THE LIFE AND LITERATURE OF THE ANCIENT HEBREWS.*
• (1.) The Life and Literatureof the Ancient Hebrews. By Lyman Abbott. London: James Clarke and Co. [6s.]—(2.) Old Testament 1'hcology • Vol. IL, The Deuteronomic Befo.mtsticm in Cenhag VII. B.C. By A. Duff, LL.B., B.D. London .h. and C. Black. [15s.1
Tars work on the life and literature of the ancient Hebrews is by a distinguished American preacher who has accepted most of the conclusions of the recent historical criticism regarding the Old Testament Scriptures. The main purpose of the volume is to show that those conclusions do not deprive the Old Testament of its immemorial position in religious history, nor make it a less powerful instrument in the hands of the modern preacher. It is no unusual occurrence for men to return to the Bible by a way of their own, who to others appeared to have thrown off its authority. Goethe, the great heathen as he was called, in his old age spoke of himself as Bibelfest, and acknowledged that it was to the Bible that he owed the best part of his moral training.
He also predicted that in the future, as men grew in enlighten- ment, the Bible would occupy a larger place in their thoughts than it had in the past, although some of the traditional views regarding its origin would be discarded. Mr. Matthew Arnold, as English readers know, often used very similar language. We do not, of course, mean to compare Mr. Abbott with Goethe or Matthew Arnold in respect of genius, nor to identify his views with theirs, to which he might object, but he has this in common with them, that he believes the Old Testament to have gained rather than lost in religious power by the abandonment of certain traditional views regarding its origin. The most startling, and probably the least welcome, chapters to the English reader will be those entitled "Prehistoric Traditions Rewritten" and "Hebrew Fiction." In the former the narratives in the Book of Genesis are described as legends or myths. A legend is defined as an historical narrative handed down through the early ages, having in most cases some historical basis, but so modified and ornamented that it is impossible to determine how much of fact, how much of unconscious fiction, it contains. The myth, again, is an attempt on the part of a primitive people to state an abstract truth in a concrete form. Historians are now agreed that the early history of Greeks and Romans, indeed of all peoples who have an early history, came to us in the form of legend or myth. Is it reasonable, Mr. Abbott asks, to persist in assigning a different origin to the early history of the Hebrews, especially as it exhibits the same or very similar characteristics ? This legendary and mythical history can, however, according to Mr. Abbott, yield thoughts and lessons of the highest value. On this subject he writes
When the literary critic says that the Book of Genesis is a collection of legends and myths he does not stigmatise it as valueless. The Hebrew myth of creation is not a scientific treatise on cosmogony. It embodied, however, the truth that God is a spirit, and spirit is creative; that God has made man in his own image. The Hebrew myth of Eden embodied the truth that sin is wilful disobedience of law ; that conscience makes cowards of us all; that between sin and the human soul is to be eternal and undying hate; that sin will corrupt the whole human race, but that the human race will destroy sin, or, to relate it in the language of the myth, the serpent shall poison the heel of man, and man shall crush the serpent's head. The Hebrew myth of expulsion from the garden embodied the truth that sorrow is disciplinary, and the road from the garden of innocence to the victory of virtue is through the struggle of the wilderness."
Of the modern view of the legislation of the ancient Hebrews a lucid account is given. A small part—some four chapters of Exodus—can be accepted as Mosaic, although the pro- phetic genius of the great legislator exercised an influence upon the after development of law in Israel. In the Deutero- nomic Code, which was formulated about 620 B.C., Mr. Abbott finds provisions for the protection of the people from the despotic power of their rulers unparalleled in that age of history, together with other provisions equally remarkable for their justice and humanity. The legislation of Israel repre- sents the slow growth of wise and humane custom in a race which had a unique consciousness of God. The mediaeval history of Europe, as he points out, is an example of an analogous development.
The chapters on "A Drama of Love," "A Spiritual Tragedy," and "A School of Ethical Philosophy " will well repay perusal. The author applies the Hebrew literature to modern circumstances without so modernising it as to rob it of
its original meaning. He dwells upon the variety of tone found in Hebrew literature. Of the Book of Proverbs he motes that it never refers to Israel as the chosen people of Gad. Its references to the law are to the moral law as interpret by reason and conscience; and the sanctions of the law are in the main found in the consequences which follow in this life upon obedience and disobedience, that is, upon temporal and prudential considerations. The mode of looking at life is however, different in the Prophets and Hebrew poets, who interpret life in the spirit of idealists to whom God's will is the principal guide and sanction to righteous action, not its worldly consequences. A very interesting comparison is instituted between Proverbs i. 22-28 and Isaiah lv. 6-9. In the first is heard, not the voice of Jehovah, as is usually supposed, but of mocking human wisdom; in the second, the voice of divine forgiveness. Mr. Abbott' says that although there is much satire in the Hebrew Proverbs, there is no cynicism which involves contempt for man and generally contempt for human virtues. He regards the enigmatical Book of Ecclesiastes as a " journal of fragments," analogous to Amiers Journal. It is impossible to form a consistent system from it; and the remark is made that those who think every sentence of the Bible equally authoritative with every other sentence will find hopeless difficulties in its interpretation. But the general conclusion of the book is in accordance with the highest morality and the deepest view of human life ; for it teaches that no permanent satisfaction can be found in ambition, in pleasure, or even in the golden mean. It is to be found only in duty, because right is right, and God is God.
The preacher will find a great deal that is fresh and suggestive in Mr. Abbott's ingenious treatment of Hebrew literature. It cannot, however, be denied that his view of Scripture gives a shook to the authority of Scripture in the old sense of the word "authority." It may be as persuasive as ever, perhaps more so ; but where it cannot persuade, it is powerless ; for it has no right to command; for those who are not persuaded do not appear to be under any obligation to obey its teachings. It takes its place, therefore, with Greek philosophy and Greek poetry among the claimants for the ear of mankind. It is for men to say whether they love more to listen to the voice of Hebrew devotion or of Hellenic wisdom.
We have left ourselves little space to speak of Professor Duff's elaborate work on the Deuteronomic Reformation. It is a learned and careful -work. The author, however, while he writes for scholars, has adopted a style of pulpit rhetoric un- suitable in such a work. The custom of altering the spelling of familiar Old Testament names is not to be commended. To those who know Hebrew it is useless, and it will only per- plex and annoy the English reader to meet such forms as Ia'aquobh, Yiphtach, and Davidh, instead of Jacob, Jephtha.h, and David.
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