The Testimony of the Bible Concerning the Assumptions of Destructive Criticism — Context and Discussion

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Authors: Wishard, S. E. (Samuel Ellis), 1825-1915 Digital Source: Project Gutenberg Gutenberg Release Year: 2005 First Publication Year: Not confirmed

Key Word: Bible -- Criticism, interpretation, etc. Target Reader: Readers of public-domain and historical texts

Book Edition: Project Gutenberg digital edition Book Language: en

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Reading time 101 min

Text sections 3

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This editorial note examines how S. E. Wishard's 1909 booklet uses biblical testimony to counter higher criticism, focusing on the opening, middle, and later excerpts to guide a first reading.

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Writing was long known to and practiced by the Egyptians, hence the man trained in all the wisdom of the Egyptians _was competent_ to write the Pentateuch.

_Second_--The Pentateuch very definitely claims Moses as its author, not once or twice, but many times, all through these writings.

"The Lord said unto Moses, Write this for a memorial in a book, and rehearse it in the ears of Joshua, for I will utterly put out the remembrance of Amalek from under heaven." Exod. xvii. 14. This was not the law, parts of which even some of the critics concede that Moses wrote. It was God's judgment against Amalek. But it was written in a book. What book? The inspired Scriptures say it was written here in Exodus xvii. 14. And again it was repeated in Deut. xxv. 19, and that Moses wrote it.

In the twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus Moses has given an account of God's call to him, to Aaron, Nadab, Abihu, and the seventy elders, to come up to Horeb. Moses was called into the immediate presence of God, while the others remained at a distance. After his interview with Jehovah it is written: "Moses came and told the people all the words of the Lord.... And _Moses wrote all the words of the Lord_." Exod. xxiv, 3, 4.

In the thirty-fourth chapter of Exodus God is represented as giving definite instructions to Moses concerning worship, at the conclusion of which "the Lord said unto Moses, Write thou these words, for after the tenor of these words I have made a covenant with thee and with Israel." Exod. xxxiv. 27.

We turn to the positive statement in Deuteronomy xxxi. 9. The chapter opens with the declaration that "Moses spake these words unto all Israel," giving an extended account of what the words were. In the ninth verse it is stated: ... "_And Moses wrote this law_ and delivered it unto the priests and unto all the elders of Israel." What became of that writing of Moses? Was it lost? Or is the statement false? And did some later writer forge the statement, attributing the writing to Moses, to give weight and authority to the forgery? To ask the question is to answer it. "Moses wrote all the words of the Lord."

In the twenty-fourth verse in this same chapter in Deuteronomy it is stated that "Moses had made an end of writing the words of this law in a book." Yet the critics teach that this book, Deuteronomy, was not written until after the exile, almost a thousand years after the events narrated. Does not critical credulity make larger demands than are laid on faith?

The summing up of the book of Numbers, of what had been said and written in the book, is stated in the last chapter and last verse, namely, that "these are the commandments and the judgments which the Lord commanded _by the hand of Moses_ unto the children of Israel." Again and again it is affirmed in the Pentateuch that God commanded Moses to write, and that he did write, but the critics affirm that the hand of Moses had nothing to do with producing the books of the Pentateuch--that they were written after the exile!

Not only does the Pentateuch distinctly teach the Mosaic authorship of the five books of Moses, appropriately so called, but all the Old Testament saints entertained the opinion which the Jewish people and the Christian Church hold to-day, that God spake to Moses, and that _Moses committed to writing_ the messages that God gave him and commanded him to write, embracing the story of God's miracles, his instruction and dealing with them in the wilderness.

We find the critics contradicted in the Scriptures from Joshua to Malachi. To Joshua God said: "As I was with Moses, so will I be with thee." (Joshua i. 5.) Eight times in the first chapter of the book of Joshua God accredits Moses with having received and having given the law to Joshua and the people.

The Pentateuch is the book which God, speaking to Joshua, calls "the law which my servant Moses commanded thee" (Joshua i. 7), and it was so accepted by Joshua. Was he mistaken? or the critics? He had long enjoyed most intimate relations with Moses, and knew what Moses had written by the command of God.

David affirms that God had "made known his ways unto Moses, and his acts unto the children of Israel" (Psa. ciii. 7). We have seen that the man Moses was competent to write, and did write, what God had made known to him (Deut xxxi. 24). The Psalms are illuminated and set aflame with the faith of Israel, that Moses said and wrote what is ascribed to him in the Pentateuch.

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The booklet opens with a foreword addressed to Sabbath-school teachers and young Christians, framing destructive criticism as an "insidious poison" that reaches readers through magazines and newspapers. Wishard states his aim: to "give God a chance to have his say" by letting Scripture speak for itself. The first chapter, "Our Attitude Toward Destructive Criticism," begins with four epigraphs from Ephesians, 1 Thessalonians, Psalms, and Isaiah, establishing a tone of calm patience. The author urges believers not to "make haste" but to trust that God's counsel will stand. This opening positions the work as a defensive, faith-based response rather than an academic debate.

The Foreword’s Stated Purpose and Audience

The foreword explicitly targets readers who lack "time nor the equipment to enter the field of criticism." Wishard acknowledges that "abler pens" are answering critics, but he offers a simpler approach: presenting biblical testimony on a "precept upon precept" plan. The phrase "lest we forget" echoes Deuteronomy 4:9, reinforcing the booklet’s catechetical intent. The foreword does not engage specific critical arguments; instead, it promises to let God speak. This framing suggests the book will be a compilation of scriptural passages with minimal commentary, aimed at reinforcing traditional belief rather than scholarly refutation.

The Middle Excerpts: Defending Isaiah’s Authorship

In the chapter on Isaiah, Wishard argues against critics who deny the prophet wrote chapters 40–66 because Cyrus is named before his birth. He counters that God, as the author of prophecy, "declaring the end from the beginning" (Isa. 46:10), can predict names as readily as events. He cites the prophecy of Josiah in 1 Kings 13:2, fulfilled 300 years later, as precedent. Wishard also points to Isaiah’s distinctive phrase "the Holy One of Israel," which appears 22 times in the book but rarely elsewhere. This linguistic evidence, he claims, supports single authorship. The argument relies on divine omniscience and internal consistency rather than historical-critical methods.

The Later Excerpts: Stylistic Variation and Prophetic Voice

Wishard addresses the objection that the later chapters of Isaiah differ in style from the earlier ones. He compares this to Milton’s Paradise Lost differing from his prose, or John Watson’s sermons rising above his fiction. The prophet, he argues, writes on a "higher level" when inspired by the theme of redemption through a suffering Messiah. This defense assumes that the Holy Spirit elevates the writer’s language for sublime subjects. Wishard does not deny stylistic variation; he reinterprets it as evidence of divine inspiration. The argument is rhetorical, appealing to common literary experience rather than textual analysis.

The Structure of the Booklet and Its Argumentative Strategy

The table of contents lists ten chapters, moving from general attitude to specific books: Moses, Leviticus, Isaiah, Jonah. The chapter "God His Own Interpreter" suggests a concluding appeal to Scripture’s self-authentication. Wishard’s method is to cite biblical passages that affirm traditional authorship and then argue that critics impose arbitrary rules. He accuses critics of demanding more "synchronous events" than necessary, likening them to a tailor requiring twenty yards of cloth for a suit that needs only ten. This analogy reveals the booklet’s polemical tone: it dismisses critical methods as unreasonable while affirming the Bible’s internal testimony as sufficient.

Readers approaching this booklet should note that Wishard does not engage with specific critical works or scholars by name. His evidence is entirely scriptural, and his arguments assume the Bible’s inerrancy and divine authorship. The excerpts show a work designed for a lay Christian audience seeking reassurance rather than academic debate. For a first reading, pay attention to how Wishard selects and arranges biblical passages to counter critical assumptions, and consider how his analogies (tailor, Milton, Watson) function as rhetorical devices. The booklet is best understood as a pastoral defense, not a scholarly treatise.

There’s something touching about Wishard’s earnest defense, a faith reaching for evidence in an age of doubt—I found myself thinking of how the old hours of prayer once held that same steadying rhythm. The The Divine Office: A Study of the Roman Breviary — Key Ideas to Explore lingers near that memory, a quieter sort of testimony, worn soft by repetition.