The Expositor's Bible: The Book of DeuteronomyHarper, Andrew
Religion
The Expositor's Bible: The Book of Deuteronomy
Harper, Andrew
Bible. Deuteronomy -- Commentaries
In Israel the process would appear to have been similar, though much
simpler. It was similar; for though there are radical differences
between the Aryan and the Semitic mind which must not be overlooked,
the former being more systematic and fond of logical arrangement
than the latter, a great many of the things which are common to
Moses and Manu are quite independent of race, and are due to the
fact that both legislations were to regulate the lives of men at
the same stage of social advancement. But Manu was much later than
Moses. Indeed, as we now have them, the laws of Manu are as late as
the post-Ezraite Judaic code, and in temper and tone these two codes
very nearly resemble each other. Consequently the earlier codes
of the Pentateuch are simpler than Manu. When Israel left Egypt,
custom must have been almost alone the guide of life. Moses' task
was to promulgate and force home his fundamental truths; in this
view he must adopt and remodel the customary law so as to make it
innocuous to the higher principles he introduced, or even to make it
a vehicle for the popularising of them. So far as he made codes, he
would make them with that end. Consequently he would take up mainly
such prominent points as were most capable of being, or which most
urgently needed to be, moralised, leaving all the rest to custom
where it was harmless. This is the reason, too, most probably,
why the earlier codes are so short and so unsystematic. They are
selections which needed special attention, not complete codes
covering the whole of life. In fact the form and contents of all the
Old Testament codes can be accounted for only on this supposition.
As the codes lengthen, they do so simply by taking up, in a modified
or unmodified form, so much more of the custom; and under the
pressure of Yahwistic ideas these selected codes became more and
more weighted with spiritual significance and power.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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