h
(under the names of the first and second of Ezra), and Jeremiah and
Lamentations (with the addition of the apocryphal Epistle of
Jeremiah--an inconsistency, or rather oversight, to be explained from
his constant habit of using the Septuagint version). In the present text
of Eusebius, the book of the twelve Minor Prophets is wanting. But this
is simply an old error of the scribe, since it is necessary to complete
the number of twenty-two. Jerome's list (Prologus galeatus) is the same,
only that he gives the contents of the Law, the Prophets, and the
Hagiographa in accordance with the Hebrew arrangement, placing Daniel in
the last class, and adding that whatever is without the number of these
must be placed among the Apocryphal writings. Smith's Dict. of the
Bible, Art. Canon. The catalogue of these two distinguished Christian
scholars--Origen of the Eastern church, and Jerome of the Western, both
of whom drew their information immediately from Hebrew scholars--is
decisive, and we need add nothing further.

19. The _Apocryphal books_ of the Old Testament were incorporated into
the Alexandrine version called the Septuagint; but they were never
received by the Jews of Palestine as a part of the sacred volume.
Concerning them and their history, see further in the Appendix to this
part.

CHAPTER XVI.

ANCIENT VERSIONS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

In the present chapter only those versions of the Old Testament are
noticed which were made independently of the New. Versions of the whole
Bible, made in the interest of Christianity, are considered in the
following part.

I. THE GREEK VERSION CALLED THE SEPTUAGINT.

1. This is worthy of special notice as the oldest existing version of
the holy Scriptures, or any part of them, in any language; and also as
the version which exerted a very large influence on the language and
style of the New Testament; for it was extensively used in our Lord's
day not only in Egypt, where it originated, and in the Roman provinces
generally, but also in Palestine; and the quotations in the New
Testament are made more commonly from it than from the Hebrew.

2. The Jewish account of its origin, first noticed briefly by
Aristobulus, a Jew (as quoted by Clement of Alexandria and Eusebius),
then given at great length in a letter which professes to have been
written by one Aristeas, a heathen and a special friend of Ptolemy
Philadelphus, king of Egypt, and the main part of which Josephus has