and Jacob; and the
exclusion, first of Ishmael and afterwards of Esau, from a share in its
privileges. In immediate connection with the covenant relation into
which God took Abraham and his family, we have the history of the
patriarchs, Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob, sometimes with much detail, but
always with reference to the peculiar prerogative conferred upon them.
The book closes with an account of the wonderful train of providences by
which Israel was brought into Egypt.

Though Ishmael and Esau were excluded from the covenant, yet,
apparently in consequence of their near relation to the
patriarchs, genealogical tables are devoted to them; to Ishmael,
ch. 25:12-18; to Esau, the whole of ch. 36.

5. The _Mosaic authorship_ of Genesis has already been considered; and,
in connection with this, the question whether the Pentateuch, and
especially Genesis, contains any clauses of a later date, Ch. 9, No. 11.
Some, as Hengstenberg and his followers, deny the existence of such
clauses; but others think that a few must be admitted, which were
afterwards added, as needful explanations, by prophetical men. We are at
liberty to decide either way concerning them according to the evidence
before us. On the question whether Moses made use of earlier written
documents, see Ch. 9, No. 11.

The clauses for which a later date can with any show of reason
be claimed are few in number, and none of them enter essentially
into the texture of the book. They are just such extraneous
remarks as the necessities of a later age required; for example,
Gen. 36:31; Ex. 16:35. On the last of these, Graves, who
considers it "_plainly a passage inserted by a later hand_,"
says: "I contend that the insertion of such notes rather
confirms than impeaches the integrity of the original narrative.
If this were a compilation long subsequent to the events it
records" (according to the false assumption of some respecting
the origin of the Pentateuch), "such additions would not have
been plainly distinguishable, as they now are, from the main
substance of the original." On the Pentateuch, Appendix, sec. 1,
No. 13.

6. The contents of the first part of this book are peculiar. It is not
strange, therefore, that we should encounter _difficulties_ in the
attempt to interpret them. To consider these difficulties in detail
would be to write a commentary on the first eleven chapters. Only some