THE

HEBREW SCRIPTURES.

CHAPTER I.

INTRODUCTION.

The belief in a supreme Being or Beings has been found to exist in almost every nation of the world. I use the qualifying expression almost, because travellers have discovered a few tribes of savages, who seemed entirely unconscious of the existence of a God, or of any power superior to the ordinary law of nature. These exceptions, therefore, do not interfere with the course of our present argument, which, being addressed to those who are living in a civilized country and not to ignorant savages, may assume as a fact an opinion so generally and almost universally entertained. Religion, which regulates the conduct of men, in their relation towards the Deity, is a term naturally varying according to the modes of belief prevalent in different countries. Experience also has shewn that, even among the same people, an exact identity of religious belief cannot long exist. This has been the case, even among the four principal religions, which, from their having been reduced to writing and promulgated to the world in a set canonical form, would, we might suppose, have saved the people who professed them, from this breach of unity. Yet we find that Jews, Christians, Brahmins and Mahometans are equally divided into sects, and disagree severally

among themselves as much as they are at variance generally with each other. The most remarkable feature in this universal spirit of variance, is the fact that, whilst all the sects who belong to the same faith, differ in their application of it, as widely as the imagination can conceive, they all appeal to the same religious books or Scriptures, as favouring their own individual views, and authorising their own particular practice. If this be true, it becomes not only important, but an absolute duty, to examine with the most scrupulous minuteness that standard, which, though in such general use among mankind, is perpetually producing such a want of uniformity, in what so intimately concerns us, both as a society and as individuals, namely truth, about our everlasting interests, and moral practice, as it regards our comfort and social happiness in this present life.

As I have before remarked, there are four principal religions, now prevalent among the civilized inhabitants of the earth these are; 1. The Brahmin, 2. the Mahometan, 3. the Christian, and 4. the Jewish. Of the three first it is sufficient to observe that the Brahmin-by which term, for want of knowing a better, I mean the religion of the Hindoos-is so revolting to common sense, that it would be a useless labour to discuss its tenets, or to balance its excellencies and its defects, among Europeans; the Mahometan is evidently the work of a man, making use of human fanaticism as his tool; and the Christian, though based on the noblest object, that of ameliorating and renovating the human race, and worthy to be considered apart, cannot, however, occupy our attention, until we have first directed our enquiry toward its parent, the religion of the Jews; because Christianity and Judaism are inseparably united; neither can exist without the other; or, at least, they can only abstractedly exist as separate religions; but in an historical point of view they are indivisible: they must maintain their ground or fall together: for, though

the practical precepts of Christianity may be taught without the slightest reference to the Jews, or to the Old Testament, yet the doctrinal parts of the Christian scheme, and all that gives to it the character of a Divine revelation, become destitute of meaning, until they are explained by the antecedents of the Jewish Scriptures, concerning the temptation of Eve, the fall of Adam, and his ejection from Paradise.

It seems, therefore, that the Old Testament is a volume of the highest value to Christians, because its contents are essential to the existence of our own creed, to which the older religion of the Jews is, in fact, the precursor. I have, therefore, made it the subject of the following work, in which it is proposed to enquire into the historical value of the several books of the Old Testament, their authors, the time when they were written, the harmony, as well as discrepancies, which exist between them, besides many other points which will incidentally arise, and may be useful in determining the Historical character of these Scriptures, and their value as evidences, concerning those accounts of the early history of the world, which are generally received among mankind, on their authority alone.

CHAPTER II.

CHRONOLOGY OF THE BOOKS WHICH FORM THE HEBREW CANON, THE OLD TESTAMENT.

The Old Testament, according to the English Bible, consists of thirty-nine books, written mostly in the Hebrew, but partly in a different language, called Chaldee, besides Apocryphal books, which exist in Greek or Latin only, and for that reason principally, have been considered by some classes of Christians, to possess less authority than the former, whilst by others they have been excluded from the Bible altogether. The names of these books are as follows:

The conclusion of Song of the three II. Maccabees

Malachi

Story of Susanna

Bel and the Dragon

Prayer of Manas.