THE EXODUS
clear that the historical fact agrees with what would be expected in the case of fugitives from Egypt at this time.
At all events the alleged contents of this book-chest were precisely what was called for by Egyptian practice; (i) the individual-roll oracles, laws, legal decisions sanctioned by taking up to Jehovah, inventories, etc., presumably sewed or pasted together into larger rolls, (2) the digested abstract of these, Deuteronomy, laid up by or in the side of the ark, in the tabernacle like the leather roll of Thutmose III in the temple, and (3) the publication of this by inscription as provided for by Moses and in complete analogy with the temple inscription of Thutmose.
It is a far cry from the meteoric fragment or idol, which some have devised as the sole contents of this ark, to this well equipped chest of official records made day by day after the Egyptian fashion of
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