The central Presbyterian. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1856-1908, 1882-01-25
THE AIRS OF MODERN
"SCHOLARSHIP."


Prof Green, in his article in the Pres
6ytea'ian Review, on Professor Robertson
Smith, says, he takes the position that
Deuteronomy made its first appearance
in the reign of Josiah, and that the Lee
vitical law was never heard of until the
time of Ezra Nevertheless, says tie
reviewer, in Deut. XXI: 9, we read that
Moses wrote this law" and in verses
1926, "When Moses had made an end
of writing the words of the law in book
until they were finished, Moses COM
manded the Levites. Take this book
of the law" etc.
So, too, the Mosaic origin of the Levitt
ical laws is affirmed by the formulas, con-
stantly occurring, with which they are
introduced: "The Lord spake unto
Moses" and by the formulas which often
follow them, as in Lev. vii 81, So; xiii :
A; XVI; As; xvii: "a. The occasion
is noted upon which the particular laws
were delivered.
But Prof. Smith informs us that the
first heard of the book of Deuteronomy
was that it was found in the temple in the
days of Josiah. 1t never emanated from
Moses, and its enactments had never been
in force before about B. c. $50. 1t was
gotten up in order to make a new de-
parture, and foisted on the people. The
attributing of the code to Moses was, &C
cording to Prof. Smith, simply "a legal
fiction in Israel all law was referred
back to Moses.
But the reviewer points out that the
terms in which the laws are framed rest
them inseparably on the sojourn of the
children of Israel in the wilderness, prior
to the occupation of Canaan Canaan is
constantly referred to as something not
yet attained" The land which the Lord
giveth thee to possess it." They are told
in the laws, When thou art come into
the land, etc. Israel is e7acamped, and
is living in tents.
And what are we to think, asks the
reviewer, if the code of Deuteronomy be-
longs to the reign of Josiah, of the injunc-
ton to exterminate the Canaanites Xxx ::
1919 and the Amalekites (xxv: 1910,
who had long since disappeared? All
this, drily observes Prof Green, would
be as utterly out Of date as law in New
Jersey at the present time offering a
bounty for killing wolves and bears, or
royal proclamation in Great Britain or
dering the expulsion of the Danes"
We are asked to believe that all the
minute directions about the Tabernacle
are fiction Of the time Of Ezra and the
second temple. All the details about the
boards, and sockets, and lemons, and bars,
and coverings, with their loops and taches,
and the manner in which these were to
be prepared, and the designation of the
persons by whom the various instruments
of the service were to be carried, and
what place they should have in the ranks
of great moving army-all this was
elaborated in the time of Ezra when no
tabernacle existed-nor had ever exist
ed If the attribution Of all these laws
and regulations to Moses is " a legal fc-
ton" then it is much more-it is a gross
fraud-and the extraordinary feature Of
the whole matter is, that bald and I'M
precedented as the fraud was, the people
quietly and without question accepted
the yoke, which was never a light one or
We are told that Levitcus did not appear
till after the exile, and set the 9TH chapter Of
that book is devoted to the Staying Of animals
in and out Of the camp, and to directions about
bringing them thus slain to the door Of the tab
ernacle. (But Deut xii, in view Of the entrance
into Canaan, removes this restriction, for it would
have been improbable them The publication
Of all this in Che days Of Ezra, Prof. Smith CALI
legal fiction"