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CHAPTER XVI.

SUMMARY OF THE PRECEDING CONCLUSIONS AS TO THE AGES OF THE DIFFERENT WRITERS OF GENESIS.

281. We have now seen reason to fix the age of the Elohist in the latter part of the reign of Saul.

And we have shown that the Jehovist must have written at different times, from the early part of David's reign to the early part of Solomon's, and that he appears to have written the Blessing of Jacob,' xlix. 16-28, somewhere about the twelfth year of David's reign.

With respect to the Second Elohist, there has seemed to us to be good ground for supposing that he was no other than the Jehovist at an earlier period of his labours. But he may, of course, have been some other writer of that age, who made the first additions to the Elohistic story.

282. The Second Jehovist speaks of Salem,' xiv. 18, that is, most probably, Jerusalem, and of the valley of Shaveh,' which was known in later days-as the editorial note informs us, xiv.17—as the 'king's dale,' and so it is called in the history of the latter part of David's life, 2S.xviii. 18. This Chapter, then, appears to have been written some time after the first eight years of David's reign, when he had taken possession of Jebus, and called it Jerusalem, 2S.v.6-9, and had connected himself in some way with the valley of Shaveh,' so that it acquired the name of 'the king's dale.' Further, in the familiar mention of Damascus, xiv.15, we may have a sign that David's conquests had reached in that direction, 2S.viii.5,6, and that the planting of

his garrisons there had made the place better known to the men of Judah.

6

283. Again, the fact, that out of the spoil of the confederate kings Abram 'gave tithes of all' to Melchizedek, the priest of God Most High' at Salem, may have been recorded as an example for David to follow in respect of his spoils-giving 'tithes of all' to Zadok and Abiathar, the Priests of Jehovah at Jerusalem. Or, still more probably, it may have been written in memory and commendation of David's own voluntary act-like that of Abram-in dedicating to Jehovah'-we may suppose for the future building of the Temple in his son's days-the vessels of silver, gold, and brass, which were sent to him by the king of Hamath—

'with the silver and gold that he had dedicated of all nations which he had subdued, of Syria, and Moab, and of the children of Ammon, and of the Philistines, and of Amalek, and of the spoil of Hadadezer, son of Rehob, king of Zobah,' 2S.viii. 9-12.

If this conjecture be correct, it would fix the date of the com position of this Chapter, G.xiv, about the sixteenth or eighteenth year of David's reign; and we might suppose it to have been written by some companion and friend of the Jehovist, and adopted by him into his narrative.

284. If we wish to fix on any individuals, as possible writers of the respective documents, we might name SAMUEL, NATHAN, and GAD, who lived at the times in question, and, if any weight is to be attached to the Chronicler's statement, 1Ch.xxix.29, were known in the traditions of the people as writers of history. And, though we do not lay any stress whatever on this point, we may use these names as the names of representative and leading men of those ages. SAMUEL died at Ramah, we are told, 18. xxv.1, about three or four years (as the chronology is usually reckoned) before the death of Saul. NATHAN is first mentioned -but then as already established as a prophet of Jehovah about the Court of David,-in 2S.vii.2, about the fourteenth year of

David's reign; and he was still alive and actively concerned on behalf of Solomon in the first year of that king's reign, 1K.i.8, &c., and two of his sons were among Solomon's chief counsellors, 1K.iv.5. GAD 'the prophet, David's Seer,' was living in the last years of David, 2S.xxiv.11, &c.

285. We may arrange the above results in a tabular form as follows, giving the dates according to the usual Scripture chronology :

Once more, we repeat, we do not by any means maintain that the Prophets above-named were actually the writers of the corresponding sections of Genesis. But some great and good men—as great and good as these-leading men of the respective ages-must have written them. And we may use the above names in order to fix our ideas, as those of the representative men of these ages,-nay, the first three as the only names which have come down to us of men who would have been likely to have been engaged in these labours,-for no other writers of history out of those ages are named in the Bible.

286. Lastly, the evidence before us seems to point to the conclusion, that the later writers did not write their own independent narratives, but merely supplemented the original brief Elohistic document, which had been laid as the groundwork of the whole Pentateuchal story. We might, for instance, represent to ourselves the matter somewhat as follows, as already in part suggested in (II.342). We might suppose that Samuel, having himself acquired from the Phoenicians the knowledge of the art of cursive writing, which appears to have originated with them, may have turned his attention to the improvement of the people by establishing a 'School of Prophets,' in which young

men of his choice might be trained, who might afterwards

assist in training and teaching the people. For such 'schools' as these, we find, did exist in later days, 1K.xx.35, 2K.ii.3,5, &c. iv.1,38, v.22, vi.l, ix.1; and we have plain intimation of something of the kind in Samuel's time, and under his charge, in 1S.x.5,10,11,12, and especially in xix.20, where we read—

'And Saul sent messengers to take David; and, when they saw the company of the prophets prophesying, and Samuel standing as appointed over them, the spirit of Elohim was upon the messengers of Saul, and they also prophesied.'

287. By prophesy' in the above is, no doubt, meant 'singing' or 'chanting,' since we read in 1Ch.xxv.1 that David set apart as singers

'of the sons of Asaph and of Heman and of Jeduthun, who should prophesy with harps, with psalteries, and with cymbals.'

And it would seem from the preceding notice (286) that Samuel taught his youths to chant, and, if so, they must have had psalms to chant. We may infer, then, that metrical odes of some kind were composed-and why not also written ?—in this age-of which very possibly some may even be retained in the Psalter (II.438). We have instances of this in David's dirge, 2S.i.19-27, which has all the appearance of being genuine, and shows a high finish, as if such compositions were by this time not uncommon in Israel. But, if so, then it is not at all improbable that prose narratives also were written, and that the first attempts had already been made to sketch out the early history of Israel.

288. If Samuel made this beginning, by composing the Elohistic story, he may have left it unfinished in the hands of his disciples Nathan and Gad, whom we may fairly suppose to have been trained under his auspices. He may have given them a charge to finish it, or their own hearts may have moved them to do so. Perhaps, under his instructions, or after his example, they may have been already occupied in writing the Book of Jasher,' the Book of the Wars of Jehovah,' and some of the older

portions of the Book of Judges. But now, after Samuel's death, the Jehovist (Nathan, suppose) deliberately completes to the best of his power the work of the Elohist, introducing also a passage, xiv, from the hand of some fellow-labourer (as Gad).

289. How much of the whole Pentateuch belongs to the Elohist and Jehovist respectively we cannot, of course, say, until the other Books have been submitted to the same searching criticism, as has been applied by HUPFELD and BOEHMER--and by ourselves, to the best of our ability-to Genesis. But a cursory glance at the contents of these Books is sufficient to show that there is but little in either of them, which can by any possibility be ascribed to the Elohist. Other writers besides these may, as far as we know at present, have been concerned in the composition of these Books. But, at length, in Josiah's reign, as we have seen reason (in III) to believe, the Tetrateuch, in the form which it had then taken, including of course the Book of Genesis, was first revised and retouched by some great prophetical writer, and enlarged with the addition of almost the whole present Book of Deuteronomy.

290. We come back now again to the consideration of a very important question, which has already been stated in (84,85).. It has appeared to us that the Second Elohist and Jehovist are really one and the same person; and that many critical difficulties will be removed by supposing that this writer made additions to the original work of the Elohist at different intervals, during a period of from forty to fifty years (according to the ordinary reckoning) from the last years of Saul to the first years of Solomon.

291. We might suppose, for instance, that the additions to the original Elohistic narrative may have been made in the order indicated below, where we use J1(= E2), J2, J3, &c., to represent the Jehovist (J) in the different stages of his work, and D the Later Editor or Deuteronomist.