A new history of ecclesiastical writers containing an account of the authors of the several books of the Old and New Testament, of the lives and writings of the primitive fathers, an abridgement and catalogue of their works ... also a compendious history of the councils, with chronological tables of the whole / written in French by Lewis Ellies du Pin.

(d) But 'tis a great deal more probable, that they never had but one Canon.] It is unquestionably true, that Ezrah received, and collected the Sacred Volumes, and consequently that he was the Au∣thor of the Canon amongst the Jews. Neither they, nor the ancient Christians acknowledged any other. As for the Books, which as they pretend, were inserted into the other Canons, 'tis certain they were never owned by the Jews; and what they talk about the two great Assemblies of the Syna∣gogues, that were Convened upon that Occasion, is all a Chimera and Fiction. The Ancients themselves never make the least mention of the Approbation of the Synagogue or Sanedrim of the Jews, which our Moderns boast of so mightily. Some are of Opinion, That Nehemiah added the two Books of Ezrah to the Canon, and found their Notion up∣on what is said in the 2d. Book of Maccabees, ch. 2. v. 13. that he gathered together the Books of Da∣vid, and the Prophets, and the Books of the Kings, &c. But this only proves, that he erected a Library, as it is intimated in that place, and not made a Collection of the Sacred Books. Others say, that we ought to attribute this Canon to Judas Mac∣cabeus, because it is said in the first of Maccabees, Chap. 1. Verse 56. that Antiochus and his Ministers burnt and tore to pieces the Books of the Law: And in the second Book, Chap. 2. Verse 13, 14. the Jews of Jerusalem acquaint their Brethren that were in Egypt, that Judas Maccabeus had gather∣ed together all those things that were lost by rea∣son of the War. This does not prove that Ezrah's Canon was intirely lost, and that Judas com∣posed another, but only that he got other Copies of those Sacred Books that were burnt and torn under Antiochus, and made a Collection of seve∣ral pieces relating to the History of their Wars, which was never received into the Jewish Canon. Our Opinion is invincibly proved by the Con∣curring Testimonies of Josephus and St. Jerome.