iant. Moses seems
honestly to have collated these traditions, and has, no doubt, given them
in their respective versions as he received them from Jethro, his
father-in-law, and from the patriarchal instruction among the elders of his
people in Egypt. Thus we can recognize those in which the name Elohim is
used as being of much earlier date than the same tradition differently
told, where the word Jehovah indicates the name of Deity. For instance, we
find in one place[11] the command of God to Noah to take the beasts and
fowls, &c., into the ark by sevens. But again, in the same chapter,[12] we
find them taken only by pairs. Are these not variant traditions of one
event? So, of the story of Abraham passing off his wife for his sister
before Pharaoh, king of Egypt,[13] and also before Abimelech, king of
Gerar,[14] and the farther tradition of Isaac and Rebecca having done the
same thing before Abimelech, king of Gerar.[15] Are not these variant
traditions of one fact? The legal experience of the writer for many years,
convinces him that no two persons without collusion view a transaction
generally exactly alike. Frequently--and each equally sincere and
honest--they widely vary in their testimony. {18} Collusion may produce a
story without contradiction. Slight discrepancies show there is no fraud,
only that the witnesses occupied different stand points, or gave more or
less attention to what was the subject matter.

But, asking pardon for this digression, let us return to our theme.

We know little or nothing about the teaching of the patriarchs in the
Elohistic age. Neither writing nor sculpture thereof existed in the time of
Moses, except, perhaps, the lost book of Enoch, or, unless--which we are
inclined to doubt--the book of Job had just before his era been reduced to
writing by the Idumean, Assyrian, or Chaldean priesthood. We find at that
period that sacrifices were offered on mountain tops. Why? Abraham went to
such a place to offer up his son. Was it not for secrecy in the religious
rite? If the earliest instruction was from God, whose truth is unchangeable
and eternal, were not the earliest sacrifices offered in secret by reason
of the same command which subsequently obliged the high priest of his
chosen people to offer the great sacrifice in secret within the veils,
first of the Tabernacle, afterward of the Temple? The Elohistic age ended
with the first official act of Moses, after he, also, had met with Aaron on