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CHAPTER VI.

ADDITIONAL SIGNS OF LATER DATE IN THE PENTATEUCH.

256. BESIDES those already produced, however, there are a number of minor indications, all pointing to the same result; though, perhaps, if they stood alone, an ingenious criticism might dispose of some of them, by suggesting that glosses of later writers may have crept in by accident, or may, possibly, have been designedly interpolated in the original text.

257. We may notice, for instance, the frequent occurrence of the expression 'unto this day,' in places where it could have had no meaning, unless the day' referred to was considerably later than the time of Moses or Joshua.

'Jair, the son of Manasseh, took all the country of Argob unto the coasts of Geshuri and Maachathi, and called them after his own name Bashan-Havoth-Jair, unto this day? D.iii.14.

But this took place after the conquest of Bashan, v.13, and, therefore, could only have happened (173) a few days before the death of Moses.

'No man knoweth of his (Moses's) sepulchre unto this day. D.xxxiv.6. 'And Joshua set up twelve stones in the midst of Jordan, in the place where the feet of the Priests, which bare the Ark of the Covenant, stood; and they are there unto this day.' Jo.iv.9.

Jo.v.9.

'Wherefore the name of the place is called Gilgal unto this day.' 'And they raised over him a great heap of stones unto this day... Wherefore the name of that place was called the valley of Achor, unto this day.' Jo.vii.26. 'And Joshua burnt Ai, and made it a heap for ever, even a desolation unto this day.' Jo.viii.28. So viii. 29,x.27.

'And Joshua made them that day hewers of wood and drawers of water for the Congregation, and for the Altar of Jehovah, even unto this day, in the place which He should choose. Jo.ix.27.

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'Nevertheless, the children of Israel expelled not the Geshurites nor the Maachathites; but the Geshurites and the Maachathites dwell among the Israelites unto this day.' Jo.xiii.13. So xv.63, xvi.10.

'Hebron, therefore, became the inheritance of Caleb, the son of Jephunneh, the Kenezite, unto this day.' Jo.xiv.14.

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There are other passages in the Pentateuch, in which the phrase unto this day' occurs, as G.xix.37,38, xxii.14, xxvi.33, xxxii.32, xxxv.20, xlvii.26, D.ii.22, x.8, where, however, the phrase might have been used even by a writer of the age of Moses, as the events referred to were either ancient in his days, or, in the case of D.x.8, (which refers to the separation of the Levites for religious offices,) had taken place, according to the story, nearly forty years before.

258. Again, such expressions as the following indicate a later date than that of Moses.

"And the Canaanite was then in the land.' G.xii.6.

And the Canaanite and Perizzite dwelt then in the land.' G.xiii.7.

These words obviously imply that, at the time when they were written, the Canaanite was no longer dwelling in the land, as its owner and lord. The Hebrew word , here translated 'then,' t, cannot possibly be rendered already,' as some have supposed.

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Upon the above passages, BLEEK, who maintains that a great many of the laws in the Pentateuch are not only of Mosaic origin, but were actually written down in the wilderness, remarks as follows (Einl. in das A. T. p.202):

Some have supposed that a contrast is here meant to an earlier time, when the Canaanites were not yet in the land, either because men generally had not yet spread themselves over the earth, or, at all events, because the Canaanites had not yet taken up their position, it being assumed that formerly they had their dwelling in another land. HENGSTENBERG explains it otherwise; he believes that it refers simply to the promise, which God gave to Abraham, v.7, that He would give this land to his seed, so that here we have merely the contrast between the actual present, and the promised future, state of things. But both these explanations are unnatural, and the last worse than the first. A writer in the Mosaic age, even

if he had before his eyes this Divine promise, about the future possession of the land by the Israelites, would have had no inducement at all to introduce here this remark in such a way, at a time when this state of things, viz. that the Canaanites lived in the land, still continued, and must have been perfectly well known to all Israel. The remark is only natural, if made at a time, when that state of things no longer existed, that is, after the possession of the land by the Israelites.

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259. And when the inhabitants of the land, the Canaanites, saw the mourning in the floor of Atad, they said, This is a grievous mourning to the Egyptians. Wherefore the name of it was called Abel-Mizraim, which is beyond Jordan.' G.1.11. The story seems to intimate that Joseph came with the funeral train of his father to the threshing-floor of Atad, which is beyond Jordan,' v.10, and there they mourned with a great and very sore lamentation, and he made a mourning for his father for seven days;' after which, Joseph and his brethren 'carried into the land of Canaan' the corpse of their father, and buried it in the cave of the field of Machpelah,' while the Egyptians still remained on the other side of the river. If so, the use of the phrase 'beyond Jordan' would imply a writer who lived in the land of Canaan. JEROME, however, supposes that the Egyptians crossed the river, and places Abel-Mizraim at Beth-hoglah, close to Jericho.

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But the remark above made holds good, at all events, of the · following passages, in which the same word, 72, 'beyond," " on the other side,' occurs.

'These be the words, which Moses spake unto all Israel on the other side (22, the E. V. has, erroneously, 'on this side') Jordan, in the wilderness.' D.i.1.

'On the other side Jordan, in the land of Moab, began Moses to declare this Law.' D.i.5.

260. On this point BLEEK writes as follows, p.205 :

These words could only have been written by one who found himself on this side Jordan, and, therefore, after the death of Moses and the possession of the land of Canaan. Some translate the expression on this side Jordan;' but this the usage of the Hebrew tongue will not allow. One might rather say that the above

formula was a standing designation for the country east of Jordan, which might be used in this sense without any regard to the position of the writer. So it is often employed in later times. But it is most probable that this phrase first formed itself among the Hebrews after they were settled in Canaan, and the greater part of them on the west of Jordan. In that case, Moses, or a writer of his age, would not have expressed himself about it in this way, so long as he himself was on the eastern bank. In Deuteronomy this use of the expression is the less likely, since frequently, in the words of Moses, the phrase is used distinctly for the land of Canaan, west of Jordan, that is, on the other side from the stand-point of the speaker, iii. 20,25, xi.30; although it also stands in a speech of Moses for the eastern side, iii.8, and so too in the history itself, iv.41,46,47,49. If, however, Moses himself had been the writer, who found himself on the eastern side, he would certainly only have used the expression of the land west of Jordan, the land of Canaan.

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So the expression Transalpine Gaul' might have been used by a Roman writer, when that term had become the recognised description of that part of Gaul, which lay on the other side of the Alps with reference to the city of Rome, whether he lived on the North, or the South, of the Alps. But it could not have been so used, by a person living North of the Alps, for the country lying North of the Alps, until the phrase had come into common use, and, à fortiori, not until Rome itself had been built, to which the reference is made.

261. And the children of Israel did eat manna forty years, until they came to a land inhabited; they did eat manna, until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan.' E.xvi.35.

On this passage SCOTT remarks as follows:

As Moses lived till a great part of the fortieth year was past, when Israel was encamped on the plains of Moab, there is no reason to say that this verse was added after his decease.

But, surely, this verse could not have been written till after they had ceased eating manna,' on the morrow after they had eaten of the old corn of the land.' Jo.v.12. Nor could it have been written until the Israelites were within the Canaanite boundary; since , border,' which is here used, as in G.xxiii.9 and about ninety other passages, never means extra terminum, but always intra terminum.

262. KALISCHI appears to have adopted the opinion that Moses was able to make the statement from supernatural information, and writes as follows, Exod.p.225 :—

According to Jo.v.10-12, the manna ceased after the transit of the Israelites over Jordan, subsequently to the death of Moses, who could, therefore, have made that statement only by Divine Inspiration, (as ABARBANEL observes,) especially as Moses knew, according to N.xiv.33, that the Israelites would eat the manna for forty years. HENGSTENBERG writes as follows,

The country beyond Jordan presented at that time such abundant supplies of food, that the necessity for the manna altogether ceased. A continuance of the manna in a cultivated country would have been just as if the Israelites, when on the banks of Jordan, had been supplied with water from the rock. The Israelites would never have eaten it. They were tired of it in the desert. For what purpose bestow a gift, which the receivers would not make use of, and their disgust at which might be foreseen? Mistakes as to Manna, Clarke's Theol. Libr. p.561.

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KURTZ, however, reminds HENGSTENBERG of Jo.v.10-12, as well as of the passage before us, wherein it is stated that they ate the manna forty years until they came unto the borders of the land of Canaan,' which expression, land of Canaan,' indicates the country to the west of Jordan.

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263. That the land spue not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spued out the nations which were before you.' L.xviii.28.

This implies that the Canaanites were already exterminated, when these words were written.

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264. And, while the children of Israel were in the wilderness, they found a man that gathered sticks upon the sabbathday.' N.xv.32.

This, according to its natural interpretation, would seem to have been written when the people were no longer in the wilderness, that is, it could not have been written by Moses.

265. The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession, which Jehovah gave unto them.' D.ii.12.

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