CORRECTIONS. VOL. I. PAGE 64. line 16, read no. VOL. II. PAGE 63. line 8, from the bottom, for (4.) read 5. 65. line 27 for collection, read collation. 155. last line, for Phillippi, read Philippi. 221. last line, for Bibia, read Biblia. VOL. IV. PAGE 233. note 1, line 3, read Irenæus. 353. line 18, for 57, read 56. 496. last line but 4, for have, read has. ON THE PENTATEUCH, OR FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. SECTION I. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PENTATEUCH. I. Title.-II. Argument of the Pentateuch.-III. Notice of other Writings ascribed to Moses. 1. THE Pentateuch, by which title the five book of Moses are distinguished, is a word of Greek original', which literally signifies the five instruments or books; by the Jews it is termed Chometz, a word synonymous with Pentateuch, and also, more generally, the LAW, or the LAW OF MOSES, because it contains the ecclesiastical and political ordinances issued by God to the Israelites. The Pentateuch forms, to this day, but one roll or volume in the Jewish manuscripts, being divided only into parasches and siderim, or larger and smaller sections.2 This collective designation of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, is of very considerable antiquity, though we have no certain information when it was first introduced. As, however, the names of these books are evidently derived from the Greek, and as the 1Пevтaтeuxos, from were, five, and reuxos, a book or volume. 2 For an account of these divisions, see Vol. II. pp. 143, 144. five books of Moses are expressly mentioned by Josephus', who wrote only a few years after our Saviour's ascension, we have every reason to believe that the appellation of Pentateuch was prefixed to the Septuagint version by the Alexandrian translators. II. This division of the sacred volume comprises an account of the creation of the world, and of the fall of man, the outlines of the early annals of the world, and a full recital of the Jewish law, and of the events which happened to the Israelites from their becoming a distinct people to their departure out of Egypt, and their arrival on the confines of the land of Canaan, a period of two thousand five hundred and fifteen years, according to the vulgar computation, or of three thousand seven hundred and sixty-five years, according to the computation established by Dr. Hales. "It is a wide description, gradually contracted; an account of one nation, preceded by a general sketch of the first state of mankind. The books are written in pure Hebrew, with an admirable diversity of style, always well adapted to the subject, yet characterised with the stamp of the same author; they are all evidently parts of the same work, and mutually strengthen and illustrate each other. They blend revolution and history in one point of view; furnish laws, and describe their execution; exhibit prophecies, and relate their accomplishment." III. Besides the Pentateuch, the Jews ascribe to Moses eleven psalms, from psalm xc. to xcix. inclusive. There is however no solid evidence to prove that these psalms were composed by him; for the title of the ninetieth psalm ("a prayer of Moses the Man of God,") which, they pretend, must be applied also to the ten following psalms, is not sufficient. The greater part of the titles of the psalms is not original, nor indeed very antient: and some of them are evidently misplaced: we find also in these psalms the names of persons, and other marks, which by no means agree with Moses. Further, some of the antient fathers have thought that Moses was the author of the book of Job: Origen, in his commentary on Job, pretends that Moses translated it out of Syriac into Hebrew: but this opinion is rejected both by Jews and Christians. Besides, if this book had really been composed by Moses, is it likely that the Jews would have separated it from the Pentateuch? 3 There are likewise ascribed to Moses several apocryphal books; as an Apocalypse, or Little Genesis, the Ascension of Moses, the Assumption of Moses, the Testament of Moses and the Mysterious In his Jewish Antiquities, Josephus terms the Pentateuch the "Holy Books of Moses" (lib. x. c. iv. § 2.); and in his Treatise against Apion, (lib. i. c. viii.) when enumerating the sacred writings of the Jews, he says that "FIVE of them belong to Moses." It is not certain that this distinction of the Pentateuch into five separate books was not known to and recognised by Saint Paul, (1 Cor. xiv. 19.) by the term five words. Jerome was of opinion that the apostle expressly alluded to them. Epist. ad Paulinum. 2 Dr. Gray's Key to the Old Testament, p. 76. 5th edit. 9 The book of Job was composed many ages before the time of Moses. See Chap. III. Sect. I. infra, of this volume. Books of Moses. The principal part of the "Little Genesis" was transferred by Cedrenus into his chronological history1: it was extant in Hebrew in the fourth century of the Christian æra, for we find it cited by Jerome; and some version of it should seem also to have been in existence in the sixteenth century, which was condemned as apocryphal by the Council of Trent. From the apocalypse just noticed, it has been pretended that Saint Paul copied Gal. v. 6. and vi. 15.: and it has been imagined that what is said in the Epistle of Jude (verse 9.), respecting the archangel Michael's contention with Satan for the body of Moses, was taken from the apocryphal ascension of Moses. Such was the opinion of Origen, who, though he cites it in another place, alludes to it as not being in the canon.2 All these pretended Mosaic writings however are confessedly spurious, and are supposed to have been fabricated in the early ages of Christianity. On the difference between the Hebrew and Samaritan Pentateuchs, or rather editions of the Pentateuch, see Volume II. 12, 13.; and for a view of the Genuineness and Credibility of the pp. Pentateuch, see Volume I. pp. 50-67. SECTION II. ON THE BOOK OF GENESIS. I. Title.-II. Author and Date. III. General Argument.-IV. Scope. -V. Synopsis. VI. Literal Sense of the first three Chapters of Genesis vindicated. 1. THE first book of the Pentateuch, which is called GENESIS (TENEZIZ), derives its appellation from the title it bears in the Greek Septuagint Version, ΒΙΒΛΟΣ ΓΕΝΕΣΕΩΣ; which signifes the Book of the Generation or Production, because it commences with the history of the generation or production of all things. The Jews name the books of the Old Testament, either from their authors, or the principal subject treated in them, as the five books of Moses, and the Lamentations of Jeremiah, or from the first Hebrew word with which they begin: thus, the book of Genesis is in Hebrew called BeRESHITH, that is, in the beginning, from its initial word.3 - II. Although nothing is more certain, than that this book was 1 Cedrenus, enumerating the authorities consulted by him, says, that he "collected not a few things from the Little Genesis, απο της Λεπτης Γενέσεως. Historia Compendiaria, tom. i. p. 2. edit. Venet. 1729. Cedrenus frequently cites this apocryphal book in the course of his work. 2 See the passages of Origen at length in Dr. Lardner's works, vol. ii. pp. 483-512. 8vo. or vol. i. pp. 541-557. 4to. 3 Vatablus, in Crit. Sacr. Heidegger, Enchirid. Bibl. p. 17. Carpzov. Introd, ad Libros Biblicos Vet. Test. pp. 55, et seq. written by Moses', yet it is by no means agreed when he composed the history which it contains. Eusebius and some eminent critics after him have conjectured, that it was written while he kept the flocks of Jethro his father-in-law, in the wilderness of Midian. But the more probable opinion is that of Theodoret, which has been adopted by Moldenhawer and most modern critics, viz. that Moses wrote this book after the departure of the Israelites from Egypt and the promulgation of the law from Mount Sinai : for, previously to his receiving the divine call related in Exodus iii., he was only a private individual, and was not endued with the spirit of prophecy. Without that spirit he could not have recorded, with so much accuracy, the history of the creation, and the subsequent transactions to his own time: neither could he have foretold events then future, as in the predictions concerning the Messiah, and those respecting the descendants of Ishmael and the sons of Jacob; the verification and confirmation of which depended on circumstances, that had neither taken place nor could have happened at the time when the history was written in which they are recorded: but which circumstances, we know, did take place exactly as they were foretold, and which may be said, even now, to have an actual accomplishment before our eyes. A third conjecture has been offered by some Jewish writers, after rabbi Moses Ben Nachman, who suppose that God dictated to Moses all the contents of this book, during the first forty days that he was permitted to hold a communication with the Almighty on Mount Sinai, and that on his descent he committed the whole to writing. This hypothesis they found on Exodus xxiv. 12. where Jehovah says unto Moses Come up to me in the mount, and be thou there, and I will give thee the tables of stone, and the law, and the precepts, which I have written, to teach them : — understanding, by the tables, the decalogue; by the precepts, all the ceremonial and judicial ordinances; and by the law, all the other writings of Moses, whether historical or doctrinal.2 "It is however," as a pious writer has well remarked, "as impossible, as it is of little consequence, to determine which of these opinions is best founded; and it is sufficient for us to know, that Moses was assisted by the spirit of infallible truth in the composition of this sacred work, which he deemed a proper introduction to the laws and judgments delivered in the subsequent books." - III. The book of Genesis comprises the history of about 2369 years according to the vulgar computation of time, or of 3619 years according to the larger computation of Dr. Hales. Besides the history of the creation, it contains an account of the original innocence and fall of man; the propagation of mankind; the rise of religion; the general defection and corruption of the world; the deluge; the restoration of the world; the division and peopling of the earth; the call of Abraham, and the divine covenant with him; 1 See this fact fully proved, supra, Vol. I. pp. 51-67. |