It is true that long after the council of Jabneh, the canonicity of Ezekiel, Jonah, Proverbs, Song of Songs, Ecclesiastes and Esther, was at different times called in question[220]; but this only reflects the opinions of individuals, and cannot be said to have in any way modified the practical consensus of Jewish teachers that the final word had been spoken at Jabneh. IV. TO WHOM WAS THE FINAL FIXING OF THE HEBREW CANON DUE? The question as to whom, pre-eminently, the final fixing of the Hebrew Canon was due is not without interest; and although we have no definite proof regarding the matter, all the probabilities point in the same direction. It would seem that at the time of Josephus the Pharisees specially occupied themselves with the subject. It was Josephus, as we have seen, who is the earliest witness that we have as to the existence of a finally fixed Canon; now Josephus, as has been pointed out in an earlier chapter, tells us in his autobiography that after having made trial of the three sects of the Pharisees, Sadducees, and Essenes in turn, so that by becoming acquainted with each he might choose the best, he finally lived “according to the rule of life of the sect of the Pharisees.”[221] This was in his nineteenth year; so that from early manhood onwards he was a Pharisee. The fact does not necessarily prove anything; but the presumption is that he must have got his ideas about the Canon from the circle of the Pharisees. We have already seen that Josephus’ theory regarding what constituted the claim for admission into the Canon was identical with that of the Rabbis; but by his time the leading Rabbis were Pharisees.