The Birmingham age-herald., 1905-10-16
CLASS STARTED
 ID STUDY BIBLE The Rev. Or. A. ]. Dickinson Commences New Feature STUDYING ABOUT BIBLE Preacher Delivering Series of Talks on "Post-Exile" Biblical History
 and Llterature-First Was
 Delivered Yesterday.
STUDYING ABOUT BIBLE

Baptist church yesterday morning the
 Rev pr. A. J. Dickinson delivered his
 first talk on Post Exile biblical history
 and literature. The class was organized
 yesterday morning. In part Dr. Dickin-
 son said:
 We begin today a study of the Post
 Exile biblical literature and history. Re-
 gently many great biblical scholars have
 cleared up this period and presented 1t
 with convincing consistency where hith-
 erto a chaos of contradictions prevailed.
 It shall be my purpose to present this
 period of biblical development to you
 as it is now expounded by the best schol-
 arship. Much of this history is still in
 solution, but enough has been settled to
 give a confident exposition of this im-
 portant period
 Our study will cover what Is known
 as the Persian era of biblical growth
 and may be divided naturally Into the
 following periods: CD The restoration or
 the worship and building of the temple
 under Joshua and Zerubbabel; (2) the
 demoralization that followed the Per
 sanizing of the world by Dorius and
 Xerxes as seem in Malachi and the
 
 toration of Jerusalem and its walls by
 Nehemiah; (4) the Samaritan schism and
 study of the prophetic fragment in
 Isaiah; (5) the coming of Ezra, the scribe,
 and the institution of the Levitical code;
 (6) the revival of Judaism that followed
 the new law as shown In many Psalms,
 @ the prosecutions of Ochus and the
 need of the Persian rule as reflected in
 the prophetic fragment of Isaiah
 Trace Name of God.
 To trace the name of God in the ages of history as He produces revelation of Himself in word that endureth forever is a most engaging study. The first book that engages us is Lamentations produced towards the close of the Exile in Pales- tine by the people of the Lord left there by Nebuchadnezzar." It consists of five dirges on the desolation of Jerusalem and Judah. They are each constructed on an artificial plan more or less due to a pur- pose to arrange them alphabetically. In the first and second each verse consists of three lines and the verses begin sev- erally with the successive letters of the alphabet The third also consists of
 
 the same letter and each verse with a succeeding letter of the alphabet. The fourth has only two lines to a verse and | each verse begins with the succeeding let ter of the alphabet The fifth consists of twenty-two lines. the number of let ters fin the alphabet, and although they
 are not alphabetical they may have been
 once numbered by letters.
 The rhythm is the peculiar elegieal meas ure found only in Hebrew dirges and
 composed to be sung on funeral and sor- rowful occasions by the professional vail ing women. Each line is broken by meas ure which divides it into two equal parts, one long and another short. This division Is observable both In the accent and the sense. The effort of this is to produce a lmping movement which instead of the
 second part re-enforeing and sustaining the first as is usual in the Hebrew paral- lelsms. the first dies away into the sec
 ond producing wierd, plaintive. melan- choly cadence. We find examples of this rhythm only in Exile poetry. when it was peculiarly appropriate and natural. An other somewhat artificial device used by the author is to be observed in that the first he of each poem is an expression of the topic of that dirge. Although the author thus betrays himself as chained by these artificial devices which must have frequently fettered his soul yet in every line there breathes an exquisite
 pathos of a soul baptized in sorrow. Ira dition extending back to the second cen- tury B. c. attributes the poems of Jere- miah. However v:20 and other verses
 show that poems were composed when l the exile had been long in effect. The best theory is that the dirges come from a deciple or deciples of Jeremiah who lived through the exile. They are valu-
 able to our study In that they give us a view of the soul of the loyal and true people of Jeremiah who had been left in the desolate land. It is important in our study to keep distinct these people of the land" or the people left behind" and
 the children of the captivity" or the returned" There is but little reason to doubt that but while the latter furnished | the inspiration spirit of the restored grail the former furnished by far the greater portion of it's consistency.
 Chief Source of History, 1 The chief course of our history is the | book Ezra Nehemiah which all early copies of the Bible give us as one work. | It is not a book but a collection of his- l torical miscellanies of different kinds and different dates and hence must be read with reference to the sources in the diff | ferent sections. We find in the following l documents:
 1 CD An outline of the return and restora- | tion of the temple by Sheshbazzar. Joshua | and Zerubbabel The author is the same as that of the books of Chronicles and
 wrote about 300 B. c.
 l @ An excerpt from an older sketch of | the same period written in Aramaic and | not translative by the compiler. The author of this excerpt probably wrote | about 400 B. c. (3) Another excerpt from | the same old Aramaic work about the | building of the walls of Jerusalem by l Nehemiah. (4) Excerpts and compila- | tions from the memories of Ezra. (6) An extract from the book of Leucalogies given twice by Ezra CD A compilation probably from the Book of Chronicles. 1 Such are the sources of Ezra Nehemiah which the complies have treated with great respect and abridged are glossed only here and there so that the reader may see behind him his reversed author ities. It was not his purpose to write l hpt to a In hla