ne Hutoric Character of the Pentateuch. - BiblicalStudies.org.uk

402 The Irt.Storic Character of tke Penlateuck. [APRIL,
the events themselves, would seem the surest of all evidence;
surer far than mere literary documents, for they are
records inscribed on the heart and life and glory of a nation.
and handed down upon the spot, by a people that held
possesiilion of the land till far down in historic times. In
their tribal division they had a standing and perpetual
monument, extending straight back to those ancestors.
Every newly discovered test which we can apply to those
ancient naratives sustains their exact veracity. How unimpeachable
is found to be their geography in every particular;
whether it refer to the place (Bethel) from which
Lot and Abraham viewed the whole land, even to the valley
of Jordan, or to the scene of Abraham's victory over the four
kings.I How the customs there delineated are confirmed
by the inflexible usages of oriental lands to.day,!1 How the
facts stated in the account of Abraham's journey to Egypt
accord with what we have lately learned from the monuments
of the state of affairs at that early period: the
advanced and powerful condition of Egypt; the title of its
kings; the existence of slavery there; the state of society
which suffered Sarah to be seen without a veil, and which
also prompted Pharaoh to take her to his harem; the
absence then of all dislike towards shepherds; the nature
of the gifts conferred by the king; and Abraham's acceptance
of those gifts.' Rawlinson believes that in Kudur
Mapula (or Mabuk), "ravager of the West," he has found
the Chedorlaomer with ,vhom Abraham fought (Gen. xiv. 1).;
and the identification of Ur of the Chaldees is believed to
have been made in Mugeyer, with its list of kingtl extending
back two thousand two hundred and thirty years before
Christ.5
I See Thomson's Land and Book, Vol. I. p. 320.
I See, for example, Thomson's striking comments on Abraham's parcbue 01
the barial.place at Machpelah, Land and Book, Vol. II. p.381. Also muy
other illustrations in the same work.
I Hawks's Egypl, etc., p. 136, where this subject is presented in detail.
• Rawlinson's Herodotas, Vol. I. pp. 348, 356. Rawlinson', Hist. Ev., p.281.
6 LoflOS', Chaldea, p. 181.
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