The Pentateuch and Book of Joshua Critically Examined: The Pentateuch and book of Joshua compared wi8th the other Hebrew scriptures

Published in the early 1860s, this work by John William Colenso, the Bishop of Natal, sent profound shockwaves through the Victorian ecclesiastical establishment. Colenso utilized his mathematical background to perform a rigorous textual analysis of the Pentateuch, ultimately arguing that the accounts within these books contained significant historical and arithmetical inconsistencies. His work represented an early and controversial application of the higher criticism movement to the Old Testament, challenging the traditional dogma of biblical inerrancy.

The publication was met with intense public outrage and formal ecclesiastical censure, leading to Colenso’s excommunication by the Bishop of Cape Town, an act which was later overturned by the courts. While his contemporaries largely condemned the text as heretical, it remains a landmark in the history of critical theology and colonial religious debate. The design and presentation of the volumes reflect the sober, scholarly rigor expected of 19th-century theological treatises, intended to lend academic weight to his iconoclastic findings.