miracles; for they also availed themselves of the right, so frequently used by the poets and prophets, of constructing symbolical poems. The book of Chronicles" shows how the miracles were enlarged upon and farther developed. It is probable the author of the Jehovistic fragments has transformed much into the miraculous which was natural and simple in the Elohistic fragment. Passages like Ps. 1., Isa. vi., Ezek. i., and Ex. xix., belong to this kind of symbolic poetry. The story of the manna in Ex. xvi. is obviously designed to impress men with the holiness of the Sabbath. [We can never determine to what extent historical narratives have been altered to suit the theocratical ideas; but the fact of such alteration, or else of the invention of circumstances, is very plain; for example, the following passages seem designed to suit the notion of a covenant between Jehovah and the Israelites; that he had miraculous communication with them; had selected them, and rejected all other nations; and had founded the theocracy at an early date: Gen. xv., where it is said. Jehovah appears to Abraham, and makes a covenant to give him, or his posterity, all the region from the River of Egypt to the Euphrates; (the covenant was ratified by a sacrifice, and a miraculous furnace and blazing torch pass between the divided portions of the slaughtered animals ;) Gen. xvii., where the same covenant is renewed, the rite of circumcision established, and the birth of Isaac promised; Gen, xxxv. 9-15, where the blessing is confirmed to Jacob; Gen. xlvi. 1-7. Exodus xiii. 21, 22, "And the Lord went before them by day in a pillar of a cloud, to lead them the way; and by night in a pillar of fire, to give them light to go by day and night. He took not away the pillar of the cloud by day, nor the pillar of fire by night, from before the people." Exodus xl. 34-38. "Then a cloud covered the tent of the congregation, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And Moses was not able to enter into the tent of the congregation, because the cloud abode thereon, and the glory of the Lord filled the tabernacle. And when the cloud was taken up from over the tabernacle, the children of Israel went onward in all their journeys. But if the cloud were not taken up, then they journeyed not till the day that it was taken up. For the cloud of the Lord was upon the tabernacle by day, and fire was on it by night, in the sight of all the house of Israel, throughout all their journeys." Leviticus ix. 23, 24. "And Moses and Aaron went into the tabernacle of the congregation, and came out, and blessed the people: and the glory of the Lord appeared unto all the people. And there came a fire out from before the Lord, and consumed upon the altar the burnt-offering and the fat which when all the people saw, they shouted and fell on their faces." Numbers ix. 15-23. "And on the day that the tabernacle was reared up, the cloud covered the tabernacle, namely, the tent of the testimony; and at even there was upon the tabernacle as it were the appearance of fire, until the morning. So it was always: the cloud covered it by day, and the appearance of fire by night. And when the cloud was taken up from the tabernacle, then after that the children of Israel journeyed and in the place where the cloud abode, there the children of Israel pitched their tents. At the commandment of the Lord the children of Israel journeyed, and at the commandment of the Lord they pitched: as long as the cloud abode upon the tabernacle they rested in their tents. And when the cloud tarried long upon the tabernacle many days, then the children of Israel kept the charge of the Lord, and journeyed not. And so it was, when the cloud was a few days upon the tabernacle; according to the commandment of the Lord they abode in their tents, and according to the commandment of the Lord they journeyed. And so it was, when the cloud abode from even unto the morning, and that the cloud was taken up in the morning, then they journeyed: whether it was by day or by night that the cloud was taken up, they journeyed. Or whether it were two days, or a month, or a year, that the cloud tarried upon the tabernacle, remaining thereon, the children of Israel abode in their tents, and journeyed not: but when it was taken up, they journeyed. At the commandment of the Lord they rested in their tents, and at the commandment of the Lord they journeyed: they kept the charge of the Lord, at the commandment of the Lord by the hand of Moses." The history of Isaac, contained in Gen. ix. 20-29, xii. 1, xix. 30-38, xxi. 9-21, xxiv. xxv. 19-34, xxvii.; Gen. ii. 3, which mentions the Sabbath; Gen. ix. 4-6, where blood is forbidden; Gen. xvii. 10—14, where the rite of circumcision is enjoined; Gen. xii., containing the alleged trial of Abraham's faith; Gen. xlviii. 13-22, Jacob's blessing on the sons of Joseph; Gen. xlix., his final blessing of all his sons; Ex. xii. 1—28, xiii. 1—16, the institution of the Passover.] II. Since the chief design of the theocratical epic poem was to inspire the people with reverence for their sacred laws and institutions, therefore the author of the document Elohim not only, in conformity with the actual tradition, showed how they proceeded from Moses, the lawgiver, who received divine influence, but he also ascribed to him, and in a manner not historical, many later developments of his laws, and additions which seemed necessary to the writer. Thus he sanctioned many laws and customs by assigning them an origin still more ancient than the time of Moses. Where laws are thus referred back to a more remote antiquity, I have called them juridical or legal myths. Such a one is found in Gen. ii. 3-" And God blessed the seventh day, and sanctified it, because that in it God had rested from all his work which God created and made;" and Ex. xvi. is certainly of this same character. The mythical origin of the Passover, (Ex. xii.,) and some others, may be contested. But two things are certain — 1. That the author of Deuteronomy ascribes to Moses a body of laws which were obviously modified after his time. 2. That the author of the document Jehovah has referred certain customs and laws to an origin more ancient than their real date. Perhaps the progressive formation of the Mosaic law is acknowledged in Numbers xv. 23. "And if ye have erred, and not observed all these commandments which the Lord hath spoken unto Moses, even all that the Lord hath commanded you by the hand of Moses, from the day that the Lord commanded Moses, and henceforward among your generations." III. In connection with this, a sort of spirit of investigation and combination was also at work. We are indebted to this for the genealogical and ethnographical accounts contained in the Pentateuch. They are designed in sober earnest, and are not without some historical foundation, but are rather the result of fancy and conjecture than of genuine historical investigation. To test the accuracy of the table Gen. x., compare the following passages: Genesis. Chap. x. 23. "And the children of Aram: Uz, and Hul, and Gether, and Mash." Genesis. Chap. xxii. 21. "Huz, his first born, and Buz, his brother, and Kemuel, the father of Aram." Chap. xxxvi. 28. "The children of Dishan ...... Uz and Aran." • § 156. 7 "The sons of Cush, Seba, and Havilah, and Sabtah, and Raamah, and Sabtecha, and the sons of Raamah: Sheba and Dedan. 25 And unto Eber were born two sons...... Peleg ... ... and his brother's name was Joktan. 28 Sheba is the son of Joktan." Chap. xxv. 2. “Abraham took a wife...... Keturah; and she bare him Zimran and Jokshan, Medan, and Midian, and Ishbak, and Shuah; and Jokshan begat Sheba and Dedan." ..... The derivation from Cush, Canaan, Elam, and Ashur, is opposed by the history of the language.“ To test the accuracy of the other table, compare the following passages: Genesis. "And Chap. xxvi. 34, 35. Esau was forty years old when he took to wife Judith the daughter of Beeri the Hittite, and Bashemath the daughter of Elon the Hittite, which were a grief of mind unto Isaac and to Rebekah." Chap. xxxvi. 40-43. "And these are the names of the dukes that came of Esau, according to their families, after their places, by their names; duke Timnah, duke Alvah, duke Jetheth, duke Aholibamah, duke Elah, duke Pinon, duke Kenaz, duke Teman, duke Mibzar, duke Magdiel, duke Iram: these be the dukes of Chap. xxxvi. 15-30. "These were dukes of the sons of Esau: the sons of Eliphaz, the first-born son of Esau; duke Teman, duke Omar, duke Zepho, duke Kenaz, duke Korah, duke Gatam, and duke Amalek: these are the dukes that came of Eliphaz, in the land of Edom: these were the sons of Adah. And these are the sons of Reuel, Esau's son; duke Na- | Edom, according to their habitahath, duke Zerah, duke Sham- tions, in the land of their possesmah, duke Mizzah these are sion; he is Esau the father of the the dukes that came of Reuel, in Edomites." • But see Rosenmüller, Alt. vol. iii. p. 33, 160, 174. |