Deuteronomy (The Speeches of Moses) - Ferrar Fenton Bible Translation page 193
The Five Books of Moses
DEUTERONOMY.
in my margin, I think, arose at the time when our present text was copied on to a roll
of skins, from the original stone plates or tablets upon which Moses engraved the Speeches
for record in the Ark of Witnesses, as stated by Aliazer, his Editor, in Ch. xxxi., v. 24, of
Deuteronomy. The Scribe then evidently confused the order of the plates. The fact that
the various passages implicated contain about the same number of words, I take as an indica—
tion that my view is the right one. My learned and judicious friend, the Rev. j. Bowen,
however, informs me that a previous commentator upon this part of Deuteronomy, who had
noted the confusion in the records, has suggested an even earlier period for its origination.
He believed, and Mr. Bowen seems to agree with him, that it was made at the time when, in
dance with the command of Mosesthe L
uon the ill
accor, aw was engrave, p,ppars set up, and covered with some enduring chemical plaster, in the Vale ofythe jordan, upon the
f joshua and his Army. That there the auto raphic tablets of M
passage ooses were in these paragraphs misarranged, and subsequent transcribers giled to rectify the error. I leave my
readers to decide which theory has the best weight of evidence to support it,—-—F. F.
END OF THE FIFTH ORATION.
i93
