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Show CANONICAL BOOKS ; jVj Bishop Grimes on the Bible. Want cf Uni- ..- : L ' formity. St. Jerome's Revision. Moses '.') Wrote Pentateuch. Subject Matter of "Book of Old Testament. Language of . the Prophets. Historical Books of New Testament Doctrinal Books. Object of ; ; St. Mark's Gospel. St. John Proves '. Dignity of Christ. I ! ' , ' i ; In course of time, omission, interpolations or ! , 1 changes of various kinds crept, into the many man- j -' uscripts of the Biblical textn. rendering the work j ; of a translator exceedingly difficult. j The want of uniformity was felt by the Church " to be a grave evil, and the Pope St. Damasus, in ' the year determined to apply a remedy. It . t happened providentially, says the learned Anglican, ; I Canon Liglitfoot, "that at th very moment when 1 , the need was felt, tlie right man was forthcoming. ' In the first fifteen centuries of her existence, the j . . ' western Church produced no Biblical scholar who could compare with St. Jerome in competence for so great a task." i In the fourth century St. Jerome received in- I structions from the Pope (St. Damasus) to draw ' ' -' ! up and revise all the books of the Old and the New j Testament, and the revision obtained the name ' j ' Vulgate, which has ever since had the authority of the Church. The present Sovereign Pontiff, Pin-t j j X, has commissioned the learned body of Benedic- j tines to undertake a close revision of this same " ! ' : Vulgate, which was written in Latin the language : used for so many centuries by all who could read. : ' We may add that three hundred years ago, the j complete Bible, known amongst us as the Douat ! Version, was published iu English at the English Missionary college in D-vnai. Since then new edi- i ; tions o fthe same and others, have, at various j times, appeared for the ush of the English-speak- ' v j ing faithful. i . ; Repeating the. list of Canonical books enumer- j . ated as early as the fourth century, in the Council j j of Hippo (A. D. 000), and in the two Councils of I ; Carthhge (A. D. 397 and 419. the Council of It Trent, one of the nineteen Oecumenical or Genera! I Councils, in its fourth session, drew up a decree ' , ! enumerating the books which wn are bound to ad- ! ' mit as "Canonical" or "Inspired." They are sev- j enty-t.wo in number, of which forty-five make up . j ; the Old Testament, and twenty-seven the New. , 1 Thee are again divided into Historical, Doctri.ial, ' : ! and Prophet i-cal. ' The first fire Book of th Old Testament called j ,: the Pentateuch., are generally attributed to Moses. ; They conUin a record of what happened from the Creation till the entering of the Israelites into the ; . Promised Land. Moses confided them to the priest H of the Oil law charging them to preserve them in . j '. the sanctuary beside the Ark of the Covenant. : j They are the oldest books on record. They were ; written in Hebrew character about sixteen hun- i dred years before the time of Homer, supposed to . I '. be the oldest Greek writer, and about one hundred j years before Mercurius Trimegeste, the oldest of j f the Egyptian penmen. The books forming the Pentateuch are Oenefris, ' . : or Origin; Kxodus. or Voyage; Leviticus, being tlie ritual of the Jewish religion; the Book of Num- 1 bers containing the history of the time the Israel- ites spent in the desert after the promulgation of ! the Decalogue, finally the Book of Deuteronomy, I signifying the Second law because it is a repetition it of most of the laws comprised in the former books, ; : though it comprises new laws, and the way wiiere- ! in to fulfill them. Then follow tlie Book of Joshua ; ' and of Judges, relating the conquest of Jerusalem ' ; by the Jews, and their struggles with surrounding-nations. surrounding-nations. The Book of Ruth, of which Samuel i supposed to be the author, gives the touching his- ' '. tory of the virtuous Ruth, who. out of devotedness to her stepmother, abandons her own country to 1 follow and serve her. and ultimately espouses Boaz j ; of Bethlehem, one of, her wealthy -relatives, aod ! ' ! thus becomes the ancestress of King David, and of the Messiah. ; i Tlw four Books of Kings recount the history 1 ! of God's people under their kings. The two Books : of Paralipomenon, meaning things omitted, are a ' '. sort of supplement to the four books of Kings. ' ! ' The ancient Hebrews made them one book, ami : called it the "Words of Days." or the "Annals." St. j i Jerome called them "The Chronicles," because they . ;f are a summary history related in a chronological ! j order. The two Books of Esdras come next. The ! : first takes its name from its writer, a holy priest ! f and doctor of the law; the second, also called the Book of Nehemias, one of the chiefs of the Jewish if nation. These give an account of the state of the ! i people of God after their return from the captivity. j ' ' The Books of Tobias, Judith, Esther and Job re- ! I count the wonderful history of the trials and suf- ' ferings, and heroic virtues of those holy Isrealites. i ' The Psalms, which are one hundred and fifty in I ' number, are called by the Heb rews "Tebillim " ' ' that is. Hymns of Praise. Most of them iTi? com- ' ? posed by King David, some are attributed to ill Asaph, and others, whose names are prefixed in the ? ? titles. The word Psalm indicates that they were , 1 ! accompanied by the sound of instruments. King I ' David had them sun" before the Tabernacle as soon 1 ' as he had placed it in Jerusalem on Mount Sion. f He appointed four thousand singers, to whom be ; ; ' gave musical instruments, and he himself sansr 1 M with them. King Solomon kept the same order in ; the magnificent Temple which he erected in honor ! ; of the true God. Tlie Psalms form, to this very i ; I day, the greater part of the office of our Holy ,M Church. The "Psalms are followed by the Book of 1 Proverbs, so called, because it consists of wise and i weighty sentences, regulating the morals of men. f ' and directing them to wisdom and virtue. These sentences are aho called "Parables." because great j i ; truths are often couched in them in striking figure and similitudes. The constant tradition of tin j Continued on Page 5. ' " I i CANONICAL BOOKS. Continued from Page 1. Jews, and of the Christian Church, attributes the Book of Proverbs to Solomon, whose name appears at the head and in the body of the Book. In the third Book of Kings we read that King Solomon had composed three thousand parables. Ecclesiastes means preacher, because the book preaches against the folly of all earthly things, and exalts, in glorious terms, the happiness of a saintly life. The author styles himself in the opening words, the son of David, and King of Jerusalem, hence it is considered to be the work of Solomon, in fact, many passages have no bearing unless applied ap-plied to this prince. The "Canticle of Canticles," the Hebrews having no word to express the superlative super-lative degree, were wont to repeat the same word to give greater force to the idea. Hence the "Canticle "Can-ticle of Canticles" means the most excellent of all canticles. It is a poetical description of the love ! of a bridegroom for his bride. It is a canticle and a hjrnn of joy, wherein the author, thought to be Solomon, celebrates, in a figurative sense, the happy union of Christ and His Spouse; Union begun here by love; to be eternal in Heaven. The Spouse of Christ is the Church, more especially as to the happiest hap-piest part thereof, viz.: perfect souls, every one of whom is His beloved, but, above all others, the immaculate and ever blessed Virgin Mother Mary. In olden times it was forbidden among the Jews to those who were under the age of thirty years. The Book of Wisdom has, for object, as the name clearly indicates, the science and practice of wisdom. Written in the person of Solomon, it contains con-tains his sentiments, but the real author is uncertain. uncer-tain. Some will have it that it was written in Greek about the time of the Septuagint by a holy person filled with the literature and eloquence of Greece, but whose name is unknown. The last of the doctrinal books of the Old Testament is that of Ecclesiasticus, thus called from a Greek word which signifies a preacher. The other doctrinal books are those of Job the Psalms, the Proverbs, the books of Ecclesiastes, and that of Wisdom. Ecclesiasticus, like an excellent preacher, gives admirable lessons of all virtues. The author was Jesus, the son of Sirach of Jerusalem, who flourished flour-ished about two hundred years before Christ. As it was written after the time of Esdras, it is not in the Jewish canon. The Catholic Church, directed di-rected by the spirit of God, and instructed by apostolical tradition, received it as canonical and divine! It was first written in Hebrew, and afterwards after-wards translated into Greek by another Jesus, the grandson of the author, to whom we are indebted for the Prologue to the Book of Ecclesiasticus. The Prophetical Books comprise the four great Prophets, Pro-phets, Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel and Daniel, and the twelve lesser prophets, as Jonas, Habacue, etc. Like the Greater, the Minor Prophets sought to strengthen the faith of the people in one only God, to inspire a horror of idolatry and superstition, and to instruct the people to cherish virtue. All the Prophets wrote in ancient Hebrew, except, ex-cept, perhaps, Daniel and Baruch, who are supposed sup-posed to have written in modern Hebrew or in Chaldean. The first and second Book of Macha-bees, Macha-bees, which end the Old Testament, contain the history his-tory of the tribulations of God's chosen people, and of their glorious combats against the Assyrian kings, two centuries before the coming of Christ. Fighting under the command of the priest Matha-thias Matha-thias and his sons, called the Machabees, in defense of their religion and country, they were visibly helped by the Almighty. After several defeats they routed the Pagans, and freed Judea from the yoke of the stranger. Their successors degenerated, quarrelled among themselves, till the Romans found occasion to interfere. Jerusalem and its temple were besieged and pillaged thijty-seven years before be-fore Christ, by the Romans, who made Herod, an Idumean. King of Judea. Though not received by the Jews, the Church has declared the Books of the Machabees authentic and canonical in her two general councils of Florence and Trent. The historical Books of the Xew Testament are the Four Gospels, and the Acts o fthe Apostles. The Doctrinal Books are the twenty-one Epistles, including fourteen from the pen of St. Paul, the Apostle of the Gentiles. The Prophetical Book, often called the Book of Revelations, is the Apocalypse Apo-calypse of St. John. It was inserted in the canon of Scripture in the year 377, by the third Council of Carthage. The writers of the Four Gospels are called "The Four Evangelists." Saints Matthew and John were also Apostles, St. Mark was a companion of St. Peter, St. Luke accompanied St. Paul in his apostolic journeys. The Gospel of St. Matthew was written in Hebrew, for the benefit of the Jews of Palestine. It shows how the prophecies of the Old Testament were literally fulfilled in the person of Christ Jesus, who clearly proved Himself to be the long-promised Messias. St. Mark wrote for the Christians of Rome, and proves to a demonstration the Divinity of Jesus Christ, whom he proclaims and shows to be the , Son of God. St. Luke wrote for a distinguished Roman citizen named Theophilus, whom he would instruct in the life and doctrine of our Blessed Redeemer. Re-deemer. St. Luke furnishes us with many details about the life of our Blessed Lady, and many parables para-bles not given by the other Evangelists. St. John was advanced in years when he wrote his Gospel, to prove, against the heretics of his time, that Jesus Christ is truly God. IDs beautiful beauti-ful Gospel contains the sayings of our Lord, from which His divinity is most abundantly proved. St. Matthew wrote about the year forty of the Christian era. St. Mark and St. Luke some twenty-five years later. The Gospel of St. John was written about the year ninety. It was not till the second century that the Gospels were collected into one volume. Our non-Catholic brethren, reading the list of books which the Catholic Church, having carefully followed the tradition of ages, recognizes as Divine, Di-vine, and which she has consequently inserted in her canon or special catalogue, called therefore, canonical, will see several books which are not to be found in their Bible. For instance, the First and Second Book of Esdras, and the Books of Machabees, which, in their version, are numbered amongst the Apocryphal. In some parts of the Bible they will find a verse, or several verses, which are omitted, both in the older version and' in the Revised Version of the Anglican church. Why this is so, we need not stop to say. It is enough for us Catholics to know that neither the mightiest monarch nor the most powerful prelate, nor priest, nor any of the most influential bodies of priests or laymen, have received authority from God to add to or to detract one iota from His Inspired Word. It is enough to know, and to believe, that anyone who dared to do so were guilty of heinous crime. It is enough to say that we accept, and we glory in accepting, the whole Bible. From the first chapter chap-ter of the Book of Genesis to the last Terse of the Apocalypse, we accept, and we glory in accepting, every book, every chapter, every verse. "The word of the Lord endureth for ever." I. Pet., i., 25. Is it not written in the last chapter of the Inspired Pages, "I testify to everyone that heareth the words of the prophecy of this Book. If any man -.shall add to these things, God shall add unto him the plagues written in this Book"? "And if any man shall take away from the words of the Book of this prophecy, God shall take away his part out of the book of life, and out of the Holy City, and from' these things that are written writ-ten in this Book." Apoc. xxii., 18-20. In the 36th Chapter of the Book of Jeremias we read that, at the bidding of this great Prophet, Baruch, the son of Xerias "wrote from the mouth of Jeremias all the words of the Lord which he spoke to him, upon the roll of a book." As Jeremias Jere-mias was "shut up," he commanded Baruch to read-the read-the written word in the temple "in the hearing of nil Juda," which he did. This having come to the knowledge of Joakim. the king, he sent for the book that it might be read to him. Finding that it contained con-tained denunciations unpalatable to himself, he took the book and "cut it with a pen-knife, and cast it upon the fire that was upon the hearth till the volume was consumed." Jerem. xxxvi., 4-23. |