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

420 The Hutoric Character of the PefItate1u:h. [APRIL,
It boldly commits itself to all the circumstances of place,
time, number. The precise ages of the earlier and later
patriarchs at the birth of their children, and at the time of
their own death; the descent of the nations; the repeated
and exact genealogies of the chosen people; the dwellingplaces
and halting-places of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob;
their wells, altars, oaks, and tombs; the minute particulars
of all their family affairs; the names and homes of those
with whom they had marriages, alliances, controversies, and
conflicts j the circumstances of battles, - among which the
oldest of all (Gen. xiv.) are related with the attending incidents
j the history of the deluge, reading like a log-book,
with the record of year, month, day, of the ship's dimensions,
its precise occupants, and apparently the sounding of
the waters (Gen. vii. 20); the full itinerary of the children
of Israel j the census of their tribes and families; the order
of their marching, the captains of the tribes, the names and
families of the twelve spies j the exact size, form, and materials
of their tabernacle; the offerings at its dedication, with
the names of the givers, the order and minute items of the
gifts (Numb. vii.); their early and remarkable calendar, and
the regulation of all their proceedings by that calendarjthese
are instances of its method throughout. How immensely
different its clear and coherent statements from
the hazy traditions out of which Thirlwall hesitatingly
endeavors to construct the early history of Greece, or from
the jungle of Egyptian royal names (names only), through
which Bunsen endeavor:i! to force a path. It is written
with the freedom of a romance, yet often the exactness of a
ledger. And though the method of modern history is very
different, yet to this day it would be hard to mention the
history which excels or equals the Pentateuch in the combination
of freedom of statement and minuteness of details.
4. The narrative of the Pentateuch is pre-eminently true
to human nature, both in its regenerate and its unregenerate
condition. Even IIuch sublime faith as that of Abraham
and of Noah, in kind if not in degree, the world bas long
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