Scriptures, Holy

Scriptures, Holy, the term generally applied in the Christian Church, since the 2d century, to denote the collective writings of the Old mid New Testaments. See BIBLE. The names Scripture, or "writing" ἡ γραφή, 2Pe 1:20), Scriptures (αἱ γραφαί, Mt 22:29; Ac 8:24), Holy Scriptures (ἱερὰ γράμματα, 2Ti 3:15), are those employed in the New Test. to denote exclusively the writings of the Old. See TESTAMENT. About A.D. 180, the term The Holy Scriptures (ἱερὰ γράμματα) is used by Theophilus (Ad Autolyc, iii, 12) to include the Gospels. Irenaeus (ii, 27) calls the whole collection of the books of the Old and New Testaments The Divine Scriptures (αἰ ασ῾γίαι γραφαί), and The Lord's Scriptures (Dominicae Scripturae, v, 20, 2). By Clement of Alexandria (Strom. vii) they are called the Scriptures (θεῖαι γραφαι), and the inspired Scriptures (αἱ θεοπνεύστοι γραφαί). From the end of the 2d and beginning of the 3d century, at which time a collection of the New- Test. writings was generally received, the term came into constant use, and was so applied as to include all the books contained in the version of the Sept., as well as those of the Hebrew canon. See SCRIPTURE.

I. Contents of the Scriptures. The Scriptures are divided into the books held sacred by the Jews, and those held sacred both by Jews and Christians. The former are familiarly known by the name of the Old Test., and the latter by that of the New. See BIBLE. The Old Test., according to the oldest catalogue extant in the Christian Church, that of Mellto, bishop of Sardis in the 2d century, consists of the five books of Moses, or the Pentateuch (viz. Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy), Joshua, Judges, and Ruth; four books of Kings and two of Paralipomena (Chronicles); the Psalms of David; the Proverbs of Solomon, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, and Job; the prophets Isaiah and Jeremiah; the twelve Prophets; the books of Daniel, Ezekiel, and Ezra, under which head Nehemiah and Esther seem to be included (Eusebius, Hist. Eccles. 4:26). Origen, in the next century, reckons twenty-two books, calling them by their Hebrew names, which consisted generally of the initial word of the book, viz. Bresith, or Genesis; Walmoth, or Exodus; Waikra, or Leviticus; Ammesphekodeim, or Numbers; Ellahade-barim, or Deuteronomy; Joshua ben-Nun; Sophetim, or Judges and Ruth: Samuel; Wahammelech Dabid, or 3 and 4 Kings; Dibre Hajammin, or Chronicles; Ezra, which included Nehemiah; Sepher Tehillim, or Psalms; Misloth, or Proverbs; Koheleth, or Ecclesiastes; Sir Hasirim, or Canticles; Isaiah; Jeremiah, Lamentations, and the Epistle; Daniel; Ezekiel; Job; and Esther; "besides which," he adds, "is Sarbath Sarbane El, or Maccabees." He omits, perhaps by an oversight, the book of the twelve minor prophets. To the books enumerated in the preceding catalogue, Origen applies the term canonical Scriptures, in contradistinction to secret (apocryphal) and heretical books. He does not, however, include in these latter the deutero-canonical ἐν δεύτερῳ, see Cyril of Jerusalem, Catech. 4:36) or ecclesiastical books; to which he also applies the terms Scripture, the Divine Word, and the Sacred Books (De Princip. ii, 1; in Opp. i, 16, 79, etc.; Cont. Cola. 8, in Opp. i, 778). Jerome enumerates twenty-two books, viz.:

1. The Pentateuch, which he terms Thorn, or the Law.