Book Review: The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined

I am reading the Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined. You can download it for free here: https://archive.org/details/pentateuchbookof00cole

The book was written by John William Colenso in 1862. The author was a missionary in Africa and was translating the bible into a local language when he realized, with the questions that arose from a native assistant,  that what he was translating was very problematic. In fact, he determined that it could not be true. Unfortunately he didn't give up his belief in God, just his belief in the infallibility of scripture. When you get to the meat of the book, he makes some very intelligent observations, based on reality and observable evidence.

First the cons: The quality of the transcription was horrible, with at least a dozen errors per page. The first 25% of the book contains the author's explanations for writing it and numerous disclaimers that in spite of the truth of what he found, he still retains a kind of belief. This part was very repetitive.

The pros: The author examines the historicity of the Pentateuch and Joshua with great practicality. He concentrates on the numbers of the people and animals that came out of Egypt during Exodus, giving detailed reasons for his conclusions that they are impossible. He then covers the sacrificial system, again concentrating on the numbers of animals and people involved and the practical concerns. He obviously spent a lot of time trying to reconcile scripture with facts, but was unable to do so.

Mr. Colenso does not think his observations about scripture will have a great impact on Christianity because: "One has great faith in the mere inertia of religious belief."

Even over 150 years later, Mr. Colenso's argument stand up well.