The Testimony of the Bible Concerning the Assumptions of Destructive Criticism — John Shaqi
The Testimony of the Bible Concerning the Assumptions of Destructive CriticismWishard, S. E. (Samuel Ellis)
Religion
The Testimony of the Bible Concerning the Assumptions of Destructive Criticism
Wishard, S. E. (Samuel Ellis)
Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc.
We turn to the positive statement in Deuteronomy xxxi. 9. The chapter
opens with the declaration that "Moses spake these words unto all
Israel," giving an extended account of what the words were. In the ninth
verse it is stated: ... "_And Moses wrote this law_ and delivered it
unto the priests and unto all the elders of Israel." What became of that
writing of Moses? Was it lost? Or is the statement false? And did some
later writer forge the statement, attributing the writing to Moses, to
give weight and authority to the forgery? To ask the question is to
answer it. "Moses wrote all the words of the Lord."
In the twenty-fourth verse in this same chapter in Deuteronomy it is
stated that "Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a
book." Yet the critics teach that this book, Deuteronomy, was not
written until after the exile, almost a thousand years after the events
narrated. Does not critical credulity make larger demands than are laid
on faith?
The summing up of the book of Numbers, of what had been said and written
in the book, is stated in the last chapter and last verse, namely, that
"these are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded
_by the hand of Moses_ unto the children of Israel." Again and again it
is affirmed in the Pentateuch that God commanded Moses to write, and
that he did write, but the critics affirm that the hand of Moses had
nothing to do with producing the books of the Pentateuch--that they were
written after the exile!
Not only does the Pentateuch distinctly teach the Mosaic authorship of
the five books of Moses, appropriately so called, but all the Old
Testament saints entertained the opinion which the Jewish people and the
Christian Church hold to-day, that God spake to Moses, and that _Moses
committed to writing_ the messages that God gave him and commanded him
to write, embracing the story of God's miracles, his instruction and
dealing with them in the wilderness.
We find the critics contradicted in the Scriptures from Joshua to
Malachi. To Joshua God said: "As I was with Moses, so will I be with
thee." (Joshua i. 5.) Eight times in the first chapter of the book of
Joshua God accredits Moses with having received and having given the law
to Joshua and the people.
The Pentateuch is the book which God, speaking to Joshua, calls "the law
which my servant Moses commanded thee" (Joshua i. 7), and it was so
accepted by Joshua. Was he mistaken? or the critics? He had long enjoyed
most intimate relations with Moses, and knew what Moses had written by
the command of God.
David affirms that God had "made known his ways unto Moses, and his acts
unto the children of Israel" (Psa. ciii. 7). We have seen that the man
Moses was competent to write, and did write, what God had made known to
him (Deut xxxi. 24). The Psalms are illuminated and set aflame with the
faith of Israel, that Moses said and wrote what is ascribed to him in
the Pentateuch.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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