xii. APPENDIX. An Epitome of Jewish History, from the death of Alexander to the birth of Jesus Christ. Section IV.-State of affairs on the death of Antiochus § 1.-History of the Maccabees III. THE JEWS INDEPENDENT §1.-John Hyrcanus 2.-Alexander Jannæus 3.-Alexandra IV. JUDEA UNDER THE ROMANS Section I.-Hyrcanus II. II.-Herod the Great § 1.-Herod's Temple ... INTRODUCTION. wwwwww word Bible. Meaning of the Bible* properly means a book but the word is now exclusively applied to the Holy Scriptures. The Bible, how divided. The Bible is divided into two parts: The Old Testament, which contains 39 books, and the New Testament, which contains 27. Old Testament, how divided. The books of the Old Testa ment are subdivided into Books of the Law. (1.) The Books of the Law; The books of the Law are five in number, whence they are generally called the Pentateuch.† * From the Greek ßißλos, a book. From the Greek névтe тeúxoɩ, five books. B Their names. The names of these five books are: Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. By whom written. They were written by Moses, under Divine Inspiration. What they Their contents are a history contain. of the world from the creation to the death of Moses, 797 years after the Deluge. Historical Books of Old Testament. The Historical Books of the Old Testament comprise the next 12 books: Joshua; 1 and 2 Samuel; The Poetical Books. 1 and 2 Chronicles; Nehemiah; and The five Poetical Books of the Old Testament are: the book of Job, the Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastés, and Solomon's song. Prophets, how subdivided. The Prophetical Books are subdivided into the four greater and the twelve lesser or minor prophets. Names of the great prophets. The four greater prophets are: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and Daniel. The twelve minor Prophets are: Hosea, Joel, Amos, Obadiah, Jonah, Micah, Nahum, Habakkuk, Zephaniah, Haggai, Zechariah, and Malachi. Besides the 39 books already enumerated, are certain others, called Apocryphal (hidden), because they were read only in private by the ancient Jews, and not openly in their synagogues. They were not thought to be inspired, and were not received by the Jews into their Canon of Scrip ture. of the Bible. Original language The Original Language of the Old Testament was Hebrew, that of the New Testament Greek. 67 verses of Ezra, 200 of Daniel, and 1 verse of Jeremiah were composed in Chaldee. First English translation. The Bible was first translated into English by John Wicliffe, in the reign of Richard II. (A.D. 1380.) It was translated into Anglo-Saxon, by order of King Alfred, who undertook the version of the Psalms himself, but did not live to complete it. The version now used by English Protestants is the translation made in the reign of James I., by 47 "learned men chosen from the two Uni |
