HEXATEUCH
HEXATEUCH
collection of laws witli several slight inconsist- encies. Finiilly, Lv 11-15 breaks the connexion between 10 and 16.
(5) To these we should also add the incorporation of tlie already united JEU into I'; but to what date either this or the various supplements spoken of under (4) belong, cannot oe deter- mined. Probably, the latter represent a long and very gradual process. Knenen argues from tile ditlerence of arrangement found in the LXX translation of Ex 35-40, belonging to 3rd cent. B.C., that the final redaction of these chapters was even then hardly completed.
S. Editorial Revisers. — It has not been found practicable within the limits of this article to pivo a complete estimate of the work of the various editorial revisers. That several alterations were made as the dillerent sources were welded together is practically certain. A few examples of editorial emendations must suffice. In Un 22' ' the land of Moriali ' is very suspicious (esp. if, according to Un 14, Jerusalem was already in existence), inasmuch as (1) the name Moriah ilocs not appear again until the very late Book of Chronicles, (2) E otherwise shows no partiality towards Judah, (3) it could not have taken 3 days to get from Beersheba to Jerusalem, see v.'. It is probable, therefore, that an original 'Amorite' or name of some Ephiaimitish mountain, which had perhajis become illegible, was altered by a reviser with Southern proiiensitie.s, possibly JE, but more probably 1". 22""'" is certainly not part of the E narrative, but is po.ssibly some fragment of J worked in to suit the story. It is, however, to be observed that in v." 'be blessed' is '3t;ti."', not !3-;:)i as elsewhere in J; so some have regarded it as the work of a reviser. In 35'*' " we have probablj' the working in of an E fragment in a section of P (.see above, iii. 3. D). Ex 34"'^ has been revised by J E or I) to agree with other pas.sa"es, and in vv.'--''^ it is followed by a story emboaying perhaps an old tradition, but written in the spirit and style of P.
iv. SuMMAKV. — \\ e may now summarize in this way the probable history of the Hexateuch. For many centuries probably the only records of the past were those contained in song and saga. It is very possible that, as with the ancient Icelanders, these Avere recited at religious festivals (Ex 15'- '"■ '', cf. Jg 11"). The first attempts to collect these, so as to form a connected written histury, probably date from the Stli or 9th cent, li.c, and originated pre- sumably in the schools of the jjrophets. There are Butlicient evidences of two distinct ver.sions of this ancient history, J and E ; but though they deal for the most part with the same cycle of subjects, and E is probably the later of the two, there is no proof that there is any /(<cran/ connexion between tiiem. Later on, towards the close of the 7th cent., the.se two documents were combined together, but so skilfully that it is often veryditUcult to separate them (JE). About the same time in Jerusalem a code of ritual regulations and customs, commonly believed to have been revealed by God to Mo.ses, was set forth in writing and afterwards published in the reign of Josiali (1)). This code was shortly afterwards proviiled with a historic .setting and conibine<l with the earlier history, and the whole, especially the ioiic|uest of Canaan, revised by the same school (JEU). It has been conjectured by Kucnen, who has been followed by several other critics, that I'.'s Book of the Covenant, Ex 20--23, was originally represented a.s drawn up on the plains of Moab, and that, when the coile of 1) was substituted for it, the former was put back so as to form part of the Sinaitic legi.^lation. This will account both for the present ditlicullv in connerting Ex 2(F'-24" with its context, and also for the fart that, while in the historical summaiy of Ut 1-4
there is no rrelerence to the Bk of the Covenant, several of its piovisions in a revised form appear in the main body of D. During the Exile, pos- sibly before the work of D* was complete, a ue« body of ritual law, more priestly in its character, was drawn up, probably by some disciple of Ezekiel, and very possibly under his direction (P'). This wius followed by a new version of the whole history, and especially the legislation, conceived in a still more sacerdotal spirit, which was probably com- pleted about a century later, and promulgated by Ezra and Nehemiah (Neli 8. 9) (P«). Finally, by the union of this with P'', and the additions of new laws and regulations from tune to time, and various editorial revisions extending down to it may be the .3rd cent. (1"), we get our present Hexateuch.
V. The Historical VALUE OF THE Hexateuch. — It is, of course, obvious that the Hexateuch as it stands is not strictly a historical work. It did not need criticism to discover this, but criticism makes it absolutely certain. It shows that the most definite and statistical details, those given namely in P, are the lea.st to be depended upon, being unknown to the earliest wTiters, and ap- jiarentli' the calculations of a writer very far re- moved from the events described. There is also observable throughout a tendency in the various writers to throw back into their composition the customs, etc., of tlieir own times. Thus the whole body of laws, originatini? in local custom, or banded down as common law and promulgated from time to time, would come to be fathered on Moses ; just in the same way as the Chronicler read into the old documents the ritual of his own day. Similarly, it is probable that the contemporary religious and social customs of Northern Israel are in JE described as tho.se of their ancestors who lived in a distant past. Regarded as a history of the ancient migrations of the Israelites, their establishment as a relijjious and political com- munity, and their settlement in Canaan, the Hexateuch contains little more than a general outline on which to depend. We ni.ay gatlier that the Israelites were one among a number of Semitic peoples, who after long migration settled in or near Egypt, from which after a period of serfdom they finally escaped, and after further migrations gradually gained a footing in the trans-Jordanic territory, and afterwards made various incursions across the Jordan ; until, finally, the larger part of the territory, especially on the hills where the Canaanitish ch.ariots were useless, fell into their hands. That so many traditions and stories should have attached themselves to Abraham and Moses, even though many of them may be inapplicable or exaggerated, shows what a deep impression their personality and work made upon their generation, and it is hardly too much to sa^ that probably all that was noblest and best in the nation must be attributed to such men as these who first sowed the seed, of which the prophetic teaching wius the fruit. But if the Hex. has little to tell us of the early history of Israel, it has much to tell us of the times in which the authors lived. The habits and customs, the ideas, above all tho«e connected with morality and religion, are failhtully represented. And thus we are enabled to trace soinethiiig more than an outline of that history of religion which was the needful preparation for the teaching of Christ.