The Pulpit Commentary — Genesis — Section 69

11. Considerations which arc generally belieYed to favour the Mosaic authorship ot the Pentntench. 1. JT WAS NOT IMI'OSSIBLE FOB MOSES TO PRODUCE SUCII A DOOK AS TllE PRESENT PENTATEUCH. In the first place, he had the means of doing so, inasmuch as it is cnpable of almost perfect demonstration that he was acquainted with the nrt of writing. So long of course as the assertion was allowed to pass cuJTent ns an ascer- tained fact that " the earliest date which can be assigned to Semitic writing scarcely reaches to the tenth century D. c., and even this is not sufficiently nccredited " (Bohlen, 'lntrod.,' vol i. p. 35), a fatal barrier existed to the claims of Moses to be regarded as the author of the present Pentateuch. But that assertion has been long since abandoned by the most eminent palieographista. Gesenius (' Heh. Gram.,' p. 8) admits that "the point of time at which we are to date the commencement of Hebrew literature in general is certainly as early as that, of Moses, even if the Pentn- teuch, in its present shape and compass, be considered a work. remodelled at a later period." Ewald (' History of Israel,' vol. i. p. 49), while doubting if written docu- ments existed in patriarchal times, acknowledges" the two tables of the law" to be "an incontrovertible proof that there was writing in the age of Moses." Bleek (' Introd.,' vol. i. p. 82) states that "the pre-Mosaic use, among the Hebrews, of the a.rt of writing is now generally acknowledged," and considers that "written ~ecords in the primitive times are proved by such passages as Gen. xiv.; Numb. xiii. 22; Exod. v. 6; Josh. :xv. 15." Prof. Smith (' Encyclopedia Britannica,' art: Hebrew Language and Liternture, ninth edition) writes that "the Semitic peoples possessed the art of writing and an alphabetical character from a date so remote as to be lost in the mists of antiquity." Indeed the monumental records of antiquity have com- pletely disposed of the allegation that the art of writing was a comparatively recent invention. The cuneiform inscriptions from Cha.Idea reach as far back at least as the dnys of .Abraham. "Bricks and stone tablets, with inscriptions of the early Babylonian monarchs, have been found at most of the sites," and the inscription of Khammu- rabi (now in the Museum at Paris), written in the Babylonian language, according to George Smith cannot be placed later than the sixteenth century D. c. ( vide ' Records of the Past,' vol. i p. 6, and vol. iii. p. 5). In Egypt hieroglyphics are found as early as the second Egyptian dynasty (' Records of the Past,' vol. ii. p. vi) ; and recent excavations at Carchemish, Hamath, Aleppo, and Lycaonia show that the Hit- tites, a branch of which were settled in Canaan during the patriarchal period, were a literary people (possessing a peculiar system of hieroglyphic writing, which has not yet been deciphered); of which perhaps there was a hint in Kirjath-sepher, or "Book Town," the early name of their capital, Debir, the city of the oracle nem Hebron (Josh. xv, 15). Then, in the second place, it is obvious that. the materials could not be wanting in Moses' time for the composition of such a work as the Pentateuch. If, as is apparent, the art of writing was both known and practised in patriarchal times, it should not be difficult to credit the existence of ancient records in the patriarchal families. If the Chaldean monuments show that at a date as early as that of .Abraham legendary accounts of the Creation, the Deluge, the building of the tower of Babel, closely resembling the narrations in Genesis, were preserved in B:ibylonia, the inference is irresistible that the true account of the primitive history of mankind might in the same manner, i. e. by written tablets, have been handed down at least from the days of .Abraham, if not indeed from a much earlier period (vuu supra), till they came into the hands of Moses in Egypt. Then, ns Moses was himself the prominent figure in all that related to the Exodus, "quorum mar;na parsfdi," the requisite Piaterial for con/itructing 11 history of tint great nntionnl  THE AUTH0ilSflIP OF THE PENTATEUCH. xiii