In the 33d chapter of Numbers, ver. 1, 2. we have these words: These are the journeys of the children of Israel, which went forth out of the land of Egypt, with their armies, under the hand of Moses and Aaron. And Moses wrote their goings out according to their journeys, by the commandment of the Lord: and these are their journeys according to their goings out, &c. Let us now suppose that these words, and what follow them, to the end of the 49th verse of this chapter, were perhaps Moses's conclusion of the book he wrote upon this subject, whether he called it Motzah, a word answering to Exodus, or Shemoth, i. e. The book of names, as the Jews seem afterwards to have nominated it, or whether he really affixed no title to it. Let us suppose it to have begun from the first chapter of Exodus, and to have contained all the journeyings of the Israelites, with the historical circumstances that led to them or attended them, and that it ended with the recapitulation of them that is offered us in this chapter: in the 24th chapter of Exodus it may seem to be intimated that Moses wrote another book, called the book of the covenant '. Let us now suppose that Moses at first wrote in this book no more than what God had commanded, and the people solemnly engaged themselves to perform, at their entering into covenant with God; namely, what is offered us in the 19th, 20th, 22d, and 24th chapters of Exodus; it may still be reasonably concluded, the covenant being not limited to the observance of the few commandments contained in these chapters, but obliging the Israelites to obey God's voice, to observe and to do all the statutes and judgments which God should give them3, that the commandments afterwards given unto Moses were also written in this book in the following order; first, The laws given in Mount Sinai, towards the end of which might be thus written, These are the statutes and judgments, which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Mosest: after which words, we may possibly imagine he added the laws contained in the 27th chapter of Leviticus, and concluded with these words, These are the commandments which the Lord commanded Moses for the children of Israel in mount Sinai". Next to these might be added the laws which God gave out of the tabernacle of the congregation: and in this manner we may imagine the book of the covenant to have consisted of all the laws which God gave the Israelites both from Sinai and from r Exodus xxiv. 4-7. u Levit. xxvii. 34. x Levit. i. 1. Numbers i. 1. the tabernacle of the congregation. In the 29th_chapter of Deuteronomy we are told of a covenant which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which he made with them in Horeby: and we find these words at the end of one of his chapters: These are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded by the hand of Moses unto the children of Israel, in the plains of Moab by Jordan near Jericho z. It will not be doubted but that Moses wrote all the words of this law also in a book". Let us suppose that the words above cited were the conclusion of it: let us suppose farther, that unto all these Moses added in another book the words which he spake unto all Israel on this side Jordan in the wilderness; and all these together, with the Book of Genesis, make the Pentateuch, or five Books, which we call the Books of Moses. It will here be said, that if we look for the books of Moses in the Pentateuch in this manner, we must allow some paragraphs and even chapters not to follow now exactly in the places where Moses at first put them. But in answer to this, I apprehend that it will not be thought a very material question, whether any of the leaves, sheets, rolls, or skins, that were written by Moses, have or have not, by some accident, been discomposed, and are not perhaps put together again, every one in its proper place: but the point is, whether in the present Pentateuch we have all, and nothing but all, that Moses wrote in the books that were penned by him: and of this a serious examinant may sufficiently satisfy himself. If we must suppose that Moses wrote his books under such titles as I have mentioned, yet under these the whole of all the books of Moses may be collected, and perhaps some passages and sections, which now seem to be misplaced, may be hereby put into an order, that y Deut. xxix. 1. z Numb. xxxvi. 13. a Deut. xxxi. 24. b Deut. i. 1. I might here answer a trifling cavil offered concerning the Book of Deuteronomy, raised from the words here cited. It is pretended that beneber ha Jarden, which we translate on this side Jordan, do rather signify beyond, or on the other side Jordan, and consequently that these words imply Moses not to have wrote the Book of Deuteronomy, for that the book so called was wrote by a person who had passed over Jordan, and could, according to the intimation of these words, remark, that the words of Moses were spoke on a different side the river from the place where the book was written. But, were there no other, the 10th and 13th verses of the 50th chapter of Genesis are sufficient to shew the word beneber to have the signification we here take it in. When Joseph went up out of Egypt to bury his father, they journeyed from Goshen into Canaan, and came to the cave of Machpelah before Mamre, in their way to which they stopped at the threshingfloor of Atad, beneber ha Jarden, not beyond, but on this side Jordan; for they did not travel into Canaan, so far as to the river Jordan. may add a clearness and connection, which they may be suspected to want in their present situation: and if we collect and examine the several little notes, remarks, and observations, which, though now found in several places of the Pentateuch, were undoubtedly not written by Moses, but added by some later hand, a judicious examiner will see of these, 1. That they are not so many as they are hastily thought to be. 2. That they are all of them inconsiderable; none of them so necessary in the places they are found in, but that, if they were omitted, the text would be full, clear, and connected without them. In this manner we may make the utmost allowance to the several objections offered against the books of Moses, and have a clear conviction, that there is no weight in any of them. That the Pentateuch contains the books of Moses, has been constantly believed and testified by the Jews in all ages: Spinoza himself confesses that Aben Ezra only, a very modern writer, pretended to have doubts of it, and that his intimations are but dark and obscure. Josephus tells us, as a truth never questioned, that five of their sacred books were the books of Mosesd: and our Saviour explains to us in what sense they were Moses's books; they were, he tells us, Moses's writings: Had ye believed Moses, said he, ye would have believed me; for he wrote of me. But if ye believe not his writings, how shall ye believe my words? If it were possible to shew that the books we now read of Moses's were not the books alluded to by our Saviour, something might be offered upon this subject: but whoever will attempt this, will find himself not able to propose any thing that can want a refutation. When Moses had made an end of writing what he was to leave the Israelites, he commanded the Levites, saying, Take this book of the law, and put it in the side of the ark of the covenant of the Lord your God, that it may be there for a witness against thees. It is here queried, what the book was which Moses here gave the Levites; whether all his written works in one code or volume, or whether it was the words of this law; some one single book, which he had just then finished, a part only of his writings. Spinoza is for this latter opinion, this best suiting his purpose, to insinuate that the Levites had charge only of a small part of what Moses wrote, and consequently that all, except what was committed to their keeping, was soon lost. But I should think, e Vid. Clerici Dissertat. de Scriptore Pentateuch. d Joseph. contra Apion. lib. i. c. 8. e John v. 46, 47. f See Prideaux, Connection part i. VOL. II. b. iii. Account of the ark. g Deut. xxxi. 25, 26. h See ver. 24. i In Tract. Theolog. Polit. ubi sup. C 1. that the words Dibrei hattorah hazzaoth, do not perhaps signify the words of this law, limited to a single book of part of Moses's writings: the particle N zaoth is, I think, sometimes used as plural', and the expression above is probably of this import; when Moses had made an end of writing the words of the law, even all these [words or things]. The fact might be thus: Moses wrote his books thus far, to this place; and then gave the Levites the charge of them. 2. The words used by Moses to the Levites are general: he delivered to them not the book of this law; not any particular part of his writings, but this book of the law in generalm the particle this was here used, because Moses had the book then in his hand, which he delivered to them. Seper ha Torah", or seper Torah, was the name of the whole code or volume of the sacred writings, never once given by Moses to any single part of his works, but imposed here as a general title of the book that contained the whole of them. The law was that part of the code for an introduction to, illustration, history, or confirmation of which, all the other parts were written, and therefore the whole might well be called the book of the law, the law being the principal and most important part of the code called by this title. As Moses gave the sacred volume which he left to the Israelites this general title; so we find it used in all after-ages for the title of this book, even when not only the works of Moses, but also the Psalms and the Prophets were contained in it. Joshua wrote his book in the book of the law; and yet in Josiah's time the volume found in the temple, which undoubtedly contained all that Joshua had written in it, as well as Moses, was called by its general name, The book of the law only. In our Saviour's time the books of Scripture were of three sorts, as Josephus afterwards reckoned them9; namely, the books of Moses, the Prophets, and the Psalms and our Saviour, who thus distinguishes them, when he intended to speak of the particulars that made up the sacred code, yet in the general not only calls all the books of Moses, the laws, but cites the book of Psalms as part of the law, as the Jews also did in his age", and St. Paul afterwards cited Isaiah in like manner. Moses, at delivering his writings, called the whole : tome, The book of the law, and this continued to be the general title of the whole volume of the sacred books in all ages, whatever particular books were annexed to_or_contained in it. As to the book of the wars of the Lord, we have no reason to think any such book was written by Moses: it is indeed cited in a book of Mosesy; but so is the book of Jasher in that of Joshua', and yet the book of Jasher was a composure more modern and of far less authority than the book of Joshua. The reader may see what is offered concerning the citation of the book of Jasher in Joshua, and will find it reasonable perhaps to account for the citation in Numbers of the book of the wars of the Lord in like manner. In what is above offered the reader will see the greatest liberty taken by me in the suppositions I have made concerning the original divisions or titles of the books of Moses, and the dislocations or transpositions that may be conceived now to be in some chapters or paragraphs of them. I was willing to allow, for the sake of argument, the utmost that could with any show of reason be pretended; being sure that, after all, nothing could be concluded to prove Moses not to have written what we ascribe to him. But I must not leave this topic without observing, that I cannot say that Moses did actually divide his writings into books in the manner above supposed, or that the chapters, which we may imagine not to be now found in their proper places, were originally otherwise disposed by Moses than we now find them. Of all the books written by Moses, the book of Genesis only could be composed by him in the opportunity of a great leisure b: he must have lived in the hurry of a variety of engagements, in the management of a most restless people, all the time he was writing his accounts of them; and consequently, what is contained in what we now call the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, might be at first minuted down, and put together, as works generally are, which are composed and finished in such circumstances: the historical parts were registered as the occurrences arose that were the matter of them. The laws given were recorded when, and as it pleased God to direct Moses to write them; sometimes immediately at their being given, at other times not until occasions arose, that demanded a recollection of them. Some things were repeated, added to, or explained, as circumstances required, and Moses had no time to go over and methodize anew what he had wrote in this manner, but put y Numbers xxi. 14. z Joshua x. 13. a See b. xii. ad fin. b See vol. ii. b. ix. |