THE ADAPTATION OF THE FIVE BOOKS OF THE PENTATEUCH TO THE POSITION WHICH THEY OCCUPY IN THE SACRED VOLUME

This argument involves the principle that adaptation indicates design. The Pentateuch is adapted to serve as an introduction to the rest of the Bible, and each one of its five books is adapted to the place in which it is found. No change in the order of these books can be made without derangement and confusion. The displacement of the Pentateuch from its position as the introductory part of the Scriptures would produce a similar result.

Organic unity characterizes the Bible in all its parts, not excepting the Pentateuch. The Old and New Testaments are complements of one another. The New cannot be understood without the Old; the Old would be incomplete and comparatively meaningless without the New. The opening verse of Matthew involves the Old Testament history, ritual, and prophecy: "The book of the generation of Jesus Christ, the son of David, the son of Abraham."¹ Who was Christ, the Anointed, the Messiah? who was David? and who was Abraham? These questions can be answered only in the light of Old Testament history, prophecy, ritual, and types. The Epistles presuppose the Acts of the Apostles; the Acts presuppose the Gospels; the Gospels presuppose the prophecies and Psalms, the history, sacrifices, and types of the Old Testament.

Also, among the Old Testament books there is an orderly succession. This fact was recognized and is formally suggested by the authors themselves. Every book after Genesis to Nehemiah begins with the copulative " And " (Hebrew, Waw), with but two exceptions, Deuteronomy and the First Book of Chronicles, which are in the main repetitions, and to some extent overlap preceding books. The Book of Nehemiah is no exception; for, after the title, which consists only of three words, we have the Waw connecting what follows with the Book of Ezra. Thus it is with all the preceding books. There is no gap left in the history, in the transition from one book to another, and with the two exceptions above mentioned (where the initial Waw is omitted), there is no overlapping, each book taking up the history precisely where the preceding book left it. Though Deuteronomy and Chronicles in part repeat and overlap what precedes, yet are they necessary as connecting links. They each carry the history beyond the point reached in the preceding book. The Book of Ezra takes up the historical thread just where it is dropped by Chronicles, and the Book of Joshua just where it was dropped by Deuteronomy. The initial sentence of Joshua, And it came to pass after the death of Moses, presupposes Deuteronomy, which closes with an account of the death and burial of Moses. In like manner Deuteronomy presupposes Numbers. Without this book there would be a gap of nearly forty years between Leviticus and Deuteronomy. Besides, Deuteronomy presupposes in another way the preceding books. In the judgment of Christendom, as the name indicates, Deuteronomy is a repetition of preceding laws, laws that are found only in the preceding books. Numbers presupposes Leviticus. It begins with "And" (Waw), indicative of continuation, and it takes up the history precisely where Leviticus leaves it, at the close of the account of the laws enacted at Sinai. Leviticus in turn presupposes Exodus. It has the connecting Waw, and at the very outset refers to the tabernacle as described in the preceding book. Leviticus is a continuation of the ritualistic legislation which is begun in Exodus. Without the latter, the former is like a bough lopped off, or a severed limb. Then again. Exodus, true to the suggestion of its copulative initial, is the continuation of the history begun in Genesis. That history relates to the chosen people, and it runs through all the books from Genesis to Nehemiah. But it was important to know who the chosen people were. They were the descendants of Abraham, and hence the life of Abraham is given. But who was Abraham? This involves the origin of mankind and their division into races and nations, and, as a preface to the whole, a brief account of the origin of the world is given. Thus Genesis stands properly as the first book of the Pentateuch and of the whole Bible.² It brings the history of the peculiar people down to their happy settlement in Egypt and the death of Jacob. Then Exodus takes up the story and gives a history of the oppression, the deliverance, and the earliest legislation. Leviticus continues the record of the legislation. Numbers relates the thirty-eight years' wandering in the wilderness and accounts for the failure of the Israelites to march on to the promised land. Then Deuteronomy gives a review of the history and the legislation, and closes with an account of Moses' viewing the promised land from the top of Pisgah and of his death and burial.

Thus every book of the Pentateuch is in its proper place. Each would be out of place anywhere else than where it is. Now adaptation and orderly arrangement suggest preparation and design. Reverent and thoughtful minds are not disposed to think that things exist or happen by chance. The hat is adapted to the head. The hat, then, was made for the head, and the head is before the hat in the order of existence. Paul teaches that the woman was created for the man.³ Then the man was before the woman. Now each book of the Pentateuch is precisely adapted to the place it occupies. Exodus is adapted to follow Genesis; hence the natural conclusion is that it was intended to follow Genesis, and that Genesis was first in the order of existence. It is not natural, it is almost unreasonable, to suppose that some author first wrote Exodus, and then that the same or another author wrote another book adapted to go before the other. So of all the books of the Pentateuch. Deuteronomy is adapted to the place it occupies. It is not suited to precede Numbers, nor immediately to follow Leviticus. It is natural and reasonable to conclude that it was intended to be the fifth book of the Pentateuch.

But the hypothesis of the analysts is, that Deuteronomy was written first, and that the other books were not written till several hundred years afterward. It is, perhaps, conceivable that the orderly arrangement of the Pentateuchal books and the adaptation of each to its place were the work of editors, compilers, and redactors, who, by combining, curtailing, condensing, and expanding original documents, and by substitutions, additions, transpositions, and other emendations, worked up books nicely adjusted to each other and characterized by an admirable organic unity. It is, perhaps, conceivable that these shrewd, skillful, and far-seeing manipulators, whose wonderful handiwork, according to the hypothesis, deceived even the Lord Jesus Christ and his apostles and led the church and the world astray until the advent of Voltaire and his criticism, had not sense enough, according to the showing of the analytic critics, to remove the most palpable absurdities and most glaring contradictions from the documents which they altered and amended with so much freedom and skill. This hypothesis, we must admit, is conceivable; for critics have conceived it, though it took many minds, striving many years, to work it out. But, conceivable though it be, it is extremely improbable, and ought to be received only on the best of evidence.

But, to resume, the Pentateuchal books are nicely adjusted to one another. Each book would be incomplete without the others. Bach one is adapted to the place it occupies. There is reason to believe, therefore, that each book was prepared and intended to succeed the one that precedes it, in the order in which we have them. If this be so, Deuteronomy was the last written, and the hypothesis of the analysts that the other four books were not written till the exile or after it must be abandoned.

1) Matt. 1:1.

2) Kuenen says, speaking of the Hexateuch, "The Book of Genesis figures as an indispensable introduction " (Hexateuch, p. 4).

3) I. Cor. 11:8, 9.