A SERIES OF WORKS FROM THE SACRED SCRIPTURES PRESENTED Rible. CT. Daniel. English. DANIEL AND THE MINOR PROPHETS EDITED, WITH AN INTRODUCTION AND NOTES BY RICHARD G. MOULTON, M.A. (CAMB.), PH.D. (PENN.) New York THE MACMILLAN COMPANY LONDON: MACMILLAN & CO., LTD. All rights reserved COPYRIGHT, 1897, BY THE MACMILLAN COMPANY. Set up and electrotyped July, 1897. Reprinted December, 1897; February, December, 1898; December, 1899; July, 1901. Norwood Press INTRODUCTION THE present volume of the Modern Reader's Bible has a special subject which involves some differences in the arrangement of the book. It contains not an author but a corpus prophetarum: the ‘Minor Prophets,' with the addition of Daniel. Such an introduction as I have attempted to previous volumes seems unsuitable in this case; I have thought it more convenient to place at the commencement of the notes to each author what I have to offer in the way of general remarks. Considerations of space have further obliged me to reduce to a minimum the explanation of particular passages; in place of this I have usually given an analysis of each discourse or other division of prophecy. With this must be remembered, what is the principle of the whole series, that the arrangement of the text is itself of the nature of a commentary. Another point of arrangement should be explained here. All that in the Bible follows the eighth chapter of Zechariah will be found in the present volume under the heading 'Anonymous.' Every reader will be aware that the authorship of the latter part of Zechariah is disputed. Had it, however, been merely a question of disputed authorship, as with Isaiah, I should have considered the matter out 118607 side the field of the present work. But the issue in the present case is something entirely within the scope of the Modern Reader's Bible—the question of the divisions of the sacred books. The facts seem to be these. The prophetic literature of the Old Testament was arranged under the names of the reputed authors, ending with the book of Zechariah (our Zechariah i-viii); following these were anonymous prophecies with subject-titles. The last of these subject-titles was 'My Messenger' (Malachi). How positively this was understood as a subject-title is illustrated by the fact that the Septuagint translates it as 'angel,' and the Targum ascribes the authorship of the book to Ezra. But in process of time 'Malachi' was read as a personal name, and thus the closing section of the prophetic roll seemed to follow the general form; it was natural then that the intervening sections with their subjecttitles should attach themselves to the preceding book of Zechariah. This account of the matter seems probable in itself, and is further confirmed by New Testament references. Four passages from the latter part of Zechariah are cited in the New Testament: three of them are cited without the name of any author, the fourth is ascribed by St. Matthew to Jeremiah.* Now if an anonymous prophecy is * Matthew xxvii. 9-10; compare Zechariah xi. 12-13. The other passages are Zechariah ix. 9 (in Matthew xxi. 5 and John xii. 15); chapter xii. 10 (in John xix. 37 and perhaps Revelation i. 7); xiii. 7 (in Matthew xxvi. 31 and Mark xiv. 27). |