Ptolemy Philopator (B.C.
221-204). Its title seems to have come simply from the similarity of its
contents. It relates in a pompous and oratorical style how Ptolemy
Philopator, being enraged at his failure to enter the sanctuary at
Jerusalem, determined to wreak his vengeance on the Jews in Egypt, and
assembled them for this purpose in the circus, that they might be
trampled under foot by drunken elephants, but was hindered by the
miraculous interposition of God; whereupon the king liberated the Jews,
prepared for them a sumptuous feast, and gave them permission to take
vengeance on their apostate countrymen. The narrative probably has a
groundwork of truth with legendary embellishments, after the manner of
the later Jews. Its author is believed to have been an Alexandrine Jew,
but his age cannot be determined. It was never admitted into the Romish
canon.

26. _The fourth book of Maccabees_ opens with a philosophical discussion
respecting the supremacy of devout reason over the passions, which is
then illustrated by the history of the martyrdom of Eleazar and the
mother with her seven sons, an account of which we have in 2 Macc.,
chaps. 6 and 7. The author of this book was a Jew imbued with the spirit
of the stoical philosophy. It has been falsely ascribed to Josephus.

27. _The fifth book of Maccabees_ exists only in Arabic. We draw our
notice of it from Alexander's Kitto, according to which "it contains the
history of the Jews from Heliodorus' attempt to plunder the treasury at
Jerusalem till the time when Herod revelled in the noblest blood of the
Jews;" that is, from 184-86 B.C., thus embracing a period of 98 years.
The book is a compilation made in Hebrew, by a Jew who lived after the
destruction of Jerusalem, from ancient Hebrew memoirs or chronicles,
which were written shortly after the events transpired. In the absence
of the original Hebrew, the Arabic versions of it, printed in the Paris
and London Polyglotts, give the text upon which we must rely.

PART III.

INTRODUCTION
TO
THE NEW TESTAMENT.

FIRST DIVISION, GENERAL INTRODUCTION.

CHAPTER XXIV.

LANGUAGE OF THE NEW TESTAMENT.

1. In the _character of the original languages of the Bible_, as in
every thing else pertaining to the plan of redemption, God's hand is to
be reverently acknowledged. It was not by chance, but through the
provident care of Him who sees the end from the beginning, that the
writers of the Old Testament found t