Fourthly. We ask, in what language was the Pentateuch written, if it really was the work of Moses? It is known that Hebrew is a dialect of the Phenician, and that the Jews spoke Egyptian for a very long time before they adopted the language of the people among whom they dwelt. In Psalm lxxxi. we learn that the Jews were surprised to hear the language of the people beyond the Bed Sea. If, therefore, Moses, or any person of that age, is the author of the Pentateuch, it is evident that the Hebrew books are mere translations. What degree of credit does a nation deserve, who have been able to take for originals books that were in the face of them translations? Is it right to persecute men, as priests have done while they had power, for refusing to give credit to this tissue of contradictory and absurd fables?
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"Beware lest any man spoil you through philosophy and vain deceit, after the tradition of men, after the rudiments of the world, and not after Christ." Colos. ii. 5, 8.
"Cum sit nobis divinis literis traditum cognitiones philosophorum stultas esse, ad ipsum re et argumentis docendum et; ne quit bouesto sapieutiæ nomine inductus, aut inanis eloquentiæ splendore deceptus, humanis malet quam divinis credere."
Lactantius, Inst. lib. i. chap. 2.
Porro Esdram sancti patres docent iostanratorem suisse sacrorum librorum, quod non ita intelligendum est, quasi scripturæ sacræ omnes perierint in eversione civitatis, et templi Nabuchodonosor, et ab Esdra divinitas inspirato reparatæ fuerint, ut fabulatur auctor, L, IV. Esdræ C. XIV.
Sed quod Scripturas Mosis, et prophetarum in varia volimina descriptas, et in varia loca dispenreas, et tempore captivitatis non diligenter conservatas, Esdras summa diligentia collectas ordinaverit, et in unum quasi corpus redigerit. Bellarmin de Script. Ecclesiast. page 22.
Sive Mosen dicere volueris auctorem Pentateuchi, sive Esdram ejuadem iustauratorem operis, non recuso. Hieronim.
Op. Tom. IV. p. 134. Apud Edit. Paris 1706