(3) the utmost freedom was exercised in dealing with the passages thus chosen. Sometimes they were reproduced word for word; at other times they were partially or wholly transformed to suit the new context. This may seem an unwarrantable procedure to us, but one has only to examine the actual instances of these adaptations or transformations of unnamed sources to perceive that the ancient[1] writer has acted in perfect good faith, with no suspicion that the manipulation was in any way blameworthy. How indeed could it have been otherwise? The science of literary criticism was unknown, "notions of literary propriety and plagiarism had not been thought of, and writers who advanced no pretensions to originality for themselves were guilty of no imposture when they borrowed without acknowledgement from their predecessors" (Skinner, Kings, p. 7).
For us there is both gain and loss in these methods of the ancient writers, (a) Loss—because the continual adaptation of old tradition has sometimes produced changes so great that it is difficult or even impossible to discover now what was the actual course of events. By the exercise of care and by the diligent application of the principles of literary research the loss thus occasioned can be greatly diminished, particularly where different accounts of the same period have survived—e.g. in the parallel history of Judah in Samuel-Kings and in Chronicles. Not only do the two versions facilitate the task of recovering the actual history, but each version throws light upon the origin and nature of the other. (b) On the other hand, the practice of incorporating passages of older narratives in the text is a great gain. It is, of course, unfortunate that the writers did not more carefully indicate the various sources they happened to be using; but constantly—thanks to idiosyncrasies of style,
- ↑ Nor need one go back to antiquity for an instance. Most instructive examples of composite narrative compiled uncritically but quite innocently by mediaeval chroniclers from earlier sources may be found in Chapman's Introduction to the Pentateuch (in this series), pp. 260 ff. Cp. also an illustration from Arabic historical writings given by A. A. Bevan in Cambridge Biblical Essays, pp. 12 ff.
