FORMATION AND HISTORY OF THE HEBREW CANON. I. Meaning of the Word "Canon"--Gradual Formation of the Hebrew Canon--Its Main Divisions--1. _The Pentateuch_--2. General Remark on its Hebrew Name--3. The Pentateuch forms the Nucleus of the Old Testament Canon--It was given by Divine Authority, committed to the Charge of the Priests, kept by the Side of the Ark, and to be publicly read at Stated Times--II. _The Historical Books_--4. The Authors and Exact Date of Many of them Unknown--Important Historical Documents were deposited in the Sanctuary--5. The Authors of the Books of Joshua and Judges made Use of such Documents--6. The Author of the Books of Samuel also--7. Original Sources for the Books of Kings and Chronicles--8. These Two Works refer not to Each Other, but to a Larger Collection of Original Documents--9. Character of these Documents--They were written, in Part at Least, by Prophets, and they all come to us with the Stamp of Prophetic Authority.--10. The Books of Ezra, Nehemiah, and Esther--III. _The Prophetical Books_--11. The Books enumerated--Paucity of Prophets before Samuel--Schools of the Prophets established by him--The Prophets a Distinct Order of Men in the Theocracy from his Day onward--12. The Era of Written Prophecy--IV. _The Poetical Books_--13. Their General Character--The Book of Job--14. The Book of Psalms--15. Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and Canticles--_Completion of the Canon_--16. Preservation of the Sacred Books to the Time of Ezra--The Law; the Prophetical Books; the Psalms and other Canonical Writings--17. The Completion of the Canon ascribed by the Jews to Ezra and his Coadjutors--This Tradition True for Substance.--No Psalms written in the Maccabean Age--18. Contents of the Hebrew Canon--as given by Jesus the Son of Sirach, by Josephus, by Origen and Eusebius, by Jerome--19. The Apocryphal Books CHAPTER XVI.