- 163-
of Joseph. And now long centuries of utter silence were to follow. During all that
weary period, with the misery of their bondage and the temptation of idolatry around
constantly increasing, there was neither voice from heaven nor visible manifestation
to warn or to cheer the children of Israel in Egypt. One mode of guidance was for a
time withdrawn. Israel had now only the past to sustain and direct them. But that past,
in its history and with its promises, was sufficient. Besides, the torch of prophecy,
which the hands of dying Jacob had held, cast its light into the otherwise dark future.
Nay, the fact that Joseph's life, which formed the great turning-point in Israel history,
had been allowed to pass without visible Divine manifestations to him and to them
was in itself significant. For even as his unburied body seemed to preach and to
prophesy, so his whole life would appear like a yet unopened or only partially opened
book, - a grand unread prophecy, which the future would unfold. And not merely the
immediate future, as it concerned Israel; but the more distant future as it concerns the
whole Church of God. For, although not the person of Joseph,^94 yet the leading events
of his life are typical of the great facts connected with the life and the work of Him
who was betrayed and sold by His brethren, but whom "God exalted with His right
hand to be a Prince and a Savior."
(^1) “Only in the New Covenant does the Old unfold, And hidden lies the New
Testament in the Old.”
(^2) Matthew 11:13, 22:40; Acts 13:15, etc. The ordinary Jewish division is into the Law
(five books of Moses); the Prophets (earlier: Joshua, Judges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2
Kings; and later: Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve Minor Prophets); and
"The Writings," or sacred writings, hagiographa, - which comprise The Psalms,
Proverbs, and Job; - the "five rolls," read at special festivals in the Synagogue: the
Song of Songs, Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, and Esther; -Daniel, Ezra,
Nehemiah, and 1 and 2 Chronicles (called in Hebrews "Words, or Acts, of the Days,"
journals, or diaries). Comp. Luke 24:44.
(^3) It is noteworthy that in Genesis 1 we always read, "And the evening and the
morning were the first day," or second, or third day, etc. Hence the Jews calculate the
day from evening to evening, that is, from the first appearance of the stars in the
evening to the first appearance of stars next evening, and not, as we do, from
midnight to midnight.
(^4) Many different views have been broached as to the exact locality of Eden, which it
would scarcely be suitable to discuss in this place. The two opinions deserving most
attention are those which place it either near the northern highlands of Armenia, or
else far south in the neighborhood of the Persian Gulf. We know that two of the
(^)