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THE BIBLE.

Many words are often used in reference to the Holy Writings which are not understood by all those who read or hear them. An explanation of these words will give information which, we believe, will be welcome to many; and will inspire sentiments agreeable to the decrees of the Church.

The word BIBLE comes from a Greek word which means The Book; and the collection of sacred writings in the Old and New Testaments are so called to shew their goodness before all other books. The Jews acknowledge the writings of the Old Testament only; while Christians revere both the Old Testament and the New.

The first five books of the Old Testament are called the PENTATEUCH, from a Greek word which means five volumes. The first of these is called GENESIS, because it tells of the generation or creation of the world: it also gives a history of the world for 2,369 years, till the death of Joseph. The second is called Exodus, from a Greek word which means the going out; because it gives the history of the going out of the Israelites from Egypt. It tells of things that happened for 145 years, from the death of Joseph to the making of the tabernacle. This

book contains THE DECALOGUE, or Ten Commandments imposed by God on the Jews. The third book is called LEVITICUS, because it tells of the rites and ceremonies and ministries of the priests and levites. The fourth, NUMBERS, as containing the numbering of the Israelites, and their history for nearly forty years. And the fifth, DEUTERONOMY, or the Second Law, because, while it teaches new precepts, it repeats the ordinances that had been given before.

These five books were written in the old Hebrew language, by Moses, or compiled by him from treatises already in existence. At verse 4, chap. ii. of Genesis, for example, he evidently begins a second account of the same events which he had already recapitulated. These five books are the only parts of the Bible which were acknowledged by the Samaritans; and were preserved by them unaltered, notwithstanding their rebellion and idolatry: while the Jews learned the Chaldean language during the Babylonish captivity, and it became their written and mother tongue.

For having obtained possession of the promised land, and flourished, with more or less glory, for about 900 years, the Jewish people had, in punishment of their crimes and idolatry, been oppressed by the Chaldean king, Nebuchodonoser the Second, who had taken the city of Jerusalem, destroyed the temple, and led

away the princes and people captives to Babylon. Here the wisdom and prophetic spirit of Daniel had shewed itself; and here the Jewish people had languished in captivity nearly seventy years, until Babylon itself had been taken by Cyrus with his Medes and Persians. For two years more, under the king, the uncle of Cyrus, the Jews and Daniel had been favoured and persecuted by turns; until Cyrus taking upon himself the empire, had been persuaded by Daniel (who had shewed him the prophecy of Isaiah in which he himself had been mentioned by name two hundred years before his birth) to issue the famous edict by which he restored their freedom and country to the Jews, and rebuilt for them the temple of Jerusalem.

It was after this Babylonish captivity that the holy writings were, with great difficulty and care, again collected by Ezra, or Esdras, a holy priest and teacher of the law, who, out of them all, prepared a correct edition in the Chaldean characters: he published them in their natural order, and settled the canon of Scripture for the time. It was probably in this captivity that many of the books of the Old Testament were lost, unless they were put out of the canon by Esdras: for, in the books which now exist, we find mention of others which are now no more -such, for example, as the book of Jasher, the book of the Wars of the Lord, the annals of the

they had themselves received, and with that which was delivered by Evangelists of whose truth they were certain, they could either reject them at once as false, or receive them as containing that which they knew to be true and to be the word of God. Thus it has been thought that the Asiatic bishops, who had besought St. John to write his gospel, recommended it to the churches by adding, in Chap. xxi, 24: This is that disciple who giveth testimony of these things and hath written these things; and we know that his testimony is true.

But many generations passed away before the Church deemed it necessary to put forth its authority to strengthen or withhold that of the bishops. It was not till the fourth century that a council assembled at Laodicea, and one at Carthage, while forbidding any but canonical books to be read in churches, declared what those books were. And even these judgments were not considered final; for St. Augustine, in the next century, lays down rules for judging between those which are and those which are not to be received as genuine. In the beginning of that century, Pope St. Innocent I. also gives a list of the Sacred Books, and orders all others to be condemned; and his decision was repeated in 494 by another pope (Gelasius) and by a council at Rome. The opinion of the Church thus established, was,

last of all, enforced by the great Council of Trent.

But to decide between inspired and unauthorised writings was not the only difficulty of the early Christians: for the text of even the most authentic copy could not be safely depended on. A Latin translation of the Greek Testament had indeed existed in the time of the Apostles, and had probably been approved by St. Peter when, as is stated, he governed the Church at Rome for twenty-five years. But so many people had translated different parts of the original, that great variations had crept into those in use, so that hardly two copies were alike and all these translations went by the name of THE VULGATE, or the translation into the vulgar tongue, which Latin then was. One of them was indeed known by the name of THE ITALIC, probably because it was used in Rome and Italy, and this one was considered better than any of the others: but it was needful to select one version from the number in circulation and to free it from all the alterations which unprincipled or ignorant copiers had made. In the fourth century, therefore, Pope Damasus directed St. Jerome to look over and to amend the Latin version of the Gospels by comparing it with the original Greek. The manner in which this was done by that holy doctor, gave great satisfaction to

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