METHODS OF BIBLICAL CRITICISM. 



109 



stances of the Mosaic age itself, unite in lending their support to its 

 probability." 



It is in favour of the view we defend that it is in line with 

 the Bible's own constant tradition of the Mosaicity of the 

 Pentateuchal books, which the modern hypothesis contradicts at 

 every point. The Biblical evidence on this subject of Mosaic 

 origin is often unduly minimized, but it is really very strong and 

 persuasive. Apart from the assumption of the existence of a 

 " Book of the Law of Moses " in passages of the historical books 

 and the implication of its existence in passages where it is not 

 expressly mentioned, apart also from the firm belief of the Jews 

 in the days of our Lord and His apostles — a belief which our 

 Lord Himself shared — there can be no question : 



1. That all the three Codes — the Book of the Covenant, the 

 Deuteronomic discourses, and the Levitical Code — profess to 

 come from Moses, and the first and second profess to have been 

 written by him. 



2. That the Deuteronomic discourses imply the existence, in 

 substance, and in part in written form, of the Jehovah and 

 Elohim history, and that the Priestly Writing also presupposes 

 that history, with w^hich, in its narrative part, it is parallel. 



3. That King Josiah and the Jewish people of his day received 

 Deuteronomy as a genuine work of Moses, and that the nation 

 ever after regarded it as his. 



4. That the Jewish people of Ezra's time similarly accepted 

 the whole Pentateuch — including the Levitical legislation — as 

 genumely Mosaic. 



5. That the Samaritans received the Pentateuch at the hands 

 of the Jews as an undoubtedly Mosaic book. 



To these firm strands of tradition we may with much confi- 

 dence attach ourselves, without feeling that " traditionalist " in 

 such a connection is any term of reproach. As has happened in 

 the case of the New Testament, so it may be predicted it will 

 prove also in the case of the Old, that greater respect will yet 

 come to be paid to consentient tradition than it is now the 

 fashion to accord to it. 



The Literature of Egypt ^ Babylonia, and Palestine, 

 1,000 years before Moses. 



I have a few words to say as to the literary culture in the age 

 of Moses. 



The chief argument with regard to these five books is that 

 they show too high a literary experience and ability for the age 



