128 
Payne Smith’s object in his statement and in his note to his lectures is to 
justify the numbers, on the hypothesis that you are to reckon all the descend- 
ants. Dr. Payne Smith’s object is not certainly to throw discredit upon the 
numbers ; he simply says, “ In reckoning the Hebrews, you are bound to*, 
reckon, besides the Hebrew proper of pure blood, all those who were incor- 
porated into the Hebrew families.” We should bear that in mind when the 
force of Dr. Payne Smith’s authority is quoted by Mr. Row 
Mr. Row. — I merely quoted him to show that from the loins of Jacob 
these vast numbers did not descend. 
Dr. Rigg. — On the other hand, no doubt Dr. Payne Smith is decidedly in 
favour of the view that the average increase of the families cannot be reckoned 
at more than three or four children for every parent, and that is important ; 
for Dr. Payne Smith seems to have paid much attention to the subject, and 
is unimpeachably orthodox. I cannot help thinking, that on these subjects, 
what we want is, that some persons of competent ability and sufficient 
leisure should give themselves to the proper elucidation of the books of the 
Old Testament. (Hear, hear.) I think that we have, in fact, no exegetical 
books on the Old Testament in the English language that are worth any- 
thing. I do not refer to Dr. Pusey’s Daniel , because that is a special book 
with a special object ; but as a general rule, you will find what I have stated 
to be the truth. Compare the exegetical books on the New Testament 
such books as Professor Lightfoot’s — with anything that we have on the 
Old Testament. All these objections to numbers would come to nothing 
if, by true scholarly appreciation and elimination, the real life of the record 
itself in each of the books of the Old Testament was properly brought 
out to the appreciation of the students of Scripture. Suppose that an 
English orthodox divine, of the calibre of the German Ewald, whose faith has 
not been impaired by the summary dictum that there can be no miracle, had 
his learning, his power, his immense application, and his intense love for 
historical research applied to such a subject ; if such a man, believing 
rightly in the existence of a living God, and that He interposes by way of 
miracle when there is a proper reason for divine interposition ; if, I say, such 
a man were to give himself to the work of elucidating these books of history 
then the truth coming out in the successive chapters of them, and being 
made to shine as history and likewise in the light of a consistent moral 
purpose, I am convinced of this, that all these questions of numbers would 
fade away. People would say at once, “We cannot accept these numbers 
as part of the record ; they have come to us under circumstances which 
almost necessitated change and corruption ; but they are matters of no 
moment ; they may have been the work of some transcriber, or, if not, at all 
events, they are no more than the corruptions contained in the classical 
writers, and which are quite apart from the real worth and substance of the 
manuscripts themselves.” But while things remain as they are, we cling to 
the idea of the minutely literal verbal inspiration of the Scriptures as we 
find them, and the consequence is, that a certain amount of disturbance 
and a certain amount of doubt are engendered where there ought to be no 
