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PART I.

RESULTS OF MODERN CRITICISM.

CHAPTER I.

STYLE AND CHARACTER OF THE SACRED HISTORIES.

T is not our intention in this chapter to enter into a nute critical analysis of the historical records of the and New Testament Scriptures. This would be, on part, simply a work of supererogation, inasmuch as it been already so ably done by many eminent scholars, ecially in Germany, far better qualified for the task, o have left nothing to be desired in this department of cicism. All that we purpose to do here is to avail ourves of some of the results of their labours, so far as -y are adapted to our purpose in the present work. We ll, accordingly, first present a brief summary of these ults, as they are found in the writers of the different ools of modern Biblical criticism, and afterwards proed to consider some of the theories advanced in explaion of them.

§ 1. Peculiarities of the Old Testament History.

We shall first speak of the peculiar character of the Testament history. And the most prominent characistic which we meet with in these historical records, d one which has been commented upon by critics of ery school, is the theocratic element which pervades em all, with two or three exceptions of which we shall eak presently. God is everywhere in these writings re

historical books of the Hebrews," says a recent writer, "all active persons appear only as instruments of God. Everything proceeds from the will and express command of God. Whatever thoughts, conclusions and maxims arise in the mind, God speaks them. The formula, 'Thus saith the Lord, is so common in the old Hebrew historians, that the whole history becomes, as it were, a history of God."1 Hence we find in these writings a revelation not only of the hidden motives of human conduct, but also of the will and counsel of the Divine Being Himself. In these respects, it cannot be denied, they have much in common with all very ancient writings. The histories and traditions of the ancient Egyptians, Hindoos and Greeks are full of accounts of the communion of men with gods and supernatural beings, and in the Divine appearances and prodigies and oracular responses related by Herodotus and Livy, and other ancient historians, we have something approaching to the miracles and marvellous actions ascribed to the Deity in the Old Testament; while in the history of the Creation, the Fall of Man, the Deluge and the Tower of Babel, in the early chapters of Genesis, we certainly find much which resembles the fabulous accounts in the heathen writers, and no less marvellous in its character than the narrations of the same events in the Hindoo Katapatha-Brâhmana, or Purânas, the Persian Zendavesta, or the Babylonian version of the Deluge as related by Berosus. And though in the later history, from the time of Abraham onwards, we no longer discover any incidents of this purely fabulous description, yet the narrative presents, it must be admitted, much that is peculiar and remarkable.

1 Theo. Parker in his Translation of De Wette's "Introduction," vol, ii. p. 24.

Not only do we constantly meet, as we have said, with

ocratical and miraculous features, but the subjects events are of such a nature as to be quite removed the domain of ordinary history. The term, "religious ory," which has been applied to it by a recent scholar, 1 resses sufficiently well the general character of the rew story, but scarcely describes such narratives as of Judah and Tamar in the thirty-eighth chapter of esis, that of Sampson and the Philistines in the fourath of Judges, or, lastly, that of Ruth from beginning nd; in all of which, and there are numerous others of ch the same might be said, it is difficult to detect not any religious purpose, but any edifying religious in ction, or even any necessary connection with the cratical constitution of the nation. Many transacs, also, are recorded of a merely private and trivial re--often, too, with great minuteness and particularity--h appear to be of little or no consequence in themes, and quite unworthy of being handed down to future erations. Among instances of this kind we might cite account of Jacob's policy in the matter of the sheep and goats of Laban, as related in the thirtieth of Genesis, indeed the most of the history of his sojourn with his er-in-law; and the story of Lot and his daughters in nineteenth chapter of the same book. This latter ›ry also, is an extreme example of a somewhat large of incidents recorded in these books, which, from unpleasant or revolting character, seem little suited he purposes of the religious, or of the ordinary hisn, whose aim it is to relate striking and edifying matof private or national history.

Moreover, as a history of Abraham and his posterity, Jewish nation, the Scripture records are only frag.

Lev. J. J. S. Perowne. Art. "Genesis," Smith's Dict. of the Bible.

preserve. The history of important events is left often quite incomplete; great chasms are of frequent occurrence in the narrative,—as, for example, that of thirtyeight years in the passage through the wilderness, which occurs in the twentieth chapter of Numbers, and of which Bleek (whom we chiefly follow in this sketch, and who, as a critic of the more moderate German school, is worthy of credit) observes, "this great chasm in the history does, without all doubt, present very great difficulties ;"1 that between the books of Judges and Samuel, 2 and others frequently remarked upon by Biblical scholars. Unimportant and private details are dwelt upon, while those of greater consequence are barely mentioned or passed by altogether. On this head the remarks of an English expositor are deserving of attention. "It is not," he says, "strictly speaking, a history of the Jews that we have here, but such a selection from their history, by the Holy Spirit, as was best adapted to make men 'wise unto salvation.' Such political events are brought forward as illustrate the moral state of the times; and subjects are introduced which an ordinary historian would have thought unworthy of notice. For example, immediately after the record of a great political event,—the deliverance of three kings and their armies from destructionan instance is given of God's tender care for the widow of an obscure prophet (2 Kings, iv.) That which no merely human history could give is here set before us; men's secret motives are laid bare, stripped of the disguises in which they sought to involve them. Often great political events are passed by; long reigns are compressed into a few sentences; and details of private life

Bleek's Introduction, vol. i. § 90, (Eng. Trans.) 2 Ibid. § 59.

-h are of most esteem in God's sight, and which it is most importance for us to know; namely, His attri =s, His grace, His providence, &c.; the workings of human heart; and the nature of men's duties both od and their fellow-creatures, in those situations and umstances in which men are usually placed, and most I instruction. While, interwoven with the whole, be traced, as the great leading subject, the preparamade for the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ as a Our."1

The want of chronological accuracy ;2 historical disancies and contradictions ;3 the recurrence of round bers, and such as are popularly supposed to possess stical and cabalistic meaning, as are the numbers 3, , 12, 20, 40, with their multiples; repetitions of the = fact, or narrative, or legal institution, under different itions and in relation to different persons, or from a rent point of view-compare the story of Abraham Abimelech with that of Isaac and Abimelech (Gen. 22-34, and xxvi. 17-33); that of Abram and Pharaoh gypt (Gen. xii. 10-20) with that of Abraham and helech at Gerar (ch. xx. 1-18) and that of Isaac and elech (ch. xxvi. 6-11); compare, also, 1 Sam. xvii. 2 Sam. xxi. 19, and, for a legal instance, compare xxiii. 17-19 and xxxiv. 23-261;—an unnatural arrange; and dislocation of the narrative in numerous ines5; together with the existence of poetical and ical language and forms of speech,6 and the recur

aragraph Bible. 2 See Bleek, ut supra, § 88, and Smith's Dict., Chronology."

eek vol. i., and De Wette vol. ii., passim.

eek. § 85, 86, 98 et al. 5 Ibid, § 87, 88. &c.

pon this subject the dictum of a celebrated German critic, whose sis of the style and language of the Hebrew Scriptures is acknowi to be almost authoritative, will have great weight. The quiet. of prose," says De Wette, in his Introduction to the Old Testament,

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