returning in glory.

A

the minor

The Lord of all the earth.

The reader may have observed that the addition of Ruth to Judges is a

very blessed confirmation of the description, 'Israel forsaking and returning

to God', and that gain instead of loss is ours by this adjustment.

A

The Psalms

God's purposes and counsels.

B

Words which govern or rule man's life.

C

'The end of the Lord'

Shown in Satan's defeat.

D

Virtue rewarded

Read at Passover.

E  Ecclesiastes

The Preacher

Read at Tabernacles.

D

Virtue rewarded

Read at Purim.

C

'God's judgment'

Final defeat of Antichrist.

B  Ezra  and

Men who governed God's people.

A

'Words of days'

God's purposes and counsels.

It will be noted that the removal of Ruth and Lamentations, lettered

respectively E and F in The Companion Bible, makes no difference to the

structure as a whole.

We have seen in a previous study that the Lord Jesus Christ accepted

this Hebrew canon, and so did also His apostles as may be seen by a perusal

of their epistles and recorded speeches.  We have, moreover, in the Apocrypha

the most absolute testimony to the fact that the canon was fixed centuries

before Christ.  In the prologue of Ecclesiasticus the author's grandson

speaks of his grandfather giving himself to the reading of 'the law, and the

prophets, and the other books of our fathers', which is sufficient proof that

such a recognized collection of sacred books then existed.

We have, however, a more ancient and reliable witness than the son of

Sirach, viz., the testimony of the Septuagint Version.  Speaking roughly, 280

years before Christ, the Greek version of the Old Testament  Scriptures,

known to us as the Septuagint, was complete, and the books there translated

are identical with our own Old Testament.  We are so accustomed to handling

this book that its extreme antiquity is lost upon us.

Let it be remembered that there is no evidence for any other ancient

book that approaches the evidence that we possess, of the genuineness and

authority of the books of the Bible.  There is no authentic book that goes

back as far as the books of the Old Testament.

Such is, in brief, the external witness to the Old Testament canon.  On

the other hand, the witness of language, allusions to manners and customs,

times and circumstances, form a vast amount of internal evidence, alike too

important and too extensive to enlarge upon here.

The following analysis of the way in which the Old Testament writers

and books are quoted in the New Testament may form a useful appendix to this