MOSAIC ORIGIN OF THE PENTATEUCH. 



the wanderings and vicissitudes of the People up to their arrival 

 in Moab. Deuteronomy crowns the whole with the valedictory 

 addresses of the aged Leader, impressing on the People the high 

 honour of being so called and chosen, and the consequent need 

 of responding worthily to their vocation. 



It has been asserted that here there is not a real close. 

 The first stage in the history of God's dealings with His 

 cbosen people ends with their settlement in the Promised Land 

 rather than with the death of Moses. The promise is made to 

 Abraham, ' To thy seed will I give this land ' (Gen. xii, 7) and 

 frequently repeated to him and his descendants in the 

 book of Genesis. The rest of the Pentateuch records the 

 development of the nation, and its discipline preparatory 

 to entering the Land. This record is incomplete without 

 the book of Joshua, in which the fulfilment of the promises is 

 recorded.''* 



If the end aimed at were only the installation of the Chosen 

 People in the Promised Land, there would be weight in this 

 argument. But the promise of Gen. xii, 7 is subsequent and 

 subsidiary to the larger promise of v. 3, " In thee shall all the 

 families of the earth be blessed.'' In view of this greater end, 

 the close of the nation's time of trial and discipline becomes a 

 marked era. The Pentateuch records the initial stages of a 

 mighty scheme of redemption : the entry into the Promised 

 Land commences a new phase in which the Chosen People are 

 given the opportunity to rise to the height of their Divine 

 mission to the world. 



The selection and preparation of a Chosen People, not for 

 their own sakes, but for the ultimate benefit of all mankind, 

 is the tme burden of the whole five books, and all the manifold 

 details only subserve this one great purpose. 



Is it possible to believe that this majestic unity of design 

 was not deliberately planned, but only achieved by the labours 

 of a Redactor piecing together incongruous and even incon- 

 sistent materials ? Can we believe that a couple of narratives 

 mainly based on folk-lore, a series of discourses composed in 

 the name of a legislator long deceased, and the codification of an 

 amorphous mass of priestly decisions and Temple usages, — all 

 three originating independently and at long interv^als of time, — 



Chapman, Intro, to Pent., p. 6. 



