PREFACE 



Xlll 



rank of Reuss and Wellhausen, of Robertson 

 Smith and Kuenen, without gross presumption ; I 

 might even say without raising a serious doubt of 

 his scientific integrity. But what is the general 

 result of the patient study which these men, 

 and many more such, have devoted, through long 

 years, to the elucidation of the difficult and com- 

 plicated problem of the origin of the first five 

 books of the Old Testament ? 



An excellent work, which has just made its 

 appearance, supplies an answer. I may be 

 permitted to say that it can hardly be ranked as 

 a "shallow infidel" publication ; not the last, inso- 

 much as it is dedicated to the theological faculty 

 of the University of Giessen ; not the first, since 

 its author, Dr. Smend, is a distinguished professor 

 in the University of Gottingen. 



After pointing out the importance of the ques- 

 tion of the date of the priestly code (that is to 

 say the so-called Levitical Law, which occupies 

 so large a place in the books of Exodus, Leviti- 

 cus, and Numbers), Dr. Smend says, it may now 

 be considered to be proved, that this code " was 

 first made known by Esra, about 444 B.C., and 

 raised to the position of the fundamental law of 

 Judaism. The kernel of the priestly code may be 

 a few decades or even a century older ; but it 

 assuredly did not exist before Deuteronomy. . . . 

 At the present day, it is almost universally 

 admitted that there was no divine law book of 



