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    thtrty-nine contained in the English and other modern versions of the Jewish Scriptures . Of these twenty-two books Josephus attributes five to Moses ; and it is evident , from his description of them , both as to the period of history which they comprise , and the general nature of their contents , that they must have been the same as those which still exist under the name of the great Jewish

    Lawgiver . Of the other books he ascribes thirteen to the prophets who succeeded Moses ; and the remaining four , he informs us , contained " hymns to God , and precepts for the conduct of human life . " But of the particular books included under each head of this three-fold division , if we except the first , we possess no certain information . The second probably contained all the books usually ascribed to the prophets , historical as well as prophetical , including that of Daniel ; and the third appears , from the description given

    of the writings contained in it , to have included the books of Psalms , Proverbs and Ecclesiastes , with the addition of some other book usually placed by the Jews among the Chetubim or Hagiographa . But although Josephus does not expressly enumerate the books of the prophets in this triple classification , other passages occur , in various parts of his writings , which amply supply the deficiency , and from which we are led to infer , without hesitation , that the whole of these books were familiar to

    him , and that he not only consulted them as forming part of the literature of his country , but reposed the most implicit faith in the predictions which they contained , and regarded those predictions as the infallible oracles of divine truth . He styles Isaiah , " the prophet from whom Hezekiah obtained an accurate

    knowledge of all future events : " * he quotes the prediction contained in Isa . xix . 18 , 19 , which Onias is said to have alleged , in order to promote his design of erecting a temple at Leontopolis , in Egypt ; and says that the accomplishment of this prediction took place about six hundred years after its delivery : j- he speaks of the book of prophecies which Isaiah left behind him , and alludes to the restoration of the Jews , and the rebuilding of the

    temple , as events which had been foretold by Isaiah nearly a century and a half before the temple was destroyed : J and , at the close of his account of Hezekiah ' s audience with the ambassadors of Merodach Baladan , and his subsequent interview with Isaiah , ( Isa . xxxix . ) he says , that " this prophet was universally acknowledged to be a holy and wonderful man in speaking that which was true , and that he committed all his prophecies to writing , and left them behind him in books , in order that their accomplishment might be traced by posterity from the events . " § Of Jeremiah he says , that he prowhich Jerusalem to be overtaken

    phesied concerning the calamities by was , and left behind him a written account of the capture of Babylon , and the final destruction of the Jewish nation under Vespasian and Titus : and of Ezekiel he remarks , that he delivered similar predictions , and was the first who bequeathed to posterity written descriptions of these events . || He speaks of ** the book of Daniel" as occupying a place " among the sacred writings ;•* quotes and refers to it repeatealy ; attests the accuracy of the predictions which it contains ; and sums up his testimony to the excellence of Daniel ' s character , as a prophet of God , in these words : " All these things Daniel left

    * Antiq . Lib . ix . C . xiii . § 3-f Ibid . Lib . xiii . C . iii . § 1 , 2 ; Bell Jud . Lib . vii . C . x . § 3 . X Antiq . Lib . xi . C . i . § 2 . § Ibid . Lib . x . C . ii . § 2 . | l Ibid . Lib . x * C . vi § 1 .

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    Canonical Authority rf the Boohs of the Prophets . $ 33

• Citation
  • Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), May 2, 1827, page 333, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1796/page/21/