INTRODUCTION ΤΟ THE OLD TESTAMENT AND APOCRYPHA. CHAPTER I. ON THE PENTATEUCH, OR FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES. SECTION I. GENERAL OBSERVATIONS ON THE PENTATEUCH. I. Title.-II. Argument of the Pentateuch.-III. Notice of other writings ascribed to Moses. I. THE PENTATEUCH, by which title the five books of Moses are collectively designated, is a word of Greek original', which literally signifies five books, or volumes; by the Jews it is frequently termed nin, the Law, or the Law of Moses, because it contains the ecclesiastical and political ordinances issued by God to the Israelites. [We find this appellation more or less modified in various parts of the bible: inn pp, Deut. xxviii. 61., xxix. 20., xxx. 10., xxxi. 26.; Josh. i. 8., viii. 34.; 2 Kings xxii. 8, 11.; 2 Chron. xxxiv. 15.; Neh. viii. 3. ning min D, 2 Chron. xvii. 9., xxxiv. 14.; Neh. ix. 3.: Da ninc, Josh. xxiv. 26.; Neh. viii. 18. ni nin D, Josh. viii. 31.; 2 Kings xiv. 6.; Neh. viii. 1.: no D, 2 Chron. xxv. 4., XXXV. 12.; Ezra vi. 18.; Neh. xiii. 1.: ngin nin, 2 Chron. xxiii. 18.; Ezra iii. 2., vii. 6.: пing, 2 Chron. xxv. 4.; Neh. viii. 2, 7, 13, 14. The rabbins call the books of Moses ning pan nyip," the fivefifths of the law." Among the Greeks the name was πevtátεuxos2, sc. Bißhos; among the Latins, Pentateuchus 3, sc. liber.] The Pentateuch forms, to this day, but one roll or volume in the Jewish manuscripts, being divided only into perashioth and sedarim, or larger and smaller sections. This collective designation of the books of Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy, 1Пevτáτεuxos, from wévre, five, and Teûxos, a book or volume. Bible de Vence, toni. i. p. 310. 2 Orig. Op. Par. 1718-1738. In Joh. tom. xiii. tom. iv. p. 236. Tertull. Op. Franek. 1597, Adv. Marcion. lib. i. 10. p. 354. For an account of these divisions, see before, pp. 35, 36. is of very considerable antiquity, though we have no certain information when it was first introduced.' As, however, the names of these books are evidently derived from the Greek, and as the five books of Moses are expressly mentioned by Josephus, who wrote only a few years after our Saviour's ascension, we have some reason to believe that the five-fold division was made by the Alexandrian translators. [Keil, however, and others consider it original.3] II. This division of the sacred volume comprises an account of the creation of the world, and of the fall of man, the outlines of the early annals of the world, and a full recital of the Jewish law, and of the events which happened to the Israelites from their becoming a distinct people to their departure out of Egypt, and their arrival on the confines of the land of Canaan - -a period of two thousand five hundred and fifteen years according to the vulgar computation, or of three thousand seven hundred and sixty-five years, according to that of Dr. Hales. "It is a wide description, gradually contracted; an account of one nation, preceded by a general sketch of the first state of mankind. The books are written in pure Hebrew, with an admirable diversity of style, always well adapted to the subject, yet characterized with the stamp of the same author; they are all evidently parts of the same work, and mutually strengthen and illustrate each other. They blend revelation and history in one point of view, furnish laws, and describe their execution, exhibit prophecies, and relate their accomplishment."4 III. Besides the Pentateuch the Jews ascribe to Moses ten psalms, from Psal. xc. to xcix. inclusive. There is, however, no solid evidence to prove that all these psalms were composed by him ; for the title of the ninetieth psalm, A prayer of Moses the man of God, which, they pretend, must be applied also to the nine following psalms, is not sufficient. Many of the titles of the psalms are not original, nor, indeed, very ancient; and some are evidently misplaced we find also in some of these psalms the names of persons, and other marks, which by no means agree with Moses. Further, some of the ancient fathers have thought that Moses was the author of the book of Job: Origen, in his commentary on Job, pretends that Moses translated it out of Syriac into Hebrew; but this opinion is rejected both by Jews and Christians. There are likewise ascribed to Moses several apocryphal books; as an Apocalypse, or Little Genesis, the Ascension of Moses, the The author of the treatise De Mundo, which is commonly ascribed to Philo Judæus, was of opinion that Moses himself divided his work into five books; but he assigned no authority for such opinion. Jesus Christ and his apostles never cite the five books of Moses under any other name than that of Moses, or the Law of Moses; as the Jews ordinarily do to this day. Calmet conjectures that Ezra divided the Pentateuch into five books. Dissertations, tom. ii. p. 23. 2 In his Jewish Antiquities, Josephus terms the Pentateuch the Holy Books of Moses (lib. x. cap. 4. § 2.); and, in his Treatise against Apion (lib. i. cap. 8.), when enumerating the sacred writings of the Jews, he says that five of them belong to Moses. Some critics have imagined that this distinction of the Pentateuch into five separate books was known to and recognized by St. Paul (1 Cor. xiv. 19.), by the term five words; but the context of that passage does not authorize such a conjecture. |