WHO WROTE UPON THE TABLES OF STONE.
By C. P. Bollman
A CORRESPONDENT of the Christian Union is troubled over the question, Who wrote the ten commandments? and sends to that paper asking for light on the subject. He writes: "Ex. 24 says, 'Moses wrote all the words of the Lord,' etc.; Ex. 31:18 says they were 'written with the finger of God;' Ex. 34:28 says, 'Moses was in the mount forty days and forty nights, and he wrote,' etc. Now who wrote them?" The reply is as follows:— " 'Written with the finger of God' can only refer to an inscription miraculously made. It is not expressly asserted, even in Ex. 32:16, that the tables were miraculously engraved. Taken in connection with the parallel statements that 'Moses wrote,' we may suppose that, while there was an inscription miraculously set before him (compare the handwriting on the wall in the book of Daniel), Moses transcribed the divine original upon the tables." How anyone can admit that the words, "'written with the finger of God,' can refer only to an inscription miraculously made," and then say that Ex. 32:16 does not expressly assert "that the tables were miraculously engraved," is more than we can understand. That text says plainly that "the tables were the work of God, and the writing was the writing of God graven upon the tables." And Ex. 31:18 says that the Lord gave unto Moses "two tables of testimony, tables of stone, written with the finger of God." If that language does not mean that God did the writing, and that he did it directly upon the tables, will someone kindly tell us how that fact could be briefly stated in a manner that would put it beyond question. If the Union's querist had read a few verses more in Ex. 24 he would have had no difficulty in understanding the whole matter for himself, for he would there have learned that the writing which Moses did was in a "book." Verse 7 reads: "And he [Moses] took the book of the covenant, and read to the audience of the people; and they said, All that the Lord hath spoken we will do, and be obedient." It is evident that that which Moses read to them was the same as is referred to in verse 4 as "all the words of the Lord," and would of course include the ten commandments; but the fact that Moses wrote the commandments in a book affords not the slightest reason for saying that the Lord did not also write them upon the tables of stone, and give them to Moses, just as the Scriptures tell us that he did do. It will readily be admitted that if there were no other texts bearing upon the subject, Ex. 34:28 might be understood to teach that Moses did the writing upon the tables of stone; but in view of the plain statements already quoted from Ex. 31:18 and 32:16 there is no reason for referring the pronoun "he" to Moses. Two persons are spoken of in the text, namely, the Lord and Moses; the pronoun "he" in the expression, "and he wrote upon the tables the words of the covenant," must, as has been shown by other texts, refer to the Lord, and not to Moses. This conclusion is also rendered necessary by verse 1 of the same chapter, where it is recorded that "the Lord said unto Moses, Hew thee two tables of stone like unto the first; and I will write upon these tables the words that were in the first tables, which thou brakest." As "it is impossible for God to lie," there can be no question that the Lord himself did the writing, for he promised that he would do it, and we have seen that it is plainly recorded that he did do it.