an obscene symbol) in the House of Jehovah,' v.6, and 'houses of sodomites' by the House of Jehovah,' v.7, &c. And during all this time those great prophets of Judah and Israel, who had been taught from above to glimpse at the great truth, that— God is a Spirit, and they that worship Him must worship Him in spirit and in truth'had been striving with their perverse and stolid fellow-countrymen, seeking to raise their minds to higher views of the Divine nature, and to teach them to invest that Name, which they were daily using as a common thing, with a high spiritual meaning. Some of higher mind, however, such the temple at Jerusalem made for Baal as Samuel and his school of prophets, -(=the Sun, Adonis), 2K.xxiii.4; there divinely taught to look 'above nature was an Ashera (E.V. 'grove,' but really unto nature's God,' may have desired to lift up this name, so august and full of meaning, from the base usage to which they saw it exposed, in the worship of the tribes of Canaan and their own idolatrous fellow-countrymen, and to consecrate it to a higher purpose, as well fitted to express the Self-existent, Eternal, Life-giving, Being, He Is or He makes to be, and to be henceforward the name of the Living God of Israel. With this view the Elohistic document may have been composed, in whatever age it was written. For the Elohist, who omits the name Jehovah in his story, as not known to the patriarchs, until he comes to record the revelation of that name to Moses, must have had, obviously, some special object in view in so doing. And, since the narrative of the Burning Bush and the revelation to Moses must be regarded as unhistorical, there seems every reason to believe that it was written by one, who desired to invest this name,-not known to the forefathers of the nation, but acquired by them since they came out of Egypt, -with a high and holy character, and a special solemnity. In this way, also, may be explained, perhaps, the singular fact, that, whereas so many other names of heathen gods are mentioned, as worshipped by the tribes around and by the Israelites copying their example - Moloch and Astarte, Baal and Ashera, Chemosh and Rimmon, &c.,-yet no name like to JAO is ever mentioned, as the greatest name of the chief Phoenician Deity, though the sacred writers must have known of its existence. It would almost seem as if they shrank from mixing up with dead idols, the 'abominations' of the heathen, a name which had now been set apart and sanctified, in the minds of all pious Israelites. The people still, no doubt, for ages-even down to the time of the Captivity-profaned the name, just as the people of the land did, in their common speech, and by the licentious and cruel practices of their worship. Nay, even for eighteen years of Josiah's reign, there were vessels in = Just so in Zululand we are now teaching the natives to invest their own name for the Supreme Being, Unkulunkulu, 'The Great-Great-One,' with a higher, more spiritual meaning than they would otherwise ascribe to it. Yet many years-perhaps, centuries-may pass before the Zulus generally will separate the name from all the absurd notions and legendary stories, which they may now in their wild heathen state connect with it. We must long expect to find that, while those of higher mind, or more favoured with opportunities of learning, will embrace that Name, in all the high significance which Missionaries attach to it, as the Name of their Great Creator, Father, and Friend, 'in Whom they live, and move, and have their being,' yet the great mass of the people will continue to use it ignorantly and irreverently, even as now. Just so, too, in Northern Europe, for many centuries after Christianity had been preached among the Scandinavian tribes, the orgies of the Feast of Yule must have often contrasted painfully, side by side with the joys of the Christmas Festival; or, at least, if the latter was observed in towns, where the clergy were at hand to stimulate and guide the devotions of the people, yet in the country districts the Name of Christ must have been long profaned, and the new religion desecrated, by admixture with heathen rites and most incongruous ceremonies. THE PENTATEUCH AND BOOK OF JOSHUA CRITICALLY EXAMINED BY THE RIGHT REV. JOHN WILLIAM COLENSO, D.D. BISHOP OF NATAL 'We can do nothing against the Truth, but for the Truth.'-St. Paul, 2 Cor. xiii. 8. 'Not to exceed, and not to fall short of, facts,-not to add, and not to take away,-to state the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth,-are the grand, the vital, maxims of Inductive Science, of English Law, and, let us add, of Christian Faith.' Quarterly Review on Essays and Reviews,' Oct. 1861, p. 369. PART III. LONDON: LONGMAN, GREEN, LONGMAN, ROBERTS, & GREEN. 1865. The right of translation is reserved. CHARACTERISTIC EXPRESSIONS OF THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY III. FIRST APPROXIMATION TO THE AGE OF THE DEUTERONOMIST IV. THE BOOK OF THE LAW FOUND IN THE TEMPLE V. THE BOOK FOUND IN JOSIAH'S REIGN, THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY XIX. THE SONG OF MOSES, DEUT.XXXII. XX. THE BLESSING OF MOSES, DEUT.XXXIII.1-7. XXI. THE BLESSING OF MOSES, DEUT.XXXIII.8-12 HÆ sunt religiones, quas sibi a majoribus suis traditas pertinacissimè tueri ac defendere perseverant nec considerant quales sint, sed ex hoc probatas atque veras esse confidunt, quod eas veteres tradiderunt. Tantaque est auctoritas vetustatis, ut inquirere in eam scelus ducatur.-LACTANTIUS, Inst. ii. 6. These are religious beliefs, which, having been handed down to them traditionally by their ancestors, they persist in maintaining, ay, and defending, most pertinaciously; nor do they consider of what sort they are, but hold confidently that they are tried and true, simply for the reason that their elders have transmitted them. And so great is the authority of antiquity that to enquire into it is deemed a crime. |