th German and English,
are so great. It is the decision of these critics that Genesis is a
narrative based upon legends; that Exodus is not historically true; that
the whole Pentateuch is unhistoric and non-Mosaic; it contains the most
extraordinary contradictions and impossibilities, sufficient to involve
the credibility of the whole--imperfections so many and so conspicuous
that they would destroy the authenticity of any modern historical work.

Hengstenberg, in his "Dissertations on the Genuineness of the
Pentateuch," says: "It is the unavoidable fate of a spurious historical
work of any length to be involved in contradictions. This must be the
case to a very great extent with the Pentateuch, if it be not genuine.
If the Pentateuch is spurious, its histories and laws have been
fabricated in successive portions, and were committed to writing in the
course of many centuries by different individuals. From such a mode of
origination, a mass of contradictions is inseparable, and the improving
hand of a later editor could never be capable of entirely obliterating
them."

To the above conclusions I may add that we are expressly told by Ezra
(Esdras ii. 14) that he himself, aided by five other persons, wrote
these books in the space of forty days. He says that at the time of the
Babylonian captivity the ancient sacred writings of the Jews were burnt,
and gives a particular detail of the circumstances under which these
were composed. He sets forth that he undertook to write all that had
been done in the world since the beginning. It may be said that the
books of Esdras are apocryphal, but in return it may be demanded, Has
that conclusion been reached on evidence that will withstand modern
criticism? In the early ages of Christianity, when the story of the fall
of man was not considered as essential to the Christian system, and the
doctrine of the atonement had not attained that precision which Anselm
eventually gave it, it was very generally admitted by the Fathers of the
Church that Ezra probably did so compose the Pentateuch. Thus St. Jerome
says, "Sive Mosem dicere volueris auctorem Pentateuchi, sive Esdram
ejusdem instauratorem operis, non recuso." Clemens Alexandrinus
says that when these books had been destroyed in the captivity of
Nebuchadnezzar, Esdras, having become inspired prophetically, reproduced
them. Irenaeus says the same.

The incidents contained in Genesis, from the first to the tenth chapters
inclusive (