198 



REV. CANON GARRATT, M.A._, ON 



Pentateuch possessed by the Ten Tribes, that in fact it was the 

 Israelitish recension as contrasted with the Jewish. Of course 

 if that is the case, if the Pentateuch as a whole existed in the 

 time of Jeroboam, the consequences are very far-reaching. 

 Three hundred years before, according to the higher critics, 

 Deuteronomy was written, the whole of the Pentateuch was 

 in the hands of the northern as well as the southern kingdom. 



But how did it get into the hands of the Samaritans ? In 

 2 Kings xvii, we read of a mission by the King of Assyria of a 

 priest to teach the people whom he had brought from other con- 

 quered countries to take the place of the Ten Tribes whom he 

 had carried away captive. The priest he sent was not a Jewish 

 priest but an Israelitish priest : " Then one of the priests whom 

 they had carried away from Samaria came and dwelt in Bethel, 

 and taught them how they should serve the Lord." Of course 

 when he came he must have brought them the law of the Lord. 

 Some of the prophets who prophesied especially to the Ten 

 Tribes — Hosea, Amos, Micah are constantly blaming tlie 

 northern nation for breaking the " law." Their acquaintance 

 with the Pentateuch is always taken for granted. Their 

 prophets could take it for granted that they knew all about the 

 circumstances of Jacob's birth, his prayer at Bethel, which are 

 mentioned as familiar facts in Hosea xii, 4, 5 ; the destruction 

 of Sodom and Gomorrah, the forty years in the wilderness, 

 the coming up out of Egypt, and the existence of the cere- 

 monial law (Amos v, 21-25; Hosea iv, 6); the history 

 of Balaam (Micah vi, 4, 5). These Israelitish prophets accuse 

 their nation of doing what the higher critics treat as an 

 impossibility — having the law and not keeping it, as Hosea says 

 (viii, 12) ; "I have written to him the great things of my law, 

 but they were counted a strange thing." Therefore the Israel- 

 ites had the Pentateuch. This was the law which the Israelitish 

 priest brought to the Samaritans. After the lapse of more than 

 2,500 years we find them still in possession of the five books of 

 Moses, and of these only. They have no Hexateuch. They 

 have indeed a book of Joshua, but it is not the Book of Joshua 

 which we know, and it is not, like these five books, written in 

 Hebrew, but in the Samaritan language. They have also a 

 translation of the Pentateuch into the Samaritan language, and 

 sometimes these manuscripts are spoken of as the Samaritan 

 version. They are nothing of the kind. They are Hebrew 

 books written in the old Hebrew characters. If you look 

 at them in what we call Hebrew letters you will find them 

 the same books in the same language as your ordinary Hebrew 



