The name of the city that was afterward called Jerusalem
was originally Jebus, or Jebusi, and was the capital of the
Jebusites. The account of David's taking this city is given
in 2 Samuel, v. 4, etc. ; also in i Chron. xiv. 4, etc. There
is no mention in any part of the Bible that it was ever taken
before, nor any account that favours such an opinion. It is
not said, either in Samuel or in Chronicles, that they " utterly
destroyed men, women and children, that they left not a soul
to breathe," as is said of their other conquests ; and the
silence here observed implies that it was taken by capitula-
tion ; and that the Jebusites, the native inhabitants, con-
tinued to live in the place after it was taken. The account
therefore, given in Joshua, that " the Jebusites dwell with
the children of Judah " at Jerusalem at this day, corresponds
to no other time than after taking the city by David.
Having now shown that every book in the Bible, from
Genesis to Judges, is without authenticity, I come to the
book of Ruth, an idle, bungling story, foolishly told, nobody
knows by whom, about a strolling country-girl creeping slily
to bed to her cousin Boaz.' Pretty stuff indeed to be called
the word of God. It is, however, one of the best books in
the Bible, for it is free from murder and rapine.
I come next to the two books of Samuel, and to shew
that those books were not written by Samuel, nor till a great
length of time after the death of Samuel ; and that they are,
like all the former books, anonymous, and without authority.
