BOOKS OF KINGS. These books form but one in the Hebrew. In the Septuagint, Vulgate, and Titles of our English Bibles they are spoken of as the 3rd and 4th books of Kings; consequently, these kingdom records are a continuation of the history contained in the books of Samuel. The Jews assign the authorship to Jeremiah on the ground that the last Chapter of that prophet covers the same ground as the concluding section of and Kings (Chapter 24:18-chapter 25). We consider it much more probable that Ezra was the inspired historian of these kingdom histories, which were written during the captivity, and probably in the reign of Evil-Merodach King of Babylon (2 King 25:27.)
BOOK OF CHRONICLES. These constitute but one book in the Hebrew; called by the Jews “words or acts of the days,” i.e. journals or diaries, rendered chronicon by Jerome and with us chronicles from the Latin Vulgate. The title by the Septuagint Paraleipomenon, “things omitted,” is a most objectionable one. The special design of these books, which we hope to point out in a subsequent article, is as manifestly of God and as worthy of its Divine author as any other portion of holy Writ. The close of the Babylon captivity is indicated more than once in the course of these books and moreover is regarded as a past historical fact (1 Chronicles 6:1515And Jehozadak went into captivity, when the Lord carried away Judah and Jerusalem by the hand of Nebuchadnezzar. (1 Chronicles 6:15)). The closing verses (2 Chronicles 36:22, 2322Now in the first year of Cyrus king of Persia, that the word of the Lord spoken by the mouth of Jeremiah might be accomplished, the Lord stirred up the spirit of Cyrus king of Persia, that he made a proclamation throughout all his kingdom, and put it also in writing, saying, 23Thus saith Cyrus king of Persia, All the kingdoms of the earth hath the Lord God of heaven given me; and he hath charged me to build him an house in Jerusalem, which is in Judah. Who is there among you of all his people? The Lord his God be with him, and let him go up. (2 Chronicles 36:22‑23),) constitute the opening words of the book of Ezra, in which the history contained in the Chronicles is continued. Ezra therefore may safely be regarded as the writer and compiler of the Chronicles, and the time at or during the restoration to Palestine. In the Hebrew Canon these books stand last in order.
EZRA. When, where, and who wrote this book are questions easily answered after the return from the Babylon captivity, in Palestine, and by Ezra. The change from the first to the third person, as in chaps. 7, 10 in no wise affects the authorship; John the Apostle habitually does so in his Gospel. Similar instances might be adduced from Jeremiah, Ecclesiastes, and elsewhere. Yet Professor Smith (in his Lectures on the Old Testament in the Jewish church page 321,) says “One asks for proof that any Hebrew ever wrote of himself in the third person”. Is human learning to be trusted in the things of God? What is man in presence of these divine and imperishable records? The books of Ezra and Nehemiah anciently formed but one work; they are still spoken of by Roman Catholic writers as the 1St and 2nd books of ESDRAS.
NEHEMIAH. This book was written about the close of Nehemiah’s administration over the returned Jews to Palestine, and after his return from the Court of Persia (Chapter 13:6). Nehemiah himself was the writer (Chapter 1:1).
ESTHER. We utterly reject the thought advanced by some, that this book is a mere compilation from the Persian records, on the ground that the name of God does not once occur in it. There is a divine reason for such an important omission, which we hope to refer to at another time. The scenes of this book come in historically between chaps. vi. and vii. of the book of Ezra. We believe on internal evidence that the book was written by “Mordecai the Jew”. But we would again observe that the questions of When, Where, and by Whom the books of Scripture were written are altogether irrespective of their inspiration and Divine origin.
JOB. This is a book upon the moral government of God, consisting of 17 speeches and an introduction in which Jehovah, Satan, and Job mainly figure (Chapter 1-3) with a weighty and instructive appendix, in which Jehovah and His broken-hearted servant alone appear (Chapter 38-42). The book is without dates, and hence neither characteristically dispensational, nor historical. Volumes have been written to prove (as if that were possible) the non-existence of the patriarch, and that the book is merely a page of Arabian romance. Ezekiel among the prophets (Chapter 14:14, 20), and James among the apostles (Chapter 5:1) guarantee the life, trials, and death of Job, while Paul authenticates the divine character of the book by citing from it, introducing the quotation with the usual formula “it is written” (1 Corinthians 3:1919For the wisdom of this world is foolishness with God. For it is written, He taketh the wise in their own craftiness. (1 Corinthians 3:19) with Job 5:1313He taketh the wise in their own craftiness: and the counsel of the froward is carried headlong. (Job 5:13)).
The scenes of this book belong in point of antiquity to the patriarchal age: this we gather from the following considerations. Job must have been nigh a century old, if not more, when the Lord opened the controversy with Satan respecting His servant. The patriarch then had seven grown-up sons, for they had houses of their own, and three daughters, while after his trial he lived a hundred arid forty years (chaps. 1, 42). Does not this long age conclusively point to a time, certainly not later, if not earlier than, the days of Abram? This is further confirmed by a reference to the earliest form of idolatry, that of the heavenly bodies (Chapter 31:26, 27) the only kind mentioned in the book, and further by the frequency of the patriarchal title “the Almighty”, occurring oftener than in any other book of Scripture. Job, too, like his contemporaries prior to the days of Moses is seen in household priestly action (Chapter 1:5). According to many, Moses was the writer of the book; if so, it was probably written 40 years at least before the Pentateuch, the former in the land of Midian (Exodus 2), and the latter subsequently on the plains of Moab (Deuteronomy 31:22, 2622Moses therefore wrote this song the same day, and taught it the children of Israel. (Deuteronomy 31:22)
26Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thee. (Deuteronomy 31:26)).
THE BOOK OF PSALMS. This inspired collection of Sacred Songs, and of compositions of various character, has evidently the impress of God upon its arrangement. He selected them, gave them their present shape and form, gave 116 of them those untranslated headings or titles, which are rarely read and still less understood. He gave to the whole collection its present title “The Book of Psalms” (Luke 20:4242And David himself saith in the book of Psalms, The Lord said unto my Lord, Sit thou on my right hand, (Luke 20:42)), and caused them to be numbered too for more easy reference by us, as “the second psalm” (Acts 13:3333God hath fulfilled the same unto us their children, in that he hath raised up Jesus again; as it is also written in the second psalm, Thou art my Son, this day have I begotten thee. (Acts 13:33)). The Psalms are inspired and their arrangement is divine. Uniform tradition—Jewish and Christian—ascribes the compilation of the Psalms to Ezra on his return to Palestine after the Babylon captivity. Human arrangement would have set the psalms in chronological or historical order; but God has classified them in an order manifesting His purpose and befitting His glory, whoever was the instrument. We hope to be able to show this in our brief notes on the Psalter in the pages of the Bible Student.
THE PROVERBS. The whole of these proverbs were spoken by Solomon, save those contained in the two last chapters. We may regard these wise principles and maxims as part of the 3000 uttered by the illustrious monarch of Israel (1 Kings 4:3; 23Elihoreph and Ahiah, the sons of Shisha, scribes; Jehoshaphat the son of Ahilud, the recorder. (1 Kings 4:3)
3And keep the charge of the Lord thy God, to walk in his ways, to keep his statutes, and his commandments, and his judgments, and his testimonies, as it is written in the law of Moses, that thou mayest prosper in all that thou doest, and whithersoever thou turnest thyself: (1 Kings 2:3)) and here selected and arranged by inspiration of God. The compiler was probably one of the prophets living in the days of the godly Hezekiah, if indeed that monarch himself did not do so: we know at least that his servants copied out a number of these Proverbs (Chapter 25:1). We know nothing of Agur, (Chapter 30:1) nor of King Lemuel (Chapter 22:1); their names alone have been handed down to posterity.
ECCLESIASTES. The opening words of the book are conclusive as to its authorship, “The words of the Preacher, the son of David, King in Jerusalem”. The boundary of Solomon’s horizon is the sun, beneath it all is pronounced “Vanity”. Read the book, and you will say that it was evidently written by Solomon at the close of his reign, in the evening of his life; probably too in Jerusalem, at least in Palestine. One class of critics boldly tell us that the book was not written by Solomon, but that some unknown author assumed the name, and personified the character, of Israel’s wisest and richest monarch, because they have discovered that the style is not that of Solomon’s, nor the circumstances in the book in accordance with his reign. “Knowledge puffeth up”; and so these wise men in their own conceit regard with a sneer and with supreme contempt the fact that God has settled the question of the authorship of the book (Chapter 1:1), and further that it always held its present place in all Hebrew Bibles, and formed part of the Sacred Scriptures in the days of Christ and writers of the New Testament. We suppose moreover that the Jewish mind is quite as capable as any modern critic of estimating the value of differences in style and diction of Hebrew writers especially; yet the Jews ancient and modern fail to see a difficulty in assigning the authorship to Solomon. But enough, God has spoken (Chapter 1:1), and we would reverently bow and implicitly believe.