s is
only saying that the Holy Ghost is the true and proper expositor of his
own communications to man. From the interpretations of Christ and his
apostles, fairly ascertained, there is no appeal. And they are fairly
ascertained when we have learned in what sense they must have been
understood by their hearers. All expositions of the Old Testament that
set aside, either openly or in a covert way, the supreme authority of
Christ and his apostles, are false, and only lead men away from the
truth as it is in Jesus.

CHAPTER IX.

AUTHORSHIP OF THE PENTATEUCH.

The term _Pentateuch_ is composed of the two Greek words, _pente_,
_five_, and _teuchos_, which in later Alexandrine usage signified
_book_. It denotes, therefore, the collection of five books; or, the
five books of the law considered as a whole.

1. In our inquiries respecting the authorship of the Pentateuch, we
begin with the undisputed fact that it existed in its present form in
the days of Christ and his apostles, and had so existed from the time of
Ezra. When the translators of the Greek version, called the Septuagint,
began their work, about 280 B.C., they found the Pentateuch as we now
have it, and no one pretends that it had undergone any change between
their day and that of Ezra, about 460 B.C. It was universally ascribed
to Moses as its author, and was called in common usage _the law_, or the
_law of Moses_.

2. That the authorship of the law in its written form is ascribed to
Moses in the New Testament every one knows. "The law was given by
Moses;" "Did not Moses give you the law?" "Had ye believed Moses, ye
would have believed me; for he wrote of me;" "For the hardness of your
heart he," Moses, "wrote you this precept;" "Master, Moses wrote unto
us;" "What is written in the law? how readest thou?" etc. Since now the
whole collection of books was familiarly known to the people as _the
law_, or _the law of Moses_, it is reasonable to infer that our Saviour
and his apostles use these terms in the same comprehensive sense, unless
there is a limitation given in the context. Such a limitation the
apostle Paul makes when he opposes to the Mosaic law the previous
promise to Abraham: "The covenant that was confirmed before of God in
Christ, the law, which was four hundred and thirty years after, cannot
disannul, that it should make the promise of none effect." Gal. 3:17,
and compare the following verses. But in the following chapter Paul
manifestly