"His truth endureth to all generations." Psa. c. 5.
Having considered the critical assault on the Pentateuch as a whole, attention should be called to the special criticisms on the book of Leviticus. A prominent representative of the school of critics affirmed in his recent lectures at Long Beach, California, that the Hebrews had no literature until their connection with the Babylonians while in captivity, that their literature was developed during their agricultural life while in Babylon. He affirmed that the sacrificial ritual of the book of Leviticus had its roots in the heathen sacrifices growing out of their false conception that their deities must be appeased by the shedding of blood. The Levitical ritual was, therefore, never written nor given by Moses. If this gentleman and the critics that hold with him are correct, we must conclude with them that Moses never saw or heard of our book of Leviticus.
In reply let it be said:
1. The denial of the existence of Hebrew literature prior to the exile is thoroughly answered and set aside by the records discovered on the Egyptian monuments and writings before and during Israel's bondage. Many of the critics have found this criticism untenable, and have abandoned it. They have been obliged to concede that Egyptian and Babylonian literature existed long before the time of Moses. The best scholarship of to-day affirms that "the discovery and first use of writing is certainly as old as the time of Abraham." (See Schaff-Hergoz, Enc. Art. Writing.)
2. If the Bible itself is not a fraud, writing was constantly in use in the time of Moses. See:
(1) Exod. vii. 14: "The Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book."
(2) Exod. xxiv. 4: "And Moses wrote all the words of the Lord."
(3) Exod. xxxiv. 27: "And the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words."
(4) Exod. xxxiv. 28: "And he (God) wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant."
(5) Num. v. 23: "And the priest shall write these curses in a book."