Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 66:262 (Apr 1909)
Article: Ethics Of The Mosaic Law
Author: Charles Edward Smith

BSac 66:262 (April 1909) p. 267

Ethics Of The Mosaic Law

Rev. Charles Edward Smith

Were the Mosaic statutes righteous? This is a question that we are bound to ask for more than one reason. It is true that David declared in the Nineteenth Psalm that “the statutes of the Lord are right, rejoicing the heart,” and no doubt the poet-prophet of Israel exulted at the moral excellence of the laws of his own nation when he compared them with the codes of other peoples. But the standards of the twentieth century of the Christian era are very different from, and much higher than, those of the tenth century before that era, and many things which evidently seemed right and proper to King David seem so wrong to us that we cannot accept his judgment without reconsidering its grounds. And this we are compelled to do on account of the reproach which is often cast upon these statutes by those who desire to disparage the influence and authority of the Old Testament. This is being done with great acrimony in this generation, and to those who are incompetent to make personal investigation, with seemingly the best of reasons. Under these circumstances reexamination becomes necessary not only to be able to join in David’s exultation, but even to escape from the depressing conviction that this part of the Book is an incumbrance and a disgrace. Are what David called the “statutes of the Jehovah “so far from being worthy of divine authorship as to deserve to be stigmatized as one of man’s most atrocious performances? Or are they, when care-

BSac 66:262 (April 1909) p. 268

fully considered and fairly judged, so right and admirable as to afford fresh reason for believing in the inspiration of the Pentateuch, and the holiness of God?

Let us begin with that part of the statutes which every fair-minded reader must acknowledge to be admirable. No correct judgment regarding the question we have propounded can be looked for from any one who is not candid enough to own that not only is a large part of the Mosaic statutes most praiseworthy, but by far the greater part. One is continually impressed with the humanity, the purity, the great superiority to all other codes known in that age, of the laws and regulations contained in the books of Exodus, Leviticus, Numbers, and Deuteronomy. To cause this to be realized let us examine them somewhat in detail.

We may safely observe that the entire body of ecclesiastical statutes, a very large part of the whole, deserves the highest commendation. First, on account of what we miss in it that we might have feared to find, the presence of which would have lowered it to the common level of a terribly corrupt age; and, secondly, on account of its lofty religious significance, and its remarkable adaptat...