meditation, just as afterwards the Mishna resu'ted from the expulsion of the Jews under Hadrian. If so, this law-book was probably hidden by some priest for safety in the temple, in the hope that it might survive those troublous times as the written record of God's law, and the discovery of it may have been perfectly genuine. Even supposing that its existence and whereabouts were secrets known to the priests, this would not present a very serious moral dilhculty. Just as the writer or writers of Dt in describing the customs and laws of their own times genuinely believed thattliey were giving the laws dictated by Moses by express revelation, iheii successors would have held the same belief, even though they may have known that they had been secretly written down, ju.st as late Jews lirnily believed that besides the Pentateuch a verj- large number of laws had been handed down from Moses by oral tradition. To understand the views of such an age we must first realize the entire absence of an3'thing approaching to literary criticism. (2) Although not a necessary result of accepting the later date, the majority of critics believe thit book of the law to have been the result of a pious fraud promulgated by Hilkiah and Shaphan with the intention of deceivin" Josiah into the belief that the reforms which they desired were the express com- mand of God revealed to Moses. We must reserve for a later stage some remarks about the various extensions and modifications of D. It will be enough at present to say that according to either view the book discovered can hardly be the whole of Dt, but rather the law which it contains, i.e. in the main, 12-29' or 12-31", with possibly the addition of 5-11.
2. P. The Priestly Book. — A. The most striking general characteristics of Pare: (1) first and fore- most, the love of ceremonial law, most obvious, of course, in the legal sections, as in Leviticus and the Priestly laws of Exodus and Numbers, but very noticeable also in the narrative sections, as shown, for example, in the institution and reference to the Sabbatli in Gn 2^- », Ex 16='-^ ; the prohibition against eating blood, Gn 9^ ; the rite of circum- cision, Gn 17. 21»-»; the Passover, Ex 12'-=", Joa gio-i3_ (2) Fondness for statistical details, esp. those connected with persons and dates. The exact lengths of the lives of the patriarchs are always given, Gn 5. 9^ U'o-^^etc. By the age of a patri- arch are marked the exact dates of important events, such as the beginning and end of the Plood, Gn 7" 8^', in which last the very day of the month is given ; the institution of circumcision, 17^ ; the age of the father at the birth of the firstborn (or covenant?) son, Gn 5. ll'"'^. The exact details and dimensions of the ark are given, 6""", as well as of every part of the tabernacle and its contents. Ex 25-31" 3.5-40. Notice also the frequent insertion of 'genealogies, for the most part little more than lists of names, Gn 5. nw-is 25i;-'» 36. (3) A ten- dency to symmetry and similarity of phraseology in describing similar events. Notice, for example, in Gn 1 tne regular repetition of such phrases as ' and God said ' and ' God saw that it was good,' ' and the evening and the morning were the first (second, etc.) day.' The genealogies of Gn 5 and 11 are like recurring patterns, the verses scarcely varying except in the name and the number of years. In the five wonders of P in Ex 7-9 (see below iii. 2. C) there is a similar framework of phraseology into which the varying details are in- serted. 'J" spake unto Aaron (or unto Moses and Aaron) '—direction how to perform the wonders, beginning in the first four with ' take thy rod,' or an equivalent phrase — statement that the plague was done accordingly — thatthe magicians could (orrould not in the last two) do so with their enchantments — and that Pharaoh's heart was hardened (with s )me
HEXATEUCH
HEXATEUCH
3GG
variation of phrase), 'and he hearkened not unto tliein as J " had spoken.' (4) We see also the same tendency to symmetry in the insertion of the sume or similar headings in introducing subjects of a like kind, as ' these are the generations of,' Gn 2* (transposed probably from before Gn 1') 5' & 10' Ijio. S7 0512.18 3tji 37a .and Moses gave unto the tril)e of,' Jos 13"- **• " ; and of similar conclusions at the end of a subject or part of a subject, as, for exami)le, in Gn 10»- 2»- «', Ex 259- *> 26*', Jos 13^- ^. (5) Inform P is in its narrative portions little more lliun a couection 0/ dry annals. Stories are seldom inserted, and when they are it is for the sake of some ceiemonial provision, as the Creation story of Gn 1 for the Sabbath, the Flood story as an intro- duction to the prohibition against eating blood. Both lack the f)icturesqueness of the corresponding J stories, and all that r has to say of the destruc- tion of Sodom and Gomorrah is the bare statement of 19^. There is nothing thought worth preserv- ing of P's history of Joseph except the short statis- tics of Gn 37'-^ 41'^ 46''-\ and possibly 47'>"- '"" -""'• ". (6) P's sti/le is stiff and formal, and seldom marked by delicate poetic feeling or grace of treat- ment, though occasionally stately and dignified, as in the Creation narrative, where the symmetry is certainly melodious, and adds grandeur to the conception. The repetitions help us to realize the almighty power of God. So, too, in the descrip- tion of the five wonders in Egypt, Ex 7-9, the re- petitions serve to intensify the stubborn ohstinacy of Pharaoh in resisting the divine power. Again, Gn 23, though introduced by P with tlie obvious purpo.se of accounting for the burying-place of the patriarchs, is distinctly interesting because of its archi-eologica] quaintness, and is probably based upon some ancient document. The same is true of Gn 14, if, as some critics maintain, in its present form it belongs to P.