CHAPTER XXI.--ERRORS OF THE BIBLE IN FACTS AND FIGURES.

A spiritual or metaphorical interpretation, if allowable in any case, can not avail any thing towards either removing, explaining, or mitigating, in the least degree, the numerous palpable Bible errors represented by _figures. "Figures never lie_" and admit of no construction. The almost innumerable errors, therefore, of this character which abound in the Bible utterly and for ever prostrate it as a work possessing any authority, reliability, or credibility in matters of history, science, or even theology. Bible writers, when they have occasion to refer to numbers which they are interested in making _appear_ very large, seem to make almost a lawless use of figures. I will present some examples, stated in brief language, commencing with the Pentateuch. The author of these five books, in speaking of the genealogy, population, armies, &c., of his own tribe, makes use of figures which are not only incredible, but utterly impossible. The number of valiant fighting men, for example, among the Israelites, is frequently stated to be about six hundred thousand, and never less. (See Exod. xii. and xxxviii.; Num. xxvi., &c.) This number, as Bishop Colenso demonstrates, reaches far beyond the utmost limits of truth. If the regular army had been six hundred thousand, then the whole population (women and children included) could not have been less than two millions,--a number which many facts, cited by the Bible writer himself, demonstrate to be impossible. I would ask, in the first place, how Moses could address all this immense congregation at once, as he is often represented as doing. (See Ex. xxiv. 3; Lev. xxiv 15; Num. xiv. 7, &c.) Joshua makes "all the congregation" to include women and children. But how could Moses address this vast multitude of people, some of whom must have been at least ten miles distant, unless he used a speaking-trumpet or a telephone, neither of which, however, had then come to light. The writer of Deuteronomy says, "Moses spake unto all Israel" (Deut. i. 1). But not one in a hundred could have heard it, therefore it was very nearly "labor lost." And Joshua says Moses wrote out his commandments, and he read them "before all the congregation of Israel" (Josh. viii. 35). But it would have required a voice as loud as thunder to make "all" of them hear. And it should be borne in mind that the people on these occasions were assembled in the tabernacle,--as we infer from many texts,--a building one hundred and eight yards square, and capable of holding about five thousand people, which would be just one to four thousand of the congregation; so there were five thousand people inside, and one million nine hundred and ninety-five thousand outside. These last, we are told, occupied the outer court, which was just eighteen feet wide.

This would place the most distant hearers twenty miles off.

How comforting the thought, that, when Moses called them to the temple to worship (see Josh. viii. 35), they could get within twenty miles of him and "the tabernacle of the Lord"! The Lord had built a tabernacle for them to worship in, but only one or two in six thousand could get inside of it. This small number only could enjoy seeing and hearing Moses and the Lord.

The rest--one million nine hundred and ninety-five thousand--were outside, waiting for admission. Bishop Colenso estimates, the size of the camp of Israel at about twelve miles square.

This camp was situated in a desert of Sinai for at least a year; and the business of keeping this camp in order, waiting upon the people, and removing also, the remains of the daily sacrifice of two hundred thousand oxen, sheep, &c., devolved upon three priests,--Aaron, Eleazar, and Ithamar. It would be quite an improvement of the sacerdotal order if the priests of to-day could be subjected occasionally to some such healthy exercise; but they have managed to get the rule reversed. They now have the people to wait upon them. But those three priests of the Israelites must have achieved a herculean task to wait each one upon three hundred and thirty-three thousand people daily, and, after preparing their food outside the camp, travel twelve miles to supply each one of this vast multitude with food and water. If they carried provision for only one person at a time, they would have had to perform this journey of twelve miles five thousand five hundred times an hour, which would have required them to be rather fleet on foot. And, besides the labor of carrying away every day, to the distance of six or seven miles, five hundred cart-loads of the offal of the dead animals, there would be at least one pound of victuals to be carried to each person, making, in the aggregate, five thousand five hundred pounds. They must have enjoyed good health, if abundant exercise would produce it. They could not have been much troubled with dyspepsia or liver-complaint, as many of that order are nowadays.

1. We are told that Moses gave notice to the children of Israel at midnight, that they must take their departure from Egypt the next morning for the promised land (Exod. xii.); but, if they constituted the immense number represented, they would have made a column two hundred miles long, arranging them five abreast, so it would have taken several days for all to get started. How, then, could they all start the _next morning?_ And how did they keep their two millions of sheep and cattle alive for several days while passing over a sandy desert too poor to produce dog-fennel? And it is strange how the whole tribe of Israelites, if two millions in number, could live forty years in a wild, barren desert, and keep their immense flocks and herds alive.

2. The number of first-born male children over a month old, on a certain occasion, is set down at twenty-two-thousand two hundred and ninety-three, which would make about eighty-eight children for each mother. This was "replenishing" rapidly. But their little tents, like the tabernacle of the Lord, would not accommodate one-fourth of that number. This would necessitate the mothers to leave most of their children "out in the cold."

The number of the children of Israel that went down to Egypt, according to Exod. i. 5, was seventy souls; and they remained there during four generations, represented by Levi, Kohath, Amram, and Moses, making a period (as marginal notes state) of two hundred and fifteen years; though Exod. xii. 40, gives it at four hundred and thirty years. But this is another case of incredible exaggeration Four generations of ordinary length, in that age, would not exceed the marginal calculation of two hundred and fifteen years; and for those seventy souls to increase to two millions in that short period of time, of four generations, would have required each mother to have had twelve or fifteen children at a birth.

3. Dan, in the first generation, had but one son (Gen. xlvi. 23); yet in the fourth generation he had increased to sixty-two thousand seven hundred, or, according to Num. xxvi. 43, to sixty-four thousand, which would have required each son and grandson to have had about eighty children apiece. This would have been "multiplying and replenishing" on a rapid scale.

4. Aaron and his two sons had to make all the offerings, and on an altar only nine feet square; and an offering had to be made at the birth of every child, which would require about five hundred sacrifices daily; and then there were thirteen cities where these offerings had to be made, and only three priests to do it. (See Lev. i. 11.) And, besides, the priests had to eat a large portion of the burnt offerings (see Num.