That same Prophet foretold the Fall of Tyrus. Jeremiah and Ezekiel did the same. Their writings concerning that event respectively bear date 712-606-588 years B. C. They also foretold that Judæa should be captive to the Babylonian 70 years; which time, computed from the capture of Jerusalem and destruction of the first Temple, 588 B. C., to the period of building the Second Temple, 518 B. C., would exactly complete the fulfilment of the Prophecy: or if the time is computed from the captivity of the King of Judæa, 606 B. C., to the return of the Jewish people from Babylon, 536 B. C., then the 70 years are, also, exactly accomplished.
Tyrus, said Isaiah, should be forgotten as a Nation for 70 years; which time, reckoned from the first year of the Siege by Nebuchadnezzar, 585 B. C., brings the period to 515 B. C., the year in which the Second Temple was dedicated; and at which the Tyrians assisting, they obtained again their National position: therefore, that Prophecy, and that concerning Judæa, were strictly fulfilled.
Now atheistical writers endeavour to maintain that Moses, Isaiah, Daniel, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the long line of Prophets never existed, and that the entire Volume of the Bible was originally written by Ezra! the chief Priest and Lawgiver of the Jewish Nation, at the return from the captivity in Babylon, 536 B. C.; and that, as he wrote from 536 to 456 B. C., therefore in composing the Bible, after the dates of the events specified, he could, and did, so arrange the Prophecies, as if spoken by men who lived before the fulfilments, but, who in fact (they argue) never did exist; and that he wrote nothing for Prophecy, the accomplishment of which was to take place after his (Ezra's) own time, and that no fulfilment of any Prophecy AFTER HIS TIME can be HISTORICALLY established,—the foretelling of which is anywhere found in the Old Testament! That is the data upon which atheists and deists found their arguments against the Bible,—against the vital principle of its truth,—viz., the Prophecies.
We, therefore, propose to meet those arguments, and refute the reckless denials, upon their own chosen ground,—giving them, even the advantage of the latest date claimed by them,—viz., 456 B. C., the latest period in which Ezra wrote.
Before we refute their pseudo-reasoning upon the Prophecies, we will shew that Scriptural authority is not rejected by them; that it is distinctly allowed by them, although unconsciously. It must be apparent that they admit the authority of the Bible, and the existence of the Jews as a Nation (which they deny), for they accredit Ezra and his companions as writers and compilers of The Volume, "after their return as Captives from Babylon." Here then is a direct admission (though unwittingly) that the Jews were a Nation, and of sufficient importance to have been made captive by so powerful a Monarch as the King of Babylon; and that they returned at all, is only obtainable from the Bible, and they admit "their return;" therefore they admit the record of the Scripture!
Again:—they say with apparent triumph, in regard to the Bible being in the letters of Babylon, and not in the Jewish characters (and thence they deduce that the Jews were not a Nation),—viz., "As all these men (Ezra and his followers) had been captives in Babylon, and could no where else be taught to write, how could these Books (i. e. of the Bible) be COMPOSED in any other than the Chaldæan characters?" i. e. letters.
We grant that the Bible was TRANSLATED by Ezra, and his Scribes, into the Chaldee, which was the language of the learned among the Babylonians, and acquired by the Jews during their captivity; and is now at this day, the language (i. e. letters) of our present Hebrew Bible;—but, 36 years before the Captivity, viz., 624 B. C., the Mosaical Books of the Laws, (i. e. the Pentateuch and others) were found in the Old Temple, and they were read by Shaphan to King Josiah, and of course in the original language of Israel (not Hebrew), which we will prove in the next Volume to have been nearly identical with those of ancient Phœnicia and Egypt. Therefore, that the Book or Books were now written by Ezra in the Chaldee—or right-angular letter—is a conclusive proof that it was a Translation, and being so, as a necessity, it must have been from an original Book or Bible, and consequently, of antecedent date to the period of Ezra.
Even in the Apocryphal Book of Esdras (2d) (and quoted from as authority by atheists), and who is identical from date with Ezra,—there is a sentence proving the previous existence of the Bible, which he is about to rewrite, or translate.—Esdras (i. e. Ezra) says, in his address to The Deity,—
"But if I have found grace before thee, send the Holy-Ghost into me, and I shall write all that hath been done in the World since the beginning [i. e. the Creation] WHICH WERE WRITTEN IN THE LAW [i. e. Original Books of Moses] that men may find thy path, and that they which will live in latter days, may live." [i. e. eternally.]
Now the capitalized line distinctly proves the existence of a previous Book of "the Law," and in the original language; and the preceding line defines that it contained "all that had been done in the World" from the Creation; therefore, the Books of Moses (and others) as we read them at this day.