In this section there is a disparity in social con ditions as comparcd with those which we find in Deuteronomy, but the laws of the earlier section are largely incorporated into those of Deuter onomy. (Compare Exod. xxii:zo and xxiii:t9 with Deut. xiv:zi.) Therefore the difficulty of codes so widely differing from each other that forty years cannot cover them ceases to exist. These early Goshen "judgments" precedc Moses probably a hundred years, and they were appar ently included in the "Sinaitic covenant laws in order to preserve the continuity which had been stamped upon institutions, but the more especial motive seems to be that pertaining to the judica ture." When Moses appoints the subordinate judges, he is to "teach them ordinances and laws, and show them the work they must do." And with these old laws many of them would be familiar ; not only this, but until the promulgation from Sinai these "judgments" were the only legal ma terial available for this purpose. Hence their preservation among the traditions of the race; for it is possible that some of them may have been the decisions of Joseph, who would naturally act as the chief of his own community, and by con trolling their customs prevent amalgamation with an alien race.
(2) The Middle Pentateuchal Laws. The legislation concerning the sanctuary and its fur niture, together with the priestly duties and privileges, deals with a limited class, therefore its arrangement is more orderly than that of much which follows; but even here there is more or less mingling of inoral and religious with civil ordinanccs. According to Sir Henry Maine these conditions "show that the severance of law from morality, and of religion from law, belongs very distinctly to the later stages of mental progress." (Ancient Law, p. 16.) This mixture is traceable everywhere in Penta teuchal law except in the precepts pertaining to the ritual. "The Law of Holiness" cannot prop ell)? be called a code although it contains a mass of regulations for the conduct of the people. To this belong many texts pertaining to the toroth or teaching concerning the Sabbath.
A torah is properly a text for teaching, and the teachers were the priests or Levitcs. In that early day, the judges who aided Nloses were also teachers, hence lie may have issued the toroth or teaching texts to the judge and to the Levite. The teaching concerning the keeping of the Sab bath is a good illustration of the repetition which is everywhere employed to enforce the keeping of the law. So also the law against "eating with the blood." Again in Leviticus xi:43, we have a law against certain heathen defilements, and there are many others.
In Exodus, Leviticus and Deuteronomy there is a multitude of such commands as follows: "These are the commandments, the statutes and thc judg ments which thc Lord your God commanded to teach you." "Hear 0 Israel! the Lord our God is one God," "Thou shalt love the Lord thy God," "Thou shalt not take His name in vain"; and many others.
It would appear that the great host of Israel was divided up into many congregations, and that the Levites or teachers were probably taught from. the outlines of a lesson which had been inscribed on a clay tablet, perhaps at first, and later on a skin or scroll. In many of the houses of the priests these writings would be preserved, and in a multiplicity of them, the toroth would probabl.y bc presented in every stage of develop ment ; it might be a mere "skeleton", such as we have in Lev. xix:3, 11-19, 26, 33, and other places, or with the thought of the discourse or lesson more fully wrought out.
. There came a time when these original toroth in whatever form they existed wcre collected and put together. They were doubtless genuine but they were compiled withont any regular ar rangement such as a code would require. It is probable that only a small percentage of them were saved, but it secms likely that all of the Sinaitic injunctions became teaching toroth.
(3) Genesis of the Mosaic Law. A recognition of these facts seem to explain the genesis of the Mosaic law and especially the lack of systematic arrangement which obtains in this department of it.
We find however that the starting point arc the Goshen "judgments" and these stand con nected with the Sinaitic laws proper. In Deu teronomy there is more or less of method. but the very lack of orderly completion here is an un answerable argument against the claim that this portion was formulated at a comparatively mod ern period. No one can imagine for a moment that a priestly committee in Babylon, with all the leisure of two generations or more, would have left this department of the law in such a disconnected condition if it had originated with them.
Neither can we imagine that in the period of the decline of the Asiatic monarchy when the national mind had for hundreds of years been hardened in oppositc views, the broad basis of this law could have been formulated. We can not suppose this class of men as organizing a system whose judges and officers were chosen by the citizens "in all thy gates," a system whose ad ministration and executive reposed everywhere on the support of spontaneous patriotism.
The work of the "Higher Critics" especially in this department of the law has resulted in much confusion, for they reduce the whole of Deuter onomy to anachronism and more or less ab surdity.
(4) The Covenant. In the covenant "which the Lord commanded Moses to make with the children of Israel in the land of Moab, besides the covenant which He made with them in Horeb," there is no new doctrine taught, no new moral precept enforced. It was rather a renewal with that generation of the covenant which had been made with their fathers—with Abraham. Isaac and Jacob: "Ye stand this day all of you before the Lord your God . . . . that thou shouldst enter into covenant with the Lord thy God and into His oath . . . . that He may establish thee to-day for a people unto Himself, and that He may be unto thee a God, as He hath said unto thee, and as He hath sworn tozto thy fathers, to Abraham, to Isaac, and to Jacob." It was a setting forth before that generation of life and good, of death and evil to enforce the great duty of loyalty upon them.
It was a renewed admonition for the keeping of the old "commandments and statutes and judg ments." "In that I command thee this day, to love the Lord thy God and to walk in His ways, and to keep His commandments, and His statutes, and His judgments, and the Lord thy God shall bless thee in the land whither thou goest to pos sess it" (Deut. ch. xxix-xxx).
It was an enforcement of the whole law, and in relation to the Lawgiver it was his last will and testament—a part of his farewell words. He afterwards blessed his people, and then Moses went up unto the mountain of Nebo, to the top of Pisgah, and the Lord showed him the land. There he lay down upon his armor and the angels of God buried him in the land of Moab "and no man knoweth of his sepulcher unto this day." (See article by the Rev. Henry Hayman, D. D., on "The Great Pentateuchal Difficulty Met." Bib. Sacr. Oct. 1896, pp. 43, sq.)