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?The Biblical Illustrator - Genesis (Ch.0~2)?(A Compilation) General Introduction
Over 34,000 pages in its original 56 volume printing, the Biblical
Illustrator is a massive compilation of treatments on 10,000 passages of
Scripture. It is arranged in commentary form for ease of use in personal
study and devotion, as well as sermon preparation.
Most of the content of this commentary is illustrative in nature, and
includes from hundreds of famous authors of the day such as Dwight L.
Moody, Charles Spurgeon, J. C. Ryle, Charles Hodge, Alexander MacLaren,
Adam Clark, Matthew Henry, and many more. The collection also includes
lesser known authors published in periodicles and smaller publications
popular in that ara. Unlike modern publishers, Exell was apparently not
under any pressure to consolidate the number of pages.
While this commentary is not known for its Greek or Hebrew exposition, the
New Testament includes hundreds of references to, and explanations of,
Greek words.
Joseph S. Exell edited and compiled the 56 volume Biblical Illustrator
commentary. You will recognize him as the co-editor of the famous Pulpit
Commentary (this commentary is even larger than the Pulpit Commentary).
This remarkable work is the triumph of a life devoted to Biblical research
and study. Assisted by a small army of students, the Exell draws on the
rich stores of great minds since the beginning of New Testament times.
The Biblical Illustrator brings Scripture to life in a unique, illuminating
way. While other commentaries explain a Bible passage doctrinally, this
work illustrates the Bible with a collection of:
. illustrations
. outlines
. anecodtes
. history
. poems
. expositions
. geography
. sermons
. Bible backgrounds
. homiletics
for nearly every verse in the Bible. This massive commentary was originally
intended for preachers needing help with sermon preperation (because who
else in that day had time to wade through such a lengthy commentary?). But
today, the Biblical Illustrator provides life application, illumination,
inspiriation, doctrine, devotion, and practical content for all who teach,
preach, and study the Bible. 00 Overview INTRODUCTION TO THE PENTATEUCH
The Title: Pentateuch
The title, Pentateuch, is the Greek name given by the LXX translators to
the five books of Moses, the name by which they were known among the Jews
being "The Law," Torah. In the Scriptures it is called "The Book of the
Law" (2 Kings 22:8), "The Book of the Covenant" (2 Kings 23:2; 2 Kings
23:21; 2 Chronicles 34:30), "The Book of the Law of the Lord" (2 Chronicles
17:9; 2 Chronicles 34:14), "The Law of Moses," "The Book of Moses," or "The
Book of the Law of Moses" (see 2 Chronicles 25:4; 2 Chronicles 35:12; Ezra
6:18; Ezra 7:6; Nehemiah 8:1; Nehemiah 13:1). The division into five books
is by many thought to be also due to the LXX interpp. The Jews, however,
retain the division, calling the whole chamishah chomeshc torah, "The five
quinquernions of the Law," though they only distinguish the several books
by names derived from a leading word in the first verse in each. Thus
Genesis they call Bereshith, i.e., "in the Beginning," Exodus Shemoth, "the
Names," etc. (Speaker's Commentary.)
Israel's Lawgiver: his narrative true and his laws genuine
I. The man Moses. That the Moses of the Bible is a Man and not an Idea, it
is the leading object of these pages to prove. The genuine impulse of the
believing heart and the first clear judgement of the unbiassed mind concur
in rejecting with indignation, as plainly incompatible with the Divine
authority of the Holy Scriptures, the unnatural and groundless fancy that
the greater portion of the laws and the history of Moses is a fiction in
which Moses, the brother of Aaron, had no personal part. Moses, the great
Lawgiver of Israel, is in the new criticism no longer a real man, as the
Church both Hebrew and Christian has in all ages believed him to be; but an
Ideal Person made up of different men, of whom Moses, the leader of Israel
out of Egypt, is the first; and a thousand years after his death Ezra, the
leader of the second company of exiles out of Babylon, is the greatest and
nearly the last. Between these two the critics interpolate, and after them
they add, various unknown men in Jerusalem or in Babylon; all of whom
together, known and unknown, make up the ideal lawgiver and historian whom
they call Moses. Besides Moses, who is most unwarrantably credited with
having left only a few laws in writing, with others given by him orally,
and Ezra, who is quite arbitrarily accused of having written many laws in
the name of Moses, there is a third great writer of whose name the critics
make much use--the prophet Ezekiel. Him, indeed, they can by no means
fashion into their ideal figure of Moses; but they maintain the unfounded
supposition that his closing prophetic vision contains a sketch of new
ceremonial laws for Israel after the Captivity. But, if so, Ezekiel is a
standing witness against their scheme of Moses having been personated by
subsequent priests or prophets when they had new laws to introduce; for he
openly announces all he has to write, not in the name of Moses, but in his
own name from the mouth of the Lord. The critics conceive three Codes of
Laws in the Mosaic Books: the first in Exodus 21:1-36; Exodus 22:1-31;
Exodus 23:1-33, probably given in substance by Moses; the second in
Deuteronomy, written about the time of Josiah; the third, the Levitical or
Priestly Code, scattered through Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, and held
to have been written mainly during the Exile.
II. The ideal Moses of the critics. In proceeding to examine the subject
we note that this ideal Moses of the critics disowns his own ritual, that
he denies their alleged fact of the degradation of the Levites in Babylon,
and that his personation of Moses extending over a thousand years is an
impossible unity.
1. Their ideal Moses in the Second Temple disowns half its ritual.
(1) The critics' ideal Moses ordains no vocal praise, which
constituted half the ritual of the Second Temple. This part of the
Temple service is described by Kuenen in these glowing terms: "In
the period of the Sopherim (scribes) temple song and temple poetry
were at their prime. The Psalms which we still possess have been
rightly called 'the songs of the Second Temple.' Sacrifices were
killed and part of them burnt upon the altar just as formerly. But
their symbolic signification could very easily be lost sight of. On
the contrary, there was no need for anyone to guess at the meaning
of the Temple songs. The service itself had thus assumed a more
spiritual character, and had been made subservient, not merely to
symbolic representation, but also to the clear expression of ethic
and religious thoughts. What a pure and fervent love for the
sanctuary pervades some of the Psalms! The Temple which could draw
such tones from the heart must in truth have afforded pure
spiritual enjoyment to the pilgrim." Yet no place for these songs
is provided in the entire Levitical ritual, although they formed,
not indeed the most essential part, yet the second half of the
sacred service. The framework of the Levitical ritual, as we now
have it, is accepted by the critics for their ideal Moses, and held
by them to be complete; having received its crowning ordinance in
the solemn service of the great Day of Atonement more than a
thousand and fifty years after the giving of the Law on Mount
Sinai. For the perfect consummation of this ritual there was every
possible facility; there was ample time to frame it in one century
after another; there was no check of conscience in attributing new
ordinances to Moses, and in surrounding them with fictitious
incidents in his life; and when the ecclesiastical and civil
authorities concurred in new laws or ceremonies they could either
be added in a mass like Deuteronomy, or interpolated piece by piece
as in the other Mosaic books. In the new theory this ritual was
meagre and imperfect till the time of the Second Temple; new
ordinances had been suggested and ordained by Ezekiel; these were
modified and greatly extended by the priests in Babylon, most of
all by Ezra; and after him they were still further supplemented in
Jerusalem till they took the final form in which we now possess
them. Now there can be no conclusion more certain than that, when
the Levitical ritual under the name of Moses was completed, the
songs of the Levites in the Temple formed no part of that ritual.
If they had, they could on no account have been omitted; they were
sung by ministers in the Temple divinely appointed to the office;
at the great annual feasts they formed a leading and a most
attractive part of the festival; and at the daily sacrifices in the
Temple the Levites "stood every morning to thank and praise the
Lord, and likewise at even." If we believe the Holy Scriptures the
Levitical ritual for the Tabernacle was absolutely completed by
Moses himself; and this magnificent service of song was by Divine
command added afterwards by David in preparation for the Temple.
All this is set aside by the new critics, according