ASPECTS

OF

THE OLD TESTAMENT

OTTLEY

Ojcfoti
HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY

THE BAMPTON LECTURES, i89j
ASPECTS OF THE
OLD TESTAMENT
CONSIDERED IN EIGHT LECTURES
DELIVERED BEFORE THE UNIVERSITY OF OXFORD
BY
ROBERT LAWRENCE OTTLEY, M.A.
SUCCESSIVELY STUDENT OF CHRIST CHURCH AND
FELLOW OF MAGDALEN COLLEGE
SOMETIME PRINCIPAL OF THE PUSEY HOUSE

'Caritas congaudet veritati.'— I Cor. xiii. 6

LONGMANS, GREEN, AND CO.
39 PATERNOSTER ROW, LONDON
NEW YORK AND BOMBAY
1897
[All rights reserved}

fAPdSi> 1W

EXTRACT
FROM THE LAST WILL AND TESTAMENT

OF THE LATE

REV. JOHN BAMPTON,
CANON OF SALISBURY.
 " I give and bequeath my Lands and Estates to the
" Chancellor, Masters, and Scholars of the University of
" Oxford for ever, to have and to hold all and singular the
" said Lands or Estates upon trust, and to the intents and
"' purposes hereinafter mentioned ; that is to say, I will and
''appoint that the Vice-Chancellor of the University of Ox-
" ford for the time being shall take and receive all the rents,
" issues, and profits thereof, and (after all taxes, reparations,
''and necessary deductions made) that .he pay all the re-
11 mainder to the endowment of eight Divinity Lecture Ser-
" mons, to be established for ever in the said University, and
" to be performed in the manner following :
" I direct and appoint, that, upon the first Tuesday in
" Easter Term, a Lecturer be yearly chosen by the Heads
" of Colleges only, and by no others, in the room adjoining
" to the Printing-House, between the hours of ten in the
" morning and two in the afternoon, to preach eight Divinity
" Lecture Sermons, the year following, at St. Marys in

vi EXTRACT FROM CANON BAMPTON'S WILL
" Oxford, between the commencement of the last month in
" Lent Term, and the end of the third week in Act Term.
" Also I direct and appoint, that the eight Divinity Lecture
" Sermons shall be preached upon either of the following
" Subjects — to confirm and establish the Christian Faith, and
"to confute all heretics and schismatics — upon the divine
"authority of the holy Scriptures— upon the authority of
"the writings of the primitive Fathers, as to the faith and
" practice of the primitive Church — upon the Divinity of our
" Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ — upon the Divinity of the
" Holy Ghost — upon the Articles of the Christian Faith, as
" comprehended in the Apostles' and Nicene Creeds.
" Also I direct, that thirty copies of the eight Divinity Lec-
"ture Sermons shall be always printed, within two months
" after they are preached ; and one copy shall be given to the
" Chancellor of the University, and one copy to the Head of
" every College, and one copy to the Mayor of the city of
" Oxford, and one copy to be put into the Bodleian Library ;
"and the expense of printing them shall be paid out of the
"revenue of the Land or Estates given for establishing the
" Divinity Lecture Sermons ; and the Preacher shall not be
" paid, nor be entitled to the revenue, before they are printed.
" Also I direct and appoint, that no person shall be quali-
" fied to preach the Divinity Lecture Sermons, unless he hath
" taken the degree of Master of Arts at least, in one of the
"two Universities of Oxford or Cambridge; and that the
"same person shall never preach the Divinity Lecture Ser-
" mons twice."

PREFACE

The following lectures are intended rather to illus
trate than to defend exhaustively a view of the Old
Testament which to the writer has long been habitual,
and which, having some claim to be considered a via
media, will, he hopes, commend itself to thoughtful
Churchmen. Mr. Goldwin Smith has recently asserted that those
whom he calls ' rationalistic apologists ' do but tamper
with their conscience and understanding when they
claim that the Old Testament contains both a divine
and a human element. ' Far better it is,' he says,
' whatever the effort may cost, honestly to admit that
the sacred books of the Hebrews, granting their
superiority to the sacred books of other nations, are,
like the sacred books of other nations, the works of
man and not of God V Such statements as this, and
they are not infrequently made, seem to challenge the
attention of loyal Churchmen, and to justify the
attempt to deal dispassionately both with the un
deniable facts that have been brought to light by
1 Guesses at the Riddle of Existence (Essay on ' The Church and the
Old Testament '), p. 95.

viii PREFACE
historical and critical research, and with the theories
which they are supposed to support.
In writing these lectures I have had in view several
different classes of persons.
There are those who, like Mr. Goldwin Smith him
self, imagine that ' High Churchmen, having studied
recent criticism, feel that there is a millstone to be cast
off1.' Speaking for myself, I am unaware of any 'mill
stone' other than the strange and inveterate miscon
ceptions which are widely prevalent, and are apparently
shared by the distinguished essayist himself, respecting
the true place and function of the Old Testament in
the life and system of the Christian Church. Those
who have watched the course of religious thought on
the subject will certainly feel that Mr. Goldwin Smith's
strictures on the honesty and good sense of Church
men are somewhat belated and irrelevant. I say con
fidently that the effect of a more strictly historical
and scientific study has been to enhance the interest,
reverence, and love with which we Churchmen regard
the Old Testament. We deplore the comparative
neglect of the Bible which has to some extent been
the consequence of recent unsettlement, and we are
anxious to enrich others as we have been enriched,
by imparting to them a point of view from which the
verdicts of criticisms can be justly appreciated.
It is a matter of simple experience that modern
research has both enlarged our insight into the actual
course and method of divine revelation, and has shed
abundant light on many points which the pre-critical
conception of Hebrew history left obscure or alto
gether unexplained.
Again, there are those whose dislike or suspicion of
the critical movement has led them, as I think, to
1 Op. cit. p. 50.

PREFACE

ix

minimize the significance and value of its assured
results. The main defect of some books written in
defence of traditional theories is that while they en
deavour, not without a measure of success, to discredit
the results of an extreme, one-sided, and rationalistic
criticism, they do not always appear adequately to
recognize the importance of those conclusions which
the research of 150 years has rendered inevitable,
which sober critics of every school practically agree
to accept, and which in any case have considerably
modified the traditional theory of Hebrew history and
religion 1.
My aim is to show that it is possible to regard as
conclusive and to welcome with cordiality many verdicts
of the ' Higher Criticism,' without necessarily accepting
what is merely conjectural and arbitrary.
Once more, there is a class of persons to whom
maxima debetur reverentia.
It may be asked whether I have seriously considered
the probable effect on the simple faith and piety of
ordinary Churchmen of statements which question
cherished beliefs, and may possibly disturb or en
danger faith itself. Certainly I recognize with sincere
pain that certain assumptions and statements contained
in this book may possibly cause disquiet and alarm to
some devout Christians. But it is one of the diffi
culties of our present transitional position that each
step in advance, while it brings relief to many, occa
sions distress or even scandal to some. We must face
the inevitable cost involved in intellectual movement.
The duty of a teacher is to weigh the perils of frank
utterance against those of continued silence. On the
1 I may mention such typical works as Prof. Robertson's Early Religion
of Israel, Mr. Baxter's Sanctuary and Sacrifice, and Prof. Hommel's
Ancient Hebrew Tradition illustrated by the Monuments.

x

PREFACE

one hand, he may know of many — clergy, students,
schoolmasters, thoughtful laymen, highly educated
women charged with the religious training of children,
and others— who are deeply impressed by the solidity
and weight of the case for the Higher Criticism of the
Old Testament, and who, in view of its apparent
results, are eagerly looking for guidance and reassur
ance. On the other hand, he is bound to consider
carefully the danger of wounding or scandalizing those
who have little or no opportunity of forming an inde
pendent judgment on matters of science or criticism,
and who cannot be expected to part with convictions
that are indissolubly bound up with their religious
experience. In view of this difficulty, a man is justified in com
mitting himself to the guidance of God, and doing his
best at once to aid the perplexed, and to deal tenderly
with those whose faith has been hitherto undisturbed.
I do not ask any reader to accept without due inquiry
the particular conception of Hebrew history which has
been adopted in these lectures ; but I do desire to
show that a Christian believer need not cast away his
faith because his traditional view of the Old Testament
has been shown to be inadequate or untenable. And
if through any want of due reverence, caution, or con
sideration I have needlessly troubled any devout mind,
I can only express my sorrow, and unreservedly
submit what I have written to the judgment of the
Church. I must acknowledge a debt of gratitude to friends
who have given me the benefit of their counsel and
criticism, especially to Dr. Driver, Dr. Moberly, and
Dr. Lock. To the governors of the Pusey House who
granted me a Term's absence from Oxford, and to my
friend Mr. Hutton of St. John's College who allowed

PREFACE xi
me the use of his house at Burford, I am equally
indebted. Mr. Rackham of the Community of the
Resurrection, who has devoted unsparing pains to the
revision and correction of the proof-sheets, has rendered
a signal service both to the writer and to the readers
of this book. R. L. O.
WlNTERBOURNE BaSSETT,
August, 1897.

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

LECTURE I.

media, and the

The Christian Church and the ' Higher Criticism.'

The Catholic spirit illustrated
Subject of the lectures proposed
Standpoint from which it is approached
I. The belief in the Incarnation
The Incarnation illustrates the divine use of
divine self-accommodation to human capacities .
Analogy of the Incarnation applied to Scripture
(i) The unity of Scripture ...
(2) Its twofold nature ....
(3) Its self-witness 
II. The belief in Inspiration 
The action of the Holy Spirit discernible —
(1) In the formation of Scripture
(2) In the writers themselves ....
The meaning of Inspiration to be ascertained inductively
Its peculiar characteristics 
III. The main results of historical criticism assumed
Summary of these results 
Special observations on the higher criticism—
(1) Historical consistency of its results
(2) Hindrances to their acceptance .
(3) The duty of deference to experts .
IV. Factors determining the true use of the Old Testament —
(1) The authority of Christ ....
(2) The spiritual experience of Christians .
The doctrine of the Church : its bearing on our inquiry

PAGE I
6
II
12 131515
17
2022 26
27293°32
33 36
404446 49 5i

LECTURE II.
Different Aspects of the Old Testament.

The special function of the Old Testament
General survey 

53
55

xiv SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS
PAGE
I. The Old Testament a history of redemption .... 56
The story of the ' origins,' its character and purpose . . 57
Special features of redemptive history —
(1) The occurrence of miracle  61
(2) The principle of limitation or severance ... 63
Character of the historical narratives  65
II. The Old Testament the history of a progressive revelation . 66
Different views of the evolution of the idea of God ... 67
Effects of the exodus  68
The foundations of monotheism  69
Of the idea of holiness . . . . . 72
Of the idea of grace  75
The continuity of revelation  78
III. The Old Testament traces the history of a covenantal relation
ship  79
The divine requirement involved in it . . . . .81
IV. The Old Testament and the Messianic hope .... 82
The idea of a kingdom of God or ' theocracy ' . . . .84
Its history considered  85
Its characteristics proclaimed by the prophets —
Universality  86
Spirituality  87
V. The Old Testament witnesses to a divine purpose for the indi
vidual  89
Growth of the sense of individuality  90
The teachings of spiritual experience and of national calamity 91
The general arrangement of the Hebrew Bible —
Its correspondence with the five above-mentioned aspects
of Old Testament theology  93

LECTURE III.
The Historical Element in the Old Testament.

Analogy of Scripture to physical nature ....
The Old Testament an historical book 
Preliminary considerations —
(1) Composite character of the narratives
(2) Probable results of archaeological research .
(3) The a priori credibility of miracle
I. The patriarchal period relatively pre-historic
The narratives historical in substance ....
(1) A true picture of the general conditions of patriarchal
life 
(2) And of the main factors in Israel's religious develop
ment 
(3) Element of idealization in the Pentateuch, its extent
and characteristics 
The ' priestly narrative ' : its character ....
Prophetic idealization in the older narratives .
Considerations which appear to justify it .
II. The Mosaic period —
The work of Moses that of a prophet  12 T

9S
100101105107
109no "3
US 119
121
125128

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

xv

Main features of the Mosaic narrative 
(i) They regard the exodus as a fundamental fact . '.
(2) They aim at exhibiting the character and requirement
of God 
(3) They depict an ideal theocracy 
(4) Typical significance of the narrative ....
General reflections 
III. The historical books —
The materials forming their substratum, and their general
features 
Three elements in the prophetic theory of the history—
(1) The reality of grace 
(2) The importance of critical epochs
(3) Method of divine deliverances
The action of the Holy Spirit in Israel's history
General summary 

Note A. The patriarchal narratives

133 134
138140 142
144

145
151152154
155157
160

LECTURE IV.

The Progressive Self-Reve'lation of God.

The continuity of revelation 
I. General features of Hebrew revelation considered as
The method justified in Christ ....
Illustrations of the tendency of Old Testament religion
(a) In the sphere of worship
The principle of selection
Circumcision ....
Sacrifice 
(b) In the sphere of ethical ideas
The idea of ' holiness ' .
Mosaism and the Decalogue
The idea of personality
Human sacrifice : Gen. xxii.
The slaughter of the Canaanites .
II. The 'Name ' of God progressively unfolded
General names, 'El, 'Eloah, 'Elohim, 'El 'Elyon ; their
ing and use 
The patriarchal name, 'El Shaddai .
The name fahveh .....
The titles Adonai and Jahveh Tsebaoth .
The Hebrew conception of revelation
Theological significance of the different titles of deity
'El, 'Elohim, 'Eloah, 'El 'Elyon
'El Shaddai and 'Adonai 
fehovah (fahveh) 
Anthropomorphic language in the Old Testament
The attributes of fehovah 
(l) ' Righteousness ' and ' truth '
(2) ' Kindness ' or ' grace
The jealousy oi fehovah 

progressive

161162
164166
167 167
168 170
171172
175176178181
183
184185186187
189190191193
194
195198199
200

xvi SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS

fehovah Tsebaoth  203
The 'fatherhood' of God in the Old Testament . . .204
Conclusion  205

LECTURE V.
The Ancient Covenant and its Worship.
The covenant between Jehovah and Israel inaugurated at Sinai . 206
I. The idea of the covenant : its history and conditions . . . 209
II. The moral requirement involved in the covenant . . . 213
The Decalogue : its contents and characteristics . . .215
(1) Religion the foundation of personal morality and social
duty  219
(2) Absence of directions bearing on worship . . . 220
(3) Moral symbolism of the Mosaic institutions . . 222
III. The sanctuary and the sacrifices —
The prophetic idea that underlies them  224
The description of the tabernacle an idealized sketch . . 226
The levitical sacrifices  227
(1) The sacrifices based on pre-existing customs . . 229
(2) The attitude of the prophets towards sacrifice . . 230
(3) Was the levitical system ever in actual operation ? . 231
(4) The development of piacular sacrifice .... 232
Names and characteristics of the different classes of
sacrifice  234
General features common to all . . . . . 236
Features distinctive of each  238
IV. Symbolic and typical significance —
Of the Tabernacle  247
Of the sacrificial system  250
Fulfilment of levitlfeal types in Christ —
The Burnt-offering  253
The Sin-offering  255
The Peace-offering  258
Spirituality of the Law  259
Note A. The symbolic significance of the Tabernacle . . .261

LECTURE VI.
Prophecy and the Messianic Hope.
The use of the phrase ' The Law and the Prophets ' . . .265
Prophecy, the distinctive element in Hebrew religion . . ! 269
I. The beginnings of prophetism —
An institution common to the Semitic tribes .... 270
The work of Samuel . . . . ''

Elijah

272 273

SYNOFSJS OF CONTENTS xvii

PAGE

II. The prophets : aspects of their work —
(i) Prophetic inspiration : its character. The name Nabhi 274
(2) The sphere in which the gift of prophecy was exercised 277
Function of the prophets  279
Social and political conditions of the eighth century . 281
Social influence of the prophets  283
Their work that of proclaiming judgment . . . 285
(3) The religious influence of the prophets . . . 286
The prophets in relation to monotheism and univer
salism  287
The teaching of Amos : Jehovah the moral ruler of the
universe  288
Hosea : the prophet of divine love .... 290
Two permanent elements in the prophetic conception
of God  292
Teaching of the book of Jonah  293
III. The Messianic hope : its gradual growth  295
(1) The promise of spiritual victory —
The Protevangelium  296
The ' Blessing of Jacob '  297
The prophecy in Deut. xviii. 15 .... 298
(2) The hopes connected with David's house . . . 299
The oracle in 2 Sam. vii  300
' Figurative prophecy '  301
The Hebrew idea of royalty  302
Limitations of prophecy  306
(3) The self-manifestation of Jehovah —
' The day of the Lord ' . . _ . . . . 304
A day of judgment and of salvation . . . 305
(4) The suffering people of God  308
Effects of calamity on the Messianic hope . . . 309
' The servant of Jehovah '  310
(5) The new covenant  312
Teaching of Jeremiah and EzekieJ> .... 313
(6) The post-exilic prophets  314
The apocalyptic literature  316
Ideal fulfilment of prophecy in Christ . . . . 318

LECTURE VII.
Personal Religion in the Old Testament.
Tendencies of the post-exilic age foreshadowed at an earlier period 323
Circumstances which gave an impulse to the development of per
sonal religion  324
The post-exilic age spiritually fruitful  328
The Hagiographa : their character and contents .... 329
The foundation truths of personal religion—
I. The idea of a future life  334
(1) The Law witnesses to the truth of man's personal
relation to God  33*5
Hebrew conception of death  337
The dignity of human nature recognized . . • 338
b

xviii SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS
PAGE
(2) The anomalies of life and divine retribution . . 343
Doctrine of the Law  343
The ' era of difficulties ' : the book of Job . . . 346
The ' era of quiescence ' : Ecclesiastes . . . 348
II. The idea of a personal providence : the Psalms . • • 35°
Witness of other books: Cantica, Ruth, Esther, Daniel,
Chronicles, Ezra, Nehemiah  355
III. The sense of the fruitfulness of suffering  359
Characteristics of the 'Wisdom literature' .... 359
The book of Job  361
The book of Ecclesiastes  3°4
Summary and conclusion  37°

LECTURE VIII.
The Old Testament and Christianity.
The analogy between the incarnate Word and Scripture . . 373
I. The New Testament view of the Old —
(1) The Old Testament revelation fragmentary . . -377
(2) Variety of methods in which God manifested Himself 378
(3) Rudimentary character of the old dispensation . . 379
The New Testament verdict on the Law .... 380
Unique authority of the Old Testament recognized by
Christ  381
For Him there was ' a Bible within the Bible "... 382
Principles" observed by New Testament writers in their
employment of the Old  383
Existing methods of interpretation : Halachah, Haggadah,
and Sodh  384
Our Lord's employment of these methods .... 385
The New Testament exegesis of the Old —
(i) Its breadth and freedom  389
Apostolic use of Haggadah and Halachah . . . 390
Allegorism  392
(ii) Moral purport of the quotations  393
Contrast between Christ and the Scribes and Pharisees 394
(iii) Messianic use of the Old Testament .... 396
Summary  400
II. The permanent function of the Old Testament in the Church . 401
Preliminary questions —
The historical quality of the Old Testament narratives . . 401
The existence of a ' secondary ' sense  405
(1) The sacramental view of the universe . . . . 406
(2) The organic relation between Judaism and Christianity 408
1. The Old Testament, a revelation of God's nature and character . 412
The aim of God's moral government considered .... 413
Its methods and laws of action  414
The place of suffering  415
2. The Old Testament as witnessing to Christ  416
Its Messianic import  417
What is ideal is Messianic  419

SYNOPSIS OF CONTENTS xix

PAGE

3. Function of the Old Testament in forming and training character 421
The ' morality of the Old Testament ' —
Theocentric ...... ... 423
And altruistic  424
4. The Old Testament as a manual for the spiritual life . . . 426
5. The Old Testament as an instructor in social righteousness . 430
Social doctrine of the Old Testament —
Not based on individualism  431
Recognizing moral forces in social progress .... 432
6. The Old Testament as an aid in New Testament exegesis . . 433
Summary of the lectures  436
Concluding reflections —
The duty of individual Christians  437
Place of Scripture in the system of the Church . . . 440

ASPECTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT

LECTURE I
All things are yours. — I Cor. iii. 21.
There are few terms the precise significance of
which it is more difficult to fix than the word ' catholic'
As applied to the Christian Church it connotes primarily
her world-wide extension. The holy Church through
out all the world doth acknowledge Thee. To the idea
of extension the idea of doctrine is added. The Church
is ' catholic ' inasmuch as she is the teacher of all
truth needful for man in the conduct and development
of his spiritual and moral life ; she is the home of all
graces and virtues, and the school in which every
variety of human character may find its appropriate
discipline 1. But there is another sense in which the
Church of Jesus Christ is a 'catholic' society: to
her most loyal children she is the imparter of spiritual
breadth, she fosters a true catholicity of heart and
temper. Faithfulness to the mind of the Church and
submission to her discipline has sometimes been sup
posed, and with a show of justice, to involve hostility to
the advancement of learning, cramped and petty views
of things, and a one-sided estimate of human nature.
And yet if the Church of God be the abiding-place of
that Holy Spirit whose presence brings liberty, and
the home of that charity which rejoiceth with the truth 2,
1 Cyr. Hier. Catech. xviii. 23. Cp. Lightfoot on Ignat. ad Smyrn. viii.
2 2 Cor. iii. 17 ; I Cor. xiii. 6. B

2 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
a faithful son of the Church will have a just sense
of the infinitude and many-sidedness of truth. He
will cultivate in himself the spirit of candour, and
width of intellectual sympathy. He will be keenly
alive to the strength of an opponent's case1. He will
discriminate carefully between what is essential and
what non-essential in the cause he defends. And
here probably his difficulties will begin. Indeed every
thoughtful Christian has sooner or later to face a
practical problem, upon the right solution of which
the advancement of truth depends. He has to com
bine the temper of restfulness with that of mobility,
the stedfastness of a soldier with the detachment
of a pilgrim. While he is the faithful and self-
forgetful guardian of a precious heritage transmitted
from the past, a heritage of belief and usage which
necessarily moulds his thought and shapes his conduct;
while he cherishes all those heavenly gifts which per
tain unto life and godliness 2, he will yet be pene
trated by the thought so simply and comprehensively
expressed in the words, All things are yours.
A Christian teacher or student will adhere jealously
to the inherited rule of revealed truth, the immemorial
tradition of the faith, and yet his utterances will be
so far reserved, fragmentary, and incomplete as they
correspond to the infinite mystery of godliness 3.
There was in Jesus Christ, the Word of Life, that
which men could see with their eyes and handle
with their hands4; but there was also more than
they could fathom with the intellect or express in
forms supplied by human speech. In the presence
of His unveiled glory they were as men who stam
mered, not knowing what they said5. Accordino-ly
in the earliest ages of Christianity at least, there was
seldom absent from the minds of great teachers of
1 Chrys. Hom% in ep. ad Phil. 246 C, D 'K yap Xapirpa. vikij Kal «
wepiavcrlas yivopevr) avrrj^ iaTLV, orav r« SuKovvra aurav Itrxvpa clvai py
airoKpvTTTaipev' toito yap anarr] icrrl paWov r) vikx).
2 2 Pet: '¦ 3- ,_ s 1 Tim. iii. 16.
I John 1. 1. » Luke ix 33

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM' 3
the Church a deep consciousness of insufficiency. In
them, reverence was ever, so far as might be compatible
with fidelity to truth, reserved and slow of speech.
Even their most confident dogmatic statements were,
so to speak, forced from them by the 'obstinate
questionings,' whether of devout faith or of self-willed
perversity, and they were advanced with manifold
apologies and qualifying cautions l. It has often been
remarked how unsystematic are many of the utterances
of the early fathers ; they felt themselves to be moving
' in worlds not realized ' ; they had presages rather
than clear intuitions of the largeness and splendour
of the divine revelation vouchsafed to man in Jesus
Christ. This circumstance explains the grandeur,
and yet the vagueness, of some occasional statements
made by such a writer as Irenaeus. He knew that
the Spirit of the living God had entered into the
visible universe in order to possess, appropriate, and
hallow it. The vision of God Himself was the true life
of man2, and human nature was already the receptacle of
the grace and glory of God. Already man was a son
of God, but it did not yet appear what he should be :;.
Only it was certain that man's destiny was a continual
assimilation to his Creator. Irenaeus clung tenaciously
to the deposit of faith, but he felt that only the pro
gressive unfolding of the divine purpose for humanity
would adequately interpret the full content of the rule
of truth. In our day, when knowledge widens its range
with such bewildering rapidity, we too have to dis
charge a twofold obligation. We are bound to guard
the faith committed to us in its integrity, but with due
1 See for instance Hilary's language in de Trin. ii. 2 : ' Compellimur
haereticorum et blasphemantium vitiis, illicita agere, ardua scandere,
ineffabiha eloqui, inconcessa praesumere. Et cum sola fide expleri quae
praecepta sunt oporteret, adorare scilicet Patrem et venerari cum eo
Filium, Sancto Spiritu abundare ; cogimur sermonis nostri humilitatem
ad ea quae inenarrabilia sunt extendere, et in vitium vitio coartamur
alieno : ut quae contineri religione mentium oportuissent, nunc in peri-
culum humani eloquii proferantur.'
2 Iren. Haer. iv. 20, 7 : ' Vita hominis visio Dei.'
3 Cp. 1 John iii. 2.
B 2

4 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
carefulness to discriminate between what is and what
is not of faith ; on the other hand we have to bear
constantly in mind that to us Christians nothing
achieved or discovered by human faculties is without
its bearing on the Christian revelation ; all things are
ours in so far as they throw light on the destiny of
man, on the ways of the eternal God, on the methods
and conditions of His self-manifestation. We cannot
divest ourselves of responsibility for the use of our
judgment in bringing all things to the test of Christian
reason and experience. He that is spiritual judgeth
all things, yet he himself is judged of no man. For who
hath known the mind of the Lord that he may instruct
him? But we have the mind of Christ^. With the
creed of the Catholic Church in his hands, a thought
ful Chiristian may look round upon the universe of
things with eyes that penetrate deeper than the surface
of life. The world may present to him a confused and
bewildering spectacle, like that which Wordsworth
studied so observantly in the London of his day :
' Bvit though the picture weary out the eye,
By nature an unmanageable sight,
It is not wholly so to him who looks
In steadiness ; who hath among least things
An under sense of greatest ; sees the parts
As parts, but with a feeling of the whole2.'
The Christian knows that in his hands he holds the
clue to this tangled maze ; the kingdoms of this world
are on the way to become the kingdoms of our Lord
and of his Christ 3. Thus the Christian slowly and
gradually comes to recognize the inexhaustible signifi
cance of his creed. He finds in the Catholic Faith,
' loved deeplier, darklier understood,' that which will
best minister to the intellectual and moral wants of the
age in which he lives. To be truly catholic, in a word,
is to be large-hearted ; to be no mere votary of the
past, but a student of the present; not a servile
adherent of the creed, but a wise and sympathetic
1 I Cor. ii. 15, 1 6. 2 The Prelude, bk. vii. s Rev. xi. 15.

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM' 5
interpreter of it to living men. We Christians should
set before us the task of endeavouring to understand
our own age, its needs, its perils, its possibilities. We
should ever look upward for light to see what knowledge,
what aspect of truth, is most serviceable and necessary
for the days in which we live. And conversely each
new development in human life or social organization,
each gift of civilization, each discovery of science, each
achievement of human toil, energy, and skill, each
true partus temporis, will be of vital interest in so far
as it interprets to us more luminously the clauses of
our creed and the ways of divine wisdom ; in so far
as it gives us a truer sense of proportion and a larger
insight into the things of faith.
Of this catholic heart, this spiritual versatility, the
most conspicuous example is to be found in the writer
of the Epistles to the Corinthians himself, whose
vocation it was to preach to the world the mystery of
a catholic Church. The great charter indeed of the
Church's catholicity is contained not in the present
passage, but rather in others which lie behind it : All
things are delivered unto me of my Father x. A 11 power
is given unto me in heaven and in earth 2. This truth
of the Church's lordship in Jesus Christ is one which
we are sometimes apt to overlook; this it is of
which the Corinthians especially are reminded in the
text. Accordingly St. Paul sets down what has been
called 'an inventory of the possessions of the child
of God': All things are yotirs ; whether Paid, or
Apollos, or Cephas, or the world, or life, or death, or
things present, or things to come; all are yours.
The Corinthians were absorbed in the disputes of the
hour — disputes which turned largely upon personal
preferences for this or that individual teacher in
the Christian community. They were glorying, _ as
St. Paul with a significant allusion to prophecy points
out 3, not in God the Creator of the Church, but in men
1 Matt. xi. 27 ; Luke x. 22. 2 Matt, xxviii. 18.
•> 1 Cor. i. 31. Cp. Jer. ix. 23, 24.

6 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
who at best were mere instruments of His providential
purpose. To the Apostle, this blindness to the due
proportion of things appeared disastrous and even
intolerable. The Corinthians, he says in effect, are
forgetting altogether the transcendent dignity of their
Christian vocation, the ideal splendour of their privileges
as saints. Not merely one scattered ray of the eternal
light conveyed through one limited medium is theirs,
but each 'bright beam of light' that God through His
Apostles 'casts upon His Church.' Each teacher is
a divine gift to the Church. St. Paul even manifests
in his rapid transition from teachers, Paul, Apollos and
Cephas, to the world, or life, or death, or things present,
or things to come, a kind of noble impatience with the
pettiness which is absorbed in discussing individual
claims, and types of doctrine, instead of rising to the
full recognition of sublime spiritual prerogatives. ' All
things,' he seems to say, ' are yours ; all are intended
to minister to your spiritual growth ; you are inheritors
of the world, destined to be its judges, called to use
for the highest ends its products, gifts, and oppor
tunities. Angels minister to you as heirs of salvation ;
all things work together for your good. You are
heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ. He that
spared not his own Son, but delivered him tip for us
all, how shall he not with him also freely give us all
things l ? '
In the lectures which I am allowed to deliver here
I propose to consider very simply and practically the
present function of the. Old Testament Scriptures in
the Christian Church. Such an attempt, which is
obviously beset with grave difficulty, is dictated by
considerations which it may be well to indicate as
briefly as possible. In the first place, a Christian
teacher cannot fail to be seriously concerned at the
1 Rom. viii. 32 ; cp. Rom. iv. 13, viii. 28 ; 1 Cor. vi. 2, vii. 31 ; Heb. i.
2, 14 ; and Firmil. adCyp. [Epp. Cyp. lxxv.] c. 4 : ' Quoniam sermo divinus
humanam naturam supergreditur, nee potest totum et perfectum anima
concipere ; idcirco et tantus est numerus prophetarum, ut multiplex
divina sapientia per multos distribuatur.'

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM' 7
practical disuse into which for many ordinary Christians
the Old Testament has fallen — a disuse which, what
ever be its causes, must tend to impoverish the
spiritual life of the Church J ; and secondly, any one
who is in contact with thoughtful persons younger
than himself, or who is called to minister to the spiritual
perplexities of devout Christians, is well aware that
the real and apparent results of the ' Higher Criticism '
have raised questions, a provisional answer to which
cannot be indefinitely deferred without a certain breach
of trust. In Germany many attempts have been made
during the last few years to define anew the position
of the Old Testament, and to bring the claims of
Lutheran orthodoxy into harmony with those of his
torical inquiry. In England, however, the task of recon
ciliation has scarcely yet been attempted. Its peculiar
delicacy lies in the fact, amply proved by experience,
that while many are asking for guidance, many on the
other hand are unwilling or unqualified to investigate
the claims of criticism, or even to give a hearing to
that which is believed in a vague and undefined way
to threaten the foundations of Christian faith. A
somewhat unintelligent conception of the Scriptures,
and of their true place in the system of the Church,
has also much to answer for. The result is that an
attempt to guide and reassure troubled faith is beset
with difficulties. The Christian apologist himself is
suspected or even denounced ; what he concedes
appears to some to involve a virtual betrayal of
essential truth ; what he defends or maintains is
thought by others to be an untenable remnant of
exploded error. There seems indeed to be no subject
in regard to which prejudice is more slowly dispelled,
1 Some causes are discussed by Prof. Kirkpatrick in The Divine
Library of the Old Testament, pp. 1 17 foil. Mr. J. Paterson Smyth in his
useful work How God inspired the Bible, p. 15, quotes a typical letter
from a young student in which the following sentences occur. ' There
are hundreds . . . like me, who do not want to lose our grasp of the Bible,
but we can no longer view it as we have been taught to do. If there is
any way by which we can still hold it and treasure it, do our teachers
know it ? and if they do, why do they not tell us ? '

8 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
and passion more vehemently excited, than that which
is to be considered in these lectures. The most
necessary qualification for dealing with it is a certain
tenderness of sympathy with those who are harassed by
the breaking in upon them of new modes of thought
and new collections of facts. A teacher must have
realized in his own experience at least some of the
pains of mental growth and the difficulties of self-
adjustment to the claims of truth as it is progressively
manifested \ We must not be surprised that mental
versatility is a rare endowment, and that in the
case of Holy Scripture the conflict is not merely
between new knowledge and a traditional view, but
between new knowledge and deeply-rooted spiritual
experience. The real nature of the distress that
agitates so many ordinary Christians at the present
time is amply recognized by reverent criticism. ' It
would argue,' writes the late Prof. Robertson Smith,
'indifference rather than enlightenment, if the great
mass of Bible readers, to whom scientific points of
view are wholly unfamiliar, could adjust themselves
to a new line of investigation into the history of the
Bible without passing through a crisis of anxious
thought not far removed from distress and alarm2.'
Sympathy then with troubled faith should in any case
guide the attempt to bring succour and relief to per
plexed thought.
One ground of reassurance is to be found in
a true apprehension of the exact conditions of modern
inquiry. The battle, it has been well said, is not
between rationalism and faith, but between true
criticism and false 3. Historical and literary criticism
is to be regarded not as a foe to be held at
bay, but as a good gift of God to our generation.
1 Bernard, in Cant, xxxix. 3, makes a striking observation : ' Benignus
est Spmtus sapientiae, et placet illi doctor benignus et diligens qui ita
cupiat satisfacere studiosis, ut morem gerere tardioribus non recuset '
¦* The Old Testament in the fewish Church, p. 1.
3 Cp. Briggs, Biblical Study, its Principles, Methods, and History
p. 104. -"

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM' 9
It will be our duty presently to indicate at least
in rough outline the considerations which appear to
justify a cautious and provisional acceptance of at
least the main results of modern critical investiga
tion. Meanwhile let it suffice to remark that the
traditional view of the Old Testament religion has
in any case been profoundly modified, first, by the
idea of historical development, which has given
intrinsic reasonableness to the supposition that the
Hebrew religion passed very gradually from a quite
rudimentary stage to that of maturity ; secondly, by
the discovery or employment of facts and sources
by which the results of literary criticism have been
supplemented or confirmed. It is scarcely too
much to assert that the century now verging to
its close has witnessed the birth of a series of new
sciences, if the title is strictly applicable to those
fruitful departments of knowledge usually included
under such names as ' Assyriology,' ' Egyptology,'
and the like. The discovery of Phoenician inscrip
tions, systematic inquiry into the usages of early
religions, the scrutiny of materials supplied by the
mounds of Babylon, Egypt, Nineveh and Palestine
— these have yielded a mass of data which have
practically changed the conditions of Old Testament
criticism 1. It is often imagined that because many
problems are apparently insoluble and many details
are confessedly obscure or uncertain, the traditional
view of the Old Testament remains virtually unaf
fected. But it is important to bear in mind that, even
when all crude speculations and fantastic theories
are excluded from view, there remains a mass of
ascertained facts which the mere dislike of trouble
may incline men to ignore, yet which deserve the
most patient and painstaking attention of all educated
Christians. In a famous sermon the late Archbishop
Magee once pointed out the demoralizing effect of
1 See J. Darmesteter, Les Prophetes d Israel, pp. 158 foil. Cp. Renan,
Histoire dti peuple d' Israel, pref. p. xxiv [Eng. Tr.].

10 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
distorted or exaggerated preconceptions as to the
nature of Scripture. The Church, he said, has too
often 'attempted to evade the pressure' of criticism,
' by wire-drawn explanations, far-fetched harmonizings,
ingenious hypotheses which do more credit to the
ability than to the candour of those who have resorted
to them1.' We have surely been taught by the
experience of the past that for a child of God candour
is the first of duties, and the question has now forced
itself to the front, whether or no something more is
needed than doubtful disputations on points of detail ;
whether or no the present state of knowledge demands
a reconstruction of our ideas respecting the mode
of God's self-revelation in the sacred history. At
the same time let us remember that the demand
made upon our faith and courage is not a new thing.
We are now facing, as the Hebrew Christians were
called to face, ' the trials of a new age V It has been
pointed out that in their case the trials were such as
sprang ' in a great degree from mistaken devoutness.'
Those who live in an age like ours likewise need,
it is true, a word of consolation 3. New ideas, new
phases of thought, new aspects of old problems, press
upon us ; ancient modes of statement seem sometimes
to have become void of meaning ; paths trodden by
the feet of many generations seem to be outworn :
awavd 6 paKpbs KavapidprjTos xpovos
(pvei t ci8r)\a Kal (pavhra KpinrTeTai.'
kovk eVr aeXinov ovhev 4-
But faith finds her solace in the history of the Church.
She has the experience of nineteen centuries to sup
port her, and to give her the assurance that God has
been with His people all along, is with them now, and
1 The Gospel and the Age, p. 322. Cp. the impressive words of
Delitzsch, New Commentary on Genesis, vol. i. pp. 54 foil. : ' The love of
truth, submission to the force of truth, the surrender of traditional views
which will not stand the test of truth, is a sacred duty, an element of the
fear of God.'
2 Cp. Westcott, Christies Consummator, ch. i.
3 Heb. xiii. 22. 4 Soph. Ajax, 646 foil.

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM' n
will lead them even to the end. Scripture itself is the
record of the struggles and conflicts through which
human faith has long since triumphantly passed ; it bears
witness to a divine truth which has never failed, and
a love which has never abandoned its purpose. Thus
encouraged faith may calmly confront new problems,
neither minimizing their importance nor exaggerating
their difficulty. This at any rate is the temper in
which our subject is to be approached. Our aim is
to consider in a constructive and practical spirit some
fundamental aspects of the Old Testament, regarded
as a divine message to mankind for all time.
It has appeared after careful consideration, that the
object in view might be most satisfactorily attained,
not by attempting to reconstruct the history of Israel
— a task which Mr. Montefiore has with striking
ability achieved in his Hibbert Lectures — but by
approaching the subject from the point of view of
Old Testament theology. If we wish to reassure
persons who suppose that Christianity itself is en
dangered by the results of Old Testament criticism,
we shall find it advisable to start from the great
religious thoughts and verities which Christianity has
inherited from the Jewish Church and to look at
them afresh in the light of modern research. It is
not indeed as mere inquirers or searchers after truth
that we approach the Old Testament, but rather as
men of faith eagerly desiring to understand more
intelligently the ways of One who has already made
Himself known to us in Christ and who requires of
men truth in the inward parts. We have to use
our faculties honestly as in His sight. For St. Paul,
as we have noticed, claims for Christians the judicial
office ; he implies that it is the function of Christian
reason to pass judgment on the phenomena of human
life and the products of human wisdom or skill. But
Christian reason is synonymous with the mind of
Christ x. The fixed standpoint from which a Christian
1 i Cor. ii. 16.

12 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
approaches the consideration of all problems, ethical,
social, or intellectual, is that of belief in the person
of Him who by the presence of His Spirit inhabits
and enlightens the Church. A true estimate of the
Old Testament, its character, purpose, and teaching,
is only possible on the basis of faith in Jesus Christ,
the Son of God made man.

I.
First of all, then, we approach the Old Testament
as- believers in the Incarnation of the Son of God :
that unique revelation of the glory and love of the
Father, which lies at the root of all our Christian
life and experience. We know that the Son of God
is come, and hath given us an understanding that we
may know him that is true, and we are in him that
is true, even in his Son Jesus Christ1. In comparison
with this fact all that foreshadowed it in the world's
history, or in the literature which enshrined the ex
pectation of good things to come, is of secondary
importance and interest. We know that the Son of
God is come. In their assurance of this divine gift,
Christians can bear with much uncertainty and per
plexity in regard to problems which lie on the fringe
of God's self-revelation. But something is to be
gained from a closer survey of the Incarnation in
relation to the task which at present engages our
attention, for it is a fact which necessarily illustrates
the divine method of dealing with mankind. For
example, the Incarnation is the perfect consecration
of nature. It is the crowning example of the em
ployment by God of media, of the appropriation of
things visible and material as organs and vehicles of
divine gifts to mankind. In the Incarnation, Almighty
God reveals Himself as a being who wills to take
things common and make them instruments of grace
1 i John v. 20.

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM'

*3

and power ; to consecrate human nature, and elevate
it into fellowship with the divine life ; to convey
spiritual blessings to the world through the mediation
of human service and human suffering. Again, the
Incarnation reveals to us a love which addresses itself
to the actual conditions, and accommodates itself to
the present needs, of mankind. ' Accommodation,'
it has been said, ' is an essential principle in the
method of a revelation of grace1'; and on a broad
scale we are familiar enough with the exhibition
of this principle in Hebrew history. In the election
and education of a peculiar people, God is seen
taking man as He finds him to make him what
as yet he is not, adapting Himself to the existing
capacities of a backward and untutored race. That
this is the true inner secret of the Old Testament
history we are assured when we study the life and
work of the incarnate Son. If Jesus Christ were
merely the last and most eminent of a line of prophets,
there would be more to be said for that familiar type
of criticism which represents Israel's religious develop
ment as a purely natural phenomenon, having its
starting-point and controlling principle not in any
intervention or guidance of a gracious and loving God,
not in any supernatural revelation imparted to elect
souls at different epochs in Israel's history, but in
fetichism, or totemism, or polytheism, whence by
a slow process of purely natural evolution it passed
to its final stage in ethical monotheism 2- Here we
touch one of the distinctive features of Israel's
religion, which separates it sharply from other con
temporary religions of antiquity, namely, that it is
a religion of revelation, whereas they are products of
the ordinary development of man's religious and moral
faculties 3.
The Incarnation, then, sets a seal of confirmation
1 A. B. Bruce, The Chief End of Revelation, p. 113.
2 Cp. Kohler, Uber Berechtigung der Kritik des A. T. p. 66.
3 Riehm, Alttestamentliche Theologie, § 4, pp. 26, 27.

14 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect-
to the general principle which was really at work
in Israel's religious history; it reveals the secret of
its upward tendency, namely, the condescending love
and patience of God. And to that condescension
who shall venture to prescribe limitations, considering
what we now know of the depth to which divine love
will stoop in order to win man from his sin and lead
him to holiness ? In the light of God's actual
dealings with the world in the gift of His Son, we
can appreciate better all that recent research has taught
us respecting the close affinity between Israel's early
faith and practice, and that of its heathen neighbours
and kinsfolk. It no longer startles us to find the
divine wisdom adopting, regulating, and consecrat
ing to higher uses traditional customs or practices
common to the entire Semitic race, in order to employ
them as elements in a system of rudimentary instruc
tion and of graduated moral discipline. We cannot
be surprised even to find that very low and inadequate
conceptions of the Godhead are accepted as the
necessary basis of higher and more spiritual ideas.
Indeed, not to enlarge upon so familiar a theme, it is
enough to recall the saying of Wellhausen, that the
religion of the Old Testament ' did not so much make
men partakers in a divine life, as make God a partaker
in the life of men V If God really was, as we believe,
preparing the world for such an event as the taber
nacling of God with men, we have no occasion for
wonder that He should, through long centuries of
education, have accommodated Himself to what was
partial, rude, and imperfect, while ever aiming at that
which was perfect.
' God a partaker in the life of men.' Let us pause
to consider the significance of this expression in its
application to our subject. Does it not suggest that
the divine action will inevitably transcend the rano-e
1 Sketch of the History of Israel and fudah, p. 17. The first volume of
Renan's Histoire du p'.aple d'hrael is a striking illustration of this thesis,
in spite of much in its pages that seems arbitrary, prejudiced, and fantastic!

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM' r5
of our experience, and possibly contradict the first
suggestions, though not the ultimate conclusions, of
reason itself? If the love of God be love indeed, it
will not be deterred from self-manifestation. It will
break down barriers. It will adapt itself to the actual
situation. It will use the available material, the
instruments ready to hand. There will be no limit
to the range of divine condescension, except that
imposed by the law of perfect holiness.
' What lacks then of perfection fit for God
But just the instance which the tale supplies
Of love without a limit ? So is strength,
So is intelligence ; let love be so,
Unlimited in its self-sacrifice,
Then is the tale true and God shows complete.'
And, indeed, such a fact as the Incarnation, a
mystery of which St. Paul and St. John have taught
us the cosmic significance, inevitably suggests that
in all departments of its operation, the love of God
will exhibit a certain uniformity of method. Hence,
we are only reasoning as serious Christians must
necessarily reason, when we apply to the questions
involved in the present day study of the Old Testa
ment principles suggested by the acknowledged fact
of the Incarnation. Let us follow out this line of
thought somewhat in detail.
i. First let us bear in mind that in the Bible the
Word of God comes to us \ and addresses us as
beings capable of moral response. The Bible appeals
to us as an inspired book, a divine product. It
is one as the person of Christ is one. Whatever
conclusions may be ultimately ascertained as to its
structure and the mode of its formation, it presents
itself to us as a whole, possessed of a certain unmis-
1 We must not without caution identify the 'Word of God' with
' Scripture.' Such an identification is not biblical and is open to serious
objections. ' In the Old Testament the term Word of God is applied
chiefly to particular declarations of the purposes or promises of God,
especially to those made by the prophets ; in the New Testament it
denotes commonly the gospel message.' (Driver, Sermons on Old Testa^
ment Subjects, pp. 158, 159.)

16 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
takeable unity of function x. Like the human eye, or
the trained conscience of a human being, the Bible
is an organism respecting which we may reasonably
think that we can in some degree trace the stages
of its growth and development. And just as the
question of the manner in which an organism or
faculty is developed is entirely distinct from the
question of its true function and capacities when in
a developed state 2, so in the case of Scripture, the
question of the nature and use of the complete or
ganism, the product viewed in its entirety, is one,
comparatively speaking, unaffected by inquiries re
lating to its structure and formation. The mystery
with which we are face to face in Scripture is that
of a message or word from God, a divine book,
which, as a matter of age-long experience, has actually
produced in every period which has followed its com
pletion spiritual results of infinite magnitude and
importance. It is the total product, the complete
work, which fulfils such vast and varied functions
in the spiritual history of mankind3. Questions in
regard to the mode of its formation are secondary.
When the different oral accounts of Christ's life
were first committed to writing, there can be little
doubt that the earliest narrative was that which
recorded His public acts and utterances during the
1 An ancient expositor of the Psalms, Didymus of Alexandria, compares
Scripture to the seamless robe of Christ : ov yap Ps0iao-pcvr)v ivuxjiv, dXAa
ovptpvr} J(xiL' *o~t<-v ^c Kal avaBcv bia to OecnvtvaTOs tlvaC v(pai>TO$ dt o\ov,
5ia Tra<rr]t yap Svvapeas f] ypafpq avadiv lanv (in Psalm, xxi. 1 9).
2 Cp. Wace, Boyle Lectures, ser. i. p. 18.
3 Cp. Sanday, Bampton Lectures, p. 402 : ' If we take a wider range,
and look at the diversified products of this individual inspiration, and see
how they combine together, so as to be no longer detached units but
articulated members in a connected and coherent scheme, we must needs
ftel that there is something more than the individual minds at work ; they
are subsumed, as it were, in the operation of a larger Mind, that central
Intelligence which directs and gives unity of purpose to the scattered
movements and driftings of men.' Dalman, Das A. T. ein Wort Gottes,
p. 10, observes that for our Lord and the New Testament writers, ' im
Grunde liegt der Nachdruck nicht auf der Weise der Entstehung der
biblischen Biicher, sondern auf dem Resultat des litterarischen Processes
dem sie entstammen.'

0 AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM' 17
period of His sacred ministry; the mystery of His
birth was one in which the Church was keenly
interested, but for an answer to her questionings she
could, it would seem, afford to wait. The point of
primary importance to the earliest believers was not
whence our Lord came, but what He was, what He
did, what Fie claimed of man when He actually
appeared. By analogy we may regard the Bible as
a book in which the continuous spiritual experience
of mankind has recognized the very presence of the
Word of God: the declaration of His whole mind
and will concerning His creatures, the unveiling of
His character and of His everlasting purpose of
grace 1. Here is something which historical and
critical study cannot impair. A leading critic of the
Old Testament has used words which admirably
express the result of Christian experience on this
point. ' Of this I am sure . . . that the Bible does
speak to the heart of man in words that can only
come from God — that no historical research can de
prive me of this conviction or make less precious the
divine utterances that speak straight to the heart.
For the language of these words is so clear that no
re-adjustment of their historical setting can conceiv
ably change the substance of them. Historical study
may throw a new light on the circumstances in which
they were first heard or written. In that there can
only be gain. But the plain, central, heartfelt truths,
that speak for themselves and rest on their own
indefensible worth, will assuredly remain to us 2.'
2. This point which we have barely touched upon
here will be recalled at the close of the present
lecture. Meanwhile we pass on to consider some
further teachings suggested by the fruitful analogy
of the Incarnation. We have seen that it illustrates

1 Cp. Iren. Haer. iv. 5. I : ' Quoniam impossibile erat sine Deo discere
Deum, per verbum suum docet homines scire Deum.'
2 Robertson Smith, O. T. in f. C. lect. i. p. 19. The whole of this
admirable lecture is worthy of careful study.
C

18 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
the divine unity of Scripture as fulfilling a special
function in the spiritual history of mankind. But the
same analogy reminds us of a duality of natures \ As
Christ was at once divine and human, so Scripture is
found to have a twofold aspect. We shall be prepared
to recognize frankly that on one side it is perfectly
human, when we remember that about the incarnate
Son when He appeared on earth all was simple, plain,
natural, common. He was found in fashion as a man.
The great trial indeed for our Lord's contemporaries
— the trial under which average Jewish faith actually
broke down — was the simplicity and the plainness
of His outward appearance. Is not this, they said, the
carpenter, the son of Mary, the brother of James and
J oses, and of Juda and Simon ? and are not his sisters
here with us ? A?id they were offended at him 2. Now
similarly Scripture is found to have a literary history,
exceptional indeed in certain respects, but by no
means entirely mysterious or inexplicable. In pro
portion as critical science advances, we recognize that
in its letter, in its prima facie appearance, Scripture
is, if I may so say, more human, more ordinary. It
displays to a certain extent the same traces of human
workmanship, human compilation, even human limita
tion and fallibility, as are discoverable in other products
of oriental literature. The Pentateuch for example,
or at least a considerable portion of it, proves to be
a collection of fragments gathered together no one
can certainly say how, when, or by whom. If we take
a more general survey of the Old Testament, we find
that, in spite of the impressive unity of purpose which
pervades the whole, there is a remarkable diversity in
the types of literary production incorporated in it. All
species of composition known to the ancient Hebrews
would seem to have been utilized, in so far as they
1 This thought is worked out with admirable skill in Abp. Magee's
sermon on ' The Bible human and yet divine.' See The Gospel and the
Age, pp. 311 foil.
2 Mark vi. 3.

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM' 19
were capable of becoming adequate vehicles of
spiritual teaching. We have in fact to deal with
a library in the Old Testament — a library containing
history, poetry, proverbs, philosophical discussions,
annals, genealogies, semi-historical folk-lore, and primi
tive myths. It is evidently a literature which, as Ewald
has remarked, has shaped itself just as freely as that of
all other ancient nations. It is distinguished by an
extraordinary simplicity, vigour, and naturalness —
a simplicity which is owing not to any deficiency of
refinement or culture in the periods which produced
the several books, but to ' the dominant power of
a true religion 1' or rather to the continuous and
controlling guidance of the self-revealing Spirit of God.
There is then admittedly a human side to Scripture,
and the condescension which we witness in the Incarna
tion of the Son of God prepares us to find that in the
Old Testament God has left to the human instruments
of His will more than we had once supposed2. He
has employed different types of mind and character to
execute or advance His purposes. In the recording
of His acts and words He has sanctioned the em
ployment of literary methods which in a higher stage
of culture might be judged inappropriate. He has con
secrated individual peculiarities or special intellectual
endowments to ends of His own. The result is that
to the critical eye Scripture wears an ordinary and
occasionally even humble exterior ; it is not free from
such incidental defects, limitations, and errors, as are
incident to all human composition ; but under this lowly
form is concealed a special divine presence3. Here,
as in the Incarnation, may be discerned the self-unveil-
1 H. Ewald, Revelation, its Nature and Record (Eng. Tr., T. & T. Clark),
p. 320.
2 See Sanday, The Oracles of God, serm. ii.
3 Jukes, The Types of Genesis, p. xvi, ' Christ the incarnate Word of
God seems to me, not an illustration only, but a proof, both of the
preciousness of the letter, and of the deeper spirit which everywhere
underlies the letter throughout the word of God.' The same point
underlies Origen's distinction between the ' flesh ' and ' spirit ' of Scripture
(de Pri?ic. iv. 11 and 14).
C 2

20

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.

ing of a divine Spirit, the operation of divine power,
the appeal of divine love. These I repeat are great
realities of the spiritual world, which have been put
to the test by a thousand generations of Christians.
Their experience has shown that the highest office of
Scripture is one that transcends the range and sphere
of critical investigation. The appeal of the Spirit who
speaks in Scripture is to man's spirit; the appeal of
power is to man's sense of need ; the appeal of love is
to the faculties of man's heart and will.
3. For there is one further point in this fruitful
analogy which may be profitably mentioned. We may
consider the importance of the self-witness of Scripture.
On the one hand, like our Lord's human body, the
Bible is a thing in rerum natura, a book among books ;
on the other, its self-witness challenges us to acknow
ledge a higher claim ; it speaks as having authority ;
it claims to be something more than a mere human
compilation. Just as Jesus Christ arrested the attention
of men, drew them to Himself by the exercise of an
incomparable moral authority, and put forward super
human claims to their allegiance, so Scripture appears
to challenge inquiry and to claim authority in virtue
of its direct bearing on conduct and character, its con
tinual appeal to faith and its express testimony to the
divine purpose for humanity. A book that touches
human life at every point cannot be of merely human
origin. It bears the impress of a controlling mind ; it
displays the action of an informing Spirit, who knows
what is in man. St. Paul even speaks of the Old
Testament as a living personality : it sees beforehand
the purpose of God's electing grace ; it preaches the
gospel to Abraham *. This aspect of Scripture is one
which lies outside the scope of critical inquiry.
1 Gal. iii. 8 ; cp. Rom. ix. 17. — ' For us and for all ages,' says Bishop
Westcott, ' the record is the voice of God ; and as a necessary consequence
the record is itself living. It is not a book merely. It has a vital connection
with our circumstances and must be considered in connection with them.
The constant use of the present tense in quotation (Xeyu to Trvevp.a to
ayiov, Ae'yei 17 ypaqbrj k.t.X.) emphasises this idea.' (The Epistle to the
Hebrews, p. 475.)

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM' 21
True criticism indeed never dissects the Bible as if
it were a dead body. It treats each book of the Old
Testament, for instance, as ' a fragment of ancient life,'
not to be fully comprehended or justly appreciated
without a sincere effort to enter into sympathy with
the thought and circumstances of the age in which it
was written1. Yet criticism after all moves on the
plane of human science ; it is concerned mainly with
the natural and historical side of Holy Scripture ; it
deals with that which Origen aptly calls ' the flesh of
the word.' But the Christian student will ever bear
in mind that beneath the outward veil which with the
aid of the critic he reverently scrutinizes, there breathes
a living Spirit, who directly appeals to conscience, will,
and faith. There is the living word of God, the
word that quickens and converts, that pierces and
heals, that enlightens and guides the spirit of man ;
the word that claims to be the food of souls, the light
of the conscience, the sword of the Spirit, the mirror of
humanity, the unchanging witness to the work and
office, the authority and glory of the Son of God 2.

II.
Our inquiry then presupposes and takes as its
foundation the fact of the divine Incarnation, and so
far we have been engaged in considering some of the
features which such a fact, supposed to be true, would
lead us to anticipate beforehand in the written records
of revelation. Students of the history of doctrine will
further notice that there has been a tendency in regard
to Scripture analogous to that which may be observed
in some stages of the evolution of Christology. The
human element has occasionally been minimized or
altogether forgotten. Men have been tempted, says
1 Cp. Robertson Smith, O. T. inf. C. p. 16.
2 Cp. Heb. iv. 12 ; I Pet. ii. 2 ; 2 Pet. i. 19; Jas. i. 25 ; Eph. vi. 17;
John v. 39.

22 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
Archbishop Magee, to make of the Bible ' not a super
natural book, which it is, but an unnatural book. . ._.
They were determined to find the whole Bible as it
were in every text of the Bible. . . . They were for
ever turning rhetoric into logic, vision into history,
poetry into hardest and most literal prose.' They
forgot that in the Bible Almighty God 'was using
human hearts, human thought, human knowledge,
human peculiarities of character, in order that in and
through them His word might be conveyed to us V
Rabbinical methods of scriptural exegesis supply one
example of this tendency; the theory of verbal in
spiration another 2. But without further enlarging on
the subject I proceed to mention another truth pre
supposed in these lectures, namely the fact of the
inspiration of Scripture 3. What, speaking generally,
ought we to understand by this term ? To this inquiry
some provisional answer at least is necessary at this
point. It shall be as brief and clear as the conditions
of the subject will allow.
It is to be observed in the first place that the
doctrine of inspiration is designed to explain a fact
which is quite independent of human theories. It is
an attempt to give a rational account of the unique
religious influence which has been exercised by the
Bible. That influence is not dependent upon a par
ticular doctrine, the form of which may have varied at
different periods. ' The word,' it has been finely said,
' which is like a fire and like the hammer that breaks
1 The Gospel and the Age, p. 321.
e. g. the theory expressed in the Formula consensus Helvetica (1674),
can. 2 : ' Hebraicus V. T. codex . . . turn quoad consonas, turn quoad
vocalia, sive puncta ipsa sive punctorum saltern potestatem, et turn quoad
res turn quoad verba Beoirvevo-Tos ... ad cuius normam, ceu Lydium
lapidem,universae quae extant versiones, sive orientales sive occidentales,
exigendae et sicubi deflectunt revocandae sunt.' See the passage in Augusti,
Corpus Librorum Symbolicorum, p. 445.
3 Driver, Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, pref.
p. xix : ' Criticism in the hands of Christian scholars does not banish or
destroy the inspiration of the Old Testament ; it presupposes it ; it seeks
only to determine the conditions under which it operates, and the literary
forms through which it manifests itself.'

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM' 23
in pieces the rocks, does not need to be accredited by
any human theory as to its origin V
Next we should bear in mind that inspiration in its
primary sense does not properly describe the character
of a sacred book, but rather denotes the living action
of God on the faculties of men. Revelation takes the
form on the one hand of an outward historical move
ment. It implies an actual movement towards man on
the part of a living Being, possessed of perfect freedom
to act, to intervene, to manifest Himself on behalf of
His good purpose 2. Revelation, in a word, means the
historical self-manifestation of God in redemptive
action, and it may be remarked in passing that miracle
is an antecedently probable element in such action.
Divine will and purpose must have at least the same
scope in the universe that is open to the mind and
energy of man. But parallel to this outward action.
of God is an internal operation of His power upon
human faculties. The outward course of history is
accompanied, so to speak, by the Spirit of prophecy,
which acts upon the constitution of man in such a
fashion as to enlarge his capacity to apprehend and to
correspond with the outward self-manifestation of the
divine character and mind. The New Testament
takes it for granted that there have existed prophets
since the world began, men indwelt by the Spirit,
organs of revelation who were enabled to apprehend
and sympathize with the purpose of God while it was
in actual process of historical realization. ' Israel's
religious teachers,' says Prof. Schultz 3, ' are prophets,
not philosophers, priests, or poets. Hence the Old
Testament religion can be explained only by revela
tion, that is by the fact that God raised up for this
people men whose natural susceptibility to moral and
1 Oettli, Der gegenwdrtige Kampftim das A. T. (1896), p. 5.
2 Phil. ii. 13.
3 Theology of the Old Testament, vol. i. p. 54 [Eng. Trans.]. Cp.
J. Darmesteter, Les Pr ophites d Israel, p. 220, and Ewald, The prophets
of the O.T. [Eng. Tr.], vol. i. pp. 3-8.

24 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
religious truth developed by the course of their inner
and outer lives, enabled them to understand instinc
tively the will of the self-communicating, redeeming
God regarding men ; that is, to possess the religious
truth which makes free, not as a result of human wis
dom and intellectual labour, but as a power pressing in
upon the soul with irresistible might. Only those who
frankly acknowledge this can be historically just to the
Old Testament.' When in fact we examine the Old
Testament religion, and ask ourselves how out of the
rude polytheistic nature-worship which was common to
the Semitic race, there arose a religion which so
evidently contained the secret of a lofty spiritual
development, we are practically forced to find the
explanation in the fact of inspiration ; in the immediate
action of the living Spirit of God, arousing at least in
the leading figures of the Hebrew race a consciousness
of God \ For it is not necessary to assume— indeed
the Old Testament itself contradicts the supposition —
that a lofty conception of God was at any time, at
least before the exile, a paramount force in the life
or thought of the masses of the Hebrew people2.
Certainly however, the unique development of Hebrew
religion, and its constant elevation above the level of
kindred faiths surrounding it, irresistibly suggest the
conclusion that there were from the very earliest
dawn of the history, individual men on whom the Holy
1 Observe the importance of the religious genius in revelation. ' It is
a defect,' says Pfleiderer (Gijford Lectures, i. 1 83), ' of the present realistic
theory of development, that it underestimates or entirely overlooks the
significance of personality in history, and endeavours to find the active
forces of progress only in the masses. The masses however are never
spiritually creative. All new world-moving ideas and ideals have pro
ceeded from individual personalities, and even they have not arbitrarily
devised them or found them out by laborious reflection, as men find out
scientific doctrines by investigation ; but they have received them by that
involuntary intuition which is also participated in by the artistic genius,
and which everywhere forms the privilege of original genius, to whose eye
the essence of things and the destination of men are disclosed . . . yet . . .
the revelation of the religious genius is the expression of what the best
men of their time have divined and longed for, the unveiling of their own
better self, the fulfilment of their own highest hopes,' &c.
2 See Riehm, Alttestamentliche Theologie, p. 11.

I] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM'

25

Spirit of God was directly acting, leaders of religion of
the true prophetic type, quick to apprehend the mean
ing of those successive acts in which Almighty God
revealed His own character, His control of history,
and His purpose for mankind at large. Inspiration
then in the first instance is an idea correlative to
that of revelation. It means a divine action on man's
faculties, by which his intellect is continually trained to
more intelligent apprehension of divine purposes, his
conscience to deeper knowledge of moral requirement,
his heart to worthier love, his will to more exact
response. For He who is the object of knowledge
Himself imparts the faculty to know; and it follows
that ' the essence of a revealed religion is absolutely
dependent on prophecy. Without it we have only
natural religion or philosophy V Indeed the funda
mental characteristic of Hebrew religion is the con
viction that God is a self-communicating Being, who
does not isolate Himself from the world, but by His
Spirit awakens in His creatures the capacity to know
and execute His will. That a true knowledge of God
is possible, that it depends upon His self-imparting
grace, that the word of God actually comes to indi
vidual men, making them messengers of the divine
will to their fellows, that God speaks to them in modes
and under conditions of His own choice and appoint
ment, that He admits them to communion and converse
with Himself — this is indisputably an axiom of Israel's
faith, and indeed of any supernatural religion 2.
Now, believers in inspiration maintain that in regard
to the Bible there can be apprehended by the spiritual
mind a special action of the Holy Spirit akin to that
which manifests itself in the prophets. This action is
discernible, partly in the providential formation and
preservation of the Scriptures, partly and chiefly in
their intrinsic quality and characteristics. Inspiration

1 Schultz, op. cit. i. 237.
2 Ibid. ii. 118. Cp. Sanday, Bampton Lectures, pp. 124-128.

26 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
implies on the one hand the continuous direction and
over-ruling guidance of the Spirit, acting apparently,
as Dr. Liddon pointed out in his last sermon from
this pulpit, on the principle of selection1, and_ so
controlling the entire process of the Bible's formation,
as might best serve the spiritual interests of man
kind. In regard to this providential action of the
Holy Spirit, Origen makes a far-seeing observation in
his Letter to Africanus. Dealing with the question
of variations in the Hebrew and Septuagint text of the
Old Testament, he appeals boldly to what we might
call a self-evident principle of a revelation of grace.
' Can it be,' he asks, ' that the divine providence,
having given in holy Scriptures material for edification
to all the churches of Christ, was unmindful of those
who had been bought at a price, those for whom
Christ died 2 ? ' Origen evidently means that in
Scripture a divine regard for the spiritual interests of
mankind is abundantly manifested. Certainly the Old
Testament is very far from being the kind of volume
which human ingenuity would have compiled for
religious purposes ; but experience has shown that
nothing less expansive, less full, less varied, less mys
terious, would have satisfied the needs and yearnings
of human nature. Further, the spiritual experience of
Christians warrants the belief that the action of the
Holy Spirit, while it has controlled the formation and
selection of such writings as should best serve the
providential purpose of God, has also protected them
from such defects as might be injurious to that purpose.
An inspired Bible does not mean a book free from
a large admixture of imperfect elements, but it does
mean a book perfectly adapted to fulfil the function it
was intended by God to discharge.
On the other hand, inspiration is primarily a quality
1 See his University Sermon on The Inspiration of Selection, preached
May 25, 1890.
2 Orig. ad Afric. iv. So Aug. finds providential purpose in the ob
scurities of Scripture (de doc. ii. 6).

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM' 27
of the writers or compilers to whom we owe the
several books of Scripture. Men of different types
were moved to write, and enabled for their special
work, by the Holy Spirit, who employed the pro
ducts of their pen in His own way and for His
own purposes1. In considering this matter, however,
we are bound to remember that critical analysis of the
Old Testament books has somewhat altered the con
ditions of the problem. In the case of writings which
have passed through a prolonged literary process, it
is somewhat misleading to speak of the writer as if he
were a single person 2. Waiving this point, however,
let us inquire wherein the inspiration of the biblical
writers consists ? Chiefly it would seem in a gift of
special moral and religious insight3. The inspired
writer is one who is spiritually enlightened. He is
alive to the character, requirement and purpose of the
A 11- Holy. He gives prominence to spiritual truths
and laws. He reads history in the light of his present
spiritual knowledge. He looks upon the world as
God's world ; in history he traces the dealings of God
with various types of character, individual or national.
He reads in the events of the present, a divine com
mentary on the past; in the records of the past he
finds laws of future development. It is indeed signi-
1 Sanday, Bampton Lectures, p. 227 : ' The authority of the word
written was precisely the same as that of the word spoken. ... It was
inherent in the person who wrote and spoke, and was derived from the
special action upon that person of the Spirit of God.' Driver, Serm. on
O. T. Subj. p. 136: 'The divine thought takes shape in the soul of
the prophet, and is presented to us, so to speak, in the garb and imagery
with which he has invested it ; it is expressed in terms which bear the
external marks of his own individuality, and reflect the circumstances
of time and place and other similar conditions, under which it was first
propounded.' 2 Cp. Dalman, Das A. T. ein Wort Gottes, p. 18.
3 Driver, Serm. on 0. T. Subj. pp. 146, 147 : 'We may, I suppose, say
that what we mean by it [inspiration] is an influence which gave to those
who received it a unique and extraordinary spiritual insight, enabling
them thereby, without superseding or suppressing the human faculties,
but rather using them as its instruments, to declare in different degrees,
and in accordance with the needs or circumstances of particular ages or
particular occasions, the mind and purpose of God.'

28 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
ficant that the larger part of the Old Testament books
are ascribed by Jewish tradition to prophets, that is to
men who were regarded as specially assisted by the
Holy Spirit, whether in reading aright the lessons of
national experience, or in divining correctly the pro
vidential course of events in the future. Indeed this
tradition is so far correct that beyond any question
prophetism seems to have been the distinctive element
which made Israel's religion what it was1; and as
a matter of fact nothing was introduced into the canon
which was not believed to be in some sense prophetic 2.
For the prophetic faculty alone could enable the biblical
writers to interpret the true drift and meaning of the
events or experiences which they described. In this
lies the present importance of their work. Without
being either perfect in form or free from error, the
writings of Old Testament sages and historians give
us such a representation of the mighty works and
gracious revelations of God as can best minister to
the education of faith in every age. For under the
guidance of the Holy Spirit, Hebrew literature took
a direction, and attained to a height, peculiar to itself.
' Just as we have here a nation,' says Ewald, ' wholly-
different from any other elsewhere upon earth, so we
have also a literature shaped and fashioned under
a spirit, and thence also with results, wholly different
from those of foreign or other Semitic nations,' and
this in spite of the fact that, ' in external literary forms
Israel followed the old models of earlier Semitic
culture 3.'
The above discussion of the term ' inspiration ' will
suffice to make clear the standpoint presupposed in
1 Cp. J. Darmesteter, Les Prophetes d' Israel, p. 210 ; Driver, Serm. on
0. T. Subj. p. 101 ; Meinhold, fesus und das A. T. pp. 103, 104.
2 Cp. Josephus, c. Apion. i. 8 ; Girdlestone, The Foundations of the
Bible, p. 17 ; Sanday, Bampton Lectures, p. 254. The Jews appear to
have supposed ' that books composed during the prevalence of Prophecy
were inspired in the strict and true sense, and that those composed after
the cessation of Prophecy were not.'
3 Revelation, its Nature and Record, p. 308.

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM'

29

the following lectures. A merely mechanical theory
of inspiration is untenable for this reason amongst
others, that it ignores the possibility of degrees in
inspiration ; nor does it adequately recognize God's
providential action in regard to the sacred literature
of other religions 1. Further, the history of the
canon is instructive as reminding us that the relative
value of the different books contained in the Old
Testament varies somewhat widely 2. The very fact
that there was hesitation in reference to the inclu
sion of several disputed books is sufficient evidence
that the precise spiritual function of a particular
writing might not always be obvious or certain, and
in any case if the true bearing and import of the
divine message in each book is to be correctly under
stood, it can only be by patient effort to enter into the
historical conditions under which it was produced, and
the state of mind or culture to which it was addressed.
We arrive then at a true conception of inspira
tion inductively by careful study of the Bible itself.
The term ' inspiration ' includes on the one hand
the providential superintendence or guidance which
controlled the formation of the canon, on the other
that supernatural influence which heightened the
faculties, or directed the genius, of the biblical
writers. Inspiration has been admirably described as
' an influence within the soul, divine and supernatural,
1 Cp. Sanday, Bampton Lectures, pp. 398 foil. Observe, the true con
ception of inspiration does not require us to regard the inspiration of
non-Israelites as impossible or imaginary. What distinguishes the biblical
writers is the character of their knowledge of God and their peculiar
insight into His requirement of man. Schultz, i. 255, points out that in
its earlier parts, the Old Testament itself ' goes upon the supposition that
even a Balaam is inspired by the true God, and that his curse or blessing
takes effect (Num. xxii. 6 ; xxiii. 5 ; xxiv. 3 f. Cp. Mic. vi. 5) ; that Moses
has a certain resemblance to the wise men and the sorcerers of Egypt ;
that even heathen kings have dreams of a truly divine significance (Gen.
xx. 6 ; xl. 5 f. ; xii. I, 25, 28) ; that the prophets of the Philistines prophesy
truly (1 Sam. vi. 2 f.) ; in a word, that God speaks even beyond the bounds
of Israel,' &c.
2 Sanday, op. cit. p. 259 : 'Just as there is a descending scale within
the canon, there is an ascending scale outside it.' Cp. Driver, Serm. on
O. T. Subj. p. 153.

3o THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
working through all the writers in one organizing
method, making of the many one, by all one book,
the book of God, the book for man, divine and human
in all its parts ; having the same relation to all other
books that the person of the Son of God has to all
other men, and that the Church of the living God has
to all other institutions V That this influence works
mainly in the direction of moral illumination is the
view of many ancient Christian thinkers on this
subject. Thus while Tatian and Justin Martyr lay
stress upon the affinity in character, which makes
men suitable instruments of the divine Spirit2, Origen
declares that the Holy Spirit ' enlightened the ministers
of truth, the apostles and prophets, to understand the
mysteries of those things or causes which take place
or act among men or concerning men 3.' ' By the
contact of the Holy Spirit with their soul,' he else
where says, ' they became more clear-sighted in their
faculties, and more lustrous in their souls V
This view of inspiration is to be distinguished
from the popular notions, which undoubtedly influenced
other ancient writers. There were some who failed
to discriminate between inspiration in the moral sense
described above and the passive reception of a divine
afflatus. This latter idea was characteristic of Greek
' mantic ' ; it exercised considerable influence upon the
mind of Philo, and of those fathers who were penetrated
by Hellenic modes of thought5. Such a conception,
1 From a sermon quoted by Briggs, Biblical Study, p. 161.
2 See Tatian, c. Graecos, §§ 13, 29 (quoted by Westcott, Introd. to
the Study of the Gospels, p. 424). Cp. Justin, Cohort. 8, and Dial. c.
Tryph. 7.
3 de Princip. iv. 14.
C. Cels. vii. 4 dtopanKoiTepoi rov vovv Kal Tr)v ^n/xV" Xa^Hroorepoi.
5 Cp. Sanday, Bampton Lectures, p. 75. Philo and apparently Josephus
seem to have considered inspiration to consist in a species of frenzy or
ecstasy, an actual suspension of the reasoning faculties in man, so that he
was simply a passive instrument or mouthpiece of the divine Spirit
Substantially the same view was held by some ecclesiastical writers e g
Athenagoras, Leg. pro Chr. § 9 ; Hippol. de Anlichr. ii. ; Clem. Alex
Protrept. 1. 5 ; &c. See generally passages quoted by Westcott in his
essay on ' The primitive doctrine of inspiration '. (Introd. to the Study of
the Gospels, pp. 417 foil.). J J

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM' 31
however, must obviously be corrected by investigation
of the Old Testament itself. There is nowhere a
trace that the writers of the historical books for
example were conscious of being supernaturally in
formed of facts ascertainable by ordinary means, or
of not enjoying entire freedom and power of inde
pendent judgment in their selection and arrangement
of materials. They appear simply to use the historical
sources open to them in their own way, and they
nowhere advance any claim to have worked in a
fashion different from that of ordinary profane writers.
We may go further, and maintain that the very idea
of a ' special revelation ' of past facts, e. g. the process
of creation, or the origins of tribal history, is con
tradicted by analogy. Revelation in no case under
takes the task of imparting information in regard to
the events of past history. It ever proclaims God's
will and requirement in the present, and to that end
interprets the past or unveils the future \ The
popular idea that a fact, because it stands in Scripture,
is strictly- historical atnd infallibly true results from
an untenable theory as to the true meaning and
purpose of inspiration and implies a real confusion
of thought. The question at issue is, What is the
nature of that inerrancy which all Christians alike
ascribe to Scripture, when they acknowledge that it
is a divine book ? For on this point the teaching of
Jesus Christ and the experience of Christendom may
suffice to guide us2. In the Old Testament He, who
afterwards spake to us by a Son, spake beforehand by
the mouth of prophets in many parts and many fashions.
Modern research, however, is throwing new and startling
light on the modus operandi actually followed by the
Holy Spirit in His self-communication to man, and in
1 This is well stated by A. Kohler, Uber Berechtigung der Kritik des
Alten Testamentes, p. 14.
2 Orig. de Princ. iv. 9 maintains \a\ avdpamav eivai ovyypap.paTa tcis
Upas fiifiXovs, ttXX' e£ imirvoias toO ayiov nvevpjiTos PovXrjpart tov irarpbs ra>v
o\av Sia 'Iijo-oO XpioroO Tavras avaysypa,<j>6ai Kal els rjjias i\rj\v8ivai.

32

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.

His superintendence of the process by which a sacred
literature was gradually formed. The consequence is
that the best we can do is to describe in general and
somewhat vague terms what we mean by inspiration ;
it would be perilous to attempt any formal definition.
We should certainly define at the expense of over
looking some vital element of divine truth. Inspira
tion is our mode of denoting the influence of a Spirit
whose operation is manifest in two or even three
distinct but closely related spheres. We may trace
that operation, first, in the personality of those great
religious leaders whose ministry or testimony was
employed as a medium of divine revelation; secondly,
in the community whose spiritual life, rather than that
of single individuals, is reflected in such great literary
products as the Psalter ; thirdly, in the providentially
guided action of those who so compiled, edited, and
collected the records of revelation, as to impress on
the total product of their labours a peculiar uniformity
of tone and character1. All these worketh that one
and the self-same Spirit, dividing to every man severally
as he will'1.

III.
There is yet another subject in regard to which
some preliminary explanation is desirable, namely,
the extent to which the results of historical criticism
are to be taken for granted in the following lectures.
There is, however, the less need for any lengthened
statement because it has been a constant practice with
Bampton lecturers to presuppose the labours of their
predecessors. Briefly stated, the position provisionally
accepted in these lectures is one of substantial agree
ment with the cautious and well-considered summary
of Prof. Sanday in the second and third of his lectures
1 Cp. Dalman, Das Alte Testament ein Wort Gottes, p. 19.
2 1 Cor. xii. 11.

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM'

33

on Inspiration. He has with characteristic fairness
and clearness stated what may be taken as the
established results of nearly 150 years' investigation
of the Old Testament a.
It seems scarcely necessary to give any complete
account of those results. Broadly speaking, the out
come of historical criticism has been a modification
of the traditional view respecting the order of the
successive stages in Israel's religious development. It
has been rendered most probable and even morally
certain that the active ministry of the prophets
preceded the discipline of the law, at least in its
completed form. ' The great change of perspective,'
says a French writer, ' which recent criticism intro
duces in the sacred history is that it assigns the
central place in this history no longer to Moses on
Sinai, but to the choir of the prophets 2-' This is
not in reality such a revolutionary statement as might
appear at first sight, for on the one hand the activity
of the prophets certainly presupposes the stage of
Mosaism, that term being carefully guarded so as
to imply not a fully developed system of ritual
and law, but an historical movement that laid the
foundations of a divinely organized polity and sug
gested the ideas, religious and moral, by -which that
polity was afterwards moulded 3 : an element of law
was thus present as a working factor in Israel's pro
gress from the time of Moses. On the other hand,
Moses himself is regarded by the prophets as one of
their number 4, nor can there be any question that
he is the most distinguished figure in that long line
of inspired men who appeared at the turning-points
1 See especially Sanday, Bampton Lectures, pp. 116-121, 172 foil. For
a sketch of the progress of criticism in relation to the Pentateuch, see
Delitzsch, New Commentary on Genesis, introd.
2 Darmesteter, Les Prophhtes d' Israel, p. 11.
3 Mosaism would be based on the ' Book of the Covenant ' and perhaps
the ' Decalogue.' Prophetism developed Mosaism on its ethical side.
Judaism was a period of education and discipline in which sacrifice was
almost the sum total of obedience. Cp. A. B. Bruce, Apologetics, p. 170.
* See Hos. xii. 13 ; cp. Deut. xviii. 15.
D

34

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.

of Hebrew history as representatives and exponents
of a higher religion than that of their contemporaries.
The work of the prophets, then, preceded the prolonged
and strict discipline of the Pentateuchal law. At the
same time, the history of the canon justifies us in
continuing to speak of ' the law and the prophets '
so long as we are referring not to the order of
historical appearance, but to those great divisions of
the Hebrew Scriptures which are respectively known
by these titles, and which were successively compiled
in their present shape during and after the Exile.
The completed Pentateuchal law may still be re
garded as a principal factor in Israel's spiritual
discipline — only it was an instrument employed in
a manner, and at a stage of the history, other than
was once supposed J. The prophets are still to be
reverenced as the great leaders of religion who, in
due succession, laboured to keep alive in Israel the
light of the Lord. It is a reassuring circumstance
that, in regard to the history and work of the great
Hebrew prophets, there is substantial accord between
the defenders of the Hebrew tradition and the
adherents of the higher criticism 2- But the compi
lation and redaction of their oracles was the work
of a later age than that in which the prophets
themselves flourished, and there is good ground for
thinking that some anonymous pieces were inserted
in the volume of their collected works and assigned
to different great names, in accordance with a well-
known literary practice of the time. It might also
seem that the collected record of prophetic teaching
acted more powerfully on a later age than the living
1 Robertson Smith, O. T. in f. C. p. 310: 'The time when [the law]
became God's word, i.e. became a divinely sanctioned means for checking
the rebellion of the Israelites and keeping them as close to spiritual
religion as their imperfect understanding and hard hearts permitted, was
subsequent to the work of the prophets. As a matter of historical fact
the law continues the work of the prophets, and great part of the law was
not yet known to the prophets as God's word.' Cp. Hunter, After the
Exile, part i. pp. 273 foil.
2 Cp. Darmesteter, Les ProphUes d' Israel, p. 121.

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM'

35

voice of the prophets had acted on their own con
temporaries. To conclude, we have here a fixed point
which is amply confirmed by an investigation of the Old
Testament itself: the work of the prophets preceded
the discipline of the completed law. In some shape
or other this proposition is admitted even by opponents
of the higher criticism. No person capable of judging
can refuse to recognize the fact that the levitical
code only became a powerful and regulative influence
in Israel's national life after the return from Babylon.
Nor need we find any difficulty in supposing that
prophetism was followed by a stage relatively lower —
that of law. The question however is not whether
the legal stage was inferior to the prophetic, but
whether or not it served an indispensable purpose
in the religious education of Israel *.
Literary criticism and analysis has also rendered
necessary a new view as to the composition of the
Old Testament documents. In particular it has
shown with unquestionable clearness and force that
there are at least three main strata of laws incorpo
rated in the Pentateuch, strata which are not all
of one age, but ' correspond to three stages in
the development of Israel's institutions,' stages still
clearly recognizable in the narrative of the historical
books 2. It is important, however, that we should not

1 See the suggestive remarks of Dr. Bruce, Apologetics, p. 262.
Robertson Smith, O. T. in f. C. p. 388. These strata of laws are —
(1) The first legislation, contained in the so-called ' Book of the Cove
nant' (Exod. xxi-xxiii), which, roughly speaking, belongs to the age of
Moses himself.
(2) The law of Deuteronomy (Deut. xii-xxvij, which reproduces but
expands the first legislation.
(3) The levitical legislation, which includes the ancient 'Law of holiness'
(Lev. xvii-xxvi) and represents the usage of the priests as codified and
supplemented during and after the exile in Babylon.
A careful comparison of these three bodies of law makes it evident that
they belong to different periods of Hebrew history ; on one point there is
practical unanimity, viz. that the book of the law discovered during the
eighteenth year of Josiah's reign (621) in the temple at Jerusalem, was
none other than the Deuteronomic law (cp. Cornill, Einleitung in das
A. T. § 9 ; Ryle, Canon of the O. T. chap. ii.). At any rate the influence
D 2

36 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
exaggerate the significance of this and other similar
discoveries. The fact that a continuous divine reve
lation was made to the Hebrew people remains
unaffected by inquiry into the nature and origin of
the records which embody either the history or the
spiritual products of that revelation. _ At what period
these records were severally committed to writing,
out of what materials they were compiled, under
what conditions they were produced and reached
their present shape — all these are matters of secondary
importance l. To the same category belong most
questions of authorship. It will probably never be
precisely settled how much of the great literary or
legislative creations which tradition assigns to Moses,
David, Solomon, Isaiah, or Zechariah, can be truly
attributed to them. It is not vitally important that
we should ever attain to definite knowledge on such
points, and certainly it is a great mistake to overrate
the need of exact information in regard to matters
which do not affect the substance of revelation. At
any rate a Christian apologist may conscientiously
claim the right to retain a perfectly open mind on the
purely literary questions that may from time to time
be under discussion among experts in criticism.
I have given some bare illustrations of the changes
which our present knowledge involves in current
conceptions of the Old Testament. But in order to
anticipate objections it is necessary to add two or
three observations bearing upon the whole subject
of criticism.
First, the results of the higher criticism commend
themselves to students of the Old Testament on broad
grounds of historical probability and consistency2.
of the book of Deuteronomy on the course of the history and on the
historical books begins at that point of time.
1 Cp. Westcott, The Ep. to the Hebrews, p. 493.
2 Robertson Smith, O. T. in f. C. p. 234. ' The results [of Old Testa
ment criticism] are broad and intelligible, and possess that evidence of
historical consistency on which the results of special scholarship are
habitually accepted by the mass of intelligent men in other branches of
historical inquiry.' Cp. Sanday, Bampton Lectures, p. 414.

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM'

37

As a branch of historical science, biblical criticism
concerns itself with the interpretation of facts which
lie open to the observation of every attentive reader
of Scripture. This task has been pressed upon scholars
partly by the results of mere literary analysis of the
Old Testament, and partly by the accessions to our
knowledge which have been gained in departments
directly or indirectly illustrative of Hebrew life and
religion, in the special fields covered by archaeological
and ethnographical research, or by the comparative
study of religions. The critical method of dealing
with Hebrew history is that of comparing the actuad
working institutions described or implied in the historical
books, with those contained in the legal parts of the
Pentateuch ; its aim is to reconstruct the story of Israel's
development in accordance with all the available
evidence. Now in regard to this reconstruction of
the history, it is obvious that to a non-expert that
theory will ultimately commend itself which supplies
the most satisfactory and comprehensive explanation*
of the divergent phenomena 1. Attempts to defend
the traditional view of Israel's history are too often
entirely unsatisfying. The detailed and sometimes
forced interpretation of innumerable points of difficulty
cannot be regarded as an adequate answer to a massive
and consistent argument based on historical facts and
supported by analogy. We have seen that the most
noticeable point in which criticism revises the tradi
tional view of the Old Testament is the relative
position to be assigned to the prophets and the law.
According to the critical view the Pentateuch embodies
the legal code not of Mosaism properly speaking, but
of post-exilic Judaism. In proof of this position it is
pointed out that in the historical books we find a state
of things prevailing which strikes at the very root of
the full-blown levitical system 2. For while the
1 Cp. Sanday, op. cit. p. 215.
2 See Robertson Smith, 0. T. inf. C. pp. 271, 317.

38 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
levitical law rigidly restricts sacrificial worship to
a single central altar and shrine, the custom practised
and sanctioned till a late period in the history of the
divided kingdom is freedom of sacrifice. It appears
in fact, that the central principle of the Pentateuchal
legislation was either unknown or ignored before the
age of Josiah. It has been shown, with what seems to
many unanswerable force, that the centralization of
worship and its limitation to a single sanctuary was
a result only gradually achieved; that during the
period previous to the erection of Solomon's temple
a totally opposite state of things prevailed, which was
apparently sanctioned by judges, kings, priests, and
prophets alike ; that the tendency towards limitation
was encouraged by the great prophets of the eighth
century, who perceived and denounced the abuses
which had grown up in connexion with the popular
cultus ; that a doubtful attempt was made by Hezekiah,
and a somewhat more successful effort by Josiah, to
abolish the local sacrificial worship, but that until
Josiah's reign scarcely a trace can be discovered of
the observance in fact of the Deuteronomic law by
which sacrifice was restricted to a central sanctuary x.
In this case the references found in the historical
books to a centralized worship do not appear to be
nearly sufficient to outweigh the argument drawn
from silence and from plain facts which justifies the
critical theory 2. It is plain indeed that the general
conception of Israel's previous history formed by the
compilers of the historical books does not entirely
correspond with the conclusions suggested by the
narrative itself; and that we have to deal not merely
1 Wellhausen, Prolegomena to the History of Israel (Eng. Tr.), ch. i.
2 The traditional theory is well stated by Dr. Robertson Smith, O. T.
inf. C. pp. 231 foil. Its weakness is (1) that 'the standard which it
applies to the history of Israel is not that of contemporary historical
records ' ; (2) ' the account which it gives of the work of the prophets is
not consistent with the work of the prophets themselves ' ; (3) in general,
there is a serious discrepancy between the traditional view of the Penta
teuch and the evidence of the historical books in regard to the freedom
of sacrifice allowed by men like Samuel, David, and Elijah.

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM'

39

with a great mass of important historical materials in
the Old Testament, but with theories and interpre
tations of history which themselves demand close and
reverent attention, but must not be supposed to fore
close independent scientific investigation of recorded
facts. But further, in regard to the literary composition of
the Old Testament writings, and especially of the
legal and historical portions, the critical view falls in
with the analogy presented by the phenomena of other
ancient literatures. ' Modern research,' we are told by
a very candid friend of the higher criticism, ' has
shown that a considerable part of the most ancient
literature of all nations was of composite origin, more
especially when it was of a historical or a religious
character. Older documents were incorporated into it,
with only so much change as to allow them to be
fitted together into a continuous story, or to reflect the
point of view, ethical, political, or religious, of the later
compiler. The most ancient books that have come
clown to us are, with few exceptions, essentially com
pilations 1.' Accordingly if the literary analysis of the
Old Testament points to such phenomena as these :
gradual accretions added to the national annals,
frequent assumption that institutions of comparatively
late date go back to an earlier age, groups of writings
of different style and date connected with certain
historic names, the uniform ascription of laws to a
primitive legislator — we are only required to recognize
in Hebrew literature the operation of the ordinary laws
observable in that of other ancient nations.
Speaking broadly, the modern reconstruction of the
history can justify itself on the one hand by its general
accordance with the results of a purely literary analysis
of the Old Testament, since the conception which
historical criticism has formed of the general course of
1 Prof. Sayce, The Higher Criticism and the Monuments, p. 3. See
a good description of the phenomena common in secular writings of
antiquity in Sanday, The Oracles of God, pp. 27, 28.

40 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
Israel's history is one that explains almost innumerable
discrepancies and confusions which the traditional view
left unsolved, or dealt with in a superficial and unsatis
factory manner. On the other hand, it harmonizes
with the knowledge acquired in other branches of
scientific research \ Further, it is worth while to note,
that the admissions even of conservative writers on
Old Testament subjects occasionally suggest inferences
more far-reaching than those actually put forward, by
their authors2- We may welcome these admissions
as indicating a tendency among Christian scholars
towards cautious acceptance of at least the main
positions of the critical theory, a theory which is
favoured not only by a mass of positive and negative
evidence, but also by a striking degree of a priori
probability 3.
Secondly, it must be frankly admitted that the
acceptance of the higher criticism has been hindered,
not only by the mistaken fears and a priori prejudices
of believing Christians, but also by the undisguised
hostility to supernatural religion with which con
spicuous foreign critics have conducted the investiga
tion of Old Testament subjects. Critical theories have
been occasionally advanced in the interests of avowed
1 The general study of history throws light not merely on the formation
of the Old Testament books, but on the character of their contents. In
all early history there is a stage of myth, and a stage of prehistoric
legend or saga. ' I hold,' wrote the late Prof. Freeman, ' and I see nothing
in our formularies to hinder me from holding — that a great part of the
early Hebrew history, as of all other history, is simply legendary. I never
read any German books on these matters at all, but came to the con
clusion simply from the analogies supplied by my own historical studies.'
(Life and Letters of E. A. Freeman, by W. R. W. Stephens, B.D., vol. i.
P- 345-)
2 See for instance Girdlestone, The Foundations of the Bible, p. 42 (on
the work of the Chronicler) ; pp. 138, 139 (on the ideal character of the
Mosaic legislation) ; p. 193 ('concessions and convictions ').
3 For example, the late codification of the Priestly code (P) falls in with
the evidence that among the Semitic tribes ritual and ceremonial were
generally a matter of unwritten usage and traditional practice (O. T. inf. C.
p. 332) ; it also explains the object of Ezekiel's Torah (Ezek. xl-xlviii),
and its relation to the levitical legislation ; moreover, it falls in with all
that we know from other sources of the temper of the Jewish people after
its return from exile. Cf. Bruce, Apologetics, pp. 264-266.

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM'

4i

naturalism ; they have often been dictated by disbelief
in the possibility of miracle. Further, distrust has
naturally been excited by the arrogance, the patronizing
temper, the dogmatism, the overweening confidence of
tone, displayed by some critics. These faults are noticed
by a brilliant French writer in a noteworthy passage
which many Old Testament students would endorse.
Speaking specially of German criticism, M. Darmesteter
says, ' It has generally been wanting in flexibility and
moderation. It has insisted upon knowing everything,
explaining everything, precisely determining every
thing. It has claimed to arrive at the primal elements
of formations which have been repeatedly modified
and of which we have only the remains. It has intro
duced into the work of reconstruction, which ought to
sacrifice facts that are indifferent or devoid of historical
significance, the scruples of an analytic method which
has no right to ignore or neglect anything. Hence
complicated and obscure theories, provided with odd
corners in which all the details may be sheltered, and
which leave the mind little opening or leisure to
observe the tendency of facts and the general currents
of history1.' Indeed, a conspicuous fault of the critical
temper is its disinclination to make allowance for the
immense range of our ignorance, and for the con
sequent difficulty of attaining completeness and pre
cision beyond a limited sphere 2. Further, we cannot
fail to notice a certain want of spiritual sympathy with
the age and writers of the documents which are from
time to time under discussion, yet such sympathy is
absolutely necessary if we are to avoid shallowness
and presumption in estimating the evidence3. It is
1 Les Prophetes d'Lsrael, pp. 4, 5. The same writer speaks severely of
rationalism in the sphere of criticism. ' Le rationalisme, cet epouvantail
de l'orthodoxie, est une chose bien differente de l'esprit historique qui seul
est fecond, et auquel il est peut-etre plus contraire que la critique croyante.'
2 Cp. Sanday, Oracles of God, p. 74.
3 Cp. Sayce, op. cit. pp. 5, 15. Girdlestone, op. cit. pp. 195, 196, says:
' They (critics) write as if they expect everything to be brought up to the
critical style of the present century, regardless alike of the age of the books,

42 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
the want of it which formerly led some critics to cast
imputations on the moral probity of the Old Testament
writers. While however we allow that there was much which
seemed to justify the uncompromising hostility with
which Christian men of the last generation met the
advance of criticism, we must in fairness acknow
ledge much fault on our own side r : much slowness of
heart, much want of faith and undue timidity, much
unreasoning prejudice, much disproportioned and mis
directed zeal, much unwillingness to take trouble, much
readiness to explain away unwelcome facts, whereas
' explaining away is a process which has no place in
historical inquiry 2.' We have failed to do justice to
the laborious and patient thoroughness, the exact and
profound erudition, the sagacious insight of the great
scholars of Germany. We have seldom made due
allowance for the immense difficulties of their self-
imposed task, we have exaggerated the deficiencies of
their method and the insecurity of its results3. If
however in the past suspicion and dislike have been
carried too far, there are welcome indications that such
a temper is gradually disappearing, and that Christians
are learning to distinguish more accurately between
what is essential and what is non-essential to their
faith 4. And if it should be objected that we of this
of the genius of the people, and of the spiritual intent of the writers.' Cp.
Robertson Smith, 0. T. in f. C. p. 329.
1 For a frank admission of faults on the traditional side see Girdlestone
op. cit. p. 196.
'' Robertson Smith, O. T. in f. C. p. 421.
3 As Darmesteter justly remarks (Les Prophites d' Israel, p. 232) •
' Ine"galites d'erudition et t<6merites de m&hode sont le prix necessaire
dont se paye toute synthese surtout au debut de la science. Ces syntheses
prematurees . . . n'en sont pas moins d'incomparables instruments de
progres,' &c.
4 The following passage from one of Professor Freeman's letters is
interesting in this connexion : —
' It seems to me that the Old Testament history falls into the hands of
two sets of people. There is one that thinks itself bound to defend every
thing at all hazards— or, what is worse, to put something out of their own
heads instead of what is really in the book. And there is another set who take
a nasty pleasure in picking every hole they can : the small German critic

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM'

43

generation are unfaithful to the traditions of those
venerated teachers in whose place we are allowed to
stand, we can but reply that wisdom is justified of all
her children. We whose training has been in many
respects diverse from theirs, whose difficulties and
responsibilities are altogether different, cannot fairly
plead their example as an excuse for evading the task
specially assigned to us, or for refusing to consider the
claims of that which presents itself to us in the name
of truth. It is not impatience, or love of novelty, or
self-confidence, or a mere wish to be abreast of recent
thought that has led to the changed attitude of
younger men ; it is the desire to follow humbly and
honestly the guidance of the Spirit of Truth. There
comes a time when suspense of judgment, indefinitely
prolonged, may become a breach of trust or at least
a failure in courage. We should be untrue to the high
traditions of Christian theology were we simply to
reject the conclusions of criticism on the ground either
that they conflict with private preconceptions, or that
they occasionally emanate from quarters hostile to the
Christian Faith. For while it is scarcely necessary to
point out that a believer in the Incarnation will not
share those antecedent objections to the supernatural,
or those a priori theories in regard to the origin and
growth of religious ideas, which have doubtless biassed
some continental critics in their discussion of Old
Testament problems, it is reassuring to remind our
selves of at least one conspicuous instance in which
a great conception bearing vitally on religion reached
us from a non-Christian source, I mean the idea of
evolution. Christians have welcomed that idea ; it
has profoundly modified and enriched our knowledge
of the creative methods employed by Almighty God,
and of His present relation to the universe. Yet this
idea at first sight appeared to threaten cherished
or rather guesser, grown smaller and nastier because he thinks it fine.
From neither of them will you ever get truth.' (Life and Letters, &c,
vol. ii. p. 412.)

44

THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.

Christian beliefs. Accordingly we have abundant
reason for anticipating that the critical sagacity which
for nearly a century and a half has been devoted to
the literature of the Old Testament, will in the long
run enlarge our knowledge of the ways of God, and
promote His glory; we may therefore appropriate all
that true criticism has to teach us with the confidence
and trustfulness of those who believe that All things
are theirs. Since Christian faith has welcomed the
theory of development in nature, it has no reason to
fear an evolutionary account of Hebrew religion1.
Once more, if we are told that the time has not
really arrived for a verdict on the results of the critical
movement and that nothing can be more foolish and
short-sighted than premature concessions, we can only
be guided by the opinion of experts in regard to the
actual point which Old Testament inquiries have
reached. Many competent authorities think that we
have now entered on the period of reconstruction 2.
This does not mean that the time has arrived for
pronouncing a comprehensive and final judgment on
the labours of criticism. We must decline altogether
to be deeply committed on critical questions ; we may
even hold that some points which are now confidently
assumed to be settled beyond dispute are either
insoluble, or still highly uncertain. But it is main
tained, and as it seems to me with justice, that certain
critical conclusions are practically established which,
even on the lowest estimate of them, profoundly
modify the traditional view of the Old Testament.
Although in the matter of minor details we may regard
these conclusions as tentative and provisional, we must
not exaggerate the importance of such divergences of
1 Cp. Bruce, Apologetics, p. 173.
2 e.g. Prof. Sayce, The Higher Criticism, &c.,p. 24. Robertson Smith,
O. T. inf. C. p. 16 : ' The true critic has for his business, not to destroy
but to build up. The critic is an interpreter, but one who has a larger
view of his task than the man of mere grammars and dictionaries— one
who is not content to reproduce the words of his author, but strives to
enter into sympathy with his thoughts, and to understand the thoughts as
part of the life of the thinker and his time.'

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM' 45
opinion on minor points as may exist among critics at
the present time. The question is whether there is
not a solid body of ascertained facts on which they are
substantially agreed l. Even if we maintain that some
critical verdicts need to be revised or altogether
rejected, or that the preconceptions on which they are
based are arbitrary and untenable, yet the right and
duty of scholars to inquire into the history of the Old
Testament literature cannot be gainsaid. Erroneous
criticism cannot be corrected by dogmatic theology,
but only by a better, more searching, and less preju
diced criticism 2. We must be careful not to give occa
sion for the reproach that the maintenance of a tradition
is of more consequence to us than the acceptance of the
results of scientific inquiry. Attempts to dispute the
importance, or minimize the significance of the higher
criticism are no longer of any avail, but rather do injury
to the cause of Christian truth, inasmuch as they excite
the justifiable suspicion that we Churchmen have not
the courage or the moral force to look facts fairly in
the face. It is right to raise the question whether our
general unwillingness to accept critical conclusions is
due to an honest disbelief in their validity, or whether
it results from indolent dislike of taking trouble, from
, a narrow and inadequate theory of inspiration, or from
a tendency to force the Bible into a false and untenable
position — ' a position perilous to its authority, un
warranted by its own statements, and, worst of all, in
a great measure obscuring the real power and beauty
of its teaching 3.'
1 Sanday, Bampton Lectures, p. 120: 'We may reasonably say that
what they [the results of criticism] offer to us is a minimum which under
no circumstances is capable of being reduced much further, and that the
future is likely to yield data which are more, and not less, favourable to
conclusions such as those adopted in these lectures.' Cp. Cheyne, Aids to
the Devout Study of Criticism, p. 172.
2 Cp. Kdhler, op. cit. p. 68. Delitzsch, New Commentary on Genesis,
vol. i. p. 54, observes : ' Believing investigation of Scripture will not subdue
this nuisance of critical analysis unless it wrests the weapon from its
adversary's hand, and actually shows that analysis can be exercised with
out thereby trampling under foot respect for Holy Scripture.'
3 J. Paterson Smyth, How God Inspired the Bible, pp. 15, 16.

46 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.

IV.
Having now cleared the ground by a definite state
ment of the presuppositions with which we approach
our subject, I shall endeavour in the following lectures
to illustrate the positive functions which the Old
Testament, viewed in the light of modern research,
is intended to fulfil in the Christian Church. It may
be useful to illustrate the way in which a servant and
disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ may still continue
to use the Old Testament, even though inevitable
changes have passed over his conception of its origin,
structure and character. I cannot, however, conclude
the present lecture without a brief consideration of two
factors which determine the true use of Scripture
and specially of the Old Testament : first, the authority
of our Lord Jesus Christ; and secondly, the collective
experience of the Christian Church.
i. Nothing is more certain to a devout Christian
than the fact that the Old Testament comes to us
solemnly commended by the express authority of the
Lord Jesus Christ. Hence the danger of ignoring
and misunderstanding its special teaching, or of omit
ting to devote to it honest, reverent, and intelligent
study. But our study must be discriminating. We must
draw a careful distinction between the inspired teaching
of the Old Testament in regard to divine and spiritual
things, and those many matters contained in it which
fall within the sphere of natural knowledge. Christ
did not come into the world to teach history or science,
but to make sinful men children of God and heirs of
eternal life. How carefully He warns us in the
Gospels that there are tasks and functions the fulfil
ment of which formed no part of His mission. I am
not come to call the righteous. I came not to judge the
world, but to save the world. I came not to do mine

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM'

47

own will. Man, who made me a judge or a divider over
you1 ? It was surely not the purpose of His coming
to teach us the exact course of Israel's history, or the
origin and nature of the sacred books which recorded
it, but rather to point men to the sources from which
they might learn necessary truth about the nature and
character of God, His requirement of man and His
purpose for the world. Search the Scriptures, He
said to the Jews ; for in them ye think ye have eternal
life2. Considering, however, that both Christ and His
Apostles represent Israel's history as a preparation
for His coming, and refer to the Old Testament as
God's express word concerning His previous dealings
with humanity, a Christian cannot be satisfied with
any representation of the history which denies that it
was throughout its whole course a continuous prepara
tion for the coming of Christ. At the same time he
will ever bear in mind that the Incarnation completed
the self-revelation of God which, in divers parts and
in divers manners, had been communicated to mankind
from the first. He will remember that our Lord
nowhere claims for the Old Testament that it is an
infallible authority in regard to such points as the
course of primitive history or of Israel's national de
velopment. To grasp correctly and present adequately
the actual incidents of a long historical movement
falls within the sphere of men's natural faculties, and
is a proper subject of scientific investigation according
to the recognized laws of historical research 3, and
consequently any appeal to Christ's authority on such
points is dangerous in so far as it mistakes the
true purpose of His coming. He came to reveal
1 St. Matt. ix. 13 ; St. John xii. 47 and vi. 38 ; St. Luke xii. 14.
2 St. John v. 39. ..
3 Cp. Kohler, Uber Berechtigung der Kritik des A. T. pp. 24, 25.
Valeton, Christus und das A. T. p. 27, speaking of the appeal to Christ's
authority on points of scientific or historical research, well remarks : ' Es
ware ein wenigstens teilweises Obertragen seiner Bedeutung von dem
Gebiete, wo sich alles dreht um Leben, Errettung, und Seligkeit, auf ein
ganz anderes und fur diese Dinge neutrales Gebiet, wo bloss Fragen
wissenschaftlicher Art verhandelt werden.'

48 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
God to men, and He points to the Old Testament
Scriptures as the source whence an adequate, if not
an altogether perfect, knowledge of God and of His
kingdom may be derived. And we shall find that
criticism in no way impairs this function of the ancient
Scriptures. We approach them as of old, only with
a heightened consciousness of the divine operation
which has brought the Old Testament into its present
and final form. That form has been reached under
the providential guidance of One who foresaw our
circumstances, and who so controlled the tongue of
the seer, the imagination of the poet, and the pen
of the chronicler, that their utterances possess an
abiding and progressive significance, speaking with
fresh meaning and power to each successive generation
of God's children. We must not lose in any literary or
scientific investigations the characteristic Christian
spirit. We may be keenly interested in the researches
of critics ; we may ourselves approach the Old Testa
ment as students of literature, as philologists, as
historians, as linguists, as archaeologists ; but, after all,
the main interest must not, cannot, be merely scientific
or technical ; it must be ethical and spiritual. The
distinctively Christian temper is that which approaches
the Bible as the record of a real and continuous
revelation of God — His mind, His character, His moral
requirement, His disciplinary dealings with mankind.
We need to place ourselves on a level with believing
students of all ages who, apart from the accidental
circumstance that their critical knowledge or their
exegetical methods were less perfect than ours, do
nevertheless set before us an example of the true
spirit in which Scripture should be approached and
used. They do not allow personal tastes or predi
lections to blind them to the real purpose of Scripture.
They do not suffer any subordinate interest to interfere
with the primary object of biblical study, which is to
make us mise unto salvation 1, to teach us about man
1 2 Tim. iii. 15.

¦ i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM' 49
and his need of Christ, about God and His purpose
for humanity, about the conditions of acceptable wor
ship and the attainment of perfect character.
2.^ It remains to estimate briefly the importance of
Christian experience. It might be asked why Christian
faith is more or less independent of critical contro
versies in regard to the Old Testament ? The answer
is because the Bible is *a book of experimental
religion1'; it depicts in each of its various stages the
history of an actual friendship between God and man.
The most potent factor in the formation of the canon
was undoubtedly religious experience. The Old
Testament books gained their authority and their
place in the sacred library because, as a thoughtful
critic has said, ' they commended themselves in
practice to the experience of the Old Testament
Church and the spiritual discernment of the godly
in Israel2.' The Mosaic dispensation did, as a
matter of fact, educate in devout Israelites a certain
faculty of spiritual insight ; it produced a high
level of religious knowledge and affection ; it trained
powers of discrimination which could be entrusted
with the delicate task of gradually selecting or deter
mining the contents of the Old Testament canom.
At the period when the necessity for collecting a
canon was realized, most of the Old Testament books
were already familiar to the faithful, who found in
them the light of their consciences and the food of
their spiritual life. In fact, the canon assumed its final
shape and gradually attained to authority as the result
rather of an experimental process, than of theological
reflection or discussion. For the canonical books,
sufficiently at least for all purposes of religious edifi
cation, illustrated the great evangelical truths by which
faith is kept alive 3. They gave adequate expression
1 Robertson Smith, O. T. inf. C. p. 8. 2 Ibid. p. 162.
3 On this point, so far as it bears upon the Jewish limitation of the Old
Testament to the ' canonical ' books and the exclusion of others, see an
excellent passage in Buhl, Canon and Text of the O. T. [Eng. Tr.j § 22.
E

50 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH [lect.
to the vital needs which divine revelation satisfied.
Indeed in large part that which we call with some
freedom of expression the word of God is actually
the word of man, since it gives utterance to the appeals,
the supplications, the questionings, the yearnings
after God, which make the Bible a universal book,
reflecting the experience and the wants of humanity \
And the authority of the Bible, like that of Jesus
Christ Himself, lies in the directness of its response to
man's needs. Like the Lord's own teaching, Scripture
is self-evidencing. Like Him, it speaks directly to the
hearts and consciences of men, and its divine origin
and authority is vindicated by the continuous testimony
of Christians who have verified its message ; and let
us remember that its appeal to our generation is
' strengthened incalculably by the results of that same
appeal to the minds and hearts and consciences of
every preceding generation 2.'
Spiritual experience then lies behind the record in
which it is enshrined, and this leads us to the observa
tion that, after all, Christian faith is essentially inde
pendent of the Old Testament. The great fundamental
verities are not learned by us from the pages of the
ancient Scriptures. For instance, the writer of the
Epistle to the Hebrews reminds us that we learn the
fact and the true significance of the world's creation,
not from the pages of Genesis, but as the result of
Christian faith3; we find the verification of the fall
of man in universal experience ; we infer the pity of
gGod for the human race from the upward movement
which has marked its development and which culmi
nates in the advent of the Son. In the Old Testa
ment, Christian faith puts itself to school with the
saints of the preparatory dispensation ; it enters into
their hopes and fears ; it takes their language of love
or trust on its lips ; it learns how they regarded those
great acts of God to which their whole history bears
1 Cp. J. Paterson Smyth, op. cit. p. 122.
2 Ibid. p. 27. Cp. pp. 21, 22. 3 Heb. xi. 3.

i] AND THE 'HIGHER CRITICISM'

5*

undying witness. But faith carries with it a religious
test learned in the school of Christ : it appropriates
everything in the Old Testament which can edify the
conscience, while it passes by all that falls short of
Christ's teaching ; thus it sometimes sets aside what
the ancient saints extolled — the vengeance of Jael, for
instance, or David's treatment of Moab — discriminat
ing freely between what is profitable for the spiritual
life and what belongs to a lower stage of human
development l.
There is one final reflection specially appropriate in
this connexion. We have noticed the attestation
which is given by Christian experience to the function
of the Old Testament, but what has been said after
all amounts to the assertion that the Old Testament
Scriptures are an integral part of a treasure which
peculiarly belongs to the Church of God — that divine
society which exists as the living witness of God's
continuous self-revelation in the world and which
appeals to the Scriptures as corroborating her own
primary testimony to God's truth. Believing then, as
we do, that new and impressive views of God's pro
vidence are being opened out to us by the gradual
advance of critical science, and that a revelation is
being made to us respecting God's word in Scripture
parallel to that which is already familiar to us in the
sphere of physical nature, we shall realize the far-
reaching importance of that foundation doctrine of the
Church which God seems to have restored to us in
time to enable us to deal with the critical question
dispassionately and fearlessly. We, in this University,
are not likely to forget the honoured names of those
great spiritual leaders to whom, under God, we owe
the recovery of this doctrine ; nor can we easily over
rate its vast significance. The doctrine has a plain
bearing on our present inquiry. The Church of God !
1 Cp. Kohler, op. cit. pp. 64, 65. Aug. de doctrina, ii. 8, gives a rule
for determining the canonicity of different books which presupposes the
guidance of organized experience.
E 2

52 THE CHRISTIAN CHURCH, ETC.
— we belonged to her, her message was delivered to us,
her powers were at work upon us before we were
able to read a line of the Bible. She taught us that
in the Bible God's voice was to be heard, but the
manner in which it speaks she did not define. Thus
the way has been left open for those who might
competently instruct us in regard to the methods
actually employed by the Holy Spirit. We certainly
are not true to the mind of the Church, nor to that lofty
temper which St. Paul commends to the Corinthians
as specially characteristic of Christians, if we fail to
appreciate and worthily use the gift of new knowledge
with which this age of scientific criticism has enriched
us. We approach the Old Testament with reverent
interest as believers in the incarnation of the Son of
God ; with a deep sense of our own insufficiency as
believers in the mystery of inspiration, and finally with
the quietness and confidence of those whose feet are
planted on the rock of the Holy Catholic Church,
that city of God which claims as her own all that is
good in human character, all that is precious in human
life, all that is true in human knowledge. All things
are yottrs, whether Paul, or Apollos, or Cephas, or the
world, or life, or death, or things present, or things to
come ; all are yours ; and ye are Christ's ; and Christ
is God's.

LECTURE II
But continue thou in the things which thou hast learned and hast been
assured of, knowing of whom thou hast learned themj and that from
a child thou hast known the holy scriptures, which are able to make thee
wise unto salvation through faith which is in Christ fesus. — 2 Tim. iii.
14, 15.
In this passage St. Paul at once indicates the scope
and purpose of the Old Testament, and prescribes the
condition of using it profitably. He begins by stating
the reasonable ground on which the authority of the
Christian Church is based. Continue thou, he says to
Timothy, in the things which thou hast learned and
hast been assured of, knowing of whom thott hast learned
them. The acceptance of authority in itself implies an act
of the moral judgment. The individual submits himself
to the guidance of the Christian community mainly
because it exhibits an impressive consensus of belief in
regard at least to certain fundamental truths, but the
testimony of the Church is commended and enforced
by the spiritual life and character which lie behind it.
The neophyte can venture upon an act of self-com
mittal, because his reason tells him that the highest
type of human excellence within the sphere of his
observation has its roots in the creed of Christendom.
In verse 15 the apostle appeals to Timothy's personal
experience and training. From a child he has been
taught to study the ' sacred writings ' of the Old
Testament and to find in them the necessary guidance
of his religious thought and conduct. The peculiar
function of these Scriptures is to make wise unto salva-

54

DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.

tion. The very phrase conveys a warning that men
may approach Holy Scripture not only in a wrong
temper and spirit, but under a positive misconception
as to its true purpose. The study of the Old Testa
ment is calculated to impart 'wisdom' — the knowledge,
that is, of the great principles of divine action in the
world, of the conditions under which man can be
admitted to fellowship with his Creator ; knowledge
which is contrasted, on the one hand, with the intel
ligence or insight (avveais) which apprehends the
immediate purpose of God, on the other hand, with
the practical wisdom (<pp6vr]o-is) which dictates right
courses of action. The condition of acquiring this
wisdom is faith resting on Christ Jesus. The true
function of the Old Testament can only be rightly
estimated from the standpoint of faith in one whose
coming was from the first destined to crown the entire
history of revelation.
Leaving on one side the exegesis of this particular
passage, let us pass on to consider some general aspects
under which the Old Testament presents itself to the
Christian student. Viewed historically, the Old Testa
ment is the sacred book of Judaism, the charter so to
speak of the community which was organized by Ezra
and Nehemiah on the basis of the levitical law and of
the sacrificial cultus of the post-exilic sanctuary. It
embodies the account, first, of the origin, historical
career, and peculiar character of the holy community
and of its sacred institutions ; secondly, of the divine
communications imparted to it from time to time
through the agency of the prophets. Thirdly, it
contains products of religious emotion and reflection,
which illustrate the spiritual influences that prevailed
in the Jewish Church and helped to mould its
character. Lastly, the Old Testament depicts the
external circumstances and conditions under which
Judaism grew to maturity1. But the interest of
a Christian in the ancient scriptures cannot be merely
1 Cp. Dalman, Das A. T. ein Wort Go ties, p. 13.

n] THE OLD TESTAMENT

55

literary or archaeological. He will be concerned with
other aspects of the Old Testament, and of these five
especially seem to deserve attention.
The Old Testament is to be studied, in the first
place, as a record of the history of redemption. It
contains the account of a continuous historical move
ment of which the originating cause was the grace of
God and the aim the salvation of the human race. It
scarcely requires to be stated that this aspect of the
Old Testament opens very serious and urgent questions
in regard to the precise character and extent of the
strictly historical element in the ancient narratives.
Secondly, the Old Testament is the authentic record
of a divine revelation. It describes the course of a
progressive self-manifestation of God, of the unveiling
to man according to his needs and capacities of
a supreme personality to whom he finds himself
standing in necessary and intimate relationship.
Thirdly, the Old Testament may be treated as the
history of a covenantal relationship between man and
God, of a continuous converse or friendship which
from the first depended on moral conditions, and ever
tended towards a more perfect mode of union between
the divine and human natures. Fourthly, the Old
Testament is to be regarded as the record of a growing
anticipation or hope, the hope which we call Messianic,
and which found expression not merely in ancient
oracles and prophecies, but also in the symbolic institu
tions of the chosen people. This expectation was
rooted in spiritual experience, outlived even the most
formidable disasters which overtook the Hebrew
nation, and found its accomplishment in an event
of which only a chosen few were able to recognize the
true significance. Lastly, the Old Testament is to be
studied as the revelation of a divine purpose, not
merely for a particular nation or even for humanity at
large, but also for the individual soul in its frailty and
solitariness, its sense of accountability, its presages of
immortality.

56 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
In the present lecture these five aspects of the
subject will be dealt with in general outline. The
ensuing lectures will elaborate each in somewhat
fuller detail. The classification does not pretend to be
exhaustive, but it will probably be found to embrace
the main points which are of special interest to
Christian students of the Old Testament, and which
are more or less affected by the discoveries of recent
criticism and research. At any rate, ample scope will
be provided for illustrating the new points of view in
regard to scripture which we owe to the labours of
modern scholarship. Our ideas of the methods
actually employed in divine revelation will perhaps be
enlarged, while some misconceptions may be removed
which have hitherto hindered some minds from profit
ably studying the Old Testament. On the other
hand, we may be led to a more intelligent use of the
materials that are now available for those who desire
to form a true estimate of Israel's place and function
in the history of religion.
I. In the first place, then, we are to study the Old
Testament as a history of redemption. This point of
view enables us at once to discern the significance and
purpose of that sublime statement of fundamental
truths which forms the vestibule, so to speak, to the
edifice of the Old Testament1. The early chapters
of Genesis contain the presuppositions which alone
could render welcome and intelligible the thought of
a redemptive movement on the part of God for the
salvation of men. They describe the creation of the
world by God, the formation of man in the Creator's
own image, the entrance of moral evil, and the divine
purpose of restoration.
It will be convenient at this point to discuss these
wonderful narratives, which are essentially poetical in
1 Cp. Dillman, Comm. on Genesis, p. viii : ' Die Genesis ist die Vor-
bereitung zu den folg. Biichern oder gleichsam die Vorhalle zu dem
Tempel der Theokratie dessen Errichtung in den folg. Biichern dargestellt
wird.'

n] THE OLD TESTAMENT

57

their form, and clearly stand on a different level from
the historical books properly so called, which are to be
considered separately in a subsequent lecture. They
deal not with the substance of redemptive history, but
rather with the facts of human nature which lie behind
it ; and consequently any prolonged discussion re
specting the nature, sources, or scientific value of the
' narrative of the origins ' is for present purposes
irrelevant, or at least of very secondary importance.
Even a slight observation of the characteristics of the
Hebrew mind will suffice to show us that the scientific
interest, if it existed at all, occupied an entirely sub
ordinate place in the religious thought of an Israelite1,
and thus the story of the origins, though cast in
a quasi-historical or mythical form, is in fact in
stinct with a religious aim. It does not appear to
have had any peculiar or special connexion with
Israel, but was in some form or other common to
other branches of the Semitic race. The current
traditions of the Creation, the Fall, and the Flood,
are employed as a suitable medium for expressing the
fundamental thoughts of true religion: the distinctness
of God from the created universe ; the immediate
dependence on Him of all being at each stage of its
development, and the essential goodness of that
which owes its existence to Him. To the student
of comparative religion it is no doubt of great interest
to notice that in the story of the origins' we have
a narrative which shows clear traces of connexion with
Chaldaean traditions; to the believer in divine inspira
tion it is of chief importance to notice how primitive
myth is consecrated to spiritual uses, and how in the
process it is purged of all that is puerile or immoral,
the main outlines of the original Babylonian story
being retained, while the lower elements in it are
entirely overmastered by the sublime spiritual thoughts
1 Cp. Schultz, Old Testament Theology [Eng. Tr.], ii. 180; Kohler,
Uber die Berechtigung der Kritik des A. T. pp. 25, 26 ; Driver, Serm. on
O. T. Subj. No. 1. "

58 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
of a lofty religion \ . Such elements are indeed only
survivals, like the survivals in natural history, serving,
for aught we know, some beneficent purpose, showing
that Israel's religion had its roots in a Semitic
paganism, from which under the impulse of the Spirit
of God it gradually emancipated itself. No student
of the Old Testament will find serious difficulty in the
existence of mythical or even polytheistic elements
which have in fact become the medium of pure
religious ideas, and which have been so far stripped
of their original character as to serve the purposes
of a monotheistic system 2. ' Where the Assyrian or
Babylonian poet saw the action of deified forces of
nature, the Hebrew writer sees only the will of the
one supreme God3.' It is only necessary to remark
in passing that we have here the earliest, and in some
respects the most striking, illustration of a law which
pervades the entire religious development of the
people of God. The higher faith retains elements
derived from the lower stages of religion, but only to
regulate and to purify them, or in some cases even to
pass explicit judgment upon them. While in fact it is
abundantly clear that the religion of Israel presupposes
the nature-worship of the ancient Semitic peoples, it
is equally certain that it displayed from the very first
an upward tendency in the direction of a spiritual
monotheism. The ultimate outcome of Israel's long
discipline manifests the reality of that continual and
delicate divine pressure which lifted a rude and
barbarous tribe above its surroundings and raised it
to the throne of spiritual influence, in reference to
which Athanasius declares that Israel was ' a sacred

1 Cp. Wellhausen, op. cit. pp. 304, 305, 314.
2 Schultz, op. cit. i. 118.
3 Sayce, The Higher Criticism and the Monuments, p. 71. Cp. Renan
Histoire du peuple d' Israel, bk. i. ch. 4. Renan illustrates at length the
influence of Babylonia on the Hebrew story of the origins, and points
out how ' A free will, _ as implied by the words He created, substituted
for ten thousand capricious fancies, is a progress of its kind ' [Eng Tr
p. 67].

u] THE OLD TESTAMENT 59
school of the knowledge of God and of the spiritual
life for all the world1.'
The account of creation is followed by other funda
mental statements relating to man's nature and destiny,
the entrance of sin, and its culmination in death and
divinely inflicted judgment. Distinctive of the Old
Testament is the view that man was created in the
divine image, that by the law of his original constitu
tion he was a personal, self-conscious, and spiritual
being, designed for communion with his Maker 2, and
endowed with faculties enabling him to fulfil a spiritual
destiny. Here again we do not look for scientific
anthropology, but rather for a conception of human
nature based upon experience and reflection. The
narrative of the Fall is to be regarded as a particular
solution, in poetical form, of a problem which at
a very early period presented itself to human thought.
In its essence the Fall consists in man's conscious
choice of something lower than God Himself, something
antagonistic to His revealed will. It is the perversion
or defect of will ; it is aversion from God 3- The
inspired story of Genesis suggests profound spiritual
truths in regard to the character rather than to the
origin of human sin. It presents a picture entirely
true to nature of the awakening of moral consciousness
and of that which is its ordinary sequel : the recogni
tion by man that his will is out of harmony with the
requirements of the moral order ; the instinctive dread
of severance from the source of all life ; the discovery
of the true significance of death for a spiritual being ;
the consciousness of physical evil as an impediment
and obstacle in the way of human development. The
biblical narrative is, in fact, the Hebrew solution of
a fact which is quite independent of the scriptural
evidence and is attested by the moral experience of
1 de Incarn. c. xii.
2 Schultz, ii. 238 : ' The seal of the Elohim nature is stamped as it were
on the substance of the fleshly nature.'
3 Ath. c. Gent, v 77 tS>o KptiTTovav cmoaTpoipfj. Greg. Nyss. Oiat.
Catech. v 17 a-rcb tov ko\ov ttjs V^xij? dvaxi>picis.

60 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
humanity1. The narratives then are apparently in
tended simply to justify and render credible the
revelation of a divine love displayed in man's restora
tion. It is noticeable that they tell us nothing in
regard to the conditions of primitive civilization.
They merely indicate that man's original state was not
what it is now. They do not suggest that he was
perfect in the sense that he attained at once to com
plete development. They imply 'a living commence
ment which contained within itself the possibility of
a progressive development 2.' Man was destined to
develope upwards, and a certain measure of com
munion with his Creator was intended to guide and
condition his progress, by giving to it impulse,
direction, and stability. But the interest of the
earliest compilers is primarily soteriological. Original
sin is for them the starting-point of a divine purpose
of recovery — of an historical movement passing
through stages of orderly development and working
mainly from within the fallen race itself 3-
The story of the Flood brings into view the
principal factor in salvation — the gracious action of
God crowning and rewarding the faith of man. The
details of the story may appear to curious inquirers
contradictory or even impossible 4 ; nevertheless, the
narrative gives expression to the religious thought
that while God in His wrath visits sinful man with
unsparing calamities, even at the very moment when
he least expects it, yet in the midst of His judgments
He guides and protects His own elect. Christians
1 Coleridge, Aids to Reflection, aphorism cix ; Mozfey, Lectures and
other Theological Papers, ix, x. Observe, in his allusions to the fall St. Paul
does not always connect the fact with Adam. He rather insists that ' all
have sinned' (Rom. iii. 23). So Athanasius (e.g.) describes the fall in
plural terms. See c. Gent, iii ; de Lncarn. v. It is the apostasy not of
a man, but of mankind, that is the occasion of redemption. Rom. vii. 21
shows that the point of importance is the existence of a uniform law, which
in the Hebrew story is represented as resulting from the physical connexion
between the human race and its first progenitor.
2 Martensen, Christian Dogmatics, § 78.
3 Cp. Oehler, Theology of the O. T. § 7.
4 Cp. Meinhold, fe sus und das A. T. p. 114, &c.

n] THE OLD TESTAMENT 61
accordingly are not concerned to maintain that the
narrative as it stands is literally correct. It is enough
to learn from it those true conceptions of God's char
acter and action which formed the basis of Israel's
faith, and which have been verified by the subsequent
religious experience, not of Israel only, but of man
kind. The Old Testament, then, regarded as a history
of human redemption, starts with certain necessary
presuppositions which, though embodied in a primitive
and childlike form, find their verification ultimately in
the moral experience of mankind. The precise value
and importance of the historical books will occupy our
attention later. Meanwhile, it will be appropriate in
this general survey of the subject to notice briefly
two particular features which give a distinctive char
acter to the sacred history.
In the first place, the course of redemption is
marked at various points by the occurrence of the
supernatural. In the Old Testament history divine
action or intervention is represented as having been
specially conspicuous at certain great crises or epochs,
particularly it would seem on occasions when Jehovah
willed to manifest Himself as unique or supreme
among the supposed deities of heathendom, and accord
ingly miraculous powers are usually attributed only to
a few leading instruments of revelation, such as Moses,
Elijah, and Elisha *. Now it cannot be questioned that
a complete self-manifestation of the divine nature
demands action as well as utterance, and that miracles
of grace and power are constitutive elements that
may be antecedently expected in any authentic revela
tion of God2. The abstract possibility of miracle
seems to be necessarily implied in the religious con
ception of God as a free, spiritual being, to whom the
moral interests of the universe are of higher importance
than the uninterrupted maintenance of physical law.
1 Oehler, The Theology of the O. T. § 63.
2 Cp. Bruce, The Chief End of Revelation, p. 168.

62 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
Miracle is also a natural element in any revelation of
grace which takes the form of action rather than
speech, for, as Dr. Bruce observes, ' the maximum of
gracious possibility cannot be manifested without
miracle1.' A logical theism must claim for God the
power to intervene in His own universe on behalf of
His good purpose2, and to display His entire exemption
from any bondage to the present order of nature or to
the past course of history 3. In point of fact it is
creative epochs in the history of religion that seem
generally to be signalized or heralded by an excep
tional coruscation of miracle. Indeed, if the Old
Testament be the record of a divine movement des
tined to culminate in the Incarnation and Resurrection
of the Son of God, a miraculous element in the history
seems to be not only antecedently probable, but even
necessary, as indicating the special purpose, direction,
and moral quality of the divine action 4. This general
defence of the Old Testament miracles does not, how
ever, imply a belief that every supernatural occurrence
related in the different books literally happened exactly
as it is described. Since it is admitted that the
majority of the historical books only attained their
present form centuries after the occurrence of many
of the events recorded in them, we may — at least
while the date of the original materials out of which
they were compiled remains uncertain — safely allow
the possibility of cases in which poetical or hyper
bolical language has been hardened into concrete fact.
It has been suggested that this is a probable explana-
1 The Chief End of Revelation, p. 175. 2 Phil. ii. 13.
3 See Isa. xliii. 18, &c. Cp. the remarks of A. Ritschl, Unterricht in
der christlichen Religion (Bonn, 1886), § 17: 'Die religiose Betrachtung
der Welt ist daraut gestellt, dass alle Naturereignisse zur Verlugung
Gottes stehen, wenn er den Menschen helfen will. Demgemass gelten
als Wunder solche auffallende Naturerscheinungen, mit welchen die
Erfahrung besonderer Gnadenhilfe Gottes verbunden ist, welche also
als besondere Zeichen seiner Gnadenbereitschaft fiir die Glaubicen zu
betrachten sind. Deshalb steht die Vorstellung von Wundern in nothr
wendiger Wechselbeziehung zu dem besonderen Glauben an Gottes
Vorsehung, und ist ausserhalb dieser Beziehung gar nicht moglich.'
4 Cp. A. L. Moore, Science and the Faith, pp. 98, 99.

n] THE OLD TESTAMENT 63
tion of the narrative which describes the standing still
of the sun at the command of Joshua1. Nor is it
a matter of crucial importance to contest the opinion,
whatever it may be worth, that even in the case of
great personages belonging to a much later age, there
has been a somewhat free ascription of symbolic
miracles. Thus, in the case of Elijah and Elisha
it is sometimes maintained that the analogy of secular
history points to a possible growth of popular tradition,
filling up or adding to the record of their mighty
deeds. Differences of opinion in regard to the precise
extent of the undoubtedly historical nucleus contained
in the narratives relating to such heroic figures may
reasonably be admitted. In any case the miracles,
whether actually performed or popularly ascribed, fore
shadowed the redemptive works of the incarnate Son.
To lay equal stress on the miracles of the Old Tes
tament and on those of our Lord not only involves
a serious confusion of thought ; it implies misappre
hension of the true character of the Old Testament
and forgetfulness of the principle expressed in Augus
tine's maxim, Sicul Veleri Testamento, si esse ex Deo
bono et summo negetur, ita et Novo fit injuria si Veteri
aequetur. Secondly, we may notice a general principle which
underlies the redemptive action of God, namely, the
principle of limitation or severance. The tendency of
Hebrew history is towards specialization : the action
of a purpose of God according to election 2 is observable.
The entire story of Genesis, for instance, consists in
1 Kittel, History of the Hebrews, vol. i. p. 303 [Eng. Tr.], says of
Joshua x. 12-14: 'This [event] can signify nothing but an extraordinary
duration of the day of battle which allowed Joshua to finish his martial
day's work. The daylight held out till the work of vengeance on the
enemy was completed. Joshua has poetically glorified this in the song as
a standing still of the sun, because he knew of no other explanation.'
Kittel implies that a miracle did take place, but the reviser of the book of
Joshua turned the song 'into matter-of-fact prose.' Renan, Histoire,
&c, bk. ii. ch. 3, gives a simple literary and linguistic explanation of the
passage, on which Judg. v. 20 sheds some light. A parallel instance
is perhaps to be found in Num. xxii. 28.
2 Rom. ix. 11.

64 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
a series of separations. Even the account of creation
itself begins by recording an act of severance as if it
were a constant law of the divine action : God divided
the light from the darkness, the waters above the
firmament from those below, the dry land from the
seas1- In the actual history this law of severance
meets us in a new form as the principle of election,
according to which the few are set apart and educated
in order that, by their means, blessing may be extended
to the many. The account of the patriarchs is so
framed as to give -special prominence to the idea of
election2, but it already emerges in Gen. iv. 26, where
a contrast is implied between the world-power and the
worshippers of the true God. And there can be no
doubt that the same principle gives us the true key to
the significance of Israel's entire history. It is uncer
tain at what point in its career the truth of its election
was fully realized by the nation, but it is clear that the
divine purpose was in process of fulfilment from the
first. This people have I formed for myself ; they shall
show forth my praise 3. At the earliest stage of its
national existence Israel was reminded of the purpose
for which it had been separated from the nations of
the world. Even in the primitive forecast of its great
destiny a universalistic element was present 4 ; in
Abraham and his seed all the nations of the earth
were to be blessed ; and subsequently Israel was
taught that He who had brought the nation to Him
self, with the design of making it a kingdo7n of priests
and a holy nation, was no merely national God like the
deities of the heathen, but the Lord of all the earth 5.
Israel was chosen, as we may well believe, in prefer-
1 Gen. i. 4, 6, 10.
2 See Gen. xii. 3 ; xiii. 14; xv. 5 ; xvii. 5 ; xviii. 17-19; xxii. 16, &c.
3 Isa. xliii. 21. The doctrine of Israel's election seems to be most
clearly brought out by the prophets of the eighth century, and a stimulus
was given to the conception by the publication of Deuteronomy. See
Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 124 ; Sanday, Bampton Lectures, p. 163.
* Cp. Bruce, Apologetics, pp. 198, 199.
6 Cp. Exod. xix. 5, 6; Joshua iii. 11.

n] THE OLD TESTAMENT 65
ence to other nations ' because in genius and temper it
was best fitted to realize God's purposes towards man,
to be the channel of H is grace, and to develope, through
many failures, an ideal of godliness and faith 1.' But
if Israel was called to be the medium of a blessing
designed for humanity at large, the privilege imposed
high obligations. For the Hebrew people was chosen
to be the depositary 'of a purer faith and loftier
morality than that recognized by other races. Hence
the necessity of Israel's isolation from the surrounding
heathen and its subjection to a special moral discipline.
It was the task of the eighth-century prophets to bring
home to the nation the ideal purpose of its separation
from the world and the bearing of God's elective
action on the spiritual destinies of mankind. There
is true discernment in the fine remark of Irenaeus,
'Jehovah brought His people out of Egypt in order
that man might once more become a disciple and
follower of God 2.' The ultimate object of the divine
grace was not Israel, but humanity.
In speaking of the Old Testament as a history of
redemption, we do not mean that it furnishes a com
plete history of Israel. It has been said with truth
that the Old Testament rather ' supplies the materials
from Avhich such a history can be constructed 3.' It is
indeed a record of God's action in history, but one that
is marked by special purpose and character, interpreting
what it narrates, and selecting facts according to some
inner principle of fitness. The historian may justly
require that the record in its main outlines should
be adequate and that Israel's interpretation of its own
history should be in essential points trustworthy. But
we shall see that it is unwise to over-estimate the
extent of the strictly historical element in the Old Tes
tament. The selection of facts and the mode of their
presentation are dictated not so much by a merely
1 Driver, Serm. on the 0. T. p. 57.
2 Iren. Haer. iv. 16. 3. Cp. Bruce, Apologetics, p. 1 82.
3 Robertson Smith in his preface to Wellhausen's Prolegomena, p. vii.

66 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
historical interest as by a sense of the religious import
of what is narrated. ' It has not pleased God,' says a
recent writer, ' to convey to us instruction concerning
the ancient period [of Israel's history] in the form of
indisputably historical documents; consequently the
external details of the narrative cannot be for us the
matters of chief significance. Occasionally the pro
phetic elucidation of material not in itself religious
may be the important thing in a particular book. For
example, to a historian the narratives in the book of
Judges which relate the exploits of Hebrew heroes are
more important than the Deuteronomic framework ;
yet it is precisely this framework that gives the book
its canonical character. The historical and the canoni
cal valuations of a book follow different laws, and go
in different directions V The evident aim, generally
speaking, of the writers and compilers of the sacred
history is to convey and emphasize a certain religious
impression, not to give a complete or rigidly accurate
picture of events.
II. The second of those general aspects of the Old
Testament which will occupy our attention is by far
the most important. The Old Testament does not
merely contain the history of a divine redemptive
movement : it is also the record of a self-revelation of
Almighty God ; it describes the gradual disclosure
of the divine name and attributes. The permanent
interest of Israel's history for mankind lies in the
fact that in the history a supreme moral personality
is unveiled. Israel's sacred literature is primarily
a school of divine knowledge for the whole world.
Now, that the Old Testament exhibits a gradual
evolution of the idea of God is, of course, indisputable.
Naturalistic criticism gives its own clear, plausible,
intelligible account of the gradual advance of Israel's
belief. In the earliest stage of Semitic thought the
divine nature is vaguely conceived in polytheistic
fashion as distributed among a plurality of beings
1 Dalman, Das A. T. ein Wort Gottes, p. 15.

n] THE OLD TESTAMENT 67
whose operation lies hidden behind the various pro
cesses of nature. As the consciousness of tribal unity
is developed, each tribe recognizes a special deity,
linked to itself by ties of interest and natural affinity.
When different tribes coalesce and realize something
of national unity, the deity is elevated to the position
of a national god, united by a special bond to one
particular people and land. Presently, when the
nation comes into conflict with neighbouring peoples
and their gods, the dignity and importance of the
deity is enhanced in proportion to the measure of
national success in warfare. He is honoured as the
mighty god whose power extends even beyond the
limits of his own special sphere of influence. With
the advance of culture and civilization, men recognize
moral qualities in their god, attributing to him the
virtues which they fear or reverence in their fellow-
men. As the horizon of human thought widens, the
deity is acknowledged to be a righteous being who
controls and guides the destinies, not only of his own
subjects, but also those of alien nations. Finally,
when the faculties of abstraction and reflection have
reached a certain point of development, the conception
is formed of one God, the creator of all things, reign
ing in solitary majesty over all the nations of the earth.
The whole process is thus represented as one of simple
natural development, and the idea of special revelation
is set aside as unwelcome and unnecessary.
As is usually the case, the same set of facts is capable
of being interpreted in two distinct ways and from two
opposite points of view. The real question at issue in
our present-day controversy with naturalistic criticism
is whether or no God is a living being1, to whom
the spiritual interests of mankind are of supreme im
portance, and who at each stage of development,
physical or moral, is Himself present in the universe
1 See Oettli, Der gegenwdrtige Kampf um das A. T. p. 13 ; Valeton,
Chris tus und das A. 2 ". p. 1.
F 2

68 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
as an impelling, directing and overruling cause1. The
distinctive feature of Israel's religion is prophetism,
and where the voice of inspired prophecy is heard, God
is specially at work in history ; the purely naturalistic
account of the phenomena breaks down. It is no part
of our present task, however, to discuss so fundamental
a point as this. There can be no question in regard
to the belief of those who felt themselves to be not
chance discoverers of interesting truths, but inspired
organs of divine revelation. We may observe, however,
that the idea of a gradual evolution in the conception
of God is expressly recognized by the Old Testament
itself. One main object of the priestly narrative which
forms the basis of the Pentateuch seems to be that of
indicating successive stages in the self-revelation of
God, each stage being apparently marked by some
new declaration of the divine name, in other words,
by some express manifestation of His character. It
will be our duty to examine hereafter the theological
import of these several names. At this point it is only
necessary to notice the general outlines of the Old
Testament doctrine of God, surveyed as a whole. The
divine self-revelation, be it remembered, was chiefly
embodied in action and history. Indeed the Bible
contains very little of mere abstract teaching or formal
doctrine ; the character of God and His relation to the
universe are rather left to be inferred from His action.
To the prophets the supreme interest of human history
lies in its being a sphere of observation in which the
attributes, purposes and methods of God may be
studied. And the very foundation of Israel's national
history was constituted by an event to which in later
times the religious mind of the people continually
reverted, — a signal historical deliverance, an act of
divine intervention, which in itself implied a unique
manifestation of God's nature and character. The
incidents of the exodus could scarcely fail to suggest
some general ideas about God which the whole subse-
1 Cp. Oettli, op. cit. p. 4.

n] THE OLD TESTAMENT 69
quent history was destined to elucidate, confirm, and
enlarge ; even at this early stage there emerged, so to
speak, the ideas of the divine unity, the divine holiness,
the divine grace, that is, the willingness and power of
God to redeem.
We should be passing beyond the limits of pro
bability if we insisted that the exodus did more than
suggest these ideas. It will scarcely be disputed that
they can have been apprehended, perhaps not very
distinctly, only by a few leading spirits in the newly-
formed nation ; and they were not openly preached, so
far as we can judge, until the period of the eighth-
century prophets. In the book of Deuteronomy they
may be said to be leading and characteristic theses.
Take, for instance, the first of the ideas now in question
— that of the divine unity. An unbiassed study of the
Old Testament discloses to us the gradual develop
ment of the conception. It is practically certain that
in its earlier stages the worship of the ordinary
Hebrew was not monotheistic but monolatrous. Till
a comparatively late period the average Israelite seems
to have believed in the existence of other gods than
Jehovah — deities who stood in the same relation to
foreign tribes and nations, as that in which Jehovah
stood to Israel. Prof. Riehm draws attention to the
tendency, common apparently among tribes of Semitic
descent, to acknowledge a special tribal god. The
natural basis on which a true monotheism could be
securely built up was formed by monolatry or heno-
theism1. Israel's earliest religious lesson was, in
fact, learned on the Red Sea shore. In the mar
vellous deliverance of His people from the tyranny
of Egypt, Jehovah was already proved to be at least
incomparable, or unique, among gods 2. It was not as
yet distinctly perceived, at least by the mass of the
1 ATI. Theologie, p. 45. Renan, Histoire du peuple d' Israel, bk. 1,
ch. 1, remarks that 'even from the most ancient times the Semite
patriarch had a secret tendency towards monotheism, or at least towards
a simple and comparatively reasonable worship.'
2 Exod. xv. 11. Cp. I Sam. ii. 2; Isa. xl. 25.

70 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
ransomed people, that Israel's God was the Lord of all
the earth. He was regarded as the tribal god of the
Hebrews, fighting its battles, and claiming its allegiance,
in opposition to the gods of surrounding nations. It
has been thought by some critics that the idea_ of
Jehovah's uniqueness only appears in the earty period
of the monarchy x ; but it is more probable that it arose
as a direct consequence of the events of the exodus.
That solemn crisis in Israel's history signally manifested
the impotence and insignificance of other gods in
comparison of Jehovah. Thus the foundation of
a consistent monotheism was laid, not in any definite
declarations of the divine unity — such as we find at
a later period — but in a practical proof that other
'Elohim were powerless to resist the will of the Deity
who had chosen Israel for Himself and had wrought
its salvation 2. The exodus manifested the incompar
able glory and irresistible might of Israel's God. And
indeed during the period of its conflict for the posses
sion of the promised land Israel was too deeply
absorbed in practical tasks to feel any special interest
in the question whether other gods ' had or had not
metaphysical existence. The practical point was that
Jehovah proved Himself stronger than they by giving
Israel victory over their worshippers3.' And so long
as other supernatural beings were regarded as merely
1 Cp. Darmesteter, Les Prophetes d' Israel, pp. 23, 24: 'Avec les
victoires de David, avec les splendeurs de Salomon, avec la construction
du temple qui donne enfin a Jehovah une demeure fixe et a son culte un
centre de plus en plus absorbant, Jdhovah devient ddfinitivement le dieu
propre d'Israel. Les triomphes de David prouvent qu'il est plus puissant
que les dieux voisins : Qui est comme toi parmi les Elohim, 6 Jehovah ? '
2 Cp. Oehler, Theol. of the O. T. § 43 ; Konig, The Religious History
of Israel [Eng. Tr.], p. 74.
3 Robertson Smith, The Prophets of Israel (ed. 1), p. 60. Darmesteter,
op. cit. pp. 217, 218, seems to state the case correctly : ' La tribu ... est
polythdiste, puisque le croyant reconnait la multiplicity des forces et des
volontes divines et croit a plus de dieux qu'il n'en adore ; mais elle est
monothdiste en ce qu'elle se livre spe"cialement a un seul, monotheisme
chancelant, qui se concilie parfaitement avec l'idolatrie et transportera
aisdment son obedience et ses offrandes de Jahve a Molokh, Baal ou
Camoch, etc. . . . Mais ce monoth&sme incertain, idolatrique et sans
morale, contient en germe le monoth&sme strict.'

n] THE OLD TESTAMENT

7i

relative, and incapable of resisting the one God of
Israel's allegiance, a naive belief in the existence
of other 'Elohim did not necessarily conflict with the
idea of the divine unity. Prof. Schultz justly observes
that ' Where it is a matter of religion, not of philosophy,
the first and necessary thing always is the conviction
of having God as one's own, and of being also
God's — not the consideration of how this God stands
related to the possibility of there being other gods V
At the same time there is ample reason for supposing
that there was a constant tendency in the spiritual
leaders of Israel, or at least in the special organs of
divine revelation, to combat the popular notion that
Jehovah was merely one God among many. Certainly
the whole drift of the chapters in which the events
connected with the exodus are narrated, is the exalta
tion of Jehovah as the one being whose existence,
influence, and righteous will it behoved the chosen
people to acknowledge2- It is probable on a priori
grounds that, though the age of what may be called
theoretic monotheism was introduced by the teaching
of the eighth-century prophets, the idea of the divine
unity was an inference, so to speak, from premisses
which the exodus had suggested to reflective minds.
Such an event could not fail to give birth to the thought,
on the one hand, of Jehovah's irresistible might, on the
other, of His moral transcendence. Here we seem to
have the historic basis of the doctrine of the divine
unity3. There are, then, good reasons for the supposition that
a strictly monotheistic belief does not date from the
earliest period of Israel's national existence. On the
contrary, there are unmistakeable indications that a
belief in the actual existence of other deities survived
to a comparatively late age. The existence of heathen
gods was not uniformly denied. They were either
1 O. T. Theology, i. 180.
2 See Exod. viii. 10 ; ix. 14, 16 ; x. 2 ; xv. 2, 11, 18.
3 Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 134, 135,

72 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
regarded as 'Elilim, 'nothings'1; or_ they were
supposed, if existent at all, to be subordinate instru
ments of the one God: Jehovah alone was God of gods
and Lord of lords 2. The ascription however of unique
majesty to the national Deity tended towards His
elevation to the dignity of an Only existent Lord of
the universe3.
The facts of the case thus justify the idea of evolu
tion in religious thought which historical analogy itself
might antecedently suggest. We have no interest in
maintaining that Israel's religion sprang to the birth,
perfect and complete, in the age of Moses. The
monotheistic idea had a long history even within the
limits of the chosen race whose mission it Was to teach
mankind the knowledge of God. But the idea seems
to have been closely connected with another which
next claims our attention, namely, that of the divine
holiness. ' The belief that Jehovah was the only God,'
says Prof. Kuenen, ' sprang out of the ethical concep
tion of His being4.' The question is at what period
such a conception first appeared. What is contended
is that the events of the exodus could not fail to
introduce certain moral elements into the idea of God
which Israel inherited from its Semitic ancestors.
The truth of the divine holiness, in its developed
form, is one of those ideas which impart a unique
character to Israel's religion. It was a truth which
other religions were constantly striving to express, and
which the universal human conscience instinctively anti
cipated in external institutions of worship. But Israel
alone was enabled to lift the idea of holiness from the
purely outward and ritual, into the inward and ethical
1 DvvX Lev. xix. 4 ; 2 Kings xvii. IS; Jer. ii. 5; viii. 19. See also
Deut. iv. 19; x. 17 ; Ps. xcv. 3 : xcvi. 5. Cp. I Cor. viii. 5, 6.
2 Cp. Pfleiderer, Gifford Lectures, vol. ii. 48 ; Ritschl, Unterricht in der
Christlichen Religion, § 11. The belief in the existence of other gods
seems expressly indicated in such passages as Exod. xv. n ; Judges xi. 24 ;
Ruth i. 16 ; 1 Sam. xxvi. 19 ; 2 Sam. xiv. 16.
3 Cp. Darmesteter, op. cit. pp. 213, 214.
4 Hibbert Lectures, p. 119 ; ap. Montefiore, op. cit. p. 135.

n] THE OLD TESTAMENT

73

sphere, and thereby gave to its religion a distinctness
from all other faiths not only in degree but in kind x.
What then is the historical genesis of this idea ? If the
date of the documentary evidence is disputed, we are
left to a balance of probabilities; and there are at least
some considerations in favour of the view that the pro
cess by which the notion of holiness was, so to speak,
moralized began at the period of the exodus. Jehovah
is first described as ' holy ' in the Song of Moses, and
the term apparently implies merely the negative notion
of 'separation,' or possibly 'transcendence2.' The
'holy' God is He who is raised absolutely above the
world, and is thereby separated from the creature.
Of earthly things, every object or being is holy in so
far as it is appropriated to religious service, or is
withdrawn from common Uses. Originally therefore
holiness, even as applied to persons, was not in any
sense a moral attribute ; it implied only ritual separa
tion 3, and we can almost trace the process by which,
under the influence of prophetic teaching, the idea of
holiness passed from an outward to an inward sphere,
from the notion of external consecration or dedication
to that of moral sanctity. But it is in relation to the
divine Being Himself that the word ' holy' is specially
remarkable — not only because the conception of holi
ness was constantly elucidated by every fresh stage in
the self-revelation of God, but also because it was the
basis of that peculiar consciousness of Israel's function
in the world which is characteristic of the later prophets
and of the priestly school who impressed upon Israel
its permanent and ineffaceable stamp of separateness.
Ye shall be holy ; for L am holy. Israel, as belonging

1 Cp. A. L. Moore in Lux Mundi, p. 72 foil.
2 Exod. xv. 11. Cp. Isa. xl. 25 ; Ps. xcix. 2 foil.
3 On ' holiness * see Robertson Smith, Prophets of Israel, pp. 224 foil. ;
Oehler, op. cit. §§ 44, 45 ; Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, § 12. As is well known,
the idea of ' holiness ' (separation) was common to the heathen neighbours
of Israel, and might incidentally, e.g. in the case of the 'holy' persons of
Canaanitish nature-worship, imply consecration to immoral purposes. See
Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, pp. 90, 192.

74

DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.

to Jehovah by redemptive right, must necessarily
participate in His character, and look upon itself with
something of the reverence due to what is divine.
We are justified in believing that the idea of its
holiness, its call to consecration, is the secret of that
fine spirit of self-respect which has never abandoned
Israel even in the most stormy and sorrowful vicis
situdes of its subsequent history.
Holiness, then, seems to be a conception which had
its roots in the circumstances of the Mosaic age. It
was a keynote of national polity and organization
from the first. In calling God 'holy' Mosaism
guarded the truth of the divine transcendence; it
protested, as it were, against the religious error of
contemporary heathendom, Egyptian or Canaanitish,
which confused nature with God, and as it were
degraded God into the region of the creature. In
calling things or persons ' holy,' Mosaism lifted them,
so to speak, out of the region of what was profane
or unclean into a divine sphere. But the whole
tendency of Mosaism was to develope and extend
the idea. True, holiness in the ethical sense was
far from being Israel's present character ; rather it
was the nation's ideal goal and destiny 1. While then
the ' holiness ' of the newly-formed nation was in the
first instance a mark or character impressed from
without on its physical and social life, and found
embodiment in visible ordinances relating to external
and ceremonial purity, ' holiness ' was ultimately
destined to be transformed into an inward quality or
attribute, a real separateness not from mere bodily
uncleanness but from spiritual and moral defilement ;
aloofness not from the idolatrous pollutions of Egypt,
but from sin. Thus the character of Jehovah's chosen
people was to be conformed to that of Him who
had sealed them as His own.
There was yet another idea which the exodus
1 As God's own people Israel is {jrjp, Exod. xix. 6 ; Lev. xx. 26,
opposed to pn Lev. x. 10 ; 1 Sam. xxi. 5 foil. ; Ezek. xxii. 26.

n] THE OLD TESTAMENT

75

suggested, and which subsequent periods of reflection
served to impress permanently on the mind and
imagination of Israel, viz. the idea of Jehovah's
redemptive grace. In the deliverance of His people
God had manifested Himself as one who is able and
willing to redeem ; able because He is almighty1, free
from anything like entanglement in the processes
of nature, and having perfect liberty to intervene
with direct personal energy in the history of men
and nations. The Old Testament writers look back
with awe and exultation to the days of the nation's
birth, signalized as it was by a mighty display of
supernatural force; but the occasion of Jehovah's
intervention made it manifest that His power was
guided by love and gracious willingness to redeem.
The God who had espoused the cause of an enslaved
and oppressed people must needs be a Being full
of pity and rich in mercies, faithful to His promises
and righteous in His judgments2. The exodus was
indeed a supreme display of character, and we are
even justified in holding with Ewald that the very
keynote of the Pentateuch is the conception of
Jehovah as a merciful deliverer. That idea, as he
points out, is embodied in the sanctions affixed to
the first five commandments of the Decalogue. In
each case the divine precept is based on some feature
in the beneficent character of God. Thus in the
first word Jehovah proclaims Himself as the Saviour
who has ransomed Israel from the house of bondage ;
in the second as a jealous God, good to them that
love, severe to them that hate Him, yet even in
sternness remembering His mercy; in the third as
a glorious God, who will by no means clear the guilty
or give His glory to another ; in the fourth as a God
who has thoughts of peace and refreshment for His
' desert-wearied ' people and leads them to blessedness
and rest ; in the fifth as a God who gives bounteously
to the poor, and prepares for them a land to dwell
1 Exod. vi. i. 2 Exod. iii. 7, 8 ; vi. 5, 8.

76 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
in. Israel's obligation to obedience is rooted in
Jehovah's character. His redemptive acts on behalf
of His elect people stand in the forefront of the moral
law, and supply the motive of love and service.
Grace is, in fact, a prominent element in the divine
self-revelation from the first point in Israel's history
to the last. And, in accordance with the whole course
of man's religious history, a stage of external mani
festation precedes that of inward realization. Grace
is first revealed in the sphere of history and provi
dence, — God working for the redemption of a down
trodden people ; 'doing for Israel what she could
not do for herself, in love and pity redeeming a
helpless enslaved race from a state of bondage,' and
throughout its history ever renewing the manifesta
tion of his goodness. In all their affliction he was
afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them ; and he
bare them, and carried them all the days of old x.
At a later period, grace came to be regarded by the
prophets as an internal operation of divine love,
' a beneficent power working within men, enabling
them to fulfil the divine will 2,' a power subduing sin,
cleansing the conscience, and renewing the heart.
So the historical and external enfranchisement was
acknowledged to be the type of a spiritual deliverance ;
and as religious affections became more perfectly
developed, devout Israelites became ever more alive
to the true significance of Jehovah's mighty acts on
behalf of their fathers in the time of old ; witness
the tenderness of such a passage as the following
extract from the fourth book of Esdras. Thus saith
the Almighty Lord, Have I not prayed you as a father
his sons, as a mother her daughters, and a nurse her
1 Isa. lxiii. 9.
2 Bruce, Apologetics, p. 249. Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 35, remarks
that in the Old Testament as in the New we have a redemptive act of
God : ' Im alten Bunde eine Erlosung des Volkes von ausserlicher
Knechtschaft, im neuen eine Erlosung aller einzelnen von geistlicher
Knechtschaft.'

n] THE OLD TESTAMENT 77
young babes, that ye would be my people, and I should be
yoitr God; that ye would be my children, and I should
be your father ? I gathered you together, as a hen
gathereth her chickens under her wings1. Indeed the
most essential characteristic of Old Testament religion
is its unshaken conviction, that the Holy God who
manifested Himself to His chosen people was above
all else a God of grace : Israel's election, and redemp
tion, and its preservation throughout the perilous
vicissitudes of its chequered history, were standing
proofs that the most fundamental and enduring element
in the divine Being is Love 2.
It will be our business in a later lecture to investigate
more particularly the main points of the Old Testament
revelation of God. Meanwhile, let it suffice to remark
that we only do justice to the labours of criticism
when we acknowledge the fact of a long and slow
development in Israel's conception of deity. Some
have supposed that the knowledge of God was
originally simple and pure, and that the religion of
Israel was merely the re-establishment of a primitive
monotheism. But, in spite of the admitted possibility
of degradation as a factor in religious history, it must
be frankly owned that there is a lack of evidence
for the existence of an original monotheistic religion
among the Semites, and indeed the Old Testament
itself contains indications that even in Abraham's
family there was a survival of idolatrous practices
and beliefs 3.
The history of Israel seems, as a matter of fact,
to show us clearly marked stages in the development
of the idea of God, the prophets from Moses onwards
being the leaders of religious thought. In the earliest
period, Jehovah is popularly conceived as a national
God, opposed to the gods of surrounding nations,
having the same attributes as they, chiefly wrathful-
1 4 Esdras i. 28 f. The date of this book is thought to be circ. 90, a.d.
2 Cp. Riehm, ATI. Theologie, § 11, pp. 62, 63.
3 Cp. Gen. xxxv. 2 ; Joshua xxiv. 2. Cp. Riehm, op. cit. pp. 31, 32.

78 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
ness and jealousy, worshipped with similar rites and
making the same demands. But, as we have seen,
higher and purer ideas were impressed by the marvels
of the exodus on at least the more receptive minds.
Step by step the evolution of thought proceeds.
The narrative of Israel's conflicts is the story of the
wars of Jehovah1, of a struggle between Israel's
national God and the deities of alien tribes. The
work of the prophets was to moralize the conception
of Jehovah ; to show that His essential attributes were
ethical, His necessary requirement of man, holiness.
Finally, in the great overthrow of the nation the
national conscience was led by the Holy Spirit to
recognize that which the loftier spirits had already
discerned ages before ; it acknowledged the triumph
of the divine righteousness ; it rose to the conception
of a God one, holy, and gracious 2.
With one general remark we leave the subject
of progressive Revelation. It has been already
pointed out that belief and unbelief are confronted
by the same facts ; they are distinguished by the
divergent account which each gives of the facts. The
process of evolution in Israel's faith lies on the very
surface of the Old Testament, and is verified by all
that we know of God's dealings in every department
of His action. We recognize then the progressive
development of Old Testament religion : but we look
upon it not as ' a spontaneous upward movement of
the human mind, whereby it passes from crude errors
to purer forms of thought, but as a progressive self-
unveiling of Deity in the sphere of revelation, as
a divine work of education, dealing with stubborn and
1 Num. xxi. 14.
2 Cp. Darmesteter, op. cit. pp. 165 f. It is very important to bear in
mind the contrast between the mass of the Hebrew people and the inner
circle which responded to the teaching of prophetic leaders. There is
every ground for asserting with Riehm, op. cit. p. 1 1 : ' Die Masse des
Volkes, insbesondere auch die Priesterschaft, blieb immer im Grossen
und Ganzen auf jener ersten Stufe der volkstumlichen Ausgestaltung der
alttestamentlichen, Religion stehen, wahrend die hohere Entwicklungs-
gestalt des Prophetismus sich auf einen engeren Kreis beschrankte.'

n] the old testament

79

intractable material3.' The contrast between these
two views is profound, and we owe a debt of gratitude
to the historical criticism which has enlarged our sense
of the continuity observable in divine revelation. We
have learned to apprehend more clearly what has been
an axiom of Christian thought since the principle was
vindicated by Irenaeus in opposition to the Gnostics2.
' It is the same God,' says a recent writer, ' who made
Himself known to Abraham, Moses, Elijah, and Isaiah,
who revealed Himself as our Father in the person of
Jesus Christ. He is the same with the fathers as with
the children : but He condescends lovingly to submit
Himself to those limitations of man's spiritual life
which He Himself ordained. He reveals Himself
to children, according to their capacity, to men in
such wise as is suitable to men ; He does not at one
sweep get rid of all obscurities and all obstacles, but
overcomes them gently and patiently by acting on
them from within ; He does not annihilate with one
magic stroke all alien elements, which His revelation
finds already present in the minds of its recipients,
but allows the measure of divine knowledge and
experience which can be imparted to work as a ferment
which in time will sever the defective elements from
the good 3.'
III. A third point of view from which the Old
Testament may be studied will have to be considered.
It traces the history, and states the conditions, of a
covenantal relationship between God and man ; of
a life of friendship or communion which grows out
of the original relation in which the Creator stands
to the creature. This life of love begins historically
with God's election of the patriarch Abraham : and
the deliverance of his descendants from servitude
became the basis of a 'covenant' between Jehovah
and those whom He took by the hand to lead them
1 Oettli, op. cit. p. 19.
2 Cp. Iren. Haer. iii. 3. 3, &c. ; also Novat. de Trin. viii.
3 Oettli, op. cit. p. 20.

80 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
out of the land of Egypt1. For the present it is
desirable to waive the question when the unique
relationship of God to His ransomed people first came
to be regarded in the light of a covenant, a question
of which Wellhausen seems to dispose somewhat too
confidently. At this point it will suffice to touch upon
some leading features of the settlement which was
traced back by Hebrew faith to the time of the
exodus. First, it is noticeable that the 'covenant' is rather
a matter of divine institution or disposition than a
contract between two equal parties 2. The initiation
is taken by Jehovah, and is purely an act of grace.
He who establishes a bond of union between Him
self and man also fixes the necessary conditions
of it. This is tantamount to saying that behind
the covenant lies Israel's election, a thought which
is specially characteristic of the book of Deu
teronomy 3. Again, we find that the covenant is
formally ratified by sacrifice, in accordance with the
principle universally recognized — SiaO-qKr) kirl veKpoTs
J3e,3ata4. The death of a sacrificial victim on the
one hand secured the immutability of the terms laid
down in the covenant, and on the other symbolized
the surrender of man's natural life, which must be
freely yielded up if it is to be brought into contact
with the divine nature. Only by accepting death can
human nature enter upon a higher sphere of active
serviceableness in the kingdom of God. Further,
the sprinkling of the victim's blood upon the people
was an emblem of their consecration to the life of
covenant-fellowship. It was a kind of baptism by
which Israel was translated into a spiritual kingdom,
and endued with the sanctity of the divine life. It
was a seal of that act, or series of acts, by which
1 Jer. xxxi. 32. Cp. Heb. viii. 9.
2 AiadrjKi] rather than o-w8r\KT\. Cp. Westcott, Ep. to the Hebrews,
pp. 222, 299.
3 Deut. vii. 7 ; viii. 18. i Heb. ix. 17.

n] THE OLD TESTAMENT 81
Jehovah had appropriated the nation to Himself and
made it His own x. Finally — and this is the main point
— the covenant necessarily involved a divine require
ment. Accordingly, in Exod. xxiv. the newly-formed
nation binds itself to Jehovah's service, All that the
Lord hath said will we do, and be obedient 2.
Thus at the very outset of its national career Israel
is pledged to moral obedience, and it is forewarned
that a special character is the condition of union with
the holy God 3. Ye shall be a holy nation — such is
the divine command ; Ye shall be holy, for I am
holy ; — words which point to the future rather than
the present ; to a predestined purpose rather than an
accomplished fact. ' From the first the people were
told of their calling . . . what they existed for, what
their existence pointed to4,' and the position of the
Decalogue, both in Exodus and in Deuteronomy, is
a significant token of the principle so emphatically
insisted on by the prophets that the moral law is the
essential bond of union between God and man, and
that ethical obligations transcend those of the cere
monial and ritual law. So Jeremiah insists 5 : I spake
not unto your fathers, nor commanded them in the day
that I brought them out of the land of Egypt, con
cerning burnt offerings or sacrifices; but this thing
commanded I them, saying, Obey my voice, and T will
be your God, and ye shall be my people ; and walk ye
in all the ways that I have commanded you, that it
may be well unto you. It is, as Irenaeus points out,
the Decalogue which fixes the eternal conditions of
fellowship between God and man ; and consequently
its precepts are extended and enlarged, rather than
dissolved, by the personal advent of the Redeemer6.
1 Cp. Ezek. xvi. 8 : ' Then becamest thou mine.' See Oehler, Theol. of
the O. T. § 121.
2 Exod. xxiv. 3, 7.
3 This is already implied in Gen. xviii. 19. Cp. Exod. xix. 6 ; Lev. xi. 45,
xix. 2.
4 R. W. Church, Discipline of the Christian Character, p. 30.
5 Jer. vii. 22, 23. These verses have naturally played an important part
in the history of criticism. 6 Iren. Haer. iv. 16. 4.
G

82 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
The thought, then, of a covenant uniting man to his
Creator may be said to pervade the Old Testament,
and it cannot be adequately accounted for apart from
some actual divine movement towards man. For the
express object and end contemplated in the covenant,
in each stage of its history, and on each occasion of its
renewal, is ever the same, and is achieved by the same
method of divine action. By a process of limitation,
by a severance at once physical and moral, the God of
Israel sets apart a peculiar people to be the instrument
of His purpose and the organ of His praise1. But
though the initiative belongs to the God of grace, the
very institution of a covenant-relationship implies the
recognition of the freedom and dignity that belongs to
human nature. ' Man in relation to God,' observes
Prof. Schultz, ' is not a being without rights, or one to
be treated in an arbitrary way or merely with lenity.
He stands to God in a relation of personal and moral
fellowship 2.' Thus, as a being created in the image
of God, man is not only called to correspond to the
moral law ; he on his side may claim to share in
a measure the thoughts and purposes of God. The
notion of a covenant involves a certain relationship of
equality, and an element of mutual obligation. In the
Old Testament are laid the foundations of a spiritual
connexion between God and His creatures which was
destined to be perfected in the mystery of the indwell
ing Spirit. Man already becomes in a sense an heir
cf God and a joint-heir with His Christ 3.
IV. Yet another aspect of the Old Testament will
engage our attention. It is a record which unfolds in
successive stages the growth of a unique anticipation
or hope concerning the future, not of the elect race
only, but of mankind. The Israel of the Spirit was
ever waiting, throughout the long ages of the national
history, for the manifestation of the kingdom of God 4.
In the days that immediately preceded the first Advent
1 Cp. Riehm, op. cit. p. 35. 2 O. T. Theology, ii. 5.
Rom. vm. 17. « Cp. St. Luke xxiii. 51.

"] the OLD TESTAMENT 83
this was the hope to which Israel passionately clung —
it was indeed the only hope that remained. And the
history of Israel is unlike that of any other nation in
that the chosen people was divinely destined to fulfil
a peculiar mission to the world. The sense of mission
was at first, no doubt, dim and obscure, but in the
prophets it became powerfully developed, and in it
originated the hopes that we call ' Messianic' If we
wished in a single phrase to describe the ideal destiny
of Israel, we might select the term, Servant of Jehovah ',
since the mission of the chosen people was, in fact, to
proclaim to the nations in Jehovah's name the kingdom
of God. In the momentous events of the exodus,
as they were interpreted by the piety of later ages, the
foundations of a visible kingdom of God among men
were laid. Ye have seen what I did unto the Egyptians,
and how I bare you on eagles win^s, and brought you
unto myself. Now therefore, if ye will obey my voice
indeed, and keep my covenant, then ye shall be a peculiar
treasure unto me above all people: for all the earth is
mine : and ye shall be unto me a kingdom of priests, and
an holy nation 2, that is, a people bearing the marks of
special consecration to Jehovah, and entrusted with
a spiritual mission, extending to all the nations of the
earth. It is highly doubtful whether the nation at
the time of its foundation was conscious of its vocation.
There can be no question, however, that in looking
back on its wonderful past, the spiritual Israel of
a later period rightly interpreted the significance of its
redemption from Egyptian servitude. Through painful
discipline a remnant at least of the nation became con
scious that it was called to be a vehicle of divine
knowledge and salvation to the world ; it was com-

s

1 Cp. Edersheim, Warburton Lectures, p. 45 ; and Wellhausen, Pro
legomena, p. 400. Observe the title 'Servant of Jehovah' implies a call
to special service or obedience. It is used of Abraham (Gen. xxvi. 24),
Caleb (Num. xiv. 24), Moses (Deut. xxxiv. 5, &c), Joshua (Joshua xxiv. 29),
David (2 Sam. vii. 5, &c), Job (i. 8), Isaiah (xx. 3, &c). The phrase, in its
collective sense applied to Israel, is first used by Jeremiah (e.g. xxx. 10)
and Ezekiel (e.g. xxviii. 25), and is common in Deutero-Isaiah.
2 Exod. xix. 4-6.
G 2

84 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
missioned to proclaim the sovereignty of God. Thy
saints give thanks unto thee, sings a psalmist, they show
the glory of thy kingdom and talk of thy power ; that
thy power, thy glory, and mightiness of thy kingdom
might be known unto men1. Hence the keynote of
Moses' song is the reign of God on earth : Jehovah
shall reign for ever and ever 2 ; and the thought thus
expressed becomes the one ' pervading and impelling
idea of the Old Testament 3.'
Now of this kingdom of God the polity of ancient
Israel was a kind of external and visible embodiment.
Although the religion of the Old Testament from the
first contained the potency of becoming a world-
religion, yet in its beginnings it bears all the marks
of a purely national or tribal religion. The kingdom
of God is seemingly confined within the limits of an
organized nationality ; fellowship with God means par
ticipation in the chosen people *. The divine sove
reignty is not conceived as a relation in which Jehovah
stands to the whole created universe ; it is rather the
dominion which He exercises over the special people
of His choice. Hence Israel's polity might be called a
' Theocracy,' a term apparently invented by Josephus
to denote the immediate, personal sovereignty of
Jehovah in Israel 6. When the primitive covenant
between Jehovah and the people was ratified, God
became King in J eshurun* , the fountain-head of all
authority and governance, all civil and religious enact
ments. He became the sovereign, the law-giver, the
judge, the champion, the protector of His people.
1 Ps. cxlv. 10-12. 2 Exod. xv. 18.
3 Keim ap. Edersheim, op. cit. p. 48.
4 Cp. Riehm, op. cit. pp. 27, 28.
5 Cp. Oehler, Theol. of the O. T. § 91.
6 See Josephus, c. Apion. ii. 16 (quoted by Oehler, /. c). Robertson
Smith, The Prophets of Israel (ed. 1), p. 52, remarks that 'The word
theocracy expresses precisely that feature in the religion of Israel which it
had in common with the faiths of the surrounding nations,' but Stanton,
The fewish. and the Christian Messiah, p. 100 note, points out that the
word ' does describe very happily what became distinctive of Israel.
The idea was preserved among them when other nations had lost it' in
a very elevated form.

n] THE OLD TESTAMENT 85
He went before them to battle as their leader; their
triumphs were victories won by His holy arm l.
It would be a mistake however to suppose that the
idea of a theocracy was completely realized in the primi
tive Mosaic institutions. We must remember that they
are described to us by writers who are dominated by
the theocratic idea, and whose conceptions of ancient
Hebrew history are coloured by the facts and ideals
of their own time. Nevertheless, there is no reason
to doubt that Moses planted a seed which the lapse
of time was destined to bring to maturity. The
position of utter dependence on their God and His
appointed mediator in which the newly enfranchised
Hebrews found themselves contained the essential
germ of theocratic ideas. Researches into the primi
tive religion of the Semites give support to this
view. Wellhausen maintains that in ancient Israel
the theocracy never existed in fact as a form of con
stitution ; it only came into existence in the strict
sense after the exile, and was transported in an
idealized form to early times. But this statement
must be qualified by the consideration that among the
Hebrews, as among other Semitic tribes, it would be
obvious and natural to address the tribal god as
king, and the belief in such a sovereignty would carry
with it the conviction that the supreme guidance of
the state was actually in the hands of the deity, and
that the whole sphere of ordinary social and civil life
was subject to His control and direction2. Under
the monarchy the theocratic idea was gradually
recognized, developed, and expanded. The reign of
David and his successors had very far-reaching con
sequences in this connexion. The monarchy ' drew
the life of the people together at a centre, and gave it
an aim'; it developed a 'national self-consciousness';
while political developments necessarily affected the
1 Ps. xcviii. 2.
2 Wellhausen, Prolegomena, c. vii. p. 256, and c. xi. p. 411 [Eng. Tr.].
Cp. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 31.

86 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
growth of religious ideas. The kingship of Jehovah
was, as it were, visibly realized under the monarch ;
the reigning king of David's line was reverenced as
Jehovah's representative, reigning by His grace and
in His name; and to the prophets of the eighth
century the kingdom of Jehovah became practically
identical with the kingdom of David. Isaiah, observes
Wellhausen, ' is unconscious of any difference between
human and divine law: law in itself, jurist's law in the
proper juristic sense of the word, is divine, and has
behind it the authority of the Holy One of Israel . . .
Jehovah is a true and perfect king, hence justice is
His principal attribute and His chief demand V On
the whole, it is probable that the kingship of Jehovah
was a conception belonging indeed to the Mosaic age,
but under the monarchy consciously acknowledged and
taken as the foundation of ideal hopes for the future.
The conquests of David and his successors over the
tribes bordering on Palestine appeared to the prophetic
eye to signalize a gradual extension of the victorious
sway of Jehovah. Kingship appears to have invariably
suggested to a Hebrew mind the notion of conquest
over foes, and extension by victorious conflict of a
rightful dominion. Thus the prophetic picture of the
Messiah represents him as an ideal ruler, filled with
the spirit of Jehovah, and adorned with all the virtues
of a just and powerful prince.
As time went on, however, the ideas of the prophets
were at once expanded and spiritualized 2- They
were inspired to proclaim two truths respecting
the kingdom of God which the mass of the nation
had peculiar difficulty in apprehending : viz. its uni
versality — the kingdom was to embrace mankind ; and
its spirituality— it was to be a kingdom of holiness.
Each of these ideas was suggested by the events,
or by the needs of the present. The thought of
universal dominion resulted in part from the disasters
1 Wellhausen, Prolegomena, c. xi. pp. 413-415.
2 See Kuenen, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 126 foil.

"] the OLD TESTAMENT 87
which overtook Israel on the broad stage of secular
history. The outcome of contact or collision with
the great world-powers of Egypt, Asshur, and Babylon,
was the conception of a world-wide empire of Jehovah,
embracing the very nations which threatened or
oppressed the defenceless kingdom of God. The
temptation of the average Israelite was to mistake
a portion of the divine kingdom for the whole ; but
prophecy rose to the sublime thought of a world
wide kingdom of God, into which all the nations
of the earth should flow and bring their glory, in
which a Prince, enthroned as Jehovah's representa
tive and vicegerent, should reign in peace and
righteousness over a universe redeemed from all
elements of moral or physical evil. Certainly the
constitution of the visible theocracy, as we find it
fully developed in Judaism after the exile, seems at
first sight to mark a retrogression from the ideals
of Messianic prophecy ; but here also wisdom is
justified of her children ; and we can see now that the
legal stage of Israel's development was the means of
keeping alive and deepening those great spiritual ideas
which alone could give to the religion of the Old
Testament a true universality.
Again, the prophets proclaimed the spiritual character
and purpose of Jehovah's kingdom. It was to be a
kingdom of righteousness. The obstinate and cherished
belief of ordinary Israelites was that the divine favour
had been pledged to them unconditionally, and that
Jehovah would under any circumstances intervene on
His people's behalf; it was thought to be self-evident
that any difficult or dangerous crisis would certainly
end in Israel's favour. On the other hand, it was the
work of the prophets to combat this delusion. In
season and out of season they were the preachers of
God's moral requirement. They insisted that the holy
God could be Israel's God only in so far as the laws
of social righteousness were recognized and fulfilled.
They refused, as Wellhausen finely expresses it, ' to

88 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
allow the conception of Jehovah to be involved in
the ruin of the kingdom. They saved faith by
destroying illusion1.' Their function, in a word, was to
vindicate the spirituality of God's kingdom; to pro
claim the indefeasible conditions of the divine covenant.
Moreover, they perceived that a spiritual kingdom
must necessarily outgrow nationalistic limitations : its
dominant tendency and its irresistible impulse must be
to embrace universal humanity.
The kingdom of God, then, began with the founding
of the Mosaic state. Israel was welded into a compact
community by uniform laws, customs, and ordinances
of worship. It became a nation not by growth from
within but by a kind of constraint from without. It
was bound together by the truth which it cherished.
Thus organized, the nation was in due time launched
into a tumultuous sea of heathen peoples — as the object
of a ' relative, temporary, economical preference 2,' in
order to become the vehicle of revelation to the whole
earth. Isolated Israel certainly was : lo, the people
shall dwell alone, and shall not be reckoned among the
nations 3, but only with a view to the ultimate accom
plishment of a definite purpose of grace towards the
world. The Gentiles are accordingly summoned by
Jehovah to rejoice with his people^, while Israel, the
covenant people, with its spiritual mission to the world,
is hailed as the firstborn, the light of the Gentiles,
the head of the heathen 6. Such was Israel's ideal
calling, and all the prophecies that relate to the con
version of the world through Jacob or the ' Servant of
Jehovah ' are primarily applicable to the ideal Israel.
We know how these great and precious promises
became gradually narrowed to a remnant and only
received final fulfilment in the representative personality
of one, who was himself the true Israel, the true Prince
1 Sketch of the History of Israel and fudah, p. 89.
2 Bruce, Chief End of Revelation, p. 116.
3 Num. xxiii. 9.
4 Deut. xxxii. 43; Rom. xv. 10-12.
5 Exod. iv. 22 ; Isa. xiii. 6 ; Ps. xviii. 43.

n] THE OLD TESTAMENT 89
of God. But what was fulfilled in Him had primary
reference to the people of whose stock He willed to be
born ; through Him the Church of the Old Testament
was destined to fulfil its prophetic and priestly calling ;
in Him all the glories and sufferings predicted by
prophecy for the chosen p'eople were to find full
accomplishment ; and thus in the historical fulfilment
a single individual embodied and represented the race
from which He sprang1.
The Messianic hope of the Old Testament will
therefore occupy our attention. We shall attempt to
study the elements which history contributed to it and
the stages of its progress ; we shall also have to notice
the limitations of prophetic foresight, and the strictly
historical conditions of prophetic prediction. But the
point of highest interest is the steady growth of the
universalist idea of salvation ; of the thought that
Israel's God is the God of all the earth, that in
the last days the people of God is destined to be
surrounded by a world of converted nations, that in
Zion, the city of His choice, the Lord will destroy the
face of the covering cast over all people, and the vail that
is spread over all nations; that He will swallow tip death
in victory, and wipe away tears from off all faces 2.
V. The Old Testament is to be studied, in the last
place, as witnessing to a divine purpose for the indi
vidual soul. It continually directs attention to the
importance of personality in the development of the
kingdom of God. It sets before us at each stage
of a progressive movement the figures of men,
sometimes pliable and passionate, sometimes com
manding and majestic, on whose ready will, prompt
obedience, or bold ventures of faith, nothing less
depended than the cause of God in the world. The
Old Testament is indeed from one point of view
a history of vocations, either accepted by faith or
neglected by indolence ; either awakening the response
of human will or forfeited by human sin. In self-
1 Riehm, Messianic Prophecy, p. 218. 2 Isa. xxv. 7, 8.

90 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
surrender and submission to the call of God the soul
of man became conscious of itself and of the con
trarieties which religion alone explains, the strange
blending in human nature of weakness and misery
with greatness and strength \ Again, the Old Testa
ment repeatedly illustrates the fact that man's obedient
response to vocation is followed by a consciousness of
personal inspiration which enhances the sense of indi
viduality : the soul recognizes the illuminating or
strengthening influence of a power higher than itself
educating the intellect, expanding the heart, and
quickening the conscience ; it becomes aware of a
divine operation which does not constrain man ' me
chanically to receive the truth, but enables him to
know it ' ; does not merely reveal to him what God
would have him believe and practise, but raises him
into intelligent sympathy with His mind and will2.
The sense of personal union with Deity however did
not override or overpower individuality, but rather
developed and stimulated it. The inspiration of pro
phets and saints was no mere possession of the soul
by a divine influence, no ecstatic ebullition of irrepres
sible feeling, but a power which added dignity to its
subject, awakening at once his consciousness of divinely
appointed mission, and his perception of the heights
to which human frailty might be exalted by divine
grace. ' It belongs to the notion of prophecy, of true
revelation,' says Wellhausen in a memorable passage,
' that Jehovah, overlooking all the media of ordinances
and institutions, communicates Himself to the indivi
dual, the called one, in whom that mysterious and
irreducible rapport in which the deity stands with man
clothes itself with energy. Apart from the prophet, in
abstracto, there is no revelation ; it lives in his divine-
human ego 3.'
1 Cp. Pascal, Pensees, art. iv.
2 J. Caird, Philosophy of Religion, ch. iii. Cp. Meinhold, fesus und das
A. T. p. 139 : ' Es findet ein mit dem Steigen der geistigen Entwickelung
gleichlaufendes Anwachsen der Aufnahmefahigkeit fur religiose Dinge
statt.' 3 Prolegomena, p. 398.

n] THE OLD TESTAMENT

9i

But again beyond the quickened sense of personal
dignity and worth which resulted from conscious
inspiration, the preciousness of the individual soul
seemed to follow from the very thought of a God who
was willing to communicate Himself to His creatures.
The goodness of God, manifested in His readiness to
bring man into a relationship of sacred intimacy with
Himself, formed as it were an implicit premise whence
the hopeful conclusion might be drawn that a creature
so favoured was not destined to extinction, but rather
to a life of fellowship with his Maker, not to be inter
rupted even by death. Thus the evolution of the
sense of individuality depended upon the spiritual
experience of elect souls. There arrived a stage in
Israel's religion when good men found their only solace
in the life of communion with God. In the troublous
and dreary period of Israel's permanent subjection to
a foreign yoke, personal religion became the strength
and stay of the devout. To the psalmists, for example,
the thought of God is a refuge in any trouble ; He
alone is the object of the soul's confident trust, its
adoring joy, its sacred thirst, its supreme exultation,
its limitless love. And the soul which was capable of
such yearnings and aspirations, felt itself ennobled by
the reflected majesty of Him to whom it clung. With
strong confidence it rested in the assurance that what
God had so highly favoured and blessed, He would
not despise. T/iou wilt not leave my soul in hell — such
was the cry of the human heart. God will redeem my
soul from the power of the grave : for he shall receive
me. My flesh and my heart fail eth : but God is the
strength of my heart, and my portion for ever1.^ The
man whose portion is this life clings to what is vain
and transitory ; and he passes away with that to which
he clings. But the soul which holds to God discovers
in its very love the pledge of an undying life.
The hope which is fulfilled in Christianity is thus
foreshadowed and anticipated in the Old Testament :
1 Pss. xvi. 10, xlix. 1 5, Ixxiii. 26.

92 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
the hope, namely, of a kingdom of God which is also
a kingdom of personality; a sphere in which, with
the advancing development of the community, the
individual also arrives at the plenitude of liberty,
perfection, and blessedness 1.
There remains yet another factor which tended to
develope the life of personal religion. Just as the
dissolution of the Greek states gave a certain impulse
to the spread of Stoicism with its characteristic doc
trine of the avrdpKeia of the individual, so the disasters
which darkened the later stages of Judah's history
inevitably suggested some fundamental moral pro
blems, to the solution of which the wisdom of the
time devoted its energies. At the same time the
pressure of national calamity roused in individual
men doubts and questionings respecting their personal
relation to the God of their fathers. In fact in the
sacred literature of the Hebrews we have an example
of a phenomenon familiar in secular history. One con
sequence of political disorganization was that Hebrew
sages devoted themselves to inquiries concerning the
duties of life and the conditions of personal well-being,
either by way of compensation for the loss of a sphere
of public activity, or as a solace amid the troubles of
a declining state. The prevalence of violent social
anomalies and contrasts, combined with the corruption
and decay of public religion, quickened the spirit of
inquiry into the deeper mysteries of the divine deal
ings with mankind. Such fundamental religious ideas
as those of personal responsibility, of the need of
atonement for sin, and of the efficacy of repentance
were the fruit of sorrowful meditation on the causes of
Israel's national ruin. These ideas took their place
as permanent elements in the religious character ; they
practically marked an advanced stage in the growth of
the human mind. Ancient theories of human suffering
and of divine retribution upon wrong-doing had be
come too strait to satisfy the needs of an enlarged
1 Cp. Martensen, Christian Ethics (General), § 63.

"] THE OLD TESTAMENT

93

experience. They failed to provide a resting-place
for thought, or an adequate explanation of indispu
table facts. Man's perplexities, in short, drove him to
find refuge in the inscrutable power and changeless
character of God. Thus the Old Testament is a
history of the education of faith ; it ends with
a presage of a divine self-manifestation which alone
can solve the riddle of the universe and throw light
on the destiny of man.
We have now reviewed in a summary fashion the
main topics which will be severally considered in
subsequent lectures. It is worth while to observe, in
conclusion, how closely the general arrangement of the
Hebrew Bible appears to correspond with those five
aspects of Old Testament theology which have been
briefly described.
In the Pentateuch and the historical books, the two
most prominent ideas are those of redemption and
revelation. The book of Exodus contains the account
of a redemptive movement on God's part which forms
a kind of creative period in the history of Israel and of
mankind *. The deliverance of the chosen people laid
the foundation of that view of history which is charac
teristic of the Bible : it gave birth to the conviction
that God is in very truth a living God; that His hand
is at work in the universe, controlling the destinies of
nations and using the faculties of individual men ; that
He manifests Himself in the world in order to further
moral purposes of His own, in ways that are relatively
to us supernatural. But the deliverance of Israel from
bondage was also the starting-point of a higher revela
tion. The character of Jehovah was displayed both in
the fact of the deliverance, and in the manner of its ac
complishment. The God of Israel's salvation revealed
Himself as a being of transcendent beneficence, long-
suffering, and pity for the oppressed2. And the
evidence for the actual events of the exodus is parallel
1 Cp. Wellhausen, Sketch of the History of Israel and fudah, p. 7.
2 Cp. Bruce, Chief End of 'Revelation, pp. 193, 194.

94 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF [lect.
to that which attests the resurrection of Christ. The
testimony lies in Israel's national life and historical
career, which cannot be satisfactorily explained apart
from some great original impulse that can only be
attributed to divine power. The deliverance itself
called into existence a church or witnessing body,
which cherished the recollection of its wonderful past
in living hearts and memories. The testimony to the
fact of the exodus was thus independent of any written
record ; such a record was quite possibly formed at
a period contemporaneous with the events, but as it is
impossible to say whether any portion of it survives in
its original shape, so it is important not to over
estimate our dependence on documentary evidence.
To resume, in the Pentateuch we find a history of
redemption and a revelation of Jehovah, together with
that which necessarily accompanies such revelation,
namely the institution of a new relationship between
God and man, which in the book of Exodus is con
ceived as a covenant based on moral conditions. The
historical deliverance was the foundation of a higher
religion, marked by a higher standard of morality.
There can be no doubt that this new morality was an
original element in Mosaic religion, whatever may
have been its precise extent in the earliest legislation.
The object of Israel's redemption was proclaimed from
the first, though it was only very gradually and slowly
brought to fulfilment. The original law of Israel, says
Professor Robertson Smith, ' is pervaded by a constant
sense that the righteous and gracious Jehovah is
behind the law, and wields it in conformity with His
own holy nature. The law, therefore, makes no pre
tence at ideality. . . . The ordinances are not abstractly
perfect and fit to be a rule of life in every state of
society, but they are fit to make Israel a righteous,
humane, and God-fearing people, and to facilitate
a healthy growth towards better things 1.' In a word,
the undoubted tendency of the first legislation was
1 0. T.inf. C. p. 343.

n] the old testament

95

towards the development of a higher morality. The
character of the divine kingdom was ethically deter
mined even in the earliest stage of its history.
The next division of the Hebrew Bible — the book
of the prophets, former and latter — is mainly concerned
with the actual history of the covenant relationship
which Jehovah had established between Himself and
Israel. In these books history is described or inter
preted from the theocratic point of view ; events are
regarded as worthy of record in proportion as they
illustrate the advance or the retrogression of the theo
cratic idea. The writers of the earlier books make it
their chief aim to illustrate the blessings which follow
faithful observance of the covenant conditions and the
loss that follows unfaithfulness. The great prophets
themselves have two main themes : judgment and
redemption. Their mission is to denounce Israel's
unfaithfulness, and to vindicate the spiritual conditions
of the divine covenant ; but their warnings and rebukes
alternate with promises of a glorious future — promises
which reach their climax in the prediction of a new
covenant1 unlike the ancient covenant of the exodus —
a covenant under which the spiritual blessings for which
the heart of man waits and longs shall be effectually
attained. From one point of view, at any rate, this
passage may be regarded as the culminating point of
Messianic prophecy; so at least it seems to be treated
by the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews. The
characteristic blessings of the Messianic age "are vir
tually summed up in three promised spiritual gifts :
power to do Gods will, knowledge of His character,
remission of past sins.
Lastly, the writings classed as Hagiographa illustrate
in various forms the subjective apprehension of the
blessings of covenant fellowship. They are the pro
duct of religious emotion and religious reason.
Accordingly in this group of books there is something
that gives us the sense of a ' many-sided sympathy ' in
1 Jer. xxxi. 31 foil.

96 DIFFERENT ASPECTS OF THE OLD TESTAMENT
the Old Testament x ; there belongs to some of them
at least an interest not merely national but universal,
while others seem specially adapted to enter into the
circumstances and minister to the needs of individual
souls. There are some elements in the Hagiographa
which appear to constitute a link of connexion
between Judaism and the heathen world; and others
which witness to the providential care of God for the
individual soul, and to the divine regard for every
variety of conditions in human life.
With this brief indication of the way in which the
different aspects of the Old Testament find each its
peculiar expression in different parts of the sacred
volume, we may close the preliminary survey of our
subject. 1 Ryle, The Canon of the 0. T. p. 182.

LECTURE III
We have heard with our ears, O God, our fathers have told us, what
thou hast done in their tune of old. — Ps. xliv. I.
An inspired book, such as we believe the Old
Testament to be, cannot be designed merely to record
the religious experiences or promote the spiritual
interests of one favoured nation; still less can it be
intended for special and particular groups of indivi
duals — leaders, priests, antiquarians, or scholars. It is
meant for universal humanity. It must be adapted to
serve world-wide purposes ; it must be capable of being
to all men everywhere a source of the same divine
power, guidance, grace and encouragement which it
supplied of old to members of the covenant-people.
We need not pause to dwell on the fact that Christian
experience has vindicated this high estimate of the
practical purpose which the Old Testament was
destined to fulfil, I will only notice that the univer
sality of their scope helps us better to appreciate
the inexhaustible variety which characterizes the
Scriptures — a variety not only in the style and tone of
the different books, in their subject-matter, point of
view, and mode of treatment, but a variety also in
respect of their canonical value and function. It has
been suggested that if we regard the Bible as an
organism in which every particular book has its dis
tinct office and function, the analogy justifies us in
considering some books to be more important than
others, some more essential to the integrity of the
whole than others. This way of regarding the Bible
H

98 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
is intended to reassure the perplexed by reminding
them that there may be questions raised in regard to
certain books 'without vital consequence to faith
ensuing V We may, however, somewhat extend the
analogy, and observe how the phenomena of physical
nature, viewed in their totality, illustrate the diversity
which is so noticeable in the contents of Scripture.
For nature also is a book in which, as in Scripture,
we study the manifestation of a divine life. We
observe that nature is in a mysterious way bound up
with the fortunes of man : the day of the Lord comes
upon it as upon him, in judgment or benediction.
When man is glad, nature also rejoices with joy and
singing. It has an inner sympathy with him ; it is the
sphere of his labour; it is in a great measure subject
to his control ; it is the medium of God's dispensations
of power or blessing concerning him. Nature, then,
may be expected to give us a clue to the right view
of Scripture. It is infinite in its variety — a variety so
vast that thought has to partition off one department
after another for the purposes of special investigation.
Indeed, the extent of variation seems to outrun the
requirements, so far as our human faculties can judge,
of adaptation to particular ends. Again, nature is
fragmentary in appearance. It continually suggests —
even in the scenes of waste and devastation with which
the surface of the universe is overspread — that God
employs means and aims at results which lie beyond
the range of our present powers of perception. And
yet there is in nature an inner unity and completeness —
the sense of which partly arises from our instinctive
transference to nature of the unity which underlies our
own sense of personality and partly follows from our
conception of God as the single sustaining cause of all
1 Bruce, Apologetics, pp. 314, 315. It is noteworthy that in the First
Prayer Book of Edw. VI (1549) the following rubric was inserted : 'The
Old Testament is appointed for the first lessons at Matins and Evensong,
and shall be read through every year once, except certain books and
chapiters which be least edifying, and might best be spared, and therefore
are left unread.' This direction was omitted in the revised Book of 1662.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 99
things, rerum tenax vigor \ This harmony is taken
for granted in our blessed Lord's parabolic teaching.
It is the harmony of a consentient witness. Thus by
its completeness and by its fragmentariness, by its
sternness and rigour no less than by its softness and
loveliness, by what it is and by what it is not, nature
witnesses to the indwelling and sustaining presence of
its Author. And when we turn to Scripture we are
prepared to . find that God adapts Himself to the
diversity of human needs in ways analogous to His
operations in nature. We find Scripture also marked
by an infinite variety, yet by a clearly felt harmony.
We find it to be fragmentary, yet in one view complete.
It exhibits strange features of apparent imperfection
and anomaly, yet it is manifestly an organic whole.
Scripture is analogous to nature also in this : that while
its general aspect is stern and sombre, its promises and
suggestions point to an unearthly glory and perfection
of things yet to be revealed. Further, the interpreta
tion of Scripture, as of nature, is seen not to belong
exclusively to any one age or time. Each generation
reads it with the aid of fresh light, and finds in it a new
significance. It contains much that can only be appre
hended and interpreted in the light of an acquired
knowledge of the whole and an enlarged acquaintance
with human nature and its needs. The attentive
reader of the Old Testament, like the student of nature,
has moments of insight when he perceives ' gleams like
the flashing of a shield.' For Scripture, like nature,
points persistently beyond itself to a uniform purpose
pervading the multiplicity of historical events which it
1 Cp. Briggs, Biblical Study, p. 359. ' The Bible is a vast organism,
in which the unity springs from an amazing variety. The unity is not that
of a mass of rocks or a pool of water. It is the unity that one finds in the
best works of God. It is the unity of the ocean, where every wave has its
individuality of life and movement. It is the unity of the continent, in
which mountains and rivers, valleys and uplands, flowers and trees, birds
and insects, animal and human life, combine to distinguish it as a magni
ficent whole from other continents. It is the unity of the heavens where
star differs from star in form, colour, order, movement, size and importance,
but all declare the glory of God.'
H 2

ioo THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
describes, and of spiritual moods which it reflects. It
unveils, even while it partially conceals, a presence for
which the human heart instinctively yearns, towards
which it stretches out hands — a presence which speaks
and appeals to man as spirit to spirit and heart to
heart. And if it should be asked what led to the formation
and eventual completion of a ' canon ' of the Old
Testament, the answer is perhaps something of this
kind. The conviction arose after the overthrow of
the Hebrew state that it was desirable to secure n
a permanent form the spiritual forces which had
built up and moulded the characteristic life of the
Jewish Church, and that there already existed writings
sufficiently qualified to fulfil this function. In regard
to the methods by which canonical problems were
gradually settled we are very much in the dark, but in
the total result we can trace the action of religious
experience, guided by divine wisdom to select those
particular writings which had proved themselves best
adapted to develope and educate religious faith.
Regarded in its entirety, the Old Testament is the
record of man's communion with his Creator ; it traces
through all its successive stages the history of a
friendship between God and man which reaches its
climax in the spiritual life of Christian saints. It tells
the chequered story of that sacred mutual love : on
the divine side, the disappointments of love — its con
stancy, its patience, its tenderness, its hopefulness ; on
the human side, the fallings away and vanishings of
love — its recoveries, its heroisms, its ventures of faith,
its perpetual tendency towards consummation in a per
fect union between God and man, in the Incarnation of
God and the presence in human hearts of the in
dwelling Spirit. In the Old Testament the story is all
but completed, and it is enshrined in enduring forms
of typical value and significance, for in the retro
gressions and advancements of one particular nation
lies hidden the whole spiritual history of mankind, in

iii] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 101
so far as Israel represents that instinct of communion
with Deity which belongs to man as man.
We come, then, to the Old Testament as to an
historical book. ' The Bible,' says Ewald 1, ' is through
and through of historical nature and spirit. Standing
conspicuous amid all the efforts of antiquity, the most
profound as a work of mind, the loftiest in elevation
and sweep of thought, a product of noble pains, com
pact in itself and finished, it bears upon its face, looked
at as a whole, the clearest impress of historic truth.'
Ewald goes on to draw an obvious contrast in this
respect between the sacred book of Islam and the
Bible. In this there is no need to follow him, but
I would take the above passage as a keynote of the
discussion on which it is our business to enter to-day,
respecting the nature and extent of the historical
element in the Old Testament. For certainly the
primary and most important subject of investigation in
regard to the Old Testament is its claim to be a trust
worthy history of redemption. The fullness and the
diversity of its contents serve to fill with life and
colour the outlines of a vast historical picture, in which
the progress and perfection of all true religion is
included 2.
The historical element in the Old Testament : how
vast and how difficult a theme ! It is obvious that we
must begin by suggesting a few considerations essential
to the inquiry.
i. In the Hexateuch and the historical books we
are dealing, as will be allowed on all hands, with highly
composite narratives, in which the oldest historical
traditions have been revised, developed, supplemented,
and to some extent remodelled in a religious spirit
and from a point of view in some cases priestly,
in others prophetic. In the Hexateuch, primitive
traditions and later conceptions as to the course
of Israel's early history have been woven together in
1 Revelation, its Nature and Record, p. 407.
2 Ibid. p. 408.

102 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
a double or threefold cord, so as to present to critical
eyes the appearance of a highly ingenious and elaborate
mosaic constructed out of materials of very different
historical value. In the prophetic books of Judges,
Samuel, and Kings, early traditions have been at
different times selected or revised in such a way as to
impress on the narrative a uniform stamp or quality
and to infuse into it certain strongly marked religious
ideas1. There are plain tokens in these writings that
both the original selection of facts and the mode of
estimating them are determined by particular religious
preconceptions, and it would even appear that in some
cases the special standpoint from which events and
incidents are regarded, and the framework in which
they are set, are of more importance for religious
purposes than the facts recorded. The peculiar
character of the books of the Chronicles will be noticed
later. It is sufficient at this point to say that owing
to their late date they cannot claim to be placed on the
same level of historical value as the earlier authorities
on which they are manifestly based.
What has been now said amounts to the assertion that
the written documents available for constructing the
history of Israel are, when tested by a modern standard,
of unequal value and of very divergent quality. They
contain fragments of contemporary records and annals
which would satisfy any modern tests ; but these are
intermingled with elements of quite another kind :
quasi-historical narratives which clothe religious
thoughts in a poetic and symbolic garb 2, and popular
stories or traditions which owe their vivid beauty to
the creative genius of a race singularly gifted with
imaginative power 3. Embedded in them we find con
siderable fragments of ancient songs and of very early
narratives, borrowed apparently from the archaic Book

1 Cp. Wellhausen, Prolegomena, pp. 293, 294.
2 This of course applies to the history of the origins. Cp. Meinhold,
fesus und das A. T. pp. 112, 118, 132.
3 Cp. Schultz, 0. T. Theology, i. 21.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

103

of Jashar, or the Wars of Jehovah, which extolled the
exploits of primitive Hebrew heroes. There is also, in
the Hexateuch at least, a considerable element of
apparent history, which really consists of law embodied
in the form of historic precedents. We have perhaps
been accustomed to regard the early books of the Bible
merely as historical records ; but critical inquiry has re
minded us that to every species of literary composition
natural to the ancient Hebrews has been assigned by
the overruling Spirit of God a place in the sacred
volume, and we must be prepared to part boldly with
exclusively modern prejudices in dealing with this
wonderful literature. The trained historical sense of
western minds is apt to take offence at the notion that
the faculty of poetic or historic imagination should be
employed as a suitable medium of instruction by the
Spirit of truth. But to those who study the Old Testa
ment in the temper of sympathy and reverence, no
genuine and natural product of the human mind will
appear common or unclean or incapable of consecration
to lofty and divine uses. Speaking broadly, the docu
ments now under consideration seem to have a twofold
value. On the one hand, without themselves professing
to give an account of the exact course of Israel's
history, they supply materials with which historical
investigation may successfully work. On the otherhand,
they furnish a valuable means of ascertaining the point
of view from which Israel regarded its past career, and
the religious conceptions which influenced the literary
treatment of ancient traditions. An attentive student
of the Old Testament cannot fail to notice how pro
foundly the records of Hebrew history are penetrated
by religious ideas. The ideals and conditions of the
age in which the books attained to their present form
are projected into antiquity, and the problem of the
modern historian is to disentangle from its ideal or
imaginative embodiment the genuine historical nucleus
which unquestionably underlies the record. As it
now stands, the sacred history has been aptly com-

104 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
pared to an epic poem1, and there is no reason for
denying that a certain epic character belongs to Israel's
historical documents in common with other ancient
literature. The Semitic mind seems in fact to have
been distinctly wanting in the purely scientific interest
which loves historical precision and accuracy of detail.
Its interest was confined to the discernment of religious
principles ; it was inclined rather to interpret the
spiritual significance of events than to lay special
stress upon exactness of detail. To certain great facts
of past history the Hebrew mind clung with un
wavering tenacity. These were cherished as constant
objects of devout contemplation ; they were the
support and joy of faith ; they were the favourite
theme of sacred poetry ; they were the commonplaces,
so to speak, of prophetic preaching. And we cannot
wonder that the mighty acts of Jehovah on behalf of
His people were idealized and invested with a sacred
halo of glory or even of romance. In admitting the
action of impassioned imagination, we neither question
the occurrence of the historical facts themselves nor
detract from their religious significance. The present
point, however, is that the historical writings of the
Old Testament reflect the characteristics of the race
that produced them. Their historical quality is modi
fied and coloured by the peculiar genius of the writers,
and it is accordingly undesirable and imprudent
to attach overmuch weight to historical details for
which corroborative evidence is not forthcoming 2. We
must be content to possess a narrative which in its
main outlines is demonstrably authentic, but we must
1 See Renan, Histoire du peuple cT Israel, bk. ii, ch. 4 s. fin. and Kittel,
A^History of the Hebrews, vol. i. p. 40 (Eng. Tr.). So Hofmann ap. Kbhler,
Uber Berechtigung der Kritik des A. T. p. 41. Cp. J. Darmesteter, Les
Prophetes d? Israel, p. 240: 'Ainsi se forma cette merveilleuse epopde
publique, exemple unique d'une histoire refaite a coup d'iddal.'
2 Mr. Schechter, Studies in fudaism, p. xviii, refers to the interesting
fact that some Jewish scholars have substantially accepted the above view
of the historical portions of Scripture. Zunz, for instance, holds that the
early history is presented ' in an ideal light,' in accordance with a ' tradi
tional interpretation adapted to the religious needs ' of a particular age.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 105
not ^ allow ourselves to reason as if all the sources
available for ascertaining the true course of Israel's
history were of equal value. And in endeavouring to
arrive at a general estimate of the historical trust
worthiness of the records, we must distinguish between
the various strata of the ancient tradition, which are
either left in juxtaposition or have been fused together
into a single narrative. It is here that we shall in the
long run be bound to submit to the guidance of experts
in criticism, accepting their verdict where they agree,
and suspending judgment where they differ. Thus
a cautious student will recollect that the early history
of the Hebrews, as of other races, is involved in
great obscurity ; he will therefore be on his guard
against the idola tribus which occasionally influence
the critical mind — the passion for positive results, for
finality, for systematization even in spheres where these
are, from the nature of the case, unattainable. He
will not be unduly impatient of necessary distinctions,
and of a certain complexity and obscurity in problems
which he might antecedently have expected to find
simple and straightforward.
2. A second consideration relating to our present
subject is the fact that a mass of evidence, which bears
upon the primitive history of the Hebrews, is being
gradually accumulated in other fields of inquiry, and
it is accordingly a plain duty to make allowance for
actual or probable results of archaeological research as
a modifying factor in our estimate of the Old Testa
ment narratives, corroborating or correcting the con
clusions that might be drawn from the internal evidence
of the written documents 1. The Hebrew Scriptures
after all form only one fragment of a vast literature, of
which other portions are gradually coming to light in
different parts of the East. These discoveries prove
1 In the Bampton Lectures of 1859 by the Rev. G. Rawlinson, an
attempt was made to state anew 'the historical evidences of the truth of
the Scripture records, with special reference to the doubts and discoveries
of modern times.' Clearly the attempt must be repeated from time to
time in the history of the Church.

106 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
not only that the art of writing is of far greater antiquity
than was once supposed, but also that a certain degree
of literary culture prevailed throughout western Asia,
even at a period preceding the exodus of Israel from
Egypt1. Hence it is not more than reasonable to
expect that they may modify some of the conclusions
which had been reached by literary criticism respecting
the most ancient periods of Hebrew history. It would,
however, be unwise to overrate the extent to which
critical results are likely to be modified by this branch
of knowledge. There are no doubt discoveries which
lead us to defer our acceptance of certain critical
verdicts ; there are others which have to some extent
qualified or corrected the axioms on which literary
criticism has at times too confidently insisted. But
there is an agreement between literary critics and
archaeologists on at least two points : they are at
one in their estimate of the general character, as
distinct from the intrinsic value, of the Old Testa
ment documents ; and they seem also to be agreed
in acknowledging that we have reached a period
of reconstruction 2. This may well encourage us in
an attempt to deal not merely critically but con
structively with the literature and theology of the Old
Testament. The real value of sacred archaeology
is that it enables us to enter into the circumstances of
those to whom the Word of God came, with that
intelligent sympathy which alone can appreciate the
quality of their writings and the conditions which
moulded or influenced their thought. Indeed, the
change which has come over our conception of the Old
Testament documents seems to be due not merely to
the results of research into special points of history, but
also to the fact that there has been a development of the
historical sense, and an enlargement of the power of
insight into the peculiar characteristics of the Hebrew
1 See generally Sayce, The Higher Criticism and the Monuments. On
the antiquity of writing in the East, Cornill, Einleitung in das A. T. § 4.
2 Sayce, op. cit. p. 24. Cp. Robertson Smith, O. T. inf. C. p. 16.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 107
mind. When we are asked why we hesitate to ascribe
to the early books of the Old Testament a uniformly
historical character, we can only reply, first, that there
is no sufficient reason for assuming that Hebrew
history has been exempted from the ordinary con
ditions observable in all other primitive annals ; and
secondly, that in any case the ancient Scriptures are
a genuine product of the Semitic mind, guided and
controlled no doubt by the wisdom of the divine
Spirit, but clearly reflecting the characteristics of the
oriental temperament — its imaginative capacity, its
passionate moral fervour, its intuitive perception of
spiritual laws and realities.
3. Once more it is necessary to repeat with all
possible emphasis that a Christian reader of the Old
Testament will feel no a priori difficulties in regard to
the occurrence of miracles l. On the contrary, he will
be prepared to find in the course of redemptive history
creative epochs at which the moral character and
purpose of Almighty God manifest themselves in
a manner relatively to our ordinary experience super
natural. The possibility of miracle in point of fact
logically follows from the belief which is everywhere
conspicuous in the Old Testament — the belief in the
living personality of God. The anthropopathic expres
sions which are so frequently applied to Jehovah — the
ascription to Him, for example, of love, hatred, wrath,
jealousy, scorn, and repentance — do tend to inculcate,
perhaps in the only possible form, a fundamental truth
of religion, namely that the Creator and Ruler of the
universe is akin to man in the essential characteristics
of His being — in the possession of will, character, and
moral freedom. Inadequate of course as descriptions
of the divine nature, anthropopathic modes of speech
reflect this conviction which dominated the Hebrew
mind and which gained strength and clearness in pro
portion to the advance of Israel's religion. But, as was
previously pointed out, a general acknowledgment of
1 See Rawlinson's Bampton Lectures (1859), pp. 27 foil.

108 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
the a priori credibility of the Old Testament miracles
does not bind us to regard every supernatural occur
rence recorded in the Old Testament as literal fact.
In regard to this point we may the more confidently
claim freedom because, on the whole, miracle is kept
in the background in the Old Testament, while in
some passages (such as Deut. xiii. 1-3) a comparatively
low estimate of its evidential value is expressed.
Indeed, it would appear that it was only in the age
of Judaism that there arose a kind of passion for
the miraculous, in some respects anticipating the
temper of mind which sought after a sign and was
rebuked as evil and adulterous by our Lord 1. Miracles
may justly be believed to have accompanied a momen
tous creative act of God, such as that which brought
into being the nationality of Israel 2 ; but, after all, their
chief significance in the view of the Old Testament
writers is that they constitute an unmistakeable sign of
Jehovah's presence among His people at particular
crises of their history 3. They do not seem in the old
dispensation any more than in the new to have been
a normal part of the divine method under normal
circumstances 4. So far as we can judge from the
records, the closing stage of the journey from Egypt
to Canaan appears to have been marked by a gradual
cessation of miracle 5, a fact which illustrates the action
1 Cp. Robertson Smith, O. T. inf. C. p. 409.
2 Cp. Deut. xxxii. 6, Isa. xliii. 1, &c.
3 Cp. Joshua iii. 10. Schultz, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 193 foil., has some
admirable remarks on the O. T. view of miracle. He points out how the
Hebrew mind, with its vivid consciousness of God's immediate action in
nature, would view a miracle : regarding it not as an unnatural or super
natural event, but rather as a striking proof of God's power and freedom.
To the Hebrew a miracle ' does not stand out as an irregular individual
occurrence in contrast with a differently ordered whole ; but it stands out
as a specially striking individual occurrence in contrast with other single
events, which, being less striking owing to their frequency, are less calcu
lated to produce the impression of God's almighty power in executing
His purposes.' It is a significant fact, and consistent with his treatment
of the Gospel narrative, that M. Renan attributes the miracles of the
wilderness-journey to imposture (Histoire du peuple d 'Israel, bk. i, ch. 13).
4 Cp. Mason, The Relation of Confirmation to Baptism, p. 477.
5 Cp. Joshua v. 12.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

109

of what has been called a ' law of parsimony ' in revela
tion — of a principle of restraint and limitation, avoiding
both waste and extravagance.
We may now pass to the special subject of this
lecture, prepared by what has been already said to be
contented with broad general conclusions only, and
remembering that in this matter, as in many others, it
is possible to overrate the importance of completeness
and precision. For convenience' sake we shall do well
to limit our survey of the history of Israel to three
distinct epochs : (1) the patriarchal age, (2) the Mosaic
period, (3) the period of the Judges and of the early
monarchy. From the nature of the case it is plain that
the evidence available for the history of each epoch is
different in quality, but this need not deter us from
attempting to form some conception of its value that
may be practically serviceable in the study of the Old
Testament.

I.
In dealing with the patriarchal period we must bear
in mind that the age to be investigated is, relatively
speaking, prehistoric. The available documents, in their
final shape at least, belong to an age removed by an
interval of several centuries from the events. The
narrative which is generally held by critics to be the
earliest, that of the Jehovist, seems indeed to be based
on ancient popular tradition, but it describes the age of
the patriarchs as in some essential respects so closely
similar to later periods, that it can only be regarded as
a picture of primitive life and religion drawn in the
light of a subsequent age. We have here to do with
the earliest form of history, traditional folklore about
primitive personages and events, worked up according
to some preconceived design by a devout literary
artist *. The question at once naturally arises how
1 Cp. Wellhausen's Prolegomena, pp. 295, 296.

no THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
these narratives are to be employed and inter
preted. As is well known, some very extreme con
clusions have been advanced by critics, as for example
that the patriarchs are not real historical personages
at all, but mere personifications of particular Semitic
tribes 1. Some writers maintain that ' Abraham,' ' Isaac,'
and 'Jacob' are titles of primitive tribal deities2. It
is not my business to investigate these theories, which
in their extreme form are never likely to pass beyond
the stage of unverified hypothesis. It may at once
be pointed out that while no convincing reasons have
ever been alleged for doubting the historic personality
of the great patriarchs, there are some considerations
which materially support the traditional view. There
are of course historical points respecting which the
verdict of a purely literary criticism cannot be final,
and its more or less provisional conclusions need to be
supplemented or even corrected by archaeological data.
The discoveries of recent years have admittedly shown
that during the age in which Hebrew tradition places
the patriarchs, there was much more intercourse between
Palestine and the far East than was formerly suspected,
— a circumstance which increases the probability that
a genuine historical substratum underlies the patriarchal
narratives 3. Again, there is a striking element of
internal consistency in the story of the patriarchs. It
fits in with known facts ; it accounts for subsequent
developments. The entire course of events in the
Mosaic period seems to presuppose the nomad "and
migratory stage which tradition connects with the
person of Abraham and his immediate descendants.
1 See Kuenen, The Religion of Israel, vol. i. p. in. For a similar but
slightly modified \view see Wellhausen, Prolegomena, p. 320. Cp. Renan,
Histoire du peuple d 'Israel, bk. i, ch. 8.
2 See Kittel, History of the Hebrews (Eng. Tr.), i. 171.
3 Cp. Sanday, Bampton Lectures, p. 221. The importance of Gen. xiv,
which seems to lie outside the recognized sources of the Pentateuchal
narrative, must not be over-estimated. It renders credible, but cannot
be said actually to prove, the facts related in the patriarchal narrative.
See some judicious remarks of Meinhold, Jesus und das A. T. p. 124.
Cp. Kittel, op. cit.'x. 175-180.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

in

As Professor Kittel, following Dillman, points out, ' the
religious position of Moses stands before us unsupported
and incomprehensible V unless we accept the tradition
which traces to the patriarchs the rudiments at least
of a higher religion and the first tentative occupation
of the promised land. The fact-basis which underlies
the story of Abraham's call may be his migration from
Chaldaea, dictated by motives of ' vague dissatisfaction
with prevalent religious beliefs and practices, rather
than a new clearly conceived idea of God 2.' Thus we
may hold it to be intrinsically probable that so unique
a history as that of the elect people had precisely
such a beginning as the book of Genesis relates. The
circumstances indeed of the patriarchal age may not
have been in all points what they afterwards appeared
to minds trained in the school of levitical piety and
imbued with strict theocratic ideas ; but it may be
confidently claimed for the patriarchal narratives that
they give the true ideal significance of the events
summarily, and perhaps obscurely, described in them.
While, however, in receiving the narrative as sub
stantially true, though coloured by later prophetic
conceptions of Israel's history, we are accepting an
account which is entirely consistent with all that we
otherwise know respecting the redemptive methods of
Almighty God 3, we have no interest in denying a
certain element of idealization in the description of the
primitive period. There may possibly be an element
of truth even in the view that the figures of the patri
archs are tribal personifications. We may agree with
Baethgen that Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob are historical
persons, but that ' these personalities are invested with
the characteristics which afterwards marked the tribes
descended from them4.' It is likely enough that the
1 History of the Hebrews, vol. i. p. 17.4.
2 Bruce, Apologetics, p. 199. 3 Cp. ib'd. pp. 195-199.
4 Baethgen, Der Gott Israels und die Cotter der Heiden, quoted by
Meinhold, fesus und das A. T. p. 120: 'Die hervorstechenden Eigen-
schaften, durch welche ein Volk sich vorn andern unterscheidet, werden
auf die Heiden der Vorzeit ubertragen, so dass diese zu typischen Gestalten

112 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
great figures of the remote past were made the subjects
of many popular legends and traditions 1 ; and it is no
doubt possible that to a certain extent a tribal history
may have been expressed in a personal and individual
form 2. It might be admitted, for instance, if it could
be made to appear historically probable, that Joseph
was a prominent chieftain belonging to a tribe which bore
his name, and that the story of his personal career
conceals the record of a tribal migration from Canaan to
Egypt 3. There is ample scope for speculation on this
and kindred points, nor does a general acceptance of
the Hebrew tradition in its main outlines preclude
a certain latitude of view in regard to such minor
details. We have indeed no reason for abandoning,
even though we may be required to modify, our
ordinary view of the patriarchal narratives ; but we
should be open to the charge of misconceiving alto
gether the spirit and intention with which they were
compiled if we insisted, as some are inclined to do, on
their possessing a character which cannot justly be
attributed to them. We are dealing with stories which
are probably derived for the most part from oral tra
dition, and are unlikely to have been based to any
great extent on contemporary records, though the
existence of such documents is admittedly possible.
It has been sometimes asserted that oral tradition was
more likely to be preserved in a state of integrity
among the Hebrews than elsewhere, but the grounds
werden .... Mir steht es fest dass Abraham, Isaak und Jakob . . . ge-
schichtliche Personlichkeiten sind ; ebenso sicher ist est mir, dass diese
Personlichkeiten zu idealen Tragern der Charactereigenschaften geworden
sind, welche das Volk als seine eigenen erkannte.'
1 Cp. Darmesteter, Les Prophetes d 'Israel, pp. 220 foil.
2 In the Book of Judith (v. 6 foil.) the movement of Abraham from
Chaldaea is described as a tribal migration.
3 So, for instance, Renan and Kittel. Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures,
pp. 12, 13, follows Kuenen and Renan in regarding all the patriarchs as
legendary heroes ' individualized heroes eponymi,' whose family story
represents the early career of the Beni-Israel. On similar grounds it has
been held that names like ' Mamre ' and ' Eshcol ' are collective and
represent tribes. See however a criticism of the theory in Robertson,
1'he Early Religion of Israel, pp. 123 foil., and note xi (p. 499).

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 113
urged in support of such a belief are precarious and
sometimes arbitrary. Accordingly, while there are
sufficiently good reasons for holding that the main
outlines of the pre-Mosaic history are trustworthy, it
would be unwise to insist particularly on more than
the following points, which are unlikely to be disputed.
1. The narratives of Genesis present in the main a
faithful picture of the general conditions of patriarchal
life, especially in respect of its moral characteristics.
A Hebrew writer, we must remember, would be con
tinually in a position to observe with his own eyes the
habits and customs of primitive civilization ; among
the tribes of Bedawin Arabs on the east side of the
Jordan, some of the unchanging features of nomadic
shepherd-life may be witnessed to this day. The
oldest narrative, though coloured by prophetic ideal
ism, gives a vivid portrait of patriarchal life : its simple
forms of worship, its family priesthood, its sacrificial
feasts, its sacred customs and social institutions.
Moreover, there are features in the story which point
to a comparatively low standard of ethical and religious
development, especially the use of cunning and
violence, together with a certain element of sexual
licence. We notice also obvious traces of the close
affinity that existed between the religion of the Hebrew
patriarchs and the common ideas and practices of the
neighbouring Semitic tribes : the notion, for instance,
that the revelation of deity was confined to certain
definite spots, such as Sichem, Bethel, Hebron, and
Beersheba ; the reverence paid to sacred pillars, trees,
and other emblems which were regarded as monuments
and tokens of a special presence of God ; and the use
of teraphim for oracular purposes, a custom which
apparently lingered to a comparatively late period x.
1 See Riehm, ATI. Theologie, pp. 51, 52. Cp. Gen- xxi. 33, xxviii.
18 foil., xxxi. 19, xxxv. 2, 14, &c. Teraphim were still found in the time
of David (1 Sam. xix. 13). On the general characteristics of the patri
archal age see Renan, Histoire du peuple d' Israel, bk. 1, chh. 2 and 3.
M. Renan forms a high estimate of the book of Genesis regarded as ' the
idealistic description of an age which really existed.' A book, he adds,
1

114 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
These indications of a very rudimentary religious
condition are valuable, not only as enhancing the
credibility of the narratives, but also as deepening our
consciousness of the divine influence which actually
guided the Hebrew race from the first, controlling the
development of faith, accepting what was rude and
primitive as a needful stage in a constant upward
movement, and gradually raising the ancestors of
Israel above the general level of their age. It is not,
I think, too strong to assert with Schultz that ' we
cannot, in point of fact, picture to ourselves the rise
of the Hebrew religion in any other way than Hebrew
legend does,' when it represents God as entering into
converse and communion with primitive man in
modes suited to his present capacity. The whole
subsequent course of revelation tends to confirm the
idea that at some point in early Hebrew history
there actually took place such an event as we believe
the ' call ' of Abraham to have been : a self-manifesta
tion of Almighty God and a vocation addressed to
a particular man, on whose response to the divine
call the future development of the redemptive move
ment was allowed to depend. This is the important
point, and there are many extraneous matters in
regard to which we can well afford to be neutral or
indifferent. All that we are told by literary critics
respecting other internal features of the early narra
tives — for instance, respecting the presence in them
of mythical details or euhemeristic elements ] — only
serves, if modern theories can be substantiated, to
illustrate more vividly, first, the antecedently probable
fact that Israel's religion was rooted in the natural
soil of Semitic usage and worship ; secondly, the fact
that it contained, even in its most rudimentary stage,
which is not strictly historical, may well supply a perfect historical picture.
Elsewhere, he remarks (pref. p. xiii, Eng. Tr.) that ' nothing in the history
of Israel can be explained without reference to the patriarchal age.'
1 Such elements are probably to be discerned in the traditions of the
antediluvian period. Such names as Tubal-cain, Jubal, Enoch, Lamech,
&c, point to the possibility of figures originally mythical becoming human!
See the cautious remarks of Schultz, vol. i. pp. 112 foil.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 115
a divinely implanted germ or element, which by per
petual upward pressure ultimately attained to complete
predominance, and imparted to the faith of Israel its
capacity in the fullness of time to welcome and adore
the Son of God himself, manifest in human flesh.
2. In the patriarchal tradition we may reasonably
contend that we have a faithful representation of the
two principal factors which determined the distinctive
character of Israel's religion : namely, a personal and
redemptive operation of God in history on the one
hand, and the response of human faith on the other.
If we wished to select the master-thought of the Old
Testament, we should be justified in saying that it is
belief in the providence and direct action of the living
God. Certainly this was the point of view from which
the writers of the Pentateuchal narratives described
the early stages of the history ; it was the standpoint
from which the prophets reviewed and interpreted
Israel's wonderful past. It was the living experience
of Jehovah's might that made Israel unique among
nations : Unto thee it was showed, that thou mightest
know that the Lord he is God ; there is none else beside
him. Out of heaven he made thee to hear his voice,
that he might instruct thee : and upon earth he showed
thee his great fire ; and thou heardest his words out of
the midst of the fire. And because he loved thy fathers,
therefore he chose their seed after them, and brought
thee out ii% his sight with his mighty power out of
Egypt1. Whatsoever the Lord pleased, says the
psalmist, that did he in heaven, and in earth, and hi
the sea, and in all deep places %. In the Old Testament
Jehovah is not merely represented as one who con
trols the course of natural events ; He interposes, He
actively operates, He brings mighty things to pass, He
makes Himself known in acts that display the tenacity
of an invincible will, the splendour of a spiritual pur
pose, the reality of redemptive power. And although
in early times the mass of the nation probably thought
1 Deut. iv. 35-37. 2 Ps. cxxxv. 6.
I 2

116 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
of Jehovah as one who worked only on behalf of His
own elect people, yet the prophets and those who were
imbued with their spirit recognized the divine hand in
universal history. They teach that the sovereignty of
Jehovah is co-extensive with human life and society,
and that His moral purpose embraces all the nations
of the world. They magnify His power to initiate,
to impel, to control, to overrule1. Is anything too
hard for the Lord? they ask2. Ah Lord God ! cries
Jeremiah, behold, thou hast made the heaven and the earth
by thy great power and stretched out arm, and there is
nothing too hard for thee . . . the great, the mighty God,
the Lord of hosts is his name, great in counsel, and
mighty in work : for thine eyes are open upon all the
ways of the sons of men 3. That the Most High
ruleth in the kingdom of men i is, in short, a primary
axiom of the highest Hebrew faith, and any expres
sions, however anthropomorphic, which serve to convey
an idea of the living personality of God are employed
by the sacred writers without any fear of misconception.
It is scarcely necessary to point out that this idea
of deity pervades the narratives of Genesis. The
living God Himself is ever at work controlling and
judging the deeds of men. On the other hand, the
book teaches in the most striking and emphatic way
the necessity and significance of man's response to
the revealed will and electing love of God. It is
noticeable that Kuenen who questions the historical
existence of the patriarchs, explicitly rejects the idea
of a divine election to which their faith was a response.
'Is,' he asks, 'the belief in Israel's selection still tenable
in our days ? That the first Christians — who knew but
a small portion of the inhabited world, and could hope
that within a comparatively short time the true religion
would have reached that world's uttermost bounds —

1 Amos ix. 7 ; Deut. ii. 12, 22; Isa. v. 26 foil., vii. 20, viii. 7, ix. 11,
x. 5 foil., xxiii. 9, xiv. 1 ; 2 Kings v. I.
* Gen. xviii. 14. 3 Jer. xxxii. 17 foil.
4 Dan. iv. 17.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 117
should have acquiesced in this view is most natural.
But we ? Is this belief in harmony with the experience
which we have now accumulated for centuries together,
and with our present knowledge of lands and nations ?
We do not hesitate to reply in the negative. . . . We
now perceive that the means of which God was formerly
thought to have made use are altogether dispro-
portioned to the end which in reality was to be
attained. So long as we yet knew but little of " the
heathen," and formed but an indistinct idea of their
number, their characteristics, and their development,
we could reasonably believe that God had suffered
them to walk in their own ways in order, with a view
to them and their future, to manifest Himself first of
all to one nation. Now this idea seems to us a childish
fancy. Israel is no more the pivot on which the
development of the whole world turns than the planet
which we inhabit is the centre of the universe.
In short, we have outgrown the belief of our
ancestors V
Now the Old Testament, it need scarcely be said,
assumes precisely the contrary state of things to be
the fact. The principle of election is obviously con
ceived to be a primary element in the divine method,
and accordingly the whole story of Genesis describes
the response made to God's action by successive indi
viduals — men in whom had been awakened a certain
susceptibility to the divine self-revelation. There were
holy prophets — that is, men of spiritual genius — since
the world began. The religion which was to embrace
mankind could only find an entrance through some
solitary soul, quick to apprehend and to welcome the
promises of God. This is tantamount to saying that
the progress of the race in religion, as in other things,
has depended upon individuals ; and even if it could
be shown that the name of Abraham is merely a
mythical abstraction, or a tribal personification, it would
yet be reasonable and indeed necessary to assume that
1 Religion of Israel, vol. i. pp. 8, 9.

n8 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
at a certain point in history an individual man appeared,
capable of so entering into communion with God as
to be the true father of the faithful. In point of
fact, does not the whole history of religion show
that there are critical moments when everything
turns on the fidelity, the simplicity, the courage, with
which some individual soul surrenders itself to obey
the will of God ? The only adequate explanation
of the rise and growth of Hebrew religion is the
supposition that God actually made known His will
to some individual human spirit, and manifested Him
self to him singly and alone. Abraham's history,
says Dean Church, ' is marked as the history of a
man, a soul by itself in relation to Almighty God ;
not as one of a company, a favoured brotherhood, or
chosen body, but in all his doings single and alone,
alone with the Alone, one with One, with his Maker
as he was born and as he dies, alone : the individual
soul, standing all by itself, in the presence of its Author
and Sustainer, called by Him and answering to His
call, choosing, acting, obeying, from the last depths
and secrets of its being1.' Belief in God, belief that
what He promises He is able to perform, faith — this
is the second essential factor in the religion of the Old
Testament. It is easier to believe that this faith was
born in the heart of an individual than that it was
the simultaneous impulse of a tribe ; but even this
latter supposition would not necessarily conflict with
the principle of election, nor with the great promi
nence assigned to faith by the Old Testament as a
vital element in the spiritual history of mankind. I say
then confidently that the early narratives do faithfully
present the conditions and factors which alone account
for the rise and onward movement of Israel's religion.
Thus there seems to be no just reason for doubting
the main incidents of Abraham's traditional career.
The rite of circumcision may well have been selected
1 Church, Discipline of the Christian Character, p. 20.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 119
as a fitting sign of the higher relationship with God to
which Abraham and his tribe felt themselves called *.
3. It will be convenient here to touch upon a delicate
and difficult point suggested by the special character
istics of the Pentateuchal narrative, a point to which
some reference has already been made. I allude to
the fact that the Pentateuch unquestionably exhibits
an element of what may be called idealization. The
character of the ancient patriarchs and their manner
of worship, the story of the Egyptian plagues, the
experiences of the Israelites in the wilderness, their
movements to and fro, their conflicts, their tribal
arrangements, their internal polity and order, above
all, their sanctuary with its ordinances of sacrifice —
all these not only must be supposed, but can actually,
as I believe, be shown, to have been to a considerable
extent idealized by the pious reflection of a later age.
It has been pointed out that a special tone and ten
dency characterizes each of the principal documents
which appear, so far as our present knowledge extends,
to form the substance of the Pentateuch. The Elohist
writer, for example, seems to narrate the history of
Israel's origins from a prophetical standpoint ; he in
terprets in a religious spirit what he records, and aims
at bringing out the didactic significance of events 2.
The Jehovist, on the other hand, displays an inclination
towards profound theological reflection. He is pene
trated by the thought of Jehovah's mercifulness, long-
suffering, and covenant-faithfulness. He delights to
trace the successive stages in the development of
faith. It is he who tells how Abraham believed in the
Lord, and he counted it to him for righteousness ; how
a heavenly benediction ever crowns the response of
human faith to the electing grace of God 3. The
Jehovist appears in fact to survey the field of history
1 See the section in Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, on ' The Religion of the
Patriarchs,' § 9.
2 See e. g. Gen. 1. 20.
3 Gen. xv. 6. Cp. Exod. xiv. 31, xix. 9 ; Num. xiv. 11.

120 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
with the eye of mature spiritual experience ; in the
lowly beginnings of Hebrew history he discerns the
divinely intended consummation — the ultimate purpose
which from the first filled the incidents of ordinary life
with solemn significance 1. Once more, the author of
the priestly document evidently purposes to give a
systematic and circumstantial sketch of the sacred
institutions of the theocracy, and from this standpoint
he regards the entire career of the nation. In effect
he presents us with an ideal picture of the Mosaic
age. ' His representation as a whole,' says Dr. Driver,
' seems to be the result of a systematizing process
working upon the [ancient] materials, and perhaps also
seeking to give sensible expression to certain ideas or
truths 2.' Of this ideal sketch there is beyond reason
able doubt an historical basis, but the facts and institu
tions described are so conceived as to exemplify ideal
theocratic principles. It is no part of my plan to enter
at length into the well-known characteristics of the
priestly code. By way of illustration it will suffice to
refer to one point. It would appear that the dominant
thought of the priestly writer is that of Jehovah's
abiding presence in the midst of His people. That
sublime prophetic idea was, as it were, visibly realized
in the local position and organized cultus of the second
temple. But the writer seems to project back into the
Mosaic age an ideal system which was only realized in
fact at a period several centuries later than the exodus.
He accordingly describes the tabernacle as occupying
a central position in the camp of the Israelites, whereas
the earlier composite narrative (JE) regularly repre
sents the ' tent of meeting ' as outside the camp.
Moreover, the writer's usual conception of the collec
tive people is as a ' congregation 3,' a term that does
not occur in the non-priestly portions of the Hexateuch.
1 Gen. ix. 22 foil. ; xvi. 12 ; xix. 31 foil. ; xxv. 25 foil. ; xlix. 9 foil.
2 Introduction to the Literature of the Old Testament, p. 120. See
generally Wellhausen, Prolegomena, ch. viii ; Robertson Smith, O. T. in
f. C. lect. xiii. 3 niJJ.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 121
Now it is to be observed that there is absolutely no
question of the writer's good faith ; he does not carry
his idealizing tendency to the point of overlooking the
sins by which the divine purpose, either for the people
or for Moses himself, was thwarted or abrogated 1.
But in historical details, especially those which relate
to chronology, the priestly writer is evidently more
concerned with ideal conceptions than with actual facts.
His work is interwoven with the older writing, which
represents a different tradition, in such a way as to
make the total result unique : a kind of blending of
fact with theory, of actual institutions with an imagi
native conception of their original form and ideal
significance. It may assist us to form a clearer notion of the
idealizing process under consideration if we endeavour
to depict to ourselves the motive and purpose of the
priestly compilers of the Pentateuch, and the method
of procedure which they appear to have adopted. The
facts are probably somewhat as follows. At a late
stage in Israel's history, apparently during the exile in
Babylon, when the process of national development
seemed to be arrested, and an age of enforced inac
tivity and reflection succeeded a period of tumult
and disaster, an unknown priestly writer, or possibly
a school of writers, took in hand the task of framing
a compendious and concrete picture of the early history
of the Hebrew people. They were guided, no doubt,
by the light of that divine purpose for Israel which
the oracles of prophecy and the teachings of calamity
had at length brought home to the national conscience.
To a devout Jew placed in these circumstances the
lessons of history would appear unmistakeable. It was
plain that from the first Jehovah had formed Israel to
be a holy community, bound together by sacred insti
tutions of" divine appointment and by the presence of
God Himself dwelling in the national sanctuary. The
authors of the priestly code evidently entered on their
1 See Exod. xvi. 2 ; Lev. x. I ; Num. xx. 12, 24 ; xxvii. 13 foil. &c.

122 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
task filled with precise legal conceptions of what an
ideally holy community should be, and accordingly
their theory of Israel's history is entirely religious.
' To the community is assigned a purely religious
end : political aims are ignored, for the people lives
for God's sake and not for its own1.'
On the whole it cannot, I think, be fairly disputed
that Prof. Robertson Smith's general description of the
writing in question is correct. 'It is only in form,'
he says, ' an historical document ; in substance it is
a body of laws and precedents having the value of law,
strung on a thread of history so meagre that it often
consists of nothing more than a chronological scheme
and a sequence of bare names.' From the fact that
' the supposed Mosaic ordinances and the narratives
that go with them are,' practically and at least in their
developed form, ' unknown to the history and the
prophets before Ezra. . . to the Deuteronomic writers
and ... to the non-priestly parts of the Pentateuch, . . .
it follows with certainty that the priestly recasting of
the origins of Israel is not history (save in so far as it
merely summarizes and reproduces the old traditions
in the other parts of the Hexateuch) but Haggada,
i. e. that it uses old names and old stories, not for the
purpose of conveying historical facts, but solely for
purposes of legal and ethical instruction V
Such is the theoretical point of view from which the
priestly narrative of Israel's early history and sacred
ordinances is compiled. The object of the writers is
not to supersede the work of the prophetic narrators,
but to supply a counterpart to it. Long before the
exile a fusion of the two main historical documents
of the Pentateuch (the Jehovistic and the Elohistic3)
had in all probability taken place ; the combined narra-
1 See Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, No. vi. p. 319. This lecture gives
an admirable account of the influence under which P was compiled.
2 O. T. inf. C. p. 420.
3 For a good account of the different documents see Dillmann, Comm.
on Genesis, pp. ix-xiv. Observe, Dillmann uses for P, E, J, the symbols
Aj x>j C

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

123

tives had been revised from the Deuteronomic stand
point, and had already, as it seems, been united with
the book of Deuteronomy 1. At the close of the exile,
writers of the priestly school completed what had been
already begun, combining the materials already extant,
and piecing them together in a framework which in
form is historical, but is really little more than a con
tinuous exposition of the legal and religious ordinances
of Israel, tracing them for the most part to Moses
himself. Such, then, seems to have been the literary process
towards which the available evidence distinctly points.
Without unduly insisting on the accuracy of details,
we may attempt to describe summarily the view
which our present knowledge may lead us to form of
the Pentateuch in its final shape. The work viewed
in its entirety as a single product contains two expo
sitions of Israel's history which stand side by side,
separate and distinct in origin, purpose, and internal
characteristics, forming together a combination of
different elements, of prophetic narrative with priestly
torah. It contains history idealized, the actual historic
traditions and the ideal goal towards which the history
was tending being presented in juxtaposition. In esti
mating, therefore, the evidential value of the narratives,
it is essential to bear constantly in mind the two ele
ments they contain : on the one hand, the ancient
traditions of Israel's past, moulded in forms of rare
grace, dignity, and simplicity under prophetic influence ;
on the other, side by side with these, and often inter
woven with them, the idealistic and imaginative sketch
of the priestly writers, whose chief interest lay not in
tracing the actual course of Israel's primaeval history,
but in exhibiting the spiritual and theocratic consum
mation towards which it was advancing from the first.
1 Robertson Smith, O. T. in f. C. p. 425. The history of the ancient
'law of holiness' (Lev. xvii-xxvi) is obscure. It comes to us embedded
in P, but the process by which it was taken up, expanded, and accommo
dated to P's standpoint cannot be traced. The antiquity of many of the
injunctions contained in this law, especially in chh. xviii-xx, is undoubted.

124 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
Some writers have spoken with undisguised contempt
of the authors of the priestly document, but it would be
absurd to charge them with wilful desertion or falsifi
cation of the historical tradition. Even while they
' reshape the narrative in order to set forth later laws
under the conventional form of Mosaic precedent1' they
leave the ancient tradition of JE substantially in the
form handed down to them. How shallow and unjust
are those criticisms of the narrative which ignore its
essential character ! how futile is the attempt to
measure them by the standard of modern historical
literature ! To treat the priestly narratives as worth
less fictions is anachronistic ; to treat them as literal
and undiluted history is to ignore the distinction
between history and Haggadah 2. The Haggadistic
treatment of history implies a certain amplification of
incidents recorded or alluded to in the original narra
tives, according to the views and necessities of later
times. It admits the play of fancy ; it manipulates the
details of sacred history in such a way as may best
serve the purpose of instruction or edification. It was
in Judaistic times at least a recognized mode of dealing
with the early narratives which probably had passed
through a long process of development. Since criticism
has discovered so much that illustrates the mind and
intention of the different contributors to the Pentateuch,
we are bound to study it not only with more intelli
gence and sympathy, but also with more discrimination
than was formerly possible.
The importance of the priestly writing from a religious
point of view is certainly great. The Pentateuchal law
played a significant and necessary part in the develop
ment of true spiritual religion. It preserved and
sheltered some of the loftiest and most beautiful ideals
of prophecy : e. g. the idea of a holy people dedicated
1 Robertson Smith, 0. T. inf. C. p. 387.
2 Ibid. p. 430. Obs. P is essentially a law-book, and cannot be used as
an independent source for the actual history of the Mosaic and pre-Mosaic
period. Cp. Kittel, op. cit. i. pp. 96 foil.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

125

to God, and of the divine consecration of its natural
life ; the idea, in a word, of an indwelling presence of
God among men. What criticism justly questions is
whether, in view of our present knowledge, we have
a right to go to the priestly literature for historical
information ; whether such use of it does not imply an
entire misconception of its essential character.
But an element of idealization in the stricter sense
is to be found even in the older prophetic narratives.
The primitive story describes the ancestors of the
Hebrew people with an evident intention to represent
them as types of spiritual character. It is true indeed
that there is a vivid reality, and faithfulness to human
nature in the narratives of Genesis which strengthens
our impression of their general truth to fact. These
life-like figures — so entirely human both in their weak
ness and in their strength — cannot be mere creations
of pious fancy. But even in these vigorous delineations
of actual men and women we are able to recognize
the overruling guidance of Him to whose purposes the
narrators unconsciously ministered. The figure of
Abraham especially, the friend of God, is to a certain
extent idealized. He is represented as a prophet,
a saint, a servant of God, a priestly intercessor, a hero
of faith, a recipient of splendid promises; his outward
prosperity and wealth correspond to his spiritual dignity;
it is manifest that he is pourtrayed from the stand
point of men who fully recognize his transcendent
importance in the history of religion — an importance
which eventually seems to overshadow even that of the
great lawgiver of Israel himself. Further, the very
fact that in the New Testament Abraham reappears
as the most sublime figure in the past history even of
all mankind1, confirms the impression that we have
here a case of legitimate and profitable idealization.
Abraham is an historic personage, but he is also
a spiritual type : he is the ideal representative of the
1 Cp. Rom. iv; Gal. iii; Jas. ii. 21 foil.; Heb. xi. 8 foil., besides the
passages in the gospels, Luke iii. 8 ; John viii. 33 foil.

126 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
life of faith and of separation from the idolatries of
an evil world. He prefigures ' the ideal character and
aims of the people of God V His descendants, too,
are typical figures : Isaac is a type of the life of
spiritual sonship, Jacob of the spirit of service, Joseph
of the purifying power of suffering and of the glory
that follows it. The spiritual purpose of the narra
tives is manifest ; they are literally penetrated with
religious ideas. In fact, as Origen forcibly insists 2, the
Pentateuch was intended to serve higher purposes
than merely that of supplying historical information.
It was written for our learning ; it is profitable
for doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness1 '. It was intended to be a mirror
of human life, not only as it is, but as it should
be and is hereafter destined to become ; a glass
in which a man may behold the face of his genesis 4
and go his way, ready not to forget, but to fulfil
what he has learned.
Considering indeed the real function of Holy Scrip
ture, we cannot fail to appreciate the value of the
ideal element which we have been illustrating. If
the object of the Bible be to teach us the outlines
of religious character and the true knowledge of God,
to instruct us how we ought to walk and to please God 5,
it might be justly maintained that these Old Testa
ment portraits of human character, faithful in general
outline but idealized in colour, are most suitable for
the purpose of edification. The peculiar features
and essential elements of the religious life are in fact
nowhere so vividly pourtrayed as in the living and
1 Driver, Sermons on the Old Testament, p. 127. Cp. Aug. serm. ii :
' Quicquid scriptura dicit de Abraham et factum est, et prophetia est.'
2 See A. Jukes, The Types of Genesis briefly considered as revealing
the development of human nature, esp. pref. p. xiii. Cp. Orig. Horn. 2 in
Exod. § 1 : ' Nos omnia quae scripta sunt non pro narrationibus anti-
quitatum, sed pro disciplina et militate nostra didicimus scripta.' Horn.
1 in Exod. § 5 : 'Non nobis haec ad historiam scripta sunt neque putandum
est libros divinos Aegyptiorum gesta narrare, sed quae scripta sunt ad
nostram doctrinam et commonitionem scripta sunt.'
3 Rom. xv. 4 ; 2 Tim. iii. 16. 4 Jas. i. 23. 6 1 Thess. iv. 1.

m] - IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 127
breathing pictures of the patriarchs. The fundamental
conditions of the life of communion and converse with
God find here an entirely adequate expression. In
the hands of the inspired writers who narrate them,
the simple incidents of the patriarchal story become
parables of the spiritual life. The call of Abraham,
the trial of his faith, Isaac's willing self-surrender, the
vision of Jacob at Bethel, the sorrows and exaltation of
Joseph and his self-discovery to his brethren — these and
such- like incidents may be accepted as historical, but
in any case they are much more than this. They are
symbolic parables of God's dealings with His children
in every age of human history ; they are narratives to
which the spiritual experience of saints has set its
seal. The phrase ' children of Abraham ' tends from
the first employment of it in Scripture to acquire a
moral and spiritual significance. The great patriarch
is the father of all them that believe. That the idealized
sketch of his life was intended to convey sacred teach
ing is actually proved by the continuous experience of
those who in every age have set their faith and hope
on God 1.
On the whole, we shall feel that in frankly recog
nizing the idealistic element in the Old Testament nar
ratives we are on the way to a more sympathetic and
intelligent study of them. For the element is present
in other historical books ; to some extent it is to be
looked for in all. The character of David, for instance,
is idealized in the first book of the Chronicles, much as
Abraham's figure is in Genesis 2. Confining our atten
tion, however, to the patriarchs, we may observe that
the spirit of due veneration for them was displayed
not only in the circumstantial minuteness of the
beautiful narratives relating to their career, but in
the ascription to them of ancient oracles, like the
Blessing of Jacob, which probably had an independent
1 Cp. 1 Pet. i. 21.
2 On the character of David see Cheyne, Aids to the Devout Study of
Criticism, part i. Renan's account of David is greatly impaired by the
strong prejudice displayed in it (Histoire, &c, bk. ii. chh. 16 foil.).

128 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT ^lect. V
origin 1. Thus, in the memory of the nation of which
they were the honoured progenitors, the patriarchs
veritably survived in such a way that they, being
dead, yet continued to speak 2.
Before, however, we leave the subject, it is desirable
to suggest an answer to the question whether idealiza
tion of history such as we have indicated is morally
justifiable. In part the answer has already been given
in the consideration that the Bible was intended to
teach religion rather than natural knowledge, the ways
of God rather than the exact course of history, the
needs, aspirations, and capacities of human nature
rather than the achievements or sufferings of individual
men. But a further suggestion may be advanced.
A true justification of the scriptural mode of present
ing history lies, we may think, in the fact that the
sacred writers are reading the story of human life from
a divine point of view. We are told of each stage
in creation that, though relatively imperfect, it was
good in the sight of God : God saw that it zvas good.
On a somewhat similar principle the characters of the
patriarchal age and of subsequent periods are delineated
not merely from the human, but also from the divine
standpoint. We see them in their imperfections, their
frailties, their deceits, their deeds of violence, lust or
revenge, which do not surprise us if we bear in mind
that even the highest level attained by Old Testament
morality is comparatively low and defective ; but there
is another way of estimating human character, which is
more true and more God-like. He who discerned the
end in the beginning loved even a fallen and alienated
world; He beheld it ennobled, transfigured, and glori
fied ; He saw what the universe might ultimately
become, new heavens and a new earth, wherein dwelleth
righteousness 3. In the same spirit perhaps the inspired
writers idealize the characters which they describe, for
it is the mark of the spirit of goodness not to impute
1 Ewald, Revelation and its Record, p. 323.
2 Cp. Heb. xi. 4. 3 2 Pet. iii. 13.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

129

evil, but to discern in all things the best and highest
that they contain. Indeed, this habit of idealization is
a fundamental trait of the sacred writers both in the
Old and New Testament. How cordially St. Paul
appreciates and makes much of what is good and
promising in the several churches to which he indites
his epistles ! He commends their faith, their good
ness, their patience, their love ; he gives thanks to
God that in everything they are enriched by him, in all
utterance and in all knowledge; he rejoices over their
election of God l ; he glories in their constancy ; he
recognizes with large-hearted charity each token that
they exhibit of Christian sanctity and grace. Similarly
St. John in each of his messages to the seven churches
begins with praise. And our blessed Lord Himself
ever sets us the example of quickness and readiness
to welcome goodness wherever it is to be found.
'A devil,' it has been said, 'can mark our faults, but it
needs the grace of God to mark the dawn of grace 2-'
When God looks upon us He loves us non quales
sumus sed auales erimus; and it is not unfair to suppose
that even this tendency to idealization, which might at
first sight be supposed to impair the strictly historical
value of the early narratives, is after all a token of the
working of the divine Spirit, who alone can penetrate
below the surface of life and discern in each human
soul what it may yet become — what it is on the way
to be. It is not fanciful, but the truest wisdom, to
think loftily of the early stages of a movement which
was destined to culminate in the Incarnation of the
Word. There was an ideal greatness about him who
rejoiced to see Christ's day; and he saw it, and was
glads. Poor, base, and low may have seemed the
origins of Hebrew religion; Jacob was as a wandering
Syrian ready to perish in the eyes of Laban, but the
favour, the tenderness, and the gentleness of God
lifted him to greatness. Hast thou, says the writer of
1 See 1 Cor. i. 5 ; I Thess. i. 4, &c. 2 Jukes, op. cit. p. 9.
3 John viii. 56.
K

130 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
Job, eyes of fiesh, or seest thou as man seeth? Are
thy days as the days of man ? are thy years as maris
days, that thou enquirest after mine iniquity, and
sear chest after my sin1? Job appeals to his Maker
as any man may appeal who is conscious of his frailty,
yet is assured of his heavenly vocation, who has been
haunted by heavenly visions which he fears to disobey,
who has dreamed splendid dreams of the heights to
which human nature may attain, and of the things
which God hath prepared for them that love him 2.
It has seemed desirable to dwell at some length on
this point, inasmuch as it is of more importance to
recognize the principles which have moulded the
structure of the Old Testament narratives, than to
determine precisely their historical value, even if we
could reasonably hope to do so. What has been said
about the patriarchal history practically amounts to
this : that in it we possess a general outline of Israel's
origins, coloured to a considerable extent by the
thoughts and habits of a later period. The writers
were evidently penetrated by certain moral and re
ligious ideas ; their aim was apparently didactic, and
they were influenced by an instinctive tendency to
idealize what they described. This peculiarity, while
it is very far from depriving the narratives of all
historical value, is yet specially calculated to serve the
purposes of spiritual edification and instruction in
righteousness 3. The historian may complain with
Kuenen that the strictly historical kernel which can
be safely extracted from such a book as Genesis is
vague and more or less indefinite \ The fact is that
the great figures of the patriarchal period are presented
to us in narratives ' of which,' says Prof. G. A. Smith,
' it is simply impossible for us at this time of day to
establish the accuracy.' We have simply to accept
1 Job x. 4 foil. 2 1 Cor. ii. 9. 3 2 Tim. iii. 16.
4 See The Religion of Israel, vol. i. p. 113. Cp. G. A. Smith, The
Preaching of the Old Testament to the Age, p. 37. See Note A at the
end of the lecture.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 131
the fact that in the present state of our knowledge
there are no clear criteria by which to distinguish
precisely the historical nucleus contained in the patri
archal narratives from the idealized picture. If there
is uncertainty on this point we can only conclude that
knowledge of the precise details of the history is not
of vital importance. But from the standpoint of
religion, the book is rich in instruction beyond what
even the keenest student can fathom. ' In Genesis,'
it has been said, ' is hid all Scripture, as the tree is in
the seed V ' The book of Genesis,' says another living
writer, ' is the true and original birthplace of all
theology. It contains those ideas of God and man,
of righteousness and judgment, of responsibility and
moral government, of failure and hope, which are pre
supposed through the rest of the Old Testament, and
which prepare the way for the mission of Christ 2-'
Such an estimate every Christian who thoughtfully
studies the Old Testament will eagerly endorse.

II.
Passing to the period of Mosaism, we touch ground
which is acknowledged on all sides to be compara
tively solid. Even those critics who regard the
records of the entire pre-Mosaic period as legendary,
allow that the exodus of Israel from Egypt and the
personality of Moses are ' assured historical realities 3.'
It is no doubt true that the figure of Moses himself
is drawn in the light of a much later age, but that
which made him the most conspicuous creative genius
of Hebrew history stands out with luminous clear
ness, namely, the fact that he was a prophet, a man
conscious of a supernatural call, strengthened and
sustained throughout his eventful career by the sense
1 Jukes, op. cit. p. 4.
2 Girdlestone, The Foundations of the Bible, p. 155. Cp. Delitzsch,
New Commentary on Genesis, vol. i. p. 56.
3 Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 14.
K 2

132 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
of divine mission. Indeed, since the consolidation
of Israel's nationality was in every sense a creative
act, it cannot be adequately explained apart from
the appearance of a personality like that of Moses \
' Nothing,' says Professor Kittel, ' is less likely to
arise spontaneously out of the depths of a people's
life than those new creations which make epochs in
the history of religion and morals. They slumber
there, but they do not come to the surface until
a single spirit, of whom they have taken entire
possession, finds them in himself, grasps them, under
stands and proclaims them, and thus becomes the
religious and moral hero, the prophet of his people ''.'
The prophetic activity of Moses is not the less real
because it is rather displayed in action than embodied
in writings. The results of his activity, which are
plainly visible in the subsequent history, show that
his work was a work of God, and he himself a com
missioned organ of Jehovah's will 3.
It seems to be most probable that what we call
' Mosaism ' had an historical basis in existing religious
beliefs, that there already prevailed religious ideas and
aspirations to which Moses could appeal, that at least
in some inner circle of the Hebrew clans the rudiments
of a pure and simple faith had been cherished since
patriarchal times. Something, too, may have been
owing to the influence of Egyptian culture, with
which, according to tradition, Moses was familiar,
1 Bruce, Apologetics, p. 197, makes a suggestive remark : ' The creation
of Israel, like the creation- of the world, may have been a much more
complicated process than it appears in the sacred page, and the secular
history of the process, if it could be written, might assume a very different
appearance in many respects to the biblical, just as the scientific history
of the physical creation differs widely from that given in the first chapter
of Genesis.'
2 History of the Hebrews, vol. i. p. 240. Observe that Moses is referred to
as a ' prophet ' in Num. xii. 7 ; Deut. xviii. 15 foil., xxxiv. 10 ; Hos. xii. 13.
God holds converse with him as a man speaketh with his friend, Exod.
xxxiii. 11. To him is vouchsafed the manifestation of God's character
' which dominates Israel's history,' Exod. xxxiv. 6-8. (Driver, Sermons
on the O. T. p. 128.) Cp. Wellhausen, Prolegomena, p. 399.
3 Cp. Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, pp. 54-56.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

133

though it is on the whole probable that the influence
of Egypt was prejudicial to the comparatively pure
faith which the tribes of Israel may be thought to
have inherited from their ancestors 1.
Further, there is no reason a priori for rejecting the
supposition that Moses borrowed from other sources
such religious forms or institutions as he judged to
be suitable vehicles of the main religious thoughts
that formed the basis of his system. Nevertheless,
his work was that of an originator. Channing has
said that the true task of God's ministers is ' to give
vitality to the thought of God.' Such was indeed the
aim of Moses. He has been sometimes represented
as nothing more than a powerful leader or social re
former ; but the history of Hebrew religion shows that
he was a prophet indeed. In his proclamation of
the truth that Jehovah was Israel's God, and that He
was a God of righteousness2, was contained the expan
sive germ from which the higher faith of subsequent
times was developed.
When we turn to the books of the Pentateuch, in
which the historic narratives relating to Mosaism are
contained, we notice at once that they do not profess
to be complete. The greater part of the history of
this period is contained in the priestly document, but
the book of Deuteronomy contains a retrospect which
is in all probability earlier than the narrative of the
priestly writer. It is a striking fact that the Deutero
nomic writer is silent in regard to those very subjects
which occupy a central place in the priestly writing ;
for instance, the erection of the tabernacle and the

1 Riehm, p. 53, thinks that the old Semitic worship of Jehovah under
the symbol of a bull was revived under Egyptian influence. He also
traces to Egypt the worship of satyrs, Lev. xvii. 7 (D'H'^B'). Cp. Renan,
Histoire, &c, bk. i. ch. 11.
2 Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 48. Cp. p. 55. 'The story of Israel's
religion opens with the work of a great personality, who taught his people
to worship one God only, a severe but just deity, demanding from the
tribes which acknowledged his dominion the practice of the simplest rules
of civic morality.'

134 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
institution of its worship \ ¦ But taking the narratives
as a whole, it is plain that they do not aim at giving
an exhaustive account of the historical facts. The
thirty-eight years of wandering in the wilderness are
passed over almost in silence, while other incidents,
which must have occupied considerable spaces of time,
are compressed or grouped together in cameo-like
pictures. There are indeed many phenomena in the
Pentateuch which justify Kuenen's observation, that
' in the memory of a nation the events of a series of
years become compressed into one great fact and are
attached to one great name2.' Nothing indeed can
be more natural than that the events of one great
crisis in a nation's history should become encircled
with a halo of sacred tradition, in which particular
incidents recede into the background, and general
features and principles of divine action emerge and
come to the front. The all-important fact of Jehovah's
deliverance and guidance of His chosen people seems
to live in the religious consciousness of the Pentateuchal
writers, and perhaps somewhat overpowers or dims
their interest in historical details.
Let us attempt to indicate briefly the main features
of the narrative which deals with the history of the
exodus and the wanderings in the wilderness.
i. First, we mark the general tendency of the
account, to represent the wonderful deliverance from
Egypt as the fundamental fact of Israel's national
career. The leading incidents we may regard as
practically certain : Israel's flight from Egypt, the
passage of the Red Sea, the desert journey, the
conflict with Amalek, the delivery of a law at Sinai
embodying some definite but rudimentary system of
1 Robertson Smith, O. T. inf. C. pp. 391-393.
2 The Religion of Israel, vol. i. p. 135. Observe that this compression
is found also in the account of the processes of creation (see Driver,
Sermons on the O. T. p. 173), and also in such a narrative as that of Joshua
x. foil., which ' gathers up all the details of slow conquest and local struggle
in one comprehensive picture, with a single hero in the foreground.' S°ee
Joshua xi. 18 (O. T. in f. C. p. 131).

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

135

worship and polity, the long sojourn at Kadesh, the
conquest of the region east of Jordan, the occupation
and gradual appropriation of the promised land. It
is in regard to minor points that the evidence is
defective, for the circumstantial and curiously minute
sketch of the priestly writer, systematic, detailed, and
precise though it be, cannot for reasons already in
dicated be regarded as constituting an independent
historical authority 1. Thus in regard to the nature of
the ' tent of meeting ' and its precise position in the
camp there is a conflict of evidence, nor is it ever
likely to be determined to what extent a sacrificial
cullus was actually carried on in the wilderness. The
outstanding fact, however, of the Mosaic history is
contained in a passage which has been called ' the
gospel of the exodus.' Ye have seen what I did unto
the Egyptians, and how I bare you on eagles wings,
and brought you unto myself. Now therefore, if ye
will obey my voice indeed, and keep my covenant, then
ye shall be a peculiar treasure unto me above all people 2.
The exodus implied first and foremost the exaltation
of Israel's God 3 ; next, it marked the birth of a
nation, and its call to a special position of dependence
on its deliverer. Thus saith the Lord, Israel is my
son, even my firstborn 4. The new title corresponded
to a unique fact, viz. that the Hebrew race was
adopted by Jehovah, and brought into a peculiar
relationship to Himself. The prophets occasionally
describe God as the creator of Israel6, in virtue
of those mighty redemptive acts by which Israel
was severed from Egypt and made the people of
divine election. In this display of condescending
grace Israel recognized the God of its fathers as the

1 As instances of P's partiality for definite and precise details of number,
measure, and weight, see the description of Noah's ark (Gen. vi. 14 foil.),
and such passages as Exod. xxxviii. 24-31, Num. vii and xxxi. See
Driver, Introduction to the Literature of the 0. T. pp. 118-122.
2 Exod. xix. 4, 5. 3 Exod. xv. I, 2. 4 Exod. iv. 22.
5 See Isa. xliii. 15.

136 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
founder of its nationality 1, and accordingly it is with
the exodus that the real history of Israel begins, at
least in the view of the earlier prophets 2. Then for
the first time was established that unique relationship
between Jehovah and Israel which became the basis
of a theocratic polity ; nor can we wonder that pro
phetic and priestly writers of a later period incor
porated in the Pentateuchal picture of the Mosaic age
an account of those fully-developed theocratic institu
tions, the germinal origin of which could be traced to
Moses himself. For the primitive ordinances estab
lished at the period of the exodus, the sacrifice of the
Passover with its accessories, the feast of Mazzoth
and the sanctification of the firstborn, gradually came
to be regarded as symbols of Israel's original con
secration to the worship and service of Jehovah.
Observe the month of A bib, says the writer of
Deuteronomy, and keep the passover unto the Lord thy
God: for in the month of A bib the Lord thy God
brought thee forth out of Egypt by night. . . . Thou
shalt eat no leavened bread with it ; seven days shalt
thou eat unleavened bread therewith, even the bread of
affliction ; for thou camest forth out of the land
of Egypt hi haste : that thou mayest remember the day
when thou camest forth out of the land of Egypt all
the days of thy life 3- To this corresponds a passage
in the book of Exodus : By strength of hand the Lord
brought us out from Egypt, from the house of bondage :
and it came to pass when Pharaoh wculd hardly let
us go, that the Lord slew all the firstborn in the land
°f Egypt . . . therefore I sacrifice to the Lord all that
openeth the matrix, being males ; but all the firstborn
1 Cp. Amos ii. 9 foil., iii. 1 ; Hos. ii. 15, xi. 1, xii. 9, 13, xiii. 4 foil.
2 Memhold,/?TOj- und das A. T. p. 133, observes that if the story of
Genesis is of fundamental importance, it is difficult to explain the fact that
the prophets generally regard the exodus as the beginning and foundation
of Israel's religion. It is certain that Abraham is very seldom alluded to
by pre-exilic prophets (Isa. xxix. 22; Jer. xxxiii. 26. Mic. vii. 20 is not
certainly pre-exilic. See Kirkpatrick, The Doctrine of the Prophets p "30)
3 Deut. xvi. 1-3. > f ~j J-

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

137

of my children I redeem1. We know how the events
of the exodus lived in the memory of the people.
Again and again, in the days of alarm and calamity,
the thoughts of the faithful reverted to that signal
manifestation of Jehovah's beneficence and might.
It was a comprehensive type of all divine salvation ;
it constituted a sure basis of the loftiest hopes ;
it rekindled faith even when it seemed to be over
whelmed by the disasters of later history ; it was
the ground of the most passionate appeals : Awake,
awake, put on strength, O arm of the Lord ; awake, as
i?i the ancient days, in the generations of old. Art thou
not it that hath cut Rahab in pieces, and pierced
the dragon"1. God is my King of old, working
salvation in the midst of the earth. Thou didst divide
the sea by thy strength: thoit brakest the heads of the
dragons in the waters 3. / will meditate of all thy
work, and talk of thy doings. Thy way, O God, is in
the sanctuary : who is so great a God as our God ?
Thou art the God that doest wonders: thou hast
declared thy strength among the people. Thou hast
with thine arm redeemed thy people, the sons of Jacob
and Joseph. The waters saw thee, O God, the waters
saw thee; they were afraid: the depths also were
troubled11- With these inspired outbursts may be
classed the wonderful song of Moses, which is inserted
in the prophetic narrative of the exodus, and is the
most exalted expression of the triumphant feelings
aroused by that memorable event 5 The exodus was
indeed a turning-point not merely in the history of the
world, but in the development of human faith. It
not only gave birth to a nation, but was the starting-
point of a higher religion. Israel saw the mighty act
which Jehovah performed upon the Egyplia?is : and the
1 Exod. xiii. 14, 15. 2 Isa. Ii. 9.
3 Ps. lxxiv. 12, 13. 4 Ps. lxxvii. 12 foil.
5 The structure of the song is examined by Kittel, Hist, of the Hebrews,
vol. i. p. 225. He follows Dillmann in distinguishing between a shorter,
older form contemporary with the event, and the enlarged form, ' which
is a psalm composed according to the rules of art ' and belongs to a later
period. Cp. Driver, Introduction to the Literature of the O. T. p. 27.

138 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
people feared Jehovah, and believed in Jehovah, and in
Moses his servant J.
2. Another principal aim of the Mosaic narratives of
the exodus and settlement in Canaan appears to be
that of bringing into clear relief the character and
requirement of God. The very programme of the
new religion is contained in the sentence prefixed to
the Decalogue, I am Jehovah, thy God; while, as Riehm
observes, the ideas of mercy and truth as elements in
the character of God seem to dominate the course of
the entire narrative 2. Certainly the purport of the
book of Exodus is on the one hand to extol the
patience, longsuffering, and condescension of Jehovah,
and on the other to give prominence to His moral
requirement. In a later lecture this last point will
be more particularly considered. It is only necessary
in this place to draw attention to the ethical tendency
of Mosaism as illustrated in what is generally reckoned
to be the earliest legislation : the Decalogue3 and the
so-called ' Book of the Covenant' (Exod. xxi-xxiii).
Worthy of notice is the comparative silence of this
legislation on points of ritual and ceremonial ob
servance. The characteristic contribution of Moses
to the religion of Israel was the teaching embodied
in the Decalogue. His aim was to foster a higher
morality ; ' the distinctive character of the [Mosaic]
religion,' says Prof. Robertson Smith, ' appears in
the laws directed against polytheism and witchcraft,
in the prominence given to righteousness and
humanity as the things which are most pleasing to
Jehovah and constitute the true significance of such an
ordinance as the Sabbath, and, above all, in the clear
ness with which the law holds forth the truth that
Jehovah's goodness to Israel is no mere natural
1 Exod. xiv. 31. Cp. Delitzsch, O. T. History of Redemption, § 23.
2 Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 63.
3 There are difficulties in regard to the ' Ten Words ' arising from the
fact that 'in ancient Israel there were two opinions as to what those
words were' (Robertson Smith, O. T. in f. C. p. 335). The question
must for the present be waived.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

139

relation, such as binds Moab to Chemosh, that His
favour to His people is directed by moral principles
and is forfeited by moral iniquity1.' The chief object,
however, of the whole Mosaic narrative seems to be
that of emphasizing the significance of the divine
self-revelation implied in Israel's deliverance from
Egypt. The marvels of the exodus, like some of
our Lord's miracles, appear to have been intended
to arrest attention, and to rivet Israel's gaze, as it
were, upon its divine teacher. Jehovah alone did lead
him, and there was no stra-nge god with him 2. We
have already noticed that each of the first five com
mandments of the Decalogue is based on some trait of
the divine character. And in the long and pathetic
story of Jehovah's forbearance with Israel's stiff-
necked perverseness and perpetual backsliding we
have a revelation of the divine nature more striking
than any mere display of omnipotence could possibly
be. Forty years, we read, suffered he their manners,
or, possibly, bare he them as a nursing father in
the wilderness 3. Sternness mingled with generosity,
righteous indignation controlled by pitying love,
patience as of a father with a fractious child — these
are traits which lie upon the surface of the narrative.
At times Jehovah is represented as weary — as even
longing to be released from the burden of Israel's
folly, ingratitude, and perverseness 4. But each fresh
rebellion leads to a new manifestation of love.
Throughout the narrative ' we behold,' says Dr. Bruce 5,
* a manifestation of all the divine attributes, power,
wisdom, patience, faithfulness, unwearied loving care
— not a momentary manifestation only, but one
extending over a lengthened series of years, supplying
material for a history rich in pathetic stirring incident
which endures for ages, an imperishable monument to
the praise of Israel's God.' Who can fully measure
1 O. T. inf. C. p. 344. 2 Deut. xxxii. 12. 3 Acts xiii. 18.
4 See R. W. Dale, The Ten Commandments, p. 18.
5 The Chief End' of Revelation, p. 108.

140 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
the significance of this new and profound idea of God
—an idea which, possibly even in the mind of Moses
himself, was dim and vague, but which to the faith of
his prophetic successors became distinct and clear?
' The significance of that struggle for a new conception
of God,' observes Prof. Kittel, ' can be estimated by
any one who possesses two qualifications. He must
know the illusions and the degrading bondage in
which the people of Israel were held, owing, doubtless,
to their view of God. He must reflect on the religious
usages of western Asia, which deeply wounded man's
moral sense and trampled the dignity of human nature
in the dust: these, with their bewildering orgies, he
must compare with the spirit of the religion of Moses.
Nature-religion, with its tendency to enslave man, to
set at nought. his natural freedom and moral dignity,
could not but rob the nations in ever-increasing
measure of their civilization and humanity. By his
religion, Moses won for his people and the world the
road to freedom, human dignity, and the development
of pure humanity 1.'
3. A third aim of the Mosaic narrative, regarded as
a whole, is doubtless to depict an ideal theocracy or
kingdom of God. The conception of a theocracy
may have been only dimly present to the conscious
ness of the newly formed nation 2, but the essential
elements of such a conception were implicitly con
tained in the belief that Israel belonged to Jehovah,
and that He was Israel's God. At any rate, in the
view of the Pentateuchal writers, prophetic or priestly,
it is clear that Jehovah is the king of His elect people,
and Moses a human deputy divinely empowered to
act as mediator between Jehovah and His subjects.
1 Hist, of the Hebrews, vol. i. p. 251.
2 Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 105, seems to speak too strongly
when, following Wellhausen, he asserts that ' the old Israelite has no
knowledge of his nation's peculiar position or destiny. The idea of
a theocracy is wanting.' Riehm's opinion seems the more probable
(ATI. Theologie, p. 58): ' Der Grundgedanke des Mosaismus ist nichts
anderes als eine Fortbildung und Naherbestimmung des Bewusstseins der
Patriarchen iiber ihr Angehbrigkeitsverhaltniss zu dem einen wahren Gott.'

in] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 141
Jehovah is represented as communicating His will
through organs appointed by Himself. The ordinances
of the Law are treated as His express commands ; even
the leadership of Israel's armies is ascribed to Him \
Indeed, the narratives were, in point of fact, compiled
and edited by men to whom the thought of God's
immediate sovereignty over His elect people was
a self-evident truth, and to whom, consequently, Israel's
demand for an earthly king appeared to be a rejection
of Jehovah2. Certainly this idea seems to pervade
the story of the exodus and the description of Moses'
legislation. Moses was the vicegerent of Israel's
unseen ruler, and accordingly to his express authority
are ascribed all the ordinances and institutions in
which the truth of Israel's special consecration to
Jehovah was visibly embodied.
The question naturally arises how the completed
priestly code stands related to the Sinaitic legislation.
Roughly speaking, there are upwards of eighty
chapters in the Pentateuch comprising the priestly
law as it actually existed in a developed and codified
form at a period subsequent to the return of the
Jews from Babylon. They form the central portion
of our present Pentateuch, and the picture they
present of Israel's institutions embodies an ideal
which was aimed at but not actually attained before
the exile. The fundamental thought which inspires
the sketch we have already noticed, viz. the idea of
Israel's holiness as a consecrated community, in the
midst of which Jehovah himself dwells as lawgiver
and king. Now all the evidence confirms the sup
position, antecedently probable, that the legislation
of Moses himself was primitive and simple in its
features and confined itself to the regulation of the
most essential points, in the matter of cultus probably
adopting some traditional usages of ancient Semitic
worship. The most reasonable view is that in the
detailed descriptions of the tabernacle and the sacri-
1 Exod. xiii 17. Cp. Judges v. 23. 2 I Sam. viii. 7.

142 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
ficial ordinances contained in the priestly code we
have a highly idealized sketch of institutions which
probably existed only in a rudimentary form during
the wanderings of Israel in the wilderness. Thus,
for example, the simple tent of Mosaic days known to
the early narratives is represented as an elaborate
and costly structure, such as can hardly be supposed
to have existed under the difficult circumstances of
life in the wilderness 1. Nevertheless, when all reser
vations have been made, it cannot be fairly denied
that in germ at any rate the idea of a theocracy was
Mosaic, and that the first legislation was based on
the idea of Jehovah's immediate sovereignty. It is
impossible to account satisfactorily for the collapse
of Canaanitish civilization before the advance of the
invading hosts of Israel, except on the supposition
that there was some inspiring idea which animated
the nation, welded it into unity, and stimulated it to
extraordinary efforts. Such an idea certainly was the
kingship of Jehovah ; Israel was conscious of being
under the immediate rule and guidance of the God
who had promised to their fathers the land of Canaan
for their inheritance.
4. Once more the typical significance of the Mosaic
narratives must not be overlooked. The New Testa
ment writers habitually refer to the actual experiences
and characteristic institutions of the church in the
wilderness2 as foreshadowing the mysteries of the
spiritual life and of the divine kingdom in its widest
sense. The general principles of redemption as they
are exhibited in the fortunes of the Church and in
the experience of its individual members, the great
characteristic conceptions of Christianity, the phraseo
logy and imagery of the New Testament — all these
are rooted in the Pentateuch.
1 Kittel, Hist, of the Hebrews, vol. i. p. 238. ' The description of P
corresponds to the idea which people in later times, influenced probably
by what they saw of the continually increasing costliness of their
sanctuaries, formed of the sacred desert-tent of the days of Moses.'
2 Acts vii. 38.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

143

We are in fact justified by the express authority
of the New Testament in recognizing the symbolic
character of the Pentateuchal history. The narratives,
whether prophetic or priestly, come from the hands of
men who loved to trace in history the action of eternal
principles. Israel's deliverance from servitude, its
maintenance in the wilderness and its victory over
the hostile powers of heathendom exemplified fixed
and constant laws of divine action. It was confidently
expected that the future development of the kingdom
of God would proceed on lines already laid down,
and would be accompanied by conditions closely
parallel to those which the nation had experienced in
its youth. Moses was regarded as bearing a figurative
and predictive relation to a prophet greater than him
self, yet to come. Again, the compilers of the priestly
law belonged to a period when men were becoming
conscious of the sacramental character of the ancient
ceremonial worship. They understood, at least in a
measure, that the sanctuary and sacrificial system
veiled under material forms spiritual mysteries here
after to be revealed ; that outward ceremonies, objects,
and acts embodied the thoughts of God concerning
salvation and His kingdom. It was, however, only
an instructed faith, and a fully developed experience
that could discern in the Mosaic system the shadow
or outline sketch of heavenly realities, of which the
Gospel presents a complete picture l. The signi
ficance of the Pentateuch for Christians lies in the
fact that the fundamental conceptions which pervade
each Testament are the same : the redemptive action
of Almighty God ; the separation from an evil world
of a people brought by grace into covenant-relation
ship with its divine King and consecrated to His
service ; the foundation of a kingdom of God upon
earth ; the setting up of His tabernacle among men
1 See Heb. x. 1. Cp. Ambrose in psalm, xxxviii. 25 : ' Umbra in lege,
imago vero in evangelio, Veritas in caelestibus.' The quotation is given by
Willis, Worship of the Old Covenant, p. 14.

144 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
and the building of a city which bears the title, The
Lord is there 1.
Enough has been now said to indicate that in the
Pentateuch we are not dealing with history in the
ordinary sense of that term, but with an idealized
and partly prophetic picture, the principal purpose of
which is to convey certain religious thoughts and ideas
which beyond doubt formed the permanent basis of
Judaism. This is the positive point on which it is
needful to insist. The possibility of wide differences
of view in regard to the intrinsic character and value
of the Pentateuchal narratives must be frankly recog
nized. It is only necessary to make two concluding
observations. First, to question the strict historical
accuracy of the Mosaic story involves no denial of its
inspiration. Whatever be the nature of the narratives,
they have unquestionably been selected by the wisdom
of the divine Spirit as the vehicles of spiritual truth
best adapted to human needs and capacities. Secondly,
there is every reason to suppose that the Pentateuch,
whatever be the date of its final compilation, is based
on genuine historical traditions and embodies in their
developed form very ancient institutions and usages.
It seems not improbable that the prophet Ezekiel led
the way in reducing to theory and formulating the tra
ditional usage of the pre-exilic sanctuary, and that he
thus practically became the founder of a school which
devoted itself to the task of codifying the priestly ordi
nances and regulations 2. If, however, it is difficult to
determine the precise antiquity of particular elements in
the Mosaic system of worship, it is possible, under the
guidance of the New Testament, to comprehend the
typical significance of the system, regarded as a single
complex product of a germ planted by the hand of

1 Ezek. xlviii. 35. Cp. Riehm, Einleitung in das A. T. vol. i. pp. 362
foil., especially his remark : ' Die in einem Institute verkorperte Idee ist
das innere Band zwischen dem Typus und Antitypus.'
2 Cp. Wellhausen, Sketch of the History of Israel and Judah p. 131 •
Ryle, The Canon of the 0. T. p. 72. ° '

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

H5

Israel's inspired legislator at the very dawn of its
history.

III.
In passing to the historical books and prophecies,
we enter upon firm historical ground. For there is
little reason to doubt that the documents which form
the substratum of the books of Samuel and Kings
were official notices of political events, and nearly
contemporary narratives, some of which may reason
ably be supposed to have been written by prophets
like Gad, Nathan, Iddo, and others. These books,
then, contain very ancient materials, although the
framework is unquestionably due to later editors.
The main influence that can be detected in the com
pilation is that of the book of Deuteronomy. Writers
of the Deuteronomic school seem to have reduced
the books of Judges, Samuel, and Kings to their
present form between the death of Josiah and the
exile. The books did not, apparently, ' escape further
additions and interpretations in the post-exilic period ;
but their main character, the framework in which the
facts are arranged, and the uniform lesson they are
made to teach, were the product of the periods im
mediately before, and either during, or soon after,
the exile V
What, then, are the general features of these books ?
In the first place they are compilations, and in their
work the compilers seem to have retained consider
able freedom, incorporating their authorities as they
stood with but few changes, arranging the material
on some plan of their own, and adding comments
1 Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 231, 232. Cp. Wellhausen, Prole
gomena, ch. vii. The book of Joshua is not particularly dealt with
because it is closely connected both by its subject-matter and its literary
structure with the Pentateuch. It describes the closing stage of the move
ment that began with the exodus. By the Jews, however, the book is
classed among the ' former prophets.'

146 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
here and there in order to bring out the religious
significance of the facts recorded \ They would not
be at pains to harmonize the style or even the con
tents of the different documents employed, the truth
being, as we have more than once pointed out, that
their interest in fact as mere fact was quite subordinate
to the religious ideas by which they were influenced.
And what is true of the compilers is to a great extent
true of the original narrators. Their aim was to draw
out the moral import of what they related, and in depict
ing the more prominent figures of their story, they
were occasionally apt to ascribe their own beliefs and
modes of thought to their hero 2
Another point that strikes us in reading these
books is the uniformity of tone displayed by the com
pilers. It is evident that they represent the views of
a particular prophetic school, possessed by the con
viction that the capital offence of Israel throughout
the pre-exilic history had been perverted worship of
J ehovah and idolatrous worship of other deities. Hence
their conception of the past is uniformly pessimistic.
The institution of monarchy, which seems at its
first foundation to have been hailed with such hope
and rejoicing, is in one of the two narratives of Saul's
elevation regarded as the result of a disastrous apostasy
from Jehovah 3 ; and though after the establishment
of the kingdom the reign of David for a time actually
realized the ideal hopes of the nation, yet the general
course of Israel's history is represented by these
writers as one long and continuous declension from
the religious position which the nation occupied at the
death of Moses *.
1 See ' the methods of oriental historiography,' well described in Prof.
Kirkpatrick's Divine Library of the O. T. pp. 13-15. He observes that
' this compilatory method of composition brings us into a closer contact
with the events and the actors than any other method of historical
writing could have done.'
2 Cp. Cheyne, Aids to the Devout Study of Criticism, p. 26.
3 1 Sam. viii. 7. Cp. Driver, Lntroduction to the O. T. pp. 165 foil.
Renan, Histoire, &c, bk. ii. ch. 14.
4 Montefiore, op. cit. pp. 232 foil.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 147
A somewhat closer study will reveal to us a leading
tendency in each book, and will show how far the
historical element has given way to the didactic
purpose of the writer. The book of Judges, which
seems to be based on archaic narratives and songs
already extant in oral or written form, describes
the period of disintegration and comparative anarchy
which followed the death of Joshua. There are
elements of hope in the story, an upward movement
towards the monarchy1, an occasional outburst of
fiery zeal for the honour of Jehovah2, and a cer
tain pride in adhering to His worship3. Nor does
it appear that the state of morals was utterly lax.
The phenomena are in fact such as might be looked
for in a young and robust nationality in ' a dark age
of beginnings 4-' But the period was certainly one of
great disorganization. The conflicts described are
mostly those of individual tribes — a fact which justi
fies the inference that the Judges were not so much
rulers of the whole nation as tribal heroes or cap
tains with local authority 6 : probably some of the
judges were holding office simultaneously in their
respective tribes. The books of Sarhuel describe
the origin of the two important institutions on which
the future progress of the national religion mainly
depended. It was the mission of Samuel to revive
and reorganize the functions of prophetism, and to in
augurate the monarchy. Both of these institutions
served the common purpose of impressing upon the
nation the idea of Jehovah's immediate personal
sovereignty, and of quickening the consciousness of
Israel's ideal calling and destiny. The appointed
task of the prophets was that of keeping alive the
light of the Lord6 and causing it perpetually to
3 Cp. Wellhausen, Prolegomena, p. 235 ; Bruce, Apologetics, p. 227.
2 Judges v. 13 foil., 23 ; viii. 4 foil. ; xix. 29 foil. ; xx. 1 ; xxi. 10 foil.
3 Judges xvii. 7 foil. ; xviii. 18.
4 Bruce, /. c. Cp. the account in Renan, Histoire, &c, bk. ii. ch. 7.
5 Wellhausen, pp. 233, 413. Cp. Meinhold,/^zw und das A. T. p. 36.
6 Isa. ii. 5.
L 2

148 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
beam out anew. They were to be in the highest
sense 'the watchmen of the theocracy,' 'the con
science of the state,' the occasional organs of divine
interposition in the national history. The begin
nings of prophetism have been rightly called a
' pentecostal phenomenon' in the Old Testament.
Though its origin was rude and chaotic, prophetism
was destined to become a dominant factor in the pro
gress of Hebrew religion '. The special significance
of the monarchy, on the other hand, was that it
habituated the nation to the idea of a human deputy
or representative sitting upon the throne which pro
perly belonged to Jehovah Himself2. Its institution
was the starting-point of the Messianic expectation
in its stricter sense. And there are indications
that the pessimistic view of the monarchy was not
commonly held before the exile. It is neither con
sistent, strictly speaking, with the solemn significance
attached to David's reign, nor with the glowing
language of the prophets, whose ideal hopes centred
in a prince belonging to David's house 3.
The books of Kings trace the fortunes of the kingdom
down to the period of its dissolution, a noticeable
feature of the record being the prominence assigned
to prophets, of whom Elijah and Elisha are the chief.
Where the historical narratives become fragmentary or
defective, we are able to supplement them by means of
the books of contemporary prophets. The general
impression left by the story of the kingdom is one of
ever-deepening gloom. The nation, together with its
kings, continues to move along a downward path ; the
1 See Delitzsch, O. T. History of Redemption, § 35.
2 1 Chron. xxviii. 5 ; xxix. 23. Cp. Schultz, O. T. Theology, i. 169.
3 See Wellhausen, Prolegomena, pp. 253, 254. Riehm observes in
A Tl. Theologie, p. 253 : ' Nach dem alteren, dem nationalen Interesse
mehr Rechnung tragenden Bericht (1 Sam. ix-x. 16) erscheint das Konig-
tum schon als eine gottgewollte, die Freiheit, Selbstandigkeit und Macht
des Gottesvolkes bezweckende (1 Sam. ix. 16), den theokratischen Orga-
nismus konsolidierende und kronende Institution.' The same general
tone of comment is found in Gen. xvii. 6, 16 ; xxxv. 1 1, and in the prophecy
of Balaam (Num. xxiv. 7, 17).

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

149

heavy task of the prophets is to announce that the
theocracy in its existing state is inevitably doomed.
Such is the character, briefly described, of the writings
included in ' former prophets.'
Of the later books, such as the Chronicles, I need here
say very little. No one would place this work on a level
with the original sources from which it derives its
material 1. The peculiarity of the chronicler is his in
tense interest in the sacred forms of Jewish religion as
they existed during the period of the second temple.
His work has been well described as ' a great historical
theodicy . . . intended to further and to strengthen a
religious ideal as it had shaped itself in the author's
mind 2.' The value of the work lies chiefly in its faithful
portraiture of a prevalent mood, or temper of mind,
which marked the closing centuries of Israel's history3.
Occasionally no doubt the writer preserves information
drawn from trustworthy ancient sources. But in one
or two significant allusions to a Midrash^, the chronicler
seems to indicate the standpoint and character of his
own work, which is to be regarded as a specimen of
Haggadah, i.e. an independent and imaginative handling
of historic tradition for purposes of popular edification.
It is enough to mention by way of illustration the writer's
transformation of David into a levitical saint, and his
tendency to judge the character of each king of Judah
by the standard of devotion to the levitical cultus and
ceremonial law. What has been said of the books of
Chronicles applies in some measure to those of Ezra
and Nehemiah, since these works, which in the Jewish
canon form a single book, were apparently compiled
1 ' There is an end to historical study if we accept the later account
against the earlier' (Robertson Smith, O. T. in J. C. lect. v). The
Chronicles are minutely investigated by Wellhausen, Prolegomena, ch. vi,
and Kuenen, Religion of Israel, ch. x. See also Kittel, Hist, of the
Hebrews, ii. 229 foil.
2 Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 448.
3 Schultz, O. T. Theology, i. 407 ; Kuenen, /. c. The date of the books
of Chronicles is probably between 300 and 250 B.C.
4 2 Chron. xiii. 22 ; xxiv. 27. Cp. Wellhausen, Prolegomena, p. 227.
Driver, Introduction, &c, pp. 497, 506 foil.

150 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
by the author of the Chronicles1. Contemporary
documents no doubt form the basis of each, but their
historical value is somewhat impaired by their in
completeness and by the lateness of their compilation.
It is not necessary, however, to consider these books
particularly, especially in view of the fact that they
find a place not among the historians in the ' former
prophets,' but in the Hagiographa2- With regard to
the three last-mentioned books, our only concern is
to disclaim for them a character which their very
position in the canon seems to contradict 3.
We are now free to reconsider the historical books,
properly so called, the books of Judges, Samuel, and
Kings, with a view to ascertaining their true importance
and value.
We perhaps find a clue to the real character of
these books in the significant circumstance that tradi
tion ascribed the authorship of them to prophets.
Wellhausen questions the opinion that the Hebrew
people owed its historical annals to the labours of
the prophets 4. But he allows that they ' shed upon
the tradition their peculiar light,' and ' infused into it
their own spirit.' In any case these books are clearly
not to be regarded as history in the narrow sense of
mere chronicles or annals. Their historical importance
is undeniably great; taken in conjunction with the
writings of contemporary prophets, where these are
available, and with the evidence of inscriptions, they
enable us to construct a fairly complete and trust
worthy account of the actual course of events during
the period they cover. But the point of chief im
portance is that their very title, 'former prophets,'
1 Robertson Smith thinks the Chronicles originally formed one book
with Ezra and Nehemiah (O. T. inf. C. p. 182). Cp. Ryle, Canon of the
O. T. p. 134.
2 The same remark applies to the book of Esther, the historical value
of which is a matter of dispute. See Driver, op. cit. p. 452. It was with
some difficulty admitted to the canon (Robertson Smith, O. T in I C
pp. 183 foil.).
3 Cp. Ryle, Canon of the O. T. pp. 139-141.
4 Prolegomena, p. 293.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 151
exempts them from the rigid application of ordinary
historical canons. They contain history and some
thing more. They record events in the light of
a known purpose of God, and consequently do not
hesitate to interpret what they relate, in order to
exhibit the leading principles of the divine govern
ment, and the laws which control the development of
events \ Accordingly our task is to estimate the truth
and validity of the theory which guides the sacred
historians in their selection of incidents, and in their
comments upon character and upon matters of fact 2.
Now the leading ideas which constitute the prophetic
theory of Israel's history, and which give a character
istic complexion to the historical books, would seem
to be mainly three : (1) the reality and perpetuity of
Jehovah's redemptive grace ; (2) the idea that Israel's
election implied obligations which the nation constantly
failed to discharge ; (3) the uniformity of method
exhibited in divine deliverances.
1. One leading idea of the narratives is the reality
of divine grace. The foreground of the picture is
occupied by self- revelations of Jehovah in act or
prophecy : displays of power and compassion in which
His undeserved favour towards Israel is manifested.
1 Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, pp. 209 foil. : ' DerProphet hat dieVerhaltnisse
und Ereignisse seiner Zeit in das Licht des gottlichen Ratschlusses zu
stellen, und so iiber Bedeutung und Zweck der gottlichen Fiihrungen
Aufschluss zu geben. Uberhaupt ist er Interpret dessen was Gott in der
thatsachlichen Sprache der Geschichte zu seinem Volke redet, weshalb
auch dieGeschichtschreibungzu den prophetischen Berufsaufgaben gehort.'
2 Bruce, Apologetics, p. 197. The function of the prophetic writers was
' not to narrate facts, but to teach the right point of view for reading truly
the religious significance of Israel's whole history.' Cp. Kittel, Hist, of
the Hebrews, vol. ii. p. 5 : 'We recognize [in the historical books] the
historical standards of men who had absorbed the ideas of the prophets,
and who regarded the national past from a purified point of view in con
sequence of Israel's calamity. It is not so much history as a philosophy
of history. It is elucidation, estimation, adjustment of facts from the
standpoint of subsequent knowledge of the consequences and goal of the
historical development, rather than simple narration of the course of the
events themselves ; a history that is more satisfactory as a means of
religious and moral improvement, than as supplying historical knowledge
about the original course of events.' See also Kuenen, Hibbert Lectures,
pp. 72 foil.

152 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
The thought of divine intervention on Israel's behalf
is evidently uppermost in the minds of the historians.
It forms the keynote of those summary reviews of the
history which meet us at different points in the narra
tive 1. The most conspicuous feature of the past had
been the display of divine lovingkindness and for
bearance. It had been signally manifested in the
deliverance from Egypt, in the protection and sus
tenance of the people during the long years of
pilgrimage in the wilderness, in the amazing conquests
both on the east and west of Jordan, and in the
raising up of strong and heroic leaders in times of
national pressure and distress.
2. But, secondly, in close connexion with repeated
declarations of Jehovah's grace and longsuffering, we
find descriptions of critical moments at which Israel's
own relation to God is determined or manifested.
The Old Testament history is remarkable in this
respect especially — that in the main it is the record
of a series of crises. Long periods are passed over
in silence, e. g. the thirty-eight years of wilderness life,
the seventy years of exile. Between the death of
Joshua and the appearance of Samuel a period of con
siderable length, possibly nearly three centuries, elapsed ;
yet how brief and compressed is the record of an age
in regard to which Kuenen declares that it ' is of the
highest importance for Israel's entire development2.'
How much that might have filled the pages of a
modern manual of history do the biblical writers
ignore : the slow process by which the tribes of Israel
passed from the rough habits of nomadic life to the
settled ways of agriculturalists, the rise and growth
of the trading instinct through intercourse with the
cities of Phoenicia, the religious syncretism which
resulted from Israel's self-identification with the con
quered territory 3. How much that might absorb the
1 Judges ii. 6 foil., iii. 6 foil. ; I Sam. xii. 7 foil. ; 2 Kings xvii. 7-23, 34-41.
2 The Religion of Israel, vol. i. p. 143.
3 Cp. Wellhausen, Sketch of the History of Israel and fudah, p. 36 ; cp.
Kittel, op. cit. vol. ii. pp. 93 foil.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

153

attention of a student, or kindle a poet's imagination1,
is passed over. The record is essentially a religious
history, of which the gist is practically this : that Israel
as a nation had been peculiarly favoured by God, that
the calamities and reverses which followed the settle
ment in Canaan were due to national shortcoming and
sin, that in the sorest straits deliverance came through
some human instrument specially raised up by Jehovah,
and that, finally, popular expectation was directed to
wards the southern tribe of Judah, as if the imperative
need of a stable monarchy was likely to be supplied
from that quarter2. It may be granted that the
picture of this period is somewhat highly coloured, for
Israel's shortcomings scarcely seem on a superficial
survey to have amounted to a formal or visible apos
tasy from Jehovah again and again repeated, as the
Deuteronomistic passages in the book of Judges appa
rently suggest 3. But at least the general fact of
unfaithfulness to a recognized standard of worship and
morals is clear, and it is judged from the standpoint of
Him whose thoughts are higher than our thoughts.
The pure worship of Jehovah was evidently hindered
or tainted by the spirit of religious syncretism, i. e. the
corruption of the Mosaic cultus by the admixture of
usages and symbols borrowed from the nature-worship
of Canaan 4. The manifest elements of retrogression
which appeared in the period of the Judges are re
garded by the Deuteronomic school as constituting
1 One naturally thinks of Mr. Keble's beautiful lines in The Christian
Year, poem for the third Sunday in Lent.
2 Observe that the book of Judges begins with an oracle implying the
promise of victory to Judah, fudah shall go up (i. 2), and closes with
narratives connected with Bethlehem Judah, designed apparently to
illustrate the remark, In those days there was no king in Israel (xxi. 25).
The book of Ruth, which is an idyll of Bethlehem and gives the ancestry
of the first true king, forms an appendix to the book of Judges. Cp. Riehm,
Einleitung in das A. T. vol. i. p. 473 ; Delitzsch, O. T. History of Re
demption, § 33.
8 Judges ii. 11 foil., iii. 5 foil., viii. 33, x. 6 foil. Cp. Kittel, vol. ii. p. 97.
It is significant that in the rhumd of Israel's history contained in Neh. ix.
7 foil, the same salient features appear, the faithfulness of God and the
faithlessness of His people. See Hunter, After the Exile, part ii, pp. 201 foil.
1 Cp. Oehler, Theol. of the O. T. §§ 158, 159 ; Kittel, vol. ii. p. 98.

154 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
formal apostasy to heathen gods ; and it may be
contended that, from an idealistic and prophetic point
of view, the representation corresponds with the facts.
Israel was during this period falling short of better
knowledge; from the earliest times the spirit of un
faithfulness to the obligations implied in Israel's
special relationship to God did manifest itself in
the national life. In a word, the picture is dark and
sombre, but we have every reason to suppose that
in essential features it is correct. If, as we have no
reason to doubt, Israel recognized in the events of the
exodus its special vocation to be the people of Jehovah,
if this had been the burden of Moses' teaching, the
point of view from which the compilers of the historical
books contemplate the course of events is true ; and
it may be remarked that it is common to these writers
with the great prophets of the eighth and following
centuries, notably Amos, Hosea, and Jeremiah \ The
same general line of thought applies to the view which
the historical writers take of the schismatic cultus
established in the northern kingdom by Jeroboam. The
theory of the writers and of the prophets is that the pure
and imageless worship of Jehovah inculcated by Moses
has in the calf- worship sunk back to the level of a heathen
cultus. That it represented a reactionary movement
can scarcely be doubted, and it is equally probable that
the relative purity of religious praxis in Judah was due
to the persistency with which the prophets represented
the northern cultus in its true character 2.
3. A third feature of the historical books is that
they dwell with peculiar interest upon the method of
the divine deliverances. The intention of the narra
tives does not seem to be that of glorifying the heroic
figures of old time, but rather that of illustrating the
principles on which Jehovah acts in His work of
salvation. There is little or no attempt to idealize the
1 See Robertson, The Early Religion of Israel (Baird Lecture for 1889),
ch. v.
2 Cp. Riehm, ATI. Theologie, p. 195.

in] • IN THE OLD TESTAMENT 155
character of the Judges, or of Samuel, or even of
prophets like Elijah. The period of the Judges was
no doubt ' an age of contradictions V like other periods
of religious transition which are apt to witness a certain
relaxation of moral principles and disintegration of
beliefs ; and the figures that appear in the forefront
of the history reflect the tendencies of the time : its
hold upon certain fundamental religious truths and
its laxity in religious practice, its capacity for wild
moral excesses combined with ' a certain robustness of
conscience2.' In this point the narratives are life-like
and consistent, but the main truths which the historians
bring into prominence are — first, that the saviours sent
by Jehovah are men directly empowered by His Spirit ;
secondly, that it is His habit to select lowly and despised
instruments in the execution of His redemptive purpose.
Thus the exploit of Gideon is always regarded in the Old
Testament as a typical deliverance ; the day of Midian
becomes indeed a kind of proverbial expression in later
prophecy 3. The choice of Saul, from the least of all the
families of the smallest of the tribes of Israel*1, is another
illustration of the same principle, while the career of
David derives its special significance from the lowliness
of his origin. He chose David also his servant, and took
him away from the sheepfolds. As he was following the
ewes great with young ones he took him : that he might
feed Jacob his people, and Israel his inheritance s.
In their conception, then, of the period embraced in
the historical books, the writers cannot be fairly regarded
as mistaken. In its estimate of the pre-prophetic period
modern criticism does not always make due allowance
for the factor which imparted to Israel's history,
throughout its course, a unique significance — the factor
which we call ' Inspiration.' The ' Song of Deborah,'
for example, which seems to be contemporary with the
1 Schultz, 0. T. Theology, i. 150.
2 Bruce, Apologetics, p. 227. The book of Ruth forms a valuable
counterpart to the stormy scenes of Judges.
3 Judges vi. 15 ; vii. 2. Cp. Isa. ix. 4 foil.; x. 26 ; Ps. Ixxxiii. 10 foil.
4 1 Sam. ix. 21. 6 Ps. lxxviii. 70, 71.

156 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
events described in it, clearly proves that the age of the
Judges was not merely one of rude prowess and war
like 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 develop
ment, 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 achieve
ments 1. It was a power very dimly understood, but
recognized as working in and through human instru
ments 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, sup
posed 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 foil. ; Robertson, op. cit. pp. 118 foil.
8 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 reli
gious 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
solitaiy representative in a single prophet.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

r57

main design being that of religious edification. It
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 diver
sity 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 \
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 2. The important ques
tion 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 signifi
cance 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 (|{j»otJ'=' 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 ' mushroom-
growth 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
D avid-narratives.

158 THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT [lect.
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 V
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 stead
fast 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 dis
cerned the drift and tendency of God's dealings with
their race. An English historian has pointed out the
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, im
pressed 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. 1 35. 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.
2 History of the English People, vol. ii. pp. 446-447.
3 See Robertson, op. cit. p. 30.

m] IN THE OLD TESTAMENT

159

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 re
made and to sanctify itself before it found its way
into its sacred annals V 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 them
selves, 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 judg
ment 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 Christ 3.
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.
3 Rom. ii. 16. See Mozley's sermon on ' The reversal of human judg
ment ' (University Sermons, no. iv). Bp. Wordsworth makes a sugges
tive 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).

c6o THE HISTORICAL ELEMENT, ETC.

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' Israel,
bk. i, will, I think, derive from it a very strong impression
of the general truth of the patriarchal story.

LECTURE IV
And God spake all these words, saying, I am the Lord thy God, which
have brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out of the house of bondage.
Thou shalt have no other gods before me. — Exod. xx. I foil.
We have considered the Old Testament in its
historical aspect as the record of a divine movement
towards the human race, which formed the starting-
point of a higher religion ; and we have attempted to
estimate the character and value of this record, regarded
as a collection of historical documents. It is now our
task to survey the Old Testament as the account of
a progressive self-revelation of God.
The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews opens his
letter with the words 6ebs 6 XaXrjo-as, and it may be
observed how closely such an exordium corresponds
with the apparent object of the writer in keeping
himself anonymous. To this great Christian apologist
God is the one speaker in revelation. Human agency
falls entirely into the background. Throughout re
demptive history a single voice, the voice of God, was
making itself heard, speaking by the prophets in divers
portions and in divers manners; and the highest
function of the Scriptures, whether of the Old or New
Testament, is to transmit from age to age the record
of that continuous utterance. God spake. Revelation
had its several parts, stages, chapters or acts. The
whole could only be judged retrospectively in the light
of the final result. The key to the meaning of the
voice, which spake to the fathers by the prophets, was
the Word made flesh. It was the divine message to
M

162 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
man contained in the life and labours, the death and
glorification, of Jesus Christ, that illuminated and in
terpreted the method of divine action in the past. The
Incarnation enables us to distinguish what is frag
mentary and provisional in revelation from what is
complete and final. The divers modes of divine self-
communication were adapted to the existing needs and
capacities of human nature at each particular stage of
its development. In visions and dreams, in types and
symbols, in precepts and ordinances, in voices and
prophecies, in the unmistakeable language of outward
fact and in secret communications to elect souls, God
spake to mankind. Revelation is one because its
Author is one, and we approach the Scriptures with
this end in view above all others — that we may know
God : what He is in Himself, what He has wrought
in history, what are His thoughts for human nature,
and what His purposes for the universe. In Scripture
the word of God comes to us through the medium of
human language ; but it is the very mind of God which
unveils itself therein, teaching us how to live according
to His will, and revealing to us what in His eternal
being and, character He is.
In this lecture I wish to consider, first, the pro-
gressiveness of the divine self-revelation, and secondly,
its content. We must glance at the spiritual education
of man described in the Old Testament, and we must
examine the import of the successive names or desig
nations by which Almighty God condescended to make
Himself known to His creatures. I.
The idea of progressive revelation has profoundly
influenced all modern attempts to reconstruct the
history of Hebrew religion1. It has been the legiti
mate and necessary outcome of applying to the Old
Testament those historical or comparative methods of
1 Cp. Oettli, Der gegenwdrtige Kampf &c, p. u.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 163
study which have proved so fruitful in other fields
of knowledge and were themselves suggested, or at
least encouraged, by the recognition of the evolutionary
principle in nature. The modern habit of mind is to
study institutions, social phenomena, opinions, literature,
creeds, in the light of their development. We delight
in the observation of growth or process, and there is
perhaps no department in which study based upon this
method has been more serviceable than in that of
Christian apologetics. It has assisted us to estimate
aright the inevitable defects of early morality and
religion. It has enabled us to form a true judgment
of the divine dealings with mankind during the
primitive stages of its spiritual development. It has,
we may say with reverence, vindicated the character
of Almighty God by imparting the necessary point of
view from which His recorded commands, require
ments, and modes of action should be regarded. It has
opened our eyes to the infinite wisdom, tenderness,
and patience of the actual course which redemptive
love has pursued. Indeed, the contemplation of the
patience exhibited in the moral government and
education of the world may, in some cases, have led
thinkers to qualify or correct their conception of the
laws which guide the operations of nature itself. They
have learned that the perplexing slowness and apparent
imperfection of physical processes corresponds to the
comprehensiveness of the divine plan for the universe1.
Further, the divine character revealed in Jesus Christ
prepares us to recognize the principle of accommodation
in the Old Testament. The direction of the movement
therein described is towards a liberation of human
nature from the shackles of a rudimentary state.
There was evidently a law of progress at work in the
Mosaic system ; some element which exerted a steady
and continuous upward pressure. At the same time
there was a gradual extrication of eternal principles
from their local, material, and temporary embodiment,
1 See a striking passage in Flint's Theism, pp. 258 foil.
M 2

164 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
and to this process no doubt the teaching of the
prophets mainly contributed. It has indeed been
maintained that the chief ethical and religious ideas of
Judaism were practically the creation of the prophets,
but there are ample indications that their task was
rather that of bringing to light principles which, in
a germinal form at least, had been asserted by Moses
himself; and that the foundations of Hebrew religion
had already been deeply laid in the days of the nation's
youth 1. It was indisputably the preaching of the
prophets that brought home to Israel's conscious
ness the moral conditions attaching to its privileged
position ; but from the first the nation had been
instructed that its special relationship to Jehovah, the
holy God of redemption, involved a call to separation
from the sins and pollutions of Semitic heathenism.
Granted that the nature and meaning of its vocation
was for centuries very imperfectly realized by the
Hebrew people, it is at least abundantly evident that
the religion of the Old Testament originated in the
fact of an election — that is, in a special consecration
of Israel to the service of its Redeemer. And the
enduring value of Israel's religious history lies to
a great extent in this — that it expands and enriches
our whole conception of deity. For it bears witness
to the operation of an omnipotent Being who stoops
from His throne to become the educator of man,
and who is guided in His dealings with our race not
merely by a fixed purpose of love, but by a perfect
insight into human limitations. In His Son God has
explicitly revealed the principle which had all along
determined the method of His self-manifestation. We
are told that the Saviour of men spake the word unto
them as they were able to hear it'1. And while the
advance of knowledge has filled these words with
1 Cp. Konig, The Religious History of Israel, ch. xi.
2 Mark iv. 33 ; cp. Isa. xxviii. 10. Oettli, op. cit. p. 19, remarks : ' Im
Lichte der Offenbarung sich uns die Entwicklung nunmehr als Erziehung-
darstellt.' &

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 165
deeper significance in proportion as it has taught
us to take more sober views of human nature and
its capacities, practical experience has vindicated the
intrinsic reasonableness of the wearisome tardiness
which has marked the onward progress of revelation.
' Grace submitting to delay,' it has been beautifully said,
'is only love consenting to be guided by wisdom1.' The
protracted discipline to which the chosen people of God
was subjected, was the one and only means, so far as
we have faculties for judging, by which the blessings
of a higher religion could have been in the long run
secured for mankind at large.
We proceed, then, to illustrate the progressive
character of the Old Testament religion ; but it will
not be superfluous in passing to remind ourselves
that Christian criticism is distinguished from purely
naturalistic by its belief in a supernatural revelation.
We speak indeed of the ' progressive development '
of religious ideas. It must not, however, be forgotten
that the Old Testament exhibits not merely an inevit
able evolution of human thought, but a progressive
self-manifestation of God. Israel's religion is a religion
not of thinkers but of prophets, whose characteristic
formula is Thus saith the Lord. It presupposes
the immanence of God in history and the reality
of His self-communications. With this prefatory
remark we enter upon our subject, and we may
begin by directing attention at once to the beneficent
moral purpose which lies upon the very surface of
the Old Testament dispensation. The goal of the
entire redemptive movement was an ethical one, the
salvation and perfecting of human nature. Thus in
judging of any particular stage of Israel's religious or
moral attainment, we are bound to take into account
the dominating tendency of the entire Old Testament.
The observation of tendencies is, as Bishop Butler
reminds us, a true source of knowledge2- It gives us
1 A. B. Bruce, The Chief End of Revelation, p. 112.
2 See The Analogy, Part I, ch. iii.

166 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
a clue to the existence of rational purpose in move
ments which at first sight perplex the mind by their
unaccountable anomalies.
Accordingly it is our duty to estimate the character
and object of Israel's spiritual education in the light
of its final stage. And if the distinctive element in
the religion of Christ is ' inwardness1,' there can be no
question that the conspicuous feature of the old
dispensation is that it uniformly exhibits a principle of
progress, from outward to inward, from legal status to
ethical attainment, from external restraints to internal
principles, from law to love. The regulation of
conduct precedes the cultivation of religious affections;
active conformity to a code or system comes before
renewal of heart; the sign or symbol prepares the way
for what is real and essential ; the material and
physical for the spiritual and moral. No ancient
writer, it may be remarked, has a clearer conception
of the educational significance of the Old Testament
history than Irenaeus. ' God,' he says in one memor
able passage, 'was all along instructing the people which
so readily turned back to its idols, educating them by
repeated admonitions to persevere and to serve God,
calling them by means of things secondary to things
primary — that is, by means of things typical to things
real, things temporal to things eternal, things carnal to
things spiritual, things earthly to things celestial2.'
Thus, to take the sphere of worship, we must
begin by recalling to mind the usual characteristics
of early religion. ' Ritual and practical usage,' says
Prof. Robertson Smith, 'were, strictly speaking, the
sum total of ancient religions. Religion in primitive
times was not a system of belief with practical applica
tions ; it was a body of fixed traditional practices to
which every member of society conformed as a matter
of course. . . Practice preceded doctrinal theory3.'
1 Aug. de nat. et grat. lxxii : ' Facere est iustitiam in vero Dei cultu
cum interno concupiscentiae malo interna conflictatione pugnare.'
2 Haer. iv. 14, § 3.
3 The Religion of the Semites, p. 21.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 167
Now the distinctive ordinances of the Hebrew cultus
were ascribed to Moses, and were usually sanctioned
by the formula, Jehovah spake unto Moses. The study
of comparative religion, however, renders it practically
certain that the primitive lawgiver selected from an
existing body of practices those which might best pro
mote the purpose of moral cultivation. It will probably
never be clearly ascertained what usages were thus
inherited, and what were newly instituted by Moses
himself; what is plain, however, is the principle which
guided the organization of Mosaic religion. Whatever
traditional customs, institutions, or ideas peculiar to the
Semitic race Moses adopted or retained, they were,
under divine guidance, so regulated and purified as to
become disciplinary agents in the evolution of a higher
type of spiritual and moral life ; they were consecrated
to the service of a purer faith, and were made the instru
ments of a purpose of grace. As Riehm observes,
' What the Old Testament religion has in common
with the other religions of antiquity is to be regarded
as permitted by God, and as having a basis in the
divine educational purpose ' for mankind. Restriction,
however, seems to be more characteristic of Mosaism
than comprehensiveness. Indeed, the earliest legisla
tion confines itself mainly to prohibition. It rather
regulates existing institutions than adds to them, but
its dominating tendency is manifest. It ' ever aims
at bringing popular custom into conformity with the
principles of equity, generosity, and truth V Thus,
for example, the rite of circumcision was not set aside,
but was retained, and hallowed as a token of the new
relationship established between God and man at the
exodus. Though its actual origin and purpose is
somewhat obscure, there is no doubt that the practice
was customary in other Semitic tribes 2. Apparently it
was known to the Hebrews in patriarchal times, and was
1 Schultz, O. T. Theology, vol. ii. p. 62.
2 Cp. Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 5 1 ; Robertson Smith, Religion of
the Semites, pp. 309, 310; Renan, Histoire du peuple d' Israel, bk. i, ch. 9.

168 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
then adopted as a seal and condition of admission to
religious privileges. Under the influence of Moses
it firmly established itself in the national religion
of Israel ; and the moral effect of the practice may
be inferred from the fact that in course of time the
word 'circumcised' became equivalent to 'consecrated,'
and could be indifferently applied to the heart, the
ears, and the lips 1. No circumstance could more
aptly illustrate the aim and tendency of Mosaic
institutions. So, again, the tribal customs connected
with slavery, retaliation, the observance of the seventh
day, the payment of tithes, divorce, marriage with
a brother's wife, and even polygamy, were probably
recognized by Moses. Some of these institutions
were tolerated in view of the hardness of the
people's hearts ; others were so regulated and
restricted as to become effective media in Israel's
moral improvement — media full of religious signi
ficance, and pointing beyond themselves to a spiritual
counterpart of all that was as yet purely material and
external. The system of sacrifice itself is a striking illustration
of divine accommodation to immature ideas. It is
apparently recognized in the Old Testament as a natural
means of approach to God2. Man's instinctive way of
rendering homage to God and appeasing his own con
sciousness of guilt was incorporated in the practical
system of Mosaism, and the very fact that the institution
was divinely sanctioned raised it to a new level of im
portance. Israel's sacrificial worship tended to become
an elaborate and comprehensive system of spiritual
instruction, awakening aspirations which no material
oblations could ultimately satisfy. It was, however, at
a mature stage of Hebrew civilization, in dark days
1 Lev. xix. 23, xxvi. 14; Exod. vi. 12, 30 ; Deut. a. 16, xxx. 6 ; Jer. vi. 10,
ix. 25, &c.
2 Lev. xvii. 11:' The life of the flesh is in the blood : and I have
given it to you upon the altar to make an atonement for your souls.' This
passage implies that what Jehovah accepts and blesses is in a true sense
His gift to man.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 169
of national decline, that the spiritual truths symbolized
by sacrifice were brought into prominence x. Hebrew
faith then at length perceived that sacrifice was
a means and not an end ; that it had a value only
in so far as it represented an inward act of self-oblation
to Jehovah. On the other hand, it came to be recog
nized that where a man's heart was true, external
offerings might be acceptable to God as proof of
his devotion. It is the broken-hearted penitent
who, after declaring that the only true sacrifice is
a contrite heart, utters the fervent vow, Then shalt
thou be pleased with the sacrifices of righteousness, with
the burnt-offerings and oblations : then shall they offer
young bullocks upon thine altar 2.
A true revelation, then, of God's character is involved
in the very fact that He sanctioned sacrificial worship
and such other primitive customs as found a place in
the system of Moses. It may indeed be questioned
how far Israel in Egypt is correctly represented as
a sunken and barbarous race3. Oehler points out that
in the Pentateuch the Israelites appear to be rather an
unmanageable than an uncultivated people. In any
case, however, a prolonged and carefully graduated
discipline was needed to lift them above the degraded
nature-worship towards which, when left to themselves,
they habitually gravitated, and it is analogous to the
ordinary method of God's providential government that
He should condescend to use existing customs and
institutions; that He should even for a while bear with
very crude and imperfect conceptions of His own
nature and character. This is the significance of the
fact that the Pentateuch repeatedly dwells upon the
low standard actually exhibited by the people in early
times. Indeed, one object of the prophetic book of
1 Cp. Ps. 1. 8 foil., Ii. 15 foil. ; Amos v. 24; Hos. vi. 6; Isa. i. 16 foil. ;
Jer. vii. 21 foil.
2 Ps. Ii. 19.
3 See Renan, Histoire du peuple d'lsrael, bk. i, ch. 11; Edersheim,
Warburton Lectures, pp. 233 foil. ; Robertson, The Early Religion of
Israel, note xxiv ; Oehler, Theology of the 0. T. § 26, note 3.

170 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
Deuteronomy is to ' dissuade ' the people ' from the
opinion of their own righteousness by rehearsing their
several rebellions V Understand therefore, says the
writer, that the Lord thy God giveth thee not this good
land to possess it for thy righteousness ; for thou art
a stiffnecked people. Remember, and forget not, how
thou provokedst the Lord thy God to wrath in the
wilderness: from the day that thou didst depart out
of the land of Egypt, until ye came unto this place, ye
have been rebellious against the Lord2. It is worthy of
God that He should deign to be the educator of His
people. The mere recognition or toleration of what
is rude and morally defective reveals a deity not
only righteous and just, but patient, wise, and loving.
In the simple precepts delivered to an untutored race,
in the directions that were adapted to the circum
stances of a primitive age, ' we can recognize,' it has
been said, ' the beating heart of the living God 3.'
When we turn from the sphere of religious
observance to that of ethical ideas, we see at once
how progress depended upon the existence of some
¦well-defined, though simple, conception of the divine
character. Nothing short of a belief in the living
God was capable of giving impulse and direction to
the movement towards a higher standard. In its
fundamental idea of Jehovah's character lies the secret
of Israel's moral superiority to the surrounding
heathen. The ethics of Mosaism are in fact rooted
in its theology, just as its theology is based on the
historic fact of the exodus from Egypt. / am Jehovah
thy God, that brought thee out of the land of Egypt, out
of the house of bondage. As a consequence of its
deliverance, Israel entered into definite relationship
with a Being personal and moral, a Being not merely
possessed of invincible might, but manifesting Himself
as righteous; for the overthrow of Egyptian power was
a triumph both of grace aiding the weak, and of right-
1 Deut. ix (heading in A. V.). 2 Deut. ix. 6, 7.
6 Oettli, op. cit. p. 20.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 171
eousness punishing the oppressor. Thus an ethical
conception of deity formed the starting-point of Israel's
religion. Holiness was declared to be at once the rule
of divine action and a law for human conduct *.
It would be misleading to speak of Mosaism as if it
embraced a formal system of ethics. It did, how
ever, prepare the way for a system by a gradual,
but in the long run effectual, elucidation of two ideas
which a religious system of morals seems to pre
suppose : first, the idea of holiness; secondly, the idea
of the worth and dignity of personality.
In a former lecture we have noticed how the idea of
holiness was transferred in process of time from the
sphere of ritual to that of ethics ; how the notion of
religious separation gradually passed into that of moral
sanctity. The point, however, to be observed here is
that the deeper sense of the word ' holiness ' was
suggested at the very starting-point of Israel's career.
The proof of this statement lies in the general
characteristics of the earliest legislation. On the
one hand, there is a comparative silence in regard
to points of ritual. Certainly the Mosaic cultus
was for a long period merely ' an affair of practice and
tradition, resting on knowledge that belonged to the
priestly guild2.' It does not appear to have been
reduced to theory or formally codified at the time of
the exodus. The positive ordinances that relate to
worship in the 'Book of the Covenant' are of the most
simple and primitive character. There is only one
direction that touches upon ceremonial purity, viz.
a precept to abstain from the flesh of animals torn by
wild beasts 3. There are also injunctions bearing upon
the erection of altars, the offering of firstfruits, and the
observance of three stated feasts connected with the
ordinary conditions of agricultural life. All the other
1 Cp. W. S. Bruce, Ethics of the O. T. ch. iii.
2 Robertson Smith, O. T. in J. C. p. 332.
3 Exod. xxii. 31. Cp. xx. 24, xxii. 29, xxm. 14 foil. Observe two points
of sacrificial ritual in xxiii. 18. Cp. Driver, Introduction to the Literature
of the 0. T. pp. 33 foil.

172 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
precepts of the first legislation are social and ethical ;
they regulate the transactions of man with his fellow ;
they provide for the due punishment of injuries
inflicted upon a fellow Israelite either unwittingly or
With malicious intent ; they define the elementary
rights of the slave and they enjoin certain minor
duties of humanity. The crimes restrained are such
as would be common in a rude and semi-civilized com
munity. What is most striking, however, is the con
stant reference made to the divine authority behind
the law. If the widow or fatherless child is afflicted,
Jehovah will hear their cry, and His wrath shall wax
hot1. Jehovah himself watches, as it were, over the
administration of justice and guards the interests of
the helpless and friendless. Indeed, the distinctive
peculiarity of the legislation is the prominence assigned
to righteousness and humanity. Its effect could not
fail to be that of deepening the sense of Jehovah's
chief requirement, or, in other words, elucidating the
notion of His holiness.
The Decalogue is especially significant in this con
nexion, for in it we may confidently believe that
we have an original monument of Mosaism. It is
indisputable that ' the ten words ' are an index to the
character of Moses' work in so far as they place
morality in the forefront of Israel's religion, and
form a commentary on the meaning of the ' holiness '
ascribed to the God of redemption. I am aware of
the view advanced by some eminent critics that the
Decalogue, even in its original form, cannot be as
cribed to Moses 2. Moreover, as is well known,
there is a so-called second Decalogue contained in
Exod. xxxiv. 10-28 3, which is one of the puzzles of
1 Exod. xxii. 24.
2 See e.g. Cornill, Der Israelitische Prophetismus, 17; Wellhausen,
Sketch, &.C., p. 21 ; Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, appendix i. (p. 553).
There is, of course, an important revelation of Jehovah's character in the
sanctions attached to the first four ' words ; ' but on this point it would be
unwise to insist, inasmuch as these sanctions appear to belong to a later
age than the Decalogue itself.
3 Robertson Smith, 0. T. in f. C. p. 335 ; Driver, op. cit. p. 37.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 173
criticism. But we seem to be justified in adhering to
the traditional view of the Decalogue chiefly on the
ground that it is intrinsically credible. It is consistent
with all that we know of Israel's subsequent history,
and it would be impossible to explain satisfactorily the,
vitality and vigour displayed in the conquest of
Canaan without the supposition that the long observ
ance of some primary laws of moral conduct had
moulded the character of the nation and consolidated its
strength 1. On the other hand, it is scarcely conceiv
able that the prophets were the first ethical teachers of
Israel. It has been justly pointed out that ' the more
the pre-prophetic religion is depreciated, the more
difficult it will be to account for its sudden rise to the
level in which we find it in the earliest writing
prophets V The prophets never claim the position of
pioneers in religion ; they regard themselves as
restorers of a moral and religious ideal which had
been set before the people at the very outset of its
history 3. Their language implies that Mosaism was
pre-eminently an ethical religion ; that, in fact, it had
laid the foundations of Israel's polity in a lofty con
ception of God, and in the exaltation of righteousness
as the essential element in true and acceptable wor
ship. Certainly this view harmonizes with the fact
that the Old Testament uniformly ascribes to Moses
a prophetic character.
The notion of holiness, then, was closely associated
with morality in the Sinaitic legislation, and each
fresh disclosure of Jehovah's character contributed
something to the education of conscience and de
veloped more profound conceptions of human duty.
In this progressive movement the book of Deutero-
1 Prof. Kamphausen, quoted by Montefiore (Hibbert Lectures, p. 47),
says : ' I recognize in the fact that the small number of the Israelites was
not absorbed by the Canaanites, who were by far their superiors in all
matters of external culture, a convincing proof of the ethical power of the
Yahvistic religion.'
2 Robertson, The Early Religion of 'Israel, p. 264.
3 Cp. Konig, Religious History of Israel, p. 25.

174 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
nomy may be said to play a decisive part1. The
didactic recapitulation of the history and legislation,
which is characteristic of this book, was apparently
intended to serve the purpose of deepening the
religious life of Israel by bringing out the spiritual
significance of its past experience. It is the spirit of
the prophets which gives to Deuteronomy its peculiar
tone and impress. In teaching that the service of
Jehovah demands not formal compliance with the ex
ternal precepts of the law, but an inward devotion of
heart and will, the book bears eloquent testimony to
the true genius and character of Mosaism. It evidently
presupposes the existence of a well-understood moral
code reaching back to the very commencement of
Israel's national life. And if it is urged that the low
moral condition of the people during the wanderings
contradicts the idea that Moses instituted a pure and
imageless worship of the true God, it may be rejoined
that the practical failure of the prophets to win the
mass of the people to a higher standard of morals and
worship proves the possibility at least of an analogous
condition of things in the time of Moses himself.
Wellhausen and others question the authenticity of
the second commandment on the express ground that
its observance was virtually unknown throughout the
older period of the history. ' Could Moses,' it is
asked, 'have forbidden image-worship, when we know
that the representation of Jehovah under the form of
a bull was a common and scarcely reprehended custom
down to the age of Amos2?' Now the analogy of
later history renders it perfectly credible that
a spiritual worship of Jehovah was enjoined as an
ideal by Moses, but that it did not prevent an
occasional or even constant declension of the people
to a lower standard. This account of the matter is
more simple than the supposition that the second com
mandment is a late insertion into an earlier form of
1 Cp. W. S. Bruce, The Ethics of the O. T. pp. 224 foil.
2 Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, appendix i.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 175
the Decalogue 1 ; moreover, it is consistent with the
fact, pointed out by M. Renan, that nomadic religion
is as a rule simple in character, and that the primitive
Semites had little liking for figured presentments of
the deity2. Neither theory, however, vitally affects
the main point on which I have been insisting, namely,
the distinctively ethical character of Mosaism. The
basis of righteousness was laid in simple precepts
designed to protect life, property, chastity, and the
reverence due to parents 3. The holiness of Jehovah
was in process of time seen to consist in His utter
abhorrence of inhuman and unrighteous conduct ; and
in the ethical connotation imparted to the notion
of holiness lies the characteristic contribution of
Mosaic religion to the advancement of ethical theory
and practice.
There was another idea which needed develop
ment before morality could become in any sense
systematic : the idea, namely, of the worth, dignity,
and rights of personality.
In the early stages of Hebrew civilization, religion
appears to accommodate itself to a defective or even
debased notion of human individuality. This state
ment may be justified by such incidents as the
destruction of Achan's household, the doom of Dathan
and Abiram with their company, and the slaughter of
the Canaanites whom Israel dispossessed of their land.
An attentive reader of the Old Testament, however,
1 Cp. Bruce, Apologetics, p. 212. Kittel, Hist, of the Hebrews, vol. i.
p. 235, takes a mediating view. 'Neither the Decalogue nor the Book
of the Covenant in their present form can be directly Mosaic. Criticism
must be allowed a free hand in separating the later additions and enlarge
ments, which here also are quite intelligible. When this is done, the
original kernel, both of the one document and of the other, must remain.
Their Mosaic origin is witnessed to in a manner which deserves the
fullest credence : the infrequency with which such witness is borne ; the
contents, as well as the concise and lapidary style, of these two funda
mental laws ; the history of the circumstances amidst which we have
shown they originated ; — are sufficient proofs.'
'' Histoire du peuple d 'Israel, bk. i, ch. 4 init.
3 It is significant that in referring to 'the commandmen's ' our Lord
does not mention the first, second, third, or fourth (Mark x. 19 ; cp. Malt.
xix. 16 foil., Luke xviii. 18 foil.).

176 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
will observe that the foundations of a true conception
of personality are being laid even at a period when
the existence of individual rights seems to be totally
ignored. The germ of a doctrine of human indi
viduality is perhaps to be traced in the rite of circum
cision, which was extended to children and even to
the servants of a Hebrew household. Further, we
may point to all primitive enactments which limited
the arbitrary power of those who owned slaves \ or
enjoined simple duties of charity and humanity 2. Nor
must we overlook the influence of those sacred tradi
tions which witnessed to a divine tenderness for the
humble and lonely soul, the story of Hagar, for
example, whom the angel of the Lord ' found ' by
a fountain of water in the wilderness of Shur and
addressed by name : Hagar, Sarai's maid, whence
earnest thou ? and whither wilt thou go 3 ? These con
siderations show that the Law in its earliest stages
implicitly recognized that very truth of man's relation
ship to God and to his fellow which ultimately led
to the recognition of his own personal rights as an
individual 4. By way of illustrating this point, we
may notice the practice of human sacrifice and the
divine injunction to slaughter the Canaanites.
In regard to human sacrifice we may at once
set aside the notion of an original connexion
between the worship of Moloch and the service of
Jehovah, which some critics base, somewhat fancifully,
on the description of Jehovah as 'fire6.' Neverthe
less, it is clear that the primitive Semites regarded
human life — the life, for instance, of a fellow-tribes
man — as a thing of unique sanctity, and therefore
likely to be specially efficacious when employed as
1 Exod. xxi. 20 ; Deut. xxi. 10 foil.
2 See Exod. chh. xxi-xxiii ; Deut. chh. xx, xxii, xxiv, xxv.
3 Gen. xvi. 8 ; cp. xxi. 17.
4 Cp. Mozley, Ruling Ideas in Early Ages, p. 235.
6 See Konig, The Religion of Israel, ch. ix ; Robertson, Early Religion
of Israel, ch. x. On human sacrifice in Israel see Schultz, 0. T.
Theology, vol. i. p. 191 ; Dillmann on Genesis xxii; Kamphausen, Das
Verhdltms des Menschenopfers zur Isr. Religion, &c.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 177
a medium of atonement. This will account for the
occasional tendency of Israel to relapse into the bar
barous customs of heathen worship. The primitive
notion that God might claim for Himself a human life
as man's most acceptable offering, probably lingered
long in the popular mind. The idea, indeed, con
tained an element of nobility and truth which the
religion of Jehovah was destined to extricate and
purify. We naturally think in this connexion of the
offering of Isaac by Abraham described in the twenty-
second chapter of Genesis. What, then, is the
purport of this narrative ? The point of it appears
to depend on the ' prevailing low theology of sacrifice,'
in which for the moment Jehovah seems to acquiesce *.
The injunction to sacrifice a human victim to Jehovah
was in accordance with the ideas common to Abra
ham's race and the age in which he lived 2. There
was nothing in the spirit of his time that would
necessarily deter the patriarch from executing it.
Further, the passage in question supplies an explana
tion of the fact, that at a comparatively early stage in its
history the Hebrew people was distinguished from its
heathen neighbours by the disuse of human sacrifice 3-
God dealt with the custom pedagogically, and in a
manner analogous to His action in other departments
of man's moral education. The element of good
which lies at the root of human sacrifice was en
forced — viz. the principle that man is bound to devote
to God his best and choicest gift. It was this element
which made Abraham's act not only morally glorious,
but typical of the perfect ' sacrifice, oblation, and satis
faction ' which was consummated on Calvary. The
subsequent effect of the tradition embodied in this
narrative was twofold. On the one hand, the practice
of human sacrifice came to be regarded with horror as
1 Cp. Newman Smyth, Old Faiths in New Lights, pp. 84-90.
2 Cp. Renan, Histoire du peuple d 'Israel, bk. i. ch. 9 [Eng. Tr.
p. 102].
3 Robertson, Early Religion of Israel, p. 254. Cp. Fairbairn, Religion
in History and in Modern Life, lect. ii. p. 129.
N

178 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
a shocking relapse into heathen atrocities; on the other,
there arose a more profound conception of Jehovah's
requirement : He was a God ' who did not delight in
destroying life, but in saving and sanctifying it x ' ; and
the oblation in which alone He could delight was the
free-will offering of a perfect human obedience. Thus
the divine Educator practically succeeded in destroy
ing the fatal errors, and saving the vital truth, of
sacrifice2- He accepts the best that primitive man
can offer, and, as Dr. Mozley observes, directs his
'earlier ideas and modes of thinking towards such
great moral achievements as are able to be founded
upon them 3.'
So much may be said from an apologetic point of
view in regard to Genesis xxii. The bearing of the
narrative, however, upon our present subject lies in its
contribution to the idea of the worth of personality,
and in its restriction of absolute paternal rights. It
inculcates the lesson that ' parents have only such
rights over their children as are consistent with the
acknowledgment of God's higher right of property i.'
This last point leads naturally to the consideration
of the divine injunction to exterminate the inhabitants
of Canaan. Various attempts have been made to
explain, or mitigate, a sentence of destruction which
at first sight seems so inconsistent with the very
features of Jehovah's character which the deliverance
of Israel from Egypt had manifested 5. As in the
matter of human sacrifice, so in this case it might be
said that God appears to acquiesce in a view of human
life which knows nothing of individual responsibility.
1 Robertson, Early Religion of Israel, p. 255.
2 Newman Smyth, op. cit. p. 89. Cp. Oehler, Theol. of the O. T. § 23.
On the sacrifice of Jephthah's daughter see Schultz, vol. i. p. 191 ;
Robertson, Early Religion of Israel, p. 255.
3 Mozley, Ruling Ideas in Early Ages, p. 55.
* Oehler, § 105. He observes that the same principle appears in the
ordinances relating to the redemption of firstborn sons, representing
perhaps the whole family (Exod. xiii. 13).
6 See W. S. Bruce, The Ethics of the O. T. pp. 259 foil. ; Mozley,
Ruling Ideas, &c, lect. iv.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 179
But the judicial extirpation of the Canaanites may
rather be regarded as a proof that the interests of
man's moral progress occasionally demand the em
ployment of stern and relentless methods. The
Old Testament itself indicates the real ground of the
transaction when it insists that the inhabitants of the
land had already been long spared in spite of their
abominations, and that the cup of their iniquities was
now full *. Herein consists the moral impressiveness
of the tragic doom that overtook the Canaanites —
a doom delayed for centuries, but at length descend
ing upon the guilty with appalling severity. The
whole proceeding enters as a wholesome element
into the moral education of Israel and of the world.
It had at least the effect of signalizing the divine ab
horrence of portentous sensuality. It was an act
characteristic of that Power which throughout human
history ' makes for righteousness 2,' and sweeps away
degenerate races in order to make way for such as are
fresh and vigorous. ' Here is no partiality,' says
Dr. Bruce, ' of a merely national God befriending
His worshippers at the expense of others without
regard to justice ; here rather is a Power making for
righteousness and against iniquity ; yea, a Power
acting with a beneficent regard to the good of
humanity, burying a putrefying carcase out of sight
lest it should taint the air 3.' After all, the Canaanite
nations were put under the ban, ' not for false belief,
but for vile actions 4,' a significant circumstance which
plainly implies that in the execution of His righteous
purpose Almighty God is guided by one supreme aim,
namely, the elevation of human character. If Israel
was duly to discharge its mission, and to become the
vehicle to mankind of a purer religion and a loftier
morality, it was necessary, humanly speaking, that
1 Lev. xviii. 27 foil. ; Deut. xii. 31. Cp. Gen. xv. 16.
2 See Oehler, § 32, note 3.
3 Chief End of Revelation, pp. 140 foil.
4 Westcott, Epistle to the Hebrews, p. 139.
N 2

180 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
a signal manifestation should be made, at the very out
set of its history, of the divine hostility to sin. It is
to be observed, finally, that Israel itself is threatened
with a similar judgment in the event of its yielding
to the depraved rites or practices of heathendom1.
These considerations at least suggest that the idea of
individuality is one for which a moral basis is required.
The interests of morality may well have demanded an
inexorably severe treatment of an evil which might
have fatally thwarted God's beneficent purpose for
mankind at the very outset. It was more important
that a people, destined to be the missionary of the
world, should have a just conception of the meaning
of divine holiness, than that it should learn the duty
of respect for individual rights. The sense of national
consecration was utilized as a factor in the develop
ment of morality, but it naturally preceded by a long
interval the idea of personal sanctifi.ca.tion.
With these few illustrations of the progressiveness
of Israel's ethical education I must be content. The
caution however may be repeated, that it is incon
sistent with all sound historical principles to pronounce
a verdict upon the morality of the old dispensation
apart from due consideration of its uniform tendency,
and of the purpose by which it was manifestly in
spired and guided 2.
1 Deut. viii. 19, 20 ; xiii. 12 foil. ; Josh, xxiii. 15 foil.
2 Cp. Mozley, Ruling Ideas in Early Ages, p. 238: 'When you talk
of the imperfect and mistaken morality of the Old Testament dispensation,
ask yourself, to begin with, what you mean, and what you intend to assert
by the expression. Do you mean to assert that the written law was im
perfect ? If that is all, you state what is simply a fact ; but this does not
touch the morality of the Lawgiver, because He is abundantly fortified by
the defence that He could give no higher at the time to an unenlightened
people. Do you mean to assert that the scope and design was imperfectly
moral ? In that case you are contradicted by the whole course of history.
. . You blame in the Old Testament dispensation, i. e. in its Author,
what ? The moral standard He permits ? It is the highest man can
then receive. The moral standard He desires} He desires a perfect
moral standard, and ultimately establishes it.'

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD i8r

II.
Hitherto we have been engaged in considering
the progressive character of revelation, and the light
which the history of Israel's moral development
throws upon the nature and attributes of God. The
prophets and psalmists are fully alive to the inner
significance of the divine dealings with Israel, and
they delight to describe in homely and tender imagery
the relationship of love which bound Jehovah to His
people. They conceive of Him as guiding Israel's
footsteps with a fathers compassion, and feeding His
people with a shepherd's watchful care. Thou hast
seen, says the writer of Deuteronomy, how that the
Lord thy God bare thee, as a man doth bear his son, in
all the way that ye went, until ye came into this place 3.
As for his own people, sings the psalmist, he led them
forth like sheep, and carried them in the wilderness like
a flock 2. In all their affliction, says a prophet, he
was afflicted, and the angel of his presence saved them ;
in his love and in his pity he redeemed them; and
he bare them, and carried them all the days of old 3.
Such passages have a religious importance apart from
their literary beauty. The psalmists and prophets
look back upon the chequered history of God's
relationship to Israel with the eyes of love. In the
stern but merciful discipline of the wilderness, in the
intervention of almighty power, in the miracles of
redeeming and sustaining grace, they discern the
unwearied faithfulness and tenderness of a self-reveal
ing deity. Their chief interest is to trace at every
stage or crisis of national development the handiwork
of God ; they dwell upon all situations or incidents
that illustrate the attributes of God and the methods
of His action. History, in a word, is to the prophets
and saints of old the continuous self-manifestation of
a person, the gradual disclosure of the ineffable Name.
1 Deut. i. 31 ; cp. Hos. xi. 1. 2 Ps. lxxviii. 53. s Isa. lxiii. 9.

182 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
The ' Name ' of God signifies that which may be
known of Him, or rather that which He has made
known of Himself to man. It does not represent the
divine essence in itself, but such a manifestation of it
as human faculties can apprehend. In short, the
Name of God is His character as He would have it
acknowledged and held in honour by man. It is that
which in the life of His beloved Son was finally
manifested, and the successive declarations of the
divine Name may be said to mark in broad outline
different stages of revelation. The conception of
deity becomes more definite and clear in proportion
as redemptive history advances.
Now speaking broadly, there appears to be a gradual
transition from general designations of the divine
nature to specific and full statements of character.
The ancient Hebrews started from some indetermi
nate conception of God common to the whole Semitic
race, and were led on by slow degrees to a living
apprehension of the being whom they worshipped.
There was a relative purity and spirituality in the
most ancient Semitic ideas of deity which distinguished
them from those of Aryan peoples. This might be
inferred from the different titles of Semitic deities :
thus El signifies ' strong one ' ; Bel or Baal, ' owner ' ;
Adonis, 'lord'; Moloch, 'king'; Rimmon, probably
' thunderer V The fact is one which confirms the
impression that Israel had antecedent aptitude for
becoming the vehicle of the true religion to the
world. The Hebrew started fairly; he had not
utterly confounded God with nature. And thus from
a feeling of vague dependence and fear he was led
onward and upward towards the perception of a per
sonality to whom he could stand in a moral relation
ship of devotion, trust, and love. He outgrew the
stage in which the thought of deity merely inspired
1 Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, pp. 46, 47. Riehm observes that among the
Semites 'die Gottheit wird nicht so tief, wie bei den Ariern, in die Natur
und das Naturleben herabgezogen.'

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 183
awe, and finally attained that in which the very
mention of God was a joy, the very thought of Him
a refuge and a solace. It is a wonderful ascent in
religious experience, the successive moments of which
seem to be indicated in the different designations of
God contained in the Old Testament.
The names of God must first be briefly con
sidered with reference to their meaning and origin.
We have, first, a group of general names, of which
the most common are 'El, 'Eloah, 'Elohim, and 'El
'Elyon. The name 'Elohim has been thought to
point to the polytheistic idiom of the early Semites;
but, as is well known, when applied to the God of
Israel it denotes the one and only God, and is used
with a singular verb ]. The name may perhaps be
traced to a time when it was commonly believed
that there were supernatural beings infesting certain
localities, and vaguely supposed to be hostile to
men. ' If,' says Prof. Robertson Smith, ' the 'Elohim
of a place meant originally all its sacred denizens . . .
the transition to the use of the plural in a singular
sense would follow naturally as soon as this inde
terminate conception gave way to the conception of
an individual god of the sanctuary2.' It should be
borne in mind that the word is by no means exclu
sively applied to God. It is occasionally applied to
a person who is regarded as the mouthpiece of a
divine sentence, for instance to a judge or to a civil
magistrate. Moreover, 'Elohim is commonly used,
not only of the false deities of alien nations, but also
of a class of beings, Sons of 'Elohim, who possess
supernatural powers, and belong to an invisible and
spiritual order. When applied to the God of Israel,
the plural 'Elohim is best described as intensive,
expressing the notion of ' fullness ' — plenitude of
superhuman might, or, as others prefer to explain,
1 See Schultz, i. 121 ; ii. 126 foil.
2 Religion of the Semites, p. 150. Cf. Renan, Histoire dupeuple d' Israel,
bk. i. ch. 3 [Eng, Tr. pp. 25, 26].

1 84 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
of that which inspires awe 1- In any case it implies
a being who claims the submission and adoration of
men; and it may fairly be maintained that the word,
especially when united to a singular verb, indicates
that all divine powers are, as it were, concentrated in
one personal being2; indeed, the phrase may be
thought to have possessed dogmatic value as com
bating the notion of an abstract and sterile monotheism.
Akin to 'Elohim may be the name 'El, which is
sometimes found in poetry, but scarcely ever in prose.
The root-meaning of the word is apparently 'the strong
one,' and the fact of its appearing in old proper names,
e. g. Methusael, Ishmael, or Bethel, points to its
being the most primitive Hebrew designation of God3.
With respect to the name 'Eloah, the singular of
'Elohim, some scholars hold that it corresponds to 'El
as a subjective to an objective designation : 'El, the
absolutely strong one, being regarded by man as
'Eloah, the object of man's dread4. Finally, the
phrase 'El 'Elyon, 'Most High God' — a title which
has Phoenician affinities 5 — implies the relative tran
scendence or elevation of the Deity, and it has been
surmised that the use of this name in the passage
relating to Melchizedek (Gen. xiv. 18) points to the
early existence of an ancient monolatrous worship on
Canaanite soil 6-
Next to these general names comes the title which
1 See Riehm, op. cit. pp. 48, 49. Riehm questions the correctness of
the opinion that Elohim had originally the notion of plurality. He thinks
that, like other words, e. g. D^C and ?''D, it might simply imply extension,
mass, or fullness. Darmesteter makes a similar remark: 'Le pluriel
Elohim construit avec un verbe au singulier est un fait de grammaire et
non de psychologie religieuse, et ne prouve guere plus la multiplicite
primitive du dieu que Nous et Notre Majeste" ne prouvent la multiplicity
des majestes humaines ; bref, Elohim est un de naissance autant que
Jahve' (Les Prophites d'Israel, p. 215).
2 See Robertson, Early Religion of Israel, note xv (p. 502). Cp.
1 Cor. viii. 5, 6.
3 Renan points out the religious significance of this fact, as attesting the
relative purity of the Hebrew conceptions of deity (op. cit. bk. i. ch. 8 init.).
* Oehler, § 36. Cp. Riehm, p. 49. 6 Schultz, ii. 130.
6 Oehler, § 23, note 8. Cp. Westcott on Heb. vii. 1.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 185
is characteristic of the patriarchal period, 'El Shaddai1.
There can be no question that the general import
of the name is correctly given in the usual English
equivalent, 'God Almighty.' The idea conveyed by it
is that of absolute control over the forces of nature
and the course of history. Abraham, as the recipient
of Jehovah's gracious promises, may lean confidently
on Him, with full assurance that what he hath
promised he is able also to perform'1 ; He is unfettered
either by human perversity, or by the fixity of physical
laws. The appearance of this designation of God
marks a significant advance in religious ideas. It
seems to imply the drawing of a conscious distinction
between the one true omnipotent God and the
powerless deities of heathendom. It corresponds
to the simplicity and relative purity of patriarchal
faith and worship when compared with the debased
nature-religion of the Canaanites.
Specially distinctive of the Mosaic period is the title
which is peculiarly the Name 3 of revelation, Jahveh.
Into the disputed history and origin of the word there
is no occasion to enter minutely. It may suffice to
say briefly that it appears to be a genuine Hebrew
formation, directly connected with the third person
singular imperfect of a verb4. But it is still a
matter of some uncertainty what was the precise
significance of the original verbal stem ; whether the
form is a Qal or a Hiphil; and therefore whether the
word itself means ' the living one ' or ' he who causes
to be,' ' the Creator.' It is noteworthy, however, that
names derived from the imperfect tense — such names,
for instance, as Jacob or Israel — -seem generally, like
Latin formations ending in -tor, to indicate a constant
quality in the object of which they are predicated.
There is sufficient reason on the whole for accepting
1 Exod. vi. 3. Observe this is according to P. 2 Rom. iv. 21.
3 Lev. xxiv. 1 1 : DKT1, LXX. to ovopa.
4 For various accounts of the derivation see Riehm, p. 59 ; Robertson,
Early Religion of Israel, pp. 268 foil. ; Renan, Histoire dupeuple d'Israel,
bk. i, ch. 6 ; Studia Biblica, vol. i. pp. 1 1 foil.

186 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
the view that the word means 'he who will be.' There
is an inevitable vagueness in the phrase, but, as Prof.
Robertson Smith explains, it implies that ' no words can
sum up all that Jehovah will be to His people1.' It
essentially conveys the notion of a living and active
moral personality. Jehovah is a personal being pos
sessed of definite will and character ; free to intervene
in the course of events, and to enter into a relationship
of grace with His creatures; faithful to His own
nature, persistent and self-consistent, an object, there
fore, on which human hopes may securely rest ; a being
moreover who, because He truly is, is therefore holy,
for evil is only the negation of true being. Id malum
est, says Augustine, deficere ab essentia et ad id tendere
ut non sit 2.
There remain two Hebrew titles of deity, 'Adonai
and Jahveh Tsebaoth, ' Jehovah of hosts,' of which the
latter only needs a word of explanation at this point.
The name first appears in the narrative of the books
of Samuel, a circumstance which suggests that it was
commonly associated with the early fortunes of the
monarchy. The original sense and application of the
name is disputed, but most probably its earliest appli
cation was to the armies of Israel itself, which were
habitually regarded as the hosts of Jehovah, marching
under Him as their captain and waging war in His
name 3- According to this view the title naturally
occurs in the early historical books, having been
suggested by the warlike experiences of the exodus
and the entry into Canaan.
Before we consider the relation in which these
various names of God stand to one another, and the
special importance of each in the history of revela
tion, let us pause to notice the general conception of
revelation which they imply.
1 Prophets of Israel, lect. ii, note 10. Cp. Robertson, Early Religion
of Israel, p. 286.
2 de mor. Manich. ii. §§ 2, 3. Cp. Conf. vii. 12 ; Ath. c. Gent, iv, vi.
3 Cp. Exod. vii. 4, xii. 41 ; Num. xxi. 14 ; 1 Sam. xvii. 45. Cp. Robertson,
Early Religion of Israel, note 16, p. 503.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 187
In the first place, the Old Testament witnesses to
an implicit belief that God approaches man inde
pendently of man's efforts to find God. The Hebrew
idea of God was simple and concrete. The Jew
instinctively thought of Jehovah as a personal being,
and therefore capable of making communications to
man. A single expression marks the gulf that parts
the ancient from the modern habit of mind. The
Hebrew prophet speaks of ' seeking God,' not of ' seek
ing after truth.' God is already for him an existing
personal being, the high and lofty one that inhabiteth
eternity, whose name is holy 1, but who has revealed to
man the conditions of entering into communion with
Himself. In a word, the religion of the Old Testa
ment has rather a prophetic than a philosophic
character. It is presupposed that God can and does
speak to man in language that he is capable of com
prehending : dreams, visions, oracles, theophanies,
angelic communications, prophetic messages — these
are the usual media of communication between God
and His creatures, and they all point onwards to the
possibility of that immediate converse between the
human spirit and the Spirit of God, which is the goal
and crowning-point of revelation. The childlike
narratives of the early history represents Jehovah as
holding intercourse with His elect, talking with them
as a man speaketh unto his friend2. In proportion as
the idea of deity becomes more developed this kind
of language disappears. The distance is not widened
between the Creator and His creatures, but the mode
of His communication with them is more spiritually
conceived. Throughout the Old Testament, how
ever, there is no change in the general idea of divine
revelation, namely, that a self-acquired knowledge of
deity is impossible for man, that the first approach
must be made by God Himself, that so much only can
be known of Him as He is willing to manifest from
time to time in the course of history.
1 Isa. lvii. 15. 2 Exod. xxxiii, 11.

188 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
That Jehovah, then, is a being who communicates
with man is, for the Hebrew, an instinctively drawn
inference from the belief in the divine personality.
That God should enter into close relationships with
men, that He should intimately associate Himself with
their tribal and family life, with their traditional
customs of worship, with their joys and sorrows, their
migrations and feuds — this was an integral element
in early Semitic belief. Not less habitual was the
ascription to deity of a readiness to intervene with
counsel in difficulty, or with an authoritative sentence
in matters of dispute. There was something in this
habit of mind which manifestly fitted the Semitic race
to be the vehicle of divine revelation to mankind.
The desire to know God and to hold fellowship with
Him was a natural basis on which the fabric of
revealed religion could be built up. Imbued with the
sense of a close antecedent relation to God, determin
ing his tribal status and his social duties, the primitive
Semite displayed an habitual inclination to explore
the purposes and to ascertain the will of the powerful
being to whom he felt himself so closely bound and
so irresistibly attracted. Hence doubtless it is that
soothsaying and prophecy, whether in its lower or
higher forms, are so constant a phenomenon in Semitic
religion '. It seemed entirely natural that the deity
should converse with man, that He should employ
human organs in the declaration of His will, that by
secret communications of His Spirit He should impart
that knowledge of His nature and requirement which
constitutes the true life of man.
On the other hand, the Old Testament teaches
that the faculty which apprehends the divine com
munications is moral rather than intellectual. What
differentiates Hebrew prophecy from heathen mantic
is not only its actual content, but the moral conditions
which it presupposes. The power of prophecy implies
as its basis the life of friendship with God, and friend-
1 Riehm, ATI. Theologie, p. 46.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 189
ship can only exist where there is likeness in character
and aim. The religion of Israel tends ever more
completely to exclude the ethnic notion of inspiration
divorced from morality. Spiritual insight is the out
come of the fear of God — a fear which is no mere
slavish emotion of abject dependence or terror, but
a principle of practical wisdom J and a faculty of
spiritual perception, discerning in all things the divine
purpose and in all action guided by the divine will 2.
Such fear involves the renunciation of self-conceit.
Lean not, says the Hebrew sage, unto thine own
understanding. Be not wise in thine own eyes 3. And
Jeremiah insists even more emphatically. Let not the
wise man glory in his wisdom, . . . but let him that glorieth
glory in this, that he understandeth and knoweth me,
that I am the Lord which exercise lovhwkindness \
judgment, and righteousness in the earth 4. Thus the
inspired wisdom of the Old Testament anticipates the
teaching of the New, in laying down two main condi
tions under which alone a true knowledge of God is
possible for man. First, human faculties cannot reach
a deity who hides himself; religion, the life of friend
ship between the human heart and God, is impossible
except on the basis of a divine self-communication.
And, secondly, the capacity to know God is a moral
quality ; inspiration and revelation are the correlative
aspects of a moral relationship subsisting between
God and man, God making His communications to
a being whose power of response primarily depends on
the condition of his heart and will, on the degree
of his moral sympathy with his holy Creator.
We may now consider somewhat more in detail
the revelation of God in which the several names
above mentioned seem to mark distinct and definite
stages. The general names, 'El, 'Elohim, 'Eloah, 'El 'Elyon,
which were apparently common among the Semitic
1 Cp. Prov. ix. 10. See Oehler, § 240.
2 Cp. Prov. iii. 6. 3 Prov. iii. 5, 7. 4 Jer. ix. 23, 24.

190 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
tribes, correspond to that vague and undefined con
ception of deity which would be natural at a primitive
stage of civilization. 'Elohim is a power who tran
scends nature and man, who is elevated above the
limitations of the visible universe. The title seems
to concentrate in a single term all that may be known
of God by contemplation of the universe, regarded
as His handiwork1- 'Elohim is the Creator mani
festing His wisdom and omnipotence in all the varied
processes of nature which at the same time He
transcends. From the first, the use of the name in
Hebrew religion served to exclude pantheistic con
ceptions of deity. The notion of transcendence, how
ever, came to be more distinctly conveyed by the rare
'El 'Elyon, ' God Most High,' a name which distin
guishes the one true God from other conceivable
'Elohim. Speaking generally, this entire group of
terms may be described as universalistic in their
connotation. They indicate the relation of God to
all that He has made, as its creator and sustainer.
Thus when creatures other than man are repre
sented as speaking, they employ the term 'Elohim 2.
Again, it has been observed by scholars that 'Elohim,
as the title of God most frequently employed in
post-exilic days, is a symbol of the increasingly
spiritual and transcendental conceptions of God
which the teaching of later prophecy displays 3- The
tendency of religion at this period was to exalt the
deity to a point where He stood far removed from
contact with the world, and consequently to describe
Him in abstract and general terms. ' The names
God of heaven, Most High God begin to be used, and
1 Cp. Rom. i. 19. 2 e. g. Judges ix. 9.
3 Renan strangely regards the name fahveh as representing a lower
stage of faith than Elohim. ' The religious progress of Israel will be
found to consist in reverting from Jahveh to Elohim, ... in stripping him
of his personal attributes and leaving him only the abstract existence of
Elohim ' (Histoire du peuple d'Israel, bk. i. ch. 6). ' The history of
Israel,' he says elsewhere (bk. ii, ch. 5), ' was an effort continued through
long ages to shake off the false god Jahveh, and to return to the primitive
Elohim.'

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 191
are even put into heathen mouths V The covenant-
name Jehovah is withdrawn, as if a reluctance had
gradually arisen to name the living God, or perhaps
a vague dread of dishonouring His awful majesty 2.
But a providential purpose may be discerned in what
might at first sight seem to be a retrogression.
The revival of these primitive titles 'Elohim and 'El
'Elyon has a theological significance in so far as they
bear witness to a redemptive purpose of God extend
ing beyond the pale of His covenant with Israel. In
the third book of the psalter, for example, the use of
the word 'Elohim was perhaps designed by the compiler
to counteract the exclusive temper, which was Israel's
peculiar danger in the age subsequent to the return
from Babylon. A good instance of the same point is
furnished by the book of Ecclesiastes. Here 'Elohim
is the solitary title of deity employed ; and the divine
nature is described in such general terms as might
awaken a response in the heathen conscience. While
'Elohim testifies to the providential regard of the God
of Israel for the Gentile world, the names 'Creator'
and 'Judge' would suggest a character and function
already ascribed to deity by the higher spirits of
heathendom. The name 'Elohim, corresponding to the
Greek title to Oelov, would constitute one of those
links between the religion of Israel and the higher
thought of the Hellenic world on which the future
spread of Christianity so largely depended. Indeed,
in the system of Philo the later Jewish mode of con
ceiving the deity easily coalesces with the transcendental
tendencies of Platonism.
The name 'El Shaddai, ' God Almighty,' is repre
sented by the priestly document in the Pentateuch as
characteristic of the first stage in redemptive history 3.
1 See Neh. ix. 32 foil. ; Ezra i. 2 ; 2 Chron. xxxvi. 23 (Schultz, vol. ii.
p. 114).
2 To blaspheme the Name was to blaspheme God as He had revealed
Himself through Moses to His people. See Lev. xxiv. 11, 16.
3 Gen. xvii. 1, xxviii. 3, xxxv. 11 ; Exod. vi. 3. The name Shaddai is
also characteristic of the book of Job. See Driver on foel, p. 81.

192 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
It denotes a divine power to control or overrule
nature in the interests of a providential purpose. It is
'El Shaddai who makes childless Abraham the father
of many nations, and supports him in his loneliness
among the heathen. The expression obviously marks
an advance beyond the notion that the deity is merely
strong or powerful (El), for it suggested the higher
moral attributes of God to which His omnipotence
is subject. 'El Shaddai was a name that prepared
the way for the notion of grace. ' Grace,' observes
Delitzsch, ' always raises itself on the foundation of the
natural after it has destroyed it; thus the body of
Abraham must become as good as dead before he could
become the father of the son of promise 1.' It is an
instructive circumstance that in the hymn of the
blessed Virgin the thought contained in 'El Shaddai
recurs. He that is mighty (o <VaTo'?) hath done to me
great things, and holy is his name 2. Finally, while
the title lifts the conception of God high above old
polytheistic associations, it also confirms the tradition
that the foundations of the true religion had already
been securely laid in the pre-Mosaic period. 'El
Shaddai had manifested Himself in the separation of
Abraham from the falsities of encompassing idolatry,
in the guidance and protection vouchsafed to him
during a long and chequered career, in the gift of a son
when the patriarch was far advanced in years, in the
gracious promises made to him and to his seed. And
all these blessings were tokens not only of God's
favour, but also of His all-sufficing power.
There is another title of God which we are justified
in considering at this point, inasmuch as it represents
the subjective aspect of the truth implied in El Shaddai,
I mean the name 'Adonai, 'My lord.' This name
appears to express the temper of trustful depend
ence; the consciousness of being linked to God by
a tie which constitutes a continual claim on the
1 Old Test. History of Redemption, § 16. Cp. Rom. iv. 19 ; Heb. xi. 12.
2 St. Luke i. 49.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 193
divine bounty and protection. The term ' Lord '
(A don) is specially used in connexion with two kinds
of relationship : that of wife to husband, and that of
servant to master1. It is not uncommon in pro
phecy 2. There are some indications that in the pre-
prophetic period the term Baal, ' Master,' ' Owner,' or
1 Lord,' was occasionally used in the same connexion,
but it was naturally repudiated when the worship of
Jehovah under this title had become merged in the
local cults of the Canaanitish Baalim 3. The name
'Adonai implies that man's relationship to God is
one of loving trust rather than of fear. In it, says
a recent writer, ' was couched a strong ethical motive,
which becomes influential in Christian ethics, being
accentuated especially in the Pauline theology ; . . . the
Old Testament saint delighted to call God by the
name that helped him to realize that he was both the
subject and the property of his Lord V
We now pass to the most important and distinctive
designation of God in the Old Testament. The
name Jehovah (Jahveh) may be considered in itself
and in its relation to the names of deity already
discussed. The title connotes primarily that which
differentiates the nature of God from the changeable-
ness and dependence of created being. Jehovah is
absolutely self-subsistent and independent. With
Him is the fountain of life ; He has life in Himself.
Further, the name points to the future. Jehovah
is one whose intercourse with the human race is
continuous, living, and progressive. He is a personal
being who in free self-determination can manifest
Himself to man according as His purpose may re
quire, whether in a moral law, or in deeds of power,
or in acts of forgiveness and beneficence. Thus,
1 Cp. Jukes, The Names of God, pp. 114 foil.
2 ''JIN Isa. vi. 1, xxi. 16, xxix. 13. piNn Isa. x. 16, 33, &c. Cp.
Schultz, ii. 129.
3 Cp. Hos. ii. 8, 13 ; and see Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites,
p. 95 ; and Robertson, Early Religion of Israel, pp. 171-173.
4 W. S. Bruce, Ethics of the O. T. p. 44.
O

194 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
when contrasted with 'Elohim, the title signifies a being
who continuously unveils Himself in history, as opposed
to a supra-mundane power once for all manifested in
nature ; on the other hand, the title supplements the
thought of omnipotent power (El Shaddai) by that of
covenantal love. The notion of grace from the first
qualifies the attributes of a merely national deity.
The appellations which the heathen gave to their
deities, Baal, Milcom, and the like, point to little
more than a relationship of abject dependence. The
title Jehovah, on the contrary, implies that God's
dealings with His people are not those of mere
arbitrary sovereignty, but those of covenantal love \
And at this point let us observe the special signifi
cance of the fact that it is in connexion with this name
that anthropomorphic expressions are most frequently
employed. The personality of God is emphasized by
phrases borrowed from the common actions and
bodily motions of men. We hear of the ' mouth ' of
Jehovah speaking, the 'hand' of Jehovah being out
stretched, the 'voice' of Jehovah shaking the wilder
ness, the 'eyes' of Jehovah running to and fro
through the whole earth. ' The Old Testament writers,'
says Schultz, ' speak like materialists, simply because
they have not yet clearly apprehended the distinction
between spirit and matter 2.' What they are concerned
to maintain is something more important for religion
than any philosophical or speculative conception of
Godhead, namely, the truth that the Creator is a living
person who thinks, purposes, wills, and chooses 3. They
1 Kittel, Hist, of the Hebrews, vol. i. p. 246. Renan, Histoire du peuple
d'Israel, bk. i, ch. 3, remarks that ' religious abjection was repulsive ' to
the primitive Semites ' and this fine feeling afterwards brought its reward '
2 O. T. Theol. ii. 107.
3 Riehm, ATI. Theologie, p. 61 : 'Dass nun Jahve Personenname
des Gottes Israels ist und die Vorstellung Gottes als eines freien
selbstbewussten und sich selbst bestimmenden Ichs mit ihm sich
verkniipft, dafur ist ein augenfalliges Zeugniss, dass mit diesem Gottes-
namen in der Regel die Anthropomorphismen und Anthropopathismen
. . . verbunden sind, wahrend sich Elohim in solcher Verbindung selten
findet.' Origen defends the anthropopathic language of Scripture against
Celsus as illustrating the divine condescension. See c. Cels. iv. 71 : 'As

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 195
interpret deity by the highest category within their
reach, and though their phraseology is sometimes
incongruous, it is perfectly consistent with their purely
religious aim and interest. It is, moreover, significant
that precisely in those later passages of the Old
Testament which insist most impressively upon the
divine transcendence and freedom from the limita
tions of creaturely existence, we find the most unre
stricted use of anthropomorphic language. In no
other way could the fundamental postulate of Hebrew
religion, the personality of God, be clearly enforced ;
while from the Christian standpoint the habitual
employment of such phraseology may be regarded as
an element in the educational process by which humanity
was being prepared for the advent of the Word made
flesh. The name Jehovah, then, embraces all that God has
made known of Himself in His successive dealings
with His chosen people ; the content of it, so to
speak, is unfolded by the advancing experience of
the faithful. Thus it happens that the compilers
of the records of revelation occasionally seem to make
a point of identifying Jehovah with other manifesta
tions of the divine Being. In the phrase Jehovah
Elohim, which is characteristic of a small section of the
Pentateuch 1, and is frequently employed by Ezekiel,
Jehovah is identified with the Creator of the universe ;
in the expression Jehovah God most high 2, Jehovah
is acknowledged to be supreme in majesty and in His
claim to Israel's homage and adoration. To Hagar,
we ourselves when talking with very young children do not aim at
exerting our own power of eloquence, but, adapting ourselves to the
weakness of our charge, both say and do those things which may appear
to us useful for the correction and improvement of the children as
children ; so the Word of God appears to have dealt with the history,
making the capacity of the hearers, and the benefit which they were to
receive, the standard of the appropriateness of its announcements
[respecting God].' In de Orat. xxiii. he says that the passages which
ascribe corporeal acts or conditions to deity peTakrfwTfov npeivovTms rats
peyaXats Kal nvevpaTiKals ivvoiais irepl 8eov. Cp. Novatian, de Trin. vi-ix.
1 Gen. ii. and iii. ; Exod. ix. 30. 2 Gen. xiv. 22.
O 2

196 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
Abraham's bondmaid, Jehovah manifests Himself as
the living one who seeth1. This wonderful expres
sion is one which makes us pause. The living one 2 / the
home and source of life, the being whose will is that
all His creatures should share in His inexhaustible
fullness of life, who is utterly separated from all that
is dead, or formal, or mechanical, or unspiritual 3.
Such passages as Psalm cxv, or Isaiah xliv, develope in
detail the thought of the measureless interval that
parts Jehovah from idols, the work of mens hands.
Nor is Jehovah only a living person ; He is 'El 'Olam 4,
' the everlasting God,' unchangeable in character,
persistently fulfilling His purpose of grace throughout
age-long dispensations of mercy and power. It corre
sponds with the thought of the continuity of Jehovah's
work that He is described by titles which define His
special relation to the elect people. He is the God
of Shem, God of the Hebrews, God of the fathers, God of
Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob — phrases which seem to
imply that the worship of Jehovah was already tradi
tional before the time of Moses. Nor must we over
look the expression which is the very charter of the
Mosaic religion, Jehovah the God of Israel. The
more developed form of this last title, the Holy One of
Israel, has special importance as marking a stage in the
evolution of Israel's faith into a universal religion,
a moment of transition when the idea of Jehovah's
uniqueness as the object of Israel's devotion passes
into that of His moral perfection as revealed in the
Law and in the work of grace. First employed, as it
would seem, by Isaiah, the name gathers up all that
Israel might have learned touching the character of
1 Gen. xvi. 13, 14.
2 Cp. Josh. iii. 10 ; 1 Sam. xvii. 26, 36 ; Deut. iv. 28 ; v. 26 ; Ps. xxxvi.
9 ; xiii. 2, 8 ; Jer. ii. 13 ; x. 10, &c. Cp. the phrase The Lord liveth.
3 Contrast the frequent phrase applied to idols, OvvK. Lev. xix. 4 ;
Ps. xcvii. 7; Isa. ii. 18, 20; x. 10; xix. 1, 3; Ezek. xxx. 13. Cp.
Ps. cvi. 28. v
4 Gen. xxi. 33. Cp. Jukes, Names of God, pp. 138-141. See also
Ps. xc. 2 ; 1 Tim. i. 17.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 197
Jehovah in the pre-prophetic period : His love in
separating unto Himself a peculiar people, His moral
requirement revealed in the Law, His abhorrence of
ceremonial worship divorced from righteous conduct.
When it was first proclaimed, the name served a
double purpose: it was intended at once to alarm and
to console. Jehovah's holiness was a principle which
must assert itself at once in the chastisement of Israel's
sins, and in the overthrow of their oppressors 1.
The above illustrations sufficiently prove that
in the view of the Old Testament writers Jehovah
can only be fully apprehended, under a large diver
sity of names or attributes ; and it has been truly
remarked that this very fact implies that Jewish
monotheism is not of a bare and merely abstract
character, like the doctrine of Islam. ' The idea of
God is not a bare unit ' ; the divine nature ' involves
diversity as well as unity2'; and from the idea of
a diversity of external relationships, a short step leads
to the conception of a being who possesses in the
fullness of His own self-sufficing life internal relation
ship of love.
There appear to be successive stages discernible in
the manifestation of Jehovah's attributes. As we have
already seen, He is revealed first as 'holy,' that is,
absolutely 'separate' from the world; and by His
gracious severance of Israel from Egypt He consecrates
to Himself a people to share His holiness. Ye shall
be holy unto me: for I the Lord am holy, and have
severed you from other people, that ye should be mine 3.
Under the discipline of the Law, which awakened and
educated the sense of moral shortcoming, the prophetic
spirit in Israel gradually elucidated the ethical mean
ing of holiness as involving separation from sin.
But already, at an early point in the history, an
explicit manifestation of Jehovah's character was
elicited by the very fact of Israel's unfaithfulness. It
1 Cp. Kirkpatrick, The Doctrine of the Prophets, pp. 175 f°H-
2 Caird, The Philosophy of Religion, p. 312. s Lev. xx. 26.

1 98 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
should be noticed that the wonderful declaration of the
Name of Jehovah recorded in Exod. xxxiv, stands
in close connexion with the account of Israel's first
signal act of apostasy, the making of the golden calf.
The exact nature and degree of the nation's guilt
in this matter is not a point which concerns us here.
It is sufficiently evident that the compiler of the
narrative intended to suggest a close connexion
between Israel's guilt and the self-revelation of God
which was occasioned by it. Let us devote a few
minutes' attention to the great passage in question.
Jehovah, we read, passed by before him, and proclaimed,
Jehovah, Jehovah Elohim, merciful and gracious,
long suffer ing, and abundant in goodness and truth,
keeping mercy for thousands, forgiving iniquity and
transgression and sin, and, that will by no means clear
the guilty ; visiting the iniquity of the fathers upon the
children, and upon the children s children, unto the
third and to the fourth generation 1.
Here are described two sides of the divine character,
which may be said to constitute two permanent and
complementary elements in the Old Testament con
ception of God. On the one hand, the passage ascribes
to Jehovah the attribute of truth or righteousness ; on
the other, that of kindness or grace 2.
i. First, then, Jehovah is righteous and true 3.
These two attributes, if not precisely synonymous, do
at least mutually explain each other. The attribute of
' righteousness ' denotes the moral exactitude with
which Jehovah necessarily acts and judges. He deals
with men by rule and measure — by the standard of His
own moral perfection. He requites them according to
their deeds ; He fulfils His purposes in perfect accord
ance with His threats and promises ; He is ever mindful
of that which He has pledged Himself to perform,
ever true to the character which He has already
1 Exod. xxxiv. 6, 7.
2 'Die beiden entgegengesetzten Pole des Wesens Gottes.' (Riehm, p. 62.)
3 On pHS, nplS, see Schultz, ii. 152 ; Gesenius, Lexicon, s. v.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 199
made known. The word ' truth x ' or ' faithfulness '
answers to ' righteousness ' as subjective to objective,
implying the fidelity, stability, dependableness of the
divine character, In Jehovah man finds that on which
he may lean with confidence, security, and hope. Faith
fulness is, in fact, an attribute of God before it is an
element in true human goodness ; and there is no
attribute of God more frequently alluded to and more
trustfully appealed to, throughout the records of
Israel's troubled history, than this of the divine faith
fulness. It finds expression in such ancient designa
tions of God as the Rock 2. In a world of movement
and change, as contrasted with the transitoriness and
mutability of man, the divine character is fixed, per
manent, and changeless. It is poetically likened to
those immense landmarks in nature which endure
when countless generations of men are no more.
Thy righteousness, cries the psalmist, is like the
mountains of God z. Nay, Before the mountains were
brought forth, or ever the earth and the zvorld were
made, thou art God from everlasting and world zvith-
out end. Thus the persistence and self-consistency of
Jehovah is regarded in a moral light as the necessary
condition of His moral government, and as the stable
foundation of the divine kingdom.
2. On the other hand, God is gracious and merciful,
full of lovingkindness and of pity for the penitent, the
suffering, the oppressed. It is this side of the divine
character which manifests itself on the occasion of
Israel's wilful apostasy. It is the deepest and most
enduring element in Jehovah's nature4. The most
expressive term denoting this attribute is che§ed, ' grace '
or ' lovingkindness,' which, though frequently applied
to man, belongs primarily to Jehovah5. One of the
1 riDS, n310N. Cp. Schultz, ii. 156.
2 "W2f. See especially Deut. xxxii. 4 ; cp. Num. i. 5, 6, 10; iii. 35.
3 Ps. xxxvi. 6. Cp. xc. 2.
4 Cp. Robertson, Early Religion of Israel, pp. 323 foil. ; Schultz, ii. 159.
6 As applied to man, ~\0T\ means (1) the piety or covenant-love of Israel
towards Jehovah, (2) brotherly kindness between man and man.

200 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
first of the eighth-century prophets, Hosea, conceives
of Israel's entire history as a love-story. The only
metaphor which can express the tenderness of
Jehovah's dealings with His wayward people is
borrowed from the marriage-tie. God's love for
Israel has been like that of a husband for the erring
wife of his youth. But the conception of the divine
lovingkindness was broadened by experience. It came
to be understood that the attribute was proper to
Jehovah, not merely as Israel's God, but as Creator.
The glory and beauty of creation, the providential care
displayed towards even the lowest creatures, testified
to the creative goodness and compassion of God ; in
the book of Jonah the divine pity is extended even to
the heathen world, which Israel held in such abhor
rence. Indeed, as Israel's religious consciousness
developed, it came to be understood that the most
fundamental and far-reaching attribute in the character
of Jehovah was lovingkindness. This seems to be
clearly proved by the frequency with which the great
passage in Exodus is alluded to in other books of the
Old Testament. Three of the minor prophets, Jonah,
Micah, and Nahum, are linked together by their
common interest in it x ; and in such a psalm as the
hundred and third, its characteristic teaching is beauti
fully and richly expanded.
It is a direct consequence of Jehovah's love that He
is also represented as jealous2. Jealousy in God is
the zeal of outraged love. In the Mosaic period we
cannot but recognize the imperfectly moral conception
formed of Jehovah's character. The wrathful and
fiery elements of the divine nature are regarded as the
most prominent. The anger of J ehovah is kindled by
any infringement of covenant-conditions ; it blazes
forth with sudden vehemence at the least outrage
done to His honour3. It has even been maintained
1 See Jonah iv. 2 ; Mic. vii. 18 ; Nahum i. 3. Cp. Riehm, p. 63.
2 Hip ?K. Num. xxv. 11 ; Deut. iv. 24; v. 9 ; vi. 15, &c.
3 Cp. Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 38, 39 ; and see Robertson

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 201
that the conception of Jehovah marks a retrograde
step in the evolution of the doctrine of God ; that
the patriarchal Elohim is a more benevolent being
than the Jehovah of Moses and the prophets 1.
It may be replied, however, that the primitive idea
of Jehovah's wrath as roused by even the slightest
disregard of His holiness, marks a necessary stage in
the education of the human conscience ; it is the first
step towards the development of the sense of sin.
To the prophets the anger of Jehovah means His
essential hostility to moral evil ; they do not think of
it as lightly or quickly aroused : they point to a day
of vengeance in the future, when the long-delayed
judgment of God upon human sin will be manifested2.
But the distinctive point of the prophetic teaching is
that it connects the wrath of Jehovah with the thought
of His covenant-love. There are two things by which
that wrath is specially provoked : the faithlessness
or apostasy of His chosen people, and outrage done
to them by others. Thus the metaphor of a marriage-
bond subsisting between Jehovah and His people
moralizes the older view of the divine wrath.
While the prophets denounced the popular delusion
of their time, that in any event, and apart from ethical
conditions, Jehovah was bound to be on Israel's side,
they ascribed to Him a love for Israel that did not
exclude, but rather demanded, the occasional display
of His holy indignation. While, however, earlier
prophets dwell chiefly on the thought of divine
jealousy as provoked by Israel's sin, Ezekiel and
Zechariah generally regard it as a vindication of
Jehovah's personal honour and holiness, which is
bound up with Israel's fortunes. Jehovah's anger is
righteous jealousy on behalf of those whom He has
received into covenant union with Himself. Whoso-
Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 1 47 ; Robertson, Early Religion of
Israel, p. 298.
1 See Darmesteter, Les Prophites d'Israel, p. 213 : Renan, Histoire du
peuple d'Israel, bk. i. ch. 13.
2 Cp. Isa. xxxiv. 8 ; lxi. 2 ; lxiii. 4 ; Ps. xciv. 1.

202 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
ever touches them touches the apple of his eye1- His
holiness has been profaned by the exile of His people ;
He has been reproached as though He were unable or
unwilling to protect His chosen. But he has pity for
His holy name, and accordingly He promises to
deliver Israel from captivity, and so to sanctify His
great name, which was profaned among the heathen 2.
Thus since lovingkindness is the dominant element in
the being of God, the manifestation of His indigna
tion against Israel's sin is only a transient stage in
His dealings with His chosen. In wrath Jehovah
remembers His mercy. For a small moment have
I forsaken thee; but with great mercies will I gather
thee. In a little wrath I hid my face from thee for
a moment; but with everlasting kindness will I have
mercy on thee, saith the Lord thy redeemer'6.
We have now considered the two complementary
sides or aspects of Jehovah's revealed character.
How deeply they enter into the theology of the Old
Testament may be gathered from the fact that the
divine ' kindness ' and ' truth ' are habitually co-ordi
nated in Israel's hymns of praise and in prophetic
visions of the future. The short Psalm cxvii, for
example, has been said to embody ' the essence of all
Messianic psalms.' O praise the Lord, all ye heathen :
praise him, all ye nations. For his merciful kindness
is ever more and more towards us : and the truth of the
Lord endureth for ever 4. And we may observe that
in the ' truth ' and ' kindness ' of the Old Testament
conception of Jehovah is contained a pledge and
1 Zech. ii. 8. Cp. Deut. xxxii. 21, 22, 36. The phrase 'to be jealous
for ' is apparently first used in the prophetic period ; see Zech. i. 14,
viii. 2.
2 Ezek. xxxvi. 21-24. See Kirkpatrick, The Doctrine of the Prophets,
PP- 339. 34°-
3 Isa. liv. 7, 8.
4 Cp. Pss. xl. 10 foil.; Ixi. 7; lxxxv. 10; lxxxix. passim; cxv. 1, &c.
See the combination of eXeos and aXf/dfia in Rom. xv. 8, 9. Obs.
The abbreviated form fah expresses in a concentrated form all essential
elements of Jehovah's revealed character. It is found in Exod. xv. 2 ;
Ps. Ixviii. 4 ; Isa. xii. 2, and especially in the Hallelu-jah.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 203
prophecy of One in whom should be manifested
the fullness of grace and truth1; who should be
at once the author of a perfect redemption and of
a final revelation : manifesting God as love and as
light. There is yet one more title of God peculiar to the
Old Testament which needs some notice, viz. Jehovah
Tsebaoth. This name seems to have arisen as the
result of prolonged national experience, since it com
memorates the visible proofs which Jehovah had
given of His presence with the armies of Israel.
The title, so far as we can judge, was specially promi
nent during the period of the monarchy, the victories
of Israel's kings over the heathen being looked upon
as pledges of Jehovah's sovereignty over a hostile
world. It was ' a name of memories and triumphs,'
and perhaps came to be regarded as that title of
Israel's God to which a ruined state or church might
most fittingly appeal in times of national distress.
The frequency of its occurrence in the writings of
Isaiah, and in the books of the three post-exilic minor
prophets, is significant. There are, however, clear
tokens of expansion in the use of the name Jehovah
Tsebaoth ; for while in the early historical books it has
military and national associations, in the prophets it
includes the hosts of heaven, the stars and angels, as
well as the armies of Israel 2. The post-exilic use of
the title accordingly marks a striking advance. ' The
old popular notion,' says Prof. Cheyne, ' of a territorial
and local deity had faded away, and the traditional
names of God had received an ampler meaning.
Jehovah was not merely the God of the armies of
Israel, but the God of all the hosts of heaven . . . and
of all the forces of nature.' Thus, in such a psalm as
the twenty-fourth, the psalmist ' is really thinking of
the triumph of the omnipotent God in His holy
1 John i. 14.
2 See Robertson, Early Religion of Israel, note xvi (p. 503) ; Konig,
The Religion of Israel, pp. 89 foil.

204 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD [lect.
temple. Who is this King of glory ? Jehovah of
hosts, he is the King of glory 1.'
Within the Old Testament itself we find a distinct
approach to the doctrine of the divine fatherhood.
As applied to God the term 'Father' quickly loses
any physical associations that may have originally
attached to it, and comes to denote the relationship
of ' love and moral communion in which Jehovah has
placed Israel.' God is the ' Father ' or ' Creator '
of Israel in the sense that by divine acts of power
and grace He brought the nation into special relation
to Himself2; or it is used with a personal reference
to the theocratic king, who was the official represen
tative of the people and inherited the promises
originally vouchsafed to David and his house. It
seems to be a title suggestive of the close and con
tinuous relationship in which Jehovah had stood to
Israel ; it would recall memories of divine protection,
help, and guidance, and of the condescension manifested
in Israel's prolonged spiritual education 3. In the later
Judaism we mark an advance : God is conceived as
a pitying Father, whose compassion extends to those
that fear Him. Yea, like as a father pitieth his own
children, even so is J ehov ah merciful unto them that fear
him11- Yes; but only to those who fear Him. The
limitation is characteristic. Judaism recognizes indeed
that God, the Father of Israel as a nation, is also
the Father of Israel's faithful sons. The pious
Israelite rejoiced in the sense of divine favour. ' He
was gladly conscious,' says Mr. Montefiore, ' that God
was cognizant of all, and cared not only for His people
in the mass, but for every unit of which it was com
posed 5.' But outside the pale of love were the godless
1 Aids to the Devout Study of Criticism, pp. 284, 285.
2 Cp. Exod. iv. 22 ; Deut. xxxii. 6 ; xiv. 2 ; Hos. xi. 1.
3 Cp. Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 227. Observe the title ' son ' used of
Israel (Deut. viii. 5; xiv. 1 ; Mai. i. 6; Jer. iii. 19; xxxi. 10; Isa. i. 4;
xxx. 1, 9) implies corresponding national obligations. The individual
Israelite could not appropriate the name for himself.
4 Ps. ciii. 13.
5 Hibbert Lectures, p. 463 ; cp. pp. 539 foil.

iv] PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD 205
members of the nation itself and the heathen world in
general. It was only through the revelation of the
incarnate Son that men could be brought to apprehend
the universality of the divine Fatherhood 1. As
Tertullian tersely remarks, Nobis \nomen Dei\ revela-
tum est in Filio.
In concluding this lecture, let us acknowledge the
debt which theology owes to the evolutionary con
ception of Israel's history and theology. It seems to
be the object of writers like Konig to minimize, or
even to question altogether, this conception. But all
analogy forbids us to suppose that the religion of
Israel was revealed in its completeness from the
very first. The metaphors by which in the Old
Testament God's relationship to Israel is described
point to a very different conclusion, suggesting a view
of the divine action which is at once supremely worthy
of God and consistent with all that we know of His
methods and character. Historical science professes
to trace the process of revelation, and its account in the
main we can scarcely hesitate to accept. The tribal
God becomes the God of a nation, and finally the God
of the universe. Each advance in man's moral recep
tivity renders possible a further disclosure of the
divine nature. All that is debased, crude, limited,
or ethically defective in the earliest Semitic ideas of
deity gradually falls away, until in the fullness of time
man is enabled to recognize the glory of God, His
essential character, His eternal attributes, in the face
of Jesus Christ2. Thus we find that critical science
does, after all, vindicate for Jesus Christ the position
which He claims for Himself. He came to crown
a long ascent, to fulfil anticipations which His own
Spirit had inspired. In the Old Testament the record
of the divine preparation for His coming lies before us.
It describes the different stages in the progressive
manifestation of God ; it exhibits the actual and living
1 Cp. Westcott, The Historic Faith, p. 35. Cp. Tert. de orat. iii.
2 2 Cor. iv. 6. Cp. Meinhold, fesus und das A. T.p. 139.

206 PROGRESSIVE SELF-REVELATION OF GOD
operation of those divine attributes which are now, as
ever, the hope, the support, and the solace of the
individual soul. A gifted French writer has spoken
mournfully of ' a cry which fills our age — the cry of the
orphan who no longer possesses a Father in heaven to
speak to him and guide him. It rings from one end of
the century to the other ; it makes itself heard beneath
the tumult of wars and revolutions, the triumphant
declarations of science, the sarcasms of egotism and
scepticism, the ceaseless murmur of life as it passes on
its course V Nay, the truth of the divine Fatherhood
is not lost. It is overclouded indeed and obscured by
the apparent rigour of Nature, by the discoveries of
science, by the appalling catastrophes which sometimes
overwhelm us with the sense of our frailty, our
ignorance, our helplessness. Nevertheless in God,
God Almighty, the Lord Jehovah, the Father revealed
in the passion and resurrection of Jesus, the Father
who watches over even the least of His children with
wise providence, with discriminating tenderness, the
burdened and perplexed heart of man may find refuge
and rest. For the divine self-manifestation, even if it
fails to satisfy all our questionings, is at least co
extensive with our needs. Blessed indeed is he to
whom, as to Moses, the unfolding of the ineffable
Name is a fact of personal experience ; whose ear has
caught amid the tumults and distractions of time the
accents of the eternal voice whispering to the soul,
I will make all my goodness pass before thee, and
I will proclaim the name of the Lord before thee; and
will be gracious to whom I will be gracious, and will
show mercy on whom I will show mercy 2.
1 Darmesteter, Les Prophites d'Israel, pref. p: iii.
2 Exod. xxxiii. 19.

LECTURE V
Gather my saints together unto me j those that have made a covenant
with me by sacrifice. — Ps. 1. 5.
Both in this psalm, and in some passages that might
be quoted from the prophets, we observe how the
devout Israelite gradually awoke to a consciousness of
those spiritual realities which were symbolized by the
external institutions of his religion. The fiftieth
psalm, and perhaps the fortieth and fifty-first, seem to
mark a new stage in the development of inward
religion, when the practice of the sacrificial system had
already ceased in great measure to satisfy the moral
needs of men, and had driven them to reflect upon the
spiritual truths which the system was intended to
foreshadow J. A bond such as that which the Israelite
believed to exist between his people and Jehovah
could be no merely external link of connexion. It was
the token of a special relationship between personal
and moral beings, implying on one side an act of
condescending grace, on the other certain ethical and
spiritual obligations. And when the Pentateuch finally
attained its present form, the relation between Jehovah
and Israel was universally conceived as based upon an
original covenant. The deliverance which had resulted
in the formation of Israel's nationality was regarded as
an act of grace by which the new relationship was
established. The covenant was ratified by a sacrifice
of victims and by the ceremonial sprinkling of blood.
The people on their part accepted the proffered con-
1 Cp. Cheyne, Aids to the Devout Study of Criticism, pp. 194 foil. ;
Westcott, Ep. to the Hebrews, p. 225.

208 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
ditions : all that the Lord hath said will we do and be
obedient ; and when the solemn formalities were finally
completed, chosen representatives of the nation —
Moses, Aaron and his two sons, together with seventy
of the elders of Israel — were admitted to a mysterious
communion with Deity ; they were called to participate
in the feast and the vision which were, so to speak,
a foretaste of the entrancing delights of the divine
kingdom1. Thus at the very outset of its national
history Israel was subjected to a law of obedience as
the indispensable condition of fulfilling its high des
tiny. It was taught that covenantal union with God
demanded a special character in man. The principle
was for ever established that the great link between
God and humanity is the moral law. The Mosaic
Law thus retains an essential significance for mankind
in virtue of the fundamental idea which it embodies.
We may study the Pentateuch with a keen historical or
archaeological interest, but critical investigations must
never blind us to the fact that the Law witnesses
mainly to a spiritual truth, viz. that in the life of
fellowship between God and man, moral obligation is
the master fact. The central principle of the entire
levitical system is comprehended in the words, Ye
shall be holy, for I the Lord your God am holy 2.
At the same time, no one, I think, can read the
twenty-fourth chapter of Exodus without a very strong
impression of its idealistic character. There are few
passages in the Old Testament so mysterious, so
sublime, so prophetic. The bare mention of a solemn
slaughter of sacrificial victims and of a meal symbolizing
covenant fellowship does not carry us beyond the
limits of ordinary historical fact. But the description of
the mysterious vision of God and of the feast in His
presence can only be a mode of symbolical repre
sentation, foreshadowing a future spiritual consum
mation, recorded for our admonition who look and wait
for a time when his servants shall serve him and shall
1 Exod. xxiv. Cp. Jer. vii. 21 foil. 2 Lev. xix. 2 ; cp. xi. 44 ; xx. 7.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP 209
see his face; when they that are called shall sit down
at the marriage supper of the Lamb 1-
In the present lecture it is proposed to consider
(1) the idea of covenant relationship in general;
(2) the requirement which this relationship involved ;
(3) the institutions in which the spiritual truths under
lying it found a typical outward embodiment ; (4) the
fulfilment of the levitical types in Jesus Christ.

I.
For our present purpose, which is theological rather
than historical, the questions that have been raised re
specting the antiquity of the covenantal idea in Israel's
religion are comparatively unimportant. There can be
no doubt that the Hebrew tradition of an actual covenant
concluded at Sinai between God and Israel is constant
and unanimous, nor does there seem to be any con
vincing reason for setting it aside in favour of the idea
that the word ' covenant ' in this connexion represents
only a later mode of conceiving the Sinaitic revelation.
Certainly- the thought of Israel's covenant status is
very prominent in the mind of the author of the
priestly document in the Pentateuch. This narrative,
which forms the framework of the whole, carries back
the tradition of a divinely instituted covenant into the
dim prehistoric past. It even regards the relation
ship of God to the patriarchs as based in each case
upon a formal covenant. Three such compacts
are in fact mentioned : the first covenant with Noah,
the second with Abraham, the third with the newly-
formed nation of Israel. In each case there is a dis
tinctive sign. The Noachic covenant is attested by the
bow in the cloud ; the covenant with Abraham is
sealed by the rite of circumcision ; the covenant with
Israel by the sprinkling of sacrificial blood. Moreover,
1 Rev. xxii. 3, 4 ; xix. 9.
P

210 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
each covenant had its characteristic obligation, each
its accompanying revelation of grace1. It is, in short,
evident that the covenantal idea was dominant at the
period when the Pentateuch was compiled, but there
seems to be no sufficient ground for supposing that it
was unknown in pre-prophetic times. For our present
purpose, however, it is immaterial whether the tra
ditional view is correct, or whether Wellhausen,
Stade and others are justified in asserting that the
relation between Jehovah and Israel was only thus
conceived first in the prophetic period 2. We are
concerned with the total result, as embodied in the
Pentateuch, of an historical movement which began
with the exodus. It will be generally admitted that,
after the exodus, Jehovah instituted between Himself
and Israel a special relationship of grace, and that
the historical severance from Egypt which consti
tuted Israel the peculiar people of Jehovah3, was
intended to symbolize an inward separation from the
idolatries and immoralities of the heathen world. The
question, however, respecting the mode under which
this unique connexion between God and Israel was
conceived is, I repeat, one of secondary importance.
Hosea, although he uses the word ry~a in more than
one passage 4, speaks of the relationship under the
metaphor of a marriage ; while occasionally, like
Isaiah, he represents it as an act of divine adoption
whereby Israel as a nation became the son of Jehovah 5.
Amos, without employing the term ' covenant ' in its
theological sense, gives prominence to the idea, in so
far as he emphasizes the moral obligations which the
connexion between Jehovah and Israel involved. The
same conception was probably emphasized by the
reformation which followed the publication of the
1 Cp. Gen. ix. 1-17 ; xvii. 1-14; Exod. xxiv. 3-8; xxxi. 13-17.
2 Weilhausen, Prolegomena. 417 foil. Cp. Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures,
pp. 124 foil. See on the other side, Konig, Religion of Israel, ch. x ;
Robertson, Early Religion of Israel, note xxii, &c.
3 n?JD DJJ Exod. xix. 5. Cp. Num. xxiii. 9.
4 Hos. vi. 7 ; viii. 1. 6 Hos. xi. I ; Isa. i. 2 ; cp. Exod. iv. 22.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP 21 1
Deuteronomic law in the reign of Josiah. There is
at any rate no difficulty in accounting for the influence
of the idea on the thought of Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and
the later Isaiah, and we may reasonably suppose that
the exile tended to popularize the conception, and to
foster the belief that the continuance of Israel's
covenant status depended upon the strict maintenance
of ' holiness ' with all that this might imply.
Such in brief outline is the history, so far as
it can be certainly traced, of the idea of a covenant
between Jehovah and Israel. The attempt, however,
to ascribe its origination to the prophets of the
eighth century seems to be based on inconclusive
arguments. There is good reason to suppose that the
idea had its foundation in pre-prophetic times, for
the prophets ' plainly do not regard the conception as an
innovation,' and it harmonizes entirely with the dis
tinctively ethical character of Mosaism. Further, the
thought constantly recurs that even the legal covenant
is essentially a work of grace, prepared for in patri
archal times by a covenant of promise 1. The initiative
comes from Jehovah, who necessarily appoints the
conditions upon the observance of which the main
tenance of covenant union depends. It is a 'disposition'
(SiaOrJKii) rather than an ' agreement ' or contract
between two equal parties (ovvOrjKT}) ; and its basis
is purely moral 2. According to the prophetic survey
of the national history which we find in the
book of Deuteronomy, the covenant requirement
was wholly contained in the Decalogue : These words
the Lord spake unto all your assembly in the mount out
of the midst of the fire, of the cloud, and of the thick
1 Cp. Lev. xxvi. 42 ; Deut. iv. 31.
2 Oehler in Herzog, Real-Encyklopddie s.v. 'Testament': 'Unter-
scheidet sich (Sio&jkj; von avvdi[Kr\ dadurch, dass bei jener kein rein
wechselseitiges Verhaltniss stattfindet, sondern von einem der beiden
Paciscenten, als dem bia8ip.€vos, die Initiative und die Feststellung
der Vertragsbedingungen ausgeht.' Riehm points out that in this use
of SiadrjKr) is involved the possibility of a transition from the thought
of a 'covenant' to that of a 'testament' (Handworterbuch des Bibt.
Altertums, s.v. ' Bund ').
P 2

212

THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.

darkness, with a great voice, and he added no more \
The prophetic view manifestly was that the moral
element in the Mosaic system was predominant if not
exclusive ; that the Decalogue, not the ritual law, was
its peculiar characteristic. It was in fact the work of
Moses to teach Israel two things : first, the significance
of the revelation of God's nature and character implied
in the events of the exodus ; secondly, the truth^ that
the vocation to be Jehovah's people involved a higher
and purer morality. It has been justly said that
Moses' work as the originator of a higher religion
bears the impress of 'a simplicity analogous to the
simplicity of Christ 2.' The later prophets recognized
that they were called to be continuators of his mission,
and in looking back on the forces which had moulded
Israel's history, they discerned in the moral law the
distinctive feature of the covenant. They strenuously
endeavoured to reinstate this law in its original
position, and to vindicate its supremacy by applying it
as a standard of measurement to the social and poli
tical conditions of their age.
But behind the fact of human obligation lay
the mystery of redemptive love, deigning to enter
into relationship with man. It was this high relation
ship that was conceived as a covenant, implying
as it did both the dignity of human nature and the
condescending grace of God. It was in fact such
a contract as can only subsist between beings who are
united by a pre-existing kinship of nature. Indeed
the covenantal idea is most aptly illustrated by actual
examples of primitive contracts between man and man.
In its essence a covenant did not materially differ
from an oath ; both were generally accompanied by
symbolic ceremonies3 ; both imposed mutual obligations
1 Deut. v. 22 ; cp. Jer. vii. 22. 2 Bruce, Apologetics, p. 222.
3 On the phrase T^~\1 rfO see Driver on the Book of Deuteronomy,
iv. 13; Delitzsch, New Commentary on Genesis, vol. ii. pp. 13, 14. On
the relation between a covenant and an oath see R. Kraetzschmar, Die
Bundesvorstellung im A. T. (1. Teil), pp. 15, 16.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

213

of service. It was a covenant that linked together in
perpetuity friends like Jonathan and David1; a cove
nant that secured a man's fidelity to his betrothed2.
The prophets were the successive witnesses of the act
of divine grace by which the life of divine fellowship
and covenant consecration had been initiated. But
the Mosaic covenant did but indicate in a rudi
mentary fashion the true consummation to which the
deliverance from Egypt pointed, namely the life of
personal friendship between God and man. God
reveals Himself in the Decalogue as educating man
for that life ; to use the striking phrase of Irenaeus,
H e is seen praestruens hominem per decalogum in suam
amicitiam 3. II.
It was then the moral requirement involved in the
covenant which formed the basis and distinctive mark
of Israel's religion. He who made Himself known to
the people in acts of grace and power demanded of
them a life conformed to His own character. He re
quired not merely the ordinary expressions of religious
homage, but a higher morality, justice, humanity,
mercy, and good faith. In other words, at Sinai were
laid down the great ethical principles which afterwards
became the standard of prophetic religion, and within
the lines of which all subsequent Torah, all prophetic
or priestly instruction, was bound to move 4. The
knowledge of God & mentioned by Hosea may certainly
have embraced legal, civil, and ceremonial decisions,
1 1 Sam. xviii. 3 ; xx. 8, 16, 42 ; xxiii. 18. Cp. Kraetzschmar, p. 20.
2 Ezek. xvi. 8. 3 Iren. Haer. iv. 16. 3.
* Robertson Smith, O. T. in J. C. p. 305. Montefiore, op. cit. p. 45, says :
'The Torah— m teaching— of the priests, half-judicial, half-pedagogic,
was a deep moral influence. . . . There is good reason to suppose that this
priestly Torah is the one religious institution which can be correctly
attributed to Moses. If that be so, then not only did the pre-prophetic
religion itself include an important ethical element, but this very element
was part and parcel of the original Mosaic teaching,' &c. See generally
Wellhausen, Prolegomena, ch. x.
6 Hos. vi. 6.

214 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
but, says Wellhausen, ' since its practical issue is that
God requires of man righteousness, faithfulness and
good-will, it is fundamentally and essentially morality,
though morality at that time addressed its demands
less to the conscience than to society1.' Indeed,
the practical prominence of social righteousness in
the Law, which finds comprehensive expression in the
sentence Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself2,
constitutes a link between the prophets and the
legalists of Israel, and anticipates with whatever
limitations the teaching of the Gospel. It is true
that in the development of Hebrew morality there
seem to be occasional moments of retrogression. For
instance, the intense hatred of foreigners and the exag
gerated spirit of nationalism does not appear to have
prevailed to the same extent in the pre-exilic period
as in subsequent times. The older legislation appears
in some respects to breathe a higher spirit than the
later ; and a similar contrast may be traced between
the earlier and the later prophecy, between the uni-
versalistic utterances of an Isaiah and the tone of such
books as those of Daniel, the Chronicles, Ezra and
Nehemiah 3. The fact is that different elements in the
religious character became prominent in different ages,
nor was the spirit of any particular period strictly uni
form or consistent. Inthe post-exilic period, for example,
the germs are discernible of the temper which gradually
developed into Pharisaism, the anxious and scrupulous
spirit which aimed at strict legal obedience and careful
conformity to a code of minute external ordinances.
But at the same time this very period awakened the
spiritual joy, fervour, and devotion, the filial delight in
God and in His worship, which is reflected in the
Psalter. It produced also a type of teaching which
laid stress on charity to those in need, and on ' the
doing of kindnesses ' as the chief of human duties 4.
1 Prolegomena, p. 395.
2 Lev. xix. 17. 3 See Schultz, O. T. Theology, vol. ii. p. 61 foil.
4 See Schechter, Studies in Judaism, no. ix, and Montefiore's Hibbert
Lectures, no. ix, on ' The Law and its Influence.'

V] AND ITS WORSHIP

215

The mature fruit of the Law only appeared in an age
of violent contrasts, the character of which we are
sometimes apt to misconceive. Legalism had its
beautiful and beneficent, as well as its baneful
and harsh consequences. But if it be true of later
Judaism that 'morality penetrated through Jewish
society and was a potent link or bridge between class
and class 1,' we must trace this result far back to the
character once for all impressed on Hebrew religion
by Moses, whose ' great merit,' says Kuenen, ' lies in
the fact of his connexion of the religious idea with the
moral life 2.'
It seems natural at this point to consider somewhat
more in detail the ten words of the covenant 3, in
which the will of God for His elect people finds its
most simple and universal expression. The Decalogue
indeed has been proved by experience to be a compre
hensive summary of human duty. It defines in broad
outlines the conditions of a right relation to God and
to all that He has made4.
But first a word is necessary on the question of the
antiquity of the Decalogue. We have already noticed
that its Mosaic authorship has been questioned mainly
on two grounds : first, the uncertainty as to the precise
contents of the ten words alluded to in Exodus xxxiv.
27, 28; secondly, the fact that the second command
ment seems to be practically unknown until the time
of Hezekiah's reformation, when the long-established
1 Montefiore, p. 547. 2 Religion of Israel, i. p. 282.
3 Exod. xxxiv. 28. Cp. Deut. iv. 13 ; x. 14. In some passages (e. g.
Exod. xxv. 16, 21) the Decalogue is called 'the testimony,' (rvnj)n)
i. e. the declaration of Jehovah's will. So the ark which contained the
tables of stone is called ' The ark of Jehovah's covenant ' (Deut. x. 8).
4 Iren. Haer.'w. 15. 1: ' N am Deus primoquidem pernaturalia praecepta
quae ab initio infixa dedit hominibus admonens eos, id est per decalogum,
nihil plus ab eis exquisivit.' Ibid. 16. 3 : ' Similiter permanent apud nos,
extensionem et augmentum sed non dissolutionem accipientia per carnalem
Ejus adventum.' Cp. T. Aquin. Summa Theologiae, i. iiae. qu. 100,
art. 3 : ' Omnia praecepta [moralia] legis sunt quaedam partes prae-
ceptorum decalogi.' See also Riehm, ATI. Theologie, § 14; Schultz,
O. T. Theology, ii. 46 foil. ; W. S. Bruce, The Ethics of the O. T.
ch. vi.

2r6 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
cult of the brazen serpent was finally abolished. There
are other more subjective arguments alleged : e. g.
that the monotheistic idea embodied in the code is
too pronounced to be considered primitive, and that
the universality of its moral teaching is incompatible
with the notion of an early date \ Into the merits of
this contention I do not propose to enter at length.
It may be observed, however, that even those who
abandon the Mosaic authorship of the Decalogue
assign to its substance a very high antiquity, and agree
in holding that the main element in the teaching of
Moses was ethical. In other words, it is generally
admitted that the morality of the Decalogue was
a factor in Israel's religion from the first. At most
the Mosaic origin of one particular commandment is
questioned 2. It seems to me then that the traditional
view, even if it has to be slightly modified, is
essentially justifiable. Since, however, our present
concern is not so much with historical and critical
questions as with the moral and spiritual use of
the Old Testament, there is the less need to
go behind the ordinary belief respecting the origin
of the Decalogue. We have simply to review its
intrinsic character and importance viewed as the
charter, so to speak, of Old Testament religion. The
ten commandments fall most naturally into two pen
tads 3, the fifth in each case having a close connexion
with the four preceding ' words.' The first table regu
lates those duties which result from the spiritual re
lationship to his Creator into which man finds himself
called. The first ' word ' warns Israel to be faithful
and loyal in the service of its Redeemer, and to regard
1 See Wellhausen's Sketch of the History of Israel and fudah, p. 21,
and Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, Appendix, pp. 553 foil. Delitzsch, New
Commentary on Genesis, vol. i. pp. 29 foil., touches briefly on the subject.
2 Kuenen accepts the Mosaic authorship of the Decalogue, regarding
Exod. xx. 2 as the ' first word ' and xx. 4-6 as a later expansion of the
' second word ' (xx. 3). (Religion of Lsrael, ch. v [E. T. vol. i. pp. 285 foil.].)
3 This method of division which is adopted by Philo and Josephus is
commended by Rom. xiii. 9, and by the fact that the first five ' words '
are enforced by reasons.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

217

Him for all purposes of worship as the one and only
God \ The second directs that the worship paid to
God shall be in accordance with His true character; it
prohibits the deification of nature, or such sensualism
as would entangle the Creator in mundane conditions.
Especially noticeable is the revelation of God as jealous.
Ewald remarks that heathenism drew a distinction
between the loving and the avenging deity. Whereas
Aeschylus, for example, believes in two orders of gods —
the powers of vengeance and those which make for
mercy, the Old Testament leads us to conceive the
jealousy of Jehovah as the heat of outraged goodness
and love. The third ' word ' teaches the holiness of God
as revealed to Israel. His name, that is the expression
of His revealed character, is to be held in honour, and
not to be used lightly, falsely, or without just occasion.
The fourth 'word ' by its injunction to ' remember ' indi
cates that Israel already inherited a tradition in regard to
the observance of the seventh day. But the command
to sanctify the day is characteristic. It lifts an ancient
Semitic custom to a new dignity, consecrating it to be
a symbol of covenant union between Jehovah and Israel2.
The commandment in effect lays the foundation of all
Israel's ordinances of worship. At the same time it
provides for the due recreation of that human nature
which by creative right belongs to God and is destined
for communion with Him. The fifth commandment
closing the series gives a religious sanction to family
relationship. It implies that the authority of parents is
a counterpart of the divine authority. Reverence for an
earthly father or mother is a special form of the fear of
God 3. In later legislation the commandment appears
to be extended so as to include what we may call
spiritual parentage : special precepts enjoin the duty of
respect towards old age, and reverence towards magis-
1 Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 83 : ' Tritt JHVH nur als Nationalgott
Israels den Gottera andrer Volker gegeniiber mit dem Ausspruch, dass
Israel ihn ausschliesslich verehre.'
2 Cp. Meinhold, fesus und das A. T. p. 71.
3 Cp. Lev. xix. 3 and 32.

218 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
trates and rulers1, who share the honour due to Him
in whose stead they administer justice. Thus the
whole social order is securely based on the regulation
of family life, and the institutions of government are
invested with a sacrosanct character.
The second table deals with duties towards fellow-
men, and ' gives to social ethics the sanction of reli
gion 2 ' : it enjoins respect for the life and property of
others, and guards the sacredness of the marriage bond.
The ninth commandment probably implies not the duty
of truthfulness and integrity in general, so much as
that of abstinence from any false oath or declaration
which might involve detriment to a neighbour's life
or property. The concluding ' word ' embodies the
principle which was destined to be expanded in the
New Testament : the close connexion between act and
thought. ' The revealed law,' says Oehler, ' here
undertakes the functions of conscience. . . . By bringing
man to a consciousness of the essential nature of
a higher divine righteousness the Law roused the con
science from its slumber, taught the knowledge of evil as
sin, and so awoke the need of reconciliation with God 3.'
The tenth commandment virtually anticipates that
' inwardness ' which specially characterizes the morality
of the New Testament, and it is instructive to remember
the function which it discharged in the moral education
of St. Paul : / had not known sin but by the law : for
I had not known lust except the law had said, Thou shalt
not covet 4.
Some general observations may be made touching
the character of the Decalogue and the relation in
which it stands to the rest of the Mosaic legislation.
1 Prophets are hailed as 'father,' Judges v. 7 ; 2 Kings ii. 12 ; xiii. 14.
Cp. Ps. xxxiv. 11. Rulers have the same title; Gen. xiv. 8. Cp. Lev.
xix. 32, and Exod. xxii. 28 ; Ps. lxxxii. 6. In the N. T. cp. Rom. xiii. 1-7.
2 W. S. Bruce, op. cit. p. 136.
3 Theol. of the O. T. vol. i. p. 266. Cp. R. W. Dale, The Ten Command
ments, p. 241. Obs. Some suppose that 'coveting' implies an actual
attempt to get possession by fraud or force or false pretence of another's
property. See e.g. Schultz, ii. 52, and cp. Mark x. 19, prj dTroorepiyov/s.
4 Rom. vii. 7.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

219

1. First we notice that the Decalogue makes religion
the foundation of all personal morality and social duty
or right. Human duty is here based on the revelation
of God's character. The first table recalls to Israel's
recollection the redemptive grace which as a nation
it had actually experienced. The gracious acts of
Jehovah are set forth partly as an incentive to grati
tude, partly as a motive to obedience. The prophetic
writer of Deuteronomy dwells on the essential unity
of the moral law viewed as a law of love: And now,
Israel, what doth the Lord thy God require of thee but
to fear the Lord thy God, to walk in all his ways, and
to love him, and to serve the Lord thy God with all thy
heart and with all thy soul1'? This is the point at
which Hebrew and Christian ethics practically meet
each other. Augustine remarks that the most pregnant
and obvious distinction between the two Testaments
lies in the fact that the one inculcates fear, the other
love ; the one points men to a schoolmaster whom
they are to fear, the other to a master whom they
may love 2. He is thinking of the prohibitory form
of the Decalogue, which of course corresponds to its
paedagogic function as part of a primary course of
instruction. The will of God, before it can educate
that of man, necessarily comes into collision with his
natural propensity to evil. There was indeed a law
written on the heart of man, but all moral education
must begin with definite restriction of undisciplined
desire. Augustine, however, seems to overlook for
the moment a feature in the Decalogue which lifts it,
so to speak, to the New Testament level. The appeal
of love lies behind the command to obey. / am the
Lord thy God, which have brought thee out of the land
of Egypt, out of the house of bondage. Jehovah
introduces His law by a declaration of His saving
1 Deut. x. 12 ; cp. vi. 5 foil.
2 Exod. xx. 2. See Aug. c. Adimant. Manich. discip. i. 17 ; cp. de util.
cred. 3 : ' Hie igitur paedagogum dedit hominibus quem timerent, qui
magistrum postea quem diligerent.'

220 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
grace, of the compassion which makes so great a claim
on the affections and wills of the redeemed. Thus
the vital and informing principle of the obedience
enjoined in both Old and New Testaments is one :
Thou shalt love the Lord thy God. The book of
Deuteronomy, while it lays much stress upon the
spirit of love and loyalty in which the law is to be
ideally fulfilled, appears in two points especially to
anticipate the teaching of the New Testament : it
makes religion consist in devotion of heart1, and
it points to the sphere of moral duty as one near
and accessible to all : The word is very nigh unto thee,
in thy mouth and in thy heart, that thou mayest do it.
It has been remarked that the teaching of Deuteronomy
is most closely akin to that of Hosea 2. Certainly in
the simplicity of its view of religion, in the conception
that the service of God fundamentally consists in a life
of active love, Deuteronomy brings us to the very
threshold of the Gospel 3. The history of subsequent
prophetic activity shows how immense was the influ
ence of this book in fixing a standard not only of
external observance by which the actions of men were
to be judged, but also of inward devotion towards
which individual souls might aspire. The secret, how
ever, of the appealing beauty that pervades the book
lies in its prophetic insistence upon the electing love
which lay behind the covenant and its legislation 4.
2. Another striking feature of the Decalogue is the
absence of any directions bearing upon worship 5.
Only one commandment, the fourth, provides for
1 See Deut. vi. 2, 5 ; x. 12, 16; xi. I, 13, 22 ; xiii. 4; xix. 9. For the
characteristic thought of 'circumcision of heart' (x. 16) cp. Jer. iv. 4;
Ezek. xliv. 7, 9. See also Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 239.
2 Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 184.
3 Cp. Hieron. ep. ad Paulinum, 9: 'Deuteronomium secunda lex, et
Evangelicae legis praefiguratio ; nonne sic ea habet quae priora sunt, ut
tamen nova sint omnia de veteribus ? '
4 Cp. Deut. vii. 7 foil.
5 Riehm, op. cit. p. 74 : ' Keine Opfer, keine Gaben, uberhaupt keine
bestimmten ausserlichen Kultushandlungen werden im Grundgesetz des
Gottesreiches gefordert, sondern nur die . . . thatsachliche Anerkennung
der Heiligkeit des JHVH angehorigen Tages.'

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

221

a positive religious observance. The second ' word '
indeed regulates the general character of the national
culttis. The true worship of God is to be not only
monolatrous, but imageless \ We have seen that the
question has been raised, when this principle was first
explicitly affirmed. The choice lies between the sup
position that material representations of Jehovah were
forbidden by Moses, though the prohibition was to
a great extent forgotten or ignored for centuries ; and
the view that the commandment was first inserted in the
Decalogue at the time when the prophets began to pro
test against the use of images in worship. In favour
of the first supposition is the fact that at the official
centres of worship like Shiloh, and afterwards Jeru
salem, the use of images seems to have been unknown ;
and it is also certain that the prophets of the eighth
century, who believed themselves to be the true ex
ponents of Mosaism, regarded the bull-worship of the
northern kingdom as a danger and a snare to Israel,
if not an actual form of apostasy from Jehovah 2. We
must not, however, insist too strongly on the significance
of these facts. It is enough that the prophets bear
witness to the essential characteristics of the Mosaic
legislation : first, in their silence as to questions of
ritual — a silence which reflects the negative attitude
of the ten commandments ; secondly, in their positive
insistence on social and personal righteousness as
Jehovah's sole requirement. Their attitude towards
ritual and sacrifice, to say nothing of such explicit
statements as that of Jeremiah vii. 22, incontestably
1 Montefiore, p. 127. Renan points out that the nomadic Semite was
distinctly lacking in a taste for the plastic arts, and was if anything averse
by temperament to the use of images in worship (Histoire du peuple
d'Israel, bk. i. ch. 4 init.). This fact seems to add credibility to the
traditional view of the second commandment.
2 See Montefiore, p. 128. Amos alludes only once, and with indignant
contempt, to the bulls of Samaria (viii. 14). But Hosea's attitude is
one of strong antagonism. ' He does not hesitate to call the idols of
the national god Baalim, and the service thus rendered to Yahveh
Baal-service.' Cp. ii. 13-16; iii. 1; xiii. 2; xiv. 3. On the difference
between the attitude of Hosea and that of Amos, see Robertson Smith,
Prophets of Israel, pp. 176 foil.

222 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
proves that the Mosaic Torah was not mainly con
cerned with matters of cultus. Certainly the legal
and ritual Torah of the priests was traced to Moses,
but so also was the Torah or word of the prophets —
that very word which habitually subordinated ritual
observance to the fulfilment of moral duty. This
original supremacy of the ethical element in Mosaism
corresponds to the conclusion arrived at by criticism
that the discipline of the ceremonial law was subse
quent to the work of the prophets ; that the high
development of ritual is characteristic of a totally
different and comparatively late stage in Israel's
history. 3. One more point may be noticed, namely, that
the positive institutions and observances of Hebrew
religion gradually came to be regarded in the light of
Moses' ethical teaching, as moral symbols, expressive
of a spiritual status and vocation ; and as outward
emblems of the holiness that became a kingdom of
priests. Thus the rite of circumcision, which in Egypt
was apparently confined to the priesthood, was looked
upon as a token of the purity of life to which every
Israelite was called. The ordinance of the Passover
again, participation in which was enjoined under pain
of extirpation in case of neglect, symbolized the sacer
dotal status of the nation. It was a yearly memorial
of the deliverance which had made Israel a people
holy to Jehovah, a yearly renewal of the covenant,
a yearly reconsecration of individual Israelites. Each
household in which the sacred meal was solemnized
was thereby constituted a sanctuary, and each family
a priestly company1. The readmission of the healed
leper to his forfeited privileges was accompanied by
ceremonies similar to those observed in the consecra
tion of priests2. The same idea was implied in the
sanctification of the firstborn, which represented the
1 Cp. Riehm, ATI. Theologie, § 26.
2 Riehm, loc. cit. Cp. Lev. xiv. 14 foil, with Exod. xxix. 20, Lev.
viii. 24.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP 223
vocation of the entire people to Jehovah's special
service 1.
Even when these rudimentary institutions had been
developed into an elaborate ceremonial law, yet the
prophetic element derived from the Mosaic covenant
would make the levitical code a real aid to the religious
life. Its ordinances concerning sabbaths, festivals and
fasts, its ideal agrarian regulations, even its careful
dietary and distinction between clean and unclean —
must have tended ' to give a certain dignity and
sanctity to life 2,' and to foster true thoughts in regard
to the worth of time, the responsibilities of property,
and the solemnity of everyday acts and occupations
when carried on under the consciousness of the divine
presence. Even in such a book as Chronicles, which
is entirely pervaded by the levitical spirit, we find
occasionally the prayer for inward devotion, for a perfect
heart and a willing mind 3, as if this after all was the
one thing needful for acceptance with God. So in
the ceremonial law, as in the law of worship presently
to be considered, we miss the inspiring and informing
element if we overlook the result towards which it
tended, and which in part it successfully achieved.
For the ceremonial observances of the ancient law
had a spiritual aim. They were intended to result,
says a recent writer, ' in clean hands and a pure heart,
in a conduct characterized by separation from sin and
devotion to the cause of righteousness V Indeed, as
Origen observes, there are evangelical elements even
in the law : Sic ergo invenitur et Evangelii virtus in
lege, et fundamento legis subnixa intelliguntur evan-
gelia 6.

1 Exod. xiii. I foil. Cp. Num. viii. 16 foil.
2 Cp. Montefiore, op. cit. p. 511. See also a striking passage in
Dr. Fairbairn's Religion in History andin Modem Life, lect. ii . pp. 1 27 foil.
3 1 Chron. xxviii. 9 ; cp. xxix. 18, 19 ; 2 Chron. xvi. 9, &c. (Montefiore,
p. 483)-
4 W. S. Bruce, Ethics of the 0. T. p. 210.
6 in Num. horn. ix. 4. On the application of the Decalogue to
Christian conduct, see Gore, The Sermon on the Mount, Appendix ii.

224 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.

III.
There are two institutions minutely described in
the Pentateuch which specially presuppose and embody
the idea of covenant fellowship — the sanctuary and
the sacrifices. Mosaism is throughout a religion of
symbolism. Its characteristic institutions give con
crete expression to a very vivid and spiritual faith.
For we must remember that, in their developed form,
the Pentateuchal ordinances do not merely prefigure
and typify spiritual realities, but actually give material
form to spiritual ideas. There lies behind them the
prophetic conception of a holy people, in whose midst
the God of holiness Himself has deigned to make His
abode. Hence that typical character which belongs
to Jewish institutions ; they give substance to essential
verities of catholic and spiritual religion, and they fore
shadow in visible objects and in external ceremonies
a consummation towards which Hebrew religion was
ever tending1. In the Christian dispensation all things
are made new. The tabernacle of God is with men,
and he will dwell with them and will be their God2.
Yes ; but we must not forget that this great thought
penetrated the prophet whose influence is most de
cidedly impressed on the entire sacrificial system.
Modern criticism has enabled us to understand the
historical place and significance of the ritual code or
Torah which closes the book of Ezekiel — a passage
which has even been described as ' the key of the Old
Testament 3.' Ezekiel's plan is partly ideal, partly
allegorical, partly based on old priestly usage, re-
1 Aug. c. Faust. Manich. vi. 9 : ' Illud enim erat tempus significandi,
hoc manifestandi. Ergo ipsa scriptura, quae tunc fuit exactrix operum
significantium, nunc testis est rerum significatarum, et quae tunc observa-
batur ad praenuntiationem, nunc recitatur ad confirmationem.'
2 Rev. xxi. 3. Cp. Ezek. xxxvii. 27.
3 Orth ap. Wellhausen, Prolegomena, p. 421. On Ezekiel's draft
sketch, see Robertson Smith, 0. T. in f. C. pp. 376 foil. ; Montefiore,
Hibbert Lectures, p. 255.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

225,

modelled in accordance with the idea of Jehovah's
holiness. Probably in great measure it shaped the post-
exilic organization of the priesthood, and the sacrificial
worship of the second temple. But the dominating
idea of the entire sketch is one which the Incarnation
alone was destined to verify; it is indicated in the
closing words of Ezekiel's prophecy : The name of the
city from that day shall be, The Lord is there1. This
indeed may be said to be the Messianic ideal of the
priesthood : the enthronement and permanent presence
of Jehovah in the midst of His people. The sanctuary
and worship of Israel may or may not have been insti
tutions actually realized in detail ; but in any case the
description of them has a providential and didactic
purpose. We are warranted not only by New Testa
ment references, but by our knowledge of the motive
which dictated the elaborate description of the sanc
tuary, in believing that it was expressly intended to
embody certain characteristic ideas of Judaism, and
to symbolize religious truths 2. From this point of
view it makes no material difference whether the
sketch is strictly faithful to historical fact, or whether
it is a partially ideal creation. In either case the
religious idea is present, and this to a Christian reader
of the Old Testament is the point of paramount
interest. It follows from wriat has been said that the symbolical
interpretation of the tabernacle and its services, which
we find in the New Testament, especially in the Epistle
to the Hebrews, has a foundation in reason and in
spiritual fact. There is a sense in which, as Origen
boldly says, the Law is ' always new 3-' It interprets
1 Ezek. xlviii. 35. Cp. Darmesteter, Les Prophites d'Israel, p. 108.
2 Wellhausen, Prolegomena, p. 81, says: 'The spiritualization of the
worship is seen in the Priestly code as advancing pari passu with its
centralization. It receives, so to speak, an abstract religious character.'
3 Orig. in Num. horn. ix. 4 : ' Nobis autem qui earn [legem] spiritaliter
et evangelico sensu intelligimus et exponimus, semper nova est, et
utrumque nobis novum testamentum est, non temporis novitate sed
intelligentiae novitate.' Cp. Aug. de util. cred. 9 : ' Evacuatur namque
in Christo non vetus testamentum sed velamen eius, ut per Christum

226 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
to us our own faith, and Christian experience has
proved that a close study of the ancient sanctuary and
its worship not only gives the clue to the meaning
of New Testament thoughts and expressions, but also
enlarges our comprehension of the general principles
of divine revelation. This will become more apparent
in the sequel.
It has, however, already been pointed out that
critics appear to be justified in maintaining that the
description of the tabernacle in the book of Exodus is
very highly idealized. There is no sufficient ground
for questioning the existence of a simple tent in the
earliest Mosaic period, which formed a shelter for
the ark, and stood without the camp in accordance
with ordinary Semitic usage. But what is called in
question by criticism is the existence in the wilderness,
among tribes living under nomad conditions, of a
splendid, costly, and elaborate structure, ' wrought in
the most advanced style of oriental art 1.' Apart from
the character of the building, there is the serious
difficulty that Hebrew tradition appears to know
practically nothing of such a shrine in pre-exilic days 2.
It knows something of the ark and of a central
sanctuary at Shiloh, but of the sumptuous tabernacle
described in the book of Exodus it makes no mention.
A Christian apologist can afford to admit that the
elaborate description of the tabernacle is to be regarded
as a product of religious idealism, working upon an
historical basis, and that the sketch as a whole is largely
coloured by reminiscences or traditions of the splendid
temple of Solomon. A prophetic idea underlies the
picture, namely, that the unity of God implies unity
and centralization of cultus. ' The tabernacle,' says
Wellhausen, ' is not narrative merely but, like all the
intelligatur et quasi denudetur quod sine Christo obscurum atque
adopertum est.'
1 Wellhausen, Prolegomena, p. 39.
2 The writer of Chronicles assumes the existence of the tabernacle in
Canaan before the building of the temple, but his evidence docs not out
weigh, for obvious reasons, the silence of the earlier books.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

227

narratives [in Exodus], law as well ; it expresses the
legal unity of the worship as an historical fact, which,
from the very beginning, ever since the exodus, has
held good in Israel. One God, one sanctuary, that
is the idea V But there is no reason for questioning
the fact that in a rudimentary form suited to the
conditions of wilderness life, a simple tent of meeting
was constructed by Moses as the place of Jehovah's
abode. We might infer this not only from con
siderations of a priori probability and from the
express testimony of tradition, but also from the very
structure of the more elaborate sanctuary, which in its
arrangements appears to be modelled on the ancient
shepherd's tent, with its open court, its large outer
apartment, and its private sanctum 2. Moreover, as
Riehm points out, the ancient law of Leviticus xvii.
implies the existence of a simple Mosaic tent, which
had essentially the very significance afterwards attri
buted to the ideal structure of the priestly document 3.
From the symbolic sanctuary we turn to the institu
tion of sacrifice, which in the Pentateuch is ordered
and regulated as a legitimate and recognized mode
of approach to God : of either entering into covenant
relationship with Him, or restoring it when interrupted.
The levitical sacrifices demand special attention
in so far as a vital connexion is assumed in Scripture
to exist between the death of a sacrificial victim and
the inauguration or renewal of a covenant. This con
nexion is evidently regarded as axiomatic and self-
evident in the Epistle to the Hebrews4, and it seems
to underlie the solemn words in which our Lord
Himself institutes the perpetual memorial of His
sacred passion. The New Covenant had been fore
shadowed in the Old, and had been expressly predicted
1 See Prolegomena, pp. 34-50.
2 Schultz, O. T. Theology, i. p. 351.
3 ATI. Theologie, p. 79. Even Renan allows the existence of such
a tent. ' But this,' he says, ' was only a germ ' (Histoire du peuple
d'Israel, bk. i. ch. 15 s.fin.).
4 Heb. ix. 17.
Q 2

228 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
by Jeremiah x. It was a better covenant both in what
it promised and what it ordained ; but it was better
chiefly in respect of the dignity and preciousness of
the sacrifice on which it rested. Each covenant was
inaugurated with bloodshedding 2, but the ancient
slaughter of victims was the symbol of a spiritual self-
oblation of infinite worth — a self-oblation which in
itself changed the relationship between man and God,
and became the foundation of a covenant union per
manent and complete. The sacrifice of Jesus Christ
comprehends all the moral elements which the Hebrew
cultus strove to express in a material and symbolic
form. It includes that consecration of life, that dedi
cation of will, that devotion of heart which the notion
of a 'covenant' between the All-Holy and His
creatures necessarily implies. Thus in studying
Israel's sacrificial worship we ascertain the spiritual
conditions involved in man's communion with his
Creator. Now speaking generally, the purpose of the cultus
was at once disciplinary and didactic. On the one
hand, the sacrificial worship was intended to develope
and deepen the consciousness of sin, to make the
thought of Jehovah's holiness and of His separation
from the creature a practical power in human life. On
the other hand, it was intended to awaken and train
religious affections : the spirit of dependence and holy
fear, the temper of trust, devotion, self- surrender, thank
fulness, love, and the longing for divine grace. Thus
though the post-exilic elaboration of sacrificial ritual
seems at first sight retrogressive and reactionary, yet
it was inspired by an ethical and spiritual motive. It
was not a reversion to heathenism, with its purely
external conception of religious obligation. It was
not intended to place ritual on a level with morality,
as if both were equally acceptable to God. It was the
1 Jer. xxxi. 31 foil. Cp. Heb. viii. 8 foil. See also Matt. xxvi. 28 and
Luke xxii. 20.
2 Heb. ix. 18.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

229

outcome of a penitent sense of national unfaithfulness
to Jehovah in the past, and of a genuine desire to
provide safeguards against future apostasy, or negli
gence in His service. The cultus was doubtless
regarded by its authors ' as a very important means
towards the great end of keeping the people of Israel
laithful in heart and life to God V
Before we consider the sacrifices in detail, however,
it will be advisable to make four preliminary observa
tions. «
1. The institutions of sacrifice described in the
Pentateuch are based on pre-existing customs. It has
been observed that the origin and rationale of sacrifice
are nowhere explained in the Old Testament. ' That
sacrifice is an essential part of religion is taken for
granted 2.' The ritual of the second temple was based
on immemorial usage and tradition. In numerous
details it illustrates the affinity of Hebrew institutions
to those of the Semitic race generally. Consequently
much light has been thrown upon the origin and
meaning of Mosaic. institutions of worship by inquiry
into the customs of Semitic paganism. Distinctive,
however, of Israel's religion is the tendency visible
from the first to moralize the cultus, and to reduce
its significance as a mere opus operatum by insistence
on Jehovah's ethical requirement. So far as we
can gather, Moses seems to have contented himself
with a minimum of ritual legislation, and we may
suppose that such ceremonial traditions as were
allowed or instituted by Moses himself were cherished
and observed in pre-prophetic days by the priest
hood at the sanctuary of Shiloh. The codification
and further development of sacrificial usage may
well have begun at the period when Jerusalem, in
consequence of the building of Solomon's temple,
became the religious centre of the kingdom. ' The
priesthood,' says Riehm, ' as the guardians of the Mosaic
1 Bruce, Apologetics, p. 265.
2 Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 3.

230 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
traditions, traced back the entire contents of the
priestly law to Moses, but historically this is only
true of the spirit that dominates the whole system and
of its main outlines1.' By the 'spirit of the whole
system' we may understand the desire to keep alive
in Israel the spirit of loyalty to Jehovah's covenant.
Characteristic of Mosaism is the Decalogue : of post-
exilic Judaism, the sacrificial system ; but the motive
underlying the legislation of Moses and of Ezra is
practically the same — a desire to secure Israel's faith
fulness to the divine covenant 2.
2. We are struck by the attitude of the prophets
towards sacrifice. Some of them appear to represent
it as a concession to spiritual immaturity ; all of them
speak of it as wholly subordinate in importance to
moral obedience. Such is the force of the celebrated
passage, Jeremiah vii. 22 s. Later prophecy seems to
regard sacrifice as the appropriate symbol of a perfect
devotion to God ; it values the levitical worship not
indeed for itself but for that which it signifies, namely
the entire consecration of life to God4. Ezekiel in
the last nine chapters of his book appears at first sight
to co-ordinate ritual worship with morality, but such is
not the tendency of his prophecy surveyed as a whole.
Legalistic as is the habit of Ezekiel's mind, we must
remember that he is pre-eminently the teacher of
personal religion and individual responsibility, while
in his early chapters the statutes and judgments which he
proclaims are exclusively moral 5. On the whole, then,
it would appear that the prophets were comparatively
indifferent to the actual details of the cultus.. Their
polemical statements prove little as to the Mosaic
1 Riehm, ^4 77. Theologie,-p. 81. Bruce, Apologetics, -p. 221, refers to
this passage, and observes that the religious customs were 'ascribed to
Moses not so much as author, but rather as authority.'
2 Cp. Bruce, p. 219.
3 Cp. Amos v. 25, and see Iren.Haer. iv. 17.3 : 'Nonenimprincipaliter
haec [sacrificia], sed secundum consequentiam . . . habuit populus.' (See
the whole passage.)
4 See Isa. lxvi. 20 foil. ; Zech. xiv. 16 foil. ; Mai. iii. 4.
5 See Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 257. Cp. Ezek. xviii.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

231

origin or precise character of the contemporary
worship ; what they denounce is the immorality and
profligacy which had come to be associated with the
popular worship, and the hypocrisy which imagined that
effusive religiosity was a kind of compensation for
unrighteous conduct.
3. The question has also been raised by criticism
how far the levitical system was ever actually in
operation. The sacrificial usage codified in the Penta
teuch represents what was at least intended to be
observed in the post-exilic temple. It is evidently
a highly complex and artificial system, the product
of a reforming movement, which attempted to
restore and develope ritual praxis on the lines of
ancient tradition 1, The peculiar form of the cere
monial prescribed in Leviticus is determined partly
by the antiquarian tendency of the time, partly by
the desire to give an adequate symbolic expression
to a deepened spiritual experience. There is indeed
every reason to suppose that the system existed in
germ even at the earliest period of Israel's national
history 2 ; in outline it is represented in the ceremonies
connected with the consecration of the priests, which
probably represent a very ancient tradition. But in
any case, whatever may have been the extent to which
the sacrificial system was practically observed before
the exile, it derived new significance from the Deutero
nomic law of the one sanctuary. In ancient Israel
sacrificial feasts were freely celebrated at local sanctua
ries : but with the concentration of religion at one
central shrine, sacrifice, though it ceased to be the most
vital element in popular worship, acquired special
dignity and importance as a representative national
service. It virtually served the purpose of an object-
lesson to Israel during the period when prophecy was
1 Schultz, 0. T. Theology, vol i. p. 373 ; Robertson Smith, Religion of
the Semites, pp. 198 foil. ; O. T. in j. C, lect. xi.
2 Edersheim, Warburton Lectures, p. 239, declares that the non-
observance of the system in the wilderness was ' unquestionably a necessity
imposed by the times.' Cp. Wellhausen, Prolegomena, p. 412.

232 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
silent. It put an end once for all to the practical
heathenism against which the pre-exilic prophets had
preached without avail ; and it embodied in visible
form prophetic teachings in regard to the nature and
character of God, and the conditions of covenantal
fellowship with Him. It is clear that the critical
analysis of the Pentateuch relieves us of a difficulty.
Had the sacrificial ritual been certainly prescribed in
its present form by Moses we should have had to
explain the fact that an elaborate system solemnly
established under divine sanctions of the most stringent
kind was practically ignored for centuries, and failed
in great measure to effect its object, namely the
restraint of the people from idolatry and apostasy1.
On the other hand, if we accept the modern theory,
the facts to be explained fall into their true place.
4. Lastly, it is noticeable that the chief feature
distinctive of the levitical ritual is the development
of piacular sacrifice. The simplicity and joyousness
of primitive worship, reflecting to a great extent the
conditions of an early age and the placid happiness of
agricultural life, found appropriate expression in rites
and festivals connected with the changing seasons of
the year. But a religion of this type could not with
stand the strain of prolonged disaster and adversity.
Accordingly in the seventh century b.c. we find the
development in Palestine of a more sombre species of
worship, under the pressure of accumulated national
calamities which appeared to betoken the abiding
displeasure of the deity, and awakened a new con
sciousness of guilt 2. Thus the idea of the expiation
of sin gradually tended to displace or modify the
primitive conception of sacrifice as the creation or
renewal of a life-bond between the deity and His
worshippers3. The levitical sin-offering is in all
1 Cp. Robertson Smith, O. T. in J. C. pp. 315 foil., 377. Cp. Ezek.
xliii. 7 ; xliv. 6 foil.
2 Cp. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, pp. 240, 374 ; O. T. in
f.C. p. 380; Riehm, Einleitung in das A. T. vol. i. p. 351; Schultz, ii.p. 176.
3 Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, pp. 330, 333.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

233

essential features ' identical with the ancient sacrament
of communion in a sacred life J ' ; but the men of
a later age were led to invest the ancient form of
sacrifice with a new significance, in proportion as they
came to realize more profoundly the inviolable holiness
of Jehovah, the sinfulness of man, and the consequent
need of priestly mediation.
The sin-offering then is an institution distinctive of
the Hebrew cultus, but in other points there is close
affinity between the sacrifices of Israel and those of
other Semitic tribes. The true ideas latent in ethnic
sacrifice appear in a purified and developed form in
the levitical system : for instance, the conception of
the sacrificial meal as a feast of communion with
deity, and a means of participation in the sacred life
of a victim. Again, the primitive idea that the offering
is a tribute to the divine King or a meal conveyed
to Him, underlies such phrases as 'the bread' or
' food of Jehovah 2.' The last- mentioned idea, however,
is carefully guarded by the doctrine that God has no
need of such material gifts, whereas the pagan belief
was that the deity literally feasted on the flesh of the
victim, as it rose from the altar in the sublimated form
of smoke or steam 3. In estimating indeed the moral
effect of the levitical worship we have to bear in mind,
first, the fact that the worshippers were for the most
part deeply imbued with the characteristic teaching
of the prophets ; secondly, the fact that in post-exilic
days sacrificial worship necessarily ' ceased to be the
expression of everyday religion.' Prof. Robertson
Smith appositely remarks that ' the very features of
the levitical ordinances which seem most inconsistent
with spirituality . . . appear in a very different light in
1 Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 33 1.
rt1!T Drp — a name applied to sacrifice in general. See Lev. iii. 11, 16 ;
xxi. 6, 8, 17 ; xxii. 25 ; Num. xxviii. 2 ; Ezek. xliv. 7 ; Mai. i. 7. Cp. Well
hausen, Prolegomena, pp. 61, 62. The phrase Bread of God in John vi.
33 seems to imply that the self-oblation of Christ gives perfect satisfaction
to the' Father. Cp. Eph. v. 2.
3 See Tylor, Anthropology, p. 365. Ps. 1. 9 foil, is a protest against this
idea. Cp. Iren. Haer. iv. 18. 3 ; Westcott, Ep. to the Hebrews, pp. 286-287.

234 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
the age after the exile, when the non-ritual religion of
the prophets went side by side with the Law, and sup
plied daily nourishment to the spiritual life of those
who were far from the sanctuary 1.'
The above considerations may guide us in our
survey of the levitical sacrifices. It only remains to
bear in mind ex abundanti cautela that the completely-
organized system is the result of a long and slow
development of traditional usages, each of which had
its separate history 2-
We may proceed to deal first with the names and
prominent features of the several sacrifices described
in the Pentateuch.
The names most generally employed are two : a
sacrifice is described in the priestly code as Qorban
(LXX. S£pov), ' a gift,' or as Ish-sheh (Ovo-ia), ' an offering
by fire.' The first is the wider and more primitive
designation, and includes every species of oblation.
The original meaning of the word seems to be ' some
thing presented ' or ' brought near ' to a superior, and
it corresponds to the most simple aspect of sacrifice as
a tribute due to God 3. The second term, Ish-sheh,
implies the established use of fire as a mode of con
sumption 4. The remaining words for sacrifice become
specialized by limitation of their usage. The most
important distinction is that between Minchah (Ovo-id),
' gift ' or ' present,' which though applied to sacri
fice in various passages, and even to an ordinary
present 5, is in the priestly code restricted entirely to
the meal or vegetable offering ; and Zebach, ' slain
1 O. T.inf. C. pp. 378, 379.
The use oifire, for example, as a mode of consumption seems to have
been introduced at a comparatively late stage in the evolution of Semitic
sacrifice. That it was a subordinate feature seems to be implied in the
name of the altar, rO!D, < place of slaughter.' On the whole subject see
Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, ch. x, and below, p. 238.
3 Wellhausen, Prolegomena, p. 61. The vb. I'Hpn corresponds to ]2~\p.
See Lev. i. 2 ; ii. 11 ; iii. 1, &c.
4 Lev. i. 9, 13, 17 ; ii. 2, 9, &c. ; Num. xv. 3 ; xxviii. 8.
5 Gen. iv. 3-5 ; Num. xvi. 1551 Sam. ii. 17 ; Ps. xl.6 (LXX. npoo-cpopii),
Sec. Cp. Gen. xxxii. 13 and 2 Sam. viii. 2, 6.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

235

sacrifice,' which appears to be a more ancient designa
tion than Minchah, implying nomadic conditions of
life such as would ordinarily precede the settled habits
of an agricultural people 1.
From these general names we pass on to consider the
three main classes of sacrifice described in the levitical
Law : the sin-offering 2, with its special variety, the
trespass- or guilt-offering ; the burnt-offering 3, which
was invariably accompanied by a meal-offering and
a libation of wine ; and the peace-offering 4, including
several species, such as the ' vow,' the ' praise-offering,'
and the ' free-will oblation.' Each of these three main
divisions of sacrifice is connected with either the
renewal or the maintenance of covenant fellowship
with Jehovah. The order, however, of their historical
development is to be carefully distinguished from that
of the detailed treatment in the book of Leviticus.
When the three classes are mentioned together, the
essential order of thought seems to be observed. First
in order stands the sin-offering, implying the necessary
expiation of guilt which might have severed the
Israelite from the privileges of the covenant ; next the
burnt-offering, suggesting the idea of renewed self-
dedication ; and, lastly, the peace-offering, with its
sacrificial meal, which was the seal as it were of

1 Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 226.
2 Heb. nxon, ' sin ' (LXX. -nspl dpapnas), Lev. iv. 24, &c. DCX,' trespass '
(LXX. rrepl tT/s ¦n-XripniXdus) is scarcely distinguishable from the sin-
offering. Cp. Lev. v. 6-8. See below, p. 238.
3 Heb. rby (oXoKavriopa), 'that which ascends.' To this corresponds the
vb. ni?yn ; cp. Ps. Ii. 19. Occasionally the poetical word ^2, ' whole-
offering,' occurs (1 Sam. vii. 9 ; Deut. xxxiii. 10). With the burnt-offering
were offered the meal-offering (nruo) and the drink-offering, or libation
of wine 0p3).
4 n^c rpr, ' slain-victim of Shelamim,' i.e. ' vows,' from vb. tw,'pay '
or ' discharge ' (Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 219 note), or
preferably 'fullness' of salvation (so apparently Wellhausen, op. cit. p. 71,
and Schultz, i. 378). The sing. D?E> occurs only in Amos v. 22. The
name, according to Riehm, conveys the notion of unimpaired and perfect
fellowship. The peace-offering is a symbol of peaceful and friendly com
munion with God (ATI. Theologie, p. 120).

236 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
restored fellowship, and the highest expression of
perfect communion with deity.
All these classes of sacrifices had three elements in
common. In each case there was the ceremony of
presentation, the act of slaughtering, and the disposal
of the victim.
The victim was to be presented at the door of
the tabernacle court by the offerer himself, in token
of that willing intention which constituted the accept
able element in the oblation. This act was followed
by the imposition of hands (semichah), i. e. an actual
pressure of both hands upon the victim's head. This
rite appears to have implied not so much the idea
of substitution, or transference of guilt, though it was
ordinarily accompanied by detailed confession of sins,
as that of entire self-identification with the victim,
or the dedication of it to some special object or
office, such as the removal of guilt1. The slaughter
of the victim next took place. This was performed
by the offerer, not by the priest, except in the case
of a sacrifice offered for his own sin, or for that
of the .whole congregation 2. The slaying 3, which
took place on the north side of the altar — perhaps
because the north was regarded as the quarter with
which judgment or punishment was connected —
seems to have had no independent significance ; it
served simply as a means of obtaining the blood or
1 On the rCDD see Schultz, i. 391, who seems to give the true account
with clearness ; cp. Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, p. 402 ; West
cott, Ep. to the Hebrews, p. 290 ; Jukes, The Law of the Offeiings, p. 38 :
' This act in itself was nothing more than the expression of the identity of
the offerer and offering. . . . The offering, whatever it might be, stood for,
and was looked upon as identical with, the offerer.' Riehm, A Tl. Theo-
logie, says that by the semichah the victim was made ' Trager der Gesin-
nungen, die er (the offerer) gegeniiber Gott bethatigen will.'
2 See Lev. i. 5, 9 : possibly also the priest slew the victim in the rite
for cleansing lepers. See Lev. xiv. 13, 25, and cp. Oehler, i. 411. In
2 Chron. xxix. 24 the slaying by the priests seems to be mentioned as
exceptional. Ezek. xliv. 10-16 shows that it was an ignoble office.
3 The Heb. vb. is t3ntJ\ Cp. Lev. i. 11, and see Isa. xii. 25, Jer. i. 14,
. Ii. 48. On the general significance of the slaughter see Oehler, loc. cit. ;
Schultz, i. 394 ; Westcott, Ep. to the Hebrews, p. 291.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP 237
sacred life. The Law seems to have laid no stress
either on the intrinsic fact of suffering, or on the
material value of the sacrifice, as is shown by the
limited scale of the offerings : neither hecatombs of
victims nor human sacrifice were required for the pur
poses of acceptable atonement. Indeed, it is clear
that the significant part of the ceremony was not
thought to lie ' in the death of the victim, but in the
application of its life blood V
And this brings us to the third point — the disposal
of the victim : of its blood and its flesh. The
blood of sacrifice was the appointed medium of atone
ment as being the seat of the sacred life, and could
accordingly be presented only through the media
tion of the priest2. Without going here into special
detail it is sufficient to notice that the mode of
dealing with the blood, varied, the precise variations
being minutely specified. Thus in the case of the burnt-
offering or peace-offering the blood was thrown or
dashed 3 against the sides of the brazen altar ; but
in the case of a sin-offering part of it was solemnly
sprinkled on the horns of the altar when offered for
a private person, but within the holy place on the
horns of the incense altar when offered for a priest or
the whole congregation. On the Day of Atonement
there came as it were a climax in the ascending scale.
On that day alone the blood was carried within the
veil and solemnly sprinkled by the High Priest upon
the mercy-seat and before the mercy-seat seven times 4.
With regard to the disposal of the flesh the Law
required that the victim should be flayed by the offerer
and divided, and then consumed by fire upon the altar or
elsewhere. It was to be wholly burnt in the case of
the burnt-offering, in part only if the sacrifice was a sin-
or peace-offering. The use of fire in this connexion is
1 Religion of the Semites, p. 319.
2 Lev. xvii. II. 3 Heb. pit (LXX. irpoo-xe'iv).
4 Lev. xvi. 14-19. On the disposal of the blood in Semitic sacrifice see
Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, especially lectures v, vi, and ix.

238 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
noticeable. In primitive ethnic sacrifices fire would be
regarded as a means of conveying food in an etherial-
ized form to the deity ; but in the levitic rites it
seems to be employed merely as a safe and appropriate
method of disposal, when the flesh of the victim was
regarded as a thing too holy to be touched, or
disposed of in any other way, even by consecrated
persons 1. Through the action of fire the flesh was
finally withdrawn from the possibility of profane use
or contact.
Besides these general elements common to all
sacrifices, there were special features distinctive of each
particular class. The sin-offering in some sense ranks
above the other sacrifices as being ' most holy 2,'
that is, entirely withdrawn from ordinary human use.
Whether there is any clear distinction between the
sin-offering and the trespass-offering is disputed ; but
one thing seems evident, viz. that the entire com
plicated system of atonement existed only in relation to
minor offences, committed whether through ignorance,
carelessness, or infirmity. For open breaches of
the ten words — sins with a high hand2, — there was
no availing atonement possible ; they were to be
punished with death. Such sins were theoretically
regarded as involving a presumptuous violation of
covenant conditions, and a deliberate withdrawal
from the sphere in which sacrifice was efficacious.
Apparently, however, a distinction was possible in
the case of minor transgressions. The trespass-
offering appears to have implied some previous act
of fraud ; some infraction of the rights of ownership ;
some withholding from God of His due. But any
artificial distinction between the sin- and the trespass-
offering is precarious4. The two species of sacrifice
1 Cp. Schultz, i. 396 note ; Religion of the Semites, lect. x.
2 Lev. vi. 17 and 25 foil.
3 Heb. noi TO. Num. xv. 30 ; cp. xxxiii. 3.
4 On this point see Willis, Worship of the Old Covenant, ch. vii.
§ 2 ; Schultz, i. 380. Wellhausen, Prolegomena, pp. 74, 75, observes
that ' the sin- and trespass-offerings of the Pentateuch still bear traces of

v] AND ITS WORSHIP 239
seem, however, to correspond to two different aspects
of human sin, regarded as demanding expiation on
the one hand, on the other as admitting to a certain
extent of reparation.
In the ritual of the sin-offering some special points
call for attention : for instance, the exact specifi
cation of the victim, which differed according to the
grade of the offerer or the dignity of the occasion 1 ;
and the verbal confession of sins which was uttered by
the worshipper leaning upon the victim's head 2. The
most characteristic feature, however, of the sacrifice
was the ceremonial sprinkling of the sacred blood at
spots to which belonged different degrees of sanctity,
implying different stages of nearness to God. On the
Day of Atonement, by the sprinkling of the blood on
the mercy-seat the highest moment of reconciliation
known to the Law was attained : the life of the people
being in a representative act of dedication brought into
closest contact with the divine presence. Noticeable
also is the disposal of the victim's flesh : all the fat, as
being the choicest part, was burnt upon the altar for
a sweet savour unto the Lord3 ; the remainder of the
flesh was disposed of in different ways. If the offering
was that of a private person it was consumed by the
priests within the precincts of the sanctuary 4 ; but in
certain cases, when the sin-offering was that of a priest
or of the entire congregation, it was regarded as too
holy to be eaten even by consecrated persons, and it was
burned outside the camp, as the safest method of dis-
their origin in fines and penalties ; they are not gifts to God, . . . they
are simp y mulcts payable to the priests, partly of fixed commutation
value (Lev. v. 15).' See 2 Kings xii. 16 for a mention of ' trespass-money
and sin-money.'
1 Lev. iv.
2 Lev. v. 5 ; Num. v. 6 foil. Cp. Willis, op. cit. p. 141.
3 Lev. iv. 31.
4 Thus the sin-offering retains a relic of the ancient sacrificial feast of
communion, only the communion is restricted to the priests. Obs. Hos.
iv. 8 implies (ij that some form of sin-offering existed in the prophetic
period ; (2) that the guilty priests, instead of attempting to stem the sin
fulness of the people, longed for its increase with a view to fresh gains.
See Cheyne ad loc. in Cainb. Bible for Schools.

240 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
posing of a most holy thing. The culminating service
of national expiation, which was solemnized on the Day
of Atonement, is worthy of special study, because it
sums up and interprets the significance of the entire
system of piacular sacrifice. In the ordinances of that
day we see ' writ large ' the conditions of access to
God, the method by which the state of covenant privi
lege for Jehovah's people was renewed. At the same
time the mark of imperfection was visibly impressed
on the whole procedure of the day, and it had to be
yearly repeated, as if to remind the people that their
tenure in God's house was not absolute, but renewable
only from year to year.
The burnt-offering, or holocaust, if we may rely on
the early historical notices, was apparently known, but
not very commonly practised, in the patriarchal period.
There are traces of the yet more primitive slain-sacrifice
with its sacred meal in the book of Genesis x ; and the
account in Gen. xxii of the offering of Isaac marks, as
we have noticed, a critical epoch in the development of
the doctrine of sacrifice. The passage illustrates the
way in which ethnic corruptions were purified : it
disconnects the spirit of absolute devotion from the
necessity of any particular material exhibition of it 2.
Some writers have supposed that the use of fire had
its origin in the custom of human sacrifice ; the victim
was burned in a spot apart from men, as being too
sacred to be eaten : but whatever be its origin, the
practice of burning the bodies of ordinary animals on
the altar very early established itself. The essential
idea of the holocaust was probably that of a grateful
tribute to God as king. It would be an exceptional
form of sacrifice, expressive of man's grateful dedica
tion of himself and his possessions to God. Certainly
in its developed form the burnt-offering would present
itself to the mind of a devout Israelite as an apt symbol
1 Gen. xxxi. 54 ; xlvi. I.
2 Westcott, Ep. to the Hebrews, p. 284 ; cp. Oehler, % 121, note I.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

241

of entire self-consecration to God. It would give out
ward expression to the spirit of perfect devotion,
conscious of the infinite gulf that separates the sinful
creature from the All-holy \ In this connexion it is
significant that the principal act of public worship in
the days of the second temple was the daily or con
tinual2 burnt-offering, which consisted in the oblation
of a spotless lamb every morning and evening.
Around this as a centre were grouped the prayers
and the praises of Israel ; it formed as it were the
foundation of the whole sacrificial system. Probably
the offering of incense was kindled in the holy place
simultaneously with the burnt-offering, while the assem
bled congregation stood praying without in the court.
Together with the burnt-offering, as a kind of supple
ment were presented the Minchah or meal-offering
(a portion of which, called the ' memorial 3,' was burned
upon the altar), and the drink-offering consisting of
wine. This feature was one common to the Hebrew
sacrifices and to those of classic paganism. The name
Minchah indicates that the notion of the meal-offering
was that of a tribute paid by the worshipper to God
and wholly given over to Him, whereas in the case of
animal sacrifice there was originally at least a com
munion feast in which God and the offerer shared.
The accessories of the burnt-offering are among those
many details which are of the nature of survivals in
the Mosaic religion. Certainly when sacrifice had be
come an act of national homage to Jehovah, maintained
at the public cost, the daily burnt-offering acquired
unique importance and dignity. We may judge of
the importance of the Tamid or ' continual ' burnt-
offering by the fact that its cessation was thought
1 Riehm, ^4 77. Theologie, p. 119 : ' Wie die Erhabenheit der Gottheit
iiber die irdische Welt in alien semitischen Religionen stark betont wird,
und im Mosaismus in der Idee der Heiligkeit Jahves mit besonderem
Nachdruck sich geltend macht, so nimmt auch das Brandopfer im Kultus
Israels die Hauptstelle ein.'
2 Ex. xxix. 42 ; Num. xxviii. 3.
3 m3TK (LXX. pvr\p.6ovvov) Lev. ii. 2.
R

242 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
practically to involve the abolition of public wor
ship1. Its maintenance came to be regarded as the
absolutely necessary condition of covenant-union be
tween Jehovah and His people, and in daily life the
devout Jew followed 'with an inward longing and
spiritual sympathy the national homage which continu
ally ascended on behalf of himself and all the people of
God in the stated ritual of the Temple 2.'
The levitical system of sacrifice is completed by the
peace-offering, which is of peculiar interest as repro
ducing in a higher and more spiritual form the main
features of primaeval sacrifice. Originally, when the
slaying of animals for food was a comparatively rare
event, all slaughter was regarded as a sacrificial act ;
and, conversely, a sacrifice was habitually connected
with a communion feast. Accordingly the Zebachim
represent the original type of sacrifice out of which all
other forms were developed. In early ages sacrifice
was a family or tribal action, the object of which was
to re-establish the bond of communion or fellowship
between the tribe and its god through joint participa
tion in a sacred victim. Such sacrifices followed by
feasts were characteristic of a period when religious
ideas were of a physical cast, it being the fundamental
conception of ancient religion that the gods and their
worshippers formed one community united by the tie of
kinship 3. The evidence of the earlier Old Testament
books shows that the primitive religion of Israel so
far resembled in its general character that of the other
Semites, that ' a meal was almost always connected
with a sacrifice4' 'In ancient Israel,' says Cornill,
1 See Dan. viii. n foil., xi. 31 ; cp. xii. 11. Wellhausen, Prolegomena,
p. 79, says : ' According to 2 Kings xvi. 15, an i"l?JJ in the morning and a
nrtiD in the evening were daily offered in the temple of Jerusalem, in the
time of Ahaz. ... In the Priestly Code the evening Minchah has risen to
the dignity of a second 'Olah; but at the same time survives the daily
Minchah of the high-priest, and is now offered in the morning also (Lev.
vi. 12-16).'
2 Robertson Smith, O. T. in J. C. p. 252.
3 See Religion of the Semites, p. 33.
4 Cp. Wellhausen, Prolegomena, p. 71 ; Cornill, Der Israelitische Pro-

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

243

' the worship of Jehovah had always a blithe and
joyous character. ... It consisted in making merry
before God. In the sacrifice, of which God received
a definite portion, while the worshipper himself con
sumed the rest, a man entered into table-fellowship
with Deity; he was the guest of his God, and
thereby became doubly assured of union with Him.'
When, however, the Deuteronomic law of one sanc
tuary and one altar came into force, the eating of flesh
inevitably ceased to be a purely religious act. It is
deeply interesting, however, to observe that the crowning
sacrifice of the levitical system consecrates, as it were,
the very oldest forms of Hebrew worship, and repro
duces in an age of heightened spiritual aspiration the
mystical idea which underlay the ancient sacrificial
meal, viz. that man's highest life consists in living
fellowship with God, which is most appropriately
typified by a sacred meal x.
There were some peculiar features in the ritual of
the peace-offering. A larger latitude was allowed in
the choice of a victim, and there were certain ceremonies
of presentation — 'heaving' and 'waving2' — of which
the explanation is somewhat doubtful ; but the most
prominent feature of the sacrifice was the subsequent
meal, in which God, the officiating priest, and the
offerer, together with his friends and such poor as
he might invite, alike participated. The inner fat
portions — those in which the sacred life was believed
specially to reside- — were burned upon the altar as the

phetismus, pp. 38 foil. ; Robertson Smith, The Prophets of Israel (ed. 1),
pp. 98, 99 ; and Religion of the Semites, pp. 236 foil.
1 Conversely, the sin of ' eating upon the mountains ' (Ezek. xviii. 6 foil.)
consisted in the fact that it involved holding communion with false gods :
the meal was a token of fellowship as a guest with the idol. Cp. the
argument of 1 Cor. x. 20.
2 Heb. noilD and DBUri. The ceremony probably implied simple pre
sentation to God, the 'waving ' being a movement to and fro, the ' heaving '
a movement up and down. Rabbinic writers, however, explain it as
a recognition of the divine omnipresence. See Oehler, § 133 (vol. ii.
pp. 6 foil.) ; and some interesting details mentioned in Willis, Worship,
&.c, pp. 175 foil.
R 2

244 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
portion appropriated to the deity; the wave-breast
was the perquisite of the whole body of priests, the
heave-shoulder of the officiating minister. All that
remained was eaten by the offerer and his friends on
the day of sacrifice, those who took part in the meal
being obliged to be ceremonially clean x. The broad
conception of the whole ceremony was that God re
ceived the offerer at His table, the part returned to the
worshipper being made the occasion of a blessing in
which others might share. Such was the main cha
racteristic of the . peace-offering in all its forms ; the
special species of such offerings, whether votive, free
will, or eucharistic, it is unnecessary for present pur
poses to describe in detail.

IV.
Our object in these lectures is to indicate the princi
ples which should guide a Christian student in his use
of the Old Testament. Having therefore briefly de
scribed the two principal institutions in which the
covenant-relationship that subsisted between Jehovah
and His chosen people found expression, it remains
to consider the symbolic significance of the sanctuary
as illustrated by the express teaching of the New
Testament,' and the spiritual ideas which the sacri
ficial system was intended to embody.
And here we must proceed with caution. What is
called typical interpretation consists in the application of
things and incidents described in the Old Testament to
those which are recorded in the New 2- And the ques
tion may fairly be asked, How are we to determine in
any given instance whether a thing is typical or not ?
1 Lev. vii. 19.
2 ' Typus hisloriae est sensus Scripturae mysticus, quo res gestae vel
facta Vet. Testamenti praefigurant et adumbrant res in Novo Testamento
gestas.' Glassius ap. Waterland, pref. to Scripture Vindicated (Works,
vol. vi. p. 12). Glassius distinguishes between types historical and pro
phetical. The ceremonial law is an instance of the first, Jeremiah making
yokes and bonds (Jer. xxvii. 2) of the second.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

245

The answer has been given, that since the warrant for
typical interpretation is supplied by Holy Scripture
itself, we are not justified in going beyond the limits
which it expressly sanctions in various instances. In
spite of its habitual reserve on such points, there are
certain cases in which the New Testament itself
indicates that two objects or incidents ' were so con
nected that the one was designed to prefigure the other ' ;
that both were in fact 'fore-ordained as constituent
parts of the same general scheme of providence V
Others, while recognizing the necessity of safeguards
against abuse of the method in question, plead for
a certain liberty of interpretation, ' beyond the pre
cedent, but according to the spirit of Scripture 2.' In
the case, however, of the Jewish sanctuary and ritual
we are not left destitute of a key which unlocks the
spiritual sense of the passages describing them. More
over, the belief that the ordinances of Hebrew religion
were intended to foreshadow the mysteries of the new
dispensation may legitimately be inferred from the very
notion of inspiration. For inspiration implies a special
action of the one Spirit of Him to whom all his works
are known from the beginning of the world 3, an opera
tion whereby He ever guided and controlled the course
of redemptive history, and continuously informed the
minds of those who from time to time assisted in
organizing the polity, the law, or the ceremonial
worship of Israel. At the same time revelation has
been progressive, accommodating itself to the actual
condition of mankind, through material things and
rudimentary institutions indicating its spiritual purpose
and goal. Thus it is that the New Testament writers
discern in the Law at once a temporary discipline and
a. prophecy of good things to come 4. Their general
1 See Marsh, Lectures on the Criticism and Interpretation of the Bible,
PP- 375, 376. .
2 Newman, The Arians of the Fourth Century, ch. 1. § 3.
3 Acts xv. 18.
4 Iren. Haer. iv. 15. 1 : 'Lex et disciplina erat illis et prophetia futuro-
rum.' Cp. Heb. x. 1. A historical sketch of the patristic view of the

245 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
view of the Old Testament as a vast prophecy is based
on the principle that in revelation as in nature there is
continuity; and speaking broadly, their conception
has absolutely justified itself in Christian experience.
Even the fantastic ingenuity and extravagance in
exegesis which occasionally disfigure the writings of
the fathers may be regarded as only instances of the
misapplication of a principle both simple and true :
the unity of Scripture and the continuity of revelation
alike bearing witness to the unity of their Author, and
of His purpose for mankind. The levitical cultus in
particular is a product too intricate and mysterious to
allow us for a moment to suppose that it was an anti
quated and meaningless excrescence upon a decaying
system. Further, criticism teaches us that in its
developed shape the cultus was inspired by thoughts
which a Christian knows to be eternally true. It
was intended to give outward expression to that
thought of divine indwelling which has been realized
in the Incarnation and in the experience of the
Christian Church. Ezekiel's vision of a city which is
Jehovah's dwelling-place is essentially identical with
St. John's conception of the heavenly Jerusalem 1.
Accordingly, it is natural and reasonable to discern in
every detail of the Jewish ritual a divine thought,
a spiritual idea, foreshadowed dimly in the legal type,
but manifested in Jesus Christ ; Nihil enim vacuum
neque sine signo apud Deum 2. As we learn from the
Epistle to the Hebrews, the whole system of worship
was the pattern and shadow of heavenly realities ; the
holy places made with hands were figures of the true;
under material symbols and visible arrangements were
continuously disclosed thoughts which the Holy Spirit
Ceremonial Law will be found in Diestel, Geschichte des A. T. in der
chrisllichen Kirche, § 7.
1 Ezek. xlviii. 35 ; Rev. xxi. 3, 22, 23.
2 Iren. iv. 21, 3. Cp. Orig. de Princ. iv.6 to hvirapxov <pa>s to> Mmva-eas
vnpa KaXvppari iva7ioK*Kpvp.p.evov avveXaptye rfj 'Iijo-oO emSrjpAq, irepiaiptdivTos
tov KaXvp.pAiTos, Kal tmc aya8a>v Kara fipaxv ds ypwo-iv epxopevaiv <Sv vkiciv elve
to ypap.p,a.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

247

intended to teach from the first1. In fact, we miss the
real purport of the minute descriptions of the taber
nacle and its worship contained in the Pentateuch if
we fail to discern beneath the picture of the ideal
sanctuary the outlines of the kingdom of God which
is destined to find its consummation in the perfected
Church of the redeemed.
For the Mosaic tabernacle seems to give concrete
and pictorial expression to three fundamental truths
of catholic religion.
First, it was a symbol of the right of access to
God vouchsafed by the divine mercy to man. The
tabernacle was the tent of meeting 2, the spot where
God could be approached, and where He deigned,
under conditions of His own appointment, to draw
near to man. The writer to the Hebrews points
out that in Jesus Christ man acquires the right of
priestly access to God. In Him as the representa
tive of His redeemed people we can draw nea.r in
full assurance of faith ; we can come boldly unto the
throne of grace1 '. In union with Him the individual
soul may perpetually enjoy that privilege which was
imperfectly foreshadowed by the solitary entry of
the High Priest, on one day only in the year, into
the Holy of Holies. The proof of divine inspiration
in the account of the tabernacle lies not necessarily
in its actual correspondence with fact, but rather in
the ideal anticipations of which it is the product. It
bears witness to the consciousness, which ever haunted
the Israelite, of his vocation to communion and con
verse with God.
Secondly, the tabernacle was the abode where God
made His dwelling in the midst of His people. Hence

1 Heb. ix. 8 toOto StjXovptos tov IIvevpaTos tov dyiov, k.t.X. Cp. Heb.
viii. 5, ix. 24.
2 1)1)12 PnX. Exod. xxvii. 21 ; cp. xxix. 42.
3 Heb. x. 22, iv. 16. Cp. vii. 25, &c, and observe the frequent use of
the words irpoo-epx^o-dai, eyyifcw in the Epistle. See also Rom. v. 2 ;
Eph. ii. 18, iii. 12.

248 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
it is frequently called Jehovah's dwelling-place1,
wherein He deigned to walk with His ancient people
throughout the days of their pilgrimage in the wilder
ness. It prefigured that mystery of condescension
which was fulfilled in the tabernacling of the divine
Word made flesh among men2. It was a visible
emblem of that body of the incarnate Redeemer
which was the ' temple ' or tabernacle indwelt by
His divine person. The simplicity of the ancient
shepherd's tent probably suggested its structure and
arrangements. But another name of the tabernacle
indicated a more advanced and spiritual conception of
the divine indwelling : namely, the phrase tent of the
testhnonyz, which implied that Jehovah's presence
among His people was 'a moral fact conditioned by
God's covenant grace ' rather than any mere local
proximity. It was the moral law that was Israel's true
glory, and formed the pledge of its special nearness
to God.
Lastly, in its structure and characteristic services
the tabernacle was an emblem of the inaccessible
holiness of Jehovah. Its arrangements and ritual were
intended indeed to satisfy man's desire for approach
to God, but the privilege of access was jealously
restricted. The Jewish worshipper was held, so to
speak, at arm's length. He was constantly reminded
of the gulf that intervened between sinful man, what
ever might be his aspirations, and the all-holy God.
The very fact that human approach to God was
possible only under the most jealous restrictions
served to bring home forcibly to the heart of the
Israelite the inherent imperfection of the whole ancient
system. ' The inaccessibility,' remarks Dr. Bruce 4,
1 pK>D. See' Exod. xxv. 8, 9 ; cp. xxix. 45, 46. The tabernacle was
the place of the ro'OS!'.
2 See 2 Sam.' vii. 6 foil. Cp. John i. 14, ii. 19 ; Rev. xxi. 3.
3 nVYJjn ?n«. Num. ix. 15. Cp. Exod. xxxviii. 21, &c. ; and see Schultz,
O. T. Theology, i. 353 foil.
4 In an exposition of Heb. ix. 1-10 ; see Expositor, ser. 3, no. Ix (Dec.
1889).

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

249

' was not absolute, but the solitary exception made the
sense of inaccessibility more intense than if there had
been no exception. Had entrance been absolutely
forbidden, men would have regarded the inner
sanctuary as a place with which they had no concern,
and would have ceased to think of it at all. But the
admission of their highest representative in holy things
on one solitary day in the year taught them that the
most hoW place was a place with which they had to
do, and at the same time showed it to be a place
very difficult of access.' This indeed seems to have
been the true import of the arrangement, the Holy
Ghost signifying this thereby1. It was a perpetual
memorial to the Jew of the divine holiness. It was
a tabernacle of the congregation only in the sense that
the people in the person of their divinely-appointed
representative there met with God 2 The structure
of the tent and the regulations in regard to entry
taught in the most impressive way the truth that with
out holiness no man shall see the Lord3; and indeed
this was perhaps the most significant of the purposes
served by the picture of the ancient sanctuary. It
fulfilled a function corresponding to its place in the
system of divine education. The restrictions under
which approach to God was allowable, qualified the
sense of His gracious condescension by laying deep
the foundations of holy fear. Ye shall reverence my
sanctuary, says the Law of holiness : I am Jehovah 4.
And it is obvious that only when the immeasurable
interval subsisting between the divine nature and the
human had been adequately realized, was the founda
tion prepared for a true doctrine of their union
in the person of the incarnate Son of God. The
religious idea of God's distinctness from nature was
1 Heb. ix. 8.
The above A. V. translation of 'Ohel Mo'ed is thus incorrect. See
Willis, Worship, &c, p. 68.
3 Heb. xii. 14. See Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 88.
4 Lev. xix. 30, xxvi. 2. On the natural basis of this fear or reverence
for holy places see Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, lectt. iii, iv.

250 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
educated by a moral discipline which, while it em
phasized the possibility of union between God and
man, deepened the consciousness of a barrier which
only divine grace could remove *.
When we turn to the sacrificial system we still find
ourselves under the guidance of the apostolic writer who
first explicitly draws out the general significance of the
levitical sanctuary. In regard to the law of the offerings,
his teaching implies that they were divinely intended to
foreshadow the mystery of Christ's person and work,
and their intricacy and many-sidedness corresponds
to the diversity of aspects under which the work of
redemption may be contemplated 2. The analogy of
the Gospels illustrates the mode in which a Christian
student may use the Old Testament types. Speaking
generally, each Gospel gives a separate view of Christ's
person, just as each parable in St. Matthew's thirteenth
chapter presents some different aspect of the divine
kingdom. So it is with the Old Testament sacrifices.
When Faustus the Manichaean complains that they
are no better than a system of idol-worship in which
the Church by accepting the Old Testament becomes
a partaker, Augustine replies by explaining their real
significance for Christians. Though they do not, he
says, form any part of our practice, yet we welcome them
among the other mysteries of Holy Scripture as aiding
us to understand the things which they prefigured.
' Even these,' he continues, ' were our examples 3, and
1 On the symbolism of the tabernacle, see Note A at the close of the
lecture. 2 Novatian, de Trin. ix : ' Hunc enim Jesum Christum . . . et in Veteri
Testamento legimus esse repromissum et in Novo Testamento animad-
vertimus exhibitum, omnium sacramentorum umbras et figuras de prae-
sentia corporatae veritatis implentem.' Cp. Jukes, The Law of the Offerings,
p. 41 : 'The offering of Christ . . . was but one, and but once offered ; but
the shadows vary in shape and outline according to the point from whence,
and the light in which they are looked upon. In other words, the one
offering had several aspects, and each aspect required a separate picture.
Had Christ's fulness and relations been less manifold, fewer emblems
might have sufficed to represent them ; but as they are many, and each
to be variously apprehended, no one emblem, however perfect, could
depict them all.'
3 1 Cor. x. 6.

v] AND' ITS WORSHIP 251
all such ordinances in many and varied fashions fore
shadowed that one sacrifice whereof we now celebrate
the memorial. Hence since it has been revealed, and
in due time offered, the ancient rites have been
removed from the sphere of frequent observance, but
in the way of signification they have remained authori
tative 1.' This statement corresponds to Augustine's
distinction between Old Testament ordinances as
partly praecepta vitae agendae, partly praecepta vitae
significandae. The moral law given to the Jews is of
permanent obligation, the ritual directions are of per
manent significance. Like prophecy, the ceremonial
code laid hold of eternal principles, and in so doing
foreshadowed the future developments of the divine
purpose. Consequently, as Augustine elsewhere ob
serves, the Apostle speaks not of the abolition of
the Law, but of the doing away in Christ of the veil
which concealed its true sense 2.
The writer to the Hebrews regards Christianity
mainly under one aspect — as the final or absolute
religion. It has the characteristic of perfection
(reAetWty), inasmuch as it establishes that unimpeded
fellowship between God and man which in the
levitical system was adumbrated but not attained.
The faith of Christ is the religion of the better hope,
whereby we draw nigh unto God3. For Jesus Christ
fulfils in Himself two distinct types of priesthood. He
is a priest after the order of Melchizedek ; His priest
hood belongs to an order eternal and supra-national.
It is based on divine promises and combines with
sacerdotal functions those of royalty ; it is the medium
of high and heavenly blessings to mankind. But, on
the other hand, Christ is the antitype of the Aaronic
priest. He fulfils all that was prefigured in the
levitical ordinances by offering Himself as a spotless
victim, and by entering within the veil of the true
1 c. Faust. Manich. vi. 5 ; cp. vi. 2.
2 de util. cred. 9 (2 Cor. iii. 14). Cp. Bas. de Spir. sancto, 21.
3 Heb. vii. 11 and 19.

252 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
tabernacle1 , there to present Himself in the presence
of God on behalf of His brethren and to dedicate
them in His own representative person for the life of
acceptable service 2. As the true Melchizedek, Christ
bestows blessing, and feeds His people with eucharistic
bread and wine : as the true priest of Aaron's line,
He purges the whole sphere of man's worship with
His own blood ; He cleanses the individual conscience
from the defilement of sin ; He ever liveth to make
intercession 3-
Such is the well-known teaching of the Epistle to
the Hebrews, which gives a sanction to the patristic
view of the sacrificial ritual ; and having this sanction
we may proceed to inquire what were the main ideas
symbolized in the cultus, and how they were fulfilled
in the work of Christ.
We have seen that the informing idea of the
levitical sanctuary, as sketched first by Ezekiel and
afterwards in the priestly code, was that of Jehovah's
presence in the midst of Israel4. The thought that
inspires the sacrificial ritual seems to be that of
maintaining Jehovah's covenant. Thus its fundamental
significance is ethical, for the covenant implied on
the one side Jehovah's grace, on the other Israel's
moral obedience. The sacrifices were full of spiritual
symbolism : they spoke of self-surrender and devotion
to the will of God ; of the need of forgiveness and the
blessings of divine fellowship. The prophetic teaching
as to Jehovah's requirement gave them a typical
meaning which, if we may judge from the language
of some of the Psalms, was transparent enough to
devout and thoughtful minds. The burnt-offering,
for instance, was a vivid type of man's willing self-
surrender in a life of unbroken obedience ; the sin-
offering with its ceremonial sprinkling of blood spoke
of the submissive acceptance of penalty by the sinner
\ ?re?- yiiL 2" ' Heb- vii- 27 5 viii- 3 ; ix. 14, 26 ; x. 10 foil.
Heb. ix. 13, 14, 23 foil. ; vii. 25.
1 See Ezek. xxxvii. 26-28 ; Exod. xxix. 45, 46.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

253

as the necessary condition of forgiveness ; the peace-
offering with its communion-feast expressed the idea
of fellowship between God and man renewed and
consummated. Here, then, were prefigured in broad
outline the moral conditions of man's reunion with
God : but in the fulfilment of them by Jesus Christ
even the minor details of the cultus were found to
possess a previously unsuspected significance.
i. For, in the first place, Christ's life of perfect
devotion to the will of God is the antitype of the
burnt-offering. His whole life is comprehended by
St. Paul in the single word obedience1 — an obedience
which was an integral element in the acceptableness
of His self-oblation. In Christ man rendered to God
that which alone could satisfy Him, a whole-hearted
self-devotion, a perfect consecration of every faculty —
of will, thought, and affection 2. That element of
voluntariness which from the nature of the case could
not be represented by an irrational victim was in the
highest measure present in the oblation of Christ's
life. He discharged the covenant obligation of obedi
ence which Israel could not render, and crowned it by
the surrender of His life. For the death upon the
cross cannot be separated from the earthly pilgrimage
which it consummated3. It was the highest exhibition
of that love wherewith Christ loved us and gave him
self for us an offering and a sacrifice to God for a sweet-
smelling savour 4.
The life and ministry of Jesus were in fact prefigured
by the Tamid or continual offering which was intended
to remind Israel of its ideal vocation. Day and night
without intermission there ascended from the temple
1 Rom. v. 19 ; cp. Phil. ii. 8.
2 Cp. Lev. i. 8, 9 ; and see Matt. iii. 17, xii. 18, xvii. 5, xxii. 37 ; John
viii. 29. Observe, the fire which consumed the burnt-offering is an emblem
of the perpetual devotion of love (cp. John xiv. 31). See Euthymius on
Heb. ix. 14 (quoted by Westcott, ad loo).
3 Cp. Heb. x. 1-10.
4 Eph. v. 2. Observe the phrase ucrpr) evmSias, which is used also of the
burnt-offering and symbolizes divine acceptance. See Gen. viii. 21 ; Lev.
i- 9> 13; 17 ! CP- Ezek. xx. 41.

254 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
court into the clear air the smoke of the sacrifice
which lay upon the brazen altar. It was at once
a memorial wherein Israel was as it were continually
presented before God, and a striking emblem of
that to which as a holy people it had pledged itself1,
the whole-hearted and unbroken service of Jehovah.
But the daily burnt-offering was a type fulfilled only in
the life of Christ — in the perfection of His self-sur
render, in the spotless purity and nobleness of what
He offered, in the infinite acceptableness and victorious
might with which it pleaded, and yet pleads, before
God. For the continual offering of the Jewish
sanctuary points to a perpetual function of Christ.
His perfect obedience has not merely prevailed for
man's acceptance in the past ; it yet pleads with living
power where the great High Priest now presents
Himself on man's behalf, and wheresoever on earth
the memorial sacrifice of Christendom is uplifted before
the Father's face. In that unceasing act of inter
cession the Israel of God is ever presented before
the throne of Heaven, nor is it fanciful to suppose
that the meal-offering, and especially the ordinance
of the shewbread, was divinely intended to prefigure
the mystery wherein the Christian Church shows the
Lord's death till he come'1. The least that can be
said is that the meal-offerings prepared the Jewish
mind for ' the acceptance of that form of sacrifice
which was to supersede all others, in which the
elements were to be simply bread and wine 3 ' ; in
which bloody sacrifice was to be replaced by the
1 Cp. Exod. xxiv. 7.
2 I Cor. xi. 26. The shewbread (D^D DVO, LXX. aproi ivimioi or aproi
Trjs npoBeo-eas) was set forth as a memorial, Lev. xxiv. 7 : ea-ovrai ol aproi
els avapvr)o-iv TrpoKeiptvm to Kvpiw. Cp. Luke xxii. 19. The loaves of shew
bread were in fact a kind of perpetual sacrifice (Schultz, i. 355). Cp. Lev.
xxiv. 8. Its typical character consists (1) in its being a Minchah or
non-bloody offering, (2) in its having a memorial significance, (3) in its
being wholly consumed by man. It thus combined the idea of sacrifice
with that of communion (Willis, Worship of the Old Covenant, p. 166).
3 Willis, p. 163. The Fathers commonly regard Mai. i. 11 as a prophecy
of the Eucharist.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP 255
oblation of incense and by the pure offering [Minchah)
mentioned by Malachi.
2. In the next place, Jesus Christ as the representa
tive of humanity accepts death, in token of His sub
mission to the penalties of human sin. It is noticeable
that the burnt-offering was in idea independent of
the thought of sin. Its atoning virtue was incidental.
Its essential significance was that of self-dedication ;
it implied the satisfaction not of offended justice, but
of a holy requirement '. The sin-offering, on the
contrary, was piacular ; it implied the development
of a consciousness of guilt ; it witnessed to the reality
of retribution and the need of satisfaction ; to the
impossibility of remission without shedding of blood2.
The antitype then of the sin-offering is the atoning
death of Jesus Christ who makes propitiation for sin
by His own blood. Moreover, the death of Christ
may be regarded as a trespass-offering 3, inasmuch as
the second Adam offers satisfaction and makes restitu
tion for the wrong done to the majesty of God by the
first Adam.
Here let us pause to consider the meaning of the
use of blood in connexion with the ancient sin-offering.
There was, as we have seen, but very little significance
attached to the victim's death; slaughter was simply
the means employed for obtaining the blood, which
was sacred as the seat of life 4. And it is important
to observe that in the transaction which followed the
slaughter — in the presentation, and sprinkling of
the blood — the dominant idea was rather that of the
surrender of life than that of the acceptance of death.
The blood was in fact regarded as still living ; it was
only liberated for higher purposes by the act of
slaughter ; it was conceived as still living and in a real

1 Cp. Lev. i. 4, and see Robertson Smith, Religion of the Semites, pp.
329, 330; Jukes, Law of the Offerings, p. 52.
2 Heb. ix. 22.
3 Obs. QB>N in Isa. liii. 10.
4 Gen. ix. 4 ; Lev. xvii. 11. Cp. Schultz, i. 392.

256 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
sense active beyond death \ Tradition tells us that
it was usually caught by the officiating priest, as it
flowed from the slain animal, in a pointed vessel which
could not be set down, and was constantly stirred to
prevent coagulation. Quick, warm, alive it was
carried to the appointed place and there solemnly
sprinkled. The blood thus offered was in fact an
emblem of life yielded up in perfect self-surrender,
and dedicated to the service of the living God. The
act of sprinkling on the horns of the altar or on the
mercy-seat typified the reception of human life into
the sphere of divine fellowship. The slaughter then
of the victim was ' only an initial stage in a great
sacrificial transaction ; in conformity with the legal
type, Christ, living through and beyond death, must
needs pass within the veil as our perfected High
Priest. The atoning work was not complete until,
by His ascension, Christ had passed into the Holy of
Holies, which is heaven itself, there to be manifested
in the presence of God for us as our representa
tive.' There 'the ascended Lord, taking with Him
those for whom He died, presents them in Himself
to His eternal Father2.' With His own blood shed
on man's behalf He passes into heaven itself2", and there
accomplishes what was dimly prefigured in the solemn
sprinkling of the sacrificial blood by the levitical priest.
He brings the life of man into perfect fellowship with
deity. It will have appeared from what has been said that
the complete type of the atoning work of Christ is to
be found only in the ceremonial of the Day of Atone
ment which was regarded as completing the whole cycle
of piacular sacrifices 4. In a sense it ' summed up and
1 Cp. Westcott, Epp. of S.fohn, p. 35 ; Ep. to the Hebrews, p. 293.
2 The Doctrine of the Incarnation, vol. ii. p. 313.
3 Heb. ix. 24.
4 Cp. Lev. xvi. 21. The Day of Atonement was held to cleanse the
people from all their sins, i.e. ' according to the Mishnic interpretation, to
purge away the guilt of all sins, committed during the year, that had not
been already expiated ' (Religion of the Semites, p. 388).

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

257

interpreted the whole conception of sacrifices' in so
far as they were divinely intended ' to gain for man
access to God V The great feature of the day was
the entry of the High Priest into the Holy of Holies,
a representative act in which the whole nation was
year by year admitted to the presence of Jehovah,
but which was only possible in virtue of blood, that is
of life, shed, and solemnly offered2. In this trans
action the life of the people was first symbolically
yielded up as a token of submission to the penalty of
sin, and afterwards brought within the veil into the
immediate presence of God. Israel was first ransomed,
then dedicated ; first pardoned, then consecrated 3.
The covenant status of the people was renewed ;
Israel was restored, by the removal of sin, to the posi
tion of a community in which Jehovah- could continue
to dwell 4.
But the blood of the sin-offering sacrificed on the
Day of Atonement was not only offered on behalf of
the people ; it was applied. By its presentation at
the mercy-seat it was endued with cleansing and
sanctifying efficacy. Sprinkled on the floor of the
sanctuary, and on all the sacred furniture, it purged
them from the defilement they had contracted from
the handling of sinful men ; it reconsecrated them to
holy functions. And the blood of sprinkling5 may be
regarded as a sample of all the Jewish rites of purifi
cation 6, which could purge at least outwardly those
who had involved themselves in ceremonial unclean-
ness and needed restoration to covenant privileges.
The writer to the Hebrews, however, draws attention to
the contrast between these merely external ordinances
and the inward effectual operation of Christ's blood.
1 Westcott, Ep. to the Hebrews, p. 279. Cp. Schultz, ii. 402 foil.
2 Heb. ix. 7 ; cp. Lev. xvi. 14, 15.
3 See Milligan, The Resurrection of our Lord, pp. 133 foil.
4 Cp. Lev. xvi. 16. 6 Heb. xii. 24.
6 In Heb. ix. 13 the blood of Christ is placed in line with (i) the blood
of bulls and goats, i. e. the rites of the Day of Atonement, (ii) the water of;
sprinkling mixed with ashes of the red heifer (Num. xix).
S

258 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
'The Mosaic rites availed to renew the covenant
fellowship between God and His people, which might
have been interrupted by sin ; they removed the
accumulated defilement arising from daily action and
intercourse or from contact with death. But their
effect was outward and transitory. They hallowed, but
could not purge the worshipper. Their effect might
be described in the word ayiaa/ios, which implies
merely the reconsecration of what had been dese
crated or profaned. But the effect of Christ's blood
is a true and inward purgation of the character and
conscience from moral and spiritual defilement; His
blood is a real means of cleansing (KaOapio-fios), of
actual deliverance from the stain of guilt and from the
power of sin. . . . The communication of the blood of
Christ, whether in the gift of absolution or in the
grace of Holy Communion, is in fact the communi
cation of a divine life, annihilating the stains and
reinforcing the frailty of nature V
3. This brings us to the third division of sacrifice
and its fulfilment in Christ. He is the slain victim of
the peace-offerings, His sacrifice being the groundwork
of a communion feast 2. A meal is the ordinary
symbol, according to oriental conceptions, of fellow
ship and peace. And the eucharistic feast of the
Christian Church is the highest realization, under
the conditions of our mortality, of the blessedness for
which man was created. It typifies the peace which
follows upon penitent self-surrender to the will of God.
It is a means whereby he becomes a partaker of the
divine nature, and a recipient of the divine life 3.
In a real sense it anticipates the consummation to
wards which the kingdom of God ever tends, the
perfect indwelling of the Creator in His creatures.
On this point there is no need to dwell at length. It
is enough to draw attention to the impressiveness of
the circumstance that the earliest and rudest forms
1 The Doctrine of the Incarnation, vol. ii. pp. 325, 326.
2 Heb. xiii. 10. 3 2 Pet. i. 4 ; John vi. 53-57.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP

259

of sacrifice foreshadowed a religious idea than which
none is more distinctive of Christianity. We are told
on high authority that the ancient sacrificial meal had
both a social and a religious significance. The primi
tive notion was that those who ate and drank together
were ' by this very act tied to one another by a bond
of friendship and mutual obligation ' ; such an act of
worship cemented ' the bond between man and his
god, and also the bond between him and his brethren
in the common faith V Further, it was a widespread
belief in Semitic antiquity that ' by eating the flesh or
drinking the blood of another living being a man
absorbs its nature or life into his own V How re
markable it is that the great Christian sacrament
should embody and consecrate the element of truth
which, often in the crudest and most fantastic forms,
underlay these ancient ideas ! It is true not only in
the critical moments of religious history, but also in the
development of religious ordinances, that there are last
which shall be first, and there are first which shall be
last 3.
As we look back over the different ordinances of
the levitical legislation in the light of their Messianic
antitypes we shall recognize the truth of St. Paul's
bold assertion that the law is spiritual*. Under those
carnal ordinances imposed as a burden until the time of
reformation 5 lay concealed a spiritual fact which was
their basis and presupposition — the fact of Jehovah's
electing love. It is true that, speaking generally,
' Israel did not rise to the level of its institutions, but
rather brought them down to its ever-lowering stand
point 6 ' ; we must judge, however, of the tendency of
the Law, not by its acknowledged failures, but by its
spiritual triumphs. And doubtless in those books of
the Old Testament which represent the devotion and
1 Religion of the Semites, p. 247.
2 Ibid. p. 295. s Luke xiii. 30.^
4 Rom. vii. 14. Cp. Orig. de Princ. iv. 6 to mnvpariKov tov Mmvo-ias
popnv eXapyj/ev iivibi] p.rjo'avTos 'I^ffov.
6 Heb. ix. 10. 6 Edersheim, Warburton Lectures, p. 245.
S 2

260 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
faith of the spiritual Israel, and the fruit of the
discipline through which it had passed, we learn what
was the divinely intended outcome of the Law and its
appointed worship. Such books as Deuteronomy and,
the Psalter reflect the spirit which found satisfaction.
or edification in the services of the sanctuary ; they
illustrate the religious affections which the Law
awakened in chosen souls ; their thirst for righteous
ness, their holy fear, their longing for purity of heart,
their passionate desire for union with God. It was
this life of the affections which the sacrifices were
peculiarly fitted to educate. The ethical foundations
of covenant fellowship with God had been firmly laid
by the teaching of Moses and of the prophets. The
Decalogue and the early legislation, social and moral,
were calculated to act as a restraint upon conduct
and a discipline of character. But the ordinances of
worship in their developed form were at once a school
for the heart and a channel of spiritual instruction.
In the intention of its priestly compilers no doubt
the ceremonial Law was designed to emphasize and
elaborate the external holiness of Israel. But the
thoughts of God are not man's thoughts, neither are
our ways His ways J ; and the actual effect of the
cultus, at least in devout hearts, was to deepen the
inwardness of their religious life, to stir emotions
which only the divine heart could fathom, and to
awaken unutterable yearnings which the love of God,
manifested in His Son, alone could satisfy.
1 Isa. Iv. 8.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP 261

Note A.
The Symbolic Significance of the Tabernacle.
The following note, based largely upon a chapter in The
Worship of the Old Covenant (Oxford, 1880), by the Rev.
E. F. Willis, is inserted as an illustration of legitimate typical
interpretation. The writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews insists em
phatically on the fact that all the arrangements of the
earthly sanctuary were, according to the divine injunction,
modelled after the pattern displayed to Moses on the mount 1.
It is evident that in his view the description of the sanctuary
was an embodiment of divine thoughts, of mysteries which
it was the work of the Holy Ghost to partially unveil.
Accordingly, to quote Bishop Westcott 2, ' there can be no
reasonable doubt as to the symbolism of the tabernacle. It
conveyed of necessity deep religious thoughts to those who
reverently worshipped in it. It was, however, a natural and
indeed a justifiable belief that the spiritual teaching of the fabric
was not confined to its ruling features, but extended also to
every detail. There are correspondences between all the
works of God which deeper knowledge and reflection make
clear. The significance attached to the numbers which
continually recur in all the relations of the several parts
cannot be questioned.' But we have also to remember that
the sanctuary ' was not simply an epitome of that which is
presented on a larger scale in the world of finite being ; the
archetype to which it answered belonged to another order ; the
lessons which it conveyed were given in the fullness of time in
a form which is final for man,' namely in the humanity of
Jesus Christ3.
In its general structure it is not difficult to see that
'the tent of meeting' is a type of Him who was made
flesh and tabernacled among us 4 ; and that each several part
or chamber is emblematic of a dispensation in redemptive
1 Heb. viii. 5. Cp. Exod. xxv. 8, 9 ; Acts vii. 44.
2 Ep. to the Hebrews, p. 237.
3 Ibid. p. 240. 4 John i. 14.

262 THE ANCIENT COVENANT [lect.
history. The outer court with its bleeding sacrifices and its
laver of purification symbolizes the preparatory stage of
Mosaism with its sacrificial system and comprehensive
ceremonialism. The number five, which is the prevailing
figure in the measurements of the court, being half of ten, the
number of perfection, serves to convey the moral idea of in
completeness, while the inferior metals employed in the
construction of the altar and the laver symbolize what is
imperfect and rudimentary1. The Holy Place entered by the
veil which separated it from the court contained three symbolic
objects— the golden altar of incense, the table on which stood
the pure vegetable oblation of the shewbread, and the seven-
branched candlestick with its lamps. Here faith may find
a type or representation of the Christian Church with its
Eucharist, its sevenfold gift of the Spirit, its perpetual inter
cession in union with that of its ascended High Priest. But
the Holy Place held a position which in itself was para
bolic 2, and not merely prophetic. It witnessed indeed to
man's true destiny as called to fellowship with God ; but
the fact that he might not penetrate to the innermost shrine
constantly reminded the Jewish worshipper that he could not
yet enjoy the fullness of divine communion 3- In the Holy
Place Jehovah was manifested only in condescending grace ;
in His divine glory and majesty in the Holy of Holies alone.
Thus the realities (avra to. Trp6.yjj.aTa) of heaven itself were
typified by the most Holy Place. Its very form was an
emblem of God's dwelling-place, for the length and the breadth
and the height of it were equal*. It formed a perfect cube of
ten cubits, as if to suggest the ideal ultimate perfection which
the kingdom of God was destined to attain. It was lighted
only by the Shekinah, the divine glory dwelling in visible
manifestation between the golden cherubim, upon the mercy-
seat or covering of the ark. The mercy-seat was the
sacred place of reconciliation or atonement ; the ark was
the receptacle of Israel's most sacred possession, namely the
tables of the testimony which formed the charter of the
divine covenant. Upon the mercy-seat stood cherubim —
probably standing figures in human or possibly composite
form, representing the most exalted of created beings, nearest
to the throne of deity and highest in service, yet reverently
stooping as if to gaze into the mysteries of God. The thought
1 See generally Willis, The Worship of the Old Covenant, ch. v ; Oehler,
Theol. of the 0. T. §§ 115-119.
2 Cp. Heb. ix. 9. 3 Cp. Westcott, Ep. to the Hebrews, p. 250.
4 Cp. Rev. xxi. 16.

v] AND ITS WORSHIP 263
is thus visibly expressed that the self-revelation of God is at
the same time a self-concealment. The cherubim, according
to the usual imagery of the Old Testament, at once proclaim
the presence of God and veil His essential glory 1.
The materials of the tabernacle, gold, silver and brass, and the
colours of the hangings, blue, scarlet and purple, are employed
in such a way as to suggest the ideas of gradation, continuity
and splendour. The furniture of the outer court is mostly
brass ; in the Holy Place no brass is used except in the
sockets of the pillars at the entrance. Silver, the emblem of
moral purity, is used in the foundations of the Holy Place, and
it is noticeable that the capitals of the pillars in the outer
court are of the same material, as if to show that ' the highest
glory of what the court foreshadowed was inferior to the
lowest of that which was typified by the Holy Place 2.' The
materials employed in the Holy Place and Holy of Holies are
acacia wood and gold with which it was overlaid, but the
mercy-seat and the cherubim are wrought of solid gold. The
colours also are symbolic : white is the emblem of holiness,
of soiled robes cleansed from stain. Blue, the colour of the
sapphire stone3, suggested the heavenliness of the divine
calling. Scarlet, the colour of blood, signifies created life.
Purple, the intermingling of scarlet and blue, is a symbol of the
union of two natures, divine and human. All these different
materials and colours suggest different degrees of glory and
dignity, beauty and excellency : all are emblematic of the
holiness, purity and majesty of the kingdom of God. They
suggest thoughts of that glorious body of which the Apostle
speaks 4, of that glorious church 5 which Christ purposes to
present to Himself.
Once more, the measurements of the different parts of
the tabernacle are not without significance. For we cannot
but be struck by the stress laid upon number and measure
in the Bible6. In the account of the tabernacle and of
the temple7, and in Ezekiel's prophetic description of
1 Riehm, ATI. Theologie, p. 90. On the mercy-seat (mS3n, LXX.
iXao-rrjpwv) see Willis, op. cit. p. 105 ; Riehm, loc. cit. Cp. Gifford on
Romans, iii. 25. On the cherubim, see Schultz, O. T. Theology, ii. 229
foil. He says (p. 236) : ' The cherubim were not angels, but symbolical
figures, combining the noblest qualities of the created world — a man being
the symbol of intelligence, a lion of sovereignty, an ox of strength, and an
eagle of swiftness.' See also Oehler, § 119.
2 Willis (quoting Rev. H. Douglas), p. 92.
3 Cp. Exod. xxiv. 10. 4 Phil. iii. 21. 6 Eph. v. 27.
6 See Schultz, O. T. Theology, vol. i. p. 352 note; cp. Willis, pp. 76 foil.
7 1 Kings vi and vii.

264 THE ANCIENT COVENANT AND ITS WORSHIP
an ideal sanctuary and city, the dimensions of things are
prominently and minutely recorded ; and they even find
a place in St. John's picture of the heavenly Jerusalem. We
have noticed already that while the tabernacle is of oblong
shape, the Holy of Holies forms a perfect cube ; a contrast
which suggests the incompleteness of the visible kingdom of
God as contrasted with the ideal perfection towards which it
tends. As to the numbers, those which occur most frequently,
either singly or in combination, are three, four, five, seven, ten,
and twelve. Three is generally recognized as an emblem of what
is divine. It symbolizes divine appointment, and corresponds
to the revelation of the divine nature and attributes. Accord
ingly, in the tabernacle we find three main divisions, three
veils, three metals used, and three colours. Four suggests the
notion of created being, and, as we should expect, the number is
very prominent in the structure of the visible sanctuary (ayiov
koo-ixikov) 1, being impressed upon the general design of the
whole building and upon its contents. Seven is the union of
four and three ; it symbolizes a covenant relationship — the
union or reconciliation of man with God. It is not so dis
tinctly characteristic of the tabernacle itself as of the Jewish
dispensation and ceremonial regarded in its entirety 2. It
corresponds to the name Emmanuel, God with us. The
number ten denotes perfection or completeness. Its employ
ment in the measurements of the tabernacle suggests the
idea that, though temporal in form and use, the structure was
yet perfect of its kind. Five, the half of ten, evidently conveys
the idea of incompleteness. Finally, the number twelve, four
multiplied by three, corresponds to a more intimate relation
ship between the Creator and the creature than is expressed
in the number seven. It symbolizes the indwelling of deity
in the creature, and accordingly we find that the number is
characteristic of the Church of God in all the successive stages
of its history : there are twelve patriarchs, twelve tribes, twelve
stones in the breastplate of the High Priest, twelve Apostles of
the Lamb. The number is specially prominent in St. John's
vision of the heavenly Jerusalem. It corresponds to the con
summation of the mystery of the Incarnation — a state or
sphere in which God is not merely with men, but in them ;
not merely visits and redeems His people, but possesses them
with His indwelling presence.
\ Heb. ix. 1.
2 In the tabernacle we have the seven-branched candlestick ; in the
levitical system the number frequently occurs. Cp. Willis, p. 79.

LECTURE VI
And it shall be said in that day, Lo, this is our God; we have waited
for him, and He will save us : this is the Lord; we have waited for
him, we will be glad and rejoice in His salvation. — Isa. xxv. 9.
The general results of Old Testament criticism
might be summed up in a single sentence in which at
first sight two opposite views of the sacred history
appear to be contrasted : instead of speaking of ' the
Law and the Prophets ' we might equally speak of ' the
Prophets and the Law.' Now it is to be borne in mind
that both expressions are found in the New Testa
ment, either totidem verbis or in some equivalent
form 1 ; but there can be no question that the usual
order in our blessed Lord's repeated references to the
subject is ' the Law and the Prophets,' and we might
naturally infer from this language the priority in time
of the Law. A few moments' attention, however, will
show in what sense the phrase ' the Law and the Pro
phets,' though apparently unhistorical, is both perfectly
natural and strictly accurate. The history of the growth
of the Hebrew Canon supplies the real clue to our
Lord's ordinary mode of speech. The formation of the
Canon began with the codification, promulgation, and
eventual canonization of the book of the Law. The
foundation-stone of the work was laid in Josiah's reign,
which witnessed ' the dawn of that love and reverence
for Scripture with which the true Israelite, whether
Jew or Christian, was destined ever afterwards to be
identified 2.' The publication of the book of the Law '
1 Cp. Acts xxvi. 22, ' the Prophets and Moses.'
2 Ryle, Canon of the O. T. p. 61.

266 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
(the Deuteronomic code) was the primary stage in
a movement which was carried on during the exile
mainly, it would seem, under the influence of Ezekiel.
The so-called priestly code seems to have been slowly
compiled and elaborated before the return from
Babylon, but apparently the work was not finally
completed before the mission of Ezra to Jerusalem ; it
is with Ezra's name that we ought to connect the
promulgation of the completed book of the Law,
described in the eighth chapter of the book of
Nehemiah. All the evidence points to the conclusion
that the book publicly read by Ezra on the occasion
of Nehemiah's arrival at Jerusalem (444 B.C.) was none
other than the Pentateuch substantially in its present
form. What had hitherto been a priests' book became
a people's book, and thus the Law became the nucleus
of the Old Testament scriptures 1.
The ' Prophets ' do not as yet seem to have been
collected in any authoritative or canonical form.
Writings of various prophets were already current,
both historical documents which were afterwards
classed as ' earlier ' or ' former Prophets,' and the
books ascribed to most of the ' latter ' Prophets them
selves. But these did not as yet form a recognized
part of Scripture. It was only on the analogy of the
Law, and at a considerably later period, that ' the
Prophets ' came to be regarded as a canonical book,
and to be ranked as Holy Scripture by the side of the
Law 2. Now it is most probable that our Lord
in speaking of ' the Law and the Prophets ' is simply
referring to those two great divisions of Hebrew
Scripture which were respectively known by these
titles. He refers to ' the Law ' as the oldest and most
venerable portion of the Hebrew Bible, and to ' the
1 Ryle, op. cit. ch. iv. It was the Pentateuch which the Samaritan
synagogue took over from the Jews in about the year 430 B.C.
2 Perhaps not before 300 B.C. Prof. Ryle says, ' Before the beginning of
the second century B. C, the second stage in the formation of the Canon
had ended ; and the limits of " the Law and the Prophets " had been
determined' (p. 109).

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 267
Prophets ' as a collection of writings formed at a later
date, and probably not regarded by the ordinary Jew
as standing entirely on the same level of dignity and
authority as the Law. According to His wont, our
Saviour is conversing with the Jews on the basis of
their own traditions and preconceptions. He is
addressing men whose religion was predominantly
legalistic ; and it is noticeable that two of the passages
where the phrase ' the Law and the Prophets ' is found
occur in the Sermon on the Mount, in which Christ is
as it were proclaiming the new law of the Messianic
kingdom 1. He is speaking to those whose religion,
whether for better or for worse, had tended to become
the religion of a book or even a code, and there can be
no question that He speaks not from the critical stand
point, but from the standpoint of one who is concerned
with the practical work of religious instruction, and
who is dealing with men to whom the Law was the
most sacred of possessions and the most authori
tative of institutions.
Speaking broadly, the phrase the ' Law and the
Prophets' represents two spiritual tendencies, which
were not absolutely opposed, or even two distinct
periods in the history of Israel's religion, which were
not as a matter of fact strictly successive in point
of time. So far as we can judge, Prophecy and Law
were co-existent and co-operative elements in Israel's
spiritual development from the first : but it is evident
on a careful study of the Old Testament history, and
of the course of events which followed the return from
Babylon, that two main epochs are practically distin
guishable : the age of the Prophets, which lasted for
some two centuries before the exile, and the age in
which the Law became the principal factor in Israel's
spiritual progress. But, as a recent writer observes,
' No one maintains that the Law first appeared, or first
began to exercise its influence, when the prophetic
development had already come to a close. The
1 Matt. v. 17; vii. 12.

268 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
existence of the book of Deuteronomy in the seventh,
and of the " Book of the Covenant " already apparently
in the ninth century, would instantly refute any such
assertion. On the other hand, no one denies that Pro
phecy exercised decisive influence upon the formation
and development of the Law. Even the most convinced
defender of the traditional view will allow to Moses in
his activity as lawgiver prophetic inspiration, and will
not deny him a prophetic character1.' We have
already seen that Moses was recognized by later
prophets as himself one of the greatest of prophets.
The book of Deuteronomy indeed reminds us at its
close that There arose not a prophet since in Israel
like unto Moses, whom the Lord knew face to face2; and
Hosea expressly teaches that By a prophet the Lord
brought Israel out of Egypt, and by a prophet was he
preserved 3.
Thus the expression ' the Law and the Prophets,' or
its converse, was not necessarily intended to emphasize
the idea of succession in time ; it implies a refer
ence to the Hebrew Scriptures according to their
constitutive elements. In any case it cannot be
meant to imply that the work of the prophets was in
any sense of secondary importance in the develop
ment of Israel's religion. On the contrary, when we
consider the entire tone and tendency of our Lord's
teaching we shall conclude that He, the Wisdom of God,
sets His seal to the work of the ancient Prophets when
He places the moral requirements of God in the very
forefront of the new law, and assigns to the fulfilment
of legal righteousness a subordinate place : Except your
righteousness shall exceed the righteousness of the scribes
and Pharisees, ye shall in no case enter into the kingdom
of heaven. Go ye and learn what that meaneth, I will
have mercy, and not sacrifice. If ye had known what
this meaneth, I will have mercy, and not sacrifice, ye
would not have condemned the guiltless. Woe unto
1 Valeton, Vergdngliches und Ewiges im A. T. p. 22.
2 Deut. xxxiv. 10. 3 Hos. xii. 13.

vi] prophecy AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 269
you, scribes and Pharisees, hypocrites ! for ye pay
tithe of mint and anise and cummin, and have omitted
the weightier matters of the law, judgment, mercy, and
faith : these ought ye to have done, and not to leave the
other undone1. Nay, does not this last passage remind
us that He whose Spirit inspired the sacred writers
Himself recognized the oneness of divine intention which
underlay the teachings of the Law and the Prophets
alike. In both of them the Jews were right in
supposing that they had eternal life 2 : for man's truei
life consists in the love of God and the imitation of
Him. Whatsoever ye would that men should do to you,
do ye even so to them; for this is the Law and the
Prophets. On two chief commandments hang all the
Law and the Prophets 3.
It cannot be too often repeated that prophecy is
the dominant and distinctive element in Israel's
religion. Without it Israel would only have been one
of the innumerable nomad tribes of the Semitic race,
the very traces of which have perished4. Hebrew
history has been justly called ' a history of prophecy,'
since it is the history of a relation between God and an
elect people in which prophets were the principal
mediators. The God- ward aspirations of Israel
attained in them the highest and most representative
expression; through them the message of Jehovah
was communicated to His people. All the great
turning-points in the history were connected with the
appearance of prophets. Their activity was the most
decisive factor in the moral and social progress, as
well as in the religious development of the nation. In
1 Matt. v. 20 ; ix. 13 ; xii. 7 ; xxiii. 23. 2 John v. 39.
3 Matt. vii. 12; xxii. 40. Observe that Christ's references to 'the Lawand
the Prophets ' seem to indicate that to Him these were the most important
parts of the Canon. The 'Writings ' formed a group, of which the limits
were scarcely yet precisely defined. The reference to 2 Chron. xxiv. 21
in Matt, xxiii. 35 appears to imply that the books of Chronicles closed
the Hebrew Canon then as now. See Valeton, Christus und das A. T.
31 foil.
4 Darmesteter, Les Prophites d'Israel, p. 210. Cp. Driver, Sermons
on the O. T. p. 101.

270 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
a word, apart from prophecy the history loses all its
significance. Consequently, although it cannot he
said that our present tendency lies in the direction
of underrating or ignoring the influence of Hebrew
prophetism, our subject requires that some attempt
should be made to estimate anew its unique signifi
cance. I run the risk of touching on a good deal that
is already very familiar to my hearers, but the theme
is one of special importance to all who desire to under
stand the ideals which make Christianity what it is —
the religion of the better hope.

I.
The beginnings of prophetism bear witness to the
close connexion that existed between Hebrew institu
tions and the phenomena of Semitic religion in general.
Tradition points to the activity and influence of
Samuel as marking a creative epoch in Israel's
history, and it is significant that his distinctive work
was the regulation and organization of prophetism.
The natural soil out of which the prophetic gift was
developed seems to have been the tendency to
ecstatic religious excitement which is characteristic
of the Semitic temperament. Prophetism was in
fact an institution which Israel originally shared with
its heathen neighbours 1. The gods of Phoenicia had
their prophets; the prophets of Baal we know —
fanatical devotees who with wild dancing and music
endeavoured to attract the attention or win the
favour of their god, by cutting themselves with
lancets and knives till the blood gushed out upon
them2. In some respects akin to these Canaanitish
Nebiim seem to have been the bands of prophets
1 The story of Balaam shows that in a rude form prophetism existed
among the Semitic races before the conquest of Canaan. The Nabhi of
that age was little more than a sorcerer, whose incantations were supposed
to operate with infallible effect. See Renan, Histoire du peuple d'Israel
bk. ii. ch. i.
2 I Kings xviii. 28.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 271
described in the first book of Samuel in connexion
with the early career of Saul \ enthusiasts who have
been compared, not perhaps inaccurately, to the
dervishes of the East 2, displaying in a kind of
ecstatic behaviour the effects of special religious
exultation. These prophets appear to have lived
together in companies or schools ; they wore a coarse
garment of skin in token of their religious calling ;
they probably depended for support upon the charity
of the faithful, and were objects of mingled contempt
and reverence to the multitude. The prophet who
was commissioned to anoint Jehu king was despised as
a mad fellow 3, and the point of the inquiry Is Saul
also among the pi ophets ? lies in the popular astonish
ment that so distinguished a man should be found
in such strange company. There are incidents in
the career even of Elijah and Elisha which imply
a similar connexion between prophetic inspiration and
physical excitement 4, but apparently these phenomena
accompanied only the early stages of a movement to
which we owe the noblest figures of Hebrew history,
and the most sublime literature ever produced.
Nevertheless, we can frankly recognize the rudimen
tary character of the early stage 5 ; and when we
attempt to measure the interval that parts the wild and
uncouth behaviour of these primitive devotees from
the exalted and chastened majesty of men like Isaiah,
we shall acknowledge that Hebrew prophetism supplies
a conspicuous example of the method of accommoda-
1 1 Sam. x. 5-13 ; xix. 23, 24.
2 Cornill, Der Israelitische Prophetismus, pp. 13— 15. Cp. Renan,
Histoire, &c, bk. ii. ch. 1 3, and Kittel, Hist, of the Hebrews, vol. ii.
p. no.
3 2 Kings ix. n. 4 See 1 Kings xviii. 46 ; 2 Kings iii. 15.
6 Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 203 : ' Gehoren im ATI. Prophetentum
die Zustande bewusstloser Ekstase nur der niedrigsten Stufe seiner
Entwickelung an, wahrend in seiner Blutezeit die prophetische Begeister-
ung immer mit volier Klarheit des Bewusstseins verbunden ist' Cp.
Ewald, The Prophets of the O- T. [Eng. Tr.] vol. i. pp. 16, 17. It is
noticeable that Amos himself, one of the most striking prophets, seems
to have been popularly regarded as one of the class of professional
Nebiim (Amos vii. 14), but repudiates the suggestion.

272 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
tion which marks the entire history of Israel — God
condescending to use a defective and rudimentary
institution, a rude native outgrowth of the Semitic
character, in order to develope therefrom a glorious
product of grace. ' We must not be reluctant,' says
Cornill, 'to recognize many strange elements in the
religion of Israel. We do not set them aside ; on the
contrary, we regard them as evidence of the highest
vitality, and of a most powerful faculty of assimilation.
The people of Israel in its spiritual capacity resembles
the fabled king Midas, for whom all that he touches
turns to gold1.' Everything indeed which Israel
derived from its past or present environment was
transmuted into something new and unique, so that it
is difficult to recognize in the final result the lowliness
of the elements which contributed to it, but which in
due time disappeared.
Samuel then it was who revived or re-organized the
prophetic office, and we may pause to consider the full
significance of his work. What he apparently aimed
at was the regulation of the turbulent and boisterous
elements in the behaviour and character of theNebiim, in
order to enlist the movement in the service of a higher
and purer type of religion 2. There is no reason for
rejecting the supposition that the earliest outburst of
prophetic enthusiasm was connected with- a patriotic
uprising against Philistine oppression, but Samuel's main
object was probably not political. He discerned that
1 Der Isr. Prophetismus, p. 15.
2 Kittel, Hist, of the Hebrews, ii. no. Observe the contrast which is
perhaps suggested in 1 Sam. ix. 9 between Samuel himself, calm and
self-contained, and the excitable and undisciplined troops of Nebiim.
He is a 'seer' (Roeh), they are 'prophets' (Nebiim). Montefiore,
Hibbert Lectures, p. 77, thinks that the two names represent two orders,
the one native Hebrew (seers), the other Canaanite (prophets), and that
later prophecy is a result of a coalition of the two ; a ' grafting of
Canaanite prophecy upon the old stock of Hebrew seers.' But he admits
that there is little to support his conjecture. The narrative contains
a note stating that Nabhi is a more recent and Roeh an older name for
the same thing. Cornill points out that the passage implies the recent
and foreign (i. e. Canaanite) origin of the Prophetism (Der Isr. Prophetis
mus, p. 13).

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 273
the fierce ardour for Jehovah's cause and for the
integrity of His land which fired the Nebiim might be
educated into a powerful religious force. Accordingly,
he gathered them into organized schools or guilds in
which the prophetic gift might be cherished, and the
life of religious devotion cultivated. Possibly also
the art of sacred sono- was studied in these societies,
and the historical annals of the nation formed or
collected 1. From this time forward, at any rate, the
schools of the prophets occupied a recognized sphere
in the religious life of the nation. We hear of the
Nebiim again in connexion with the reign of Ahab,
and it is probable that their renewed activity was
occasioned by alarm at the king's syncretistic propensi
ties. It would seem that by this time the ecstatic
and fanatical element had been more or less subdued,
and that the Nebiim were on the point of becoming
a regular order. But it was not as an order that they
became influential. When they became a professional
class they seem to have given way to professional fail
ings 2. ' First-rate importance cannot be claimed for
the Nebiim,' says WTellhausen 3, but occasionally there
appeared among them 'individuals who rose above
their order and even placed themselves in opposition
to it' The first and most eminent of these striking
personalities was Elijah. ' Elijah,' says Kittel 4,
' introduced into prophecy that species of categorical
imperative which distinguishes him as well as the later
prophets ; that brazen inflexibility, that diamond
like hardness of character, which bids them hold
fast by their moral demand, even should the nation be
dashed in pieces against it. For him the demand
means to stand by Jehovah as against Baal.' Hence
forth, then, the prophets acted on the nation by the
1 This is denied by Wellhausen, Sketch of the History of Israel and
fudah, p. 64 ; but there seems nothing improbable in the suggestion. See
Kuenen, Religion of Israel, ch. iii [Eng. Tr., vol. i. p. 210].
2 Sanday, Bampton Lectures, p. 134.
3 Sketch of the History of Israel and fudah, p. 64.
4 Hist, of the Hebrews, vol. ii. p. 266.

274 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
sheer force of inspired personality. As individual
witnesses for God, steeped in the fundamental ideas of
the religion of Jehovah, they proclaimed His word,
His sovereignty, His righteousness, His election of
Israel, His abhorrence of lip-service, His hatred of
social wrongdoing. For aught we know, much may
have been accomplished in this way by the banding
together of the Nebiim in organized companies ; but
experience shows that the influence of even large and
powerful religious communities is unequal to that of
a single great religious leader. It was to the influence
of personality that Israel's religion owed its persistent
vigour, its perpetual upward tendency, and the growing
purity and loftiness of its fundamental conceptions.
II.
In order, however, to gain a comprehensive idea of
the significance of Hebrew prophecy for the Christian
Church, it is necessary to survey briefly the chief
aspects of the prophets' work.
i. First, the prophets were inspired men, 'men of
the word.' The root from which Nabhi is derived
can be traced in the ancient language of Assyria and
Babylon as well as in Arabic. In Assyrian it has the
meaning, 'utter,' 'proclaim.' It appears in such patro
nymics as Nebu-kadnezar, and Nabo-polassar, and in
the title of the Babylonian deity whence they are
derived, Nebo or Nabu, which probably signifies the
God of wisdom or wise utterance, corresponding to the
Greek Hermes. The word Nabhi would thus origin
ally mean ' one who utters.' But in Arabic the root
has a more specific connotation : it imports the
announcement of a message which the speaker is com
missioned to deliver. Nabhi would accordingly seem
to bear the sense of a commissioned speaker.' Aaron,
for example, is called the Nabhi or ' prophet ' of Moses
as speaking in his name and by his commission \
1 Exod. iv. 14-16.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 275
A prophet, then, is one who speaks as the accredited
messenger of Almighty God. This seems a better
account of the word than that which some writers
prefer, viz. that Nabhi means one in whom the flood of
divine inspiration ' wells ' or ' bubbles up 1 ' ; one who
speaks as the passive instrument of the divine Spirit.
In fact the term corresponds rather to the Greek
7rpo<prJTr]s than to ptavris : it means a forth-teller rather
than one who foretells ; one who announces what has
been supernaturally revealed to him as an organ of
divine interposition in the affairs of men. And if we
wish to understand the essential characteristics and
true significance of Hebrew prophetism it is impor
tant to rid ourselves of the associations which have
gathered round the English word ' prophet,' implying
that the essential element in the work of the Hebrew
prophets was prediction. This, we shall find, was far
from being the case. The vital element in prophetism
was the prophet's own consciousness that he was not
acting or speaking in his own name, but as the instru
ment — sometimes indeed the reluctant instrument — of
a higher Power.
In two respects the prophets may be distinguished
from the ordinary soothsayers (jiavTtii) of heathendom,
Aryan or Semitic 2. First, they were conscious and
intelligent when they uttered their oracles. Hebrew
prophecy rapidly outgrew the ethnic stage of mere
possession, or ecstasy. The prophet was no ' un
intelligent medium ' of divine communications ; he
spoke under a sense indeed of overmastering moral
constraint, but all his faculties were intensified and illu
minated by the power of the divine Spirit 3. So vividly
1 So Kuenen, Religion of Israel, ch. iii, note. Cp. Oehler, Theology of
the O. T. § 161 ; but see Robertson Smith, The Prophets of Israel, lect. ii.
note 18; Cornill, Der Isr. Prophetismus, pp. 6-1 1, and Schultz, O. T.
Theology, vol. i. pp. 264-265.
2 The Pythia of Delphi is an instance. On the other hand, Homer's
Calchas, the Athenian Musaeus, Socrates, and Plato (in his prophecy of
the righteous suffering) are instances of phenomena more nearly akin to
those of Hebrew prophetism (Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 204).
3 Driver, Sermons on the O. T. p. 135: 'The psychical conditions
T 2

276 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
conscious are the prophets of their mission that they
ordinarily use the first person when they speak _ in God's
name, but they never lose their sense of the distinction
between their own thoughts or impulses and the re
vealed word of Jehovah \ Secondly, the Hebrew
prophet stands alone in the character of the message
delivered. What was it that distinguished the true
prophets from the heathen soothsayers or from the
false prophets 'who gave out the dreams of their
own heart as God's word'? It was the profoundly
moral purport of their message that made the pro
phets unique. Truly I am full of power by the spirit
of the Lord, and of judgment, and of might, — so cries
Micah, to declare unto Jacob his transgression, and
to Israel his sin 2. Prediction, indeed, is an element
of comparatively secondary importance in prophecy.
The main work of the prophet is to turn men from
their sins and to proclaim the sovereignty of Jehovah.
Where prediction constitutes the dominant element,
prophecy loses its distinctive character and is better
described as apocalypse. The book of Daniel, for
instance, is an apocalyptic book rather than a prophecy.
The predictions of the prophets are the outcome of their
unshaken belief in the moral government of the uni
verse, and in the impending fulfilment of the divine
purposes ; they are the result of inspired insight into
under which God spoke in them, the nature and operation of the initial
impulse which brought them to the consciousness of Divine truth, may
belong to those secrets of Man's inner life which God has reserved to
Himself; but by whatever means this consciousness was aroused, the
Divine element which it contained was assimilated by the prophet, and
thus appears blended with the elements that were the expression of his
own character and genius.' Cp. Riehm, op. cit. pp. 212 foil.; Kittel,
op. cit. p. 317.
1 Cp. Oettli, op. cit. p. 19: 'Nach ihrem sonnenklaren Zeugniss die
Quellen ihrer Religion, wie ihrer besondern Erleuchtung, nicht in ihrem
eignen Geiste, sondern in einer wunderbar ihnen erschlossenen tran-
scendenten Welt von gdttlicher Realitat lagen.'
2 Mic. iii. 8. Cp. Just. M. Dial. c. Tryph. vii eyevovTo rives . . . paKapioi
Kal SUawi Kal deocpiXels 8ela> mievpan XaXrjO-avres Kal ra peXXovra BecrTrio-avTes
a Si) vvv yiverai. irpotprjras de avrovs KaXovcnv. ovtol povot to aXr]8es Kal
eiSov Kal e't-emov dvdpanrois, pr/r' evXa&rjSeVTes p^re 8vo-co7n]8evTes Tivd, pfj
r\TTtnp,evoi 86£rjs aXXa povaTavTa elnovres & r]Kuvo-uv Kal a eifioj/ dyi'a) nXr]pa>6evTes
irvevpaTi.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 277
the inevitable tendencies and consequences of human
action, and of national or personal wrongdoing1. Not
that the power of prophecy is any mere apotheosis
of human reason 2 : it implies, however, not the
supersession or suspension of ordinary human facul
ties, but the elevation of them to the highest point
of intensity. The prophets claim to utter a message
from Jehovah, and they know that He who bids them
speak enables them by His Spirit, and is with them
to strengthen, and if need be to deliver them 3.
2. Such then were the characteristics of prophetic
inspiration. It is natural in the next place to consider
the sphere in which it was exercised, and the conditions,
social and moral, with which it was appointed to deal.
From the days of Samuel onwards we find the prophets
standing in the closest relation to the political circum
stances of their times. They have been called ' watch
men of the theocracy V and undoubtedly they believed
it to be their mission to intervene from time to time in
politics, with the view of keeping alive in the minds of
their fellow-countrymen just and true conceptions of
the theocratic state. They made it their business to
watch the course of national affairs in general, and
specially to control and judge the conduct of the reigning
monarch and his counsellors. They steadfastly be
lieved in the fact of Israel's election, and in the spiritual
mission with which it was charged. The exalted
destiny to which the chosen people had been called
1 Cp. Riehm, p. 206 ; Bruce, Apologetics, p. 242 ; Chief End of
Revelation, p. 217. The following striking remarks of M. Darmesteter
illustrate the same point : ' Le Prophete ne pre'dit jamais. II voit les
grandes lignes de I'avenir, parce que, s'e'tant fait une doctrine et une
philosophic du monde, il se fait une idee nette et precise de la destinee
qui attend son peuple, suivant la voie ou il s'engage : le grand mouvement
des choses et des idees, avec leurs consequences lointaines et ne"cessaires,
est la seule chose qui 1'inteYesse : le detail, le fait concret, le petit hasard
de l'actualite' lui (khappe ; il l'ignore, il l'abandonne aux charlatans de la
prophetie ' (Les Prophites d'Israel, pp. 137, 138).
2 Darmesteter, p. 246 : ' Le Dieu des prophetes n'est que la raison
humaine projete'e au ciel.'
3 Jer. i. 8, 19.
4 Cp. Mic. vii. 4; Jer. vi. 17; Ezek. iii. 17 ; xxxiii. 7. See Oehler,
Theology of the 0. T. § 162 and Ewald, op. cit. pp. 28, 29.

278 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
could only be fulfilled by continual faithfulness to the
great religious ideas which underlay Israel's vocation1.
Accordingly it was the chief aim of the prophets
to keep Israel faithful to Jehovah as He had revealed
Himself at Sinai, as a God in whose eyes pure worship,
social righteousness, and fraternal charity were of
supreme value. Further, they fulfilled their mission
not only by their preaching, but by their own lives.
As individual ' men of God ' they represented typi
cally the realization of that living fellowship with God
towards which the theocracy ever tended as its ultimate
goal. And in their unbroken moral converse with God,
in their pureness of heart, and in the simplicity of their
faith and dependence on Jehovah, lay the secret of their
influence 2. It has been said that by producing the pro
phets Israel realized her vocation3. Certainly as ' the
servant of Jehovah ' the prophet bore a title which was
ideally applicable to Israel as a people, and which ex
pressed the actual calling of each individual Israelite.
For the ideal of the Old Testament was a dispensation
in which all should be prophets : Would God, exclaimed
Moses when Joshua envied for his sake, — Would God
that all the Lord's people were prophets, and that the
Lord would put his Spirit upon them 4. The prophets
then were examples of the illuminative power of holi
ness and single-hearted devotion to the will of God.
Moreover, their fate was in most cases typical. Their
position might vary from time to time according to the
disposition of the reigning monarch. Prophets were
held in honour by kings like David, Hezekiah, and
Josiah, who understood the necessity of maintaining a
close connexion between the national life of Israel and
the spirit of religious faith ; but sooner or later their
1 Cp. Isa. ii. 5.
2 Cp. Amos iii. 7; Wisd. of Sol. vii. 27. Riehm, ATI. Theologie,
p. 204, observes, ' Die hoheren Stufen prophetischer Begeisterung werden
auf eine Gottverwandtschaft der Seele zuriickgefiihrt.'
3 Bruce, op. cit. p. 195 ; cp. Robertson Smith, O. T. inf. C. p. 291.
4 Prof. Cheyne remarks that this idea is characteristic of the post-
exilic period (Aids to the Devout Study, &c, p. 151 ; cp. p. 203).

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 279
fearless denunciations of vice could scarcely fail to bring
them into collision with royal self-will or with popular
prejudice and fanaticism 1. One and all, in greater or
less degree, they were called to suffer for their faith, for
their boldness in rebuking sin, or for their devotion to
the revealed will of Jehovah. Thus in their isolation
from the world, in the intimacy of their relation to God,
and in the sorrows which they were called to endure,
they typically embodied the ideal vocation of the
righteous fiation 2 viewed in its entirety.
The prophets then were the accredited guardians
of the fundamental ideas upon which the theocratic state
was based. Their testimony accompanied, so to speak,
the historical realization of the divine purpose for
Israel, the word of Jehovah constituting a kind of con
tinuous commentary on His acts. Accordingly we find
that a considerable element in the prophetic function
consists in the elucidation or interpretation of past
history and of contemporary events. The prophets
trace and proclaim the ruling principles of divine action
and governance : and specially it is their work to bring
out the moral significance of the Mosaic Law — a task
the fulfilment of which necessarily brought them into
relation to the priests, who were the official guardians
of the law. But while the priests were the permanent
teachers of Torah, the prophets were occasional mes
sengers of Jehovah. Through the priest the covenant
people exercised its privilege of drawing near to God.
Through the prophet God drew near to His people.
Naturally the priests submitted themselves to the pro
phets as to extraordinary and direct agents of Jehovah 3 ;
but there were elements of antagonism in the two
orders which were frequently in danger of coming into
1 Cp. Schultz, O. T. Theology, vol. i. pp. 248 foil.
2 Isa. xxvi. 2; cp. Deut. xxxii. 15 (jeshurun). Aug. c. Faust. Man.
iv. 2 says: ' Illorum hominum non tantum lingua sed et vita prophetica
fuit.' 3 Cp. Konig, Religious History of Israel, p. 160. Kuenen, Hibbert
Lectures, pp. 81 foil., discusses the teaching office of the priests, and the
prophetic complaints of their shortcomings.

280 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
collision. The history of Israel shows how strong was
the tendency of the priesthood to exaggerate the value
of ritual, and to change into hard and fast law what
originally might be a matter of variable custom. It
was obviously the interest of the priesthood to exalt
the laws of ceremonial purity ; they would be apt to
lay stress on details, and to lose sight of principles.
But the prophets were more concerned to insist on
Jehovah's moral requirement as a whole ; and in putting
morality on a higher level than ritual, they undoubt
edly continue and develope the teaching of Moses
himself. They reassert the claims of justice and
mercy which the ancient legislation of the Decalogue
and the Book of the Covenant had placed in the fore
front 1. Their well-known polemic against sacrifice
does not indeed amount to a rejection of the institu
tion, as has been sometimes asserted ; but they
unquestionably do insist that punctiliousness in sacri
fice is no equivalent for civil and social well-doing.
What they abhor is ' religion divorced from right con
duct,' ritual, however costly and elaborate, combined
with neglect of moral obligations 2. On the whole
the attitude of the prophets towards sacrifice is nega
tive. They content themselves with ' condemning such
elements in the popular worship as are inconsistent
with the spiritual attributes of Jehovah3.' From an
early period, then, in the history of prophecy we find
a tendency towards antagonism between prophets and
priests, the former reminding the latter that all true
1 Cp. Driver, Sermons on the O. T. pp. 113 foil. See also some good
remarks in Oettli, Der gegenwdrtige Kampf urn das A. T. p. 9.
2 See Amos v. 24 ; Hos. vi. 6 ; Isa. i. 16 foil. ; Mic. vi. 8 ; Jer.
vii. 21 foil. This last passage does not imply that ritual laws formed
no part of the Mosaic legislation, but it may fairly be used as testi
mony (1) that in Mosaism the most important element was ethical,
(2) that the elaborate levitical code was unknown to Jeremiah. See
a note in Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, pp. 246, 247 ; cp. Wellhausen,
Prolegomena, p. 58. Even Konig (Religious History of Israel, p. 168)
allows that ' religion and morality were from the beginning the basis of
Israel's favour with God.'
3 Robertson Smith, O. T. in f. C. p. 305. Cp. Hos. iv. 6 ; Zeph.
iii. 4.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 281
Torah must move within the lines of Jehovah's original
covenant with Israel. In a more awful and momen
tous form the antagonism ultimately meets us in the
pages of the Gospel 1.
But it is time to resume our main theme — the social
and political conditions of the period in which the
great prophets appeared upon the scene of Hebrew
history, and for convenience' sake our survey will be
confined to the northern kingdom. The political
activity of such men as Isaiah or Jeremiah in the
kingdom of Judah exercised so profound an influence
on the fortunes of the Hebrew state and on the de
velopment of its religion, that it seems better to omit
any detailed reference to the work of these great pro
phets than to deal with it summarily within the narrow
limits of a lecture. The eighth century was indeed a
critical epoch in Israel's career. Hitherto prophecy had
frequently taken the form of an occasional rebuke
sternly administered by individual prophets to unright
eous rulers. Thus Samuel had rebuked Saul, Nathan
had denounced the crime of David, and Elijah had been
the divinely-appointed scourge of Ahab and his house.
But with Amos and Hosea the spirit of prophecy comes
into collision with the temper and tendencies of the
nation as a whole, and in so doing it passes into the
wide sphere of social and political activity. The general
conditions of the time were in fact rapidly obscuring
Israel's sense of spiritual and moral vocation. In the
eighth century a new conception was dawning upon
thoughtful hearts — the idea of the world and the
world-empire. It was an idea that was only to be
deeply impressed on the minds of men by ' the pitiless
hammer-strokes of fate V And the prophets discerned
1 Consider Luke xxiv. 19, 20. Schultz, vol. i. p. 338, remarks : ' This
antagonism naturally showed itself still more plainly where, as in the
northern kingdom, the priesthood wished, in spite of the preaching of
the prophets, to maintain an antiquated and impure form of religion
(Amos vii).' Cp. Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 208.
2 Kittel, Hist, of the Hebrews, vol. i. p. 242 ; ii. p. 259. Cp. Riehm,
A Tl. Theologie, pp. 224, 225.

282 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
that Israel's appearance in the world-theatre must
necessarily seal her destiny as an independent state.
It was manifest that she could never hold her own as
one of the monarchies of the East. The huge and
restless empire of Assyria darkened the distant horizon
like a menacing thunder-cloud, but the storm did not
immediately burst. Danger from a nearer quarter
threatened Israel. In the reign of Jehu's son and
successor Jehoahaz (circ. 815) the northern kingdom
was harassed by the pertinacious hostility of Syria x ;
and although Israel played a valiant part in the
ensuing struggle, its deliverance was eventually due to
the intervention of the Assyrian power, which had
already begun to advance in a westward direction 2.
The war between Syria (Aram) and Assyria ultimately
broke the power of Damascus. Israel recovered its
strength in proportion as that of Syria declined 3, until
in the reign of Jeroboam II the northern kingdom
appears to have reached the very zenith of material
prosperity. But the social and economic effects of long-
continued warfare constituted a growing peril which
prophecy was quick to discern. The cessation of
hostilities had indeed led to a great increase in Israels
wealth and resources, but the simplicity of pastoral
and agricultural life had vanished. The whole con
ditions of society had given way to the exigencies of
military organization. The prolonged struggle with
Damascus had impoverished the small landholders to
such an extent that they were rapidly sinking into
abject poverty and even slavery. Meanwhile the court
and a corrupt aristocracy absorbed the land, and
exhausted the wealth of the nation ; and the gulf
between class and class became every day wider and
more menacing. On the other hand, the mercantile
spirit had received a great impetus from the recent
wars ; the sins of a growing and insolent middle class
began to make their appearance ; there was a vast
1 2 Kings xiii. 2 Cp. 2 Kings xiii. 5.
3 2 Kings xiv. 25 ; Amos vi. 14.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 283
amount of dishonest trading, and considerable harsh
ness in the exaction of debt. Finally, the inveterate
curse of oriental life was embittering the social miseries
of the time, viz. venality and corruption in the judges,
with its inevitable result that the oppressed classes
were left without hope and without redress ].
The social influence of the prophets has sometimes
been exaggerated. It is rather misleading to call
them, as Darmesteter does, ' a series of religious and
political tribunes 2 ' ; or to speak of their ' programme
of reform,' as if they were mainly social agitators,
intent upon overthrowing the existing order of society.
As Professor Robertson Smith pregnantly observes,
their cry is ' not for better institutions but for better
men 3.' Beyond doubt, however, the prophets were most
conspicuous as preachers of social righteousness. They
were champions of the poor and oppressed. The
spirit of the excellent priest described in a recent
French romance was theirs. ' I am not,' says the
Curd de Canton, ' a socialist ; but I nevertheless admit
that I conceive life otherwise than as a continual
battle. And if there is such a battle, I shall range
myself gladly on the side of the weak rather than on
that of the strong4.' The prophets waged war not
with wealth as such, but with ' that reckless and
material temperament ' in which they recognized ' the
completest type of enmity to Jehovah and His
religion6.' In one and the same spirit they denounced
the heartless luxury of the wealthy and the material-
1 On the social conditions of Israel and Judah in the eighth century
see Kittel, vol. ii. p. 313 ; Robertson Smith, Prophets of Israel, lect. iii,
and O. T. in f. C. pp. 349 foil. ; Darmesteter, Les Prophetes d'Israel,
pp. 36-40.
2 Les Prophites, &c, p. 122 ; cp. p. 141.- Cp. Mill, Representative
Government, pp. 40 foil. (p. 17 in popular edition).
8 O. T.inf. Cp. 348.
4 Lettres d'un Cure~ de Canton, pubises par Yves de Querdec (Paris,
1895). 6 Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 153. Cp. Memhold, fesus und das
A. T. p. 90 : ' Der Glaube an Gott, den Gott Israels, ist ihnen so stark,
dass das Benutzen weltlicher Mittel zur Rettung des Volks als Glaubens-
losigkeit erscheint.'

284 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
istic aims and self-seeking worldliness of statesmen 1.
Further, what intensified their moral indignation at
the prevailing iniquities of the social state was the
outwardly flourishing condition of the national religion.
Religious worship was an institution at once pleasant
and fashionable. There were stated sacrifices con
nected with the cultus of Jehovah, and religious
festivals in abundance ; the sanctuaries were thronged
on these occasions by crowds of enthusiastic and
riotous worshippers, who regarded the sacred feasts as
a legitimate opportunity for self-satisfied enjoyment
and tumultuous revelry 2. The growth of national
prosperity which followed the close of the Syrian wars
was popularly accepted as a comfortable token of
divine favour. There was a widely-diffused notion
that under no circumstances would Jehovah fail to
befriend the people of His special choice. Israel was
the favourite of God, and His interests — it was con
fidently assumed — were bound up with those of His
people. Enough and more than enough was being
done to secure the divine regard by a richly-appointed
and well-maintained cultus. Thus any prediction, like
that of Amos, which threatened Israel with overthrow
was regarded as blasphemy against Jehovah. Jehovah
must necessarily side with Israel against its foes. To
question this was to question the very existence of
the covenant relationship established by Mosaism.
Accordingly a favourite watchword of the time seems
to have been the day of Jehovah 3, a phrase which
embodied the general expectation of some overwhelm
ing and triumphant display of Jehovah's favour,
manifested for instance in the overthrow of Israel's
enemies. Failing utterly as they did to recognize the
true character and requirement of Jehovah, the people
persistently claimed to be special objects of His favour
1 See e.g. Amos vi, and Isa. xxx, xxxi.
2 Cp. Cornill, Der Isr. Prophetismus, pp. 38 foil. ; Kuenen, Hibbert
Lectures, no. 2.
3 Amos v. 18 foil.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 285
and protection. Jehovah God of hosts is with us, they
declared : us only does Jehovah know of all the families
of the earth. But while from this confidently assumed
premiss Israel drew the conclusion, ' Therefore Jeho
vah will take our part and defend us from invasion,'
the earliest of the great prophets, Amos of Tekoa,
deduced a precisely opposite inference : Therefore
will We punish you for your iniquities1.
For indeed the primary work of the prophets was to
proclaim not salvation but judgment. They were
confident that the great social iniquities of the time —
the luxury, greed, profligacy, oppression, and practical
atheism of the upper and middle classes — were certain
to bring upon the sinful nation a crushing retribution.
Naturally enough they ranged themselves on the side
of the down-trodden and oppressed, but their zeal was
inflamed not so much by sympathy for the poor and
suffering classes, as by a passionate belief in the
supremacy of the law of righteousness. In an age of
glittering prosperity and of ostentatious care for the
externals of religion, the prophets were not blind to
the symptoms of a profound moral corruption, which
they knew to be the one fatal obstacle to the mainten
ance of the covenant relationship between the Holy
God and His people. They proclaimed that because
Jehovah is what He is, the theocracy in its existing
condition must be inevitably doomed. The foundation
on which it rested was rotten 2- Thus in their insist
ence on the moral requirement of Jehovah for Israel,
the prophets were not merely acting as defenders
of outraged rights and liberties, or as champions of
the poor against their oppressors ; they were preach-
1 Amos iii. 2 ; v. 14. Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 124, makes the
striking remark, 'This terrible "Therefore" must have been as a bolt
from the blue to the popular religious consciousness in the days of King
Jeroboam.' _ .
2 Darmesteter, p. 48, mentions the ' four axioms of prophecy What is
not founded on righteousness must perish— Jehovah has revealed His
righteousness to Israel— Israel is bound to realize and embody this
righteousness — It will be realized in the future.'

286 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
ing ' the august idea of the moral government of the
world V
3. This brings us to a third point: the religious
function and influence of prophecy. It is often stated
that the prophets were the creators of ethical mono
theism ; the founders of that ' true biblical religion
which came to its fulfilment in Christianity V Certainly
they proclaimed with burning and passionate ardour
the moral element in Jehovah's character. They
taught that His anger was not fitful or unreasonable,
not lightly arising or falling indiscriminately, but
essentially and perfectly righteous. Two remarks,
however, suggest themselves in regard to the statement
that the prophets were ' creators of monotheism.' In
the first place, it is necessary to protest against
the idea that the higher conception of God was the
outcome merely of human reflection, or the product
of a higher phase of moral culture. What the
natural evolution of religion leads to we see in
the religions of heathendom. The gods of paganism
were deified human beings, reproducing the attributes,
or at least some one attribute, of their worshippers ;
heathen deities wear the impress of the national or
tribal character which they reflect. But the God of
the Hebrew prophets is one who stands in sharpest
contrast to His people ; indeed it is their unlikeness to
Jehovah that is the secret of their threatened ruin.
Left to itself the northern kingdom would have chosen
Baal, and the worship of Jehovah might have even
disappeared but for Elijah in the ninth century, but
for Amos and Hosea in the eighth3. Secondly, the
monotheism of the prophets was no new article of
faith. It was the revival of a belief which probably
had been the implicit conviction of the best in Israel
1 Kuenen, op. cit. p. 124.
2 Pfleiderer, Gifford Lectures, vol. ii. p. 45. Cp. Nicolas, Des doctrines
religieuses des fuifs, p. 25 : ' Les prophetes sont des initiateurs a la verite"
divine ; les premiers ils ont entrevu ce spiritualisme religieux dont le
christianisme a e\€ l'expression la plus 6lev6e.'
3 Cp. Oettli, op. cit. p. 15.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 287
ever since the time of Moses \ The vital importance
of the prophetic doctrine was that it was a turning-
point in the transformation of faith in Jehovah as
the national God into a universal religion. Pro
fessor Kuenen has pointed out that the doctrine of
Jehovah's holiness lifted the whole conception of deity
to a new and higher sphere. It was in His holiness
that Jehovah was unique, and if holiness were an
essential element in the divine character, the God of
Israel must be the only God2. He cannot belong only
to one particular people ; every nation that recognizes
an ethical standard, whether it be the law of nature
written in the heart 3 or some positive code devised by
human wisdom, stands in a necessary relation to the
Holy One of Israel. Thus while we are not justified in
concluding that the idea of monotheism was entirely
new in the prophetic period, that idea was undoubtedly
proclaimed with fresh emphasis, and under circum
stances that gave precision and point to a dimly-realized
belief which hitherto had been probably confined to
a very small circle of the faithful 4. For the nation
as a whole cannot have been in any strict sense mono
theistic. The average Israelite regarded the gods of
the heathen as really existing beings who within their
own sphere or domain were as powerful as the God of
Israel in His. In opposition to this belief the prophets
taught that where the law of righteousness was recog
nized, however defective or rudimentary might be its
content, there the sway of Jehovah extended. Right
was everywhere right, and wrong wrong. If the God
of Israel were once acknowledged to be the God of
righteousness, His dominion must necessarily be con
ceived as co-extensive with the law of righteousness
itself, in a word with the inhabited world. The
appearance therefore of Amos, the earliest of the
1 (~p. Bruce, Apologetics, p. 176.
2 Cp. Kuenen, op. cit. p. 119. 3 Cp. Rom. ii. 14.
4 See Robertson's criticism of Kuenen, Early Religion of Israel,
pp. 320 foil.

288 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
eighth-century prophets, forms an era in the history of
human thought. Amos, says Cornill, ' is the pioneer
of a process of development from which a new epoch
in humanity dates.' If righteousness is indeed the
supreme law of the universe, the God of Israel is the
God of the whole earth, and in the creed of Israel are
concealed the germs of a world-religion.
Mark how Amos enforces this truth. His prophetic
glance extends beyond the borders of Israel itself.
The heathen nations are arraigned by him as amenable
to the judgment of God for offences against ordinary
laws of humanity and international good faith. Da
mascus, Philistia, Edom, Ammon and Moab — they
also are subject to the just sway of Jehovah, though
they acknowledge Him not. On them, too, Jehovah
inflicts the penalties which are the expression of His
necessary resentment against human sin ; it is His
holiness which is outraged by the wholesale barbarities
inflicted by one nation on another ; it is We to whom
vengeance belongeth 1. What is this but an anticipation
of St. Paul's statement, The wrath of God is revealed
from heaven against all ungodliness and unrighteousness
of men 2 ? Assuredly in this prophetic view of God,
in this conviction that the area of judgment extends
beyond the limits of Israel 3, are hidden the elements
of a true universalism. The teaching- of Amos is still
a long way removed from the generous faith which
welcomed the nations into the kingdom of God and
looked upon them as participating in the privileges
and hopes of the chosen people 4. But that faith was
already implicitly contained in the doctrine of Amos
that Jehovah was the God who had controlled by His
providence the restless movements of the nations, or in
that of Micah that the substance of Israel's conquered
1 Ps. xciv. i. 2 Rom. i. 18. 3 Montefiore, op. cit. p. 146.
4 Montefiore has some interesting paragraphs on the growth of the
universalist conception, pp. 145 foil. He regards the prediction of
Isa. xix. 22-25 as 'tne high-water mark of eighth-century prophecy'
(p. 149).

vi] prophecy AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 289
foes should be consecrated unto the Lord of the whole
earth \
Corresponding to this primary conception of God is
the prophetic philosophy of history 2. A large share
of attention is devoted by most of the prophets to
Israel's past career. They delight to trace the course
of the divine dealings with the chosen people, and to
point out the critical epochs in Jehovah's self-manifes
tation. In a certain sense, as we have seen, their
mission is extended to all the nations in turn. Egypt,
Tyre, Asshur, Edom, Moab, Babylon, though outside
the sphere of the sacred covenant, were within that
of the divine governance. But the real distinction
between Israel and the nations consisted in the fact
that Jehovah was not to His elect people merely
what He was to the heathen — a dimly recognized
power making for righteousness, but a covenant God
manifesting Himself and making known the laws of
His operation in condescending grace. The guilt of
Israel was conspicuous in proportion to the degree
of divine knowledge, and the measure of divine favour
which it had enjoyed. Heathenism, it has been said,
' has neither a religious view of history, nor a philosophy
of history ; for it knew no absolute final moral purpose
to the attainment of which the fates of the nations
were to serve as means. Israel, on the other hand,
knew such a purpose of history — namely, the realiza
tion of a kingdom of God, of a human fellowship and
community corresponding to the holy will of God.'
It was the belief of the prophets in the purpose of
a righteous God that made them for all mankind ' the
teachers of the religious view of the world which con
templates all that is perishing, all that is transitory, sub
specie aeternitatis 3.'
1 Amos ix. 7 ; Mic. iv. 13.
2 Cp. Darmesteter, op. cit. p. 208 : ' La philosophie de Fhistoire est
ne'e le jour oil les prophetes crurent trouver au monde et a la vie un sens
et un objet.'
3 Pfleiderer, Gifford Lectures, vol i. pp. 191, 192. Cp. Robertson
Smith, Prophets of Israel, p. 138.

290 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
But other elements were contributed by the pro
phets to the idea of God. If the ethical doctrine of
Amos stood by itself, it might appear to have a certain
one-sidedness. The God whom he proclaims is essen
tially a moral ruler and judge, an object rather of fear
than of love or trust1. In Hosea we discover that
which forms the counterpart to the teaching of Amos.
By Hosea a religious, rather than an ethical, aspect of
God's relation to Israel is brought into prominence.
To Amos, God is Israel's king and judge; to Hosea,
her husband and father : to Amos, Israel is a state,
a sinful kingdom, which has brought upon itself the
righteous penalty of sin ; to the mind of Hosea, the
house of Jacob presents itself as 'a moral individual'
or person, whom Jehovah has graciously brought into
a close relationship with Himself2. The idea indeed
of the continuity of this relationship colours Hosea's
brief retrospect of history. In the career of Jacob,
the progenitor of Israel, who had so manifestly ex
perienced the strength and tenderness of Jehovah's
pity and pardoning love, the history of the nation was
typically summed up. Punishment and discipline —
these had been the great factors in Jacob's life — but
they had ever been controlled by an unfailing purpose
of grace; they had been the instruments of moral puri
fication ; they had been visible proofs of Jehovah's
abiding favour. I ivi 11 not leave thee, -was the promise
to the lonely wanderer at Bethel, until I have done that
which I have spoken to thee of3. Similarly, the entire
history of Israel, from the days of the patriarchs down
wards, is for Hosea the history of ' a single unchanging
affection always acting on the same principles, so that
each fact of the past is at the same time a symbol of
the present or a prophecy of the future 4.' Hosea then
crowns the doctrine of Jehovah's justice by dwellino-
on the constancy of His love. It is noticeable in this
1 Cornill, Der Isr. Prophetismus, p. 48.
2 Robertson Smith, Prophets of Israel, p. 165. 3 Gen. xxviii. 15.
4 Robertson Smith, loc. cit. Cp. Hos. ii. 15 ; ix. 9 ; Joshua vii. 24.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 291
connexion that the favourite word of Hosea, Chesed,
' loving-kindness,' is not found in Amos. The use of it
implies that between Jehovah and Israel there exists a
relationship of love, involving mutual obligations. This
love is sometimes contemplated as marital1 — Israel is
the betrothed spouse of Jehovah, whom He has tended
with unwearying faithfulness; sometimes as parental — ¦
Israel is the child whom Jehovah has taught to walk
in His ways with watchful and considerate tenderness ;
sometimes as covenantal — Israel being regarded as
a single person pledged to observe all the obliga
tions that were involved in covenant-union with God
and had been set forth in the ancient Torah, the con
tinuous instruction which Israel had enjoyed through
the mediation of the priesthood 2. The word Chesed,
however, is by no means confined to Hosea ; it plays
a great part in the theology of the Old Testament.
But Amos and Hosea maybe regarded as the represen
tatives respectively of that twofold aspect of the divine
character which is so familiar in the Psalter. Amos is
the teacher of God's faithfulness or truth ; His entire
self-consistency, His essential fidelity to the law of
righteousness. Hosea dwells on His mercy; His
tenderness and loving-kindness to man — inviting the
response of a similar affection on the part of man 3. The
word Chesed in fact, as employed by Hosea, suggests
the truth that ' those who are linked together by the
bonds of personal affection or of social unity owe to one
another more than can be expressed in the forms of
legal obligation 4.' As a term of common life, Chesed
tends powerfully to simplify the thought of God. It
anticipates the full disclosure of the New Testament
God is love.
Thus by combining the teaching of Amos and
Hosea we are enabled to form an impression of the
epoch-making significance of Hebrew prophecy. For
1 Hos. i-iii. Cp. Jer. ii. 2, iii. 1 foil. 2 Hos. iv. 6; viii. 1, 12.
3 See iv. 1 ; vi. 6 ; x. 12 ; xii. 6.
4 Robertson Smith, op. cit. p. 160.
U 2

292 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
the two characteristic thoughts, one of which each
prophet represents, are distinctive and permanent ele
ments in the prophetic conception of God. The one
idea, that of Jehovah's righteousness, reappears in the
characteristic teaching of Isaiah, to whom Jehovah is
the Holy One of Israel — not merely separate from the
creation which owes its being to Him, but distinct from
all that is limited and morally imperfect1. It is this
attribute of Jehovah which is at once the necessary cause
both of the judgments which fall upon Israel, and of
the deliverances by which He vindicates His claim to
be the hope and confidence of the faithful. The same
idea underlies Ezekiel's thought of the greatness and
inviolability of Jehovah's name, which in a sense has
been profaned both by Israel's unfaithfulness and by
the ignominy of their punishment 2. On the other
hand, to the three prophets whose writings are linked
together by a common interest in the great passage,
Exod. xxxiv. 6 foil., namely Micah, Nahum, and the
writer of the book of Jonah, the leading element in
God's character is His mercy and loving-kindness ;
on this they base their hopes, not of Israel's deliver
ance from foes, but of that spiritual enfranchisement
from sin of which any outward salvation was only
a distant emblem 3- And it may be said that in the
wonderful book of Jonah, possibly the latest product
of the prophetic spirit, the thought of the divine loving
kindness receives its crowning expression. The design
of the book, which was probably written in the post-
exilic period, was mainly didactic4. It appears to have
been composed with the aim of correcting the narrow,
exclusive particularist idea — peculiar to the Judaism of
that period — viz. that the sphere of salvation and grace
was confined to Israel alone. Jonah's reluctance to do
1 Cp. Kirkpatrick, The Teaching of the Prophets, p. 175.
2 Ezek. xx. 9 foil. ; xxxvi. 22. See Kirkpatrick, op. cit. p. 339.
3 Mic. vii. 18-20. Obs. Mic. vi and vii appear to belong to a later
period. 4 See an admirable account of the book in Hunter, After the Exile,
part ii. chap. 3.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 293
Jehovah's bidding and his anger at Nineveh's repent
ance reflect the usual attitude of later Judaism towards
heathendom1. Jonah for the moment represents the
temper of which Tacitus hits the main characteristic:
adversus omnes alios hostile odium 2. Such an attitude
of mind was indeed in direct conflict with the higher
teaching of the prophets. Jeremiah, for instance, had
taught that even in the case of the heathen repent
ance might avert the punishment of sin 3. And among
all other mysterious features which make the book of
Jonah one of the most precious in the Hebrew Canon,
we should perhaps assign the highest place to its evan
gelic purport. Whenever God brought Israel into
relation with any heathen people it was for the purpose
of making Himself known to it as a God of power and
grace ; to Egypt by Joseph and Moses ; to Philistia
through the capture of the ark ; to Syria by Elisha
when he healed Naaman ; to Babylon by Daniel ; to
Persia by Esther. And so in the case of Nineveh, the
mission of Jonah had borne witness to a truth which
perhaps could only be adequately recognized in a much
later age — the age in which the story of Jonah was
clothed in a literary form — the truth namely of the
universality of God's gracious purpose ; the possibility
of a natural goodness that implied some hidden
operation of divine grace 4 ; the fatherly love of the
Creator and His compassion for all that He has made,
His mercy extended even to the lowliest of all His
works. This is the last word of the book of Jonah, and
perhaps in that word we have the farewell voice of
Hebrew prophecy. Thus the writer of Jonah is linked
to Hosea as the preacher of the divine love 5
1 Cp. Acts xiii. 45 ; I Thess. ii. 16.
2 Hist. v. 5. Cp. Maurice, The Prophets and Kings of the O. T.
P- 354-
3 Jer. xviii. 7 foil.
4 There seems to be an intentional contrast suggested between the
conduct of the Ninevites and that of Jonah fleeing from God's presence.
The conduct of the heathen sailors is also presented in a very favourable
light (Jonah i. 13 foil.).
5 Meinhold,/««J und das A. T. p. 10. The book of Jonah ' ist gegen

294 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
I have said enough at least to illustrate the religious
influence of the prophets and the extent of their
contribution to wider, purer, and richer conceptions
of God. Before passing on, we may, at some risk of
repetition, call attention again to the fact that the
prophets are striking examples of the power of per
sonality in the development of religion. Each prophet
is in his own way and degree a religious genius. And
here we have just that factor which is antecedently
incalculable, and which any naturalistic account of
Israel's religious development tends to ignore or mis
conceive. For it is in this element of individuality
that Israel's religion is so distinct from that of sur
rounding peoples — an element which, I repeat, is the
very core and essence of prophetism. A religious con
viction so intense, a faith so glowing and so tenaciously
grasped, as to mould or elevate the spiritual life of
a nation, cannot have been merely the result of un
inspired reflection. We can, as Schultz points out,
only be historically just to the Old Testament in pro
portion as we acknowledge the presence and working
in the history from first to last of the element of
divine inspiration. The religion of the prophets is in
a word the outcome of the operation of the Holy
Spirit. The freedom, independence, and force of the
prophet's personality results from a fact of which he
was invariably conscious — the fact of his being called
to his work and enabled for his high function by
Jehovah Himself 1-
die Engherzigkeit des Judentums gerichtet und lehrt dass die Juden
(Jonas) die Aufgabe haben den Heiden (Nineve) das Wort des wahren
Gottes zu verkiinden. Denn Gott ist ein liebender Vater auch der Heiden
und ein Feind der engherzigen Abgeschlossenheit des Judentums'
(Jonah iv. n). See Cornill's enthusiastic estimate, Der Isr. Prophetismus,
p. 169. (' One of the deepest and most large-hearted books that have
ever been written'.) Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 371 (cp. Hunter,
loc. cit.), thinks that the book of Ruth may have been written with a similar
intention. Valeton, Christies und das A. T. p. 46, points out that in
His reference to it (Matt. xii. 39 foil.) our Lord ' sets His seal to the
spirit and tendency of the book of Jonah.' He deals with it rather as
a prophetical than an historical book.
1 Cp. Mic. iii. 8.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 295

III.
We now pass to that which many consider to be
the most distinctive feature of prophecy — the element
of prediction. The Old Testament is a book of hope.
It is the record of a constant and growing anticipation,
based on a divine promise to humanity, and embracing
a future in which the whole race of mankind has an
interest. Now the Christian student of prophecy is
guided as a rule by one of two objects. He either
studies the history of the Messianic hope in the apolo
getic interest — as a great department of the evidence to
which his religion appeals in attestation of its truth ; or
he investigates it for the purpose of personal illumina
tion and edification, interpreting by the aid of ancient
prophecy what is still dark and mysterious in the
dealings of God with men or in the primary Christian
facts. He uses it in a word for the confirmation and
education of his faith in pursuance of the inspired
writer's injunction, We have also a more sure word
of prophecy, whereunto ye do well that ye take heed, as
unto a light that shineth hi a dark place, until the day
dawn and the day star arise in your hearts1. In Old
Testament prophecy we have a sure word and a light :
a ' sure word ' of which the general fulfilment is in
large measure an established fact of experience ;
a ' light ' or ' lamp ' in so far as prophecy brings to
bear on the enigmas of human life the revealed laws
of God's moral government. The ordinary concep
tion, however, of the actual development of Messianic
ideas has been in some degree modified by the con
clusions of criticism. Accordingly my present object
is to sketch the history of prophecy in such a way as
to indicate the elements which successively moulded
the image of the Messiah in Hebrew thought, con
fining my survey however so far as may be possible
within Old Testament limits.
1 2 Pet. i. 19. Cp. Tert. Apol. xx.

296 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
It is possible to trace a chronological order in the
stages of Hebrew prophecy, inasmuch as it was rooted
in the history of Israel, and events themselves sug
gested the ideas which we call Messianic. In its
onward movement prophecy continually incorporated
new elements, of which now one, now another, came
to the surface. The peculiarity indeed of Israel's
career was that it lent itself so easily to idealistic
treatment, and Messianic prediction was to a con
siderable extent the result of a continuous process of
reflection on the history of the past. But it is never
a simple or easy task to discover the actual birth of
an idea. In general no doubt it is true that advanced
spiritual ideas postulate a relatively advanced stage
of moral development ; but it would be hazardous to
overlook the part which the intuitions of spiritual
genius have undoubtedly played in the growth of
religion. Analogy suggests that at a very early stage
of Israel's history, there were leading spirits who
though they received not the promises yet saw them
afar off and were persuaded of them and embraced
them1. We do not know all that lies hidden in that
mysterious saying of our Lord, Your father Abraham
rejoiced to see my day, and he saw it and was glad 2.
On the whole, however, it is possible to distinguish
certain clearly defined stages in Messianic anticipation
— periods in which a particular ideal hovers before
prophetic eyes and determines their vision of future
events. i. First, then, we observe that the primaeval promise
to humanity is that of spiritual victory. ' Antagonism
to evil is decreed to be the law of humanity 3' : and it
is the essence of the Protevangelium, that it promises
to man as man — to universal humanity — victory over
moral evil. Since the higher life of man is to be
the result of an arduous and painful struggle, it
1 Heb. xi. 13. 2 John viii. 56.
3 Driver, Sermons on the 0. T. p. 52. Observe Gen. iii. 15 forms part
of the oldest (prophetical) narrative (J).

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 297
essentially consists in dominion, in victory. Just as
the words Have dominion are the charter of man's
position in the universe ; so the words / will put
enmity between thee and the woman, and between thy
seed and her seed ; it shall bruise thy head, and thou
shalt bruise his heel, define the general conditions
under which man's regal destiny shall be fulfilled.
The first stage of Messianic prophecy as embodied in
the traditions which are preserved and shaped by the
writers of the Pentateuch consists in the further eluci
dation of this primary idea. The promise to Abraham
is in effect a promise of dominion — that he shall be
the heir of the world1. It is renewed to Isaac and
Jacob as heirs with him of the same promise2 in terms
which suggest that ultimately it will find its fulfil
ment in an individual 3.
In the so-called ' Blessing of Jacob ' we probably
possess the earliest testimony to the nature of the
hopes in which the expectation of a personal Messiah
originated. It has been supposed that this very
ancient poem is an ode composed of different tribal
songs or proverbs ; it perhaps formed part of an
ancient collection of national poetry, and its original
compilation may belong to the period between the
Judges and the reign of David4. In this song the
passages of chief importance are the predictions
relating to Joseph and Judah. The figure of Judah
is glorified and idealized as the future holder of
sovereignty over his people. On him are to depend
the destinies and the eventual triumph of God's
kingdom. Judah is depicted as a ruler or judge, with
the staff of office in his hand; enjoying a dignity
which is destined to give way only to a more complete
and perfect form of sovereignty ; which ' in other
words is not to cease at all, but simply to develope
into a glorious kingdom of perfect peace5.' To this
1 Rom. iv. 13. 2 Heb. xi. 9.
3 On the phrase 'thy seed' cp. Gal. iii. 16 and the Commentaries.
4 See Schultz, vol. ii. p. 336. 5 Schultz, loc. cit.

298 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
comprehensive picture corresponds the prediction
ascribed to Balaam in the book of Numbers (xxiv. 17).
This also hints at the sway of an individual which
is to proceed from Israel, and is to extend over the
other nations of the East. Probably the primary
reference is to some historical king ; but the prophecy
becomes the foundation of more precise conceptions of
Messianic sovereignty.
So far prophecy is indeterminate and vague, but
we must note that the actual conditions under which
alone the world-conquest could be realized, had already
been foreshadowed in the historical incidents of Israel's
deliverance and formation into a people of Jehovah.
The prospect of national triumph, the hope of an age
of peace after national struggle, these were visions
suggested by the momentous era of the exodus.
At the same time the religious separation of Israel
from the rest of the nation and the promulgation of
the law at Sinai afforded a proof that the future
victory of humanity would depend on moral and
spiritual conditions. True, the victories of Israel's
youth were prophecies of the ultimate exaltation of
God's kingdom over all the kingdoms of the earth,
but already the prophetic spirit would discern that
the historical deliverance was after all only the type
of a higher and more blessed deliverance ; and that
the judgments of God descending on Israel's enemies
were declarations of His thoughts in regard to human
sin and of the specific character required in those
whom He had formed into a holy community for
Himself. Further, Moses himself was a typical figure. He
had been indisputably raised up by Jehovah to be the
human instrument of a redemptive purpose. By
a prophet Israel had been brought out of Egypt 1.
As a mediator between Jehovah and His people,
Moses had declared the mind of God ; he had em
bodied Jehovah's revealed requirement in a written
1 Hos. xii. 13.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 299
law. The principle was, as it were, laid down that
the divine guidance of Israel would be direct but
mediatorial. The passage in Deut. xviii. 15 foil.
which describes Moses as a ' prophet,' thus contributes
an important element to the Messianic idea. No
doubt it primarily refers to a class of prophets
through whom Jehovah will make known His will
as occasion may require. It is implied that prophecy
will be an integral element in Israel's development,
an essential feature in the true religion. But the
figure of the prophet already points to a Messianic
counterpart. The consummation of the divine king
dom demands not only a line or order of inspired
teachers keeping alive the sense of Jehovah's con
tinual guidance of His people, but a ruler and
lawgiver like unto Moses, that is, one in whom the
divine thought for man will be finally and authorita
tively disclosed. The law of God's redemptive action
already manifested in the person and work of Moses
will find a new fulfilment in an ideal and transcendent
form 1.
2. Thus the course of events constantly tended to
give greater definiteness and precision to the concep
tion of Israel's future royalty ; but it was not until the
reign of David that the Messianic idea in its primal
and most simple form was expanded and developed by
the associations connected with visible sovereignty.
Riehm observes that while the institution of the
monarchy involved on the one hand a certain perilous
materialization of the Mosaic ideal of a theocracy, on
the other hand it was a necessary element in the con
solidation of the ideal. And the significance of David's
rule is that it clearly manifested the compatibility of
1 We do not find the promise of Deut. xviii. 15 connected with the
person of Messiah elsewhere in the Old Testament, though possibly
it was cherished among the Samaritans (see Westcott, Introd. to the
Study of the Gospels, ch. ii. note ii), but the expectation of a coming
prophet seems to have revived before our Lord's advent. It is implied
in Mai. iv. 5. See also I Mace. xiv. 41. Cp. Stanton, The fewish
and the Christian Messiah, pp. 126 foil.

300 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
a human hereditary monarchy with the idea of a
divinely ruled polity1. In David the hopes of the
nation were centred, as in one who had been chosen
by God to fulfil and realize the theocratic sovereignty.
Certainly the consciousness of such a vocation and
destiny seems to find expression in two utterances
which sound criticism warrants us in ascribing to
David himself — Psalm xviii (2 Sam. xxii.) and the
words preserved in 2 Sam. xxiii. 1-8. In these two
passages David praises God not only for signal deliver
ances from his enemies, but also for loving-kindness
which is pledged to his house for evermore 2. The
promise which became the foundation of such exalted
hopes is indicated in the account of Nathan's oracle
preserved in 2 Sam. vii. 4 foil.3
It is possible that this oracle has been partially
coloured by the associations of Solomon's magnificent
reign, but in the main it seems to reflect the hopes
which the men of David's own generation connected
with his name and family. At any rate it is beyond
question that it exercised an important influence on the
future direction of Messianic prophecy. Three main
ideas are prominent in it : (1) The human descent
of a promised king. He is to be a son of David;
and so fixed did this belief become that henceforth
the title Messiah, ' the anointed,' became limited spe
cially to the Hebrew monarchs regarded as lineal
descendants of David's house. (2) The everlasting
continuance of David's throne and house. The family
of David may suffer chastisement and humiliation,
but is not to be finally rejected. The hope of ever
lasting dominion was in fact destined to survive the
lowest humiliation that ultimately overtook David's
descendants. (3) The dignity of divine sonship
bestowed on the theocratic king, who is to stand in
1 ATI. Theologie, p. 194. 2 Ps. xviii. 50.
3 See a careful note in Kittel, Hist, of the Hebrews, vol. ii. p. 160.
Cornill, Einleitung in das A.T. p. 104, regards ch. vii as probably not
earlier than the time of Isaiah. Cp. Schultz, O. T. Theology, vol. ii. 342 ;
Cheyne, Aids to the Devout Study, &c, p. 26.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 301
a peculiar relation of privilege to Jehovah Himself;
to him, in other words, the sacred vocation of Israel
is to be specially delegated. Nothing less is involved
in the solemn transference of the title ' son ' from
Israel1 to its king than the assumption that hence
forth the holder of the promised sovereignty is to be
an individual of the reigning house.
This oracle, reflecting the Messianic consciousness
of a unique vocation, becomes the starting-point of
what is sometimes called ' figurative prophecy,' that
is, the ascription of ideal attributes to the reigning
monarch. The idealization of David himself and of
the period of his reign begins with the narrators of
the books of Samuel, and reaches its climax in the
representations of the Chronicler. To prophets like
Jeremiah and Ezekiel, whose position is intermediate,
the name of David became the recognized symbol of
Messiah 2. David's reign came to be regarded as the
pattern of Messianic times, a kind of golden age in
Israel's history ; and amid the calamities of a later
period the national hopes were sustained by the
promise of a kingdom framed on the Davidic pat
tern. Prophecy henceforth takes a new development.
The king who from time to time sits on David's
throne is seen ' in the light of the promise made to
David, and in that light he is transfigured 3 ' and
invested with more than human attributes, whether as
victorious warrior (Ps. ii), or as royal bridegroom
taking to himself a consort from the heathen world
(Ps. xiv), or as monarch reigning in righteousness and
peace (Ps. lxxii), or finally as one who combines the
functions of royalty with those of priesthood (Ps. ex),
the promised dignity of the Davidic prince with the
prerogatives of the ancient king who had blessed the

1 Exod. iv. 22.
2 Jer. xxx. 9 ; Ezek. xxxiv. 23, 24; xxxvii. 24, 25 (referred to by Cheyne,
Aids to the Devout Study, &c, p. 70). Cp. a striking passage in Mein-
hold, fesus und das A. T. p. 99.
3 Perowne, Commentary on the Psalms, Introd. (vol. i. p. 54).

302 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
patriarch Abraham himself \ Thus prophecy creates
a kingly image with ideal attributes — each monarch
being in his degree a type of the coming Messiah. It
is true that in Palestine, as in the East generally — in
Egypt and Assyria and Chaldaea — there was a tendency
to deify the king ; to regard him as the visible embodi
ment of the divine majesty 2. But there is a special
significance in the application of the title Elohim to
the Hebrew monarch. It implies that the divine
sovereignty is in a manner actually delegated to a
human representative. The theocratic king reigns
and feeds his flock in the name and in the strength of
Jehovah 3. He occupies a unique and central position
in the kingdom of God — the kingdom of righteousness.
He is endued with a full measure of the Spirit of God,
executing God's holy will, guided by His wisdom,
judging with His righteousness, even revealing His
essential attributes 4. We may observe that circum
stances at one time elevated the thought of a theocratic
king into prominence, at another time threw it into the
background ; but the vision was never completely lost.
In the days of the disastrous struggle with Assyria,
when the world-power attacked the kingdom of God
specially in the person of its monarch, the figure of the
king naturally became the centre of Israel's hopes;
through the king there would be deliverance from the
national foe ; in allegiance to David's house alone
would there be any prospect of salvation for the hardly-
pressed northern kingdom 6. For in an age of distress
and decay it was the figure of David that lived in the
memory of the nation — David taken from the sheep-
folds to feed Jehovah's people; David the ruler of
strong hand and powerful arm, wise of heart as an angel
of God6- In the most distressful days faith clung to
the covenant established by Jehovah with David and
1 Heb. vii. 4 foil. 2 Schultz, vol. i. p. 169. 3 Mic. v. 2-4.
4 See Isa. ix. 6 and xi. Isa. xi. is called by Darmesteter ' une vision
de paix, qui depuis a hante l'univers ' (Les Prophites d'Lsrael, p. 63).
6 Hos. i. 11 ; iii. 5 ; Amos ix. II foil. Cp. Jer. 1. 4.
6 2 Sam. xiv. 17, 20; xix. 27.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 303
his house. ' Thus,' says Schultz, ' it was a faith in
things not seen, a faith in the everlasting significance
of this house.' It is a phenomenon without parallel
in history that even under the worst disasters of a later
period ' the confident hope of seeing the Saviour of the
future born of this dishonoured family was never lost V
We may briefly notice some other associations which
are never quite absent from the scriptural idea of
royalty. David was a typical man of war, and the
Messianic ideal did not fail accordingly to include the
element of victorious triumph over foes. The title of
king was essentially that of a warrior, a leader of hosts
in the wars of the Lord. The notion of sovereignty
thus implied the deliverance of Jehovah's people from
their enemies and a perpetual extension of the boun
daries of God's kingdom. Under the title ' king ' applied
to Messiah we discern 'the potency and promise' of
universalist ideas. The Messiah must reign till he hath
put all enemies under his feet 2. But this aspect of the
Messianic character was not the most prominent. One
of the best-known representations of Messiah depicts
him as making his entry into Jerusalem in the garb of
a prince of peace, just and having salvation, lowly and
riding upon an ass, and upon a colt the foal of an ass :
without the implements of war he extends his right
eous sway. He shall speak peace unto the heathen, and
his dominion shall be from sea even to sea, and from the
river even to the ends of the earth 3. A typical passage
which combines the idea of a peaceful rule with world
wide conquest is to be found in the prophecy of Micah
(chapter v), which represents the future Saviour as
feeding His people in the strength of Jehovah, in the
majesty of the name of Jehovah his God; and the
remnant of Jacob shall be in the midst of many people
1 O. T. Theology, vol. i. p. 173. Cp. Hunter, After the Exile, part i.
pp. 225 foil. 2 1 Cor. xv. 25.
3 Zech. ix. 9, 10. The date of Zech. ix-xiv is very uncertain. See Kirk
patrick, Doctrhie of the Prophets, pp. 440 foil. ; Cornill, Der Isr. Prophe-
tismus, p. 166. Schultz, ii. 416, and apparently Riehm, regard Zech.
ix-xi as pre-exilic.

304 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
as a dew from Jehovah, as the showers upon the grass ;
but also as a lion among the beasts of the forest ; while
Messiah executes vengeance upon the heathen, such as
they have not heard1. The two conceptions illustrate
the effect on the imagination of the prophets of the
two primary facts in the historical situation during
the time when Micah wrote. The advance of the
Assyrian power no doubt gave a stimulus to the con
ception of a world-monarchy advanced by warlike
prowess ; but the permanent form of Messianic pre
diction was mainly determined by visions of a stable
and peaceful re-establishment of David's kingdom 2.
3. Another permanent element in Messianic prophecy
is the idea of a personal manifestation or intervention
of Jehovah to set up His kingdom as sovereign in
Zion. The final purpose of the kingdom of God is
to manifest Jehovah Himself as supreme over the
universe : for he cometh, for he cometh to judge the
earth : he shall jud^e the world with righteousness
and the peoples with his truth 3. As we shall see,
the prophets do not attempt to adjust or correlate
the two parallel lines of thought which pervade their
writings. They look upon the Messianic salvation
sometimes as the work of a Davidic king, sometimes,
on the other hand, as the outcome of Jehovah's
personal visitation of His people. But in any case,
whoever may be from time to time the instrument
in effecting His redemptive purpose, it is Jehovah
Himself who is the real and sole source of help
and deliverance. Further, the day of divine mani
festation is a turning-point in human history, the day
of judicial intervention, the day of God's decisive act,
the day of the Lord. We have noticed the4fclind
confidence with which the mass of Israelites clung to
the thought of this day as an object of hope in all
1 Mic. v. 4, 7, 8, 15.
2 On the significance of Hezekiah's reign in relation to the Messianic

hope see Darmesteter, Les Prophites d'Israel, pp. 60 foil.
3 Ps. xcvi. 10, 13 ; xcvii. 1 ; xcviii. 9, &c. Cp. Schultz, vol. ii. p.

354-

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 305
times of distress. It was supposed to be ' self-evident
that the crisis would certainly end in favour of Israel '.'
We have seen that it was the special task of Amos to
denounce this temper, and to proclaim the unpalatable
truth that only through the overthrow of the existing
theocracy and the salvation of a mere remnant would
the purpose of God be accomplished2. It was incon
ceivable that in view of the moral corruptions of the
time there should be deliverance except by the way of
judgment. Accordingly, from the rise of prophecy
until its close in literature of a definitely apocalyptic
type the thought of the day of the Lord continually re
appears. It was to be a day of outward terror; the
ordinary course of nature would be violently inter
rupted ; the sun would be darkened, the moon turned
into blood ; the earth would tremble ; the works of
man would one and all be brought low ; his loftiness
would be humbled to the dust3. It was to be a day
of moral sifting, a manifestation of divine indignation
against wickedness : cruel both with wrath and fierce
anger to lay the land desolate ; and he shall destroy the
sinners thereof out of it*. It would be a day of judg
ment in which God would test and refine not only the
nations of the heathen world but His own people by
the spirit of judgment and by the spirit of burning b.
Jehovah alone shall be exalted in that day. With
a searching visitation He will vindicate His outraged
majesty, He will purge His kingdom of all that
offends 6.
This is one aspect of the day of the Lord. But it
has another side. It is a day ushering in the blessings
of the Messianic age. Though the corrupt mass of
the people are warned not to wish for a day which to
them shall be darkness and not light1, the true Israel is
encouraged to look forward to it with hope and joy.
For the day of the Lord will be a day of vengeance on
1 Wellhausen, Sketch, &c. p. 83. 2 Amos ix. 8, 9.
3 Isa. ii. 12 foil. 4 Isa. xiii. 9. 6 Isa. iv. 4.
6 Isa. i. 24 foil. 7 Amos v. 18.
X

306 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
Israel's oppressors, a day of release and of consolation.
God's people shall with their eyes behold and see the
reward of the ungodly 1. Further, we find that the
picture of the Messianic deliverance varies according
as one heathen power or another is the temporary
oppressor of J ehovah's people. ' The prophetic oracles,'
says Dr. Bruce, ' were addressed to the present, were
rooted in the present, were expressed in language suited
to the present, and pointed to a good in the near future
forming a counterpart to present evil or to an evil
in the near future which was to be the penalty of
present or past sin2.' If Jerusalem is threatened by
hostile armies, hard pressed and compassed about,
standing in the midst of a wasted and ruined land like
a lodge in a garden of cucumbers, the blessing of the
future shall be the vision of Jerusalem a quiet habitation,
a tabernacle that shall not be taken down, an island pro
tected by broad rivers and streams, wherein shall go no
galley with oars, neither shall gallant ship pass thereby 3.
If Israel is carried away captive, merged and over
whelmed in the sea of nations, cut off from life and
hope — the promise is given of a resurrection, a bring
ing back from the grave, a revival of perished hopes
by the renewing might of Jehovah's Spirit4. Forlorn,
exiled, and scattered as they seem, the children of
Zion may look forward to a home-coming more glorious,
more amazing even than the exodus from Egypt. The
day of the Lord is not merely a terror to the evil ; it is
to be a day of everlasting joy to the righteous. The
ransomed of the Lord shall return and come to Zion
with songs and everlasting joy upon their heads; they
shall obtain joy and gladness, and sorrow and sighing
shall flee away 5.
At this point it may be well to notice some limi
tations in the prophetic vision of Israel's future. We
1 Ps. xci. 8.
2 Bruce, Chief End of Revelation, p. 221 ; cp. Riehm, Messianic
Prophecy, pp. 95 foil.
3 Isa. i. 8 ; xxxiii. 20. 4 Ezek. xxxvii. 5 Isa. xxxv. 10.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 307
have seen that two great elements alternate in pro
phetic thought — the glory of a Davidic king, and the
personal manifestation of Jehovah ; and that the
promised redemption of Zion is connected now with
one element, now with the other. But the two lines of
thought are parallel, and are nowhere actually combined
in the picture of a single divine-human figure. They
are continuous and co-existent elements in Messianic
prediction. They meet us again in the writings of
Jeremiah and Ezekiel. In the last-mentioned prophet
the two ideas are found in close juxtaposition. Jeho
vah Himself is the shepherd of His people, and the
Davidic king is a prince ruling in His name1- Further,
nothing is more remarkable than the adherence of the
prophets to the forms and figures suggested by present
experience. They picture a kingdom of God visibly-
founded on earth ; they regard Jerusalem as the neces
sary centre of Messianic government, and as the spot
where the divine self-manifestation will ultimately take
place. In these representations we recognize the effect
produced by the magnificence of Solomon's temple
and the worship connected with it. The visible theo
cratic institutions in fact coloured the entire picture of
the future, and though Jeremiah in days of religious
and political upheaval was able to rise in a measure
above these limitations 2, the prophetic thought of
a later period reverted to the earlier conceptions.
Thus the prophecy of Ezekiel closes with the vision
of the restored temple as the earthly dwelling-place of
Jehovah in the midst of His people, while the later
Isaiah looks for the restoration of Jerusalem in radiant
splendour as the scene of a spiritualized levitical
worship in which all nations of the earth are summoned
to participate 3. Again, in predicting future blessings
1 See Ezek. xxxiv. 11, 23, 24, and xxxvii. 22, 24, 25 ; Jer. xxiii. 3-6, 15.
Cp. Schultz, vol. ii. pp. 417 foil. ; Kirkpatrick, Doctrine of the Prophets,
p. 312. Obs. in the apocalyptic writings the two conceptions are united,
the figure of the Messiah being invested with a halo of superhuman glory.
2 Jer. iii. 16 foil. ; xxxi. 29-34. Cp. Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, pp.220, 221.
3 Cp. Zech. xiv, and Cornill's remarks on it (Der Isr. Prophetismus ,
pp. 166 foil.). See also Kuenen, Hibbert Lectures, pp. 108, 109: •
X 2

308 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
the prophets know not the time or manner of fulfilment.
To them the present and future are contiguous and
as yet undistinguished. Each prophet gives an inde
pendent picture of the future, exhibiting it from his
own standpoint and depicting it in terms suggested by
the actual experiences of his own time. A living hope
indeed is inevitably inclined to hasten the natural
course of events ; it regards each crisis as final, and
the conditions of the moment as ripe for the occurrence
of a catastrophe. In general, therefore, the prophets
proclaim salvation as a blessing of the immediate
future ; yet the delay of the promised consummation
does not shatter their hope and confidence, partly
because they regard even a small and relative measure
of fulfilment as a pledge of an ampler and more decisive
deliverance yet to come, partly because they are keenly
alive to the conditional character of Jehovah's word,
since impenitence or apostasy on Israel's part neces
sarily interrupts or postpones the advent of Messianic
times1. But whether remote or near at hand, the
coming of Messiah was the consummation on which
hope was fixed. ' The long vista of expectation
was closed with His form 2.' Faith waited for Him
that should come and did not look for another 3. As
king He would be supreme, as prophet or teacher He
would bring a final and authoritative message from
God to man 4. The unclouded light of truth and the
blessings of righteous sovereignty were alike connected
with His advent. The age of the Messiah was an
epoch beyond which prophecy did not look, since
it would inaugurate an era of eternal peace and
blessedness 5.
4. But to proceed. When royalty in and after the
days of Manasseh declined in influence and prestige,
and the national fortunes became more and more
1 Cp. Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 222.
2 Stanton, The Jewish and the Christian Messiah, p. 148.
3 Matt. xi. 3. * Cp. John iv. 25 (Westcott, ad loo).
Cp. Stanton, loc. cit.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 309
disconnected from those of the reigning house,
another Messianic conception, at which earlier prophets
had already hinted, rose into prominence — that of
the holy remnant or true people of God. It was
a period of violent reaction against the teaching of
the prophets, which lasted for about fifty years, The
contrast between Manasseh's reign and that of his
father Hezekiah has been justly compared to that
which is presented by the era of the Stuart restoration
in its relation to the Puritan ascendency which pre
ceded it. The insolent, materialistic spirit of libertinism
revived. Jerusalem again became the scene of strange
idolatries ; Manasseh himself practised the hideous
rites of Moloch worship ; the arts of sorcery, magic,
and soothsaying amused the indolence of a corrupt
court. The living voice of prophecy sank into silence1,
and was only again uplifted when Josiah had ascended
the throne. Moreover, from this time onwards an
increasing volume of calamity threatened the Jewish
state. Before the close of Manasseh's reign (638) the
terrible inroads of the Scythian hordes took place.
They overran for a period of twenty years the greater
part of western Asia, spreading desolation and terror
to the very borders of Egypt. Meanwhile Nineveh
was tottering to its fall (607); then followed a struggle
for supremacy between the giant-powers of Babylon
and Egypt, which was decided by Nebuchadnezzar's
defeat of the Egyptian army at Carchemish (605).
The period was in fact one of almost unbroken excite
ment, terror, and distress; the effects of Josiah's
attempted reformation of worship on the basis of the
Deuteronomic law were superficial and soon passed
away ; it was manifest that for Jerusalem the day of
reckoning was close at hand. Zephaniah at the be
ginning of Josiah's reign had already proclaimed
that in the impending deluge of judgment Israel
would by no means escape. Habbakuk represents
1 Darmesteter, pp. 65, 66. Possibly, as Ewald and Cornill hold, Micah
chh. vi, vii belong to the reign of Manasseh.

310 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
the patience of faith waiting on God amid universal
convulsion. Jeremiah is the prophet of Jerusalem's
fall 1. He, together with Habbakuk, gives utterance
to the distress of that righteous remnant of Israel
which in an evil time had set itself to seek God. The
whole problem of suffering began to press for solu
tion ; and rightly to estimate the spiritual importance
of the epoch which began with Josiah's death (about
609) and only ended with the return from exile, we
must bear in mind its general character : the entire
period was one of judgment, inevitable, crushing,
and complete. The sorrows of the holy seed, the
spiritual Israel, in the land of captivity served to
accentuate the problem which perplexed the minds of
Israel's prophets and saints. The faithful remnant,
conscious of its own integrity of heart and of its newly-
awakened zeal for God, was overwhelmed in the
common calamity which had overtaken the nation.
Old theories of retribution had thereby been proved
to be inadequate. A new doctrine of suffering was
imperatively needed to account for the new circum
stances in which the righteous found themselves placed.
And, speaking broadly, it is not inaccurate to say that
the lesson which above all others Israel learned in
its day of calamity was the real meaning and purpose
of suffering.
The principal pictures of the righteous sufferer con
tained in the Old Testament — for instance, the
twenty-second psalm, the fifty-third chapter of Isaiah,
the story of Job — seem to embody the deepened
spiritual experience of the exile. In these great pas
sages of Scripture tribulation is recognized as being not
merely a judgment upon human sin, but an element
in the progress of the kingdom of God, a discipline by
which the true servant of Jehovah is trained and edu
cated for his unique mission. The thought of the
priestly or mediatorial office of God's people comes to
1 Cp. Cornill, Der Israelitische Prophetismus, pp. 77 foil. ; Montefiore,
Hibbert Lectures, pp. 171 foil.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 311
the front; and, according to a characteristic tendency of
the Hebrew mind, we find a disposition to individualize
the nation, and to bring to a focus the characteristic
thought of the age in ' the conception of an individual
righteous man who as the accepted representative of
his nation must needs make atonement by suffering
for its sins, and so become a prevailing intercessor
with God. In this ideal servant of Jehovah are
concentrated the scattered characteristics of God's
faithful : their spirit of dependence, their patient devo
tion, their unswerving faithfulness in the fulfilment of
vocation, their brave constancy under trial, their meek
acceptance of death 1.' In the fifty-third chapter of
Isaiah prophecy seems to rise to this culminating
point. It delineates the figure of one who by pouring
out his soul unto death can indeed make atonement
for the transgressions of his people, and who passes
through the gate of death to a new and glorious life
of fruitfulness and power. ' This wonderful figure
combines in itself,' says Schultz, ' the figure of the
Priest who offers Himself up as a sacrifice for the
world, the figure of the Prophet who by His know
ledge of God brings justification, and the figure of
the King who, transfigured and blessed, enjoys the
fruits of His sufferings 2.'
During the exile, then, the hope of Israel was
finally transferred from the theocratic king to the
servant of Jehovah, the faithful remnant which still
represented the people of God. Conscious as they
were of possessing the true knowledge of God, and
of vocation to His service, the faithful patiently
awaited the issue of the conflict between the true
religion and the idolatries of heathenism. The sublime
prophet of the exile in fact developes the thought of
the mediatorial functions of God's people which the
very circumstances of the exile suggested.
In his pages the universalist ideas of earlier
1 Repeated from The Doctrine of the Incarnation, vol. i. p. 55.
2 Schultz, vol. ii. p. 435.

312 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
prophecy become deepened and spiritualized. The
Israel which he represents recognizes its prophetic
and priestly function, its vocation to be a light to the
Gentiles1. It learns that the purpose of grace mani
fested in Israel's election embraces the entire family
of mankind. And in accordance with these ideas,
prophecy henceforth displays a new sense of the
dignity of priesthood and its functions. Already in
his ideal sketch of the age of restoration, Ezekiel
assigns special prominence to the Aaronic priesthood.
The priests are to be the teachers and judges of the
future, and are to represent in their own persons
the entire consecration of Israel to Jehovah 2. In
the prophecy of Zechariah, Joshua the high-priest
stands on a level with Zerubbabel the theocratic
prince. There is a juxtaposition of the offices of priest
and king implied in the coronation of Joshua 3. The
high-priest is not as yet identified with the prince ;
what Zechariah's prophecy signifies is the perfect
harmony and unity of two elements indispensable in
the newly-established settlement. The counsel of peace,
he says, shall be between them both. Only at a more
advanced stage, it would seem, did prophecy rise to
the thought of a monarch who as representative of
the priestly nation should himself hold the dignity
of the priesthood, being made by the oath of Jehovah
a priest for ever after the order of Melchizedek 4. In
Psalm ex is to be found the combination of two
separate lines of prediction.
5. Corresponding to the conception of a people of
God charged with a spiritual mission to mankind is
that of a new covenant — a covenant of which grace,
not law, is the outstanding characteristic. It was
a hope to which Jeremiah had already given touching
expression 6. In his days it must have seemed the
1 Isa. xlix. 6. 2 Ezek. xliv. 10-28 ; xlviii. 11, &c.
3 Zech. vi. 1 1-14. Cp. Schultz, ii. 423.
4 Ps. ex. See a note in Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 257.
5 Jer. xxxi. 31 foil.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 313
only hope that remained for an apostate Israel. In
effect Jeremiah appears to have abandoned the
expectation of any response to his warnings and
denunciations. He renounces the nation which is
hastening headlong to its ruin, and apparently devotes
himself to preparing the way for a new people that
should emerge from the ashes of the old 1. The
hope of a new covenant was indeed the stay of
the faithful under continual disillusionment. The ex
perience of ages is embodied in the pregnant verdict
of Jeremiah on the final result of the Mosaic dispensa
tion : which my covenant they brake, although f was au
husband unto them, saith the Lord2. Jehovah had
purposed to make Israel a kingdom of priests and an
holy nation, but the only hope of the ideal being
realized lay in the free action of Jehovah's grace. The
old covenant was marked by inherent deficiency : it
was powerless to secure the obedience it enjoined,
it was burdensome as a law of positive precepts and
ordinances ; in relation to the removal of sin it was
hopelessly ineffective. Prophecy therefore recognized
that the old covenant was waxing old and ready to
vanish away 3. It looked to the future for a new
covenant of grace, under which not merely the outward
life, but the heart of Israel, should be renewed unto
holiness. In the Messianic age the law of Jehovah
should be written in the heart ; each soul should have
immediate knowledge of God and unrestricted access
to Him ; above all, the clinging burden of sin and
defilement should be finally removed. For I will
forgive their iniquity, and f will remember their sins
no more. Thus it was at length realized that the
Messiah was not destined to fulfil the aspirations
of national ambition, but to satisfy the yearnings of
spiritual need : to preach good tidings unto the meek,
to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the

1 Darmesteter, p. 67. 2 Jer. xxxi. 32. Cp. Heb. viii. 9.
3 Heb. viii. 13.

314 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
captives, and the opening of the prison to them that are
bound1. In the prophecies of Ezekiel we find a continuation
of Jeremiah's teaching. One effect of the exile on the
faithful was doubtless a deeper consciousness of sin,
and a sense that the mere collective and national
access to God provided for in the institutions of pre-
exilic worship was incapable of satisfying the thirst of
the individual soul for salvation2. Ezekiel repeats
and emphasizes Jeremiah's doctrine concerning indivi
dual responsibility ; but he goes further and points to
the prospect of an inward renewal wrought by the
power of Jehovah's spirit. / will sprinkle clean water
upon you, and ye shall be clean : from all your filthiness,
and from all your idols, will I cleanse you. A new
heart also will I give you, and a new spirit will I put
within you : and I will take away the stony heart out
of your fiesh, and I will give you an heart of flesh 3.
Thus the prophets who had been, to quote Well
hausen's striking expression, ' the spiritual destroyers
of old Israel4,' became the pioneers of a new era.
They hold out the prospect of a nationality which has
renewed its youth ; they look for a new creation.
Behold, I create new heavens and a new earth ; and the
former shall not be remembered, nor come into mind.
But be ye glad and rejoice for ever in that which I
create; for , behold, I create Jerusalem a rejoicing, and her
people a joy 6.
6. The post-exilic prophets gather up the substance
of former predictions, their aim being to deepen those
conceptions respecting the Messiah and his work
which were already current. In Haggaiand Zechariah
the idea of Israel's spiritual mission to the world
reappears, but in a form moulded by the special
circumstances of their time — the rebuilding of the
temple and the reorganization of worship on the
levitical pattern. The interest of prophecy centres
' Isa. lxi. i. 2 Riehm, ,4 77. Theologie, p. 36.
3 Ezek. xxxvi. 25 fo'.l. 4 Sketch, &c. p. 122. 5 Isa. Ixv. 17, 18.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 315
in the temple as at no previous period in history.
Haggai, for example, points to a new glory of the
national sanctuary as the appointed centre of divine
self-manifestation in the future. The sudden coming
of Jehovah to His temple will usher in the age of
Messianic blessings 1. Thither the desirable things
of all nations shall be brought ; there the deepest
yearnings of man's heart shall be finally satisfied : In
this place will I give peace, saith the Lord of hosts.
Nearly a century later the same thought reappears in
Malachi in a somewhat modified shape characteristic
of his time. Jehovah will manifest Himself through
the mediation of an angel, the messenger of His
covenant, and instrument of His righteous judgment.
To Malachi, as to Haggai, the temple is the destined
scene of the future theophany; and the main object
of the divine judgment is to purify the sons of Levi,
that there may once more be a faithful priesthood
in Israel, and a pure offering acceptable to God 2.
On the other hand, the moral and ethical tone of
prophecy, and its insistence on the divine requirement
as a condition of covenant communion, is still dominant
in the. prophets of the restoration. In Zechariah
especially we find ' the two correlative aspects of
spiritual reformation ' enforced : as ' the bounden duty
of man, and as the promised gift of God 3-'
It is difficult to trace the process by which it came
about, but there can be no doubt that the hopes of
later Judaism are of a narrower and more nationalistic
cast than those of the exilic period. In fact, as Pro
fessor Pfleiderer remarks, in some respects ' the legal
religion of the synagogue shows a retrogression from
the lofty idealism of the prophets *.' The universalist
1 Hao-. ii. 7-9 ; Zech. ix. 9 foil. It is noticeable that for a brief space
the prince of David's house, which in the person of Zerubbabel emerged
from its obscurity, figures once more in the pages of prophecy. See Zech.
iii. 8 ; cp. Jer. xxiii. 5.
2 Mai. iii. 1-5, 16 foil.
3 See Zech. iii. 4 ; v. 5-1 1 ; viii. 16, 17. Cp. Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures,
vol. ii. p. 300.
4 Gifford Lectures, vol. ii. p. 51.

316 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
hopes of the later Isaiah fall into the background, and
give way before the ambitions of Jewish particularism.
The spirit of rigid exclusiveness fostered by the
levitical Law displayed itself in an attitude of hatred
and contempt towards the heathen world. Cornill ob
serves that the stage was a necessary one in Israel's
development, for the life and death struggle with
Hellenism was yet to come 1. The observance of the
Law, which sharply separated Israel from the heathen
world, formed a kind of defensive armour, which the
polished shafts of paganism could neither break nor
penetrate. Judaism was a hard shell under which the
kernel of true religion was preserved and transmitted
unimpaired. Nevertheless, the effect of this period
on prophecy was not altogether happy. The book
of Joel seems to represent the temper of the new
Judaism. Its tone is strongly nationalistic ; it regards
the heathen as objects only of vengeance, not of grace ;
it reflects the confidence of the Jew that Israel is
a righteous people and the object of a divine favour,
which is sufficiently secured by the care bestowed on
the temple cultus2. In fact, it has been thought,
though the point is necessarily uncertain, that in the
book of Joel we pass from the older type of prophecy
to the class of apocalyptic literature, which has pecu
liarities and merits of its own, but cannot be fairly
judged by the same standard as earlier prophetic
writings. While prophecy is the mature fruit of
ancient Israel's religion, apocalyptic writings are the
characteristic product of Judaism. They bear witness,
like the belief in the Bath Qol, to the -consciousness
that Jehovah had ceased to speak immediately to
His people3.
1 Der Israelitische Prophetismus , p. 162.
2 Ibid. p. 163. The book of Obadiah seems to display a similar
tendency. 3 On the distinctive characteristics of the apocalyptic literature see
Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 389 ; Drummond, The Jewish Messiah, Introd. ;
Westcott, art. ' Daniel ' in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible. The last writer
points out that the exile ' supplied the outward training and the inward,
necessity for this last form of divine teaching ; and the prophetic visions

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 317
The apocalyptic literature, in fact, arose, as the
result of that passionate aversion to heathenism and
grief at its apparent triumph which came to a head in
the Maccabaean struggle. The unfulfilled ideals of
prophecy were studied afresh with the hope of finding
a clue to the past course of history and the future
prospects of the nation. With the peculiarities, how
ever, of this literature we are not specially concerned.
It is only necessary to remember that it also was
used as a vehicle of divine teaching. Its contribution
to the Messianic idea was, comparatively speaking,
indirect. The apocalyptic writers occupied them
selves with the prospects of the divine kingdom in its
relation to the empires of this world, rather than with
the personal glories of the promised Saviour. Conse
quently, their works reflect in their comparative silence
as to a personal Messiah, the condition of the nation
when it had lost its independence and had passed
under the rule of a priestly hierarchy. In the extra-
canonical literature the Messianic king was generally
depicted as a hero of whom it was confidently
expected that he would re-establish Israel's national
independence and inaugurate a world-wide dominion ;
but in regard to details old ideas and new were
strangely intermingled. The rule of righteousness
and peace was to involve ' the full triumph of the law
and the law's religion1.' The universal kingdom of
Messiah was destined to manifest the peculiar favour
with God enjoyed by Israel.
Perhaps the most significant feature in later canonical
prophecy is the stress laid on Messiah's humanity.
The book of Daniel speaks of one like unto a son of
man z, an expression which in its original context
of Ezekiel form the connecting link between the characteristic types of
revelation and prophecy.' On the book of Joel see Hunter, After the
Exile, part i. ch. xii. Its apocalyptic character is noticed by Cornill,
Einleitung in das A.T.p. 182.
1 See Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, No. viii.
2 Dan. vii. 13. On the probable date and origin of Daniel see Cornill,
pp. 176 foil. On the influence of the book see Riehm, ATI. Theologie,
p. 389.

318 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
seems to describe the characteristics of the ideal king
dom of the saints which is destined to supersede the
heathen empires founded on brute violence and
material force. It was apparently in a later apocry
phal work— the book of Enoch — that the title was
first restricted to a personal Messiah, but the passage
in Daniel may be regarded as marking a new stage in
the growth of the Messianic expectation 1. Apart
from this isolated expression, the figure of the anointed
prince2 in the book of Daniel is highly significant.
The Messiah is numbered with the saints of the most
high as their head and representative, exercising the
universal dominion bestowed on him as his rightful
heritage by Jehovah Himself. The conception of
a specially close relationship between the Messiah and
Jehovah is also found in the later chapters of Zechariah,
which depict the expected Saviour as the rejected
shepherd of his people, as Une fellow of Jehovah, and
as one in whom Jehovah Himself is pierced 3.
There is no need to extend our survey of Messianic
prediction beyond the limits of the Old Testament,
since the permanent elements that contributed to the
conception of Messiah are already contained in the
Hebrew Canon itself. The subsequent period is of
great importance in so far as it throws light on the
expectations of our Lord's own contemporaries ; but
this subject lies outside the range of our inquiry4.
Accordingly, it only remains to point out briefly how
the work of Christ, the history of His Church, and
the experience of His saints unfold and develope the
significance of those great principles which prophecy
had learned to trace in Israel's history.
For we have seen that the prophetic visions of the
1 See Stanton, op. cit. p. no ; Drummond, op. cit. bk. ii. ch. 7.
2 Dan. ix. 25, 26.
3 Zech. xi. 15 foil.; xiii. 1-9; xii. 10. On the date of Zech. ix-xiv see
Cornill, p. 166.
4 See Schiirer, Thefewish People in the time of Christ (Eng. Tr.), § 29 ;
Westcott, Lntrod. to the Study of the Gospels, pp. 94 foil. ; Stanton, op. cit.
pp. in foil.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 319
future were for the most part inspired by reflection
on the history of the past. The Messianic hope had
its roots in the faith that Israel had been originally
brought into a special relationship to Jehovah. The
expectation even of a personal Redeemer was coloured
by vague anticipations that Israel itself would ulti
mately realize the ideal foreshadowed in the original
covenant established with its ancestors. The personal
advent and work of the true Messiah only inaugurated
the , fulfilment of the earliest and most widespread
hopes of the nation 1. Thus the idea of salvation as
a work of divine grace visiting the afflicted, or as a
victory by which a captivity was carried captive, had
been visibly illustrated in the exodus from Egypt ;
the idea of a kingdom of God had its foundations laid
in the polity organized, at least in rudimentary form,
by Moses, and was further developed and consolidated
by the institution of the Hebrew monarchy; the con
ception of a people of God charged with a priestly
mission to mankind had probably never been entirely
absent from the highest spiritual thought of the people.
The place, meaning, and function of suffering had from
the first been suggested by the recorded experience of
righteous men from the dawn of history : Abel had
been slain by Cain ; Isaac had been laid on the altar of
sacrifice ; Jacob had been a wanderer ready to perish ;
Joseph had been rejected by his brethren and the iron
entered into his soul ere he could become the saviour
of his kindred and of Egypt ; Moses had been a fugitive
and exile before he was raised up to be a captain of
salvation over Jehovah's people and to fill the desert
with songs of deliverance ; David had been a per
secuted outlaw before he became the light of Israel.
Yes ; ' the heralds of salvation, the bearers of God's
mercy, have to pass through suffering and death
before they win salvation for themselves and others 2.'
So in later days each of the goodly fellowship of the
prophets was in his measure a man of sorrows and
1 Cp. Stanton, op. cit. pp. 99, 135. 2 Schultz, vol. ii. p. 353.

320 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE [lect.
acquainted with grief. Finally, the remnant of Israel
in exile recognized itself as the suffering servant of
Jehovah prepared to fulfil its unique mission by meek
endurance of affliction. Thus prophecy is faith's
interpretation of the past ; in the temporary conditions
and circumstances of Israel's history lay concealed
eternal thoughts of God, which in Jesus Christ were
to receive their perfect elucidation1. In His passion,
death, resurrection and exaltation to the right hand
of God, St. John contemplates the supreme triumph
which the seed of the woman was from the first
destined to achieve2 ; and the writer of the Epistle
to the Hebrews points to Him as one in whom the
destiny of our race is potentially accomplished. Thou
hast put all things tinder his feet. Such is the promise ;
now however we see not yet all things put under him.
But we see Jesus. In the triumph of the ascension
man may behold a pledge of the fulfilment of his own
appointed destiny.
Again, in the moral reign of Jesus Christ over the
hearts of the faithful we recognize the transfigured
kingdom of David ; we see the spiritual counterpart
of those great ideas which the age of Solomon fore
shadowed — a world-wide empire over the souls of men
and a universal religion — a catholic Church and a
catholic Creed. In the action of the Holy Spirit upon
society and individual men, consecrating the peculiar
endowments and gifts of each to divine uses, we
welcome the fulfilment of prophetic visions of a
righteous people of Jehovah sprinkled with clean
water, and drawing near to God in acceptable service.
Finally, in the overthrow of Israel's enemies Chris
tian faith sees the removal from the true kingdom of
God of all things that offend, and them which do
1 There is a valuable chapter on 'the use of the Old Testament in the
early Church ' in Mr. Stanton's Jewish and Christian Messiah, with an
exhaustive table showing the Messianic use of the Old Testament in the
New Testament.
2 Rev. xii ; cp. Heb. ii. 6 foil.

vi] PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE 321
iniquity ; and the forthshining of the righteous as the
sun in the kingdom of their Father 1.
^ Thus the person, the work, the Church of Jesus
Christ explains the many-sided imagery of the Old
Testament; and if we believe that the Incarnation is
at once the plainest of facts and the deepest of
mysteries, we shall feel that no study of Hebrew
prophecy can be too painstaking or minute ; inasmuch
as it embodies the thoughts of God — those thoughts
of which the Psalmist says, How presious are thy
thoughts unto me, O God I how great is the sum of
them ! If I should count them, they are more in number
than the sand. Many, O Lord my God. are thy wonder-
fid works which thou hast done, and thy thoughts which
are to its-ward ; they coMnot be reckoned up in order unto
thee: if I would declare and speak of them they are
more than cart be numbered2.
Prophecy has been defined as ' the expression of an
ideal truth which, just because it contains an eternal
law of the order of the world, also finds ever new
fulfilment at all times 3/ In it we touch what is deepest
and most vital in religion. Prophecy is not merely
the judgment of sagacious men on the events of their
own day, or on the state of the society in which they
were called to move and act ; it is an inspired com
mentary on the phenomena of universal history. Its
idealism is the result of God-given insight into the
true conditions of human welfare, and into that true
order of the universe which has been obscured and
perverted by human folly, selfishness, and crime. The
optimism of the prophets, says Dr. Bruce, ' does not
consist in shutting the eyes to the evil that is in the
world. On the contrary, it knows how to take the evil
into the ideal as one of its constitutive elements, and
transmute it into the highest good 4.' It is their sense
of a power pervading human history and
1 Matt. xiii. 41, 43- 2 Ps- cxxxix. 17 foil. ; xl. 5.
3 Pfleiderer, Gifford Lectures, vol. ii. p. 42.
4 Bruce, Apologetics, p. 256.
Y

322 PROPHECY AND THE MESSIANIC HOPE
' From seeming evil still educing good '
that makes the study of the prophets at once so
necessary and so fruitful. In reading their books we
find ourselves fired by the same passion of hope,
illuminated and cheered by the same splendid visions.
Thus the study of the Old Testament may most
appropriately begin with the prophets, not only because
the date of their activity and the authenticity of their
works are in the main certain and undisputed, but also
because their writings will give us the true point of
view from which to approach the entire history and
institutions of Israel. They will educate our sense of
proportion in dealing with the narrative and legislative
parts of the Old Testament. They will imbue us
with a consciousness of the gravity of the problems
which confront society at the present day. They will
develope our insight into those needs and aspirations
of human nature which the religion of the Incar
nation was destined to satisfy ; and, finally, they will
awaken and stimulate in us that which is the highest
power for good in human life — the passion for righteous
ness, the love of man, the thirst for God.

LECTURE VII
O God, thou art my God. — Ps. lxiii. I.
The age of the prophets had contributed to the
religion of Israel all that was most essential to its
further development. We may notice two points
particularly in which the tendencies of the post-exilic
period were already foreshadowed before the return
from Babylon. First, prophecy had risen to the
conception of a universal religion. The vision of the
Messianic age, in proportion as it became spiritualized,
enlarged its range. The great prophet of the exile
represents the heathen world as waiting expectantly
for the salvation of God. Israel is to be the herald
of redemption to all the nations of the earth, the
centre of a world converted to the service of Jehovah.
Secondly, the conception of an individualized re
ligion had already appeared. This can be traced
back to the prophet Jeremiah, whose position of
peculiar isolation and dependence upon God led
him to reflect particularly on the relation of the
individual to God. His prolonged experience of
the supporting power of divine grace under the
pressure of overwhelming difficulties constituted him
a link between an old and a new state of things. By
his own personal fidelity to God, he rescued as it
were the true religion which in those disastrous times
was in danger of perishing outright. It is even
possible that the inspired picture drawn by the exilic
prophet of the faithful servant of Jehovah making
Y 2

324 PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
atonement and intercession on behalf of his people
was suggested by the memory of Jeremiah's labours
and sufferings l. In his own inner life the prophet
realized the efficacy of repentance, the need of personal
conversion 2, the yearning for newness of heart. And
in Jeremiah's prophecy of the new covenant with
Israel, which is to be the characteristic blessing of the
Messianic age, we have perhaps the first suggestion
of a salvation not merely national but personal. They
shall all know me, from the least of them unto the
greatest of them, saith the Lord3. The Law was one
day to be written, not on tables of stone, but on human
hearts. It was the task of Ezekiel to deepen the
impression made by his predecessor, to educate in
the faithful a consciousness of personal accountability
for sin, and to proclaim the divine promise of a time
when consciences should be cleansed and hearts
renewed by the gift of the Spirit. These two lines of
prediction are distinct, and yet they seem to be mutually
connected. A spiritual religion can no longer be a
merely national religion ; the law that can be written
on the single human heart is a law for mankind. On
the sense of individual relationship to God a world-
religion can be founded, for God is one and His
Spirit one. The thought underlies St. Paul's striking
argument in the third chapter of Romans : Is he the
God of the Jews only f is he not also of the Gentiles ?
Yes, of the Gentiles also, seeing it is one God, which shall
justify the circumcision by faith, and uncircumcision
through faith 4.
Now in the period that followed the exile these
characteristic products of prophetic thought — the
idea of universal religion, and that of personal
salvation — were destined to be developed, but rather
through the stress of the circumstances in which
1 Meinhold, Jesus und das A. T. p. 105. Cp. Montefiore, Hibbert
Lectures, p. 218.
2 Jer. xvii. 14 ; xxxi. 18.
3 Jer. xxxi. 34 ; Ezek. xxxvi. 26.
4 Rom. iii. 29, 30. Cp. Pfleiderer, Gifford Lectures, vol. ii. pp. 50, 51.

vn] the old testament

325

Judaism found itself placed, than through any con
scious or deliberate effort to realize the spiritual hopes
of prophecy. At first sight indeed the whole epoch
wears a retrogressive aspect : religion becomes formal
and legalistic, while the wider Messianic ideals give
way before a temper of narrow particularism. Never
theless, looking back upon the period, we are able
to discern the providential work of God going on
under the unpromising exterior features of the history.
The dispersion of the Jews brought them into contact
with the culture and thought of heathendom, not
without adding to their religion elements of expan-
siveness which the rigid legal discipline of Palestinian
Judaism tended to repress. On the other hand, the
troubled conditions under which Jewish nationality
struggled to maintain its independence led to a certain
religious concentration ; sorrow and misfortune became
to the Jew a school of the heart.
Let us pause to consider some of the circumstances
which gave an impulse to the development of personal
religion. First, we notice the depression and sense of
disappointment which quickly followed the restoration.
The returned exiles, their ears still ringing with the
uplifting music of the voice which bade them depart
in triumph from the land of captivity, and come with
sinking unto Zion, and with everlasting joy upon their
head1, found themselves in their ancient home — in
a city ruined, comfortless, unprotected, and surrounded
by alien or hostile tribes. The community itself was
only a miserable remnant of a once powerful nation.
Hopes of revival and recovery seemed to have been
blasted at their birth2. The foundations of the
temple were laid, but the opposition of the Samaritans,
combined with the despondent apathy of the exiles,
1 See Isa. Ii. 11 ; Iii. 7 foil. ; lv. 12, &c.
2 Stanton, The Jewish and the Christian Messiah, p. 97, observes : ' It
has come to be very generally recognized that illusion followed by the
discipline of experience and disappointment played no unimportant part
in the formation and definition of the clearest Messianic hope of Israel.'
See Hunter, After the Exile, part i. chap, v, ' Among the Ruins.'

326 PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
led to a prolonged cessation of the work. Nor were
the prospects of the community materially improved
even at a later time, when the temple had been
completed and the national worship organized on the
levitical system. Jehovah's promises seemed to have
come to nought. Things remained as before. In the
place of Babylon, the heathen power of Persia had
brought Israel under an oppressive yoke. Moreover,
the restored worship of the temple provided no
effective compensation for the miseries of the time.
The book of Malachi bears witness to the prevailing
temper of the prophet's contemporaries. Evidently
the requirements of Jehovah's service were regarded
as an oppressive and costly burden. The strict dis
cipline of the Law provoked a spirit of moroseness,
of religious indifference, and even of resentment against
God '. The community as a whole, and even the
priesthood, had apparently sunk into listless apathy
and heartless formalism.
Meanwhile, the ideal which reformers like Ezra
and Nehemiah set before themselves was that of
a holy community, separated by elaborate restrictions
from the pollutions of heathendom, and from the
semi-paganism of the ' people of the land.' In pur
suance of this ideal even the habits and incidents
of daily life were brought under the discipline of an
all-embracing system, the result of which was a
gradual change in men's moral conceptions. The
righteousness which the prophets had preached as
Jehovah's supreme requirement came to be identified
with an anxious and scrupulous legalism, the cul
minating point of which was eventually reached in
Pharisaism. The tendency to externalism in religion manifested
itself most conspicuously in the zeal expended upon
the worship of the national sanctuary. The restriction
of the levitical cultus to the temple tended to make
1 See Mai. ii. 17 ; iii. 14. Cp. Cornill, Der Isr. Prophetismus, pp. 155,
156 ; Hunter, op. cit. part i. pp. 121 foil. ; ii. p. 242.

vii] THE OLD TESTAMENT 327
a particular spot the centre of religious interest.
Everything came to be regarded from the point
of view of Jerusalem, and the sacrificial system by
which the nation maintained its covenant-union with
Jehovah gradually assumed a disproportionate im
portance. From this point of view a characteristic
product of Judaism is to be found in the books of
Chronicles. The writer does more than display
a devout and passionate interest in the temple and
its services. He makes the legal cultus a standard
by which the conduct of the Jewish kings in pre-exilic
days is judged. This standpoint in fact colours his
entire representation of Hebrew history. On the sup
position that the levitical system prevailed in the days
of the first temple, the chronicler commends or blames
the various monarchs according as he believes them
to have religiously observed or wilfully neglected the
legal observances.
But although the tendency to externalism was no
doubt most decidedly pronounced in Jerusalem itself,
even among the habitual worshippers in the temple
there must have been some to whom the sacrificial
cultus was the centre of a deeply-rooted spiritual life
and a true means of spiritual education. The" very
calamities of the time would impel devout minds to
seek for solace in the services of the sanctuary. Nor
must we overlook the very important influence of the
synagogue-worship. The synagogues of Judaism re
placed the local sanctuaries of the earlier religion, and
they became centres of spiritual education — -prayer
and the reading of the Law being the most prominent
features in their services1. The effect of such an institu
tion as the synagogue could not fail to be important. ' 1 1
actively helped,' says Mr. Montefiore, ' to individualize
religion, and to bring it home to the hearts and under
standing of all2.' The synagogue in fact provided a
1 See Kuenen, Religion of Israel, vol. iii. chap. 9.
2 Hibbert Lectures, p. 391. Cp. Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 397 ;
Hunter, op. cit. p. 222.

328 PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
certain spiritual satisfaction for the growing needs of
the personal religious life, and while on the one hand
it helped to diffuse the knowledge of the Law, thus
giving an impulse to the temper of legalism, it could
not fail also to suggest more profound ideas of the
divine requirement. It served in some measure to
counteract the tendency to lay inordinate stress on
the sacrificial cultus of the temple.
It would accordingly be a serious mistake to
suppose that the post-exilic age was a barren period
in the religion of Israel. The Psalter alone affords
evidence sufficient that the triumph of the nationalistic
and legalistic element in Judaism did not fatally impede
the growth of personal religion. As a matter of fact it
seems to have acted in two ways. In some cases the
fervid ecclesiasticism of the time probably tended to
produce a temper of sceptical reaction, such as we find
reflected in the pessimism of the Preacher : the
elaborate cultus of the temple may have seemed to
exclude the presence or action of the living God. On
the other hand, to some the levitical worship seemed
rather to bring God nearer 1, and to give vitality
to the thought of Jehovah's presence in the midst of
His people : to such the cultus was full of symbolic
teaching, and the study of the Torah a great means of
communion with God. The Psalter has been said to
illustrate ' the combination of prophetic principles with
warm attachment to the purified forms in which
religion was outwardly clothed2.' In the Psalms the
religion of the prophets is perpetuated : their sacred
hopes and fears, their joy in God, their boundless
devotion to His service. The Psalter testifies that the
discipline of the Law did not necessarily quench the
1 Montefiore, p. 385: 'Spiritual communion with God and the pure
joy of a felt nearness to Him were born from participation in the Temple
service.' Cp. Schechter, Studies in fudaism, p. 292 ; Kuenen, Hibbert
Lectures, p. 165.
2 Montefiore, p. 386. See a valuable passage in Bruce, Apologetics,
pp. 272 foil., as to the religious significance of the critical view in regard
to the origin and date of the Psalter.

vii] THE OLD TESTAMENT 329
life of religious emotion, but rather purified it and
imparted to it a new intensity. Nor is it only from
the Psalter that we can infer the actual spiritual effects
of the period of legalism. In the other writings which
complete the Hagiographa we are brought face to
face with characteristic products of Judaism. The
number and variety of the books composing this group
is significant ; they bear witness to the zeal, literary
culture, and religious devotion of the post-exilic age.
The Hagiographa testify to a growing receptivity
of the Jewish mind, a capacity for assimilating ideas
derived from Persia or Greece, and for clothing old
faiths in new forms. They practically represent the
religious life of a people which had passed through
many chequered experiences. They comprise the
products of religious reason exercising itself upon the
problems of life and of religious emotion striving to
find for itself adequate utterance. They embrace
books so opposite in character as Ecclesiastes, Esther,
Daniel, and the Psalms. Thus they embody diver
gent phases and types of spiritual experience, and
give to the Old Testament a peculiarly representative
character, making it a book which reflects the needs,
perplexities, and aspirations of humanity at large.
As to the Psalms and Wisdom literature, it is suffi
ciently obvious that they reflect much more than the
spirit of one particular age. They do indeed give
utterance to ideas and conceptions peculiarly Jewish:
the Psalms, for instance, display here and there the
characteristic temper of Judaism : its passionate sense
of national rectitude, its haunting consciousness of
uncleansed guilt, its rigid exclusiveness, its vehement
hatred of national foes. But, on the other hand,_the
Psalms are the product of a spirit which has realized
the mystery and blessedness of communion with God ;
they give expression to its infinite yearnings, its awe,
its agonies, its desolation, its exultation. The Old
Testament Wisdom also, while it busies itself with the
problems of human life, or gathers up the lessons of

330 PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
age-long moral experience, displays to some extent
the limitations of Judaism. To the Jewish sage,
for instance, the existence of God is an axiom
which lies beyond the range of possible question.
But though Jewish thought always works with a
religious background, it deals with universal problems,
and those the most urgent — the anomalies of human
life, the purpose and meaning of pain, the mystery
of retribution. And if the Hebrew sages do not solve
the problems into which they inquire, it may at least
be claimed that they adequately state them 1,
Again, the sacred histories, Chronicles, Ezra, Nehe
miah, Esther, and Ruth, are connected together by the
fact that they are ' studies ' of particular periods of
Jewish history, written from a particular point of view,
and dictated more or less by a didactic purpose. The
first three books, which seem originally to have formed
together a single work and are closely connected in
style and method, reflect in a very instructive way the
general effect on thought and character of Judaism in
its earlier stages. Their point of view is purely
religious and particularistic : their aim is to illustrate
the blessings of faithfulness to the requirements- of the
levitical code. The book of Nehemiah even displays
some traces of the growth of a doctrine of merit 2, and
a consciousness of personal righteousness which
occasionally meets us in the Psalter also. The book
of Esther has been variously judged. Doubtless it
reflects the fierce passions awakened by the Maccabean
struggle, and so far, in the vindictive spirit which
characterizes it, the story serves the purpose of
practically illustrating a leading defect of the Old
Testament discipline. But though the inclusion of
Esther in the Canon was perhaps designed for instruc
tion rather than spiritual edification, the book is by
no means altogether wanting in religious charac
teristics3. The LXX. translation seems to bring out
1 Cp. Bruce, Apologetics, p. 242. 2 Nehem. v. 19; xiii. 14, 22.
3 Cp. Delitzsch, O. T. History oj 'Redemption, § 81. See Luther's verdict,

vn] THE OLD TESTAMENT

331

more clearly than the Hebrew the belief of the writer
in God's providential guidance ; and other lessons
may be derived from it : the ' deep sense of personal
vocation to do God's work, faith in self-sacrificing
intercession,' courage, patriotism, and a steadfast ad
herence to the true faith even amid heathen surround
ings, which the modern European in India, Africa,
or Japan might imitate with advantage 1. There
is no difficulty in recognizing the canonical value
of the book of Ruth, which some would regard
as a polemical product of Ezra's reforms, marking
possibly a tendency to reaction against the puri
tanical narrowness of the time 2. If this be a correct
account, the book of Ruth fulfils much the same
function as that of Jonah. It bears witness to the
universality of God's purpose of grace and to His
compassion for the heathen who lay beyond the pale
of the covenant.
Finally, the book of Daniel, apparently composed
as a manual of consolation for the confessors and
martyrs of the Maccabean period, is a specimen
of prophecy in its later apocalyptic form. With this
type of literature the modern western mind can only
imperfectly sympathize ; but the fact is undeniable
that apocalyptic writings exercised a very powerful
influence on Jewish thought during the last two
centuries before Christ3. The book now in question
bears witness to the strong hold which Messianic
hopes had gained upon the imagination of the faith-
ap. Kohler, Uber Berechtigung der Kritik, &c, p. 31. Cornill's estimate of
the book is very severe, Einleitung in das A. T.p. 138. Cp. Memhold, fesus
und das A. T. pp. 97, 98 ; Hunter, After the Exile, part i. pp. 237, 238.
1 See some suggestive notes of Professor Lock in Sanday, Bampton
Lectures, pp. 222-223. Cp. Ryle, O. T. Canon, p. 176.
2 Cp. Hunter, op. cit. pp. 44 foil.
3 Cp. Drummond, The fewish Messiah, p. 8 : ' The authors of the
various apocalyptic works ... are not justly open to a suspicion of wilful
deceit. Our modern taste accords little welcome to this kind of literary
inventiveness, and our modern strictness may regard it as not altogether
permissible, but I see no reason why it may not have been practised by
high-minded and honourable men.' See also Kuenen, Religion of Israel,
ch. x [Eng. Tr. vol. iii. p. 114].

332

PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.

ful ; it shows how effectively they sustained drooping
faith under the pressure of persecution. It also illus
trates the characteristic religious practices of Judaism,
its fervour in prayer and fasting, and its growing
sense of the merit of almsgiving1- Moreover, the
book of Daniel indicates a certain advance in religious
thought, due probably in a measure to the contact of
Israel's religion with that of Persia2. Again, it illus
trates the remark of Darmesteter that to the Jewish
mind human life and the world's history were a drama.
The book is an attempt to grasp the history of the
world as a whole 3. It is dominated, not only by an
unshaken confidence in the ultimate triumph of truth,
but also by an overmastering sense of a universal divine
purpose which overrules all the vicissitudes of human
history, the rise and fall of dynasties, the conflicts of
nations, and the calamities that overtake the faithful.
Such is a general description, with one or two
unimportant omissions, of the contents of the Hagio
grapha. They display to us in very varied forms
the religious mind and character which the teach
ing of the prophets and the discipline of the Law
had brought to maturity. But they also contribute
to the Old Testament an element of many-sided
sympathy which otherwise it might have lacked, since
some of the ' Writings ' reflect the experience derived
from contact with Gentile thought and life, while
others are the product of that habit of direct com
munion with God by which man gains the power to
penetrate the hidden mysteries of the unseen world.
The Hagiographa, in a word, give a universal character
1 Cp. Dan. iv. 27. Cp. Riehm, ATI. Theologie, pp. 397, 401. On our
Lord's references to the book, see Valeton, Christus und das A. T.
pp. 49 foil.
2 e. g. in the doctrine of angels, the clearer conception of Satan, and
possibly the idea of a resurrection of the body. Cp. Kuenen, Religion of
Israel, ch. ix. The influence of Persia, however, on Jewish thought must
not be overrated. See Hunter, op. cit. pait i. pp. 82, 83 ; Nicolas, Des
doctrines religieuses des fuifs, partie i. ch. 2.
3 By Jerome, ad Paulinum, 14, Daniel is described as 'temporum
conscius, et totius mundi <pi\lcrTa>p.' Cp. Kuenen, op. cit. ch. x, and
Westcott in Smith's Dictionary of the Bible, art. 'Daniel.'

vn] the old testament

333

to the Bible. 'All the sacred books,' says Origen,
'breathe the spirit of fullness, and there is nothing
in them which does not descend from the plenitude
of the divine majesty1.' But these writings especially,
both in what they are and what they are not, seem to
testify to the presence and operation of the Spirit who
bloweth where He listeth, and from whom the secrets
of no human heart are hid. It is this remarkable
universality of scope which differentiates the literature
of the Hebrews from that of other races. Granted
that the sacred books of India, Persia, or China dis
play real traces of divine inspiration, or at least of
providential guidance, it nevertheless remains true
that the Bible alone has proved itself adequate to the
task of instructing the ignorance, assuaging the griefs,
and ministering to the perplexities, not of one race
merely, but of mankind.
In this lecture we are chiefly concerned with the
books of the Hagiographa as throwing light on the
divine purpose for the individual soul, thereby laying
the foundations of personal religion. It seems to be
specially their function to prepare the way for three
truths which in the New Testament are openly pro
claimed : first, the doctrine of immortality ; secondly,
the mystery of divine providence ; thirdly, the fruit-
fulness of suffering. Christ Himself openly reveals
these truths, and in so doing He responds to the
most anxious questionings of the human heart. In
the Old Testament, however, we are dealing only
with the intuitions and presages of holy men, dimly
anticipating a future solution of their perplexities.
In their searchings of heart we are enabled to study
the spiritual needs which God's self-revelation in Christ
was designed to satisfy — needs the very consciousness
of which was inspired by Him. The function of the
Bible in the Church is not so much to originate faith
as to aid and educate it : and faith may be helped as
well by a sympathetic recognition of difficulties as by
1 Horn, in ferem. xxi. 2.

334

PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.

the solution of them, by actual examples or life-like
pictures of faith perplexed not less than by instances
of faith triumphant and crowned.

I.
It is natural to deal first with the idea of a future
life — an idea which is by no means entirely wanting in
the theology of the Old Testament, but which neces
sarily demanded a moral basis in the human mind.
There could be no doctrine of personal immortality
at a stage in civilization when as yet the sense of
individuality was undeveloped. Amid the conditions
of primitive society the individual as such was practi
cally unrecognized. In religion, we are told, as well
as in civil affairs, ' the habit of the old world was to
think much of the community and little of the indi
vidual life. . . . The God was the God of the nation
or tribe, and He knew and cared for the individual
only as a member of the community1.' The Old
Testament indeed represents the redemptive move
ment as beginning with an individual man's venture
of faith, but it is with a family or tribe, in course of
time with an entire nation, that Almighty God estab
lishes His covenant-relationship. We may indeed see
a rudimentary recognition of the individual in the
doctrine that Jehovah visits the sins of the fathers
upon the children unto the third and fourth genera
tion of them that hate Him; this implies that the
welfare of a small group of persons within the nation
or tribe would depend on the conduct of a single
member of the group 2. But in the main it is
obviously true that the status and duty of each indi
vidual was determined by the character and calling
of the nation. Certainly the Israelite is enjoined
ever to bear in thankful remembrance the vocation
1 Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites, pp. 241, 242 ; R. W.
Church, Disc pline of the Christian Character, Serm. i.
2 Cp. Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 28.

vn] THE OLD TESTAMENT 335
and the privileges of his people 1 : and there seems
to be, in the pre-prophetic period at any rate, no
thought of the salvation of the individual apart from
that of the nation. From the Mosaic point of view
a man's position depended upon his relation to the
covenant people. He was accepted and recognized,
so to speak, by Jehovah only in so far as he could
claim lawful membership in the elect nation. It is
only when viewed collectively that Israel is honoured
with the title of Jehovah's son2. The individual
Israelite had no right to appropriate personally either
the style or the privileges of sonship. He enjoyed
filial dignity only in virtue of his incorporation into the
community which collectively inherited the promises
vouchsafed to the patriarchs 3. An individual and
personal sonship scarcely makes its appearance within
the confines of the Old Testament.
The utmost that we can clearly discern in the
religious history of Israel is a gradual and progressive
moral discipline paving the way for a doctrine of
personal immortality and salvation, which without such
a preparatory education might have appeared incredible
and even unwelcome to human thought. Now we find
the moral groundwork of the doctrine of immortality,
the premisses as it were from which the conclusion
might have been drawn, and was in a measure actually
drawn, in two great verities — -the one characteristic
of the age of Mosaism, the other of the troubled
period of Israel's later history : (1) the truth of man's
relation as an individual soul to God, (2) the truth
1 Cp. Deut. iv. 7 ; vi. 7-9. Konig holds an opposite view to that stated
in the text, but his arguments fail to carry conviction. See his Religious
History of Israel, pp. 178 foil. 2 Exod. iv. 22.
3 Cp. Riehm, ATI. Theologie, p. 28: 'Die sittlich-religiose Bedeut-
ung der Personlichkeit ist noch nicht vollig erkannt. Gott steht im
Verhaltniss zu dem ganzen Volke, aber der einzelne nennt ihn nicht Vater.
Nur das Volk als solches ist erwahlt, und einzig als Glied desselben hat
der einzelne an dieser Erwahlung teil. Jede Stoning des Gemeinschafts-
verhaltnisses zwischen Gott und Israel wird daher auch von ihm nicht
bloss schmerzlich, sondern auch als Storung seiner personlichen Bezieh-
ungen zu dem Hochsten empfunden.' See also Oehler, Theology of the
O. T. i. 259.

336 PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
of a fundamental moral order concealed beneath the
perplexing anomalies of the world.
To deal with these in order.
i. In the Law, even in its final shape, no doctrine
of the soul's existence after death is definitely taught.
What is characteristic of Mosaism is its deliberate
and entire exclusion of any distinct conception of
the state after death. Dr. Mozley points out how
favourably this absence of any clear conception con
trasts with the false and unworthy notions which
we meet with in contemporary paganism. Mosaism
is on the whole marked by a chilling, negative idea
of death — an idea no doubt in many ways suitable
to a dispensation of which the aim and tendency
was to reveal the divine holiness and abhorrence of
sin. The word Sheol — the place of departed spirits —
is variously derived, but perhaps the best account
of the word is that it is connected with the verb b]W
to be hollow : it would thus have the primary meaning
of 'hollow place' or 'pit.' It occurs even in the
earliest writers, and is very frequent in the Psalms
and Prophets, being often poetically personified1.
The only definite statements as to their condition
are to the effect that the state of the departed is one
of utter privation of all or of most that belongs to
life ; in Sheol there is darkness instead of light, for-
getfulness and sleep instead of waking and conscious
thought ; there is neither hope nor joy, nor power of
praise, nor any longer the solace of communion with
God. To descend into Sheol is to go down into the
depths of the earth, to a place of corruption and of
the worm, to a horrible pit, to the dust of death *.
But on the other hand, there is not supposed to be
any annihilation of personality in Sheol; the soul
exists in a state of consciousness ; the identity of
personal being continues. In Sheol the dead are
1 Cp. Schultz, ii. 324.
2 See Job x. 22; Eccl. ix. 5 foil.; Ps. xxii. 15; Ixxxviii. 12; cxv. 17;
Isa. xiv. 10, 11.

vn] THE OLD TESTAMENT

337

gathered without distinction, in tribes and families ;
men are said to be gathered to their fathers not as
sharing necessarily a common tomb, but as having
a certain social existence even after death. To some
extent there is a reproduction in the place of the
departed of the circumstances and conditions of the
upper world : kings are thought of as sitting on
thrones ; the righteous rest in their beds. Such ideas
contradict the supposition that death to an ancient
Hebrew meant annihilation1. The dead were believed
still to exist, though their condition was shadowy and
phantom-like 2. Moreover, the practice of necromancy
implies a belief that the departed have a higher
measure of knowledge than the living, and are con
sequently able to foretell future events3. But the
prevalent view is that their condition is one of loss,
and of final withdrawal from all the activities, hopes
and rewards of life. In Sheol, according to the
Preacher, there is no work, nor device, nor knowledge,
nor wisdom. There, forgetful and forgotten, the dead
lie like sheep, cut away from the hand of God 4. It
is evident indeed, without further illustration, that
the ordinary Hebrew conception of the state of
death, which results from the discipline of the Law,
is based on the visible phenomena connected with
death. All the effects of dissolution, as they im
pressed the imagination of the devout Israelite, are
of course undeniable, and are intended no doubt to
produce a certain impression on the human mind.
' The order of nature,' says Dr. Mozley 5, ' is a melan
choly revelation on the subject of death, placing one
sepulchral picture before our eyes of generation after
1 See Isa. xiv. 9 ; lvii. 2 ; I Sam. xxviii. 15 ; Ezek. xxxii. 21, 24.
2 They are called CXBI, 'weak' or 'pithless ones,' 'shades.' Cp.
the Homeric tJSwXa Kapovrav. Job xxvi. 5 ; Isa. xxvi. 14, &c. See
Oehler, § 78 ; Renan, Histoire, &c, bk. i. ch. 9.
3 Cp. Riehm, ATI. Theologie, p. 190. The practice of necromancy is
forbidden in Lev. xix. 31 ; xx. 6, 27 ; Deut. xviii. 11. On the other hand,
Eccl. ix. 5, ' The dead know not anything,' &c.
4 Eccl. ix. 10 ; Ps. xlix. 14 ; lxxxviii. 5.
6 Essays, vol. ii. pp. 172 foil. Z

338 PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
generation of men entirely disappearing, and being
heard of and seen no more. Now in the case of the
Jew the appeal of nature was as strong as it is now,
the opposing one of Scripture much weaker. The
consequence was that the order of nature, an order
intended to affect the mind in a particular way under
all dispensations — for God does not make even
appearances for nothing, but intends that joyful ones
should duly gladden and mournful ones duly depress
us — affected the Jew more strongly than it does the
Christian. As such was his lot, he bowed meekly
to it and received the whole of that melancholy
impress upon his passive soul.' The Old Testament
horizon, in point of fact, lies wholly on this side the
grave. A continued existence in his descendants —
this was the utmost that a pious Israelite could
reasonably hope for ; the loss of life was in a sense
a ' withdrawal of the highest good V Consequently,
even devout hearts look forward with dread and
unconcealed bitterness of spirit to the monotony and
dreariness of Sheol. The highest blessedness, the
supreme reward of covenant faithfulness, is long life
in the land which is God's gift to His people.
Nothing that death could give — rest from the storms
of life, and final deliverance from suffering, oppression
or contumely — seemed to be any compensation for
the total loss of the blessings of continued earthly
existence, to which the Jew clung with a pathetic

eagerness.

What then, it might be asked, did the Mosaic
dispensation contribute towards the idea of a future
life, of personal immortality for the individual ? The
answer is — it impressed on the Israelite's mind the
truth of man's covenant-relationship to God, his
dignity as admitted to the life of fellowship with
1 Stade ap. Schultz, ii. 327. Even after the exile, the pious Jew 'did
not as yet venture to express the hope of a life after death, of a resur
rection of the body. The utmost he hoped for was a memorial in feru-
salem (Neh. ii. 20), a monument within its walls which was better than
sons and daughters (Isa. lvi. 6).' Hunter, op. cit. i. p. 83.

vii] THE OLD TESTAMENT 339
God. Man's personality was of permanent worth and
importance, inasmuch as he was created capable of
standing in an essential relation to the source of all
good and to the moral law as the reflection of God's
being. It is this side of the Mosaic teaching which is
developed in the Psalms. Meanwhile, we may notice
in passing that Jewish faith was not entirely unvisited
by anticipatory gleams of consolation and hope : to
sustain this faith there existed the tradition of Enoch,
who walked with God, and he was not, for God took
him ; the narrative of Elijah's translation to the unseen
world in a chariot of fire ; and that of the return of
Samuel from the abode of the departed to prophesy
the doom of Saul 1. These are at least testimonies
to an anticipation which later reflection was destined
to render more explicit. Moreover, the Jew could
always find rest in his fundamental assurance that
a holy God existed — a truth which implied the reality
of an invisible world of which God was the centre.
Further, it was certain that Jehovah had willed to
make a covenant of grace with men, in order to bring
them into a living fellowship with Himself. Jehovah
was the Almighty God of the patriarchs ; and herein
lay an implicit pledge — a latent prophecy — that He
would continue through and beyond death the exis
tence of a creature to whom He had displayed such
condescending love. Our Lord seems to draw the
conclusion which the unbelief of the Sadducees
hesitated to deduce in His recorded answer to their
captious questioning : Now that the dead are raised,
even Moses showed at the bush, when he calleth the
Lord the God of Abraham, and the God of Isaac, and
the God of Jacob. For he is not a God of the dead,
but of the living; for all live unto him2. In the
belief of holy Israelites that God continued to stand
in an unbroken and eternal relationship of grace to
the forefathers of the nation, lay an implicit sense
1 Gen. v. 24 ; 2 Kings ii. 1 1 ; 1 Sam. xxviii. 1 1 foil.
2 Luke xx. 38. Z 2

34°

PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.

of the enduring dignity and preciousness of human
nature — a sense which formed a suitable foundation
for the idea of personal immortality1. Nor must
it be forgotten that the Law itself, in appealing sternly
to man's faculty of obedience, implicitly recognized
his worth as a being capable of response to moral
commands. Mosaism recognizes, so to speak, the
theomorphic structure of man ; it treats him as a
spiritual being ; it recognizes his moral freedom, his
capacity for perfection and for fellowship with God.
Indeed it might be maintained that upon this view
of human nature ' the whole religion of Israel, with
its idea of the kingdom of God, its worship and its
prophecy, is founded 2.'
The Mosaic conception of human nature is inherited
and further developed by the prophets and psalmists. In
the writings of the prophets the individual relationship
of man to God is contemplated from the moral side.
Thus Jeremiah and Ezekiel qualify the doctrine of
inherited guilt by insistence on the truth of individual
accountability. The former prophet in his vision of
the future new covenant includes the idea of personal
salvation : In those days they shall say no more, The
fathers have eaten a sour grape, and the children' s teeth
are set on edge. But every one shall die for his own
iniquity3. And the thought is expanded in detail by
Ezekiel : The soul that sinncth, it shall die. The son
shall not bear the iniquity of the father, neither shall
the father bear the iniquity of the son : the righteousness
of the righteous shall be upon him, and the wickedness of
the wicked shall be upon himA. (It may have been
Ezekiel's sense of the heavy personal responsibility
1 Cp. Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 192 : ' Lag in der Gew\ssheit, dass der
Fromme in der Gnadengemeinschaft mit dem ewigen Gott sterbe, der
triebkraftige Keim, aus welchem sich die Hoffhung des ewigen Lebens
entwickeln, und in jenem Glauben an Gottes Macht uber Tod und
Totenreich lag das Fundament auf welches der Auferstehungsglaube
gegriindet werden konnte.'
2 Schultz, ii. 263. 3 Jer. xxxi. 29 foil.
1 Ezek. xviii. 20. Cp. Kirkpatrick, The Doctrine of the Prophets,
pp. 340 foil.

vn] the old testament

341

involved in his own calling and mission that led him
to develope this line of thought.) It was the neces
sary correction of a view of divine governance which,
though it seemed to be the logical outcome of the
Mosaic dispensation, had now done its work. Ezekiel,
dealing as a divinely appointed watchman or pastor
of souls with the despondency and apathy of the
exiles, found it necessary to proclaim a truth that
formed a new starting-point in the evolution of
religion x.
The psalmists occasionally betray their conscious
ness of two opposite aspects of human life. Lord,
what is man, that thou art mindful of him, and the
son of man, that thou visiles t him ? Thou madest him
lower than the angels, to crown him with glory and
worship. Thou madest him to have dominion of the
works of thy hands, and thou hast put all things in
subjection under his feet2. Of these two views, how
ever, the more ideal one everywhere prevails, and
indeed gives its characteristic tone and colour to
the Psalter. Consequently, although we find in the
Psalms the same chilling and cheerless conception of
death which the discipline of the Law had fostered,
yet alongside of it we find a conviction, ever growing
in clearness and strength, of the subsistence of an
indestructible bond between the living God and the
creatures whom He has visited and redeemed. The
idea has been justly called ' a sentiment rather than
an article of faith ' ; yet it seems to be powerful
enough to resist successfully the impression made by
the exterior phenomena of death. Thus we have
such passages as Ps. xlix. 1 5, God will redeem my soul
from the power of the grave, for he shall receive me,
the verb used being the same which occurs in the
narrative of Enoch's translation (Gen. v. 24), He was
not, for God took — received — him. With this passage
we may compare the outburst of faith in Ps. xvii. 15,
As for me, L will behold thy face in righteousness ;
1 Cp. Ezek. xxxiii. 7, 10; xxxvii. 11. 2 Ps. viii. 4, 5.

342

PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.

I shall be satisfied, when I awake, with thy likeness.
And to these might be added the sublime verses
which close the seventy-third Psalm : Thou shalt guide
me with thy counsel, and afterward receive me to
glory. Whom have I in heaven but thee? and there
is none upon earth that I desire beside thee. My
flesh and my heart faileth, but God is the strength of
my heart, and my portion for ever. The devout Jew
was in fact able to feel secure even with the prospect
of dissolution before him, in the firm conviction of his
relationship to a perfectly holy and loving being. He
rested in the thoughts of peace which his religion sup
plied, not inventing, as the heathen did, a definite
picture of the future state, but trusting calmly to omni
potent goodness as the one constant and fixed reality
amid the decay and change of visible nature1. He
was not blind to the positive lessons presented by the
daily spectacle of human mortality. He doubtless
learned to connect the mystery of death with the fact
of sin and of God's wrath, as the ninetieth Psalm
testifies ; and this consciousness of a close relation
subsisting between death and sin would certainly be
deepened by the ceremonial defilement which under
the Law was involved in any contact with death.
Nevertheless, the true Israelite could hold fast to
his trust in God2 ; he could submit to be gathered
to his fathers in peace, secure in the thought of that
personal relation to God which he had proved by the
experience of life to be a solace and a stay. For
the very call to communion with God of which he was
conscious would be to him a pledge of uninterrupted
life. The character of God — His covenant-faithful
ness, His creative compassion for the souls which
He had made — could assure the righteous man of
protection. Death would be a supreme and trustful
self-surrender. Into the hands of God he would com-
1 Cp. Mozley, Essays, ii. 173.
2 See Job xix. 25 foil. ; Ps. xcii. 13 foil. ; Prov. xi. 7 ; xiv. 32 ; xxiii. 18 ;
xxiv. 14 ; Isa. lvii. 2.

vn] THE OLD TESTAMENT 343
mend his spirit in confidence that a being whom God
had so highly favoured would not utterly perish. The
hope of the devout Israelite might, in short, be ex
pressed in the words of Augustine : Junge cor tuum
immortalitati Dei, et cum illo aeternus eris 1. Without
therefore laying too much stress on isolated passages,
or reading into them a belief which was not yet
developed, there is ground for the statement that at
least the foundation was laid in the Mosaic system for
a doctrine of immortality, since the Law presupposed
and inculcated the truth of man's dignity and worth as
a being called to communion with God and capable of
rendering moral obedience to His will.
2. The second main foundation on which the doc
trine of a future life could be based is to be found in
the gradually awakened sense of the anomalies and
difficulties of God's moral government, and the apparent
uncertainties of divine retribution.
The Mosaic doctrine of retribution is well repre
sented in such a passage as Lev. xxvi, which em
bodies the general doctrine of the Law that ultimately
man's earthly lot will correspond with his desert. It
is one of the incidental limitations of Mosaism that
it represents the present world as the only scene of
God's distributive justice. It almost invariably connects
material prosperity with righteous conduct and dis
aster with wickedness. Certainly there are traces in
the Old Testament of something much higher than mere
eudaemonism. Earthly blessings are promised to the
righteous, but it is taught that they are to be prized
mainly as tokens or pledges of divine favour. The
psalmists and prophets rise to the thought that in
the presence of God is fullness of joy, that He is the
hope of the soul, its treasure and its portion in the
land of the living, its unfailing source of gladness, even
although the fig tree shall not blossom neither shall fruit
1 Enarr. in Ps. xci. 8. Cp. Cheyne, Aids to the Devout Study of
Criticism, p. 159 : ' Living as he does by prayer, and with a sense of the
invisible things which grows every day in strength and purity, he cannot
imagine that his intimacy with God will come to an abrupt end.'

344

PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.

be in the vines1. And in general it seems to be true
that the Old Testament idea of 'life2' as the sum
of blessing points to something higher than material j
prosperity, just as the narrative of Joseph sold by his,
brethren, wrongfully accused and thrown into bondage
in Egypt, might suggest the possibility of suffering-
befalling the innocent. But these are only dim antici
pations of a deeper conception of retribution. The
simpler Mosaic doctrine was one with which Jewish
faith was evidently loath to part. It seems to underlie
the treatment of history in the books of Samuel and
Kings. In the books of Chronicles the belief appears
in an almost unqualified form — the writer's apparent
aim being to construct a theodicy 3 rather than a
history, based on the principle that the temporal
happiness or misery of the nation was entirely deter
mined by its attitude to the moral and ceremonial
injunctions of the levitical Law. But it is clear that
while this theory might be suitable to the phenomena
of a simple and comparatively stable condition of
society, it was liable to break down under the strain
and stress of troublous times ; it would not correspond
with men's experience of the actual and visible facts
of a highly-developed and corrupt civilization. In
such a state of things the invariable association of
righteousness with earthly prosperity was not found to
hold good. The afflictions of the godly were matters
of daily experience. A Josiah was slain in battle; 'a
Jeremiah was crushed beneath a thousand woes, and
sorrow-stricken psalmists prayed in vain to be delivered
from the injustice and oppression of the great. ... In
a word, evil appeared to come purely from a law
of nature, absolutely irrespective of moral order4.'
Now these unwelcome facts of human experience
1 See Ps. xvi. 5 foil.; cxlii. 5; Habak. iii. 17, 18. Cp. W. S. Bruce,
The Ethics of the 0. T. pp. 21, 22.
2 WH Deut. xxx. 15 foil.; Prov. viii. 35; xii. 28, &c. Cp. Oehler,
§89- 3 Cp. Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 448.
4 Schultz, ii. 209.

vn] THE OLD TESTAMENT 345
were met sometimes with a persistent denial, sometimes
with sorrowful expostulation and strenuous assertions
of innocence : for we must remember that the Law had
not only trained men to the belief that suffering is the
result of sin ; it had also produced the sense of guilt,
and its opposite the consciousness of innocence. This
latter spirit was characteristic of post-exilic Judaism. It
breathes in many of the Psalms ; and a main element in
Job's truthfulness and rectitude of character is his stead
fast refusal to condemn himself1. The same temper
finds utterance in the cries of expostulation with God on
the apparent injustice of His dealings, which we meet
with in Scripture — in the protests and appeals of such
typical passages as Psalm lxxiii ; Jeremiah, chap, xii ;
or Habakkuk, chap. i. The fact is that an adequate
doctrine of future retribution was as yet lacking. The
righteous sufferer of the Old Testament was left to
hope against hope that what he had ever believed to
be a law of divine governance would yet somehow be
triumphantly vindicated. The same sense of injured
rectitude also contributes to the impatience and thirst
for vengeance which startles us in the imprecatory
passages of the Old Testament. Both alike — the
expostulations and the curses uttered by godly
Israelites — bear witness to the perception of a serious
moral difficulty, the attempted explanation of which
was to lead to more profound views of the future state,
as one in which the anomalies of the present would be
corrected. So far as the Psalms deal with this problem, a solu
tion seems to be implicitly contained in the idea
previously noticed, that namely of such a ' saving and
indissoluble union with God' as might adequately
compensate the righteous man for his undeserved
suffering and for the prosperity of the wicked. In
the Wisdom literature, however, we seem to be able to
trace a continuous and progressive effort to solve the
problem. Thus the book of Proverbs, reflecting the
1 Job xxvii. 5.

346 PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
experience of a relatively simple state of society,
reproduces on the whole the general principles which
had been inculcated by the Mosaic discipline. The
authors of the Proverbs have a naive confidence in
their belief that sin and suffering, righteousness and
earthly prosperity, are causally connected. This
optimism, says Professor Cheyne, is 'just what we
might expect in a simple and stationary condition
of society. The strange thing is that it should have
lasted on when oppression from within or hostile
attacks from without brought manifold causes of
sorrow upon both bad and good. . . . There must
have been circles of Jewish moralists averse to specula
tion who would continue to repeat the older view of
providential government even at a time when the
social state had completely exposed its shallowness V
There are, however, hints here and there in the
Proverbs that suggest a more profound moral insight ;
in some passages, at least, there is a consciousness
expressed that suffering may fulfil a probationary and
disciplinary function even in the case of the righteous.
For instance, in Prov. iii. 11,12 we discover a view of
suffering different from that of the traditional theory:
My son, despise not the chastening of the Lord, neither
be weary of his correction ; for whom the Lord loveth
he coirrecteth, even as a father the son in whom he
delighteth. Then follows an ' era of difficulties 2 ' — such a period
as included the decay and ruin of the Jewish monarchy,
the great cataclysm of the exile, and the' difficulties
of life in Palestine after the restoration. The age of
Solomon appeared, in retrospect at least, as a golden
age : at any rate, it was believed to have been a period
of generally diffused prosperity. Probably there had
been in Solomon's reign a strong consciousness of
national unity, a fair administration of justice, and
1 fob and Solomon, p. 122.
2 See Dean Farrar's introduction to the Book of Wisdom in the
Speaker's Commentary.

vn] THE OLD TESTAMENT

347

a sense of order, stability, and security in the conditions
of life. But towards the close of the monarchical period,
when pastoral habits had to a great extent disappeared
and given way to those of commerce and trade, in
equalities of social condition became more apparent ;
the prosperity of wicked men was a patent fact,
and the social troubles of a decaying civilization
forced the question of retribution again into notice.
The miseries of life in Palestine during the time of
the Persian domination seem to be reflected in the
book of Ecclesiastes. The prevalent evils were
' unrighteous judgment, despotic oppression, riotous
court-life, the raising of mean men to the highest
dignities, the inexorable severity of the law of military
service, the prudence required by the organized system
of espionage V But above all, the captivity itself was
the crowning example of the undeserved sufferings of
the righteous 2- The figure of the patriarch Job is, as
we have noticed elsewhere, a type of the righteous
servant of God overwhelmed by unmerited affliction,
and there is some reason to connect the composition
of the book with the period of the exile 3. It may be
intended to impress upon the godly in Israel a new
view of suffering as not merely penal but probationary
and disciplinary, testing fidelity and patience. It may
be remarked in passing that this was an idea which
we find already suggested in the book of Deuteronomy
and in some passages of the prophetic writings 4, and
that the author of Isaiah liii carries the thought further.
He points to the possibility of vicarious or substitu
tionary suffering ; and the traits common to the sublime
figure of that chapter, and the representation of Job,
make it probable that the same idea is hinted at in the
1 Delitzsch, quoted by Cheyne, Job and Solomon, p. 258. See Eccl.
iii. 16 ; iv. 1 ; v. 8 ; viii. 9 ; x. 16 foil. Possibly the book of Joel also
illustrates the condition of Palestine during the Persian period. Cp. Hunter,
op. cit. pp. 238 foil. ; Cornill, Einleitung in das A. T. § 28.
2 Cp. Habak. ii. 3 Cp. Driver, Introduction, &c., p. 405.
4 See Deut. viii. 2; Hos. ii. 8 foil.; Jer. xxxv. 13; Isa. xxvii. 8;
Ps. lxvi. 10 foil.

348 PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
book of Job itself, which teaches that Job's sufferings
give him intercessory power 1. The problem discussed
however remains, as Professor Cheyne observes, un
solved in the book itself. Indeed the older doctrine of
retribution is expressly confirmed by the issue, accord
ing to which Job's fidelity is rewarded with an enlarged
measure of earthly blessedness. The net result of the
book then is the proved insufficiency of the traditional
opinion that all suffering can be accounted for by
personal sin. In chapters xiv-xix, however, we find
a" further advance towards a solution of the difficulty,
in the hints there given of a supra-mundane justice
manifesting itself, if not in this life, then beyond its
boundary. It is difficult to determine exactly the
significance of the main passage (xix. 26, 27) that bears
upon the point in question 2, and it is manifest that the
suggestion is left undeveloped, whatever be its precise
import. Job himself falls back on the lower standpoint
and presses for a solution of his unexplained sufferings
on this side of death. And the great lesson of the
book is that of patient waiting.
The book of Ecclesiastes, reflecting the sad expe
rience of days when the bulk of the nation was in
danger of losing its higher hopes and sinking into
listless and sullen despondency, marks an ' era of
quiescence.' In the book of Job an appeal is made
to the divine omnipotence, the thought being that
supreme power implies a supreme righteousness in
which the pledge of a further revelation is involved.
But in Ecclesiastes the problem of retribution is
virtually abandoned as insoluble. The writer is led
through the many-sided experience of life, which for
him ends only in satiety and despair, to give up his
fruitless efforts to comprehend the principles of God's
moral government3. He evidently realizes keenly the
1 Job xiii. 8.
2 See Riehm, ^477. Theologie, pp. 360, 361. The idea of Job seems to
be that God as a Gael or Avenger of blood will some day stand over
his grave and vindicate his character. Cp. Schultz, ii. 329 foil.
3 Renan, L ' EccUsiaste, p. 40 : ' Cohelet a sa place ddfinie dans cette

VI0 THE OLD TESTAMENT 349
untenableness of the traditional view of retribution :
but he ultimately arrives at the negative conclusion
that trustful obedience, submission to God's known will
for man, and steadfast fulfilment of moral duty can
alone make life tolerable. There is, however, a sugges
tion peculiar to the book : it ends with the presage of
a judgment, involving a new self-manifestation of God,
by which the riddle of the present world will be solved \
Moreover, it is noticeable that the writer of Ecclesiastes
still clings to that sense of personal relationship to
God which differentiates man from the brute2, and
points to a possible continuation of existence after
death. On the whole, then, the last word of the Old Testa
ment is one of resignation not unhopeful. The
tendency was already manifesting itself to push the
solution of the moral problems of human life beyond
the limits of life itself, and to base the justifica
tion of God's ways on eschatological doctrine 3.
It is true that in some passages of an apocalyptic
character we find a doctrine of resurrection, though
still confined within nationalistic limits. The idea of
a resurrection of Israel as a nation from its grave is
found in Hosea and in Ezekiel4. But the author of
Isaiah xxiv-xxvii foretells a divine victory over death
in the Messianic age, and the awakening to new life
of the godly members of the elect nation who have
perished. The purport of Daniel xii. 2 is similar.
histoire du long combat de la conscience juive contre riniquite" du monde.
II repre'sente une pause dans la lutte.' Cp. Kuenen, Religion of Israel,
ch. x.
1 Observe this is a point common to the Old and the New Testament.
Cp. Ritschl, Unterricht in der Christlichen Religion, § 18, note d : 'Die
Dichter im A. T. sehen sich durchgehend in ihrer natiirlichen Erwartung
getauscht dass es den Gerechten gut, den Gottlosen iibel ergehen miisse.
Sie miissen sich begniigen, die Auf losung des umgekehrten Thatbestandes
fur die Zukunft von Gott zu erbitten. Oeshalb wird die Herstellung der
richtigen Ordnung auf die Erwartung des zukiinftigen Gerichtes Gottes
fixirt, sowohl im A. wie im N. T.'
2 Eccl. iii. 21 ; xii. 7.
3 Cp. Farrar, ubi supra, p. 417 ; Cheyne, fob and Solomon, p. 201.
4 Hos. vi. 2; xiii. 14; Ezek. xxxvii. Cp. Riehm, ATI. Theologie,
p. 346.

35°

PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.

This passage does not imply a general resurrection
from the dead, but a rising again of all Israel's
dead, good and bad alike, some to everlasting life, and
some to shame and everlasting contempt \ The doctrine
of a general resurrection first makes its appearance in
some post-canonical literature, e. g. the Apocalypse of
Baruch, and the book of Enoch 2. Only in the New
Testament is it proclaimed with such clearness that
St. Paul can declare that life and immortality have
been brought to light through the gospel3.
II.
A presage then, rather than any definite or clear
anticipation of a future life, was the outcome of the
long period of discipline which began with the legisla
tion of Moses. But, at any rate, the foundation of
a true spiritual life was laid ; the soul of the godly
Israelite learned to possess itself. Conscious of its
high calling, Hebrew faith strove to apprehend the
significance and privileges of that close relationship
with God to which it felt itself summoned. We see
the fruit of its endeavours in the book of Psalms.
We shall best understand the true function of this
book if we consider the real meaning of religion.
The question what in its essence religion is, is an old
one, and the history of human thought on the subject
is full of solemn pathos, mainly because it is the
story of fundamental and most disastrous miscon
ceptions. There was, for instance, an age, and a condi
tion of human speculation about God, when it could
be said in bitter earnest —
' Tantum relligio potuit suadere malorum *.'
And there are those even in the present day whose
confidence in their power to survey the whole field of
1 Cp. 2 Mace. vii. 9 ; xii. 43 ; and see Nicolas, Des doctrines re-
ligieuses des fuifs, partie ii. ch. 6.
2 See Apoc. of Baruch, chh. xlix— Ii, with Mr. Charles' notes. Cp. the
same writer's edition of the Book of Enoch, p. 52.
3 2 Tim. i. 10. 4 Lucr. de Rer. Nat. i. 101.

vii] THE OLD TESTAMENT 351
human progress leads them to speak of Jesus Christ as
one whose intentions were good, yet who has done
infinite mischief to the world '. The imperfections and
inconsistencies of religious men, the disastrous mistakes
into which the Church has now and then been
betrayed by the folly and shortsightedness of her own
children, the divisions of Christendom — all these have
no doubt fatally wounded nascent faith, and retarded
the advance of the divine kingdom : they have pro
duced either the impatience which betrays or the despair
which abandons the cause of God. And yet when we
endeavour to explain to ourselves that overwhelming
and heart-piercing fact of the general aversion from
religion which is so common in the present as in every
age we shall, I think, find that ultimately it is due to
a fundamental mistake as to the true meaning of
religion. The experience of saints recorded in Scrip
ture shows that religion is, and from the first ever has
been, the life of friendship with God ; nothing can be
clearer than this conception as it is marked for us in
each stage in Israel's history 2. A friendship between
God and the soul of man — this is religion. So the
Old Testament tells us of Enoch, who walked with
God ; of Noah, to whom God revealed His secret
purpose of judgment ; of Abraham, who was called
the friend of God; of Jacob, the object of divine
pity, protection and favour throughout the days, few
and evil, of his pilgrimage ; of Moses, with whom the
Lord spake face to face as a man speaketh with his
friend ; of Samuel, dedicated to the service of Jehovah
from his childhood ; of David, the recipient of awful
and momentous, yet most tender, promises. The
prophets too— they are friends of God 3 : they repre-
1 The remark is quoted, apparently with approval, by Darmesteter in
a review of Renan's Histoire du peuple d'Israel (see Les Prophites d'Lsrael,
' 2 There is great truth in a striking remark of M. Renan : ' Le peuple
juif est a la fois le peuple le plus religieux et celui qui a eu la religion la
plus simple' (L'EccUsiasle, p. 28).
3 Wisd. vii. 27.

352

PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.

sent in their own persons the ideal calling of every
individual Israelite : that life of holy intimacy, of
upward-looking faith, of unreserved self-surrender
which was really involved in the vocation of God's
chosen from the first.
But it is chiefly in the psalmists that we find typical
representatives of religion — of the life of love. The
element that is local, national, temporary in the Psalter
is comparatively insignificant. ' What gives the Psalms,
even more than the Prophets, their value as classical
devotional writings for all times and peoples, is just
the withdrawal and partly the total absence of the
national theocratic point of view. Cares about the
fates of peoples and the future ideals of universal
history lay far from the Psalm-poet of the Persian and
Greek age ; to him the place of the secular state was
taken by the religious community1.' The Psalms
describe the converse of the human soul with God —
the human soul in its solitariness, its frailty, its aspira
tions, its yearnings for ideal truth, light, peace,, love,
and joy. They bear witness, as no human literature
has ever done, to the elemental fact of life, that
' God alone can satisfy whom God alone created.'
For to the psalmists God is all in all : the refuge in
any trouble, the rock which stands unshaken amid the
storms of human life, the supreme solace in loneliness,
the living object of the soul's thirst, its richest and
most precious portion and possession, the object of
its tenderest, most passionate and yet most restful
self-surrender, trust, and love. This is the blessed
ness of the true Israelite's religion : his portion is
God, the living God2, more close, more dear, more
faithful than father or mother3, bringing refreshment
as the true fountain of life, and gladness as the
source of all beauty and light. In the Psalms it is
1 Pfleiderer, Gifford Lectures, vol. ii. pp. 57 foil.
2 Ps. xiii. 2. Cp. Ps. lxxiii. 25 ; Lam. iii. 24.
3 Ps. xxvii. 10.

vn] THE OLD TESTAMENT 353
love which breathes, love which awakes and sings like
a bird in spring. The whole passion of the human
heart pours itself forth in that endless variety of
phrase in which it strives to realize what God is to the
soul. The psalmists look at all things with the eye of
love : at the past history of Israel, the vicissitudes
of the soul's life, the troubles of the righteous, the
ordinances of temple worship, the requirements of the
Law, the solitariness of exile, the mysteries of pain and
death. And here we touch on what is most fundamental
in human life : the soul's capacity for loving God
above all things, and resting in Him as a refuge and
home. It is surely for this reason that the Church of
God places the Psalter in the hands of her children :
she would train them to think the thoughts, to utter
the language, to experience the affections of love.
There can be no more eloquent testimony as to the
true meaning and power of religion ; there can be no
higher expression of its essential spirit than is con
tained in the Psalms. Religion — the relationship of
love — is here described, is here describing itself, as
the supreme satisfaction of man's deepest and most
personal needs ; and the essential inter-dependence of
ethics and religion is implied in the soul's discovery
that the highest good is God, and that communion
with Him is the only blessedness.
Now the peculiar contribution of the Psalter to the
religious life seems to lie in its uniform recognition of
the truth of divine providence — of the personal care
of God for the soul — that mystery which (as was once
said by Dr. Newman in this place) might well ' make us
laugh with perplexity and amazement.' O God, thou
art my God: here is the keynote of the book. The
confession marks a wonderful advance in the story of
human faith. A devout Israelite did indeed recognize
the hand of God in nature and in history. He
watched with reverence and awe the operation of an
invincible and righteous will in the universe. He
acknowledged its supremacy : Whatsoever Jehovah
a a

354

PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.

pleased, that did he in heaven, and in earth, in the
sea, and in all deep places. It was He who bringeth
forth the clouds from the ends of the world; He who
smote the firstborn of Egypt, both of man and beast 1.
Jewish faith intuitively perceived that all things were
so guided and controlled as to serve the purposes and
promote the ends of a moral kingdom. The conception
of miracle was unclouded by any speculative difficulty,
for to the Jew the idea of the fixity of natural laws
was entirely subordinate to the sense of a righteous
will bearing all things onward in a divinely pre
determined course. The self-revelation of God — this
was what gave to history its significance, to human
life its dignity, to nature its mysteriousness 2. But it
needed a certain development of subjective religion
to prepare the way for the belief which is reflected
in the Psalter — the belief in God not merely as the
awful ruler of the universe, but as the precious
possession of the soul. It is indeed, if we think of it,
a new spiritual discovery that underlies the habitual
language of the Psalms. That the Creator cares for
the single soul, that He answers prayer, that His
ear is open to the cry of spiritual desolation or need,
that He can dispose and overrule the hearts of men as
it pleases Him, that He watches and protects the
individual life, shields it from peril and provides for its
natural necessities, that His care extends even to the
beasts of the forest or of the field, and to the birds of
the air — this belief was new. In modern times it is
that which seems most to be threatened by the im
mensities opened to us by science. Yet once realized
it is the very foundation-truth of religion. He that
cometh to God, says an apostolic writer, must believe
that he is 3 ; and he surely who prays and longs to
love God, must believe that He hears, and cares for
1 Ps. cxxxv. 6 foil.
2 It is noticeable that the later Psalms are full of the thought of God's
immediate presence and handiwork in the ordinary processes and
incidents of nature.
3 Heb. xi. 6.

vn] the old testament

355

the soul. The Psalms testify to the fact that the
Jew equally with the Christian, so far as each is
true to his faith, lives in the sense of divine provi
dence *. It is a belief which must in any case
follow from any vivid realization by man of God's
personality, and of his own. The restoration in oUr
time of the lost sense of a Father's providence, which
watches and tends and guides the individual soul,
depends upon the measure in which the Christian
Church can bring home to men the truth of the divine
personality, and by its active ministries can re-awaken
the consciousness of a love which works behind the
veil, though obscured by the unlovely struggles, the
harsh competitions, the agonies, disasters, degradations,
and failures incidental to the march of civilization.
It is unnecessary to enlarge on this point ; but it is
worth while to notice that the general teaching of the
Psalms on this subject pervades other books of the
Hagiographa. In a sense the Psalter gives a character
to the entire division of the Hebrew Scriptures in
which it occupies the foremost place. Its importance
corresponds to its apparently accidental position, and
to the fact that the entire collection of Hagiographa
seems to be occasionally quoted by the title of The
Psalms 2. All the books may be said to be con
nected by the common conception of religion as not
merely a covenant relationship between God and the
chosen people, but as a personal possession and stay
of the individual soul. The dramatic Song of Solomon,
in its primary acceptation, may be regarded as a divine
consecration of human love. Incidentally, in so far
as it makes for purity in the relation of the sexes, it
serves to emphasize an element in the religion of
Jehovah which sharply distinguished it from the nature-
worship of Canaan. But the usage of the New
Testament and the traditional practice of interpreters
1 Consider Ps. xxxiii. 13-15. See generally Weill, Le fudaisme, ses
dogmes et sa mission, troisieme partie, chh. I, 2.
2 Luke xxiv. 44. A a 2

356 PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
warrant us in regarding the Song as a description of
the mystical relationship between God and the indi
vidual soul. Hengstenberg has pointed out that
the New Testament is pervaded by references to the
Song of Songs, and all of them are based on the
supposition that it is to be interpreted spiritually.
' Proportionately,' he says, ' no book of the Old
Testament is so frequently referred to implicitly or
explicitly in the New Testament as this one V The
song is in fact an idealized representation of that
relationship of love between the soul and God which
in the New Testament is so often described under
the metaphor of a bridal 2. The power of using
the book with spiritual profit is a great test both
of proficiency in the spiritual life, and of purity of
heart ; and its general significance seems to be inde
pendent of difficulties in regard to its arrangement and
exposition. When we consider its place in the Hebrew
Scriptures, and the close connexion of some of its
language with that of the Psalms, we shall feel that
the allegorical method of interpretation which prevailed
both among the Jews and the Christian Fathers,
though it has been modified in detail by a critical
investigation of the book, is yet in the main a true
mode of dealing with it. In any case its ethical value
has been vindicated ; but we may also truthfully
recognize in it a spiritual and mystical purport 3.
Something of the same personal character seems to
distinguish the historical books of the Hagiographa.
The book of Ruth and the book of Esther seem to
describe in conspicuous instances the way in which
the providence of God works through individuals and
guides their fortunes. The book of Ruth is not
only of historical importance as recording the ancestry
of Israel's first king. It also bears witness to the
1 See passages collected in Comm. on Eccles., &c, pp. 297-303.
2 e. g. John iii. 29 ; Eph. v. 27 ; Apoc. iii. 20 ; xix. 7 foil.
3 Cp. Keil, Introduction to the O. T. vol. i. p. 506 ; Driver, Introduction,
&c, pp. 423, 424; A. ReVille, The Song of Songs (Eng. Tr.).

vn] THE OLD TESTAMENT

357

reality of a divine love which welcomes, accepts, and
crowns with a fitting reward, humble and trustful
obedience to the laws of natural affection. It
describes the fulfilment beyond expectation of the
blessing pronounced by Boaz, The Lord recompense
thy work, and a full reward be given thee of the Lord
God of Israel, under whose wings thou art come to
trust 1. The book of Esther shows us the providence
of God acting with the same individual and dis
criminating tenderness, but on a grander stage. In
Ruth, God's guidance of the soul is illustrated ; in
Esther, His providence overruling the destinies of
His Church. There are of course defective moral
elements in the book which lie upon the surface ; but
its deeper teaching is not prejudiced by these 2.
Again, the historical portions of the book of Daniel
seem designed to illustrate God's willingness to mani
fest Himself even to the heathen, and the reality
of His lordship and sovereignty in the kingdom of
menz. Once more, in the large historical work which
comprises the books of Chronicles and their sequel
Ezra and Nehemiah, it would be a mistake to assume
that the historical interest is uppermost. In Chronicles
the aim is very clearly moral and didactic. We may
question the accuracy of the Chronicler's retrospect
of Israel's history, but we must acknowledge the
general truth of the lesson which he aimed at enforc
ing, namely, the reality of God's disciplinary dealings
with His people. A leading feature indeed of the
book seems to be the tendency to refer all effects to
the direct causation of God — to bring out vividly and
directly the reality of God's moral governance in
1 Ruth ii. 12.
2 Dalman, Das A. T. ein Wort Gottes, p. 13, remarks : ' Steht das
Esterbuch im losesten Zusammenhang mit dem Zweck der Sammlung,
nicht weil von Rache darin die Rede ist, . . . auch nicht, well der
Gottesname darin fehlt, . . . sondern weil das Purnnfest, welches es
motivieren will, kein wesentlicher Bestandteil des Gottesdienstes des
nachexilischen Israel der vormakkabaischen Zeit war, wie es ja auch
niemals in das Tempelritual Eingang gefunden hat.'
3 Cp. Dan. iv. 17, 25, 32.

358 PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
history, especially in that of the Hebrew nation. It
need not be a stumbling-block to us that the writer
' consciously or unconsciously shapes the facts to suit
the theory' if the theory be in itself plainly true,
though we may think that it is somewhat artificially
conceived and illustrated. An essential element in
true religion is the conviction that God's will is in
very truth the supreme force, the one ever-present
cause in history and human life, working indeed
on lines less simple than the Chronicler perhaps
imagined, but still acting ceaselessly in judgment, in
retribution, in far-seeing providence, in the overruling
of evil for purposes of universal good. The books of
Ezra and Nehemiah are also plainly more or less sub
jective in character. In these the personality of two
conspicuous men is very prominent ; but in both cases
the thought of a providential mission underlies their
recorded experiences ; the moral value of such a sense
of mission and its effect on conduct and character
could hardly be more plainly exhibited. The two
pictures together present us with two types of indi
vidual devotion, inspired by a consciousness of divine
guidance, and of a task providentially imposed. It
was the work of Ezra and Nehemiah to establish and
organize a Church, on such principles as would guard
Israel's distinctness from the heathen world and pre
serve its national unity. In the broad fact that these
books describe the reorganization of the temple
worship and the endeavour of the Jewish leaders to
secure a more general faithfulness to the conditions of
the divine covenant, we are to discern the element
which gives them a place in the Hagiographa. The
instruments whom God raised up to carry His purpose
to fulfilment were men who were themselves penetrated
by the thought of the blessedness of covenant fellow
ship with God.

vn] THE OLD TESTAMENT

III.

359

There is a third element in the life of personal
religion which the Old Testament Hagiographa bring
into prominence : namely, the sense of the fruitfulness
and blessedness of suffering. This theme, treated
under various aspects, is especially characteristic of the
Wisdom literature — the books of" Proverbs, Job, and
Ecclesiastes. The importance of these writings is due to various
causes, but the most obvious and striking feature in them
is the spirit of universalism. They are the products in
large measure of the contact between Judaism and
heathen, especially Hellenic, thought ; and they have
an enduring interest as forming a link of connexion
between Judaism and the philosophy of other nations.
In its exile and dispersion Israel became conscious
of its missionary function in the world, but it probably
also began to realize the religious capacities of alien
races and to take wider views of the divine govern
ment1. And so far as the Wisdom literature reflects
the spiritual experience which Israel had thus acquired,
it marks a stage in the advance of Judaism from being
a national faith to being a world-religion. What is it
then that gives to the Wisdom of the Hebrews its
universal istic character ?
First, no doubt, we should place the very con
ception of divine Wisdom. It was a conception by
which Hebrew thought bridged over the gulf between
God and the created universe ; and what was primarily
regarded as an attribute of God became poetically
personified as an objective power working in the
universe, at once reflecting and executing the creative
thoughts and purposes of the Most High. Wisdom
thus personified has been admirably described as
constituting 'a middle term' between the religion
of Israel and the philosophy of Greece. The Jewish
1 See some interesting remarks on this point in Stanton, The fewish
and the Christian Messiah, p. 105.

360 PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
use of the word was calculated to suggest that ' the
life of righteousness might be identified with the life
of true wisdom.'
Secondly, we notice in the Wisdom literature a ten
dency towards the systematic study of ethics. It is
the nearest approach to philosophy exhibited by the
Hebrew mind. It starts indeed with religious presup
positions : it bases the theory of life on a high and pure
conception of God ; it approaches problems from the
standpoint of Hebrew religion 1. But there is a certain
absence of religious warmth and a certain freedom
of treatment which are not distinctively Hebraic. The
book of Proverbs, for example, treats the subject
of ethics as resting on an independent ground of
reason, common sense, and experience, apart from
the teaching of revelation. It shows that the Jewish
thinker learned, through his contact with the wise and
cultured of other nations, that there was a common
ground on which he might stand side by side with
them ; while, conversely, in the sacred books of Israel,
a Greek would find shrewd and homely practical
teaching on the subjects of life and duty, virtue and
vice, wisdom and folly, which would be analogous to
that which was traditional among men of his own
race2. Indeed, in translating the book of Proverbs
the compilers of the Septuagint version would find
themselves compelled to borrow equivalent terms
from Greek ethics. The book is, in short, a mono
theistic treatise on practical ethics, its distinctive
feature being the idea of wisdom as something
transcendental, as a gift from God, manifested in a
supreme degree in Israel's Law, and attainable by
man only on condition of reverence and submission
to the revealed will of God. It is true that Ecclesiastes
shows little trace of religious ideas. On the contrary, the
writer seems to have lost his interest in religion ; it may
be he had been repelled and alienated by the exces-
1 Cp. Schultz, ii. 83, 84.
2 Cp. Prov. viii and ix with Xenophon, Memorabilia, ii. 1.

vn] THE OLD TESTAMENT 361
sive systematization of religion in the temple cultus,
or possibly his contact with Hellenism had raised in
his^ mind misgivings and questionings which his tra
ditional belief failed to allay or answer. Nevertheless,
if the book is to be treated as a unity, it must be
said to end with a religious solution of the problem
of human life. Its notion of duty is the fear of God
and obedience to a will supposed to be known. So
far the book recognizes a special divine revelation
vouchsafed to Israel.
But the most striking proof of the universalist
standpoint of the Wisdom literature is to be found
in the nature of the problems discussed in it : the
worth of life, the reality of God's providential govern
ment, above all the meaning and purpose of suffering.
Hence is derived a certain catholicity of tone in these
books which has often attracted attention. Thomas
Carlyle speaks of the book of Job as ' a noble book —
all men's book,' and Professor Froude comments on
its remarkable freedom from nationalistic elements.
' The life, the manners, the customs,' he observes, ' are
of all varieties and places. Egypt with its river and
its pyramids is there ; the description of mining points
to Phoenicia ; the settled life in cities, the nomad
Arabs, the wandering caravans, the heat of the tropics
and the ice of the north — all are foreign to Canaan,
speaking of foreign things and foreign people ... as
if in the very form of the poem to teach us that it
is no story of a single thing which happened once,
but that it belongs to humanity itself and is the
drama of the trial of man V
There is no doubt a national reference in the
narrative of Job. The book contained teaching
1 Short Studies, &c, vol. i. pp. 296, 297. In view of the freedom of the
book of Job from specially Hebrew characteristics, and specially the fact
that it illustrates the action of divine grace outside the pale of the covenant
people, Bishop Wordsworth observes that 'The reception of the book into
the Hebrew canon was a generous and large-hearted act of genuine
sympathy and comprehensive liberality and love. It was like a kiss of
peace given by Israel to its brother the Gentile world' (Commentary on
the Bible, Introd. to the Book of fob, p. vi).

362 PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
peculiarly adapted for Israel during the period of its
humiliation and suffering in a strange land. It may
be regarded as 'a new reading' of Hebrew history.
For the hero seems both in his circumstances and
in the tone of his thought to represent the afflicted
remnant of Israel, which appears to have had a
history marked by severe trials, borne with great
constancy of faith ; and some have supposed that
Job's wife, who appears as a temptress endeavouring
to seduce Job from his allegiance to God, represents
the multitude of Jews who apostatized or lapsed into
indifference under the stress of trial and persecution.
In any case there is a certain idealistic character in
the sufferings that fall upon Job, which cannot fail
to suggest a connexion between them and the
calamities threatened in the book of Deuteronony in
the event of Israel's disobedience to the divine
warnings x ; moreover, as has already been pointed
out, the figure of Job corresponds with the ideal
sufferer of Isaiah Hi and liii. Accordingly we may
discern in the epilogue of the book a word of con
solation for the true Israel : a promise of glorification
after suffering patiently endured2. The writer very
probably intended his fellow- Israelites to see in Job's
history a representation of their own misfortunes, and
to trace in the issue of them a forecast of their own
future restoration. We may also discern a corrective
intention in the book of Job. The form of the
picture was probably designed to act as an antidote
to the temper of self-righteousness, and to expose
the deficiencies of the current notion of retribution.
But it is in its contribution to the Messianic idea
that the special importance of the book seems to
lie. In one of his essays Dr. Mozley has pointed
out that the book of Job virtually stands in an
' interpretative ' relation to the general body of
1 Cp. Deut. xxviii. 27, 35 with Job ii. 7.
2 Isa. lxi. 7 speaks of Israel as receiving double ; cp. Job xiii. 12. See
also Isa. liv. 1 ; lx. 7 ; and cp. Job xiii. 10 with Ezek. xxxvi. 10 foil.

vn] THE OLD TESTAMENT 363
Messianic prophecy. If the Jew with his growing
expectation of a brilliant, prosperous, and victorious
Messiah was ever to accept a Messiah who should
lead a life of sorrow and abasement, and ultimately
be crucified between two thieves, ' it was necessary
that he should be somewhere taught that virtue was
not always rewarded here, and that therefore no argu
ment could be drawn from affliction and ignominy
against the person who suffered it.' This function
is evidently fulfilled not only by isolated passages
in prophecy, but by an entire book in which the
lesson is enforced, the book of Job1. To those who
like Job's three friends pertinaciously insisted on an
invariable connexion between suffering and sin, the
cross could not fail to be a stumbling-block 2.
But apart from all reference to the particular
circumstances of Israel, the book of Job has a catholic
aspect and function, in that it discusses a problem
which in one form or another is the problem of the
universe — the mystery of pain. The Hebrew ten
dency to individualize Israel's national experience, so
familiar a phenomenon in many of the Psalms as
well as in Job, falls in with the entire movement
of man's moral education as described in the Old
Testament. ¦ The sorrows of the nation led to deeper
reflection on the function of pain in the life of the
individual. Suffering was gradually recognized as
a necessary element in the evolution of higher life.
What the Christian learns from the example of his
Saviour, the devout Jew was taught to discover in
the collective experience of his people. It was a diffi
cult lesson. ' It came into collision,' says Schultz,
' with everything which a superficial faith was wont
to regard as most certain. When Israel was first
brought face to face with the idea that suffering might
fall upon a saint without being deserved as a punish
ment, it was only after a hard struggle, and many
1 See Mozley, Essays, vol. ii. pp. 227 foil.
2 Cp. Luke xiii. 2 ; John ix. 2, 34.

364 PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
a bitter trial that it succeeded in making this thought
its own1.' The book of Job bears witness to the
truth of this remark ; and it might be added that
an historical example of the agony which accompanied
the gradual dissolution of the traditional idea of suffer
ing is to be found in the experience of Jeremiah.
Almost startling is the expostulation of the afflicted
prophet : / sat not in the assembly of the mockers, nor
rejoiced ; / sat alone because of thy hand, for thou
hast filled me with indignation. Why is my pain per
petual, and my wound incurable, which refuseth to be
healed? wilt thou be altogether unto me as a liar, and
as waters that fail2? It was only by a discipline
which involved the righteous in the calamities brought
upon themselves by sinners that a new conception of
suffering could be awakened. It had to be recognized
that pain might have an educational function in the
personal life of the soul : that it was the necessary
condition of spiritual power, that it equipped men for
the task of raising, blessing, and saving their fellows,
that it imparted new gifts of character, and heightened
the faculty of moral intuition, that it was in short
a necessary element in the personal religious life.
It is not fanciful to discern a somewhat similar line
of teaching in the book of Ecclesiastes. Into its origin
and character it is needless to enter particularly. It
is certain, however, that it belongs to a time when
Hellenistic influences had deeply penetrated the
higher thought of Israel 3. It is also generally agreed
that the book is in some sense an autobiography —
perhaps a record of the conflicting moods and ex
periences of a child of Israel who had travelled far
and observed much, had perhaps utterly lost and then
painfully recovered, at least in a rudimentary form,
the faith of his childhood. A more detailed examina
tion of this book seems likely at the present time to
1 Old Testament Theology, vol. i. p. 319. 2 Jer. xv. 17, 18.
3 The date of the book seems to be not much earlier than 200 B. C.
See Cornill, Einleitung in das A. T. p. 252.

vn] THE OLD TESTAMENT 365
be fruitful. In the past it has certainly provoked
curiously different estimates. Luther, for instance,
calls it 'a noble book which it were well worth while
for all men to read with great carefulness every day.'
On the other hand, a modern German critic declares
that ' the end of all the preacher's admonitions is
recommending ease and enjoyment of life.' And
while Cornill compares the writer to Thersites, and
another critic describes the book as ' the work of
a morose Hebrew philosopher, composed when he was
in a dismal mood and in places thoroughly tedious,'
M. Renan has described it as ' livre charmant ! le seul
livre aimable qui ait etd compost par un juif1-'
Perhaps the more common impression formed of
Ecclesiastes is that expressed by von Hartmann. The
book, he says, is ' the breviary of the most modern
materialism.' Now considering the probable date of its composi
tion and the place which it holds in the canon, we are
probably right in considering that the main lesson of
the book relates to the mystery of pain. But first we
should notice the fact that it has a place in the litera
ture of Israel because it has a theological or redemptive
significance. It is not inaccurate to describe the book of
Ecclesiastes as a divine comment on the life and
thought of the Gentile world. Consider St. Paul's
description of that world as it lay open to his
experienced and penetrating gaze. Its leading cha
racteristic was vanity, aimlessness, — a life in which
no faculty was directed aright, in which all labour
seemed profitless and mean, all unselfish effort value
less, all worship emptied of satisfaction or hope. The
Gentiles walked in the vanity of their mind2; and
St. Paul bids his Ephesian converts remember what
and where they had been : Gentiles in the flesh, with-
1 L' Antichrist, p. 101 (quoted by Cheyne, Job and Solomon, p. 242).
Cp. the same writer's L'Ecclesiaste, p. 24.
2 Eph. iv. 17. Cp. Rom. i. 21.

366 PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
out Christ, aliens from the commonwealth of Israel,
and strangers from the covenants of promise, having;
no hope, and without God in the world 1. These last
words, eXTTiSa /xtj e^oures Kal &6eoi h ra> noo-fim, concentrate
in a single phrase the sum of human misery, yet how
appropriately they would form the motto of Eccle
siastes. From this point of view the interest of the
book is almost unique. It stands on a level with the
prophetic narrative of Jonah, and fulfils, if we may so
speak, an equally indispensable function in the litera
ture of revelation. In this book a pagan worldling,
sated, despairing, and weary of life, would find him
self not merely described but understood : he would
find his own hatred of life 2, his alienation from God,
his cynical despondency expressed and interpreted.
Thus the presence of the book in the canon may be
regarded as a token to the Jew that the Gentiles,
wandering in vanity and moral darkness and seeming
to be beyond the pale of divine care and covenant
grace, were after all not forgotten, not altogether
abandoned. The book is a pledge of coming good
even for them, and this not only because it describes
so truthfully the conflict of passionate moods that
might distract the undisciplined Gentile heart, but also
because it recognizes the fundamentals of natural
religion to which such a heart might half uncon
sciously still adhere. It speaks of God, the God
of Israel's faith, only by titles which the heathen
would acknowledge, avoiding the sacred name as was
customary in the later period of Judaism, and describ
ing the deity only as ' Creator' and ' Judge.' And in
the key-word of the book, ^4 // z'.y vanity, the writer seems
to cast up the sum-total of man's life and labours apart
from God ; nay, he expresses the condition of the
whole visible creation in its state of alienation from
1 Eph. ii. ii, 12.
2 Eccl. ii. 17, 'I hated life.' Renan, L'Eccle'siaste, p. 90: 'Le pessi-
misme de nos jours y trouve sa plus fine expression.' On the relation of
the book to modern pessimism see Wright, The Book of Koheleth (Donnel-
lan Lectures), ch. vi.

vii] THE OLD TESTAMENT 367
its Maker ; he describes the inherent emptiness and
nothingness of all that has not God for its end and
object 1. Solomon, in whose person the author
describes his own experiences, is taken as the type
of universal wisdom, which had put to the test all
that life had to offer of temporal good — pleasure,
wealth, power, knowledge — and had found a resting-
place for heart and mind nowhere but in God. But
though ascribed to the Hebrew monarch, the book
reflects the condition of a paganism that is practically
bankrupt 2.
But it is in relation to the problem of suffering
that Ecclesiastes marks a moment in the education
of humanity. It deals with pain, first, as a difficulty
to be discussed oh the basis of traditional ideas ;
secondly, as a disease to be ministered to, and if
possible healed. For the pain which it contemplates
is not merely that which affects bodily life and well-
being, but that which arises from contemplation of
the anomalies of the world in its totality. The book
reflects a spirit of far-reaching scepticism which calls
in question not merely the dealings of God with
the righteous, but the very existence of any provi
dential plan or government in the universe at all.
Consequently, Ecclesiastes may be said to have a
twofold aim : philosophic and didactic. First, it con
tributes something to the philosophical or moral
problem of retribution already noticed. We have
already observed that its standpoint is that of quies
cence. It practically renounces the fruitless effort
to comprehend the mystery of God's dealings with
1 Cp. Rom. viii. 20 ; and see Greg. Nyss. Horn. i. in Eccl. ftarawTris
e&Tiv rj pfjpa adiavorjTov rj 7rpaypa avovryrov rj /3oi»Xi) awiroo-TaTos rj CTrovdr)
¦nepas ovk c^owa rj Ka86Xov to iirl navrl Xvo-ireXovvn avimapKTOV. Cp. Hugo
de S. Vict., Horn, in Eccl. i.
2 Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 33, says : ' Das Heidentum als solches,
das sich durch die Triibung jenes Gottesbewusstseins durch das Welt-
bewusstsein charakterisiert, kann sonst nur negativ auf das Christentum
vorbereiten, sofern es mit sich selbst im Widerspruch steht und das
religiose Bediirfniss des menschlichen Herzens unbefriedigt lasst und
darum mit Bankerott endet.'

368 PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
men, in view of the fragmentariness of human know
ledge. This, as Cornill remarks, is a signal triumph
of Old Testament piety. The writer of Ecclesiastes,
he says, is so penetrated and dominated by the spirit
of Hebrew religion that he escapes the apparently
inevitable conclusion of his reasoning, viz. that the
world is subject to a blind and relentless Fate, and
falls back upon the belief in a personal God in whose
light the human race will see light1. Besides the
voice of pessimism, or ' malism ' as Professor Cheyne
prefers to calls it 2, we discern tones in the book which
contain ' the germ of a higher optimism ' ; for it ends
with the prediction of a judgment to come — a judg
ment which will solve the perplexities of the present,
and which because it is personal and particular, will
be relative to the opportunities of individuals, and
will involve the manifestation of every secret thing
in its true character.
Again, the book of Ecclesiastes has a didactic import.
Just as it seems to indicate the care and compassion
of God for the seemingly unregarded millions of
heathendom, so it is a welcome token of divine
sympathy with the mental perplexities and spiritual
sorrows of individual men. From this standpoint
we can even ascribe to the book an evangelical
function. It is an instance of the simple law that
in order to minister effectually to perplexity, we
must show that we understand it. Here, as occa
sionally in the Psalter and in the book of Job, Scripture
addresses itself to an abnormal mood — perhaps the
very darkest which the human soul is capable of
entertaining; in order to give a proof of its complete
power of understanding and even sympathizing in
some degree with every phase in the life of the human
spirit3. But Scripture only depicts the dark mood
1 Einleitung, p. 25 1. 2 Job and Solomon, p. 20.
3 So Augustine says of Ps. xciv that it speaks comfortably to the
perplexed soul, Enarr. in Psalm, xciii. 9 ; ' Compatitur tibi et Psalmus,
quaerit tecum, non quia nescit, sed ideo tecum quaerit quod scit, ut in illo
invenias quod nesciebas. Quomodo qui vult aliquem consolari, nisi

vn] THE OLD TESTAMENT 369
in order that the soul may be educated out of it and
lifted into the light of faith. Ecclesiastes ends by
pointing to the certainty of judgment, and to the
life of obedience. In these lies the only hope of
attaining to further light in regard to the problems
of existence. Thus while the Old Testament finds
a place for the cry of perplexity, and shows its com
passion for the agony of doubt, it teaches that a
remedy or alleviation is to be found only in fidelity
to known moral duty. Our Lord practically endorses
the admonition with which the book of Ecclesiastes
concludes when He plainly says, If any man will do
his will, he shall know of the doctrine whether it be
of God, or whether I speak of myself x.
We have reason then to be thankful that, owing
apparently to the liberal and large-hearted spirit
that prevailed in the school of Hillel, Ecclesiastes
was allowed to find a place in the Hebrew Canon 2.
For it is undoubtedly a book of peculiar value to those
who have to deal with the mental ailments, often so
subtle and so complex, that are peculiar to the present
bewildering stage of modern civilization. It illustrates
the manner in whi'ch the temper of paralyzing scep
ticism may be most efficiently treated, and it points
to a simple creed as the best antidote to hopelessness,
aimlessness, and heedless oblivion. Its characteristic
lesson is the need of strenuousness in the life of the
soul — a lesson concisely summed up in the words
of St. Peter: Gird up the loins of your mind, be sober,
and hope to the end for the grace that is to be brought
unto you at the revelation of Jesus Christ3. The
last word of the Old Testament Wisdom is a warning
that human life must be ennobled by moral purpose,
condoleat cum illo, non ilium erigit. Prius cum illo dolet, et sic eum
reficit sermone consolatorio.' Cp. Enarr. ii. in Psalm, xxi. 4 : ' Intelligat
homo medicum esse Deum, et tribulationem medicamentum esse ad
salutem, non poenam ad damnationem.'
1 John vii. 17.
2 See Cheyne, Job and Solomon ; and Ryle, Canon of the O. T.
pp. 195 foil.
3 1 Pet. i. 13.
Bb

37° PERSONAL RELIGION IN [lect.
brightened by hope, and sobered by perpetual recollec
tion of the end.
I have endeavoured to show that the Hagiographa
are pervaded by certain ideas which bear directly
upon the spiritual life in man. These ideas were
suggested by the actual experience of Israel's history ;
they were developed and confirmed by the discipline
of the Law, and they have been transmitted to Chris
tianity as permanent elements in the religious character.
It is a remarkable characteristic of the Hebrew genius
that it clings closely to concrete facts and historical
traditions, without apparently possessing the plastic
power to create, as the Greek and Teutonic spirit
created, a purely imaginative literature. ' The mind,'
it has been said, ' which feeds eagerly on the evidences
of an actual Providence will not care to live in a
world of its own creation1.' The Jew stood alone
in his persistent sense of a vocation to the life of
communion with God. The thought possessed him
and absorbed him ; it awakened memories, it quickened
imagination, it roused emotion, it trained the faculty
of spiritual insight. A passionate conviction of the
divinely-ordained -dignity of human nature stirred him
to self-consecration. ' He recognized that man was in
nature only a little lower than the angels, that dominion
over the creatures was his birthright, that God had
verily put all things under his feet.
From the sense of human worth and dignity the Jew
advanced slowly and tentatively to a presage of his
own immortality. A being so favoured, so aspiring, so
richly endowed, so precious in the sight of God, could
not be made for naught2, could not be destined to pass
into nothingness. But the longings and intuitions of
the devout Israelite were not left to exhaust them
selves in vain speculations : they rested upon the
solid basis supplied by an historical revelation. The
1 R. H. Hutton, Essays Literary and Theological, vol. ii. p. 211.
2 Ps. lxxxix. 47.

vii] THE OLD TESTAMENT

371

tradition of ancestral faith testified to the existence
of a God of redeeming grace who had actually
entered into a covenant relationship with Israel, and
whose supernatural guidance of its fortunes was a
reality testified by age-long experience. This faith
gave strength and consistency to the hope of a life
beyond the grave, since it suggested the idea of a
watchful providence which, while mindful of national
destinies, was yet careful of the single life. The
Israelite could commend his parting soul into the
hands of a faithful Creator, who had tended and
guided him throughout the days of his pilgrimage,
and could be utterly trusted not to forsake him in
his passage through the valley of the shadow of death.
It was a dim faith, but it sufficed till the day of a new
revelation should break, and the shadows flee away 1.
But advancing experience, while it deepened the Jew's
assurance of an overruling providence sustaining and
guiding the individual, gave rise to a new perplexity.
There came a period when the Israel of God, conscious
of its zealous devotion to Jehovah and its fidelity
to His revealed will, found itself in exile — comfortless,
afflicted, persecuted. In their efforts to comprehend
the meaning of a calamity that seemed to contradict
their most cherished convictions, godly men were
led to a more profound view of the mystery of
suffering. Israel's history suggested dimly at least
the great part which sorrow had played in the de
velopment of God's purpose ; it had been the puri
fying discipline through which the ancient heroes
and saints had passed. And the teaching of history
was to be supplemented by personal experience. The
Jewish saint possessed his soul in patience, and as
the result of endurance learned to say, // is good for
me that 1 have been in trouble, that I may learn thy
statutes 2. So there arose a religious philosophy of
suffering ; it was seen to be in great measure the chas
tisement of human sin, but it was also a manifest dis-
1 Cant. ii. 17. 2 Ps. cxix. 71.
B b 2

372 PERSONAL RELIGION IN THE OLD TESTAMENT
cipline of human character, and the needful probation
of human fidelity. Much was still left unexplained :
there were perplexities which no reasoning could
solace, and no analysis could satisfactorily explore.
Such perplexities are reflected in the book of Eccle
siastes, and they seem to be intended to recall the soul
to its primary intuitions — to its faith in God, duty, and
human accountability. In this record of the experi
ence of a child of Israel, a child of God' the sorely
troubled spirit may recognize itself; it may be com
forted or at least touched by the discovery that
however far it has wandered from light and love,
it is not forgotten, it is understood, it is followed, it
is pitied. For to the heart of man God is a refuge
in any trouble ; in the thought of His creative com
passion there is hope ; in the revelation of His good
ness there is a pledge of love which will deign to
subject itself to the conditions of our mortality, there
is the implicit promise of a divine self-sacrifice. The
perplexities which overwhelmed the heart of the
Hebrew sage press not less heavily upon us. With
the apostolic writer, we can only say concerning man,
We see not yet all things put under him. But we
Christians possess in our creed a key to the dread
mystery of existence. We see Jesus1. We see the
Son of man exalted to the throne of God. The
Gospel of the risen and ascended Christ suffices to
sustain and reassure the hearts that shrink and the
spirits that faint : —
' Beyond the tale, I reach into the dark,
Feel what I cannot see, and still faith stands.
I can believe this dread machinery
Of sin and sorrow would confound me else,
Devised, — all pain, at most expenditure
Of pain by who devised pain, — to evolve
By new machinery in counterpart
The moral qualities of man, — how else ?
To make him love in turn and be beloved,
Creative and self-sacrificing too,
And thus eventually God-like.'
1 Heb. ii. 8, 9.

LECTURE VIII
Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold wondrous things out of thy
law. — Ps. cxix. 1 8.
Then opened he their understanding, that they might understand the
scriptures. — Luke xxiv. 45.
In my first lecture it was pointed out that Scripture
has a twofold character corresponding to the dual
nature of Christ ; and it would seem that erroneous
ideas about the Bible and its inspiration have often
been the direct result of forgetting the analogy that
subsists between the written and the incarnate Word
of God.
The self-manifestation of God in Jesus Christ was
the answer to an age-long prayer; it presupposed
human aspirations and human faith ; it appealed to
ideas of God which a divine discipline had already
moulded and purified. The Gospels in fact show us
that the power to discern the true nature and to
apprehend the teaching of Christ depended upon the
temper and attitude of individual minds. Mere
intellect and human learning were of little avail ; as
often as not they proved to be obstacles in the way of
true discernment. Christ's manifestation of Himself
was addressed to faith and to the consciousness of
need. He was the saviour of the lost, the physician
of the sick, the rewarder of humility and perseverance.
The Pharisee with all his zeal for the law of God, the
Sadducee with all his supposed superiority to antiquated
prejudices, the scribe with all his learning, saw in
Jesus Christ nothing more than a human teacher1. In
a word, men found in Him what they were prepared to
1 Cp. John iii. 2 ; Luke vii. 39 ; xx. 41.

374 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
find ; some listened to Him, some admired Him, some
hated and feared Him, some received him ; and to
these last gave he power to become the sons of God l.
No man could come unto Him in a saving sense
except such as were drawn to Him by the Father who
had sent Him2. And that the written word comes
to men under similar conditions has been proved by
experience. We cannot too often remind ourselves
that of all the faculties with which we seek God and
apprehend His will, one only brings the soul into actual
contact with Him — namely, that which St. Paul calls
faith working by love3. It follows that the right
understanding of Scripture is a reward by which
persevering faith is crowned. In the upper chamber
He who had Himself inspired the Hebrew prophets
and guided the pen of chroniclers, poets, and sages,
answered the prayer to which the Psalmist gives
utterance : Open thou mine eyes, that I may behold
wondrous things out of thy law. He expounded unto
His disciples in all the scriptures the things concerning
himself "i. He enabled them to penetrate through
the veil of the letter to the Messianic sense beneath ;
He taught them to regard the Old Testament as
a vast and continuous prophecy of Himself; and in so
doing He gave His sanction to that method of
interpreting Scripture which corresponds to its two
fold character : the method which finds unsuspected
spiritual meaning, eternal and ideal teaching, concealed
beneath the exterior form which meets the eye. Thus
the anticipations of an earlier age were justified. For
the Psalmist's prayer illustrates the effect produced on
devout hearts by the study of the sacred Law, which
formed the earliest canon of Hebrew Scripture. It
testifies to the growth of a consciousness that the
written word embodied a spirit which had ceased at
least for a while to be a living force in the hearts of
men. For the voice of prophecy in its strict sense was
1 John i. 12. 2 John vi. 44.
3 Gal. v. 6. 4 Luke xxiv. 27.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 375
silent. It had been succeeded by the learned labour
of the scribes — teachers who no longer based their
claim to attention on any personal divine commission,
but were content to appeal to the authority either of
the written word1, or of the unwritten Halachah, or
law of custom by which the Torah was supplemented
and almost superseded.
The 119th Psalm, however, is evidently the fruit
not of mere traditional instruction orally received,
but of personal study and contemplation of the
sacred law. It witnesses to a rising sense of the
depth, the mystery, and the many-sidedness of a book
which the spiritual experience of the faithful had
recognized as God's word to His people. It reminds
us that even the most perfect methods of literal and
historical exegesis may fall short of appreciating the
full significance of Scripture. The search after God
and after a true knowledge of His ways implies not
only a temper of constant dependence on the guidance
of His Spirit, but a continual recollection of the
limitations and defects of even the highest faculties,
and the most skilled methods of research 2. No
one who contemplates in the spirit of Pascal or of
Butler the infinite mystery that surrounds human life
and divine revelation will deny the reasonableness and
necessity within limits of a spiritual or mystical inter
pretation of Scripture. To despise the use and results
of a method which has undoubtedly been sometimes
employed in an arbitrary and fantastic fashion, is to
incur a serious spiritual and mental loss 3. A true
1 Oettli, Der gegenwartige Kampf 'urn das A. T. p. 10: 'An die Stelle
des lebendigen und begeisterten Prophetenwortes tritt der heilige Kodex,
der die Religion normiert und bindet.' Cp. Hunter, After the Exile,
part ii. ch. 16 ; Kuenen, Religion of Israel, ch. ix.
2 Cp. Aug. de util. cred. 4 : ' Sed praesumo quod et in hac spe, qua
spero vos viam sapientiae mecum obtenturos, non me deseret ille cui
sacratus sum ; quem dies noctesque intueri conor ; et quoniam propter
peccata mea propterque consuetudinem plagis veternosarum opinionum
sauciatum oculum animae gerens, invalidum me esse cognosco, saepe
rogo cum Iacrymis.'
3 Cp. Westcott, Introd. to the Study of the Gospels, p. 458 : ' It may be
as unfair to disparage the symbolic interpretation of Scripture by Origen's

375 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
element in spiritual perception is the sense of mystery.
Just as many common words have a long history
behind them, and are charged with associations reach
ing far back into antiquity, so many incidents of
ordinary human experience, and a fortiori the facts
recorded in sacred history, are rightly regarded as
embodying and illustrating eternal truths and prin
ciples. On this subject it would be premature to
enlarge at this point. It is enough for the present to
draw attention to the significance of St. Luke's state
ment, Then opened he their tinder standing, that they
might understand the scriptures. It was after the
resurrection, when the Lord Jesus had passed into the
world of mystery that lies beyond death — it was then
that He opened the eyes of His chosen disciples to
the infinite depth of Scripture, teaching them that the
things of the Spirit can only be spiritually discerned1,
and that the written word contains a revelation which
needs to be approached with the same sense of in
sufficiency wherewith in the days of His flesh Christ
would have had men approach Himself. We know
by sad experience that the mere literary or scientific
study of Scripture has often left us utterly dark and
barren. The real moments of insight and spiritual
elevation, when our hearts burned within us, were
those in which we were conscious that we were
walking with the risen Christ in the way, and holding
communion with Him, while he opened to us the
scriptures 2. Thus we have proved the truth of
St. Paul's aphorism, If any man think that he knoweth
anything, he knoweth nothing yet as he ought to know.
But if any man love God, the same is known of him 3.
Our task in the present day seems to be that of
mediation between opposed methods of Scriptural
interpretation. While we welcome gladly and eagerly,
in spite of the temporary pain and perplexity which it
errors in detail as to judge of the capabilities of inductive science from
Bacon's " Theory of heat." '
1 I Cor. ii. 14. 2 Luke xxiv. 32. 3 1 Cor. viii. 2, 3.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 377
costs us, all the light that historical research and critical
learning can throw upon the structure and literary form
of the Old Testament, we shall reverently endeavour
to do justice to methods of using Scripture which
the apostles and saints of Jesus Christ have taught us
to be profitable and based on true conceptions of the
character of the written word. In this concluding
lecture of our series we shall consider, first, the
light which is shed on the Old Testament by
its employment in the New ; and, secondly, the
function which the Old Testament seems designed to
fulfil under our present circumstances. In a word, we
shall attempt an inquiry into the present use of the Old
Testament in the Christian Church.

I.
Speaking generally, the New Testament seems to
ascribe to the Old Testament three main character
istics : —
1. First, it insists on the fragmentary character of
the revelation contained in it. The divine self-com
munication to man was made in many parts (fToKvyapuii).
It was a process which had many different stages, in
each of which however the continuity of revelation
was maintained. This is tantamount to saying that
the New Testament embodies what has been called
'a strictly historical conception' of the Old1. The
new religion recognized that it was rooted in the
ancient dispensation, and that each epoch in the sacred
history of Israel had been a preparation for the next.
There was no single stage at which the ultimate
purpbse of God for the world was discerned in its
completeness. Types and prophecies were alike
fragmentary: each foreshadowed one aspect of a vast
and intricate scheme yet to be disclosed, a scheme
complex as the universe and wide as human life. At
1 Sanday, The Oracles of God, p. 141.

378 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
each point in the progressive movement of the world's
education faith might have discerned a divine thought.
Accordingly the New Testament constantly draws
attention to the fact that the utterance contained in the
Old Testament is the voice of God. What proceeded
from the mouth of the prophets was spoken of the
Lord1; the promises to the patriarchs, the tokens of
guidance which they followed, were alike vouchsafed
by Him 2 ; the commandments of the Mosaic Law came
from Him3; by Him were foretold the blessings of
the Messianic age 4. Indeed throughout the whole
period of the preparatory dispensation there was
a continuous self-communication of the Holy Spirit to
man, a progressive unveiling of His purposes, a constant
indication of His requirement5- But revelation was
at each stage only partial and incomplete. It has
been well said that the Bible supplies a rule that is
constantly improving on itself, and that later editions
of the rule are intended to antiquate the earlier 6. The
New Testament in fact already sets us the example
which modern criticism has enforced — that of reading
the Old Testament with discrimination, with readiness
to judge the part in the light of the whole, and to
recognize in each fragment its true, but not more than
its true, value and function in relation to the entire
organism of which it forms a part.
2. Again, the New Testament contrasts with the
simplicity and singleness of God's self-revelation in
His incarnate Son the variety of methods by which He
manifested Himself to His ancient people. God spake
to the fathers in many fashions (TroXvTpoTrms) as well as
in many parts ; and this statement implies that the
different portions of the Old Testament are not all to
be used in the same way: we are not to confound law
with history, prophecy with fact, dreams with waking
' Matt. i. 22 ; ii. 15. * Acts iii. 25 ; vii. 2, 3.
3 Matt. xv. 4. 4 2 Cor. vi. 16 foil. ; Heb. i. 5 foil. ; v. 5 foil. ; vii. 21.
5 Acts xxviii. 25 ; Heb. iii. 7 ; ix. 8 ; x. 15.
6 Bruce, Apologetics, p. 323. Cp. the language of Heb. viii. 13.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 379
realities, poetical anticipations with typical events.
Accordingly, we have to be careful as to the extent to
which we insist on the historical element in the Old
Testament as literal fact. We may occasionally be in
danger of misusing what was given us for another
purpose. Anticipations of the Messiah and of His
work may not only have been foreshadowed in
historical fact, but may also have inspired literary
creations. Thus there are incidents recorded in the
Old Testament respecting which a large latitude
of opinion is surely desirable. .Some, for instance,
may regard the story of Jonah as literally true;
others see good reason for finding in it an alle
gorical narrative written with a didactic purpose.
In any case it is certain that the word ttoXvtpottcos
warns us against dogmatic statements as to what must
be the nature of different Old Testament books, and
also against unintelligent and undiscriminating employ
ment of them. The different modes of divine self-
manifestation — through dreams, visions, prophecies,
oracles, and types, or through the ministry of an
angel — will repay study, and will quicken our sense of
the condescension with which Almighty God in His
communications to mankind has adapted Himself to
very varied types of mind and stages of moral
development. We are far too apt to make the modern
western mind the standard of what is credible not only
in the content, but in the manner and methods, of
revelation. 3. Once more, the New Testament everywhere
presupposes the rudimentary character of the old
dispensation. Our blessed Lord Flimself draws atten
tion in the Sermon on the Mount to the inherent
defects of the ancient religion, its self-accommodation to
the low moral standard of those whom it was designed
to instruct, discipline, and elevate1. His example and
that of His apostles teaches us that we are to consider
the drift of the whole bible in judging the Old Testa-
1 Matt. v. 19 foil. ; xix. 8.

380 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
ment ; we are to be filled with the spirit of the Gospel,
and make it the one standard of measurement in
estimating conduct and character, frankly recognizing
defect where it exists1, and not explaining away
what obviously conflicts with Christian principles, but
attending fairly to the difference of time and circum
stances which made imperfect character relatively good
and admirable. We must remember how just is the
distinction between immorality and crude morality,
between transgression of a high standard and con
formity to a low one 2. I have already pointed out
that no Christian writer has a stronger sense at once
of the continuity of revelation and of the moral im
perfection that characterized its earlier stages than
Irenaeus. As he truly says : Una salus et unus Deus.
Quae autem formant hominem praecepta multa, et non
pauci gradus qui ducunt hominem ad Deum 3.
One point is worthy of particular attention in this
connexion — viz. the general character of the New
Testament verdict on the Mosaic Law. The question
has been raised ' how far the transposition of the Law
as it lies before us in the Pentateuch, from the time of
Moses to the time of Ezra,' affects the New Testament
estimate of Mosaism 4 ? Now we have already seen
reasons for supposing that legal discipline of some
kind was a constant element of Mosaism, present in it
from the first. What is to be noted here is that the
critical conclusions which assign a relative inferiority
to the Law on the ground of its comparatively late
codification entirely fall in with the teaching of apostolic
writers as to the place and function of law in Israel's
education. Professor Bruce points this out with great
force. If we bear in mind St. Paul's teaching in
1 e.g., the 'philo-levitical' spirit of the chronicler, which is a religious
defect in view of such a passage as Heb. vii. 18 (Bruce, Apologetics,
p. 324). Bruce draws attention to other defects, for instance the spirit
of vindictiveness, the hatred of foreigners, the tendency to self-righteous
ness, &c, which were characteristic of Judaism.
2 Bruce, op. cit. p. 329. 3 Haer. iv. 9. 3.
Bruce, op. cit. pp. 275 foil., 308.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 381
regard to the temporary and economic purpose of the
Law, or that of the writer to the Hebrews in regard to
the weakness and unprofitableness thereof1, we shall be
prepared to admit that the critical theory tends entirely
to confirm the apostolic view of the Law. If the ver
dicts of the New Testament 'hold good as against
a law emanating from Moses, a fortiori they hold good
against a law which came into force nearly a millennium
later. . . . The important principle enunciated by Paul,
that the law was subordinate to the promise and came
in after it and between it and the [fulfilment of the]
promise, obviously holds on the critical hypothesis.'
Our general conception of the Law is the same.
Accepting the critical view however, we recognize that
the rigid legal discipline to which Israel was subjected
came at a period in its history later than was formerly
supposed ; and the words of St. Paul apply even more
forcibly to the Judaistic than to the Mosaic stage of
Hebrew history. Before faith came we were being kept
in ward, shut up under the law unto the faith which
should afterwards be revealed2. The rudimentary
purpose and function of the Law is a truth practically
unaffected by critical disputes ; and certainly we have
no reason to be surprised that the legal discipline was
so protracted in duration, when we consider how
effective it was in its final result.
The New Testament then recognizes the frag
mentary character of the old dispensation, the variety
of the methods observed in the divine self-revelation,
and the rudimentary nature of the discipline which
gradually prepared Israel for the coming of its pro
mised Saviour. At the same time we cannot overlook
the fact that Christ and His apostles assign to the
Old Testament a unique and inviolable authority 3.

1 Heb. vii. 18. 2 Gal. iii. 23.
3 Cp. Dalman, Das Alte Testament ein Wort Gottes, p. 9 : ' Bei Jesus
wie bei Paulus geht offenbar Hand in Hand mit einer klaren Einsicht in
die Unzulanglichkeit der alttestamentlichen Offenbarung eine dadurch
nicht erschiitterte Ueberzeugung von der gottlichen Autoritat nicht nur

382 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
T am not come to destroy, but to fulfil- For verily I say
unto you, Till heaven and earth pass, one jot or one tittle
shall in no wise pass from the law, till all be fulfilled1.
The scripture cannot be broken 2- Even its smallest
fragment must be fulfilled; i.e. it must be shown to
occupy its rightful place ; must be brought under the
true point of view, and its significance in relation to
the whole vindicated. The same truth is implied in
the apostolic vindication of prophecy. The distinctive
character of the prophetic word of God is that no
prophecy is of any private interpretation3. It has more
than one application ; it has a deeper and wider
reference than is apparent on the surface. A
careful study does indeed show us that for Christ
there was to some extent ' a Bible within the Bible V
The books to which He most commonly refers are
Deuteronomy, the Psalms, and Isaiah— those in a
word which are most full of the Messianic element.
His first public discourse at Nazareth was based on
a passage of the later Isaiah ; the ministry of teaching
and healing placed Him as it were in line with the
ancient prophets ; the martyr-spirit numbered Him
with the righteous men of old whose sorrows and hopes
breathe in the Psalter ; His consciousness of Messiah-
ship and His passion for righteousness found expres
sion more often in the utterances of the saints and
prophets than in those of the historians or legalists of
ancient Israel. There can be no doubt however as to
the general attitude of Christ towards the Jewish Scrip
tures. He speaks freely of Moses, perhaps we might
say more often as a supreme authority than as an
author; He refers to him as leader, legislator, and
writer 5, but always, it would seem, and necessarily, in
der im A. T. ausdrucklich als von Gott stammend bezeichneten Worte,
sondern des Schriftwortes iiberhaupt.'
1 Matt. v. 17, 18. 2 John x. 35. 3 2 Pet. i. 20.
4 Cheyne, Aids to the Devout Study of Criticism, p. 155 note. Cp.
Bruce, Apologetics, p. 363. Cheyne notices that the O. T. Canon was
' not finally settled in all its parts in our Lord's time.' Cp. Valeton,
Christus und das A. T. p. 30.
6 Cp. Mark xii. 29 ; Luke xvi. 29 ; John v. 46 ; vii. 19.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 383
accordance with the current literary conceptions of His
time, and with the declared purpose of His mission1.
We are not at present concerned with the manner of
our Lord's quotations, but only with the general
character of authority which He attributes to the
ancient Scriptures. He speaks of them as if they
discharged an organic function, and must ever hold
a permanent place, in the religion of which He was the
founder 2. While He points out the defective elements
in the old dispensation, and supersedes the detailed
precepts of the Law by principles of far-reaching
simplicity, He never fails to give the impression that
He recognizes in the Old Testament the abiding
word of God. As the author and finisher of our faith3
He points us to the ancient Scriptures as the food
which nourished His own spiritual life and gave due
expression to His own Messianic consciousness ; as the
soil in which the gospel of salvation had its roots, and
in which the treasure of eternal life lay hid. Salvation,
He declared, is of the Jews4".
We may now pass to the consideration of the prin
ciples which appear to guide our Lord and the New
Testament writers in their references to the Old. And
here it is important to remember that in the time of Christ
there already existed among the scribes traditional
rules of interpretation, which were of high antiquity
and unquestioned authority. The scribes were in fact
1 Cp. Kohler, tlber Berechtigung der Kritik des A. T. p. 13. Christ,
he says, must have used the ordinary literary language of His day if He
was to make Himself intelligible to His hearers, and if He was not to
exceed the limits of His Messianic vocation by giving instruction on
points of natural knowledge. The references to Daniel (Matt. xxiv. 15)
or to David (Matt. xxii. 41 foil. ; cp. Acts ii. 24 foil.) are most reasonably
explained on this principle. To the same effect Valeton, Christus und
das A. T. p. 37; Delitzsch, New Comm. on Genesis [Eng. Tr.], vol. i. p. 21 .
2 John v. 39.
3 Heb. xii. 2. Cp. Valeton, Christus und das A. T. pp. 20, 21. See
also an admirable lecture by Prof. G. A. Smith, The preaching of the
O. T. to the Age, pp. 11, 12.
4 See Oettli, op. cit. p. 22. Valeton, Christus und das A. T. p. 12,
remarks that so close is the inner connexion and correspondence
between the words of Christ and the language of the O. T. as almost to
justify the paradox, ' In His teaching there is nothing new but Himself.'

384 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
guided in their treatment of the canonical Scriptures
by two chief aims : first, the systematic development
and establishment of the Law, which had now become
the central shrine, so to speak, of Jewish religion ;
second, the didactic manipulation of the historical
books. Hence there arose on the one hand the
Halachah, or customary law, the general object of
which was to protect the Law, by a fence of minor
restrictions, from even the chance of infringement ;
and on the other hand the Haggadah, i. e. narrative or
legend by which the Old Testament history was
enlarged, illustrated, or homiletically enforced. The
basis of both methods was Midrash, or regular exegesis
of the biblical text, and they presupposed the principle
that inspired writings can contain nothing that is
arbitrary, fortuitous, or indifferent, since Scripture
both in its organic unity and in the diversity of its
contents reflects the infinite being of its Author. And
indeed if it be granted that Scripture comes from God
in a special and unique sense, it is only reasonable to
suppose that even single words of Scripture may
conceal a multitude of thoughts and contain truths of
inexhaustible significance.
Two methods then of dealing with the sacred text
were already current. By the time of our Lord the
Halachah, or exegetical expansion of the Law, had
already resulted in the formation of a vast body
of casuistry under which the original Law of Moses
was in danger of being practically buried, while
the Haggadah had produced a mass of legendary
accretions by which the biblical history was expanded,
for purposes of moral and religious instruction1.
1 For an account of the Halachah and Haggadah see The Literary
retnains of Emanuel Deutsch, ch. 1. Also his article, 'Versions, ancient
(Targum),' in the Diet, of the Bible. The description of Haggadah
merely as ' narrative ' needs some qualification. It really implies the
amplification or imaginative development of the Old Testament history,
especially of that which is not directly expressed in the text, but is sup
posed to be indirectly hinted at. Edersheim, Life and Times of fesus
the Messiah, p. 11, note 2, remarks that Halachah might be described
as the apocryphal Pentateuch, and Haggadah as the apocryphal prophets.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 385
The Chronicles supply an example of Haggadah in
dealing with the history of the Jewish kings. The
Chronicler enlarges the material contained in earlier
sources by a whole class of narratives intended to
illustrate his favourite thesis, viz. the merit acquired by
monarchs who zealously maintained the priestly ritual
of the temple. He was doubtless actuated in his
treatment of the history by a desire to meet the actual
needs of his age, but the result is that his work, as
we have already seen, has only a quasi-historical
character '. It is a didactic work, which is inspired by
a purely religious and moral aim, and in which imagina
tion is allowed large play.
It will suffice to mention another method of interpre
tation which undoubtedly plays a large part in apostolic
exegesis, and may be illustrated from Christ's own
teaching, namely the method of Sodh, by which the
mystical or allegorical sense of a passage was elicited.
This seems on the whole to have been more charac
teristic of Hellenistic than of Palestinian Judaism.
The Hellenists in their endeavour to amalgamate
Greek thought with Hebrew ideas of revelation, found
the allegorical method ready to their hand, since it was
already in use both among Platonists and Stoics. The
true principle that underlies this method will engage
our attention presently.
Now a careful study of our Lord's usual mode of
teaching makes it evident that in the matter of scrip
tural interpretation and exposition, as in other points,
He occasionally condescended to adapt Himself to the
customs of His time. We cannot fail to observe,
however, a wide difference between the teaching of our
Lord and of the scribes in two main respects — indeed
the divergence was already obvious to those who first
1 Schiirer, The fewish People in the Time of Christ, § 25. Observe
the references to Midrash (A. V. Story) in 2 Chron. xiii. 22, xxiv. 27,
the latter passage embracing the entire history of the kings. ' The
compilers of chronicles seem to have used such promiscuous works
treating of biblical personages and events, provided they contained aught
that served the tendency of the book' (Deutsch, /. c).
C C

386 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
listened to His discourses. In the first place, Christ
appears to set aside the method of Halachah as quite
secondary, whereas with the scribes it had become of
primary importance. 'Legal Judaism,' says Schurer,
' laid the chief stress upon correctness of action, and
comparatively free play was therefore permitted in the
sphere of religious notions1.' The scribes in fact
represent a tendency diametrically opposed to that of
true prophetism. What Frederick Maurice has said
of the scholastic theology of the Greek Church in the
seventh and eighth centuries might well apply to
the scribes : ' Notions about God more or less occu
pied them, but God Himself was not in all their
thoughts 2.' With them holiness was too often
treated as something merely technical and external,
and the religious life was cramped and fettered by
innumerable petty restrictions. In a word, the scribes
represent that reactionary spirit which at first sight
seems to give a discouraging aspect to the post-exilic
stage of Israel's religion. Jesus Christ, on the other
hand, was recognized by the conscience of His con
temporaries as a prophet of God. He lifted high once
more the standard of prophetism ; righteousness and
the love of God, judgment, mercy, and faith3 — these
were the theme of His preaching. He left the
Halachah untouched, and scarcely noticed. To Him
the one thing of supreme importance was that men
should have true thoughts about God and His require
ment. Accordingly — to notice the second point — the
teaching of Jesus was authoritative, and not like that of
the scribes. It was characteristic of the Haggadah that
though it practically represented what we should call the
1 The fewish People in the Time of Christ, § 25. Deutsch in the Diet.
of the Bible, s. v. 'Versions' (vol. iii. p. 1641), says: 'The aim of the
Haggadah being the purely momentary one of elevating, comforting,
edifying its audience for the time being, it did not pretend to possess the
slightest authority! Schechter, Studies in Judaism, p. 420, says : ' The
theological side of Judaism, as well as its ideal aspirations and Messianic
hopes, find their expression in the Agadah.'
2 The Religions of the World, p. 23.
8 Matt, xxiii. 23 ; cp. Luke xi. 42.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 387
dogmatic and moral theology of Judaism, it was never
theless comparatively unauthoritative. It was nothing
more than oral instruction ; it represented the acumen
and insight of individual teachers, and possessed only
the weight which might happen to attach to their
utterances. It was taken by the hearers in fact for
what it was worth. But the very teaching which the
scribes made matter of Haggadah was in our Lord's
view essential and primary. Consider His first dis
course in the synagogue of Nazareth. It opens with
a proclamation, ineffably gracious and tender, of God's
character and ways of working. Its theme is grace ;
its character prophetic ; its illustrations are taken not
from the Law but from two episodes of Hebrew
history speaking the one of judgment, the other of
mercy1. In the manner of Haggadah is the brief
comment on each, illustrating the method of God's
redemptive action. But most significant is the personal
reference to Himself as the anointed of Jehovah, and the
calm majesty of the declaration, Verily T say unto you.
No wonder that in Jesus men instinctively recognized
a teacher come from God2, whose word was with power 3.
The theme of His teaching imparted its own sublime
simplicity to His method of expounding Scripture. He
freely employed the Old Testament as illustrating the
truths which He revealed about God, but He spoke on
the strength of an immediate knowledge of Him whose
glory and kingdom He proclaimed ; He taught not on
authority, but with authority ; not as a professional
teacher who has studied religious traditions, but as
a prophet who by direct intuition knows God.
Thus, speaking generally, the very object of our
Lord's coming determined the method in which He
employed the ancient Scriptures. To Him all that
made for righteous conduct and for truer conceptions
of the divine character was of primary importance; to
all that the scribes had overlooked or treated with
indifference He assigned its rightful prominence.
1 Luke iv. 18-27. z I0!111 "i- 2- 3 Luke iv. 32.
C C 2

388 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
Haggadah was in a word His favourite method of
teaching, but while ' the rabbins interpreted the Scrip
tures to accord with the traditions of the elders, Jesus
interpreted them to accord with the mind of God their
author V The sacred liberty which is the characteristic
gift of the Holy Spirit2 appears in the very manner of
Christ's citations from the Old Testament. And
herein lies another point of contrast between Him and
the scribes, whose anxious enslavement to the letter
not only blinded them to the inner sense of Scripture
and to the daily and hourly fulfilment of it which was
going on before their eyes, but actually robbed them
of essential reverence for the word of God. They
honoured Jehovah with their lips, but their heart was
far from him 3.
It is clear then that our Lord and His apostles
freely sanctioned by their own example the current
principles of exegesis, but it is also manifest that both
in the subject-matter of their teaching, in modes of
illustration, and in the observance of moral proportion,
they produced an impression on their hearers different
in kind from that which was derived from the teaching
of the scribes. In endeavouring, however, to elicit
principles from the practice of Christ and the New
Testament writers, we have to bear in mind that they
used the current methods of exegesis in the way most
suitable to the capacity of each particular class of
hearers and most appropriate to the subject of their
discourse. Moreover, the apostles display differences
corresponding to their individual temperament and
training : St. Peter, St. James, and St. Jude inclining
to the method of Haggadah ; St. Paul to that of
Halachah with free use of allegorism ; while St. John
and the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews are distin-

1 Briggs, Biblical Study, p. 314. I wish to express my obligations to
this useful work, on which some of the following paragraphs are largely
based. 2 2 Cor. iii. 17.
8 Matt. xv. 8. See Valeton, Christus und das A. T. pp. 13 foil.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 389
guished by their preference for this latter method,
whether in its Palestinian or in its Hellenistic form.
What, then, are the most striking features in the New
Testament exegesis of the Old ?
1. First, we notice its remarkable breadth and
freedom. Our Lord and His apostles adapt their use
of the Old Testament to the requirements and capaci
ties of those whom they address. They deal with
Scripture in ways which the popular teaching of the
scribes had already rendered familiar. There are
passages in the Gospels which are at least closely
analogous to the method of Halachah. Such would be
the a fortiori argument of St. John x. 34-36 : Is it not
written in your law, I said, Ye are gods ? If he called
them gods, unto whom the word of God came . . . say ye
of him, whom the Father hath sanctified and sent into
the world, Thou blasphemest, because I said, I am the Son
of God? Such again is the illustrative combination of
references to the Law and to the former and later Pro
phets in St. Matt. xii. 3 foil, where our Lord is defend
ing against the Pharisees the action of His disciples in
plucking the ears of corn on the sabbath day1. On
the other hand, there is nothing in our Lord's teaching
that corresponds to the casuistry of the scribes ; indeed
it is only in controversy with the learned that He even
appears to use the method of Halachah. The large
majority of His references to the Law are intended to
enforce great principles of morality, and seem calcu
lated to qualify the paramount estimation in which the
Law was held by the Jews. Thus many of the quota
tions, especially from the book of Deuteronomy, are
ethical rather than legalistic, and it is significant that in
dealing with a lawyer, our Lord takes occasion to
enunciate in two passages from the Torah the law of
love in its widest form, adding to them the comment
that on the two commandments of love towards God

1 Aug. de ictil. cred. 6 refers to this passage as a simple use of Scripture
secundum historiam.

390 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
and love towards one's neighbour hang all the law and
the prophets 1.
Of the apostolic writers, St. Paul especially shows
partiality for Halachah. Thus in Rom. iv. 3-6 we
have an argument on the subject of faith, applying
a general principle to an individual case, which is in
the manner of Halachah 2. So in 1 Cor. ix. 9 (cp.
1 Tim. v. 18) a passage of Deuteronomy (xxv. 4) is
appealed to as implying the acknowledged rule of
equity, that service merits reward. Again, such
a combination of passages as is used to illustrate or
prove a point in Rom. iii. 10 foil, is in accordance with
the principles of the Halachah 3.
More suitable, however, than Halachah for purposes
of popular teaching would be Haggadah, that is ex
pansive comment on passages of sacred Scripture,
or free imaginative application of them. There can
be no doubt that the apostolic writers were divinely
guided in their use of this method, so markedly do
they avoid the idle or absurd legends which the Hag
gadah of the scribes had woven around the sacred
story. Thus St. James illustrates the nature of faith
from the cases of Abraham and Rahab, and enforces
the lesson of patience from the experience of Job4.
Indeed it may be said generally that all references to
Old Testament passages and incidents as typical or
prophetic of Christ and His kingdom are in the style
of Haggadah. Conspicuous instances would be the
Messianic citations in St. Paul's Epistles and the de
scription of Melchizedek, or the catalogue of the heroes
of faith in the Epistle to the Hebrews, so far as these
1 Matt. xxii. 35-40 ; cp. Luke x. 25-28. On Matt. xxii. 40 Valeton,
Christus und das A. T. p. 16, remarks : ' Hier ist mehr als ein einfaches
Zitat aus Deut. 6. 5 und Levit. 19. 18 ; hier ist wieder eine kleine Probe
von der gottlichen Freiheit, die nicht auf lost, sondern erfiillt.'
2 A somewhat similar argument from ' the law' (in this case Isa. xxviii.
11, 12) is found in 1 Cor. xiv. 21 foil. It is possible that the word
bihao-KaXLa in the N. T. signifies Halachic teaching.
3 Compare a somewhat similar combination of passages to prove a point
in James ii. 8-13.
4 James ii. 21 foil.; v. II.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 391
enforce or illustrate principles of moral conduct and
laws of divine action 1. In these cases passages of the
Old Testament are employed not strictly speaking as
predictive, but as illustrative of New Testament facts
or truths. A great number of St. Paul's references to
the Old Testament are of this description : for instance,
the argument in the Epistle to the Galatians which
turns upon the use of the phrase Abraham and his
seed2, or the quotation from the 68th Psalm in Eph.
iv. 7, 8. St. Paul is not here using the Old Testa
ment passage as a proof-text, but as a free illustration
of a particular principle of the Christian system3. It
should be added that in one passage of St. Paul and
in two other passages of the New Testament we find
reference made to legends supplementary of the Old
Testament history and probably already embodied in
extra-canonical books 4.
In view of the fact that the parable (mashal) is
commonly found in the ancient Midrashim, it may
be questioned whether our Lord's habit of teaching
in parables may not be regarded as a particular appli
cation and transfiguration of the Haggadah method ;
for His aim ever appears to be didactic, the parables
and the direct references to the Old Testament being
intended to illustrate the redemptive action of God,
or laws of His moral government. Such is his
reference to the story of the flood and the fate of Lot's
wife, which are used to enforce a solemn spiritual
lesson5. Indeed, generally speaking, our Lord's refer
ences to the incidents of Old Testament history do not
enable us to judge how far He lays stress on their
historical importance. He is not concerned with
1 See especially Rom. x. 18 (Ps. xix. 4), and Rom. x. 6 foil. (Deut. xxx.
II foil.).
2 Gal. iii. 16 (Gen. xvii. 7). Cp. Driver in Expositor for Jan. 1889,
pp. 18 foil.
3 See Driver, Sermons on the O. T. pp. 198, 199.
4 1 Cor. x. 4 ; 2 Tim. iii. 8 ; 2 Pet. ii. 4 ; jude 9 foil. Cp. Acts vii. 22,
53 ; Gal. iii. 19; Heb. ii. 2. So Gal. iv. 29, 'persecuted' seems to be based
on a Midrashic development of Gen. xxi. 9. See Lightfoot, ad loc.
s Matt. xxiv. 37 ; Luke xvii. 32.

392 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
history as such ; and the analogy of His silence on
points of science would suggest that He neither
endorses nor repudiates the ordinary conceptions of
His time in regard to the quality of the ancient narra
tives. In any case it is clear that He only employs
them homiletically for purposes of spiritual edification.
He does not apparently intend to teach positively on
points which belong to the domain of scientific criti
cism 1. But there is something significant in the fact
that the employment of the Old Testament history
by Christ is supplemented by the system of parabolic
instruction, while His perfect simplicity in teaching
tacitly discountenances the extravagance which often
characterized the Haggadah of the scribes. He avoids
such subjects as would divert the minds of His hearers
without instructing them ; He has an eye to their
moral and spiritual needs ; He uses that form of
teaching which is best adapted to make great truths
understood by the meanest capacity2.
The freedom of the New Testament writers in their
use of the Old is most strikingly displayed in their
tendency to employ the method of Sodh or allegorism,
a point which needs passing illustration. Instances
in St. Paul's epistles will immediately occur to our
minds3; we shall recall the Hellenistic colour of the

1 On this difficult subject the writer would practically agree with the
following statement : 'He who came from heaven in order to reconcile us
to God, speaks in regard to the things of ordinary earthly life — and to
these belongs the formal side of Old Testament knowledge — the speech
belonging to His earthly environment, to His time and to His people.
He does not move at an inaccessible height above the heads of men, but
lives in their very midst. The eternal becomes a child of His time. . . .
He had a task quite other than that of busying Himself, or instructing
men, in regard to questions which are discussed in the schools and
for the specialist may be of the highest importance, but which are
unprofitable for the life of the soul, and in view of His life's work are so
infinitesimally small, indeed are scarcely worth even mention.' Valeton,
Christus und das A. 71. pp. 28 foil.
2 See some wise and beautiful thoughts on preaching in Bp. Wilson's
Sacra Privata (ed. Oxford, 1840), pp. 243 foil.
8 St. Paul uses it specially in the Epistles to Corinth, possibly owing
to the connexion of that Church with Apollos. See e. g. 1 Cor. x. I foil.
Cp. Gal. iv. 22 foil.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 393
Epistle to the Hebrews, with its skilful treatment
of the figure of Melchizedek, and its insistence on
the symbolic structure and ceremonial of the ancient
sanctuary ; we shall remember the predominance of
symbolism in the Apocalypse. Our blessed Lord
may be thought to give sanction to this method in
the general tenour of His teaching, which implies
that the whole of the Old Testament is prophetic
and figurative, foreshadowing the mysteries of His
person and kingdom. But it cannot be said with
truth that He freely employs the method of alle
gory as generally understood. He rather confines
Himself to setting before the Church an open door, in
pointing to the essential mystery of Scripture as the
work of the Wisdom of God ; and in accepting or
ascribing to Himself titles bearing" far-reaching Old
Testament associations, such as Lamb of God, King of
Israel, Son of David, Prophet of Nazareth, Sou of Man,
the Good Shepherd, the True Vine, the Corner-Stone,
the Messiah, the Wisdom of God. It is indeed some
times difficult to distinguish between the allegorical use
of the Old Testament to illustrate a fact, and the Hag-
gadistic use of it to enforce a spiritual law. Augustine
only gives one instance of allegorism from our Lord's
own teaching : namely the reference to Jonah's deliver
ance as a sign or type of the resurrection1. But no
writer is more conscious of the typical and symbolic
character of the Old Testament viewed as a whole.
2. Enough has been said to illustrate the freedom
of the New Testament in its references to the Old.
The next point that claims our attention is the moral
import of the quotations. Our Lord, it has been said,
deals with the words of Scripture as ' living words of
God to man bearing upon human conduct 2.' It is
scarcely accidental that His first recorded quotation is
from Deuteronomy viii. 3 : Man shall not live by
bread alone, but by every word that proceedeth out of the
1 Matt. xii. 39, 40 ; xvi. 4. Cp. Aug. de util. cred. 8.
2 Briggs, Biblical Study, p. 315.

394 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
mouth of God1. In the hands of the scribes the Old
Testament religion was not indeed a dead thing, but it
had lost any capacity of further development and ex
pansion. It could not in any way satisfy the desire of
the true Israel for a new word of God, a fresh revela
tion of truth. Our Lord and His apostles, on the
other hand, quickened the very letter of Scripture by
pointing to the living personality behind it. The
words of the living and eternal God were shown to be
full of enduring vitality and continuous significance.
The phrase // is written in our Lord's mouth implies
that each scripture appealed to is not a lifeless formula
of law, but the revelation of a living personality and
character 2. What the living God inspires lives in Him,
lives unto Him, lives for all who abide in communion
with Him. St. Paul even speaks as if Scripture were
endued with personality. From the first it foresaw
the purpose of God ; it preached the gospel beforehand
unto Abraham 3. It accompanies the people of God
through the ages as a monitor and witness, sustaining
the spirit of patience, quickening expectation, and
kindling hope 4. Like the incarnate Word Himself,
the written word reveals its true character only to those
in whom faith lives and the sense of need has been
awakened. To the Pharisee and the scribe Scripture
was practically a fetich ; to the cold and critical wisdom
of this world it is a dead thing to be dissected and
analyzed, or a common thing that may be rejected and
despised, or approved and patronized ; to faith and the
spirit of prayer Scripture is the very voice of God
which warns or encourages, the very eye of God which
watches and guides the soul. As employed indeed by
our Lord and His apostles, the function of Scripture
1 Matt. iv. 4.
2 Cp. Valeton, Christus und das A. T.p. i& : ' Durch ihn jedes Teilchen
der Schrift auf seinen rechten Platz kommt : das Kleine, vielleicht lange
iiberschatzt, wird klein : das Grosse, vielleicht wie der von Gott auser-
sehene Eckstein (cp. Matt. xxi. 42), lange von den Menschen verachtet,
wird gross. Er bringt Leben und Bewegung : er bringt Kptcris ; die
Schriften werden " erfullt." '
3 Gal. iii. 8. 4 Rom. xv. 4.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 395
stands in close relation to their entire system of dealing
with human souls. The tendency of Pharisaism was
to bring men into leading-strings, ' to leave as little
as possible free to the individual conscience, but to
bring everything within the scope of positive ordin
ance \' The free play of individuality, the development
of personal character, was utterly remote from the
range of their ideas. Even the ideals of prophecy
were to them of secondary interest. Their one aim
was to secure by a comprehensive discipline the prin
ciple of technical holiness. They were blind leaders of
the blind2 inasmuch as they had lost all sense of pro
portion in their estimation of Scripture. They clung
to what was temporary and transient ; they made what
was little great, what was morally indifferent all-impor
tant, while they overlooked the broad tendency of
Scripture as a whole, and thus lost any sense of a con
tinuous divine utterance, and of a law written not on
tables of stone but in the heart of man. Of our Lord, on
the contrary, it is a truism to say that He cherishes and
reverences personality, that He ever aims at awaken
ing and cultivating individuality. He founded a Church
that was to be a school of individual character, in
which the diversified capacities of each soul were to be
freely developed 3- And the usage of the New Testa
ment generally, to say nothing of the explicit teaching
of Christ, shows that in the work of moral and spiritual
education the study of the Old Testament discharges
a necessary function. It is the light of the individual
conscience; it ministers to individual needs; it is an aid
to individual perfection 4. But such a use of Scripture
presupposes a living relationship to God, correspon
dence with the gift of His Spirit, and an earnest purpose
to ascertain His mind and will5. And thus the ulti-
1 Wellhausen, Sketch of the History of Israel and Judah, p. 186.
2 Matt. xv. 14 ; xxiii. 16. 3 Cp. Col. i. 28 ; Eph. ii. 10.
4 2 Tim. iii. 17.
5 Aug. de util. cred. 13 : 'Quidquid est, mihi crede, in Scripturis illis
altum et divinum est : inest omnino Veritas, et reficiendis instaurandisque
animis accommodatissima disciplina; et plane ita modificata, ut nemo

396 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
mate proof that a divine voice speaks in Scripture lies
in the region of spiritual experience.
The central point, however, of Christ's teaching
is that the revelation recorded in the Old Testa
ment is mainly a revelation of human duty. If
we set aside those instances in which our Lord
reasons with the learned, and accommodates Himself
apparently to their standpoint and to their pre
conceptions, it is striking how closely analogous His
teaching is to that of the prophets. The doctrine
of God's Fatherhood stands in the forefront of His
teaching, but He ever brings out its moral import
as implying an ideal of sonship by which the ethical
law of the Old Testament is transfigured. The old
obligations are not abolished, but are spiritualized.
The eternal principles of righteousness are extricated
from their temporary kernel. Christ recognizes the
element of accommodation in the ancient Law, and
His main work is to impart to His hearers a point of
view which will enable them to discern for themselves
between the provisional and the permanent elements
in the old dispensation, and to teach them that the
supreme requirement of God is not the righteousness
of conformity to outward law, but the holiness of
a heart purified by love towards God and towards
man. The lost sense of spiritual proportion was for
ever re-established in the statement that this, the law
of love, is the law and the prophets 1.
3. Once more, Christ Himself and the New Testa
ment writers represent the Old Testament as con
stituting an organic whole, to which the Messiah and
His kingdom are the key. They look upon the entire
preparatory dispensation as a shadow of good things
to come. The ordinances imposed under the ancient
system and the incidents described by sacred historians
were divinely overruled in such a way as to prefigure
inde haurire non possit quod satis est, si modo ad hauriendum devote ac
pie, ut vera religio poscit, accedat.'
1 Matt. vii. 12; cp. xxii. 37 foil.

vm] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 397
the mysteries and circumstances of the new covenant.
It was of Christ that Moses wrote 1 ; it was the suffer
ings and glories of Christ that prophets unconsciously
described 2. Of the apostolic writers each one seems
to give special prominence to one particular aspect of
the prophetic character ascribed to the Old Testament.
St. Paul discerns in the history of Abraham the as
sertion of that principle of faith which preceded the
discipline of the Law, and lies at the root of the
relationship between God and man which is revealed
in Christ 3. St. Peter claims for the Christian Church
titles which imply that she is the heir of the covenant-
promises and privileges of God's ancient people 4.
The writer to the Hebrews points to the fulfilment in
Christ both of the law of sacrificial worship and of the
purificatory rites of Judaism. The ancient ceremonial
system was a shadow or outline-sketch of heavenly
realities manifested in Christ5. In the Apocalypse
St. John invests the incarnate Son with the glories of
the Messianic kingdom, unfolds the judgments of God
and the fortunes of the Church in symbolism derived
from the prophets, and describes the bliss of the
redeemed in imagery transferred from the earthly
Jerusalem to the heavenly sanctuary and the city of
God. In this case again the justification of the method
employed in dealing with the Old Testament lies in
the appeal to spiritual experience. The prophetic
character of the ancient Scriptures is vindicated by the
skill which so applies them. ' The spiritual sense,' it
has been said, ' is its own proof, as a key by opening
a complicated lock sufficiently proves that it has been
designed for it 6.' There is no need to enlarge on this
point, which will be dealt with later. Let it suffice to
1 John v. 46. Our Lord's references to the fulfilment of the Old
Testament in His own person and in the conditions of His earthly life
are amply illustrated by Valeton, Christus und das A. T. pp. 22 foil.
2 1 Pet. i. 11. s Rom. iv ; Gal. iii.
4 1 Pet. ii. 9. 5 Heb. x. 1.
6 Jukes, The Types of Genesis, p. xv.

398 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
observe that this character of the old covenant corre
sponds to the predominance of prophetism in Israel's
religion. For the creative element in Hebrew religion
was a real and continuous self-communication of God
to men ; the one Spirit was ever at work, enabling
those whom He inspired to anticipate His purposes,
and to read, each in his measure, the divine thoughts
for mankind 1. Thus ' there is not one New Testa
ment idea that cannot be conclusively shown to be
a healthy and natural product of some Old Testament
germ, nor any truly Old Testament idea which did not
instinctively press towards its New Testament fulfil
ment2.' It is indeed characteristic of a divine religion
that its main ideas do not suddenly break in upon
human thought ; the wisdom of God prepares the soil
in which these ideas shall take root and flourish ; it
fosters anticipations which may welcome the truths
ultimately to be disclosed ; it impresses even upon
external incidents and ordinances tokens of what is to
come. The stage of promise, preceding that of law,
is a comprehensive prophecy, real though dimly under
stood, of the goal towards which the whole religion
tends. And there is truth in the suggestive remark
of Augustine that the whole Old Testament is a
promise in figurative form3. It is only when we
endeavour to grasp the meaning of St. Paul's phrase
the fulness of Christ 4 that we can do justice to the
many-sidedness of the Old Testament. In it the
various aspects of the Incarnation are presented in
fragmentary forms, 'Christ in His offices; in His
character ; in His person ; Christ in His relations to
God and man ; Christ in His body the Church ; Christ
as giving to God all that God required from man ;
Christ as bringing to man all that man required from
1 Cp. Schultz, O. T. Theology, i. p. 54.
2 Ibid. p. 52.
3 Serm. iv. (de facob et Esau) 9: 'Vetus enim Testamentum est pro-
missio figurata ; Novum Testamentum est promissio spiritaliter intel-
lecta.' * Eph. i. 23.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 399
God ; Christ as seen in this dispensation in suffering ;
Christ as seen in the next dispensation in glory ;
Christ as the first and the last, as all and in all to His
people V in whom all the promises of God are yea, and
in him Amen 2.
Enough has been now said to illustrate the method
observed by our Lord and the New Testament writers
in their use of the ancient Scriptures. Their example
teaches us that the true key to the Old Testament is
possessed only by those who have the mind of Christ ¦',
and who are guided by the same Spirit that ' spake by
the prophets.' There are indeed one or two passages
in which our Lord seems to suggest principles of
scriptural interpretation which could be safely em
ployed only by Himself. Such is His answer to the
Sadducees as touching the dead that they rise 4. Here
we have an instance of interpretation that necessarily
transcends any human method, and that raises far-
reaching questions as to the degree in which ordinary
minds can penetrate the significance of Scripture.
Only He who knew God with an absolute knowledge
could thus reveal a mystery necessarily involved in
covenant-relationship to Him.
The authoritative tone with which both here and in
the Sermon on the Mount Christ elucidates the inner
meaning of the ancient law constitutes an element in
His claim to be more than man, and it may well check
the temper of confidence with which men pass judg
ment on the contents of the Old Testament, or criticize
the reasoning of the New. We cannot for a moment
suppose that with His unique spiritual insight our Lord
could mistake the real character of the Scriptures to
which He so solemnly appeals. That He penetrates
to the very heart of their meaning, that He assigns to
each part of them the exact significance they were
1 Jukes, The Law of the Offerings, p. 10. Cp. Rev. i. 17 ; Col. iii. 11.
2 2 Cor. i. 20. ' 3 1 Cor. ii. 16.
4 Mark xii. 26 foil. Valeton, Christus und das A. T. p. 43, makes some
good remarks on this passage.

400 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
divinely intended to convey, that He grasped un
erringly their general drift and their precise bearing on
His own work and mission, it is simply impossible to
doubt. And although, as we have seen, He does not
discard methods of interpretation which were in general
use at the period of His active ministry, He so employs
them as to rescue the Old Testament from the misuse
it had suffered at the hands of the scribes, and to
restore to the written word its rightful vitality and
authority. Thus to His Apostles and to His believing
Church Christ is verily ' the light of all Scripture.'
By way of summary it may be said that both Christ
and His apostles use the Scriptures with a certain
prophetic freedom. In the contrast between their
teaching and that of the scribes is implied the revival
of the spirit of prophecy. The word of God again
comes to Israel, again has free course. It is significant
indeed that the Old Testament is not expressly called
' the word of God' in the New. In the Gospels 'the
word of God ' means the oral delivery of the gospel.
It is not something written, but a living seed implanted
by the preaching of the divine message in the heart of
the hearer. Nay, Jesus Christ Himself is in utterance
and act the living sermo Dei1. In the Old Testament
the Word or Wisdom of God lives as the soul in the
body ; and every scribe instructed unto the kingdom of
heaven must bring forth out of his treasure things new
as well as things old2. Accordingly the apostolic
writers display a certain flexibility in their use of
exegetical methods and in their practical applications
of Old Testament Scripture, as if to teach us that
those who cling to rigid rules of exposition may fall far
short of ascertaining the mind of the Spirit. Practically
the New Testament points us to the unction from the
Holy One3 as the only unfailing source of spiritual
truth.
1 Cp. Me'mhold, Jesus und das A.T.\). 60. Consider the use of Xoyos
in James i. 18 ; 1 Pet. i. 23.
2 Matt. xiii. 52. 3 1 John ii. 20.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 401

II.
^ What has been said respecting the use of the Old
Testament in the New is after all only introductory to
the main subject under consideration in the present
lecture. Our aim is to ascertain if possible the present
value and permanent function of the Old Testament
in the Christian Church, especially in view of those
critical conclusions which have so largely modified
traditional opinions respecting the character of the
ancient Scriptures.
First however, in view of these conclusions, there is
yet a final word to be said bearing upon the historical
character of the Old Testament records, and upon the
existence of a so-called ' mystical ' sense in Scripture.
We have already dealt at some length with the
historical element in the Old Testament, its nature and
its extent. But the point now to be insisted on is
that we must recognize frankly the impossibility of
precisely determining the historical value of the narra
tives in which Israel's history is contained. When
the character of the different materials is carefully
sifted, and when ordinary historical tests are employed,
it is manifest that elements are present in the Old
Testament which are historical only in form, and that
the history has been in part coloured by a poetical
imagination, in part interspersed with semi-historical
matter, with legal precedents in narrative shape, and
even with free creations of fancy1. The modern
historical spirit arrives on different grounds at general
conclusions which were already reached by a somewhat
more subjective process in early times. In the fourth
book of the de Principiis Origen defends his theory
1 The caution conveyed in some wise words of Prof. Valeton is im
portant : ' A historico-critical verdict upon a narrative is not equivalent
to a decision upon the historical character of the events narrated. Even
though all the accounts relating to the foundation of Rome are relegated
to the sphere of legend, yet none the less Rome was founded.' (Quoted
from an Academical address in Christus und das A. T. p. 40.)
Dd

402 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
of the spiritual sense of Scripture by a free criticism
of the Old Testament narratives. It may be worth
while to illustrate his position by a few quotations.
' The Scripture,' he says, ' has interwoven in the history
what did not actually happen ; in some places what
could not possibly have happened ; in others what
might possibly have happened, but certainly did not
happen V In a subsequent passage Origen points out
that the narrative of the fall is purely figurative.
It conveys spiritual truths under the appearance of
history2. It is true that the strictly historical narra
tives are more numerous than the figurative 3 ; but
a fruitful cause of error is the temper which refuses to
penetrate beneath the letter to the inner mystical sense
of Scripture 4, beneath the corporeal or fleshly husk to
the spiritual kernel 5. It is clear that Origen attached
no special value to the purely historical study of
Scripture, though he does not by any means over
look the literal sense. What is chiefly to be noticed
is his readiness to acknowledge the presence of
a non-historical element in the Old Testament. He
recognizes, however, that even the semi-historical
portions of Scripture are full of inspired teaching, and
that their very existence in the Old Testament proves
that the purpose of the Bible is not to impart natural
knowledge that may be otherwise acquired, but to
teach spiritual truth 6. Now modern criticism is chiefly
concerned to determine the character and value of the
literary materials contained in the Old Testament ;
1 de Princ. iv. 15. Cp. similar statements in chh. 19, 20, and a strong
passage on the ceremonial law in horn. vii. ad Levit. § 5.
2 Ibid. 16 Sia SoKOvo-rjs ioTopias Kal ov o-apaTiKas yeyevrjppevrjs.
3 Ibid. 19 noXXS) yap nXeiovd io~Ti to. Kara Tr)v laTopiav aXrj8(v6p.eva, tSiv
7rpocrv(pav0evT(ov yvpva>v 7rvevpaTLKatv.
4 Ibid. 9.
5 Ibid. 1 1 (o-apt; tt)s yparprjs) ; 14 (to o-a>paTiKov rrjs ypaqirjs).
6 Orig. in Gen. horn. xv. I describes Scripture as 'secundum disciplinam
divinae eruditionis aptatam, neque tantum historicis narrationibus
quantum rebus et sensibus mysticis servientem.' Cp. in Jerem. horn.
xxxix : ovk eo~TLv lo3tii ev r) pia Kepaia yey pappevr] iv Trj ypa(prj rJTis Tots emcrTa-
pevots xpJjo-#ai rrj Swdpei toiv ypapparav ovk ipya&Tai to iavrrjs 'ipyov. Cp.
Aug. de util. cred. 9 s. fin.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 403
it considers indications of date and authorship ; it
estimates the time that separates the origin of a docu
ment from the events recorded therein ; it examines the
inner consistency of the narrative, and its harmony with
facts otherwise ascertained : and no Christian student
of the present day can afford to neglect the ascertained
conclusions of critical science. But on the other hand,
when he has frankly recognized the distinction between
what is historical and what is semi-historical or imagi
native, he will place himself on a level with ancient
Christianity in his endeavour to ascertain the spiritual
and personal bearing of what he reads. Augustine
had little or no opportunity of acquiring linguistic or
critical knowledge, but there is something strangely
modern in the tone of the following passage taken
from the first chapter of the de Genesi ad literam.
'In all the sacred books,' he says, ' our duty is to
examine what eternal truths are intimated therein,
what facts are narrated, what future events foretold,
what duties we are commanded or advised to perform.
Accordingly in the narrative of actual facts inquiry is
made whether all things are to be accepted only in
a figurative sense, or whether they are also to be
maintained and defended as having literally occurred.
For that there are not things which must be figuratively
understood, no Christian will venture to affirm, if at
least he pays heed to the apostle's words Now all these
things happened unto them in a figure (1 Cor. x. 11);
and to the text in Genesis, and they twain shall be one
fiesh — a text which presents to us the great mystery of
Christ and of the Church V Here Augustine recognizes
the need of discrimination between what is historical
and what is merely figurative. From a different starting-
point the modern Christian student arrives at a similar
point of view. In detail the conclusions of the ancient
and of the modern student would differ. But both, in
so far as they were true to the limitations of their know
ledge, would surely admit that it is not only a great
1 de Gen. ad lit. i. I.
D d 2

404 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
blunder, but a serious failure in truthfulness, to insist
overmuch on the historical element in the Old Testa
ment, and to build indiscriminately on narratives which
have been conclusively shown to be utterly different in
literary quality and in historic worth. This cautious
position is entirely consistent on the one hand with
a profound and reverent sense of the spiritual precious
ness of all, even of what is only apparently and not
really historical, and on the other with a frank suspense
of judgment in regard to details. We have already
pointed out that it is possible to overrate the import
ance of certainty on many points of criticism ; indeed,
it appears probable that some questions now in dis
pute will practically prove to be beyond the range
of satisfactory solution. It is enough that we can
use the Old Testament narratives for purposes of
moral illustration ; while those which are true to fact
teach us what Almighty God has actually wrought or
allowed, those which are parabolic or imaginative
reveal sometimes the anticipations and ventures of faith,
sometimes the thoughts of the inspiring Spirit. Like
the parables of our Lord, they illustrate the dealings
of God with men, or the progress of man's spiritual
education, or the workings of divine providence, or the
judgments that fall on sin and the blessings which
crown righteousness. It is a priori probable that in
the literature of a religion of which prophecy is the
characteristic feature, there should be a considerable
element of what is simply parabolic and figurative. If
we follow the method of the New Testament writers
we shall use the Old Testament stories mainly for the
purpose of spiritual and moral edification, considering
(to use Augustine's phrase) quae ibi aeterna intimentur ;
the spiritual depth and sublimity of such narratives as
that of Jacob's dream at Bethel, or that of the heavenly
feast and vision by which the divine covenant with
Israel was sealed, is practically unaffected by con
siderations as to their precise character. It suffices
that they convey intimations of God's character, His

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 405
discriminating providence, His purposes for mankind,
His ways of dealing with the individual soul, which
have formed an integral element in the spiritual educa
tion of our race. These and such-like things are
written for our admonition, and as Augustine elsewhere
says, we must diligently ponder their meaning ' until
the interpretation is brought to bear upon the kingdom
of love V For the end of God's ways is the sanctifica-
tion of man through a saving knowledge of Him.
The existence and rationale of a ' secondary ' or
' mystical ' sense in Scripture next claims attention.
This is a question forced upon us not only by the
universal habit and tradition of the Catholic Church —
a fact which it would be supremely foolish and pre
sumptuous to ignore — but also by the express teaching
of Scripture itself2. In their vindication of the claims
of biblical criticism and exegesis the humanists and the
early reformers insisted upon the principle that ' Scrip
ture should be its own interpreter, and that it was not
to be interpreted by tradition or external authority a.'
Now it is this very principle that justifies the recogni
tion of a mystical sense in the Old Testament. It is
not merely the case that the New Testament writers
habitually treat the ancient Scriptures as symbolic and
prophetic in the widest sense. There is a certain con
stancy in the employment of imagery derived from nature
or from Israel's history which implies that both are
sacramental, that is, that they embody in local, visible,
and material forms and incidents the realities which
belong to a spiritual and eternal order. We have
already noticed that the spiritual sense of Scripture
is practically its own proof, but it is desirable to indicate
1 de doc. iii. 15: 'Servabitur ergo in locutionibus figuratis regula
huiusmodi, ut tarn diu versetur diligenti consideratione quod legitur,
donee ad regnum caritatis interpretatio perducatur.'
2 See an article on 'The mystical interpretation of Holy Scripture,' in
the Church Quarterly Review, no. 43 (April, 1886) ; the Bampton
Lectures for 1824, by the Rev. J. J. Conybeare, on 'The history and
limitations of the secondary and spiritual sense of Scripture'; Stanton,
The Jewish and the Christian Messiah, pp. 1 84 foil.
3 Briggs, Biblical Study, p. 331.

406 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
briefly two independent grounds of reason on which
the practice of mystical interpretation ultimately rests.
Now it might be fairly argued that the very fact
that the Jewish mind displayed a tendency to allegorize
points to the presence of a considerable element of
allegory in the Hebrew writings themselves. But in
order to escape a possible charge of petitio principii it
is better to defend the method now in question by
other considerations. And first, there evidently under
lies it a sense of the inexhaustible significance of
language when applied to subjects of spiritual contem
plation, or when employed as a medium of divine self-
communication to man. Human language is obviously
inadequate as a vehicle of the thoughts of God ; it is
at best a sign pointing to the thing signified and
leading us back at one step to the sphere of nature
and human life, in which God reveals Himself by
means of the concrete language of outward fact 1.
The fault of the rabbinical methods of dealing with
the letter of Scripture — methods which culminated in
the system of the Cabbala — was twofold : on the one
hand they ignored the human element in the Old
Testament, forgetting that the letter was human
though the spirit was divine ; on the other, they were
content with the manipulation of the letter instead of
passing beyond it into the broad fields of nature and
history -'. The extravagances of mystical interpreta
tion have in some instances perhaps been due to these
mistakes; in others, doubtless, to a defective percep
tion of the progressive character of revelation 3. More
over, extravagance was closely allied to arbitrariness,
which even Origen appears to recognize in his admis
sion that the mystical sense is not always certainly or
safely ascertainable 4. The fact is that the study of the
1 Cp. Newman, University Sermons, p. 268, and the suggestive
remarks of Mozley, University Sermons, pp. 134 foil.
2 Cp. Briggs, op. cit. p. 302.
3 e.g., Aug. de doc. iii. 12 insists that the morally defective actions of
Old Testament characters are all figurative.
de Princ. ix on pev oiKovopiai. ei<ri Tives /xvotik<u dr/Xovpevai 81a to>v

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 407
written word, regarded as a revelation of the divine
mind, needs to be supplemented by devout contempla
tion of the things and facts which human language only
imperfectly symbolizes. Augustine, after carefully distin
guishing between signa propria and signa translata, that
is, between language literal and language metaphorical,
insists that a deeper knowledge of things is necessary
for comprehending the significance of scriptural terms.
Rerum ignorantia, he says, facit obscuras figuraias
locutiones1. In the language of Scripture a real though
imperfect impression is conveyed to man of the works
in which the eternal power and godhead of the Creator
are made known. And possibly one of the reasons
why our Lord adopted the parable as His chosen
method of instruction was that while His words were
often perverted or misunderstood owing either to the
malignity or to the literalistic habit of mind of His
different hearers, His parabolic teaching was calculated
to direct attention to the correspondence between two
classes of facts, between the processes of nature and
the operations of grace. It implied that all the works
of God are words, and that nothing is unspiritual or
void of signification in a universe the Creator of which
is a living spirit 2.
A sacramental view of the universe, then, seems to
be everywhere presupposed in Scripture, the visible
Oeiaip ypa(pa>v, irdvTes Kal ol aKepaioraTOi tg>v tg> Xoycp irpoo'iovTatv 7reirLO~TevKao~i.
Ttves 8e avTai ol evyfoypoves Kal arvcpoi SpoXoyovai pr) eibevai.
1 de doc. ii. 16. Cp. T. Aquinas, Summa Theol. i. q. 1, art. 10 : ' Auctor
sacrae scripturae est Deus in cujus potestate est ut non solum voces ad
significandum accommodet (quod etiam homo facere potest) sed etiam
res ipsas.'
2 Cp. Trench, Notes on the Parables, Introd. p. 18. I cannot refrain
from quoting a striking statement of a divine whose cautious and scholarly
temperament inclined him to distrust anything like the play of imagination
in the exegesis of Scripture. The late Dr. Hatch in his Hibbert Lectures,
pp. 83, 84, points out the permanent principle which underlies the method
of mystical or allegorical interpretation. ' It is based,' he says, ' upon
an element in human nature which is not likely to pass away. Whatever
be its value in relation to the literature of the past, it is at least the
expression in relation to the present that our lives are hedged round by
the unknown ; that there is a haze about both our birth and our de
parture, and that even the meaner facts of life are linked to infinity.'

408 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
creation being a type of the spiritual world. Thomas
Aquinas indeed finds the rationale of different senses
in Scripture not in the nature of the written letter, but
in the concrete realities behind them. Ipsae res signifi-
catae per voces, he says, aliarum rerum possunt esse
signa1. The Cabbalistic manipulation of the written
word is not only discredited by the stubborn facts
of textual criticism ; it is based upon a shallow and
unphilosophical view of the nature of language. The
curiosities which it brings to light are of that unprofit
able kind which minister questions rather than godly
edifying which is in faith 2.
A second justification of mystical interpretation is to
be found in the relation subsisting between Judaism
and Christianity. The new religion clearly has an
organic connexion and essential continuity with the
old. Both rest on the same foundation, namely, a self-
revelation of God resulting in new religious experiences
and a new standard of human duty. Both are dominated
by the idea of the kingdom of God as the consumma
tion of history and the goal towards which nature
tends. In both the divine requirement is the same.
Faith is essentially the same quality in both dispensa
tions, in spite of the fact that the object-matter of faith
is not in all respects identical 3. Finally, the idea of
salvation is the same in both, with the difference that
in the Old Testament God condescends to moral im
maturity by embodying His promises in material and
transitory forms 4. From the unity of the Author of
1 Summa, i. q. I, art. 10. Cp. Waterland, pref. to Scripture Vindicated
(Works, vol. vi. p. 7) : 'The words properly bear but one sense, and that
one sense is the literal one ; but the thing expressed by the letter is
further expressive of something sublime or spiritual.'
2 i Tim. i. 4 ; cp. vi. 4.
3 Cp. Riehm, A Tl. Theologie, p. 34.
4 Aug. de pecc. mer. et remiss, i. 53 : ' In illis [libris V. T.] quod
occultatur sub velamento velut terrenarum promissionum, hoc in Novo
Testamento praedicatione revelatur.' Cp. c. duas epp. Pelag. iii. 13 : 'Ideo
in illo sunt promissa terrena, in isto promissa coelestia : quia et hoc ad
Dei misericordiam pertinuit ne quisquam vel ipsam terrenam qualem-
cumque felicitatem nisi a Domino creatore universitatis putet cuiquam
posse conferri.'

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 409
revelation follows the New Testament principle that
no prophecy is of private interpretation1. It has been
repeatedly made manifest in the course of redemptive
history that Scripture has successive applications which
correspond to different stages in the work of God.
Spiritual laws declared by prophecy, or set forth in
typical institutions, or in the personal discipline of
Hebrew saints and heroes, were seen to be con
tinuously in operation, and from time to time working
themselves out afresh. Accordingly, what had been
originally spoken of the chosen nation, such as the
passage Out of Egypt have I called my son, found
a fresh and ideal fulfilment in Him who embodied in
His representative humanity the people from which,
as touching the flesh, He sprang, and who recapitu
lated in His own life the experience of all the
ancient saints. And what was truly accomplished in
Him necessarily had a mystical reference also to
the true spiritual Israel of God of which He was
the founder and archetype 2. Finally, the individual
Christian, in so far as he realizes his union with
Christ, discerns in the narrative of Israel's fortunes
and in the institutions of its polity or worship a kind
of picture, writ large, of his own spiritual course, and
of the truths by which he lives. He recognizes
the application of the history to himself in his own
religious experience. He finds that ' it is true of him
self in virtue of his relation to the Church, and as one
member of that redeemed body 3.' Indeed, the very
1 2 Pet. i. 20.
2 Valeton, Christus und das A. T. p. 25, makes a striking remark : ' Ich
glaube, die Schriften werden nie mit mehr unmittelbarer Anwendung auf
den Leser selbst gelesen und durchstudiert worden sein als von dem
Herrn. Was nach Ausweis der Schriften Gott zu verschiedenen Zeiten
und auf mancherlei Weise in und mit dem israelitischen Volke gethan
hat, an sich selbst sieht er es erst zur vollen Verwirklichung herangereift ;
. . . was Israel sein sollte, Jesus ist sich bewusst es wirklich zu sein : er
ist der Messias, der Menschensohn, derjenige, der da kommen soil, —
Gottes Ratschluss ist in ihm erfiillt.'
3 This principle is of course recognized by Augustine in his discussion
of the ' Rules of Tichonius ' ; see especially de doc. iii. 34. Cp. Jukes, The
Mystery of the Kingdom, pp. 17, 25. Observe, the application of Scripture

410 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
distinction between Israel after the flesh and Israel
after the spirit, between the seed of Abraham literally
understood and the children of Abraham by promise,
implies that there is a necessary spiritual application
of the Old Testament to those who constitute the
spiritual Israel1. What in the letter belongs to the
ancient people can only be figuratively or mystically
applicable to the Church. That it is so applicable is
warranted by the express teaching of the New Testa
ment and attested by the universal experience of
Christians. The mystery of solidarity in the kingdom
of grace is the basis and justification of the mystical
interpretation of Scripture. The facts of redemptive
history point beyond themselves in so far as they
illustrate living laws of the divine government and
self-manifestation ; in so far as they are moments in
the forthcoming of the eternal Word ' whose path is
and ever must be one 2.' If the Incarnation was indeed
a great ' recapitulation ' of the past 3, the manifestation
in its fullness of a divine purpose predestined from
the beginning, it is not surprising that the actions
and experiences of ancient prophets, saints, priests,
martyrs, and kings should have been prophetic ;
that in these should have been foreshadowed different
aspects of Christ's office and person. Such partial
and fragmentary indication of good things to be fully
revealed in the future is consistent with all that we
know of the divine character and methods.
Again, the typical element in the Old Testament dis
pensation seems to follow from the constancy of spiritual
to the individual soul seems to constitute the moral or tropological sense,
or 'soul' of Scripture. Thus Orig. horn. i. in Exod. § 4 (speaking of
Joseph's history) says : ' Sed et moralem in his non omittamus locum ;
aedificat enim animas auditorum'
1 Gal. iv. 29. Aug. enarr. i. in psalm, xxi. § 25 explains ' semen
Israel ' as ' omnes ad novam vitam nati, et ad visionem Dei reparati.'
'' Cp. Jukes, The Mystery of the Kingdom, p. 18 : 'Whether it be Israel
of old, or one of Israel, or Christ, or the Church, or the believer, each, if
faithful to his calling, is or has been a vessel for the manifestation of the
Word whose path is and ever must be one.'
3 Eph. i. 10.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 411
law in the universe. The relation of faith to God and
to the facts of life is essentially the same in every age.
There are facts and circumstances in history which
have a representative character, which exemplify the
operation of a moral principle and are accordingly
prophetic 1. A particular spiritual experience neces
sarily repeats itself because the needs and trials of
human nature in successive generations remain con
stant and unchanged, and because God is eternally
self-consistent in His character and in His dealings
with mankind. And it may be observed, in conclusion,
that the typical character of Israel's history corresponds
to the prophetic character of its religion. In a typical
transaction, object, or person a law of the spiritual
world is to be observed in actual operation. In
prophecy the intellect of man, guided by the divine
Spirit, lays hold of the law and brings it to the light.
Thus, while the continuity of revelation makes the
institutions and the history of Israel actually typical or
symbolic, it is the office of the prophetic faculty to
exhibit its inner significance. There is every reason
a priori to suppose that the sacred writers or compilers
were controlled by the Holy Spirit in their selection,
and even in their omission 2, of particular incidents and
events. They were guided ' to record them in such
a way that over and above the direct moral and
spiritual instructiveness they should be susceptible of
a parabolic interpretation too V
1 Alexander of Hales in his Summa Theologiae (i. q. 1, mem. 1) makes
a striking remark : ' In sacra scriptura ponitur historia non ea ratione seu
fine ut significentur singulares actus hominum significatione sermonum,
sed ut significentur universales actus et conditiones pertinentes ad infor-
mationem et contemplationem divinorum mysteriorum significatione
rerum. . . . Introducitur ergo in historia sacrae scripturae factum singulare
ad significandum universale.'
2 Thus the writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews argues from the silence
of Scripture in vii. 3, not surely, as Prof. Hommel insists, from another
version of Genesis, now lost. The remark of Augustine about the Gospel
narratives may be applied to those of the Old Testament : ' Tanta facta
sunt quanta tunc fieri debuerunt ; tanta scripta sunt quanta nunc legi
debuerunt ' (serm. in dieb. Pasch. ccxl).
3 See art. in Ch. Quart. Review, above mentioned.

4T2 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
Having dealt with these preliminary points we may
turn to the consideration of the permanent function
which the Old Testament seems designed to fulfil in
the education of Christian faith. In discussing this
subject, we shall naturally bear in mind the peculiar
needs and circumstances of our own day.
i. The main purpose of the Old Testament is to
be inferred from consideration of the primary element
in our Lord's own teaching. He came into the
world for the express purpose of revealing to men
the mind, the character, and the will, of Almighty God.
He pointed men to the Scriptures as a true source of
divine knowledge. Their readiness to accept Himself
would be proportionate to the anticipations they had
already formed of God. If they read the ancient
Scriptures aright they would be prepared for a dis
closure of the divine life and character, crowning and
not contradicting the recorded revelations of the past.
Diligent search of the Scriptures would train and
develope certain preconceptions, which were likely to
welcome the manifestation of the incarnate Son. The
study of Israel's history under the guidance of the
prophets would prepare the Hebrew mind for a revela
tion of grace transcending, but strictly consistent with,
the wonderful dealings of God in the past.
In the Old Testament, then, we find a revelation of
God's nature and character which justifies and inter
prets to us our faith in Christ. The message of the
Old Testament, it has been said, is summed up in one
word — the word God 1. A personal, holy, spiritual,
and gracious Being there manifests Himself. We can
study His dealings with men in almost every stage of
development and culture ; we can watch Him educating
His elect people and nurturing the heathen; we see
Him as a Judge punishing sins, as a Father dis
ciplining His children. What is the great truth
which the history of Israel enforces, and which is
a necessary element in the religious view of the world ?
1 G. A. Smith, The Preaching of the Old Testament to the Age, p. 57.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 413
The answer to this question is that the Old Testament
impresses upon us the thought that in His moral
government of the world Almighty God sets before
Himself one aim, that of bringing His creatures to the
highest degree of perfection of which their nature is
capable. The moral perfection of man — this is the
goal of human history. In the divine view of the
world all else appears to be of subordinate importance.
The tremendous discipline to which Israel was sub
jected is a measure of the supreme place assigned in
the universe to moral law. The Old Testament
exhibits to us the Creator taking in hand that one
among His creatures which is capable of holding
communion with Him and of wearing His image and
likeness, carrying him through all the stages of an age
long discipline, and finally bringing His purpose to
accomplishment. Nor is there anything perhaps more
necessary in our day than a revival in men's minds of
a just conception of the divine purpose which is slowly
working itself out in national history. From the Old
Testament history we learn what is the meaning of
the stern discipline of war, pestilence, and famine, of
national distress and signal public catastrophes, of the
vicissitudes and shocks which darken the lives of
individual men. All these things are divinely intended
either to heighten the standard of national righteous
ness, or to advance the work of personal sanctification.
Nothing can more forcibly bring home this lesson, at
least to the generality of men, than the inspired record
of God's dealings with His people in the time of old.
In legend and allegory, in narrative and song, in the
homely wisdom of proverbs and in the inspired inter
pretations of history, the spirit of faith reads one
continuous lesson : This is the will of God, even your
sanctification 1. The passion for moral beauty, the
thirst for righteousness, which fired the Puritans of
the seventeenth century, was to a great extent nourished
by the zealous study of the Old Testament; and in
1 1 Thess. iv. 3.

414 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
these days of paralyzing moral scepticism and frequently
misdirected moral energy it is well to learn once more
from its pages what are the things best worth living
for, and what is the consummation on which the Lord
of all the earth has set His heart : namely, the
exaltation of humanity into moral fellowship with the
divine life.
But the Old Testament does not merely reveal and
illustrate the aim of God's moral government ; it also
exhibits the methods and laws of His action. God is
manifested as one who bears with man in his present
condition in order to raise him to a higher level.
God separates man from the sphere of sin and corrup
tion in order to make him a co-operating agent in the
execution of a world-wide purpose of grace ; He uses
man's social instincts and tendency to corporate life
as the main instrument in his moral development.
A kingdom of God is planted upon earth, a sphere
within which the quickening forces of the divine
Spirit visibly work, a centre of life and light amid the
darkness of universal death. And the Old Testament
history anticipates and prefigures the fortunes of the
Messianic kingdom. For it is the history of an elect
people, of a Church invested with a mission to man
kind. In the story of Israel's lapses and revivals,
distresses and failures, advances and conquests, we
have a divine commentary on ' the chequered annals
of Christendom 1' The broad principles of redemptive
history do not change with the ages, since they reflect
the very being of God and correspond to the com
prehensive unity of His plan ; they manifest themselves
anew in the kingdom of the Incarnation, they finally
triumph in the consummation of all things.
Once more, while the Old Testament history illustrates
the diversity of the means by which the divine will is
ultimately accomplished, we are nevertheless struck
by one special feature in the narrative, namely the
prominence of suffering. It has been justly observed
1 Westcott, Ep. to the Hebrews, p. 494.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 415
that Scripture is a record of human sorrow ; certainly
the Old Testament teaches more emphatically than
any other literature the moral necessity of suffering as
a factor in man's development and in his progress
from that which is natural to that which is spiritual1.
In the culminating vision of prophecy, the exilic
picture of the afflicted servant of Jehovah bearing the
sin of his people, we see disclosed ' the innermost secret
of the divine way of salvation 2.' The sober solemnity
which pervades the entire history of the Old Testa
ment corresponds to the dominant aspect of human
life ; it is the story of faith passing through days of
warfare and trial. So too the poetry and the wisdom
of the Hebrews give utterance to the complaints, or
reflect the perplexities, of righteous men suffering
without a cause. In every part of the Old Testa
ment the Hebrew mind is as it were being prepared
for the appearance on the stage of human life of the
Man of sorrows. The trials of Abraham and Isaac, the
sorrows of Jacob and Joseph, the discipline of Israel
in the wilderness, the wrongs endured by the first true
king, the persecutions that befell holy men of God —
psalmists, prophets, martyrs, and saints ; the afflictions
of the righteous remnant in exile — a moment's reflexion
will show us how large a part these played in the slow
fulfilment of the divine purpose, how constant an
element they formed in the spiritual education of
mankind. Man, like Joseph, dreams of rule : he is
sustained by the light of the divine blessing which
whispers to him of dominion ; but it is only by the
way of sorrow that he attains that for which he was
intended from the first. In the Old Testament the
whole warfare of man upon earth is set forth. The
law of man's glorification is already clearly ex
hibited : If xve suffer with him we shall also reign with
him 3-
Thus the study of the Old Testament tends to
1 1 Cor. xv. 46. 2 Schultz, O. T. Theology, vol. ii. p. 430.
3 2 Tim. ii. 12 ; cp. Rom. viii. 17.

416 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
deepen our impression of the constancy and perpetuity
of those great spiritual laws which govern and guide
the development of mankind. In its fullness the divine
character makes itself known only in the life and
teaching of our Saviour ; but there are elements in
that character which seem to emerge, so to speak, at
different intervals and on critical occasions in the
history of Israel: the holiness of God revealing itself
in the promulgation of the moral law and in the
ordinances of the levitical sanctuary ; His long-
suffering and readiness to pardon being manifested in
His dealings with those who provoked and disobeyed
Him in the wilderness, and in the providential tender
ness with which He bare and carried His people all
the days of old1 ; while His patience and tenacity of
purpose is exhibited in the restoration of His exiled
people to their own land, and in the revival of His
work in the midst of a dreary waste of years 2. Every
student of the Old Testament can fill up these outlines
for himself; but speaking generally, the point of chief
importance is that we should regain and deepen the
sense of what is most fundamental in the teaching of
the ancient Scriptures, namely the reality of God's
eternal purpose — the perfection of man ; the method
of His action — taking man as he is in order to make
him what he is capable of becoming; the means He
employs in the execution of His will — the discipline
of suffering. We are to get into the habit of reading
modern history in the light of the spiritual purpose
revealed in Scripture, and to judge of movements
social and political by their effects on human character.
We are to learn from the prophetic philosophy of
history that ' the fates of nations are conditioned
by their bearing towards the moral purpose of
God V
2. A second great purpose of the Old Testament
Scriptures is comprehensively described in our Lord's
1 Isa. lxiii. 9. _ 2 Hab. iii. 2.
3 Pfleiderer, Gifford Lectures, vol. ii. p. 42.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 417
declaration to the Jews : they are they which testify of
me1. Christ in all the varied aspects of His person
is the final cause and ultimate explanation of the Old
Testament, nor can we understand even imperfectly
what is meant by His ' Messianic self-consciousness '
without its aid. Origen indeed observes that the very
proof of its inspiration lies in the fact of Christ's
advent 2. Certainly the true character of the ancient
Scriptures is only manifest in the light of the Incarna
tion. A product so vast and wonderful can only be
supposed to stand in vital relation to some unique
event in human history, for which it prepares the way.
In this connexion it is unnecessary to do more than
direct attention to the organic unity of the Old
Testament regarded as a history of redemption. The
fact of this unity is presupposed in the science of Old
Testament theology, which assumes that every element
and institution in the discipline of the Hebrew nation
had a direct bearing upon the fulfilment of a single
divine purpose. If the idea of redemption is the
keynote of the Old Testament, the advent of a
Redeemer is its goal and consummation. But just
in proportion as the idea of redemption is profound
and complex, the unity of aim that marks the Old
Testament implies an infinite variety in the character
of its component parts. Jesus Christ came not to
destroy but to fulfil the teaching of the Old Testa-
1 John v. 39.
2 de Princ. iv. 6. It is scarcely necessary to say that in the early
Church the Old Testament was chiefly valued for apologetic and con
troversial purposes. The argument from prophecy was ' the one formal
method of proof employed by the first Christians. Stanton, The fewish
and Christian Messiah, p. 176. The argument from prophecy has gained
in force by being restated in accordance with our wider critical know
ledge. In its modern form it is parallel to the argument from design,
laying less emphasis upon particular predictions and resting rather on
the broad general correspondence between prophecy and fulfilment. For
a contemptuous but somewhat belated estimate of prophecy, see
Mr. Goldwin Smith's recent Guesses at the Riddle of Existence, pp. 167
foil. The writer's general point of view will be plain from the following
extract : ' The Messiahship of Jesus is a question with which we need
practically concern ourselves no more. The Messiah was a dream of
the tribal pride of the Jew to which ... we may bid a long farewell.'
E e

418 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
ment; but His person was so mysterious, His work
so many-sided, that each portion of the book which
fore-announced His coming may reasonably be sup
posed to have reference to some aspect of His person
or some element in His work. Thus if, as St. Paul
teaches, Christ is the second Adam, it is evident that
the mysterious narrative of man's origin in some way
prefigures the work of the new creation exhibited in
the life of the incarnate Son. The titles Lamb of
God and Our Passover recall the solemn associations
connected with Israel's deliverance from bondage, and
its formation into an elect people of God. The name
Jesus points back to the ministry and achievements of
Joshua. The word Saviour recalls the memory of the
deliverers under whose auspices Israel gained secure
possession of the land of their inheritance. The name
David or Son of David appropriates to Christ the
experiences of the first true king and his godly suc
cessors on the throne ; in Christ the mystery of the
kingdom finds its fulfilment. The title Messiah
embraces the spiritual counterpart of all offices dis
charged by those on whom under the old Law the
sacred unction had been bestowed ; it includes the
dignity of kingship, and in a subordinate degree the
functions of prophecy and the grace of priesthood.
So, again, when our Lord refers to the temple of his
body, or to His blood as the blood of the new covenant,
or to His death as a ransom for many, or to His
sacred flesh as meat indeed, it is obvious that He points
to the entire sacrificial system and the very structure
of the ancient sanctuary as typical of Himself. Finally,
when He refers to Himself as the Wisdom of God He
seems to bring within the range of the Messianic
element in Scripture the whole khokmah literature ;
while His comparison of Himself to a Bridegroom
justifies the symbolical application of Solomon's Song.
Our Lord's teaching in fact suggests and implies much
more than it explicitly declares ; namely, that in His
own person and work all that was limited, shadowy,

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 419
fragmentary, or disconnected in the writings and
characters of the Old Testament, was harmonized,
developed, and completed. His life and teaching,
His death and exaltation, formed together or singly
the key to the true interpretation of Scripture, and the
principle of its unity. In narrative, symbol, prophecy,
and song, Christians may discern the outlines of His
living form ; in every righteous hero, in every innocent
sufferer, in every steadfast martyr, in every victorious
king, in every prisoner of hope, in every ministering
priest, in every dispenser of blessing, we may see
Christ Himself. In every typical ordinance some
aspect of His Messianic office is prefigured, in each
judgment on sin His coming is anticipated, in every
prophet His Spirit speaks, in every conqueror of
God's enemies He is the victor, in every afflicted
saint He complains, in every godly king He reigns1.
What has just been said suggests the further remark
that the Messianic quality of many Old Testament
passages depends on their idealistic character. It has
been said that the true justification of many New
Testament quotations from the Old is simply the broad
principle that what is ideal is Messianic. Thus the
writer of the Epistle to the Hebrews in his employ
ment of the eighth Psalm, and St. Peter in his reference
to the sixteenth2, seem to base their argument on
a definite law of scriptural interpretation. Christian
teachers would doubtless gradually accustom them
selves to read highly idealistic passages of Scripture
in the light of the Messianic expectation, and ascribe
to them a certain secondary or mystical meaning, thus
expanding and spiritualizing their original sense. The
1 Cp. Aug. c. Faust. Man. xix. 31 : ' Quod [sc. regnum caelorum] ori
ejus etiam nominandum servabatur quem regem ad regendos, et sacerdo-
tem ad sanctificandos fideles suos universus ille apparatus Veteris
Instrumenti in generationibus, factis, dictis, sacrificiis, observationibus,
festivitatibus, omnibusque eloquiorum praeconiis et rebus gestis et rerum
figuris parturiebat esse venturum ; qui plenus gratia et yeritate et ad
praecepta facienda adjuvando per gratiam et ad promissa implenda
curando per veritatem, venit legem non solvere sed adimplere.'
2 Heb. ii. 6 foil. ; Acts ii. 25 foil.
e e 2

420 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
idealistic tendency indeed, like other peculiarities of
the Hebrew writers, was doubtless ever under the
control and guidance of the divine Spirit and was
made to minister to His purposes. The prophet or
psalmist was thus led to use language the full scope
and application of which was hidden from himself, but
which had a divinely intended reference to distant
events concealed in the foreknowledge of God 1. This
habit of the Hebrew mind did not necessarily imply
that it spiritualised the persons or events which it
invested with ideal dignity or significance. On the
contrary, it delighted in concrete imagery ; it described
even spiritual realities in terms of the non-spiritual ; it
regarded the material universe as the sphere of divine
self-manifestation ; it linked physical nature to the lot
of man, and to the purposes of God. And in the
interpretation of prophecy we have to remember how
hyperbolical and highly-coloured is the symbolism
used to express or prefigure spiritual truths or events.
The most awful phenomena of nature foreshadow
solemn crises in the spiritual history of mankind. So
St. Peter, describing the gift of Pentecost, tells his
hearers that this is that which was spoken by the prophet
Joel2. The pouring out of the Spirit was an event
so momentous that it could only be described in terms
of fearful natural phenomena. / will show wonders in
heaven above and signs in the earth beneath, blood and
fire and vapour of smoke. The sun shall be turned into
darkness and the moon into blood before that great and
notable day of the Lord come. The same general
principle of interpretation, viz. that everything ideal
1 The hyperbolical and transcendental language of some of the psalms
(e. g. Ps. xxii) seems dictated by a consciousness in the writer that the
spiritual principles discernible in the facts of the present were destined
to find a more complete expression in the future. See the article in Ch.
Quart. Review already cited. Stanton, The Jewish and the Christian
Messiah, p. 98, well remarks : ' On the ground of this divine intention,
those who start from the full Christian idea of the Messiah are justified
in noting as Messianic every element of thought in the Old Testament
which was eventually taken up into the complete idea.'
2 Acts ii. 16 foil.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 42T
has reference to the Messiah and His kingdom, seems
to guide St. John's use of Old Testament imagery in
the Apocalypse. It is, however, enough to have
briefly indicated a rule observed by New Testament
writers in the Messianic application of prophecy, which
is very simple and comprehensive, but which we might
easily overlook. It seems to give us a clue to the
freedom and boldness with which the ancient Scriptures
are applied to the person of Christ and the fortunes
of the Church. All forms of nobleness or loveliness,
all types of excellency or majesty, are seen in the light
of the Incarnation to be only shadows of the uncreated
beauty : but the body is of Christ *. The song of the
redeemed claims for Him all that excites the wonder
or merits the praise of man : Worthy is the Lamb that
was slain to receive power, and riches, and wisdom, and
strength, and honour, and glory, and blessing2.
3. A third great function of the Old Testament is
that of forming and training human character. This
function it discharges partly by its explicit and formal
teaching, partly by presenting living patterns of
humanity by which we are taught how to walk and to
please God3. 'The morality of the Old Testament' is
a phrase to be used with discrimination. There is the
morality which God tolerates as the best that can be
attained under the rudimentary conditions and circum
stances of those with which He is dealing. There is
the morality which He approves and delights in because
it rises above the average level of the age in which it
appears. There is the morality at which He aims —
the final or perfect morality which is disclosed in the
spotless life of Jesus Christ. On the other hand, there
is the morality recognized or allowed by the standard
generally prevalent at a particular time, but retrogres
sive in so far as it falls short of a higher standard
1 Col. ii. 17. 2 Rev. v. 12.
3 1 Thess. iv. 1. See Aug. de doc. ii. 9 : ' In his omnibus libris timentes
Deum et pietate mansueti quaerunt voluntatem Dei ' ; iii. 10 : ' Non autem
praecipit scriptura nisi caritatem, nee culpat nisi cupiditatem, et eo modo
informat mores hominum.'

422 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
already acknowledged. And it is this which is plainly
described as hateful to God, and as bringing down upon
men the fire of His judgment. Take the great sin of
David for instance — a sin of which it was truly said
that it had given great occasion to the enemies of the
Lord to blaspheme 1. The man after God's own heart
falls into deeds which might have been matters of
every-day occurrence in an ordinary oriental court.
David acts as any eastern monarch might have acted
who was not restrained by a conscience educated under
the discipline of a recognized moral law. But in one
single sentence the true character of David's deed is
declared — the thing that David had done displeased the
Lord2. And his subsequent history is the divine com
mentary on his crime ; the sword never departing from
David's house, the rebellion of his favourite son with
all its fatal consequences, the outbreaks of lawless
passion by which the royal household was subsequently
defiled, the over-clouded and sorrow-laden old age of
the king himself. Thus even in the historical narra
tives the eternal requirement of God for man and His
thoughts concerning human sin are made abundantly
manifest. Augustine Indeed insists that the sins of the
ancient saints of God are described in order to teach
us humility. ' There is not a page,' he declares, ' in
the sacred books which does not ring with the truth
that God resisteth the proud, but giveth grace unto the
humble3.' If evil is described, it is described in its
nakedness and loathsomeness ; if it is denounced as by
the prophets, it is denounced in words that burn, in
sentences that might well ' make mad the guilty and
appal the free ' ; while, on the other hand, the great
outlines of religious character and the primary elements
of human duty are everywhere set forth, with a con
tinual tendency (as in the more humane injunctions of
the Law) to raise the whole standard of morality, and to
encourage the growth of that inwardness, that purity
1 2 Sam. xii. 14. 2 2 Sam. xi. 27.
3 de doc. iii. 23. Cp. Jas. iv. 6.

vm] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 423
of motive which is the distinguishing mark of Christian
goodness. In two respects Old Testament morality transcends
the ordinary level of pagan ethics ; it is theocentric,
and it is altruistic. It is theocentric : Thou shall
love the Lord thy God with all thy heart, and with all
thy soul, and with all thy might 1. This is the funda
mental and regulative commandment. As we have
already noticed, the characteristic feature in Israel's
conception of God was that it gave vitality and sub
stance to the thought of the divine personality. God
was a person capable of relationships of love — the true
and adequate object of devotion, trust, gratitude, obedi
ence, and service. He was one with whom and before
whom man might walk ; whom to know was man's
glory 2, whom to serve was his joy. How strange and
complete is the contrast between such a conception of
deity and those vague and undefined notions which
are characteristic of Semitic paganism. The religion
of the Old Testament marks a forward step in the
spiritual development of humanity which can never be
retraced. It represents man as standing in an intel
ligible and moral relationship to God ; as linked to
Him not by the mere accident of birth, carrying with
it the obligation to perform correctly certain stated
observances 3, but by community of moral nature.
For the theocentric idea of morality which pervades
the Old Testament corresponds to a theomorphic view
of humanity. Man was created in God's image ; in
other words, his very constitution made him capable of
communion with God and of progressive assimilation
to Him. From the first the Old Testament sets
before man not merely his obligations, but the personal
relationship, the tie of kinship to God, on which they
rest. Already moral good presents itself to man in
the shape of a personal appeal : Be ye holy, for I the

1 Deut. vi. 5 ; x. 12 ; xi. 1, &c. 2 Jer. ix. 24.
3 Cp. Robertson Smith, The Religion of the Semites, pp. 29 foil.

424 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
Lord your God am holy \ Already morality is suf
fused with emotion : the coldness of a mere abstraction
disappears, and the moral law is seen to be the expres
sion, the very essence, of the living personality behind
it. Obligation is set before man as dependent on a tie
of vital relationship between persons. Thus the re
vealed morality of the Old Testament marks an epoch
in the history of man's ethical progress, inasmuch as it
exhibits with absolute clearness the fundamental cha
racteristic of moral action. For it has been justly said
that ' Morality begins with the relation of person to
person, and all moral government — pre-eminently the
government of God — is founded upon and legislates
for this relation 2.'
Secondly, the morality of the Old Testament
is altruistic. Its essential feature is no longer the
self-regarding performance of stated rites calculated
to secure the favour or avert the anger of jealous
deities, but the fulfilment of duty as a member of the
human brotherhood. A conspicuous feature both of
the Law and of the prophetic teaching is that in both
great practical prominence is assigned to duty towards
one's neighbour. It is social righteousness which is pre
eminently the theme of the prophets. Integrity, justice,
faithfulness in every relationship of life, compassion
for the oppressed, the friendless, the poor, self-restraint
towards an enemy, humanity even to animals, merciful
ness in dealing with slaves, reverence for the marriage
tie and for the laws of hospitality, habitual respect
for age and station, fidelity in the matter of oaths and
promises, and strict administration of justice — these
are the distinctive points in Israel's moral law ; and
the sum of them, as St. Paul teaches, is briefly compre
hended in this saying, namely, Thou shalt love thy
neighbour as thyself3. It is in fact a sense of the
1 Lev. xix. 2 ; xx. 7.
2 See Bp. Ellicott, The Being of God, p. 120 note.
3 Lev. xix. 17, 18; cp. Rom. xiii. 9. See Fairbairn, Religion in
History and in Modern Life, lect. ii. pp. 123 foil., especially the admirable
passage, pp. 132-134.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 425
dignity and worth of human personality as made in
the image of God that underlies the moral precepts of
the Pentateuch : and it is in its recognition of this
principle that the law of the old covenant is of per
manent and eternal validity. At the same time the
prophetic denunciations of hypocrisy, of formalism, and
of the false externality that preferred ceremonialism to
righteousness, anticipate those utterances of our Lord
in which He distinguishes between the false and true
types of goodness. There was much indeed in the
Old Testament system that might foster the tendency
to serve God in the anxious and timid spirit of a
servant ; but a corrective element was contained in
the injunction to love God : and Hebrew saints and
psalmists illustrate the power of this love to chasten
and refine character, even when moulded by the stern
discipline of the Law.
Speaking generally, the characters delineated in the
Old Testament are marked by features which give
them typical significance and permanent value as ex
amples. We may admit that the heroic figures of
antiquity are idealized, but they are the more valuable
on that account as patterns, the qualities ascribed to
them being precisely those which are essential parts of
the noblest human goodness — fidelity, kindness, self-
respect, hospitality, domestic affection, patience in trial,
self-restraint, disinterestedness1. These are qualities
which are constant elements in religious character,
because they spring from the root of faith in a living
God, the righteous Lord who loveth righteousness, who
calls men to walk before Him and to be perfect, who
delights in trustful obedience, and in that fidelity to
obligations which is the reflection of His own unchang
ing self-consistency and covenant-faithfulness. Thus
we habitually turn to the Old Testament for lessons of
human duty ; we regard it as ' a family album of the
saints of God 2.' ' In a certain sense they are all
1 Cp. Driver, Sermons on the Old Testament, pp. xii, xiii.
2 Valeton, Vergdngliches und Ewiges im A. T. p. 13.

426 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
types ; but certainly men of flesh and blood, men in
whom we can recognize ourselves, and whose spiritual
life, in spite of the immense interval of place, time, and
circumstances between us and them, is the same [in its
general conditions] as ours, and therefore can serve us
as a mirror1.' In a word, one of the most important
functions of the Old Testament is to teach us a know
ledge of men and of the human heart — its possibilities
of nobleness, its strange self-deceits, its variable hold
on moral law, its haunting sense of a vocation to know
and love God.
4. Akin to the function of the Old Testament
Scriptures just described, is the office which it fulfils
as a manual of the spiritual life, profitable for
doctrine, for reproof, for correction, for instruction
in righteousness : that the man of God may be perfect,
throughly furnished unto all good works2. The word
of God, whether written or orally delivered, adapts
itself to the requirements of individual men. Thus
it is sometimes described as the food of souls — food
which is milk or strong meat according to the capacity
of him who feeds upon it. It claims to be a lantern
or lamp — a light of the conscience — setting before
men, whether in the incidents of personal biography
or in the annals of national life, the dealings of God
with nations and with individual souls. It reveals
to them His requirement, it unveils His character,
it unfolds His judgments, it encourages them by the
splendour of His promises and by the special tokens
of His presence. The value of the letter of the Old
Testament in this connexion is great ; it is, so to speak,
a pledge of the continual providence which ' ordereth
all things both in heaven and earth.' ' Most precious
is the letter,' says a devout writer, ' as showing . . .
how the path of lonely men, if they walk with Him,
their wells, and sheep, and feasts, and wars, are all
His interests ; that not a marriage, or birth, or death, —
not the weaning of a child, or the dismissal of a maid, —
1 Valeton, Vergdngliches und Ewiges im A. T.p. 13. 2 2 Tim. iii. 16, 17.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 427
not the bargain for a grave, or the wish respecting
the place of burial, — but He watches and directs it V
The literal sense of the Old Testament is indeed
a consecration of the natural life of men, just as the
New Testament is the witness of their spiritual
calling and destiny. This seems to be the point of
Augustine's observation that the Old Testament
belongs to the old man, with which human nature
must necessarily begin, while the New Testament
concerns the new man, into which human nature
ought_ to pass over from its old estate 2. Again, Scrip
ture is a mirror — such is the striking thought of
St. James — a glass in which the child of God may
behold himself, not only in his imperfection and
frailty, but in the ideal manhood towards the attain
ment of which he tends. In the word he may, if
he pleases, ascertain what manner of man he was in
the divine thought for him. There he can discern
to what he is called; what religion essentially is —
the life of ever-growing friendship with Almighty God ;
what is this end of all things — the appropriation and
penetration of nature and humanity by the divine Spirit.
Once more, to the writer of the Epistle to the
Hebrews Scripture is a sword : a weapon of defence
for the spiritual man engaged in his inevitable
conflict with ghostly foes. So our blessed Lord used
the Old Testament in the stress of His temptation,
and thereby taught us to do the same. To Him it
was the written record of God's unchanging will for
man, and His thoughts concerning him. To the Bible
viewed in this aspect St. Paul's words apply: The
weapons of our warfare are not carnal, but mighty
through God to the pulling down of strongholds3. And
it is to be noted in passing that through disparage-
1 Jukes, The Types of Genesis, p. xvi.
2 Aug. c. duas epp. Pelag. iii. 13. So Enarr. i. in psalm, xxi. 1, Augustine
speaks of Christ as 'personam servans veteris hominis, cujus mortalita-
tem portavit.'
3 2 Cor. x. 4. Observe this aspect of Scripture is very prominent in
Cyprian. See his de orat. dom. i ; epp. xxxi. 5, Iviii. 7.

428 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
ment or neglect of the Old Testament, men may find
themselves defenceless in the day of strong temptation
or mortal fear. The sword of the Spirit is to be
grasped by habitual study of Scripture, and by really
putting it to the proof1.
In one memorable passage St. Paul indicates the
special character of the support which the study of the
Old Testament lends to faith. He tells us that whatso
ever things were written aforetime were written for our
learning, that we through patience and comfort of the
scriptures might have hope2. When we consider the
stress which our Lord and His apostles lay upon
the necessity of endurance, it is easy to understand
how wisely the Old Testament is adapted to our
spiritual needs. For it is a book of hope, teaching
in every part of it the faithfulness of God, and the
meaning and expediency of those delays and trials by
which promised blessings are hindered or postponed 3.
The Old Testament is the history of a promise, the
fulfilment of which was earnestly awaited and often
despaired of by those who were its heirs ; a promise
only accomplished under circumstances undreamed of
and in days when its essential nature was well-nigh
forgotten. Further, the Old Testament is a history
of grace. It teaches the capacities of that human
nature which God condescends to train and discipline.
It traces the steps by which the Israel of Egypt and
the wilderness became the people of the star and
sceptre, the holy nation, the kingdom of priests, the
mother of saints, the people prepared for the Lord.
It records miracles of national recovery, irresistible
awakenings of conscience, the continual overruling
of disaster for good, the regenerating force of personal
character, the healing influences of the Spirit of God.
In a word, the Old Testament witnesses to the
continual advance, even through periods of fear,
1 See Heb. v. 12; 1 Pet. ii. 2 ; 2 Pet. i. 19; Jas. i. 25 ; Eph. vi. 17;
John v. 39.
2 Rom. xv. 4. s Cp. Jas. v. 11.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 429
depression, and degeneration, of a victorious purpose
of good ; nor does it fail the human spirit in its hours
of overwhelming fear or perplexity. It is a book of
hope because it faces the anomalies and enigmas of
life which overcloud and baffle so many minds. It
teaches us that though we cannot understand the
ways of God, at least He understands us. The
Psalmist comforts himself by the simple reflection
that when his spirit was in heaviness God knew his
path 1. The problems of existence have not been
essentially altered by the immense changes of cir
cumstance that part one period of history or one
stage of human culture and experience from another.
But the Old Testament is a pledge to us that all
things — our needs, our perplexities, our failures, our
aspirations, our struggles for existence, our toils on
behalf of others, our joys and griefs, our hopes and
fears — are naked and opened unto the eyes of him with
whom we have to do 2.
Spiritual edification then is one important function
discharged by the Old Testament. It is at once
a manual of moral instruction and a book of devotion.
It teaches us how to please God, and how to approach
Him. It illustrates the close connexion between
obedience, faith, and worship. In regard to this point
it is instructive to mark how large a place the study
of the Law appears to occupy in the thought of those
to whom we owe some of the deepest and most
spiritual of Psalms. We learn from this circumstance
that the free temper of religious devotion can only
have its root in a long and patient spiritual education :
that the severe schooling of the will must precede
the awakening of religious emotion and affection.
It was the discipline of the Law that awakened in
man's heart the consciousness of what God really
was in Himself, and in His relation to man. And
in two respects the Psalms seem to embody the
entire spiritual teaching of the Old Testament : first
1 Ps. cxlii. 3. 2 Heb. iv. 13.

430 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
in their recognition of the individuality of the soul,
of its loneliness in its conflict with spiritual enemies
and of its dignity as a creature made by God
and for God; secondly, in the thought of the all-
sufficiency of God, who is to the soul of man all that
it needs, all that it longs for. 'The principle of
devotion,' says a writer on the spiritual life, 'is that
God being the one source and the one author of
holiness, the reasonable creature ought to depend on
Him in everything and be absolutely governed by
the Spirit of God V This may indeed be described
as the final lesson of the Old Testament, by which
it is fitted to give expression to man's highest spiritual
yearnings. Its office is not only to confirm personal
faith by witnessing to the truth of God in the fulfil
ment of prophecy 2, but to guide it by continuous
revelation of the divine will 3.
5. The Old Testament may be studied in the next
place as an instructor in social righteousness4- It
exhibits the moral government of God as attested
in His dealings with nations rather than with indi
viduals ; and it was their consciousness of the action
and presence of God in history that made the prophets
preachers, not merely to their own countrymen, but
to the world at large. The study of prophecy cannot
but deepen our sense of vthe continuity of national
life, of the reality of national vocation and responsi
bility, of the principle of judgment visibly at work in
national history. Israel's career, as interpreted by the
continuous commentary of prophetism, obliges us to
1 Grou, Manual, Sr°c. p. 2.
2 Cp. Tert. Apol. xx : ' Quicquid agitur, praenuntiabatur ; quicquid
videtur, audiebatur, &c. . . . Idoneum, opinor, testimonium divinitatis
Veritas divinationis. Hinc igitur apud nos futurorum quoque fides tuta
est, jam scilicet probatorum, quia cum illis quae quotidie probantur,
praedicebantur.' So Aug. c. Faust. Man. viii. 2 : ' Non in servitute
facimus quae jussa sunt ad nos praenuntiandos, sed in libertate legimus
quae scripta sunt ad nos confirmandos.'
3 Aug. de doc. iii. 1 : ' Homo timens Deum voluntatem ejus in scripturis
Sanctis diligenter inquirit.'
4 See G. A. Smith, The Preaching of the O. T. to the Age, pp. 19 foil.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 431
consider the light thrown upon social arrangements
and institutions by the revelation of the moral will of
God. Behold, the eyes of the Lord God are upon the
sinful kingdom, cries Amos, and I will destroy it from
off the face of the earth1. It was their hold upon law,
their inspired sense of the claims of an objective moral
order embracing all nations in its scope, that enabled
the prophets to predict. It is in their abhorrence of
insincerity, in their consciousness of moral proportion,
that they are so uniquely qualified to guide Christians
whose lot is cast amid the complex conditions of the
modern social system. There is indeed significance
in the fact that in spite of their ardent zeal for social
reform they did not as a rule take part in political
life or demand political reforms. They desired, it
has been justly said, not better institutions but better
men. They were in fact conspicuous as religious
leaders — men who, feeling themselves commissioned
to speak in God's name, were deeply convinced
that the divine purpose must be commensurate
with human life, must cover the whole field of social
action and interest. They were perpetually rebuking
that strange self-deceit which besets human nature
in every age — the supposition that the province of
religion can be severed from that of social life and
duty, and that there are departments which lie outside
the regulative influence of faith. The prophets were
the spokesmen of a righteousness which is everywhere
valid ; they proclaimed the supremacy of an irresistible
will, not to be ignored either by men or nations except
at their own infinite peril.
Two points are noticeable in the social doctrine
of the Old Testament regarded as a whole. First,
it is to be observed that the polity of ancient Israel
is not based on individualism. It has lately been
maintained that the Old Testament is dominated by
the conception of collectivism 2, and it is at least true
that to the prophets the nation and not the individual
1 Amos ix. 8. 2 W. S. Biuce, The Ethics of the O. T. p. 22.

432 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
is the recipient of promises, the possessor of cove
nantal status and privileges. Their tendency is to
individualize the nation, and to represent its corporate
vocation and responsibility as dependent on a quasi-
personal relationship to Jehovah. Certainly the idea
of individual rights remained for a long period unde
veloped. The highest prayer of the devout Israelite
was that he might see the felicity of God's chosen, and
rejoice in the gladness of His people, and give thanks
with His inheritance1. The salvation for which he
looked was national rather than personal ; the highest
good for which he waited was a kingdom, the kingdom
of God. The thought of personal well-being was
overshadowed by 'the contemplation of the divine
sovereignty 2.' The sense of belonging to the true
Israel has in the later history of Judaism sustained
individuals under the pressure of untold disasters,
and has perhaps even mitigated the sense of personal
shortcoming 3. The whole tendency of the Old Testa
ment is in harmony with the revelation of nature and
with the social ideals now dawning upon us : its main
thought is the comparative insignificance of the in
dividual life in relation to the divine purpose for
humanity as a whole. Secondly, it is evident that
the idea of a spiritual kingdom took deep root in the
Hebrew mind, and the conviction that no material
forces could either help the fortunes of the elect
people, or hinder the supremacy of God's righteous
will. The contact of the Hebrew state with the great
world-powers was an epoch in religious history. It
taught Israel to realize its own special vocation; it also
proved that forces were at work in the world more
effective and enduring than even the highest products
of human ambition, energy, and skill. As one after
another the vast empires which had been founded on
violence fell into decay and vanished from the scene,
1 Ps. cvi. 5.
2 Westcott, Social Aspects of Christianity, p. 86.
3 See Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures, p. 514.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 433
the spiritual leaders of the elect nation came to under
stand that what is eternal and heavenly must owe its
being to God ; that the true kingdom of humanity
must be based not on forces of this world— greed,
self-assertion, or the right of the strongest, but on the
foundation of faith, justice, and truth. And certainly
one chief office of the Old Testament is to teach the
modern mind to read history aright, by showing what
are the true factors that mould, sustain, and perfect
human society; that they are moral and spiritual, not
material ; that character is the most powerful social
force, that courage, mercy, and self-control are the
real instruments of lasting social amelioration. The
chequered story of Israel's career carries with it the
lesson that while the kingdoms of this world are built
up by the natural energies of man, and must inevitably
' have their day and cease to be,' the kingdom of God
is the city which hath foundations, whose builder and
maker is God1. The fruit of the Spirit in man
accomplishes what the excellences and virtues of
nature cannot achieve. The transfiguration of society
can only result from the indwelling of God Himself
in individual souls.
6. I must be content with a very brief allusion to
one more function of the Old Testament, namely,
to assist us in the right interpretation of the New 2.
It is an important aid in tracing the history of
ideas, and in determining the significance of parti
cular terms. Augustine somewhere observes that
a Christian ought to study the prophets in order that
he may not forget why he believes 3. It is equally
necessary to read the Old Testament to gain an
intelligent idea of what we believe. The content of
our faith, as distinguished from its form, is largely
revealed in the Old Testament. Such terms as the
Christ or the kingdom of God are charged with the
1 Heb. xi. 10.
2 Cp. Kirkpatrick, The Divine library of the O. T. p. 126.
3 c. Faust. Man. xiii. 18.
Ff

434 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
memories and associations of a long religious history.
The ideas of ' righteousness,' ' atonement,' ' redemption,'
' propitiation,' which play so large a part in New Testa
ment theology, have their roots in an immense and
complicated system of mediation, apart from which their
significance can only be imperfectly understood. The
full connotation of such a phrase as the Son of God can
only be ascertained in the light of Hebrew and Judaistic
thought and feeling. Nor must we forget that there are
many points of contact between the language of the New
Testament and the Talmud — that vast ' microcosm,'
as it has been called, which is the most characteristic
product of post-exilic Judaism \ Some of the leading
ideas of the New Covenant were ' household words '
of Talmudic Judaism. ' It is the glory of Christianity,'
says Emanuel Deutsch, ' to have carried those golden
germs, hidden in the schools and among the " silent
community '' of the learned, into the market of
humanity2.' It is unnecessary to multiply instances
in illustration of this point3- But it is an important
consideration that our estimate of the New Testa
ment revelation as a whole will depend upon the idea
we have gained from the Old Testament of the needs
and weaknesses of human nature. We have to read
the New Testament in the light of our knowledge of
Hebrew modes of thought, and also with a due sense
of the cravings that needed satisfaction, the sorrows
that lacked assuagement. Some of our Lord's own
utterances, such as the promise of rest to the heavy-
laden, or of living water to the thirsting soul, or of life
to the dead, or of dominion to the meek, imply wants and
experiences in the spiritual life of His hearers which
need to be patiently studied before the true significance
of His words, who spake as never man spake, can be
1 Nicolas, op. cit., pref. p. vii, says very justly: 'II importe, dans
l'interet meme de la parfaite intelligence de l'ceuvre de Jesus Christ, de
pen/flrer le plus prof onde'ment qu'il est possible dans V histoire religieuse et
morale du judaisme imme'diatement anterieur?
2 See his Literary Remains (London, 1 874), p. 27.
3 See Valeton, Vergdngliches und Ewiges .m A. T. pp. 8 foil.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 435
understood. Whatever enables us to understand the
historical conditions under which the writings of the
Old Testament were produced gives us a deeper
insight into the nature of New Testament ideals, and
the meaning of evangelical faith. For if it be true, as
Wellhausen has said, that ' the Gospel develops hidden
impulses of the Old Testament 1,' it is clear that any
real advance in comprehending the genius of Christi
anity depends to a great extent upon more accurate
knowledge of Hebrew religion and literature and also
of the boundless and little-explored field of Talmudic
Judaism and Rabbinic theology. Closer acquaintance
indeed with all pre-Christian systems will heighten
our sense of the assimilative power of the Gospel. It
will reveal to us the useless or corrupt elements which
were excluded by Christianity, the forms which perished
because they were rotten, the systems which could not
stand the test of that fire which Christ came to send
upon the earth2. But it will also make manifest the
truth and nobility of that which the new religion
claimed as its own, or used, and transfigured in the
using3. And here lies the peculiar value of those
historical and critical studies which have enabled
us to distinguish between the different elements
contained in early Christianity — between ideas carried
forward from Judaism and ideas transplanted from
the sphere of Hellenic thought. We have learned,
partially at least, what elements Christianity found
ready to its hand in the teaching of prophets and
psalmists, what it owed to Alexandria and to Greece,
and what is due to the work and personality of its
Founder4. Thus we shall come to recognize more
1 Prolegomena, p. 509. 2 Luke xii. 49.
3 See a noble sermon of Mr. Stopford Brooke, Christ in Modern Life,
no. iv.
4 Cp. Sanday, The Oracles of God, serm. ix. Valeton, op. at. p. 9,
observes : 'Mit dem Christenthum auch eine neue Sprache entstanden ist,
und zwar eine Sprache, die ebensoviel griechisch ist wie israelitisch.
Wir haben ja allerdings jedes Dogma nur in einer mehr oder minder
philosophischen Form, die der griechischen Welt entlehnt ist ; der
religiose Kern aber ist aus Israel genommen.' F f 2

436 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
perfectly the inexhaustible significance of the Catholic
creed, and its fullness and depth as an interpretation
of life. Doubtless the criticism of the Old Testament
is a gift which brings with it large responsibilities and
special anxieties and trials. But our gains are not less
considerable. If Christ is, as Irenaeus expresses it,
the treasure hid in the field of the ancient Scriptures 1,
we may expect to discover there mysteries which we
shall never completely fathom, to find, as knowledge
advances, new aspects of truth constantly disclosed, and
fresh beams of light cast upon elements in Christian faith
and life which as yet we only dimly apprehend. The
historical study of Scripture reverently pursued with
the aids which modern research places within our reach,
will certainly not evacuate the Old Testament of
mystery ; rather it will make us more modest in our
judgments, more humble in the estimation of our
powers. We shall say with not less conviction than
Augustine himself: Quidquid est in Scripturis illis
altum et divinum est : inest omnino Veritas 2.
My task is now drawing to a close, and I need not
say much by way of summary. In the first lecture
I stated those presuppositions, doctrinal and critical,
with which the subject of the lectures has been ap
proached. The general aim was to show that there
is a point of view from which the results of criticism,
so far as they are satisfactorily established, may be
cordially welcomed. In the second lecture we con
sidered generally those aspects of the Old Testament
which were afterwards discussed separately. In the
third we endeavoured to estimate the nature and
extent of the historical element which pervades the
Old Testament, regarded as a history of man's redemp
tion. Our conclusions were necessarily somewhat
general, but we saw reason to suppose that in all
its main outlines the traditional view of Israel's history
is not discredited by sound criticism ; on the other
hand, there appears to be much more of the subjective
1 Haer. iv. 26. I. 2 Aug. de util. cred. 13.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 437
element in the history, much more play of religious
feeling and imagination, than had been allowed for in
the pre-critical period. The fourth lecture dealt with.
the self-revelation of God which accompanied the
historical movement. We attempted to illustrate the
distinctive features of Israel's religion regarded as
a progressive moral education and a continuous self-
manifestation of deity. In the fifth lecture the spiritual
purpose and meaning of the Mosaic dispensation was
discussed, the traditional view of Israel's covenantal
relation to Jehovah considered, with special reference
to the moral obligations involved in it and the typical
system of worship by which the covenant-union was
maintained. In the sixth lecture the function of
prophecy occupied our attention, the element which it
contributed to Israel's religious history, and the nature
of the Messianic hope which it served to keep alive.
The seventh lecture dealt with the divine purpose for
the individual, and the main elements contributed by
the Old Testament to the idea of personal religion.
At this point the universalistic tendency of Hebrew
religion became more apparent ; we found that its out
look embraced not merely the interests of an elect
nation, but the spiritual needs and yearnings of universal
humanity. In the eighth and last lecture we have
considered what light is thrown upon the Old Testa
ment by its employment in the New, and the important
functions which Old Testament study has to fulfil in
the present-day life of the Christian Church.
It seems advisable to conclude with two reflections
intended to reassure those who either view the critical
movement with dismay and suspicion, or are tempted
to suppose that its results are necessarily hostile to
Catholic Christianity.
1. In the first place, I trust it will have appeared
that no Christian believer needs to cast away his faith
because a new conception of the Old Testament
challenges his attention and perhaps commends itself
to his mature judgment. I have attempted to show

438 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
that a man who believes in the truth of historic Christi
anity with all his heart, and who finds in it the only
adequate solution of 'the riddle of existence,' is not so
committed to any traditional view of Hebrew literature
as to be precluded from revising it in the light of
advancing knowledge. To an increasing number of
Christian students it appears that the view of Israel's
history and religion provisionally adopted in these
lectures immensely reinforces the claim of Christianity
to be the final or absolute religion ; it conspicuously
illustrates the profound axiom of St. Paul, Howbeit that
was not first which is spiritual, but that which is natural ;
andafterward that which is spiritual^; and it falls in with
very much that we have ascertained in other fields of
knowledge concerning the ways of divine wisdom and
providence. Accordingly the attempt has been made
in these lectures, not so much to support or commend
a particular solution of the difficult problems connected
with Old Testament research, as to mediate between
opposed, but not mutually exclusive, points of view, or
at least to discriminate between what is essential and
what non-essential to faith. We have seen that
a believer in the divine Incarnation has no reason for
sharing the rooted dislike of miracle and prophecy, or
the contempt of the idea of divine revelation, which is
sometimes justly attributed to certain schools of conti
nental criticism 2. But, on the other hand, a thoughtful
Christian will bear in mind that the knowledge neces
sary for forming a judgment on the complicated
questions raised by modern historical science and the
trained judgment and true sense of proportion indis
pensable for duly appreciating the results of criticism,
are qualities attainable by few. He will also remember
that in every age faith has been tried not only by the
direct attacks of its professed foes, but by an enlarge
ment of human knowledge which was ultimately destined
to enrich men's conceptions of God. There cannot be
1 I Cor. xv. 46.
2 Cp. Stanley Leathes, The Law in the Prophets, p. 271.

vm] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 439
mental growth, readjustment, or self-adaptation without
perplexity and pain ; without the removing of those things
that are shaken, that those things which cannot be shaken
may remain 1.
In regard to the Old Testament particularly we shall
recognize the danger of using a priori methods, and the
folly of insisting on hard and fast conditions as those
under which alone inspiration is possible. It is suffi
ciently manifest that our highly-developed notions
respecting literary morality, and our scientific concep
tions of what history means, are out of court when
applied to the ancient Scriptures. As Wellhausen
tersely remarks : ' What must have happened is of less
consequence to know than what actually took place 2!
We shall have to revise our notions of what it is abso
lutely necessary to know. And it is evident that we
shall have to be content with something very far short
of certainty in regard to some points which we have
hitherto supposed to be indisputable. Advancing ex
perience will show us how large a part suspense of
judgment must play in our present controversies, but
at the same time it may be safely maintained that the
matters likely to remain in dispute are, speaking
broadly, neither many in number nor of crucial import
ance. For after all, the field which remains unaffected,
or which, to speak more accurately, has been thoroughly
explored and illuminated by criticism, is for all practical
purposes of religion very extensive. Necessary un
certainty in regard to the nature of the earliest historical
narratives does not rob us of ' the revelation of God,
the writings of the Law, the oracles of Prophets, the
music of Psalms, the instruction of Proverbs, the ex
perience of histories3.' On the contrary, modern
research only reinforces the characteristic teaching of
the Prophets and the Psalmists ; it imparts new vivid
ness and clearness to what is demonstrably historic,
while it in no degree impairs the spiritual and edu-
J Heb. xii. 27. z Prolegomena, p. 46.
3 Bp. Andrewes, Devotions (First Day).

440 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
cational function of those portions of Holy Writ, the
character of which cannot at present be precisely deter
mined. We must not be too impatient to draw
necessary and just distinctions. We must cordially
acknowledge our obligation as students of God's
holy word to those illustrious scholars, whether
English or foreign, whose learned labours, patient
sagacity, reverent insight, and trained judgment have
achieved such fruitful 'and deeply interesting results.
2. Those, however, who do not feel the force
of the appeal made by the historical criticism of
our day, need to beware of an exaggerated or one
sided conception of the function discharged by the
Bible as a source of divine knowledge. It is un
questionable that one principal cause of the suspicion
with which many devout persons regard the critical
movement is the fear of anything that seems to
threaten or tamper with the foundations of faith. They
are apt to speak of the higher criticism with ill-advised
and shallow vehemence as ' an assault on Christian
faith.' But apart from the vitally important duty of
making an intelligent distinction between the witness
of the Old Testament and that of the New, such per
sons ought to consider whether they have not assigned
to Scripture in general a position of inordinate import
ance in the system of religion. If the Church of God
be anything, if human reason and conscience be any
thing, if the Holy Ghost be a living power in the life of
redeemed humanity, we must not overlook or under
estimate the sources of divine knowledge other than
Scripture which God has placed within our reach.
The Church and the Bible certainly co-exist in the
world as two great sources of authority, mutually cor
roborative of each other, and to some extent mutually
corrective of each other 1. Both of them have a share
in leading us to the knowledge of God in which con
sists eternal life : but the mistake is not uncommonly
made of overlooking the true function of either one or
1 Cp. Forbes, The XXXIX Articles, p. 95.

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 441
the other. By the teaching of the New Testament we
are encouraged to put ourselves under the guidance of
the Church so far as it extends, looking to it for the form
or outline of sound words, which it supplies to us in the
Creed. To Scripture, on the other hand, the Church
bids us look as filling in and giving substance to the
outline of faith which we have already received in the
Creed. But within and beyond the Bible and the Church
there is a guide of whom we in practice think too little.
We ought to trust to that unction from the Holy One
which rests on Christians, unveiling to us as we are able
to bear it the inexhaustible significance of our holy faith
and illuminating for us the Scriptures which enshrine
it. ' We have a Lord,' says Chrysostom, ' who loves
mankind, and when He sees us anxious and strongly
desirous of understanding the divine oracles, He does
not leave us destitute of ought besides, but straightway
enlightens our understanding, bestows that illumination
which proceeds from Himself, and according to His
benign wisdom communicates all true doctrine to our
souls 1.' Thus the means which God has placed within
our reach are all to be used in combination : we are to
hear the Church, and then to diligently search the
Scriptures ; but above all, we are to remember that
God will give the Holy Spirit to them that ask Him.
This simple reflection is intended to reassure us in view
of the great complexity of all human questions, and
the obvious fragmentariness of even the highest human
knowledge. We may be confident that the Spirit of
Truth will not allow us to be deceived in any essential
matter if we diligently ask Him to enlighten us and to
guide. Where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is liberty \
It is remarkable that this statement occurs in con
nexion with St. Paul's complaint that a veil is upon
1 Opera [ed. Ben.], iv. p. 216. Cp. Orig. horn. xii. in Exod. § 4 : ' Non
solum studium adhibendum est ad discendas literas sacras, verum et
supplicandum Domino, et diebus et noctibus obsecrandum, ut veniat
Agnus ex tribu Juda, et ipse accipiens librum signatum dignetur aperire.'
To the same effect Aug. de doct. iii. s. fin.
2 2 Cor. iii. 17.

442 THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY [lect.
Israel's heart in the reading of the old testament.
That veil is done away in Christ through the power of
the converting Spirit. And we Christians need Origen's
caution that it is possible for a veil to be on our hearts
if we are either negligent in the study of Scripture, or
if we take no pains to acquire the knowledge necessary
for a true comprehension of its teaching x. We stand
over against Holy Scripture, not as literalists, or slaves
of the letter, but as children of God guided by the
same Spirit who possessed and inspired the sacred
writers. We do not doubt the truth of our Christianity
because we see in part, and know only in part ; because
in this world of half-lights and impenetrable shadows (
our knowledge is at best fragmentary and imperfect.
On the same principle we have no reason to be dis
mayed or perplexed at the blending of human frailty
with the unearthly majesty and mystery of the Scrip
tures. We have this treasure, the word of God, in
earthen vessels 2 ; and while it is a sign of levity to
overlook the treasure and throw it away because the
vessels are of earth, it is a mark of narrowness to
ignore the distinction between the vessels -and the
treasure they contain. Just as the remarkable reli
gious revival of the last half-century has enabled us to
realize the power and presence of the Holy Spirit in
the public life and active ministry of the Christian
Church, so questions respecting the inspiration and
character of the Bible remind us of His continuous
work in the immediate guidance and edification of
individual souls 3. An era of difficulties, mental and
1 Orig. loc. cit. 'Manifeste si negligenter audimus, si nihil studii ad
eruditionem et intelligentiam conferimus, non solum Legis et Prophetarum
scriptura, sed et Apostolorum et Evangeliorum grandi nobis velamine
tegitur.' 2 2 Cor. iv. 7. For what follows see some remarks of Frank quoted by
Kohler, Uber Berechtigung der Kritik des A. T. pp. 48, 49.
3 Tyndale, Works, vol. iii. p. 139 [Parker Society], quoted by Briggs,
Biblical Study, p. 163, says: 'For though the Scripture be an outward
instrument and the preacher also to move men to believe, yet the chief
and principal cause why a man believeth or believeth not is within ; that
is, the Spirit of God leadeth His children to believe.'

viii] THE OLD TESTAMENT AND CHRISTIANITY 443
spiritual, is meant to reawaken in men the spirit of
dependence on Him whose real presence in souls is
the source of present consolation and of unquenchable
hope for the future. The modern student may heartily
endorse the noble words of Origen : ' We cannot
declare that anything in the literature of the Holy
Spirit is otiose or superfluous, even though to some it
appears obscure. But our main concern should be
this : to turn the eyes of our mind to Him at whose
bidding these things were written, and to beg from
Him the capacity to understand the same ; that whether
there be infirmity in our own soul, He may heal us who
heals all its sicknesses ; or whether we be limited in
comprehension, He may be present with us as a Lord
protecting His little ones, and may so nurture us as to
bring us to the full stature of spiritual manhood V
Yes ; the secret of liberty, of largeness of heart and of
steadfastness in the faith is with Him. Ye have an
anointing from the Holy One, and ye know all things.
. . . And as for you, the anointing which ye received of
him abideth in you, and ye need not that any one teach
you ; but as his anointing teacheth you concerning all
things and is true, and is no lie, and even as it taught
you, abide ye in him 2-
1 Orig. in Num. horn, xxvii. 1. s 1 John ii. 20, 27 (R. V. marg).

INDEX

Abraham, history of, m, 118 ;
idealization of, 125 ; place in the
thought of St. Paul, 397.
Achan, 175.
Adonai, 186, 192.
Aeschylus, 217.
AUegorism, its employment in the
New Testament, 392.
Amos, teaching of, 288.
Andrewes, Bishop, quoted, 439.
Anthropomorphism, anthropopa
thic expressions, 107, 194.
Apocalypse, the, 393, 397, 421.
Apocalyptic literature, 317.
Aquinas, T., quoted, 408.
Archaeology and the Old Testa
ment, 105.
Assyria, 282.
Athanasius, quoted, 58.
Atonement, Day of, 237, 239, 256.
Augustine, quoted, 63, 186, 219, 250,
343, 393, 4°3. 405, 407, 422, 427,
433, 436.
Baal, the name, 193 ; prophets of,
270.
Baethgen, m.
Balaam, prophecy of, 298.
Baruch, Apocalypse of, 350.
Bath Q61, the, 316.
Bible, the, its analogy to the incar
nate Word, 15 foil.; to nature,
98 foil.
Blood, use of, in sacrifice, 237 foil. ;
255 foil.
Briggs, C, quoted, 405.
Browning, E., quoted, 352.
Browning, R., quoted, 15, 370.
Bruce, Dr. A., quoted, 13, 62, in,
139, 165, 179, 229, 248, 306, 321,
381.
Bruce, W. S., quoted, 193, 223.

Burnt-offering, the, 235, 240 ; daily,
241 ; fulfilled in Christ, 253.
Butler, Bishop, 165.

Cabbala, the, 406.
Calf-worship, the, 221.
Canaanites, slaughter of the, 178.
Canon of the Old Testament, its
formation, 100, 265 foil.
Carchemish, battle of, 309.
Catholic, the term, 1 foil.
Channing, quoted, 133.
Chesed, 199, 291.
Cheyne, Prof. T., quoted, 203, 346.
Christ, authority of, in relation to
the Old Testament, 46 foil. ; sacri
fice of, 228, 253 foil.; on priesthood
of, 251 ; His view of the Old Testa
ment, 381 foil. ; His person and
work the key to the Old Testa
ment, 396 foil. ; parabolic teach
ing of, 391, 407.
Chronicles, Books of, 102, 149, 223,
327, 344, 385 ; teaching and pur
port of, 357.
Chrysostom, quoted, 441.
Church, doctrine of the, 51 foil. ;
relation to the Bible, 441.
Church, Dean, quoted, 81, 118.
Circumcision, 167, 222.
Corinthian Church, 6.
Cornill, quoted, 242, 272, 288.
Covenant, idea of the, 79 foil., 207
foil. ; the new, 227, 312 foil.
Covenant, Book of the, 138, 171.
Creation, story of, 57 foil.
Criticism, the higher, results of, 33
foil. ; defects pointed out in, 41.
Cultus, the Hebrew, its purpose,
228.
Curd de Canton, 283.

INDEX

445

Dalman, quoted, 66.
Daniel, Book of, 276, 317, 331.
Darmesteter, quoted, 33, 41, 206.
David, character of, idealized, 127 ;
reign of, 299 foil.
Day of Jehovah, the, 284, 304.
Death, Hebrew conception of, 336.
Deborah, song of, 155.
Decalogue, the, 75, 172, 215 foil.
Delitzsch, quoted, 347.
Deuteronomy, Book of, 1 23, 1 33, 1 45,
169, 173, 219.
Deutsch, E., quoted, 434.
Driver, Prof., quoted, 65, 120, 296.
Ecclesiastes, Book of, 190, 347 foil. ;
relation of, to the problem of
suffering, 364, 367 foil.
'El, 'EV Elyon, 183 foil., 189 foil.
Election, the idea of, 64 foil. ; re
jected by Kuenen, 1 16.
Elijah, 273.
'Elilim, 72.
'Elohim, 183 foil., 189 foil. ; applied
to King, 302.
Elohist writer, the, 1 19.
'El Shaddai, 185, 191 foil.
Enoch, Book of, 318.
Esdras, Fourth book of, 76.
Esther, Book of, 330, 356.
Eucharist, the, 254, 258 foil.
Evolution, the idea of, 43.
Ewald, quoted, 19, 28, 75, 101.
Exile, literary activity during the,
121 ; effects of the, 310 foil.
Exodus, the, importance of, 69 foil.,
134; evidence of, 94.
Exodus, Book of, its teaching and
purport, 93 foil., 138 foil.
Experience, function of Christian,
49 foil.
Ezekiel, 144 ; teaching of, 201, 307,
314, 324, 340; torah of, 224, 230.
Ezra, 266, 326.
Ezra, Book of, 149, 358.
Fall, account of the, 59 foil.
Fatherhood of God, 204.
Fire, use of, in sacrifice, 238, 240.
Firstborn, sanctification of the, 136,
222.
Flood, the, 60 foil.
Froude, Prof., quoted, 361.
Future life, Old Testament doctrine
of a, 334 foil.

Genesis, Book of, narratives in the,
113 foil. ; value of, 131.
Gideon, 155.
Girdlestone, quoted, 131.
Grace, idea of, in historical books,
151.
Green, J. R., quoted, 158.
Grou, quoted, 430.
Habakkuk, 309.
Haggadah, 124, 149, 384, 386 foil.
Haggai, 314.
Hagiographa, the, 95, 329 foil.
Halachah, 384, 386.
Hebrews, Epistle to the, 225, 227,
246, 250 foil., 393.
Hengstenberg, quoted, 356.
Hexateuch, narratives of the, 101.
Historical documents in the Old
Testament, their character and
value, 102 foil.
Historical element in the Old Testa
ment, 97 foil., 401 foil.
Holiness, idea of, in Old Testa
ment, 72 foil.
Holocausts, 240.
Holy One of Israel. 196.
Holy Spir'it, the, in relation to the
Bible and the Church, 441.
Hosea, teaching of, 200, 290.
Idealistic language of the Old Testa
ment, its significance, 419.
Idealization in the Pentateuch, &o,
1 19 foil.
Image worship, 174.
Immortality, see ' Future life.'
Incarnation, the, its relation to
Scripture, 12 foil.; analogy sug
gested by, 15 foil.
Individuality, idea of, in the Old
Testament, 90 foil., 175.
Inspiration, meaning of, 22 foil. ;
prophetic, 274 foil.
Irenaeus, 3, 81, 436 ; quoted, 65,
166, 213, 246.
Isaac, sacrifice of, 177.
Isaiah, teaching of, 292.
Ishsheh, 234.
Israel, early history of, 134 ; social
condition of, in eighth century B.C.,
282.
Jacob, the blessing of (Gen. xlix),
297.

446

INDEX

Jahveh, Jehovah, 185, 193 foil. ; his
character displayed in the exodus,
139 ; attributes of, 198 foil.
Jahveh Tsebaoth, 186, 203.
James, St., references of, to the Old
Testament, 388 ; view of Scrip
ture, 427.
Jashar, Book of, 103.
Jealousy, the divine, 200.
Jehovist writer, the, 109, 119.
Jeremiah, teaching of, 307, 313, 323.
Jeroboam, 154.
Job, Book of, 347, 361 foil.
foel, Book of, 316.
John, St., his use of the Old Testa
ment, 388, 397.
Jonah, Book of, 292 foil. ; narrative
of, 379-
Joseph, history of, 1 1 2.
Josephus, 84.
Judah, 297.
Judaism, 316.
Jude, St., references of, to the Old
Testament, 388.
Judges, the, period of, 155.
fudges, Book of, 102, 147.
Jukes, A., quoted, 129, 131, 397, 426.
Justin Martyr, 30.
Keim, quoted, 84.
Kingdom of God, the, 86 foil.
Kings, Books of, 102, 148.
Kingship, Hebrew idea of, 86.
Kittel, quoted, 132, 140, 273.
Konig, 205.
Kuenen, quoted, 72, 116, 134, 152,
215, 286.
Language, inadequacy of, 406.
Law, the, its doctrine of retribution,
343 ; New Testament verdict on,
380 foil.
Legislation, earliest Hebrew, 171.
Liddon, Dr., 26.
Lock, Prof. W., quoted, 331.
Lucretius, quoted, 350.
Luther, quoted, 365.
Magee, Abp., quoted, 10, 22.
Malachi, Book of, 315, 326.
Manasseh, reign of, 308 foil.
Martensen, Bishop, quoted, 60.
Maurice, F., 386.
Mazzoth, feast of, 136.
Melchizedek, 251.

Messiah, the title, 300.
Messianic hope, 82 foil., 296 foil.
Micah, Book of, 303 foil.
Midrash, 149, 384.
Minchah, 234, 241.
Miracle in the Old Testament, 61
foil., 107 foil.
Moloch, 176.
Monolatry, 69.
Monotheism, 286.
Montefiore, C, 11 ; quoted, 122,
145, 174, 204, 215, 327, 328.
Morality of the Old Testament, pro
gressive, 165 foil. ; an ambiguous
phrase, 421 foil. ; features of Old
Testament ethics, 423 foil.
Mosaism, 33, 132 ; its ethical ten
dency, 138.
Moses, prophetic work of, 33, 131,
298 ; song of, 137 ; legislation of,
141.
Mozley, J. B., quoted, 178, 337, 363.
Mystical sense, the, 405 foil.
Nabhi, Nebiim, 272, 274 foil.
Name of God, 182.
Nature, analogy suggested by, 98
foil.
Nehemiah, 326.
Nehemiah, Book of, 149, 330, 358.
Oehler, quoted, 218.
Oettli, quoted, 78, 79.
Old Testament, various aspects of,
53 foil. ; employment of in the
New Testament, 383 foil. ; func
tions fulfilled by, 412 foil. ; its
final cause and ultimate explana
tion, Christ, 417 ; social doctrine
of, 431 foil.
Origen, quoted, 21, 26, 30,223, 225,
333, 4°2, 4°6, 417, 442, 443.
Origins, the, narrative of, 57 foil.
Parables of Christ, the, 391, 407.
Passover, the, 136, 222.
Paterson Smyth, quoted, 45, 50.
Patriarchal narrative, 109 foil.
Patriarchs, the, no foil.
Paul, St., 5 foil., 20 ; his use of the
Old Testament, 388 foil., 397.
Peace-offering, the, 235, 242; its
significance, 258 foil.
Pentateuch, the, leading ideas of,

INDEX

447

93 foil. ; its significance for Chris
tians, 143; narratives of the, 144.
Persia, influence of, on Hebrew
thought, 332.
Personal religion in the Old Testa
ment, 325 foil.
Personality, Hebrew conception of,
338 foil.
Peter, St., his use of the Old Testa
ment, 388, 397.
Pfleiderer, quoted, 289, 315, 321,
352-
Pharisaism, relation.of, to Scripture,
394 foil-
Philo, 30.
Piacular sacrifice, 232.
Post-exilic period, 323 foil.
Priesthood of Christ, 251.
Priestly document, the, 120 foil.,
141.
Prophecy, fulfilment of in Christ,
3 1 8 foil. ; importance of studying,
430 foil.
Prophetism, origins of, 270 foil.
Prophets, the, former and latter, 95,
266.
Prophets, Hebrew: their attitude
towards ritual, 221 ; their view of
sacrifice, 230 ; functions of the,
275 foil. ; sphere of their activity,
281 foil. ; preachers of mono
theism, 286 ; their philosophy of
history, 289 ; limitations, 306.
Protevangelium, the, 296.
Proverbs, Book of, teaching on re
tribution, 345.
Providence, doctrine of a personal,
353 foil.
Psalms, Book of, 328 ; teaching of
the, 341 ; on retribution, 345 ;
relation to religion, 352, 429 ;
Psalm cxix, 375.
Qorban, 234.
Religion, meaning of, 351.
Renan, E., quoted, 365.
Resurrection, doctrine of, in Old
Testament, 349.
Retribution, Old Testament doc
trine of, 343.
Revelation, the Old Testament a
record of, 66 foil. ; progressive
character of, 162 foil. ; Hebrew
idea of, 187.

Riehm, quoted, 167, 229.
Robertson, Prof., quoted, 157.
Robertson Smith, Prof., quoted, 8,
49. 65, 70, 94, 122, 138, 229, 233,
242, 283, 334.
Royalty, Hebrew idea of, 303 foil.
Ruth, Book of, 331, 356.
Ryle, Prof., quoted, 265.
Sacrifice, human, 176.
Sacrifices, the levitical, 227 foil. ;
names of the, 234 ; symbolic
meaning of, 250 foil.
Samson, story of, 157.
Samuel, 272, 281.
Samuel, Books of, 102, 147.
Sanday, Prof., 32.
Sayce, Prof., quoted, 39.
Schechter, quoted, 159.
Schultz, H., quoted, 23, 25, 71, 82,
114, 167, 303, 311, 319, 340, 344,
363, 398-
Schiirer, quoted, 386.
Scripture, see ' Bible.'
Scythians, the invasion of the, 309.
Secondary sense, see ' Mystical.'
Semichah, the, 236.
Semitic religion, character' of, 182.
Servant of fehovah, the, 88, 311.
Sheol, 336 foil.
Shewbread, the, 254.
Sin-offering, the, 232, 235, 238 ; ful
filment of, in the sacrifice of
Christ, 255.
Smith, Prof. G. A., 130; quoted,
160.
Sodh, the, 385.
Solomon, age of, 346.
Song of Solomon, the, 355.
Sophocles, quoted, 10.
Spiritual sense, the, 397. See
' Mystical sense.'
Stanton, Prof., quoted, 308.
Stoicism, 92.
Synagogues, 327.
Syncretism, 153.
Syria, kingdom of, 282.
Tabernacle, the, 120, 226 foil. ; sym
bolic significance of, 247 foil., 261
foil.
Tacitus, quoted, 293.
Talmud, the, 434.
Tamid, 241, 253.

448

INDEX

Tatian, 30.
Temple, the, in prophecy, 315 ;
worship of the second, 326.
Teraphim, 1 13-
Tertullian, quoted, 205.
Testament, Old, New Testament
view of the, 377 foil.
Theocracy, 84, 140 foil.
Thomson, quoted, 322.
Torah, 213, 222, 279.
Trespass-offering, 238.
Types in Genesis, 126.
Typical interpretation, 244 foil.,
410 foil.
Unity of God, 70 foil.

Universalism, 288.
Valeton, quoted, 267, 425 foil.
Wars of Jehovah, Book of the, 103.
Wellhausen, quoted, 14, 86, 87, 90,
150, 214, 226, 273, 395, 435, 439.
Westcott, Bishop, quoted, 179.
Wisdom literature, the, 329 foil.,
359 foil-
Wordsworth, quoted, 4.
Zebach, 234, 242.
Zechariah, Book of, 312, 315, 318.
Zephaniah, 309.
Zerubbabel, 312.

OXl'ORL; : HORACE HART, PRINTER TO THE UNIVERSITY