Lectures on the Pentateuch and the Moabite stone

Front matter

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Preface

HESE LECTURES have "been suggested by the New Lectionary of the Church of England, which in various places, and especially in the First Lesson for the morning of Septuagesima Sunday, 1 directs the attention of all thoughtful members of that Church to some, at least, of the important results of Modern Biblical Criticism. Henceforth, therefore, so far from its being forbidden within the Church of England to pursue such enquiries, the law itself, by commanding and enforcing the use of this Lectionary, prompts or, rather, requires us to enter upon them. It will surely now be necessary that, from the Pulpit and in the Sunday-School, more full and sound information should be imparted on these points from time to time than has hitherto been commonly supplied in English schools and churches.

Moreover, the New Bible Commentary, ' by Bishops and other Clergy of the Anglican Church/ admits that we have no correct copy of the Ten Commandments as really uttered by

1 See p. i.

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the Divine Voice on Sinai, and that ' the two distinct statements ' of them in Exodus and Deuteronomy, though ' differing from each other in several weighty particulars,' are ' apparently of equal authority,' and * each is said, with reiterated emphasis, to contain the words that were actually spoken by the Lord, and written by Him upon the stones.' 2 Further, it instructs its readers that, generally, wherever they read in the Pentateuch, ' And Jehovah spake unto Moses, saying,' they are to conclude — not that there was any audible utterance, but only — that Moses felt himself moved by an inward Divine impulse to enact certain laws, which, however, he not unfrequently copied from heathen institutions, ' adopting existing and ancient customs, with significant additions, as helps in the education of his people.' 3 And it informs them also that 'it is by no means ttnlikely that there are insertions of a later date, which were written, or sanctioned, by the Prophets and holy men, who after the Captivity arranged and edited the Scriptures of the Old Testament.' 4

Under the above circumstances, the time seems to have arrived for preparing a work ' in which the latest information may be made accessible to men of ordinary culture/ 5 by one who has studied the question from a different point of view from that of these commentators, and has arrived at very different conclusions.

I have attempted to prepare such a work in these Lectures, which are intended to lay before English readers, who cannot devote the time and thought needed for the study of larger and more technical works, the most important results

PREFACE. vii

of the criticism of the Pentateuch, and incidentally of other portions of the Hebrew Scriptures. The labour bestowed by me during the last ten years upon the Pentateuch and Book of Joshua, the results of which are given in Parts I-VI of my work already published, and in Part VII now in the press, has enabled me to produce here, in a compact and readable form, the main facts elicited by that Criticism, unencumbered with Hebrew quotations and the mass of minute investigation which that work of necessity contained. And I venture to hope that these Lectures may be found useful especially to Teachers in Day-Schools and Sunday-Schools, as well as to Parents among the more educated laity, who desire to impart to their children an intelligent knowledge of the real nature of these ancient books, which have filled all along, and still fill, so prominent a part in the religious education of the race.

I have here, of course, adhered to the views set forth in my published volumes, which I have seen as yet no reason to abandon, though in some respects more, in others less, conservative than those of some eminent continental writers. But such differences of opinion exist only on questions of secondary importance. These three facts may now be regarded as established by a very general consent of Modern Scholars not pledged to the support of traditionary views— (i) that no part of the original story of the Exodus can have been composed before the time of Samuel, (ii) that Deuteronomy was written not long before the Babylonish Captivity, (iii) that the Levitical Legislation originated during the Captivity — by which the notion of the Mosaic authorship and infallible Divine authority of the whole, or indeed of any portion, of the viii PREFACE.

Pentateuch is shown to be untenable. At all events the reader will here have afforded him, as it were, a bird's-eye view of the field of controversy, and will thus be able to enter with more lively interest into any discussions which may yet arise with reference to some of the details.

In App. I I have given at full length the Elohistic Narrative as extracted from Genesis and Exodus, and in App. II the Original Story of the Exodus, as it appears in the Books of Exodus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, when stripped of all later additions ; and the reader will be able to judge for himself how far, as thus exhibited, these two sets of passages have the appearance of being continuous wholes.

In App. Ill I have added some information about the Pre- Christian Cross, derived from the Edinburgh Review for January 1870, to which, or to my Part VI, App. 122, the reader is referred for further information.

J. W. Natal.

Bishopstowe, Natal : January 8, 1873.

Note. — The readers of Part VI are requested to take notice that on further consideration I have seen reason to assign E.x.28,29, to the O.S., (see New Bible Commentary, critically examined, Exodus,42,42, where, however, the last four lines in the Ans. to 43 have been inserted by a printer's mistake,) and the lists of Canaanite nations in E.iii.8,17, xxxiii.2, J.ix. i,2,xi.3, to D., in addition to those already assigned to D. in PartVI (E.xiii.5,xxiii.23,28,xxxiv. 11, D.vii. i,xx. 17, J.iii. lo,xxiv. 11).

Part VII, which will be found to be occasionally referred to, is in the press.