"SMALL PHRASES"

“SMALL PHRASES”

Mr. Newman alludes to certain “small phrases which denote a later hand than Moses.” (Phases, page 124.) There is no reason to doubt that, whatever Samuel may have done, Ezra edited the sacred writings after the return from Babylon: from these sources the expression “to this day” is no doubt drawn. The prophets, Josephus informs us, were the authority on which books were revered as inspired, and that the canon closed in the time of Artaxerxes.⁺⁺

He notices particularly that “the kings of Israel are once alluded to historically.” (Phases, page 124.) In Genesis 36: 31 it is said, Before there was any king in Israel. So that “alluded to historically” is rather an inaccurate expression; their non-existence is alluded to. Edom had kings before Israel had any; that is all that is said. Edom’s having any when Israel had had none was the point wished to be recorded. It was a settled nation ruled over regularly, before God’s people Israel were so. In the chapter before, kings had been promised to arise out of the loins of Jacob. Yet the natural went first in apparent strength: God’s people must wait His time. The list of kings in Edom consists of eight. Now Phinehas was the seventh from Jacob, and he was in full activity and vigour in the time of Moses. So that the kings of Edom, as mentioned in Genesis, very possibly did not extend beyond the time of Moses; though data are not given to determine when they commence. The reader will remark that it is not said, before kings, or the kings reigned, as if it were a history; but, before a king or any king reigned, which rather seems to belong to a time when there was none at all that was known. Yet kings had been promised to Jacob, and the pre-eminence, and none to Esau; yet Esau had them when Jacob had none. The contrast is not with kings in Israel and none in a by-gone time, but of kings in Edom when Israel had none.

⁺“And especially the total disagreement of the modern facts of the dispersion of animals, with the idea that they spread anew from Armenia as their centre.” (Phases, page 123.)

⁺⁺This, though of course a mere human authority, but a competent one, as far as any are in these matters, falls in with Malachi and Esther being the last books, as to date, of the Old Testament, and the probable epoch of the close of genealogies in Chronicles.