Hebrew records; an historical enquiry concerning the age, authorship, and authenticity of the old testament

Front matter

V ^K* v

V o< O,

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Preface

It was my first intention to send forth this book without a Preface, leaving it to the reader to gather from its contents, and more especially from the Introduction, such inferences as might fairly be drawn from them, as to the particular views which guided me in its composition, and led to its publication. It appears, however, in the judgment of a friend, that some persons may fall into error as to the motives which caused me to publish this work, and may ascribe it to a feeling of hostility towards a book held in universal estimation. Against the injustice of this charge, I should still have not deemed it necessary to protect myself in any other way than by silence. For, though I will not pretend to be ignorant that the religious character of a work must vary greatly in proportion to its historical tendencies, yet 1 should still have left this book to advocate its own doctrines, had it not been strongly urged that some persons may even wilfully pervert its meaning, and ascribe to it a tendency which its author never contemplated. To guard against such a possibility, I think it right to premise that this work is historical, and not theological. Its object is, to assign a certain value and antiquity to the Old Testament, — such a value indeed and such an antiquity as to leave it, even in my own judgment, what it has always been in the opinion of nine- tenths of civilized men, the most wonderful record of past times that the world has yet seen. The conclusion which I have endeavoured to establish in this Historical Inquiry, so far from diminishing the value of the Old Testament, seems to me really to add thereto, for it substitutes certainty in the place of uncertainty, light for darkness, and reason for mystery, whilst it is left for those who pursue the subject by deducing religious doctrines from historical fact, to determine how far the same data may be of use as shewing the viii Preface.

importance of studying the spirit rather than the letter of a code of laws, certainly better adapted for Jews than Christians, and more in harmony with the manners which prevailed in Palestine before the Christian era, than with the state of things which now exists in England, or, in fact, in any part of Europe.

In the Appendix to this volume are given some long extracts from the laborious works of Prideaux and Shuckford, not on account of the deductions which those learned compilers have arrived at, — for these are often diametrically opposed to my own conclusions, — but on account of the full information which they furnish on their respective subjects. The reader is thus saved the trouble of referring to the original works from which those extracts are taken.

It is also necessary to allude to an apparent omission of certain chapters which had at first entered into the plan of tins work — i. e. concerning the two books of Chronicles, the Prophetical books, and others, known and admitted to be of late origin. The increasing bulk of the volume, and the completeness with which the subject seemed already to have been discussed, have been the cause why these chapters have not been added.

In the Introductory chapter of this work it is hinted that a similar inquiry has been instituted concerning the Christian Scriptures, or the books of the New Testament. The statement is certainly correct, but whether the result of the investigation will ever be made public, is a question that must be decided at a future time. The nature of the contemplated work, however it may involve Some questions similar to those which are here started concerning the Old Testament, will of course be in many respects very different ; for, whereas my object here has been to prove the Old Testament, in its actual form, to be a thousand years later than the date to which it is generally referred, yet no one has had the boldness to assert that the New Testament is not a relic of primitive Christian times.

Bampton, Sept. 20, 1850. J. A. G.

Contents

Chapter

1 Introduction ...... 1

2 Chronology of the books which form the Hebrew canon,

Appendix

1 The Samaritan Pentateuch. Prom Dean Prideaux's Connec-

tion of Sacred and Profane History, vol. i, p. 416, sixth edition, 1719. . . . i

2 Mutability of language. Prom Dr Shuckford's Connection

of Sacred and Profane History, vol. i. p. 124, third edition, 1743. . . . . vi

3 On Alphabetic Writing. From the same work, volume i,

4 On the Vowel Points. From Prideaux's Connection of the

History of the Old and New Testament, Sixth edition, Part I, p. 348. . . . . . xxii

5. On the Targums or Chaldee Paraphrases. From the same

work, Part II, vol. ii, page 531 . . . xxxvii

EltEATA.

Page 24, line 8, for write read wrote.

54, line 25, " except Jeremiah and Malachi. " This

is not quite correct. There are other slight notices, as in Daniel ix, 11 : but these occur in books, known to have been written after the captivity.

125, line £/, for Canaan read Egypt.

125, lice 2. After this line, insert " The change of name

from Jebusi to Jerusalem is again indicated at chap* xviii, verse 28."

143"*, line 10, for Family read Family Bible.

155, line 13, for Inaccuracy read Inaccuracies.

THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES.

Introduction

The belief in a supreme Being or Beings has been found to exist in almost every nation of the world. I use the qualifying expression almost, because travellers have discovered a few tribes of savages, who seemed entirely unconscious of the existence of a God, or of any power superior to the ordinary law of nature. These exceptions, therefore, do not interfere with the course of our present argument, which, being addressed to those who are living in a civilized country and not to ignorant savages, may assume as a fact an opinion so generally and almost universally entertained. Religion, which regulates the conduct of men, in their relation towards the Deity, is a term naturally varying according to the modes of belief prevalent in different countries. Experience also has shewn that, even among the same people, an exact identity of religious belief cannot long exist. This has been the case, even among the four principal religions, which, from their having been reduced to writing and promulgated to the world in a set canonical form, would, we might suppose, have saved the people who professed them, from this breach of unity. Yet we find that Jews, Christians, Brahmins and Mahometans are equally divided into sects, and disagree severally among themselves as much as they are at variance generally with each other. The most remarkable feature in this universal spirit of variance, is the fact that, whilst all the sects who belong to the same faith, differ in their application of it, as widely as the imagination can conceive, they all appeal to the same religious books or Scriptures, as favouring their own individual views, and authorising their own particular practice. If this be true, it becomes not only important, but an absolute duty, to examine with the most scrupulous minuteness that standard, which, though in such general use among mankind, is perpetually producing such a want of uniformity, in what so intimately concerns us, both as a society and as individuals, namely truth, about our everlasting interests, and moral practice, as it regards our comfort and social happiness in this present life.

As I have before remarked, there are four principal religions, now prevalent among the civilized inhabitants of the earth : these are; 1. The Brahmin, 2. the Mahometan, 3. the Christian, and 4. the Jewish. Of the three first it is sufficient to observe that the Brahmin — by which term, for want of knowing a better, I mean the religion of the Hindoos — is so revolting to common sense, that it would be a useless labour to discuss its tenets, or to balance its excellencies and its defects, among Europeans ; the Mahometan is evidently the work of a man, making use of human fanaticism as his tool ; and the Christian, though based on the noblest object, that of ameliorating and renovating the human race, and worthy to be considered apart, cannot, however, occupy our attention, until we have first directed our enquiry toward its parent, the religion of the Jews ; because Christianity and Judaism are inseparably united ; neither can exist without the other ; or, at least,- they can only abstractedly exist as separate religions ; but in an historical point of view they are indivisible : they must maintain their ground or fall together : for, though

1.] INTRODUCTION. 3

the practical precepts of Christianity may be taught without the slightest reference to the Jews, or to the Old Testament, yet the doctrinal parts of the Christian scheme, and all that gives to it the character of a Divine revelation,, become destitute of meaning, until they are explained by the antecedents of the Jewish Scriptures, concerning the temptation of Eve, the fall of Adam, and his ejection from Paradise.

It seems, therefore, that the Old Testament is a volume of the highest value to Christians, because its contents are essential to the existence of our own creed, to which the older religion of the Jews is, in fact, the precursor. I have, therefore, made it the subject of the following work, in which it is proposed to enquire into the historical value of the several books of the Old Testament, their authors, the time when they were written, the harmony, as well as discrepancies, wdiich exist between them, besides many other points which will incidentally arise, and may be useful in determining the Historical character of these Scriptures, and their value as evidences, concerning those accounts of the early history of the world, which are generally received among mankind, on their authority alone.

THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES.

[chap.

Chapter II

Chronology of the books which form the Hebrew canon, the old testament.

The Old Testament, according to the English Bible, consists of thirty-nine books, written mostly in the Hebrew, but partly in a different language, called Chaldee, besides Apocryphal books, which exist in Greek or Latin only, and for that reason principally, have been considered by some classes of Christians, to possess less authority than the former, whilst by others they have been excluded from the Bible altogether. The names of these books are as follows :

Genesis

II. Chronicles

Daniel

Exodus

Ezra

Hosea

Leviticus

Nehemiah

Joel

Numbers

Esther

Amos

Deuteronomy

Job

Obadiah

Joshua

Psalms

Jonah

Judges

Proverbs

Micah

Ruth

Ecclesiastes

Nahum

I. Samuel

Song of Solomon

Habakkuk

II. Samuel

Isaiah

Zephaniah

I. Kings

Jeremiah

Haggai

II. Kings

Lamentations

Zechariah

I. Chronicles

Ezekiel

Malachi

Names of the Apocryphal books.

I. Esdras

Wisdom

Story of Susanna

II. Esdras

Ecclesiasticus

Bel and the Dragon

Tobit

Baruch containing

Prayer of Manas.

Judith the ep. of Jerem.

I. Maccabees

The conclusion of

Song of the three

II. Maccabees

Esther children

2.] CHRONOLOGY OF THE 39 BOOKS. 5

It may be mentioned, as a fact of minor, but still of some, importance to our present subject, that these books are not always placed in the same order : the Greek translation, called the Septuagint, and the Latin, called the Vulgate, differ in their arrangement from the Hebrew and English Bibles and from one another. Neither do they agree wholly in their contents ; for the Hebrew Bible excludes all those books which in England are called Apocryphal ; the Vulgate or Latin version admits only Tobit, Judith, Wisdom of Solomon, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, with the First and Second books of Maccabees : the Greek Bible admits the First book of Esdras, Tobit, Judith, Ecclesiasticus, Baruch, and the two books of Maccabees, to which is added a third book of Maccabees, not to be found in either the Hebrew, Latin, or English Bible.

Let us now briefly review the contents of these books one after the other, principally for chronological purposes ; as we shall hereafter have occasion to refer to this subject, and such a summary will save the reader from the necessity of consulting the books themselves, except on important points, in the argument, which will presently be unfolded.

1. Genesis.

This book relates the history of the World from the Creation to the time of Abraham, who is thought to have lived nineteen hundred years before Christ ; after which it takes up the history of the Israelitish people only, and brings it down to the death and burial of Joseph, which are supposed to have happened about the year before Christ 1635.

2. Exodus.

The book of Exodus continues the narrative, begun in Genesis, to the Delivery of the Law from God to Moses, about the year 1490.

3. Leviticus.

The contents of this book are limited almost wholly to legislative enactments. A few historical facts, connected with the principal subject of the book, such as the ordination of Aaron and his sons, are mentioned incidentally ; the period occupied by these events is supposed not greatly to exceed one month.

4. Numbers.

The book of Numbers comprehends the space of thirty-nine years, being, in fact, the whole period of the Israelitish wanderings in the wilderness from the year 1490 to 1451 before Christ. From the absence of chronological data it is impossible to ascertain the exact time of the events which happened in the interval between the Exodus of the Israelites from Canaan, and their entry into the promised land.

5. Deuteronomy.

The time occupied by the events mentioned in Deuteronomy is limited to one year at the utmost, the 1451st year before Christ, in which the Israelites, having wandered forty years in the Desert, at length prepare to invade the land of Canaan. The last events related in this book are, the death of Moses and the succession of Joshua as leader of the Israelitish people.

6. Joshua.

The book of Joshua comprehends a period of about 25 years, from b. c. 1451 to b. c. 1425, during which the able captain, from whom the book takes its name, subdued the Canaanitish nations, and divided their territories among his followers.

7. Judges.

The chronology of the book of Judges is more uncertain than that of the preceding : it comprehends, probably, about the space of three hundred and ten years, i. e. from 1425 to 1115, but the want of chonological connection between the events which it relates renders it impossible to arrive at any more accurate conclusion.

2,] CHRONOLOGY OF THE 39 BOOKS. 7

8. Ruth.

This book gives us an account of the fortunes of Ruth and her family, during a space of ten years, immediately preceding the time at which the book of Judges ends. 9. 10. The books of Samuel.

The first of these books records the history of Samuel, who judged Israel immediately before the election of a king, together with the reign of king Saul, a period as is supposed of about 115 years, from 1170 to 1055.

The second book of Samuel comprises the reign of David, which lasted 40 years, from 1055 to 1015.

11. 12. The two books of Kings.

The narrative is continued from 1016, the year of David's death, in the first of these books, down to the death of Jehoshaphat, in 889, and, in the second book of Kings, from the year last-named, to the thirty-seventh year of the captivity of Jehoiachim king of Judah, coinciding with the 562nd year before Christ.

13. 14. The two books of Chronicles.

The first book of Chronicles contains a series of genealogical tables, followed by a variety of events that happened in the reign of David, which is stated to have lasted 40 years, from 1055 to 1015. The second book of Chronicles contains the whole Jewish history from the accession of Solomon in 1015 to the decree of Cyrus in 536. Many of the facts which it relates are mentioned in the books of Kings ; but others are new.

15. Ezra.

The book of Ezra comprehends the space of 80 years from the decree of Cyrus to the year b. c. 456.

16. Nehemiah.

This book takes up the history ten years after the conclusion of Ezra, i."e. in 446, and brings it down to about the year b. c. 434.

17. Esther.

This book comprises the history of only 12 years from

THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES.

[chap.

b. c. 521 to 509. A book, purporting to be the concluding portion of Esther, is found in the Apocrypha.

18. Job.

The chronology of this book is altogether unknown ; and it partakes of a didactic, if not a poetic, rather than of an historic character.

19. Psalms — 20. Proverbs — 21. Ecclesiastes — 22. Solomon's Song.

These four books contain few direct historical allusions : they are supposed to have been mostly written by David and his son Solomon; i. e. between the years 1056 and 975 before Christ ; though some are of a later date, as for instance the 137th Psalm, which was certainly written after or during the Babylonish Captivity.

23 to 39. The seventeen prophetical books.

The seventeen prophetical books contain many historical facts, though they are not of a strictly historical nature. They are not arranged chronologically in our Bibles, but as they will be cited in this work for historical purposes only, it will be useful to place them in the order of time, as follows :

Jonah is said to h

Amos .

Hosea.

Isaiah .

Joel .

Micah .

Nahum

Zephaniah

Jeremiah

Habakkuk

Daniel.

Obadiah

Ezekiel

Haggai ave written between and

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

—

- —

—

— .

—

3.] BOOKS NOT 39 BUT 17 ONLY. 9

Zechariah 520 — 517

As the present enquiry is not extended to the Apocryphal Books of the Old Testament, it is unnecessary to include them in this chronological summary.

Chapter III

That the books of the Old Testament are not 39 in number, but 17 only*

Although the Old Testament is divided into 39 parts or books, yet we must not understand that it contains 39 separate works, unconnected in their subjects, or written by 39 different authors. In the Hebrew Bible are 22 books only, which is also the number of letters in the Hebrew alphabet. These 22 books were divided " into three classes ■; the first class consisted of five books, namely

Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy, which they called the Law : the second class consisted of 13 books, namely Joshua, Judges and Ruth, in one book ; the two books of Samuel, of Kings, and of Chronicles respectively, in single books ; Ezra and Nehemiah in one book ; Esther, Job, Isaiah, the two books of Jeremiah in one ; Ezekiel, Daniel, and the twelve minor prophets in one book ; these thirteen books they called the Prophets : the third class consisted of the four remaining books, namely Psalms, Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, and the Song of Solomon, which four books the Jews called Chetubim ; and the Greeks Hagiographa ; this class was also called the Psalms, from the name of the first book in it * "

But we must not conclude that there are even 22 senarate works, in the Hebrew Bible, but rather that this division was adopted for the convenience of reference, which would naturally be required in the case of so bulky a volume as the Hebrew Scriptures.

The connection between the number of these books, and the number of letters in the Hebrew Alphabet, demands to be noticed. We are not informed to what origin this fact is to be referred ; but the Jews have always been fond of allegory and similitude : hence we may suspect that the coincidence was not undesigned, but that it was contrived at the time when the Masoretic notes and points were invented, and when the Jewish doctors took so much pains to count the words and even letters contained in their Sacred Books. But this subject will be noticed more fully hereafter.

Some of these 22 books are to be considered as portions of the same work rather than separate works ; for, " though Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteromy stood as separate books in the private copies used by the Jews in the time of Josephus, they were written by their author

* Tomline's Elements of Christian Theology, vol. 1, p. 3.

f " It is not known when this division took place, but probably it was first

3.] BOOKS NOT 39 BUT 17 ONLY. 11

Moses," says Bishop Tomline, "in one continued work, and still remain in that form, in the public copies read in the Jewish Synagogues. These five books are now generally known by the name of the Pentateuch." As the public copies read in the Synagogues are undoubtedly more likely, than the private copies, to retain the original form of these writings, we may consider the number 22 to be reduced to 17, by the union of the first five, namely Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, Deuteronomy, into one.

But there is an ambiguity in the use of the word book, which must be carefully guarded against. Sometimes it means a whole work, whether divided into parts or not ; sometimes it means a separate volume, and it has also a third meaning, that of part or division of a work, in which sense it is analogous to chapter, canto, part, Szc. which are terms used arbitrarily by writers to denote the separate divisions of the same work.

Looking at the contents of the second or Prophetical class into which the Hebrew Scriptures were divided, we may enquire why the books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel and others, which certainly are Historical and not Prophetical, at least in our acceptation of the word, are included in the same class with Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the rest, whom we now, more appropriately, as might be thought, designate as Prophets. The answer to this question is suggested by the meaning which the Jews ascribed to the word Prophet, by which term they designated a teacher or poet, and not merely one who foretold future events. In this sense, Joshua and the Judges were called Prophets with no less propriety than Daniel, Jeremiah or Isaiah. Tnat the Pentateuch was kept apart from that which follows it in the Hebrew Canon arose partly from the higher honour

adopted in the Septuagint version, as the titles prefixed are of Greek derivation. The beginnings of Exodns, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, are veryabrupt, and plainly shew that these books were formerly joined to Genesis."

Note by Bishop Tomline, which was due to their great law-giver, and partly from the fact that the whole of the Jewish Law was contained in those five books, which consequently were often designated simply as the Law, whereas the following books were merely histories of the lives of the teachers who successively ruled Israel after the death of Moses.

The third class, into which the Jews divided the books of the Old Testament, Hagiographa or Chetubim, contained neither Law nor History, but moral and didactic writings, with exhortations addressed to the people, that they should continue steadfast in the service and worship of their God.

It appears, then, that the Hebrew Scriptures, according to the copies which were publicly used in the Synagogues, were divided into 17 books only, though in all the versions which have been made of them, whether Greek, Latin, or in the modern languages of Europe, the number of books has been increased to more than the double of this amount. In all such cases, subdivision is the work of a later age, is never coeval with the original work. In the case of the Old Testament, the moderns have abandoned the ancient division of the whole volume into three classes, as unnecessary, and have, for the sake of convenience, adopted the more simple arrangement into books, the number of which, by minute subdivision, they have raised from 22 to 39 and upwards.

4.] A CONTINUOUS NARRATIVE. 13

Chapter IV

That the 5 books of Moses, with the books of Joshua,

Judges, Ruth, I Samuel, II Samuel, I Kings and

II Kings, are closely connected, and form a

continuous narrative.

If we examine the early part of the Old Testament attentively, we shall find strong marks of connection between many of the 17 books, which stand separate in the public Jewish copies. As the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy are admitted to have foimed but one book in the Hebrew Canon, it is unnecessary to apply the present argument to them : but it is remarkable that the succeeding books, Joshua, Judges, Ruth, Samuel and Kings, are all as closely in continuation, the one of the other, as the five books before-mentioned. The book of Joshua is also in immediate continuation of Deuteronomy ; and, in short so close is the connexion of all the early part of the Old Testament from Genesis to the end of the Second Book of Kings, that if it was all printed without division in one continuous narrative, it would be impossible for the most sagacious critic to restore it to the form which it now bears.

As this is an assertion of fact which can only be proved by adducing all the instances, it is necessary to extract the beginnings and endings of each book in succession from the close of Deuteronomy to the beginning of the Second Book of Kings. The reason, why I do not extend this examination further, namely to the books of Chronicles, Ezra and others, will be explained hereafter.

The book of Deuteronomy ends with these words :

And there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face : in all the signs and the wonders, which the Lord sent him to do in the land of Egypt to Pharaoh, and to all his servants and to all his land ; and in all that mighty hand, and in all the great terror which Moses shewed in the sight of Tsrael.

The book of Joshua, which follows Deuteronomy, takes up the narrative exactly at the point where it terminates, in the following manner :

Now, after the death of Moses the servant of the Lord, it came to pass that the Lord spake unto Joshua the son of Nun, Moses's minister, saying, Moses my servant is dead, &c."

Our quotation from the end of Joshua must be more extended, in order to shew more clearly that it bears a similar relation to the book of Judges, which is the next in order.

And it came to pass, after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of the Lord, died, being an hundred and ten years old. And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-Serah, which is in Mount Ephraim, on the north side of the hill of Gaash. And Israel served the Lord all the days of Joshua, and all the clays of the elders that over-lived Joshua, and which had known all the works of the Lord, that he had done for Israel.

And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in a parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for an hundred pieces of silver: and it became the inheritance of the kingdom of Joseph.

And Eleazar the son of Aaron died, and they buried him in a hill that pertained to Phinehas his son, which was given him in Mount Ephraim.

Consistent with this extract is the beginning of the book of Judges, which opens thus :

Now after the death of Joshua it came 1o pass, that the children of Israel asked the Lord saying, " Who shall go up for us against the Canaanites first, to fight against them ?"

After Judges comes the book of Ruth, which is very short, and gives us an account of her adventure and subsequent marriage with Boaz : it opens as follows :

4.] A CONTINUOUS NARRATIVE. 15

Now it came to pass in the days when the Judges ruled, that there was a famine in the land.

If it be asserted that these words form a very appropriate exordium to a separate work or book ; I refer the reader back to the nineteenth chapter of Judges, which, he will find, commences in a similar manner :

And it came to pass in those days, when there was no king in Israel, that there was a certain Levite sojourning on the side of Mount Ephraim, &c.

The history of this Levite forms the subject of the last three chapters of Judges, and is as much distinct from the rest of that work as the book of Ruth. The history of the Levite and the history of Ruth, are, in fact, a sort of episode to ' Judges ; ' both of them contain prominent events which happened in Israel ' whilst the Judges ruled/ and ' whilst there was no king/ which evidently are synonymous expressions.

Equally applicable to our argument are the books of Samuel and Kings, as will appear from the following extracts.

The first book of Samuel opens with the history of Samuel the last of the Judges :

Now there was a certain man of Eamathaim-zophim, of mount Ephraim &c.

It may be said to follow in chronological order, and to bear quite as close a connection with the book of Judges, as the history of Ruth, or that of the Levite which is admitted to form part of the book of Judges. It concludes with the death of Saul :