The Bible: what it is Part 11

'Dr. Pyle (in the Family Bible) remarks on this pa.s.sage:--

'"It is probable that either Og conveyed his iron bedstead, with other furniture of his palace, into the country of the Ammonites, to prevent their falling into the hands of the Israelites; or else the Ammonites had taken it from him in some former conquest, and kept it as a monument of their victory."

'Either of these cases would be probable, if it could be first proved that Moses wrote this verse, and that he knew of Og's bed being kept in Rabbath. But as Rabbath was not taken by the Israelites until the time of David, as we read in 2 Samuel, xii., 26, '"And Joab fought against Rabbah, of the children of Ammon, and took the royal city."

'It is very unlikely that the Israelites knew anything about the bedstead of King Og until then. In the reign of David, five hundred years had pa.s.sed since Og lived, and his bedstead had consequently become an object of curiosity; like the great bed of Ware, which is still shown in that town, though only three hundred years old. It is hardly possible that Moses knew anything about this bedstead of King Og, afterwards so famous.'

Verse 11. 'Is it not in Rabbath, of the children of Ammon?' This could scarcely have been written by Moses, for the reasons just stated.

Verse 24. 'What G.o.d is there in heaven, or in earth, that can do according to thy work?' This is a strange phrase from the lips of a man who only believed in one G.o.d.

*Chapter iv., vv. 21 and 22. The Lord said, that not one of the Israelites, except Caleb, and his seed, should enter the promised land (_vide_ Numbers, chap, xiv., v. 24). Yet here Moses says, 'I must not go over Jordan, but ye shall go over, and possess that good land.'

Verse 40. 'The earth, which the Lord thy G.o.d giveth thee, for ever.' The earth, I suppose, means Judea only, and this has not been held by the Jews to the present day, much less for ever.

Verses 41 and 46. 'On this side Jordan,' the Douay reads, 'Beyond the Jordan.'

*Chapter v., vv. 12 to 15 (see page 57).

Verse 22. 'These words the Lord spake.... with a great voice, and __he added no more,' Yet in Exodus, chap, xx., vv. 22 to 26, and in the following chapters, he adds a great deal more.

*Chapter vi., v. 5. 'Thou shalt love the Lord thy G.o.d with all thine heart, and with all thy soul, and with all thy might.' Is it possible that the Jews could love a Deity, whom they had only seen amongst smoke and fire, as a pillar of cloud by day, and as a pillar of fire by night; who had led them from the flesh-pots of Egypt into the sterile sandy desert of sin? If love is a necessary consequence of punishment, the Israelites would, of course, love very strongly; but I submit it is {82} utterly impossible they could love a G.o.d who told them he was a jealous G.o.d, whose anger might be kindled against them, and who might destroy them from off the face of the earth; who had tormented them with various plagues, for uttering complaints which they could scarce avoid. Hunger and thirst would tempt the most contented men to murmur; and yet for these murmurings they had been terribly dealt with.

*Chapter vii., v. 2. See Exodus, chap, x.x.xiv., v. 6., Deuteronomy, chap.

iv., v. 31, Psalms, x.x.xiii., v. 5, ii., v. 1, cxvi., v. 5, cxiv., v.

8, 2 Chronicles, chap, x.x.x., v. 9, Nehemiah, chap, ix., v. 31, 9 Micah, chap, vii., v. 18, 1 Corinthians, chap, xiv., v. 33. I will make no further comment than this, that it is utterly impossible a G.o.d of mercy, long suffering, gracious kindness, and goodness, could have given such a command as this to his people: 'Thou shalt smite them, and utterly destroy them; thou shaft make no covenant with them, or show mercy unto them.'

*Chapter viii., v. 4. 'Thy raiment waxed not old upon thee.... these forty years.' So that during that time a continual miracle must have been worked with respect to the clothing of the Jews, although, if we admit any one miracle, of course we, to a great extent, if not altogether, lose our right to object to any other. I am not aware whether it was from wearing their clothes for so lengthy a period that the Jews obtained the epithet of 'old clothesmen of the world.'

Perhaps the editor of _Notes and Queries_ may deem the point worthy of investigation.

Verses 7, 8, and 9. This description cannot apply to Judea, and there must be some error, as the digging 'bra.s.s.' Bra.s.s is an alloy of copper and zinc; the proportions varying, according to the required colour. It is made by heating copper plates in a mixture of native oxide of zinc.

It is not true that Judea was 'a land wherein thou shalt eat bread without scarceness,' as various famines are mentioned. See Ruth, chap, i., v. 1, 2 Samuel, chap, xxi., v. 1, 1 Kings, chap. xviii., v. 2, 2 Kings, chap, vi., v. 25, 2 Kings, chap, viii., v. 1, and 2 Kings, chap, xxv., v. 3.

Verses 19 and 20. 'If thou do at all forget the Lord thy G.o.d, and walk after other G.o.ds, ye shall surely perish.' The Jews were often idolatrous, and yet have not perished.

Chaps, viii. and ix. By these chapters it is certain that the bulk of the Israelites, who were to pa.s.s over Jordan into Canaan, had resided in Egypt, and provoked the wrath of the Lord on many occasions. The Lord must, therefore, have changed his mind, and rescinded the decree made by him in Numbers, chap, xiv., v. 23.

*Chapter ix., v. 1. 'Fenced up to heaven.' These fences must have been very high; the carpenters built tall fences, and archers drew long bows, in the time of Moses.

Verse 16. On page 62, I omitted to notice that casting a metal calf is not a very easy operation to be performed by a wandering and ignorant people, in a desert without furnaces or mechanical aid.

Verses 9 and 18. The pretension here made by Moses is, that he {83} fasted continuously eighty days and eighty nights, and 'neither ate bread nor drank water,' during that period. This is a very long fast, especially when we consider that Moses preserved his usual strength and activity, walked down the mountain, carrying two tables of stone, dashed them under his feet, etc There are several cases on record, in which human beings, affected by disease, have preserved life during a forced abstinence; the teeth, in one instance, being quite closed for a

very considerable period; but in all the cases I have read, some nutriment was administered in a fluid form, with a quill, or feather, or otherwise; in some, the patient has been in an almost cataleptic state, and I do not think that, in any case, the person fasting has been known to retain all his powers of mind and body unimpaired. There is nothing said about this fast in Exodus.

Verse 20. Neither is there any mention whatever of this in the Book of Exodus.

*Chapter x., v. 6. 'Mosera. There Aaron died, and there he was buried.'

According to Numbers, chap, xx., v. 28, Aaron died and was buried on Mount Hor.

Verses 6 to 9. These verses seem to have been inserted without regard to the context; they have no connexion with the rest of the chapter, which would read more coherently if read from v. 5 to v. 10, omitting the four intermediate verses. In v. 8, the words 'until this present day,' would denote a considerable lapse of time from the death of Aaron.

*Chapter xi., w. 23, 24, and 25. This has never been fulfilled, and the Christian will urge that it is not fulfilled because the Israelites have been disobedient. But this can scarcely be admitted, as neither blessing nor curse has been accomplished.

*Chapter xii., v. 15. This is a contradiction of Leviticus, chap, xvii., vv. 3 and 4.

Verses 18 and 27. Here the people are allowed to eat a portion of the t.i.thes and burnt offerings. While by Numbers, chap, xviii., v. 24, they are confined to the Levites.

*Chapter xiii. Here Moses says, if 'a prophet' arise, and his prophecy come to pa.s.s, 'that prophet shall be put to death.' Can we, therefore, wonder that the Jews put Jesus to death, the more especially as he endeavoured to introduce a new form of worship, and new doctrines amongst them.

*Chapter xv., v. 4, contradicts v. 11. The former stating that there shall be a time when 'there shall be no poor amongst you;' while the latter declares that 'the poor shall never cease out of the land.'

*Chapter xviii., v. 8. What is a Levite's patrimony? In Numbers, chap, xviii., w. 20 to 24, it is expressly stated that the Levites should have no inheritance in the land.

Verses 10 and 11. On page 59, I have remarked upon the subject of witches and wizards, and now ask, can we have a stronger argument against this book than is contained in these verses? Voltaire writes thus upon enchantments:--

'Is not a large portion of the absurd superst.i.tions which have {84} prevailed, to be ascribed to very natural causes? There are scarcely any animals that may not be accustomed to approach at the sound of a bagpipe, or a single horn, to take their food. Orpheus, or some one of his predecessors, played the bagpipe better than other shepherds, or employed singing. All the domestic animals flocked together at the sound of his voice. It was soon supposed that bears and tigers were among the number collected. This first step accomplished, there was no difficulty in believing that Orpheus made stones and trees dance.

'If rocks and pine trees can be thus made to dance a ballet, it will cost little more to build cities by harmony, and the stones will easily arrange themselves at Amphion's song. A violin only will be wanting to build a city, and a ram's horn to destroy it.

'The charming of serpents may be attributed to a still more plausible cause. The serpent is neither a voracious nor a ferocious animal. Every reptile is timid. The first thing a reptile does, at least in Europe, on seeing a man, is to hide itself in a hole, like a rabbit, or a lizard.

The instinct of man is to pursue everything that flies from him, and to fly from all that pursue him, except when he is armed, when he feels his strength; and, above all, when he is in the presence of many observers.

'The charming of serpents was considered as a thing regular and constant. The sacred Scripture itself, which always enters into our weaknesses, deigned to conform itself to this vulgar idea.

'"The deaf adder, which shuts its ears that it may not hear the voice of the charmer."

'"I will send among you which will resist enchantments."

'"The slanderer is like the serpent, which yields not to the enchanter."

'To enchant a dead person, to resuscitate him, or barely to evoke his shade to speak to him, was the most simple thing in the world. It is very common to see the dead in dreams; in which they are spoken with, and return answers. If any one has seen them during sleep, why may he not see them when awake? It is only necessary to have a spirit like the Pythoness; and to bring this spirit of Pythonism into successful operation; it is only necessary that one party should be a knave, and the other a fool; and no one can deny that such rencontres very frequently occur.

'The famous Witch of Endor has always been a subject of great dispute among the fathers of the Church. The sage Theodoret, in his sixty-second question on the Book of Kings, a.s.serts, that it is universally the practice for the dead to appear with the head downwards; and that what terrified the witch was Samuel being upon his legs.

'St. Augustin, when interrogated by Simplicion, replies in the second book of his questions, that there is nothing more extraordinary in witches invoking a shade, than in the Devil transporting Jesus Christ through the air, to the pinnacle of the temple, on the top of a mountain.'

*Chapter xix., vv. 2, 7, and 10. Here three cities of refuge are directed with a condition that three more may afterwards be added; {85} while in Numbers, chap, x.x.xv., vv. 13 and 14, six are directed unconditionally.

*Chapter ix., vv. 16, 17, and 18. By this command to 'save alive nothing that breatheth,' we may judge of the mercy and loving kindness of the G.o.d of the Jews. Why were the Hitt.i.tes, the Amorites, the Canaanites, the Ferrizites, the Hivites, and the Jebusites, to be mercilessly slaughtered? I am answered that they were idolaters. So were the Jews.

And even if they were idolaters, the Omnipotent Deity had permitted them to become so, without giving them the benefit of any revelation from himself or the chance of listening to any of his prophets; in fact, by preferring the Jews, he must, to some extent, have neglected these unfortunate nations; and can it be wondered that such barbarous nations worshipped false G.o.ds in those dark ages, when in the enlightened latter moiety of the nineteenth century, in the highly civilised country of England, there are more sects than there are books in the Bible; each drawing from that Book entirely different doctrines as to the Deity, and each declaring that theirs only is the true faith, and that all the others merit d.a.m.nation (_vide_ the Reverend preachers of Surrey Gardens on the one hand, and of Exeter Hall on the other)?

*Chapter xxi., w. 10 to 14. According to this highly moral Book, if one of the Jewish warriors perceived a beautiful woman amongst the captives, he could take her home, keep her until he grew tired of her, and then desert her; he was only prohibited from selling her.

Verse 15. Polygamy is evidently a recognised inst.i.tution amongst the Jews. In the present day, we are told that polygamy amongst the Mormons is an evidence of the grossly sensual character of Mor-monism.

*Chapter xxii., w. 9, 10, 11. These verses seem to me to be too trifling and absurd to have a place amongst the ordinances of the infinite Deity.

*Chapter xxiii., v. 3. An Ammonite, or a Moabite, shall not enter into the congregation of the Lord, even unto their tenth generation. Yet David was only the third, and Solomon the fourth, generation, from the Moabitish woman Ruth (see Ruth, chap, iv., w. 21 and 22). Verses 1 to 6 seem positively unjust. Why should ten generations suffer; they did not choose their birth-place--whether Ammon or Judea.