But though Moses did not compile those books entirely,and in the form we have them;yet he wrote all that which he is there said to have written:as for example,the volume of the law,which is contained,as it seemeth,in the 11th of Deuteronomy,and the following chapters to the 27th,which was also commanded to be written on stones,in their entry into the land of Canaan.And this did Moses himself write,and deliver to the priests and elders of Israel,to be read every seventh year to all Israel,at their assembling in the feast of tabernacles.And this is that law which God commanded that their kings (when they should have established that form of government)should take a copy of from the priests and Levites;and which Moses commanded the priests and Levites to lay in the side of the Ark;and the same which,having been lost,was long time after found again by Hilkiah,and sent to King Josias,who,causing it to be read to the people,renewed the covenant between God and them.
That the Book of Joshua was also written long after the time of Joshua may be gathered out of many places of the book itself.Joshua had set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan,for a monument of their passage;of which the writer saith thus,"They are there unto this day";for unto this day is a phrase that signifieth a time past,beyond the memory of man.In like manner,upon the saying of the Lord that He had rolled off from the people the reproach of Egypt,the writer saith,"The place is called Gilgal unto this day";which to have said in the time of Joshua had been improper.So also the name of the valley of Achor,from the trouble that Achan raised in the camp,the writer saith,"remaineth unto this day";which must needs be therefore long after the time of Joshua.Arguments of this kind there be many other;as Joshua,8.29,13.13,14.14,15.63.
The same is manifest by like arguments of the Book of Judges,1.21,26,4.24,10.4,15.19,18.6,and Ruth,1.1,but especially Judges,18.30.where it said that Jonathan "and his sons were priests to the tribe of Dan,until the day of the captivity of the land."That the Books of Samuel were also written after his own time,there are the like arguments,I Samuel,5.5,7.13,15,27.6,and 30.
25,where,after David had adjudged equal part of the spoils to them that guarded the ammunition,with them that fought,the writer saith,"He made it a statute and an ordinance to Israel to this day."Again,when David (displeased that the Lord had slain Uzzah for putting out his hand to sustain the Ark)called the place Perez-uzzah,the writer saith it is called so "to this day":the time therefore of the writing of that book must be long after the time of the fact;that is,long after the time of David.
As for the two Books of the Kings,and the two Books of the Chronicles,besides the places which mention such monuments,as the writer saith remained till his own days;such as are I Kings,9.13,9.21,10.12,12.19;II Kings,2.22,10.27,14.7,16.6,17.
23,17.34,17.41,and I Chronicles,4.41,5.26.It is argument sufficient they were written after the captivity in Babylon that the history of them is continued till that time.For the facts registered are always more ancient than the register;and much more ancient than such books as make mention of and quote the register;as these books do in diverse places,referring the reader to the chronicles of the Kings of Judah,to the chronicles of the Kings of Israel,to the books of the prophet Samuel,of the prophet Nathan,of the prophet Ahijah;to the vision of Jehdo,to the books of the prophet Serveiah,and of the prophet Addo.
The Books of Esdras and Nehemiah were written certainly after their return from captivity;because their return,the re-edification of the walls and houses of Jerusalem,the renovation of the covenant,and ordination of their policy are therein contained.
The history of Queen Esther is of the time of the Captivity;and therefore the writer must have been of the same time,or after it.
The Book of Job hath no mark in it of the time wherein it was written:and though it appear sufficiently that he was no feigned person;yet the book itself seemeth not to be a history,but a treatise concerning a question in ancient time much disputed:why wicked men have often prospered in this world,and good men have been afflicted;and it is the more probable,because from the beginning to the third verse of the third chapter,where the complaint of Job beginneth,the Hebrew is (as St.Jerome testifies)in prose;and from thence to the sixth verse of the last chapter in hexameter verses;and the rest of that chapter again in prose.So that the dispute is all in verse;and the prose is added,as a preface in the beginning and an epilogue in the end.But verse is no usual style of such as either are themselves in great pain,as Job;or of such as come to comfort them,as his friends;but in philosophy,especially moral philosophy,in ancient time frequent.
The Psalms were written the most part by David,for the use of the choir.To these are added some songs of Moses and other holy men;and some of them after the return from the Captivity,as the 137th and the 126th,whereby it is manifest that the Psalter was compiled,and put into the form it now hath,after the return of the Jews from Babylon.
The Proverbs,being a collection of wise and godly sayings,partly of Solomon,partly of Agur the son of Jakeh,and partly of the mother of King Lemuel,cannot probably be thought to have been collected by Solomon,rather than by Agur,or the mother of Lemuel;and that,though the sentences be theirs,yet the collection or compiling them into this one book was the work of some other godly man that lived after them all.
