Nehemiah it was called “the law of Moses,” (Ezra 7:6) or “the book of the law of Moses,” (Nehemiah
8:1) or simply “the book of Moses.” (2 Chronicles 25:4; 35:12; Ezra 6:13; Nehemiah 13:1) This
was beyond all reasonable doubt our existing Pentateuch. The book which was discovered the
temple in the reign of Josiah, and which is entitled, (2 Chronicles 34:14) “a book of the law of
Jehovah by the hand of Moses,” was substantially, it would seem the same volume, though it may
afterward have undergone some revision by Ezra. The present Jews usually called the whole by
the name of Torah, i.e. “the Law,” or Torath Mosheh “the Law of Moses.” The division of the
whole work into five parts was probably made by the Greek translators; for the titles of the several
books are not of Hebrew but of Greek origin. The Hebrew names are merely taken from the first
words of each book, and in the first instance only designated particular sections and not whole
books. The MSS. of the Pentateuch form a single roll or volume, and are divided not into books
but into the larger and smaller sections called Parshiyoth and Sedarim. The five books of the
Pentateuch form a consecutive whole. The work, beginning with the record of creation end the
history of the primitive world, passes on to deal more especially with the early history of the Jewish
family, and finally concludes with Moses’ last discourses and his death. Till the middle of the last
century it was the general opinion of both Jews and Christians that the whole of the Pentateuch
was written by Moses, with the exception of a few manifestly later additions,—such as the, 34th
chapter of Deuteronomy, which gives the account of Moses death. The attempt to call in question
the popular belief was made by Astruc, doctor and professor of medicine in the Royal College at
Paris, and court physician to Louis XIV. He had observed that throughout the book of Genesis, and
as far as the 6th chapter of Exodus, traces were to be found of two original documents, each
characterized by a distinct use of the names of God; the one by the name Elohim, and the other by
the name Jehovah. [God] Besides these two principal documents, he supposed Moses to have made
use of ten others in the composition of the earlier part of his work. The path traced by Astruc has
been followed by numerous German writers; but the various hypotheses which have been formed
upon the subject cannot be presented in this work. It is sufficient here to state that there is evidence
satisfactory that the main bulk of the Pentateuch, at any rate, was written by Moses, though the
probably availed himself of existing documents in the composition of the earlier part of the work.
Some detached portions would appear to be of later origin; and when we remember how entirely,
during some periods of Jewish history, the law seems to have been forgotten, and again how
necessary it would be after the seventy years of exile to explain some of its archaisms, and to add
here and there short notes to make it more intelligible to the people, nothing can be more natural
than to suppose that such later additions were made by Ezra and Nehemiah. To briefly sum up the
results of our inquiry—
•The book of Genesis rests chiefly on documents much earlier than the time of Moses though it
was probably brought to very nearly its, present shape either by Moses himself or by one of the
elders who acted under him.
•The books of Exodus, Leviticus and Numbers are to a great extent Mosaic. Besides those portions
which are expressly declared to have been written by him other portions, and especially the legal
sections, were, if not actually written, in all probability dictated by him.
•Deuteronomy, excepting the concluding part, is entirely the work of Moses as it professes to be.
•It is not probable that this was written before the three preceding books, because the legislation
in Exodus and Leviticus, as being the more formal, is manifestly the earlier whilst Deuteronomy
frankie
(Frankie)
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