§ 147. Higher Criticism.

Higher criticism, (which indeed often rises to an extreme) does not differ from conjectural, except that it is not occupied with single words or phrases, but with sentences and parts of sentences of some length, and also with whole books which are proved from internal arguments either to belong or not to belong to a certain age or writer. In the books of the Old Testament respecting the history of which we have so little external evidence, this kind of criticism is absolutely necessary, and by the aid of it much is discovered which borders on historical certainty. But, like critical conjecture, it ought to be exercised with sobriety and modesty. No reliance is to be placed upon what might possibly be or happen, for to reason from what is possible to what is real is illogical; nor are bold decisions to be made on light grounds affording nothing more than some weak probability, which, upon a more attentive examination of the subject, comes to nothing. The errors which have been committed in identifying authors of our own age who have written anonymously in their vernacular tongue with others, whose style, principles, mode of reasoning, and course of thought, were all well known from other sources,* ought to be a remarkable warning to the bolder critics of the present day, to employ this uncertain criticism with more caution, and to imitate more closely the example of the Scaligers and Casaubons. Suspicions and trifling reasons prove nothing. It must be shown that a book or a part of a book contains things manifestly more modern than its date, or such as could not have been written by the author to whom it is ascribed, on account of the age in which he lived, or the sects to which he belonged, or the language which he used, which must be clearly and perfectly known to us.[a]--Lastly, caution must be used, never to call in the aid of doctrinal arguments drawn from any preconceived opinions.

[a] Jahn quotes in his German work, the following passage from MORUS, Opusc. P. II. p. 46. s., whence the preceding ideas are taken, and which richly merits insertion here in full. "Ne monumenta historiæ

* [The author alludes to some anonymous publications in Germany, which were erroneously ascribed to Zimmerman and Kant, and the caution which he founds upon this fact was never more applicable than it is to his countrymen at the present day. Tr.]

festinantius suspecta judicemus, quasi hæc altior indago critica sit, si ubique suboleat aliquid suspecti. Suspectum nihil in hoc genere dici potest, nisi vel per indubitata et diserta testimonia doceri potest, non esse illo tempore scriptum, sed per fraudem confictum; vel non potuit illo tempore scribi; quia insunt res illo tempore recentiores; vel ab eo viro scribi non potuit propter tempus, quo vixit, propter disciplinam guam secutus est, et propter orationem, qua usus est, plane perfecte nobis cognitam; vel monumenta vetusta invicem dissonant, et injiciunt suo dissensu scrupulum. Ad hos leges nisi redeatur, et Scaligerorum et Casaubonorum exemplum severius in imitationem trahatur, verendum est, ne, quod apud Aristophanem Euripides conqueri cogitur, ανθρωπε, όλην την τραγωδίαν με αφαιρεις, idem mutatis verbis majore jure magna veterum historiæ scriptorum pars indignari debeat; όλην την ισοριαν ἡμων αφαιρειτε.” Τr.]

PART II.

PARTICULAR INTRODUCTION TO EACH BOOK OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

§ 1. Order of treatment.

HAVING discussed those subjects which relate equally to all the books of the Old Testament, we proceed to the examination of the particular books. These we shall not take up in the order in which they are arranged in manuscripts or editions, but in noticing them shall follow, as much as possible, the order of the times in which they were respectively written, or of which they contain the history. We will commence with the historical books, proceeding in succession to the prophetical, to the Hagiographa, and, in the last place, to the deuterocanonical. In this manner the examination of the whole will occupy four sections.

SECTION I.

OF THE HISTORICAL BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT.

CHAPTER I.

OF THE PENTATEUCH.

§ 2. Contents of the Pentateuch.

THE Pentateuch contains an account of the arrangements of the Divine Being for the purpose of founding, establishing, maintaining, and promoting, religion and good morals, from the creation of man down to the death of Moses. By far the greater part relates to those things which God established by the agency of Moses. What precedes this is introductory, but necessary for the correct and perfect understanding of the remainder. The work consists at present of five books, but the contents naturally divide themselves into three parts.

*

I. The FIRST, containing the book of Genesis, comprises the divine arrangements for the support of religion and virtue antecedently to the Mosaic dispensation, from the creation of man down to the death of Joseph, A. M. 2318. This may be subdivided into two portions: the first, Gen. i. 1—xi. 26, contains in a few documents, the principal events from the creation to the birth of Abraham, A. M. 1948, and recounts the ancestors of that patriarch who had cultivated and preserved a due regard for religion and good morals: the second, Gen. xi. 27-1. 26, furnishes a more detailed history of

* [See § 22, note b.]

4

Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, continuing to the death of Joseph, comprising in the whole a period of 295 years; in this part the promises given to the Patriarchs form every where the most conspicuous object.[a]

II. The SECOND division, containing the books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, gives the history of Moses and of his legislation, and shows how the promises made to the Patriarchs were fulfilled by corresponding events; namely, the increase of their posterity, their deliverance from Egypt, and the establishment among them, by the agency of Moses, of a theocratical government and administration, by means of which true religion should be preserved until the time when, as had been promised to the Patriarchs, it should be propagated by their posterity among all nations, or, according to the expression of the promises themselves, when all nations should be blessed. Many events of the first two years are related, but much fewer, and only the more important, of the following thirty-seven, in Num. xvxix., and of the fortieth, in Num. xx--xxxvi.

III. In Deuteronomy, which constitutes the THIRD division, the Hebrews are admonished to keep the Law: some laws are repeated and more accurately defined, some are altered, and some are added; and the good effects which should attend the punctual observance of the whole, and the evils which should follow its neglect, are laid before the Hebrews. After this the renewal of the Covenant between the people and GOD their king is described, and a prophetical poem concerning the future condition of the nation, to be committed to memory by the Hebrews, is added. All these things have reference to the inhabiting of Canaan, possession of which was very soon to be taken. Lastly, Moses publicly delivers his book to the priests and princes of the people, to be kept in the tabernacle, in the most holy place, beside the ark, and to be read to the people during the feast of tabernacles, every seventh year.- -The blessing of the tribes and the death of Moses, Deut. xxxiii. xxxiv., have been added by another hand, as is clearly proved by the difference of language and style.

[I. Contents of Genesis, c. i. 1--xi. 26. After an account of the creation, of the original state of man, and of the fall, this portion gradually proceeds to relate the increase of irreligion and immorality