Introduction to the Old Testament | Page 7

to
each other as J and E, for the literary efforts represented by these
documents are but the reflection of religious movements. They testify
to the affection which the people cherished for the story of their past;
and when we have arranged them in chronological order, they enable us
further, as we have seen, to trace the progress of moral and religious
ideas. But, for several reasons, it is not unfair, and, from the beginner's
point of view, it is perhaps even advisable, to treat these documents
together as a unity: _firstly_, because they were actually combined,
probably in the seventh century, into a unity (JE), and sometimes, as in
the Joseph story, so skilfully that it is very difficult to distinguish the
component parts and assign them to their proper documentary source;
_secondly_, because, for a reason to be afterwards stated, beyond Ex.
iii. the analysis is usually supremely difficult; and, _lastly_, because in
language and spirit, the prophetic documents are very like each other
and altogether unlike the priestly document. For practical purposes,
then, the broad distinction into prophetic and priestly will generally be
sufficient. Wherever the narrative is graphic, powerful, and interesting,
we may be sure that it is prophetic,[1] whereas the priestly document is
easily recognizable by its ritual interests, and by its formal, diffuse, and
legal style. [Footnote 1: If inconsistencies, contradictions or duplicates
appear in the section which is clearly prophetic, the student may be
practically certain that these are to be referred to the two prophetic
sources. Cf. the two derivations of the name of Joseph in consecutive
verses whose source is at once obvious: "God (Elohim) has taken away
my reproach" (E); and "Jehovah adds to me another son" (J), Gen. xxx.
23, 24. Cf. also the illustrations adduced on pp. 13, 14.]
The documents already discussed constitute the chief sources of the
book of Genesis; but there are occasional fragments which do not seem
originally to have belonged to any of them. There were also collections
of poetry, such as the Book of Jashar (cf. Josh. x. 13; 2 Sam. i. 18), at
the disposal of those who wrote or compiled the documents, and to

such a collection the parting words of Jacob may have belonged (xlix.).
The poem is in reality a characterization of the various _tribes; v_. 15,
and still more plainly vv. 23, 24, look back upon historical events. The
reference to Levi, vv. 5-7, which takes no account of the priestly
prerogatives of that tribe, shows that the poem is early (cf. xxxiv. 25);
but the description of the prosperity of Joseph (i.e. Ephraim and
Manasseh), vv. 22-26, and the pre-eminence of Judah, vv. 8-12, bring it
far below patriarchal times--at least into the period of the Judges. If vv.
8-12 is an allusion to the triumphs of David and vv. 22-26 to northern
Israel, the poem as a whole, which can hardly be later than Solomon's
time--for it celebrates Israel and Judah equally--could not be earlier
than David's; but probably the various utterances concerning the
different tribes arose at different times.
The religious interest of Genesis is very high, the more so as almost
every stage of religious reflection is represented in it, from the most
primitive to the most mature. Through the ancient stories there gleam
now and then flashes from a mythological background, as in the
intermarriage of angels with mortal women, vi. 1-4, or in the struggle
of the mighty Jacob, who could roll away the great stone from the
mouth of the well, xxix. 2, 10, with his supernatural visitant, xxxii. 24.
It is a long step from the second creation story in which God, like a
potter, fashions men out of moist earth, ii. 7, and walks in the garden of
Paradise in the cool of the day, iii. 8, to the first, with its sublime
silence on the mysterious processes of creation (i.). But the whole book,
and especially the prophetic section, is dominated by a splendid sense
of the reality of God, His interest in men, His horror of sin, His purpose
to redeem. Broadly speaking, the religion of the book stands upon a
marvellously high moral level. It is touched with humility-its heroes
know that they are "not worth of all the love and the faithfulness"
which God shows them, xxxii. 10; and it is marked by a true
inwardness-for it is not works but implicit trust in God that counts for
righteousness, xv. 16. Yet in practical ways, too, this religion finds
expression in national and individual life; it protests vehemently
against human sacrifice (xxii.), and it strengthens a lonely youth in an
hour of terrible temptation, xxxix. 9.

EXODUS

The book of Exodus--so named in the Greek version from the march of
Israel out of Egypt--opens upon