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The Fundamentals IV. THE POSITIVE EVIDENCE
Before proceeding to give in conclusion a brief summary of the circumstantial evidence supporting the ordinary belief in the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch it is important to define the term. By it we do not mean that Moses wrote ail the Pentateuch with his own hand, or that there were no editorial additions made after his death. Moses was the au thor of the Pentateuchal Code, as Napoleon was of the code which goes under his name. Apparently the Book of Genesis is largely made up from existing documents, of which the history of the expedition of Amraphel in chapter 14 is a noted specimen; while the account of Moses’ death, and a few other passages are evidently later editorial additions. But these are not enough to affect the general proposition. The Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch is supported by the following, among other weighty considerations : 1. The Mosaic era was a literary epoch in the world’s history when such codes were common. It would have been strange if such a leader had not produced a code of laws. The Tel-el-Amarna tablets and the Code of Hammurabi testify to the literary habits of the time. 2. The Pentateuch so perfectly reflects the conditions in Egypt a t the period assigned to it that it is difficult to be lieve that it was a literary product of a later age. 3. Its representation of life in the wilderness is so perfect and so many of its laws are adapted only to that life that it is incredible that literary men a thousand years later should have imagined it. 4. The laws themselves bear indubitable marks of adapta tion to the stage of national development to which they are ascribed. It was the study of Maine’s works on ancient law that set Mr. Wiener out upon his re-investigation of the sub ject. 5. The little use that is made of the sanctions of a future
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