[194] This Elohist account is defined to be "a series of
parables, based, as we have said, on legendary facts, though not
historically true."[195] The Pentateuch existed originally not as five
books, but as one; and it is possible that its quintuple division was
made in the time of Ezra. The writer of Chronicles was the same who
wrote the books of Ezra and Nehemiah, probably a Levite living after the
time of Nehemiah; the Chronicles were therefore written only four
hundred years before Christ; but the Chronicler must not be relied on
unless there is other evidence in support of his narrative. Exodus
could not have been written by Moses or any one of his contemporaries.
It is very probable that the Pentateuch generally was composed in a
later age than that of Moses or Joshua.[196] Samuel was most likely the
author of the Elohistic legends, which he left at his death in an
unfinished state, and which naturally fell into the hands of some one of
his disciples of the School of the Prophets, such, for instance, as
Nathan or Gad.
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