on of God."

18. The earliest notice of the _contents of the Hebrew Canon_ is that
contained in the prologue to the Greek translation of Ecclesiasticus,
where it is described as "the law, the prophets, and the other national
books," "the law, and the prophecies, and the rest of the books,"
according to the three-fold division already considered. Chap. 18, No.
4. Josephus, in the passage already referred to (against Apion, 1. 8),
says: "We have not among us innumerable books discordant and contrary to
each other, but only two-and-twenty, containing the history of all time,
which are justly believed to be divine. And of these five belong to
Moses, which contain the laws and the transmission of human genealogy to
the time of his death. This period of time wants but little of three
thousand years" (the longer chronology followed by him). "But from the
death of Moses to the reign of Artaxerxes, who was king of the Persians
after Xerxes, the prophets after Moses wrote the history of their times
in thirteen books. The remaining four contain hymns to God and precepts
for human life. From Artaxerxes to our time various books have been
written; but they have not been esteemed worthy of credence like that
given to the books before them, because the exact succession of the
prophets has been wanting." In this list the books of the Old Testament
are artificially arranged to agree with the number _two-and-twenty_,
that of the Hebrew alphabet. The four that contain "hymns to God and
precepts for human life" are, in all probability: Psalms, Proverbs,
Ecclesiastes, Canticles; and the thirteen prophetical books (see below)
are: (1) Joshua, (2) Judges and Ruth, (3) the two books of Samuel, (4)
the two books of Kings, (5) the two books of Chronicles, (6) Ezra and
Nehemiah, (7) Esther, (8) Isaiah, (9) Jeremiah and Lamentations, (10)
Ezekiel, (11) Daniel, (12) the book of the twelve Minor Prophets, (13)
Job. See Oehler in Hertzog's Encyclopaedia, Art. Canon of the Old
Testament. Origen, as quoted by Eusebius (Hist. Eccl. 6.25), and Jerome
(both of whom drew their information concerning the Hebrew Canon
immediately from Jewish scholars, and may, therefore, be regarded as in
a certain sense the expositors of the above list of Josephus) make
mention of the same number, twenty-two. Origen's list unites Ruth with
Judges, puts together the first and second of Samuel, the first and
second of Kings, the first and second of Chronicles, Ezra and Nehemia