BIBLE, the brok, a name given by Chris tians, by way of eminence, to a collection of the sacred writings.
This collection of the sacred writings, containing those of the Old and New Tes. 'lament, is justlylooked upon as the foun dation of the Jewish, as well as the Chris tian, religion. The Jews, it is true, ac knowledge only the scriptures of the Old Testament, the correcting and publishing of which are unanimously ascribed, both by the Jews and the Christians, to Ezra. Some of the ancient fathers, on no other foundation than that fabulous and apocry phal book, the second book of Esdras, pretend that the scriptures were entirely lost in the Babylonish captivity, and that Ezra had restored them again by divine revelation. What is certain is, that in the reign of Josiah there were no other books of the law extant, besides that found in the temple by IIilkiah ; from which origi nal, that pious king ordered copies to be immediately written out, and search made for all the parts of the scriptures;
. by which means copies of the whole be . came pretty numerous among the people, 'who carried them with them into captivi ty. After the return of the Jews from the Babylonish captivity, Ezra got together as many copies as he could of the sacred writings, and out of them all prepared a correct edition, disposing the several books in their natural order, and settling the canon of the scriptures for his time; having published them according to the opinion of most learned men in the Chal dee character, as the Jews, upon their return from the captivity, brought with them the Chaldaic language, which from that time became their mother tongue, and probably gave birth to the Chaldee translation of their scriptures.