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of Ezra), and would, moreover, hardly have altered בּפי (Chron.) into מפּי (Ezra), and עמּו אלהיו יהוה into עמּו אלהיו יהי.
The remaining grounds which are usually urged for the original unity of the two writings, prove nothing more than the possibility or probability that both originated with one author; certainly they do not prove that they originally formed one work. The long list of phenomena in Bertheau's Commentary, pp. xvi. - xx., by which a certainty is supposed to be arrived at that the Chronicle and Ezra originally was one great historical work, compiled from various sources, greatly requires the help of critical bias. 1. “The predilection of the author for genealogical lists, for detailed descriptions of great feasts, which occurred at the most various times, for exact representations of the arrangement of the public worship, and the business of the Levites and priests, which their classifications and ranks,” cannot be proved to exist in the book of Ezra. That book contains only one very much abridged genealogy, that of Ezra (Ezr 7:1-5); only two lists-those, namely, of the families who returned from Babylon with Zerubbabel and Ezra (Ezra 2 and 8); only one account of the celebration of a feast, the by no means detailed description of the consecration of the temple (Ezr 6:16); short remarks on the building of the altar, the celebration of the feast of tabernacles, and the laying of the foundation-stone of the temple, in Ezr 3:1-13; and it contains nothing whatever as to the divisions and ranks of the priests and Levites. That in these lists and descriptions some expressions should recur, is to be expected from the nature of the case. Yet all that is common to both books is the word התיחשׂ, the use of כּמּשׁפּט in the signification, “according to the Mosaic law” (1Ch 23:31; 2Ch 35:13; Ezr 3:4, and Neh 8:18), and the liturgical formulae ליהוה הודוּ, which occurs also in Isa 12:4 and Psa 33:2, and וּלהלּל להודות with the addition, “Jahve is God, and His mercy endureth for ever” (1Ch 16:34, 1Ch 16:41; 2Ch 7:6; Ezr 3:11). The other expressions enumerated by Bertheau are met with also in other writings: בשׁמות נקּבוּ in Num 1:17; ראשׁי בּית־אבות and אבות ראשׁי, Exo 6:14.; and the formula (יהוה בּתורת) בּתּורה כּכּתוּב or לכל־הכּתוּב (1Ch 16:40; 2Ch 35:12, 2Ch 35:26; Ezr 3:2, Ezr 3:4) is just as common in other writings: cf. Jos 1:8; Jos 8:31, Jos 8:34; 1Ki 2:3; 2Ki 14:6; 2Ki 22:13; 2Ki 23:21. Bertheau further remarks: “In those sections in which the regulation of the public worship, the duties, classification, and offices of the priests and Levites