Page images
PDF
EPUB

any reasonable man. The real number must be calculated not according to the ratio of the firstborn in modern times to all the males, or all the families, but according to the limitations of the Divine Law; and allowance be made for all those who had already died in a good old age, those who had died in middle life, in youth and infancy, or who had been murdered in Egypt. The small number will then appear as a proof of the genuineness of the Pentateuch, as it must in every case of the fidelity of the historian; who, if an impostor, would naturally be inclined to magnify his nation by high numbers. But let it be remembered, that if high numbers had been given they would also have furnished a ground of objection to those, who first reject the doctrine of inspiration, and then seek for reasons to justify their unbelief.

BISHOP COLENSO, CHAP. XV. The Sojourning of the Israelites in Egypt.

D. C.'s fifteenth chapter discusses the meaning of Exod. xii. 40: "Now the sojourning of the children of Israel who dwelt in Egypt was four hundred and thirty years." Ewald, Kurtz, and other foreign scholars, believe that these four hundred and thirty years begin at the going down of Jacob to his son Joseph. The object of D. C.'s discussion is to prove, on the contrary,

that these four hundred and thirty years must be reckoned from Abraham's call in the land of Haran; and in this most persons in England will agree with him; dividing these four hundred and thirty years into two portions,-two hundred and fifteen from Abraham to Jacob's descent into Egypt, and two hundred and fifteen more from that to the exodus. Here, then, happily, there is no need of controversy. It is to be regretted that D. C. could not prove what is necessary to his argument without insinuating a doubt against important portions of the history. "This [i.e. the above mode of calculation] will agree better with the statements made above, as to the birth of Moses, though even then not without a strain upon one's faith. Thus, Moses was born eighty years before the exodus, or one hundred and thirty-five years after the migration into Egypt. And Levi may have had Jochebed born to him (as Abraham had Isaac), when one hundred years old; that is to say, fifty-seven years after the migration into Egypt, since he was at that time fifty-three years old; in which case Jochebed would have been seventy-eight years old when she bare Moses; younger, therefore, by twelve years than Sarah at the birth of Isaac." Some have endeavoured to remove an apparent difficulty, by saying that Jochebed was not the actual daughter of Levi, but a granddaughter, or later descendant, as л may be used

G

in this sense. But, to my mind, there is no necessity for this solution. The whole history of Israel, from Abraham on, is miraculous. The life of Moses is miraculous. It is, therefore, no strain on my faith to believe that the birth of Moses was as miraculous as that of Isaac.

BISHOP COLENSO, CHAP. XVI.

The Exodus in

the Fourth Generation.

Chapter sixteen is devoted to prove that Gen. xv. 16, "In the fourth generation they shall come hither again," can only mean "In the fourth generation, reckoning from the time when they should leave the land of Canaan, and go down into Egypt." It is rather too much for D. C. to say that those words can have no other meaning. Some of the best interpreters, ancient and modern, have held, that the Hebrew word Dor here means age, seculum-one hundred years; and that the words refer back to the four hundred years mentioned in verse 13'. And this is the sense required by the context.

Abraham was informed that in about four hundred years from the time when God was speaking his posterity should return. If Dor meant "generation," in D. C.'s sense, Abraham

1 So for example Calvin, Castellio, Junius, Cornelius à Lapide, Gesenius, Ewald, Knobel, Delitzsch, &c. &c.

could not have understood it. He knew nothing of the generations from Jacob's descent to the exodus. But he had just heard of the four hundred years. By fourth generation he would, therefore, naturally understand "the fourth century" from his own time," in quarto seculo." D. C. himself shows that his own sense of "fourth generation" is not strictly true. He is not even certain as to which is the first generation, from which the fourth generation is to be reckoned. He says, for example, "Thus we find Moses and Aaron in the fourth generation from the time of the migration, viz. Jacob-LeviKohath-Amram-Aaron. Or, as Jacob was so aged, and Moses and Aaron also were in life beyond the military age, we may reckon from those as Levi, who went down into Egypt in the prime of life, and then the generation of Joshua, Eleazar, &c., in the prime of life, will be the fourth generation." Now is not this very strange chronology, and very strange reckoning? You may begin with the father, or you may begin with the sons, says D. C., any how, in utroque casu we shall make out four generations. But, with all submission, if we begin with Jacob,-and why should we not?-then I find to Moses and Aaron, five generations; and to Korah, Dathan, and Abiram, five; and to Achan, six; namely, Jacob, Judah, Zarah, Zabdi, Carmi, Achan; and Nahshon seven, Jacob,

Judah, Pharez, Hezron, Ram, Amminadab, Nahshon; and to Bezaleel eight, namely, Jacob, Judah, Pharez, Hezron, Caleb, Hur, Uri, Bezaleel. To the daughters of Zelophehad also eight, Jacob, Joseph, Manasseh, Machir, Gilead, Hepher, Zelophehad, Zelophehad's daughters. Thus by the very genealogies which D. C. selects, it is proved that "in the fourth Dor" cannot mean "fourth generation,” in the ordinary sense of the term; and that, therefore, D. C.'s heading to the sixteenth chapter, "The exodus in the fourth generation," is not accurate. According to his own calculation, some went up in the fourth, others in the fifth, sixth, and some in the seventh and eighth generations,-Joshua in the ninth. Of course D. C.'s objection looks much bigger and more formidable when it is stated in this way, "The Israelites came out of Egypt in the fourth generation from their leaving Canaan to go down into that country; and in four generations it is impossible that seventy souls could grow into two millions." But this is the statement of one more intent upon magnifying an objection than expressing the simple and accurate truth. D. C., by referring to Nahshon and Bezaleel, proves to any attentive reader that the statement is inaccurate and untrue, and an objection founded upon untruth cannot prove the character of the Pentateuch to be unhistoric. Indeed, when D. C. says, "If we examine the

« PreviousContinue »