After the _Roman_ captivity, the _Jews_ for preserving their traditions,
put them in writing in their _Talmud_, and for preserving their scriptures,
agreed upon an Edition, and pointed it, and counted the letters of every
sort in every book: and by preserving only this Edition, the antienter
various lections, except what can be discovered by means of the
_Septuagint_ Version, are now lost; and such marginal notes, or other
corruptions, as by the errors of the transcribers, before this Edition was
made, had crept into the text, are now scarce to be corrected.

The _Jews_ before the _Roman_ captivity, distinguished the sacred books
into the Law, the Prophets, and the _Hagiographa_, or holy writings; and
read only the Law and the Prophets in their Synagogues. And Christ and his
Apostles laid the stress of religion upon the Law and the Prophets, _Matt._
vii. 12. xxii. 4. _Luke_ xvi. 16, 29, 31. xxiv. 44. _Acts_ xxiv. 14. xxvi.
22. _Rom._ iii. 21. By the _Hagiographa_ they meant the historical books
called _Joshua_, _Judges_, _Ruth_, _Samuel_, _Kings_, _Chronicles_, _Ezra_,
_Nehemiah_, and _Esther_, the book of _Job_, the _Psalms_, the books of
_Solomon_, and the _Lamentations_. The Samaritans read only the
_Pentateuch_: and when _Jehosaphat_ sent men to teach in the cities, they
had with them only the book of the Law; for the Prophecies now extant were
not then written. And upon the return from the _Babylonian_ captivity,
_Ezra_ read only the book of the Law to the people, from morning to noon on
the first day of the seventh month; and from day to day in the feast of
Tabernacles: for he had not yet collected the writings of the Prophets into
the volume now extant; but instituted the reading of them after the
collection was made. By reading the Law and the Prophets in the Synagogues,
those books have been kept freer from corruption than the _Hagiographa_.

In the infancy of the nation of _Israel_, when God had given them a Law,