Burlington weekly free press. [volume] (Burlington, Vt.) 1866-1928, 1899-06-01
BIBLICAL HISTORY SUPPORTED BY
ARCHAEOLOGICAL DISCOVERIES.
Wonderful Inscriptions Found on Tablets
Bequeathed us by Antiquity-A Com
vinoing statement by Rev. A. II.
Sayce IL -. of oxford.


Testament history "CritiCism." ii is said,
has shown that the traditional views IN
regard to the authorship and historical
credihiity of the Hebrew scriptures are
untenHblc; that the PontateuCh WAS writ
ten, not by Moses but by 4 variety of Hu-
thors some of whom lived after the be-
ginning of the }abylonish exile, and that
NO belief is to be placed either i'm the his
torcal events It Processes to record or in
the miracles which it recouuts. The his
tory of the patrarchs ana OF the wander
ines in the wilderness is based. we ale
told, on mere popular tradition and
legend for which no contemporaneous evil
dcuce ever existed; that a large part of
the IeVitical legislation is little else than
the fabrication of post-eNilo writer's; for
la the age OF Moses the Gsractes were but
ii horde of llitcrate barbarians, who could
neither read nor write.
The results of this negative criticism
have found their way at second, or, more
commonly third hand into much of the
popular literature of the day. Anonymous
contributors to daily and weekly papers
refer to them as of unquestouablo author
itY, forge tfnl or ignorant Of the fact that
the criticism is of purely subjective
character unchecked by external tc@ti-
mony, and that it has proved itself to be
almost as shifting and uncertain as a
QuiCk.and The conclusions which were
announced AS iucontrovertihlC 90 years
ago are reversed to-day, and what the
critic once declared to be the oldest part
of the Pentateuch is now asserted with
an equal amount of assurance to be the
lutoSt
While subjective criticism has thus ocCn
crd"avoriUE to mako bricks without str9 W
tho oXCavator and the dcciphercr OF the
monuments Of antiquity have been work
Ing patiently. and. as it were. in sileuc"
recovering the buried history Of the Ia t
If F,,t
facts instead Of theories. ard doing their
best to reconstruct history. not to de-
stroY IT, Instead of making their own
theories tho test of truth. ANA rejecting a
part if it does not square with their as
Sumptons, they have Loyalty followed the
facts whthersocver they might lead, and
have given up their most cherished con-
N!ctions as soon as the progress of dis
coVerY has demanded If.
But the results of oriental archaeology
are not as widely known as those which
the negative criticism claims to have oh
tanned. They are largely hidden away in
a variety of learned periodicals which are
read only by specialists and the arch
aeologists have been 50 busy in making
and recording the discoveries which have
come croWding upon thom that they ecl-
dom have had time to throw them into Il
systematic, much lcss into a popular
form. Moreover, the archaeologists have
,r,, i,,I,, ~ nsnt .oi' NO system u
attention Is not arrested by the voice of
controversy or the spirit Of propagandism
We cannot help hearing about the "high-
,,nsod ra,,,l,s oria,,,,i , ",," ~, l,9 up
nnals chioe,, 70 80 ,,',a,, ti'7E "r,
1bo scholars ubo aro r,oI., w. a',1t'' , "d''
ca discoveries have little leisure for dis
cusSinS its bearings on the Old Testament
Nevertheless, archa Biological research has
suhiac,ive cri,icis,o hoG a.+oI,,ti " a., aa
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