HAGIOGRAPHA (ha'jr-6g`ra-fa), (Gr. *A•ydry paiba, hac-ee-oera-f5hah, holy writings, sacred writ ings). the word ilagiograftha is first found in Epiphanius (Panarium, p. 58), who used it to de note the third division of the Scriptures, called by the Jews the Writings, consisting of five books (see VEnstoffs OF SCRIPTURE, TargUMS), Viz. the three fioems, Job, Proverbs, and the Psalms, and the two books of Chronicles.
(1) Classifications. These divisions are found in the Talmud (Bova Bathra, fol. 1, ed. Am sterd.), where the sacred books are classified under the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings (Cetubint). The last are thps enumerated (/. c.): Ruth, the book (sepher) of Psalms, Job, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes (Kohcleth), the Song of Songs, La mentations, Daniel, and the books (mcgilloth) of Esther, Ezra, and Chronicles. The Jewish writers, however, do not uniformly follow this arrange ment, as they sometimes place the Psalms, or the book of Job, as the first of the Hagiographa. Jerome gives the arrangement followed by the Jews in his time. He observes that they divided the Scriptures into five books of Moses, eight prophetical books (viz., I. Joshua ; 2. Judges and Ruth; 3. Samuel; 4. Kings; 5. Isaiah ; 6. Jeremiah; 7. Ezekiel; 8. the twelve prophets), and nine Hagiographa (viz., t. Job; 2. David, five parts; 3. Solomon, three parts; 4. Koheleth; 5. Canticles ; 6. Daniel; 7. Chronicles; 8. Esdras, two books, viz., Ezra and Nehemiah ; 9. Esther). 'Some, how ever,' he adds, 'place Ruth and Lamentations among the Hagiographa rather than among the prophetical books.' (2) Early Notice. (1) The earliest notice which we find of these divisions is that contained in the prologue to the book of Eeclesiasticus, writ ten B. C. t3o, the author of which refers to the Law, the Prophets, and the other books, by which last were most probably meant the Hagiographa. Philo also speaks of the Laws, the Prophets, the Hymns, and the other books, but without classify ing them. (2) In the New Testament we find three corresponding divisions mentioned, viz., the Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms, which last book has been supposed to have given its name to the third division from the circumstance of its then tieing the first in the catalogue (Luke xxiv: 44). Havernick, however (Handbuch, p. 78), sup poses that Luke calls the Hagiographa by the name of Psalms, rather on account of the poetical character of several of its parts (3) The 'book of the Prophets' is referred to in the New Testament as a distinct volume (Acts vii :42), where the passage indicated is Amos v :25, 26. It is well known that the second class was divided by the Jews into the early Prophets, viz., Joshua, Judges, Samuel, and Kings; and the later Prophets, viz., Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel (called the major pro phets), and the book of the twelve (minor) pro phets. When this division of books was first introduced it is now impossible to ascertain. Probably it commenced after the return from the exile, with the first formation of the canon. Still more difficult is it to ascertain the principle on which the classification was based. (4) It has been concluded from Matt. xxiii :35 and Luke xi:51; comp. with Luke xxiv :44, that as the Psalms were the first, so were Chronicles the last book in the Hagiographa (Carpzov, In trod, iv. p. 25). If, when Jesus spoke of the
righteous blood shed from the blood of Abel (Gen. iv :8) to that of Zechariah, he referred, as most commentators suppose, to Zechariah the son of Jehoiada (2 Chron. xxiv :20, 21), there appears a peculiar appositeness in the appeal to the first and the last books in the canon. The book of Chronicles still holds the last place in the Hebrew Bibles. which are all arranged according to the threefold division. The late date of Chronicles may in some measure account for its separation from the book of Kings; and this ground holds good whether we fix the era of the Chronicler, with Zunz, at about B. C. 26o, or with the eminent Roman Catholic, Professor Movers, the able de fender of the antiquity and authenticity of the book, we conceive him to have been a younger contemporary of Nehemiah, and to have written about B. C. 400 (Kritische Untersuchung uber de Biblische Chronik, Bonn, 1834). The circum stance of the existence of a few acknowledged later additions, such as it Chron. :19-24, does not militate against this hypothesis. De Wette conceives that the genealogy in this passage comes down only to the third generation after Nehemiah. (5) The Alexandrian translators have not been guided by the threefold division in their arrange ment of the books of Scripture. Luther was the first who separated the canonical from the other books. Not only do the Alexandrian translators, the Fathers, and Luther differ from the Jews in the order of succession of the sacred books, but among the Jel,vs themselves the Talmudists and Masorites and the German and Spanish manu scripts follow each a different arrangement.
W. W.
HAI (ha'i). See Al.
HAIL (hal), 1. (Gr. xaipe, kheth'ee-reh, be cheer ful, rejoice), a salutation, (Luke i:28); in mockery (Matt. xxvii:29).
2. Frozen rain (Heb. baw-rawd). When a very cold current of air encounters a hot and humid one, the vapor of the latter is suddenly condensed into drops, and sometimes these are frozen into irregular spheroids of porous ice, which fall to the earth as hail.
This phenomenon is more frequent in temperate than in tropical regions, and usually occurs in summer and at the hottest hour of the day. Hail rarely falls except during thunderstorms, and hence the Bible commonly mentions it in connec tion with fire (lightning), as in Ps. cxlviii :8. Hail occasionally falls in Egypt (Exod. ix:22-25) be tween December and April. It is more frequent in Palestine (Josh. x :if ; Hag. ii :i7). The area af fected by a hailstorm is generally a long, narrow line, so that of two places near each other one may be in and the other out of the storm. Thus Goshen might escape it, whilst the adjacent district of Egypt to the westward might be in its track and suffer severely (Exod. ix:26) ; and a pursuing army might be untouched by the storm and yet see their fleeing foes beaten down by the falling stones (Josh. x :r ). (Davis, Bib. Dia.).
FiguratiVe. Hail is the symbol of Divine ven geance upon kingdoms and nations, as the ene mies of God and his people (Is. xxviii :2. t7, xxxii:t9; Hag. ii:t7).