Search -
General Introduction to the Old Testament;
General Introduction to the Old Testament Author:William Henry Green Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: Ill THE CRITICAL THEORY OF THE FOEMATION OF THE CANON EiCHHOEN,1 who has been called the Father of Higher Criticism, did not hesitate to admit that the law... more »s of Moses were deposited by his direction in the sanctuary by the side of the ark, as a divinely given and authoritative code agreeably to the statement in Deut. xxxi. 25, 26. But as the Pentateuch was more and more discredited, and belief in its Mosaic authorship was abandoned, later critics changed their attitude accordingly. The present critical position in this matter is well represented by Dillmann,2 and may be briefly stated as follows : If Moses had written the Pentateuch or any book of laws it would, as a matter of course, have been thenceforward, in the proper and fullest sense of the word, canonical. His work, however, was not writing, but acting, establishing institutions, and enkindling a new spiritual life. After his death, attempts were made, from time to time, to reduce his statutes and ordinances to writing for public or private use without producing a body of laws universally accepted as authoritative, for these collections were liable to be superseded by others more complete or more perspicuous. The book of the law found in the temple in the reign of Josiah (2 Kin. xxii. 8) was the culmination of all attempts in this direction, embodying both what was gained from theexperience of the past and the instructions of the prophets with special adaptation to the needs of the present. This was at once accepted by both king and people, who solemnly bound themselves to obey its requirements. This book was Deuteronomy,1 and was the first written law having canonical authority. During the exile the Pentateuch was completed in its present form by the addition of the priestly laws and other constituents. This was brou...« less