§ 136, a

GENERAL PECULIARITIES OF THESE BOOKS

1. WITH REFERENCE TO THEIR CONTENTS AND STYLE.

The reference to the theocracy (that is, to the inward connection between God and the people of Israel, and to the particular government of God over them and in the midst of them) gives these books two peculiarities ; and, to present these in the most forcible manner, the whole history is actively pervaded by a theocratic idea.

1. The whole history is penetrated by a clear and constant plan of the divine government of the world; to which individual circumstances are subordinated, with a greater or less degree of consistency: this is theocratical pragmatism, [that is, the reference of all events to God, as the immediate cause.]

2. The divine influence is likewise immediately displayed in the history, in revelations and miracles: this is theocratical mythology.

These peculiarities are most evident in those books and chapters which contain the most ancient history of the theocracy, of its establishment, and which treat of the most important points in its development; that is, in the books of Moses, Joshua, Judges, Samuel, 1 Kings xiii.-2 Kings viii. They are the least conspicuous, and, indeed, are scarcely perceptible, in those

1727-1760, 7 vols. fol. (reprinted 1809, 1821.) Henry's Exposition, 5 vols. fol. Gill's Exposition of the Old and New Testament; 1748-1763, 9 vols. fol. Other works, more or less valuable, have been prepared by Purver, Wesley, Benson, Cruden, Dodd, Goadby, Scott, Wilson, Yonge, Bulkley, Priestley, Trimmer, Burder, Hewlett, D'Oyly and Mant, and Adam Clarke.]

which belong to an age destitute of the theocratic spirit; that is, in the historical books of the Hagiographa.

[The application of the term mythology to certain narratives and opinions in the Bible need excite no surprise. The Jews had their mythology, as well as the Hindoos, the Goths, and the Greeks. Symbols and myths are necessarily used, by a rude people, to clothe abstract truths. It is evident the ancient Hebrews made use of them as the drapery of religious truth. This appears from the temple ceremonies, the visions and symbolic actions of the prophets; from the figurative expressions relating to the Deity, and the perpetual recurrence of anthropo-morphitic views of him. often difficult to determine where the myth begins, and the plain statement ends. But the Hebrew Scriptures have this difficulty in common with all very ancient, and especially Oriental writings. Symbolical language is sometimes used consciously, as properly symbolical, and sometimes unconsciously, when the writer himself had no clear conception of the subject, but confounded figure and fact.

It is

"A dogma is a creation of the Understanding; a symbol, of the Feelings; and a myth, of Fancy. The first expresses itself in ideas; the second, in æsthetic images; the third, in history. The first is an object of faith; the second, of devout reverence; but the third is, originally, neither the one nor the other; it is a free play of fiction."]"

• We apply the term mythology to historical narratives, some of which relate to the supersensuous, and others date back to an ideal antiquity, and both rise above the ordinary laws of historical causality. Such narratives usually originate in legends, whence the name. See De Wette, Bib. Dogmatik. § 55. [Bauer, Heb. Mythologie, 1802, § 1-7.] Georgi, Mythus and Saga; Berlin, 1837. Tuch, Genesis, p. 1, sqq. A myth is an idea clothed in facts: a saga contains facts penetrated and transformed by ideas.

§ 136, b.

[CONTINUATION OF THE ABOVE.

"The Jews never reached a high degree of culture, and always preserved a national character so peculiar, that they were in the most striking manner distinguished from the neighboring and contemporary nations. The belief that they were the only favorites of Jehovah, the Creator and Lord of the whole world, is as old as the nation itself; it first received a steady direction from Moses, the founder of the theocratic constitution of the state. They considered that Jehovah was the supreme, invisible Governor of the nation, and that all which befell them, in great and little affairs, was brought about by his immediate command, and by his special contrivance and cooperation. This belief exerted so powerful an influence, that all which had the remotest connection with the body of the people and the state, was referred immediately to God. This opinion was supported by the limited knowledge possessed in those times, which referred all events in the lives of individuals to a higher cause, and both together produced the theocratical-religious pragmatism of the old Hebrew historians.

"If pure historical pragmatism consists in developing every fact from its original cause, then theocratic-religious pragmatism consists in referring all historical events to the God Jehovah. Therefore, in the old historical books of the Hebrews, all active persons appear only as instruments of God. Every thing proceeds from the will and express command of God. Whatever thoughts, conclusions, and maxims, arise in the mind, God speaks them. The formula, Thus saith the Lord,' is so common in

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the old Hebrew historians, that the whole history becomes, as it were, a history of God.

"On account of this, almost every thing has a miraculous coloring. But, in respect to this, a distinction must be made between the general and the particular. The law of theocratic-religious pragmatism, in general, refers every thing to one higher cause. But, notwithstanding this, it may be considered as outwardly or actually following the order and common course of nature. The miracle consists only in this, that God has done an action perfectly natural in itself, or that it has been done at his bidding. But single events and occurrences form an exception; for they are related as if the order of nature was violated in respect to them. These narratives are called the miraculous history of the Old Testament; and they have their foundation partly in the deficiency and narrowness of human knowledge at that time, connected with the religious spirit generally prevalent, and partly in the distance of time between the event itself and the written account of it. Many events were, for a long time, related orally. Now, every legend is enlarged in the mouth of posterity, and as nations were then in a lower stage of civilization than now, such legends must necessarily be wrought up to the miraculous. When this transformation has taken place, they are called historical myths. For the Hebrews, as well as others, had their myths, which abound in their histories. And therefore, if any one would penetrate into the spirit of the Hebrew historians, he must not forget that it sometimes assumes a mythical character.

"The dissolution of the Hebrew nation, by the Assyrians and Chaldees, and their dispersions among many other nations, laid the foundation for a change in their

historical views. The bond of the theocracy became looser, and when a part of the people assembled again in their old and native land, it could never acquire its former strictness, for the theocracy, in the proper sense, was never restored. The influence of these circumstances, in the historical writings, is very striking, for in the modern historical books of the Old Testament, in Nehemiah and Ezra, the theocratic-religious pragmatism no longer prevails, but the narrative is constructed according to the natural laws of things, and approaches pure historical writing.

"The same fact will be observed in the historical books of the Apocrypha; but with this difference,there the historical and the religious views are intermingled. But this was the result of the spirit of the age and nation, at that time. For, after the exile, the Jews, on account of their outward condition, must mainly have given up their old theocratic ideas. Their religious ideas gradually became more fixed, and this result was not a little hastened by the expansion and increase of their moral ideas, consequent upon their acquaintance with the Babylonians, Persians, and other nations. In consequence of this, religious pragmatism appears in the historical books of the Apocrypha. It is not said in them, 'God spake and it was done,' as in the old historical works, which were either written before the exile, or, after it, were compiled from more ancient, written documents, or popular legends. But still, for the most part, events are represented as under the influence and direction of God.

"From these condensed remarks, it must become clear that the historical writings of the Bible are of such a character, that very few of its narratives admit of a lit