both of men and women, and all that could hear

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*Heb. that

hearing.

the surprise which Hilkiah is said to be in at the finding of it, and the grief which understood in Josiah expressed at the hearing of it read, do plainly shew, that neither of them had ever seen it before. And if the king and the high priest, who were both men of eminent piety, were without this part of Holy Scripture, it can scarce be thought that any one else then had it. But so religious a prince as king Josiah could not leave this long unremedied. By his order, copies were forthwith written out from this original; and search being made for all the other parts of Holy Scripture, both in the colleges of the sons of the prophets, and all other places where they could be found, care was taken for transcripts to be made out of these also, and thenceforth copies of the whole became multiplied among the people, all those who were desirous of knowing the law of their God, either writing them out themselves, or procuring others to do it for them. So that, though within a few years after the holy city and temple were destroyed, and the authentic copy of the law, which was laid up before the Lord, was burned and consumed with them; yet by this time many copies both of the law and the prophets, and all the other sacred writings, were got into private hands, who carried them with them into their captivity. That Daniel had a copy of the Holy Scriptures with him in Babylon, it is certain (Dan. ix. 11. 13.); for he quotes the law, and also makes mention of the prophecies of the prophet Jeremiah, (Dan. ix. 2.); which he could not do, had he never seen them. And in the sixth chapter of Ezra it is said, that on the finishing of the temple, in the sixth year of Darius, the priests and the Levites were settled in their respective functions, according as it is written in the law of Moses. But how could they do this according to the written law, if they had not copies of that law then among them? and this was near sixty years before Ezra came to Jerusalem. And farther, in the eighth chapter of Nehemiah, when the people called for the law of Moses to have it read to them, they did not pray Ezra to get it anew dictated unto him, but that he should bring forth the book of the law of Moses, which the Lord had commanded to Israel: which plainly shews, that the book was then well known to have been extant, and not to need such a miraculous expedient, as that of a divine revelation, for its restoration; and it would with many very much shock the faith of the whole, should it be held, that it owed its present being to such a revival; it being obvi ous for sceptical persons in this case to object, that he who should be said thus to revive it, then forged the whole. All that Ezra did in this matter, was to get together as many copies of the sacred writings as he could, and, out of them all, set forth a correct edition; in the performance of which, he took care of these following particulars.

I. He corrected all the errors that had crept into these copies through the negligence or mistakes of transcribers; for, by comparing them one with the other, he ascertained their true reading.

II. He collected together all the books of which the Holy Scriptures did then consist, and disposed them in their proper order, and settled the canon of Scripture for his time. These books he divided into three parts; 1st, the law; 2dly, the prophets; and 3dly, the Cetubim or Hagiographa, i. e. the holy writings; which division our Saviour himself takes notice of, Luke xxiv. 44, where he saith, "These are the words which I spake unto you, while I was yet with you, that all things might be fulfilled which are written in the law, and in the prophets, and in the palms, concerning me." For by the psalms, our Saviour means the

with understanding, upon the first day of the seventh A.C. 444 month.

whole third part called the Hagiographa: for that part beginning with the psalms, it was for that reason then commonly distinguished by that title, as usually with the Jews the particular books are named from the words with which they begin. Thus with them, Genesis is called Bereshith, Exodus Shemoth, Leviticus Vajikra, &c. because they begin with these Hebrew words. And Josephus makes mention of this same division. For he saith, in his first book against Apion, "We have only two and twenty books, which are to be believed as of divine authority; of which five are the books of Moses. From the death of Moses, to the reign of Artaxerxes the son of Xerxes king of Persia, the prophets, who were the successors of Moses, have written in thirteen books. The remaining four books contain hymns to God, and documents of life for the use of men." In which division, according to him, the law contains, 1. Genesis, 2. Exodus, 3. Leviticus, 4. Numbers, 5. Deuteronomy: the writings of the prophets, 1. Joshua, 2. Judges, with Ruth, 3. Samuel, 4. Kings, 5. Isaiah, 6. Jeremiah, with his Lamentations, 7. Ezekiel, 8. Daniel, 9. the twelve minor prophets, 10. Job, 11. Ezra, 12. Nehemiah, 13. Esther; and the Hagiographa, 1. the Psalms, 2. the Proverbs, 3. Ecclesiastes, 4. the Song of Solomon; which altogether make twenty-two books. This division was made for the sake of reducing the books to the number of their alphabet, in which are twenty-two letters. But at present, the Jews reckon these books to be twenty-four, and dispose of them in this order: 1st. the law, which contains, 1. Genesis, 2. Exodus, 3. Leviticus, 4. Numbers, 5. Deuteronomy; 2dly, the writings of the prophets, which they divide into the former prop! ets and the latter prophets; the books of the former prophets are, 6. Joshua, 7. Judges, 8. Samuel, 9. Kings; and the books of the latter prophets are, 10. Isaiah, 11. Jeremiah, 12. Ezekiel, and 13. the twelve minor prophets; 3dly. the Hagiographa, which are, 14 the Psalms, 15. the Proverbs, 16. Job, 17. the Song of Solomon, which they call the Song of Songs, 18. Ruth, 19. the Lamentations, 20. Ecclesiastes, 21. Esther, 22. Daniel, 23. Ezra, and 24. the Chronicles. Under the name of Ezra, they comprehend the book of Nehemiah: for the Hebrews, and also the Greeks, anciently reckoned Ezra and Nehemiah but as one book. But this order hath not been always observed among the Jews; neither is it so now in all places; for there hath been great variety as to this, not only among the Jews, but also among the Christians, as well Greeks as Latins. But no variation herein is of any moment; for in what order soever the books are placed, they are still the word of God, and no change as to this can make any change in that divine authority which is stamped upon them. But all these books were not received into the canon of the Holy Scriptures in Ezra's time: for MaLachi, it is supposed, lived after him; and in Nehemiah mention is made of Jaddua as high priest, and of Darius Codomannus as king of Persia, who were at least one hundred years after his time; and in the third chapter of the first book of Chronicles, the genealogy of the sons of Zerubbabel is carried down for so many generations, as must necessarily make it reach to the time of Alexander the Great; and therefore this book could not be put into the canon till after his time. It is most likely that the two books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther, as well as Malachi, were afterwards added in the time of Simon the Just, and that it was not till then that the Jewish canon of the Holy Scriptures was

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A. C. 444 to 433.

* Heb. from

the light.

3 And he read therein before the street that was before the water gate * from the morning until midday, before the

fully completed. And indeed these last books seem very much to want the exactness and skill of Ezra in their publication, they falling far short of the correctness which is in the other parts of the Hebrew Scriptures.

III. The third thing which Ezra did about the Holy Scriptures, in his edition of them, was, that he added in several places what appeared necessary for the illustrating, connecting, or completing of them; wherein he was assisted by the same Spirit, by which they were at first wrote. Of this sort we may reckon the last chapter of Deuteronomy, which, giving an account of the death and burial of Moses, and of the succession of Joshua after him, it could not be written by Moses himself, who undoubtedly was the penman of all the rest of that book. It seems most probable, that it was added by Ezra at this time. And such also may we reckon the several interpolations which occur in many places of the Holy Scriptures. For that there are such interpolations, is undeniable; there being many passages through the whole sacred writ, which create difficulties that can never be solved without the allowing of them. As for instance, Gen. xii. 6, it is remarked, on Abraham's coming into the land of Canaan, that the Canaanites were then in the land; which is not likely to have been said till after the time of Moses, when the Canaanites, being extirpated by Joshua, were then no more in the land. And Gen. xxii. 14, we read, "As it is said, to this day, in the mount of the Lord it shall be seen." But Mount Moriah (which is the mount there spoken of) was not called the mount of the Lord till the temple was built on it, many hundred years after. And this being here spoken of as a proverbial saying, that obtained among the Israelites in after ages the whole style of the text, doth manifestly point at a time after Moses, when they were in possession of the land in which this mountain stood. And therefore both these particulars prove the words cited to have been an interpolation. Gen. xxxvi. 3, it is written; "And these are the kings that reigned in the land of Edom, before there reigned any king over the land of Israel." Which could not have been said till after there had been a king in Israel; and therefore they cannot be Moses' words, but must have been interpolated afterwards. Exod. xvi. 35, the words of the text are; "And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, till they came to a land inhabited. They did eat manna, till they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.” But Moses was dead before the manna ceased; and therefore these cannot be his words, but must have been inserted afterwards. Deut. ii. 12, it is said, "The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime, but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them before them and dwelt in their stead, as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the Lord gave unto them." Which could not have been written by Moses, Israel having not till after his death entered into the land of his possession, which the Lord gave unto them. Deut. iii. 11, it is said, "Only Og king of Bashan remained of the remnant of giants; behold his bedstead was a bedstead of iron. Is it not in Rabbah of the children of Ammon?" The whole style and strain of which text, especially that of the last clause of it, plainly speaks it to have been written a long while after that king was slain; and therefore it could not be written by Moses, who died within five months after. In the same chapter, ver. 14, it is said, “Jair the son of Manssseh took all the country of Argob, unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maacsthi, and

REFORMATION BY NEHEMIAH.

men and the women, and those that could understand; and A.C. 444

called them after his own name, Bashan, Havoth, Jair, unto this day." The
phrase, unto this day, speaks a much greater distance of time after the fact related,
than those few months in which Moses survived after that conquest; and there-
fore what is there written must have been inserted by some other hand than that
of Moses, long after his death. And in the book of Proverbs, (which was cer-
tainly king Solomon's,) in the beginning of the twenty-fifth chapter it is written,
"These are the Proverbs of Solomon, which the men of Hezekiah king of Judah
copied out." Which must certainly have been added many ages after Solomon;
for Hezekiah was of the twelfth generation in descent from him. Many more
instances of such interpolated passages might be given. For throughout the
whole Scriptures they have been frequently cast in by way of parenthesis, where
they have appeared necessary for the explaining, connecting, or illustrating the
text, or the supplying what was wanting in it. But those already mentioned are
sufficient to prove the thing. Of which interpolations undoubtedly Ezra was the
author, in all the books which passed his examination; and Simon the Just of
all the rest which were added afterwards; for they all seemed to refer to those
latter times. But these additions do not detract any thing from the divine autho-
rity of the whole, because they were all inserted by the direction of the same
This as to Ezra is without dispute, he
Holy Spirit which dictated all the rest.
being himself one of the divine penmen of the Holy Scriptures; for he was most
certainly the writer of that book in the Old Testament which bears his name;
and is, upon good grounds, supposed to be author of two more, that is, of the two
books of Chronicles, as perchance also he was of the book of Esther. And, if the
books written by him be of divine authority, why may not every thing else be so
which he hath added to any of the rest; since there is all reason for us to sup-
pose that he was as much directed by the Holy Spirit of God in the one as he was
in the other? The great importance of the work proves the thing: for as it was
necessary for the church of God that this work should be done; so also was it
necessary for the work, that the person called thereto should be thus assisted in
the completing of it.

Thus

IV. Ezra changed also the old names of several places that were grown obsolete; putting, instead of them, the new names by which they were at that time called, that the people might the better understand what was written. Gen. xiv. 14, Abraham is said to have pursued the kings, who carried Lot away captive, as far as Dan; whereas the name of that place was Laish, till the Danites, long after the death of Moses, possessed themselves of it, and called it Dan, after the name of Dan their father, (Joshua xix. 47. Judges xviii. 29.); and therefore it could not be called Dan in the original copy of Moses, but that name must have been put in afterwards, instead of that of Laish, on this review. And so in several places in Genesis, and also in Numbers, we find mention made of Hebron: whereas the name of that city was Kirjath Arba, till Caleb, having obtained the possession of it after the division of the land, called it Hebron, after the name of Hebron, one of his sons; and therefore that name could not be in the text, till placed there long after the time of Moses, by way of exchange for that of Kirjath Arba, which, it is not to be doubted, was done at the time of this review. And many other like examples of this may be given, whereby it appears, that the study of those who governed the church of God in those times,

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