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stand so in relief, as it respects the original text, that a critic cannot well hesitate where they begin and where they end, is so far from being a proof that the whole books of Moses were composed in a later age, that it is manifestly a proof to the contrary. How could a late writer scarcely ever betray the age in which he lived? How could it be, that he should introduce no foreign terms into his work but such as are Egyptian, in the midst of all the intercourse which the later ages had with the nations of the north and the east? Questions difficult to be answered; and which have never been answered to our satisfaction, by any who oppose the antiquity of the Pentateuch.

We conclude this protracted part of our discussion, by a few remarks on the usual method of treating our subject.

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The advocates for the antiquity of the Pentateuch have not unfrequently made such extravagant claims for the genuineness of every part of it, even the minutest, that they have unwarily contributed, in no small degree, to aid the assaults of their opponents. Will any man believe, for example, that Moses wrote the account of his own death and burial, which is placed at the end of the Pentateuch? May it not be conceded as probable, that the long genealogy of the kings of Edom, in Genesis xxxvi. was completed by some later hand? And when the man Moses' is described as 'meek beyond all others,' may not some other hand than his own have added this? Such high claims, which can never be rendered valid, nor shown to be reasonable, only serve to expose a good cause to the assaults of those who oppugn it. If they can triumph over one and another argument, which want of acquaintance with the subject, or superstition, or excessive views about the kind of perfection attached to the Scriptures have led men to use; they are very prone to carry an analogy forward, and extend it to all the arguments which are employed for the purpose of defence. The time has come, indeed, when men must know with what sort of arms they are contending. Every principle, in this age of free inquiry, will be probed to the very bottom; and if it will not abide the trial, it will be cast away. Sooner or later, it must come to this. We profess to be among those who believe, that the sooner this takes place, the better for the cause of truth, of the Scriptures, and the interests of true religion in the world.

If we have succeeded in showing that the Hebrew Pentateuch, as to all its essential parts, came from the hand of Moses, we have of course prepared the way to show the possibility, that

the Samaritan Pentateuch may be older than the time of the Babylonish exile.

We must limit ourselves to the leading topics of argument; which we shall aim to state simply, without particular reference to all that has been written in regard to this subject.

It is important, in order to prepare the mind for a proper view of this topic, to take a brief survey of the condition and circumstances of the ten tribes, from whom the Samaritans originated, or whom, we may perhaps more properly say, they succeeded.

In the year 975 before Christ, ten tribes, under Jeroboam, revolted from the dominion of Rehoboam, the son of Solomon, and erected a separate principality. This continued, with some intervals of anarchy and confusion, for the space of two hundred and fiftythree years; when the country was invaded by Shalmaneser, king of Assyria, and all the people of wealth, influence, and consideration, were deported to the provinces of Halah and Habor by the river Gozan, and to the cities of the Medes, 2 Kings xvii. 6. The succession of kings from Jeroboam downwards, may be exhibited to view in a short compass.

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Most of these kings were more or less devoted to idolatry, or at least to moscholatry, that is, the worship of the golden calves set up by Jeroboam at Dan and Bethel, towns near the two extremities of his kingdom. This was, no doubt, like the worship that was practised in Egypt of the god Apis; for Jeroboam had lived in Egypt, previously to his becoming a king, 1 Kings xii. 2. It would seem, however, that the design of Jeroboam was rather to worship Jehovah, under the symbol of the calves, than absolutely to proscribe all the religious worship due to him. It was Ahab, who first introduced the worship of foreign idols in a manner fully heathen, 2 Kings xvi. 30-33. He persecuted

and destroyed the prophets of the true God, and oppressed and terrified all who worshipped him. This did many of the succeeding kings, in a greater or less degree; but none, with the zeal and bitterness of Ahab, who was instigated by a heathenish wife, both bigoted and bloodthirsty. But during the reign of all the Israelitish kings, there were more or less true prophets and worshippers of the true God among the ten tribes. This is a very interesting fact; and it has a bearing so important on the subject of the present discussion, that some delay is proper, in order to establish it.

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In the time of Jeroboam, the first king of Israel, we find the prophet Ahijah exercising his office among the ten tribes. Under Nadab, Jehu the son of Hanani was prophet; under Ahab, Elijah and Micaiah the son of Imlah; under Ahaziah, Elijah, Elisha, and Micaiah; under Joram, Elisha; under Jehu, Elisha and another prophet sent by him to anoint Jehu. In the time of Elijah and Elisha, there was a school of the prophets also at Bethel, 2 Kings ii. 3. Jehoahaz king of Israel sought the Lord, in the time of Elisha, and was promised victory over the Syrians his enemies; as did also Joash, his successor. boam the Second not only obtained a victory over the Syrians, according to the prediction of Josiah the son of Amittai, but extended his conquests so as to recover the dominions that had been lost, under Jehu and Jehoahaz.. Under the reign of Jeroboam the second, Hosea and Amos, prophets whose works are a part of our Scripture canon, lived among the ten tribes, and prophesied concerning them. During the short and interrupted reigns which followed, there may have been, and probably were, prophets of the Lord among the ten tribes, although we have no express account of them. It is plainly intimated, however, in 2 Kings xvii. 13, that God did not cease to warn Israel, as well as Judah, by prophets and seers, down to the time of their captivity.

On the supposition now that the law of Moses was already in existence (as we have seen it probably was), during all the period in which the ten tribes had a separate national standing, and that so many true prophets lived among them, and were commissioned to instruct and reprove them; can it be rationally supposed, that these prophets had no copy of the Pentateuch, no standard to which they made the appeal in all cases of command and reproof? Were Elijah, and Elisha, and Hosea, and Amos, unacquainted with the law of Moses? Read the

works of the two latter prophets, and see if the appeal to the Pentateuch is not too often made, for any one reasonably to doubt of its existence, and of their acquaintance with it, in its present

form.

But this is not all. The people among the ten tribes were never all of them devoted to idol worship. In the time of Asa king of Judah, about nine hundred and fortyone years before Christ, a great reformation was effected, and the worship of God renewed with zeal, among the tribes of Judah and Benjamin. With the devout worshippers from these tribes, great numbers out of Ephraim, and Manasseh, and Simeon, that is, out of the ten tribes, were associated, 2 Chronicles xiv. 8, seq. Under Ahab, the most zealous and oppressive of all the idolatrous kings of Israel, when even Elijah the prophet thought that he alone was left, of all the nation, who worshipped the true God, the divine response informed him that seven thousand remained in Israel, who had not bowed the knee to Baal, 1 Kings xix. 10, 18.

Hezekiah king of Judah wrote letters of invitation to Ephraim and Manasseh, to come and keep the passover with him and his people, 2 Chronicles xxx. 1; and although most of the people among these tribes derided the proposal, yet not a few of them accepted the invitation, 2 Chronicles xxx. 11. Josiah carried reform still further; for he went through the land of Israel, and destroyed all their idols and altars, 2 Chronicles xxxiv. 6, seq. That he did this with the approbation of very many among the ten tribes, may be inferred from the fact, that no war appears to have taken place in consequence of this proceeding.

Such are the numerous and unquestionable evidences, that the worship of the true God was kept up, in some form more or less perfect, among the ten tribes, during the whole of their existence as a separate nation. Now could this have been done without some rule; some uniform basis or support; some paramount authority to which the prophets all made an appeal, in order to enforce their reproofs, and sanction their precepts?, To say the least, such would be a case extremely rare of occurrence; indeed, a case altogether improbable.

The ten tribes, then, were in possession of the law of Moses. Such is the conclusion to which facts like these necessarily bring us.

Besides, how happens it that the Samaritans, descended from them, have never possessed or acknowledged any other

of the Old Testament Scriptures, except the Pentateuch? Must it not have been for the reason, that when they received the Pentateuch, it was then the only part of the Hebrew Scriptures which was in common circulation among the Jews? If so, then they must have very early been in possession of it; for the writings of David and Solomon were already in existence, and if the ten tribes came in possession of the Pentateuch after these writings began to circulate, why did they not receive these Scriptures as well as the other?

Gesenius has adverted to this argument, in the work before us, page 4. His reply is, that the writings of David, Solomon, and the prophets who succeeded them, everywhere acknowledge Jerusalem and the temple there, as the seat and only proper place of sacred solemnities. This the ten tribes, of course, would not acknowledge; and therefore they rejected all the books, that is, the works of David, Solomon &c. which contained such acknowledgments.

But even if this be allowed, the reply is insufficient. The books of Joshua and Judges contain nothing of any such references to the preeminence of Jerusalem, and of the worship established there; nothing of the preeminence of the tribe of Judah; in short, nothing which would interfere with the peculiar views of the ten tribes about the place of worship. Now as these books, for substance, are confessedly of early composition, why should the Pentateuch be received among the ten tribes, or the Samaritans, and these be rejected, unless the reception of the Pentateuch among them took place at a time which preceded the circulation of the books in question among the Hebrews in general? The reason alleged by Gesenius proves too much; for if it be valid, then we might confidently expect to find the books of Joshua and Judges included in the canon of the Samaritans. The reason for rejecting particular books from the canon, which he assigns, does not apply to the books in question.

Besides, there is somewhat of ergo rerigo in the argument which the learned critic adduces. Where does he find, in the history of the ten tribes, any dispute about the place of worship? Surely it cannot be forgotten, that the question about mount Gerizim arose years after the return from the Babylonish exile. Jeroboam, indeed, established the worship of the golden calves at Dan and Bethel, the two extremities of his kingdom; but where does it appear, that the ten tribes attached any pe

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