2 shall the Sun of Righteousness arise. The glorious Source of righteousness, whose beams convey spiritual health, showing itself in buoyant and joyful vigour: cp. 2 Sam. xxiii. 4; John i. 9. grow up. Or, “gambol” (R.V.).

4. Remember ye the law of Moses. The fact that God Himself by His prophet declares “the law” to have been “commanded” to Moses “in Horeb,” has an important affirmative bearing on the authenticity of the writings referred to.

5. I will send you Elijah the prophet. See note on iii. 1.

6 he shall turn the heart of the fathers. Family discord was the natural result of these divorces and foreign marriages which the prophet had denounced. Hence its removal is indicated as a preparation for the Messiah’s coming and reign. See Luke i. 17.

One of the best sermons of Charles Kingsley is that which forms the first in his volume of Sermons for the Times. It is on these last words of the Old Testament. He points out that the Old Testament ends by saying that God would send to the Jews Elijah the prophet; and the New Testament begins by telling us of John the Baptist’s coming in the spirit and power of Elijah. And then he presses home the importance of family life and the duties of fathers to children and children to fathers. The message was needed in the 19th century. It is still more needed in the 20th.

His closing words are worth pondering. “Wheresoever the hearts of the fathers are not turned to the children, and the hearts of the children to the fathers, there will a great and terrible day of the Lord come; and that nation, like Judæa of old, like many a fair country in Europe at this moment, will be smitten with a curse.”

A SUMMARY of the contents of these books, covering the period between the Book of Malachi and the New Testament, is given below, the quotations being taken from the Revised Version.

The Christian Church has been divided as to the use of the non-canonical books. There are various reasons for this. The books are not found in the Hebrew Canon, and have never been accepted as authoritative by the Jews. They are never directly mentioned by our Lord and His apostles. Some of them, too, contain elements of obvious legend and superstition.

But they cannot be ignored by any one who wants to know the political and religious history of the Jews for the four hundred years between the close of the Old Testament and the birth of Christ, and the condition of the world into which the Saviour came. They show, amongst other things, the increase of the belief in a future life and in the coming of the Messiah (see, on this, Dr. Salmon’s work on “Apocrypha” in the Speaker’s Commentary).

Though the Apocrypha books are not found in the Hebrew Canon, they are included in the Greek (Septuagint) version of the Old Testament, and were used by the Eastern Church, being quoted as Scripture by the early Christian Fathers such as Irenæus, Clement of Alexandria, Tertullian and Cyprian. The Roman Catholic Church, using as it does the Vulgate, the Latin translation of the Septuagint, has accepted the Apocrypha ever since the Council of Trent (1546) decreed that all the books found in the Vulgate are canonical.

In the Reformed Churches there has been considerable variety of opinion on the subject. Luther included the Apocrypha in his Bible (1534) as “books which are not equal to the Sacred Scriptures but nevertheless are good and useful to read.” Calvin included them in his French Commentary (1535).

So far as British Protestantism is concerned, it, too, is divided about the non-canonical books. The official statement of the Church of England (Article VI) is, after reciting the names of the Canonical Books, that “the other books (as Jerome saith) the Church doth read for example of life and instruction of manners; but yet it doth not apply them to establish any doctrine.” The Westminster Confession of Faith says that “the books commonly called Apocrypha, not being of divine inspiration, are no part of the Canon of the Scripture; and therefore are of no authority in the Church of God, nor to be in any otherwise approved, or made use of, than other human writings.”

[For those who want to study the subject more fully, the following books may be mentioned: Hastings’ Dictionary of the Bible, art. “Apocrypha”; Salmon, as quoted above; Streane, The Age of the Maccabees; de Saulcy, Histoire des Maccabées; Schürer, The Jewish People in the Time of Christ.]

Esdras is the Greek form of Ezra, and this book is in the Sixth Article of the Church of England called the Third Book of Esdras. The reason is that in the Vulgate Ezra is called 1 Esdras and Nehemiah 2 Esdras.

1. Es. has many links with the Old Testament, as well as with the history of the pagan nations.

Not only are Josiah, Zedekiah, and Jeremiah mentioned in it, but also the Persians, Cyrus, Artaxerxes and Darius, and the Hittite city, Carchemish.

Chapter i. gives an account of the great pass-over of king Josiah and of his death very similar to that contained in 2 Chron. xxxv.; and of the reigns of Jehoahaz, Joakim (Jehoiachim) and Zedekiah recorded in 2 Chron. xxxvi., with the destruction of Jerusalem by Nebuchadnezzar and the beginning of the Captivity in Babylon. The proclamation of Cyrus in favour of the rebuilding of Jerusalem is recorded in chap. ii. as in Ezra i., and the same chapter relates, as in Ezra iv., the opposition of the enemies of the Jews, a story continued in the closing verses of chap. v.

Chapters iii. and iv. are notable for the discussion as to the strongest force in human life and the conclusion that “great is truth and stronger than all things . . . truth abideth and is strong for ever; she liveth and conquereth for evermore.”

In the story of the return from the Captivity and the list of the men who came back to Jerusalem, as given in Ezra ii., chap. v. of 1 Es. adds the interesting detail that “Darius sent with them a thousand horsemen, till they had brought them back to Jerusalem safely, and with musical instruments, tabrets and flutes” (v. 2).

The story of Ezra himself as given in Ezra vii. and Neh. viii. is narrated in chaps. viii. and ix. A variation occurs in the joyous and kindly exhortation of Nehemiah viii. 10. “Go your way, eat the fat and drink the sweet and send portions to them for whom nothing is prepared.” In Neh. the verse ends “for the joy of the Lord is your strength”; in 1 Es. ix. 52, it is “the Lord will bring you to honour.”

The weight of the evidence points to the date of the book as being in the second century B.C., though some authorities place it somewhat later.

The most notable feature of this book is its reference to the Messiah. In ii. 34 we read, “look for your shepherd, he shall give you everlasting rest; for he is right at hand, that shall come in the end of the world.” And in vii. 28, 29, occur the memorable words: “For my son Jesus shall be revealed with those that be with him, and shall rejoice with them that remain four hundred years. After these shall my son Christ die, and all that have the breath of life.”

There are other interesting links with the New Testament. Compare “I gathered you together, as a hen gathereth her chickens under her wings” (i. 30) with Matt. xxiii. 37; “I Esdras saw upon the Mount Zion a great multitude whom I could not number, and they all praised the Lord with songs. . . . These be they that have put off the mortal clothing, and put on the immortal, and have confessed the name of God; now are they crowned and receive palms” (ii. 42-45) with Rev. vii. 9-14; and “when there shall be seen in the world earthquakes, devices of nations, wavering of leaders, disquietude of peoples,” etc. (chap. ix.) with Matt. xxiv. 7, and Luke xxi. 10, 11.

These identities of language lead scholars to suppose that while the book is mainly the work of a Jewish writer, there were additions by a Christian. The date is further indicated by the Eagle Vision (chap. xii.) and is now generally placed in the reign of Domitian, between A.D. 81 and 96.

The contents of the book are chiefly a picture of Israel’s sad condition both in the Babylonian Captivity and in the subsequent persecutions in the Roman period, while the book closes on a note of final victory.

It contains many fine practical exhortations, such as “Do right to the widow, judge the fatherless, give to the poor, defend the orphan, clothe the naked, heal the broken and the weak, laugh not a fame man to scorn, defend the maimed, and let the blind man come unto the sight of My glory. Keep the old and young within thy walls” (chap. ii.); and “therefore be thou no longer curious how the ungodly shall be punished; but inquire how the righteous shall be saved, they whose the world is, and for whom the world was created” (chap. ix.).

TOBIT

The high ideals of the Jewish people at its best are enshrined in this book. Such are the honouring of God and abhorrence of idolatry (chaps. i., iii., iv., xiii.); the purity of domestic life (iv., x.); and the duty of kindness to the poor (i., ii., iv., xii.). Some of the exhortations on the last-named subject are repeated in the Offertory Sentences in the Book of Common Prayer: “Give alms of thy goods” (Tobit iv.).

The language, too, is of exceptional beauty. As an instance of this, the prayer in chap. xiii. may be specially noted, with its glorious concluding words: “For Jerusalem shall be builded with sapphires and emeralds and precious stones; thy walls and towers and battlements with pure gold. And the streets of Jerusalem shall be paved with beryl and carbuncle and stones of Ophir. And all her streets shall say, Hallelujah, and give praise, saying, Blessed is God, which hath exalted thee for ever.”

But along with these high and inspiring thoughts there are some crude superstitions as in vi. 4, viii. 2, 3, referring to the exorcism of evil spirits.

As a picture of the life and ideas of the time it portrays, the book is full of interest. It purports to be an account of the condition of Israel in its first captivity at Nineveh in the time of Enemessar (cp. i. 2 with 2 Kings xvii. 3, 23), though it was most likely written at a later date. It may be said with certainty that it was written at least 100 years B.C., while some scholars date it between 200 and 300 B.C.

Piety and patriotism are the two principal features of this book. The reality of God’s rule and the power of prayer are clearly taught (iv. 9, 12-15; vi. 18-21; vii. 28-30; ix. 11-14; xvi. 2, 3, 13), and the book hardly merits the statement of some writers that it is conspicuously Pharisaic and ceremonial.

The patriotism of Judith has made her, whether she be a historical character or not, one of the world’s heroines, and there is hardly a picture-gallery in Europe where there is not a picture of “Judith and Holofernes.”

The graphic picture of the sufferings endured by the besieged Israelites in “Bethulia” (vii. 19-22) has its parallel in the stories of Leyden and Londonderry. All the more brightly shines out the faith and courage of Ozias in standing firm against the multitude who called for surrender (vii. 23-27), and his words are still an inspiration, “Brethren, be of good courage, let us endure five days, in the which space the Lord our God shall turn His mercy toward us; for He will not forsake us utterly. But if these days do pass, and there come no help unto us, I will do according to your words” (vii. 30, 31). And there are no finer words in the Psalms than those of Judith’s prayer before she went forth to her great and grim adventure: “For Thy power standeth not in multitude, nor Thy might in strong men; but Thou art a God of the afflicted, Thou art a helper of the oppressed, an upholder of the weak, a protector of the forlorn, a saviour of them that are without hope” (ix. 11).

The book is generally believed to have been written in the time of the Maccabees, somewhat over 100 years B.C.

This book should be read in connexion with the Book of Esther in the Old Testament. It supplements the narrative therein contained. One of the most important additions is the reason given by Mordecai (Mardocheas) for not bowing down to Haman. “Thou knowest, Lord, that it was neither in contempt nor pride, nor for any desire of glory, that I did not bow down to proud Aman. For I could have been content with goodwill for the salvation of Israel to kiss the soles of his feet. But I did this, that I might not prefer the glory of man above the glory of God; neither will I bow down to any but to Thee, which art my Lord” (xiii. 12-14). Esther’s statement is also interesting: “Thine handmaid hath not eaten at Aman’s table, neither have I honoured the king’s feast, nor drunk the wine of the drink offerings” (xiv. 17).

The note at the beginning of chap. ii., which is attributed to St. Jerome, seems to fix the date of this “epistle of Phrura” (Purim) as about 177 B.C.

This book, although it bears the name of Solomon, was not written by him, nor even in the Hebrew language. It is as if a painter should describe his work as “after Raphael.” It was written in the spirit and after the manner of the Book of Proverbs, and its author was most probably a Jew of Alexandria. The date, however, is quite uncertain, some scholars placing it early in the Christian era and others assigning it to the second century B.C.

Some of its most noteworthy passages are:

“The souls of the righteous are in the hand of God, and no torment shall touch them” (iii. 1);

“And what good have riches and vaunting brought us? Those things all passed away as a shadow, and as a message that runneth by; as a ship passing through the billowy water, whereof, when it is gone by, there is no trace to be found, neither pathway of its keel in the billows” (v. 10); and the powerful argument against idolatry (xiii.-xv.). The writer speaks of the folly of a man supplicating “for a good journey that which cannot so much as move a step,” while “one preparing to sail and about to journey over raging waves, calleth upon a piece of wood more rotten than the vessel that carrieth him” (xiv. 1).

This is a Greek translation, or paraphrase, of a Hebrew manuscript, the original being the work of Jesus the Son of Sirach, about 190 B.C., the translator being his grandson who came to Egypt in the 38th year of Euergetes, i.e., 132 B.C., and made the translation there (Ecclus. Prologue).

The discovery of the Hebrew original, or large portions of it, is due to modern scholarship and enterprise. A fragment was first found in Palestine by Mrs. Agnes Smith Lewis, of Cambridge, and published in 1897, with a continuation which was discovered by Professor Sayce. Most of the remainder of the Hebrew was subsequently secured from Cairo by Dr. Shechter, of Cambridge.

Large sections of this book are prescribed in the Table of Lessons in the Book of Common Prayer for the morning and evening Lessons from November 4 to 16. Chap. xliv., beginning, “Let us now praise famous men” has become a classic form of commemoration.

Some notable sayings of the Son of Sirach may be given here:

Temptation. “My son, if thou comest to serve the Lord, prepare thy soul for temptation” (ii. 1; words quoted by Thomas à Kempis, Imitation of Christ).

Father and Son. “My son, help thy father in his old age; and grieve him not as long as he liveth. And if he fail in understanding, have patience with him” (iii. 12, 13).

Kindness. “Incline thine ear to a poor man and answer him with peaceable words in meekness. Deliver him that is wronged from the hand of him that wrongeth him. . . . Be as a father unto the fatherless and instead of a husband unto their mother; so shalt thou be as a son of the Most High, and he shall love thee more than thy mother doth” (iv. 8-10). “Be not wanting to them that weep; and mourn with them that mourn” (vii. 34).

Speech. “Blame not before thou hast examined: understand first, and then rebuke” (xi. 7).

Forgiveness. “Forgive thy neighbour the hurt that he hath done thee; and then thy sins shall be pardoned when thou prayest. . . . Remember thy last end and cease from enmity” (xxviii. 2, 6).

Counsel. “Take not counsel with a woman about her rival; neither with a coward about war; nor with a merchant about exchange; nor with a buyer about selling; nor with an envious man about thankfulness; nor with an unmerciful man about kindness; nor with a sluggard about any kind of work; nor with a hireling in thy house about finishing his work; nor with an idle servant about much business; give not heed to these in any matter of counsel. But rather be continually with a godly man, whom thou shalt have known to be a keeper of the commandments, who in his soul is as thine own soul, and who will grieve with thee, if thou shalt miscarry” (xxxvii. 11, 12).

Portions of this book (iv. 1-21, iv. 36, and v.) are contained in the Lectionary of the Book of Common Prayer for November 17 and 18.

It may be regarded as a supplement to the book of Jeremiah, much as The Wisdom of Solomon is a supplement to Proverbs, and if not actually written by Baruch the scribe, Jeremiah’s friend (i. 1), is an attempt to reproduce his teaching, as an antidote to idolatry (i. 22; vi. 12) and a preparation for the coming of the Messiah (iv. 22). It was probably written thirty or forty years before Christ.

“It has at least the distinction of being the only book in the Apocrypha which is modelled upon the prophetic utterances of the Old Testament, and both in the faithful setting forth of the nation’s sin and punishment, and in the cheering hope of deliverance with which the writer concludes, we see at any rate a reflection of the days when the voice of the true prophet had not yet ceased to be heard in the land” (Streane: The Age of the Maccabees, p. 169).

This short book consists of a Greek addition to the Book of Daniel, given in the Septuagint after

Daniel iii. 23. The “three holy children” are Shadrach, Meshach and Abednego, and their song, the Benedicite, has been used in the Christian Church since the fourth century.

Briefly stated, the story of Susanna and the elders may be said to be a vindication of female purity and a condemnation of false witness. It is also an illustration of the wisdom of Daniel in examining the witnesses, and by taking them apart, getting them to contradict one another. Hence the exclamation of Shylock in The Merchant of Venice, “A Daniel come to judgement!”

Like the two preceding stories, this is associated with Daniel. It enlarges on the narrative of Daniel in the den of lions and says that he was in the den six days, “and in the den were seven lions, and they had given them every day two carcases, and two sheep; which then were not given to them, to the intent they might devour Daniel.” Chiefly, however, the story is a condemnation of idolatry. Bel was delivered into Daniel’s power, “who overthrew him and his temple,” and the brazen dragon, which was also worshipped in Babylon, was burst asunder by Daniel, and it was for this that he was cast into the lions’ den.

In 2 Chron xxxiii. 10-13 we read that Manasseh, king of Judah, was taken in chains to Babylon by the king of Assyria’s army, and in v. 18 of the same chapter it is stated that “the rest of the acts of Manasseh and his prayer unto his God . . . are written among the acts of the Kings of Israel.” This is the prayer which is recorded in the Apocrypha under that name. It is in Greek, and no Hebrew MS. of it has yet been found. But it may well be that the original is in existence and that, as in the case of Ecclesiasticus, it may come to light some day. The prayer is a beautiful example of penitential trust in God’s mercy.

While other books of the Apocrypha deal with the history of the Jewish people under the Assyrians and Persians, the Books of the Maccabees bring us into contact with Greece and Rome. They are both of great historical value for the second century B.C.

The First Book gives us the history from 175 to 135 B.C. It begins with the accession of Antiochus Epiphanes, king of Syria, recording his defeat of Ptolemy in Egypt and his conquest of Jerusalem and the cities of Judah (i.). It then records the revolt of Mattathias, son of a priest at Jerusalem, how he and his friends pulled down the pagan altars (ii. 25, 45) and how, before his death, he charged the people to obey the law of God, saying, “None that put their trust in Him shall want for strength” (ii. 61), and telling them that Judas Maccabeus shall be their captain.

Chapters iii. to ix. relate the heroic deeds of Judas Maccabeus, whose story has been wedded to music by Handel in his great oratorio of that name. It is interesting to recall that the air, “Wise men, flattering, may deceive you” in

Part II. of Judas Maccabeus was the last air that Handel wrote, as “Sion now her head shall raise,” with the chorus “Tune your harps,” was his last chorus (see Historical Notes on Judas Maccabeus by the late Dr. F. G. Edwards). The same oratorio contains the stirring strains of “Arm, arm, ye brave,” and “See the conquering hero comes,” as well as the duet which celebrates the end of War, “O lovely peace.”

Chapters ix. to xii. narrate the deeds of Jonathan Maccabeus the brother and successor of Judas, and how he won the respect of Alexander Epiphanes and Demetrius, the successors of Antiochus Epiphanes and obtained from the latter the immunity of Israel from tribute. He, as well as Judas, made friendship with Rome and sent an embassy to the Roman senate.

Under Simon Maccabeus, who succeeded to the leadership on the death of Jonathan, the assertion of Jewish liberty was complete. “In the hundred and seventieth year [about 143 B.C.] was the yoke of the heathen taken away from Israel” (xiii. 41). “And the land had rest all the days of Simon; and he sought the good of his nation. . . . And they tilled their land in peace, and the land gave her increase. . . . The ancient men sat in the streets” (xiv. 4-9). “The law he searched out, and every lawless and wicked person he took away” (xiv. 14). He also confirmed the confederacy with Rome (xiv. 24).

The book ends with the murder of Simon by one of the Ptolemies and the succession, as high priest and ruler, of his son John Hyrcanus (xvi. 24). It was he who first expressly assumed the title of “King of the Jews.”

The subsequent history of Israel from Hyrcanus until the birth of Christ (135 B.C.-A.D. 4) is to be found in the pages of Josephus. An excellent summary of it is contained in Angus and Green’s Bible Handbook, chap. xvii. Between Judas Aristobulus, the successor of John Hyrcanus (106 B.C.) and Herod the Great (37 B.C.) there were seven kings. The glories of the Maccabean period were followed by constant dissensions, sometimes between members of the royal family and sometimes between the Pharisees and the Sadducees. Gradually Palestine became more and more a province of the Roman Empire. And so the way was prepared for the coming of Israel’s true Messiah, the foundation of His spiritual kingdom, and the spread of His Gospel throughout the known world. The boast of His great Apostle was that he was a Roman citizen.

This book covers much of the period 175-160 B.C., part of the history narrated in Book I. But it is an independent story, written by Jason of Cyrene, and contains some special features of its own. We may note its preface (i., ii.) going back to the earlier history from the time of Jeremiah; the story of how the attempt of Heliodonus to seize the treasury at Jerusalem was frustrated by a vision (iii.); the influence of the Greeks upon religion and social life (iv. 9-16; vi. 1-9); the Jewish regard for the Sabbath (v. 25); the heroic sufferings and death of Eleazar the scribe (vi. 18-31) and of other persecutions endured for conscience’ sake (vii.).

A WORD may be said about the Four Gospels as a whole. The Greek word of which our “Gospel” is a translation means “good news” or “glad tidings.” The “good news” is the message of salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ. And what we call “the Gospels” tell us how that salvation came to men through the birth or Incarnation, the life and teaching, the cross and suffering, the death, resurrection and ascension of the Saviour.

Of the four Gospels, there is a marked unity between the first three, which are a record of the Saviour’s life and activities, and a marked difference between them and the fourth, which is much more a record of His teaching. Hence the first three are generally called the Synoptic Gospels, because they give the same general view or synopsis, and their writers are known as the Synoptists.

Although St. Matthew’s Gospel comes first in our New Testament, it was not the first in order of time—a place assigned to St. Mark. The actual date is not stated in the book itself, but the internal evidence shows that this Gospel as we have it was written some time before the destruction of Jerusalem by Vespasian in A.D. 70, though some put it a little later. It is generally held by Biblical scholars that it was based upon an earlier work of St. Matthew, written in Hebrew.

And then there is the evidence of the early Christian writers in the second century, such as Justin Martyr (A.D. 114–160), Irenæus (born A.D. 140), and Clement of Alexandria, whose Epistle from Rome to the Church at Corinth was written between A.D. 90 and 100.

From their writings, “we have these four Gospels proved to have been circulating in the Church within seventy years of the crucifixion and received as Scripture” (Oliver: In Defence of the Faith. Cp. Row: Manual of Christian Evidences, and A. B. Bruce: Apologetics, Book III, Chap. VIII). Not a few of those who had witnessed our Lord’s ministry must have been living in A.D. 70 (Row’s Manual, 1887, p. 139; cp. The Jesus of History, by T. R. Glover, Chap. I).

When we come to St. Matthew’s Gospel itself, we are at once struck by some distinctive characteristics. The first is the genealogy with which it commences, tracing our Lord’s descent as “the son of David, the son of Abraham.” It was clearly written for Jewish readers. The thought of Jesus as the Messiah is prominent in the words of the wise men (ii. 2), and of His kingdom in the words of the Baptist (iii. 2), and in the Saviour’s own preaching (iv. 23). Then the Saviour appears as the great Lawgiver, fulfilling and enlarging the old Mosaic Law (v. 17, 27, 28, 33, 43, 44). The miracles (see esp. viii. 1–7, 16) “enforce and explain the position and authority of the Lawgiver” (Westcott, Introduction to the Study of the Gospels, Chap. VII). The parables peculiar to St. Matthew, while of world-wide significance, have in many cases their bearing upon Jewish exclusiveness, and are “suited to awaken his own nation to a sense of their sins, to correct their hopes of an earthly kingdom, and to prepare them for the admission of the Gentiles to the Church” (Bible Handbook, by Angus and Green, § 449).

Z