§ 142.

4. NUMBERS. (72)

The commencement of this book is likewise supplementary, (i. 1-x. 10.) It contains the important part of the holy constitution, the selection of the Levites to the priesthood. Then begins the history of the march through the wilderness, and the conflict between the new constitution and the evil dispositions of the people.

We soon come to the end of this march, when the contest for the possession of the country commences: Moses opens the campaign successfully, and then prepares for his departure from the scene of action.

The passages which are not narrative, but are inserted between the narrations, are of the greatest importance from the political and statistic information which they afford. Chap. xxii.-xxiv. form an episode."

§ 143.

5. DEUTERONOMY. (.)

Shortly before his death, Moses appears before the people, and, by reference to their early history, admonishes them to obey God and his laws; he in part repeats the laws previously given, and in part gives new ones. Finally, he gives a solemn sanction to his legislation, appoints Joshua as his successor, and, after giving reminiscences, warnings, and prophecies, in a spirited discourse, and casting a glance into the beloved

See Carpzov, Int. in V. T. vol. i. p. 46; he also finds an account of the political administration in this book.

land which was shut to him, he mysteriously departs from the scene!"

§ 144.

PECULIARITIES OF THIS NARRATIVE.

1. IN REFERENCE TO COMPLETENESS.

While the narrative expresses itself fully in many accounts and descriptions, and is even tedious at times,' on the other hand we notice important chasms, which cannot be ascribed to the narrator's want of order, but must rather be attributed to his want of documents.

The most important chasms are between Genesis and Exodus, where a period of four hundred years is passed over; and between Numbers xiii., in the second year of the Exode, when the camp was at Kadesh-Barnea, and Numbers xx., in the fortieth year of the Exode, when the Jews arrive at the wilderness of Zin. Of all this period of thirty-eight years, we know as good as nothing."

Notice the parallel between Deut. xxvii. and Ex. xxiv.; Deut. xxviii. and Levit. xxvi.; Deut. xxxi. 14—23, xxxii. 48—52, and Num. xxvii. 12—23; Deut. xxxiii. and Gen. xlix.; besides the repetitions and alterations of the Laws.

⚫ Gen. xxiv. xxviL-xxxiv. xxxvii.-xlv. Ex. v.—xi. xxv.—xxx. xxxvi. -xl. Num. i.—iv. xxii.-xxiv. xxxi., et al.

See De Wette's Kritik. der Israelit. Gesch. 169-351. Goethe, Westöstliche Divan, p. 444, sqq.

< Compare Num. xx. 28, sq. with xxxiii. 38, and with Deut. ii. 14.

§ 145.

2. WITH REFERENCE TO PRAGMATISM AND MYTHOLOGY.

The causes which lay in the divine mind are clearly indicated; but the natural causes, the human motives, and the natural connection of circumstances, are but imperfectly pointed out." This is the reason that so many events contradict the laws of nature, and suppose, not merely higher powers of nature, which are conceivable, but a direct interposition on the part of God. Now, since it is at least doubtful, to a cultivated mind, that such miracles actually took place, the question naturally rises, Did they appear so to the eye-witnesses, and to such as were actively engaged in the events recorded in this history? or did the writer understand them as natural events, but yet portray them in a poetico-miraculous light? But this must be denied as soon as we examine the narratives somewhat more carefully; for they are entirely destitute of that credulous, poetic turn of mind which is the key to the marvellous. This is plain from the difference between the natural and the miraculous accounts of the same or similar things. Compare the natural account in Ex. xviii. with the miraculous in Ch. xix., and with Num. xi., where both seem to be united; Levit. ix. 10, 13, 14, 17, 20, where the offering is burnt in the common manner, with verse 24, where a fire came out from Jehovah and consumed the burnt-offering; Num. x. 29-32, with ix. 15-23, xvii. 6, where Moses gives a natural command, and xvi. 20,

a

с

[A reference to the ultimate as the immediate cause.]

Pragmatic passages, like Ex. xxiii. 13, sqq., Num. x. 29, sqq., are rare.

Against Eichhorn's erroneous explanation of miracles, see De Wette, 1. c,

sqq., and xvii. 10, sqq., where Jehovah speaks to Moses and Aaron. Ex. xv. 25, (where it is said Jehovah informed Moses of a method to heal the waters at Marah,) is the only passage which can be explained as subjective. But the historical occasion of a miraculous legend may be ascertained with greater or less probability; for example, in Ex. xiv. xvi.

If these considerations favor the natural prejudice that the accounts of these miracles are not contemporary with the alleged events, or derived from contemporary sources; if such sources are not possible in the case of some of the narratives of the most ancient time, and there is a striking affinity between many of them (Gen. vi. 1—4, vi. 5—viii. xi. 1—9, xix.) and the myths of other nations, then the analogy of all the historical literature of the Hebrews leads us to a clear and just view of the matter; for we find, in fact, that the miraculous in the historical books diminishes just in proportion as they approach historical times, and that it entirely ceases in that period from which we have contemporary accounts. In the earliest times, men have intercourse with God; later, angels appear [as messengers between man and God;] still later, the prophets perform the miraculous; but in the times after the exile, from which we have contemporary history, the miraculous ceases altogether. Miracles appear again only in the book of Daniel and 2 Maccabees, and in the latter, they are confuted by the historical accounts of 1 Maccabees. The Protestants are not consistent in rejecting the miracles of the Apocrypha, because objections might be drawn from them against the credibility of the other books. The Catholics are consistent in placing them in the same line with the miracles of the canonical books.

§ 146.

ORIGIN AND PROGRESS OF THE MOSAIC MYTHOLOGY.

The conclusion that these accounts of miraculous events are entirely forged would be too rash. This may be the case in the later books, as in Daniel and 2 Maccabees, for example; but it can scarcely be so in the books of Moses. Here a genuine historical legend lies at the foundation, which was connected with certain monuments, supported by popular songs, and preserved in the mouth of the people. Thus, for example, the following are connected with certain monuments:

In Gen. xix. 26, it is said, Lot's wife looked back as she was fleeing, reluctantly, from Sodom, and became a pillar of salt; but, from the Wisdom of Solomon, (x. 7,) it seems a pillar of salt was erected on the spot where she turned back. Josephus says such a pillar was standing in his time." Of this character are the narratives in Gen. xxxiii. 17, where a place is called Succoth, (tents,) from the temporary huts Jacob made for his cattle; and in xxxv. 8, where a place is named Allon Bachuth, (the oak of weeping,) because Rebekah's nurse was buried there; and in verse 20. The following passages belong to the same class: Num. xxi. 4-9, which contains the account of the brazen serpent, said to be contrived to cure such as were bitten by real living serpents, but which appears as an object of idolatrous worship in 2 Kings xviii. 4; xxi. 17, sq., containing the poetic legend of the well; and Josh. x. 12-14, where it is said the sun stood still at the command of Joshua. To this class belong the etymological myths, especial

Josephus, Antiq. i. 11, 4.