Required reading
Conclude Pentateuch in Notes on the Bible in Vol 2 of the Works by Jonathan Edwards (Available from Amazon or free here).
My summary
This week Edwards shows that the Pentateuch along with its record of historical events was universally accepted among the Jews, before the Babylonian and after the Babylonian captivity. It was even accepted by the Samaritans.
Edwards also makes some comments on the very few parts of the Pentateuch not written by Moses.
What grabbed me
I liked this comment from Edwards: 'It was impossible that this vast number of events, with so many circumstances, with names of persons and places, and minute incidents, should be so particularly and exactly known, and the knowledge of them so fully, and distinctly, and without confusion or loss, kept up for so many ages, and be so often mentioned in so particular a manner, without error or inconsistency through so many ages, without a written record. How soon does an oral tradition committed to a multitude vary, and put on a thousand shapes, and mix, and jumble, and grow into confusion! Here appears in fact to have been an exact consistent knowledge and memory of things kept up, and that shows that there was in fact a standing record; and the comparing of the records of the Pentateuch with these innumerable citations and references, shows that this was in fact that identical record.'
The Pentateuch is a reliable source of history.
Next week's reading
Commence Genesis in Notes on the Bible in Vol 2 of the Works by Jonathan Edwards (Available from Amazon or free here) by reading up to [323] Gen v. 29.
Now it's your turn
Please post your own notes and thoughts in the comments section below.
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