INTRODUCTION. THE Jewish Scriptures are divided into three parts, the Threefold Tôrâh or Law consisting of the Pentateuch; the N'biim or Old Testadivision of Prophets; and the C'thoobîm or Hagiographa. The "Pro- ment. phets" are again subdivided into the "former" and the "latter prophets." The "former prophets" include the books called Joshua, Judges, Samuel and Kings; these are called "prophets" probably because they were written by members of the prophetic schools, and "former" because they precede the "latter prophets" (viz. Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel and the twelve minor prophets). The Hagiographa consist of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the five Rolls, viz. Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes and Esther (arranged according to the sequence of the festivals on which they are read), and Daniel, Ezra, Nehemiah and Chronicles. In 2 Macc. ii. 13, Tà TOû ▲avíð seems to be the designation of this third division of Scripture, and in S. Luke xxiv. 44, where the threefold division of the Scriptures is referred to, aλμoí appears to include the whole Hagiographa. The third division of Holy Scripture is not, according to Jewish tradition, written by a strictly prophetic inspiration, but b’rooach hak-kôdesh, “in the Holy Spirit," to which distinction it is possible that our Lord refers when he speaks of David ἐν πνεύματι (i. e in The Spirit, πνεύματι being anarthrous after prep.), calling the Messiah Lord. And this tradition, at any rate as far as the book of Pss. is concerned, is quite in accordance with reason. Psalms are the outpourings of a full heart; the words, "My heart is o'erflowing with a good matter" (Ps. xlv. 1), denote the spirit in which a man writes a Psalm. Naturally, then, we should not expect to find direct prophecies in the book of Pss., but rather to see the hopes of the nation, as built upon the words of the J. L. P. b Nature of inspiration of Hagiographa, and specially of the Book of Psalms. WITH INTRODUCTIONS AND AND CRITICAL NOTES BY A. C. JENNINGS, B.A., JESUS COLLEGE, CAMBRIDGE, TYRWHITT SCHOLAR, CROSSE SCHOLAR, HEBREW UNIVERSITY PRIZEMAN, HEBREW LECTURER AND LATE SCHOLAR OF CHRIST'S COLLEGE, BOOKS III. AND IV. (PSALMS LXXIII. TO CVI.) |