ASA - October 2004: Obvious Questions Concerning Whether Or Not

From: ed babinski <ed.babinski@furman.edu>
Date: Sat Oct 09 2004 - 00:11:23 EDT

An article I wrote about the Bible and history, suitable for the listserv
I think?
Cheers, Ed

OBVIOUS QUESTIONS CONCERNING WHETHER OR NOT MOSES WROTE THE PENTATEUCH

The Pentateuch reads like a story "about" Moses, written in the third
person, not a story written "by" Moses in the fIrst person. In fact,
whoever wrote the Pentateuch, they did not make any great effort to
disguise the fact that even in their opinion, Moses "wrote" only select
portions of the whole, such as the following:

1) An account of the war against Amalek. "And the Lord said unto Moses,
Write this for a memorial in a book... for I will utterly put out the
remembrance of Amalek from under heaven" (Exod. 17:13-14).

2) A list of places where the Israelites pitched their tents. "And Moses
recorded their starting places according to their journeys by the command
of the Lord" (Num. 33:2). (Even so, Numbers 21-33 differ in their
descriptions of the route the Israelites followed from Mount Hor into
Canaan.)

3) The Book of the Law of God. "And Moses wrote this law... Moses... made
an end of writing the words of this law in a book" (Deut. 31:9, 24).
Unfortunately, we do not know what this original "law" may have consisted
of. Perhaps its essence may be found in Deuteronomy 12-26, or parts
thereof.

4) The Song of Moses. "So Moses wrote this song and taught it to the sons
of Israel" (Deut. 31:22; 32:1-43)

5) The Book of the Covenant. "And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord…
And he took the book of the covenant… And the Lord said unto Moses, Write
thou these words; for after the tenor of these I have made a covenant with
thee and with Israel" (Exodus 24:4, 7; 34:27). "The Book of the Covenant"
is not the entire book of Exodus, but only chapters 19-24. Scholars
believe it to be the most ancient legal collection in the Old Testament.

The belief that Moses wrote the whole Pentateuch arose later, after the
Pentateuch itself was completed. Afterwards, this view of Moses being the
author of the whole Pentateuch was attributed to Jesus also. Thus it
became binding both in Judaism (in which it was stressed that the true
author was God and Moses merely a scribe) and in Christianity. But doubts
soon arose among both rabbis and church fathers, as early as the second
century, as to whether Moses could have written the whole Pentateuch.
These early Bible scholars ran across passages such as these:

Deuteronomy 34, which relates the death and burial of Moses, contains the
statements, "but no man knows of his burial place unto this day," v.6,
"and there arose not a prophet since in Israel like unto Moses," verse 10.
The phrases "unto this day" and "not since in Israel," imply that they
were composed long after Moses' day. In fact, notice the frequent
occurrence of the expression "unto this day," in places where it could
have had no meaning, unless the "day" referred to was considerably later
than the time of Moses or Joshua, Deuteronomy 3:14, 34:6; Joshua
4:9,5:9,7:26,8:29,9:27, 10:27,13:13,15:63, 16:10,14:14.

Other passages that raised obvious questions as to Moses' authorship of
the whole Pentateuch included:

"Moreover, the man Moses was very great in the land of Egypt, in the sight
of Pharaoh 's servants, and in the sight of his people" (Exodus 11:3).

"Now the man Moses was very meek, above all the men that were upon the
face of the earth" (Num. 12:3).

"These are that Aaron and Moses, to whom Jehovah said, Bring out the
children of Israel from the land of Egypt according to their armies. These
are they that spoke to Pharaoh, king of Egypt, to bring out the children
of Israel from Egypt: these are that Moses and Aaron" (Exodus 6:26-27)

"And if ye have erred and not observed all these commandments, which
Jehovah hath spoken unto Moses, even all that Jehovah hath commanded you
by the hand of Moses, from the day that Jehovah commanded Moses, and
henceforward among your generations," etc. (Num. 15:22-23)

In Deuteronomy, transactions, in which Moses himself was concerned, are
detailed at full length, as by one referring to events long past. See
Deuteronomy, chapters 1-3, especially such a passage as Deut. 3:4-11
(which ends with the verses, "For only Og, king of Bashan, remained of the
remnant of the giants; behold, his bedstead was a bedstead of iron; is it
not in Rabbath of the children of Ammon?" -- implying it is "still to be
seen," at a time long after Moses' day).

Another such expression indicating a later date than that of Moses: "And
the Canaanite was then in the land" (Gen. 12:6). "And the Canaanite and
Perizzite dwelt then in the land" (Gen. 13:7). These words imply that, at
the time when they were written, the Canaanite was no longer dwelling in
the land, as its owner and lord. (The Israelites pushed out the Canaanites
who were "then in the land, but only after Moses had died.)

"That the land spew not you out also, when ye defIle it, as it spewed out
the nations which were before you" (Lev. 18:28). This implies that the
Canaanites were already "spewed out" or exterminated when these words were
written. (That would have been after Moses' death).

"These be the words, which Moses spoke unto all Israel on the other side
Jordan, in the wilderness" (Deut. 1:1). "On the other side Jordan, in the
land of Moab, began Moses to declare this law" (Deut. 1:5). On this,
Bleek writes, "These words could only have been written by one who found
himself on this side Jordan, and, therefore, after the death of Moses and
the possession of the land of Canaan." (Moses died when the Israelites
were still living on the wilderness side of the Jordan. So, for someone to
call the side with Moses and the wilderness, the "other side," they would
have had to have been speaking from the side that Israel settled on after
Moses'death.)

"And, while the children of Israel were in the wilderness." Numbers 15:32
(Written when the people were no longer in the wilderness, and therefore,
not by Moses.)

Again, names of places are often used familiarly, which could scarcely
have been known to Moses, much less to the Israelites generally, at the
time of the Exodus, some of which, indeed, are modern names, which,
according to the story itself, did not even exist in the time of Moses.
(For specific examples see Bishop Colenso, The Pentateuch and Book of
Joshua Critically Examined, London: 1862, or, see more modern works that
critically examine the Pentateuch.)

Exodus 30:13 and 38:24-26, mentions a "shekel after the shekel of the
Sanctuary," or, as some render the words, a "sacred shekel," before there
was, according to the story, any Sanctuary in existence, or any sacred
system established in Israel. This appears to be an oversight, as is also
the command to sacrifice "turtle-doves or young pigeons" in Leviticus
14:22, with express reference to their life in the wilderness, arising
from a writer in a later age employing inadvertently an expression which
was in common use in his own days, and forgetting the circumstances of the
times which he was describing. These passages show also plainly the
unhistorical character of the narrative, since in the first and last of
them the phrases in question are put into the mouth of Jehovah Himself.
The story, therefore, could not have been written by Moses, nor by one of
his age, unless it be supposed that such a writer could be guilty of a
deliberate intention to deceive. But it is quite conceivable that a pious
writer of later days (when the Temple was standing) might have inserted
such passages in a narrative already existing, which had been composed as
a work of devout imagination, in the attempt to reproduce, from the
floating legends of the time, the early history of the Hebrew tribes, for
the instruction of an ignorant people.

"And the sun stood still, and the moon stayed, until the people had
avenged themselves upon their enemies. Is not this written in the book of
Jasher?" (Joshua 10:13). First, if Joshua really wrote the book of
Joshua, he would not have needed to refer to another book (the book of
Jasher) for the details of such an extraordinary miracle in which he
himself was primarily and personally concerned. Another story attributed
to the "book of Jasher" is found in 2 Samuel 1:18: "Also he (David) bade
them teach the children of Judah the use of the bow... Behold, it is
written in the book of Jasher." Here, then, we have a fact in the life of
David recorded in this same "book of Jasher." The natural inference is
that this "book of Jasher," which probably contained a number of notable
passages in the history of Israel, was written not earlier than the time
of David, and hence the story about the "sun standing still" probably
wasn't even original to the book of Joshua which merely refers to the
"book of Jasher" for it. (Warning, a phoney "Book of Jasher" exists, but
it is obvious to scholars that it is a later forgery, the original "Book
of Jasher" has long since ceased to exist except for those two quotations
from it found in the books of Joshua and 2 Samuel.)

OBVIOUS QUESTIONS CONCERNING THE STORY OF THE EXODUS AS RECORDED IN THE
PENTATEUCH

And what about the numbers given in the Bible of "600,000" Hebrew warriors
being part of the Exodus out of Egypt, along with uncounted Hebrew woman
and children, and a mixed multitude of Egyptians and a host of animals?

W. M. Flinders Petrie was a Christian Egyptologist and archeologist, so
well known you can easily google up his work and contributions in the net.
Professor Petrie wrote a book that discussed the question of the
Pentateuch's accuracy concerning the story of the Exodus. The book was
titled Egypt and Israel (London:Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge,
1911), and in it he pointed out, “There are two wholesale checks upon the
total [possible] numbers [of Hebews that might have wandered in the
desert]. The land of Goshen recently supported 4,000 Bedouin living like
the Israelites, or at present holds 12,000 cultivators. To get “600,000”
Hebrew warriors with their families out of that district would be utterly
impossible. Also on going south the Israelites had almost a drawn battle
with the Amalekites of Sinai. The climate of that desert peninsula has not
appreciably changed; it will not now support more than a few thousand
people, and the former inhabitants cannot have exceeded this amount. How
could the Israelites have had any appreciable resistance from a poor
desert folk, if they outnumbered them as a hundred to one? Again, we are
compelled to suppose that the Israelites were not more than a few thousand
altogether. Thus we see that more cannot be got out of Goshen or into
Sinai."

Petrie added that, "During the Hebrew's sojourn in the wilderness, Moses
judged all disputes, which might be possible among 600 tents, but not
among 600,000 men; and only two midwives were employed, while there would
have been 140 births a day on the greater number stated. The whole subject
of Levites and firstborn [in the book of Numbers] cannot fit anything in
the Exodus period. But it might well fit to the population when there were
about 300,000 in Palestine. The dedication of the firstborn would be
likely to arise in Palestine [i.e., not with Moses in the Sinai
wilderness], since the Canaanites [the residents of Palestine prior to the
Hebrews] sacrificed their firstborn; and the separation of a sacred caste
[viz., the tribe of priests known as the 'Levites'] would also be a
gradual growth. We must look, then, to the time of the Judges as the
source of these changes, and of the census document of Levi, which was
incorporated afterward in the Book of Numbers."

Even the Evangelical scholar F. F. Bruce [author of books advocating the
reliability of the New Testament] has admitted that he agrees with a
number for the Exodus as low as a couple thousand. So, that's two
Evangelical scholars who agree that the large numbers found in the Old
Testament in connection with the Exodus are most probably incorrect. A
third Evangelical who has recently wrestled with the large numbers in the
Exodus story is David Mack Fouts of Dallas Theological Seminary (Hal
Lindsey's alma mater), whose doctoral dissertation was titled The Use of
Large Numbers in the Old Testament, with Particular Emphasis on the Use of
'elep, 1992. Fouts admits that, “Textual anaylsis of the Hebrew word for
'thousand' reveals no significant lessening of the enormity of the
numbers, a problem which remains despite the reading chosen." Furthermore,
“At no time in ancient history did the population of Palestine approach
the numbers demanded by accepting the census figures of the Old Testament
at face value." How then can a fundamentalist believe in a Bible without
error? His solution is that the Hebrews employed “literary hyperbole" in
their recounting of the Exodus numbers, and other large numbers found in
the Old Testament. “It was not uncommon for royal inscriptions at that
time to inflate the number of troops killed or captured and the amount of
spoil taken." He then analyzes the majority of biblical passages
containing large numbers, and notes similarities between those passages
and the royal inscriptional genre" of other ancient Near East countries
with respect to large numbers, figurative language, and military
conquests.

Neither should we ignore the questions raised by the famed Anglican Bishop
and mathematician, J. W. Colenso, author of The Pentateuch and Book of
Joshua Critically Examined (London: 1862), who wrote, "My labors, as a
translator of the Bible, and a teacher of intelligent converts from
heathenism, have brought me face to face with questions, from which I have
hitherto shrunk. I am not speaking of a number of petty variations and
contradictions which may be in many cases explained by alleging our
ignorance of all the circumstances of the case, or by supposing some
misplacement, or loss, or corruption, of the original manuscript, or by
suggesting that a later writer has inserted his own gloss here and there,
or even whole passages, which may contain facts or expressions at variance
with the true Mosaic Books, and throwing an unmerited suspicion upon them.
However perplexing such contradictions are, when found in a book which is
believed to be divinely infallible, yet a humble and pious faith will
gladly welcome the aid of a friendly criticism, to relieve it in this way
of its doubts. I can truly say that I would do so heartily myself.

"Nor are the difficulties, to which I am referring, of the same kind as
those that arise from considering the accounts of the Creation and Deluge,
or the stupendous character of certain miracles, as that of the sun and
moon standing still, or the waters of the river Jordan standing in heaps
as solid walls, while the stream, we must suppose, was still running, or
the ass speaking with human voice, or the miracles wrought by the
magicians of Egypt, such as the conversion of a rod into a snake, and the
latter being endowed with life.

"They are not such, again, as arise, when we regard the trivial nature of
a vast number of conversations and commands, ascribed directly to Jehovah,
especially the multiplied ceremonial minutiae, laid down in the Levitical
Law.

"They are not such, even, as must be started at once in most pious minds,
when such words as these are read, professedly coming from the Holy and
Blessed One, the Father and 'Faithful Creator' of all mankind: 'If the
master (of a Hebrew servant) have given him a wife, and she have borne him
sons or daughters, the wife and her children shall be her masters, and he
shall go out free by himself' (Exod. 21:4), the wife and children in such
a case being placed under the protection of such other words as these: 'If
a man smite his servant, or his maid, with a rod, and he die under his
hand, he shall be surely punished. But, if he continue a day or two, he
shall not be punished: for he is his money.' (Exod. 21:20,21)

"I shall never forget the revulsion of feeling, with which a very
intelligent Christian native, with whose help I was translating these last
words into the Zulu tongue, first heard them as words said to be uttered
by the same great and gracious Being, whom I was teaching him to trust in
and adore. His whole soul revolted against the notion, that the Great and
Blessed God, the Merciful Father of all mankind, would speak of a servant
or maid as mere 'money,' and allow a horrible crime to go unpunished,
because the victim of the brutal usage had survived a few hours!

"But I wish, before proceeding, to repeat here most distinctly that my
reason, for no longer receiving the Pentateuch as historically true, is
not that I find insuperable difficulties with regard to the miracles, or
supernatural revelations of Almighty God, recorded in it, but solely that
I cannot, as a true man, consent any longer to shut my eyes to the
manifest contradictions and inconsistencies that leave us, it would seem,
no alternative but to conclude that the Pentateuch, as a whole, cannot
possibly have been written by Moses, or by anyone acquainted personally
with the facts which it professes to describe, and further, that the
(so-called) Mosaic narrative, by whomsoever written, and though imparting
to us, as I fully believe it does, revelations of the Divine Will and
Character, cannot be regarded as historically true.

"The number '600,000 on foot, that were male beside children,' is given
distinctly in Exodus 12:37, at the time of the [Israelites] leaving Egypt;
then we have it recorded again, thrice over, in different forms, in Exodus
38:25-28, at the beginning of the forty years' wanderings, when the number
of all that 'went to be numbered, from twenty years old and upward,' is
reckoned at 603,550; and this is repeated again in Numbers I :46; and it
is modified once more, at the end of the wanderings, to 601,730, Numbers
26:51. Besides which, on each occasion of numbering, each separate tribe
is numbered, and the sum of the separate results makes up the whole. Thus
this number is woven, as a kind of thread, into the whole story of the
Exodus, and cannot be taken out, without tearing the whole fabric to
pieces. It affects, directly, the account of the construction of the
Tabernacle and therefore, also the account of the institutions, whether of
the priesthood or of the sacrifice, connected with it. And the multiplied
impossibilities introduced by this number alone, independently of all
other considerations, are enough to throw discredit upon the historical
character of the general narrative.

"Now if the men in the prime of life, 'above twenty years of age,' Numbers
1:3, were more than 600,000 in number, we may reckon that the women in the
prime of life were about as many, the males under twenty years, 300,000,
the females under twenty years, 300,000, and the old people, male and
female together, 200,000, making the whole number, together with the
'mixed multitude,' Exodus 12:38 [over 1,400,000 people, and thus,
comparable to the total population in anyone of the following large
metropolitan areas in the United States: Cincinnati, Columbus, Milwaukee,
Kansas City, New Orleans, or San Antonio, based on
1988 estimates in the 1991 Information Please Almanac.- ED].

[The 600,000 Hebrew warriors alone being comparable to the total
population in anyone of the following large metropolitan areas: Grand
Rapids, Fresno, Oxnard-Ventura, El Paso, New Haven, Omaha, Toledo, Akron,
Allentown-Bethlehem, Las Vegas, or Raleigh-Durham - ED.]

"Moreover, according to Deuteronomy 7, the Hebrews were commanded to
"utterly destroy seven nations greater and mightier" than them. "Thou
shalt make no covenant with them, nor show mercy unto them." Using the
biblical number of Hebrew warriors, "600,000," as an indication of
Israel's "greatness and might," try multiplying that by "seven." You
arrive at 4,200,000 as the warrior population of the seven "greater and
mightier nations." And you would have to double that number to include the
women and children and elderly of the seven nations the Hebrews were told
to "utterly destroy," thus achieving the population of Tokyo, about
8,000,000. How can anyone believe that 8,000,000 people once lived in that
arid, geographical area? There is no archeological evidence based on the
sizes of ancient cities, or based on cemetery populations, that such a
huge population existed at that time. Even the modern nation-state of
Israel with scientific farming techniques, desalination plants, food
importing, apartment buildings, sanitation, a lower infant mortality rate
due to medical care, constant immigration, etc., has only attained a
population for that general area of 4,371,478 (estimated as of mid-1989).]

"In the Israelites' march out of Egypt, Exodus 12:37-38, the able-bodied
warriors alone, all 600,000 of them, marching fifty men abreast, would
have filled up the road for about seven miles -- the whole multitude would
have formed a dense column more than twenty-two miles long, so that the
last of the body could not have been started till the front had advanced
that distance, more than two days' journey for such a mixed company as
this.

"And the sheep and "very much" cattle, these must have formed another vast
column, but obviously covering a much greater tract of ground in
proportion to their number, as they would not march, of course, in compact
order.

"What did this enormous multitude of cattle feed upon? The sheep and oxen
could not live upon the manna that God sent to feed the Israelites in the
desert after they had escaped the Egyptians, nor could the people drink
manna; and Numbers 20:5 and Deuteronomy 8:15 show that the rock which
miraculously spouted water in the desert did not follow them throughout
the desert.

"Could they have been supported in the wilderness by insignificant wadies
that a drove of a hundred oxen would have trampled down into mud in an
hour? Even given the assistance of a small running stream of water that
followed them wherever they went what would such a stream have been to
[1,400,000 people]?

[Allowing only enough space per person as the size of a coffin for a
full-grown man, we must imagine the Hebrew encampment to have been more
than a mile and a half across in each direction, with the Tabernacle in
the center. Therefore the refuse and ashes of Tabernacle sacrifices would
have had to be carried out for a distance of three-quarters of a mile, as
stated in Leviticus 4:11-12 and 6:10-11, "And the skin of the bullock, and
all his flesh, with his head, and with his legs, and his inwards, and his
dung, even the whole bullock, shall he (the Priest) carry forth without
the Camp, unto a clean place, where the ashes are poured out, and burn him
on the wood with fire. Where the ashes are poured out, there shall they be
burnt (referring to the refuse that was not burnt up in the original
offering)." - ED]

"Granted that the Hebrew people might faint and perish in the desert if
each was only granted a coffin's worth of space, let's try enlarging the
camp to twelve miles across, that is, about the size of London [in 1851],
as it might well be, considering that the population was as large as that
of London, and that in the Hebrew tents there were no first, second,
third, and fourth stories, no crowded garrets and underground cellars! In
that case, the offal of the Tabernacle sacrifices would have to be carried
a distance of six miles.

"Where, in the wilderness, did all the bulls, sheep, lambs, rams, goats,
turtle-doves, pigeons, oil, flour, and first-fruits, come from that the
1,400,000 Israelites were commanded to give to the Priests to sacrifice?
If indeed, such supplies of wood for such a multitude of burnt offerings,
and burning of sacred wastes outside the Camp, and for cooking enough food
to feed hundreds of thousands could have been found at all in the
wilderness.

"And now let us ask, for all these multifarious duties, during the forty
years' sojourn in the wilderness, for all the burnt-offerings,
meat-offerings, peace-offerings, sin-offerings, trespass-offerings,
thank-offerings, etc., of a population of 1,400,000, besides the daily and
extraordinary sacrifices, how many Priests were there? The answer is very
simple. There were only three, Aaron (till his death) and his two sons,
Eleazar and Ithamar, Numbers 3:10.

"The very pigeons, to be brought as sin-offerings for newly born children,
would have averaged, according to the story, more than 250 a day.

"Can it be believed that such a system was really laid down by Jehova
Himself, which, if properly carried out by pious Israelites according to
the Divine Command, would have involved immediately absurd impossibilities
like the above, and required instant modification?

[According to T. H. Robinson, author of Prophecy and the Prophets in
Ancient Israel, 3d ed. (fIrst published London, 1923), "The testimony of
the earliest Hebrew prophets is unanimous in DISPUTING that the Divine
ordinance of sacrifice was given to Moses in the wilderness. Amos implies
that it did not exist, 5:25; Jeremiah states that it was not due to
Yahweh's command, 7:22. There are frequent statements of the futility of
sacrifice in the Prophets' own day, cf. Isa. 1:11, Jer. 6:20, Hos. 4:13,
5:6, 8:11, Am. 4:4, Mi. 6:6-8."]

"The Hebrews could not all have gone outside the Camp, a distance of six
miles, for the common necessities of nature, as commanded in Deuteronomy
23:12-14. There were the aged and infirm, women in childbirth, sick
persons, and young children, who could not have done this. And, indeed,
the command itself supposes the person to have a 'paddle' upon his
'weapon,' and, therefore, must be understood to exclude females, children
and elderly males, or rather, apply only to the '600,000 warriors.' But
the very fact, that this direction for ensuring cleanliness ("for Jehovah
thy God walks in the midst of thy Camp; therefore shall thy Camp be holy;
that He see no unclean thing in thee, and turn away from thee") would have
been so limited in its application, is itself a very convincing proof of
the unhistorical character of the whole narrative.

[At the very least, it is reasonable to assume that the total number of
people involved in the Exodus would have been double the number of Hebrew
warriors, or "600,000" times two, since we would have to include women,
children, elderly, and the "mixed multitude." That would make at least
1,200,000 people. Bombay, India, one of the most densely populated cities
on earth, has 120,000 people per square mile ( 1989 estimate). If the
Exodus encampment was as densely populated as Bombay, India, it would have
had to extend over an area of at least ten square miles. That the Hebrews
could survive in the desert packed together as densely as the populace of
Bombay is extremely doubtful. A much less densely populated "encampment"
spread out over a much larger area than ten square miles would be a
minimum requirement. Yet the larger the encampment, the more miles the
(three) priests would have had to walk to dispose of the refuse from the
vast multitude of sacrifices. And the more miles the Hebrew warriors would
have had to walk to take care of each and every call of nature, "outside
the camp." - ED]

"How could Moses have 'called all Israel, and spoken unto them,' Deut.
5:1, or, how could Joshua have 'read the words of the Law before all the
Congregation of Israel, with the women, and the little ones, and the
strangers that were conversant among them,' Josh. 8:34-35, so that all
Israel, hundreds of thousands, might have heard? Under favorable
circumstances, many thousands, perhaps, might hear the voice of a speaker.
But imagine the whole population of London (the London of 1862 when
Colenso was writing) being addressed at one time by one man.

"How could more than half a million warriors, 'the whole Assembly,' 'all
the Assembly,' 'all the Congregation,' Lev. 8:1-4, Exodus 12:6, 16:2-3,
Num.1:2, be 'gathered together unto the door of the Tabernacle?' ('All the
Assembly' is not to be confused with smaller groups, like the 'elders,' or
'princes,' which are clearly distinguished from 'all the Congregation,' or
'all the Assembly,' Num. 10:3-4 and 16:19, 25.)] Presumably this was to
witness a ceremony taking place in a tent eighteen paces long and six
wide, which could only have been seen by a few standing at the door.
Supposing, then, that 'all the Congregation' of adult males in the prime
of life had given due heed to the Divine Summons, and had hastened to take
their stand, side by side, as closely as possible, in front of the whole
end of the Tabernacle, in which the door or entrance was, they would have
reached, allowing eighteen inches between each rank of nine men, for a
distance of more than 100,000 feet-in fact, nearly twenty miles.

"While it is conceivable that a later writer, imagining such scenes as
these, may have employed such exaggerated expressions as occur in the
above passages, it cannot be believed that an eye-witness, with the actual
facts of the case before him, could have expressed himself in such
extravagant language. [I have plenty of obvious and embarrassing examples
of the BIble's extravagant language, but will save them for another
article. - ED]

"But how thankful we must be, that we are no longer obliged to believe, as
a matter of fact, of vital consequence to our eternal hope, each separate
statement contained in the Pentateuch, such, for instance, as the story
related in Numbers 31, where we are told that Israelite [warriors] slew
all the males of the Midianites, took captive all the females and
children, seized all their cattle and flocks, and all their goods, and
'burnt all their cities, and all their goodly castles,' without the loss
of a single man, and then, by command of Moses, butchered in cold blood
all the women and children, except 'all the women-children, who have not
known a man by lying with him' (v. 18). These last they were to 'keep
alive for themselves.' How is it possible to quote the Bible as in any way
condemning slavery, when we read here, Numbers 31, verse 40, of 'Jehovah's
tribute' of slaves, 32 persons, who were given to Eleazar the Priest,
while 323 were given to the Levites, verses 46-47?

"Who is it that really dishonors the Word, and blasphemes the Name of God
Most High? -- he who believes, and teaches others to believe, that such
acts, as those above recorded, were really perpetrated by Moses under
express Divine sanction and command, or, he who declares that such
commands as these could never have emanated from the Holy and Blessed One,
the All-Just and All-Loving, the Father of the spirits of all flesh?"

END OF COLENSO QUOTATIONS

Obvious Questions Concerning Whether Or Not Moses Wrote the Pentateuch