The Mosaic Authorship of the Pentateuch 21 life is, as Bishop Warburton ably argued, evidence of an early date and of a peculiar Divine effort to guard the Israelites against the contamination of Egyptian ideas upon the subject. 6. The omission of the hen from the lists of clean and unclean birds is incredible if these lists were made late in the nation’s history after that domestic fowl had been intro duced from India. 7. As Rev. A. C. Robinson showed in Volume VII of this series it is incredible that there should have been no intima tion in the Pentateuch of the existence of Jerusalem, or of the use of music in the liturgy, nor any use of the phrase, “Lord of Hosts,” unless the compilation had been completed before the time of David. 8. The subordination of the miraculous elements in the Pentateuch to the critical junctures in the nation’s develop ment is such as could be obtained only in genuine history. 9. The whole representation conforms to the true law of historical development. Nations do not rise by virtue of in herent resident forces, but through the struggles of great lead ers enlightened directly from on high or by contact with others who have already been enlightened. The defender of the Mosaic authorship of the Pentateuch has no occasion to quail in presence of the critics who deny that authorship and discredit its history. He may boldly chal lenge their scholarship, deny their conclusions, resent their arrogance, and hold on to his confidence in the well authenti cated historical evidence which sufficed for those who first ac cepted it. Those who now at second hand are popularizing in periodicals, Sunday School lessons, and volumes of greater or less pretentions the errors of these critics must answer to their consciences as best they can, but they should be made to feel that they assume a heavy responsibility in putting themselves forward as leaders of the blind when they themselves are not able to see.
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