Pentateuch

PENTATEUCH. This Word is derived from the Greek¹, and signifies literally, the Collection of the five Instruments or Books of Moses, which are Genesis, Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers and Deuteronomy. We have spoke of each of these Books under their proper Articles. See also Moses, and the Commentators upon the Pentateuch, where they endeavour to prove at large, that Moses was the Author of those five Books, and to confute such as have advanced any thing to the contrary. These are the Arguments of some modern Criticks, who have disputed Moses’s Right to the Pentateuch. We find in this Work, as they affirm, several Things that agree neither to the Age nor Character of this Legislator. The Author speaks of Moses in a manner much to his Advantage, he commends his Moderation and Meekness. Now the Man Numb. xii. 3.Moses was very meek, above all the Men which were upon the Face of the Earth. He speaks always in the third Person, The Lord spake unto Moses, saying, &c. Moses said unto Pharaoh, &c. Moses would never have spoke of himself in this Manner, at least sometimes he would have express’d himself in the first Person.

Besides, the Author of the Pentateuch sometimes abridges his Narration like a Writer who collected from some antient Memoirs. Sometimes he interrupts the Thread of his Discourse; for Example, he Gen iv. 23. Gen. xii. 6.makes Lamech the bigamous to say; Hear my Voice ye Wives of Lamech, hearken unto my Speech; for I have slain a Man to my Wounding, and a young Man to my Hurt: Without informing us before-hand, to whom this related. These Observations for Example, And the Canaanite was then in the Land, cannot be reconciled to the Age of Moses, since the Canaanites continued to be the Masters of Palestine all the Time of Moses. The Passage out of the Book of the Wars of the Lord, quoted in the Book of Numb. xxi. 14.Numbers, seems to have been clap’d in afterwards, as also the first Verses of Deuteronomy. The Account of the Death of Moses, which is at the End of the same Book, cannot certainly belong to this Legislator; and the same Judgment may be made of other Passages, wherein it is said, that the Places mention’d lay beyond Jordan; that the Bed of Og was at Ramah to this Day; that the Numb. xxxii. 41. Deut. iii. 14.havoth of Jair, or the Cities of Jair, were known to the Author, tho’ probably they had not that Name till after Moses’s Time.

‘Tis observed also in the Text of the Pentateuch, that there are some Places that are defective; for Example, in Exodus we see Exod. xii. 8.Moses speaking to Pharaoh, where the Author omits the Beginning of his Discourse. The Samaritan inserts in the same Place what is wanting in the Hebrew. In other Places the same Samaritan Copy adds what is deficient in the Hebrew Text; and what it contains more than the Hebrew seems so well connected with the rest of the Discourse, that it would be difficult to separate them. Lastly, they believe they observe certain Stroaks in the Pentateuch, which can hardly agree with Moses, who was born and bred in Egypt; as what he says of the earthly Paradise, of the Rivers that water’d it, and ran through it; of the Cities of Babylon, Erech, Resen and Calneh; of the Gold of Pison, of the Bdellium, of the Stone of Sohem, which was to be found in that Country; these Particulars observed with such Curiosity seem to prove, that the Author of the Pentateuch liv’d beyond the Euphrates. Add what he says concerning the Ark of Noah, of its Construction, of the Place where it rested, of the Wood wherewith it was built, of the Bitumen of Babylon, &c.

These last Observations have made some surmise, that the Levite that was sent by Esar-haddon to the Cushites who were settled 2 Kings xvii. 24, 27.in Samaria, might possibly have composed the Pentateuch, and that the Jews might have received it with some little Variation from the Hands of the Samaritans. Others have imagin’d that the Pentateuch, in the Condition wherein we have it, was but the Abridgment of a larger Work, compos’d by some publick Writers, who had this Trust committed to them in the Republick of the Hebrews.

But not to undertake here to enter into an Examination of all these Proofs, or to refute all the Opinions upon which they are founded, on which so much has already been written; we shall content our selves to make these three Reflexions. First to divest Moses of a Possession he has maintain’d for so many Ages, as the Author of the Pentateuch; a Possession supported by the joint Testimony both of the Synagogue and the Church, of the sacred Writers both of the Old and New Testament, of Jesus Christ and his Apostles; this certainly requires Proofs to which there can be no Reply, evident Demonstrations. But it is plain that the Objections brought against this Assertion are even below convincing Arguments. For secondly the Additions, the Dislocations, the Confusions, the Omissions, which we cannot refuse to allow therein, will not determine that Moses is not the Author of those Books. They only prove that some Amendments have been made, either by adding or expunging. God has suffer’d that the sacred Books should not be exempted from such kind of Alterations, as proceed from the Hands of Copiers, or which are a Consequence of the Length of Time. If a slight Addition, or some Change made in the Text of an Author, should be thought sufficient to deprive him of his Labours, what Writer could remain in the quiet Possession of his Work for even one Century? Thirdly, the Conjectures of M. le Clerc and of F. Simon, about the Author of the Pentateuch, have been so often confuted, that it would be quite needless to touch upon that Matter here. The publick Writers of F. Simon are purely chimerical. The Priest or Levite sent by Esar-haddon to the Cushites, could not have composed the Pentateuch. This Book was wrote long before his Time. It is quoted in Works that were extant before the Time of this Levite. The Law was in constant Practice from Moses down to the Captivity, and was therefore written. A Copy of it was lodg’d in the Ark, and was found in the Days of King Josiah. The Jews and Samaritans had too much Aversion for each other, to communicate their sacred Writings to one another. By comparing the Samaritan Pentateuch with that of the Jews, it may be easily perceived that they are both derived from the same Original; but one may also easily perceive, that one of them is not copy’d from the other, and that the Samaritans have touch’d up their Copy, to support certain Pretensions that they had against the Jews, in the Business of Mount Gerizim, upon which their Temple was built. The Samaritans have preserved the Hebrew Pentateuch written in the antient Phenician Characters, which are the Hebrew Characters used before the Captivity of Babylon. See under the Title SAMARITAN.

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