THE DRIFT OF * * 
 BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 PAST AND PRESENT 
 
 IRA MAURICE PRICE 
 
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 AMERICAN BAPTIST 
 PUBLICATION SOCIETY 
 
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 THE DPIFT Or ^%awL8t«^ 
 
 BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 PAST AND PRESENT 
 
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 PROFESSOR IN THE 
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 PHILADELPHIA 
 
 THE GRirriTII & ROWLAND PRESS 
 1900 
 
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 Copyright igoo by the 
 American Baptist Publication Society 
 
 jfrom tbc Society's own press 
 
NOTE 
 %* 
 
 Tli in tAa 'dress was delivered at the 
 
 (National ""Baptist Anniversaries, 'Detroit, 
 
 (Mich., May 26, /goo. *As it appears in the 
 
 ^Annual T^eport of the 'Publication Society it contains a 
 
 few typographical errors which are here corrected. 
 
 tA partial list of "Literature" on the 
 
 general subject has been appended. 
 
LITERATURE— A SELECTION ONLY 
 
 On the History of biblical research: 
 
 Diestel, L., " Geschichte des Altai Testament es in dcr Christ- 
 lichen Kirche." Jena, 1869. 
 
 Wogue, L., " Histoire Jc la Bible ct fEougese TJiblique 
 jusqu'a 110s Jours." Paris, 1881. 
 
 Farrar, F. W., "History of Interpretation" (Bampton 
 Lectures, 1885). London, 1886. 
 
 ON THE MODERN PERIOD: 
 
 Lias, J. J., "The Principles of Biblical Criticism." 
 London, 1893. 
 
 Zenos, A. O, " The Elements of the Higher Criticism." 
 New York, 1895. 
 
 Briggs, C. A., "The Study of Holy Scripture." New 
 York, 1899. Chap. IV., X., XII. 
 
 Price, Ira M., "The Monuments and the Old Testa- 
 ment," second edition. Chicago, 1900. 
 
 Robertson, Jas., " The Early Religion of Israel," second 
 edition. 1892. 
 
 Kirkpatrick, A. F., " The Divine Library of the Old 
 Testament." Cambridge, 1891. 
 
 On the Results of Criticism: 
 
 Moulton, R. G., " The Bible as Literature." New York, 
 1896. 
 
 McCurdy, J. F., " History, Prophecy, and the Monu- 
 ments," three volumes. New York, 1894-1900. 
 
 Popper, J., " Der Ursprung des Monotheismus." 1879. 
 
 Smith, H. P., " Biblical Scholarship and Inspiration." 
 1891. 
 
 Smith, W. R., " Lectures on the Religion of the Semites," 
 second edition. 1895. 
 
 Batten, L. W., " The Old Testament from the Modern 
 Point of View," N. Y., 1899. 
 
THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 
 THE most serviceable friends of the Bible are 
 its interpreters and critics. The most valuable 
 critics of the Bible are found in the ranks of its 
 most ardent students. The most ardent students 
 of the Bible are they who drink deepest at its 
 fountains of truth. The thoroughly Christian 
 critic is the most effective and far-reaching critic 
 of the sacred Scriptures. 
 
 If, however, there were no factious criticisms of 
 this book, no coldly scientific analyses of its parts, 
 and no antagonistic blows at its claims and its 
 teachings, we should not be obliged so carefully 
 to examine its foundation and the character of its 
 structure. But, fortunately for the cause of truth, 
 the spirit of this questioning age is storming it at 
 every point, and testing its weakness and its 
 strength, so that its devoted friends are compelled 
 to erect such defenses as will most successfully 
 withstand these assaults. 
 
 There has been no period in history when close, 
 
 7 
 
8 THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 
 minute, and scientific study of the Bible has played 
 such a role in literary and religious life as we of 
 to-day see with our own eyes. There has been 
 no age when such beneficent results have been 
 wrought out as these which we count as the most 
 precious product of modern biblical research. 
 
 In the limited space at my command I wish to 
 sketch in outline merely (1) the great periods of 
 Bible study and interpretation in the past and some 
 of their gifts to the present ; (2) the characteristics 
 of the present period; and (3) some of the prob- 
 able permanent results of this present critical era. 
 
 I. THE GREAT PERIODS OF THE PAST. 
 
 The stretch of time from Ezra to the present 
 day is replete with methods of biblical interpreta- 
 tion and criticism. To a lover of the Scriptures 
 these methods have a peculiar fascination. Each 
 successive period reveals a groping after the truth 
 by some new and untried method, which usually 
 owed its origin to the intellectual or spiritual de- 
 mands of the times. Each successive period 
 carried out its methods with commendable perse- 
 verance, and left us a certain small precipitate of 
 value; but the bulk of their findings and their 
 exegeses have been piled away among the for- 
 
THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 9 
 
 gotten and useless tomes of the past. This long 
 expanse of time readily falls into seven commonly 
 recognized periods, characterized rather by their 
 methods than by chronology, and existing, some 
 of them, side by side for long centuries. 
 
 1. The first great period of biblical interpreta- 
 tion was the Rabbinic, beginning with Ezra, and 
 reaching well down into the Middle Ages. The 
 method in vogue required that emphasis be placed 
 on the letter of the law, — that the Old Testament, 
 in its very letters, their number and arrangement 
 and numerical values, was of supreme importance. 
 For example, the sum total of the numerical values 
 of the Hebrew words of Gen. 49 : 10, " Shiloh 
 come," equals the sum total of the letters forming 
 ■ « Messiah, ' ' hence, « ' Shiloh " is ' * Messiah. ' ' The 
 day of the atonement was the only day on which 
 Satan could bring an accusation, because the 
 values of the Hebrew word for Satan equal three 
 hundred and sixty-four, and the extra day, or 
 three hundred and sixty-fifth, was the day of 
 atonement. The law had six hundred and thirteen 
 precepts, because the numerical value of the word 
 for incense equals six hundred and thirteen. This 
 system of juggling with numbers soon led to a 
 letter- worship, to an idolatry of the law, to a 
 
10 THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 
 formalism from which the spiritual entirely dis- 
 appeared. The self-confident spirit of rabbinism 
 buried the Scriptures and things spiritual and 
 divine under a mountain of human invention and 
 tradition. Out of these conditions sprang Pharisa- 
 ism with all its fatal results. They left us a mass 
 of rabbinical literature, which formed the basis of 
 most of the later Jewish philosophy, theology, and 
 ethics. But there are two results, and two only, 
 of much value, remaining from this period for the 
 student and interpreter of the word of God: (1) 
 The Jewish life of more than one thousand years, 
 or from 400 B. C. to A. D. 700, is portrayed in 
 almost infinite detail in these rabbinical writings ; 
 and (2) instead of cutting up and disarranging 
 the text of the Old Testament, they so revered it 
 and protected it as to keep it strictly intact for 
 succeeding ages. 
 
 2. The second great epoch in Scripture interpre- 
 tation may be called the Hellenistic. It owed its 
 origin to the contact between Hebrew and Greek 
 thought. The Jews who had migrated to Egypt so 
 absorbed the language and learning of the Greeks 
 that they trampled upon the hedge which, under 
 the influence of rabbinic methods, had grown up 
 around the law. Their headquarters was Alexan- 
 
THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH II 
 
 dria, one of the great cosmopolitan centers, where 
 there was a free interchange of Oriental, Jewish, 
 and Greek culture. Orthodox Jews, who viewed 
 with alarm these minglings of culture, sought for 
 some method of harmonizing Greek philosophy and 
 the Old Testament. Aristobulus (about 180 B. C.) 
 laid the foundation of the allegorical method of 
 interpretation which found its greatest exponent in 
 Philo. This philosopher maintained that the phi- 
 losophy of Plato and even of Pythagoras had been 
 largely borrowed from the law of the Old Testa- 
 ment. He held that all the tenets of the Greek 
 philosophers, especially of Aristotle, were to be 
 found in Moses and the prophets, if one should 
 conduct his inquiry according to proper methods. 
 The whole system of philosophy wrought out by 
 Philo is either based upon or largely influenced by 
 allegory. The literal sense of Scripture was a 
 kind of concession made to the weak and ignorant. 
 " The green herb of the field," in Genesis, means 
 "that portion of the mind which is perceptible only 
 by the intellect." To interpret literally the words, 
 " God planted a garden in Eden," is impiety. It 
 means that " God implants terrestrial virtue in the 
 human race." "The tree of life" is that most 
 general virtue which some people call "goodness." 
 
12 THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 
 This method gave the interpreter a wide range and 
 unlimited liberty. If the literal sense did not con- 
 tradict the harmonistic ideas of the interpreter, it 
 was allowable, but by no means probable. Though 
 Philo was a man of profound learning and deep 
 piety, his methods of Scripture interpretation were 
 essentially vicious. They drove the Jews into a 
 slavish literalism and paved the way for the ration- 
 alism of Alexandrian allegory. The pernicious 
 methods of that age have not entirely disappeared 
 from the exegesis of our day. 
 
 3. The third great method of Bible study was 
 the Patristic. It arose at the close of the first cen- 
 tury, about the time of Clement of Rome (A. D. 
 95), and stretched down into the Middle Ages. 
 The church Fathers could not rid themselves of 
 the methods of their days. Tertullian, Cyprian, 
 Clement of Alexandria, and Origen, were largely 
 influenced by the rabbinical and allegorical methods 
 current about them. But one feature of their in- 
 terpretation was a distinct advance on their prede- 
 cessors. Origen and his pupils and successors 
 emphasized the importance of studying the very 
 text of Scripture, even if that text were a transla- 
 tion. The school of Antioch took up this one 
 valid principle of Origen, but totally discarded his 
 
THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 1 3 
 
 allegorical methods. It further maintained that 
 Scripture must be interpreted with due regard to 
 the historical background and to the conditions 
 which gave rise to its utterances. They gave close 
 attention to linguistic details, to the special style 
 of each author, and to the study of each passage 
 or book as a whole. Chrysostom, of this same 
 school, added as his personal contribution a method 
 of finding and applying the spiritual lessons of 
 each passage. But with the close of the fourth 
 century this remarkable Syrian school passed away. 
 The Western branch, with Jerome and Augustine 
 as the most notable representatives of the patristic 
 period, still advanced, discarding some of the 
 principles of Origen, but clinging, in the main, to 
 the necessity of wrestling with the text itself to 
 secure its most hidden meaning. 
 
 4. The fourth great epoch in Scripture interpre- 
 tation may be called the Scholastic, embracing the 
 period from the twelfth to the sixteenth centuries. 
 From the seventh to the twelfth century we have 
 five hundred years of total barrenness. "During 
 the scholastic epoch," says Farrar, "from the 
 twelfth to the sixteenth century, there are but few 
 of the many who toiled in this field who added 
 a single essential principle, or furnished a single 
 
14 THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 
 contribution to the explanation of the word of 
 God. During these nine centuries we find very 
 little except the ' glimmerings and decays ' of 
 patristic exposition." The schoolmen held a 
 superstitious and mechanical theory of inspiration. 
 They were, almost to a man, ignorant of the lan- 
 guages of the Bible, neglected history, especially 
 of Bible times, made exegesis but an arbitrary 
 juxtaposition of texts and an abuse of the dialectic 
 method, and presupposed that all Scripture had a 
 multiplex sense. This dangerous hypothesis gave 
 great room for the play of their dialectics. For 
 example, Thomas Aquinas says that, "Let there 
 be light" may mean, historically, an act of crea- 
 tion ; allegorically, "Let Christ be love " ; anagog- 
 ically, "May we be led by Christ to glory" ; and 
 tropologically, "May we be mentally illumined by 
 Christ." " By some this four- fold sense was 
 compared with the four colors of the veil of the 
 tabernacle, to the four winds, to the four rivers 
 of paradise, to the four legs of the table of the 
 Lord " (Farrar, p. 295). The schoolmen reveled 
 in such methods of exegesis and wove from 
 the church Fathers and the Scriptures the most 
 abstract and speculative results, often mingled 
 with the subtleties of Plato and Aristotle. While 
 
THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH I 5 
 
 this epoch has yielded us almost no exegetical re- 
 sults, it has left us some characters — such as Bona- 
 ventura, Bernard of Clairvaux, and Thomas Aqui- 
 nas — who were wholly transformed by the Spirit 
 of God, and who fed daily upon the simple truth 
 of the word, unmixed with the paralyzing dialectic 
 of the times. 
 
 5. The fifth epoch, the Reformation, was a day- 
 star in the history of Scripture interpretation. The 
 intense enthusiasm, learning, power, and great 
 good sense of Lorenzo Valla (died 1465) in 
 methods of Scripture study, of John Reuchlin 
 (died 1522), the great Hebrew scholar, and of 
 Erasmus (died 1536), the New Testament Greek 
 scholar, prepared the way in part for the appear- 
 ance and the great forward strides of Luther, and 
 for those stalwart champions, Melanchthon, Zwin- 
 gli, and Calvin. The fact that the renaissance 
 of learning had turned men's minds to the study 
 of literature was an aid in stirring up an interest in 
 the investigation of the Bible itself. To do this, 
 however, required a knowledge of the languages 
 in which its books were written. The facilities for 
 doing just this thing were already becoming avail- 
 able, and independent Christian scholars bent their 
 energies in the direction of Scripture interpretation. 
 
16 THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 
 Without discussing any specified advances, I 
 will indicate some of the principles of interpreta- 
 tion laid down in that epoch which have permanent 
 value: (1) The necessity of philological and gram- 
 matical knowledge; (2) the importance of consid- 
 ering times, circumstances, and conditions in which 
 any particular passage or book was produced; (3) 
 a careful observance of the context before attempt- 
 ing to interpret any given passage; (4) the need 
 of faith and spiritual illumination in addition to all 
 the foregoing qualifications and conditions. Luther 
 and his coadjutors insisted too, (1) on the supreme 
 and final authority of Scripture; (2) on the suffi- 
 ciency of Scripture; (3) on the right of private 
 judgment. 
 
 6. The sixth period may be termed the Dog- 
 matic, extending from the Reformation to the 
 middle of the eighteenth century. The boasted 
 freedom of the Reformation was soon dethroned 
 by the bitterness of controversies and the bondage 
 of dogmatism. The Reformation freedom of 
 Scripture interpretation was soon fettered by a 
 tyrannous confessionalism, by elaborate systems 
 of doctrine, and by scores of creeds. Almost 
 every city and every system of belief had its 
 creed. In 1529 we have the Articles of Marburg; 
 
THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 1 7 
 
 1530, the Confession of Augsburg; 1536, the 
 Wittenberg Concord; 1537, Articles of Schmal- 
 kalden; 1562, the thirty-nine Articles ; 1566, the 
 Confessio Helvetica Posterior ; 1580, the Formula 
 Concordia of Lutheranism ; and 1643, the West- 
 minster Confession. The formulation of these 
 creeds and the decrees of synods and councils 
 fastened upon Christendom certain versions of 
 Scriptures and specific, circumscribed limits within 
 which an exegete could exercise his gifts. Aris- 
 totelian dialectics and dogmatics controlled the 
 thought of the day. Scripture was used only as 
 embodied in great tomes of ecclesiastical polemics 
 and was not supposed to yield any further light to 
 investigators. 
 
 While this age of controversies, creeds, dogma- 
 tism, and heresy-hunting was paralyzing the spirit- 
 ual life of the church, a few choice spirits arose 
 who turned the scale at the end of this period and 
 inaugurated the rise of a new epoch. Koch (died 
 1669), of Leyden, for a true exegesis, and Cap- 
 pellus (died 1658) for criticism, on the side of 
 Scripture interpretation, among others, burst the 
 bonds of that era and prepared the way for the 
 modern period. 
 
 Nearly two thousand years of Scripture interpre- 
 
18 THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 
 tation did not produce for the church a set of well- 
 established and sound principles of Scripture in- 
 terpretation. The Rabbinic, the Hellenistic, the 
 Patristic, the Scholastic, the Reformation, and the 
 Dogmatic eras produced marvelous harmoniza- 
 tions, endless controversies, irreconcilable bitter- 
 ness, great schools of dogmaticians, fae finesse of 
 dialectics, and unnumbered tomes of so-called lit- 
 erature. But where are their ponderous works, 
 full of vast erudition, their settlement of the 
 intricate questions in biblical interpretation, and 
 its application to Christian life ? The vast pro- 
 portion is known by titles only, and oblivion has 
 rightly laid claim to most of their dogmatic utter- 
 ances. Only here and there throughout this vast 
 stretch of time do we find the enunciation of prin- 
 ciples which will have perpetual value for the in- 
 terpretation of the Scriptures. 
 
 II. THE MODERN PERIOD. 
 
 The middle of the eighteenth century marked the 
 beginning of a new era in biblical research. It 
 opened the door to the modern period, which stands 
 quite alone in its methods of biblical criticism and 
 interpretation. It has gathered up and appro- 
 priated the sound principles enunciated in every 
 
THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 19 
 
 preceding period, and has laid down some rules 
 of its own, whose validity and universality are 
 now being put to the test. The underlying pur- 
 pose of the Bible students and critics of this epoch, 
 viz, to ascertain the meaning of Scripture, is not 
 essentially different from that of every preceding 
 age. But the difference in the conditions and 
 thought of these times may justify a brief sur- 
 vey of the characteristics of the era in which we 
 live. 
 
 1. One of the first and chief facts characteristic 
 of this age is the importance attached to the study 
 of the sources. There is no department of science, 
 philosophy, or theology, which does not demand 
 of the scholar a careful, minute, and painstaking 
 investigation of the sources of his knowledge. In 
 Scripture study this principle has already been 
 given its fixed place. Semler, Herder, and Less- 
 ing, even in the last century, insisted that the Bible 
 itself should be thoroughly studied if men were to 
 comprehend its import. This principle has driven 
 biblical scholars and critics of every progressive 
 school to a severely minute examination of all the 
 available sources of its text. In a word, the text 
 of the book itself, and not creeds, decrees, Articles, 
 or Confessions, is the true source used by the true 
 
20 THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 
 biblical critics and interpreters of this era. This 
 is textual, or lower criticism. 
 
 2. The same spirit that has driven men to study 
 the sources has carried along with it certain scien- 
 tific principles to be used in their interpretation. 
 The fact that these sources are literature of various 
 kinds, subjects them to the principles by which 
 every literature must be studied and criticized. 
 The books of the Bible present certain individual 
 traits, such as form, style, and vocabulary, that 
 must be taken into account. There are marks too, 
 in some books, of compilation, of editorial revision, 
 and of the quotation and the use of earlier writers. 
 There are also statements, scientific, historical, and 
 archaeological, which must be tested by the gener- 
 ally recognized principles of criticism. All this is 
 demanded by every modern school of biblical in- 
 terpretation. This is literary, historical, or higher 
 criticism. 
 
 3. It was recognized by the Syrian school of 
 interpreters in the fourth and not again until the 
 sixteenth century, that the Bible was the product 
 of certain times ; that it grew out of the soil of 
 ancient days, and carries in itself the marks of 
 those days ; that its truest interpretation followed 
 a study of those times. Though the background 
 
THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 21 
 
 of the New Testament was comparatively well 
 known a half-century ago, the Old Testament has 
 become a new book historically within the last forty 
 years. The entire period of the Old Testament, 
 from Abraham to Nehemiah, now lies on a new 
 background. Israel's rise, progress, decline, and 
 fall, before the mighty empires of the East, can 
 now be followed in their awful reality by the clear 
 light of the records of their powerful contempora- 
 ries. The prophet's arraignment of Egypt, Baby- 
 lon, and Assyria, and his condemnation of the gods 
 of the nations, are forceful and fearful in the light 
 of the character of these deities in the East and 
 the West as revealed on the monuments of those 
 old peoples. 
 
 Though some early critics paid slight regard to 
 these revelations, the brilliancy of this new light 
 now compels recognition. Sound principles of 
 literary and historical criticism require a study of 
 the times out of which a given product sprang, and 
 are forcing all scholars, all Bible interpreters, to 
 pay due regard to this new and ever-growing im- 
 portant element. 
 
 4. Every early method of Scripture interpreta- 
 tion, as we saw, was strongly influenced by the 
 intellectual peculiarities of the times. This is in- 
 
22 THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 
 evitable if the Bible is to occupy its proper place 
 in the lives of the thinkers of any age. For- 
 tunately, this era of Bible study has laid broad 
 foundations in textual work for grappling with the 
 problems of the day. As in every era of the past, 
 men have striven to find some principle or princi- 
 ples of harmonization between science, in its broad 
 sense, and revelation, or between the dominant 
 thought of the day and the Bible. 
 
 Two prominent phases of current thought are 
 now swaying a mighty influence on some phases 
 of biblical scholarship. The first of these is the 
 naturalistic theory of evolution. It is conceded 
 that there is a large element of truth in this theory 
 as applied to nature and to the mind, but its uni- 
 versal validity is by no means established. There 
 are some departments of investigation where evolu- 
 tion is not found. As an example, a leading pro- 
 fessor of chemistry lately said, "There is no 
 evolution in my science." 
 
 Now there is a class of biblical critics and inter- 
 preters whose methods and processes are almost 
 entirely dominated by this phase of modern 
 thought. By its principles they are compelled, 
 especially in the Old Testament, to rearrange its 
 literature, its history, its laws, and its doctrines. 
 
THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 23 
 
 They reconstruct the entire Old Testament, not by 
 the principles of higher criticism alone, which is in 
 and of itself a perfectly legitimate and safe method 
 of procedure, but by a distorted higher criticism, 
 or a higher criticism inoculated with the naturalistic 
 theory of evolution. This fact has made " higher 
 criticism " a synonym of all that is vicious in Bible 
 study, whereas the odium should be heaped on 
 the shoulders of the naturalistic evolutionary critics. 
 Now, I am free to recognize the principle of ac- 
 commodation, of progression in Jehovah's dealings 
 with his growing people, of the natural develop- 
 ments of language, law, and doctrine; but to 
 require at the outset that the whole scheme of 
 revelation and redemption should be subservient to 
 the laws of a naturalistic evolution is equivalent to 
 the obliteration of predictive prophecy, miracles, 
 and every mark which distinguishes the Bible from 
 other literature. To line up the literature, history, 
 and prophecy of the Bible and compel it to yield 
 to the extreme demands of a naturalistic evolution, 
 we must treat it and its statements as no other 
 literature and history in all the past or present is 
 treated. 
 
 The second phase of modern thought that is begin- 
 ning seriously to affect biblical criticism and inter- 
 
24 THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 
 pretation is that subjective theory of the Christian 
 life or that scheme of theology now termed Ritsch- 
 lianism. This composite of the ideas of Kant, 
 Schleiermacher, Lotze, and Ritschl, as well as of 
 the disciples of the last named, has won for itself a 
 large place in the theological world. " We know 
 things not as they are in themselves, but as they 
 are for us." In other words, the subjective ele- 
 ment is the ultimate standard in religion. While 
 Ritschl has made valuable contributions to the 
 thought of this day, his system, even in its modified 
 forms is, in a large sense, self-centered, subjective, 
 and without any authority beyond or outside of 
 self. The endeavor to harmonize the doctrines of 
 the Bible, especially of the New Testament, with 
 this in many ways attractive hypothesis, has already 
 begun to show its results. Its action is exceed- 
 ingly insidious, but none the less certain. It has 
 already begun its work in the disintegration of 
 some of the essential doctrines of the Bible. 
 
 The attempts already made by the harmonizers 
 of the Bible with these two phases of modern 
 thought have been only partially successful. Some 
 of the results which may be regarded as alarming 
 are: (1) The expunging from Scripture of predic- 
 tive prophecy ; (2) the rejection of the miraculous ; 
 
THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 25 
 
 (3) the rejection of the doctrine of the pre-exist- 
 ence, miraculous birth, and resurrection of Christ; 
 
 (4) the non-acceptance of the doctrine of the 
 Holy Spirit, and along with it, the doctrine of re- 
 generation ; and (5) the denial of the proper deity 
 of Jesus Christ. These positions are already 
 being wrought out in certain schools and lines of 
 biblical criticism and interpretation, and are phases 
 of modern theological thought that demand the 
 most earnest attention on the part of the Christian 
 scholarship of our day. 
 
 5. While not unique in this epoch, there is 
 another phase of biblical scholarship which cannot 
 be passed by. There are others engaged in this 
 work who are characterized by a broad scholarship, 
 by a sympathetic, glowing Christian life, by sound 
 critical and exegetical principles, by a command- 
 ing intellectual fairness, and by the absence of that 
 dogmatism so prevalent in the post-Reformation 
 period, and not entirely lacking among modern 
 writers on biblical themes. These men are by no 
 means blind to progress, nor are they easily capti- 
 vated by startling and fair-faced theories. They 
 grant full recognition to facts, and proceed as fast 
 and as far as these facts carry them. They are 
 ready to take theories for theories, and as soon as 
 
26 THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 
 they can be found to explain the facts, to accept 
 them as true. 
 
 This class of scholars is not popular among the 
 radical harmonizers, nor will their influence count 
 for its full worth while the present campaign is be- 
 fore the public. Every age in the past has had its 
 coterie of these men, and as we look back upon 
 them, they are the only men whose lives and works 
 have left a permanent precipitate of value to later 
 generations of Scripture interpreters. 
 
 III. SOME PERMANENT RESULTS OF MODERN 
 METHODS. 
 
 The characteristics of this modern period of bib- 
 lical criticism and interpretation will leave some re- 
 sults of permanent value. Without attempting in 
 any way to act the part of a seer, I think I can 
 discern, from the history of Scripture interpretation 
 and from the present status of this science, some 
 increments of value which will remain as the per- 
 manent possessions of Bible students. I shall not 
 attempt to name more than a few of these results. 
 
 1. The Bible, which in former ages has been re- 
 garded in some circles as a kind of talisman, is 
 now, and always will continue to be, accorded a 
 place in the permanent literature of the world. 
 
THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 2^ 
 
 Its full recognition by literary men of the present 
 centuries has assigned it a definite and undisputed 
 value as literature. This fact alone has won for it 
 a favor hitherto unknown among persons whose 
 training and trend have been and are far from 
 Christian. It has thus become the object of study 
 of those whose motive has been wholly literary and 
 artistic. Its history and thought have become so 
 woven into public utterances that some of the most 
 striking figures in editorials of many of our daily 
 papers are taken from biblical characters and 
 events. Even fiction has effectively and success- 
 fully used some of the most romantic events of 
 Scripture. Yes, the Bible has taken an important 
 place among the literatures of the world, and is 
 demonstrating this importance by the public recog- 
 nition that is accorded its history, its poetry, and 
 its laws. 
 
 2. Every former epoch in the study of the Bible, 
 looked upon the Israelites of the Old Testament in 
 a false light. They were practically the only na- 
 tion of ancient times, and were too, a kind of un- 
 reality. Their place among the nations of their 
 day was ill-proportioned and misjudged. Their 
 defections from Jehovah were misinterpreted, and 
 their religious conceptions fore-shortened by inter- 
 
28 THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 
 preters, because of their practical isolation in the 
 ancient world. 
 
 But now we have a different picture. Israel was 
 but one of the small peoples of antiquity. They 
 occupied a minor place in the world's commerce 
 and politics. They were contemporaneous with 
 the most powerful nations of antiquity for a period 
 of about one thousand years. These great peoples, 
 the Egyptians, the Hittites, the Phoenicians, the 
 Assyrians, the Babylonians, and Persians, all 
 touched and influenced the political, commercial, 
 social, and religious life of Israel. Their presence 
 and power bore its fruits in Israel's religious de- 
 cline and fall. In a word, one of the permanent 
 results of present biblical research will be the 
 proper recognition of Israel's place among the na- 
 tions of ancient times, and thus the proper inter- 
 pretation of so much of the Old Testament as is 
 dependent on the new historical background fur- 
 nished by the inscriptions. 
 
 3. Another result which we may look for as 
 a fruit of biblical criticism is the establishment 
 of the true place of monotheism in the religion of 
 Israel and among the religions of the world. The 
 attempt to evolve monotheism out of a primitive 
 polytheism, as made in Robertson Smith's •« Re- 
 
THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 29 
 
 ligion of the Semites," and a number of more re- 
 cent writers, is weighed down with untenable 
 hypotheses. This theory is one with the natural- 
 istic evolution of the Old Testament, and attempts 
 in a scientific manner, and in a manner accordant 
 with some of the dominant thought of our times, to 
 account for the multifarious divinities found among 
 ancient peoples. It is now quite as generally ac- 
 cepted that evolution descends as well as ascends 
 in the scale of being. This being true, and the 
 fact that the farther we go back among the great 
 nations of antiquity the fewer in number the deities 
 become, points to a time when there was possibly 
 in the dawn of antiquity one God. In a word, we 
 may expect that one of the permanent results of 
 this age of biblical research will be a determination 
 of the true place of monotheism in the history of 
 Israel's religion and in the religions of the races of 
 the earth. 
 
 4. The full and cordial recognition of the Bible 
 as literature, and its writers as men with individual 
 characteristics, the assignment of Israel to its true 
 place among the ancient nations of the East, and 
 the determination of the true place of monotheism 
 in the development of the religion of the Old Tes- 
 tament, demands and will be speedily followed by a 
 
30 THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 
 reconstruction of the doctrine of inspiration. This 
 reconstructed doctrine must and will include in its 
 formulce not simply the recognition of the Bible's 
 testimony to itself, but must take account of the 
 humanity of men as its recipients, must define 
 more exactly the specific part taken by the Holy 
 Spirit in its production, must take account of the 
 assured results of the severest genuine textual and 
 historical criticism, and must formulate the external 
 reasons for the superiority of Scripture to the sacred 
 books of all nations. Neither the verbal, the 
 variously defined plenary, the dynamic, nor any 
 other mechanical or semi-mechanical theory of in- 
 spiration, as hitherto formulated, will hold a place 
 among the final results of modern biblical investi- 
 gation. None of these adequately takes into ac- 
 count the great variety of elements which enter into 
 the origin, growth, unequal character, and power 
 of Scripture. This reconstruction must be a doc- 
 trine that will explain all the facts satisfactorily 
 to the ardent student of God's word, the thor- 
 oughly sympathetic and evangelical investigator, 
 and the devout Christian scientist and thinker. 
 
 5. But the choicest result of the biblical research 
 of our day will be the enthroning of the Bible in 
 the Christian life. Neither creeds, symbols, nor 
 
THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 31 
 
 tomes of philosophico-theological dogma will satisfy 
 the cravings of the human soul. The tyrannous 
 decrees of the post-Reformation period will never 
 again chain down and lock the lids of the Bible in 
 the face of the investigation and the intelligent 
 conclusions of this age. But before this result is 
 reached there is a danger, and a serious one, to 
 which the men of our day are exposed. They are 
 called upon to decide between works which are 
 devoutly evangelical and scholarly and works which 
 are critically scholarly, but permeated with methods 
 of harmonization that tone down some of the 
 severest Bible doctrines and devitalize some of its 
 essential truths. The danger-line, the demarcation 
 between the essentials of the Christian life and the 
 life of the world, are in many persons and some 
 churches fast fading away. This free and easy 
 method of belief will have its day, and ere long the 
 genuine evangelical church and genuine evangelical 
 Christians will be easily distinguished and the 
 Bible will be again enthroned with all its primitive 
 and divine power. The ephemeral and evanescent 
 literature of criticism, permeated by unproved and 
 untenable theories, will be piled away in the anti- 
 quarian alcoves of public libraries as relics of one 
 of the past phases of biblical research. But the 
 
32 THE DRIFT OF BIBLICAL RESEARCH 
 
 Bible itself, recognized as religious literature, as 
 the one great source and the basis of evangelical 
 truth, rightly characterized by a reconstructed doc- 
 trine of inspiration, will be supreme in the Chris- 
 tian life of the future. 
 
Stockton. Loll 
 
 DATE DUE 
 
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 The drift of Biblical research past and 
 
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