incompatibilities within its limits, and the two tendencies, prophetical and priestly, continue, the former finding its further development in Christianity.[1]
The Graf-Wellhausen hypothesis (§ 4) does not pretend to be complete in all its details and it is independent of its application to the historical criticism of the Old Testament. No alternative hypothesis prevails, mere desultory criticism of the internal intricacies being quite inadequate. Maintaining that the position of the Pentateuch alone explains the books which follow, conservative writers concede that it is composite, has had some literary history, and has suffered some revision in the post-exilic age. Their concessions continue to become ever more significant, and all that follows from them should be carefully noticed by those who are impressed by their arguments. They identify with Deuteronomy the law-roll which explains the noteworthy reforms of Josiah (§ 16); but since it is naturally admitted that religious conditions had become quite inconsistent with Mosaism, the conservative view implies that the “long-lost” Deuteronomy must have differed profoundly from any known Mosaic writings to which earlier pious kings and prophets had presumably adhered. Similarly, the “book of the Law of Moses,” brought from Babylon by Ezra (Ezra vii.; Neh. viii.), clearly contained much of which the people were ignorant, and conservative writers, who oppose the theory that a new Law was then introduced, emphasize (a) the previous existence of legislation (to prove that Ezra’s book was not entirely a novelty), and (b) the gross wickedness in Judah (as illustrated by the prophets) from the time of Josiah to the strenuous efforts of the reformers on behalf of the most fundamental principles of the national religion. This again simply means that the Mosaism of Ezra or Nehemiah must have differed essentially from the priestly teaching prior to their arrival. The arguments of conservative writers involve concessions which, though often overlooked by their readers, are very detrimental to the position they endeavour to support, and the objections they bring against the theory of the introduction of new law-books (under a Josiah or an Ezra) apply with equal force to the promulgation of Mosaic teaching which had been admittedly ignored or forgotten. Their arguments have most weight, however, when they show the hazardous character of reconstructions which rely upon the trustworthiness of the historical narratives. What book Ezra really brought from Babylon is uncertain; the writer, it seems, is merely narrating the introduction of the Law ascribed to Moses, even as a predecessor has recounted the discovery of the Book of the Law, the Deuteronomic code subsequently included in the Pentateuch.
The importance which the biblical writers attach to the return from Babylon in the reign of Artaxerxes forms a starting-point for several interesting inquiries. Thus, in any estimate of the influence of Babylonia upon the Old Testament, it is obviously necessary to ask whether certain features (a) are of true Babylonian origin, or (b) merely find parallels or analogies in its stores of literature; whether the indebtedness goes back to very early times or to the age of the Assyrian domination or to the exiles who now returned. Again, there were priestly and other families—some originally of “southern” origin—already settled around Jerusalem, and questions inevitably arise concerning their relation to the new-comers and the literary vicissitudes which gave us the Old Testament in its present form. To this age we may ascribe the literature of the Priestly writers (symbolized by P), which differs markedly from the other sources. Yet it is clear from the book of Genesis alone that in the age of Priestly writers and compilers there were other phases of thought. Popular stories with many features of popular religion were current. They could be, and indeed had been made more edifying; but the very noteworthy conservatism of even the last compiler or editor, in contrast to the re-shaping and re-writing of the material in the book of Jubilees, indicates that the Priestly spirit was not that of the whole community. But through the Priestly hands the Old Testament history passed, and their standpoint colours its records. This is especially true of the history of the exilic and post-exilic periods, where the effort is made to preserve the continuity of Israel and the Israelite community (Chronicles—Ezra—Nehemiah). The bitterness aroused by the ardent and to some extent unjust zeal of the reforming element can only be conjectured. The traditions reveal a tendency to legitimate new circumstances. Priesthoods, whose traditions connect them with the south, are subordinated; the ecclesiastical records are re-shaped or re-adjusted; and a picture is presented of hierarchical jealousies and rivalries which (it was thought) were settled once and for all in the days of the exodus from Egypt. Many features gain in significance as the account of the Exodus, the foundation of Israel, is read in the light of the age when, after the advent of a new element from Babylonia, the Pentateuch assumed its present shape; it must suffice to mention the supremacy of the Aaronite priests and the glorification of uncompromising hostility to foreign marriages.[2] The most “unhistorical” tradition has some significance for the development of thought or of history-writing, and thus its internal features are ultimately of historical value. Only from an exhaustive comparison of controlling data can the scattered hints be collected and classified. There is much that is suggestive, for example, in the relation between the “post-exilic” additions to the prophecies and their immediately earlier form; or in the singular prominence of the Judaean family of Perez (its elevation over Zerah, a half-Edomite family, Gen. xxxviii.; its connexion with the Davidic dynasty, Ruth iv.; its position as head of all the Judaean sub-divisions, 1 Chron. ii. 5 sqq.); or in the late insertion of local tradition encircling Jerusalem; or in the perplexing attitude of the histories towards the district of Benjamin and its famous sanctuary of Bethel (only about 10 m. north of Jerusalem). Although these and other phenomena cannot yet be safely placed in a historical frame, the methodical labours of past scholars have shed much light upon the obscurities of the exilic and post-exilic ages, and one must await the more comprehensive study of the two or three centuries which are of the first importance for biblical history and theology.
24. Old Testament History and External Evidence.—Thus the Old Testament, the history of the Jews during the first great period, describes the relation of the Hebrews to surrounding peoples, the superiority of Judah over the faithless (north) Israelite tribes, and the reorganization of the Jewish community in and around Jerusalem at the arrival of Ezra with the Book of the Law. The whole gives an impression of unity, which is designed, and is to be expected in a compilation. But closer examination reveals remarkable gaps and irreconcilable historical standpoints. For all serious biblical study, the stages in the growth of the written traditions and the historical circumstances which they imply, must inevitably be carefully considered, and upon the result depends, directly or indirectly, almost every subject of Old Testament investigation. Yet it is impossible to recover with confidence or completeness the development of Hebrew history from the pages of the Old Testament alone. The keen interest taken by the great prophets in the world around them is not prominent in the national records; political history has been subordinated, and the Palestine which modern discovery is revealing is not conspicuous in the didactic narratives. To external evidence one must look, therefore, for that which did not fall within the scope or the horizon of the religious historians. They do not give us the records of the age of the Babylonian monarch Khammurabi (perhaps Amraphel, Gen. xiv.), of the Egyptian conquests in the XVIIIth and following dynasties, or of the period illustrated by the Amarna tablets (§ 3). They treat with almost unique fullness a few years in the middle of the 9th century B.C., but ignore Assyria; yet only the Assyrian inscriptions explain the political situation (§ 10 seq.), and were it not for them the true significance of the 8th–7th centuries could scarcely be realized (§ 15 seq.). It would be erroneous to confuse the extant sources with the historical material which might or must have been accessible, or to assume that the antiquity of the elements of history proves or presupposes the antiquity of the records themselves, or even to deny the presence of some historical kernel merely on account of unhistorical elements or the late dress in which the events are now clothed. External research constantly justifies the cautious attitude which has its logical basis in the internal conflicting character of the written traditions or in their divergence from ascertained facts; at the same time it has clearly shown that the internal study of the Old Testament has its limits. Hence, in the absence of more complete external evidence one is obliged to recognize the limitations of Old Testament historical criticism, even though this recognition means that positive reconstructions are more precarious than negative conclusions.
The naïve impression that each period of history was handled by some more or less contemporary authority is not confirmed by a criticism which confines itself strictly to the literary evidence. An interest in the past is not necessarily confined to any one age, and the critical view that the biblical history has been compiled from relatively late standpoints finds support in the still later treatment of the events—in Chronicles as contrasted with Samuel—Kings or in Jubilees as contrasted with Genesis.[3] It is instructive to observe in Egypt the form which old traditions have taken in Manetho (Maspero, Rec. de travaux, xxvii., 1905, l. 22 seq.); cf. also the late story of Rameses II. and the Hittites (J. H. Breasted, Anc. Rec. of Egypt, iii. 189 seq.); while in Babylonia one may note the didactic treatment, after the age of Cyrus, of the events of the time of Khammurabi (A. H. Sayce, Proc. Soc. Biblical Archaeol., 1907, pp. 13 sqq.).
The links which unite the traditional heroes with Babylonia (e.g. Abraham, Ezra), Mesopotamia (e.g. Jacob), Egypt (e.g. Joseph,
- ↑ An instructive account of Judaism in the early post-exilic age on critical lines (from the Jewish standpoint) is given by C. G. Montefiore, Hibbert Lectures (1892), pp. 355 sqq.; cf. also the sketch by I. Abrahams, Judaism (1907).
- ↑ Cf. the story of Phinehas, Num. xxv. 6 sqq.; on Gen. xxxiv., see Simeon. Apropos of hostility towards Samaria, it is singular that the term of reproach, “Cutheans,” applied to the Samaritans is derived from Cutha, the famous seat of the god Nergal, only some 25 m. N.E. of Babylon itself (see above, p. 286, n. 4).
- ↑ The various tendencies which can be observed in the later pseudepigraphical and apocalyptical writings are of considerable value in any consideration of the development of thought illustrated in the Old Testament itself.
