104

STATISTICAL ERRORS.

against the Ammonites1, and this number, according to the expression of the text, included the whole people2; yet in the reign of David, his immediate successor, the muster of men bearing arms amounts to 1,300,000, so that in the course of a few years the total population must have received an accession of more than three millions3. Even this, however, is not sufficient for the amended version of the Chronicles, of which the critic Movers1 admits that the

1 "And when he numbered them in Bezek, the children of Israel were three hundred thousand, and the men of Judah thirty thousand." -1 Sam. xi. 8.

2" And the fear of the Lord fell on the people, and they came out with one consent."-1 Sam. xi. 7.

3

And Joab gave up the sum of the number of the people unto the king and there were in Israel eight hundred thousand valiant men that drew the sword; and the men of Judah were five hundred thousand men."-2 Sam. xxiv. 9.

4 See Movers, pp. 64, 81, 268, 326. The researches of Movers have been conducted in the true spirit of criticism, and are seldom biassed, except in a few cases of doctrine, by preconceived opinions. The following is a short summary of the result of his inquiries.

The Chronicles are a compilation from the canonical books of Samuel and the Kings, and some other historical documents of a date, it would appear, (though this may be doubted,) anterior to the Captivity (pp. 95, 103). This unknown source of information (p. 162) was Levitical, and was therefore principally concerned with sacred things; it appears, indeed, from the citations themselves to have been a Midrash, or paraphrase and explanation of the books of the Kings, in the spirit of the times succeeding the Captivity (p. 175). It contains reminiscences of other books, Job and the later Psalms, and puts speeches into the mouths of the historical characters which are at variance even with chronology (p. 182). The additions consist mostly of genealogical tables and catalogues of names, but some are derived from tradition (p. 195). The language betrays the later date of the compilation (p. 183), which forms, as it were, a transition to the Apocrypha (p. 194). Movers dates the origin of the Chronicles between B.C. 478 and в.c. 330, but unfortunately he has not studied the profound researches of Zunz, from which it appears that they could not have been earlier than B.C. 260 (see Zunz, Gottesdienstliche Vorträge der Juden, pp. 21 and 33). All the imputations

STATISTICAL ERRORS.

105

Chronicles raise the census of David to 1,570,000, without including Benjamin and Levi1; the same book represents Abijah as taking the field with 400,000 men against Jeroboam with 800,000, of whom Abijah slays 500,0002, and it supplies Jehoshaphat with an army of 1,160,000 men3,

consequently which have hitherto been thrown on the author of the Chronicles are properly to be charged on the source from which he drew, and on all those points on which he supplies exclusive information such is uniformly the case. In the intentional alterations of numbers, (of many of which Movers has satisfactorily disposed) we may be sure that some reasons existed to justify him : a grammatical correction to suit the number (compare 2 Kings xxiv. 8, with 2 Chron. xxxvi. 9.) is evidence in itself of a well-considered difference of opinion.

Movers appears to refer the origin of the numeral system of the Aramæan inscriptions and Phoenician coins to much too early a date. According to existing specimens, which betray the very first and rudest commencement of the art, it coincides with the period of the Chronicles; and Movers has proved, by very cogent reasons, that it was actually adopted in these books, though the fluctuation between the most ancient mode of expressing numbers by words, the more modern one by means of letters, and the latest by numerals, is sufficient evidence that it was still a very recent invention (see Ewald, Krit. Gram. p. 499). Keil supposes that in the numbers 40 and 80 the letters Mem and Phe may have been confounded, without showing how in the ancient writing this could have been the case (ii. 320).

1 "And Joab gave the sum of the number of the people unto David. And all they of Israel were a thousand thousand and an hundred thousand men that drew sword and Judah was four hundred threescore and ten thousand men that drew sword."-1 Chron. xxi. 5.

2 << 'And Abijah set the battle in array with an army of valiant men of war, even four hundred thousand chosen men: Jeroboam also set the battle in array against him with eight hundred thousand chosen men, being mighty men of valour."-2 Chron. xiii. 3.

:

3 "And these are the numbers of them according to the house of their fathers of Judah, the captains of thousands; Adnah the chief, and with him mighty men of valour three hundred thousand. And next to him was Jehohanan the captain, and with him two hundred and fourscore thousand. And next him was Amasiah the son of Zichri, who willingly offered himself unto the Lord; and with him two hundred thousand mighty men of valour. And of Benjamin Eliada; a mighty

which statement Movers questions; lastly, the Chronicles bring Zerah1 the Ethiopian against Asa with a million of infantry, who are destroyed, to make the victory complete.

Far be it from us, by such examples as we have cited, to bring suspicion on the historical contents of these books, or in the smallest degree to depreciate their real value; our only object is to prevent the reader from admitting, without due thought, such exaggerated statements as would at once be estimated at their proper worth in the history of any other nation3, and still more to prepare him for passing to the review of the mythical narratives of the Pentateuch.

man of valour, and with him armed men with bow and shield two hundred thousand. And next him was Jehozabad, and with him an hundred and fourscore thousand ready prepared for the war."-2 Chron. xvii. 14-18. See Movers p. 269.

1 This name was probably derived from the name in Gen. xxxvi. 13:— "And these are the sons of Reuel; Nahath, and Zerah, Shammah, and Mizzah."

2 "And there came out against them Zerah the Ethiopian with an host of a thousand thousand, and three hundred chariots; and came unto Mareshah......And Asa and the people that were with him pursued them unto Gerar; and the Ethiopians were overthrown, that they could not recover themselves; for they were destroyed before the Lord, and before his host."-2 Chron. xiv. 9, 13.

3 Compare Tacitus, Annal. xiii. 39, and elsewhere.

ASTROLOGICAL

CHAPTER X.

ALLUSIONS

IN

NUMERICAL STATE

MENTS.-INCREASE OF THE POPULATION IN EGYPT. -DYNASTY OF THE HYKSOS.-EARLY HISTORY OF MOSES.-PASSAGE THROUGH THE RED SEA.

RETURNING to our review of the Pentateuch, the number of seventy persons who are represented as having gone into Egypt with Jacob1 is evidently a pure fiction, and belongs to that class which may be fitly termed astrological. We believe that, in addition to the physical groundwork of many of the Hebrew philosophical ideas, an astrological element may be clearly traced in some of the numbers of their early history, and that it is necessary to be upon our guard against ascribing to them more meaning than they really possess, or were formerly known to convey. That the tabernacle, with its three subdivisions, was intended to represent the world, was the opinion even of Josephus 2; in the holy of holies, (as the heavens,) stood the candlestick with seven branches (which also appears on the monuments of Thebes), to represent the planets; for which reason also, according to the Jews, the names of the seven archangels were emblazoned upon

1 "And these are the names of the children of Israel, which came into Egypt, Jacob and his sons......All the souls of the house of Jacob, which came into Egypt, were threescore and ten.”— Gen. xlvi. 8, 27.

2 Archaiol. iii. 5. Compare Clemens Alex. Fragm. p. 1025. Potter.

108

ASTROLOGICAL ALLUSIONS.

them. The twelve cakes of shewbread alluded to the course of the sun, the "molten sea" rested on twelve oxen, and the 'Chronicon Paschale' describes the temple therefore, not inaptly, as an image of the world'. The high-priest, in the same way, was himself a kind of microcosm, and the whole world (as it is said in the Wisdom of Solomon' xviii. 24.) was to be found represented in his ornaments2: according to Clemens of Alexandria, the high-priest bore 360 little bells on his tunic, and, though the Jews reduce the number to seventy or seventy-two, and the 'Evangelium Jacobi' speaks of twelve3, the difference is of little moment, as in each of these three statements a mystic number has been chosen. His breastplate, moreover, was adorned with twelve precious stones, and we know that the Chaldæans and Bactrians practised magic with jewels, that they arranged them in potent chaplets, and that, according to Martianus Capella, the twelve months were represented by as many coloured gems. The twelve tribes of the Israelites were borrowed, without a doubt, from the Sabæan Arabs and neighbouring nations, for the earlier legends are conformed to this type before the Hebrew distribution is recorded5, and it is not without some difficulty

1 Expayɛtov Toй Tavτós. See Fabricius, Bibl. Græc. iv. 14.

2 öλos ó xóoμos, Vulg. “totus orbis terrarum." Luther has incorrectly Schmuck (ornament).

3 Fabric. Cod. Apocryph. N. T. i. 86.

4 Compare Pliny, Hist. Nat. xxxvii. 14. Ritter, Vorhalle, p. 126.

5 66 And as for Ishmael, I have heard thee: Behold, I have blessed him, and will make him fruitful, and will multiply him exceedingly; twelve princes shall he beget, and I will make him a great nation."Gen. xvii. 20.

"These are the sons of Ishmael, and these are their names, by their towns, and by their castles; twelve princes according to their nations.” -Gen. xxv. 16.

Compare note on chap. xlviii. and xlix.