of this economy with all its details, omitted to record the great transactions with the patriarchs which lie at its foundation?  There are other references to the book of Genesis in the law of Moses.  The institution of the Sabbath is expressly based on the order of creation recorded in the first two chapters; and when the people leave Egypt they carry with them the bones of Joseph, in accordance with the oath which he had exacted of them.  Gen. 50:25, compared with Exod. 13:19.

To the Mosaic authorship of Genesis it has been objected, that it contains marks of a later age.  But these marks, so far as they have any real existence, belong not to the substance of the book.  They are restricted to a few explanatory notices, which may well have been added by Ezra or some prophetical man before him, in setting forth a revised copy of the law.  See No. 3, above.  The passages which can, with any show of probability, be referred to a later age, are, taken all together, very inconsiderable, and they refer only to incidental matters, while the book, as a whole, bears all the marks of high antiquity.

To the Mosaic authorship of this book it has been objected again, that it contains the writings of different authors.  This is especially argued from the diversity of usage in respect to the divine name, some passages employing the word Elohim, God, others the word Jehovah, or a combination of the two terms.  Whatever force there may be in this argument, the validity of which is denied by many who think that the inspired writer designedly varied his usage between the general term God and the special covenant name Jehovah, it goes only to show that Moses may have made use of previously existing documents; a supposition which we need not hesitate to admit, provided we have cogent reasons for so doing.  Whatever may have been the origin of these documents, they received through Moses the seal of God’s authority, and thus became a part of his inspired word.

Several writers have attempted to distinguish throughout the book of Genesis the parts which they would assign to different authors; but beyond the first chapters they are not able to agree among themselves.  All attempts to carry the distinction of different authors into the later books rest on fanciful grounds.

12.  That the Pentateuch, as a whole, proceeded from a single author, is shown by the unity of plan that pervades the whole work.  The book of Genesis constitutes, as has been shown, a general introduction to the account which follows of the establishment of the theocracy; and it is indispensable to the true understanding of it.  In the first part of the book of Exodus we have a special introduction to the giving of the law; for it records the deliverance of the Israelites from bondage in Egypt, and their journey to Sinai.  The Mosaic institutions presuppose a sanctuary as their visible material centre.