which drove them out from before you, even the two kings of the Amorites; not with thy sword, nor with thy bow. 13 And I gave you a land whereon thou hadst not labored, and cities which ye built not, and ye dwell therein; of vineyards and oliveyards which ye planted not do ye eat.

14 Now therefore fear Jehovah, and serve him in sincerity and in truth; and put away the gods which your fathers served beyond the River, and in Egypt; and serve ye Jehovah. 15 And if it seem evil unto you to serve Jehovah, choose you this day whom ye will serve; whether the gods which your fathers served that were beyond the River, or the gods of the Amorites, in whose land ye dwell: but as for me and my house, we will serve Jehovah.

16 And the people answered and said, Far be it from us that we should forsake Jehovah, to serve other gods; 17 for Jehovah our God, he it is that brought us and our fathers up out of the land of Egypt, from the house of bondage, and that did those great signs in our sight, and preserved us in all the way wherein we went, and among all the peoples through the midst of whom we passed; 18 and Jehovah drove out from before us all the peoples, even the Amorites that dwelt in the land: therefore we also will serve Jehovah; for he is our God.

19 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye cannot serve Jehovah; for he is a holy God; he is a jealous God; he will not forgive your transgression nor your sins. 20 If ye forsake Jehovah, and serve foreign gods, then he will turn and do you evil, and consume you, after that he hath done you good. 21 And the people said unto Joshua, Nay; but we will serve Jehovah. 22 And Joshua said unto the people, Ye are witnesses against yourselves that ye have chosen you Jehovah, to serve him. And they said, We are witnesses. 23 Now therefore put away, said he, the foreign gods which are among you, and incline your heart unto Jehovah, the God of Israel. 24 And the people said unto Joshua, Jehovah our God will we serve, and unto his voice will we hearken. 25 So Joshua made a covenant with the people that day, and set them a statute and an ordinance in Shechem. 26 And Joshua wrote these words in the book of the law of God; and he took a great stone, and set it up there under the oak that was by the sanctuary of Jehovah. 27 And Joshua said unto all the people, Behold, this stone shall be a witness against us; for it hath heard all the words of Jehovah which he spake unto us: it shall be therefore a witness against you, lest ye deny your God. 28 So Joshua sent the people away, every man unto his inheritance.

71. E THE DEATH OF JOSHUA. Jg. 28-9(7) Rd.

Josh. 2429-30(31)

29 And it came to pass after these things, that Joshua the son of Nun, the servant of Jehovah, died, being a hundred and ten years old. 30 And they buried him in the border of his inheritance in Timnath-serah, which is in the hill-country of Ephraim, on the north of the mountain of Gaash. 31 And Israel served Jehovah all the days of Joshua, and all the days of the elders that outlived Joshua, and had known all the work of Jehovah, that he had wrought for Israel.

72. E JOSEPH BURIED IN SHECHEM. E3xiii, 6 (Gn. 5025). Josh. 2432

32 And the bones of Joseph, which the children of Israel brought up out of Egypt, buried they in Shechem, in the parcel of ground which Jacob bought of the sons of Hamor the father of Shechem for a hundred pieces of money: and they became the inheritance of the children of Joseph.

73. E THE DEATH OF ELEAZAR. E48.

Josh. 2433

33 And Eleazar the son of Aaron died; and they buried him in the hill of Phinehas his son, which was given him in the hillcountry of Ephraim.

CHAPTER III

P: THE PRIESTLY CODE

1. LITERARY CHARACTERISTICS.

P is far less in need of an explanatory introduction than is J or E. Its characteristics impress themselves at once on every reader. No page, no verse, of P (with few exceptions) could be taken for J or E. If any body of literature ever bore on its face the marks of belonging together, it is the priestly code. Eerdmans was strategic in his method of attack; if P can be undermined, then, indeed, modern literary and historical criticism is hopelessly in error.

a. Is P a Literary Unity?

There is great unanimity among critics with reference to the unity of P. The literature in this collection of history and laws is a unity in the spiritual sense-it embodies unified ideals and uses a unified stereotyped vocabulary; but in the sense of being written by one author or at one time, it is certainly not a unity (so all, even Driver). It is, rather, like a law book that has been amended by successive sessions of a legislature, without any indication as to when or by whom the amendments were made.

Practically all critics since Wellhausen and Kuenen distinguish at least four separate strata in P: (1) Ph or H, the Code of Holiness Lv. 17-26, and a few other passages; (2) Pg, the "Grundschrift"-the basic document-the backbone of the main structure; (3) Ps, numerous later additions to Pg; (4) Rp, the work of the final redactor of the Hexateuch, who combined JED with P in the spirit of P and made such alterations and additions as to create a final unity out of the entire composition.

In the following text the attempt is not made to distinguish the strata of Pg, Ps, and Rp; partly because of differences of

opinion among critics as to the exact separation, but chiefly because such distinctions are relatively unimportant.

Recent writers are, however, tending to magnify the function of Rp. For example, the famous formula "These are the generations of," and the entire chronological scheme are made a later addition of Rp, not merely by Eerdmans, but also by Smend and Eichrodt (Sellin is also impressed by the arguments). But there is as yet no consensus regarding this hypothesis.

b. The Extent of P.

All are agreed that P begins with the creation in Gn. 1, and extends through the conquest of Canaan in Josh.

c. The Literary Style of P.

The style of P is very marked and is entirely different from that of J or E. It is formal, repetitious, precise, abstract in descriptions of Deity, yet minutely concrete in descriptions of objects, such as the tabernacle; legal, statistical, but usually dignified and elevated, and sometimes sublime, as in Gn. 1, It is characterized by interest in genealogy. "There is a tendency to describe an object in full each time that it is mentioned; a direction is followed, as a rule, by an account of its execution, usually in the same words. Sometimes the circumstantiality leads to diffuseness, as in parts of Nu. 1-4 and (an extreme case) Nu. 7" (Driver).

P is a literalist. "Metaphors, similes, etc., are eschewed (Nu. 2717b is an exception) and there is generally an absence of the poetical or dramatic element" (Driver).

The factor of "learned" editing, of fitting everything into a theory about the past, is far more highly developed in P than in E (Steuernagel).

d. P's Peculiarities in the Use of Proper Names.

Generally P shows himself dependent on JE where he is dealing with the same persons or places.

However, a few peculiarities may be noted. He always prefers the expression "land of Canaan" or Egypt; he speaks of Sinai (with J), not Horeb (E, D); up to Gn. 17 he uses the forms "Abram" and "Sarai"; the original home of the Hebrews he only calls Paddan Aram (vs. Aram Naharaim J). P alone

With

tells us that Ur of the Chaldees was Abraham's city. reference to the divine name, he follows the usage of E rather than J; but also frequently employs the name "God Almighty" (El Shaddai) which is in J Gn. 4925, Nu. 244.16

e. Characteristic Words and Expressions.

Driver lists 50 characteristic expressions of P; McNeile 33. It would be superfluous to attempt here a complete list. Some of the more important words and expressions are (following McNeile): anoint, atonement, burn, between the two evenings, congregation (of the Israel of the exodus in H and P 115 t., never elsewhere), dwell, dwelling, everlasting ordinance, families (after your or their) generations, glory of Jehovah, heave, holy, holiness, hosts, incense, offer, priest (act as a), prince, Sabbatic observance (tr. solemn rest, cf. P 29: Ex. 1623), this self-same day, soul (in sense of person: in P nearly 100 t., not in J or E), strange (in sense of one who does not belong to the tribe or family of the priests; or used of things not ritually correct), swarm, testimony, tribe (literally, staff: 150 t. in P, 23 t. in 1 Ch., never in JED).

The force of these stylistic criteria is seen the more clearly when one considers that many of P's peculiar terms are found outside the Pentateuch almost wholly in Ezekiel (exilic) and Chronicles (post-exilic). For instance, Driver points out that the ancient form of the personal pronoun, first person singular -anoki-is to be found in P only in Gn. 234, and in Ez. only in 3628; whereas the later form-ani-is found in every other instance in P and Ez., and also in the later literature in general, such as Lam., Hag., Zech. 1-8, Chron., Ezra, Neh., Esther, Eccl., Dn. In all this material anoki occurs only Neh. 1o, Dn. 1011, 1 Ch. 171 (from 2S. 71). The ancient form (ani) is always used by JE.

2. CHARACTERISTIC IDEAS.

a. Aim of P.

P has a single aim: to teach the ritual law, with its divine historical sanctions.. P has, indeed, a brief outline narrative of the nation's history from the creation to Joshua; but the only function of the history is to provide the framework for