I have a copy printed by Robert Barker before me which contains the
whole eighty books. It begins with these words, 'The first book of
Moses, called Genesis.' Not one word of this title is to be found in
the Hebrew. The word Genesis is a Greek word, signifying production,
generation, birth, origin, or formation. It seems curious that the
translators should have given a Hebrew book a Greek title. In the
Hebrew there is no title to the book; the first word [------] (in the
beginning) is merely written in larger characters. The headings to each
page and chapter are also additions made by the translators; and this
is sometimes very important, as they are made to improperly govern
the meaning of the text. As to Genesis being called 'the first book of
Moses,' I think that grave censure should be cast on those who prefixed
those words; they are entirely omitted in the Douay edition. Long since,
our churchmen have been acquainted with the fact that these words,
fixing the authorship on Moses, form no part of the original text, yet
they allow edition after edition to be printed bearing the same title as
that of 1611. Why is this? It is not that they are afraid of tampering
with the authorised version, for they have actually, in the later
editions, omitted the whole fourteen books of the Apocrypha, which were
included in the original edition. {5} In an edition of King James's
authorised version, printed in 1630, the page containing Ezekiel,
chapter 7, is headed by mistake with the word 'Apocrypha.' This mistake
has been corrected in the later editions; why not also have corrected
those five false statements which allege Moses as the author of the
Pentateuch? There have been, also, several printers' errors corrected in
the later editions, yet the words in question are allowed to stand;
why is this? again I ask. The persistence in an error of so important a
character would justify suspicion, and even the allegation of fraudulent
intent on the part of those who issue the book. It is an attempt to give
an anonymous work an undue claim on our attention. Moses himself, in no
part of the five books, claims to be the author of them; and in no part
of the Bible is he alleged to be the writer of the Pentateuch. It is
certainly alleged that Moses wrote 'the law,' 'the book of the law,'
but there is nothing whatever to show that that work outlived the
destruction of Jerusalem, and there are several express declarations to
the contrary (_vide_ Letter on the Pentateuch by Thomas Cooper, M.D.,
and Esdras, chap, xiv., v. 21). I am aware of the texts quoted by those
who allege that Moses was the author of the whole Pentateuch; viz.,
Exodus, chap, xvii., v. 14, chap, xxiv., v. 4 and 7, chap, xxxiv., v.
27, Numbers, chap, xxxiii., v. 1 and 2, Deuteronomy, chap, i., v. 5,
chap, xxxi., v. 9, 13, 22, 24, 26; but do not think that they will, even
in the hands of the most partial supporter of the Mosaic hypothesis,
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