The psalms: a study of the vulgate Psalter in the light of the Hebrew text
The psalms: a study of the vulgate Psalter in the light of the Hebrew text
Patrick Boylan
Volume 1
PSALMS I-LXXI
Dublin
1921
INTRODUCTION TO THE BOOK OF PSALMS
I. - Its Place in the Canon
THE books of the Hebrew Bible are divided into three classes : (i) the Law (the five books of Moses) ; (2) the Prophets (the so called 'earlier' Prophets, Joshue, Judges, Samuel, Kings, and the ' later ' Prophets, Isaias, Jeremias, Ezechiel and the twelve minor Prophets); (3) the 'Writings.' To the 'Writings' (which are usually known by their Greek name Hagiographa) belong, (a) three books of poetry, Psalms, Proverbs, Job ; (b) the five ' Rolls ' (volumina), Canticles, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther ; (c) Daniel ; (d) the historical books, Esdras Nehemias, and the two Books of Paralipomenon (Chronicles).
Thus the Book of Psalms belongs to the Hagiographa. In the New Testament period it was apparently the first book of that group, for Our Lord, referring to the three classes of books that make up the Old Testament, speaks of the things that had been written of Him 'in the Law of Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms ' (Luke 24,**). There is, however, no fixed tradition as to the precise place of the Psalms among the ' Writings.' In the majority of Hebrew manuscripts of the Bible and in all the printed Hebrew Bibles the order of the Hagiographa is that given above - Psalms, Proverbs, Job, the five Rolls, Daniel, Esdras - Nehemias and Chronicles. In the Talmud, however, Ruth is put before the Psalms, and in some manuscripts of the Bible, Chronicles comes first.
The Hebrew arrangement of the books of the Old Testament was known at Alexandria, the home of the Greek Bible, in the second century B.C., for it is several times referred to in the Prologue to Ecclesiasticus (written probably about 132 B.C.). It was not, however, retained by the Greek Bible. There is little agreement among the ancient Greek codices as to the precise order of the books in the Greek Old Testament, but it is clear that a grouping of books according to subject-matter and authorship was substituted for the Hebrew system. The editors of the Greek Bible aimed, apparently, at an arrangement of the books into historical, didactic or sapiential, and prophetical. While the chief historical books always appear in the Greek codices in the first place, the sapiential and prophetical books frequently change places. The Vatican Codex (B), with which the majority of ancient authorities agree, places the sapiential books in the second place and the prophetical in the third. The sapiential books are seven and appear in B in the order Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, Canticles, Job, Wisdom, Ecclesiasticus. In the Latin Bible (Vulgate), which also assigns the middle place to the sapiential books, Job is the first of the sapiential books and Psalms the second.