cient manuscripts, the author is
dependent on the statements of those who have had the opportunity of
making original investigations.

INTRODUCTION

TO

THE OLD TESTAMENT.

FIRST DIVISION, GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER XIII.

NAMES AND EXTERNAL FORM OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

1. The word _Bible_ comes to us from the Greek (_ta biblia, the books_;
that is, emphatically, the sacred canonical books) through the Latin and
Norman French. In the ancient Greek and Latin churches, its use, as a
plural noun applied to the whole collection of sacred books of the Old
and New Testaments, can be traced as far back as the fifth century. In
the English, as in all the modern languages of Europe, it has become a
singular noun, and thus signifies THE BOOK--the one book containing in
itself all the particular books of the sacred canon.

In very ancient usage, the word _Law_ (Heb. _Torah_) was applied to the
five books of Moses; but there was no general term to denote the whole
collection of inspired writings till after the completion of the canon
of the Old Testament, when they were known in Jewish usage as: _The
Law_, _the Prophets_, and the _Writings_ (see below, No. 5). In
accordance with the same usage, the writers of the New Testament speak
of the "law and the prophets," and more fully, "the law of Moses, and
the prophets, and the psalms," Luke 24:44. And they apply to the
collected writings of the Old Testament, as well as to particular
passages, the term _the Scripture_, that is, _the writings_, thus: "The
Scripture saith," John 7:38, etc. Or they employ the plural number: "Ye
do err, not knowing the Scriptures," Matt. 22:29, etc. Once the epithet
_holy_ is added, 2 Tim. 3:15.

In 2 Pet. 3:16, the term _Scriptures_ is applied to at least the
epistles of Paul; apparently also to the other canonical
writings of the New Testament then extant. In the usage of
Christian writers, the application of this term to the books of
the New Testament soon became well established; but the above is
the only example of such an application that occurs in the New
Testament itself.

2. The terms _Old_ and _New Testament_ arose in the following way: God's
dealings with the Israelitish people, under both the patriarchs and
Moses, took the form of a _covenant_; that is, not a mutual agreement as
between two equal parties, but an _arrangement_ or _dispensation_, in
which God himself, as the sovereign Lord, prop