II 



EXTRACTS FROM EARLY LECTURES 



i. The Nazirate ; date of P. (June 19, 1870). 



THE history of the Nazirate is, so far as our records go, 

 very brief. All leading critics assign the law Num. vi. 

 i -2 1 to the so-called Grundschrift, Book of Origins Book 

 of the Elohist which, though not the earliest written 

 document entering into the Pentateuch, is regarded by 

 those who reject Mosaic authorship as the first complete 

 chronicle of the early history of Israel. This book is 

 generally assigned to the time of Saul, or David s early 

 years, and is viewed by all sober critics as a very weighty 

 authority. Thus, apart from all questions of Mosaic 

 authorship, inspiration, etc., it would generally be allowed 

 that our record is correct in supposing the Nazirate to 

 reach back to Moses (Ew. Alt. 117, with some hesitation ; 

 cf. Gesch. ii. 560 ; Knobel, Kr. d. Pent. p. 522, 593). The 

 law, indeed, as we have it seems to be rather the regulation 

 of an older institution. 



2. Beginnings of Prophetic Literature (Jan. 1871). 



There is no trace of prophets writing down their oracles 

 till long after the epoch of Samuel. In truth, that prophets 

 like Elijah and Samuel, who were essentially men of deeds 

 rather than words, should have committed their prophecies 

 to writing is in itself improbable. On the other hand, the 

 prophetic schools seem to have early developed a literary 



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