t it is anonymous, and consequently without authority, I proceed, as
before-mentioned, to the book of Judges.

The book of Judges is anonymous on the face of it; and, therefore, even
the pretence is wanting to call it the word of God; it has not so much
as a nominal voucher; it is altogether fatherless.

This book begins with the same expression as the book of Joshua. That of
Joshua begins, chap i. 1, Now after the death of Moses, etc., and this
of the Judges begins, Now after the death of Joshua, etc. This, and the
similarity of stile between the two books, indicate that they are the
work of the same author; but who he was, is altogether unknown; the only
point that the book proves is that the author lived long after the time
of Joshua; for though it begins as if it followed immediately after his
death, the second chapter is an epitome or abstract of the whole book,
which, according to the Bible chronology, extends its history through a
space of 306 years; that is, from the death of Joshua, B.C. 1426 to the
death of Samson, B.C. 1120, and only 25 years before Saul went to seek
his father's asses, and was made king. But there is good reason to
believe, that it was not written till the time of David, at least, and
that the book of Joshua was not written before the same time.

In Judges i., the writer, after announcing the death of Joshua, proceeds
to tell what happened between the children of Judah and the native
inhabitants of the land of Canaan. In this statement the writer, having
abruptly mentioned Jerusalem in the 7th verse, says immediately after,
in the 8th verse, by way of explanation, "Now the children of Judah had
fought against Jerusalem, and taken it;" consequently this book could
not have been written before Jerusalem had been taken. The reader will
recollect the quotation I have just before made from Joshua xv. 63,
where it said that the Jebusites dwell with the children of Judah at
Jerusalem at this day; meaning the time when the book of Joshua was
written.

The evidence I have already produced to prove that the books I have
hitherto treated of were not written by the persons to whom they are
ascribed, nor till many years after their death, if such persons ever
lived, is already so abundant, that I can afford to admit this passage
with less weight than I am entitled to draw from it. For the case is,
that so far as the Bible can be credited as an history, the city of
Jerusalem was not taken till the time