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events described in it, clearly proves that the age of the Judges was not merely one of rude prowess and warlike adventure, but that, at least among the leaders of the nation, there existed conceptions of Jehovah which could not fail to be a motive force in religious development, and a certain sense of consecration which inspired conspicuous acts of heroic valour. The action of the Spirit of God upon men was a fact which alone sufficed to explain the greatness of their achievements1. It was a power very dimly understood, but recognized as working in and through human instruments on behalf of God's purpose of salvation 2. This continuous operation of the divine Spirit forms part of that ideal element in Israel's history which is plainly reflected in the prophetic narratives. Moreover, supposed inconsistencies are softened or removed if we remember to draw necessary distinctions between the religious leaders of Israel and the mass of the people; between the fundamental Mosaic beliefs cherished in religious centres like Shiloh, and the general level of culture, morality, and worship exhibited by the nation as a whole 3.

On a survey of the ground we have traversed, it appears that there are good reasons for believing that the inspired writers give a presentation of the facts which is not primarily historical, but prophetic, their

1 Cp. Judges iii. 10; vi. 34; xi. 29; xiii. 25; xiv. 6, 19; xv. 14; 1 Sam. x. 6, 10; xvi. 13.

2 Cp. Schultz, vol. ii. pp. 204 foll.; Robertson, op. cit. pp. 118 foll.

Some such distinction is recognized as 'a fair inference from the Song of Deborah' by Cheyne, Aids to the Devout Study of Criticism, p. 31. Cp. Driver, Serm. on the O. T. p. 138: 'Throughout their history the people are represented as needing to be taught by others, as declining from truth by which they ought to have been guided, as falling short of the ideal propounded to them. The natural tendencies of the nation did not move in the direction of spiritual religion. There is no ground to suppose that, apart from the special illumination vouchsafed to the great teachers who originated or sustained the principles of its faith, the religious history of Israel would have differed materially from that of the kindred nations by which it was surrounded.' There were, in point of fact, repeated occasions when the Israel of the Spirit found its almost solitary representative in a single prophet.

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main design being that of religious edification. follows that we can await with equanimity the verdict of criticism in regard to the exact historical worth of the narrative. That there is a great regard for certain outstanding facts of the history is unquestionable, but the facts are often coloured by high imaginative power, and are estimated according to moral significance. In regard to minor details there is ample room for diversity of opinion. To take two passing illustrations. The religious lessons of Samson's history are not materially affected by any particular view respecting the precise character of the narrative which describes his career 1. The portrait of David is not the less a treasure for all time because to a great extent it is idealized by devout writers of a later age. The important question is whether, in their interpretation of Israel's history, the prophetic writers of the Old Testament are fundamentally wrong. We have found reasons for supposing that in its general point of view 'the prophetic philosophy of history' is true, and we may accept the cautious summary of Prof. Robertson as fairly stating our conclusions. 'The great events, he says, 'of Israel's history, the turning-points, the points determinative of the whole life and history, are attested by the nation at the earliest time at which we are enabled to look for materials on which an opinion can be based. No reason can be given for the invention of them just at this time, or for the significance which the prophets assign to them. It may be that a fond memory invested with a halo of glory the great fathers of the race; it may also be that a simple piety saw wonders where a modern age would see

1 As is well known, there is a view that the story of Samson originates in a solar myth (='Sun-man.' See Kuenen, Religion of Israel [Eng. Tr.], vol. i. p. 307). It is far more probable that Samson was an actual hero of the tribe of Dan, around whose name a certain 'mushroomgrowth of legend' gradually gathered, intermingled possibly with some foreign elements. See Kittel, Hist. of the Hebrews, vol. ii. pp. 91, 92.

2 See Cheyne, Aids to the Devout Study of Criticism, part i, on the David-narratives.

none. Yet the individuality of the characters is not destroyed, nor are the sequence of events and the delineations of character shown to be the work of a fitful and unbridled imagination '.'

It is, on the whole, sufficiently clear that the aim of the historical writers of the Old Testament was to bring out the religious significance of Israel's history. They interpret events in accordance with their steadfast belief in Jehovah's original election of Israel. This idea of election was one of which the nation as a whole probably became conscious very gradually. But it is reasonable to suppose that even in the earliest period there were men of prophetic spirit who discerned the drift and tendency of God's dealings with their race. An English historian has pointed out the

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effect on our nation of the destruction of the Armada. The pride of the conquerors,' says Mr. Green, 'was hushed before their sense of a mighty deliverance. The victory over the Armada, the deliverance from Spain, the rolling away of the terror which had hung like a cloud over the hopes of the new people, was like a passing from death unto life 2. It is not too much to claim that such an event as the exodus, impressed as it had been on the national memory, profoundly affected the point of view from which the whole subsequent history was studied. Here, I think, we have the very heart of the matter. Some critics

think that the general scheme of biblical history is an after-thought leading to 'a systematic representation of earlier events in the light of much later times 3'; but the point to be observed is that the early history itself suggested the ideas by which all the subsequent development was interpreted. The Hebrew mind was not what the modern mind sometimes is, intensely matter of fact, and consequently it did not set the

1 The Early Religion of Israel, p. 135. It is worth while drawing special attention to the retrospect of Israel's history in the book of Judith (ch. v. 6-19) as a main outline of historical facts.

History of the English People, vol. ii. pp. 446-447. 3 See Robertson, op. cit. p. 30.

same exaggerated store on mere outward fact as if it were synonymous with the essential truth of things. In his Studies in Judaism, Mr. Schechter makes the suggestive remark that Judaism ever 'bowed before truth, but it had never made a covenant with facts only because they were facts. History had to be remade and to sanctify itself before it found its way into its sacred annals.' The Jew looked at historical events as manifestations of that which he deemed to be of infinitely higher interest, viz. the purposes and character of God. And while we may admit the defectiveness of the historical writings if judged by modern standards, it is a fair question whether this point of view was that of the sacred writers themselves, and whether it is of the supreme importance which the scientifically trained mind is apt to assume.

The fact is that these narratives which historical criticism analyzes so minutely are lifted by the touch of divine insight displayed in them to a level higher than that on which the scientific faculty moves. The Old Testament records the history of the people of God as it unfolds itself before the eyes of Him who sits upon the throne of heaven judging the deeds and lives of men according to truth2. We who believe that Scripture is divine as well as human are prepared to find anticipated in it that awful reversal of human judgment and of the earthly estimate of things for which we look hereafter in the day when God shall judge the secrets of men by Jesus Christ3.

1 Introd. p. xxv. Prof. Ramsay, in his striking vindication of St. Luke's genius as an historian, observes that 'Historical truth implies not merely truth in each detail, but also truth in the general effect, and that kind of truth cannot be attained without selection, grouping, and idealization' (St. Paul the traveller and the Roman citizen, p. 4). See also Bruce, With open face, ch. iii. (‘The idealized picture of Luke').

2 Rom. ii. 2.

Rom. ii. 16. See Mozley's sermon on 'The reversal of human judgment' (University Sermons, no. iv). Bp. Wordsworth makes a suggestive remark in reference to the thirty-eight years of Israel's wandering in the wilderness: 'We know that the people existed.... They themselves have no history. Their names are written in water; they have no place in the annals of heaven' (The Holy Bible with commentary, Introd. to Genesis and Exodus, p. xxxi).

NOTE A.

On the patriarchal narratives Prof. G. A. Smith says (op. cit. p. 49), 'If we will go to the characters of the O. T. as they are, and treat them, not as our dead prey, but as our masters and brothers, whom it is our duty to study with patience and meekness, there is almost no end to the real benefit they shall do us. The careful study of the original narrative, the study of the history of the times, the study of the contemporary monuments, which of late are being discovered in such large numbers, reveal to us that these characters are neither the lay figures nor the mere symbols of doctrine which they are often represented to be by a certain kind of preaching, nor, on the other hand, can they be only mythical heroes-incarnations of a tribe or reflections of natural phenomena-to which some mistaken schools of criticism think to reduce them. There is a vividness, a moral reality, about nearly all of them; and although they rise amid circumstances that we cannot always explain, and are sometimes surrounded by miracles to which our conscience does not always respond-through all this they stalk unhindered, real characters with life and way upon them.' A reader of Renan's Histoire du peuple d'Israël, bk. i, will, I think, derive from it a very strong impression of the general truth of the patriarchal story. See, however, the temperate remarks of Dillmann, Commentary on Genesis [Eng. Tr.], vol. ii. pp. 1 foll.

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