9.  The above result in reference to that part of the law which precedes Deuteronomy, is confirmed by the testimony of the New Testament.  In disputing with the Sadducees, our Lord appealed to the writings of Moses, which they acknowledged:  “Now that the dead are raised, even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and the God of Jacob.”  Luke 20:37.  It was by recording the words of God, as given in Exodus 3:6, that Moses called the Lord the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.  The apostle Paul, again, referring to Lev. 18:5, says:  “Moses describeth”—­literally, writeth—­“the righteousness which is of the law, That the man which doeth those things shall live by them.”  Rom. 10:5.  Here also belong certain passages that speak of precepts in “the law of Moses,” as Luke 2:22-24, where the reference is to various precepts in Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers—­Exod. 13:2; 22:29; 34:19; Lev. 12:2, seq.; Numb. 3:13; 8:17; 18:15—­John 7:22, 23, where the reference is to Lev. 12:2; for with the New Testament writers “the law of Moses” means the law written by Moses.  In like manner we find references in the Old Testament to the books of the law of Moses that precede Deuteronomy—­2 Chron. 23:18 compared with Numb. 28:2, seq.; 2 Chron. 24:6 compared with Exod. 30:12, seq.; Ezra 3:2-5 compared with Numb. 28:2, seq., and 29:12, seq.; Neh. 8:15 compared with Lev. 23:40.

10.  The relation of the book of Deuteronomy to the earlier portions of the law deserves a careful consideration.  And, first, in regard to time.  All that portion of the law which precedes the sixteenth chapter of the book of Numbers was given in the first and second years after the exodus; consequently thirty-eight years before the composition of the book of Deuteronomy.  The four chapters of Numbers that follow, chaps. 16-19, are generally dated about twenty years later—­that is, about eighteen years before the composition of Deuteronomy.  Only the last seventeen chapters of Numbers, which are mostly occupied with historical notices, were written in the preceding year.

Then, as it respects general design.  At Horeb the entire constitution of the theocracy was to be established.  This part of the law is, therefore, more formal and circumstantial.  It gives minute directions for the celebration of the passover; for the construction of the tabernacle and its furniture; for the dress, consecration, duties, and perquisites of the priesthood and Levitical order; for the entire system of sacrifices; for the distinction between clean and unclean animals; for all those duties that were especially of a priestly character, as judgment in the case of leprosy, and purification from ceremonial uncleanness; for the order of journeying and encamping in the wilderness, etc.  In a word, it gives more prominence to the forms of the law, and the duties of those to whom its administration was committed.