Read Ebook: The Pentateuch in Its Progressive Revelations of God to Men by Cowles Henry

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Ebook has 433 lines and 176667 words, and 9 pages

INTRODUCTION, p. 1.

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN, 49; Two main questions: 1. Is the human family older than Adam? 49; The argument for man's high antiquity, From traces of his skeleton, 50; From his tools and works, 51; From the traditions and chronologies of the old nations, 59.

HEBREW CHRONOLOGY, 60; 2. How far back was Adam? 60; From birth of Christ back to the founding of Solomon's Temple, 60; First disputed period--that of the Judges, 60; Second disputed period--that of the sojourn in Egypt, 62; Third disputed period--between Terah and Abraham, 64; Fourth disputed period--from the creation to the flood, 66; Fifth disputed period--from the flood to the call of Abraham, 68.

ANTIQUITY OF MAN RESUMED, 72; On the Antiquity of Egypt, 72; The date of Menes, its first king, and of the pyramids, 74; Unity of the human race: Were there races of pre-Adamic men, now extinct? 75; Are the present living races descendants of the same first pair? 75.

THE SABBATH, 77; As old as Eden; made for man as a race.

FROM THE FALL TO THE FLOOD, 92; 1. Notes on special passages; Gen. 4: 1, "I have gotten a man--the Lord," 92; Gen. 4: 6, 7--words of the Lord to Cain, 92; Gen. 4: 23, 24, the song of Lamech, 92; 2. Abel's offering and the origin of sacrifices, 93; 3. The great moral lessons of the antediluvian age, 95.

THE FLOOD, 99; Its moral causes, 99; Its physical causes, 101; Was this flood universal? 102; As to the earth's surface, 102 As to its population, 104; Traditions of a great deluge, 105.

FROM THE FLOOD TO THE CALL OF ABRAHAM, 107; 1. The law against murder and its death-penalty, 107; 2. The prophecy of Noah, 108; 3. The genealogy of the historic nations, 110; 4. Babel and the confusion of tongues, 112.

THE PATRIARCHS, ISAAC, JACOB, JOSEPH, 132; Isaac, 132; Jacob, 133; At Bethel, 133; At Mahanaim, 137; The struggle of prayer; The points and grounds of this conflict; The law of prevailing prayer, 140; Jacob and Joseph, 143; Developments of personal character, 144; Joseph in Egypt, 146; The hand of God in this history: Seen in the sufferings of the innocent, 155; Seen in overruling sin for good, 158; The purposes of God in locating Israel in Egypt, 160; Ancient Egyptian history and life confirms Moses, 162; Special passages considered: Going down into Sheol, Gen. 37: 35, 166; Jacob's benedictions upon his sons, Gen. 49, 168; The Scepter of Judah, Gen. 49: 10, 169; The less readable portions of Genesis, 171; Close of Genesis, 172.

EXODUS 173; The oppression, 173; Moses, 175; His great mission, 179; The ten plagues, 185: These plagues supernatural, 187; Several of them specially adapted to Egypt, 189; The case of the magicians, 190; The shape of the demand upon Pharaoh to let the people go, 193; The hardening of Pharaoh's heart, 194; History of the case, 194; What is said of God's purpose in it, 203; Light on this case from God's revealed character, 204.

THE PASSOVER, 205; Consecration of all first-born, 207; The long route to Canaan, 209; The march and the pursuit, 210; The guiding pillar of cloud and of fire, 211; The locality of the Red Sea crossing, 215.

THE HISTORIC CONNECTIONS OF MOSES WITH PHARAOH AND EGYPT, 216.

THE EVENTS NEAR AND AT SINAI, 222; The manna, 222; Rephidim; water by miracle, 225; The battle with Amalek, 229; Jethro, 230; The Scenes at Sinai, 232; The national covenant; The giving of the law, 232; The moral law, given from Sinai, 236; To be distinguished from "the statutes and judgments," 236; The commandments considered severally; 1. 238; 2. 239; 3. 241; 4. 241; 5. 243; 6-9. 243; 10. 245; Progress in the revelations of God to man, 246.

THE HEBREW THEOCRACY, 251; The supreme power, 251; The powers of Jehovah's Vicegerent, 253; The General Assembly and their Elders, 254; The scope afforded for self-government, democracy, 255; The fundamental principles of this system, 258; Its union of Church and State, 259; Its principles and usages in regard to war, with notice of the war-commission against the doomed Canaanites, 261; The grant of Canaan, and the command to extirpate the Canaanites, 262.

CIVIL INSTITUTES OF MOSES CONTINUED; Hebrew servitude, 294; Man-stealing, 294; No rendition of fugitives, 295; Severe personal injuries entitled to freedom, 295; Periodical emancipation, 296; Religious privileges of servants, 298; The slavery that existed before Moses, 299; The condition of Israel in bondage in Egypt, 299; The Jubilee, 300; Its bearing upon foreign servants, 301; Meaning of "bond-servant," 302; Servants of foreign birth, 302; Judicial Procedure, 304; Judges, 304; The seat of justice, 305; The processes of prosecution, 305; Advocates, 305; Of witnesses, 305; Punishments, 306; Fines, 306; Sin and trespass offerings, 307; Stripes, 307; Excommunication, 308; Modes of capital punishment, 308; Disgrace after death, 308; Judicial procedure and punishment summary, 308; Statutes without penalties, 309; Two Historic Questions, 311; How far is this system indebted to Egypt? 311; How far have the best civil codes of the most civilized nations been indebted to this Hebrew code? 314; Progressive revelations of God in this code, 319.

HISTORIC EVENTS OF HEBREW HISTORY FROM SINAI TO THE JORDAN, 342; The golden calf, 342; The intercession of Moses, 343; The Lord reveals his name and glory, 346; Incidents connected with this idol-worship, 350; Lessons from Moses on prayer, 353; Taberah and Kibroth-hataavah, 354; Miriam and Aaron envious of Moses, 355; Kadesh-barnea and the unbelieving spies, 356; Rebellion of Korah and his company, 360; The fiery serpent and the brazen one, 363; Balak and Balaam, 364; Balaam's prophecies, 367; His prayer, 368.

Advertisements, 415

INTRODUCTION.

THE REVELATIONS OF GOD TO MEN PROGRESSIVE.

Yet farther; the progressive historical method of making up the Bible opened the door widely for miracles and prophecy. The occasions for miracles were multiplied. They could be introduced naturally where manifold and not single results should accrue. In this way there was no need to manufacture opportunities for miraculous interposition. Abundant occasions arose to demand them, when consequently they had a most thrilling effect. We may see this in the scenes of the Exodus, the conquest of Canaan, the rescue of Hezekiah and his people.

Still again; by this method of making up inspired history it is placed side by side with profane history and the most ancient monuments of the race, and thus invites investigation on the point of its truthfulness. Is this progressive history of God's ways toward men confirmed by whatever reliable history of the same period has come down to us through other sources? This point well deserves and richly rewards a careful examination.

The doctrine of divine providence in regard to the sufferings of good men--one of the hardest problems of human life--might be expected to unfold itself gradually. It would be quite too much for the infancy of human thought and knowledge to grasp this problem and master all its intricacies. Hence the scope for a gradual unfolding all the way from the discussions in Job and the Psalms to the clearer light which shines in the epistle to the Hebrews, as also in Peter and Paul. This beautiful illustration of progress in divine revelation will well reward attention in its place.

To forestall misapprehensions , let it be noted that progress in the revealed science of God by no means supersedes what has gone before. Naturally it only serves to place old truths in new and richer light. No one fact affirmed concerning God in the earlier ages is denied in the later. Certain features of his character may be brought out more prominently in the later lessons, but there is no unsaying of the things said before. Nothing can conflict with this axiom of divine science--"I am the Lord; I change not." Prominence may be given in the early ages to such manifestations as impress men with fear and as set forth God's righteous justice toward transgressors; while later revelations may disclose more fully the depths of divine love and compassion. Yet let none infer that God is less just in the New Testament than in the Old, or that the earlier policy of God's throne has been modified to a larger leniency toward persistent criminals. The men who flippantly talk of throwing aside the older revelation "as they do an old almanac" mistake most egregiously. God has written nothing to be thrown aside. The oldest records still give us lessons of God shining with unfading freshness and undimmed glory. The statutes binding on Israel in the wilderness and in Canaan may not be in the same sense binding on our age, but they have not for this reason become valueless. They made revelations of God then, truthful and rich; they make revelations of God still which it were but small indication of wisdom or good sense to ignore.

CREATION.

Of secondary yet similar interest are the corresponding questions as to the world we live in. Who made it? Does its Maker hold it under his own control? Does He still operate its forces and wield its agencies? Have I any obligations and duties toward Him who made the earth and all that is therein? Verily I must assume that if there be a God, at once Creator and Upholder of the earth and Father of his rational offspring, his written word will hasten to throw light on the otherwise dark minds of his children--will let them know that "in the beginning God made the heavens and the earth" and man.

Partly because of advances made within recent times in physical science, partly because of speculations not always friendly in tone to the inspired record, and partly because of the intrinsic interest and importance of the subject, some special points in this narrative demand very particular attention.

Turning our attention to this latter theory, we raise three leading inquiries:

Do the laws of language and, specially, does the usage of the word "day" permit it?

Apart from the bearing of geological facts, are there points in the narrative itself which demand or even favor this sense of the word?

What are the geological facts bearing on this question, and what weight may legitimately be accorded to them?

Throughout at least the first three of these creative epochs there was no sun-rising and setting to mark off the ordinary day. These therefore were not the common human day; but, as Augustine long ago said, these are the days of God--divine days--measuring off his great creative periods. God moved through these six great periods by successive stages of labor and of rest. Beginning with the long evening of chaos; then advancing to a glorious day of light; then, after a cessation analogous to man's rest by night, he proceeded to the work of the second day--the joyous and beautiful development of the firmament in the heavens. So onward by stages of repose and of activity, these figurative evenings and mornings continued through the six successive epochs of creation.

There are yet other preliminary questions.

On the shores of lakes, seas, oceans, we find pebbles rounded and smooth, mineralogically of the same elements which are found in rock formations. Were they created in this rounded and worn state, or were they once portions of these rock strata, but subsequently broken up by natural agencies and worn by the action of flowing water?

This list of nature's facts as the practiced eye reads them from the crust of our earth does not claim to be exhaustive. If it were all, however, it would still be amply sufficient to sustain the demand for long creative periods as opposed to ordinary human days. It should not be forgotten that this demand, coming forth from the facts developed in the crust of the earth, falls in most fully with what we have seen to be the legitimate construction of the Mosaic record.

Among the animal tribes, those of the water are before those of the land. Genesis gives us fish and reptiles and even fowl before the mammals--land animals--the former on the fifth day; the latter with man on the sixth. Geology indorses this order, showing that fish and reptiles lie in rocks lower and older than quadrupeds.

Man is last of all. The testimony of the rocks is here at one with that of Genesis--other animals and the vegetables also, long ages before man.

Now how has it happened that this record, coming to us through Moses, harmonizes so wonderfully with the main results of a science yet in its infancy--almost utterly unknown until the present century? Is it due to the scientific attainments of Moses? Is it not rather due to inspiration--"holy men of old"--Moses himself or the fathers before him--being taught by the same Being who "in the beginning created the heavens and the earth?" The marvel is that this record should be so constructed as to present a very intelligible view of the processes of the six days' work to the average mind of the race before geological science was born, and yet when this science begins to develop the constitution and composition of the earth's surface, the inspired record is found to harmonize with these developments in all important features. So it is wont to happen. Truth rejoices in the light. A truthful Bible and all true science meet in loving communion, evincing their common parentage--offspring of the same Infinite Father.

If these verses be understood to speak of their original creation, it would seem to be out of place here between the creation of vegetables and of the earliest born animals . But in the sense of bringing these heavenly bodies to view and the sun into its normal action upon vegetables and upon animal comfort, it is precisely in place.

According to the interpretation given to v. 1 the matter composing these heavenly bodies was brought into existence "in the beginning" when "God created the heavens" as well as "the earth" and before the six days' work began. If so, then the intervening processes of modification must naturally have been going on from that time until this fourth day.

Here are two points of some importance to be considered.

Are the two passages by the same author?

Wishing to bring this discussion within the narrowest possible limits and yet do justice to Darwin, to Genesis, and to the truth, I propose to state briefly his main arguments; then comprehensively my rejoinder to them severally in their order, and then subjoin some general considerations bearing upon his entire theory.

BRIEF REPLIES.

I am well aware that, to abate if not nullify the force of this apparent absurdity, it will be said that along the actual line between plant life and animal life, the vegetable and animal kingdoms are actually brought closely side by side; that plant life shades off by almost imperceptible stages till it comes so near to the lowest forms of animal life that the dividing line is scarcely if at all perceptible. This fact no scientist disputes. The real question turns upon its purposed object or ultimate reason. Is it, as Mr. Darwin's theory assumes, to bridge over this dividing line and facilitate the march of "genealogical descent with variations" across what else would be a bad if not an impassable gulf?

This being the claim set up by Mr. Darwin, I answer--

THE ANTIQUITY OF MAN.

UNDER this head several questions arise:

Subsidiary questions are--

Were there one or more races of primeval men pre-Adamic but now extinct?

And from the traditions of the most ancient nations and the high antiquity of their existence, civilization, and monuments.

Under the first head the traces are either

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