373 
Since, if it were so, Libni and Shimi would be contemporary 
with Amram, and their sons contemporary with Aaron and 
Moses ; and since Eliasaph, the son of Lael, was chief of the 
house of the Gershonites at the census, where can this Lael 
come ? It seems there must have been more generations 
intervening than four. Gershon and Merari may both have 
had sons early, and so may their descendants ; Kohath and 
his descendants late. Thus, while the latter has but four, the 
other two may have run on to eight or ten generations. In 
1 Chron. xxiv. 26, 27, a third son, Jaaziah, is attributed to 
Merari. 
66. The questions which Dr. Colenso raises connected with 
the duties of, and the provision made for, the priests, are of a 
different character, and must be met on other principles. He 
argues that, since the priesthood was limited to the male line 
of Aaron, and, after the death of Nadab and Abihu, there 
were but two sons of Aaron, there could not have been more 
than three priests in the wilderness. How could these have 
accomplished the multifarious duties assigned to them, par- 
ticularly the sprinkling of the blood of the 150,000 lambs at 
the Passover anniversary ? I reply, Eleazar and Ithamar may 
have had each numerous sons, though Nadab and Abihu died 
childless ; and, though at the Exode none of these had attained 
priestly age, yet, seeing that Aaron was now 83 years old, 
his grandsons may well have been on the verge of 30, and so 
several, in succession, of each line may have soon taken their 
place in the priestly band. 
67. But, in the opening of the national intercourse with 
God, there were already persons who had priestly standing, 
and performed priestly duties ; and these seem not to have 
been Aaron and his sons. For, at the foot of Sinai, when the 
Law was given, not only was the whole nation set, contingentlv 
upon obedience, in a priestly standing, but (Exod. xix. 22") 
there were certain persons officially recognized as “ the priests.” 
And, somewhat later, on the summons to Moses and Aaron to 
come up to the Mount (xxiv. 5), Moses “ sent young men, 
which offered burnt-offerings/'’ &c. The absolute prohibition 
of all but . the seed of Aaron to perform priestly service 
(Numb. xvi. 40) was not till after the insurrection of Korah ; 
to the date of which we have no certain clue, though the 
margin of our English Bible puts it conjecturally, civ. 1471 ; 
that is, about the middle of the wilderness sojourn. It may 
be, then, that these primal priests for some years had a sub- 
ordinate service in the sanctuary, till AaroiFs grandsons were 
sufficiently numerous. Much of Dr. Colenso's difficulty is 
wholly dependent on our ignorance — how could they sprinkle 
