Now we maintain that, according to the narrative before us, these servants were a part of the chosen people of God, and sharers in His Covenant with Abraham. This assertion is easily proved. They had all received the rite of circumcision, and circumcision was the mark of the chosen people; it was the sign of God's Covenant. "This is my covenant which you shall keep between me and you, and thy seed after thee; every male child among you shall be circumcised. And you shall circumcise the flesh of your foreskin; and it shall be a sign of the Covenant between me and you. And the son of eight days shall be circumcised among you, every male child in your generations, he that is born in the house or bought with money of any stranger, that is not of thy seed. He that is born in thy house and he that is bought with thy money must needs be circumcised" (Gen., xvii. 10-13). It is clear, therefore, that Abraham and his posterity were commanded to circumcise not only their children, but their servants and their servants' children, who thus became sharers in the promises of God.
Is it not likely then that, when Jacob came down into Egypt, he took with him not only his lineal descendants, but also his servants and their families? Let it be remembered that he was invited by his son, Joseph, whom God had made "as a father to Pharaoh, and lord of all his house, and ruler throughout all the land of Egypt" (Gen., xlv. 8): that Pharaoh himself had promised, that to Jacob and his household he would give "the good of the land of Egypt", and that they should "eat the fat of the land" (Gen., xlv. 18). Are we to suppose that when the venerable patriarch heard this joyful intelligence, he took with him his flock, and his herds, and all his possessions, but left behind his faithful servants with their wives and children? Would he, in his old age, when prosperity smiled upon him, desert those trusty followers who had come with him from a distant country, and had clung to him in all his varied fortunes? Would he abandon now those men of loyal heart whom he had known from a boy, and who had grown up with himself in his father's house? He knew that they were the chosen people of God: would he have come down into Egypt with his children to "eat the fat of the land", and have left them to perish of hunger in the land of Canaan?
But Dr. Colenso objects, "there is no word or indication of any such cortège having accompanied Jacob into Egypt" (p. 114). We reply that our supposition is still possible and probable, even though no mention were made of it in the brief summary of Moses. It has been well remarked that, when it suits his purpose, Dr. Colenso is at no loss to supply the omissions of the sacred text. Thus, in treating of the "march out of Egypt"—(pp. 61, 62), he supplies aged, infirm, infants, women in childbirth, of whom there is "no word or indication" in the narrative. It happens, however, in the present instance, that there is a pretty clear "indication" in the text, that Jacob was accompanied by "such a cortège". We are informed that "Israel set out with all that he had" (Gen., xlvi. 1). It has been shown that he had a large retinue of servants, and we know that it is the usage of the Pentateuch to reckon men-servants and women-servants amongst the possessions of the patriarchs. Therefore, we are justified in supposing that this phrase included not only the family, cattle, and goods, but also the servants of Jacob.
Again, it is said that "Joseph nourished his father and his brethren and all his father's house, with bread" (Gen., xlvii. 12). And when Joseph went to bury his father in Canaan, we are told that with him went "all the house of Joseph, and his brethren, and his father's house; only their little ones and their flocks, and their herds, they left in the land of Goshen" (Gen., l. 8.) What can be the meaning of the house of Jacob thus distinguished from his children and their little ones? Does it not seem obviously to point to his retinue of servants? Unless, therefore, we set aside the evidence of the Pentateuch itself; unless we can believe that Jacob, in the decline of his life, suddenly snapped asunder the strongest ties of natural affection and of religious duty, we must admit that he brought down into Egypt a very large number of servants. We have seen that, according to the Divine command, their descendants would all receive the rite of circumcision, and be reckoned among the chosen people of God. They would, therefore, be numbered with those who, at the time of the Exodus, went out with Moses into the desert.
It is not true, then, that, in the narrative of the Pentateuch, 2,000,000 of Israelites are represented as having sprung from 70 persons in 215 years. Neither is it true, as we have shown, that only four generations, in the sense of Dr. Colenso, intervened between the sons of Jacob and the adult Hebrew population at the time of the Exodus. There yet remain many serious errors, and gross blunders, and palpable misrepresentations, in the argument of Dr. Colenso; but these we must reserve for a future number of the Record.
FOOTNOTES:
[5] See Gesenius, Fürst, or, indeed, any of the larger Hebrew Lexicons.
[6] Hebrew and English Lexicon; London: Baxter and Sons.
[7] Egypt's Place in Universal History; London: Longman and Co., vol. i., p. 172.
[8] Handwörterbuch über das Alte Testament; Leipzig: 1852.