DEAN GRAVES

DEAN GRAVES

The reason why Dean Graves⁺⁺ (Phases, pages 138, 139) and others take the Pentateuch as ancient, is incomparably stronger than that on which Homer and Hesiod or Caesar are received. They have been handed down for ages as such, translated two or three centuries before Christ, being then counted as the undoubted sacred books of the Hebrews. They are connected successively with the whole history of Israel, which is confirmed throughout by every kind of collateral proof. The whole history of the world is founded on the statements contained in it. The Jews, who detest Christians, preserve them as authentic books just as we have them: the son of Sirach, Josephus, Philo did the same. The style confirms the dates ascribed to them:⁺⁺⁺ every institution of the Jews is inseparably connected with their truth. The alleged inconsistency is accounted for by a well known fact recorded in the book itself. Is it unreasonable to accept these books, historically speaking, as genuine, and answer objections if they are made? The use of the article oJ in Greek, as a pronoun, proves Homer ancient. The use of the article Hu and Nahar is a perfectly analogous proof in the Pentateuch.

⁺If it be asked on what authority any such book or chapter could be received as inspired, the answer is, “On the authority of the prophets.” Hence the canon closes in the time of Malachi, the last inspired prophet — his prophecy, and Esther, being the last books. And this answer is as old as Josephus, who gives this reason for the closing of the canon, saying, there were records of what was done since, but that they had not the authority of the others. The feast of Purins, ever observed by the Jews, is an irrefragable proof of the history of the book of Esther, which the Jews value as they do the Pentateuch, saying these two will subsist when all the other books pass away in the days of the Messiah.

⁺⁺“Dean Graves, for instance, always takes for granted, that until the contrary shall be demonstrated, it is to be fully believed that the Pentateuch is from the pen of Moses.” (Phases, page 137.)

⁺⁺⁺Some question, founded on style, is raised as to the date of one or two books, but not so as to affect in any way the general history or truth of the entire. Nor do I believe it, in the least, to be a well-founded doubt.