On this page
-
Text (1)
-
Untitled Article
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
-
-
Transcript
-
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software. The text has not been manually corrected and should not be relied on to be an accurate representation of the item.
Additionally, when viewing full transcripts, extracted text may not be in the same order as the original document.
Untitled Article
tine humour of the German scholars to scatter around doubts respecting the authenticity of many works or parts of works of ancient literature , and the authors of the Bible have not escaped this general spirit of scepticism . The speculations of Astme and Eichhom ( approved , as it should seem , by Jabn ) on the documents from which the book of Genesis was compiled , are an example of the higher criticism , attended with the unusual result of giving
greater antiquity to the work to which it was applied than was previously supposed to belong to it . Several other parts of the Old Testament have undergone an examination by the same critic , with a different result : for example , on grounds belonging to the higher criticism he assigns all the latter part of Isaiah , from ch . xl ., and even some of the earlier chapters , to the age of the return from Babylon . That there is a solid foundation for this species of criticism cannot be doubted , but in the practical application
of it , so much depends on a feeling at once too complex and too evanescent for analysis , that we can hardly give a reason to ourselves , much less to others , for a conviction which nevertheless is irresistibly impressed upon our own minds . To exercise it with any success requires a profound acquaintance with language and an intimate familiarity with style ; and as these requisites can belong to very few indeed , in regard to the original writers of the Old Testament , however satisfactory their conclusions may be to
themselves , it is not likely that they should be generally adopted , unless some plain and palpable arguments from chronology should come in aid of their more refined criticisms . And in a prophetical book , even an argument from chronology loses its force , which would be decisive in any other case . But we must not detain the reader by any further remarks of our own from those of Jahn .
" The principal reason for the mythical explanation of the most ancient fragments of the Bible is one of which Varro long ago furnished the hint , when he divided the ages of the world into the dark , the mythical , and the historical . This is the actual course of things among all nations ; the history of every people is first obscure , next becomes mythical , and only after these previous stages , historical . * And , why , ' it is said , * should this not be the case with the primaeval history of the Hebrews , or why should their fragments , be exempted from this general law ?'
" In former times an answer was ready to such a question , but in our days the ground on which such an answer must rest has been dug from under our feet ; since all divine co-operation , guidance , and aid , has been denied to the sacred writers , and even the term divine revelation * though still allowed to keep its place , has been used in such a sense , that it might be applied to Mahomet and Zoroaster , to every philosopher , nay , to every man , when he happens to speak the truth . We must therefore adopt some other mode of
reply than an appeal to the inspiration of Scripture . We get not a step further , however , when we remind our mythical interpreters , that Jesus and his apostles have not only taken this ancient history in its literal sense , without the least hint of a mythical meaning , but have even recommended it as historical truth ; Luke xvi . 29 , 2 Tim . iii . 14—17 ; for here again we should immediately be told , that Jesus and his apostles only accommodated themselves to Jewish modes of thinking in order to procure a favourable reception for their own doctrine . Thus we are involved in a new controversy ,
and again diverted from the real question . " It might have been thought that the persons most proper of all to answer the inquiry would have been those ancient Christians , who had themselves once been Heathens , and among whom there were men of learning and phi-
Untitled Article
On wfr Mythical Interpretation of the Bible . G $ J
-
-
Citation
-
Monthly Repository (1806-1838) and Unitarian Chronicle (1832-1833), Sept. 2, 1827, page 637, in the Nineteenth-Century Serials Edition (2008; 2018) ncse.ac.uk/periodicals/mruc/issues/vm2-ncseproduct1800/page/5/
-