THE ROBERT E. COWAN COLLECTION 
 
 PRESENTED TO THE 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF CHLJFORNIH 
 
 KY 
 
 C. P. HUNTINGTON 
 
 JUNE, 1897. 
 
 Recession No. ^3 / Class No ' 
 
MOSES 
 
 THE PENTATEUCH: 
 
 EEPLY TO BISHOP COLENSO. 
 
 BY THE 
 
 
 REV. W. A. SCOTT, D.T)., 
 
 LATE MODEEATOE OF THE GENERAL ASSEMBLY OF THE 
 PEESBYTEBIAN CHTJECH (O.S.) IN AMEEICA. 
 
 " There is one that accuseth you, even Moses, in whom ye trust. For had ye believed 
 MOSES, ye would have believed me : for he WEOTE of me. But if ye believe not HIS 
 WRITINGS, how shall ye believe my words ?'" JESUS CHRIST. 
 
 LONDON: 
 WILLIAM FREEMAN, 102, FLEET STREET. 
 
 ' 1863. 
 
" Pentateuch Mosi auctori tribuit omnis Hebraica et Cliristiania antiquitus, rationibus 
 use vel ex ipso ductse sunt opere, vel aliis idoneis testimoniis nituntur." 
 
 ROSENMiiLLER. 
 
 " THE HISTOEICAL matters of Scripture constitute as it were the bones of its system, 
 and its spiritual matters are its muscles, blood-vessels, and nerves. As the BONES are 
 necessary to the human system, so Scripture must have its historical matters." 
 
 BENGEL. 
 
TO THE KIND READER. 
 
 THE only way to get darkness out of a room is to fill 
 it with light, and the only way to get error out of the 
 mind, and to keep it out, is to let the truth in, and 
 keep it in. But it must enter a welcome guest, and 
 will remain only so long as it is really loved. Free 
 thought is the way to TRUTH. We hope the age of 
 fire and faggot, of dogmatism and cant, is past, never 
 to return ; and to be followed, not by hasty generalisa- 
 tions and the crudities of imperfect scholarship, nor by 
 the tyranny of Atheism, nor by the egotism of " science 
 falsely so called," but by humble yet bold inquiry, by 
 free and yet profound thinking, by searching criticism, 
 and by patient and prayerful investigation. We be- 
 lieve " God alone is Lord of the conscience ;" but we 
 believe that a man is responsible to God for what he 
 believes for his opinions and sentiments, as well as 
 for his actions. We live in hope of a period when the 
 
4 Preface. 
 
 mind of man shall be enlarged, and all men shall be 
 free from the fetters of every persecuting creed, politi- 
 cal or ecclesiastical ; and shall have a formula of faith 
 so full, comprehensive, and well-balanced, that it may 
 embrace all who love our Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 We have, however, fallen on times when it is 
 necessary to fight over again the old battles of our 
 fathers for the Inspiration of the Scriptures and the 
 Integrity of the Sacred Canon. And while the heavy 
 battalions are being led into the field, and the great 
 guns are being placed in position, there will no doubt 
 be some skirmishing. It is among these skirmishers 
 we have enlisted. Our earnest desire is to be faithful 
 as a minister of the Lord Jesus Christ, and an humble 
 preacher of the Word of the living God. We have, 
 therefore, felt constrained to notice the remarkable 
 volume just published by the Bishop of Natal, remark- 
 able, not because it contains anything new, but for its 
 narrowness of horizon and its want of the fruits of 
 mature scholarship ; and remarkable, because it is the 
 work of a prelate of the Church of England a Church 
 that holds to the Divine inspiration of the Scriptures, 
 and to the divinity and infallible authority of Christ. 
 It is the more necessary to notice this attack upon the 
 authority of the Word of God and upon the character of 
 Christ, because, as it comes from a bishop " a right 
 
Preface. 5 
 
 reverend Father in God" it. will have a pernicious in- 
 fluence upon the young, unless its poison is met by an 
 antidote. It is, moreover, usually the case, that the 
 followers of a leader who turns aside from the received 
 faith of the Church, go farther astray than he does him- 
 self. What, therefore, may we not fear from the influ- 
 ence of a bishop who, while he denies the perfect 
 knowledge of Jesus Christ and the historic verity of 
 the Exodus, admits the inspiration of Sikh Gooroo, 
 and quotes with approbation the utterances of the 
 sheerest heathen fatalism ? 
 
 The author has written strongly, for he feels deeply. 
 Though he does not believe that the citadel which has 
 withstood the battering-ram of Infidelity for three thou- 
 sand years is likely to be destroyed by the torpedo of 
 an arithmetical bishop, yet, from long acquaintance 
 with young people, and especially enterprising young 
 men from home, he is afraid this work will do them 
 much injury. He has desired to have all ages and 
 classes in view, but his eyes have been turned most fre- 
 quently to the youth of our day the young men and 
 young women, upon whom rest our hopes for the 
 Church of the Future. We fear the injury this book 
 will do them, because many of them are easily en- 
 snared with the fascinations of the world. Life seems 
 to them an open summer day. The cup at present 
 
6 Preface. 
 
 tastes sweet, and they do not wish anything to distur 
 them in its enjoyment. It is always hard to win their 
 hearts to God, but it will be all the more so in propor- 
 tion as their reverence for the Bible is destroyed, and 
 its awful authority lifted from their conscience. 
 
 LONDON ; Feb., 1863. 
 

 CONTENTS. 
 
 I. 
 
 FREE AND THOROUGH DISCUSSION CALLED FOR. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The injustice of popular feeling Persecution is not of God in any 
 of its forms Freedom of thought, liberty of conscience, and free 
 inquiry, are " inalienable rights" Accountable only to God for 
 our opinions Bishop Colenso introduced Goodwill for him, 
 but not for his views The necessary logical consequence 
 of his critique Three ways open for dealing with Bishop 
 Colenso's book on the ' Pentateuch ;' namely, silence, defence, 
 or attack The most appropriate title for his volume would be, 
 The Common Faith of Christendom overthrown, or the Bible not 
 True, by one of its Translators and Advocates Past battles 
 and victories not sufficient for our day Danger to the young 
 from such volumes Feeling in England in reference to Bishop 
 Colenso's views His statements in regard to the " very wide- 
 spread distrust of the clergy and laity," and " hollowness of the 
 ground" on which the ordinary faith of Christians rests His 
 example of stifling free inquiry in England by making an im- 
 portant omission in the translation of Humboldt's Cosmos 
 The bishop tells us we should, as soon as possible, teach our 
 children not " to regard the Bible as infallibly true in matters 
 of common history" " Free-thinking now contagious" in Eng- 
 land The Bishop of Oxford even says St. Paul made mistakes 
 and blunders in conducting his missions The Pentateuch must 
 be " ventilated" CHEISTIANITY accepts the challenge to free 
 inquiry The result must favour the TBTJTH . . 13 
 
Contents. 
 
 II. 
 
 THE IMPORTANT PRACTICAL BEARING OF THE QUESTION. 
 
 PAGKE 
 
 Characteristics of " free-born Englishmen 55 The demand for plain 
 matters of fact " Right of private judgment 55 The CREED not 
 to be preserved by legal prosecutions "The Bible is the re- 
 ligion of Protestants 55 Three ways in which God has re- 
 vealed His will to us: in the heart, by the creation, and by 
 revelation These three, correctly read, agree But one true 
 religion The faith of the Patriarchs the same as ours The 
 Old and New Testaments are "lock and key 55 The historic 
 facts of the Old Testament are the "bones 55 of the New Testa- 
 ment The histories of the Old Testament are the subject- 
 matters out of which the Gospel dispensation has arisen, and 
 upon which it rests " The Old Testament is inlaid with the 
 name of Jesus 55 The whole Jewish theocracy falls with Moses, 
 and with it Christianity itself The historic argument from the 
 Jews as we now find them back to Abraham Have we a Bible 
 or no ? , 25 
 
 III. 
 A HARD AND PAINFUL CONVERSION. 
 
 Bishop Colenso's own account of his conversion by a Zulu School- 
 masters made prelates His singular labours as a missionary 
 bishop of the Church of England His astonishing ignorance of 
 the literature of Scripture difficulties The Church Review's 
 estimate of the bishop and his work "A Jew 5 s letters to Vol- 
 taire 55 reveal the storehouse of the same objections to Moses 
 The bishop begins his ministerial career without any fixed faith 
 His astonishing statements about the state of learning and 
 wilful frauds among the English clergy New professorships 
 suggested for the English universities Not to give up the re- 
 ligion we have till we get a better The bishop's account of his 
 deliverance Some remarkable contrasts Madame de Sevigne's 
 illustration . ... 38 
 
Contents. 9 
 
 IV. 
 
 BISHOP COLENSO'S VIEWS STATED BY HIMSELF. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 Singular reasons why his views are new The colony of Natal pe- 
 culiarly fitted to make a skilful interpreter of Hebrew Strange 
 the old Latin and Greek Fathers and native Jews, who lived in 
 the land of the Exodus could not understand Moses as well as 
 Bishop Colenso The bishop says Hebrew language is but little 
 studied in England Ignores our Oriental scholars The bishop 
 charges English authors with passing by the main difficulties 
 Astonishingly low estimate of the intelligence and scholarship 
 of the clergy and laity of the Church of England Henggtenberg 
 The bishop charges Hebrew authors with " systematic exagge- 
 ration," a habit so interwoven with the whole story of the 
 Exodus that it is wholly discredited Charges the books of the 
 Pentateuch with " contradictions," " plain impossibilities," and 
 being "historically untrue" Puts the sacred writers on an 
 equality with " early Roman annalists" The bishop's volume 
 characterised The play of Hamlet with Hamlet left out The 
 Bible is not all parables The bishop's profession of Deism 
 Thinks he could be an orthodox Christian without any Bible at 
 all The fallacy of his reference to Enoch The true province 
 of the Holy Spirit . . . . .50 
 
 V. 
 
 BISHOP COLENSO'S DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 
 
 The fatal effects of "hobby-riding," and some other causes 
 Nothing new in Colenso's volume " Prick' d by a Hebrew root" , 
 Wherein lies the dangerous strength of the book, namely, in 
 the weight of station rather than of learning or argument 
 The bishop's cry, from beginning to end, is " Carthago delenda 
 est?' The objection about the number that went down to 
 Egypt and came up out of Egypt The size of the tabernacle 
 Speaking to such an assembly London Lord Palraerston 
 
10 Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 "All the congregation" explained The poll- taxing Haver- 
 nick's explanation Impossibility of feeding so large a flock, or 
 getting so many lambs and pigeons Regulations were anticipa- 
 tive Jews did not observe their perfect economy in the wilder- 
 ness Mines worked by the Pharaohs in Arabia The Peninsula 
 once supported a large population Nomads are also agricul- 
 turalists The Author' s travels in Arabia The fertility of the 
 Desert Still the Exodus a miracle The promised land able to 
 sustain the people Sheep-farmer's testimony Abbe Guenee 
 " Tents and booths" Californian life Gipsies and Arabs The 
 " arms" of the Hebrews Shillelahs, ox -goads, and the like 
 The Hebrew term explained Josephus' account The institu- 
 tion of the Passover and the march out of Egypt The slaughter 
 of the Midianites How Moses wrote the Pentateuch Interpo- 
 lations considered " The book of the wars of the Lord" Moses 
 did not write an account of his own death The satisfactory ex- 
 planation of this by the Jewish rabbis. . . .67 
 
 VI. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES DO NOT DESTROY CREDIBILITY. 
 
 Bishop Colenso fails to find the way to solve his difficulties 
 Talks altogether in figures Apparent causes of his difficulties 
 The Bible method is to give results rather than data The 
 sum of all Bishop Colenso has done Important to be sure of 
 the correct text and the true interpretation The admission of 
 miracles solves all the difficulties Reason and Revelation are in 
 harmony when properly interpreted Revelation above, but not 
 contrary to, Nature Illustrations from Newton's discoveries 
 King of Siam and Dr. Lardner on steam navigation of the ocean 
 Argument from the history and present condition, of the 
 Jewish people Mysteries and " ultimate questions" Robert 
 Hall Bible heroes Diamonds with flaws Lord Bacon's re- 
 marks The Record's statement of the issue Aristotle's maxim 
 applied Archbishop Whateley's argument " Historic doubts" 
 as to the great American civil war . . .93 
 
Contents. 11 
 
 VII. 
 
 THE DIFFICULTIES OUTWEIGHED. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 The resume The whole Exodus "the work of an Almighty hand" 
 The bishop forgets also that Bible histories are not exhaustive 
 encyclopaedias " Concomitant facts" would, if known, remove 
 many difficulties Admitted difficulties are not sufficient to de- 
 stroy credibility Bishop Butler's remarks The past teaches 
 us not to fear True revelations and physical facts cannot be 
 antagonistic Greater are they that are for us than those that 
 are against us Dagon always falls and breaks to pieces when 
 brought before the Lord our God . . 110 
 
 VIII. 
 
 THE PENTATEUCH GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 
 
 What constitutes a canonical book " All Scripture is by inspira- 
 tion of God" Inspiration denned Reasons for believing the 
 Pentateuch was written by Moses, and is a truthful history, 
 namely 1. Moses claims to be the author; Hebrews were ex- 
 tremely careful of their Sacred Writings. 2. Moses publicly 
 promulgated the Law and commanded it to be read, and de- 
 livered a copy to the Levites to be preserved. 3. Extraordi- 
 nary facts in the books. 4. Peculiar Jewish institutions com- 
 memorate these facts ; the authograph copy of the Pentateuch 
 found by Hilkiah. 5. The Samaritan Pentateuch. 6. Josephus, 
 Philo JudsDus, and a host of Pagan witnesses Septuagint and 
 Mohammed The overwhelming weight of evidence is against 
 Colenso, and in favour of Moses .... 117 
 
 IX. 
 
 JESUS CHRIST RECOGNISED THE PENTATEUCH AS 
 GENUINE, AUTHENTIC, AND INSPIRED. 
 
 The Holy Bible, how divided How received by our Lord and His 
 apostles Quotations from and allusions to the Pentateuch by 
 
12 Contents. 
 
 PAGE 
 
 our Lord Summary of the proofs that the Pentateuch is 
 genuine, authentic, and inspired Our Lord's recognition con- 
 clusive Bishop Coleiiso's painful floundering on this point 
 He denies the infallible authority of our Lord His loose state- 
 ments utterly refuted Our Lord's appeal to Moses, and directly 
 to Genesis as the writing of Moses, in relation to marriage and 
 divorce So also his allusions to Noah and the Flood, Lot and 
 his wife, the Patriarchs and Moses' burning bush, the brazen 
 serpent, the manna : these are not myths Our Lord's appeal to 
 Moses and Ms writings in favour of His claims as Messiah Ap- 
 peals to the Scriptures as genuine and authentic, and inspired 
 of God Our Lord's two sermons after His resurrection, in which 
 both texts are from Moses and the Prophets and the Psalms 
 His example settles the canonical authority of these writings 
 If we believe in Christ we must believe in Moses . . 134 
 
 X. 
 
 THE PRESENT TRIUMPHANT POSITION OP THE 
 QUESTION . 158 
 
MOSES AND THE PENTATEUCH. 
 
 i. 
 
 FREE AND THOROUGH DISCUSSION CALLED FOR. 
 
 " We can do nothing against tlie truth, but for the truth." " Not to 
 exceed and not to fall short of facts, not to add and not to take away, 
 to state the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth." 
 
 Quoted ~by BISHOP COLENSO. 
 
 " We must not be content with a religion on sufferance. The diffi- 
 culties must be solved, and the objections must be met." 
 
 DB. MOBEELT. 
 
 IF we are not mistaken, there is a popular feeling that a 
 man may attack the Church of Christ, or the cause of 
 religion, as much as he pleases ; and though happily 
 among us but few will admire his taste for so doing, or 
 receive his teachings, still no one seems to think of calling 
 him a bigot or a fanatic. He is only an earnest, bold, 
 independent inquirer after truth. But, on the other hand, 
 whoever defends Christianity against such attacks, is at 
 once set down as illiberal, narrow-minded, and persecuting. 
 Now we ask, in all candour, is this liberal and just ? There 
 are reasons no doubt why it is so, and these reasons we 
 
14 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 frankly confess are, for the most part, to be laid at the door 
 of the Church herself, and upon the heads of those who have 
 professed to be followers of Christ in past ages ; but still 
 we ask whether it can be just and high-minded liberality to 
 consider men who write and say all manner of crude and 
 hard things against the Bible as merely bold, independent, 
 original thinkers, who are searching for truth under difficul- 
 ties, and seeking to emancipate themselves from priestcraft 
 and the bondage of theological creeds ; and, at the same 
 time, call those bigots and persecutors who defend the faith 
 once delivered to the saints, and give reasons for the hope 
 that is in them ? Nor is it peculiar to Christians to have 
 divisions and strife. Have not both Jews and Pagans been 
 divided in their creed, and as fierce in their persecutions as 
 Christians have ever been ? And were not heathen philoso- 
 phers as intolerant as their ignorant followers ? And are 
 not deists and irreligionists, of every school and class, as 
 much or more divided among themselves, and as fierce and 
 as intolerant of each other's opinions, to say the least, as 
 Christian denominations ? Certainly we cannot go to them 
 for unity of disbelief, nor to learn charity ; they are agreed 
 only in rejecting the gospel. If Herod and Pilate are 
 friends, it is only when Christ is to be condemned. We 
 are perfectly sure that persecution is not of God, but 
 of man. It is not from heaven, but from beneath. God 
 had respect to Abel, and not to his brother who murdered 
 him. JESUS CHRIST did not persecute Herod, nor the 
 Scribes and Pharisees. But they persecuted His forerunner, 
 
Free and Thorough Discussion called for. 15 
 
 and Himself, and His followers, even unto death. We can 
 excuse earnestness arid zeal in the defence of a man's 
 faith, for the importance of religion justifies the greatest 
 attention to its claims, and a high degree of excitement 
 about it, but does not excuse any degree of persecution. 
 Piety is a thing of the heart and of the life, and must be 
 free. Love cannot .be created by constraint. Thought 
 is free. The mind should be as unfettered as the winds of 
 heaven. Freedom of opinion without pains or penalties 
 we hold to be our inalienable right, as the offspring of God. 
 "We hold that all men have a natural and indefeasible right 
 to worship Almighty God according to the dictates of their 
 own consciences, or not to worship at all, subject only 
 to their accountability to Him for such neglect. That 
 every individual should be at full liberty to adopt and 
 practice such doctrines as he chooses on the subject of 
 religion, provided he does not interfere with the rights 
 of others; and that as religion is a matter exclusively 
 between man and his Creator, so the civil government 
 has no right to interfere with it. Its functions begin 
 with manin his cradle, and terminate with his coffin, leaving 
 his soul, and the affairs of eternity, exclusively to religion. 
 We are accountable to God only for our thoughts and 
 opinions. It is not, therefore, the office of an expounder 
 of the holy Scriptures, or of " a defender of the faith/' 
 to make faces at those who assail the truth, nor to call 
 down fire from heaven to consume those that do not 
 follow Christ in the same way that he does. No man, 
 
16 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 neither bishop, presbyter, pope, nor patriarch, has a 
 monopoly of the grace of God, nor a patent for the only way 
 to heaven. 
 
 It was not our privilege to know anything of Bishop 
 Colenso, not even by the hearing of the ear, until he or his 
 friends began to prepare the way for the coming forth of 
 his volume of criticism on the ' Pentateuch, and the Book of 
 Joshua/ by sounding a warning note. It was impossible 
 for us, therefore, to take up his work with any passion, 
 prejudice, or prepossessions ; or if we had any such feeling, 
 it must have been in his favour, as a hard-working 
 missionary-bishop of the church. And with the author 
 now, as a man and as a bishop, we have nothing to do 
 except to wish him peace of mind and happiness in the 
 knowledge of the " truth as it is in Jesus." Nor has the 
 writer of these humble pages anything to do with his 
 difficulties in regard to his office, or with the courts of his 
 Church, farther than to wish that whatever may be done may 
 be in the right spirit, and for the promotion of truth and 
 godliness. "We cannot forbear saying in this connection, 
 however, that it is a wonder to us that such men as Bishop 
 Coleriso should desire to remain in the chains of bondage to 
 a church and creed which they have pulled down over their 
 own heads. With such views of the Bible as he holds we 
 wonder he has any church at all, or cares anything about 
 teaching the gospel to the Zulus. For if the Pentateuch is 
 a lie, and the Exodus a fable, how does the bishop get a 
 church or a see at all? The logical consequence of his 
 
Free and Thorough Discussion called for. 17 
 
 position carries away with it not only the historic verity of 
 the books of Moses, but of the whole Bible ; and with the 
 Bible the whole structure of the Hebrew and Christian 
 systems must fall. If the bishop is correct,, we must give 
 up the truth of the types and sacrifices of the Mosaic dis- 
 pensation, and with them also the predictions of the 
 Prophets concerning the coming of Christ and His miracles ; 
 and in a word, our holy faith, with all its precious doctrines, 
 salutary precepts, and high and glorious hopes and joys. 
 We see no rest, nor stopping place, nor limits for his stream 
 of rationalism, until it pours itself into the abyss of unbelief ! 
 We do not say Bishop Colenso means this : we dare not 
 judge of any man's motives; but we do say thai, in our 
 judgment, such is the irresistible and inevitable tendency of 
 his book. In our deliberate opinion its effect is against the 
 faith of Christendom in which we were born, and in which 
 we wish to die, and to which we owe all that is sublime in 
 virtue and lofty in devotion, our hopes for this and 
 the world to come. With the bishop's repeated appeals, 
 therefore (ad misericordiam) , we have nothing to do, 
 (pp. xii. xxxiv.) He was free to publish or not. He 
 himself elected to appeal to the public, and, if we are not 
 mistaken, the present London volume is a second edition 
 from a previous one published in Natal, but greatly 
 pruned and revised by its author and his friends in England. 
 At least, it is of his own free will that he stands at the bar 
 of the Christian world for judgment. And we do not see 
 why the rashness of those who take it upon themselves to 
 
 c 
 
18 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 revile the Word of God, even if they have bishops' robes, 
 should endow them with peculiar privileges. 
 
 It occurred to us on the appearance of this volume that 
 there were three ways for the Christian public to treat it ; 
 namely, first, just let it alone, and, if it were not of God, 
 it would be still-born. Silence would prove that no serious 
 injury had been done to the citadel of faith, by this attack. 
 Or, secondly, our able and learned men might be excited by it 
 to review and to examine anew our defences, and strengthen 
 them by all the evidences that were to be obtained from the 
 advanced and still progressive state of the physical " history 
 of man and his earth/' and from the monumental readings 
 of the Nile, and the Euphrates, and from the science of 
 manuscripts and criticism, which is almost entirely a new 
 science; and thus, by establishing our foundations more 
 and more strongly, the bishop's attack would fall harmless 
 at our feet, and do us good. Or, thirdly, " to carry the war 
 into Africa/' or " to fight fire with fire," as they sometimes 
 do in the great western prairies, at the very outset, by 
 answering questions with questions, and meeting difficulties 
 with greater difficulties. For it were an easy thing to 
 answer the bishop's objections to Moses by showing that 
 his views are justly exposed to greater and far more over- 
 whelming objections. If we were to hurl back upon his own 
 head the difficulties he has raised, by calling upon him to 
 answer the objections which common sense, true critical 
 learning, and the outraged faith, and the heart of all 
 Christendom made void by his scepticism, have to his views, 
 
Free and Thorough Discussion called for. 19 
 
 we should find that it were far more easy to believe in 
 Moses and the Prophets than in the Bishop of Natal. It 
 requires more faith to believe Bishop Colenso than it does 
 to believe what Jesus Christ has said of Moses and his 
 writings. 
 
 Already the first method has been abandoned ; or rather 
 it was never adopted at all. Perhaps it was not the best 
 way. In fact, the alarm was sounded before the attack was 
 made. It seems to have been thought that the onset would 
 be too violent to be borne at all by the Christian sentiment 
 of England unless some warning was given. Nor was this 
 unreasonable : for surely the Christian world was not pre- 
 pared to see a bishop of the great Protestant Church of 
 England, engaged in converting the heathen of the eastern 
 coast of Africa to Christ, put forth his whole strength 
 to destroy our faith in the historic truth of the Bible. It 
 is true we have as yet only t\& first part of his " criticism/'' 
 which is applied to Moses and Joshua; but if the Pentateuch 
 and the book of Joshua are " not historically true/' as he 
 says, we see no hope for the rest of Bible history. Indeed, 
 it seems to us that a more appropriate and more expressive title 
 for his work would have been 'THE COMMON FAITH OP 
 CHRISTENDOM OVERTHROWN; or, THE BIBLE NOT TRUE, 
 by one of its own interpreters and professed advocates/ Is 
 not the bishop preparing us for his confession of faith in 
 Deism, when he tells us he could give up " not only the 
 Pentateuch, but the whole Bible/" and still be a good 
 Christian ? Is not this even worse than the play of Hamlet 
 with the part of Hamlet left out? 
 
20 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 We have sometimes thought that the controversies of the 
 last centuries with deists were final,, but we were mistaken. 
 The old battles of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries are 
 renewed. "We have to defend, as our fathers had to do, the 
 necessity of revelation ; the authenticity and genuineness of 
 the books of the Bible, and the belief in one true, living, 
 and personal God. In some of our great literary and 
 theological institutions, the philosophy of Plato is taught as 
 substantially Christian, and Pantheism is explained as the 
 best creed ; and the theology of our fathers is assailed from 
 the chairs of our oldest universities. It may be true these 
 attacks upon our holy faith are not marked by ability or 
 learning; but still there is a pretence of argument and 
 a show of authorities that are calculated to mislead and 
 poison the minds of the young. In their honesty and 
 ardour they are eager for knowledge, and in danger of 
 thinking that whatever is put forth boldly as new, is really 
 something newly discovered, and especially worthy of their 
 attention. It is not to be expected that they will be able at 
 once to detect, in the flaunting and highly coloured garments 
 in which modern sceptics appear, the " old shoes and 
 clouted" raiment of the crafty Gibeonites of the infidel 
 host of past centuries. The young are ready to say, Our 
 fathers, dear good old souls, were honest in their faith, but 
 they may have been mistaken. At least, it will do us no 
 harm to examine the subject for ourselves ; and we claim 
 the right to do so all the more, because religious questions 
 are now sifted with an apparatus of ^critical knowledge 
 
Free and Thorough Discussion called for. 21 
 
 never before brought to bear upon them. The physical 
 history of our globe, the reading of the hieroglyphics of 
 Egypt and of the arrow-headed characters of Assyria, by 
 which the contemporary and antecedent history of the 
 Jews receives a new interpretation, and "the science of 
 manuscripts, and of settling texts " and the great depart- 
 ments of modern letters and science, geology, philology, and 
 ethnography, all these and the such-like sources of know- 
 ledge were utterly unknown to our fathers ; and since we 
 have advantages for biblical criticism they knew not of, it 
 may be their faith was too simple. At least, we will enjoy 
 our English freedom of thought, and weigh the evidences 
 for ourselves. 
 
 Whether, however, it were best or no for our thinking 
 and intelligent youth to busy themselves with such ques- 
 tions, is no longer a debatable one; it can no longer be 
 put by. It is thrust upon them. They must make up 
 their minds to abide by the faith of their fathers, or resolutely 
 face about and set aside the evidences upon which it is 
 built. Indeed, we were first awakened to the evil that 
 Bishop Colenso's volume might do, by finding it in the 
 hands of the young men of believing parents, where there is 
 danger that even if it does not produce in them an 
 absolute shipwreck of faith in the creed of their fathers, it 
 will, nevertheless, unsettle their opinions, and afflict them 
 with one of the greatest curses that can befal a human 
 being ; namely, " the loss of a believing heart/ 7 
 
 Again, a free and thorough discussion is now called for, 
 
22 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 because it is claimed by some of Bishop Coleaiso's friends ; 
 that his work will produce a necessity for revising the whole 
 canon of Scripture. It is quoted, as coming from high 
 authority,, that " the Church has never denied itself the duty 
 of revising the canon." It is also claimed by the author's 
 friends that his book, in boldness and for its startling 
 nature, goes far beyond the celebrated " Essays and 
 Reviews f and that it will bring on " a revolution among 
 the people, and in the Church of England, as great as the 
 preaching of the Reformers did in the sixteenth century/' If, 
 then, the question is open again, whether we have a Bible or 
 not, and which are genuine and authentic Scriptures, it is 
 time for us to begin to consider it. We may be permitted 
 to say also, perhaps, as bearing on this discussion, that it 
 seems to us the Evangelical party of the Church of England 
 are on the decline, and the Tractarian and high Churchmen 
 are advancing; while the "negative theology men" are 
 getting the advantage of all their opponents. The evange- 
 lical party have shown a sad want of courage, and at 
 the same time, it must be confessed, they are terribly 
 fettered by the forms and usages of the Church. Be this, 
 however, as it may, it is obvious that there is a wide-spread, 
 and painful restlessness in the public mind. It is not con- 
 fined to the clergy and laity, Mr. Disraeli and many of the 
 public journals are illustrations of this anxiety, both as to 
 the articles of faith and the practical working of the 
 Church of England. 
 
 First, we had Tracts for the Times, and a reign of 
 
Free and Thorough Discussion called for. 23 
 
 superstition; now we have a volume of Essays, and then 
 Replies to Essays and Reviews, and Aids to Faith; all 
 written by eminent members of the Church of England, and 
 the last two volumes brought out, as Bishop Colenso says, 
 "under especial episcopal sanction, for the very purpose 
 of settling the doubts, which might have been raised by the 
 first, the Essays; and yet the bishop says that in these last 
 two works " scarcely any reference whatever is made to 
 any one of the difficulties which beset the question of the 
 historical accuracy of the Mosaic story .*" In the latter 
 volume, he says, he looked for " a calm, comprehensive, 
 scholarly declaration of positive (truth) upon all the matters 
 in dispute/' but in vain. " I find not the slightest notice 
 taken of them ;" a very large portion of it is, " as it appears 
 to me unprofitably occupied in mere censure, not to say 
 abuse, of the adversary ." " I must confess to have put it 
 down with a painful sense of disappointment,"" (pp. 139,140.) 
 Again : " Not a few among the more highly educated 
 classes of society in England, and multitudes among the 
 more intelligent operatives, are in danger of drifting 
 into irreligion and practical atheism, under this dim sense 
 of the unsoundness of the popular view (that is, the com- 
 monly received orthodox view of the inspiration of the 
 Scriptures), combined with a feeling of distrust of their 
 spiritual teachers;" either on account of their want of 
 knowledge, or of honesty and courage (Preface, p. xxvi.) 
 Again: he says, "that a very wide-spread distrust does 
 exist among the intelligent laity of England, as to the 
 
24 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 soundness of the ordinary view of Scripture inspiration." 
 It is a distrust, however, " rather secretly felt than openly 
 expressed." He says, " the very condition of a young man's 
 entering the ministry of the Church of England is that he 
 surrenders henceforth all freedom of thought ; or, at least, 
 of utterance, upon the great questions which the age is 
 rife in, and solemnly bind himself for life to " believe 
 unfeignedly " what he probably already knows enough 
 of science, and of the results of critical inquiry, to 
 feel that he cannot honestly believe in. 
 
 As an illustration of the way truth is smothered up, 
 or free inquiry stifled in England, Bishop Colenso, in a 
 note, states a remarkable fact ; namely, an important omis- 
 sion in the translation of Humboldfs Cosmos. The passage 
 relates to the origin of the human race from one pair. It 
 seems it was not the author's wish to have it suppressed, 
 for it was given in extenso in the French translation, which 
 translation, at least the translation of this particular part, 
 was made by M. Guignaut, at the request of M. de Hum- 
 boldt himself. This was new to us, and while, we are 
 grieved at such a liberty, still we can appreciate the public 
 sentiment that would have been offended by the publication 
 of Humboldt's opinion on the subject. But we have no 
 fear of honest, deep, patient, persevering inquiries after 
 truth. 
 
II. 
 
 THE IMPORTANT PRACTICAL BEARING OF THE 
 QUESTION. 
 
 " The germ of all the New Testament is in the books of Genesis and 
 Exodus. Sweep them away, and all the rest of the Bible is a riddle." 
 " The entire religious system of the Jews is, in the most appropriate 
 sense, a prophecy ; and the individual passages of their sacred books 
 are merely the strongest expressions of that spirit which enlivens the 
 whole mass." 
 
 The Pentateuch and its Assailants. 
 
 I HAVE had the happiness of meeting " freeborn Eng- 
 lishmen" in all the four quarters of the globe, and of 
 finding that, as travellers and as merchants, they have much 
 influence in the communities where they travel or reside. 
 And, as a general rule, there is a reliableness upon them in 
 their business transactions a substantial trustworthy air 
 about them, which gives them a predominant influence, in 
 proportion to their numbers, all over the globe. The reason, 
 we think, is their TRUTHFULNESS. They mean what they 
 say, and their word in business is as good as their bond. 
 And this business truthfulness is owing to their reverence 
 for the Word of God. Without a knowledge of the Scrip- 
 tures and a belief in their historic truth, Britons would not 
 have acquired the reputation for honesty in trade that so 
 happily distinguishes them round the world. 
 
26 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 "One great characteristic of Englishmen the charac- 
 teristic, in fact, on which they may justly rest their claims 
 to a foremost (indeed, the foremost) position among the 
 representative races of humanity is the belief in, and the 
 love of, positive, objective truth. The Englishman may be 
 narrow-minded or prejudiced, unapt to deal with abstract 
 speculations. But he has, at least, had this training he 
 has been accustomed to weigh evidence, to seek for matter- 
 of-fact' truth in the first place, and to satisfy himself as to 
 the good faith and correct information of those from whom 
 he expects to receive knowledge or instruction. One thing 
 with him is fixed and certain; whatever else is doubtful, 
 this at least is sure, a narrative purporting to be one of 
 positive facts, which is wholly or in any essential or consi- 
 derable portion untrue, can have no connection with the 
 Divine, and cannot have any beneficial influence on man- 
 kind." This quotation from Aids to Faith is made by 
 Bishop Colenso (Preface, p. xviii.) for the purpose of dis- 
 senting from the closing sentence. We have quoted it from 
 him for the purpose of assenting to the whole passage. We 
 believe that such is the characteristic of the " freeborn Eng- 
 lishman," and we believe that a narrative purporting to be 
 one of positive facts, that is in any essential or considerable 
 portion untrue, is not Divine, and cannot have any bene- 
 ficial influence on mankind. However, then, this subject 
 may be regarded by others, with Englishmen, who are 
 accustomed " to weigh evidence and to seek for matter-of- 
 fact truth," it is no mere abstract question. To a Pro- 
 
The Practical Bearing of the Question. 27 
 
 testant Englishman, with his Bible and his belief in the 
 right and duty of private judgment, it is a question of life 
 and death. It is not to be expected that Englishmen in 
 the light of this century will be willing to consider it a con- 
 futation of doubters, if they are silenced by ecclesiastical bulls, 
 or to believe that truth can be made triumphant even by 
 successful prosecutions in the courts of the country. We 
 do not believe that the " creed'"' is to be preserved by legal 
 prosecutions. The safeguards of faith are not the terrors 
 of the law, but superior learning, deeper piety, more godly 
 living, and a more thorough, patient, and long-continued 
 investigation into and study of God's Holy Word. Eng- 
 lishmen still claim, with Chillingworth, that the Bible is the 
 religion of Protestants. They hold to the freedom of the 
 press and freedom of conscience, to free inquiry and 
 accountability to God only for their opinions. Their creed 
 is still that God alone is Lord of the conscience ; not a 
 bishop, pope, czar, potentate, or patriarch : lut God alone. 
 We thank God such is still the high position of England, 
 and such is our confidence in the truth, that we believe the 
 most thorough, even the closest and most searching inquiry 
 after truth, will only the more firmly establish it. Truth is 
 one. All truth is of God. Supernatural Revelation and 
 true Science are both from God one by His Spirit working 
 in the hearts and minds of men, and moving them to speak 
 and write, and the other is the discovery of His laws in 
 nature. They are but two methods by or through which 
 our blessed Creator makes Himself known to us. They 
 
28 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 cannot, therefore, be antagonistic. The Divine will may be 
 said to be revealed to us in three ways by the conscience, 
 by the works of creation, and by the written Word ; and 
 all these, when correctly read and rightly interpreted, are 
 harmonious. God was manifest first to the heart of man 
 in the original creation. Then man was in the image and 
 after the likeness of God. Sin impaired this image, and 
 interrupted man's communion with his Maker. It did not, 
 however, wholly efface all man's religious capacity. Con- 
 science, or "the moral sense/' was still left us as the 
 Creator's vicegerent. The works of creation are also a 
 manifestation of God to us : 
 
 " The spangled heavens, a shining frame, 
 Their great Original proclaim." 
 
 The radiant orbs of the vast firmament are 
 
 " For ever singing, as they shine, 
 The Hand that made us is divine." 
 
 But because of the blindness that had fallen on man's mind 
 by sin, he failed to read aright the glorious hieroglyphics of 
 the skies. A written revelation, therefore, became neces- 
 sary. The beginning of our supernatural revelation was 
 made first to Adam, and communicated orally by him to his 
 sons, and by them to the patriarchs before the flood, and 
 to Noah, and then by him to his successors, and by them 
 to Abraham, Joseph, and Moses. The giving of the Law at 
 Mount Sinai, and the Divine command to Moses to write 
 the Law in a book, and to deliver a copy of it to the keeping 
 
The Practical Bearing of the Question. 29 
 
 of the Levites, is the more formal and solemn commitment 
 of Divine revelation to writing. These supernatural reve- 
 lations were continued by the prophets to about 400 B.C. 
 And the New Testament was added as the sequel or second 
 part of the Old by the apostles of our Lord. The first 
 revelation of God to man has been obscured by sin and by 
 education ; and the second, the works of creation and pro- 
 vidence, are often misread through ignorance ; and even the 
 third, the written Word of God, is oftentimes misinterpreted 
 through our ignorance or want of moral qualifications for 
 reading it aright. But it is impossible that there should 
 be any real discrepancy between the revelations God has 
 made to us. When discrepancies or contradictions appear, 
 we are perfectly sure they are not real, but only apparent, 
 and are owing to errors and imperfections on our part, or 
 to be charged on the vehicles by which these revelations 
 have been conveyed to us. 
 
 There is but one true religion, and in its essentials it is 
 always the same. The religion of Adam and the patriarchs, 
 of Moses and the prophets, and of Jesus Christ and the 
 apostles, is one and the same. The two covenants made 
 with man the first with Adam and the second with Christ 
 are essentially the same. The terms are the same, and the 
 contracting parties the same God and man. The same 
 principle is seen in both. Perfect obedience is required in 
 both as the condition of life. The only difference is that, in 
 the first case, Adam, representing his race, enters into the 
 covenant in a state of innocence, and, by obeying the law of 
 
30 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 God, has the promise of life for himself and posterity. In 
 the other case, it is Immamiel, the God man, that represents 
 us, enters into the covenant for us, and obeys the law in our 
 stead. It is to be expected, then, that, the institutes of 
 Moses and the worship of the patriarchs should contain 
 the essentials of the Christian religion ; and so they do. The 
 Divine purpose is the same from first to last. The religion 
 of Christ is not an attempt to " mend a system " that had 
 failed. It is the consummation of an original sovereign 
 purpose, carried out through varying, but not by discordant 
 means. The different dispensations are but so many suc- 
 cessive stages of development. The roots are different 
 from the stem, and the stem is different from the blossoms, 
 and all are different from the tree, but each has its proper 
 place in forming the perfect tree; and is necessary to its 
 maturity. Just so He who sees the end from the beginning 
 ordained the diversified method of revealing Himself to man- 
 kind, and the successive stages of the Divine manifestation, 
 according to the wants of our race. Accordingly, JESTJS is 
 the Lamb of God slain, in the Divine mind, from the foun- 
 dation of the world, and slain in types by sacrifices from 
 their appointment. In the Gospel, " the ripened seedcup 
 burst, and the seed set free, was scattered in every land ; 
 but the seed was sown in the beginning, and had been 
 through all preceding dispensations advancing towards 
 maturity. The gospel is wrapped up in the Pentateuch in 
 a form suited to the childhood of the Church. It differed 
 from the gospel of the New Testament, as the history of 
 
The Practical Bearing of the Question. 31 
 
 Egypt in hieroglyphic tablets differs from the same history 
 translated into alphabetic writing, and so made intelligible 
 to all. In both the same meaning lies ; but while in the 
 ancient pictorial signs lay hid, in the modern articulate 
 record it becomes visible." Through the blood of bulls and 
 of goats faith in ancient Israel looked to the same atone- 
 ment in which we trust for taking away sin. The Old 
 Testament, therefore, is a kind of pictorial Bible for infancy, 
 in which the gospel is taught by symbols. It was the reve- 
 lation of God's grace in twilight, while the gospel is the full 
 meridian sun. Abraham saw Christ's day and was glad. 
 He looked forward, and we look back, and we meet at the 
 cross of Christ, when He died to take away the sin of the 
 world. The Old Testament is inlaid with the name of 
 Jesus. Its great distinguishing feature was the promise of 
 a Messiah to come. Moses wrote of Him, and Isaiah and 
 all the prophets proclaimed Him, and David sang of Him. 
 And accordingly the New Testament is the record of His 
 coming just as was promised in the Old Testament. The 
 two Testaments fit each other as the key does the lock. If, 
 then, the books of Moses, which are the foundation of the 
 Old Testament and of the whole Jewish economy and 
 history, are not historical, they are not true, and if they are 
 not true, we have no Bible, and if we have no Bible, we 
 have no Messiah Christ. The general truths of the calling 
 and history of Abraham, and of the lives of Isaac, and 
 Jacob, and Joseph, and of the Exodus, and of the wander- 
 ings of the Hebrews in the wilderness, and of the conquest 
 
32 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 of Canaan under Joshua, are essential to the truth of their 
 whole subsequent history. Their history is also a part of 
 our supernatural revelation, and lies at the foundation of 
 Christianity. If, therefore, we reject the Pentateuch, we 
 can neither believe in Jewish history nor in any other, nor 
 in Christianity itself. If we sponge the books of Moses 
 from the Bible, Isaiah and all the prophets must follow ; 
 and if the Old Testament is rejected as " unhistorical/'' it is 
 not true, and the New Testament falls with it. The essen- 
 tial oneness of the Old and New Testaments as a Divine 
 revelation cannot be given up without giving up Chris- 
 tianity altogether. It is the universal and abiding faith of 
 Christendom that the Old Testament is to be received as 
 the Word of God, just as truly and as certainly as the New 
 Testament. They must stand or fall together. The historic 
 events of the Pentateuch live and breathe in the Jewish 
 people, and have so lived and breathed in them from the 
 days of Moses and Joshua. They were ' incorporated into 
 the whole body of the Jewish law. Their civil code and 
 ecclesiastical laws are interwoven as threads of the same 
 web. Their jurisprudence and daily life were bound up 
 with their theology. Their government was a THEOCRACY, 
 such as has never existed elsewhere or with any other 
 people on earth. Their laws, institutions, and theology, 
 therefore, must fall with the history of the Pentateuch. Let 
 us repeat. The case is briefly thus. "We find Israelites 
 now among almost all nations- in India, Africa, and 
 Europe and America but separate and apart from all other 
 
The Practical Bearing of the Question. 33 
 
 nations. They are in and among all other peoples, but not 
 of them. In all quarters of the globe we find them a dis- 
 tinct and peculiar people, with the Pentateuch of Moses and 
 the laws, feasts, and institutions of the Pentateuch. These 
 national characteristics are undeniable. And we know 
 from history, as fall and positive as it can be, that they were 
 distinguished in our Lord's day by these same, these iden- 
 tical peculiarities ; and we know historically that, in our 
 Lord's time, these national peculiarities were traced back, 
 link by link, to Moses. May we not, then, confidently ask, 
 if Moses and the Pentateuch are myths, whence the belief 
 of the Jews that Moses was their lawgiver ; and whence 
 their sabbath, their Passover, circumcision, and feast of 
 tabernacles ? Nay, whence the Jews themselves ? If they 
 did not come up out of Egypt, where did they come from ? 
 This line of argument in behalf of Christianity has been 
 pursued with great ability by Leslie and others. Nor do 
 we see any escape from it applied to the issue before us. 
 The history of the Jews from the days of Joshua to this 
 moment is the most distinctive history on earth. If it is not 
 to be believed, then nothing historic can be believed ; but 
 their whole history is the testimony of a nation to the his- 
 toric truth of the writings of Moses. And besides, the 
 Old Testament is a history of God's providential dealings 
 with man. Unless therefore, man himself, as well as the 
 whole Hebrew race for three thousand years, is a myth, this 
 history cannot be considered a fable. No history is to be 
 believed if this history is not true. It may, then, be dis- 
 
 D 
 
34 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 guised, but the simple question raised by Bishop Colenso, 
 although he seems to think otherwise, under cover of the 
 " unhistoric " character of the writings of Moses, is just 
 this : Have we a Bible or no ? Is the Bible true or false ? 
 Is it of God or of man? Is it the "Word of the living 
 God, or is it a fable or a fiction ? This is the real issue, 
 and every one must see that it is of vital importance. Has 
 God spoken to us by the prophets and the apostles ? If 
 He has, where is His word, and what is it ? We believe 
 the Englishman's Bible is the Word of the living God, and 
 we cannot give it up because of the difficulties that cloud 
 a prelate's misty mind. 
 
 The bishop also, in the plentitude of his new faith, says, 
 ec There is a wide and general change imminent in our 
 manner of applying criticism to the letter of Scripture. In 
 view of this change, which, I believe, is near at hand, and 
 in order to avert the shock which our children's faith must 
 otherwise experience, when they find, as they certainly will 
 before long, that the Bible can no longer be regarded as 
 infallibly true in matters of common history ; as we value 
 their reverence and love for the sacred book, let us teach 
 them at once to know that they are not to look for the 
 inspiration of the Holy One, which breathes through its 
 pages, in respect of any such matters as these, which the 
 writers wrote as men, with the same liability to error from 
 any cause as other men, and where they must be judged as 
 men, as all others should be, by the just laws of criticism;" 
 and more of like purport. But are Englishmen ready, at 
 
The Practical Bearing of the Question. 35 
 
 the dictum of one of their bishops, to teach their children that 
 " the Bible can no longer be regarded as infallibly true in 
 matters of common history ?" We cannot think so. We 
 are, however, given to understand that ' ' whatever toleration 
 of opinion or freedom of thought there may be in this 
 country, is all in the Church of England, and that the most 
 furious assaults upon Bishop Colenso's book against the 
 Pentateuch will be made by the Dissenters/' We are also 
 told that " free thinking is now contagious. It is in the air, 
 and we are all affected by it. Even the Bishop of Oxford, 
 at the meeting of the University Mission for Africa, spoke 
 of the mistakes and blunders of St. Paul in his conduct of 
 missionary matters/' * In a word, the discussion must now 
 go on. It cannot be arrested even if it were desirable to do 
 so. A plain and full examination of the whole subject is now 
 called for ; nor does true religion ask for existence by mere 
 sufferance. It demands investigation. CHRISTIANITY has 
 never declined any challenge to scrutiny and investigation. 
 She does not seek to shelter herself behind the dogmas of 
 bigotry. She has nothing to fear from true science or 
 genuine learning and high scholarship. It is only fe a little 
 learning/' with an ill-arranged and badly worked critical 
 apparatus, that " is a dangerous thing.-" Much true learning 
 leads to humility, modesty, and truth, even to God himself. 
 It is upon the hasty generalisations and rash conclusions of 
 false science, and the crudities of strong but ill-disciplined 
 minds, that infidelity takes its stand. In every instance, 
 * See The Times, Nov. 19th, 1862. 
 
36 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 when driven from such a cover into the open field of pro- 
 found investigation, of undeniable facts and of true inter- 
 pretation, of free inquiry and sober discussion, it has been 
 defeated. We have seen this in regard to astronomy and 
 geology, and also in regard to ethnology and the ' ' Yestiges 
 of Creation." It is chiefly within the last fifty years that 
 the Bible has been attacked, and especially the Pentateuch, 
 on scientific grounds. At one time the deciphered monu- 
 ments of Egypt and of Assyria were ostentatiously paraded 
 in opposition to Moses ; and then the astronomical tables 
 of Dendera, it was alleged, had proven the chronology 
 of Moses incorrect. But long since such attacks have been 
 found to be harmless. It remained, however, for the Bishop 
 of Natal to bring up to the attack the fragmentary and 
 broken forces of the legions that had been so often put to 
 flight. To meet them is to renew our acquaintance with 
 the old-fashioned quibbles and objections of Yoltaire, and of 
 Paine's Age of Reason. The best answers to Paine are 
 the best replies to Bishop Colenso. There is nothing new 
 in the bishop's work, unless it be an unusual display of 
 figures, and an utter neglect of the labours of learned 
 Hebrew commentators, and that a bishop should make such 
 an attack on the integrity of the Old Testament without 
 giving any evidence of that high scholarship which alone 
 could reproduce the actual history of the people, and com- 
 prehend the genius and idiom of their language. 
 
 It is, however, to be deeply regretted that the poison of 
 such a book will go farther and wider, and in some cases, it 
 
The Practical Bearing of the Question. 37 
 
 is feared, work more deeply into the human heart than any 
 antidote that may be furnished. Still we hope that out of 
 the eater shall come forth meat, and out of the strong shall 
 come forth sweetness. " The words of the LORD are pure 
 words : as silver tried in a furnace of earth, purified seven 
 times/' Truth is of God, and must prevail. It may be, and 
 we believe it will be found, that on the whole the discussion 
 provoked by the bishop's attack on the Pentateuch will shed 
 fresh glory upon the pages of holy Scripture ; that in the 
 end we shall find that the Zulus and the Brahmins, through 
 the Bishop of Natal, have sent us to search the Scriptures, 
 like the Bereans of old, to know whether these things are 
 so ; and that by the searching we have become richer in faith 
 and joy in the Holy Ghost. While, therefore, we fear that a 
 volume of this kind, coming from a bishop, will do much 
 mischief among our young men, who are liable to be led 
 captive to error by pride of intellect and love for the start- 
 ling, we have no fears for the result on the TRUTH itself. 
 The Bible is a revelation from God. 
 
 " On every leaf bedewed with drops of love divine, 
 And with the eternal heraldry 
 And signature of God Almighty stampt." 
 
 It has sustained too many assaults, and from so many 
 quarters, and from all sorts of antagonists, to be overthrown 
 even by a bishop, armed with all the panoply of infidelity. 
 Our faith has stood firm from Pharaoh to Herod, and from 
 Herod to Julian, and from Julian to Bolingbroke, and from 
 Bolingbroke to Strauss ; and we cannot believe the Bishop 
 of Natal will succeed where all his predecessors have failed. 
 
IIL 
 
 A HARD AND PAINFUL CONVERSION. 
 
 " But now the bishop 
 Turns insurrection to religion/* 
 " 1 what a fall was there I" 
 
 BISHOP COLENSO'S own account of his loss of faith in 
 the writings of Moses, and of his conversion to the doubts 
 of his Zulu instructor, is singular and painful. No one can 
 read it without pity pity for the victim of the conflict 
 while the terrible experiences were going on, which resulted 
 in the wonderful deliverance of the bishop from "the 
 loaded shells which were shot into the fortress of his soul" 
 (p. 6). He expects his readers all to rejoice with him 
 for getting into " a large place/' where he could no longer 
 " throw dust into his own eyes/' and no longer " do vio- 
 lence to the love of truth/* and where, by his increase of 
 mental power and of general knowledge, he was at last able 
 " to stamp out desperately, as with an iron heel, each spark 
 of honest doubt," and come fully to the belief not to be- 
 lieve in the historical accuracy of Moses. 
 
 As far as we can get the history of his conversion, it is 
 briefly on this wise. The bishop was given to figures more 
 
A Hard and Painful Conversion. 39 
 
 than to theology from his youth. He published an arith- 
 metic, for which, if we are not mistaken, he obtained a 
 prize. He was head master of a school, and fellow of a 
 college at Cambridge, and was then raised to a bishop's see. 
 Nor is it unworthy of notice, as one of the " signs of the 
 times," that of late years several right reverend prelates 
 have been made out of schoolmasters, among whom are the 
 Bishops of London and of Manchester, as well as the Bishop 
 of Natal. We name this here, not as a reflection either on 
 schoolmasters or bishops, but because it seems to us to be 
 a proof that experience and administrative ability, rather 
 than mature learning and distinguished talents and piety, 
 are the available attributes for a prelate. 
 
 It is at least worthy of note that the most learned and 
 able men as theologians and scholars are not always made 
 bishops. And as it is the weight of exalted position rather 
 than of learning that gives the objections of Bishop 
 Colenso to Moses their importance, it is necessary to keep 
 in view that, in point of fact, neither the bishop's condition 
 nor powers of observation are beyond those of an ordinary 
 man not at all of a formidable character. It is true his 
 labours have been various and numerous. He has prose- 
 cuted his missionary work by writing a letter to the Arch- 
 bishop of Canterbury in favour of allowing polygamy 
 among the native converts not only of allowing it among 
 those who had a plurality of wives before their conversion, 
 but of allowing its practice after their conversion. He also 
 made a translation of Paul to the Romans, with a com- 
 
40 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 mentary as unlike Paul as it can well be. Besides a trans- 
 lation of the New Testament into the Zulu language, he 
 has also published, we understand, a Zulu grammar and 
 dictionary, and was engaged in translating the books of 
 Genesis and Exodus when he was converted from his half- 
 hearted misty belief in the ordinary faith of Christendom in 
 those books to an open and avowed disbelief in their his- 
 toric veracity. His labours and difficulties as a missionary 
 bishop to the heathen are extraordinary. Well may the 
 Church Review exclaim " We pity the poor Zulu ; but we 
 pity their bishop more." He justifies the polygamy of the 
 heathen, teaches them "there is no hell," and that the 
 Word of God is nothing but " a parcel of old wives' fables." 
 And is there no way to give these poor heathen a bishop 
 with another gospel ? 
 
 But no sooner is the Bishop of Natal able to print his 
 objections to Moses in Africa, than he travels home over 
 the seas, some six thousand miles or more, to publish a 
 revised edition an edition, less crude and repulsive, of his 
 own confutation by a native disciple of his own savage dio- 
 cese. His own account of his experience is highly instruc- 
 tive, and it is necessary to bring it into our review of his 
 charges against the Pentateuch, for it enables us to weigh 
 his qualifications for the tremendous work he has under- 
 taken. It is strange, indeed, to us that a man having 
 " forty and eight years on his back," or perhaps more, and 
 of such distinguished standing at Cambridge, should not 
 have known of the difficulties that were presented to him by 
 
A Hard and Painful Conversion. 41 
 
 his Caffre friend difficulties that have certainly been fami- 
 liar to educated men for several hundred years, or a great 
 part of them, at least, from the times of Spinoza, Bashi, 
 and Ibn Ezra, familiar not only to educated men in 
 Europe, but thoroughly studied even in the new world, and 
 yet not known to a head master and a fellow of Cambridge 
 till they were brought upon him with a crushing effect by a 
 Zulu. His knowledge of theology and of the literature of 
 questions affecting the sacred Scriptures is surprising; so 
 much so, that we do not wonder the Churchman should say 
 that this volume has been " crudely put forward by this ill- 
 informed prelate, perhaps the most unapt to teach among 
 them of his rank in the Church/'' And the Church Review 
 says the bishop's book contains " nothing but the crambe 
 Us repetita of the cavils of the crudest rationalism, the 
 credit of which has long since sank below zero." And 
 again, " Dr. Colenso is the victim of his own ignorance. 
 Had he not been a novice in theology he would have been 
 cognisant of the fact, that objections such as those which he 
 propounds in his book have long been kept in store in 
 Satan's armoury for the purpose of supplying the enemies 
 of the Church with weapons against the truth. He would 
 have known, moreover, that these objections have been 
 fully considered by men of undoubted piety and love for the 
 truth quite as sincere as Dr. Colenso^s own, and eminent, 
 moreover, for their biblical scholarship ; and that these 
 men, after bestowing on those objections a careful examina- 
 tion, have deemed them utterly unworthy to come into com- 
 
42 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 petition with the weighty evidences in favour of the Divine 
 origin and authority of the sacred volume." These state- 
 ments from Church papers do not seem to us to be over- 
 drawn,, when we consider the reach of his theological studies 
 as stated by himself, and " the library" he imported from 
 England to Africa to aid him in his researches. His critical 
 apparatus was small, ill-assorted^ and not skilfully worked. 
 But most of all it is surprising that he should claim to be 
 the first that has set before the eyes of English readers 
 (Preface, p. xxi.) the phenomena of the Pentateuch. Will it 
 be believed that a prelate of such vast pretensions to learn- 
 ing and critical knowledge of the Holy Scriptures had never 
 heard of the objections urged against the Pentateuch and 
 revealed religion by Tindal and Collins, by Hume and 
 Bolingbroke, by Yoltaire and Paine, by Kneeland, R. Car- 
 lisle, and the Rev. R. Taylor ? Had he no knowledge of 
 A Jew's Letters to Voltaire ? Is not every reader of the 
 bishop's volume, who turns to the answer of the Abbe 
 Guenee to Voltaire's objections to the Bible and to Chris- 
 tianity, struck by the remarkable similarity that obtains be- 
 tween the objections of the prince of scoffers and the 
 Bishop of Natal? Surely there are but few divinity 
 students in the second year of their course who could not 
 give some account of these writers against the Bible, and of 
 those defences or " apologies" that have been made by its 
 champions. 
 
 Nor is the bishop's account of his faith and religious 
 views before he was raised to the episcopal see less worthy 
 
A Hard and Painful Conversion. 43 
 
 of our attention. He seems never to hare had any really 
 matured theological training or fixed belief. " Like many 
 others/' he tells us, he contented himself with silencing the 
 ordinary objections against the historical character of the 
 Old Testament by means of the specious explanations of 
 most commentators ; and that he settled down, not into a 
 belief of their truth) but into a sort of silent acquiescence, 
 while he dwelt mainly on the doctrinal and devotional por- 
 tions of the Bible, and remained content to take for granted 
 the historical truth of its narratives. Observe, he says this 
 was his position, and that he was " like many others/' We 
 have abridged his statement, but consider this a fair and 
 candid presentation of it. We cannot, however, forbear 
 asking Is this true of the clergy, the fellows, scholars> 
 and members of the universities of England ? 
 
 In " telling his experiences/' he goes on to say that, at 
 last, as a translator, and as " a servant of the God of truth/' 
 and " as a bishop/' he revolted at urging his brother man 
 to believe a historical narrative which he did not himself 
 believe, nay, which he " knew to be untrue, as -a matter of 
 fact." Well may he tell us that he trembled at first at the 
 result of his inquiries that they carried him whither he did 
 not expect ; but now we find him glorying in his achieve- 
 ments. He admits, however, that the whole time devoted to 
 his inquiries amid all his duties and labours as a missionary 
 bishop and traveller, has been less than two years. And he 
 tells us his views are " new" to himself, though they seem 
 to have "jumped to his humour /' and he believes they will 
 
44 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 be " new to most English readers, even to many of the 
 clergy, of whom, probably, few have examined the Penta- 
 teuch closely since they took orders, while parts of it some 
 of them may never really have studied at all." This and 
 similar statements we could not have believed on any less 
 an authority than that of a bishop of the Church of Eng- 
 land. 
 
 But "few of the clergy have examined the Pentateuch 
 closely since they took orders, while parts of it some of them 
 may never really have studied at ah 1 \" Is it true that the 
 clergy of the Church of England are educated at her great 
 universities, and put into holy orders, without ever having 
 studied portions of the Pentateuch at all ? Is it true that 
 the clergy of the Church of England are set over the people 
 as pastors, who are ignorant of the whole " apparatus of scep- 
 ticism," with which Christianity has been attacked for ages, 
 but which, when plied by a Zulu, has so completely over- 
 whelmed the Bishop of Natal ? Such a state of things is 
 exceedingly diverse from what we have been long accustomed 
 to regard as the truth in relation to English clergymen and 
 the English universities. 
 
 And our long-established prepossessions in favour of 
 them are so strong still/ that we think it possible the 
 bishop's statements have made too strong an impression 
 upon us. It might be well, however, if the proper authori- 
 ties were to establish some new professorships for the edu- 
 cation of "the sons of the prophets," in criticism, and 
 hermeneutics, and philology, and for the further study of 
 
A Hard and Painful Conversion. 45 
 
 the languages of Scripture, with their cognate dialects ; and 
 that this professorship should be charged especially with the 
 duty of preparing translators of the Scriptures into heathen 
 tongues by teaching them how to find the correct text, and 
 the true theory of inspiration, and the correct method 
 of interpretation. And it might not be a bad thing to im- 
 port some professors from the Continent, or even from 
 America. It is at least undeniable that there are both on the 
 Continent and in the United States many scholars and theo- 
 logians who are familiar with the main difficulties presented 
 in the bishop's book, and who are able to bring " a fair and 
 searching criticism to bear upon them." 
 
 While it is extremely painful to find in the pages of a 
 prelate such direct insinuations of willful fraud, and such 
 assertions of deficiency in learning among the English 
 clergy (Preface, pp. xxvi. and xxiv.), we must leave it to his 
 own brethren to vindicate their learning and orthodoxy. 
 We cannot believe, however, that they are as indifferently 
 educated, and as far gone in scepticism and as dishonest in 
 the holding of their religious opinions, as the Bishop of 
 Natal would have us believe. 
 
 There are some things in which, however, we are very 
 happy to be able to agree with him. As for example, when 
 he says : " It is surely impossible to put down, in these 
 days, the spirit of honest, truth-seeking investigation into 
 such matters as these. To attempt to do this would only 
 be like the futile endeavour to sweep back the tide which is 
 rising at our very doors. This is assuredly no time for 
 
46 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 such trifling. Instead of trying to do this, or to throw up 
 sandbanks which may serve for the present moment to hide 
 from our view the swelling waters, it is plainly our duty 
 before God and man to see that the foundations of our faith 
 are sound, and deeply laid in the very Truth itself " (p. xii.) 
 But we cannot agree with him that the way to do this is to 
 begin by pulling down, as he tries to do, the very pillars of 
 our faith. No man should give up the religion that he has 
 unless he knows of something brighter and better. It is 
 not wise to quench the tiny glow-worm, unless we can 
 bring in the brighter sun. It is unreasonable to take from 
 us our old and long tried foundations without giving us 
 anything else on which to rest. We shall rejoice in a " soul- 
 expansive creed " that is founded upon the truth. We 
 hold that the rich and increasing harvests of modern science 
 and philosophy are before us. 
 
 " Through the ages one increasing purpose runs, 
 And the thoughts of men are widened with the circling of the 
 suns/' 
 
 We believe that freedom of thought and utterance is the 
 very essence of Protestantism, nay, of Christianity itself, and 
 that without this the Church is indeed as a mere " dark 
 prison-house, in which the mind both of the teacher and the 
 taught would be fettered still with the chains of past igno- 
 rance." 
 
 We sympathise also with the bishop's complaint, that 
 the Aids to Faith, the Replies to Essays and Reviews 
 
A Hard and Painful Conversion, 47 
 
 and the Quarterly "all shrink from touching the real 
 question at issue/' and are " chiefly occupied with pitying 
 or censuring the essayist.'" We are happy also to agree 
 with him in this, that it is not fair to assume that the 
 " apparent consequences of the essayists will necessarily lead 
 to infidelity or atheism." But is it not fair and perfectly 
 obvious to say, not only that the apparent consequences of 
 his own book, and of his own history as a clergyman and a 
 bishop, will necessarily unsettle the faith of all that come 
 under his influence, and that, in fact, his own standing place 
 already is simply that of the boldest Deism ? Paine, Hume, 
 Gibbon, Voltaire, Tindal, Kneeland, Hobbes, and Theodore 
 Parker, have not used more deadly weapons against the 
 truth of God's holy book than the doubts Bishop Colenso 
 has distilled from the storehouses of modern scepticism, and 
 poured into the minds of his readers, by his account of 
 his painful struggles after the truth, and of his conversion 
 to disbelief. 
 
 Here, then, is the author's experience on "the anxious 
 bench" and his joyful deliverance after nearly two years of 
 conflict. He began, as a clergyman, with a " silent acqui- 
 escence/' rather than with any positive belief in the historic 
 truth of the Bible ; and he comes out of the conflict a bishop 
 not willing to teach " his brother man to believe a historical 
 narrative which he did not himself believe," nay, which he 
 "knew to be untrue, as a matter of fact." During this 
 nearly two years of conflict, on the one side was place, po- 
 sition, friends, the loaves and fishes; on the other side, "it 
 
48 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 would be no light thing for me, at my time of life, to be 
 cast adrift upon the world, and have to begin life again 
 under heavy pressure and amidst all unfavorable circum- 
 stances, to be separated from many of my old friends, to 
 have my name cast out as evil even by some of them, and 
 to have it trodden under foot as an unclean thing by others, 
 who do not know me." (Preface, p. xiii.) 
 
 This, however, we are told, is " the commemoration year 
 of conscience." We hear a great deal about two thousand 
 ejected ministers who gave up their livings two hundred 
 years ago for conscience' sake. Bishop Colenso may comfort 
 himself, therefore, that, in making up his mind to obey the 
 law of truth, he is in good company. We cannot hide it, 
 however from ourselves that he is considerably exercised 
 about Dr. Lushington's decision. Repeatedly does he refer to 
 the general popular demand that the clerical authors si Essays 
 and Reviews should leave the Church of England, or give 
 up their preferments ; and says, perhaps foretelling his own 
 course, " they may feel it to be their duty to the Church 
 itself, and to that which they hold to be the truth, to abide 
 in their stations." 
 
 The bishop's conversion recalls to our minds the following 
 contrasts. We remember that the chamberlain of Queen 
 Candace and Simon the Cyrem'an went from Africa to 
 Jerusalem, probably mere proselytes to Judaism, and re- 
 turned to their own country happy and rejoicing Christians ; 
 but Bishop Colenso goes to Africa a Christian and comes 
 back a convert to Zuluism, or at least without the faith in 
 
A Hard and Painful Conversion. 49 
 
 which he was raised to be a prelate. We have also read of 
 a distinguished man who was not a believer in Christ, nor 
 in the Bible, who went to Eome to find proofs and gather 
 materials out of which to construct a demonstration of the 
 falsehood of Christianity, but, as he travelled and learned, 
 instead of finding what he went to look for, and what he 
 wished to find, he found everywhere evidences which con- 
 vinced him of the truth of the religion he was going about 
 trying to overthrow. "He concluded," as Madame de 
 Sevigne, " the queen of correspondents/ 7 expresses it, " that 
 the Church must be a very holy and miraculous institution 
 to be able to thrive in the midst of such disorder and profa- 
 nation as he saw in Eome/ 7 He found by voyaging what 
 he did not go to seek \ and Bishop Colenso has done the 
 same thing. We remember also that even Columbus found 
 a new world while he was expecting only to discover a 
 new way to India. The Bishop of Natal, from making an 
 arithmetic, goes to teach Christianity to the natives of 
 Africa ; but instead of finding in the teaching of it fresh 
 evidences of its power and preciousness, returns from 
 Africa converted, if not to Brahminism, at least perverted 
 from the faith of his Church. 
 
IV. 
 
 BISHOP COLENSO'S VIEWS STATED BY HIMSELF. 
 
 "How possible it is that, even while we are contending for truth, 
 our minds may be enslaved to error by long-cherished prepossessions." 
 
 Archdeacon Pratt. 
 
 IT is strange, and we may be allowed to say painful to us, 
 to find "a missionary bishop" of the Church of England, 
 engaged in translating the Word of God into one of the 
 languages of the natives of Africa, turning aside from such 
 a work, to publish a critique upon Moses and Joshua, in 
 which he endeavours to destroy their historic verity alto- 
 gether. Nor does our astonishment grow less when we read 
 his reasons for publishing his views, and learn why such 
 views have not been put forth before by others. 
 
 First. The bishop says, " A mere English student would 
 scarcely think of the difficulties in the way of believing the 
 narrative of the Exodus, like one that should study this 
 history of the Israelites among Africans, whose modes of life 
 and habits, and even the nature of their country, so nearly 
 correspond to those of the ancient Israelites." That is, a 
 man must, like Reuben, " dwell long in the sheep-folds" of 
 the colony of Natal, to " vividly realize in a practical point of 
 
Bishop Colenso's Views stated by Himself. 51 
 
 view" the scenes and events of the Exodus. At least, this 
 is Bishop Colenso's conviction from his own experience. But 
 is not this the first and only case of the kind ? Where is 
 there another instance of a like result ? For thousands of 
 years the habits of the people of the Nile and of the Arabian 
 peninsula, and the features of Africa and Western Asia, have 
 been familiar to many Christian travellers, not one of whom 
 has ever brought back a report of discoveries like those of 
 the Bishop of Natal ! Even Volney and Lepsius do not give 
 us so evil a report of the Pentateuch. And many of the 
 most learned men who have studied the narrative of the 
 Exodus in Egypt and in Arabia, have written their defence of 
 it, and commentary upon it, with all the aid that the patient 
 study of those countries, and a familiar acquaintance with 
 their ancient literature, arts, and habits, could give them. 
 Is it to be believed that Bishop Colenso, on the eastern coast 
 of Africa, among savage tribes, was in a better position to 
 study the Pentateuch than all the Latin and Greek fathers 
 of the early ages of Christianity, many of whom were natives 
 of Syria, Africa, or Arabia? They undoubtedly compre- 
 hended the habits of the people, spoke their language, and 
 were well acquainted with all the peculiar features of the 
 country. Many of them too were the most learned, 
 laborious, and able men of their age. But not one of them 
 was led to deny the historic truth of the Exodus. Or is it 
 to be admitted that, from his few years of sojourn among 
 savage tribes, on the eastern coast of Africa, he is better pre- 
 pared to interpret the Hebrew story of the Exodus than any 
 
52 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 or than all the Hebrew people themselves, many of whom have 
 been familiar with it in different parts of the world, and all 
 of whom in the country of the Exodus and everywhere, from 
 the days of Joshua to our own times, have received it as a 
 true history ? May we not think that the native Jews of 
 Syria, and the native Jews and Christians of Palestine, 
 Arabia, and Egypt, would be quite as well qualified to 
 understand the narratives of Moses, from their life-long 
 knowledge of the modes of life and habits of the people, and 
 of the nature of the country, not so nearly correspondent to 
 those of the ancient Israelites as those of Natal, but identical 
 with them, as Bishop Colenso could possibly be from a short 
 residence in Eastern Africa ? And is it not astonishing that 
 a savage African should make discoveries in regard to the 
 Pentateuch, that De Wette and Ewald, and a host of such 
 learned men, and native Jews, for thousands of years, have 
 not had the acumen or ability to make ? 
 
 Secondly. Another reason given by Bishop Colenso 
 (Preface, p. xxi.) why his views have not been before known to 
 the public is, that " the study of the Hebrew language has, 
 till of late years, been very much neglected in England in 
 modern times " and that such studies have made, as yet, 
 " very little progress among the clergy and laity of England; 
 and so the English mind, with its practical common-sense, 
 has scarcely yet been brought to bear upon them." Are we 
 to understand from this statement, that the bishop himself 
 *is the only Hebrew scholar in the British empire ? Have 
 we not had a Lee, a Henderson, and a host of Oriental 
 
Bishop Colenso's Views stated by Himself. 53 
 
 scholars? Is it possible that Bishop Colenso has never 
 
 heard of Usher, Kidder, Warburton, Lowth, Newcome, 
 
 Horseley, Walton, Lightfoot, Kennicot, Gill, Prideaux, and 
 
 Adam Clarke ? And what shall we say of the scholars of 
 
 the Continent, and of North America, where such studies 
 
 are and have been pursued with the greatest vigour for 
 
 many years ? What shall we say of Michaelis, Eosenmiiller, 
 
 "Neander, Keil, Kurtz, Havernick, Hengstenberg, Stuart, 
 
 Bush, fiobinson, and Gesenius ? Are these men and their 
 
 like, who have written Hebrew grammars and lexicons, 
 
 and spent a long laborious lifetime in studying Hebrew 
 
 and its cognate dialects, and everything connected with the 
 
 history and literature of the sacred text, and with the modes 
 
 of life and nature of the countries where Bible narratives are 
 
 located, to sit at the feet of an arithmetic-making missionary 
 
 bishop in his savage diocese to learn Hebrew ? And how does 
 
 it come that the best Hebrew scholars, and the best Oriental 
 
 linguists on the Continent, and in America, as well as of 
 
 past ages in Great Britain, never found out the difficulties 
 
 of the Bishop of Natal, or rather, were not overthrown by 
 
 them ? And if a want of a familiar acquaintance with the 
 
 Hebrew language in England is the reason why these 
 
 difficulties have not been generally felt before, what shall we 
 
 say to the testimony of the whole Hebrew nation, from 
 
 Joshua to this moment ? Were not Josephus, and Philo 
 
 Judseus, and the Israelites of their day, familiar with 
 
 Asiatic and African scenery and habits, and did they nof 
 
 comprehend the meaning of the language used in the 
 
54 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 Pentateuch ? To ask this question is to answer it in the 
 affirmative ; and yet from generation to generation, and in 
 direct contact with all that remained of former ages in the 
 "changeless Orient/" they never found anything in the 
 nature of the country, or in the modes of life and habits of 
 the people, that led them to discredit the historic truth of 
 their early history. The jungles of Africa and its Bedouins 
 may be new, but not safe and satisfactory teachers of 
 Hebrew, nor unerring commentators against Moses and the 
 Prophets. 
 
 Thirdly. The bishop says most English books " pass by 
 entirely the main points of the difficulty, as if they were 
 wholly unknown to the writers." He contends, that the 
 main difficulties heretofore in England about the Pentateuch, 
 have been in relation to the origin of moral evil, the crea- 
 tion, the fall, and the deluge, which he says have been ex- 
 plained as allegories or legends from hoar antiquity, with- 
 out questioning at all the general historical truth of the 
 story of the Exodus. This is rather a distressing estimate 
 of the courage, ability, learning, zeal, and intelligence 
 of his countrymen ; but there is something he tells us still 
 worse. " There can be no doubt, however, that a very wide- 
 spread distrust does exist among the intelligent laity in 
 England, as to the soundness of the ordinary view of 
 Scripture inspiration." This, and more like it, may be 
 found in his Preface (p. xxiii. et seq.). Nor are we sur- 
 prised that he should complain that such a distrust eats 
 out the very life of the Church, and that " the great body 
 
Bishop Colenso's Views stated by Himself. 55 
 
 of the more intelligent students of our universities no 
 longer came forward to devote themselves to the service of 
 the Church, but are drafted off into other professions." 
 
 The bishop also gives us to understand (p. 150) that, in 
 his judgment, many among the clergy and laity are ignorant 
 of the difficulties he has presented. Some may have a partial 
 knowledge of them, but through expediency ignore them ; 
 while others have attained to wider views of Scripture inspi- 
 ration, and do not believe that the narratives of the Bible 
 are historically true, but do believe unfeignedly in the 
 Word of God as a communication from Him, and as an effi- 
 cient instrument and all that is necessary to salvation. It 
 is plain, then, that though our author does repeatedly 
 apologise for the haste with which he publishes his views, 
 and for the industry, courage, and earnestness with which 
 he has been constrained to take his stand, that he considers 
 himself in advance of any other theologian, Hebrew scholar, 
 and expounder of holy Scripture, in the present age. And 
 as it was heresy in the time of Galileo to say that the sun 
 stood still, and the earth went round it, so now, for the 
 moment, it may be regarded as heresy to say, as he does, 
 that the narrative of the Pentateuch is not " historically 
 true, but is involved in a mass of absolute contradictions " 
 but as time, which " tries all things," has proved that 
 Galileo was right, so time will prove Colenso to be the 
 ablest, wisest, most honest, learned/bold, and conscientious 
 interpreter of Scripture, since the foundation of the world 
 (see p. 151). He tells us the clergy and laity of England 
 
56 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 have not had these facts before their eyes at all/' (p. 139) ; 
 that, in fact, they have not studied these subject s, and know 
 very little about the Hebrew language, and have been look- 
 ing at these things, " as it were, from a distant point of 
 view, through a misty atmosphere, dreading it may be some 
 of us to approach and gaze more clearly upon the truth 
 itself" (p. 143). From which we are certainly to infer that 
 now he has come nigh, peered through the mist, looked 
 upon her awful face, and revealed her glory. 
 
 The bishop quotes from Hengstenberg, with approbation, 
 the following sentiments : " It is the unavoidable fate of a 
 spurious historical work of any length, to be involved in 
 contradictions. This must be the case to a very great extent 
 with the Pentateuch, if it be not genuine. If the Pentateuch 
 is spurious, its histories and laws must have been fabricated 
 in successive portions, and were committed to writing in the 
 course of centuries by different individuals. From such a 
 mode of origination, a mass of contradictions is inseparable, 
 and the improving hand of a later editor would never be 
 capable of entirely obliterating them'" (p. 146). But 
 Hengstenberg does not apply these statements to the Penta- 
 teuch. He defends its genuineness and authenticity, not 
 indeed in every instance, according to our views ; but still 
 he shrinks from anything like the charges of the Bishop of 
 Natal. Hengstenberg supposes a case, and shows what the 
 consequences would be. The case, however, which he sup- 
 poses, Bishop Colenso undertakes to show is the actual or 
 true condition of the Pentateuch ; namely, that it is not a 
 
Bishop Colenso's Views stated by Himself. 57 
 
 true history, and was not written by Moses, and consequently 
 is involved in a mass of contradictions. But let us hear his 
 own statements. 
 
 " The account of the Exodus is mixed up, at all events, 
 with so great an amount of contradictory matter, that it 
 cannot be regarded as historically true, so as to be appealed 
 to as absolute, incontestable matter of fact" (p. 141). 
 And then he goes on to say : " Let it be observed, the 
 objections which have been produced are not such as touch 
 only one or two points of the story ; they affect the entire 
 substance of it, and until they are removed, they make it 
 impossible for a thoughtful person to receive, without further 
 inquiry, any considerable portion of it as certainly true 
 (italics are his own) in any historical point of view. It is 
 plain that, in its own essential statements of matters of 
 fact, the narrative of the Exodus is full of contradictions." 
 Its own " essential statements (p. 141) of matters of fact, 
 are not historically true," and are "full of contradictions" 
 Again : he says " the systematic habit of exaggeration, in 
 respect of numbers, prevails among Hebrew writers of 
 history." "This number (of 603.550 men) is woven, as a kind 
 of thread, into the whole story of the Exodus, and cannot be 
 taken out without tearing the whole fabric to pieces. It 
 affects, directly, the account of the constructions of the 
 tabernacle (Exod. xxxviii. 25 28), and therefore, also the 
 reality of the institutions, whether of the priesthood or of 
 sacrifice connected with it. And the multiplied impossibili- 
 ties introduced by this number alone, independent of all 
 
58 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 other considerations, are enough to throw discredit upon 
 the historical character of the whole narrative" (p. 143). 
 Observe, "the systematic habit of exaggeration prevails 
 among Hebrew writers of history /' not Moses and Joshua 
 only, but Hebrew writers; and the exaggerated number 
 under consideration is so " woven as a kind of thread into 
 the whole story of the Exodus/' that it " cannot be taken 
 out without tearing the whole fabric to pieces /' that is, the 
 whole history of the Exodus ; and we may add, all biblical 
 history. Moreover, he tells us expressly, that with the tear- 
 ing of the fabric to pieces, " the reality of the institutions " 
 of the Mosaic economy, " whether of the priesthood, or of 
 SACRIFICE connected with it/' must also fall to the ground. 
 Por " the multiplied impossibilities " of this number, 
 destroy the credibility of the " whole narrative ! ! I" Again, 
 the Pentateuch is an " intermixture of human elements 
 of error, infirmity, passion, and ignorance ;" yet he believes 
 as the Court of Arches tell him he must believe, that the 
 Scripture contains " all things necessary for salvation/' But 
 how he can maintain that the Pentateuch is not true as a 
 history, and contains the grossly erroneous human elements 
 he says it does, and that still it is God's "Word, he does not 
 explain ; nor are we able to comprehend how such opinions 
 can be made to agree. It seems to us to be egregious 
 trifling or amazing folly ; and we are equally amazed that a 
 man of the bishop's pretensions can be willing to eat the 
 bread of a Church whose doctrines he does not believe. For 
 surely every Church or society has the right to say what its 
 
Bishop Colenso's Views stated by Himself. 59 
 
 doctrinal basis is, and of declaring the terms on which its 
 communion and emoluments may be enjoyed. 
 
 Again, he tells us books of the Pentateuch contain " in 
 their own account of the story which they profess to relate, 
 such remarkable contradictions, and involve such plain im- 
 possibilities, that they cannot be regarded as true narratives 
 of actual, historical matters of fact." They could not have 
 been written " by Moses, or by any one acquainted personally 
 with the facts which the narrative professes to give/ 5 Again 
 and again he tells us that the common belief of Christendom 
 in " the historical credibility of the Mosaic story " is erro- 
 neous ; and when he says that the Pentateuch is not histori- 
 cally true, he affirms that his statement is "a simple question 
 of facts," and " not a doubtful matter of speculation at all " 
 (p. 20). And, accordingly, he ignores all other proofs or 
 considerations, except the art of adding and multiplying 
 figures with something of proportions, and much about 
 lambs, pigeons, grass, fuel, and water. He does not, how- 
 ever, mean to charge the sacred writers with any intention 
 to deceive; he acquits them of any consciousness of wrong 
 doing, or of practising historical deception. He allows they 
 may have been as honest " as Homer, or any of the early 
 Roman annalists." He says they never meant that their 
 narratives should be received and believed as historically 
 true. The fault is therefore with us ; we do them wrong in 
 believing that they wrote truthfully, and we " injure the real 
 excellence of the history by believing it to be true " (p. 18). 
 Equal to " Homer, or any of the early Roman annalists \" 
 
60 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 Wonderful condescension ! We " injure the real excellence 
 of the history by believing it to be true ;" but, according to 
 the bishop, it is no history at all. It is " a series of manifest 
 contradictions and inconsistencies." The facts it professes 
 to weave into a history are not facts. " Moses did not 
 write the story of the Exodus, nor any one personally 
 acquainted with the facts." Who, then, did write this 
 story ; and how did the writer get his facts ; and how comes 
 it that the Israelites and all the civilized world have and 
 do believe that these facts were realities, and that the 
 history is not a mass of " old wives' fables," but historical 
 truth ? We are now, perhaps, fully prepared to admit the 
 importance and necessity of this discussion, and taught what 
 measure of faith we should place in the bishop's statements 
 and sums total ; since we have had a glance at his experi- 
 ence and training for his work, and at the reasons he gives 
 why his views are startling novelties in England, and since, 
 also, we have an epitome of them from his own pen. We 
 have not here, however, anticipated the formal statement of 
 his objections to the Pentateuch, nor our answers ; but have 
 meant simply to get before the mind of our readers, at this 
 stage of investigation, the gist or result of his labours, which 
 is, that the history of the Pentateuch is not true. His 
 book has been called " semi-scientific, and semi-theological;" 
 but the only science we can find in it relates to figures, and 
 its only claim to theology is, that it has no positive religion 
 in it, but attempts to sweep away the only foundation of re- 
 vealed theology ; namely, the genuineness and authenticity 
 
Bishop Colenso's Views stated by Himself. 61 
 
 of Genesis, and in fact of all the sacred writers. He seems, 
 indeed, to cling still to some sort of religion, which he 
 fancies is the religion of Christ ; and seems still to think that 
 this religion is taught, somehow or other, in the Bible, but 
 not taught in, nor from true histories, but from fables, 
 myths, allegories, or parables. He does not, in fact, tell 
 us how. He commits himself to nothing, but the work of 
 pulling down. He builds up nothing. He leaves us to 
 hope that we are receiving some faint glimpses of truth 
 from myths or parables, just as we may be taught truth by 
 a dream, or as our Lord sometimes taught the Jews by 
 parables. Now, it is true there are some parables in the 
 Bible ; but it is just as true that a large part of the Bible 
 does not consist of parables, but of accurate, truthful 
 history. That the histories of the Bible are a mass of 
 mere legends, as the bishop prefers to call them, or parables, 
 and nothing more, cannot be admitted. When our Lord 
 taught the people by parables, we find Him appropriating to 
 His purpose such parables as were abeady familiar to the 
 people such modes of instruction as the people knew to be 
 parables, and telling them also that he was using parables ; 
 and such parables also as He knew they could readily appre- 
 hend. His figures of speech, illustrations, and parables, 
 were familiar, and all taken from well-known objects. We 
 have some beautiful parables also in the Old Testament. 
 But surely it does not follow that all the Old Testament is 
 a mere waking dream ; or that all our Lord's teaching was 
 in parables. If so, then we are prepared to believe that all 
 
62 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 history is a myth, the globe itself a shadow, and we our- 
 selves are nothing but a troubled dream. But there ought 
 not to be, there cannot be, any serious difficulty in distin- 
 guishing between parables and true histories. Can any one 
 confound the history of David, and the parable of Nathan ? 
 Even a child sees which is the parable, and which is the 
 history. Nathan taught David by a parable : are David 
 and Nathan therefore myths ? It was our Lord's custom 
 to connect His teachings with, and to make them grow out of 
 some present passing event or incident. He strung His 
 pearls on the thread of passing occurrences or conversations. 
 It was thus He used the parable of Dives and Lazarus ; but 
 how does that prove that the history of His life by Matthew 
 is a legend, or an uninspired story, like Robinson Crusoe, or 
 that the whole Bible is a dream like the Pilgrim's Progress ? 
 Moses and Abraham, and the writings of Moses, are referred 
 to in His parables, not as dreams or fables, but as realities ; 
 as persons and things known, and believed in, both by our 
 Lord and His hearers. It is true God has taught men by 
 dreams, and what was thus taught was the truth, though 
 the medium was a dream, unsubstantial, and vanished away. 
 But surely the histories of these men who had dreams are 
 not dreams. Is not the great dreamer of the Bedford gaol 
 a personality ? And are not the narratives, and descriptions, 
 and accounts of men and things, of persons and countries, of 
 the origin of laws, nations, and national institutions, rites, 
 and ceremonies, still existing in the world, which we find in 
 the Bible substantially, and in every essential particular, 
 
Bishop Colenso's Views stated by Himself. 63 
 
 true histories ? In these Bible histories we have an account 
 of the origin of almost all the laws and institutions of 
 civilized countries : the civil law, the common law, the 
 criminal law, and the whole jurisprudence of civilized 
 nations runs back to Moses. And, moreover, these Scripture 
 narratives are and were intended to be prophetic, not only 
 as a whole, and as parts of an economy which was fc the 
 shadow of good things to come," but especially as contain- 
 ing specific predictions, which are alluded to in the New 
 Testament, and declared by Christ and His disciples to have 
 their fulfilment in Him and in His gospel. 
 
 Again, the bishop assures us, and we are thankful for 
 even this much positive theology, that " he would believe in 
 the living God, though not the whole Pentateuch only, but 
 the whole Bible were removed." Is this a prophecy of the 
 second part ? or is it intended as his profession of faith in 
 Deism ? Doea he mean that as he can now reject the Old 
 Testament, and still believe in Christ ; so in two years more, 
 the whole Bible may be given " to the moles and the bats," 
 and Christ Himself canonized among Homeric myths, and 
 still he will believe in God ? And will the Bishop of Natal 
 condescend then to leave " the living God " on the throne 
 of the universe ? We confess that we have painful mis- 
 givings that if the bishop's African Tartar should meet him 
 again, and " the whole Bible removed " out of his way, that 
 he would soon remove the bishop's God also. To be a 
 Christian without Christ, or a man educated to be a 
 Christian bishop to " believe in the living God/' and not 
 
64 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 believe in Moses and the Prophets, in Jesus Christ and His 
 Apostles, is beyond our comprehension. We know not 
 ow to believe in a God who is our Father and Creator, 
 without believing that He has spoken to us, and that the 
 Bible is His revelation to us His voice articulated to us 
 from His throne itself. 
 
 The bishop's argument on this point is this; namely, 
 that as Enoch pleased God and walked with Him, though 
 there was then no Bible in existence, so now we may be truly 
 pious and not receive the Bible at all. 
 
 And because God, as our Father and Friend, is nearer and 
 closer to us than any book can be, therefore we may have 
 His voice in our hearts, and yet not believe that we have a 
 revelation of His will to us by prophets and apostles not 
 even by His Son Jesus Christ. Now there are several grave 
 points to be noticed here. 
 
 1. It is not true that Enoch had no Bible. The amount 
 of Divine revelation he had was no doubt greater as to clear- 
 ness than what we have. He had not the narrative of the 
 Exodus, nor the Prophets, as we have. In that sense there 
 was no Bible in existence then. But there was a Divine 
 revelation a communication from God to man, and all 
 that communication Enoch believed. 
 
 2. To stand on the same platform therefore with Enoch, 
 we must receive and believe what God has said to us by 
 His inspired servants, just as Enoch received and believed 
 the revelation from God that was communicated to him. 
 
 3. And thirdly, we should like to see examples of men 
 
Bishop Colenso's Views stated by Himself. 65 
 
 living truly pious and holy lives, who do not believe the 
 Bible, before we admit the truth of this statement. Where 
 are the pious Deists, who so fully acknowledge the voice of 
 the living God in their hearts, that they do not need the 
 written word ? Has the world ever presented us with an ex- 
 ample of a truly godly Deist ? 
 
 Now it is to be remembered that the question before us 
 is not as to the teaching of saving truth by the Spirit of 
 God without the aid of the written Word. We do not say 
 that the Holy Spirit cannot speak to our hearts without the 
 Bible, or that His influence is limited to the presence of the 
 Holy Scriptures. The gospel is not in word only, but also 
 in power and in the Holy Ghost, and in much assurance, 
 (1 Thes. i. 5.) There is a form of sound words -there is a 
 form of godliness, as well as Divine power in it. But the 
 Bible has not created the Holy Spirit, nor is the Holy 
 Spirit dependent upon the written Word for an avenue or 
 channel to the human mind. The Bible is the creation of 
 the Holy Spirit : its authors, the prophets and the apostles, 
 wrote as they were moved by the Holy Ghost. It cannot be 
 true, therefore, that the Divine Spirit speaks to our hearts 
 in spite of and in contradiction to the Holy Scriptures. It 
 cannot be true that a man is led by the Holy Spirit to 
 despise and reject the Holy Scriptures. And it is altogether 
 an evasion of the point at issue to say that Brahmins, Sikhs, 
 or Greeks have written or learned " living truths by the 
 secret teaching of the Spirit of God," " who had no Penta- 
 teuch or Bible to teach them." All such heathen sages 
 
66 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 have believed in a revelation from God as well as in cc the 
 secret teaching of the Spirit." Socrates and Cornelius are 
 the most hopeful cases we have found without the written 
 Word of God. But they are exceptions. And the one, we 
 know, believed in Christ as soon as He was preached to him 
 out of and according to the Scriptures, Moses and the 
 Prophets ; and the other, we believe, would have received 
 the gospel, if it had ever been offered to him ; and we 
 hope he was saved through the merits of Christ, on the 
 same ground that idiots and infants are, without knowing it 
 at the time. This is not a subject for dogmatising. But 
 surely it is " strange, passing strange," to hear a bishop of 
 the Christian Church talking of believing in Christ, and at 
 the same time rejecting or giving up " the whole Bible." 
 
V. 
 
 BISHOP COLENSO'S DIFFICULTIES CONSIDERED. 
 
 " It is of little importance by what authority an opinion is sanc- 
 tioned, if it will not stand the test of sound criticism." 
 
 Mansel's Hampton Lectures. 
 
 THE objections to Moses, and the reasons for not believing 
 the historic truth of the Pentateuch, advanced by the Bishop 
 of Natal, might be classed as impossible, improbable, hypo- 
 critical, frivolous, and puerile. Some of them are the results 
 of hobby-riding, or of having a bias, or a cause to gain ; 
 some arise from mistakes in reading the text, and especially 
 from not thoroughly examining the original ; and some are 
 evidently the fruits of haste and mere oversight ; and some 
 are real and as yet unsolved difficulties. We commenced 
 reading his volume expecting to find something new, but we 
 arrived at the last page without discovering any new objec- 
 tion to Moses or the Pentateuch. And as we have met the 
 same sort of difficulties before without being wrecked, our 
 only feeling when we got through the book was one of sur- 
 prise and pain : surprise that he had not made more out of 
 his materials, and of pain that we had a prelate so narrowly 
 furnished, and so satisfied with such superficial and unsatis- 
 
68 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 factory views of the documents of revealed religion. From a 
 careful examination of the volume itself, we are quite of the 
 opinion that one of the bishop's own churchmen is correct 
 in saying, "It is the most narrow-minded book that has 
 been published since the rise of rationalism among English 
 divines/' It were certainly difficult to find anywhere a more 
 unlearned and crude volume with such lofty pretensions. 
 The bishop's experience reminds us of another bishop's 
 (Corbett) " Distracted Puritan" who says, 
 
 " In the blessed tongue of Canaan 
 I placed my chiefest pleasure, 
 Till I prick'd my foot with a Hehrew root, 
 And it bled beyond all measure/' 
 
 He seems to have a great fear of locking up his religion in 
 the Old Testament. Whether, like Erasmus in his Age 
 of Religious Revolution, he fears, " that the study of 
 Hebrew will promote Judaism" or not, he certainly gives 
 us an illustration that " the study of philology will revive 
 paganism." It were not difficult, however, to show from 
 the bishop's mistakes in attempting to translate Hebrew, 
 that it was not long till he " pricked his foot with a Hebrew 
 root," and in the pain, too, soon forsook its study. Tatza 
 and Vehotzi made him bleed "beyond all measure." A little 
 comparison of his efforts in this way with the best transla- 
 tions of learned Israelites, and with the renderings of our 
 best Hebrew lexicons, will show that our learned critic is 
 not much in advance of his brethren of the English Church, 
 
Bishop Colcnso's Difficulties Considered. 69 
 
 who, according to his opinion, have but a very little know- 
 ledge of the Hebrew language. Nevertheless the book is a 
 great evil. The young and inexperienced are in danger of 
 being led astray by the infidelity that is endorsed by a 
 bishop of the Church of England. We fear, too, that young 
 Englishmen will be injured by it, not only because it ema- 
 nates from a Church dignitary, but also with such a show of 
 fair dealing, with such pretensions to candour and to the 
 accuracy of figures. It is free from learned technicalities, 
 and presents sums in addition and multiplication that are 
 easily comprehended even by those who do not read Reviews. 
 It is in the strong professions of " pain," at being compelled 
 by loyalty to the God of truth, to publish such views of 
 Scripture inspiration, that the strength of the book lies. 
 Though the only novelty in the book is, that such a new- 
 made hash should be offered with African spices by a bishop, 
 yet there is a dangerous speciousness of manner in the way he 
 sets aside the "petty variations and contradictions which are 
 found throughout the books ; and, however perplexing such 
 contradictions are, yet he would heartily welcome any 
 friendly criticism that would relieve him of these." But it 
 is not with such " minutiae " he has to do. Matters much 
 greater have occupied his mind, and produced his conversion 
 
 to disbelief. No such friendly criticism has been able to 
 / / 
 
 save him from the yawning gulf. He " cannot any longer 
 shut his eyes to the absolutely palpable self-contradictions 
 of the narrative." He would condescend indeed to " believe 
 the miracles of Scripture, if only they were authenticated by 
 
70 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 a veracious history." But he does not tell us what consti- 
 tutes a veracious history ; nor does he give us a single ex- 
 ample of what kind of history we are to believe, only we are 
 not to believe the writings of Moses. The difficulty about 
 Hebrew numerals, which has been admitted by so many of 
 the ablest scholars without impairing their faith in Moses or 
 the Bible, he sets aside as having no weight in the matter. 
 His cry from beginning to end is Carthago delenda est. As 
 examples of the difficulties which he presents as reasons why 
 he cannot believe the historic verity of the Pentateuch, nor 
 allow that it was written by Moses, he alleges : 
 
 First.* There is a discrepancy in the list of names and 
 the statements about the number that went down into Egypt. 
 Answer 1. We cannot read our version so as to find the 
 difficulty in it as stated by the bishop ; nor can we find in 
 the original any support for his interpretation. 2. This is 
 confessedly one of those passages about which the most 
 learned men of this and preceding ages have not agreed as 
 to the correct text and interpretation; and until these matters 
 are settled, we are content to let the matter of the number 
 of the names lie in abeyance. There are explanations found 
 in the books, even supposing we have the names and 
 numbers correctly given, which are to us satisfactory, or at 
 
 * This numbering is our own, and merely for the convenience of the 
 reader. We do not pretend to take an exhaustive view of the bishop's 
 difficulties, but only to glance at a few which seems to us most worthy 
 of notice ; and we try to do this in a brief and simple way, without 
 worrying the plain reader by citing the originals or giving authorities. 
 
Bishop Colenso's Difficulties Considered. 71 
 
 least do not disturb our faith in the slightest degree. For 
 example, it would be entirely according to usage in such 
 cases, to include in the aggregate of Israel all the members 
 of the households that went into Egypt. And we know 
 Abraham had 318 trained servants (Gen. xiv. 14) born in 
 his house, which he armed as soldiers, and with them 
 rescued his nephew Lot from the robber kings. Three 
 hundred and eighteen warriors implied a large household. 
 And we know, also, that all the male children born in his 
 house, or bought with his money of any stranger which 
 was not of his seed, were included in the covenant of cir- 
 cumcision which God made with him. (Gen. xv. 1 12.) 
 And that in making this covenant, God expressly promises 
 that he should become the father of many nations. It is, 
 then, highly probable that in giving the names and the num- 
 bers of Jacob's family in one place, we have only those that 
 literally " came out of his loins ;" and that in numbering up 
 the host at another time, all the " mixed multitude/' or 
 especially the families of the servants, are included. It will 
 be remembered also on this point, that Esau's clan must 
 have been numerous, for he had 400 men with him when 
 he met Jacob. (Gen, xxxiii.) Nor can we see any reason 
 why Jacob's family and the families of his sons may not 
 have had large households of retainers and servants, who 
 went down with them into Egypt, even to the number of two 
 or three thousand ; and if so, an increase in the ratio that has 
 obtained in America, would, according to the bishop's own 
 prize arithmetic, give us the required two millions, and even 
 
72 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 more, in 250 or in 210 years. But Bishop Colenso is not 
 the discoverer of this difficulty. Learned men and able 
 Hebrew scholars and Talmudists thoroughly considered it, 
 and solved it to their satisfaction, long before he was born. 
 
 Secondly. Another difficulty is, the court of the taber- 
 nacle was not large enough to hold all that are said to have 
 been in it, nor could the 2,000,000 of the people have 
 assembled at or in the door of the tabernacle. This is im- 
 possible. According to the bishop's arithmetic, the taber- 
 nacle was only 54 feet in length and 18 feet in width, while 
 the adult males alone of the assembly would have formed a 
 line of twenty miles long. The case is thus : given 18 feet 
 by 54 to hold twenty miles of male adults, to say nothing 
 of the rest of the people. Impossible absurd ! Therefore 
 the statement in the Pentateuch is not true, and Moses was 
 not the author of those five books. 
 
 Answer. The text does not say that all every one 
 came into the door at the same time. It does not say they 
 came into it at all. Before the door, and extending away 
 to any distance required to find room, is all the text is fairly 
 responsible for. Is it not common sense to suppose that 
 the meaning of the text is that the representatives, the 
 elders and heads of the people, came near, and the great 
 assembly was gathered around as near as could be ? Does 
 not this exhaust all that is fairly contained in the text? 
 When Lord Palmerston addresses his constituents at Tiver- 
 ton, is it meant that every soul of them comes before him, 
 or into the hall where he speaks ? 
 
Bishop Colenso's Difficulties Considered. 73 
 
 Let us suppose there had been an order of the Government 
 for all England, or all the City of London, to be present at the 
 International Palace at the opening of the Exhibition, would 
 it have been construed to mean that every man, woman, 
 and child in the city must be present in person at the very 
 moment when the opening exercises were begun ? Certainly 
 not. All it could have been intended to mean would have 
 been, that the city should take knowledge of the event, and 
 be present by its chief men, or represent itself by a suffi- 
 cient number of its inhabitants. 
 
 A similar difficulty the bishop finds in Moses and Joshua 
 addressing all Israel at one time. He says that even if the 
 people were crowded as thickly as possible, " they would 
 have covered an area of 8,000,000 square yards, or more 
 than 1652 acres of ground" (p. 38). He denies that Moses 
 and Joshua could have addressed 2,000,000 of people, and 
 made them hear and understand all the words of the law. 
 He says, " no human voice, unless strengthened by a mi- 
 racle, of which the Scripture tells us nothing, could have 
 reached the ears of a crowded mass of people as large as 
 the whole population of LONDON. The very crying of the 
 ' little ones/ who are expressly stated to have been present, 
 must have sufficed to drown the sounds at a few yards' dis- 
 tance" (p. 37). This seems to us trifling, and scarcely to 
 merit a notice. Cannot the Lord Mayor of London reach 
 the ears of its inhabitants ? True, he has printing to his 
 aid; but it is well known that ancient commanders and 
 potentates could do by couriers and criers almost as much 
 
74 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 as can be done now by printing, in the matter of promul- 
 gating laws or making known edicts, or in warning the 
 people of danger. The little ones were no doubt, for the 
 most part, just where they should have been, that is, with 
 their parents. But is the bishop quite sure that all the 
 Hebrew parents were present within speaking distance? 
 The text does not say so, or that Moses and Joshua spoke 
 to all the people at one time and in one place, as a pastor 
 addresses his congregation. " All the congregation" means 
 not literally the whole congregation every soul but their 
 delegates or representatives in a sufficient number. For 
 example (Exod. xii. 6), it is said the whole assembly of the 
 congregation of Israel shall kill it (the passover lamb) in 
 the evening. Now, this did not mean that each and every 
 Israelite was to kill a paschal lamb, or that literally the 
 hands of every Hebrew was to be imbrued in blood. The 
 obvious meaning is given in the interpretation of the Tal- 
 mudists, namely, that the persons appointed to kill the pas- 
 chal lambs did kill as many as were required, and all the 
 assembly assented to the performance, or acquiesced in it 
 as their act. The same explanation obtains as to the ex- 
 pression, " all the congregation 3 ' stoned the blasphemer and 
 the Sabbath-breaker. (Lev. xxiv. 14, and Numb. xv. 36.) 
 This does not mean that every man able to throw a stone 
 hurled one at the head of the poor criminals, and that just 
 603,550 stones were piled upon them, not more nor less. 
 
 And so in the expression, " the children of Israel went 
 up armed/' we are not to understand that every one, man, 
 
Bishop Colenso's Difficulties Considered. 75 
 
 and woman, and child, was armed with a sword, or such 
 weapons as were common to trained soldiers. If we say 
 the French invaded Eussia under the First Napoleon, no- 
 body supposes that our meaning is that every Frenchman 
 left France, armed, and marched against the Muscovite 
 empire. Nations are often spoken of as present, when the 
 meaning is their representatives only are present. All, or 
 the whole, in such cases, means many, or some of all sorts, 
 and especially the heads or delegates of the people. The 
 Scriptures are full of illustrations of this kind; that is, 
 where all is used, not literally and absolutely for every soul, 
 but for many, or for some of all sorts. The common-sense 
 view of the passages from Leviticus and Numbers, and the 
 only one that a thorough understanding of the idiom and 
 usage of the Hebrew language will countenance is, that the 
 chief men of the congregation, or the persons appointed by 
 them as executioners, stoned the criminals in the presence 
 of the people, and that the people approved of the execu- 
 tion. So the meaning is, that Moses, and Aaron, and 
 Joshua rehearsed to the heads of the people the words of 
 the law, and they repeated them, and caused them to be 
 repeated, and so made known to all Israel. 
 
 Akin to this one is the bishop's difficulty about the 
 numbering of the people at one time, and the poll-tax at 
 another (pp. 41 44). 
 
 Answer. Havernick's explanation of this satisfies us : 
 namely, there were two reckonings; that is, the names 
 were given in at one time, and the number then given in 
 
76 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 is assumed as sufficiently correct for the next time, without 
 actually taking the census. And the terms " sanctuary" 
 and " sacred shekel" are used by anticipation, and has re- 
 ference to what was to be done when the ritual worship 
 should be fully established. 
 
 Again, Bishop Colenso dwells much and most earnestly 
 on the impossibility of feeding the flocks in the wilderness, 
 at least, so great a number as is implied in the lambs used 
 for sacrifice. He also makes himself merry with the num- 
 ber of pigeons required for religious rites. 
 
 Answer. 1. There is no proof that all these lambs and 
 pigeons were required in the wilderness. They have refer- 
 ence to the established economy in all its plenitude in 
 Canaan. The law was made and promulgated in the wil- 
 derness, but was not fully executed till after the conquest. 
 There is no proof that the whole burdensome ceremonial of 
 Judaism was observed, or was intended to be observed, in 
 the wilderness. We know they did not practise circum- 
 cision ; and the presumption, from the history of the pass- 
 over kept at Gilgal by Joshua's command, is that for a 
 great part of the time after they left Mount Sinai, they did 
 not celebrate the passover at all. (Joshua v. 2 11.) A 
 large number of learned men, such even as Noyes and 
 Ewald, agree that the offerings and sacrifices during the 
 forty years were not continued. The meaning of Amos v. 
 25, seems to be, that after their departure from Mount 
 Sinai, the Israelites did not keep their solemn assemblies, 
 nor offer their sacrifices as regularly, nor in such abun- 
 
Bishop Colenso's Difficulties. Considered. 77 
 
 dance, as they did after their settlement in the promised 
 land. The bishop's sneers, therefore, about the vast num- 
 ber of lambs and pigeons are harmless. He does not prove 
 the existence of what he sneers at. It is a myth of his own 
 creation. And as to the priests, whose duties in the wil- 
 derness give him so much trouble, and the sanctuary taxes, 
 whereas there was as yet no sanctuary, we have only to 
 consider that a large part of the ceremonial law was antici- 
 pative, or prophetic. The details of Jewish worship were 
 not intended for their migratory state, but for their system 
 when they should be established in Canaan. Their whole 
 journey in the wilderness was a penal training. " And it 
 shall be when the Lord thy God shall bring thee into the 
 land of the Canaanites, as He sware unto thee and to thy 
 fathers, and shall give it thee, then thou shalt," &c. (See 
 Exod. xiii. 11.) And still more emphatic is Deut. iv. 14 : 
 " And the Lord commanded me at that time to teach you 
 statutes and judgments, that ye might do them in the land 
 whither ye go over to possess it." May not this prospective 
 application of the ceremonies of the law cover all the diffi- 
 culties urged about the duties of Aaron and his sons, and 
 about the supply of pigeons and lambs for the offerings and 
 sacrifices of the people ? 
 
 2. We know that mines were extensively worked in the 
 Arabian peninsula and near Mount Sinai by the Pharaohs, 
 and that the whole region was often traversed by large 
 commercial caravans ; that at one time Arabia supported an 
 immense population, and was much better known a thousand 
 
78 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 and even two thousand years ago,, than it is now. We 
 know the Amalekites and Edomites lived in this wilderness. 
 They had flocks, and fields, and vineyards ; nor do we know 
 any reason why there was not an active trade carried on 
 with the tribes that lived on the Mecca side of the gulf. 
 There are many ruins that attest a large population in that 
 country, besides those of Kir and Petra. There are ruins 
 of cities, and of churches and monasteries, that show that 
 this country was filled with Christians in the early ages of 
 the Church. The Eomans had military roads across to 
 Damascus and to Cesarea. Nor is there anything in the 
 sacred text to forbid the idea that the Israelites cultivated 
 parts of the peninsula during their thirty-eight years' so- 
 journ. We are not told where they spent the most of their 
 time, nor how long they remained at the different encamp- 
 ments. They were lost " in the wilderness of the Eed Sea" 
 for about thirty-eight years ; but this term may include all 
 the country between the Dead Sea and the Gulf of Akabah 
 and Suez, and between the Mediterranean and the great 
 Assyrian deserts, as they stretch away towards the Persian 
 Gulf. 
 
 3. Nor is there any reason why the Israelites may not 
 have done as already intimated the nomadic Bedouins do, 
 who are in the habit of cultivating the districts which are 
 suitable ; stopping in one place long enough for a harvest, 
 and then moving their tents to another district. Some 
 tribes are both nomads and agriculturists. Emigrants from 
 the valley of the Mississippi in removing across the continent 
 
Bishop Colenso's Difficulties Considered. 79 
 
 to the Pacific shores have sometimes stopped on the plains, 
 made a crop, and then resumed their journey. Large bodies 
 of such emigrants have sometimes indeed remained for seve- 
 ral years in a valley of the wilderness, nursing their flocks, 
 and then proceeded on their way. Besides, portions of the 
 peninsula may have been more fruitful then than it is now. 
 This is doubtless true. Nor is this inconsistent with all 
 that is said of " the great and terrible wilderness," and the 
 desert nature of it. In the winter there was rain and 
 water and many green places. The Psalmist speaks of 
 "the beauties of the desert." The popular idea that a 
 desert is a great unbroken plain of sand is not correct. 
 There is great variety of scenery in Arabia hills, moun- 
 tains, and valleys, as well as sandy plains. There are and 
 were oases palm trees and wells of water, green swards, 
 rocks and rivulets in many parts of the country embraced 
 in " the wilderness of the Red Sea." Have not the Arabs 
 of our day immense flocks and herds, and numerous horses ? 
 And does not the traveller shoot quails, grouse, pheasants, 
 gazelles, pelicans, storks, ducks, and geese, as he passes 
 through the Arabian peninsula ? not to say anything of the 
 myriads of myriads of snails that crowd a portion of his 
 way, or hang so thickly on the dry shrubs in the waddys 
 that he almost fancies himself in a cotton field ripe for the 
 pickers. 
 
 4. Still we admit the exodus from beginning to end was 
 a miracle a continued miracle. The outstretched arm and 
 the mighty hand of the Almighty were only sufficient for the 
 
80 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 work. The Hebrews could not have subsisted in this 
 " great and terrible wilderness " without supernatural aid. 
 But we do not see why their flocks were not included in 
 the miraculous supplies as well as themselves, whenever 
 and as far as there was a necessity for doing so. It is 
 Scripture usage to speak of the flocks and herds as sharing 
 the good or evil fortunes of their owners. (See the history 
 of Nineveh, as also many other passages in the Bible.) 
 
 The writer of these pages has himself followed, as nearly 
 as possible, the track of the Israelites from Egypt to the 
 Eed Sea, and from the Eed Sea to Ayun Musa or the wells 
 of Moses, and then to Marah or the bitter waters, and 
 thence to Elim and along the shore of the Eed Sea, and 
 through the mountain passes to Mount Sinai. He has 
 endured the heat and the cold of Arabia, and encountered 
 the terrible sand storms spoken of by so many travellers on 
 the Eed Sea. He has read the Bible history of the exodus, 
 and of the miracle of the Eed Sea, and of the transactions 
 at Mount Sinai, at the spots, and the careful reading not 
 only of the English version (which he considers the best 
 descriptive Guide Book of Bible lands extant), but also a 
 careful study of the original, with some assistance from the 
 cognate dialects, has thoroughly confirmed him in the belief 
 that the writer of the Pentateuch was himself an eye-witness 
 of the events of the exodus which he describes, and that 
 this writer was Moses, and that the historic statements of 
 the Pentateuch are true, and that the whole history is a 
 history of stupendous miraculous interposition. 
 
Bishop Colenso's Difficulties Considered. 81 
 
 We do not mean, however, that miracles superseded the 
 use of means, but only supplemented them when and so far 
 as was necessary. There never has been any useless ex- 
 penditure of power, either in nature or grace. Omnipotence 
 helps only those that help themselves. 
 
 The next difficulty is about the number of the Israelites 
 as compared with the extent of the land of Canaan (p. 82) ; 
 but as the bishop himself gives us 11,000 square miles for 
 two millions of people, we do not see the force of the objec- 
 tion ; and when we add that the whole land of Canaan was 
 much more extensive, even from the " river of Egypt to the 
 entering in of Hamath," and from the Mediterranean to the 
 Euphrates (including the hills of Bashan and the mountain- 
 ranges west of the Jordan and of Lebanon), we have no 
 difficulty at all in finding room for such a population, even 
 with the Canaanites that were left to try Israel by, and 
 room also for the wild beasts that are mentioned. Nor 
 could there have been any want of arable land to pro- 
 duce bread enough. The soil is fertile. The bishop's 
 favoured comparison is the colony of Natal ; but we think 
 the Pacific coast, in point of climate, soil, grazing capacity, 
 and wild animals, a much more suitable country for com- 
 parison. Any one, at least, who is personally acquainted 
 with the nature of the soil and climate of the Holy Land, 
 cannot doubt its capacity to support all the people of Israel. 
 It would seem that, notwithstanding the hearsays of the 
 bishop's sheep-farmers in Australia, proof could be had 
 much nearer home to support the text. I have seen a 
 
 -' 
 
 
82 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 statement from a Scottish parish of only 400 souls that 
 would, by analogy, furnish more than the 150,000 lambs 
 which the Bishop of Natal requires for the first year of the 
 Exodus ; and yet, because he cannot get them, he has pro- 
 nounced the whole history a myth. Much valuable infor- 
 mation on the ancient fertility and populousness of Judea 
 may be had from M. Guenee's Letters to Voltaire, and also 
 from his Memoirs, read before the Academie des Inscriptions. 
 Almost all modern writers on the Holy Land admit its 
 capacity in every respect to sustain such a population as 
 that of Israel in their day. 
 
 Another serious difficulty with the bishop is, that the 
 Israelites are said in the sacred narrative to have dwelt in 
 tents (Exod. xvi. 16.) The points of his difficulty are, 
 they had no tents, and could not obtain them ; and if they 
 had, they could not have carried them. Tents were too 
 cumbersome to be carried when they fled in haste out of 
 Egypt. He says they must have had 200,000 tents, and 
 200,000 oxen to carry them, and well trained ones at that. 
 Arid this is impossible ! The story is, therefore, not true. 
 
 Answer. 1. If the bishop had ever seen a whole town 
 "dry up" in a night in California or Australia, leaving 
 nothing but a few stone chimneys standing and a few of the 
 larger timbers, he would not have been so much at a loss 
 to account for the sudden removal of the Hebrew encamp- 
 ment. 2. It is certain from the history that tents and 
 booths were both used; and no doubt many had neither. 
 3. Arab tribes, all nomades, and gipsies, carry their tents 
 
Bishop Colenso's Difficulties Considered. 83 
 
 and household utensils with them. They live on the wing ; 
 their tents and utensils are not so heavy, unwieldy, and 
 cumbersome as ours. The savage tribes of America carry 
 their tents, or such parts of them as they can or may most 
 need such as the covering of skins, or mats, or cloth and 
 supply themselves with other material at the place of en- 
 campment: A piece of matting, or a blanket and a small 
 pole, would constitute an Oriental tent. 
 
 Again, the bishop is quite deprived of his faith in Moses 
 because the narrative says " the Israelites went up armed" 
 (p. 48). The gist of this difficulty is, that the Israelites 
 could not have been armed ; it was impossible for them to 
 get arms. 
 
 Answer. 1. The learned are not at all agreed as to the 
 rendering of the passage. The Hebrew term is explained 
 with extraordinary latitude, as any one may see by consult- 
 ing a lexicon. c ' Armed," " harnessed," " equipped for the 
 battle/' or " in battle array," or " by fives," or " by fifties in 
 a rank," are among the most probable significations of the 
 Hebrew word. We think the meaning of the writer is, that, 
 though generally without arms, such as soldiers by profession 
 used, yet they marched in regular squadrons, in regular order, 
 and not as a rabble; and for this the open, sandy desert 
 between Egypt and the Red Sea was well suited. Some 
 had weapons of one sort or other, and some had none, 
 but all were arrayed as if ready for battle. Their arms were 
 of all sorts, from the Egyptian shillelah to the embossed 
 sword. The text does not say that the 600,000 Hebrew 
 
84 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 men were (c trained soldiers," or that they belonged to the 
 military caste, nor that they were all armed with swords. 
 Ox-goads and other such instruments, as we know from 
 collateral history were formidable in such close encounters 
 as were common in those times, could easily be obtained 
 by the Hebrews. 
 
 2. It is true, however, that Joshua " discomfited Amalek 
 with the edge of the sword" at Mount Sinai. Here they 
 had some swords ; but we know not how many, nor whence 
 they obtained them. Josephus does, indeed, tell us that 
 Divine Providence made the current of the sea and the force 
 of the winds throw the weapons of the drowned Egyptians 
 on shore, expressly in order that the Hebrews might be 
 supplied with arms (Antiq. ii. 16). At the worst, then, 
 we have only to choose between Bishop Colenso and the 
 high priest, Josephus ; and in this case we prefer the high 
 priest to the prelate. But suppose we could give no ac- 
 count at all of the swords : are we to disbelieve the whole 
 narrative on that account ? It is absurd. All we know is 
 that they had some swords, and that they used them well ; 
 and this is all our history is responsible for. We do 
 not know how many they had, nor how they obtained 
 them, beyond what Josephus says, which is a probable 
 account. 
 
 Again, the institution of the Passover is an impossible 
 history with the bishop (p. 54). Our record of it is in 
 Exodus xii. The point of difficulty here is, that the whole 
 Hebrew population a population as large as that of Lon- 
 
Bishop Colenso's Difficulties Considered. 85 
 
 don was instructed to keep, and did actually keep, the 
 Passover " in one single day." 
 
 Answer. It is plain, from the history of the institution, 
 that instruction was given on previous occasions about 
 having everything in readiness. The lamb was to be taken 
 on the tenth day of the month, and it was to be killed on the 
 fourteenth. It was on the night of the fourteenth the first- 
 born were slain. There is nothing in the text to prove that 
 all was done " in one single day." The preparation was 
 made, and the people were in readiness at a given sign to 
 carry into execution the plan previously explained to them. 
 Let it be kept in mind, in reference to all the difficulties 
 about the vast multitude* being moved at one and the same 
 moment, or having assembled at the same spot, or having 
 heard the same communication at the same time, that the 
 account is given in a perfectly natural, common-sense way, 
 and as if the writer supposed that common sense would at 
 least be used in reading it. And as to the marching out of 
 Egypt (p. 61), as we study the whole history of the pre- 
 paration for the journey, we have no difficulty at all. (See 
 Exod. xii. 37, 38.) "We know not, indeed, where Barneses 
 was, at least not with absolute certainty. It was doubtless, 
 however, the head-quarters of Moses. The fertile borders 
 of the Delta, no doubt, extended then farther towards the 
 Eed Sea than now. The front of the Hebrew line of settle- 
 ment, and still more of their encampment in readiness to 
 move, extended probably from the neighbourhood of Mem- 
 phis almost or quite the whole distance to the lake 
 
86 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 and canal. It would be natural for them to be pressed 
 forward to the front as much as possible,, and for them 
 all to be ready to move at a moment's notice, and to have 
 so marched as to fulfil all the requirements of the sacred 
 text. 
 
 And as to the bishop's pity for the massacre of the 
 Midianites an affair exceeding in monstrosity " Cawnpwe" 
 the answer is so simple, and has been so often given, and 
 is so triumphant, that we wonder he still persists in bring- 
 ing it forward. He seems altogether to forget that there 
 is a righteous God, who is Sovereign over all the earth 
 that He is indeed still on the throne of the universe, and 
 is the supreme Judge of all men and of all nations. It does 
 not enter into his mind that, as a supreme Judge over His 
 creatures, God has the right and the power to pass sentence 
 upon those who transgress against Him, and then appoint 
 His agents to execute that sentence. The bishop seems in- 
 capable of conceiving that the Midianites and the Canaan- 
 ites were sinners whose cup of iniquity was full, and that 
 God could appoint the Jews as His executors. The force of 
 the bishop's objection here is just as much against the ex- 
 istence of a God at all as against the narrative of Moses. 
 The flood, and the doom of the cities of the plain, are illus- 
 trations of Divine vengeance executed without human hands. 
 The plague, fever, pestilence, conflagration, tempest, and 
 volcano, are similar agents in the present day. Why may 
 not the Almighty Ruler employ men to do what He some- 
 times sends the volcano or the pestilence to do ? Is there 
 
Bishop Colenso's Difficulties Considered. 87 
 
 any greater objection to the one than to the other ? This 
 was one of Voltaire's strongest points. 
 
 As to the question how could Moses write the Penta- 
 teuch without memoranda of the creation and of the flood and 
 of the lives of the Patriarchs, our reply is on this wise : 
 
 First. It is not proven that he had not memoirs or 
 memoranda in writing before him, out of which he com- 
 posed his history. We believe God taught our first parents 
 to talk by talking to them. May He not also have taught 
 them to write ? The arts and agriculture in use at a very 
 early age are, in the Bible and in classic authors, ascribed 
 to God. Man was not a savage as he came from the hand 
 of his Maker. He was highly civilized as to his intellectual 
 endowments. It is scarcely possible that he was without 
 some kind of writing for two thousand years. 
 
 Secondly. There are at least three ways in which Moses 
 could have received the knowledge which he records in 
 Genesis; namely, by written documents y tradition, and 
 direct Divine revelation. Even if there was no alphabetical 
 writing before his day even if such writing did not exist 
 before the Almighty himself wrote the Ten Commandments 
 with His own finger on the tables of stone still there 
 were or might have been other kinds of records. And 
 besides, as men lived so long before the flood, there was 
 scarcely any need for writing of any kind. Tradition would 
 be quite sufficient to perpetuate all the main facts. It would 
 not have to pass through very many hands, and all of them 
 friends, deeply concerned in preserving the truth. For 
 
88 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 example, from Adam to Noah one man was sufficient to 
 transmit the history. Methuselah saw both Adam and 
 Noah, and he was, no doubt, well acquainted with the 
 history of the creation as Adam understood it. And so, 
 in like manner, Shem connected Noah and Abraham, having 
 lived to converse with both ; and Isaac connected, in the 
 same way, Abraham and Joseph. Thus from Adam to 
 Moses v/e have only three Unking lives, namely, Methuselah, 
 Shem, and Isaac. And does any one believe there is as 
 much reliability to be placed upon the traditions of Greek 
 and Latin history, as attaches to the history of Methuselah, 
 Shem, and Isaac ? This is to rest our cause upon mere 
 tradition. But we believe Moses was assisted by Divine 
 revelation. As miracles do not supersede the use of ordi- 
 nary means, so Divine inspiration may, in Moses > case, 
 only have supplemented the deficiencies or corrected the 
 errors of tradition. It is scarcely possible that the patri- 
 archs were without some traditions of the flood and of the 
 creation of the world. In so far as these were correct 
 Moses was left to use them, but directed in their use by 
 the Spirit of God. And even if there were no memoranda 
 and no traditions on the subject, the Almighty could have 
 revealed to Moses what he has written of the beginning of 
 the earth and the human race in their earliest years. 
 
 It is alleged that Gen. xii. 6 and xiii. 7 are interpola- 
 tions or additions, for that these words imply that the 
 Canaanites were expelled at the time of the writing of this 
 history, and if so it could not have been written by Moses. 
 
Bishop Colenso's Difficulties Considered. 89 
 
 Well, suppose Joshua or Samuel or Ezra did add these 
 words by way of parenthesis, and that in process of time 
 they were considered as a part of the text, it would not 
 prove that the text was not written by Moses. This, how- 
 ever, is not all, nor the main thing we have to say here. 
 The proper understanding of the Hebrew text simply means 
 that at the time in which Abraham passed through Sychem, 
 the land was inhabited by the Canaanites. This is histo- 
 rically true, and there is nothing inconsistent in the idea 
 that Moses should have stated the fact. 
 
 The first five verses of Deut. i. were probably added by 
 Joshua or Ezra as a proper introduction to the resume of 
 the kw which is given in that book. 
 
 And as to " the book of the wars of the Lord" (Num. 
 xxi. 14), both the ancients and moderns have indulged in 
 many conjectures, the chief of which are to this effect; 
 namely 1. That by this term we are to understand the 
 books of Moses which we have, and in which the wars of 
 the Patriarchs and of the Hebrews under Moses are called 
 " the wars of Jehovah," because mainly undertaken by His 
 command, and that the reference is for substance, or as an 
 epitome of the history. 2. The learned Dr. Lightfoot's 
 opinion, which seems to be generally received by commen- 
 tators, is, that the book of the wars of Jehovah was " a book 
 of remembrances and directions written by Moses for Joshua's 
 private instruction" (as in Exod. xvii. 14), for the manage- 
 ment of the wars which he was to carry on for the conquest 
 of Canaan. It may be, as Dr. Lightfoot also suggests, that 
 
90 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 this book was the same as the look of Jasher ; that is, the 
 book of the upright, as the name signifies, which was a 
 kind of directory written by Moses for Joshua, telling him 
 what to do and what to expect in his wars. Some suppose 
 that the book of Jasher was a volume of Memoirs to serve 
 for the history of the great leaders that God raised up for 
 the deliverance of His people. According to 2 Sam. i. 18, 
 it appears that it was a direction in this book that the 
 Hebrews should be taught the use of the bow ; and from 
 Joshua x. 13 it would appear as if Joshua was warranted, 
 from some statement or promise in this book of Jasher, 
 to expect such a miracle as the standing still of the sun. 
 
 But it is exceedingly difficult to see how the reference to 
 the " book of the wars of the LORD " destroys the genu- 
 ineness or authenticity of the Pentateuch. Nor is the 
 objection any more valid that Moses could not have written 
 the Pentateuch because the third person is sometimes used 
 in speaking of himself. Other Hebrew writers have done 
 the same thing. Xenophon, Csesar, and others abound in 
 the use of the third person instead of the first. It is the 
 prevailing custom of Oriental authors. 
 
 Again, Bishop Colenso insists that Moses was not the 
 author of the Pentateuch, because there are a few passages 
 that must have been added by a later hand. For example, 
 Moses did not write an account of his own death, as we 
 find it in the last chapter of Deuteronomy. To this we 
 reply, we are by no means convinced that a man cannot 
 write his own obituary. Such things have been done by 
 
Bishop Colenso's Difficulties Considered. 91 
 
 anticipation. And to say the least of it, if we admit Moses 
 was Divinely inspired, and that as a prophet he could fore- 
 tell future events, it was not an impossible thing for him to 
 write an account of his own death. This, however, is not 
 the answer we would make to this objection. Our answer 
 is, that Joshua, or the Elders, or Samuel, or Ezra, added 
 this account of Moses' death. The tradition of the Jews, 
 without any contradiction or interruption, is, that Ezra col- 
 lected and arranged the books which constitute the canon of 
 the Old Testament Scriptures, and that he added such 
 expository notes as were essential to connect the different 
 parts of the history. And as these notes, as well as the 
 constitution of the canon, were made under Divine inspira- 
 tion, they are of equal authority with the text. "We do not 
 hold, therefore, that this last chapter was written by Moses, 
 either by anticipation or by special revelation. There was 
 no necessity for him to write it at all. There is no useless 
 expenditure of inspiration, no more than of omnipotence, 
 in regard to miracles. But it was proper that the writer of 
 the book of Joshua should conclude the history of Moses, 
 and that this conclusion of the life of Moses should be in- 
 troductory to that of Joshua ; and that is just what we have 
 here. The last chapter of Deuteronomy would be just as 
 well if it were the first chapter of Joshua. And when we 
 consider that the division of the sacred books into sections, 
 chapters, points, and pauses is altogether modern ; that no 
 such divisions existed in the originals ; and that for ages 
 these several books were connected together, and followed 
 
92 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 each other on the same roll, very much in the same way that 
 we find them arranged and used now on the rolls of the 
 synagogues of the Israelites ; then we shall see how easily 
 the beginning of one book might be transferred to the end 
 of another, and in process of time be considered as actually 
 belonging to it and forming its conclusion. 
 
VI. 
 
 DIFFICULTIES DO NOT DESTROY CREDIBILITY. 
 
 " These savage tribes gave clear proof that they were uncivilized, for 
 they pulled down and destroyed many cities, but built none." 
 
 VOLTAIEE. 
 
 " Eat the Scripture bread in simplicity, just as you have it, and do 
 not be disturbed if here and there you find a grain of sand, which tlte 
 millstone may have suffered to pass." 
 
 BENCKEL. 
 
 THERE is a way to meet all Bishop Colenso's difficulties 
 about Moses and the Pentateuch which, from some cause 
 or other, he has not found, but which thousands of as able 
 and even more learned men have found, and which, indeed, 
 has been a satisfactory way of dealing with these difficulties 
 to the Church of God from the beginning, and which no 
 Englishman before Hobbes in the seventeenth century was 
 ever known to call in question at all. It seems to us that 
 it is impossible to establish any historical fact, if the fact 
 that Moses wrote the Pentateuch by the commandment of 
 God is not established. Bishop Colenso's difficulties seem 
 to us to arise in part from his haste, and from his slight 
 theological training, and from his becoming acquainted 
 with them late in life, and in not then being well supplied 
 
94 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 with a critical apparatus adapted to their solution, and still 
 more from not having a skilful instructor at hand to guide 
 him in the interpretation of the original of the Pentateuch. 
 We should not state these things if the bishop had not him- 
 self given us such information. It is not for us to judge 
 of men's motives. The only means we have of measuring 
 them is their own confessions and their own performances. 
 And as we are not all able for all things, it is no disgrace for 
 a respectable arithmetician not to be a learned theologian, 
 nor a profound and skilful linguist. It is a great grief, 
 however, to all who cherish kind feelings towards the 
 Bishop of Natal to see how throughout his volume he con- 
 tents himself with a superficial view of history, and a hasty 
 glance at the genius and idioms and spirit of the Hebrew 
 language and literature, and hurries to conclusions on sub- 
 jects after a few months of partial study that might well 
 employ the whole labour of a long lifetime ; and this, in some 
 instances, without being sure of his main positions in fact, 
 spending his strength to annihilate a position held by no 
 one, or existing nowhere but in his own brain. His main 
 thought seems to have been to reduce Moses and the Pen- 
 tateuch to a sum in arithmetic. He seems to have thought 
 that the whole English people, like the House of Commons, 
 preferred the figures of arithmetic to any other figures of 
 speech ; and that, like Mr. Disraeli, he would be sure to 
 succeed when he had learned "to talk figures to them." 
 He never seems to think of analysing the sources from 
 which he draws the elements of his sums. He relies exclu- 
 
Difficulties do not Destroy Credibility. 95 
 
 sively upon the deduction of conclusions on mere mathe- 
 matical principles, without having regard to the data or the 
 steps by which he arrives at his premises. His whole 
 attention is fixed on the calculation the accuracy of his 
 measuring line and of the work of multiplication, without 
 proving that he has the proper multiplier and multiplicand 
 to begin with ; whereas a previous process was quite as 
 important, and even more so. As an illustration, his diffi- 
 culties on pp. 66 and 67, in quoting Deut. viii. 15, result 
 from not giving the whole text. We do not say he is 
 guilty of a wilful suppressio veri, but it is a most unfortu- 
 nate omission to leave out of this quotation the main part, 
 namely, the concluding words of the sacred text "who 
 brought thee forth water out of the rock of flint/' Indeed 
 it cannot be too earnestly enjoined upon the searchers after 
 truth who read such volumes as this of Bishop Colenso, 
 that their first duty will always be to ascertain the correct- 
 ness of the quotations of the Scripture texts that are made 
 the subject of condemnation. It is an old fashion of Yol- 
 taire and Paine, and other revilers of a book they have never 
 read, just to put their own words into the mouths of biblical 
 writers, and then proceed to demolish their own men of 
 straw. It is a pity our bishop did not give more attention 
 to Dr. WhewelFs Bridgewater Treatise, and have followed 
 less the false principles of the Mauricean school of biblical 
 interpretation. In a volume where such prominence is 
 given to " figures of speech which cannot lie," it is surely 
 to be expected that the sum to be worked should be rightly 
 
96 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 stated. Before the knights fight let it be ascertained what 
 is the real colour of the shield about which they are to draw 
 their swords. And as it was not the object of the Bible to 
 teach chronology, geology, astronomy, genealogy, or mathe- 
 matics, we should not complain if the data are not furnished 
 for the construction of the chronology or sums total referred 
 to. As far as the Bible contains statements concerning 
 history and natural science, we rely upon it as always teach- 
 ing the truth ; and we are content to receive the statements 
 of the sacred volume about numbers without the data for 
 calculating them. Moses did not write the Pentateuch to 
 gain a prize for an arithmetic, but simply to embody for 
 the Church of God such an epitome of revealed truth and 
 of the world's history as Infinite Wisdom saw fit to have 
 preserved and taught to mankind. And considering the 
 nature of the human mind, and the limited measure of 
 intelligence vouchsafed to mankind, and the nature of re- 
 vealed truth, it is plain there always will be, more or less, 
 difficulties in our apprehension of a book like the Bible 
 difficulties that can only be overcome when, led by the 
 Spirit of Truth, we are converted and become little children, 
 patient, meek, docile, and confiding. 
 
 We have patiently studied Bishop Colenso's book on 
 Moses and the Book of Joshua, and we think he has alto- 
 gether failed to make out his case. All every whit that 
 he has done is this that in the light of all the history as 
 detailed in the Bible narratives, some of the figures seem to 
 be too large y and the ratio of propagation is not correctly 
 
Difficulties do not Destroy Credibility. 97 
 
 stated. This is the sum total of all that he has done. And 
 our answer is "We are not absolutely certain that we have 
 the correct text of the numbers in the particular passages ; 
 or that we are not perfectly sure that these passages are 
 correctly translated ; or, if we have the true text and the 
 proper translation, then there were circumstances in the 
 history not detailed and not known to us which would 
 explain the figures and the ratio. And it is much easier 
 and more philosophical to believe all this than to believe 
 what the Bishop of Natal says against Moses. It is 
 admitted that there is some uncertainty as to the integrity 
 of a few texts in the Bible, and also that our best scholars 
 are not agreed as to the exact meaning of a few words, dates, 
 and names in the sacred volume. It is, then, of the first 
 importance to know exactly what the subject of dispute is. 
 Before we can pronounce a statement "false," "impossible," 
 " self-contradictory," or " utterly incredible," we must first 
 know what it is. Before we can admit that any statement 
 pf the Bible is erroneous, we must first be sure it is a part 
 of the text ; and then that we have the true meaning of it ; 
 and then that we have unequivocal evidence to prove that 
 it is not true. And it is well known that the Jews ex- 
 pressed numbers not by Roman numerals nor Arabic figures, 
 as we do, but by letters, and that several of these letters 
 are very much alike and yet differing greatly as to the 
 numbers they signify, and that even the same letter would 
 mean one or one thousand, as it might be written with or 
 without a dot. The books give many illustrations of this. 
 
98 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 Our only object here is to show how easily copyists and 
 interpreters might fall into great mistakes as to numbers in 
 reading Hebrew. 
 
 Both Jews and Christians, and in some measure Moham- 
 medans also, regard the Pentateuch as the foundation of 
 revealed religion. It is passing strange, therefore, that a 
 bishop of the Christian Church should so rely upon the 
 strength of his numerical and physical difficulties as to 
 wholly ignore the internal and external evidences of the 
 genuineness and authenticity of the books of Moses, and 
 that he should altogether leave out of the question the pre- 
 sence of a direct miraculous agency. The array of proofs, 
 internal and external, in favour of the received faith of 
 Christendom in the books of Moses is such that we cannot 
 blot them out from our Bible, even if there are difficulties 
 in them which, with our present limited knowledge, we 
 cannot explain. All that can be wisely said amounts to 
 this, namely, that the circumstances as given in the narra- 
 tives do not account for the results the sums are too 
 great, according to the bishop's arithmetic, for the facts 
 given, and the proportion is exaggerated. We answer, all 
 the circumstances are not detailed; ah 1 the data are not 
 given. The record gives us simply the result, and not the 
 means of reaching it. We have a fact to be believed on 
 evidence, and not the data for a mathematician to work out 
 the calculation. And it is easier for us to believe this than 
 to give up our faith in Moses. And besides, if we admit 
 miracles, which we must do if we receive the Bible at all, 
 
Difficulties do not Destroy Credibility. 99 
 
 then all is possible ; and if our opponent says miracles are 
 impossible, then all the reply we make here is, that this is 
 apetitio principii a mere begging of the question at issue, 
 and is both atheistical in its origin and unphilosophical in 
 nature. Again, it is one thing for us not to comprehend 
 a statement or truth, and quite another affair for us to deny 
 it or prove its falsehood. It is one thing to admit there 
 are difficulties in the sacred text, which at present we do 
 not understand, and quite another thing to say there is no 
 possible solution of them. Our point of view, therefore, is 
 altogether different from that of Bishop Colenso. His is 
 far below ours. We read the narrative in different lights. 
 He sees nothing but his measuring line and arithmetic ; we 
 see all the natural objects and means that he does, and 
 more, and then we see the presence and power of God. If 
 the bishop's eyes were opened, as were those of Elisha's 
 servant, he would see the mountains full of horsemen and 
 chariots, where now he sees nothing. 
 
 We believe God fed His people with bread from heaven, 
 and gave them meat from the wilderness, and water from 
 the flinty rock, and did everything else that was necessary 
 for their preservation, and for the fulfilment of the requi- 
 sites of the narrative. The question, therefore, narrows itself 
 down to this : Have we in the narrative a supernatural and 
 a miraculous interposition, or must we account for the Exodus 
 on the ground that it was an affair like the bishop's own night 
 flight from an apprehended attack of the Zulus ? Kind reader, 
 do not startle, this is the bishop's own comparison. 
 
100 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 It is, moreover, a misapprehension both of reason and of 
 revelation to say that they are contradictory one of the 
 other. They are both of God, and cannot therefore be 
 antagonistic. The Gospel does no violence either to our 
 free agency or to our reasoning powers. On the contrary, 
 it acknowledges, strengthens, and co-operates with them. 
 It is true there are doctrines in the Bible that unassisted 
 reason could not either invent, discover, or make known by 
 itself; but it does not follow that these doctrines are con- 
 trary to reason. It may be that they seem to be contrary 
 to reason, because we do not understand them. May not 
 a fact, or a principle, or a truth be beyond our comprehen- 
 sion, or wholly unknown to us, and yet not be contrary to 
 reason? Does the line or measure of reasonableness lie 
 wholly in us ? Certainly not. The discoveries of Newton 
 were contrary to or above the reasoning powers of the 
 astronomer-royal when he was a child; but now he ap- 
 proves of them, and goes beyond them in the same line of 
 discoveries. If the anatomist finds a bone the use of which 
 he does not at first comprehend, does he pronounce it use- 
 less? Bather is he not perfectly satisfied, from his past 
 experience, that it has a place and a use, and does he not 
 proceed till he verifies his expectation ? The books tell us 
 that there was once a king in Siam who believed the Dutch 
 ambassadors told him falsehoods when they said that water 
 in their country became so hard that elephants could walk 
 on it. It was contrary to his reason and experience, and yet 
 it was true. A philosophical lecturer (Dr. Lardner) of this 
 
Difficulties do not Destroy Credibility. 101 
 
 country, and of our own day, and of no mean abilities 
 either, declared a few years ago that the navigation of the 
 ocean by steam was an impossibility. It was an offence to 
 his science. His knowledge was scandalised at the rash- 
 ness of such an attempt. But what shall we say now of 
 the iron-clad sea-monsters and steam-ships that are navi- 
 gating every sea ? And so it is beyond the reason of the 
 savage to comprehend how the earth revolves on its axis. 
 To him it seems that the sun rises out of the ocean, and 
 sets behind the mountains. But the difficulty is with 
 him. The cause of the unreasonableness of the statement 
 of the earth's revolution is his own ignorance. So in re- 
 gard to the mysteries of the Bible, and to some extent also 
 in regard to its difficulties : they are mysteries and diffi- 
 culties only in regard to us, and because of our present 
 ignorance. Our information is imperfect at present, and 
 because of this imperfection they seem to lie wholly beyond 
 our reason, or in some measure are contrary to it ; yet it is 
 possible, to say the least of it, that we may be at present in 
 regard to them as the child is in respect to the laws of La 
 Place or the discoveries of the Herschels. We may increase 
 in wisdom till we shall not only comprehend them, but 
 comprehend more than they did. Analogy, experience, and 
 common sense teach us to receive facts on evidence, whether 
 we understand them or not. Before we can, therefore, be- 
 lieve that the Pentateuch is enveloped in " utterly incredible 
 and impossible statements," and that " the ground on which 
 we have been standing is hollow," we must give up all faith 
 
102 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 in history, and all confidence in human experience and 
 common sense. We recommend attention to De Wette's 
 celebrated rule as a canon of criticism : " The only means 
 of acquaintance with a history is the narrative we possess 
 concerning it ; and beyond that narrative the interpreter, 
 or the commentator, or the critic cannot go ;" always re- 
 membering, however, that it is possible for " fools to rush 
 in where angels fear to tread." 
 
 Again, we are not able to see how Bishop Colenso's 
 array of numerical difficulties disproves the existence and 
 history of the Hebrews, from our own day for at least three 
 or four thousand years. Nor do we see that if we admitted, 
 which, however, we do not, his series of " exaggerated 
 numbers," that the truth of the narrative in any of its 
 essential parts is impeached. We are as certain as we can 
 be of anything, that the Jews exist as a great and peculiar 
 people in our own day ; and we believe their existence and 
 the places and manner of their existence, which is so pecu- 
 liar, are all miraculous, in so far that as a people they are 
 now the fulfilment and proof of ancient prophecy. And we 
 ask, with such a reality before us, Whence came this people ? 
 How did they get such laws and such rites ? Their history 
 goes back page after page, over century after century, until 
 we come face to face with Joshua and with Moses \ and then 
 by Moses we are introduced to their great progenitor Abra- 
 ham, and he tells us how God called him, and covenanted 
 with him to make out of his posterity just the people we see 
 with our own eyes, and of whose history from his day to our 
 
Difficulties do not Destroy Credibility. 103 
 
 own we have read, and all the world has read, for centuries. 
 It is in the living history of the Israelites that we see their 
 laws, which are founded upon and which embody to this 
 day the great events of their history, and in it we have the 
 proof of the historic verity of the narratives of their law- 
 giver, Moses. We could as easily believe that there is 
 not a Jew in London, as believe that the Pentateuch was 
 not written by Moses and is not true. 
 
 Again, there are innumerable mysteries in the present 
 world. All the efforts of philosophy have failed to remove 
 them. And if in the scientific world, and even in mathe- 
 matics and the exact sciences, there is still uncertainty, 
 despair, doubt, and perplexity, may we not be content to 
 receive some things on faith in regard to our future state 
 and the documents that relate to it ? 
 
 " Every science has its ultimate questions, boundaries 
 which cannot be passed ; and if these occur earlier in 
 morals than in other inquiries, it is the natural result of the 
 immensity of the subject, which touching human nature in 
 every point, and surrounding it on all sides, renders it diffi- 
 cult, or rather impossible, to trace it in all its relations, and 
 view it in all its extent. Meanwhile, the shades which 
 envelope, and will, perhaps, always envelope it in some 
 measure, are not without their use, since they teach the two 
 most important lessons we can learn the vanity of our 
 reason and the grandeur of our destiny. Let us, therefore, 
 rejoice that the foundations of the temple are laid too deep 
 for our scrutiny, and let us worship in it ; and, along with 
 
104 Moses and the Pentateuch. ; 
 
 the nations of them that are saved, walk in its light." 
 Robert Hall. 
 
 Natural religion, revealed religion, the providence of 
 God, every man's experience and every known law of 
 human duty, as well as the facts of our existence, are all 
 exposed to some great difficulties. There are in all things 
 around us, things obscure and hard to be understood nay, 
 things we do not understand at all. Why, then, should 
 such difficulties be allowed to destroy our faith in the Scrip- 
 tures, when we must admit them in everything else ? And 
 besides, the nature of religion being considered, it is to be 
 expected there would be even greater difficulties in under- 
 standing it, than in comprehending any other subject. And 
 in fact, the very difficulties of Scripture, philological and 
 historical as well as theological, while they form an excellent 
 discipline for our minds and for our faith, they are at the 
 same time the very best proofs of the antiquity, genuineness, 
 and authenticity of the Bible. It was revealed in ancient 
 tongues, in remote ages, arid to successive generations. 
 And it is now easier to believe in its truth than to account 
 for its existence and history on the supposition that it is 
 not true. We cannot dispense with the difficulties not as 
 stated by the right reverend prelate of Natal, but as they 
 lie in the narratives themselves. The discrepancies, contra- 
 dictions, omissions, and errors, apparent or real, are to us 
 elements of strength. Paley and Lardner, and many 
 others, have developed this argument with irresistible 
 power. 
 
Difficulties do not Destroy Credibility. 105 
 
 Again, we must remember that the history of the Bible is 
 not an imaginary one, but a simple record of things as they 
 occurred. It is not responsible for the actions of the men 
 of whom it speaks, but for giving us a true account of what 
 they did, so far as their actions came within the purport of 
 what they were recording. Many incidents spoken of are in 
 themselves trivial, but important as links with some other 
 records. Many things are recorded that are not approved 
 of either by the writers or the religion they professed. They 
 are simple narratives of men and women as they really were, 
 not as they could have been represented in fiction. True 
 records of human nature, as it was and as it is. The charac- 
 ters of Bible heroes are not given to us absolutely perfect 
 or sinless. They are diamonds, but diamonds with flaws. 
 We should suspect the veracity of our sacred narratives if 
 they set before us perfect men and women. This, however, 
 they do not attempt, except in giving us the life of the sin- 
 less One, the God-man. All that we are to look for, there- 
 fore, in the Bible account of the feelings, opinions, and 
 actions of men, is a fair and faithful record of them. This 
 is all that the inspiration and authority of the Scriptures 
 claim in such cases. And if we find God's providence over- 
 ruling man's wrong-doing for the Divine glory, it is no just 
 cause of complaint, but rather a reason for adoring Him 
 whose prerogative alone it is to bring good out of evil. For 
 neither is the responsibility of man, nor the holiness of God, 
 affected by the arrangement. And if we find penalties 
 annexed to laws in the Bible, and Divine sentence executed 
 
106 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 upon cities and nations as well as upon individuals, why 
 should we find fault with it any more than with Providence, 
 which does the same thing now ? We can reconcile every- 
 thing of this kind for which the Bible is fairly responsible 
 with its claims to be the Word of God, just as easily as we 
 can harmonise the massacre of Cawnpore, or the destruc- 
 tion of a city by an earthquake, with the providence of the 
 Supreme Being over all things in our own day. 
 
 We admit there are things obscure and hard to be under- 
 stood in the Holy Scriptures. Lord Bacon has well said, 
 " In divinity many things must be left abrupt and concluded 
 with this Oh, the depth ! For the Indicter of Scripture 
 did know four things which no man attains to know : the 
 mysteries of the kingdom of glory, the perfection of the 
 laws of nature, the secrets of the heart of man, and the 
 future succession of ages/' 
 
 We cannot conceive of a revelation from God to man that 
 should be absolutely free from all difficulty in the minds of 
 all men. Some difficulties would exist. But the reason of 
 them is the darkness of our minds and not the fault of the 
 writers. These difficulties arise from the uncertainty of the 
 text, confusion and uncertainty about the meaning of words 
 and phrases, and about the scope and design of particular 
 books; and because of our imperfect knowledge of the 
 chronology, geography, customs and manners, of the age 
 and country in which the inspired authors wrote, and from 
 the nature of the subject matters of which they wrote. 
 
 Admitted we have difficulty, then, in determining in a few 
 
Difficulties do not Destroy Credibility. 107 
 
 passages which is the sacred text and what is the meaning 
 of a few inspired texts ; still these confessed difficulties are 
 not inconsistent with the inspiration and authenticity of 
 the Bible, nor do they hinder its usefulness for doctrine 
 and for instruction in righteousness. 
 
 There is this to be remembered also some things, as the 
 Trinity, are to be believed purely on the authority of 
 revelation. It is above, but not contrary to our reason. 
 Other things are described in the Bible which we believe, 
 because they were proved by miraculous agency. The rule, 
 then, is this : Some doctrines are purely matters of revela- 
 tion, and are to be believed because they are among revealed 
 truths. Some facts of revelation are to be believed because 
 though we cannot explain them by ordinary means, yet they 
 are within the scope of miracles. And always the rule is, 
 miracles are to be taken into the account when ordinary means 
 fail ; and in judging of such events, we must remember also 
 that at present our means are limited. We have only a part 
 of the history, and after all we may admit unexplained diffi- 
 culties without impeaching the truth of the Pentateuch, and 
 without at all weakening our faith. We admit unexplained 
 difficulties everywhere, and yet we believe in our own exist- 
 ence ; and we believe in God and in His Son Jesus Christ. 
 
 The Record well says the issue presented by Bishop Co- 
 lenso is this : " Which is most probable, the uninspired 
 character of the narratives, or the admission of a natural 
 impossibility ? Whereas the question really is, Which is 
 most probable, palpable, and transparent, contradictions in 
 
108 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 the documents of Christianity, or a mistake in the argu- 
 ments of the critic who professes to find them there ?" And 
 for ourselves, we have no hesitation in saying the mistake is 
 with our critic, and not with the author of the Pentateuch, 
 We would apply to this point of our argument Aristotle's 
 celebrated maxim : " It is probable that many improbable 
 things will happen." It is upon this maxim Archbishop 
 "Whately has built his argument for Christianity out of 
 Historic Doubts as to the Existence of Napoleon Buonaparte. 
 It runs in this way : " There are in his history a much 
 greater amount of gross and glaring improbabilities than in 
 any equal portion of Scripture history, or perhaps even than 
 in all the Scripture narratives together. And yet all believe 
 it, because the improbability of its being an entire fabrica- 
 tion is incalculably greater. It does not follow, then, that 
 a history is not true because some serious objections may 
 be brought against it, for there may be even stronger and 
 more weighty ones on the opposite side." 
 
 We have also recently seen a very ingenious argument in 
 the Birmingham Gazette on "Historic Doubts as to the 
 American Civil War," to the effect that the facts in regard 
 to it are so improbable, so self-contradictory, so absurd 
 that when they are tested by " intrinsic evidence as to their 
 credibility, and by comparison with past records known to 
 be true, they are absolutely incredible." " Any historian 
 of the present day deciphering such a story in any old 
 records of Assyria, or Egypt, or Greece, would at once re- 
 ject the legend as unfitted for historical reproduction. And 
 
Difficulties do not Destroy Credibility. 
 
 109 
 are we to believe it now ?..... We think we have 
 
 shown enough to prove that the whole story as told to us 
 in the newspapers is too wild and contradictory for the 
 belief of the most credulous ; and that it is a badly -got-up 
 fiction,, invented by unscrupulous editors for their own 
 profit and advantage. In fact, all honest men must come 
 to the conclusion that there is no American civil war, and 
 that Mr. Lincoln if, indeed, there be any such man is 
 still ruling over a peaceful and united people." 
 
 It is obvious that the application of Aristotle's rule to 
 Bishop Colenso's difficulties will show that there are greater 
 improbabilities against him than there are against Moses. 
 
VII. 
 
 THE DIFFICULTIES OUTWEIGHED. 
 
 " No monument, either historical or astronomical, has yet been able 
 to prove the books of Moses false ; but, on the contrary, with those 
 books agree, in the most remarkable manner, the results obtained by 
 the most learned philologues and the profoundest geometricians." 
 
 JSalbi Atlas lEthnographique du Globe. 
 
 IT is seen from the preceding pages that the bishop's 
 difficulties are all expressed in figures. The numbers are 
 too great, and there is a want of proportion between them. 
 Nay, there are " absolute contradictions/' " utter impossi- 
 bilities/' He tells us there could not have been 2,000,000 
 of Israelites in Egypt, nor 600,000 fighting men; that 
 these Hebrew warriors could not have gotten arms, nor 
 tents, nor could they have carried them if they had obtained 
 them, nor could they have dwelt in booths, for they had 
 not time to cut down the green branches and make them, 
 even if there had been any trees, which there were not; 
 that they had not as many lambs and pigeons as were re- 
 quired for their religious services, and if they had had them, 
 they could not feed them in the wilderness, for there was 
 no water nor grass. By his arithmetic he makes out that 
 the narrative fails to give us the data for calculating the 
 numbers mentioned, and leaves us in want of water, fuel, 
 
The Difficulties Outweighed. Ill 
 
 lambs, and pigeons, and the means of cleanliness. Ergo, 
 there never was and could not be any such an event as the 
 Exodus. These and such-like are his objections to the 
 historic credibility of the narrative of the Exodus. And 
 because he cannot explain all these matters according to 
 the rules of his arithmetic, he concludes Moses did not 
 write the Pentateuch, nor are its narratives true. Let us 
 see how the argument now stands. It will be observed 
 1. There is in the bishop's volume an entire absence of 
 any acknowledged miraculous intervention. He ignores 
 altogether the " mighty hand and outstretched arm" of the 
 Almighty, so often mentioned in the Scriptures: "For 
 the LORD'S portion is His people ; Jacob is the lot of His 
 inheritance. He found him in a desert land, and in the 
 waste howling wilderness ; He led him about, He instructed 
 him, He kept him as the apple of His eye. As an eagle 
 stirreth up her nest, fluttereth over her young, spreadeth 
 abroad her wings, taketh them, beareth them on her wings : 
 so the LORD alone did lead him, and there was no strange 
 god with Him" (Deut. xxxii. 9 12). It is wonderful 
 how positively the Exodus as a whole, and its remarkable 
 events in detail, are referred to in the Bible as the work of 
 Jehovah : " I am the LORD thy God, which have brought 
 thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bon- 
 dage." The whole history of the Jews is remarkable, and 
 in many of its parts highly exceptional, but especially their 
 Exodus from Egypt ; and when we admit a special provi- 
 dence, as we certainly must do, or deny all history, then it 
 
112 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 is easier to receive the narrative as true than to reject it as 
 false., on the grounds occupied by Bishop Colenso. He 
 does not seem to admit any miracle in the history at all. 
 He says he could indeed believe in miracles, if he had " a 
 veracious history" of them ; but leaves us to infer that in 
 his judgment we have neither miracles nor a veracious his- 
 tory. The nature and proof of miracles do not come into 
 the range of our present discussion. 
 
 2. The bishop seems also to forget that Bible narratives 
 are not complete encyclopedias of the world's full history. 
 They were never intended to be exhaustive. Only so much 
 of the revelation which God made to the Church in primitive 
 times, and so much of its history and of its connection with 
 the world as Infinite Wisdom saw was necessary for the 
 Church of future ages, was preserved. We have a mere 
 epitome of the lives of the patriarchs and prophets a bare 
 outline or abstract of the history of Divine communications 
 made in early ages, and of the dealings of Providence with 
 the Jews. There may, therefore, have been, and we have 
 no doubt there were many, very many subordinate trans- 
 actions and circumstances in regard to the sojourn in Egypt, 
 and the commencement of the journey out of Egypt, the 
 institution of the Passover, and as to the number and kinds 
 of houses, tents, or habitations which they occupied, and 
 the places and the manner of keeping their flocks, that 
 would make the history more intelligible to us, if we were 
 in possession of them. Is it not, therefore, reasonable to 
 receive the Pentateuch as we have it, rather than to sponge 
 
The Difficulties Outweighed. 113 
 
 it out of the Bible, because Bishop Colenso has found a few 
 difficulties about numbers and a few other small matters 
 that he cannot explain to his own satisfaction ? We are 
 perfectly sure there is a full solution of every difficulty. We 
 only wait for further light. We want certainty as to the 
 correctness of the text, and then the true translation, and 
 then a knowledge of " concomitant facts/' and we are con- 
 tent with the result. All the difficulties that have been or 
 may be brought against the Bible are explained or removed, 
 or good and sufficient reasons are to be found why they are 
 not explained. As we believe, and act upon our belief 
 every day, in things which we cannot fully comprehend; 
 and as we receive in good faith every day things that are in 
 part mysteries to us, or connected with difficulties which 
 we cannot understand ; so we cannot allow that the Penta- 
 teuch is historically false, and its claims upon our faith are 
 destroyed, because we may not be able, with our present 
 limited knowledge, to explain every part of it. This were 
 to apply to it rules and principles which are not applied to 
 anything else. And though we admit some difficulties 
 which are as yet unexplained, we are perfectly confident 
 that the advance of science, and the maturity of sound 
 learning, and the revelations of geology as to the manner 
 of the creation and the history of man on our globe, and 
 the more clear reading of the monuments of the East, will 
 all tend more and more to the establishment of our faith in 
 Moses as a writer, philosopher, lawgiver, and theologian. 
 As the stars in their course once fought against Sisera, so 
 
 i 
 
114 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 were they marshalled a few years ago against Moses ; but 
 now the whole host of heaven, like the star of Bethlehem, 
 guides to Him of whom Moses in the Law and the Prophets 
 did write. And so it will always be with true science. The 
 works of nature, properly understood, cannot be antago- 
 nistic to the true records of the history of grace. 
 
 Bishop Sutler, in his profound work, The Analogy, says, 
 " The truth of our religion, like the truth of all common 
 matters, is to be judged of by all the evidence taken to- 
 gether; and unless the whole series of things which may 
 be alleged in the argument, and every particular thing in 
 it, can reasonably be supposed to have been by accident, 
 then is the truth of it proved. It is obvious how much 
 advantage the nature of this evidence gives to those who 
 attack Christianity, especially in conversation ; for it is easy 
 to show, in a short and lively manner, that such and such 
 things in the Bible are liable to objection ; but it is impos- 
 sible to show, in like manner, the united force of the whole 
 argument in one view." 
 
 The honest way to look at the subject is to consider 
 " whether the general evidence for the Bible will overbear 
 the difficulties which we cannot separate from its truths ; if 
 it will not, we must reject it wholly ; if it will, we must receive 
 it wholly* There is plainly no middle ground between 
 absolute infidelity and absolute belief." 
 
 Suppose, then, there are some difficulties attending some 
 portions of the Bible which as yet we are not able to ex- 
 plain, we cannot admit that these difficulties overbalance 
 
The Difficulties Outweighed. 115 
 
 the mass of evidence we have in its favour. There is more 
 evidence, and stronger, in favour of the Bible than there is 
 against it. Nay, there is no evidence against it. There 
 are only some unexplained difficulties in regard to some 
 small portions of it ; and, judging from the past, we look for 
 aid in explaining these difficulties as time rolls on and learn- 
 ing and science advance. It has been thus in regard to astro- 
 nomy, geology, and man's physical history. Very many of the 
 difficulties urged against the Bible fifty years ago have been 
 abandoned. Astronomical tables of Egypt and India, that were 
 supposed to have annihilated Moses, are found at last not to 
 be astronomical tables at all, or, if they are, they do not prove 
 a dangerous antiquity. Yet this was " a mere question of 
 facts," and of facts about figures too. And the facts, read 
 aright, bring out a result not at all inconsistent with Moses. 
 And so of geology and man's history on this planet. Almost 
 every year we have some new facts corroborative of Moses, 
 or at least going to show that he has made no mistake in 
 his statements. If, then, to-morrow I am met with the dis- 
 covery of facts that seem to be hostile to some of the state- 
 ments of the Bible, what shall I do ? Why, first, we must 
 have a little time to ascertain whether the alleged facts are 
 facts. If they are, then I will confess them to be facts, 
 and I will still believe the Bible to be true in all its state- 
 ments. Next I will examine the Bible statements that 
 seem to be contradicted by these undeniable facts, to see 
 whether they are really a part of the inspired volume, and 
 also to see whether it is absolutely certain that we read 
 
116 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 them correctly. And if I am satisfied we have the 
 correct text and the true interpretation, and still there is 
 an apparent contradiction between the Bible text and the 
 undeniable facts, then I will say I still believe the Bible, and 
 have no doubt time will explain the difficulty. Other facts 
 will be brought to light that will remove the contradictions. 
 The priests of a former age were in error as to the sun's 
 position in our system, and many of the alleged facts of 
 science and history have been misapprehended and mis- 
 applied, and some Scripture texts may be misinterpreted ; 
 but the mass of evidence in favour of the truth of the 
 Bible is so overwhelmingly strong that it outweighs all 
 the objections brought against it, and all the difficulties 
 found in interpreting and explaining its statements. They 
 are as light as a feather weighed against the evidences that 
 are in its favour. Their rock is not as our Rock, our 
 enemies themselves being judges. Whenever Dagon 
 attempts to stand in the house of our God he falls and is 
 broken to pieces. 
 
VIII. 
 
 THE PENTATEUCH GENUINE AND AUTHENTIC. 
 
 " That Moses is the author of the five books usually called his, is the 
 common opinion of Christians and Jews ; and I regard it, not only as 
 perfectly correct, but as certain as anything which can be known re- 
 specting the composition of any ancient book." 
 
 MlCHAELIS. 
 
 " If those facts which relate to the origin, nature, and progress of 
 the Christian religion, are not therefore established, nothing in the 
 history of mankind can be believed." 
 
 CHIEF-JUSTICE BUSHE. 
 
 THE CANONICAL authority of a book implies that it was 
 written by the author whose name it bears that is, is 
 genuine ; and that it is authentic that is, that it is a true 
 history or a narrative of actual facts ; and that its author 
 was under the special guidance of the Holy Spirit in com- 
 posing it. When we say, therefore, that the Pentateuch 
 is genuine, we mean that it was written by Moses, and that 
 it is authentic because it is true, and that it was Divinely 
 inspired because Moses was moved to write it by the Holy 
 Spirit. " All Scripture is given by inspiration of God " 
 (2 Tim. iii. 16). " Holy men of God spake as they were 
 moved by the Holy Ghost" (2 Peter i. 21.) Observe 
 
118 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 how emphatic these texts are. Holy men of God) moved by 
 the Holy Ghost. Also, all Scripture ; not some parts, but 
 all; and that this passage of the Apostle relates specially 
 to the Old Testament, and comprehended the five books of 
 Moses, and was understood to recognise them as genuine, 
 authentic, and Divinely inspired. But on this we do not 
 now dwell. 
 
 Knapp's definition of the inspiration of God as to the 
 writers of the Bible is that they were under " an extraordi- 
 nary Divine agency while giving instruction, whether oral 
 or written, by which they were taught what and how they 
 should write or speak." And the great and pious com- 
 mentator,, Thomas Scott, says, "Inspiration discovers new 
 truth, and superintends the communication of the old. The 
 former we call revelation." 
 
 By Divine inspiration, then, we understand that the 
 Holy Spirit so guided the sacred writers as to communicate 
 to them, when necessary for the purpose designed, facts 
 before unknown, and so guided them also in the selection 
 of facts already known as to preserve them from error of 
 every kind in what they wrote. We do not deny, however, 
 but that there are, and have been, errors committed by 
 copyists, transcribers, and interpreters. We admit there 
 are mysteries in Eevelation, as in Creation and Providence, 
 which we are not able at present to comprehend ; and we 
 admit there are difficulties about Hebrew numerals and 
 chronology not yet explained. There are texts of Holy 
 Scripture that we do not profess to understand. There are 
 
The Pentateuch Genuine and Authentic. 119 
 
 texts and passages of the Bible we are by no means able 
 to comprehend ; and for ourselves, we doubt whether they are 
 yet properly translated. 
 
 These brief and simple definitions we make here not 
 because we suppose our readers have not formed their own 
 opinions as to the meaning of these terms, but because 
 we wish to have a fair understanding of what we contend 
 for. We wish the points really at issue to be kept fully 
 before the mind. Bishop Colenso maintains that Moses 
 did not write the Pentateuch, and that it is not a true 
 history, and consequently was not written by Divine inspi- 
 ration. We maintain just the contrary. And our reasons 
 for our belief are briefly the following ; namely, 
 
 1. Moses claims to be the author, and says that he 
 delivered a copy of these books to the Levites, to be care- 
 fully deposited in the Ark of the Covenant, in order that 
 it might be preserved with the ark in the sanctuary of 
 their worship. "And it came to pass, when Moses had made 
 an end of writing the words of this law in a book (Hattorah, 
 iji Hebrew, was the general name for the five books of 
 Moses, because they contained the civil and sacred laws of 
 the Israelitish people, and these laws were THE LAW by 
 pre-eminence), until they were finished, that Moses com- 
 manded the Levites which bare the ark of the covenant of 
 the LORD, saying, TAKE THIS BOOK or THE LAW, and put 
 it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the LOED your 
 God, that it may be there for a witness against thee " 
 (Deut. xxxi. 24 26). Now no people on earth have a 
 
120 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 greater veneration for their holy writings, or have been more 
 careful in their preservation, than the Hebrews. Their 
 mental constitution, their habits, and the structure of their 
 language, all conspired with their religious prejudices and 
 dogmatic creed to make them pre-eminently the preservers, 
 the conservators of the Divine "Word. Salvation is of the 
 Jews, because to them were committed the oracles of God. 
 The world had lost all true theism but for the Israelites ; 
 and why did they preserve the idea of one living and true 
 God, while all other nations were polytheists? Because 
 they had the Holy Scriptures. They were exceedingly 
 jealous that all their Scriptures should be kept pure and be 
 preserved in all their integrity. In our Lord's day the Law 
 and the Prophets were so divided into sections as to be 
 read in their different synagogues every Sabbath of the year. 
 The sections of the Law were called Pareskiotk, and were 
 taken from Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deu- 
 teronomy. The sections of the Prophets were called Hajpk- 
 taroth. In their synagogues the Law is read through in the 
 fifty Sabbaths of their lunar year. After the conquest of 
 the Jews by Antiochus Epiphanes it was forbidden them, 
 on pain of death, to read the law publicly in their syna- 
 gogues. But in order that they might not be altogether 
 deprived of the Word of God, the Jews selected fifty-four 
 portions from other parts of their sacred writings; for though 
 the Law was forbidden by the edict of this persecuting king, 
 the prophetic writings were not, and hence it was that the 
 prophetic writings were used for their Sabbath lessons when 
 
The Pentateuch Genuine and Authentic. 121 
 
 they were not allowed to read the Law. And it is believed 
 that it was from this custom of the Jews that the early 
 Church adopted the reading of a lesson on every Sabbath 
 out of the Old and New Testaments. 
 
 2. " Moses" not only " wrote this law and delivered it 
 unto the priests the sons of Levi, which bare the ark of the 
 covenant of the LORD, and unto all the elders of Israel/' but 
 " Moses commanded them, saying. At the end of every 
 seven years, in the solemnity of the year of release, in the 
 feast of tabernacles, when all Israel is come to appear before 
 the LORD thy God in the place which He shall choose, thou 
 shalt read this law before all Israel in their hearing. Gather 
 the people together, men, and women, and children, and thy 
 stranger that is within thy gates, that they may hear, and 
 that they may learn, and fear the LORD your God, and ob- 
 serve to do all the words of this law : and that their 
 children, which have not known any thing, may hear, and 
 learn to fear the LORD your God, as long as ye live in the 
 land whither ye go over Jordan to possess it." Deut. xxxi. 
 913. 
 
 This record of the writing of all the words of the Law, 
 and the command to have them publicly read and taught to 
 all the people, is given in connection with Moses' last 
 words to Joshua. It is a part of his dying commands to 
 his successor. Unusual solemnity and importance is given 
 to them. Moses told the people how old he was, and that 
 he could not go over Jordan with them ; but that Joshua 
 would lead them as the LORD had said, and " the LORD thy 
 
122 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 God, He will go over before thee, and give thee the land/' 
 Then he called Joshua, and addressed him in the sight of all 
 Israel, and then delivered the books of the Law to the 
 priests to keep, and to teach to the people in the manner 
 just recited. And then the LOED appeared in the pillar of 
 cloud, and " said unto Moses, Behold, thy days approach 
 that thou must die : call Joshua, and present yourselves in 
 the tabernacle of the congregation, that I may give him a 
 charge." Then follows a brief history of the assembly, and 
 of the charge, and a repetition of Moses finishing the writing 
 of the law, and of his addition to it of what is called " this 
 song," which is contained in Deut. xxxii. and xxxiii., in 
 which Moses encourages the people, sets forth God's mercy 
 and vengeance, and exhorts them to set their hearts on the 
 law of God. He warns them of apostacy, and foretells 
 what has come to pass with them, even to the present day. 
 Then he blesses the twelve tribes, and dies. There is 
 nothing more simple and sublime than this account of 
 Moses' closing labours. 
 
 Some of the Rabbis tell us that Moses wrote thirteen 
 copies of the whole Pentateuch, and that he gave a copy to 
 each tribe and laid up the thirteenth in the ark. It is not 
 necessary to insist upon this ; but from verses 9, 24, and 26 
 of this chapter Deut. xxxi., it would seem probable 
 that two copies were made one for the priests, and one, 
 the standard copy to which all transcripts must conform, 
 was laid up in the ark. Dr. Clarke very properly remarks 
 that as the Law was a covenant or contract between God 
 
The Pentateuch Genuine and Authentic. 123 
 
 and the people, it is natural to suppose there were two 
 copies of it, that each of the contracting parties might 
 have one. The LORD'S copy was laid up in the ark, 
 and the people's copy was given into the keeping of the 
 priests. 
 
 The song spoken of in verses 19 and 22 is not to be con- 
 founded with the Law, although included in the complete 
 copy of the books of Moses. It is true that Aristotle says 
 in old times the people sung their laws. Cicero also in- 
 forms us the Romans sung the praises of their heroes at 
 their festivals. And so Homer, it is said, sung his poems 
 in different Greek cities. Herodotus divided his history 
 into books, inscribing one to each of the Muses, because 
 these books were anciently sung. The ancients could sing 
 prose, and especially if the subjects were deemed important ; 
 for as writing was but little practised, and printing un- 
 known, it was by singing they kept the laws in the minds 
 of the people. In this case, however, it is not necessary to 
 suppose that " this song" was the whole Pentateuch, but an 
 abstract, or even only what we have in the following chap- 
 ters as a summary of the history of the Exodus and of the 
 Divine commandments, and of the promises and threaten- 
 ings which accompanied them. 
 
 3. Many facts in the. Pentateuch of a most extraordinary 
 nature are recorded, which were well known to the people 
 at the time, and were ascribed to Moses as their leader. It 
 is impossible to believe that they were imposed upon as to 
 those facts, and equally impossible to find a time from that 
 
124 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 day to this when such impositions could have been 
 presented to and received by the Israelitish nation as 
 true. 
 
 4. The peculiar institutions of the Jews are based on the 
 facts related in the Pentateuch. "The Pentateuch was 
 their statute-book the standard authority of their juris- 
 prudence in the practice of their courts of law and justice, 
 as well as the fountain head of their religion." Let it be 
 remembered, then, that we find the Jews now in all parts 
 of the world with these peculiar institutions, commemo- 
 rative of the facts related in the Pentateuch, and believed 
 by them to be true historical events, and that such has 
 been their faith all over the world from the days of Moses 
 till the present time. How then could a whole nation a 
 most peculiar people be imposed upon as to their founder 
 and the facts of their history, which live and breathe in all 
 their laws and religious rites ? When could such an im- 
 position have been made ? Certainly not between Moses 
 and Joshua, nor between Joshua and the captivity. Impos- 
 sible, not only because then the people would have refused 
 to receive as true what their history did not teach, and 
 impossible also for any such imposition to have been made, 
 for we know historically that they had, actually had, these 
 laws and religious rites in practice during all these periods 
 from the days of Moses himself. And we read, moreover, 
 that Hilkiah found a copy of the law the autograph copy 
 of the Pentateuch in the handwriting of Moses himself, 
 and presented it to King Josiah, and that Ezra used the 
 
The Pentateuch Genuine and Authentic. 125 
 
 law of Moses as containing the true history and national 
 statutes of the Jews. 
 
 The history of this finding of the law is so remarkable 
 as to be worthy of special consideration. In 2 Kings xxii. 
 8 16 we read " And Hilkiah the high priest said unto 
 Shaphan the scribe, I have found the book of the law in 
 the house of the LORD. And Hilkiah gave the book to 
 Shaphan, and he read it. And Shaphan the scribe showed 
 the king, saying, Hilkiah the priest hath delivered me a 
 book. And Shaphan read it before the king. And it came 
 to pass, when the king had heard the words of the book of 
 the law, that he rent his clothes. And the king com- 
 manded Hilkiah the priest, ... Go ye, inquire of the LOUD 
 for me, and for the people, and for all Judah, concerning 
 the words of this book that is found : for great is the wrath 
 of the LORD that is kindled against us, because our fathers 
 have not hearkened unto the words of this book, to do 
 according unto all that which is written concerning us." 
 And the answer was : " Thus saith the LORD God of Israel, 
 Behold, I will bring evil upon this place, and upon the 
 inhabitants thereof, even all the words of the book which 
 the king of Judah hath read." 
 
 In the corresponding account of the same great event in 
 2 Chron. xxxiv. 14, it is said, " Hilkiah the priest found 
 a book of the law of the LORD given by Moses." In the 
 Hebrew it is ' ' book of the law of the LORD ly the hand of 
 Moses." The description of the Law, and of the finding of 
 it, and of the effect produced on the king and the people 
 
126 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 by the reading of it, cannot fail to impress our mind with 
 the idea that this was the authentic and genuine copy which 
 Moses had directed to be laid up by the side of or in the 
 ark of the covenant, as we read in Deut. xxxi. 26. It is 
 not to be supposed that this was the only copy of the law 
 then in existence. The facts probably were, that this copy, 
 having pre-eminence, had been secretly hidden in the temple 
 when idols were set up there. Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amon 
 had destroyed many copies of the law, so that there were 
 but few left, and even these few were only abridgments or 
 abstracts of the chief laws, for the use of the priests. The 
 promises and the threatenings which so deeply affected king 
 Josiah when the law was read to him, were omitted from 
 the abridgment in use by the priests. As the reading of 
 the law had been neglected, and the people were corrupt 
 and had been greatly afflicted, it is easy to see how much 
 the king's mind would be impressed by the reading of the 
 last chapters of Deuteronomy, which were probably the first 
 that he read ; for, as the five books of Moses were written 
 upon long scrolls or rolls, and rolled upon a stick, the last 
 chapters of Deuteronomy would, of course, be the first 
 opened up to him on unrolling the book of the law. The 
 Rabbis say that Ahaz, Manasseh, and Amon really suc- 
 ceeded in destroying all the perfect copies of the law except 
 this one, which was saved by having been buried under a 
 paving-stone. Dr. Clarke says that " the simple fact, how- 
 ever, seems to be this, that this was the original of the 
 covenant renewed by Moses with the people in the plains 
 
The Pentateuch Genuine and Authentic. 127 
 
 of Moab, and which he ordered to be laid up beside the 
 ark." 
 
 5. We have other means of ascertaining what composed 
 the five books of Moses, in every essential particular. We 
 are not beholden to this copy found in the rubbish of the 
 temple. The Samaritan Pentateuch furnishes us with a 
 copy of the law of Moses. The Samaritans are well known 
 as obnoxious to the Jews, both on political and religious 
 grounds. They claimed to be descended from Jacob, how- 
 ever, and received the writings of Moses, but received no 
 other portion of the Jewish Scriptures but the Pentateuch, 
 and received it alone as of Divine authority, because it was 
 the production of Moses. 
 
 The point then at which we have arrived is so important 
 as to be repeated. Thus, it is in evidence that the Penta- 
 teuch, as embodied in a nation's language, laws, every-day 
 life, and religious rites, was promulgated at the time of the 
 conquest of Canaan ; that it was then known and received 
 as the work of Moses. It was preserved in a public and 
 sacred place, and hallowed by the reverence of an entire 
 nation ; and this same people, with these same laws and re- 
 ligion, exist among us, and all over the world, to this day, 
 fulfilling in a most extraordinary manner the predictions 
 uttered in the Pentateuch at the very beginning of their 
 history in Asia Minor, some three thousand years ago. 
 Then, after the death of Solomon, it is also in evidence that 
 the twelve tribes were divided into two kingdoms; and still 
 further, that a third schism occurred in the bosom of the 
 
128 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 kingdom of the ten tribes by the formation of the Samari- 
 tan ; but all preserved the Pentateuch. One of the oldest 
 copies of the Pentateuch in existence is this one of the 
 Samaritans. It is written in the old Phenician characters. 
 
 There are many reasons for believing that copies of the 
 Pentateuch were in the hands of the people of the ten 
 tribes from the secession of Rehoboam, as well as in the 
 kingdom of Judah. Those that were carried away captive 
 into Assyria can hardly have been supposed to have taken 
 all the copies with them. The prophets do not charge the 
 inhabitants of Israel with having destroyed the Law of 
 Moses, nor accuse them of being without it, although they 
 do inveigh against them for their idolatry and manifold 
 crimes. ' The prophets of Judah could hardly have failed 
 to charge the people of the ten tribes with such a sin, if 
 they had been guilty of it. So that we conclude with 
 Kitto, " that the Samaritan as well as the Jewish copy ori- 
 ginally flowed from the autography of Moses. The two con- 
 stitute, in fact, different recensions of the same work, and 
 coalesce in point of antiquity." Michaelis, Rosenmiiller, 
 Tholuck, Eckermann, Neander, Lightfoot, Stillingfleet, 
 Prideaux, Graves, Butler, Faber, Stuart, Bush, Robinson, 
 and all such men, declare that the Pentateuch, substantially 
 as we now have it, is the work of Moses. Even Eichhorn 
 emphatically maintains the Mosaic origin of Genesis and 
 of all the Pentateuch. 
 
 6. Josephus, a Jewish priest who was born in 37 A.D., in 
 his work against Apion, says, "We have not thousands of 
 
The Pentateuch Genuine and Authentic. 129 
 
 books, discordant and contradicting each other, but we 
 have only twenty-two* which comprehend the history of all 
 former ages, and are justly regarded as Divine. Five of 
 them proceed from Moses ; they include as well the Laws 
 as an account of the creation of man, extending to the time 
 of Moses' death. Prom the death of Moses to that of 
 Artaxerxes, who was King of Persia after Xerxes, the 
 Prophets who succeeded Moses committed to writing, iu 
 thirteen books, what was done in their days. The remain- 
 ing four books contain Hymns to God (the Psalms) and 
 instructions of life for man." (See Home's Introd., vol. i., 
 p. 43.) 
 
 We must not forget here the authority of the Septuagini 
 the translation made by learned Jews at Alexandria under 
 Ptolemy Philadelphus, about 280 B.C., of the Hebrew Scrip- 
 tures from the original into Greek. This version was made 
 after the conquests of Alexander the Great, and for the use of 
 Jews scattered throughout Asia and Africa who understood 
 the Greek language. It seems to have been familiar to the 
 Apostles, and is of great authority in fixing the meaning of 
 the sacred text. These translators received the Pentateuch 
 as the work of Moses, and as a true history, and as a part 
 of the Divinely inspired oracles. It is from them that we 
 
 * The twenty-two books of Josephus comprise our thirty-nine. The 
 ancient Hebrews reckoned their sacred books according to the number 
 of the letters of their alphabet, which were twenty-two in number. 
 They reckoned Judges and Kuth, Ezra, Nehemiah, Jeremiah and his 
 Lamentations, and the twelve minor Prophets, as one book. 
 
 K 
 
130 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 get the appellation Pentateuch, which is a Greek word 
 meaning five booh. It was prefixed by them to the five 
 books of Moses. 
 
 To Josephus, who expressly names the five books of 
 Moses as we have just seen, and tells us what they con- 
 tained, and declares they proceeded from Moses, we may add 
 the testimony of Philo Judaus, a learned Egyptian Jew, who 
 lived in the first century of the Christian era. He expressly 
 cites the Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua as of Divine 
 origin. 
 
 Josephus also quotes passages from the works of Manetho, 
 Cheremon, Apollonious, and Lysimmachus, besides other 
 writers, both Greek and Egyptian, whose works are now 
 lost, but were extant and well known in his day ; and all 
 these passages admit, or state expressly, that Moses was the 
 leader of the Jews in their exodus from Egypt, and the 
 author of their laws. 
 
 Eusebius also produces similar passages from Eupolemus 
 and Artopanas. The books furnish us with quotations from 
 Strabo, Celsus, Porphyry, Nicolaus, Justin, Pliny the Elder, 
 Tacitus, Juvenal, Longinus, Numenius, and even from 
 Julian,"* the apostate emperor, recognising the personal 
 history of Moses, and ascribing to him the books of the 
 Pentateuch or the laws of the Jews. And the testimony 
 
 * The Emperor Julian, although inveterate in his enmity to Christi- 
 anity, has borne positive testimony to the authenticity and integrity 
 of the books of the Old Testament. See Herwerden de Juliano Im- 
 peratore, pp. 100108. 
 
The Pentateuch Genuine and Authentic. 131 
 
 of these distinguished writers of Pagan antiquity to Moses 
 as a lawgiver and as the author of the sacred books of the 
 Jews, is of special importance, because it is an ancient tes- 
 timony and was given by disinterested witnesses, and they 
 too the most intelligent men of their day. Nay, it is the 
 testimony of men exceedingly full of prejudices against the 
 Jews, and also enemies to Christianity.* 
 
 In remotest times, therefore, we have first Jews, then 
 Samaritans, and then Christians, and even Sadducees and 
 Gnostics, receiving the Pentateuch as the work of Moses. 
 And even Mohammed maintained that Moses was inspired 
 and the Jewish law Divine. Mohammedans claim all the holy 
 places of the Bible as theirs, and all Bible characters, both 
 of the Old and New Testaments, but add that Mohammed 
 was greater than Moses, and greater still than Jesus Christ. 
 In the discussion, therefore, as between Deism or Colensoism 
 and Christianity, the whole Mohammedan world is with 
 Moses, In the middle ages a few Jews, a Isaac Ben Jasos, 
 of the eleventh century, expressed some doubts about the 
 authority of the Pentateuch. The ablest writer among 
 them was Ibn Ben Ezra. After the Reformation we find 
 Spinosa, Le Clerc, Simon, Van Dale, and others, attempt- 
 
 * These heathen testimonies to Moses are remarkable, and may be 
 seen at some length in Bishop Newton's Dissertations on Moses and 
 his Writings. They are given briefly in Home's Introduction, and 
 alluded to by almost all writers on the Pentateuch. We beg, however, 
 to recommend Kurtz, Hengstenberg, Havernick, and especially Bush 
 on The Pentateuch, Jahn's Introduction, and Marsh and Graves. 
 
132 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 ing to destroy its authority. But the deists of the present 
 and last century, in this country and in France and Ger- 
 many who have written against Moses, have dealt mostly in 
 jests. And at the present day the great storehouse of arms 
 before the appearance of Bishop Colenso's volume, with 
 which to attack the Pentateuch, was the commentaries of 
 De Wette and Yater. Vater especially embodied exhaus- 
 tively everything that could be gathered or invented against 
 the Pentateuch, applying to it the principles of criticism 
 which Wolfh&d. applied to Homer. Even Hobbes, in 1650, 
 who was the first Englishman, as we have already said, to 
 open his mouth against Moses, says " the books of the Pen- 
 tateuch are called the books of Moses not because he wrote 
 them, but because they relate to transactions in which he 
 acted a prominent part." He does not deny the truth of 
 the history. " They relate to transactions" not to dreams 
 or fictions " in which Moses acted a prominent part." 
 
 Volney, Hass^, Nachtigall, Bertholdt, Gesenius, De 
 Wette, and their followers, are not agreed among them- 
 selves in anything except in this that Moses did not write 
 the Pentateuch ; but they do not agree to deny his existence, 
 nor in telling us who did write it. Even Strauss admits 
 the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch. 
 
 The verdict, therefore, of Jews, Samaritans, Sadducees, 
 Gnostics, and Mohammedans, as well as of many of the best 
 scholars of Pagan antiquity, and of the whole Christian 
 world, with the few exceptions we have alluded to, is against 
 the Bishop of Natal and in favour of Moses and Joshua. 
 
The Pentateuch Genuine and Authentic. 133 
 
 The verdict of the best scholars, the best men, and the 
 ablest writers of all countries and of all ages, in overwhelm- 
 ing numbers, is, that there is not for the authorship of 
 any ancient book in existence such an amount of evidence 
 of evidence so full, and so conclusive, and so universal, and 
 so free from contradictory or conflicting testimony from an- 
 tiquity as there is for the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch. 
 " Considerate critics, who are not under the sway of dog- 
 matic prejudices, find that the -passages which are produced 
 in order to prove that the Pentateuch was written after the 
 time of Moses, by no means support any such conclusion, 
 and that a more accurate examination of the contents of 
 the separate portions discovers many vestiges demonstrating 
 that the work originated in the age of Moses " Kitto. 
 
IX. 
 
 JESUS CHRIST RECOGNISED THE PENTATEUCH 
 AS GENUINE, AUTHENTIC, AND INSPIRED. 
 
 " For had ye believed MOSBS, ye would have believed me ; for he 
 WEOTE of me. But if ye believe not HIS WBITINGS, how shall ye be- 
 lieve my words?" 
 
 JESUS CHEIST. 
 
 THE book of God, which we call the HOLY BIBLE, is 
 divided into two parts : the Old Testament and the New. 
 The first contains as much of what God revealed to our 
 race in early times as He deemed it necessary to have pre- 
 served. The second part contains the revelation of the 
 Divine will for our salvation, as seen in the life and death 
 of Jesus Christ and the writings of His apostles. We 
 usually speak of the New Testament as composed of the 
 Gospels, Epistles, Acts, and the Revelation of St. John 
 the Divine. The Old Testament, in our Lord's day, was 
 spoken of as composed of the Law, or five books of Moses, 
 the Prophets, and Writings, or the Psalms. The portion 
 of the Scriptures which the Jews denominated "The 
 Writings," was also called "The Psalms," because the 
 Psalms were the first book of this division. " The Pro- 
 phets" were the same that we have, and " the Law" was 
 
Christ recognises the Pentateuch as Genuine. 135 
 
 confessedly the same five books of Moses that we have; 
 namely, Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuter- 
 onomy, which were originally written in one volume, as 
 all the manuscripts, we believe, are to this day which are 
 read in the synagogues. The five books of Moses were 
 often called THE LAW (Hattorah), by way of eminence, or 
 "the law of the Lord," or "the law of Moses." The 
 appellation for them now so common The Pentateuch 
 we have seen is from the Greek, and was, probably, first 
 used by the translators of the Septuagint. The Israelites 
 have always kept the five books of Moses distinct from the 
 rest of their holy writings, considering them as the basis of 
 their Theocracy. This division of the Hebrew Scriptures, and 
 the great points of Hebrew history and of Hebrew faith, 
 are clearly recognised in the New Testament. Christ and 
 His apostles uniformly received the Scriptures as Divine, 
 and always admitted or assumed that the religion of the 
 Jewish Scriptures was from God. They acknowledged 
 that a Divine revelation was given to Abraham and Moses, 
 and that the Law was of Divine authority. See Eom. 
 vii. 22; ix. 4; Acts iii. 13; John i. 17; iv. 22 ; v. 
 39, 4547 ; viii. 56 ; xix. 36 ; Matt. xv. 4 ; Mark 
 xii. 2426; 2 Cor. iii. 7; ix. 8, 9; Gal. iii. 18. 
 These texts are referred to as specimens. It is not 
 deemed necessary here to produce them, especially as we 
 shall have occasion hereafter to consider a few of them 
 apart. In them we find our Lord and His Apostles 
 ascribing the ancient Jewish Scriptures to the Holy Ghost, 
 
136 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 and teaching that the Gospel is but the fulfilment of the 
 Prophets. If we admit the authority of our Lord as a 
 Divine Teacher, then the authority of the Pentateuch is 
 established. And if we deny His authority, how can we be 
 Christians? 
 
 I. The threefold division of the Old Testament was 
 expressly recognised by Jesus Christ and His Apostles. We 
 find Him worshipping in the Jewish synagogues, and 
 taking part in the reading and expounding of their Scrip- 
 tures, and receiving, as Divinely inspired Scripture, just 
 what the Jews received and delivered to Him as such. He 
 affirmed that their books were written by the Holy Ghost 
 (Mark xii. 36). He claimed to be received as the Messiah, 
 on the authority of the prophecies contained in these books. 
 He referred to these books as " the Scriptures," and com- 
 manded or commended the Jews for searching them. He 
 also said the Scriptures " must be fulfilled ;" " the Scrip- 
 ture cannot be broken." " Verily, I say unto you, Till 
 heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle shall in no wise 
 pass from the law, till all be fulfilled." " It is easier for 
 heaven and earth to pass, than one tittle of the law to fail." 
 (Lukexvi. 17; Matt. v. 18; John x. 35.) 
 
 II. The allusions to the five books of Moses are so 
 numerous in the Prophets, Psalms, and sacred writings of 
 the Jews, from Joshua to Malachi, that it is clear the 
 Pentateuch, very much as we now have it, was extant and 
 
Christ recognises the Pentateuch as Genuine. 137 
 
 highly valued, and generally known during the whole 
 period of their national existence, from the death of Moses 
 to the end of the Prophets. And in so far as the books 
 called Apocryphal are to be regarded as true histories, 
 the same proof is to be derived from them; and from 
 Josephus we know the books of Moses were received with 
 the greatest reverence in our Lord's day. And in all these 
 quotations or references to the books of the Pentateuch 
 they are mentioned directly or indirectly as the production 
 of Moses, and spoken of as a true history of their nation, 
 and entitled to the profoundest respect, because they con- 
 stituted the Law of Jehovah, which was the gift of heaven 
 by Moses. It cannot be denied that the canon of the Old 
 Testament, as received by the Jews in our Lord's day, was 
 the same that we now have. Josephus, Philo, and a 
 host of ancient writers, are full and positive on this point. 
 These writers agree in telling us that the Jews received 
 these identical books of Moses as a part of their sacred 
 canon, and that they regarded them with the greatest 
 reverence. Josephus expressly states that the canon which 
 he sets down was the received canon of all Jews, and that 
 they all would contend for it to the death, and that none 
 had ever dared to increase or diminish or change them. 
 Josephus Contra, Ap. i. 8. 
 
 III. In the New Testament we find at least 639 re- 
 ferences to and direct quotations from the Old Testament. 
 These quotations are from almost every book in the Old 
 
138 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 Testament. Ninety are from the Pentateuch, besides more 
 than one hundred other references to it. Ancient types, 
 history, and prophecy, are explained by these references and 
 quotations. They may be divided into prophetic, demon- 
 strative, and illustrative. They refer to the Messiah 
 and the Gospel dispensation, and are applied to Christ 
 or some event of His history or of His kingdom. (See 
 Matt. iv. 15, 16; John vi. 45; xix. 36; Heb. xii. 20; 
 Bom. x. 18.) 
 
 IV. Our line of argument here (to prove that Moses 
 wrote the Pentateuch, that it is a real history, and was 
 written by inspiration) would be in the following style, and 
 comprehend all the evidences that we have already cited in 
 a previous chapter on the genuineness and authenticity of 
 the five books of Moses, namely 
 
 1. Moses claims himself that he wrote these books. 
 (Exod. xvii. 14; xxiv. 4 7; xxxiv. 27: Numb, xxxiii. 
 2 ; Deut. xxxi. 9, 1924, &c.) 
 
 2. Almost all the writers of the Old Testament ascribe 
 the Pentateuch to Moses (Josh. i. 7, 8; viii. 31 35; 
 Judges iii. 4; 2 Kings xxiii. 25; 2 Chron. xxx. 16; Neh. 
 i. 7, 8, et al.) 
 
 3. The unanimous and uneontradicted testimony of an- 
 tiquity. 
 
 4. The internal and external evidences as of language, 
 nature of customs alluded to, and of the doctrines taught, 
 &c., &c. 
 
Christ recognises the Pentateuch as Genuine. 139 
 
 5. The whole historical existence of the Israelitish people 
 rests upon the authority of the Pentateuch, and demon- 
 strates that they emanated from Moses. 
 
 6. All contrary hypotheses are self-contradictory and 
 entirely without foundation, while all the difficulties in- 
 volved in the genuineness and authenticity of these books 
 are susceptible of satisfactory answers, or there are satisfac- 
 tory reasons why we are not able as yet to give a solution 
 to them. 
 
 7. Christ and His Apostles confirm the authority of the 
 Pentateuch by referring to these books as having been 
 written by Moses, and as being Divinely inspired and 
 authentic. (Matt. xix. 7; Luke xvi. 29; xxiv. 27; John 
 i. 17; vii. 19; Acts iii. 22; xxviii. 23; Eom. x. 5, et al.} 
 
 V. These are the sources of evidence usually employed 
 in conducting this argument. They are to be found in so 
 many books that authorities are not called for. We dwell 
 only upon the last, for we hold that the strongest and the 
 most conclusive proof of the authority of the five books of 
 Moses that can be given is the testimony of Christ and His 
 Apostles. To us as Christians this is certain, conclusive, 
 final. Christ Jesus came to bear witness of the Truth. He 
 is Himself the Faithful and True Witness. The fulness of 
 the Holy Ghost dwelt in Him. He is the TRUTH itself. 
 Nay, He is God manifested in the flesh. How, then, can 
 there be any mistake in His teachings, or any error in His 
 confirmation of the authority of the Old Testament ? It is 
 
140 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 not necessary here for us to allude to the proofs of His 
 Messiahship nor of His Divinity. We are perfectly sure 
 that He is the chief corner-stone, elect and precious, and 
 that the faith which rests on Him rests on the everlasting 
 Eock. How, then, did He receive and treat the books of 
 Moses? His word is truth. And do we not find Him 
 everywhere speaking of the collection of sacred writings 
 namely, " The Law, the Prophets, and the Psalms," which 
 the Jews in His day called the Scriptures as ike Word of 
 God? Did He not uniformly regard the Scriptures in this 
 light ? He quoted them and referred to them as true, and 
 as clothed with Divine authority. Even this seems to be 
 admitted by Bishop Colenso, but then in such references he 
 says Jesus Christ was in error, or committed such errors as 
 were common in His day to His most pious countrymen. 
 The sum of Bishop Colenso's remarks on our Lord's quota- 
 tions from the Pentateuch is to this effect : that He did it 
 either ignorantly or deceitfully ; that is, either because He 
 did not know any better, or He did so in compliance with 
 the popular notions, which He knew to be wrong,, but which 
 error he sanctioned by such compliance. 
 
 The bishop, however, protests against using our Lord's 
 authority for Moses. He says to use such texts as John v. 
 4547; Luke xvii. 2632; xvi. 2931; xx. 37, as 
 proofs of the truth of the Mosaic history, is " to bring the 
 sacred Ark itself into the battle-field, and to make belief in 
 Christianity itself depend entirely upon the question whether 
 Moses wrote the Pentateuch or not." And so, indeed, it 
 
Christ recognises the Pentateuch as Genuine. 141 
 
 seems to us. This is precisely the issue. Tor our Lord's 
 words do certainly imply that He believed in the existence 
 of Moses just as His hearers did, and that He believed Moses 
 wrote the Pentateuch, and that his account of historic events 
 in the Pentateuch is true. 
 
 The bishop's answer to these quotations is 
 1. That if our Lord's words are to be understood in " their 
 most literal sense/' they can be applied only to certain parts 
 of the Pentateuch, for that most Christians admit that the 
 last chapter of Deuteronomy, for example, could not have 
 been written by Moses. Now, is not this an entire evasion 
 of the force of the passage ? Our Lord does not say that 
 Moses wrote an account of his own death. He alludes to 
 him as the author of the Pentateuch, and as the great legis- 
 lator of the Jews, and says that he wrote of Him. And He 
 claimed that He himself was greater than Moses, and that, 
 therefore, the Jews should believe in Him as the Messiah of 
 whom Moses wrote. The Jews of our Lord's day did not 
 believe that Moses wrote the account of his own death, nor 
 do we. The last chapter of Deuteronomy we have already 
 explained to our entire satisfaction, and we hope to the con- 
 viction of our readers. The few connecting and explanatory 
 words and passages added to the Pentateuch by Joshua, 
 Samuel, or Ezra, do not in any wise affect the great and 
 substantial question of its authority. 
 
 2ndly. The bishop alleges that our Lord used such ex- 
 pressions merely out of accommodation to the popular Ian- 
 
142 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 guage and opinions of the Jews, just as He speaks of God 
 " making His sun to rise/' &c., &c. And, 
 
 3rdly. That our Lord's character as the Son of man was 
 not infallible. He professes to believe that it is consistent 
 with our Lord's Divinity to say that when " He took our 
 nature fully, and voluntarily entered into all the conditions 
 of humanity, and among others into that which makes our 
 growth in all ordinary knowledge gradual and limited, 
 c Jesus increased in wisdom as well as in stature/ It is 
 not supposed that, in His human nature, He was acquainted, 
 more than any other educated Jew of the age, with the mys- 
 teries of all modern sciences ; nor, with St. Luke's expres- 
 sions before us, can it be seriously maintained that, as an 
 infant or young child, He possessed a knowledge surpassing 
 that of the most pious and learned adults of His nation 
 upon the subject of the authorship and age of the different 
 portions of the Pentateuch. Why should it be thought 
 that He would speak with certain Divine knowledge on 
 this matter, more than upon other matters of ordinary 
 science or history ?" (Preface, pp. xxxi., xxxii.) 
 
 We confess that we can scarcely command patience to 
 reply to such a poor, miserable, blasphemous objection as 
 this, coming from a bishop of the Church of England. 
 From Strauss or Voltaire we could answer it. But what 
 shall we say to it from a man who professes to believe in 
 the Nicene Creed and the Thirty-nine Articles ? who pro- 
 fesses to believe in the Miraculous Incarnation, the Divinity, 
 and the Atonement of the Lord Jesus Christ ? 
 
Christ recognises the Pentateuch as Genuine. 143 
 
 It is difficult, indeed, for us to know what reply to make, 
 for we are not certain as to what he would say. It is so 
 far from plain English to us that its meaning is extremely 
 doubtful. The best interpretation we can make of it is, 
 
 1st. That the bishop considers our Lord as a mere man, 
 and nothing more. He places Him on an equality with any 
 other educated Jew of His day, and seems to think that he 
 has done a great deal when he has admitted Him to such a 
 position. We are told our Lord had no more knowledge 
 or authority to decide upon "the authorship and age of the 
 different portions of the Pentateuch, than the most pious 
 and learned adults of His nation I" Where did Bishop Co- 
 lenso learn that Jesus was educated as were the most pious 
 and learned adults of His nation in His day ? When He 
 taught in their synagogues were they not astonished, and 
 said, " Whence hath this man this wisdom and these mighty 
 works. Is not this the carpenter's son ? Is not His mother 
 called Mary ? and His brethren James and Joses, and Simon 
 and Judas ? And His sisters, are they not all with us ? 
 Whence then hath this man all these things ?" Matt. xiii. 
 54 56. We know whence He came and who He was, 
 and whence He had all these things; but according to 
 Bishop Colenso's own showing, he does not know. He 
 cannot explain how this carpenter's son, whose mother was 
 called Mary, had such a knowledge of letters and of Hebrew 
 law and literature as to be on an equality with " the doctors 
 in the Temple," even " the most pious and learned adults of 
 his nation." 
 
144 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 2ndly. We would respectfully ask the Bishop of Natal to 
 tell us when Jesus passed from " His infancy and young 
 childhood ?" Was it in His infancy He uttered the words 
 quoted at the head of this chapter ? Was it always in His 
 mere human nature alone that our Lord bore attestation to 
 Moses and his writings ? Or does the bishop mean that 
 His Divine nature had its " infancy and young childhood " 
 as well as His human ? Was it not in His full manhood 
 and in the plenitude of His wisdom, and when engaged in 
 fulfilling His mission as the prophet Messiah, that He re- 
 ferred to the Scriptures, and quoted the writings of Moses ? 
 When should He have spoken with infallible authority, if 
 not when actually engaged in preaching to the people, and 
 in asserting and proving from their own Scriptures that He 
 was the long-promised Messiah ? When was He endowed 
 with supernatural power if not then ? How is it possible for 
 us to believe that Jesus uttered or countenanced in any way 
 historical untruth, when He was proving his Divinity by his 
 miracles ? We prefer to believe still in the infallible autho- 
 rity of the Great " Eedeemer of God's elect," and say with 
 the Apostles rather than with Bishop Colenso : " Now we 
 are sure that Thou knowest all things, and needest not that 
 any man should ask Thee : by this we believe that Thou 
 earnest forth from God" (John xvi. 30). 
 
 3rdly. There is, moreover, a most conclusive reason why 
 our Lord should have spoken '"with, certain Divine know- 
 ledge on the matter of the Pentateuch rather than upon other 
 matters of ordinary science and history." He may have 
 
Christ recognises the Pentateuch as Genuine. 145 
 
 been " expected to speak about the Pentateuch in other 
 terms than any other devout Jew of that day would have em- 
 ployed/' if those terms were not correct. For we find Him 
 repeatedly correcting the interpretations which the Scribes 
 and Pharisees had put upon the Law of Moses. A large part 
 of His preaching was to correct the abuses that had grown 
 up in the Hebrew Church. But although we find Him in 
 many instances correcting their traditions, we nowhere, not 
 in a single instance, find Him intimating that they were 
 in error for believing in Moses, or for believing that he 
 wrote the Pentateuch, and foretold the Messiah. There is 
 not a single instance, nor a syllable like this. Besides, our 
 Lord knew all things : He knew Judas was a devil from 
 the beginning He knew what was in the hearts of His 
 hearers ; and we cannot believe He would leave them under 
 a false impression as to Moses. We cannot reconcile such 
 an opinion with His honesty or perfect character. 
 
 Again, He spoke of Moses with a specific and avowed 
 purpose namely, to show that Moses in whom they trusted 
 would accuse them and condemn them for not believing in 
 Him as the Messiah. 
 
 Thus, we do see why He should have spoken with a 
 " certain Divine knowledge" about the author and truth- 
 fulness of the Pentateuch rather than " upon other matters 
 of ordinary science or history." But where or when did 
 our Lord speak of science or history, and not speak the 
 truth ? When or how did He ever mislead His hearers, or 
 teach them what was not true ? The Bishop of Natal may 
 
146 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 teach his Zulu disciples that Moses is a myth, and the nar- 
 ratives of the Bible not historically true ; but we must be 
 allowed to believe in Jesus Christen Moses, and the Prophets, 
 and in a great and precious salvation through Him accord- 
 ing to the teaching of the Law and the Prophets. 
 
 Let us now take another passage namely, from Matt, 
 xix, 3 9, inclusive : " The Pharisees also came unto 
 Him, tempting Him, and saying unto Him, Is it lawful for 
 a man to put away his wife for every cause ? And He 
 answered and said unto them, Have ye not read, that He 
 which made them at the beginning made them male and 
 female, and said, For this cause shall a man leave father 
 and mother, and shall cleave to his wife : and they twain 
 shall be one flesh ? "Wherefore they are no more twain, but 
 one flesh. What therefore God hath joined together, let 
 not man put asunder. They say unto Him, Why did Moses 
 then command to give a writing of divorcement, and to put 
 her away ? He saith unto them, Moses because of the 
 hardness of your hearts suffered you to put away your 
 wives ; but from the beginning it was not so. And I say 
 unto you, Whosoever shall put away his wife, except it be 
 for fornication, and shall marry another, committeth adul- 
 tery ; and whoso marrieth her which is put away doth com- 
 mit adultery." 
 
 Observe here, 1. Jesus, instead of answering out of the 
 depths of His own wisdom, or from His own ineffable 
 authority, as He might have done, refers His inquirers and 
 hearers, as He almost always did, to the Word of God. In 
 
Christ recognises the Pentateuch as Genuine. 147 
 
 this case, He decided neither for Shammai, nor Hillel, but 
 for Moses. How can we have a more striking proof of the 
 value which we should attach to the writings of Moses, 
 than our Lord's example of referring every question pro- 
 pounded for solution to the authority of the written Word? 
 It was in this way, also, He answered the devil in the 
 temptation in the wilderness. "It is written/' says He, 
 and quotes from the Pentateuch namely, Deut. viii. 3. 
 And just so here, in the fourth verse, He says, " Have ye 
 not read?" and then quotes from the Pentateuch; and 
 quotes from the Pentateuch as the work of Moses (see 
 verses 4 9). 
 
 2. Observe, also, how our Lord distinctly recognises the 
 book of Genesis as the work of Moses, as inspired, and as 
 of Divine authority, by quoting from the first and second 
 chapters. 
 
 3. He also acknowledges it as a literal narrative a true 
 history. The laws of the Hebrews were not myths or 
 fables. Their laws of marriage and of divorce were as 
 much realities as are those of England, and were as far 
 from being mere parables as ours. And our Lord distinctly 
 refers to the recorded facts in the book of Genesis as 
 literal and true historical events for the origin, nature, and 
 authority of these laws ; and though He has occasion re- 
 peatedly to correct the interpretation put upon these laws 
 by the Scribes and Pharisees, yet He never charged them 
 with having corrupted the text of the laws, or with attach- 
 ing to it an authority that did not belong to it. And hence 
 
148 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 our Lord was either ignorant of the truth as to the origin 
 of the Pentateuch, or he was so dishonest as not to correct, 
 but knowingly admit, the truth of the prevailing opinions 
 of the Jews as to its genuineness and authenticity ; or else 
 the writer was Moses, and he was inspired, and the facts 
 recorded are true, and the Pentateuch is a part of the in- 
 spired Word of God. 
 
 It may add to our understanding of this reference, if we 
 consider our Lord's words, " From the beginning it was not 
 so" as a direct naming of Genesis. You know the Jews 
 called the names of their books from the first word of each. 
 Genesis they called " Bereshith" which is the first word in 
 Hebrew, and means "in the beginning" as we have it in 
 our version. And it is the opinion of some learned men 
 that our Lord said, " In Bereshith" that is, in Genesis, it 
 is not so. There was no divorce between Adam and Eve, 
 nor did God create several women for one man. The 
 authority to which He appealed was the first and second 
 chapters of Genesis, and to Genesis as the work of 
 Moses. 
 
 The very same kind of reasoning must be applied to our 
 Lord's references to Abraham, Lot, Noah, the Mood, and 
 the burning bush, and to the manna, the brazen serpent, 
 and to Jacob. He spoke of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, of 
 Noah and Lot, as persons whose history was well known and 
 true. And it will scarcely be denied but that the original 
 history of these men to which He alluded is the history of 
 them which we have in the Pentateuch. He argues the 
 
Christ recognises the Pentateuch as Genuine. 149 
 
 resurrection of the dead from what Moses heard at the 
 burning bush (Luke xx. 37), which is a reference to Exod. 
 iii. 1 6. He cites the history of Noah, and the coming 
 of the flood, and the escape of Lot from Sodom, and says, 
 " Remember Lot's wife," as a warning to be prepared for 
 death or for the end of the world (Luke xvii. 28 32); and 
 argued the perpetuity of marriage and the sinfulness of 
 divorces as generally granted among the Jews in his day, 
 from the Law of Moses as given in the Pentateuch, and as 
 founded upon the law of God as given at the first creation. 
 And in all such cases His argument really was : " Did not 
 Moses give you the law? (John vii. 19.) And as you 
 profess to abide by his law, so your own judge condemns 
 you." It is a departure from common sense to say that our 
 Lord, in such allusions, referred to fables or parables. He 
 alludes to these great events as truly historical events, and 
 received the history of them as true in the sense in which it 
 was received and known to the Jews around Him at that time. 
 " And as Moses lifted up the serpent in the wilderness, even 
 so must the Son of Man be lifted up" (John iii. 14). Now, 
 is not this a direct reference to the twenty -first chapter of 
 Numbers? And is not the history of the serpent that 
 Moses made and lifted up on a pole a true history? If our 
 Lord's words do not mean that He recognised that passage 
 of the Pentateuch as the literal historical truth, then we 
 confess ourselves unable to understand either Greek or 
 English. " Even so must the Son of Man be lifted up/' 
 implies the same literal meaning as to the original illus- 
 
150 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 tration that obtains as to His own death. These words 
 imply both the literal fact of what Moses did and of our 
 Lord's death, and also the very manner of it. 
 
 And so in our Lord's reference to the manna, in John vi. 
 30 32, 46, 47. He appeals to " as it is written/' namely, 
 in the Psalms and in the Pentateuch. "Our fathers/' said 
 they, " did eat manna in the desert, as it is written." " And 
 Jesus said unto them, Verily, verily, I say unto you, Moses 
 gave you not that bread from heaven ; but my Father giveth 
 you the true bread from heaven" (verses 31, 32). The 
 meaning of which is, that Moses was the mere agent, or 
 that the bread which he did give them was merely for the 
 body which perishes, and not adapted to their souls. And 
 hence, says He, " My Father giveth you the true bread from 
 heaven," namely, the Gospel by me. " I am the bread of 
 life /' that is, the bread that produces life. Salvation is 
 by my doctrines and the benefits purchased by my death, 
 of which the manna in the wilderness was a type or emblem. 
 "Your fathers did eat manna in the wilderness, and are 
 dead" (verse 49). Now, was this a fiction, or was it fact ? 
 Was it a mere myth or parable, or was it literally true ? 
 Can any one believe our Lord regarded it in any other light 
 than as a true history that He was alluding to ? We do 
 not see how it is possible to get rid of the authority of our 
 Lord for the Mosaic writings, but by denying His own au- 
 thority ; for if the history of the brazen serpent is a myth, 
 then why should we not say that the history of the Son of 
 Man on the cross is also a myth? If the history of the 
 
Christ recognises the Pentateuch as Genuine. 151 
 
 manna in the wilderness is a parable, why is not the whole 
 life of the Son of God God's greatest gift to us a parable 
 also? 
 
 Again, "Do not think that I will accuse you to the 
 Father' 3 (John v. 45 47) ; that is, I will not follow your 
 example. You have brought charges against me. You 
 say I am guilty of breaking the law of God in two cases ; 
 namely, in regard to the Sabbath, and in making myself 
 equal to God by calling myself the Son of God ; and the 
 penalty of the law in such a case is death. Such is your 
 law for the offence of Sabbath-breaking and of blasphemy. 
 And your law was given to you by Moses. And I might 
 imitate your example, and accuse you of many most 
 grievous violations of the law of God ; but I shall not now 
 do so. There is one, however, that accuseth you, even 
 Moses, in whom ye trust. 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 ?" 
 
 Here observe 1. The Jews admitted the authority of 
 Moses. He was received as a real lawgiver and historian. 
 He was their great prophet. And our Lord agrees with 
 them that Moses was to be obeyed ; and charges it upon 
 them that, as they did not obey Moses, they were rebellious 
 children, and did not believe in Him as the Messiah. 
 
 2. The reason why the Jews did not believe in Christ 
 was that they did not believe the testimony of Moses was 
 to be applied to Him. They did not deny the inspired 
 authority of Moses, nor say that he had not written con- 
 
152 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 cerning the Messiah. They admitted all this, but they 
 did not admit that what Moses wrote was fulfilled in 
 Jesus. Their error was in not applying the testimony of 
 Moses. 
 
 3. Our Lord appeals to their own Scriptures, and to 
 Moses in particular, for proofs of His Messiahship. " Search 
 the Scriptures ; for in them ye think ye have eternal life ; 
 and they are they which testify of me" (John v. 39). "For 
 had ye believed Moses, ye would have believed me, for he 
 wrote of me" (verse 46). Let us repeat : 
 
 1. Here we see the Jews, then, had. and acknowledged 
 the Divine authority of the Scriptures, that is, the books 
 or writings of the Old Testament. 
 
 2. We find Moses specially named, and his writings 
 recognised, as a part of their holy Scriptures, and of equal 
 authority with the writings of the Prophets and the 
 Psalms. 
 
 3. These Scriptures were supposed to teach the way of 
 eternal life, that is, the reality of a future state, and the 
 way to attain eternal blessedness. 
 
 4. Our Lord boldly affirms these Scriptures " testify of 
 Me" (Himself), and then particularises the testimony of 
 Moses. " He wrote of Me : Had ye believed Moses, ye 
 would have believed Me." As if He had said, Moses 
 clearly foretold my coming, and commanded you to hear 
 Me. Moses wrote of the Messiah by promises, prophecies, 
 types and figures. For example : Gen. iii. 15 ; xii. 3 ; 
 xlix. 10 ; Deut. xviii. 15. 
 
Christ recognises the Pentateuch as Genuine. 153 
 
 From which texts, and from our Lord's reference to 
 them, it is clearly seen 
 
 First. That we should study the whole Bible, and take 
 all its parts together ; and that the result of such a study 
 rightly conducted would be the establishment of our faith 
 in Jesus as the Messiah. If we reject the testimony of 
 Moses, we may for the same reason reject that of Isaiah. 
 If one part of the Bible is to be regarded as a mere fiction 
 or parable, why not all the rest ? If ye believe not the 
 writings of Moses, how shall ye believe the words of Jesus 
 Christ? 
 
 Secondly. Our Lord distinctly acknowledges the in- 
 spiration of Moses, and refers to his writings as true history. 
 He builds his religion upon the truth of the historical 
 writings of Moses, and appeals to them to prove that He 
 was the Messiah, If we believe Moses, our Lord says, we 
 should also believe in Him. If, therefore, we believe the 
 New Testament, we must also acknowledge the Divine 
 authority of the Old Testament. If we believe in Jesus 
 Christ, we must also believe in Moses, for Moses wrote of 
 Him, and He spoke of Moses. 
 
 Again, let us take another passage, where our Lord quotes 
 the authority of "The Law/' " The Prophets/' and "The 
 Psalms/' in His discourses with His disciples after His 
 resurrection from the dead. " Then he said unto them, 
 fools, and slow of heart to believe all that the prophets have 
 spoken : ought not Christ to have suffered these things, and 
 to enter into His glory ? And beginning at Moses and all 
 
154 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 the prophets, he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures 
 the things concerning Himself. And He said unto them, 
 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, and in the Prophets, and in the 
 Psalms concerning me. Then opened He their understand- 
 ing, that they might understand the Scriptures, and said 
 unto them, Thus it is written, and thus it behoved Christ 
 to suffer, and to rise from the dead the third day " Luke 
 xxiv. 2527 and 4446. 
 
 It seems to us impossible not to see that these verses 
 give Divine authority to the Old Testament Scriptures just 
 as they were in use among the Jews at that time, and that 
 the denial of the references to Christ's death and glory in 
 the Old Testament is a denial of His own teaching in the 
 New Testament. In this chapter of Luke we have a brief 
 account of two sermons preached by our Lord after His 
 resurrection, and the text in both cases was from the Scrip- 
 tures. He expounded what was "written in the Law of 
 Moses, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning 
 Him." " And beginning at Moses and all the Prophets, 
 he expounded unto them in all the Scriptures the things 
 concerning Himself."" Eemember, the Preacher here is the 
 Lord Jesus Himself, after His resurrection from the dead. 
 His congregation, in the first case, was composed of the two 
 disciples on their way to Emmaus; and, in the second instance, 
 He preached to the eleven gathered together in Jerusalem. 
 At His first appearance among them they were terrified and 
 
Christ recognises the Pentateuch as Genuine. 155 
 
 affrighted, but having assured them that it was He having 
 shown them His hands and His feet, and having eaten 
 with them He said, " 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, and in 
 the Prophets, and in the Psalms, concerning me. Then 
 opened He their understanding, that they might understand 
 the Scriptures, and said unto them, Thus it is written, and 
 thus it behoved Christ to suffer, and to rise from the dead 
 the third day :" (verses 3347.) 
 
 Here we must observe 
 
 First. Our Lord appealed to the Word of God as the 
 only standard, and specifies the " things written in the Law 
 of Moses" concerning Himself. And we have already shown 
 that the Word of God thus appealed to as composed of the 
 Law of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms, was substan- 
 tially just what it is now. In every essential particular the 
 Law of Moses was then the Pentateuch, just as we now have 
 it. The Jewish Canon then was identical with our Old 
 Testament. In all our Lord's controversies with the Scribes 
 and Pharisees, there never was any dispute about the 
 received text of the Law, nor any disagreement as to the 
 authority of Moses. And in explaining the proofs of His 
 Messiahship and the nature of His kingdom to the Jews, 
 and in instructing His disciples how and what to preach, 
 our Lord always referred them to the Scriptures. He taught 
 them to receive and rely upon the Scriptures as the revealed 
 will of God, and as the " only rule of faith and manners," 
 
156 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 "teaching us what to believe concerning God, and what 
 duty God requireth of us." 
 
 Secondly. Our Lord's example is therefore a positive 
 and satisfactory proof that the Scriptures are genuine and 
 authentic ; that is, were written by Moses and the Prophets, 
 and that they are true records. He quotes them, and cites 
 their authority as the truthful writings of the men whose 
 names they bear. 
 
 Thirdly. Our Lord's reference to the Old Testament 
 Scriptures also proves that they were Divinely inspired; that 
 is, that their authors wrote them as they were moved thereto 
 by the Holy Ghost. He tells His disciples that His suffer- 
 ings and death were a fulfilment of what was written in the 
 Law, and in the Prophets, and in the Psalms concerning 
 Himself. Now these men had lived, some of them, a thou- 
 sand years before, and could not have written truthfully of 
 what He was to suffer and do unless they had been inspired 
 of God to do so. It would lead me from my point to dwell 
 here on the Messianic fulness of the Old Testament ; but 
 it is clear that Moses and all the Old Testament Scriptures 
 are referred to by our Lord as having reference to Himself. 
 The great distinctive promise of the whole of the Old Testa- 
 ment was that of a Messiah to come. Prom Moses to Ma- 
 lachi we have the voice of prophecy sounding along the 
 centuries, like sweet voices along the aisles of the temple of 
 God on Mount Zion, all telling us of Christ who was to 
 come. They all testified of Him. 
 
 Fourthly. And hence, in the fourth place, we see that the 
 
Christ recognises the Pentateuch as Genuine. 157 
 
 ancient Jews had the same Gospel that we have essentially 
 one and the same religion. If, therefore, Moses is not to be 
 believed, neither is Christ. But Christ is the Son of God, 
 and the Saviour of sinners ; and as He recognised Moses as 
 the writer of the Pentateuch, and its history as true, and 
 the writings of Moses as inspired, we believe Moses and 
 his writings because we believe the words of Christ Jesus. 
 " They have Moses and the Prophets : let them hear them. 
 If they hear not Moses and the Prophets, neither will they 
 be persuaded though one rose from the dead " (Luke xvi. 
 2931). 
 
X. 
 
 THE PRESENT TRIUMPHANT POSITION OF THE 
 QUESTION. 
 
 " We have not so much evidence, by a great deal, nor evidence so 
 direct, to show that the Dialogues ascribed to Plato are really his 
 work, or that the treatise On the Sublime is the work of Longinus, or 
 that Virgil wrote the JEneid and the Georgics, nor that Othello is the 
 genuine work of William Shakspeare, as we have to show that Moses, 
 the adopted son of Egypt's royal house, the Hebrew-born protege of 
 Pharaoh's daughter, the Emancipator and the Legislator of Israel, 
 did really write, and did deliver for safe keeping to the sacerdotal 
 tribe in his nation, as his own work, his great legacy to his country- 
 men THE PENTATEUCH substantially as we now have it." 
 
 The Pentateuch and its Assailants. 
 
 " The integrity of the records of the Christian faith is substantiated 
 by evidence, in a tenfold proportion, more various, copious, and con- 
 clusive, than that which can be adduced in support of any other ancient 
 writings." 
 
 ISAAC TAYLOR. 
 
 WE add to the above mottos of this chapter the follow- 
 ing testimony of a previous generation, because it is as 
 clear and strong as it can be put, and shows us how this 
 question was regarded on the Continent a century ago. 
 " The legislator of the Jews was the author of the Penta- 
 teuch an immortal work, wherein he paints the marvels of 
 
Present Triumphant Position of the Question. 159 
 
 his reign with the majestic picture of the government and 
 religion which he established. Who before our modern 
 infidels ever ventured to obscure this incontestable fact ? 
 Who ever sprang a doubt about this among the Hebrews ? 
 What greater reasons have there ever been to attribute to 
 Mahomet his Alcoran, to Plato his Republic, or to Homer 
 his sublime poems ? Rather let us say, What work in 
 any age ever appeared more truly to bear the name of its 
 real author ? It is not an ordinary book, which, like many 
 others, may be easily hazarded under a fictitious name. It 
 is a sacred book which the Jews have always read with a 
 veneration that remains after 1700 years' exile, calamities, 
 and reproach. In this book the Hebrews included all 
 their science ; it was their civil, political, and sacred code ; 
 their only treasure, their calendar, their annals ; the only 
 title of their sovereigns and pontiffs; the alone rule of 
 polity and worship; by consequence, it must be formed 
 with their monarchy, and necessarily have the same epoch 
 as their government and religion/' &c. " Moses speaks only 
 truth, though infidels charge him with imposture. But, great 
 God ! what an impostor must he be who first spoke of 
 Divinity in a manner so sublime, that no one since, during 
 almost 4000 years, has been able to surpass him ! What 
 an impostor must he be whose writings breathe only virtue, 
 whose style, equally simple, affecting, and sublime, in spite of 
 the rudeness of those first ages, openly displays an inspi- 
 ration altogether Divine/' Abbe Tome, from a Sermon 
 preached by him before the Trench King in Lent, 1 764. 
 
160 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 As we believe, with the Westminster Eeview, that " the 
 Pentateuch lies at the foundation both of the Jewish and 
 Christian religions/' we have earnestly, in our humble way, 
 contended for its Divine authority in the preceding chapters. 
 We are fully convinced that the same principles that are 
 applied to the Pentateuch by De Wette, Yater, Ewald, and 
 Colenso, may be applied to the Gospels ; and if successful 
 in destroying our faith in the Pentateuch, then the whole 
 foundation of revealed truth may be overthrown. The 
 different parts of the Bible are so interwoven together, the 
 Old Testament and the New Testament are so essentially 
 one, that to invalidate any one portion is to throw discredit 
 upon all the rest. If Bishop Colenso is correct in under- 
 mining the authority of the books of Moses, then all the 
 historical books of the Bible are unreliable. The question 
 is simply : Have we a Bible or no ? The issue is plainly 
 one that affects the material points of our holy religion. 
 It cannot be regarded by any thinking man, much less by 
 any Protestant Englishman, with indifference. And in order 
 that it may not appear that we overstate our fears, or are 
 timidly cautious, we beg the indulgence of our readers for 
 introducing the following quotation from the Quarterly 
 Eeview (January, 1868, pp. 105, 106) : "What we have to 
 dread in these days is not the open assault with axes and 
 hammers upon the dykes which guard our pastures from 
 the flood, but a quiet, gentle, insensible process, by which 
 they are to be gradually undermined. Let all moral re- 
 strictions upon passions and acts remain for a time uridis- 
 
Present Triumphant Position of the Question, 161 
 
 turbed. It would startle and frighten society to attack 
 them first. Begin with loosening the restrictions imposed 
 (imposed by God Himself) upon man's theology. Thus 
 you may enlist on your side intellectual men of moral con- 
 duct. These restrictions are found in our creeds. To 
 these we were pledged in our baptism. Eepresent these, 
 not as conditions and limitations of thought revealed and 
 established by a Divine hand, but as metaphysical specula- 
 tions of men, ingeniously excogitated and arbitrarily im- 
 posed. Then proceed to some nearer outwork. Do not 
 openly attack, but explain it away. Come at last to the 
 Scriptures. Do not repudiate, do not condemn ; but ' hint 
 a doubt, and hesitate dislike ' on the nature of their inspi- 
 ration. Pick a hole here, undermine a foundation there ; 
 throw a mist of conjecture over the whole field of inter- 
 pretation ; keep carefully within due bounds of outward 
 respect ; and even profess to admire, lest alarm be given. 
 And then/ as one most essential bulwark of definite objec- 
 tive truth, sap away the definiteness of the language. Re- 
 present it as careless, unclassical, ungrammatical, destitute 
 of precision, illogical, the clumsy human enunciation of 
 uneducated men, not masters of their thoughts or of their 
 feelings ; and the Bible will be thrown aside. "What be- 
 comes of Inspiration, or Revelation, if the symbols em- 
 ployed to reveal are a mass of confusion?" 
 
 The greatness of the danger of which we are warned by 
 the Quarterly is the more imminent, when we remember 
 that our Lord in one of His parables tells us that the 
 
162 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 " sower sowed good seed in his field, but while men slept 
 his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat/' and 
 that the tares could not afterwards be altogether rooted out, 
 lest the wheat should be injured. Now, we know histo- 
 rically that this parable-prophecy of the condition of the 
 Christian Church has been literally fulfilled from the earliest 
 times to the present moment. The Church of Christ has 
 always been in a mixed condition. Never absolutely pure 
 or perfect. Never without tares. Even one of the Apostles 
 was a traitor. And as soon as our Lord's Evangelists 
 went forth to preach the Gospel of the kingdom to sow 
 the good seed Satan also went forth to sow tares. And 
 where the good seed took root and grew, there also we find 
 tares. Witness Ananias and Sapphira, and Simon of 
 Samaria and Demas. The great enemy of truth has always 
 been active in diffusing error or heresy throughout the 
 Church. And as to each age of the Church seems to have 
 been assigned the work and privilege of developing some 
 great doctrine or distinctive grace, that is, of making it 
 more prominent, so also in each age the forms of error 
 have been varied, and each age has required its peculiar 
 treatment at the hands of those whom God raised up in it. 
 The grand feature of the Old Testament was the promise of 
 a Messiah to come, and the duty of the Old Testament 
 Church was to keep alive this expectation, and prepare the 
 world for its fulfilment. The distinctive feature of the 
 New Testament was the promise of the Spirit of Truth to 
 abide with the Church. In the early ages of Christianity 
 
Present Triumphant Position of the Question. 163 
 
 the great work, under the guidance of the Spirit of God, 
 was to spread the Gospel, and prove that Jesus was the 
 Messiah out of the Scriptures, and answer the objections 
 of the Jews and Pagans to the Gospel. In those days the 
 canon of Scripture was settled, and the terms of salvation 
 clearly defined. And afterwards, when Christianity had a 
 place in the world, then our Lord's Divinity was to be 
 tried by errorists, and be the more fully stated in our articles 
 of faith, as by Athanasius and his co -labourers. But farther 
 details are not necessary. In our own days we have 
 Atheism, Scepticism, Pantheism, or Neology, and a thou- 
 sand other " isms and ologies," which may well come 
 under the Apostle's sweeping denunciation of " damnable 
 heresies ;" but the most dangerous tares are those that are 
 sown by the enemy clothed in robes of light, and in the 
 Church itself: 
 
 " When devils will their blackest sins put on, 
 They do suggest at first with heavenly shows." OTHELLO. 
 
 If it be as the Quarterly (January, 1863, p. 100) says, 
 that the English Church is at present utterly " power- 
 less to exercise authoritatively its office as a witness and 
 keeper of holy Writ/' then the greater the necessity for 
 those who are outside of its pale to stand up for the 
 Word of Truth. We stop not here to inquire what may 
 be the meaning of this remarkable declaration of the 
 Quarterly, nor to consider how the Church of England has 
 become thus powerless ; but must content ourselves with 
 
164 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 saying, Surely it is a strange and a most melancholy thing 
 for a great Protestant Church like that of England to have 
 lost the power of exercising its office authoritatively as a 
 witness and keeper of holy Writ; and if it has not 
 power to be a witness for holy Writ, what has it power 
 to do? 
 
 In the preceding chapters we hope we have succeeded in 
 making it plain that we are the advocates of the largest possi- 
 ble liberty in regard to religious faith and worship that we 
 believe in absolute equal religious liberty for every human 
 being and that we plead for liberty of speech and the free- 
 dom of the press and the rights of conscience ; that we are 
 utterly opposed to any persecution for opinion. But we hold 
 that it is altogether a false notion of liberty, and a false charity, 
 to excuse the revilers of Revelation from the charge of perse- 
 cution, and fasten on its defenders only the odium of being 
 fanatics or bigots. "We ask for fair play. We would 
 not have any civil disabilities, neither pains nor penalties 
 in any shape, laid upon a man for his opinions. 
 
 We are persuaded that Christianity conquers by the truth 
 in love, and not by Caesar's armies or edicts ; and we are 
 fully persuaded that a thorough and candid examination of 
 the Holy Scriptures will show that the highest scientific 
 acquirements, and the results of the profoundest learning, 
 are altogether compatible with a devout and intelligent 
 belief in their entire truthfulness. " It is/' says the Quar- 
 terly, " the will of Providence, for purposes into which we 
 need not enter, to place us constantly under the necessity 
 
Present Triumphant Position of the Question. 165 
 
 of choosing between two alternatives deliberating, and 
 weighing, and deciding, amidst conflicting prob abilities " 
 " The great result of Biblical criticism is, to increase the 
 dubiousness of Scripture in many unimportant points, but 
 also to multiply our views of possible meanings, and, above 
 all, to increase our responsibility, test our honesty, stimu- 
 late our industry, exercise our discrimination, and try our 
 hearts, by opening to us a wider field of comparison between 
 readings, interpretations, and authorities, and requiring of 
 us a more frequent selection and decision between contend- 
 ing arguments. But it does not end in indistinctness; 
 rather it enriches our knowledge by multiplying points of 
 view." " The blank ignorance with which we regard the 
 Sinaitic inscriptions is not to be confounded with the ba- 
 lance of doubt between two possible interpretations of a 
 Greek tense. An illegible MS. is a very different medium 
 for information from two legible MSS. with two readings/' 
 But as Bentley said of the formidable phantom of textual 
 criticism, the 120,000 various readings of the New Testa- 
 ment, so we may say of the thousand objections, more or 
 less, that are arrayed against the historic verity of the sacred 
 Scriptures, always bearing in mind that an " unintelligible 
 jargon" is not the same thing as a grammatical sentence 
 which, by the laws of grammar, is capable of having two 
 meanings ; for there is f ' a vital distinction between what is 
 doubtful and what is vague ; uncertain, but not obscure." 
 But we cannot allow BenUey** remarks to escape us on 
 account of this digression : " You may choose out of the 
 
166 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 whole 120,000 various readings as awkwardly as you will 
 choose the worst, by design, out of the whole lump of read- 
 ings and not one article of faith or moral precept is either 
 perverted or lost in them. Put them into the hands of a 
 knave or a fool, and even with the most sinistrous and ab- 
 surd choice he shall not extinguish the light of any one 
 chapter, or so disguise Christianity but that every feature 
 of it will be still the same/ 7 We are perfectly sure that the 
 foundations of our faith can bear the most searching scru- 
 tiny ; there should therefore be no alarm, no suppression, 
 no concealment, no persecution. Every acquisition of true 
 science and of high scholarship, when properly understood, 
 will only tend to deepen the lines of truth already engraven, 
 to remove doubts, and to strengthen confidence, and increase 
 our joy as we walk in the light of God. " The haunted 
 chamber of German theology/' which has thrown its be- 
 witching spell over Bishop Colenso's eyes, requires only to 
 be unlocked and thrown open to the light, and its fascina- 
 tions and terrors shall be felt and feared no more, 
 
 It deserves to be noticed, that if Moses did not write the 
 Pentateuch, or if it is not true, then it is the production of 
 a clever impostor ; but if it is the work of a clever impostor, 
 can it be supposed that such an impostor would have been 
 guilty of putting such gross absurdities into it as Bishop 
 Colenso says he has found in the Pentateuch ? The very 
 matters, therefore, which Bishop Colenso deems sufficient to 
 destroy the credibility of Moses, and which lie open on the 
 very surface of his books, are "a sufficient answer" to his 
 
Present Triumphant Position of the Question. 167 
 
 objections. It is impossible to conceive that a clever author 
 would have allowed such absurdities to escape him, if he 
 had been writing a fiction. These alleged absurdities appear 
 in the narratives as a matter of course, and excite no sur- 
 prise, and are never apologised for, nor is any doubt ever 
 expressed as to their being believed and received as true. 
 Whenever a multitude of incidents come into review in a 
 narrative, imposture and falsehood generally commit them- 
 selves ; but however numerous the circumstances may be, if 
 the narration is a simple history of facts by an honest eye- 
 witness, all will hang together/ and, when understood, be in 
 complete harmony. It is palpable, moreover, that the 
 writers of the sacred Scriptures did not intend or expect 
 that their language should be interpreted merely by cap- 
 tious logicians or by geometricians. They did not write as 
 lawyers, who provide against every possible misconstruction 
 or misconception of their words by opposing counsel. They 
 were themselves honest, plain, whole-hearted men men of 
 common sense ; and they wrote as if they expected honesty 
 and common sense to be employed in interpreting their 
 meaning. And in all this it seems impossible there could 
 have been any imposition or forgery. The sacred narratives 
 everywhere bear the stamp of one telling the truth, heedless 
 of consequences ; in fact, as if the writers never suspected 
 that any one should ever doubt of their truth. We cannot 
 help thinking that if they were conscious of making preten- 
 sions that were not true that if they knew they were im- 
 postors, and had any suspicion of ever falling into the hands 
 
168 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 of such critics as the Bishop of Natal they would have 
 adopted a very different style of writing from the one they 
 employed. On the contrary, we find everywhere undesigned 
 coincidences of honesty and truth we find the stamp of 
 truth in every particular of their writings, both as to what 
 they omit and what they relate ; and as to the nature of the 
 facts they describe or the truths they reveal, as well as to 
 the manner in which they make their records. 
 
 Again, we beg leave to remind Bishop Colenso, as " a 
 man of figures," that facts are stubborn things. They 
 must be met and refuted, or admitted as true. " One fact," 
 says the proverb, "is worth a bushel of arguments." And 
 "Christianity," says a recent writer on the Pentateuch 
 (Isaac Taylor), " is a vast congeries and complicity of facts ; 
 it is the casual centre of numberless radiating lines ; it is 
 the spring of thousands of springs. Remove it from its 
 place, and the entire structure of modern history crumbles 
 into dust ; a chaos is left to us as our future inheritance 
 on the wilds of time. If there was no William of Normandy, 
 and no landing of his knights on our shores, or no Charles 
 Martel, or no Mahomet, or no Justinian, or no Charlemagne, 
 then, when you have reduced these imagined substances to 
 their proper condition as shadows, you must make good 
 the large gaps which this destructive operation has occasioned. 
 You must bring forward a reasonable and an intelligible hy- 
 pothesis, which shall fit into so many fragmentary facts. There 
 are a thousand facts which are ten thousand times reflected in 
 the mirror of the past, and these now stand before us un- 
 
Present Triumphant Position of the Question. 169 
 
 caused, unaccounted for ; they are real, and yet they have 
 sprung out of nothing. It is precisely this part of their 
 task that has perplexed, and that now perplexes, those who 
 reject Christianity." 
 
 And besides all this, the authorship of Moses implies 
 the literal truth of the history, especially that part in which 
 he speaks of himself and of the things which he did. It 
 is in vain to tell us that such a history is a myth or a 
 parable ; for it contains a system of doctrines based upon 
 the history it relates. Even Dr. Davidson admitted in his 
 ( Hermeneutics' in 1843, that if we " strip the Bible of its 
 veritable history, we take away its doctrines also, or reduce 
 it at least to a meagre skeleton, without flesh, and blood, 
 and vitality. We fritter away its contents to a shadow 
 devoid of substance or solidity, where nothing is left but 
 the few moral truths which each interpreter is pleased to 
 deduce from the record. The Jewish religion, as developed 
 in the Old Testament, was unfavourable to myths. They 
 could not have been introduced into the sacred books un- 
 less it be affirmed that prophets and inspired men wrote at 
 random, without the superintendence of the Spirit. To 
 intersperse their compositions with such legends is contrary 
 to all our ideas of inspiration, and can only be attributed 
 to them by such as deny their spiritual illumination."" Nor 
 is it unworthy of remembrance that Bishop Colenso, Dr. 
 Davidson, and their German masters, Ewald, Yater, et id 
 omne genus, are not able to agree either as to when the 
 Pentateuch was written nor by whom. They are divided 
 
170 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 into "Elohists," " Jehovists," and " Deuteronomists ;" and 
 at one time the same writer is an " Elohist,"" and then a 
 "Jehovist," and so in self-contradictions are lost. Dr. 
 Davidson has altered the date of the Elohist by three 
 centuries in five years. The truth is, the men who had 
 overthrown Iain/, Homer, and Herodotus, thought they 
 could destroy Moses as easily. But they have found the 
 old Hebrew too strong for them. They have had more 
 trouble with "the servant of God"" than with all the 
 Greeks and Eomans together, and after they have tried 
 theory upon theory, they find no one that is satisfactory or 
 tenable. They are perpetually changing their ground and 
 the manner of their attack. It is also worthy of note, and 
 perhaps aground of hopefulness, that several learned men who 
 at first, or in the early period of their studies, questioned 
 or denied the genuineness of the Pentateuch, have after years 
 of more laborious and careful investigation of the whole 
 field of inquiry, and after having gathered up the fruits of the 
 ripest scholarship, openly avowed their conviction that they 
 had been mistaken, and declared that, after all, the Penta- 
 teuch is substantially the work of Moses, and is a true 
 history. So Le Clerc, and so in part Richard Simon and 
 Nachtigal, and in a very remarkable manner with the learned 
 Hasse. 
 
 And after all that Bishop Colenso and the whole tribe of 
 sceptics have said of the difficulties of the Holy Scriptures, 
 is there not a most overwhelming, overweighing mass of 
 evidence, internal and external, in favour of their authen- 
 
Present Triumphant Position of the Question. 171 
 
 ticity, genuineness, and Divine inspiration? Are we not satis- 
 fied to believe, with the Church ancient and modern, Chris- 
 tian and Jewish, with Christ and His apostles, that God 
 did manifest Himself to Moses, and inspire him to write 
 the Pentateuch ? Are we not justified before all intelligent 
 men in believing the books of Moses to be a part of the 
 oracles of God, which constitute the Divine Eevelation 
 made to man for our enlightenment and guidance into 
 truth ? Even if a few errors as to dates, numbers, or proper 
 names have been allowed to get into the text, or are not 
 yet properly translated; or if some difficulties are still 
 found in the Written Word which we have not the means 
 of explaining, is it not enough for us that the nucleus of 
 Divine truth is solid and good ? It pleased the Supreme 
 Being to employ men and not angels to write the Scriptures, 
 and they have to come to us through human hands, and 
 are subject therefore to human errors in transmission up 
 to a certain extent " an extent sufficient to test our hearts, 
 but not sufficient to cloud any important truth whatever." 
 
 Have we not, therefore, sufficient evidence to believe in the 
 infallible truth of the Bible in all things Divine ? If we 
 have not, what shall we believe ? To whom else shall we go ? 
 We find the way of life only in the Word of the living God. 
 The Holy Scriptures commend themselves to us on account 
 of their literary and historic evidences, internal and external, 
 and command our consciences by their holy teachings and 
 Divine authority. The Bible, though composed of so many 
 books; and written by so many different authors authors 
 
172 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 who were scattered through a period of at least fifteen hun- 
 dred years is essentially one book. It is one in its theology, 
 and one as to the historic Personality revealed namely, 
 the eternal God, and one in the great remedial scheme taught 
 for the salvation of men. 
 
 As it has not been our design to refer to all the argu- 
 ments or difficulties presented by Bishop Colenso, so we 
 have not attempted to present even a summary of the 
 evidences in favour of miracles, or of Divine inspiration in 
 general. We may be allowed to say, however, that the 
 antiquity of the books of Moses sets them at the head of 
 all alphabetical writing in the world ; while the importance 
 of the various subjects presented in them to the well-being 
 of the human race cannot be denied. The history of the 
 creation, of the introduction of moral evil, and of the 
 peopling of the earth given by Moses is incomparably superior 
 to any other ever offered to mankind. If his history of 
 the beginning of these things of things that we know to 
 exist, and of which we are ourselves a living part is not 
 true, where is there a better one ? As to the chronology, 
 jurisprudence, geography, history, and philosophy of the 
 fir*st ages of our race, there is no book in the world that is so 
 reliable and deserves our study as much as the Pentateuch. 
 As a historian, philosopher, and lawgiver, there is no name 
 greater than Moses. The law of Moses is, properly speaking, 
 the Law of Jehovah. This indeed is the distinctive title of the 
 Pentateuch. No mere human wisdom has yet been found 
 that could invent such a code of laws as Moses gave the 
 
Present Triumphant Position of the Question. 173 
 
 Hebrews; and whatever the Bishop of Natal, instigated 
 by his Zulu parishioners, may think of the clemency and 
 morality of the Mosaic code, it is historically in evidence 
 that it is far superior to any ever known among the heathen, 
 ancient or modern. We have the testimony of scores of 
 the most learned, able, and impartial Oriental and classical 
 scholars and jurists the world has ever seen, to the effect 
 that the laws of Plato, Confucius, Menu, Lycurgus, 
 Zoroaster, and Mohammed, are not to be compared to those 
 of Moses that the Hebrew code is infinitely superior to any 
 other that has ever been submitted to man, except Christianity 
 itself in its completed development, which is, in fact, the 
 Divinely wrought out complement of the Mosaic dispensa- 
 tion. 
 
 In the words of Dr. Adam Clarke : " The Pentateuch is 
 a work every way worthy of God its Author, and only less 
 than the New Testament, the Law and the Gospel of our 
 Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. Its narrative is so simple, 
 so much like truth, so consistent everywhere with itself, so 
 impartial in its biography, so accurate in its details, so pure 
 in its morality, and so benevolent in its design, as amply to 
 demonstrate that it never could have had an earthly origin. 
 In this, also, Moses constructed everything according to the 
 pattern which God showed him in the mount." 
 
174 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 SUMMARY. 
 
 WE have found that free and thorough discussion was 
 called for, and we have pleaded for perfect liberty and free- 
 dom in the discussion, without passion or prejudice ; that 
 the question at issue is the momentous one of whether we 
 have a sure and certain revelation from God or no ; that 
 we have a bishop who went to Africa to convert the heathen 
 Zulus to Christianity, but they converted him to modern 
 Rationalism. We have also heard Bishop Colenso excuse 
 himself, state his views ; and then we have considered his 
 objections to Moses and the Pentateuch, and we have found 
 them altogether insufficient to destroy or weaken in the 
 least our confidence in any of the historic books of the 
 Bible. Then we have found all the difficulties of the 
 bishop, and of his co-labourers in the present and in past 
 centuries, overweighed by the immense mass of evidence 
 which we have for Moses, and the Law, and the Prophets 
 of God. Next we have briefly presented the reasons why 
 we believe the Pentateuch to be genuine, authentic, and 
 inspired, and particularly the evidence that Jesus Christ 
 recognised the writings of Moses as genuine, authentic, and 
 inspired. 
 
 Accommodating ourselves, then, to Bishop Colenso's 
 
Summary. 175 
 
 favourite method, our great sum stands in this way, namely, 
 the Bishop of Natal says Moses did not write the Pentateuch, 
 nor is it to be received as historically true. The proofs 
 alleged for this opinion are, the bishop^s ipse dixit, that he 
 has found " errors " " contradictions," " human elements," 
 " impossibilities," and " mistakes/' and " exaggerated 
 numbers/' and the like, in the narrative. His views are 
 supported by the atheists, deists, and infidels in general of 
 the present and of the last century, and in part by a few 
 professed Christian authors like himself. Thus stands the 
 case on the one side. On the other side we affirm that 
 Moses did write the Pentateuch, and that it is a true his- 
 tory, and was written under the inspiration of the Almighty. 
 Our proofs are in the style and manner following : namely, 
 Moses says himself that he wrote the Law (these books of 
 the Pentateuch) at the command of God, and that he re- 
 hearsed it to the people, and delivered a copy to the Levites 
 to be kept in the Ark of the Covenant, and that he com- 
 manded the Law to be taught to the people, and to be read, 
 publicly read to them once a year in a most solemn manner; 
 and it is in evidence historically that all this was believed 
 and practised by the Hebrew nation from the days of Moses 
 himself. The books of Moses themselves, and the history 
 of the Israelitish people from his day to this moment, are 
 plain proofs of the truth of these things. The testimony 
 of the whole Hebrew Church and of all Israelites throughout 
 the world by their laws, polity, and rites, and of the Chris- 
 tian Church from the beginning, is that Moses is not a myth, 
 
176 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 nor is the Pentateuch a fable or parable ; but that Moses 
 was a real person, the author of the Pentateuch, and that 
 its history is true, and was written by inspiration. Many 
 heathen writers have borne testimony to Moses as a law- 
 giver, writer, and founder of the Jewish nation. The Pen- 
 tateuch is quoted by nearly all the sacred writers as the 
 work of Moses. These quotations begin in Joshua, 1451 
 years before Christ, and are continued to within 430 years 
 of His coming; that is to say, for more than 1000 years. 
 We are told that the early fathers of the Christian Church 
 quoted the writings of the Evangelists so extensively and 
 so accurately, that if the Gospels themselves had been lost, 
 they could have been rewritten and recovered in every 
 essential statement and doctrine from the quotations made 
 by the Fathers. In like manner, we know that the refer- 
 ences to and quotations from the Pentateuch are so numerous 
 and so exact, that the main historical events described in 
 the books of Moses, and the sense of the Law of Moses, 
 might be gathered from the books of the Old Testament, 
 beginning with Joshua and ending with Malachi, even if 
 the Pentateuch itself had perished. 
 
 Again, it is in evidence that not only the Jews, but the 
 Samaritans, the neighbouring heathen, and the Moham- 
 medans, have believed in Moses and in his writings, at least 
 so far as to admit his existence as an author. 
 
 It is also in evidence that the Pentateuch, in every essen- 
 tial point as we now have it, was in use in the Jewish 
 synagogues in our Lord's day, and was read by the Jews, 
 

 Summary. 
 
 and by our Lord and by His apostles, and was received by 
 them as it was by the Jews, and appealed to as the genuine, 
 authentic writings of Moses, and as a part of the written 
 Word of God. The Great Teacher Himself, both before and 
 after His resurrection, and His Apostles after His ascension, 
 when they were under the inspiration of the Holy Spirit, con- 
 stantly bore witness to the authority of the Scriptures, and 
 appealed by name to Moses and his writings. And as 
 Moses and the Prophets wrote of Christ, so Christ and His 
 Apostles speak of them, and refer to their writings as 
 genuine, authentic, and inspired to the very same writings 
 the identical books composing the Jewish canon then 
 that we receive now. The same books that we receive now 
 as canonical were read every Sabbath-day in the Jewish 
 synagogues in our Lord's time. And our Lord received 
 these books just as the Jews received them, namely, as the 
 writings of Moses and of other holy men of old. And as 
 we have found Him alleging that these writers were wit- 
 nesses for Himself, proving that he was the long-promised 
 Messiah, and especially citing Moses and his writings in 
 proof of His Messiahship, so we clearly infer that Christ 
 built His religion upon the truth of the writings of Moses. 
 The Old Testament prepared the way for the New. The 
 one was the gloaming, the other the noonday splendour ; 
 but all is only one day. The writings of Moses and of the 
 Apostles must therefore stand or fall together. 
 
 If we do not believe Moses, we must reject the Psalmist 
 also; for David says, "God made known His ways unto 
 
178 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 Moses, and His acts unto the children of Israel;" and 
 Isaiah also, for he says Jehovah led the Israelites " by the 
 hand of Moses " and Jeremiah too, for he calls upon the 
 people to " remember the law of Moses." And thus it 
 appears, if we believe not Moses, neither can we believe 
 any of the Prophets. Nor can we believe the Apostles ; for 
 we hear Peter saying, "Moses truly said unto your fathers, 
 A Prophet shall the Lord your God raise up, like unto me." 
 And we read in the Epistle to the Hebrews, "By faith 
 Moses, when he was born, was hid three months." And 
 we know who has said, " If they believe not Moses and the 
 prophets, neither would they be persuaded though one rose 
 from the dead." "Tor 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?" We 
 must, then, give up the infallibility of our Lord's character, 
 and the Divine authority of the New Testament, or admit 
 also the Divine authority of the Pentateuch. The issue is 
 as plainly made as it can be put. And if every other argu- 
 ment should fail, the fact that He who is the Truth itself 
 so often and so solemnly quoted the writings of Moses as 
 his writings, and referred to the events described by Moses 
 as true historical events, is a sufficient proof to us of their 
 historic verity. The question, then, is narrowed down to this 
 simple issue : Bishop Colenso and his Eationalistic school 
 say Moses did not write the Pentateuch, nor are its nar- 
 ratives historically true, and, of course, they are not there- 
 fore Divinely inspired. On the other hand, Joshua, Samuel, 
 
Summary. 179 
 
 David, Isaiah, Jeremiah, Peter and Paul, and Christ Jesus 
 Himself the whole Jewish and Christian Churches have 
 from the beginning declared their faith in Moses and in his 
 writings. Weak and blind, and much to be pitied, is he 
 who can hesitate which to believe. If we receive Christ and 
 His Apostles, we must believe in Moses and the Prophets, 
 for they testify of Christ, and lead us to faith in Him as 
 the end of the Law as well as the substance of the Gospel. 
 
 Madame Dacier, in her notes upon the Iliad, has finely 
 said that Homer appears greater by the criticisms that have 
 been put forth upon him, from age to age, by the great 
 minds of the world, than by the praises which have been 
 bestowed upon him. Now if this remark be applied to 
 Moses, it would be impossible to measure the praises that 
 belong to him. And if we apply it to the whole Bible, 
 then we should find ourselves in the presence of a pyramid 
 of glory, whose top should literally reach unto the heavens. 
 
 " The Bible stands/' says the saintly Payson, " as some 
 awful cliff that raises itself above the waves of the ocean, 
 and has for ages braved its rage. It is a fortress which for 
 thousands of years has been constantly assaulted by succes- 
 sive generations of enemies ; around whose walls millions 
 have perished, and to overthrow which the utmost efforts 
 of human force and ingenuity have been exerted in vain. 
 While one army after another of its assailants has melted 
 away, it remains uninjured. Though it has been ridiculed 
 more bitterly, misrepresented more grossly, opposed more 
 rancorously, and burnt oftener than any other book, per- 
 
180 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 haps than all other books united ; so far from sinking under 
 the efforts of its enemies, its influence is now greater than 
 ever before/* 
 
 The Bible appears to us like a majestic tree under 
 whose branches our fathers and their fathers found shelter., 
 and walked in the light of God until their feet were trained 
 to walk the streets of the city of God, the New Jerusalem,, 
 which is above. Kingdoms and empires, and multitudes of 
 other books, have been swept away to oblivion by the 
 waves of time, but the oracles of God still remain in their 
 essential integrity and power. Some of our holy books are 
 without dispute the most ancient compositions in existence. 
 It is, indeed, probable letters were first employed in their 
 narrations, and that they were originally written in the 
 language first spoken by man after the fall. Be this as it 
 may, the Bible is the eldest offspring of human intellect, the 
 most ancient monument of human literature; and yet it 
 never grows old. As the rainbow bends over us with the 
 same arch, the same curve and colour that it had when it 
 appeared to Noah ; as the stars are as keen in their sparkling, 
 and the sun as glorious as when first created, so the Book of 
 God never grows old. It is a sure and certain light to 
 guide us over wild and tempestuous seas, as it has already 
 guided millions before us to the eternal throne above. 
 
 According to Liglitfoot, some of the Rabbis used to say, 
 the Hope of Israel was the Messiah ; and that when He 
 should come and raise the dead, that all Israel should be 
 gathered to Him in the garden of Eden, and should eat and 
 
Summary. 181 
 
 * 
 
 drink, and satiate themselves with the fulness of the world. 
 Then, said they,, shall the houses be built with precious 
 stones, the beds shall be made of silk, and the rivers shall 
 flow with wine and spicy oil. He will make manna de- 
 scend for them, in all manner of tastes, and every one shall 
 find it agreeable to his palate. If he desires fat in it, he 
 shall have it. In it the young man shall have bread, the 
 old man honey, and the children oil. This beautiful de- 
 scription of rabbinical expectation concerning the Messiah 
 applies with singular appropriateness to the Word of the 
 living God. For as the compass always points to the pole, so 
 the Bible always leads us to God. It is a chart showing us 
 the right course through life to a blessed immortality. It is 
 a lamp unto our feet, and a light unto our path. In our 
 voyaging over the world there is no book like the Bible ; 
 and when life's last hour has come, and we have to take our 
 departure- to eternity, then one word from God's living 
 oracles is worth all the world besides. 
 
 The Bible is the poor man's treasure and the rich man's 
 jewel; a stay and support to the widow, and the orphan's 
 guide. It is ears to the deaf, eyes to the blind, feet to the 
 lame, and speech to the dumb. It is meat and drink to 
 those hungering and thirsting after righteousness. It is a 
 physician to the sick, and life to the dead. In no other 
 book do we find such precious words from One who is able 
 to save as these : " Come unto me, all ye that labour and 
 are heavy laden, and I will give you rest." In no other 
 book do we read of One who is the resurrection and the life, 
 
182 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 and by whose Gospel life and immortality are brought to 
 light. The "Word of the living God is a comforter when all 
 other comforters have failed. It composes the mind when 
 nothing else can. In the house of mourning, bereavement, 
 and death, it is a steady light, pointing us to a glorious 
 hereafter. It heals the broken-hearted, and whispers peace 
 through the blood of Jesus to a guilty conscience, and radi- 
 ates the eye in death with visions of heavenly glory. Oh 
 what a priceless treasure is our Bible ! Its sacred pages 
 have been the delight of thousands, from whose eyes all 
 tears are now wiped away, who are happy now in the New 
 Jerusalem. Let us cleave to our Bible. And woe be to 
 him, whether infidel, prelate, presbyter, or pope, who would 
 destroy it or wrest it from us ! 
 
CONCLUSION. 
 
 As Bishop Colenso has contented himself with old and 
 familiar objections, so we have travelled after him, without 
 attempting to invent anything new, or to present an ex- 
 haustive view of the Christian evidences. 
 
 Indeed, it was with pain we found that the public was 
 summoned again to consider as new what seemed to us 
 thoroughly threadbare long ago. While we earnestly dis- 
 claim any prejudice against Bishop Colenso, we have felt it 
 to be our duty to speak plainly in reference to his writings 
 against Moses and against Christ. We regret that any of 
 his critics should indulge in fierce personal attacks, for it is 
 not in that way that any man's learning is to be increased, 
 his taste corrected, or his creed rendered more orthodox. 
 But as we are constrained to say that it is his official position, 
 rather than his logic or learning, that has given importance 
 to his criticism upon the Pentateuch, so we have felt it to 
 be our duty to allude briefly to his temper, and spirit, and 
 qualifications to be our guide in a work so momentous as 
 that of interpreting the books of Moses. And while we 
 disclaim any right or intention to force upon him the logical 
 consequences of his position personally any further than he 
 himself avows, and do not assume for one moment to sit in 
 judgment on his motives, we must be allowed to say, that 
 we do not discover in any part of his volume those qualifi- 
 
184 Moses and the Pentateuch. 
 
 cations that entitle him to the superiority he claims as in- 
 terpreter of the sacred volume. We do not find in him the 
 marks of that ripe Hebrew scholarship, or the intellectual 
 and moral qualities that should be possessed by one who as- 
 sumes to be in advance of his age, and to have the honour 
 of teaching the Christian world that it is in ignorance and 
 error in regard to the Holy Scriptures, that, in fact, the 
 Jewish Church and all Christendom from the beginning have 
 been deceived, that their faith has no secure and historical 
 basis to rest on. 
 
 Doubtless, other and abler pens will vindicate the learn- 
 ing and character of the Clergy and Laity of the Church of 
 England from the charges made and implied against them 
 in this work of Bishop Colenso. We cannot, however, 
 forget that a large portion of the most distinguished public 
 men of Great Britain have been men of high literary culti- 
 vation, both in the Church and in the State, and not a 
 few of them laymen, attached especially to the literature of 
 the ancient world, and not a few of them have done good 
 service in defence of Christianity as authors. Perhaps this 
 is pre-eminently true of the public men of the north of 
 Great Britain. Eor they seem to be able to endure a 
 greater application to study under a high pressure of busi- 
 ness, and to derive and assimilate high thought and fit dic- 
 tion from the ancient classics, with more facility than their 
 southern neighbours. It is enough to name Fox, Pitt, 
 Canning, Macaulay, Brougham, Derby, Gladstone, Lewis, 
 Russell, Disraeli, and Palmerston. Are these among the 
 
Conclusion. 185 
 
 Laity of whose orthodoxy and learning the Bishop of Natal 
 speaks so disparagingly ? 
 
 Doubtless, also, other and more learned and able pens 
 will take up and extend the arguments over the whole field 
 of the bishop's objections. It has not been our purpose to 
 notice them on mere scientific grounds, nor to answer them 
 by arguments drawn from the original language of the 
 Pentateuch. We have studied brevity in our remarks upon 
 the objections, and have sought to present results as wrought 
 out by others as well as by ourselves, and not details ; and 
 to present them in such a simple, straightforward way, that 
 he that runs may read, and he that reads may run. 
 
 We have not thought it necessary to try to exhaust 
 Bishop Colenso's difficulties. For if the strongest objec- 
 tions are overthrown, are untenable or futile, much less are 
 the weak ones to be noticed. We have written for the 
 young, and for such as have not time to read more extended 
 arguments. Our aim has been to do good by strengthening 
 the defences of the Truth. And may the Spirit of all 
 Truth make the writer and his readers wise unto salvation, 
 through our Lord Jesus Christ, to whom be glory for ever. 
 Amen. 
 
 FINIS. 
 
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YB I284o