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BIB ( 545 ) BIB latter prophets are, BIBIO, in zoology, the trivial name of a fpecies of ti- Ifaiah, Jeremiah,The Ezekiel, and the twelve minor prophets. pula. See Ti pula. the hagiographia confift of. BIBITORY mufcle, the fame with the adduftor oculi. The Pfalms,And the Proverbs, Job, the Song of Solomon, See Adductor. the Lamentations, Ecclefiaftes, Efther, Daniel, BIBLE, a name applied by Chriftians, by way of emi- Ruth, the Chronicles. nence or diftindtion, to the colleftion of facred wri- Ezra, Under the name of Ezra, they comprehend Nehetings, or the holy fcriptures of the Old and New Te- miah. true this order hath not always been obferftament; known alfo by various other appellations, as, ved, butIttheis variations from it are of little or no moment. the Sacred Books, Holy Writ, Infpired Writings, Scriptures, ’be. The Jews ftiled the Bible (that is, The five books pf the law are divided into fifty-four the Old Telkment) fnikra, which fignifies Lejfon, or fettions. This divifion many of the Jews hold to have been appointed by Mofes himfelf; but others, with more Leflure. , This collection of the facred writings, containing probability, aferibe it to Ezra. The defign of this diwas, that one of thefe fedtions might be read in thofe of the Old and New Teftament, is judly looked vifion upon as the foundation of the Jewiflr as well as the their fynagogues every fabbath-day. The number was Chriftian religion. The Jews, it is true, acknow- 54, becaufe in their intercalated years, a month being ledge only the fcriptures of the Old Teftament, the then added, there were 54 fabbaths. In other years, correcting and publifhing of which is unanimoufly a- . they reduced them to 52, by twice joining together two feribed, both by the Jews and Chriftians, to Ezra. Ihort feddions. Till the perfecution of Antiochus EpiSome of the ancient fathers, on no other founda- phanes, they read only the law; but the reading of it betion than that fabulous and apocryphal book, the fe- ing then prohibited, they fubftituted in the room of it cond book of Efdras, pretend, that the fcriptures J4 feftions ou& of the Prophets; and when the reading were entirely loft and deftroyed at the Babyloniih of the law was reftored by the Maccabees, the fedtion captivity, and that Ezra reftored them all again which was read every fabbath out of the law, fervedfor by divine revelation. What is certain is, that in their firft lefibn, and the fedtion out of the prophets for the reign of Jofiah there was no other book of their fecond. Thefe fedHons were divided into verfes, of the law extant befides that found in the temple bp which divifion, if Ezra was not the author, it was intro^ Hilkiah; from which original, by order of that pious duced not long after him, and feems to have been defigned. king, copies were immediately written out, and fearch for the ufe of the Targumifts, or Chaldee interpreters ; made for all the other parts of the fcriptures, (2 Kings for after the return of the Jews from the Babylonilh capxxii.); by which means copies of the whole became tivity, when the Hebrew language had ceafed to be their multiplied among the people, who carried them with mother tongue, and the Chaldee grew into ufe inftead them into their captivity. After the return of the of it, the cuftom was, that the law fhould be firft read Jews from the Babylonilh captivity, Ezra got toge- in the original Hebrew, and then interpreted .to the peother as many copies as he could of the Sacred wri- ple in the Chaldee language, for which purpole thefe tings, and out of them all prepared a correct edition, Ihorter fedtions or periods were very convenient. difpofing the feveral books in their proper order, and The divifion of the fcriptures into chapters, as we at fettling the canon of feripture for his time. Thefe prefent have them, is of much later date. Some attribooks he divided into three parts. 1. The Law. bute it to Stephen Langton, archbilhop of Canterbury, 2. The Prophets. 3. 'jTh6 Cetiibim, or 'Hagiogra- in the reigns of John and Henry III. But the true auphia, i. e. The holy nuritings. thor of the invention was Hugo de Sandto Caro, comI. The Law contains, x. Genefis. 2. Exodus. monly called Hugo Cardinalis, becaufe he was the firft 3. Leviticus. 4. Numbers. 5. Deuteronomy. Dominican that ever was raifed to the degree of cardiII The writings of the Prophets are, 1. Jbftma. nal. This Hugo flourilhed about the year 1240. He 2. Judges, with Ruth. 3. Samuel. 4. Kings, 5. I- wrote a comment on the fcriptures, and projedled the faiah. 6. Jeremiah, with his Lamentations; 7. E- firft concordance, which is that of the vulgar Latin Bizekiel. 8. Daniel. 9. The twelve, minor Pro- ble. The aim of this work being.for the more eafy findphets. 10. Job. ix. Ezra. 12. Nehemiah. 13. ing out any word or pafiage in the feriptures, he foiind it Efther. neceflary to divide the book into fedtions, and the lecIII. And the Hagiographia confifts of, 1 The tions into fubdivifions ; for till that time the vulgar LaPfalms. 2. The Proverbs. 3. Ecclefiaftes. 4. The tin Bibles were without any divifion at all. Thele fecSong of Solomon. This divifion was made for the tions are the chapters into which the Bible hath ever fake of reducing’ the number of the facred books to fince been divided. But the fubdiylfion of, the chanters the number of the letters in their alphabet, which was not then into verfes. as it is now. Hugo’s method of amount to twenty-two At prefent, the Jews reckon was by the letters A; B, C, D, E, F, G, twenty-four books in their canon of feripture, in dif- fubdividingthem placed in the margin at an equal diftance from each other, pofing of which the law ftands as it did in the former, according to the length' of the chapters. The fubdividivifion, and the prophets are diftributed into the for- fioo ol the chapters into verfes, as they now Hand in our mer and latter prophets. Bibles, had its original from a famous Jewilh rabbi, naThe former prophets are, med Mordecai Nathan, about the year 1445. This rabJofiiua, Judges, Samuel, Kings. bi, in imitation of Hugo Cardinalis, drew up a concordVol. I. Numb. 23. 3 6Y anee
