HAGIOGRAPHIA, a name given to part of the books of Scripture, called by the Jews Keturim. The word is compounded of ἅγιος, holy, and γράφω, I write. The name is very ancient. St Jerome makes frequent mention of it, and, before him, St Epiphanius called these books simply Γράφα. The Jews divide the sacred writings into three classes: the Law, which comprehends the five books of Moses; the Prophets, which they call Neviim; and the Keturim, הכּתּר, called by the Greeks Hagiographa, comprehending the books of Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Daniel, Ezra, together with the books of Nehemiah, Chronicles, Canticles, Ruth, the Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther. The Jews sometimes call the books the Writings, by way of eminence, as being written by immediate inspi-
ration of the Holy Spirit. This is stated by Kimchi in his preface to the Psalms, Maimonides in More Nevoch, and Elias Levita in his Thisbi, under the word כּתּב. They distinguish the hagiographers, however, from the prophets, in this, that the authors of the former did not receive the matters contained in them by the way called prophecy, which consists in dreams, visions, whispers, ecstasies, and the like, but by the immediate inspiration and direction of the Spirit.