Creating a firestorm of controversy in 1862 with its publication, John William Colenso’s The Pentateuch and the Book of Joshua Critically Examined sparked the revival of scholarly study into the first five books of the Bible. A South African missionary appointed as Bishop to Natal, Colenso began questioning the historicity of the Pentateuch while performing his missionary duties with the Zulu natives. Feeling it was his duty to God and to the Church to seek the “ultimate truth,” Colenso not only challenged the historical accuracy of the Pentateuch, he also challenged its Mosaic authorship. One of the first respected theologians to pursue this line of inquiry, his published work fomented a flurry of historically significant scholarship in response to his assertions that helped solidify a classical understanding of the Pentateuch.

Believing Colenso’s work to be shallow, “mischievous and dangerous,” and severely lacking in religious and scientific scholarship, Jacob L. Stone nevertheless felt a rebuttal was in order primarily because of Colenso’s station as a Bishop in the Church of England.