Page:The Collected Works of Theodore Parker Discourse volume 1.djvu/266

Rh records and the Sibylline oracles, and the religious books of all nations; then, among so many, one is of no value, for the very excellence of a miraculous work is thought to consist in the fact of its being the only miraculous work.

To leave these assumptions and come to facts, this general thesis may be laid down, and maintained: Every book of the Old Testament bears distinct marks of its human origin; some of human folly and sin; all of human weakness and imperfection. If this thesis be true, the Bible is not the direct work of God; not the master of the Mind and Conscience, Heart and Soul of man. To prove this proposition it is necessary to go into some details. The Hebrews divided their scriptures into the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings, to each of which they assigned a peculiar degree of inspiration. The Law was infallibly inspired, God speaking with Moses face to face; the Prophets less perfectly, God addressing them by visions and dreams; the Writings still more feebly, God communicating to their authors by figures and enigmas. This ancient division may well enough be followed in this discussion.

This comprises the first five books of the Bible. They are commonly ascribed to Moses; but there is no proof that he wrote a word of them. Only the Decalogue, in a compendious form, and perhaps a few fragments, can be referred to him with much probability. From the use of peculiar words, from local allusions, and other incidental signs, it is plain here are fragments from several different writers, who lived no one knows when or where, their names perfectly unknown to us. They all bear marks of an age much later than that of Moses, as any one familiar with ancient history, and free from prejudice, may see on examination.

But if they were written by Moses, we are not, on the bare word of a writer, to admit the miraculous infallibility