elders who acted under him.

"2. The books of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers are to a great extent
Mosaic. Besides those portions which are expressly declared to
have been written by him, other portions, and especially the
legal sections, were, if not actually written, in all probability
dictated by him.

"3. Deuteronomy, excepting the concluding part, is entirely the work
of Moses, as it professes to be.

. . . . . . . . . .

"5. The first _composition_ of the Pentateuch as a whole could
not have taken place till after the Israelites entered Canaan.

"6. The whole work did not finally assume its present shape till its
revision was undertaken by Ezra after the return from the
Babylonish captivity."

The volume from which I have quoted these words bears the date of 1870.
Twenty years of very busy work have been expended upon the Pentateuch
since Dr. Perowne wrote these words; if he were to write to-day he would
be much less confident that Moses wrote the whole of Deuteronomy, and he
would probably modify his statements in other respects; but he would
retract none of these admissions respecting the composite character of
these five books.

The same fact of a combination of different documents can easily be
shown in all the three middle books of the Pentateuch, as well as in