De Moor II:15: Canonical Books Imperishable, Part 1

Among the Accidental Properties of these Canonical Books our AUTHOR enumerates that they always Endure and Survive, and also that all always remain Canonical.

Therefore, the Canonical Books then extant did not perish all together and at the same time in the Babylonian destruction of the City and Temple of Jerusalem.  That is, this fable is narrated concerning the Sacred Books being altogether destroyed in the conflagration of the Temple, so that by the heavenly revelation and care of Ezra, after a certain draught received from God, in the space of forty days, dictating them to five men, they had to be restored, in an Apocryphal book, 4 Esdras 14:21-44.[1]

Several Fathers are cited as supporting this tradition, namely, IRENÆUS in his against Heresies, book III, chapter XXI, page 216; CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, Stromata, book I, page 342; BASIL THE GREAT, Epistola ad Chilonem, opera, tome 3, page 7 C; TERTULLIAN, de Cultu Feminarum, book I, chapter III; etc.  But, as it is evident that the Fathers of the ancient Church were oftentimes deceived in matters of this sort, whose authority then in this matter does not greatly overawe us; so neither is it possible to elicit from their words that all that are cited in favor of this opinion thus actually believed.  Let the Greek text of IRENÆUS be examined, which EUSEBIUS has preserved for us in book V of Historiæ Ecclesiasticæ, chapter VIII, near the end.  It is not asserted in that place that the Scriptures were completely destroyed; but only διαφθαρεισῶν τῶν γραφῶν, that is, with the Scriptures corrupted, that is, perverted by errors, which had crept in with the passing of time and the Captivity continuing.  When it is then added, ἐνέπνευσεν Ἔσδρᾳ τῷ ἱερεῖ, τοὺς τῶν προγεγονότων προφητῶν πάντας ἀνατάξασθαι λόγους, καὶ ἀποκαταστῆσαι τῷ λαῷ τὴν διὰ Μωσέως νομοθεσίαν, He inspired Ezra the priest to set in order all the words of the former prophets, and to restore to the people the legislation of Moses:  by the word ἀνατάξασθαι, which HENRI VALOIS renders to compose again, but MASSUET to arrange; nothing else is signified, when you compare that with ἀποκαταστῆσαι, but that he emended the Sacred Codices, arranged them into an order, in this manner restored them to the use of all, and exhibited them, completely free from errors, as they were in the beginning, to the people.  Since this was not accomplished without a certain inspiration of the Divine and pious affection of soul, Irenæus not incorrectly judges that this was breathed into Ezra.  What things CLEMENT OF ALEXANDRIA, Stromata, book I, page 342, has were drawn straight out of Irenæus, as Potter also observes,[2] and so are also to be understood in the same way, with the Translator incorrectly rendering there διαφθαρεισῶν as since they had perished.  In the same manner is able to be taken what CLEMENT has in his Stromata, book I, page 329, at the end, δι᾽ Ἔσδραν γίνεσθαι ὁ τῶν θεοπνεύστων ἀναγνωρισμὸς καὶ ἀνακαινισμὸς λογίων, that is, through Ezra was made a recension and renovation of the divinely inspired oracles.  Thus Bellarmine also explains the meaning of these and other Fathers, book II, de Verbo Dei, chapter I, Controversiis, tome I, columns 83-85.

For our part, we marvel that of the crowd of Papists after Nicolaus de Lyra on Ezra 7:6 and 2 Maccabees 2:13[3] that might embrace these trifles, there were none; if indeed they, thus providing that the Church in the entire time of the Babylonian Captivity was preserved without Scripture by the influence of Tradition alone, thought themselves to be able to make use of this device for the commendation of Traditions and disparagement of Scripture and its necessary use:  see GERHARD’S Confessionem catholicam, book II, special, part I, article I, chapter II, page 71.

But it is good that the more sober Papists themselves interpose; as ABRAHAM CALOVIUS in his Critico Sacro, page 384, of the Papists cites Pererius, Bellarmine, Genebrard, Baronius, Torniellus,[4] and Marius, who refute this fable:  to whom BUDDEUS, in his Historia Ecclesiastica Veteris Testamenti, period II, section VI, § 12, tome 2, page 829, adds Huet, Demonstratione Evangelica, proposition IV, page 264; Louis Ellies du Pin, Dissertatione præliminaria super Biblia, book I, chapter IV, § 3, pages 144 and following; Natalis Alexander, Historia Ecclesiastica Veteris Testament, age of the world VI, dissertation IV, pages 338 and following.  The words of the Papists that reject that device are cited at length by GERHARD, Confessione catholica, book II, special, part I, article I, chapter II, pages 72-77.

Bellarmine

It is certainly evident that that Book of 4 Esdras is not to be enumerated with those Apocryphal Books that are held by Papists as Canonical and Sacred:  on the contrary, its author is described by HUET, Demonstratione Evangelica, proposition IV, page 264, as a man poorly and ineptly fraudulent.  BELLARMINE, in book II, de Verbo Dei, chapter I, column 84, deserves to be heard:  “This book,” says he, “is not only Apocryphal, and was never received by the catholic Church, but also in many places smells of Jewish fables, etc.  Wherefore rather the testimony of this book diminishes confidence in this opinion that it alleges.”  Nevertheless, Hobbes also gives assent to this fable; see COCQUIUS’ Hobbesianismi Anatomen, locus III, chapter V, pages 47, 48.

Sufficient for the confutation of this fiction, as our AUTHOR rightly observes, is, α.  the dispersal of the Exemplars among the Jews, both the Jerusalemite, who remained in their native land in the time of the Captivity, and those previously rooted in Assyria and Babylon, of which dispersal there can be no doubt; so that, although the autographs be consumed in the conflagration of the Temple, nevertheless the copies remained.  β.  Daniel’s reading of the Sacred Volumes in the Captivity itself, Daniel 9:2, 11; and Ezra’s soon after the return from the Captivity, Nehemiah 8:2-4, where the Jews seek from Ezraלְהָבִ֗יא אֶת־סֵ֙פֶר֙ תּוֹרַ֣ת מֹשֶׁ֔ה, to bring, to bring forth the book of the Law,[5] not to compose.  Indeed, concerning returning Ezra in Ezra 7:14, it is affirmed that he had the Law of God at hand, בְּדָ֥ת אֱלָהָ֖ךְ דִּ֥י בִידָֽךְ׃, according to the Law of thy God which is in thine hand.  But even before the coming of Ezra, the returning Jews had the written Law, from which, with the Temple restored, they also renewed public worship, Ezra 6:18,כִּכְתָ֖ב סְפַ֥ר מֹשֶֽׁה׃ , as it is written in the book of Moses.  If anyone wishes all this to be interpreted concerning the Book of Moses already restored by Ezra, he ought to bring clear reasons for his assertion.  γ.  Not only the Silence concerning this entire matter in Canonical Scripture, but also its apparent Overthrow, when the precious Vessels of the Temple are said to be carried off by Babylon, 2 Chronicles 36:18 compared with 2 Kings 25:9, 13-17.  But if Scripture so carefully records the burning of Jerusalem, the conflagration of the Temple, and the carrying off of the Holy Vessels, certainly it would not have passed over in silence the loss of such a treasure, the total destruction of the Sacred Scripture.  δ.  The faithful care of the Church, in which at that time were holy Men, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, Haggai, Zechariah; among whom we saw that Daniel made use of the sacred Books in Captivity:  Ezekiel, and Jeremiah, who had received the liberty of remaining in Judea, both from priestly families, upon whom on this double account it was incumbent to teach the people the law;[6] likewise Haggai and Zechariah, restorers of the worship of God among the returning people; who would believe that they were without the Law and the other Sacred Books?  The provident care of God Himself is added, who did not permit the Sacred Scriptures to be destroyed by the tyranny of Antiochus Epiphanes, when the Sacred Books were diligently sought for burning, 1 Maccabees 1:56-58:[7]  shall we now imagine that He permitted the total destruction of Sacred Scripture, when no attempt of the Babylonians to destroy the Sacred Books is mentioned to us?  ε.  That it is not so necessary for the refutation of this fable to have recourse to the uncertain narrations both of JOSEPHUS, who in his Antiquities of the Jews, book XI, chapter I, page 357, writes that King Cyrus read the prophesies of Isaiah that had regard to himself, and that by this very thing he was caught by a desire for the accomplishment of those things that were predicted concerning himself; to which, nevertheless, BUDDEUS denies that credence is safely given, Historia Veteris Testamenti, period II, section V, § 8, tome 2, page 662b, with JACQUES ALEXANDRE VOS thinking otherwise, Voozbereids tot de Uytlegging van Daniel, chapter I, § 6, pages 4-6:  and of THEODORET, who in his de Curatione Græcarum Affectionum, book I, opera, tome 4, page 472, relates:  Καὶ Κῦρος δέγε ὁ Καμβύσου, τὸν Δανιὴλ ὁμοδίαιτον ἐσχηκῶς, τῶν τῆς θεοσεβείας μετέλαχε μαθημάτων· Λυδοὺς δὲ καταστρεψάμενος, καὶ τούτους ὑποχειρίους λαβὼν, μετέδωκε δήπου τοῖς ὑπηκόοις ὧν παρ᾽ ἐκείνου μεμάθηκεν·  κτλ, And Cyrus, father of Cambyses, having kept Daniel near, obtained a share in the lessons in God-fearing:  and, having subdued the Lydians, and having taken those as subjects, he gave a share to his subjects of what he had learned from him, etc.  ϛ.  We do not want to appeal to another Fable, but what is commemorated in a Book Canonical to the Papists, 2 Maccabees 2:4, 5,[8] in which you read that the Tabernacle, Ark, and altar of incense were preserved from the conflagration by Jeremiah in a cave of Mount Nebo:  it would have been strange, if the chest with the αὐτογράφοις/autographs of the θεοπνεύστων/inspired Book were not joined with these.

But this Fable delays us so much the less, since it is easy to track down its origin in the solicitous care of Ezra to emend, to gather into one, to supplement, and to arrange the Sacred Codex, concerning which we treated above, and which trifling men think to be a gift to themselves immeasurably to augment with fables of this sort added, namely, so that they might so much the more commend Ezra.

[1] 4 Esdras 14:21-44:  “For thy law is burnt, therefore no man knoweth the things that are done of thee, or the work that shall begin.  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, which were written in thy law, that men may find thy path, and that they which will live in the latter days may live.  And he answered me, saying, Go thy way, gather the people together, and say unto them, that they seek thee not for forty days.  But look thou prepare thee many box trees, and take with thee Sarea, Dabria, Selemia, Ecanus, and Asiel, these five which are ready to write swiftly; and come hither, and I shall light a candle of understanding in thine heart, which shall not be put out, till the things be performed which thou shalt begin to write.  And when thou hast done, some things shalt thou publish, and some things shalt thou shew secretly to the wise:  to morrow this hour shalt thou begin to write.  Then went I forth, as he commanded, and gathered all the people together, and said, Hear these words, O Israel.  Our fathers at the beginning were strangers in Egypt, from whence they were delivered:  And received the law of life, which they kept not, which ye also have transgressed after them.  Then was the land, even the land of Sion, parted among you by lot:  but your fathers, and ye yourselves, have done unrighteousness, and have not kept the ways which the Highest commanded you.  And forasmuch as he is a righteous judge, he took from you in time the thing that he had given you.  And now are ye here, and your brethren among you.  Therefore if so be that ye will subdue your own understanding, and reform your hearts, ye shall be kept alive and after death ye shall obtain mercy.  For after death shall the judgment come, when we shall live again:  and then shall the names of the righteous be manifest, and the works of the ungodly shall be declared.  Let no man therefore come unto me now, nor seek after me these forty days.  So I took the five men, as he commanded me, and we went into the field, and remained there.  And the next day, behold, a voice called me, saying, Esdras, open thy mouth, and drink that I give thee to drink.  Then opened I my mouth, and, behold, he reached me a full cup, which was full as it were with water, but the colour of it was like fire.  And I took it, and drank:  and when I had drunk of it, my heart uttered understanding, and wisdom grew in my breast, for my spirit strengthened my memory:  And my mouth was opened, and shut no more.  The Highest gave understanding unto the five men, and they wrote the wonderful visions of the night that were told, which they knew not:  and they sat forty days, and they wrote in the day, and at night they ate bread.  As for me, I spake in the day, and I held not my tongue by night.  In forty days they wrote two hundred and four books.”

[2] John Potter (c. 1674-1747) was an English scholar and classicist.  Among his contributions to literature is his edition of Clement of Alexandria.  Potter was a High Churchman, and served as Archbishop of Canterbury from 1737 to 1747.

[3] 2 Maccabees 2:13:  “The same things also were reported in the writings and commentaries of Neemias; and how he founding a library gathered together the acts of the kings, and the prophets, and of David, and the epistles of the kings concerning the holy gifts.”

[4] Augustine Torniellus (1543-1622) was a member of the Society of Barnabites, a Counter-Reformation order.  His work, Annales Sacri et Profani, cleared up many geographical and chronological difficulties and obscurities, especially in the Old Testament.

[5] See verse 1.

[6] See Leviticus 10:11; Deuteronomy 33:10: Malachi 2:6, 7.

[7] 1 Maccabees 1:56-58:  “And when they had rent in pieces the books of the law which they found, they burnt them with fire.  And whosoever was found with any the book of the testament, or if any committed to the law, the king’s commandment was, that they should put him to death.  Thus did they by their authority unto the Israelites every month, to as many as were found in the cities.”

[8] 2 Maccabees 2:4, 5:  “It was also contained in the same writing, that the prophet, being warned of God, commanded the tabernacle and the ark to go with him, as he went forth into the mountain, where Moses climbed up, and saw the heritage of God.  And when Jeremy came thither, he found an hollow cave, wherein he laid the tabernacle, and the ark, and the altar of incense, and so stopped the door.”