The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-07-15

chapter of Genesis has come TO be o sort OF
shibboleth for the two leading schools OF
Old Testament critics. His own opinion
IL thsE "the authenticity OF q narrative
such as that loS Chedorlaomers oampaignl
IN an unanswerable refutation Of The Views
which are now In fashion with regard to
the oredibiiity Of tho ancient Hebrew ira
dition." DR.. MoKim next shows how In
consistently tho negative critics deal with
the verified narrative. DR.. j. p. Peters, It
eeems, admits that Amraphel. Ariooh and
Tidal are historic percentages and that
the story probably contains q reminiscence
Of actual events but he denies that Abra-
ham was o historic character. There
upon this pertinent query was put to DR.,
Peters by q reviewer In the Guardian: How
t II thatthe names are unreal on the Hebrew
side. but historic on the side Of the foesf
not thls justify the expectation that the
defenders were real individuals also and
that Abraham and Lot were as much living
persons as Amraphel Snd his allies2'
A striking proof Of the untrustworthiness
Of the conclusions that may be reached
by the Higher Criticism concerning the
date Of the document is brought forward
In the case Of the Cairene Ecclesiasticus,
which was discovered between the years
1905 and 1900, and presently wa accepted
by all the leading Hebraiste Of III time as
q work Of tho second century B. c., whence
the existing Greek and Syriao foundations
were derived. In point Of fact, the Cairene
document has since been shown to date from
the eleventh century after Christ, and to
have been itself COMPLICATION those w
existing translations. Touching his ex-
posure OF critical Incompetence, d. q. Mar
goliouth, Laudian professor Of Arabic in
tho University Of Oxford, remarks: 'The
Ecclesiasticus test was forced On the He
braists Of u time, and, though presenting
an easy problem, belonged to precisely
the same region as that In which the con-
temporary criticism Of the Bible has been
accustomed to run riot. And 1t resulted
In hopeless failure The same scholar
goes on to say that "tn differing about tho
from q school which could be deceived
for a day by this document . n
could spend q year In defending 1t, I do not
seem to myself to be mourning any serious
risk
In order to emphasize the caution against
accepting as o matter Of course conclusions
because they claim to represent a large
consensus Of expert scholarship, DR.. MoKim
directs attention to the unfavorable judg-
ment pronounced on the critical trust
worthiness Of our. generation by several
scholars whose opinions carry weight.
Prof. Ramsay, for instance, the author OF
st. Paul the Traveller n the Roman
Citsen.' declares in the preface to that
work: There is no class Of literary product
In our century lthe nineteenth In which
there Is such an enormous preponderance
OF error and bad judgment as in that Of
historical criticism" The late Bishop
Lightfoot, referring to the German 'Higher
Criticism, y said that nowhere in any htera-
ture did he know Of such a mass Of absurd
ties as had been heaped together by some
Of the most able and learned German critics
In connection with the names Buodias and
Syntyche in the @Epistle to the Philippians
Prof. Sayoe Of Oxford, having averred that
the end Of the nineteenth century VT
witnessing the ebb Of a wave Of histor-
ical criticism which began to flow moro
than a century ago. delivered thef following
judgment on the general question: 'The
higher critic may be right in holding that
the historical books Of the Old Testament
in their present form are compilations Of
oomparatively hate date, but he is no longer
justified In denying that the materials
they embodied may be oontemporaneous
with the events recorded in Them DR..
James Robertson, professor of Oriental
languages in the University Of Glasgow,
maintains that 'the modern critical theory
raises In the way OF it's own acceptance
difficulties OF a much more serious kind
than are those which it processes to over
1t poetulates, he says, mira cles
OF a literary and psychological kind which
contradict sound reason and experience as
much as any Of the physical miracles of the
Old Testament transcend them DR.. Fritz
Hommel In his work on the Ancient
Hebrew Tradition" insists that according
to the principles put forth by Meyer in his
historical capacity the theory OF the history
OF Israel, which Reuss, Graf and Wellhausen
have built up with such wonderful ingenuity
must collapse inevitably and irretrievably,
for the Graf-Wellhausen theory is con-
tradicted in various particulars by evidence
the most direct kind which itself defies
contradiction" Wilhelm M6ller In his
Monograph on the Graf Wellhausen Hy.
pothesis" rsos) y Il myself was i'm