ters upon this subject I regard as the gems of the whole volume. They give evidence of an amount of learning, labor, and patience which few men possess, and furnish an argument for the antiquity and genuineness of the Pentateuch which few minds can resist. Language is a long-lived thing, but it has its youth, maturity, and decrepitude, like men and nations. The seasons in its life-time may be centuries, but they mark different stages of its development or decline. A language that had well-nigh perished may sometimes be revived and perpetuated for centuries, but its youth or maturity can never be restored when once it has been passed. Though the English tongue should become universal, and should continue to be spoken to the end of time, it would never again be characterized by the language of Spenser and Chaucer. A language may reach a second childhood, like an individual, but the second will be very unlike the first. Because language is thus ceaselessly progressive, the style, the idioms, the grammar, and the very words of any composition will go far toward determining the age in which it was written. A document found to-day written in English containing many obsolete words and forms of expression, together with antiquated spelling and strange grammatical forms, but containing no word or syllable that was not pure Anglo-Saxon, would unquestionably be assigned to a period prior to the Norman. Conquest, and subsequent to the Anglo-Saxon ascendency in England. The ages of stone and of bronze do not more clearly mark successive stages in a people's civilization than do the peculiarities of the language in which a book is written determine the age to which it belongs. Dr. Harman, with consummate skill, has collected and arranged the archaisms of the Pentateuch for the double purpose of establishing the antiquity of the Books of Moses and the unity of their authorship. We think he conclusively shows, not only that the books must have been written in the infancy of the Hebrew language, but that the same peculiarities run through all five of the books, and are not found in any other Hebrew books of great antiquity, thus showing these books to have been written by one and the same author. The genuineness of these books being thus clearly indicated, our author next turns to examine the objections which have been offered against the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. Of the document hypothesis of the origin of the Pentateuch, he disposes as follows: Respecting the document hypothesis, we may remark, first of all, that there is very little agreement, as we have already seen, among the opponents of the genuineness of the Pentateuch in regard to the number of the original documents, when they were composed, by whom and from what sources, and when the final revision of the whole was made. This want of unity in view is a strong proof that their theories rest upon no solid basis of facts. One feature, however, stands out prominently in nearly all their theories: they deprive Moses, as much as possible, of all connection with the composition of the Pentateuch. The different names for the Divine Being-Elohim, God, Jehovah, (properly Jahveh,) and Jehovah Elohim (LORD GOD, Eng. Ver.)-found in different portions of the Book of Genesis, furnish the original ground for the decomposition of the Mosaic writings. In the other books of the Pentateuch (with the exception of the first few chapters of Exodus) the use of the divine names furnishes no support at all for the document hypothesis. But it. must be borne in mind that the hypothesis that one document or more entered into the composition of the Book of Genesis and into the first two chapters of Exodus, by no means militates against the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. That the traditions of the Hebrew people would be written down during their sojourn in Egypt, where they came in contact with a people who were accustomed to write the annals of their kings, and to compose works on science and religion, is highly probable. Joseph, who married the daughter of Poti-pherah, priest of On, might have compiled the annals of the Hebrews and the tradi tions respecting the deluge and the antediluvian world. But those annals might have been very defective, and have contained no account, or a very imperfect one, of the work of creation, the order of which none but God could know. The original document lying before Moses-for we can scarcely believe it at all probable that the Hebrews had two different documents which related the history of the world from the creation to the time of Moses-may have been used by him in the composition of Genesis. In this way we might find in Genesis a narrator, (the Elohist,) and an editor or reviser, the Jehovist, (Moses.) How far this is probably true must be determined from the phenomena exhibited in the book.-P. 88. After patiently exposing the absurdity of Bishop Colenso's strictures, one by one, he finally takes leave of him with this remark: "There is one peculiarity of Colenso which must be noticed. Whenever any, subject admits of different views or explanations, the one which creates a difficulty or absurdity is almost invariably adopted by him. No other document of either the ancient or modern world would be treated in the same way."-P. 217. Curious objections by the score are satisfactorily answered, and apparent discrepancies harmonized, until the ground is completely cleared of obstacles to the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch. At last he opens the books of the Pentateuch, and shows that they claim to have been written by Moses, while no rival author has ever arisen to dispute the claim. Finally, to place the divine seal upon these old books, he turns to Jesus Christ and his apostles for their testimony: Our Saviour and his apostles every-where assume the Mosaic authorship and the divine authority of the Pentateuch. Our Saviour, in his controversy with the Jews, says: "For had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me: for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words?" How absurd this language would be, on the theory that the Pentateuch was written ages after Moses-If you do not believe in a work made up of traditions and myths in a late age and attributed to Moses, how can ye believe in me?—and this language from Him who is the truth itself! In various passages Christ speaks also of Moses as if he was the author of the Pentateuch: "Have ye not read in the book of Moses, how in the bush God spake unto him saying, I am the God of Abraham," etc. Mark xii, 26. "If they hear not Moses and the prophets, neither will they be persuaded though one rose from the dead." Luke xvi, 31. "These are the words which I spake unto you while I was yet with you, that all things must be fulfilled which were written in the law of Moses," etc. Luke xxiv, 44. "Did not Moses give you the law?" John vii, 19. The Apostle Peter, on the day of Pentecost, says: "For Moses truly said unto the fathers, A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up unto you of your brethren, like unto me," etc. Acts iii, 22. The Apostle Paul, in his address to Agrippa, observes in respect to his teaching: "Saying none other things than those which the prophets and Moses did say should come." Acts xxvi, 22. And in Acts xxviii, 23, St. Paul expounded "both out of the law of Moses and out of the prophets." "For Moses describeth (Greek, writes) the righteousness which is of the law, that the man which doeth these things shall live by them." Rom. x, 5. This refers to Lev. xviii, 5, which St. Paul here declares that Moses wrote. 66 For even unto this day, when Moses is read, the veil is upon their heart." 2 Cor. iii, 15.-Pp. 224, 225. The inspiration of the Pentateuch is left to be inferred from its contents. If it be a trustworthy history of the events which it records, there is no escaping the conclusion that Moses was a divinely inspired man. Men always have believed and will believe to the end of time that God is on the side.of truth. Whenever, therefore, they behold God's omniscience. cropping out in prophecy or his omnipotence laid bare in miracles, they will believe in the truth of the man or the message in attestation of which the prophecy was uttered or the miracle performed. There could have been no deception in the miracles. performed during the exodus. It was not a matter of faith but of positive knowledge with the Jews that the Red Sea parted at Moses' command. There could have been no mistake about the manna which fell, and on which they were fed. They knew whether the waters gushed forth from the rock when Moses smote it, or not; and they knew absolutely whether their clothing waxed not old throughout all their journeyings. There could have been no mistake about these and similar miracles; and the Jews would not have accepted as true the Pentateuch which contained these accounts, nor bowed obedience to its laws, had these miracles not occurred in their knowledge. But admit these miraculous interpositions of divine power through Moses, and at once he becomes the accredited agent and mouth-piece of God. The authenticity and inspiration of the books of Moses, like the Siamese twins, are vitally united, and are, therefore, inseparable. If the books are not trustworthy histories of the events which they record, of course they are not divinely inspired. But if, on the other hand, we accept their statement of facts as true, it follows irresistibly that God breathed his own wisdom. into their author, and clothed him at times with almighty power. The nature of the history determines the inspiration of the author. But the narrative of events in the Pentateuch cannot be rejected as authentic history according to any rule of criticism which would not destroy belief in all ancient history. The miraculous events, upon which the proof of Moses' inspiration rests, and about which there could have been no deception, have been attested by every Jewish writer from Moses down to the close of the sacred canon-they have been celebrated by the Jews in sacred songs, and commemorated by religious institutions and festivals through all the ages which have intervened since the events are related to have occurred. FOURTH SERIES, VOL. XXXII-6 The country over which Moses and Israel passed, in their flight from Egypt, bears names to the present day which are the echo of the miraculous events of the Exodus, and, the atmosphere of Egypt and Arabia is still full of traditions respecting these events. With all these evidences corroborating the Mosaic record, it is not possible rationally to withhold assent to the authenticity of the Pentateuch. And since its authenticity establishes miracles and prophecy, the inspiration of Moses follows inevitably. It is too late to object to the possibility of miracles and prophecy when the one has been performed and the other fulfilled before our eyes. De Wette saw and acknowledged that the Mosaic narrative enfolds the miraculous like a garment. He says: "If it is at least doubtful to the thinking intellect that such miracles really occurred, the question arises wheth er they did not so appear to the eye-witnesses and participants of the history; or were supposed by the reporters to have occurred in a natural way, but set forth in a poetic-miraculous light? But this must be denied as soon as the narratives are carefully considered. For there is wholly wanting in them that credulous poetic frame of mind which would contain the key to the miraculous."* Bishop Colenso's general objection to miracles is a weak thing to dispute the power of Moses' rod. It is thus stated and annihilated by our author, (pages 218, 219 :)— "The order," says he, "of this wondrous universe, so manifold, so diverse, yet all tending to unity, to one great central Cause, a miracle, if really witnessed, would be like a jarring discord in the midst of a mighty music-not a sign of the master-musician's presence, but a token that for once he had failed to subdue the rebellious elements-would, in short, be simply frightful." What shall we say to a miracle's being "a jarring discord in the midst of a mighty music?" Is this world nothing but harmonious music? What shall we say of earthquakes burying whole cities with thousands of human beings; of inundations laying waste vast tracts and destroying human life; of famines, pestilences, tornadces; sweeping away houses, and sending ships with their precis freight beneath the waves of the deep? Is all this music in the ears and harmony to the eyes of Colenso? To these discordant and destructive forces add the passions of men, exhibited in horri Schrader's De Wette's "Einleitung," p. 257. |