LOST BOOKS FOUND OR RE-WRITTEN.
Dupin says a portion of the books of the Old Testament were burned in wars, and others lost by the Jews themselves; and in the Second Book of Chronicles (xxxiv. 14) we are told that Hilkiah found the Book of the Law after it had been lost eight hundred years. This law appears to have constituted the most important portion of the Jewish sacred writings. The circumstance gives rise to some very strange reflections and conclusions. It appears from this circumstance that the Lord's holy people had been without any law to guide or govern them for eight long centuries. Now, can we suppose for a moment that their God, Jehovah, was a being of infinite wisdom to write or dictate a law, and base the happiness and welfare of his people if not the world on that law, and then, through carelessness or otherwise, suffer it to get lost, and remain unfound for eight hundred years, so that nobody could have the benefit of it during that long period? The very thought is a trespass upon our good sense, and does violence to our reason. And where was the law during all that time? and how was it preserved for so long a period of time? If written on papyrus or parchment, it would have perished in less than a century from being exposed to the weather: for we can't assume it was preserved in a drawer or box, as, in that case, it would not have been lost; and, if engraven on stone, the weight would have been fifty times as much as Hilkiah could carry. We are told that when Josiah the king heard the law read, he rent his clothes (2 Chron. xxxiv. 19).
Well, that is strange indeed. It must have been a very curious law, or he must have been a very curious man. Why the reading of a few plain moral precepts should drive a man to insanity, and cause him to tear his clothes, is something hard to understand. And it is evidence that the whole Jewish tribe had never known or read much about the law: otherwise a knowledge of it would have been preserved by tradition, and the king would not have been so profoundly ignorant of it. If the law was the Pentateuch, as some writers assume, the king would have had to stand a week to hear it all read; and it seems strange that "Shaphan the scribe" could pick up a document covered with the mold, rust, and dust of eight centuries, and read it off with sufficient expertness for the king to listen to with patience. But the wonder and difficulty don't stop here. It was only about a quarter of a century until this great "holy and divine law" was lost again; which left "the Lord's holy people" again without any moral code to guide them, or a governing law, for six centuries longer. No wonder they preferred worshiping a calf (see Exod. xxxii.) to paying homage to a God so reckless of their welfare and happiness. On this occasion it became so thoroughly lost, that it never "turned up" again; and there seemed to be no way to remedy the deplorable loss but to have it written over again. At least that appears to have been the impression of Ezra the priest, who set himself to the onerous task of reproducing the long-lost document from memory or from a second installment of divine inspiration. (See Esdras.) Such a memory does not often fall to the lot of mortals to possess,—a memory that could enable a man to reproduce a document which neither he nor any other person had read for six hundred years. If the world could be furnished with such a mental prodigy at the present day, we might again have the benefit of the numerous books and libraries which have been destroyed by fire in modern times. It would require no previous knowledge of any of those works to achieve the task of reproducing them. Perhaps we may be told that we are becoming "wise above what is written." It would require no mental effort to attain to this eminence, and become obnoxious to such a charge. In this case, a few brief sentences, and the whole thing is dismissed: no details are given. The story of Hilkiah finding the Book of the Law sounds very much like Joe Smith finding the Mormon Bible; and the case of Ezra's re-writing it is matched by the story of "Vyass the Holy" finding the divine law of the Brahmins some three thousand years before Hilkiah was born. Mr. Higgins says that nearly all ancient religious nations had the tradition of losing and finding their holy books, holy laws, and holy languages. The query is here suggested, that if such an important document could be restored to the people in the manner adopted by Ezra, why was not this expedient resorted to a thousand years sooner, and thus save the demoralization of the Jews? The policy adopted is too much like "locking the stall after the horse is stolen."
IMPOSSIBILITY OF POSSESSING A RELIABLE TRANSLATION.
It is quite evident, from the facts presented and from others which will hereafter be presented, that, if God ever gave forth a revelation of his will to the founders of the Jewish and Christian religions, the world is not in possession of it now, and can not find it in a book as old as the Christian Bible, and written by simply stringing consonants together in a line without any vowels, and without any distinction of words, and which must necessarily be an enigma that would puzzle any scholar to decipher. Hence the learned Le Clere says, "Even the learned guess at the sense in an infinity of places, which has produced a prodigious number of discordant interpretations." And Simonton, in his "Critical History," says, "It is unquestionable that the greater part of the Hebrew words of the Old Testament are equivocal in their signification, and utterly uncertain; and that even the most learned Jews doubt almost every thing in regard to their proper meaning." To talk of finding "all scripture given by inspiration of God" environed with such difficulties, is to talk nonsense. We will illustrate the nature of these difficulties by citing a case. We will look at the random guessing at the meaning of a single word of a single text by the most learned students and scholars in biblical literature. The word indicating the material of which Noah's ark was com-posed, our translation says, was gophir-wood: but the Arabic translation says it was box-wood; the Persian translation says it was pine-wood; another translation makes it red ebony; and still another declares it was wicker-work; Davidson, assuming to be "wise above what is written" the case, says it was bulrushes cemented with pitch; another writer translates it cedar-wood, &c. And thus God's Holy Book, designed for the guidance of man, has been the sport and the bauble of learned guessers in all ages of Christendom, who evidently know as much about it, in many cases, as a goose does about Greek.
MANY DIFFERENT CHRISTIAN BIBLES.
Owing to the multiplicity of Bible translations, which differ widely in their doctrines, precepts, and the relation of general events, making a different collection of books to constitute "the word of God," various churches, and even individual professors, have assumed the liberty to compile and make a Bible for themselves. The Roman-Catholic Bible differs essentially from that of the Protestants', having fourteen more books. The Bible of the Greek Church differs from both. The Campbellites have a translation of their own. The Samaritan Bible contains only the Five Books of Moses. The Unitarians, having found twenty-four thousand errors in the popular translation, made another translation containing still many thousand errors.
The American Christian Union, having found many thousand errors in King James's translation, are now engaged in a new translation. How many more we are to have, God only knows. Martin Luther condemned eleven books of the Bible, as we have already stated, and thus made a Bible for Himself. Paul's Epistle to the Hebrews he denounced in strong terms. Eusebius, the learned ecclesiastical writer, throws eight Bible-books overboard, and had a Bible to his own fancy. Dr. Lardner and John Calvin each condemned five or six books, and had a Bible peculiar to themselves. Grotius places the heel of condemnation on several books of the Bible. Bishop Baxter voted down eight books as uninspired, and unworthy of confidence. Swedenborg accepted only the Four Gospels and Revelation as inspired. The German fathers rejected the Gospel of St. Matthew, and I know not how many other books. The Bible of the learned Christian writer Evanson did not contain either Matthew, Mark, or John. The Unitarian Bible does not contain Hebrews, James, Jude, or Revelation. The Catholics denounce the Protestant Bible, and the Protestants condemn the Catholic Bible, as being full of errors. A number of other churches and learned Christians might be named who had Bibles of their own selection and construction. And thus every book in the Bible has passed under the flaming sword of condemnation, and has been voted down by some ecclesiastical body or learned and devout Christian. Each church has either made out a Bible for itself, or accepted that which came the nearest teaching the doctrine of their own peculiar creed. In the midst of this rejection, expulsion, and expurgation of Bibles and Bible-books, where can we find "the scripture given by inspiration of God"? We have it upon the authority of Dr. Adam Clark, Eusebius, Bishop Marsh, and other writers, that many texts and passages contained in our Bible can not be found in the earlier editions; thus showing that many gross interpolations and forgeries have been practiced by the Christian fathers. Christ's prayer on the cross, "Father, forgive them," &c., the story of the woman taken in adultery, the passage relative to the three that bare record in heaven, &c., they assure us, can not be found in any early translation of the Bible. Where, then, are "the scriptures given by inspiration of God"? Who can tell?