(6) That the cause of the punishment of Moses is differently stated in Num. xxvii :14 and Deu teronomy iii :26. To this objection we reply that both the guilt and punishment of Moses are de scribed in both books as originating with the peo ple ( comp. also Dent. xxxii :51, ctc.).
(7) Among the anachronisms in Deuteronomy are reckoned the allusions made in it to the Temple (xii ; xvi :1, sq.) to the royal and prophetic pow ers (xiii ; xviii :18) to the different modes of idol worship (iv :19 ; xvii :3), and to the exile (xxviii sq.). In suggesting these critical points, however, they do not consider that all these sub jects are most closely and intimately connected with the spirit and principles of the law itself, and that all these regulations and prophecies ap pear here in Deuteronomy, as necessary finishing points to the law, so indispensable for the better consolidation of the subsequent and later rela tions of the theocracy.
More anachronisms are said to be: (1) The sixty dwelling places of Jair mentioned Dcut. iii :r4, sq. (comp. Judg. x :3 sq.; Josh. xiii : 30; i Kings iv :I3 ; comp. also i Chron. ii :22, 23). We consider, however, that the men mentioned in the two passages are evidently different persons, though of the same name. Nor is it difficult to prove from other sources that there really existed at the time of Moses a man by name Jair.
(2) The notice (iii :ii) concerning King Og, which looks more like a note of a subsequent writer in corroboration of the story told in the chapter. But this hypothesis falls to the ground when we consider that Moses did not write for his contemporaries merely, but also for late pos terity.
4. Mosaic Origin. The book contains, more over, not a small number of plain, though indirect, traces indicative of its Mosaic origin. We thus find in it: (1) Numerous notices concerning nations with whom the Israelites had then come in contact, but who, after the Mosaic period, entirely dis appeared from the pages of history ; such are the accounts of the residences of the kings of Bashan (i :4).
(2) The appellation of 'mountain of the Arno rites,' used throughout the whole book (i :7, 19, 20, 44), while even in the book Joshua, soon after the conquest of the land, the name is already ex changed for 'mountains of Judah' (Josh. xi :
16, 21).
(3) The observation (ii :to) that the Emint had formerly dwelt in the plain of Moab ; they were a great people, equal to the Anaki*n. This ob servation quite accords with Genesis xiv :5.
(4) A detailed account (ii :i i) concerning the Horini and their relations to the Edomites.
(5) An account of the Zamzummim (ii :2o, 21), one of the earliest races of Canaan, though men tioned nowhere else.
(6) A very circumstantial account of the Re phaim (iii :3, sq.). with whose concerns the author seems to have been well acquainted.
The standing-point also of the author of Deuter onomy is altogether in the Mosaic time, and had it been assumed and fictitious there must neces sarily have been moments when the spurious author would have been off his guard, and un mindful of the part he had to play. But no dis crepancies of this kind can be traced, and this is in itself an evidence of the genuineness of the book.
A great number of other passages force us likewise to the conclusion that the whole of Deuteronomy originated in the time of Moses. Such are the passages where (i) a comparison is drawn between Canaan and Egypt (xi :to, sq.), with the latter pf which the author seems thor oughly acquainted ; (2) detailed descriptions are also given of the fertility and productions of Pal estine (viii :7, sq.) ; (3) regulations are given re lating to the conquest of Canaan (xii :1, sq.; xx: 1, sq.), which cannot be understood otherwise than by assuming that they had been framed in the Mosaic time, since they could be of no use after that period.
Besides, whole pieces and chapters in Deuter onomy, such as xxxii, xxxiii, betray in form, language and tenor a very early period in He brew literature. Nor are the laws and regulations in Deuteronomy less decisive of the authenticity of the book. We are struck with the most re markable phenomenon, that many laws from the previous books are here partly repeated and im pressed with more energy, partly modified, and partly altogether abolished, according to the con tingencies of the time, or as the new aspect of circumstances among the Jews rendered such steps necessary (comp. c. g. Dent. xv :17, with Exod. xxi :7 ; Deut. xii, with Lev. xvii).