BOOK IV.
THEOLOGY FROM ABRAHAM TO MOSES.
This book is occupied with an account of theology as known and revealed to Abraham and Moses, including two digressions, on the origin of letters, and on the ancient letters of the Hebrew language.
Abraham, abandoning at the call of God the idolatry in which he had been to some extent involved, received a considerable enlargement of revealed truth, in addition to what had been transmitted from Noah : — 1. The promise of the Seed in whom all the families of the earth were to be blessed was seven times given to him. 2. A more copious declaration of the covenant of grace was made to him, Gen. xvii. 1-7. 3. The restric tion of the covenant to his seed was declared, Gen. xii. 3. 4. Circumcision, as a sign of the covenant, was instituted. 6. The communication of the privileges of the covenant and
ANALYSIS OF THE FOLLOWING WORK. 9
church to the infant seed of believers was announced, Gen. xvii. 7. And, lastly, Abraham "Was taken into special communion with God, and called " The friend of God." — Chap. I. The church became visible when, from a single family like Abraham's, it came to em brace the numerous families of his posterity. With the preservation of their ancient language, however, his descendants did not entirely retain the purity of their ancient faith. The legislation of Sinai was needed, to restore the true knowledge of the true God to the multitude who in Egypt had become tainted with its superstition. The remarkable feature in the revelation imparted through Moses was, that it was given in a written form, and reduced to a system, and greatly increased in amount. — Chap. II.
It is necessary, therefore, at this stage to inquire into the ORIGIN OF LETTEES. Some believe them to have been in use before the deluge ; but this is not probable, as recourse would have been had to this method of preserving and transmitting revealed truth, which was not the case ; and, secondly, all accounts of the origin of letters agree in placing the invention of them posterior to the deluge. Not to speak of the Chinese, the Assyrians, Egyptians, Phoenicians, and even the Greeks themselves, contend for the honour of this invention. No tradition is more prevalent and authentic than that Cadmus first introduced letters from Phoenicia into Greece. There is an equal agree ment of belief that the number of letters which he introduced was sixteen. To these, according to Pliny, four were added by Palamedes. It is probable that the Phoenicians, seeing the letters which the Hebrews used, invented those which Cadmus brought with him into his adopted country. In regard to the ages succeeding the deluge, Kircher labours in vain to prove that the Egyptians used written characters before the times of Moses. The expression, "Book of the Wars of the LORD," Num. xxi. 14, does not imply a literature previous to the writings of Moses. It may be rendered, "Account of the wars of the LORD;" and instead of the words in connection with it, "It is said," we may read, " It will be said." Nor is the argument of Vos- sius stronger, founded upon the astronomical observations sent by Callisthenes from Babylon, and extending over a period of one thousand nine hundred and three years; Simplicius, who mentions the fact, having lived about one thousand years afterwards, and the utmost variety of statement existing among different authors in regard to these observations. — Dig. I.
In the same chapter there is also a special digression on THK ANTIQUITY OF THE HEBREW LETTERS in particular. Though Origen and Jerome make mention of the Samaritan Pentateuch, there is no evidence that they ever saw it; but their tes timony is express that the Samaritans of that time had the Pentateuch in the He brew language, but in a different character. The Samaritans, originally collected from the dregs of different nations, and rejected by the Jews on their return from Babylon, under the terror of Antiochus openly renounced the worship of the true God. Such men did not scruple to tamper with the integrity of the Pentateuch, and generally corrupted it in accommodation to their own prejudices. There are strong arguments against the notion entertained by some, that after the return from Babylon, the Jews executed copies of their Scriptures in the Assyrian character, and the Samaritans did exactly the reverse, writing Scripture in the old and true Hebrew character. The people during the captivity might retain the knowledge of their native tongue. The exposition of the law by the Levites, Neh. viii. 7, 8, might be a mere interpretation, rather than the translations from which it is said the Targums arose. There is no evidence that the square letters were Assyrian or Chal dean. Eusebius, Jerome, and Beda, while affirming a change made in the letters by Ezra, do not affirm that he changed them into Assyrian. Even before the captivity the Jews would seem to have been acquainted with the Syrian tongue, 2 Kings xviii. 26 ; and if both languages were understood, there was little need for the change contended for. The arguments for it consist of testimonies from Jewish and Christian' writers ; and monuments still exist. But these testimonies are irrelevant, contradictory, and opposed to other testimonies. The monuments appealed to are coins ; which yield evi dence equally inconclusive, so many frauds are practised in the matter of coins. The inscriptions which, Kircher says, were found by a Franciscan monk in Horeb, and from