The Universalist. [volume] (Chicago [Ill.]) 1884-1897, 1886-09-11
Special Contributors.
PROF. ROBERTSON SMITHS "PROPH.
ETS OF ISRAEL"
BY REV. EDGAR LEAvITT.
Oshkosh, Wis.,

tOBDROSn, Wis.,
A few years ago we read "The Old
Testament in the Jewish Church." by
Prof. Robertson Smith, and now, by the
kindness Of friend, we have the oppor-
tunity of reading "The Prophets of
Israel"
The purpose of the first was to show
that the Levitical legislation of Deu-
teronomy belongs to the period after the
Exile, instead of being as it purports to
be, and as Jewish tradition and general
acceptance takes it to be, a part of the
original Mosaic legislation. This posi-
tion, involving important doctrinal and
ethical considerations, resulted in Mr..
Smiths removal from his position as
professor in the Scottish Free Church
Theological School. We read the first
volume, fully conscious of the fact that
we were not able to cope with Robert
son Smith in knowledge of the He
brew language and literature, and yet
with an impression that all his argu-
ment did not dispel the idea that his
position was essentially unsound. He
claimed such wonderful, mysterious
and almost miraculous powers for the
modern critic, s'tl advanced scholar
ship" to go behind the returns and
tell just how the various documents
were made up, that we became skepti-
cal of the entire claim. This impress
sion was confirmed when we came to
read the volume by the president of the
College at Belfast, in review of Prof.
Smith.
With all their reputation for advanced
scholarship, and wonderful powers of
insight, we cannot convince ourselves
that the leading conclusions of the
school to which Robertson Smith,
Kuenen Wellhausen, etc, belong, are
destined to stand. And yet we have
no doubt, but that, in the providence of
God, their labors will add somewhat to
the sum of Biblical knowledge-will
tend to the increase of sound Biblical
scholarship. Every little helps, and
one who advances theory, however
unsoupd, and though the theory itself
may be demolished, incidentally adds
something.
This book on "The Prophets of Is
rael," processes to be non-controversial
and is largely so, as distinguished from
the former volume; bat there runs
through it the same vein of assumption
that certain theories are true that char
acterizes that. And the same unfavor-
able impression accompanies the read
ing, especially of the first part. There
is nothing that says it, but somehow,
at first, we have the feeling that the
author makes himself too much an out
slider, that he himself has no faith in
the real existence or providential activ-
ity of "the God of Israeli" of whom he
speaks that he speaks of him as con-
ception, which was, no doubt, very real
and vivid to them, but in which he has
no share. But, as he progresses, this
impression wears away, and when he
comes to treat of the evangelical Prophet
Isaiah, the author seems to be carried
away by the divine enthusiasm of the
prophet, and to be convinced almost in
spite of himself, of the reality and the
providential activity of Isaiah's God.
We wish to do no injustice to Robert
son Smith. We do not say that his
words say this. They seem, even when
apparently all right, to have hollow,
insincere ring. We are only speaking,
the careful reader will notice, of our
impression. He is not 80 radical in his
treatment of Isaiah as some other wri-
tiers, and yet he advances the strange
theory that the editor of Isaiah's prOph-
ecies, wrote in matter which did not
belong to them, for the purpose of fill
ing up the parchment that it might not
be wasted
We do not believe that it is possible
to entirely reconstruct these old doc
uments, to tell what other documents
the compilers had before them, just
what was interpolated, and just what
is forgery. 1t may all be as these crit
les say and more, but we do not believe
that they are able to prove the theory
one way or the other. The only thing
we can do is to take the best texts ex-
tant, and by comparison and conjecture
arrive at tolerably correct text-and
that we must be satisfied with.