Part 1 (1/2)

Legal Lore.

by Various.

Preface.

The favourable reception given to my volume issued under the t.i.tle of ”The Lawyer in History, Literature, and Humour,” has induced me to prepare, on similar lines, the present book, dealing with curiosities of the law. I hope those who are interested in the study of the byways of literature may find entertainment and instruction in its pages, and that it will win a welcome not only from the legal profession, but from the reading public.

I am enabled by the courtesy of Messrs. Chatto & Windus, to reproduce for my frontispiece, an ill.u.s.tration from a work published by them, under the t.i.tle of ”Credulities Past and Present.”

WILLIAM ANDREWS.

THE HULL PRESS, 10th December, 1896.

LEGAL LORE.

Bible Law.

BY S. BURGESS, M.A.

At the very outset of any treatment of so delicate a subject as that indicated by the t.i.tle of this chapter, we are met by no small difficulty.

This consists in the danger of committing unintentional errors of irreverence, and thus offending the prejudices of those who are more or less pledged to their belief in the verbal inspiration of every Bible chapter and verse. With this risk before us, we can only trust to our own sense of a rational view of a subject so full of capabilities of misconstruction. Those of us who can remember the outburst of righteous indignation at the publication of the ”Essays and Reviews” and of ”Ecce h.o.m.o,” feel surprise at the quiet indifference with which views expressed in them are now received. This does not at all, or necessarily, mean that men's faith is colder, or that the spirit of reverent religious feelings has died away. The advance of accurate scientific investigation may have upset the faith of some, and given a subject for outbursts of intolerant pulpit denunciations, but we must think that there are signs plainly discernible of a quiet acceptation of modern discovery by the majority of thoughtful and devout believers in the inspiration of Holy Scripture.

These remarks will be found not unneedful as we pursue the examination of this particular branch of Biblical study, namely, the Law as it is found in the Bible, and this will be seen at once when it is laid down as an absolutely necessary condition of our investigation that this same Law can plainly be divided into two distinct portions--that which is of Divine, and that which is of human origin. The bare statement of this fact will offend certain prejudices. The Divine ”Fiat” stamps with as marvellous and undoubted clearness, certain portions, as other parts are marked by the progress of human intelligence, the needs of human society, and the force of the human will.

The very fact of the existence of Law entails the necessity of Penalty, and this may be spiritual or corporal. The former depends on the acknowledgment of the rule over us of a Superior Being. The latter is a necessary accompaniment of all and every human life, believing or unbelieving. So in the Bible Law we can easily distinguish between the penalty affixed to the breaking of the first of the Ten Commandments, and that which followed on the breaking of the sixth. On the authority of Hebrew scholars, we are told that the use of the Hebrew Article shows that _The Law_ refers to the expressed will of G.o.d. If this rule be invariable, it would be of great value, and especially so in the use of the Greek Article.

The writers of the Psalms gave forth an intense reflection of the old Law; always presuming, as they of course did, that it emanated from the Deity.

Now let us be allowed to start with the a.s.sumption that the Mosaic is the earliest form of tabulated Law. A most excellent book has just been published, ”The History of Babylonia,” by the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge. It is a cheap little book, but full of information upon which one feels able to rely. We find there that the Moral Law of Babylonia represents the spirit of Bible Law so accurately that it would be absurd to set up any theory of an independent basis.

We must make a date somewhere, and therefore we cannot do better than choose a date that can be fairly tested, and safely on this side of mythical eras,--and that is about 1500 B.C. This must appear a very safe and modest date to fall back upon. The Babylonians want us to go back 432,000 years, but to accept this a.s.sertion requires more faith than most of us possess.

For our present purpose there is nothing gained by comparing the Mosaic Law with that discovered with such infinite care and learning in the Babylonian records. The utmost that can be said is that we have startling coincidences, and an intensely interesting subject opened out. But there is no single grain of information, and that is what we are just now in search of. We feel quite distrustful of doc.u.ments, especially _stone_ ones, which give the lifetime of Alorus as extending to 36,000 years. That was before the Deluge. The Wandering Jew sinks into insignificance, and is a mere puling infant by the side of such figures as these, because the son of Alorus reigned for 46,800 years. However short the ”year” was, the period of life was quite lengthy. If a year was our week, the last named patriarch was about 1,000 years old.

This is a departure somewhat from the Law as it is in our Bibles. But it will be an interesting study for some kind student to compare that Law with the echoes thereof found in Asiatic literature, even far away on the eastern sh.o.r.es of China. The mystery still unsolved is, ”_How did it get there?_”

With the greatest diffidence we make the statement that the first notion of Law was in connection with sacrifice. The time may come when this can be refuted. But at present, leaving out of the question natural and unwritten Law, we find no bond but this. Sacrifice comes to us as a Law from a Superior Being. Heathen nations have recognized the efficacy of sacrifice and offerings.

Man without Law was an impossibility. No living thing can exist without some Law. Thus we look back to the first records of created living things for some Law. Science sheds a great, broad, and even scaring, light on the Law prevailing over inanimate nature. The seas and the fields obey it.

But for us to make a record of Law as it made its beginning, is a task too great, and it is indeed then we feel that ”fools may rush in” where better souls have had to languish in doubt.

Let us take the Law in the Bible as we can read it, and how few care to read it! There was a man once who had read the whole of the first five books through _twice_. Thinking there might be something to gain from such abnormal study, we propounded a few questions on this very subject. The result was a senseless repet.i.tion of verses from Leviticus. And yet, to tell the honest truth, there is very little left us to do but to _quote_.

There is a little a.s.sistance we can give, and most thankful we are to have it in our power to do so. Let us all the time remember that the Bible Law is the sole foundation of every Law, Human and Divine, as far as we can discover. If it can be proved that the Babylonian record with its 40,000 year old kings is to be relied on, then by all means let us accept it.

We start with the sacrifice as the ”_companion_” of the Law. No one can feel hurt by this. It is no good to any of us to ask whether Abel's sacrifice was according to revealed Law or anterior to it. It is plain that sacrifice came to be the great medium of the Law between man and the great prevailing Law. With this allowed, all the rest is easier to grasp.