ana translation

xviii
INTRODUCTION
of Hilkiah" (see pp. 19, 54, infr.) come the extracts from Nehemiah.
Thus, in our compiler's eyes, the Septuagintal 1 Esdras of our Apocrypha
was 1 Ezra, and Nehemiah was 2 Ezra, the Ezra of the Hebrew canon
being passed over.
(a) The extracts from 1 Esdras * I have not printed in this volume,
the whole Syriac text of the Book having been long since published in
Walton's Polyglot, and more recently by Lagarde (see p. xiv,
wpr.).f
(b) The extracts from Nehemiah (the 2 Ezra of this collection) give
a fair outline of the narrative of its first eight chapters : Nehemiah's
grief on learning the evil plight of Jerusalem (ch. i.) ;
the king's permission
obtained for the rebuilding (ii.) ;
the rebuilding carried on
under arms (iv.) ; its completion (vi.) ;
the reading of the Lav/, and the
celebration of the Feast of Tabernacles (viii.).
The series ends with a
brief record of a day of humiliation (ix. 1-3).
SECTION VI.
The Catena which contains the B passages.
This Catena is a document of so much value that it seems expedient
to give a fuller account of it.
1. It consists of a series of passages selected in order from the Books
of the Old and New Testaments. The order in which the Old Testament
Books are dealt with is The Five Books of Moses, Job, Judges, The
Four Books of Kings, The First and Second Books of Chronicles, The
First and Second Books of
Ezra [Esdras], Excerpts from Proverbs and
The Wisdom of Sirach, The Psalms, The Proverbs, Koheleth, The
Song of Songs, The Wisdom of Solomon, The Twelve Minor Prophets,
Jeremiah, Ezekiel, Daniel, and finally Isaiah. It will be seen that
the compiler has passed over, of
the Canonical Books, Joshua, Ruth,
Esther, Lamentations ;
while of the deuterocanonical he gathers only
from the First [Third] Book of Esdras (as above noticed), the Wisdom
of Solomon and the Wisdom of Sirach leaving untouched Judith,
Tobit, Baruch, the additions to Daniel, the additions to Esther, the
* These extracts are, ii. 1-6, 24, 25 ;
iv. 34-40, 49-57 ; v. 47 vi. 2 ;
vil. 6 viii.
29, 69-73 ;
viii. 93 ix. 10, 46, 47.
t As above stated (p. xii, supr., note *) these two Bodleian MSS, Ussher's
(Or. 141), and Pococke's (Poc. 391), are both of the 17th century. First Esdras
is not included in Lee's Syriac Bible (1826), which is restricted to the O.T. Books
of the Hebrew Canon.