8. While the advocates of the Mosaic authorship have, without proof,
asserted that Joshua wrote the book of Joshua and the conclusion
of Deuteronomy, the Higher Critics have demonstrated the common
authorship of Deuteronomy and a large portion of Joshua. As all the
events recorded in Joshua occurred after the death of Moses, he could
not have been the author of Deuteronomy.
9. "They [the Israelites] did eat manna until they came unto the
borders of Canaan" (Ex. xvi, 35).
This passage was written after the Israelites settled in Canaan and
ceased to subsist on manna. And this was not until after the death
of Moses.
10. "The Horims also dwelt in Seir beforetime; but the children of Esau
succeeded them, when they had destroyed them from before them, and
dwelt in their stead; as Israel did unto the land of his possession,
which the Lord gave unto them" (Deut. ii, 12).
This refers to the conquest of Canaan and was written after that event.
11. "And while the children of Israel were in the wilderness they
found a man that gathered sticks upon the Sabbath day" (Num. xv, 32).
When this was written the children of Israel were no longer in the
wilderness. Their sojourn there is referred to as a past event. As
Moses died while they were still in the wilderness--that is, before
they had entered the promised land--it could not have been written
by him.
12. "Thou shalt eat it within thy gates" (Deut. xv, 22).
The phrase, "within thy gates," occurs in the Pentateuch about
twenty-five times. It refers to the gates of the cities of the
Israelites, which they did not inhabit until after the death of Moses.
13. "Ye shall therefore keep my statutes and my judgments, ... that
the land spew not you out also, when ye defile it, as it spewed out
the nations that were before you" (Lev. xviii, 26, 28).
When Moses died the nations alluded to still occupied the land and
had not been expelled.
14. "And Abraham called the name of the place Jehovah-jireh: as
it is said to this day, In the mount of the Lord it shall be seen"
(Gen. xxii, 14).
This is one of the passages adduced by the critics of the seventeenth
century against the Mosaic authorship of these books. It implies the
conquest and a long occupancy of the land by the Israelites.
15. "And Sarah died in Kirjath-arba; the same is Hebron in the land of
Canaan" (Gen. xxiii, 2). "And Jacob came ... unto the city of Arbah,
which is Hebron" (xxxv, 27).
Moses' uncle was named Hebron, and from him the Hebronites were
descended. After the Conquest this family settled in Kirjath-arba
and changed the name of the city to Hebron.
16. "And Rachel died and was buried in the way to Ephrath, which is
Bethlehem" (Gen. xxxv, 19).
The Hebrew name of Bethlehem was not given to this city until after
the Israelites had conquered and occupied it.
17. "For only Og, king of Bashan, remained of the remnant of giants;
behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it not in Rabbath of
the children of Ammon?" (Deut. iii, 11.)
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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