484 A SHORT VIEW OF SCRIPTURE HISTORY, 2, Q. What remarkable story is is related of oneMosollam, a Jew, who followed Ptolemy about this time ? A. When a cer- tain soothsayer, or cunning-man, advised a Jewish troop of horse, in which Mosollam rode, to stand still, upon the sight of a bird in the way, and told them they should go either backward or forward, as that bird took its flight ; the Jew being a great archer, immediately shot the birdwith an arrow, and said, " how could that poor wretched bird foreshew us our fortune, which knew nothing of its own ?" hereby he designed to expose and condemn the superstition of the heathens. 3. Q. How did it fare with the Jews that were dispersed about Babylon ? A. Seleucus, another of Alexander's generals, who ruled in the greater and lesser Asia, builded manycities; sixteen of which he called Antioch, from Antiochus his father ; nine were called Seleucia, from his own name; six Loodicea, from the name Laodice, his mother ; others Apamea and Stra- tonice, from his wives : In all which he planted Jews, and gave them equal- privileges with the Greeks or Macedonians, especially at Antioch in Syria, where they settled in great numbers. 4. Q. What considerable person arose among the Jews at Jerusalem about this time ? A. Simon the just who is spoken of so honourable in the fiftieth of Ecclesiasticus : He was a high-priest of the Jews about this time, who merited the sur- name of the just, by his great holiness toward God, and jus- tice toward men ; and he was the last of the men of the great synagogue. 5. Q. What was this great synagogue, and who were the men that composed it ? A. A hundred and twenty elders, who in a continued succession, after the return of the Jews from Babylon, laboured in restoring the Jewish church and state; and made it their chief care to publish the scriptures to the peo- ple withgreat accuracy. 6. Q. What part of this work is attributed tó Simon ? A. It is supposed, by some learned men, that he added the two books of Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah, Esther, and the pro- phecy of Malachi, to the canon of scripture ; which books were scarce supposed to be inserted by Ezra, because several of them are thought to be written by Ezra himself ; and the books 'of Nehemiah and Malachi were most likely written after. Ezra's time. 7. Q. Did the Jews, after this time, when the Old Tes- tament was completed, religiously confine themselves to the directions of scripture? A. After this time, their traditions be- gan to prevail; that is, the sayings of the ancients delivered down by tradition. Note. Though traditions prevailed about this time, yet the tnishnah, which is their secondary law, or a collection of tract',
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