rested from all his work which God created and made;" and Ex. xvi. is certainly of this same character. The mythical origin of the Passover, (Ex. xii.,) and some others, may be contested. But two things are certain 1. That the author of Deuteronomy ascribes to Moses a body of laws which were obviously modified after his time. 2. That the author of the document Jehovah has referred certain customs and laws to an origin more ancient than their real date. Perhaps the progressive formation of the Mosaic law is acknowledged in Numbers xv. 23. "And if ye have erred, and not observed all these commandments which the Lord hath spoken unto Moses, even all that the Lord hath commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day that the Lord commanded Moses, and henceforward among your generations." III. In connection with this, a sort of spirit of investigation and combination was also at work. We are indebted to this for the genealogical and ethnographical accounts contained in the Pentateuch. They are designed in sober earnest, and are not without some historical foundation, but are rather the result of fancy and conjecture than of genuine historical investigation. To test the accuracy of the table Gen. x., compare the following passages: "The sons of Cush, Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha, and the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. 25 And unto Eber were born two sons...... Peleg...... and his brother's name was Joktan. 28 Sheba is the son of Joktan." Chap. xxv. 2. "Abraham took a wife...... Keturah; and she bare him Zimran and Jokshan, Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah; and Jokshan begat Sheba and Dedan."...... The derivation from Cush, Canaan, Elam, and Ashur, is opposed by the history of the language." To test the accuracy of the other table, compare the following passages: Genesis. "Esau took Chap. xxxvi. 2, 3. his wives of the daughters of Canaan; Adah the daughter of Elon the Hittite, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah the daughter of Zibeon the Hivite; and Bashemath, Ishmael's daughter, sister of Nebajoth." Chap. xxxvi. 15-30. "These were dukes of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz, the first-born son of Esau; duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke Kenaz, duke Korah, duke Gatam, and duke Amalek: these are the dukes that came of Eliphaz, in the land of Edom: these were the sons of Adah. And these are the sons of Reuel, Esau's son; duke Na- | hath, duke Zerah, duke Shammah, duke Mizzah these are the dukes that came of Reuel, in Genesis. Chap. xxvi. 34, 35. "And Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah." Chap. xxxvi. 40-43. " And these are the names of the dukes that came of Esau, according to their families, after their places, by their names; duke Timnah, duke Alvah, duke Jetheth, duke Aholibamah, duke Elah, duke Pinon, duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke Mibzar, duke Magdiel, duke Iram: these be the dukes of Edom, according to their habitations, in the land of their possession; he is Esau the father of the Edomites." • But see Rosenmüller, Alt. vol. iii. p. 33, 160, 174. the land of Eaom: these are the sons of Bashemath, Esau's wife. "And these are the sons of Aholibamah, Esau's wife; duke Jeush, duke Jaalam, duke Korah : these were the dukes that came of Aholibamah the daughter of Anah, Esau's wife. These are the sons of Esau, (who is Edom,) and these are their dukes. "These are the sons of Seir, the Horite, who inhabited the land; Lotan, and Shobal, and Zibeon, and Anah, and Dishon, and Ezer, and Dishan; these are the dukes of the Horites, the children of Seir in the land of Edom. And the children of Lotan were Hori, and Heman; and Lotan's sister was Timna. And the children of Shobal were these; Alvan, and Manahath, and Ebal, Shepho, and Onam. And these are the children of Zibeon; both Ajah, and Anah; this was that Anah that found the mules in the wilderness, as he fed the asses of Zibeon his father. And the children of Anah were these; Dishon, and Aholibamah the daughter of Anah. And these are the children of Dishon; Hemdan, and Eshban, and Ithran, and Cheran. The children of Ezer are these; Bilhan, and Zaavan, and Akan. The children of Dishan are these; Uz and Aran. These are the dukes that came of the Horites; duke Lotan, duke Shobal, duke Zibeon, duke Anah. VOL. II. 7 Chap. xiv. 6. "And the Horites in their Mount Seir." Deuteronomy. Chap. ii. 12-22. "The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime, but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which the Lord gave unto them. The children of Esau, which dwelt in Seir, when he destroyed the Horims from before them; and they succeeded them, and dwelt in their stead even unto this day." duke Dishon, duke Ezer, duke Dishan, these are the dukes that came of Hori, among their dukes in the land of Seir." We find less seriousness, and more of a religious and poetical spirit of fancy in the etymological myths, where an account is given of the origin of the names of persons and places. Some of these are conformable to tradition; but others, by their artificial character, betray themselves as the productions of later reflection; for example, Gen. xi. 9, "Therefore is the name of it called Babel, because the Lord did there confound the language of all the earth." Gen. xix. 22, "Therefore the name of the city was called Zoar." Gen. xix. 22, IV. The religious and didactic design of the writer appears in the didactic myths in their general form, or in the setting forth of religious truths which belong out of the circle of the national and theocratical history; for example, in Gen. i.-iii., and Ex. xxxiii. 12-23. V. Since the authors of the Pentateuch-who, perhaps, were prophets-found the laws and institutions of the Israelitish nation in the most ancient history, and likewise their rules and forms in the divine plan of the world, they were therefore led, by custom and the necessity of prophetic vision, to throw back into ancient history the prophecy of later events and circumstances, by means of fictitious predictions, and thus to establish a closer connection between the present and the past, and at the same time lay a foundation for actual prophecies of the future. Examples of this are as follows: • See Vater and Tuch, in loc. Comp. Gen. xxxvi. 15, 18, 22, with xxvi. 18, 40, 41. Genesis xxv. 23. "Two nations are in thy womb, and two manner of people shall be separated from thy bowels, and the one people shall be stronger than the other people, and the elder shall serve the younger." Genesis xxvii. 28, 29, 39, 40. "Therefore God give thee of the dew of heaven, and the fatness of the earth, and plenty of corn and wine; let people serve thee, and nations bow down to thee; be lord over thy brethren, and let thy mother's sons bow down to thee; cursed be every one that curseth thee, and blessed be he that blesseth thee. . . . . . "And Isaac his father answered, and said unto him, 'Behold, thy dwelling shall be the fatness of the earth, and of the dew of heaven from above; and by thy sword shalt thou live, and shalt serve thy brother; and it shall come to pass when thou shalt have the dominion, that thou shalt break his yoke from off thy neck.'" Genesis xlix. Numbers xxiii. 7-10, and Numbers xxiii. 23, 24. "Surely there is no enchantment against Jacob, neither is there any divination against Israel: according to this time it shall be said of Jacob and of Israel, 'What hath God wrought!' Behold, the people shall rise up as a great lion, and lift up himself as a young lion; he shall not lie down until he eat of the prey, and drink the blood of the slain.” Num. xxiv. 3—9, 15—24. Levit. xxvi. Deut. xxviii. xxxii. § 159, 257.“ § 148. ERRORS IN RESPECT TO HISTORICAL TRUTH. In the course of such a treatment, various errors in regard to historical truth would naturally be made. These betray the later writer. I. The order in which events follow one another, in the Mosaic history, is not accurately observed." See Asiatic Researches, vol. viii. p. 486. For an enumeration of all that may be called anachronisms, see Vater, |