Text Open.— More important, however, than any single variation in date, is the fact that establishment of a Canon by no means im plied cessation of literary process within the Scriptures canonized. The sacred lists of Prophets and Writings were never formally closed with any such ceremony as honored the Law, which to the last retained its position of easy pre-eminence, but even its majesty was attinged by various hands for hundreds of years after its canonization. Of this there are many clear indications; one may be noted. In Ex. xxv-xxxi is a body of regulations con cerning details of worship and especially sacred utensils and furniture; in Ex. xxxv-xl the same is repeated, often nearly verbatim, but in greater detail, by another hand; in this latter the Sep tuagint (Seventy) translation differs exten sively from the Masoretic in arrangement, in diction and in the smaller amount of material, an index pointing to the fact that so late as 250 B.C. the text had not attained a final form.
Jeremiah.— Still more heavily must the Prophets and the Writings, protected by far less sacro-sanctity, have felt the finger of redaction. This is most clearly seen in the book of Jeremiah,* where the later Masoretic or Palestinian (Hebrew) text exceeds in length (by about one-eighth of the whole) the older gyptian text represented in the Septuagint By so much the prophecies of Jeremiah were enriched after 250 B.C. Yet they were rated especially high by thepost-exilic Jews (as ap pears from Daniel ix) ; indeed, it was just because they were so dear to the people's heart that they were edited and re-edited and en larged and enlarged again. The interpolator was removed as far as possible from ir reverence. His interpolations were in truth the answer of his soul to the strong appeal of the prophet. This holds quite as well of the other Scriptures of both Testaments. Extensive and repeated revision and interpolation is the sure sign of esteem and affection. The notion of an author's rights, as we count them, was quite unknown. The worshiper whose heart was enkindled by the saintly chant did not hesitate to add his own voice to that of the invisible choir. With respect, then, to every important book of the Bible, there is a highly antecedent probability, indeed almost a certainty, that it has had a prolonged birth, that it is the joint issue of multiplied labors.
The modern idea, long prevalent, that the total canonization was effected by Ezra, who as president of the "Men of the Great Synagogue" (merely the shadow of a mighty name),* both unified all the Jewish Scnptures in one volume, restored the correct text and made the three-fold division into Law, Prophets and Writings,— this idea budded in the 13th century and developed amply 400 years later in the imagination of Elijah Levita (1538), and to still greater proportions in that of Buxtorf (1665),— a merely fictive out growth from the records that Ezra "the priest, the scribe" "ready in the law of Moses," of ficiated as chief reader during the work of canonization of the Law (Neh. viii, 1, 2, 6,
9, 13).
The occasion of this latter is very significant. Since the first return from Babylon (536 a.c.?)t three generations had passed away, but affairs in Jerusalem and Ju dea, so far from showing improvement, had grown even more deplorable. Not only were country and city the prey of neighboring free booters, but far worse, a process of miscege nation with the heathen nomads and of conse quent religious degeneration and decay had set in, and threatened to extinguish Israel in the South as totally as (already) in the North. Ezra had indeed not neglected the most dras tic measures against this amalgamation (Ezra x), and in the midst of a drenching rain had pledged the people to put away all °strange wives," even those that were mothers. Never theless the strong hand of the governor Ne hemiah was needed to lift up the people from their degradation, to restore the walls that were broken down and the gates that were burned with fire. It is the revival of a na tional consciousness, the reanimation of a per ishing people, that is celebrated in that great Feast of the Tabernacles (Chag Ha-sukkoth). It is the group-soul that comes badc to life and the canonization of the Law is the seal and symbol of the new career just opening. No such formal solemnity marked the canon ization of the Prophets and the Rest, yet we may be sure that the significance was similar. They were conservative measures, protective reactions of the racial consciousness against an environment hostile or still more danger ous in its friendship. Some such instinct of self-defense seems to have dictated the for mation of every canon.
What then were the boolcs thus sanctified and hallowed as the guardians of the national life? As already indicated, they were the °Four-and-Twenty"; Genesis, Exodus, Levit icus, Numbers, Deuteronomy (forming Torah, the Law) ; Joshua, Judges, Samuel, Kings, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Isaiah, the Twelve Minor Prophets (forming the Nebi'im, Prophets) ; Ruth, Psalms, Job and Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Song of Songs and Lamentations, Daniel and the Roll of Esther, Ezra (including Nehe miah) and Chronicles (forming the Kethubitn, °Writings° or Hagiographa).*- These famthar names agree in the main with the Greek, whence the Latin, and denote the books ac cording to Content or Author; but the Hebrew uses instead the first words of the Content; thus, "Breshitho (In-the-Beginning), "(Vel leh) Shemoth" (Now-these-the-names, Ex. i, 1), "Vayyiqra3° (And-called, Lev. i, 1), "B'mid bar') (In wilderness, Nu. i, 1), "Elleh rim" (These-the-words, Deut. 1) ; (but "T'hil litn," Psalms), "Mishle" (Proverbs-of), "Qo heleth" (Words of Qoheleth, Ecc. 1), °Shir Ha-shirim" (Song of-the-Songs, i. 1), "Ekah" (How, Lam. i, 1) (but "Dibre Ha-yamim," Words-of the-days Chronicles). Still other titles, as Book of Creation; of Patriarchs; of Penalties; of Priests; of Offerings; of Pre cepts of Numbers; of Reiteration, of Re prods; Prayers; Book of Wisdom; Lamenta tions— which seem to show later influence — are found in the Mishnah.