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V 
 
 The following pages were originally intended for a Review. Hence the frequent 
 occurrence of the conventional " we." But, upon reconsideration, it was thought more 
 advisable to publish them in a separate form. The " we " is retained. 
 
 J. C. K. 
 
THE 
 
 PENTATEUCH AL NAEEATIVE 
 VINDICATED. 
 
 That the narrative given in the book of Exodus is a " story," 
 based upon the legends of the Jewish people, written not by 
 Moses, nor indeed by any one of his contemporaries, and that it 
 " cannot be regarded as historically true," — are the propositions of 
 the book before us. 
 
 Without further preface let us proceed at once to their con- 
 sideration. 
 
 The Bishop's first difficulty is, we think, easily disposed of, 
 simply by supposing with Poole, that Hezron and Hamul, together, 
 perhaps, with Heber and Malchiel, are included in the list of the 
 seventy of the family of Jacob who went down into Egypt, not 
 as being strictly of the number of the original emigrants, but as 
 having been born in Egypt prior to the time of Jacob's death, 
 and as being, therefore, a portion of the original seventy from 
 whom sprang the thousands who, 215 years afterwards, left Egypt 
 at the Exodus. (Deut. x. 22.) It is in this way that Ephraim and 
 Manasseh, the sons of Joseph, are reckoned; for, as the text says 
 of Joseph, their father, who is also included among the seventy, 
 they were " in Egypt already." (Exod. i. 6.) 
 
 The solution based upon St. Paul's remark, that " Levi paid 
 tithes in Abraham, for he was yet in the loins o/his father when 
 Melchisedec met him," against which the Bishop brings forward 
 so many pages of objection, we, with him, regard as wholly 
 inadmissible: but to the foregoing very satisfactory solution, viz., 
 that Hezron and the others are included in the seventy, for the 
 
4 PENTATEUCHAL NARRATIVE 
 
 reasons already assigned, he vouchsafes no other answer than one 
 which is no answer at all, viz., that " these grandsons of Judah 
 and Asher were not reckoned as heads of tribes, as were Ephraim 
 and Manasseh" (p. 30). In refutation of the unsatisfactory 
 solution, we have no less than ten pages of objection; in refutation 
 of the more probable one, only the above irrelevant, cursory, in- 
 conclusive remark. 
 
 Since our first edition, the above reply to this solution has 
 been cancelled. But that copy of the Bishop's work which 
 belongs to the Museum by copyright, as well as that made use of 
 in the preparation of the present pamphlet — indeed, most of the 
 earlier copies of his first edition — have it. 
 
 The answer given in its place, in the second edition, is as 
 follows : — 
 
 " Since Jacob lived seventeen years in Egypt (Gen. xlvii. 28), 
 Judah was fifty-nine years old, according to the story (20), at the 
 time of his father's death. Hence, if he was only twenty years 
 old (20 i.), at his first marriage, he must have been about twenty- 
 four at the birth of his third son; and thirty-nine, at least, if we 
 suppose that son to have arrived at maturity at the early age of 
 fifteen. Thus, only twenty years of Judah's life would remain, 
 even on this supposition, (which, however, the texts quoted in (19) 
 will not allow), for Judah to marry again, and to have two grand- 
 sons born to him by this second marriage ;" — the upshot of which 
 is, that if Jacob's two grandsons, Hezron and Hamul, were born in 
 Egypt during the lifetime of Jacob (as supposed by Poole), and 
 if the chronology of the narrative is to be depended on, they 
 must have been born when their father, Pharez, was not more 
 than eighteen years old. Not seeing in what respect this can be 
 considered as being so incredible, as to invalidate Poole's sup- 
 position, we may, we think, safely admit that it must have been 
 even as the Bishop says, viz., that Hezron and Hamul (strange to 
 say !) were born when their father was only about eighteen years 
 of age. 
 
 The only expression in the Bishop's new reply that calls for 
 remark, are the words (thrown in with such seeming carelessness, 
 but evidently thrown in with a view to the undoing of all that 
 the supposition grants or asserts) — " which supposition, however, 
 the texts quoted in 19 [i. e. paragraph 19], will not allow." If, 
 however, we turn to the paragraph referred to, we shall find these 
 texts to be quite harmless — as harmless as Priam's dart — a"telum 
 
VINDICATED. 
 
 imbelle sine ictu ;" the only texts there quoted as standing in the 
 way of the supposition, being those which, to the Bishop, 
 "appear "to imply, that Hezron and flaniul were born in Canaan, 
 but which, to Poole and others, "appear" to imply no such thing. 
 It is, therefore, only in the Bishop's opinion, that these texts will 
 not allow the supposition in question. Since, however, the very 
 point in dispute is whether they will or will not allow it— 
 to affirm roundly, and to maintain dogmatically, that they will 
 not, is a mere begging of the question. 
 
 Having attempted upon grounds so slight as these, to bring 
 discredit upon the account of the numbers that migrated into 
 Egypt, almost the whole of the remainder of the book consists 
 of an attempt to prove, that, at the period of the Exodus, the 
 Israelites were not and could not be so numerous as they are re- 
 presented to have been: — viz., 603,550 males of twenty years old 
 and upward, besides women and children. 
 
 The Bishop's first objection is, that the dimensions of the Court 
 of the Tabernacle were too small to admit the whole of the 
 people upon one and the same occasion; as when, for instance, 
 they were all of them commanded to gather " unto," or before, 
 " the door of the Tabernacle of the Congregation," " to witness 
 the ceremony of the consecration of Aaron." He calculates that 
 the Court, in the midst of which the Tabernacle stood, could not, 
 even when thronged, have held 5000 at a time ; leaving us 
 to infer therefrom, he does not say what, but it must be either 
 that the command was not given, or that the Court in question 
 was not so small, or that the people were not so many. 
 
 We cannot say, however, that we see much force in the 
 objection, and we believe none but a sceptical mind can. The 
 ceremony, or service rather, which they were summoned to 
 attend, or, as the Bishop says, witness, was not the brief service 
 of an hour or two's duration, but one that extended over a 
 period of seve*" vhole days. Nor was it, as the Bishop intimates, 
 a service c .ed to that portion of the tabernacle to which the 
 priests only had access, for the altar on which the various offerings 
 were offered stood in the Court of the People themselves; nor was 
 the " door" before which the people were commanded to assemble 
 the small opening which our use of the word " door" wo^ld seem 
 to imply, (allowing that part of the ceremonial wl ' k place 
 
 within the Court of the Priests to be seen " only by those 
 standing at the door)," but the entire width of one end of the 
 Tabernacle itself. 
 
6 PENTATEUCHAL NAPwRATIVE 
 
 Of a similar smallness is the objection based upon those portions 
 of the narrative which represent Moses as addressing the whole of 
 assembled Israel; or Joshua, as reading to all Israel " the words 
 of the law, the blessings and cursings, according to all that is 
 written in the book of the law" (Josh. viii. 34); " for surely," he 
 says (p. 37), " no human voice, unless strengthened by a miracle, 
 of which the Scripture tells us nothing, could have reached the 
 ears of a crowded mass of people, as large as the whole popu- 
 lation of London." 
 
 Now is it to be endured that a man should be called upon by a 
 Bishop of the English Church, to give up his faith in these books 
 upon grounds such as these? Could any but a sceptical mind 
 perceive in the fact (if it be one) that not one half of those 
 assembled could hear the words addressed to them, an objection 
 to the truth of the narrative ? The exhortation of Moses, and the 
 reading of Joshua, may have been addressed to the people in 
 sections, and upon successive days. The narrative will allow of 
 such a supposition ; and to entertain some such supposition 
 (should necessity require it) is, we think, more reasonable than to 
 give up the truth of a well-attested narrative upon grounds so 
 futile, so flimsy. 
 
 The next objection is based upon the opinion, that if the 
 people were as numerous as is represented in the narrative, the 
 dimensions of the camp would be so great, as to render it 
 " absurd" to suppose that priests and people should be required 
 to do daily certain commanded duties, (which the Bishop specifies,) 
 outside the camp. 
 
 " We have seen," says the Bishop, " that the whole population 
 of Israel may be reckoned at 2,000.000. Let us allow for each 
 person thirty-six square feet. Then it follows that for 2,000,000 
 of people, the camp must have covered, the people being crowded 
 as thickly as possible, [Query, How so, if, standing apart, each 
 man would stand in the centre of six and thirty square feet?] an 
 area of 8,000,000 square yards. 
 
 " Now upon this very moderate (?) estimate (which in truth is 
 far within the mark ( ?) ) we must imagine a vast encampment, 
 more than a mile and a half across, in each direction, with the 
 Tabernacle in the centre. The refuse of the various sacrifices 
 [which were to be burned without the camp,] would have had to 
 be carried by the priest himself [or deputy (?)] a distance of 
 three-quarters of a mile. From the outside of this great camp 
 
VINDICATED. 7 
 
 wood and water would Have had to be fetched for all purposes" 
 [of course they would, whatever the extent of the carnp], "and the 
 ashes of the whole camp, with the rubbish and filth of every kind, 
 of a population like that of London, would have had to be carried 
 out in like manner through the midst of the crowded mass of 
 people. They could not surely all have gone outside the camp 
 for the necessities of nature, as commanded in Deut. xxiii. 12."* 
 
 Xow the more numerous the camp, the greater, of course, would 
 be the necessity of some such regulations as these. We do not 
 know whether it is three-quarters of a mile from St. Paul's school 
 to the water-side, or not; but with reference to the latter of the 
 above-named requirements, something very similar is by the 
 statutes of that school demanded of its scholars: " To theyr urine 
 they shall go to a place appointed : for other causes, yf nede be, 
 they shall go to the watersyde." (Carlisle's Endowed Gram- 
 mar Schools: II. p. 76.) 
 
 We think, moreover, that the space assigned to the encamp- 
 ment is greater than the necessities of the case required. But 
 upon this point we speak of course doubtfully. A military man 
 might be able to speak more confidently upon it. But even if 
 it be not greater, we cannot see that the requirement of these 
 things, or that their discharge, is so manifestly " absurd," as to 
 throw discredit upon the narrative : the grounds for believing it 
 to be the authentic narrative of an honest and truthful writer of 
 contemporary times are so many and so great. We refer more 
 especially to the arguments of Leslie and Graves. But this is 
 a point upon which we cannot of course dilate. 
 
 Scott, indeed, computes the encampment at twelve miles square ; 
 and the Bishop, proceeding upon the supposition of the superior 
 correctness of this estimate, observes that " in that case the offal of 
 the sacrifices would have had to be carried by Aaron himself ( ?) 
 or one of his sons (?) a distance of six miles." Of course it 
 would : but if we doubt the correctness of the Bishop's own 
 estimate, much more must we doubt that adopted by Scott ; and 
 notwithstanding the inconvenience that these requirements might 
 entail, it is, at least, obvious that they were beneficial in a sanitary 
 respect. The inconvenience attending their observance therefore 
 is no proof that they were not given. 
 
 * In reference to this command we are very muck inclined to adopt tlie 
 suggestion of certain commentators that it was intended to apply only to 
 warriors in the field, and not to the community in general. See Deut. 
 xxiii. verses 9 to 14, read consecutively. 
 
8 PENTATEUCHAL NARRATIVE 
 
 Upon this chapter we have only this further remark to make : 
 viz., that whatever may have been the distance between the 
 centre of the camp and its limit, there is no reason to infer from 
 the narrative that the bullock (Le. iv. 11.) and his offal were not 
 conveyed to the outskirts in carts, by deputies.* Certainly there 
 is none for supposing, if the priest himself alone might carry 
 them, that, as stated by the Bishop, he was required to carry 
 them " on his back," and " on foot." Neither is there any reason 
 for the supposition that, in a camp so organised as was that 
 of the Israelites, the people did not bring in their daily supplies 
 of water and of fuel also by deputies, whose vocation it was 
 to furnish those supplies ; just as in London we are furnished with 
 wood by deputies, and with water, and with many other things. 
 
 The next objection is, that the people having been numbered, 
 and their numbers found to be 603,550, six months elapse, when 
 being again numbered, their numbers are represented as being 
 exactly the same. Such, at least, is the statement of the book. 
 Hence, a doubt is thrown out, as to the reality of these numberings. 
 There is, however, no intimation in the text that there was this 
 interval of six months between the two events referred to ; nor 
 even that there was this twofold numbering. We read merely 
 that whilst the tabernacle was in course of erection, " the silver 
 of them that were numbered of the congregation! was a hundred 
 talents ;" that " of these hundred talents of silver, were cast the 
 sockets of the sanctuary ;" that " in the first month of the second 
 year, on the first day of the month, the tabernacle was reared up" 
 or finished; that, " on the first day of the second month," (one 
 month after,) they were actually " numbered," and that " all they 
 that were numbered were 603,550." (Ex. xxxviii. 25; xl. 17. 
 Nu. i. 1, 46.) The real facts of the case, therefore, seem to be 
 that the poll-tax was paid by anticipation with a view to the 
 more speedy erection of the tabernacle ; and that the tabernacle 
 having been reared, their numbers were officially taken and 
 registered, and their " pedigrees declared." (Nu. i. 18.) 
 
 Various difficulties follow ; but they are for the most part 
 of a purely Eesthetical kind, and can trouble only a mind pre- 
 disposed to scepticism: as the difficulty, or supposed difficulty, 
 that Pharaoh allowed the Israelites to possess arms ; difficulties in 
 reference to the institution of the passover, and the march out 
 
 * The Hebrew text both of Levit. iv. 11, and of Levit. vi. 11, will admit 
 of the supposition, though it does not, we think, actually demand it. 
 
 t They had not yet been numbered, but were numbered shortly after- 
 wards. See Num. i. 2. 
 
VINDICATED. 9 
 
 of Egypt, based upon the improbable assumption that there was 
 no organisation, no method, which these transactions respectively 
 demanded : difficulties in reference to the sustenance of the Is- 
 raelites in the wilderness previous to the supply of manna, and 
 in reference to their cattle; which vanish, if we can but believe 
 that, if miracle was needed, miracle was granted, though not per- 
 haps always recorded. Repeatedly, in the course of the book, 
 we find such expressions in reference to any supposed miracle, 
 as that " on this point, however, the narrative is altogether silent;" 
 as though nothing, however presumable, may be supposed, that 
 is not expressly recorded. 
 
 Then comes an objection based upon the words (Ex. xxiii. 29), 
 " I will not drive them out from before thee in one year, lest the 
 land become desolate, and the beast of the field multiply against 
 thee ;" it being supposed, that if the people were so many as they 
 are represented to have been, they would have been perfectly well 
 able to maintain their ground against the beasts of the field. 
 English Saxons had done so in somewhat similar circumstances, 
 and why should not they ? The lions of Natal, which once 
 abounded, have long since disappeared. There is no proof that 
 Canaan was more infested with beasts of prey than Natal; none 
 that it was less infested : and, assuming that they were on a par, 
 the Bishop builds up an argument upon the assumption; — which 
 they may reply to who list. 
 
 Chapter xiv. (pp. 84-90), is occupied in establishing data, in 
 reference to the number of the firstborn, which, if correct, are 
 supposed to lead to the conclusion, that the Israelitish families 
 must have averaged as many as thirty children to a family — a 
 number which is regarded as incredible. We do not care much 
 to discuss this chapter, believing, as we do, upon independent 
 grounds, that the increase of the Israelites during their residence 
 in Egypt was enormous. Thirty may or may not be an over- 
 estimation: but, for reasons about to be stated in our remarks 
 upon the chapters that follow, we believe that the rate of increase 
 could not have averaged under twenty. 
 
 The first and second of these following chapters (pp. 91-101), 
 are taken up in proving that the Exodus from Egypt took place 
 " in the fourth generation from the time when they left the land 
 of Canaan and went down into Egypt ;" and upon this point we 
 entirely concur with his lordship. 
 
 He then proceeds as follows: — " The twelve sons of Jacob had 
 
10 PENTATEUCHAL NARRATIVE 
 
 between them fifty-three sons, that is, on the average, four and a 
 half each. Let us suppose that they increased in this way from 
 generation to generation. Then in the first generation, that of 
 Kohath, there would be fifty-four males, (or, according to the 
 story, fifty-three), or rather only fifty-one, since Er and Onan 
 died in the land of Canaan without issue; in the second, 243; 
 in the third 1094; and in the fourth 4923 ; that is to say, instead 
 of 600,000 warriors in the prime of life, there could not have been 
 5000." 
 
 Now we object to this, his conclusion, on various grounds. 
 In the first place he speaks of Kohath, who was alive at the time 
 of the migration, and who formed a part and portion of the 
 emigrants, as belonging to the "first" generation. But, as he 
 himself remarks, (p. 96), "when it is said (Gen. xv. 16,) 'in the 
 fourth generation they shall come hither again,' the expression 
 1 the fourth generation ' can only mean the fourth generation 
 reckoning from the time when they should leave the land of 
 Canaan, and go down into Egypt." Now, if this interpretation of 
 the expression " the fourth generation from," be legitimate, it 
 follows, as a matter of course, that the expression " the first gene- 
 ration from," must be similarly interpreted, and cannot possibly 
 be regarded as including any of the original emigrants. The real 
 "first" generation then, were not Kohath and Kohath's contem- 
 poraries, but Kohath's sons and their contemporaries. 
 
 Nor can we see, and this is our second objection, that the fact 
 that Jacob's sons averaged only four and a half, is any reason for 
 supposing that his grandsons did not average a greater number. 
 And on scriptural grounds we believe that they did so. To make 
 the males in the fourth generation 600,000, they must indeed 
 have averaged as many as ten sons each, or, in other words, 
 females being included, each man must have had as many as 
 twenty children. Let us not forget that a very extraordinary 
 increase had been promised. The posterity of Abraham were to 
 be as the stars of heaven, and as the sand that is on the sea-shore 
 for multitude. In anticipation of this promise it was that Ke- 
 bekah was blessed, as to be, if not in her own person, yet in that 
 of her descendants "the mother of thousands of millions;" (Gen. 
 xxiv. 60,) and in reference to its fulfilment, Moses, addressing the 
 people in the wilderness, says, " Your fathers went down into 
 Egypt with threescore and ten persons, and now the Lord thy 
 God hath made thee as the stars of heaven for multitude." 
 (Deut. x. 22.) 
 
VINDICATED. 1 1 
 
 Its fulfilment indeed seemed long to linger; Abraham had 
 not many sons, Isaac only two, Jacob had twelve ; but his sons 
 averaged, as the Bishop remarks, only four and a half. " But," 
 as Stephen says, Acts vii. 17, " when the time of the promise 
 [i. e., of the fulfilment of the promise,] drew nigh, which God 
 had sworn to Abraham, they grew and multiplied." 
 
 They are oppressed. Pharaoh seeks even to exterminate them. 
 He directs that all the male children shall be put to death as soon 
 as they are born, for they were " fruitful, and increased abund- 
 antly, and multiplied, and waxed exceeding mighty ; and the 
 land was filled with them." (Exod. i. 7.) But " the more they 
 afflicted them, the more they multiplied and grew;" (ver. 12.) 
 they " increased greatly and were made stronger than their ene- 
 mies." (Ps. cv. 24.) 
 
 Is it then extravagant to suppose that they increased at the 
 rate above named? Nay, is it not extravagant, (God's promise 
 being pledged) to suppose that they did not? Which is the wiser 
 course? to suppose that they did not, and then to infer that if they 
 did not, the narrative must be false, as the Bishop has done ; or, 
 to suppose that they did; and so rescue the narrative from the 
 objections that would otherwise lie against it. It was not physi- 
 cally impossible: why then should it be thought "a- thing 
 incredible?" 
 
 Upon these grounds then we would rather, as regards their 
 numbers at the " fourth generation from" put the matter thus: 
 At the commencement of the residence in Egypt the male 
 descendants of Jacob were twelve sons, and fifty-three grandsons. 
 Since these fifty-three grandsons were born before the migration, 
 the first generation from the migration, would be of course the 
 sons of these fifty-three. The numbers, therefore, of the first 
 generation, if we suppose them to have increased at the rate above 
 suggested, would be, 
 
 Males 530 
 
 ,, of the second .... 5,300 
 
 „ of the third 53,000 
 
 „ of the fourth .... 530,000 
 
 Now the actual number of those that belonged to or were con- 
 temporary with the fourth generation, were, as we have already 
 seen, 603,550. Making ample allowance, therefore, for deaths, and 
 proceeding also upon the probable supposition that many of the 
 
12 PENTATEUCHAL NARRATIVE 
 
 third generation, together with not a few of the generation pre- 
 ceding, were still living, we see nothing very improbable in the 
 supposition that, at the time of the Exodus, their numbers were 
 as stated, viz., 603,550.* 
 
 In order to make out a yet stronger case against the probability 
 of the numbers of the Pentateuch, (chapter 18, pp. 107-112,) 
 he selects two tribes out of the twelve for more especial consider- 
 ation, those of Dan and Levi. Dan's posterity in the census of 
 Num. ii. 26, numbered 62,700. And the Bishop supposes, since 
 Dan himself is represented (Gen. xlvi. 23,) as having been the 
 father of only one son, Hushim, that " in order to have had this 
 number born to him, Dan's one son, and each of his sons and 
 grandsons, must have had about eighty children of both sexes." 
 
 But even upon the supposition that he had but this one son, 
 the first generation of that son, (the rate of increase being ten,) 
 would have numbered ten, the second 100, the third 1000, the 
 fourth 10,000 and the fifth 100,000. 
 
 The numbers actually given, being 62,700, we have only there- 
 fore to suppose that his progeny had been prolific beyond that of 
 the other tribes, and that some of them, (in consequence either 
 of early marriages, or of other unknown causes,) may have reached 
 even the fifth generation, and the 62,700 of his descendants may 
 safely be regarded as correct. At any rate, this or some such 
 supposition is, we think, more reasonable than the supposition 
 that a narrative so attested as is that of the Pentateuch is to be 
 rejected as " unhistorical." 
 
 As regards the descendants of Levi, a yet greater absurdity is 
 charged upon the narrative. We are told that, if we make certain 
 assumptions, which the Bishop thinks probable f, "the whole 
 number of Levites who would be numbered at the first census 
 would be only forty-four, (viz., twenty Kohathites, twelve Ger- 
 
 * In the above calculation we have taken ten as our average, partly 
 because its multiples are obvious. The result, however, gives, as we 
 perceive above, a number somewhat short of the required 603,550. If we 
 take eleven, the number produced (775,973) considerably exceeds it. 
 Perhaps, therefore, the real average may be assumed to have been from 
 ten to eleven. The Bishop is of opinion that the numbers of the firstborn, 
 as compared with that of the male adults, imply a yet higher average. 
 But he has not, we think, sufficiently allowed for the destruction of those, 
 who, about the time of the birth of Moses, were destroyed by order of 
 Pharaoh. 
 
 t " If we now assume that the two sons of Gershon, &c, p. 108. 
 
VINDICATED. 13 
 
 shonites, twelve Merarites,) instead of 8,580, as they are numbered 
 in Num. iv. 48. 
 
 " Or," he continues, " we may put the matter in another and a 
 yet stronger light, using only the express data of Scripture; omitting 
 all reference to the 215 years' sojourn in Egypt, and to the four 
 generations; in fact, making no assumptions of our own whatever* 
 
 " The Amramites numbered as Levites in the fourth (Eleazar's) 
 generation, were only two, viz., the two sons of Moses; the sons of 
 Aaron being reckoned as priests. Hence the rest of the Kohathites 
 of this generation must have been made up of the descendants of 
 Izhar and Uzziel, each of whom had three sons. Consequently 
 since all the Kohathites of Eleazar's generation were numbered at 
 2,750 (Num. iv. 36), it follows that these six men must have had 
 between them, according to the Scripture story, 2748 sons, and 
 we must suppose about the same number of daughters." (p. 108.) 
 
 Now, how does the Bishop " use only the express data of 
 Scripture?" Thus. He allows the existence of no other children 
 than those whose names are actually indicated. He supposes 
 Izhar to have had only three sons, because in the book of Exodus 
 only three are specified, though the book of Chronicles gives a 
 fourth, Shelomith (1 Chron. xxiii. 18.); and of the sons of Hebron, 
 Izhar and Uzziel's brother, he takes no account at all, though, as 
 the Bishop himself knows, (see p. 109,) the book of Chronicles 
 speaks of four. 
 
 In the second place, seeing that Izhar and his brethren, the sons 
 of Kohath, ^ were of the first generation from the descent into 
 Egypt, their sons, the supposed fathers of these 2748, must 
 have been of the second. The Bishop represents them as of the 
 third. His calculation drops, therefore, a whole generation. Those 
 of the 2748 who were of the fourth (the real fourth) generation, 
 were not Izhar's and his brethren's grandsons, but their great- 
 grandsons. 
 
 So much for six men having " between them according to the 
 Scripture story, 2748 sons." 
 
 The greatest difficulty in the whole volume is, we think, that 
 presented to us in the chapter headed " the Number of the 
 Priests at the Exodus compared with their duties." (pp. 122-138.) 
 
 * Mem. The italics are the Bishop's own. 
 
14 PENTATEUCHAL NARRATIVE 
 
 After stating some of the various services which they, and they 
 only, were required to discharge, the Bishop proceeds as follows: 
 (p. 123.) "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, &c, of a population like that of the city of London, 
 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. 
 
 " And it is laid down very solemnly in Xura. iii. 10, ' Thou 
 shalt appoint Aaron and his sons, and they shall wait on their 
 priest's office; and the stranger that cometh nigh shall be put to 
 death.'' So again, ver. 38, ' Aaron and his sons, keeping the 
 charge of the sanctuary, for the charge of the children of Israel; 
 and the stranger that cometh nigh shall he put to death? Yet 
 how was it possible that these two or three men should have 
 discharged all these duties for such a vast multitude? The single 
 work of offering the double sacrifice for women after childbirth 
 must have utterly overpowered three priests, though engaged 
 without cessation from morning to night. As we have seen (74), 
 the births among two millions of people may be reckoned as, at 
 least, 250 a day, for which, consequently, 500 sacrifices, (250 
 burnt-offerings and 250 sin-offerings, would have had to be offered 
 daily. Looking at the directions in Lev. i. and iv. we can scarcely 
 allow less than five minutes for each sacrifice ; so that these sacrifices 
 alone, if offered separately, would have taken 2,500 minutes, or 
 nearly forty-two hours, and could not have been offered in a single 
 day of twelve hours, though each of the three priests had been 
 employed in the one sole incessant labour of offering them, 
 without a moment's rest or intermission." 
 
 Still, we do not think the difficulty insuperable; nor do we 
 regard its obviousness as in any respect bearing against the his- 
 torical veracity of the books in question. Indeed, we are not 
 sure that its obviousness is not a proof of the trustworthiness of 
 the books ; for these books, whensoever written, were certainly 
 written during the actual existence of the Levitical worship, and 
 by one who must have had daily before his eyes the busy multi- 
 fariousness of all its details. He must have known how impossible 
 it would be for three priests to have discharged these laborious 
 and multitudinous duties. Or, supposing him to have written 
 during the seventy years' captivity, to have been born during that 
 
VINDICATED. 15 
 
 captivity, and never to have seen Jerusalem (a supposition, by 
 the bye, which Leslie has, we think, shown to be impossible), still, 
 as the son of Jewish parents, he must have known, though not 
 so thoroughly, the utter impossibility of these things. Whoever 
 he was, he was not so careless a writer as not to be aware that 
 his narrative throughout had represented the Israelites as being 
 very many in number. In one form or other the 603,550 males 
 of twenty years old and upward, besides women and children, 
 are continually turning up. We have them over and over again 
 as a sum total, and over and over again in fractional portions. 
 He could not forget that he had represented, repeatedly, and in 
 every variety of form, the entire people as being very little, if 
 at all, short of as many as 2,000,000. 
 
 To whatever period then of Jewish history we assign these 
 books, could he be otherwise than conscious that three priests 
 could never discharge that which was demanded of them? A 
 writer of the late period to which Bishop Colenso would assign 
 them, would therefore, we think, have been very especially care- 
 ful (in order to give to his narrative a greater appearance of 
 veraciousness), to avoid so gross an oversight (if it be one), as to 
 give us only three priests for the discharge of duties which it 
 was obvious that three priests could not discharge. Upon these 
 grounds we conclude that the statement in question is not an 
 oversight ; but that it was, or appears to have been, an actual 
 fact. 
 
 Still, it may be said, that though not probable, it is possible, 
 that a non-contemporary may have committed such an oversight. 
 Certainly it is; but we hold that, in the case before us, there was 
 no oversight. For it is not that by dint of close scrutiny, we 
 discover that the priests were, or seem to have been, only three. 
 That they were, or seem to have been, only three, is as pro- 
 minently blazed before us as that the adult males were upwards of 
 600,000. "Aaron and his sons," "Aaron and his sons," are con- 
 tinually presented to us as the sole agents in the performance of 
 these duties. And then that his sons (at least, after the death of 
 Nadab and Abihu, who died almost as soon as the tabernacle was 
 reared, Lev. x. 1), were only two, is not a fact that in the course 
 of the narrative crops up, but a fact made prominent, a fact 
 reiterated again and again. 
 
 Aaron had two or more grandsons; but so far is the writer 
 from leading us to infer that they were included in the constantly 
 recurring phrase in reference to the duties of the priests, " Aaron 
 
16 PENTATEUCHAL NAKRATIVE 
 
 and his sons," that it is only from the fact that the descendants 
 of Ithamar are spoken of in the books of Chronicles, and Ezra, 
 as existing under the monarchy, that we learn that Aaron had 
 by Ithamar any grandson at all; and Phinehas, the only other 
 known grandson, is only brought before us incidentally, in the 
 whole course of the narrative. Even upon the supposition that 
 Aaron's grandsons did officiate during the Exodus, the inference 
 that any one would naturally draw from the narrative itself 
 would be, that they did not, except perhaps, eventually, Phinehas. 
 That Nadab and Abihu died without issue the narrative tells us 
 more than once. 
 
 We must then, we think, admit that the difficulty pressed 
 upon us by the Bishop — and very heavily pressed upon us (for 
 what seems to be the only possible solution he nowhere suggests, 
 though it must have occurred to him) — exists ; that Aaron and 
 his two sons, Eleazar and Ithamar, were, or seem to have been, 
 during almost the whole of the forty years of the wilderness, the 
 alone priests ; that they, and apparently they only, were required 
 to do the various duties specified in the above quotation. 
 
 But if the priests were only three, "how," asks the Bishop, 
 " was it possible that these three men should have discharged all 
 these duties for so vast a multitude?" We answer it was not 
 possible. They did not do it then? Of course they did not, for 
 they could not, and the narrative does not say they did. Then 
 who did? We do not know. Perhaps no one. The narrative 
 commands these duties, but it nowhere says that the people were 
 so ready with their sacrifices as to distress the priesthood. But it 
 may be that they were,* and that at times, perhaps often, more was 
 required of the priests than could by any possibility be done by 
 them. Well — and then? Then, probably, the Levites assisted 
 them. But the Levites were not permitted to discharge the duties 
 peculiar to the priesthood. True, they were not — such at least 
 was the rule — but they did — violating the law in one particular, 
 that its requirements might be kept in another. " And the 
 number of the burnt offerings," in the days of Hezekiah, " which 
 the congregation brought, was threescore and ten bullocks, an 
 hundred rams, and two hundred lambs : all these were for a burnt 
 offering to the Lord. And the consecrated things were six 
 
 * Amos v. 25. " Have ye offered unto me," etc., together with Jos. 
 v. 5, would, however, seem to imply that they were not. — In support of the 
 opinion that " sacrifices were not offered in the wilderness, except on rare 
 occasions," see also Mr. M'Caul's very able pamphlet (pp. 20-25), published 
 by Wertheim. 
 
VINDICATED. 17 
 
 hundred oxen, and three thousand sheep. But the priests were 
 too few, so that they could not flay all the burnt offerings : where- 
 fore their brethren the Levites did help them, till the work was 
 ended." (2 Chron. xxix. 32—34.) 
 
 What was done in Hezekiah's time, when need required, would 
 doubtless be done at any time under the like circumstances. 
 M I will have mercy and not sacrifice." 
 
 In the above attempt to solve the difficulty arising from the 
 supposed number of the priests, we have accepted the supposition 
 that, in Aaron's time, they were only three, as correct. But 
 we may be mistaken. Grave difficulties embarrass the sup- 
 position (though they do not, we think, disprove it); and these 
 have been so forcibly pointed out to us, in a letter received from 
 the Incumbent of North Marston, that, though we retain in the 
 text of this re-issue of our pamphlet the solution suggested in our 
 first edition, we are very much disposed to believe, that, perhaps, 
 after all, the real solution of the difficulty is that the priests were 
 more than three. — Aaron's own sons, indeed, (after the death of 
 Nadab and Abihu) were, or seem to have been, only two; but he 
 may have had, by these sons, many grandsons — in Hebrew phrase- 
 ology grandsons are " sons" — and these grandsons may have been 
 of an age to officiate as priests. The narrative, it is true, speaks 
 only of one, Phinehas; but the mere silence of the narrative does 
 not disprove the supposition. How many they were, can, of 
 course, be only conjectured; but, in little more than a twelve- 
 month from the death of Aaron, we find, all at once, an incidental 
 mention of as many priests as seven, (Josh. vi. 4.) — and these seven 
 are so spoken of, as to lead to the inference that there were more. 
 Upon the not improbable supposition that Aaron's two sons had 
 ten sons each, there would, of course, during Aaron's lifetime, have 
 been as many as three-and-twenty. 
 
 Mr. M'Caul supposes, in common with a multitude of others, 
 not only that " sacrifices were not offered in the wilderness, except 
 on rare occasions," but also that they were " not required to be 
 offered." We cannot altogether acquiesce in this opinion. But 
 such is our conviction of the truth of the narrative, that we would 
 rather accept this, or, indeed, almost any supposition, not absolutely 
 incredible, than give up our faith in a narrative which bears 
 within it such marks of truth and exceeding excellency; which, 
 at the period of its issue, and for ages afterwards, appears never to 
 
18 PENTATEUCHAL NARRATIVE VINDICATED. 
 
 have been questioned ; whieh our Lord and Saviour himself re- 
 cognises; and to which he appeals as being, not authentic only, 
 but divine. 
 
 And now with one general remark we bring our animadversions 
 to a close. It is this : — that the text from which our common 
 English version of the Bible was made, is the text of some of the 
 very earliest printed copies, and this text Kennicott and some 
 others have represented as being especially faulty with regard to 
 its numerals and proper names. How far a corrected text may 
 remove any of the Bishop's numerical or genealogical objections 
 we cannot pretend to say. But the subject, no doubt, will receive 
 at the hands of those who are better qualified for the task, than 
 we can possibly pretend to be, that investigation which its im- 
 portance deserves. Meanwhile, if the imperfect remarks of these 
 few pages should induce the over-hasty to suspend, for a time, 
 their judgments in reference to the Bishop's conclusions, until 
 abler writers shall have had time to reply more fully to the 
 book, we shall be thankful, and shall have accomplished our 
 object. 
 
POSTSCRIPT 
 
 The foregoing arguments in reference to the numbers of the people, pro- 
 ceed upon the assumption, that the 600,000 males of the fourth generation 
 were all of them genuine descendants of the original seventy. It is an 
 assumption that of course necessitates the supposition of a very extra- 
 ordinary rate of increase ; but, being the popular opinion upon the point, 
 we have assumed its correctness, and have based our arguments upon it. 
 
 In point of fact, however, its accuracy is, to say the least, doubtful. 
 For " as nobody " (we here quote the words of a high authority upon 
 questions of Hebrew genealogy, the Hector of Ickworth, Lord Arthur 
 Hervey,) " supposes that all the Cornelii, or all the Campbells, sprang from 
 one ancestor, so, it is in the teeth of direct evidence from Scripture, as 
 well as of probability, to suppose that the Jewish tribes contained none 
 but such as were descended from the twelve patriarchs. The registers in 
 Ezra and Nehemiah, for instance, include the Nethinim, and the children 
 of Solomon's servants ; and in many of the Scripture genealogies, as those 
 of Caleb, Joab, Segub, and the sons of Rephaiah, etc., (1 Chron. iii. 21), 
 it is quite clear that birth was not the ground of their incorporation into 
 their respective tribes. 
 
 "Julius Africanus," he adds, "in his Epistle to Aristides, expressly men- 
 tions that the ancient genealogical records at Jerusalem included those 
 who were descended from proselytes, and 7c tcopat, as well as those who 
 sprang from the patriarchs."* 
 
 Having prepared our way by this quotation, we proceed to observe, that 
 during the 215 years of the residence of the Israelites in Egypt, it is cer- 
 tain, considering the high position of Joseph in that country, that the 
 dependants both of himself, and brethren, and descendants, must have 
 been very many ; and that, in some families, the religious advantages of 
 those dependants must have been great. Whether, upon the ground of 
 attachment and service, they were or were not reckoned as forming part 
 of the several Israelitish families to which they respectively belonged, we 
 do not pretend to say. But it is certainly highly probable that, during 
 the residence of the Israelites in Egj^pt, there were many, both of these, 
 and of other Egyptians also, who became proselytes to the Jewish faith ; 
 and who, like Ruth, the Moabitess, chose the Lord God of Israel to be 
 their God, and his people to be their's ; and with reference to such, we do 
 think that the probability is great that they were made Israelites by 
 incorporation, and that they were reckoned as such. 
 
 That at the time of the Exodus there were many, awestruck perhaps 
 by the miracles and plagues of which they had so recently been witnesses, 
 
 * Dr. Smith's Dictionary of tho Bible, art. Genealogy, I860, 8vo. 
 
20 POSTSCKIPT. 
 
 who, though, not avowed and incorporated proselytes {see Exod. xii. 37,38), 
 were disposed to join them, and trusting in the Lord God of Israel to share 
 their fortunes, we know. This is certain, from the fact that when the 
 Israelites left Egypt, a " mixed (and, as 3^et, unincorporated) multitude" 
 viz., of Egyptians, accompanied them. And the original Hebrew, or 
 (which amounts to the same thing), the literal translation given in the 
 margin of our Bibles, " a great mixture," shews, moreover, that those who 
 left Egypt with them were many.* 
 
 It is clearly then not improbable, that, in the course of the 215 years 
 preceding, many had become proselytes to their faith, and had united 
 themselves to them on religious grounds ; that they had (dwelling together, 
 and worshipping together,) become, during those two centuries, so incor- 
 porated and so identified with them, as to be virtually one people with 
 them; and that, according to the peculiarities of their several circum- 
 stances and connexions, they were, in virtue of their proselytism, regarded 
 as being not Israelites merely, but as forming a part and portion of the 
 family or tribe with which those circumstances had connected them. 
 
 But, if this be admitted, the difficulty arising, or supposed to arise, from 
 the numbers of the Israelites, or so-called Israelites, at the time of the 
 Exodus from Egypt, falls to the ground — completely. Were they repre- 
 sented as having been even twice 600,000, we have only to suppose the very 
 probable supposition (if they cannot be otherwise accounted for), that the 
 number of these proselytes was great, and that by amalgamation they 
 belonged to this tribe or to that, and any deficiency, or supposed deficiency, 
 in the numbers of those who were Israelites by birth may be to any extent 
 filled up by the indefinite, unrecorded, greatness of the numbers of those who 
 had become Israelites by proselytism and by choice. The original seventy, 
 or fifty-three, may or may not have increased in the ratio supposed — for 
 reasons already stated we are disposed to believe that they did — but even 
 though they did not, the veracity of the narrative (if our suppositions in re- 
 ference to these proselytes be admitted) remains, in this respect, thoroughly 
 intact. 
 
 A word or two in reference to another point, and we have done. 
 
 At page 12, we have only very partially replied to the alleged difficulty, 
 that "in the first census (Num. iv. 36,) all the Kohathites of Eleazar's 
 generation t were numbered at 2750," and that it follows therefrom, that 
 " six men must have had between them, according to the Scripture story, 
 2748 sons, and about the same number of daughters ;" and very partially 
 to the difficulty based upon the supposition that " the whole number of 
 Levites, who would be numbered at the first census, would be only forty- 
 four, instead of 8,580, as (says the Bishop) they are numbered in Num. 
 iv. 48." (p. 108.) 
 
 In addition to what we have there said, we would further remark, that, 
 as regards the numbers of all the Kohathites, and all the Levites, the Bishop 
 has strangely, and very much, understated his own case. The entire body 
 of the Kohathites of the fourth generation % were numbered at more than 
 2750 : they were numbered at 8600 (see Num. iii. 28) ; — 2750 is the number 
 of those of them only who were "from thirty years old and upward." 
 (Num. iv. 36.) And " the whole number of Levites" were more than 8580 ; 
 
 * That they were " many " i3 a fact which the textual rendering hardly or very obscurely 
 expresses. 
 t The fourth— according to the Bishop. 
 X Which the Bishop would incorrectly call the fifth. 
 
POSTSCRIPT. 21 
 
 their numbers were 22,000 (see INura. iii. 39) ;— the 8580 being, as before, the 
 number of those only who were over thirty years of age. (Num. iv. 48.)* 
 The " six men" in question then, if the Bishop's other data were correct, 
 " must have had between them, according to the Scripture story," not 
 " 2748 sons, and about the same number of daughters," but upwards of 
 8000 sons, and upwards of 8000 daughters. 
 
 And now, applying our rate of increase to the family of the Kohathites, 
 let us see how many, according to that rate, they would have numbered 
 at the period referred to. The first generation from Kohath would 
 be Kohath's sons. These, of course, we assume to have been ten. In 
 Exod. vi. 18, they are indeed spoken of as only four, viz., " Amram, and 
 Izhar, and Hebron, and Uzziel," — " according to their generations." But 
 we cannot regard this statement as tantamount to the assertion, that 
 Kohath's sons were in number only four. The pedigree, of which the 
 words quoted form a part, appears to be, what is called an " abbreviated 
 pedigree ;" i.e. a pedigree giving the names of those only who were the 
 heads of those subdivisions, or clans, denominated " families."! From 
 Amram sprang the " Amramites" (Num. iii. 27) ; from Izhar, the "Izhar- 
 ites" (ibid.) ; from Hebron, the " Hebronites" (ibid.) ; and from Uzziel, 
 the "Uzzielites" (ibid.). For this reason, and for this only, it was, we 
 believe, that their names are here given ; and not simply because they 
 were Kohath's sons, or the whole of Kohath's sons.t Abbreviated pedi- 
 grees of this kind are in Scripture so common, that we may, we think, 
 assume this. 
 
 Without some such assumption it is, or seems to be, incredible, ac- 
 cording to the statements contained in Exod. vi., that in the fourth gene- 
 ration from Kohath, his posterity should have numbered upwards of 8000. 
 For all that is there told us (in what seems to be, but is not, a complete 
 pedigree), respecting Kohath's posterity is, that the first generation, the 
 sons of Kohath, were four, viz., "Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and 
 Uzziel ;" — that, of these four, Amram took Jochebed, his father's sister, 
 to wife, § and that she bare him Aaron and Moses ; that the sons of his 
 brother, Izhar. were Korah and two others ; and that the sons of his 
 brother, Uzziel, were three, Hebron having apparently (so far as the book 
 of Exodus is concerned) no posterity at all ; these constituting the 
 second generation ; — that Aaron had four sons, Nadab, Abihu, Eleazar, and 
 Ithamar, who, together with the two sons of Moses, and the three of 
 Korah, were of the third generation ; — and that Phinehas, Aaron's grand- 
 son, with the sons of the preceding, were the fourth. 
 
 * In subsequent pages, the "whole number" of the Levites is correctly given; but in the 
 argument animadverted upon, it is as stated above. (See p. 108.) 
 
 t " When a pedigree was abbreviated, it would naturally specify such generations only as 
 would indicate from what chief houses the person descended." Smith's Dictionary of the 
 Bible, Vol. I., p. 664. 
 
 % In the original formation of a family, one or more brothers were generally included. To 
 say, therefore, that from one individual so many families sprang, is not equivalent to saying that 
 that individual had only so many sons. A family in Hebrew usage was not the same thing as a 
 family in English usage. It was not a household. " In the morning therefore ye shall be 
 brought according to your tribes : and it shall be, that the tribe which the Lord taketh shall 
 come according to the families thereof ; and the family which the Lord shall take shall come 
 by households ; and the household which the Lord shall take shall come man by man. And it 
 shall be, that he that is taken with the accursed thing shall be burnt with fire, he and all that he 
 hath : because he hath transgressed the covenant of the Lord, and because he hath wrought 
 folly in Israel. So Joshua rose up early in the morning, and brought Israel by their tribes : and 
 the tribe of Judah was taken : And he brought the family of Judah; and he took the family of 
 the Zarhites : and he brought the family of the Zarhites man by man ; and Zabdi was taken : 
 and he brought his household man by man ; and Achan, the son of Carmi, the son of Zabdi, the 
 son of Zerah, of the tribe of Judah, was taken." One family may have included many house- 
 holds, or, vice versa, one household may have been subdivided into many families. 
 
 § In passing, we cannot but ask, Would the writer of a mere " story" have represented Amram 
 as marrying his aunt ? 
 
22 
 
 POSTSCRIPT. 
 
 Subjoined is the passage above referred to, in full :- 
 
 16 And these are the names of the 
 sons of Levi, according to their gene- 
 rations ; Gershon, and Kohath, and 
 Merari. And the years of the life 
 of Levi, were an hundred thirty and 
 seven years. 
 
 17 The sons of Gershon; Libni,and 
 Shimi, according to their families. 
 
 18 And the sons of Kohath ; Am- 
 ram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and Uz- 
 ziel. And the years of the life of 
 Kohath were an hundred thirty and 
 three years. 
 
 19 And the sons of Merari ; Ma- 
 hali, and Mushi : these are the 
 families of Levi, according to their 
 generations. 
 
 20 And Amram took him Joche- 
 bed, his father's sister, to wife ; and 
 she bare him Aaron and Moses. 
 And the years of the life of Am- 
 
 ram were an hundred and thirty 
 and seven years. 
 
 21 And the sons of Izhar ; Korah, 
 and Nepheg, and Zithri. 
 
 22 And the sons of Uzziel ; Mis- 
 hael, and Elzaphan, and Zithri. 
 
 23 And Aaron took him Elisheba, 
 daughter of Amminadab, sister of 
 Naashon, to wife ; and she bare him 
 Nadab, and Abihu, Eleazar, and 
 Ithamar. 
 
 24 And the sons of Korah ; Assir, 
 and Elkanah, and Abiasaph : these 
 are the families of the Korhites. 
 
 25 And Eleazar, Aaron's son, took 
 him one of the daughters of Putiel 
 to wife ; and she bare him Phinehas : 
 these are the heads of the fathers 
 of the Levites, according to their 
 families. 
 
 That it is simply because those whose names are indicated were the 
 heads of families, or otherwise notorious, that their names are given, and 
 not because they were the only sous of their respective fathers, is, we 
 think, further implied in the phrases, "according to their generations," 
 (ver. 19), and " according to their families," (ver. 25). If we compare 
 together verses 18, 21, and 24 of this chapter, and 1 Chron. vi. 22, this con- 
 clusion becomes yet more evident. In the former of these passages we 
 read, "And the sons of Kohath; Amram, and Izhar, and Hebron, and 
 Uzziel. . . . And the sons of Izhar ; Korah, and Nepheg, and Zithri. . . . and 
 the sons of Korah ; Assir, and Elkanah, and Abiasaph : these are the 
 families of the Korhites." In the latter we read, " The sons of Kohath ; 
 Amminadab his son, Korah his son, Assir his son, Elkanah his son, and 
 Ebiasaph his son, etc., etc." In the one passage, Assir, Elkanah, and Abi- 
 asaph, are represented as brothers, brothers proper, i. e., the sons proper 
 of one and the same father ; in the other, they are respectively, son, 
 grandson, and great-grandson. And yet the two passages are not his- 
 torically discrepant, if we regard them (as we ought to do,) as differing, 
 simply in virtue of the understood conventionalisms of Jewish genealogies. 
 
 Assuming then, the correctness of the supposition, that Kohath and his 
 posterity had other sons than those whose names are given, we now 
 apply to his issue the rate of increase which we have supposed to be 
 applicable to the Israelites as a whole. According to that rate, the males 
 of the first generation from Kohath would of course be, not four, but ten : 
 those of the second generation from, 100; those of the third, 1,000 j and 
 those of the fourth (the generation of Phinehas, the son of Eleazar, and 
 grandson of Aaron), 10,000. 
 
 The number actually given in "the story," is 8600. The inference is 
 obvious. The number is not incredible. 
 
 If we apply the same rate of increase to Levi's three sons, we have an 
 equally satisfactory result : 30,000 being their number according to the 
 decimal rate of increase ; 22,000 their number, " according to the story." 
 
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