4. It was under these conditions of character and motive that the learned scribes of these times made the first general collection of Hebrew literature then existing.The names of several books[154] which were extant either at the time of this gathering of the Canonical Books or before, are mentioned in the Scriptures; but if they had been considered worthy of the Canon they would probably have been preserved by copy or repetition. All that was valuable or important to the histories which were preserved in the Scriptures was extracted from them and contained in the Canonical Books as we have them at present.
Judging from certain statements in the genealogiesand in the concluding history, the book of Chronicles was the last that was written. The book of Nehemiah however has some additions, Neh. 12:10, 11, 22, of genealogies which bring the high-priests down to the time of Alexander the Great, as Josephus (Vol. V., Book II., ch. 8) shows, who states that Jaddua, whose name occurs in the book of Nehemiah, was high-priest and the last under the Persian rule, and must therefore have lived in the time when Alexander the Great, after the battle of Issus, B. C. 334, visited Jerusalem, B. C. 332, during the high-priesthood of Jaddua.
It is narrated that this high-priest was succeeded by Onias, his son, and he by “Simon the Just,” who was called by the Jews the last of the men of the Great Synagogue. It was during the priesthood of this Simon that, according to the general opinion of both Jewish and Christian writers, the final addition was made to the Canon of the Old Testament. Simon, who was not only high-priest, but a man of great learning and of most fervent piety and devotion to the Law, is said to have added the books of Chronicles, of Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and the prophecy of Malachi; after which, as Josephus writes, there was no further change, omission, or addition. The Old Testament Canon was closed then for ever.
PERIOD VII.
THE NEW TESTAMENT ERA.
THE LIFE AND TIMES OF OUR SAVIOUR.
THE PLANTING OF THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH.
CHAPTER I.
FROM THE BIRTH OF CHRIST TO HIS PUBLIC MINISTRY.
1. No other people have had stronger motives for cherishing the memories of their past than have had the Jews.
One of the most important sources of Jewish pride was found in their genealogical records. The history of the return from captivity and of the renewed settlement in Palestine, as recorded in the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, shows how important these records were considered to be. But the most important of all the records were those which traced any lineage up to David, and there is no reason to believe that a true line of descent was ever forgotten.