Smith's Bible Dictionary.pdf - Online Christian Library

Smith's Bible Dictionary
wanderings in the wilderness, B.C. 1491-1451. Time .—The book of Genesis covered 2369
years,—from the creation of Adam, A.M 1, to the death of Joseph, A.M. 2369, or B.C. 1635.
Character and purpose .—The book of Genesis (with the first chapters of Exodus) describes the
steps which led to the establishment of the theocracy. It is a part of the writer’s plan to tell us what
the divine preparation of the world was in order to show, first, the significance of the call of
Abraham, and next, the true nature of the Jewish theocracy. He begins with the creation of the
world, because the God who created the world and the God who revealed himself to the fathers is
the same God. The book of Genesis has thus a character at once special and universal. Construction
.—It is clear that Moses must have derived his knowledge of the events which he records in Genesis
either from immediate divine revelation or from oral tradition or written documents. The nature of
many of the facts related, and the minuteness of the narration, render it extremely improbable that
immediate revelation was the source from whence they were drawn. That his knowledge should
have been derived from oral tradition appears morally impossible when we consider the great
number of names, ages, dates and minute events which are recorded. The conclusion then, seems
fair that he must have obtained his information from written documents coeval, or nearly so, with
the events which they recorded, and composed by persons intimately acquainted with the subjects
to which they relate. He may have collected these, with additions from authentic tradition or existing
monuments under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, into a single book. Certain it is that several of
the first chapters of Genesis have the air of being made up of selections from very ancient documents,
written by different authors at different periods. The variety which is observable in the names and
titles of the Supreme Being is appealed to among the most striking proofs of this fact. This is obvious
in the English translation, but still more so in the Hebrew original. In Gen 1 to 2:3, which is really
one piece of composition, as the title, v. 4, “These are the generations,” shows, the name of the
Most High is uniformly Elohim, God. In ch. (Genesis 2:4) to ch. 3, which may be considered the
second document, the title is uniformly Yehovah Elohim, Lord God ; and in the third, including
ch. 4, it is Yehovah, Lord, only; while in ch. 5 it is Elohim, God only, except in v. 29, where a
quotation is made, and Yehovah used. It is hardly conceivable that all this should be the result of
mere accident. The changes of the name correspond exactly to the changes in the narratives and
the titles of the several pieces.” Now, do all these accurate quotations,” says Professor Stowe,
“impair the credit of the Mosaic books, or increase it? Is Marshall’s Life of Washington to be
regarded as unworthy of credit because it contains copious extracts from Washington’s
correspondence and literal quotations from important public documents? Is not its value greatly
enhanced by this circumstance? The objection is altogether futile. In the common editions of the
Bible the Pentateuch occupies about one hundred and fifty pages, of which perhaps ten may be
taken up with quotations. This surely is no very large proportion for an historical work extending
through so long a period.”—Bush. On the supposition that writing was known to Adam, Gen. 1-4,
containing the first two of these documents, formed the Bible of Adam’s descendants, or the
antediluvians. Gen 1 to 11:9, being the sum of these two and the following three, constitutes the
Bible of the descendants of Noah. The whole of Genesis may be called the Bible of the posterity
of Jacob; and the five Books of the Law were the first Bible of Israel as a nation.—Canon Cook.
Gennesaret
(garden of the prince), Land of. It is generally believed that this term was applied to the fertile
crescent-shaped plain on the western shore of the lake, extending from Khan Minyeh (two or three
miles south of Capernaum (Tel-Hum) on the north to the steep hill behind Mejdel (Magdala) on
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William Smith