328 Constituent Portions and Author of the Book of Nehemiah, § 197, a, 331 Contents and Credibility of the Book of Esther, § 198, a, Name and Idea of a Prophet, § 202, Contents and Objects of the prophetic Discourses, § 203, Spirit of the prophetic Predictions, § 204, CHAPTER I. ISAIAH. Circumstances of his Life and Times, § 221, Contents of the Book, § 222, The literary and prophetic Character of Ezekiel, 223, a, Manner in which the Book originated, § 224, CHAPTER IV. THE TWELVE MINOR PROPHETS. Collection of the twelve Minor Prophets, § 225, Character of the Book, judging from its Contents, § 236, 465 Contents and Spirit of the First Part of his Prophecy, § 249, On the Second Part, ix.-xiv., § 250, a, Malachi. CHAPTER VI. Suspicions against xxvii. 11-xxviii. 28, § 288,. The Country and Age in which it was written, § 291, INTRODUCTION. § 1. OBJECT OF AN INTRODUCTION TO THE BIBLE. UNDER the name Introduction to the Bible, Introductio sive Isagoge in Scripturam Sacram, or Introduction to the Old Testament and the New Testament, it has been found advantageous, for the study of the Bible, to collect into a whole certain preliminary information, which is necessary, both in books and academic lectures, to the right view and treatment of the Bible. This is indeed destitute of a true scientific principle, and of a necessary connection between its parts; but yet, by referring it to its several departments, namely, the history, the historical circumstances, and the peculiarities of the scriptural books, both of the whole collection and of its separate parts, it is pretty accurately distinguished from the other studies which belong to an examination of the Bible, such as biblical history, (that is, a church history of the Old and New Testament,) from biblical archæology, with biblical geography and chronology, (which may be called exegetic assistant sciences,) and from biblical hermeneutics, though these were formerly confounded with it. It serves as a special introduc |