TESTIMONY OF THE PROPHETICAL AND POETICAL BOOKS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT TO THE PENTATEUCH.

BY PROF. HENRY M. HARMAN, D.D.

In this paper we shall adduce the passages in these Books that refer either directly or indirectly to the Pentateuch itself or to its institutions, and discuss them as fully as our limits will allow. We shall first take up the Prophetic Books, beginning with the latest, Malachi.

The date of the ministry of this prophet is about B. C. 440, as is manifest from internal evidence, eighteen years after Ezra came up to Jerusalem from Babylon, so that whatever references Malachi makes to the Mosaic law must be to our present Pentateuch. In i. 7, 12-14 he censures the offering of polluted sacrifices and blind and maimed animals, with reference to Lev. xxii. 22 and Deut. xv. 21. He upbraids them for not paying tithes (iii. 8-10), in reference to the law in Lev. xxvii. 30; Num. xviii. 21, and to Deut. xxvi. 12. In ii. 1-9 he addresses the priests, and declares: "My covenant was with him [Levi] of life and peace . . but but ye have corrupted the

covenant of Levi." Here the covenant with Aaron is called the covenant with Levi, the tribal head, in which there is a reference to Exodus xxix. 9: "And the priest's office shall be theirs [Aaron and his sons'] for a perpetual statute," and

to other passages in the Middle Books of the Pentateuch. The language of Malachi is similar to that of Deut. xxxiii. 8, 9, where what belongs to Aaron is attributed to Levi.

But the most important passage is Mal. iv. 4: "Remember ye the law [Torah] of Moses my servant, which I commanded unto him in Horeb for all Israel, the statutes and judgments." In Lev. xxvi. 46 it is stated: "These are the statutes and judgments and laws which the Lord made between him and the children of Israel in Mount Sinai by the hand of Moses." Sinai seems to have been a prominent peak in the range of Horeb. This legislation embraced all the laws which are found in Exodus and Leviticus, and perhaps also in the first part of Numbers, as the departure of the Israelites from the wilderness does not occur until we reach Num. x. 13. A large part of Numbers is historical, and Deuteronomy is largely a repetition and reinforcement of previous laws, so that the legislation at Horeb or Sinai was the first and chief legislation. But undoubtedly Malachi refers to the whole Torah or law, and declares it was given to Moses from God. He does not say that Moses wrote the law, though there can be no reasonable doubt that he believed that Moses did, but that the law came from Moses. But according to the new critical school, only a small portion of the laws of the Pentateuch at most can have originated with Moses, and a very large part is the work of Ezra, a contemporary of Malachi, so that laws and regulations introduced in his own age, the

prophet and teacher believed, came from Moses! Or did Malachi act in collusion with the priests to palm upon the people a new code? Certainly not, for he rebukes the priests.

Haggai, who prophesied about B. C. 520, when the Jews were rebuilding the temple, refers to the present Pentateuchal law in the following language: "Ask now the priests concerning the law [Torah], saying, If one bear holy flesh in the skirt of his garment, and with his skirt do touch bread, or pottage, or wine, or oil, or any meat, shall it be holy? And the priest answered and said, No. Then said Haggai, If one that is unclean by a dead body touch any of these, shall it be unclean? And the priest answered and said, It shall be unclean" (ii. 11-13). The 12th verse refers to Lev. vi. 27, where it is stated, "Whatsoever shall touch the flesh thereof [the sin offering] shall be holy." The question proposed is, Does the skirt containing the holy flesh render holy whatever it touches, just as the holy flesh does? Which is answered in the negative. The 13th verse refers to Num xix. 11: "He that toucheth the dead body of any man shall be unclean," and also to verse 22: "Whatsoever the unclean person toucheth shall be unclean." In chap. ii. 17 there is a clear reference to Deut. xxviii. 22. In the first passage the prophetic curse is, "He will smite thee with blasting and with mildew," and in the second is its fulfillment: "I smote you with blasting and with mildew." In both passages in the Hebrew the verb to "smite" and the two nouns 66 blast

ing" and "mildew" are the same.

In i. 1, 12, 14;

ii. 2, 4, mention is made of Joshua the high priest, who is always associated with the governor Zerubbabel.

In Zechariah, who prophesied at the same time as Haggai, we find references to the feast of tabernacles (xiv. 16, 18, 19), according to the law in Lev. xxiii. 34, 43, and Deut. xvi. 13. Joshua the high priest is mentioned in iii. 1, 8; vi. II; and in iii. 5 the mitre upon the high priest's head is designated according to the arrangement in Exod. xxxix. 28; Lev. viii. 9. It is evident, then, that the high priesthood was not the contrivance of Ezra. In Zech. iv. 2 we have a reference to the golden candlestick with its seven branches, according to the arrangement in Exod. xxv. 37.

Ezekiel, who lived and prophesied in Chaldea during the first part of the Babylonian captivity, makes many references to the Mosaic laws, and even to some of those very laws which the new school of critics contend that Ezra or the prophet himself wrote. In iv. 14 he declares: "From my youth up even till now have I not eaten of that which dieth of itself, or is torn in pieces; neither came there abominable flesh into my mouth." Here he refers to the precepts in the Pentateuch: the "torn" in Ex. xxii. 31; "that which dieth of itself" in Lev. xvii. 15; “the abominable thing" in Deut. xiv. 3. That is, he had observed these prohibitions from about B. C. 575, when he was but a child. In v. 6, 7 the Israelites are represented as violating the judgments and statutes of

,