THE OLD TESTAMENT IN 
 THE LIGHT OF MOD- 
 ERN SCHOLARSHIP. 
 
 Inaugural Address of the 
 
 Rev. Joseph J. Lampe, D.D., Ph.D., 
 
 as Professor of Old Testament Literature 
 
 and Exegesis. 
 
 BStSO 
 123 
 
 Omaha theological 
 seminary, 
 
 SEPTEMBER 22, t896. 
 
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 PRINCETON, N. J. 
 
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I* MAY 27 1909 
 (Omnlia H'licohuiical i^rmiuari). ^^^i^^^Cii. SW*'^^ 
 
 INAUGURATION 
 
 Rkv. JOSEPH J. LAMPE, d.d., ph.d. 
 
 PROFESSOR 
 
 . OK 
 
 OLD TESTAMENT LITERATURE 
 AND EXEGESIS. 
 
 OMAHA: 
 
 A. L. STONE CYPHER. PRINTEK. 
 
 189(i. 
 
PROGRAM OF EXERCISES 
 
 IN CONNF.CTION WITH TIIK 
 
 Inauguration of Rev. Joseph J. liampe, O.D.,Ph.O. 
 
 ...AS... 
 
 l-'rofessor of O. T. Literature and Exe<;esis 
 
 IN THIi 
 
 Presl>vterian Theological Seminary at Omaha, Neb. 
 
 First Presbyterian Church, 
 Sept. 22, 1896. 
 
 Organ. 
 
 Hymn No. 292. 
 
 Scripture — Psalm 19. 
 
 Anthem. 
 
 Prayer. 
 
 Subscription. 
 
 Charge. 
 
 Hkv. S. McCoumuk. President Boaril of Uirector.s 
 
 Anthem — Choir. 
 
 Inaugural Address, 
 
 Dk. J. .1. L.^MPE. 
 
 Hymn No. 290. 
 Benediction. 
 
.'. ERRATA .-. 
 
 '.lire- I. On llir 1 wi-nly-sfciiiiil Urn- lioiii 111'- li)|i, ln'lwi-i-ii 
 
 "wiird" anil ■■iliiriiiir." insrri, "In His pcnplr.'' 
 'iijji- S. On fi)urlli liiii' lidin Iln- Icip. rcail •I.acliish" for 
 
 ■■riaohiscli." 
 'aire 111. Ill foipliiolc 3. (Ml fom-lli liiii' I'lnm llic hnUdiii. n-ail 
 
 ■nssui-iiiir" fur •■ussiirinir. ' 
 'av'r IS. On si'\iMiliM-iilli lini' I'rcMii lln' Imiiniii. i-rad •■mi|mi- 
 
 naliiral" for "spirihial. " 
 'Aiivil. On sixdi lini' frcni ilir li.Jlloni. n-ail --irials" for 
 
 ■'Ic'ssniis." 
 
 rilH. CIlARCiK 
 
 THE KEY. S. B. McCOKMICK. 
 
THE CHARGE. 
 
 My Brother: 
 
 It is impossible for tne to escape the feelinp that it is 
 somewhat presumptuous for me to attempt to charge i'ou 
 concerning? the duties of your Chair. Nor could I at all 
 venture upon the task, were it not that some one must do 
 it, and by the direction of the Board the duty has been 
 assie:ned to me. 
 
 The Chair which you have this evening formally as- 
 sumed in this Seminary, is a most ancient and honorable 
 one, and has a most distinguished histoiy. So far as we 
 know, the prophet Samuel organized the first Theological 
 Seminary, and surely his Chair therein wasthat of Hebrew 
 Literature and Exegesis. From that time until now, 
 doubtless with very few and very brief intervals this im- 
 portant Chair has continued to be occupied; for in the 
 instruction given in connection with the Jewish syna 
 gogues. and in the later schools of Alexandria and Antioch, 
 in the cloisters of the Middle Ages, and in the schools 
 and seminaries of modern times, the study of ancient 
 Scripture has ever been preserved. 
 
 You, my brother, are called to deal with the oldest 
 part of Holy Scripture — that which formed our Lord's 
 Bible, and which was the source whence the Apostles 
 drew their prools of the divine mission of Christ. It 
 has therefore had, from the very beginning, an abiding 
 and secure place in the history and development of the 
 Christian Church. It is not alone the book in which is 
 found the germ of human redemption, and the prophecy 
 of a Saviour and the history of the people who were to 
 become the custodians of God's revelation, and from whom 
 should spring the world's Redeemer ; but, as is eloquently 
 shown by George Adam Smith in a recent address in 
 Chicago, in which he emphasized the service which the 
 Old Testament has rendered in the education of the 
 human race, it is the book which, inspired of God, has 
 
viii Charge. 
 
 itself inspired men to become great men and great preach- 
 ers and great reformers and great law-givers in the later 
 centuries of the world's history. Mighty men have drunk 
 deeply at its pure and healthful fountains and have used 
 the ancient Scripture as a means of elevating public morals, 
 securing the rights of the people and directing upward, 
 along holy and righteous lines, the streams of civilization; 
 and this because they have "caught in it the authentic 
 accents of the word of God, enforcing not only his law, 
 but a very full and clear revelation of his character and 
 his ways with men." 
 
 In your department of instruction you will be 
 compelled to face questions which reach to the very 
 heart of revelation, and which affect both the fact 
 and the possibility thereof. For many years the New 
 Testament was bitterly attacked by hostile critics who 
 invented countless theories to account for the existence of 
 the various books on other than natural grounds. A tithe 
 of the ingenuity thus displayed, applied to mechanics, 
 would have revolutionized the industrial world. In this 
 battle, which raged furiously for many years, the critics 
 were at last silenced and the New Testament stood forth, 
 in clearer and stronger light, as a book of absolute and 
 unquestioned authority. In this conflict the defenders 
 of the truth discovered the necessity, first of all, 
 of settling the text itself. What did God actually cause 
 to be written? I do not say, for I do not know, that the 
 defenders of the Old Testament against hostile attack, 
 must first of all lay their foundation by settling the text, 
 as was done in the New. The material for this is not 
 sufSciently known; perhaps may never be discovered; 
 indeed, may not even exist. But I am sure that many years 
 of patient, laborious, painstaking, unappreciated work 
 must be done along this line before the critics, by what- 
 soever name they are known, can reach conclusions which 
 may be regarded as trustworthy. It is necessary not alone 
 to perform the drudgery of scanning manuscripts and 
 deciphering words and letters and dots and marks; but it 
 
Charge. ix 
 
 is also necessary to become familiar with other tongues 
 related to the Hebrew, and with all the wealth of learning 
 which throws light upon tlie history and literature of the 
 Hebrew language. Already has archa3ology made havoc 
 with some of the dogmatic conclusions of men who deem 
 their literary taste sufficiently trained to register results 
 that are infallibly correct. Professor Sayce (whom I do 
 not instance as in all respects a defender of orthodoxy; 
 for he himself says that his work will satisfy neither the 
 higher critics nor their extreme opponents) has given us 
 some idea of the valuable results which archaaological 
 data will furnish. The critics had determined, for exam- 
 ple, that the word '^jy was of late origin, and upon this 
 had l)ased an argument denying the early date of the 
 Song of Songs. But a small hsomatite weight, found on 
 the site of Samaria, and inscribed with letters of the 
 eighth century B. C, and which is undoubtedly genuine, 
 effectually routs the literary critics in this instance and 
 absolutely disposes of their argument. 
 
 For myself, I cannot but think that a most fruitful 
 field for study, one which will yield an abundant harvest, 
 is that of paleography. The apparent discrepancies in the 
 text, between the Hebrew and the Septuagint, which so 
 perplex the careful student and send him out into the 
 uncertain sea of speculation, may often be satisfactorily 
 reconciled by the study of the forms of letters in partic- 
 ular centui'ies of long ago. While this may not yield all 
 the student desires, yet it is perhaps a comparatively 
 neglected field which if carefully worked may discover 
 to us new domains for our exploration. We do not 
 know what may be; but it is within the possibilities 
 that, as in the New Testament, God gave new evidence 
 just as men were faithful in working up to where it was 
 needed; so, in the Old Testament, as men are faithful in 
 opening up to light, all possible sources of knowledge, 
 God will discover to us new facts, new manuscripts, new 
 stones and inscriptions, whereby ultimate certainty may 
 be had as to all these questions relating to Hebrew writ- 
 
X Charge. 
 
 ings. The marvellous light thrown on those subjects in 
 recent years, each time confirming Scripture, gives us 
 ground for assured confidence that the history of the New 
 Testament will find its repetition in that of the old, and 
 that every attack upon the genuineness and truthfulness 
 of the record will be triumphantly overthrown. 
 
 With all these questions, you, my brother, are thor- 
 oughly familiar thi'ough long years of devoted study. It 
 is now your joy and delightful privilege to guide the stu- 
 dents under your care into this wondrous field of beauty 
 and knowledge. You will, of course, as the first step, 
 without which the hidden riches can never be discovered, 
 give these young men a thorough training in the study of 
 the Hebrew language itself. This means for you, and for 
 them, labor, even di-udgery. But as you will see some of 
 them rightly appreciating the strength and simplicity of 
 the Hebrew tongue, which was honored of God in being 
 made the medium for the revelation of himself in the 
 grand old Hebrew religion, your reward wi*H begin t& 
 come. These you will lead the deeper into the mystery 
 and power of God's thought, as set forth in the forceful 
 words of the rugged Hebrew prophets. And so, whatever 
 progress any may make in the several fields of Old Testa- 
 ment study, you will put into their hands an instrument, 
 whereby m after years they may for themselves enter in 
 and explore the mines of wealth, and bring forth for 
 themselves and their people precious things from the 
 great store-house of God's marvellous revelation. 
 
 It is a lofty mission to which you have been called. In 
 a little while you will begin to preach to many congrega- 
 tions, through those who go out from your instruction to 
 proclaim the riches of God. May you be guided and kept 
 in your work — the most important, perhaps, to which 
 God calls his ministering servants. And the prayers of 
 the Board and of the friends of the Seminary go with you. 
 
THE OLD TESTAMENT IN THE LIGHT 
 OF MODERN SCHOLARSHIP. 
 
 INAUGURAL ADDRESS 
 
 BY THE 
 
 REV. JOSEPH J. LAMPE, D.D., Ph.D. 
 
INAUGURAL ADDRESS. 
 
 Mr. Pkesident. Members of the Board of Directors 
 OF THE Presbyterian Theological Seminary at 
 Omaha, and Christian Friends: 
 
 It is gratifying to me to become connected with this 
 Seminary in its infancy and thus share in the privilege of 
 helping to lay foundations on which, as we lirmly believe, 
 will be reared an institution of ever increasing usefulness 
 in the Church of Christ. This pleasure is enhanced by 
 the fact that the work to which you have called me is 
 congenial to me. I regard it to be an honor also. No 
 greater privilege can be accorded to one, who desires to 
 devote his life to the accomplishment of the greatest pos- 
 sible good, than that of helping to train young men for 
 the Gospel ministry and to qualify them to exert an influ- 
 ence among men for truth and righteousness and eternal 
 life. 
 
 But looking at the responsibilities of my appointed 
 work. T am deeply impressed with a sense of my own 
 insufficiency and feel that, while thanking you for the 
 honor conferred, I must also ask your prayers that I may 
 ever have the needed grace and wisdom for a right dis- 
 charge of the sacred duties which will devolve upon me. 
 
 An unusual interest centers at present in the Old 
 Testament. Many of the problems which thoughtful men 
 are revolving in their minds, directly concern the Hebrew 
 Scriptures. These documents have something to say on 
 such questions as cosmogony, biology, geology, ethnology 
 and others, with all of which modern thought is earnestly 
 grappling. 
 
 But the Old Testament is to-day invested with a 
 special interest, owing to the antagonisms which it en- 
 counters. It has always been attacked by the enemies of 
 a supernatural religion. It -'is the battlefield just now 
 
4- The Old Testament 
 
 upon which the advocates of a natural and supernatural 
 origin of things are engaged in a life and death struggle."' 
 A rationalistic criticism, in the name of scientific scholar- 
 ship, claims to have demonstrated that the authenticity, 
 the genuineness, the trustworthiness and plenary inspir- 
 ation of the Old Testament books are no longer tenable, 
 and therefore demands that they be modified or abandoned. 
 
 The proposition is revolutionary. Par-reaching con- 
 sequences of a disastrous nature must result from conced- 
 ing such a claim. For, to discredit the Old Testament 
 discredits the New as well If the Old Testament is not 
 the word of God spoken by Moses and the prophets, then 
 we have no assurance that He has spoken to us by His 
 Son in the New. Those who undermine confidence in 
 Moses and the prophets inevitably also destroy faith in 
 Christ, since they testified of Him, and He endorsed them. 
 
 True, the New Testament has a light superior to that 
 of the Old. The Old Testament does not contain that full 
 and complete revelation of truth which we have in the 
 New. But we are not warranted on that account to dis- 
 pense with it. Notwithstanding the incompleteness of its 
 revelation, it was God's truthful word during the Old 
 Testament ages by which they were prepared, in process 
 of time, for the reception of the more complete revelation 
 of the New Testament, and will therefore always be true, 
 and necessary also, as a guide for the correct understand- 
 ing of the New. 
 
 The Old Testament is the foundation of the New, and 
 hence its destruction involves that of the New also. If the 
 Old Testament can be shown to be a conglomerate of fable 
 and fiction, the New must sink into the same category. 
 The two Testaments must stand or fall together. We 
 assuredly believe that both will stand. The destructive 
 criticism has not made a single breach in our strong cita- 
 del, but is itself so seriously damaged, by opposing facts 
 and logic, as to warrant the hope of its speedy and com- 
 plete discomfiture. The so-called higher criticism is 
 
 1 Inspiration of the Old Testament, by Alfred Cave, B. A., p. 15. 
 
in the Light of Modern Scholarship. 5 
 
 to-day in a thofou<i:lily discredited condition. 
 
 The Church of Christ iiad for centuries so fully ac- 
 cepted the Old Testament as the inspired word of God' 
 that, in a sense of security, it had ceased carefully to 
 study the problems which are involved in its literature. 
 This was largely the case even with ministers. When, 
 therefore, the rationalistic attack on its integrity, which 
 had been long in preparation, was made, many in the 
 Church found themselves so utterly unprepared to meet it 
 that they at once capitulated with ihe enemy. The situ- 
 ation, however, does not require capitulation, but an ex- 
 amination of our sure defenses and a refurbishing of our 
 weapons of defense to resist the assault. 
 
 The exigencies of the Church now demand that the 
 rising ministry be qualified to restore and propogate that 
 true knowledge of these Old Scriptures which, with the 
 blessing of the Holy Spirit, shall convince men that they 
 are indeed the truthful word of God on which they can 
 rest with entire certainty. In conjunction with my fellow 
 professors, it will be my aim to maintain the integrity of 
 the whole Bible, and to train a ministry qualified to pro- 
 claim it to a lost world as the word of God. 
 
 My theme, then, this evening will be, "The Old Test- 
 ament in the Light of Modern Scholarship." Let me 
 remind you at the outset that rationalistic critics are not 
 the only Biblical scholars worth hearing. There is a large 
 number of scholars, easily the peers of these critics, who 
 differ from them, and whose conclusions, because reached 
 from a wider field of induction, are entitled to more favor- 
 able consideration. In the broad light of modern scholar- 
 ship we confidently affirm of the Old Testament Scrip- 
 tures — 
 
 I. Their historic verity. It is true that they do not 
 give us a systematic treatise on either history or. science. 
 What they say, however, in these departments is invari- 
 ably correct. It will be admitted that the Old Testament 
 not only claims to speak truth, but that the spirit of 
 truthfulness pervades the whole of it. An air of veracity 
 
6 The Old Testament' 
 
 invests it from beginning to end. 
 
 The higher critics impeach its historical and scientific 
 accuracy, and affirm that the earliest books particularly 
 are full of myths and legends. But they have reached 
 this conclusion on the narrow basis of a minute literary 
 analysis and nice distinctions in words, style and modes^ 
 of thought of a dead oriental language, as found in the 
 Old Testament, without outside comparison. Such a mode 
 of reasoning is extremely unreliable, even in a living- 
 Western language, where we have the largest opportunity 
 for comparison. It is of a piece with the assertion of a 
 German scholar, that, without ever having seen it. he 
 could give a correct description of the river Rhine from: 
 examining a few specimens of flowers and stones which 
 had been brought to him from its banks. No certain 
 results can be reached by such a method. 
 
 Then also, the view of the destructive critics antago- 
 nizes the unanimous belief of centuries. The great Hebrew 
 scholars of antiquity, who were men conspicuous for their 
 integrity, and who thoroughly understood the customs of 
 their people and their peculiarities of thought and speech 
 when the language was still a living one, testify to the 
 full integrity of these Scriptures. The conclusion of the 
 critics must therefore be discounted for the double reasoc 
 that they are at best but imperfectly acquainted with their 
 material, and that their induction is from an altogether 
 too narrow array of facts. 
 
 Blinded by his theory, the higher critic lacks impar- 
 tiality no less than exhaustiveness. He does not avail 
 himself of all accessible sources of information, and is in 
 the habit of distorting unwelcome facts. Defective in his- 
 torical insight, he has lost the power to estimate the real- 
 ity of history. His philosophy leads him to idealize 
 history, and to conceive of historic facts as manufactured 
 to suit the theory. Many of the higher critics go so far 
 as to charge fraud and conspiracy on the writers of the 
 Old Testament. On this theory nothing whatever can be 
 determined in respect to the past. But, a theory which 
 
m the Light df Modern 'Scholarship. 7 
 
 makes a stupendous absurdity of all history coudeinns 
 itself. 
 
 Not only has a deeper study of the Scripture resulted 
 in confounding- the destructive critics on their own chosen 
 line of investigation, but a multitude of new witnesses has 
 come to the front to continn the truth of God's Word. 
 Learned men have had their atteniion directed to th« 
 Orient. The historian, the surveyor, the geologist, the 
 botanist, the zoologist, the meteorologist, the archaeolo- 
 gist, and men in otlier departments of science, have pros- 
 ecuted their researches in Bible lands, and have accumu- 
 lated volumes of testimony to corroborate the writings of 
 Moses and the prophets. 
 
 It is the glory of this last half of the 19th century 
 that God is giving the world a secondary revelation to 
 confirm his first great revelation in the written word. The 
 records of those Eastern nations, who more than once 
 aimed to destroy the Hebrews, have suddenly been recov- 
 ered by the spade of the explorer and the patient skill of 
 the decipherer to declare the truthfuln-ess of their Scrip- 
 tures. 
 
 We are permitted to see again that ancient world as it 
 was when God called Abraham from Ur to Canaan, when 
 Israel were slaves in Egypt, when Moses condrcted them 
 through the wilderness and gave them laws at Sinai, when 
 Joshua led them into the Promised Land, when David sang 
 his sacred lyrics, when Daniel prophesied in Babylon, and 
 when Ezra and Nehemiah built the second temple. The 
 earth has opened her mouth. The very stones are crying 
 out. Sculptured monuments, engraved monoliths, clay 
 tablets, baked bricks, ciphered cylinders, pottery, coins 
 and jewelry unearthed at Babylon, Assyria, Persia, Ara- 
 bia, Palestine and Egypt, come forth to bear their testi- 
 mony. Buried cities, great libraries, the treasure houses 
 of ancient kings have been brought to light, and, with 
 them, lost languages and old records, all of which pro- 
 claim the historic verity of the Hebrew Scriptures. 
 
 Until very recently rationalistic critics contended 
 
8 The Old Testament 
 
 that the art of writing was unknown until centuries after 
 the Mosaic age, and that therefore Moses could not pos- 
 sibly have written the Pentateuch. But excavations made 
 at Tel-el- Amarna and Lachisch, at Nineveh and in Arabia 
 reveal the fact that writing was understood centuries 
 before Abraham's day, and that the age of Moses was one 
 of extensive learning and of the highest literary activity'. 
 Records come to us from near the time of the Deluge, 
 which makes it possible that the account which we have 
 in Genesis of that great catastrophe is that of an eye- 
 witness. 
 
 Prom East to West letters were going to and fro. 
 They wrote books on burnt clay and preserved them in 
 libraries. In the midst of all this learning, of libraries 
 and schools, it is impossible that the Hebrews, with their 
 intense mental activity, should have remained a barbarous 
 people. The house of bondage had also been the school 
 of their enlightenment. 
 
 Moses, equipped with the best education which the 
 foremost nation of that time afforded, being a man of wide 
 experience and of great mental and moral resources, and 
 having, too, at his command the gathered lore of all the 
 nations, was precisely the one man who was well qualified 
 to write a book like the Pentateuch. In view of all that 
 he was and did, and of the opportunities which we now 
 know he possessed, it would have been simply marvellous 
 if he had not written some document of the kind. Why 
 should all other nations keep a record of their important 
 laws and events, and not the Hebrews? 
 
 Obviously, it was part of Moses' work to mould the 
 Hebrew people into a strong, united nation, and inspire 
 them with hope and courage for the great task which 
 confronted them. What could be better adapted to that 
 end than the book of Genesis, which traces their glorious 
 lineage, and reminds them of their high position, as the 
 chosen people of Jehovah, to whom all the promises were 
 made? and what more natural, therefore, than that Moses 
 
 1 Recent Research in Bible Lands, pp. 116, 117. 
 
in the Light of Modern Scholarship. 9 
 
 should write it? For forty years he had dwelt in Arabia, 
 which had for centuries been, and was at that time, the 
 center of great literary activity, and where circulated 
 freely that Babylonian literature which gave an account 
 of the most important events of the world from the crea- 
 tion down. 
 
 Moses, therefore, had the qualification and all the 
 needed material for writing the book of Genesis. There 
 is strong evidence to show that it could not have been 
 written later than his time. We have a high degree of 
 probability, therefore, that the Scriptures in assigning it 
 to that age and author are entirely correct. It was the 
 summons of Moses to Israel to separate themselves to 
 Jehovah, and his introduction to the other four books of 
 the Ptmtateuch. All the latest discoveries in Bible lands 
 add strong contirmation to this Scriptui-e claim. 
 
 But the historic verity of the Old Testament will 
 appear to better advantage by instancing a number of 
 particulars. 
 
 The primitive historj- of Genesis, which narrates 
 events of what may be called pre-historic times, is in 
 striking accord not only with the universal tiaditions of 
 the ethnic faiths, but also with the historic and scientific 
 facts which the most recent Oriental research has brought 
 to light. 
 
 The record of creation in Genesis was long regarded 
 as hopelessly at variance with natural facts. But the eth- 
 nic traditions, of which we have the best specimen on the 
 Chaldean tablets, essentially agree with Genesis. The 
 chaotic condition of the earth previous to the creative 
 days, the order of creation, the introduction of light, veg- 
 etation and animal life, the preparation of the earth for 
 man, and then his creation, as pictured on the tablets- 
 give us a cosmogny which is in close agreement with the 
 Hebrew record. They also agree with Genesis in making 
 the Sabbath a primitive instead of a Jewish institution. 
 
 Science now also affirms the creation record of Gen- 
 esis to be correct. Says Professor Dawson: "We have 
 
lo The Old 1 estament 
 
 here a consistent scheme of the development of the solar 
 system, and especially of the earth, agreeing in the main 
 with the results of modern astronomy and geology. It 
 would not be easy now to construct a statement of the 
 development of the world in popular terms so concise and 
 accurate. "1 Such eminent scientists as LaPlace, Guyot 
 and Dana hold similar views. Professor Dana says, tnat 
 from a purely scientific point of view, the first chapter of 
 <jrenesis is a true "epitome of creation in a few compre- 
 hensive annunciations." 
 
 The ethnic traditions agree also closely with Genesis 
 in what it says of the edenic bliss of man, his fall into sin, 
 and the serpent as connected with the origin of evil; 
 while science credits Moses with the correct location of 
 the garden of Eden, and with a true description of the 
 character of the ante-diluvian man.- 
 
 Science also has its deluge which. Professor Dawson 
 thinks, was of wider range than that intended by the 
 writer of Genesis. Geology divides the human period 
 into two parts by a submergence of the land which result- 
 ed in a terrible destruction of human and animal life. The 
 geological deluge was once considered to have been much 
 more ancient than that of Noah, but recent discoveries 
 have tended greatly to strengthen the probability of their 
 identity as to date. The inherent credibility of the He- 
 brew record has thus strong corroboration in natural 
 facts.' 
 
 It is, moreover, in close accord with historical testi- 
 mony. All the ethnic faiths have preserved the memory 
 of this great catastrophe. It is the most universal of all ' 
 
 1 Eden Lost and Won, p. .tO. 
 
 2 Eden Lost and Won, p. 87. 
 
 3 Professor Dawson says: "This earliest human age is separated from the 
 ordinary historic period, according to Genesis, by the Deluge of Noah, and accord- 
 ing to Geology by the great post-glacial submergence which marks the division 
 between Palanthropic man with his contemporary animals, and the men and ani- 
 mals of the Neanthropic age The two records agree in ussuring us that this 
 
 submergence was of short duration, and that it destroyed many of the wild animals 
 and the greater part of the men of the period." Eden Lost and Won, p. 82. See also 
 Modern Science in Bible Lands, pp. 253, 254. 
 
in the Light of Modern Scholarship. i r 
 
 traditions. They all tell of the destruction of the human 
 race by a great Hood, tlie preservation of one family in a 
 boat, and the re-peopling of the earth by this family. The 
 account of the Chaldean tablets bears to the record of 
 Genesis a remarkably close resemblance. Archscologists 
 say that the Chaldean narrative, in its original form, 
 antedates the days of Abraham, and pre-supposes the rec- 
 ord of Genesis in its integrity. It agrees with both the 
 so-called Ekihistic and Jehovistic documents of the higher 
 critics, and thus completely annihilates their documentary 
 hypothesis. The record did not originate centuries after 
 Moires. but existed in its entirety, as its form indicates, 
 soon after the Deluge. 
 
 History and science point also to the correctness of 
 the record of Genesis respecting the Dispersion at Babel, 
 and agree with its view as to the original unity of the 
 race and language of man. 
 
 The agreement of the ethnic faiths with Genesis is 
 not the result of one copying from the other. It argues 
 for an original account of actual events which they all 
 possessed in common, each branch of the human family 
 transmitting it in its own way, and of which we have the 
 most ancient and correct form in Genesis. The fact that 
 the ethnic traditions have nothing in common with Gene- 
 sis after the Dispersion is jiroof that they did not copy 
 from it. Had they drawn from it they would have made 
 mention of subsequent events and persons. That Genesis 
 did not copy after the ethnic faiths is sufficiently proved 
 by its purity, simplicity and scientific accuracy. 
 
 Modern ethnologists continually find anticipations of 
 their greatest discoveries in the 10th chapter of Genesis, 
 in which we have a geographical chart of the nations of 
 the earth and of their afiinities. The triple division into 
 which this ancient document distributes mankind, and the 
 boundaries which it assigns to the different human famil- 
 ies, are ascertained to be absolutely correct. "All modern 
 research has vindicated its accuracy," says Dawson. Con- 
 trary to all previous opinion, the Chaldean inscriptions 
 
12 The Old Testament 
 
 have shown that Genesis is minutely accurate in assigning- 
 a Hamitic population to Babylon, and a Shemitic one to- 
 Assyria and Elam.^ Karl Ritter, the eminent German 
 ethnologist, says that "In geography, as well as in eth- 
 nography, no writings of antiquity are so corroborated by 
 modern research as this passage in Genesis."' 
 
 The cuneiform inscriptions have made the 14th chap- 
 ter of Genesis perfectly intelligible. The monuments 
 record the names of Chedorlaomer and his allied kings, 
 and confirm the fact that they invaded Palestine at the 
 time indicated by Scripture chronology.' The events 
 recorded in that chapter, the customs and political rela- 
 tions assumed, truly picture the history of that time and 
 of the countries involved. The names of places and of 
 men have been identified, and the description of the 
 nature of the country about the cities of the plain corres- 
 ponds with ascertained natural facts. The age of the 
 patriarchs has indeed been put in the full glare of history. 
 Long before Abraham's day, Babylonians had migrated 
 westward, their kings had made Canaan tributary to their 
 crown, and, at the time of his migration, a Babylonian 
 monai'ch claimed kingship over Palestine.* 
 
 Geographical survey and modern research have 
 thrown a flood of light over all that portion of Old Testa- 
 
 1 Genesis 10:8.10,11. 
 
 2 Bibliotheca Sacra. 1S74, p. 163. 
 
 3 Rawliiison aays, "The monumental records of Babylonia bear marks of an 
 irruption in the native line of kings, about the date which from Scripture we should 
 assign to Cheldorlaomer and point to Elymais (or Elam) as tlie country from whicli 
 the irruption came. We have mention of a king, whose name is on good ground 
 identified with Chelorlaomer, as paramount in Babylonia— a king apparently of 
 Elamitic origin — and this monarch bears in the inscriptions the unusual and 
 significant title of Apda Marta, or Ravager of the West."— Historical Evidences, 
 page 73. 
 
 4 "The conclusion is in accordance with what the inscriptions of Babylonia 
 itself teach us. We learn from them that Babylonian conquerors had made their 
 way to Palestine in the gray dawn of history, and, in the age of Abraham, a Baby- 
 lonian monarch still calls himself king of the land of the .\morites,the name under 
 which Syria and Palestine were then known. We could not desire a belter contiim- 
 ation of the truth of that Old Testament history which tells us how Aliraham, the 
 Chaldean, migrated to the West, liow Babylonian princes ruled and warred in 
 Canaan in the life-time of the patriarch, and how, at a later period, 'a goodly Baby- 
 lonian garment' was among the spoils of Jerieho."— Professor Sayce in "Recent Re- 
 search in Bible Lands, p. 118. 
 
in the Light of Modern Scholarship. ij 
 
 mont history which extends from the patriarchal age to 
 the settlement of Israel in the Promised Land.' The 
 inscriptions show that we have in the Pentateuch and 
 Joshua a faithful contemporaneous history. The history 
 of Joseph and of Israel in Egypt is. to the minutest par- 
 ticular, true to Egyptian customs, laws -and geography. 
 The statement of Exodus, that God wrote the Decalogue 
 with his own finger on tablets of stone, reflects a practice 
 of the time. The Miuean inscriptions show that that 
 was then the customary way of writing in Arabia. Most 
 of the steps of Israel in their march to liberty have been 
 trat-ed. The stations on the route of the Exodus have 
 been identified. The boundaries as drawn in the book of 
 Numbers are entirely correct. The numerous geograph- 
 ical particulars in Joshua are, one after another, receiv- 
 ing verification. In his "Tent Work in Palestine." Major 
 Oonder says, "Of all the long catalogue in Joshua, there 
 is scarce a village, however insignificant, which does not 
 retain its desolate heap of modern hovels, with Arab 
 equivalents to the old names. "^ 
 
 The record of "the three-score cities," all of which 
 "were fenced with high walls, gates and bars," in the 
 stnall dominion of Og, king of Bashan. and wliich seemed 
 so evidently mythical to the higher critics, is in harmony 
 with the discoveries of modern research. A number of 
 wailed cities are still found there, and they bear witness 
 
 1 Treating of the Iniiiortant beHring " hich this kind of worli has in conflrm- 
 lug tile accuracy and trustworthiness of the Hebrew Scriptures, Professor Dawson 
 says: "The authors of the report on (l.c Sinai .Survey mal;e no pretension to be 
 eilher critics or expositors of the Bible, and t bey are prepared to sny what they see, 
 independently of the consequences to any one. Ut nee it is most iublructive to ob- 
 serve how, as they unsparingly sweep away old traditions and the conjectures of 
 travellers and historians, ancient and modern, the origiiinl record stands in all its 
 Integrity, like the stones of some cromlech from which men have dug away the 
 earth under which it has been buried."— "Modern Science in Bible Lands," p. 111. 
 
 2 Lex Mosaica, p. HI. 
 
 "In tracing the boundaries of the tribes the surveyors found reason to look 
 upon the book of Joshua as the Domesday Book of Palestine. The towns in a dist- 
 rict are all mentioned together, and in such consecutive topographical order that 
 many Scripture sites could be identilicd from this very circumstance. The tribal 
 boundaries are shown to be almost entirely natural, namely, rivers, ravines, ridges, 
 and the watershed lines of the country."— "Burled Cities and Bible Countries," p. 
 140. 
 
r4 The Old lestament 
 
 to the correctness with which the Hebrew writer sketched 
 the customs and numbers of that ancient people. 
 
 The Pentateuch alone contains the expression, ''the 
 land of Canaan." This the critics have pointed out as 
 proof that the i-edactor of a late date fraudulently put it 
 there with the pious intent of giving an air of antiquity to 
 the document and of making it pass as a truthful account 
 of God's dealing with his people. But the Egyptian tab- 
 lets show that Canaan was the name given to Palestine at 
 the time of the Exodus, and its presence in the Penta- 
 teuch therefore is proof of the authenticity of that 
 document. 
 
 In enumerating the precious stones which were set in 
 Aaron's breastplate, Moses named the "jasper," a word 
 which the critics claimed to be derived from the Greeks. 
 If that were so. it would raise a presumption in favor of 
 the contention that the Pentateuch was not written until 
 centuries after Moses. But the critics were again doomed 
 to be discredited. An Egyptian inscription of the time of 
 the Exodus contains the name, and proves that Moses, 
 in using it, was strictly accurate. 
 
 Other parts of the Old Testament bear the same tests. 
 The historical books are not a collection of haphazard 
 writings, but trustworthy records of actual events. The 
 history of the judges, of David, of Solomon, and of the 
 whole line of kings, is authentic. No one can now separ- 
 ate David from the authorship of the psalms; and the 
 inscriptions proclaim Daniel's book to be a contemporane- 
 ous Babylonian production. 
 
 The disciepancy, which was thought to be connected 
 with the introduciion of the name "Pal" in Scripture, as 
 one of the Assyrian kings has been satisfactorily explained 
 by the ascertained fact that Pttl and Tiglath-Pileser III are 
 identical, as might have been inferred from the accurate 
 information contained in I Chronicles 5:26. 
 
 The same is true of the aj^parent discrepancy in the 
 number of talents which were delivered by Hezekiah to 
 Sennacharib. Hezekiah says he gave but three hundred, 
 
in the Light 0/ Modern Scholarship. 1 5 
 
 while Sennacharib claims to have received eight hundred. 
 But it has now been ascertained that, while the Hebrew 
 and Assyrian gold talents were the same, three Hebrew 
 silver talents were eqivalent to eight Assyrian of that 
 metal. Again the Old Hebrew Scripture is found to be 
 strictly correct. 
 
 Until quite recently it was the universal scientific 
 opinion that the Old Testament, in saying that, "the coney 
 clieweth the end" and that ants "prepare their went in sum- 
 mer," convicted itself of scientific blunders. It was con- 
 tended that no such conies and ants ever existed. But 
 the latest verdict of science holds thai the above state- 
 ments respecting the habits of these animals are "in 
 accordance with the accurately ascertained facts of nat- 
 ural history."' In allusion to this fact so authoritative an 
 author as the late Mr. f\omaues said of Scripture writers, 
 "Our attention as naturalists is arrested by the accuracy 
 of tVieir observations. ■■- 
 
 A careful compari-son, therefore, of the Old Testa- 
 ment with the latest results in many fields of investigation 
 reveals its pre-eminent truthfulness. It comes unscathed 
 out of every test. The writers of these old Scriptures 
 loom up as men of rare intelligence and accuracy. They 
 are invariably true to their historical and geographical 
 view-point. Whether they describe events which occurred 
 in Egypt, the Arabian desert, Canaan or Babylon, they 
 give in each case the ideas and aspects appropriate to 
 the place and time. In all references to geographical 
 land marks, names of places and persons, geological 
 structure; physical features; the climate, flowers, animals 
 and stones; the laws, customs and government of the peo- 
 ple, they are uniformly correct. This marvellous accuracy 
 extends even to the poetical books. Do we fully appreci- 
 ate this wonderful fact? On an extensive comparison it 
 becomes evident that the Scriptui'es are pre-eminent over 
 all other literature ancient and modern, for their truth- 
 
 1 Smith's Bible Dictionary, Edition of 18'J3. 
 
 2 The Homlletic Review. January, 1896; p. 18. 
 
1 6 The Old Testament 
 
 fulness. This external proof of their accuracy is greatlj' 
 strengtheced by their internal coherence and the testimo- 
 ny which one part bears to the other. 
 
 The time is past when such documents can be stigma- 
 tized as a collection of old myths and fables. Their histo- 
 ric verity has been firmly established "We possess an 
 abundance of contemporary records which enable us to 
 test the truthfulness and credibility of the narratives that 
 the Old Testament has preserved. And the narratives 
 fully stand the test."' Professor McCurdy has well said, 
 "The stadium of needed vindication of the historical ac- 
 curacy of the Old Testament is now as good as past in our 
 progress towards the final goal of truth and knowledge."^ 
 These Scriptures are all authentic. They give evidence 
 of coming from intelligent eyewitnesses. Every wheie 
 they bear the stamp of contemporaneousness. Modern 
 investigations in science and archeology are accumulating 
 evidence that even the earliest portions on Genesis, with 
 the exception of the unique record of the creation, con- 
 tain the narratives of intelligent eye-witnesses which 
 Moses utilized in their composition.' 
 
 1 Recent Research in Bible Lands, page 111. 
 
 2 Recent Research in Bible Lands, page 28. 
 
 3 Speaking of the tenth chapter of Genesie, Professor Dawson says, "I have 
 already referred to the early date of this document, and the notes of an historical 
 character interspersi'd, and which might be supposed to be later additions, all 
 keep within the same limits. The writer never by any chance shows the least 
 knowledge of the subsequent history of the pt-oples to whom he refers. It is scarce- 
 ly possible to imagine a later writer persevering in such reticence." Eden Lost and 
 Won, page 113. Respecting the record of the Deluge, he says, "It is also to be 
 observed that the narrative in Genesis purports to be that of an eye-witness. He 
 notes the going into the ark, the closins of its door, the first floating of the large 
 ship, then its drifting, then the disappearance of visible land, and the minimum 
 depth of fifteen cubits, probably representing the draft of water of the ark. Then 
 we have the abating of the waters, with an intermittent action, 'going and return- 
 ing,' the grounding of the ark, the gradual appearance of surrounding hills, the 
 disappearance of the water, and, finally, the drying of the ground. All this, if his- 
 toricalin any degree, must consist of the notes of an eye-witness." Modern Sciencei 
 page 254. 
 
 To the same purport, in connection with what he had said before, are his re- 
 marks on the 'lescription of the site of Eden in Genesis: "We have, therefore, 
 arrived, on infallible evidence furnished by geology, geography and history, at the 
 conclusion that the o: iginal author of the document of which the second chapter of 
 Genesis forms a portion, flourished somewhere between the the tims of the Deluge 
 and that of the patriarch Abraham. This conclusion cannot now be shaken by any 
 literary criticism, and is in every way likely to be further confirmed by new discov- 
 eries." Eden Lost and Won, page 76. 
 
in the Light of Modern Scholarship. 17 
 
 II. Secondly, Theik Supernatural Contents. 
 Being a first-class authority in matters of common human 
 knowledge, the question arises: Does the Old Testament 
 also give reliable information in its narration of events 
 which are strictly supernatural? Is human history trust- 
 worthy wliich purports to relate what God has said and 
 done? Can man give a true account of divine action? 
 
 Rationalistic critics deny the possibility of supernat- 
 ural intervention in human affairs, and when therefore 
 recoi'ds of it occur in the Scriptures, they put them in the 
 category of myths and fancy sketches, which, in moral 
 and didactic worth, stand on a level with such productions 
 as ^sop's Fables and the Tales of the Arabian Nights. 
 The question, however, ife not one of possibility, but of 
 fact. Conceding the existence of a personal God, infinite 
 in wisdom and power, and interested in the welfare of his 
 creatures, all the supernatural events which are recorded 
 in Scripture not only become possible hut probable. 
 
 That God has i-evealed himself and worked miracles 
 is the uniform testimony of the Old Testament. It abounds 
 in statements like these: "Jehovah said unto Abraham," 
 "Jehovah spake unto Joshua," "Jehovah said unto Sam- 
 uel," "Jehovah sent them thunder and hail.* * * Jehovah 
 rained hail upon the land of Egypt," "Jehovah your God 
 dried the waters of Jordan from before you until ye were 
 passed over, as the Lord your God dried up the Red Sea, 
 which He dried up from before you until ye were gone 
 over." The Old Testament professes to give a history in 
 which God was present with his people, i-evealing himself 
 to them in various ways, and accrediting that revelation 
 of himself to them by miracle and prophecy. 
 
 The one supreme purpose of the Old Testament is 
 confessedly to illustrate the teaching and working of God. 
 The only question which concerns us is. Are these claims 
 respecting itself true or not? The fact that the writers of 
 the Old Testament have been so entirely correct in record- 
 ing matters of common human knowledge raises a strong 
 presumption in favor of their accuracy in claiming to 
 
1 8 The Old Testament 
 
 narrate superhuman events. They were in the highest 
 degree under the control of the spirit of truth and had a 
 reputation for the strictest moral integrity. The Scrip- 
 ture contains the supernatural element. It needs to be 
 accounted for. Our contention is that it cannot be ex- 
 plained on natural principles, buL that the testimony of 
 the writers of Scripture in assigning it to divine agency 
 must be accepted as true. The argument is too lengthy 
 for full treatment here. A few points onlj' can be men- 
 tioned. 
 
 i.st. The truth contained in the record of creation is 
 clearly a matter of revelation. Professor Hitcucock said 
 that its substantial truth "is generally admitted among 
 all scientific men." How did the writer of Genesis obtain 
 that true information. He was not a personal witness of 
 the work of creation. God is the only being who knew 
 all the facts in the case, and He must therefore have 
 revealed them. The accurate record of creation therefore 
 gives clear proof of Divine intervention. When it is seen 
 to be true we know it to be divine. 
 
 2nd. The spiritual significance of Old Testament 
 truth proves its spiritual origin. 
 
 1. The immaculate character with which it invests 
 God is above human conception. He is not merely free 
 from faults, but radiant in virtue, intensely active in all 
 that is good. He cannot "look on iniquity;" "neither shall 
 evil dwell with Him." How did the Old Testament writers 
 come by this idea of God as a Being of ineffable holiness, 
 infinitely pure, righteous and just? The gods of the ethnic 
 faiths are hideously immoral. They are human creations. 
 Man's views of God have invariably deteriorated. God 
 only can give a true knowledge of himself, and the fact 
 that the Old Testament presents God correctly as ineffa- 
 bly holy and infinite in goodness and truth is proof that 
 He communicated this knowledge of himself to its authors. 
 
 2. Tlie dark colors in which sin is portrayed, as that 
 abominable thing which God hates and which deprives the 
 best of men of all right of approach to Him, show it to be 
 
in the Light of Modern Scholarship. 19 
 
 a matter of revelation. None but a holy God could cor- 
 rectly estimate the damaj^e done by transgressing his 
 righteous law. The sinner is, by disposili<jn and self-in- 
 terest, wholly incapable of truly defining sin. 
 
 3. The Old Testament plan of the forgiveness of sin 
 on the basis of a vicarious atonement is supernatural. The 
 shedding of blood is made, not by the cost of the victim 
 but by the will of God, the method of procuring pardon. 
 This opens the door of hope for all sinners, and points 
 forward to the sacrifice of Christ for the sin of the world. 
 This method of pardon is so deep and mysterious that, if 
 God had not revealed it, man would never have thought 
 of it. He has, by nature, always been in deadlj hostility 
 to it. 
 
 4. The spiritual aim and efficacj' of the Old Testa- 
 ment bespeak a divine origin for its contents. It does 
 more than repi-ess evil or deter from crime. It "'breathes 
 a high moral earnestness, a pure and holy spirit." It 
 makes the spiritual supreme, subordinating all earthlj' 
 interests to it, inculcating high religious ideals, and pres- 
 sing hard on the scrupulously conscientious. It seeks to 
 make man right in all his earthly relations on the basis of 
 having him right first of all with his God. The Lord 
 commanded Moses to say to the people in his name. "If 
 ye will obey my voice indeed and keep my covenant, then 
 shall ye be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people; 
 for all the earth is mine; and ye shall be unto me a king- 
 dom of priests and a holy nation." '-Thou shalt love Je- 
 hovah thy God with all thy heart, and with all thy might, 
 and with all thy strength." A theory of conduct so lofty 
 was never originated by mortal man. 
 
 Moreover, the Old Testament has a more than human 
 insight into the deepest religious needs of man and has 
 provided for them with a divine eflicacy. It awakens the 
 religious sense and satisfies it. Revealing to him his guilt 
 and helplessness, it does not leave him to sink into des- 
 pair but inspires him with hope by disclosing the loving- 
 kindness of God on the basis of which forgiveness, 
 
io The Old Testament 
 
 reconciliation and a new life are made possible. It quick- 
 ens man's heart to repent, to have confidence in God, to 
 forsake the evil and cleave to the good and, while filling 
 the soul with divine peace, furnishes also a constant stim- 
 ulus to aspire after higher degrees of holy living. The 
 fruits of this discipline have been of the richest kind. It 
 produced the holy men whose lives are mirrored in the 
 Psalms and the Prophets. It made saints like Abraham, 
 Samuel, David, Elijah, Isaiah and Daniel. 
 
 Wnence came this Old Testament truth which antici- 
 pated man's wants so fuHy and satisfied them so com- 
 pletely? The only reasonable answer is that God revealed 
 it for man's guidance. 
 
 Higher Criticism contends that the prophets preceded 
 the law, and, in the course of centuries, gradually devel- 
 oped it. But how did the prophets come by their deep 
 spiritual knowledge and their intense moral earnestness 
 if they did not receive it from the quickening power of 
 God's revealed truth in the law of Moses? The religious 
 convictions, activity and experiences contained in the 
 Psalms and Prophets can be adequately explained only 
 on the previous knowledge of the Mosaic law which under- 
 lies the thought and life of the whole Old Testament. It 
 is God's teaching and guiding to bring man out of sin to 
 Himself. This view receives added strength from the 
 obvious fact that the Old Testament sustains a designed 
 relation to the Gospel. The law and Gospel make each 
 other mutually intelligible, yet the one could not be 
 inferred naturally from the other. The close connection 
 between them is a miraculous one, and discloses a far- 
 reaching plan of God. 
 
 That God has come to man and spoken to him are facts 
 which are also attested by substantial miracles. A revela- 
 tion cannot be delivered by anybody. It can only be by 
 one whose mind has been divinely prepared to receive the 
 message of God, and one whom He authenticates to men. 
 Obviously it requires the supernatural credibly to authen- 
 ticate the supernatural. Hence the need ol miracles. 
 
in the Light of Modern Scholarship. 2 i 
 
 They are reasonable because necessary to accredit the 
 agents through whom God made His revelations. They 
 do not appear at random in all parts of the Old Testament, 
 but only at crucial epochs as in the days of the patriarchs. 
 Moses. Samuel, Elijah and Daniel, when the exigencies of 
 God's kingdom required his especial interposition. They 
 were the credentials of his ambassadors, authenticating 
 the message which was delivered by them; and it is to be 
 observed that these men always ascribed the miracles 
 which were wrought through them to the power of God. 
 
 We have found them to be truthful historians, too 
 intelligent and honest knowingly to recojd falsehood, and 
 therefore the only way open to deny the reality of mira- 
 cles is by impeaching the consciousness of these men and 
 say that they were deceived. Is that possible? Shall we 
 say that men like Moses, Samuel, Isaiah, Jeremiah. Dan- 
 iel, yes, and Christ himself, were under illusion? This 
 will finally bring us face to face with the alternative .con- 
 tained in Auberlin's question: "Is the world a lunatic 
 asylum, or is it the temple of the living God? Tirtium non 
 datur.'" Right reason unites with Scripture in affirming 
 that it is a temple of the living God. 
 
 3rd. Prophecy furnishes another line of evidence for 
 the presence of the supernatural in the Old Testament. 
 Thejjrophet was one who spake for God. His message, 
 whether it referred to the past, present or future, was 
 divinely imparted to him. Prophecy in its predictive 
 sense particularly discloses an understanding of the future 
 which is possible to infinite wisdom only, and is therefore 
 a miracle of knowledge. 
 
 Isaiah, for instance, in his 21st chapter, predicts the 
 overthrow of Babylon by the Medo Persian power, giving 
 a number of particulars whereby the prophecy can be 
 identified. Some hundred and fifty years afterwards this 
 prediction was literally fulfilled. 
 
 In the third chapter of Micah, the prophet foretells- 
 
 1 The Divine Reveiatlon, psge 180. 
 
ii Tlxe Old Testament 
 
 the captivity of Judah more than a hundred years before 
 it occurred. 
 
 The knowledge of the future is especially disclosed 
 in the Messianic pro^Jhecies. The character, work and 
 sufferings of Christ were minutely portrayed centuries 
 before his advent. The 53i-d chapter of Isaiah narrates a 
 detailed arrangement in regard to the mediatorial work of 
 Christ which, by its fulfillment more than six hundred 
 years afterward, distinctly bears the stamp of a super- 
 natural origin. The agreement of fulfillment with predic- 
 tion is clear evidence of the fact that God spake through 
 the prophet. 
 
 The types of the Old Testament, of which we have 
 the antitype in the New, are evidence of the same truth. 
 It is beyond human ingenuity to invent a type before the 
 appearance of the antitype; and, since centuries inter- 
 vened between the two, the correspondence of type in the 
 Old Testament with the antitype in the New, is conclusive 
 proof of divine plan and origin. 
 
 The supernatural in the Old Testament is therefere a 
 reality. It is a demonstrated fact. It occurs throughout 
 these Scriptures in well accredited forms of revelation, 
 miracle, prophecy and type, and they are therefore shown 
 to be reliable in their narration of supernatural, as well 
 as in that of common events. 
 
 III. Finally, tlieir iilenarij insinration. By inspiration 
 we mean that special divine influence on the human mind 
 which secures the accurate transmission of truth, by 
 speaker or writer, whether that truth has been divinely 
 revealed or obtained through the ordinary channels of 
 human observation and experience; while revelation has 
 reference to that direct Divine influence by which the 
 truth of God is imparted to man. 
 
 As it relates to the Old Testament, we say that the 
 writings of it are fully inspired of God, so that, while not 
 excluding but including the human activity, they are in a 
 true sense the word of God. The writings contain the 
 divine and human elements in combination, the divine 
 
in the Light of Modern Scholarship . 25 
 
 controllinfr the human to the extent of securing truthful- 
 ness. "Men spake from God. being moved by tiie Holy 
 Spirit." 
 
 It miglit be taken for granted that, since God intend- 
 ■ed the Scriptures to be a permanent and authoritative 
 record of his i-evealed word, in which men might always 
 trust with assured certainty. He would give that special 
 help to the sacred writers which, in embodying this truth 
 in a permanent written form, would keep them free from 
 all the errors and follies, the faults and failings, which 
 mar the best of human literatui'e. The exigencies, which 
 made revealed truth a necessity, demanded with equal 
 urgency that it should be accurately communicated under 
 special Divine superintendence to assure men of the fact 
 that the record conveyed a veritable message from God. 
 The writing needed something extraordinary in order 
 that it might be invested with that peculiar authoritj' 
 which should elicit the confidence of men in its divine 
 revelation. Truth divinely imparted to the mind, but 
 transmitted in a fallible human record, would not answer 
 the purpose, nor does that conception of Scripture com- 
 port witli all the phenomena which it exhibits. 
 
 1. For one thing, in a large part of Scripture, his- 
 tory and revelation, natural facts and events and super- 
 natural truths and agencies, are so inextricably interwoven 
 in the text of Scripture, that it is impossible to separate 
 them. The divine and human are in living union. 
 
 We have an instance of this in the record of creation. 
 Its scientific accuracy is proof not only of its divine origin 
 but of its inspiration as well. Words are used with unfail- 
 ing accuracy. In regard to the origin of things, it intro- 
 duces the two ideas of causation and developement with 
 scientific precision. The primary existence of matter, of 
 life and of man it ascribes to God, the first great Cause of 
 all things, and. in respect to them, uses the strong verb 
 "bara," create, which expresses the most absolute kind of 
 making; while in reference to the idea of developement 
 the milder term "asa," is employed. Sir William Dawson 
 
24 The Old Testament 
 
 asks, "How did this ancient writer escape the mental 
 confusion which clouds the minds of so many clever men 
 of our time?" They escaped it by means of the supernat- 
 ural illumination and help which they enjoyed. "By 
 proving the record to be true," says Professor Dana, 
 "science pronounces it divine; for who could have cor- 
 rectly narrated the secrets of eternity but God himself ?"i 
 
 The same is true of the Law, Prophecy and Type. 
 They are inseparably bound up with the history in which 
 they ajDpear. Most of them were confessedly given iu 
 the words of God; and, in respect to all of them, it is to 
 be said that the truth which they convey is so far above 
 the unaided powers of the human mind that man could 
 never have expressed it correctly in language. These 
 parts of Scripture are adequately explained only by say- 
 ing, "God spake all these words." 
 
 This view is greatly strengthened by the considera- 
 tion that through all these Scriptures there runs a remark- 
 able unity of plan and purpose to which all their parts, 
 great and small, are subordinated. And when we remem 
 ber that these old documents were the product of many 
 writers, differently qualitied and living in different lands 
 and centuries, between whom collusion was impossible, it 
 must be apparent that we can account for this unity on 
 no other view than that these authors wrote according to 
 the mind of the one superintending Spirit of God. 
 
 2. The historical and scientific accuracy of Scripture 
 predicate its plenary inspiration. Human memory may 
 be trusted in a general way, but not in respect to minute 
 exactness in so many details. 
 
 History and science have severely tested the Old 
 Testament Scriptures at numerous points. Their latest 
 discoveries have failed to overthrow them in a single 
 point, but have confirmed them in many with striking 
 • exactness. Wherever there is opportunity for fair com- 
 parison, minute accuracy is shown to be their unique 
 excellence. No fact in Scripture is more remarkable 
 
 1 Bibliotheea Sacra, 1878, p. 342. 
 
in the Light of Modern Scholarshii) . 25 
 
 than this. The Bible is, in this respect. THE BOOK, 
 pre-eminent over all others in point of veracity. This 
 supreme excellence of the Bible is a fact which must be 
 taken into consideration in the effort to determine its 
 origin. Why is it that truth is stamped on the very warp 
 and woof of this book? You may take the productions of 
 the most accomplished writeis of history and science in 
 our day, and, without difficulty, discover numerous errors 
 in every one of them. Yet the Old Testament, which was 
 composed in an unscientific age, when the art of writing 
 was in its comparative infancy, making statements on a 
 large variety of subjects, often incidentally only, is found 
 invariably to be strictly correct. How could these men 
 write true science before the birth of science? How could 
 they so uniformly connote natural, geographical and eth- 
 nological facts with absolute correctness before any of 
 these sciences were systematized? It is due 10 the insyjir- 
 atiou of God. They were divinely helped. ^ 
 
 The fact that these Scriptures were not the productof 
 one, but of many, human authors, during sixteen centur- 
 ies, makes this phenomenon still more remarkable. We 
 do not believe that any one man ever possessed a genius 
 so great or endowments so extraordinary that he could 
 naturally have written with such uniform truthfulness. 
 but the marvel is vastly enhanced and the explanation 
 proportionately more difficult on the basis of many writ- 
 ers. Can there be any other satisfactory explanation 
 than that these authors of Scripture were guarded against 
 
 1 "If the Bible is thoroughly true and reliable mot taking into account mere 
 copyists' errors), then, making allowance only for such imperfect statements of the 
 truth or such imperfect commands as were required by the cnndition of the roeti to 
 whom it was given we have before us this prodigy: that during the lapse of many 
 centuries a number of writers, of dill'erent personal character and of every variety 
 of culture and position, writing with such freedom that their idiosyncrasies are 
 plainly to be seen, and unhesitatingly touching upon every subject that came in 
 their way— historical, ethnological. arch;eologicttl, scieiilitie, and moral- have 
 been preserved from error. This result could not have had place in writings of hu- 
 man origin. Is there any other logical conclusion from this, than that, whatever 
 else be or be not the function of inspiration, its scope included the preservation of 
 the Bible from error, and the giving to man of a book on which he may rely abso- 
 lutely as the word of God?" Professor Frederick Gardner in "Aids to Scripture 
 Study," page 62. 
 
2 6 The Old Testament 
 
 error and quickened to write truth by the Holy Spirit, 
 the Divine Author of the Scriptures? 
 
 The conclusion thus reached is all the more irresist- 
 able when we stop to consider, what is everywhere appar'- 
 -ent in the Scripture, that this accuracy was not the result 
 of plan and study on the part of its writers. They were 
 seemingly unconscious of it. Their minds were supreme- 
 ly engaged with the import of the great truths which God 
 was communicating through them. There come out of 
 these Scriptures therefore, a unity, harmony and truth- 
 fulness which did not lie in the consciousness of their 
 authors, and they must, for this added reason, be ascribed 
 to the superintendence of the Divine Spii'it. 
 
 We see then that the plenary inspiration of the Old 
 Testament may be predicated from a careful induction of 
 all the facts and truths which are fornd in its own pages. 
 
 3. Tljis doctrine, thus established, is further con- 
 firmed by the testimony of the New Testament. It is 
 sometimes contended that we cannot prove the inspiration 
 of Scripture by its own testimony; but the two Testaments 
 are separated from each other by centuries, and, as wit- 
 nesses, they are therefore independent of each other. It 
 would be entirely proper to formulate a doctrine respect- 
 ing the Old Testament from expressions concerning it in 
 the New. But when the New Testament corroborates a 
 doctrine which lies embedded in the Old, its testimony 
 must be accepted as final and conclusive. 
 
 In respect to the Old Testament Paul said, "All scrip- 
 ture is given by inspiration of God," or, is God-breathed. 
 True, this is the only explicit statement of the New Tes- 
 tament on the subject; but, since what it here categorical- 
 ly afSrms is necessarily to be inferred from all its refer- 
 ences to the Old, the declaration of Paul fairly voices its 
 view respecting the Old Testament. The New Testament 
 teaches therefore that the entire Old Testament is inspir- 
 ed of God. 
 
 It also expresses the opinion of Christ himself. In 
 his view, God was the Author of it, and for that reason. 
 
in the Light of Modern Scholarship. 27 
 
 He held it to be absolutely true and reliable. What it 
 said. He regarded as having been said by God and the 
 Holy Spirit, and therefore ever jiroved by these Scrip- 
 tures what the will of God was. The words of the Old 
 Testament were to Him coextensive with the words of 
 God. "It is written," was, in his view, equivalent to 
 "Thus saith the Lord." He quoted incidental passages of 
 Scripture as conclusive in argument. The Scripture was 
 the only authority to which He deferred, and He deferred 
 to it in the minutest points. 
 
 Jesus then affirmed an inspiration for the Old Testa- 
 which was of the most plenary kind. His comi)etence 
 and qualification for teaching the true doctrine of Scrip- 
 ture must be admitted. He came to give to the world the 
 tinal revelation of divine truth, and his clear statement, 
 therefore, on any doctrine, must be the end of all contro- 
 versy among His people. 
 
 He solemnly affirmed, "My teaching is not mine, but 
 his that sent me." He spake not from himself but accord- 
 ing to the Father's commandment. In speaking to the 
 Father of His finished work, he said, "I have given them 
 Thy word," and make the reception of his message the 
 test of true discipleship in these words: "Now they know 
 that all things whatsoever Thou hast given me are from 
 Thee: for the words which Thou gavest me I have given 
 unto them; and they received them, and know of a truth 
 that I came forth from Thee, and tliey believed that Thou 
 didst send me." 
 
 We still have the Old Testament then in its full inte- 
 grity, and, with it also, the New, of which it is the found- 
 nation. God is still speaking to men in its holy lessons, its 
 sacred history, its divine institutions, its devout psalms 
 and inspired prophecy, for comfort in life's lessons, for 
 the confirmation of faith, and for guidance into the full 
 knowledge of New Testament truth. 
 
 These scriptures are the word of God. true from be- 
 ginning to end. They have been tested and proved. As- 
 sailed by powers numerous and mighty, they stand firm 
 
28 The Old Testament 
 
 as the impregnable rock of eternal truth. Their truth- 
 fulness is authenticated by the light which streams from 
 their own pages and is corroborated by miracle and pro- 
 phecy, by modern research, and by the testimony of our 
 Lord and his Apostles. 
 
 The neglect of the study of the Old Testament was 
 avenging itself in the helplessness of the Church to ward 
 off hostile attacks made upon it. But God is wonderfully 
 confirming its Verity by means of the discoveries made in 
 a wide range of scholarly investigat'ons. 
 
 It is now seen that a rationalistic criticism had accept- 
 ed mere conjecture for knowledge, and had reached con- 
 clusions antagonistic to the veracity of Scripture on the 
 basis of an unsound deduction. Signs are multiplying 
 which indicate that the rationalistic criticism is approach- 
 ing its Waterloo. 
 
 But the corrective for these erroneous views will be 
 found in a deeper study of the Scriptures in the light of 
 all the evidence which God is accumulating for their de- 
 fense. Being the word of God, the Bible shrinks from no 
 test, it welcomes light from every source, and desires 
 above all things to be searched and tested that it may 
 commend itself to the faith of men. We honestly receive 
 and teach this Old Testament for the reason that it is 
 God's truthful word which, in union with the New, light- 
 ens up the way of life with unfailing certainty. Other 
 books come and go, empires rise and decay, but the word 
 of God is invested with the vigor of immortal youth and 
 abides forever. 
 
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