Tabernacle in the Wilderness 19 Now whether the general judgment of men either at pres ent or in the future will coincide with Colonel Wilson as to the matter in hand we do not know; but we will simply repeat Colonel Wilson’s words, and say that it is not improbable that this site, as indicated, is a real discovery as to the place where the old Tabernacle once stood. We need not dwell longer here on the matter, but will only observe that if the very ruins of the old Tabernacle, so far as its site is con cerned, can still be seen, that surely ought to be pretty good evidence that this building once existed. VIII. POSITIVE BIBLICAL EVIDENCES But to come now to the more positive and conclusive evidences regarding the matter under consideration, we may observe that these consist particularly of various historical notices scattered throughout the Old Testament; and so numerous and clear in their testimony are these notices that they would seem to prove, beyond all possibility of doubt, that the old Mosaic Tabernacle really existed.* However, the critics claim here that it is only the earlier historical books of the Old Testament that can be legitimately used for proving a matter so far in the past as was this structure. 1. TESTIMONY OF FIRST KINGS Complying then with that requirement, at least in part, we begin our investigation with the First Book of Kings. This is a piece of literature against the antiquity and general credibility of which the critics can raise no valid objection; hence it should be considered particularly good evidence. Moreover, it might be said of this book, that having probably been constructed out of early court-records as they were kept * ^According to Bishop Hervey, in his Lectures on Chronicles (p. 171) mention is made of the Tabernacle some eighteen times in the historical books following the Pentateuch—that is, in Joshua, Juuges, 1 and 2 Samuel, 1 and 2 Kings, and 1 and 2 Chronicles; and m the Pentateuch itself, which the higher critics have by no means proven to be unhistorical, that structure is mentioned over eighty times.
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