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prevent my bevng diverted from those views which I had once for all adopted * I considered myself bound to pass over the previous labours of As true , and to dediee his assistance as my guide * What the results of my
investigations are , shall be hereafter detailed , without the smallest claim on my ; part to any superiority over my predecessors , by affecting to shew wherein Clericus and Simon may have suffered themselves to be misled , or in what particulars Fleury and De
Francois jxiay have been mistaken , and Astruc , Jerusalem find Ilgen may have fallen into error . In the mean time , and as a necessary step to our ulterior proceedings , it may not be amiss to devote a -section or two to consider the most ancient modes of preserving history .
( Desunt §§ 416 , b . et e . ) § 4 ) 7 . I . The Bodh of Genesis contains severul separate and distinct Documents or Records . Several chapters in Genesis bear the stamp of being distinct , isolated
records , the authors of which , as far as we are at present able to judge , had nothing whatever to do with the remamder . That portion of it comprising the second chapter , exclusive of the four first verses , hut including the whole of the third chapter , exhibits an instance of such a distinct and
isolated document . The first chapter is in no wise connected with the second from the fourth verse , and the superscription itself , ( chap . ii . 4 , ) " This is the origin of heaven and earth /' plainly enough separates them . The
reader will moreover find , that in the first chapter a very ingenious plan is laid down , which through-out is followed up with no small display of art , awd according to which every Idea has its appropriate place allotted to it , whereas a perusal of the . second chapter will shew , that from" the fourth
verse the narrative is that of early childhood , characteristic of a noble simplicity , and breathing the language of the remotest periods of the world .
The name J *} lcMm is invariably applied to God throughout the'first chapter , and as far as ' the fourth vergfle in the second j but from thence io ' tjie end of " the third chapter he is as invariably
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styled Jehovah Elohim . It remains to be asked , if so striking a < Kfference can be the effect of mere chance , or rather if it ought not to be , eo » $ idered as denoting the existence of two distinct works , the productions of different writers ?
The second chapter , from the fourth verse , and the whole of the third , breathe the same spirit , and exhibit the same train of thought and ideas - y so that in fact the narrative contained in both , appears as intimately connected and suited together as ever two
fragments of an antique monument can possibly be supposed to be . They inform us , that " God allotted to the first human pair a beautiful part of Eden for their residence , where they were permitted to partake of all kinds of fruits and herbs : but at the 3 ame
time cautioned against the produce of a certain tree of a deadly nature : notwithstanding which , they suffered themselves to be persuaded by a serpent to eat of the prohibited fruit , and , in consequence , became subject
to death and expulsion from the happy abodes of paradise / ' Lastly , in no other part of the whole book of Genesis , except in the second and third chapters , is the name Jehovah Elohim applied to God . Such a union of circumstances naturallv warrants the
inference , that both chapters compose one distinct and separate document connected with the remainder of the book , solely by the subject of which they treat , namely , the earliest history of mankind , and in no wise by the name of their author .
The fourteenth chapter , which is introduced into the narrative of Abraham ' s history , appears equally abrupt and isolated . It has nothing to do with the fifteenth , and is merely connected with the twelfth and the
thirteenth chapters by the circumstance of itd referring to an event which occurred subsequent to the separation of Abraham from Lot - > whilst its general tone and style shew a marked difference between it and any preceding or subsequent
chapters . In it alone God is mentioned as }> - ) * O CD'Dttf mp fV ^ t * h \ H 9 " most hi tf h God , possessor of heaven and eai th ; " in it alone the Creator of the universe is designated as nJp OKI C ^ Dttf , " the gossess . br of heaven anil earth : " and in " tills chapter only
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490 ElchJvorn ' s Account of the Book of Genesis .
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Citation
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Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Aug. 2, 1822, page 490, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct2515/page/34/
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