Introduction to the Old Testament | Page 2

tone, but I have deliberately refrained from going
further than the facts seemed to warrant. The cause of truth is not
served by unwarranted assertions; and the facts are often so difficult to
concatenate that dogmatism becomes an impertinence. Those who

know the ground best walk the most warily. But if the old confidence
has been lost, a new confidence has been won. Traditional opinions on
questions of date and authorship may have been shaken or overturned,
but other and greater things abide; and not the least precious is that
confidence, which can now justify itself at the bar of the most rigorous
scientific investigation, that, in a sense altogether unique, the religion
of Israel is touched by the finger of God.
JOHN E. McFADYEN.
ENGELBERG, SWITZERLAND.

CONTENTS
THE ORDER OF THE BOOKS
GENESIS
EXODUS
LEVITICUS
NUMBERS
DEUTERONOMY
JOSHUA
THE PROPHETIC AND PRIESTLY DOCUMENTS
JUDGES
SAMUEL
KINGS
ISAIAH
JEREMIAH
EZEKIEL
HOSEA
JOEL
AMOS
OBADIAH
JONAH
MICAH
NAHUM
HABAKKUK
ZEPHANIAH
HAGGAI
ZECHARIAH
MALACHI

PSALMS
PROVERBS
JOB
SONG OF SONGS
RUTH
LAMENTATIONS
ECCLESIASTES
ESTHER
DANIEL
EZRA-NEHEMIAH
CHRONICLES

THE ORDER OF THE BOOKS
In the English Bible the books of the Old Testament are arranged, not
in the order in which they appear in the Hebrew Bible, but in that
assigned to them by the Greek translation. In this translation the various
books are grouped according to their contents--first the historical books,
then the poetic, and lastly the prophetic. This order has its advantages,
but it obscures many important facts of which the Hebrew order
preserves a reminiscence. The Hebrew Bible has also three divisions,
known respectively as the Law, the Prophets, and the Writings. The
Law stands for the Pentateuch. The Prophets are subdivided into (i) the
former prophets, that is, the historical books of Joshua, Judges, Samuel
and Kings, regarded as four in number; and (ii) the latter prophets, that
is, the prophets proper--Isaiah, Jeremiah, Ezekiel, and the Twelve (i.e.
the Minor Prophets). The Writings designate all the rest of the books,
usually in the following order--Psalms, Proverbs, Job, Song of Songs,
Ruth, Lamentations, Ecclesiastes, Esther, Daniel, Ezra-Nehemiah,
Chronicles.
It would somewhat simplify the scientific study even of the English
Bible, if the Hebrew order could be restored, for it is in many ways
instructive and important. It reveals the unique and separate importance
of the Pentateuch; it suggests that the historical books from Joshua to
Kings are to be regarded not only as histories, but rather as the
illustration of prophetic principles; it raises a high probability that Ruth
ought not to be taken with Judges, nor Lamentations with Jeremiah, nor
Daniel with the prophets. It can be proved that the order of the

divisions represents the order in which they respectively attained
canonical importance--the law before 400 B.C., the prophets about 200
B.C., the writings about 100 B.C.--and, generally speaking, the latest
books are in the last division. Thus we are led to suspect a relatively
late origin for the Song and Ecclesiastes, and Chronicles, being late,
will not be so important a historical authority as Kings. The facts
suggested by the Hebrew order and confirmed by a study of the
literature are sufficient to justify the adoption of that order in
preference to that of the English Bible.

GENESIS
The Old Testament opens very impressively. In measured and dignified
language it introduces the story of Israel's origin and settlement upon
the land of Canaan (Gen.--Josh.) by the story of creation, i.-ii. 4_a_,
and thus suggests, at the very beginning, the far-reaching purpose and
the world-wide significance of the people and religion of Israel. The
narrative has not travelled far till it becomes apparent that its dominant
interests are to be religious and moral; for, after a pictorial sketch of
man's place and task in the world, and of his need of woman's
companionship, ii. 4_b_-25, it plunges at once into an account,
wonderful alike in its poetic power and its psychological insight, of the
tragic and costly[1] disobedience by which the divine purpose for man
was at least temporarily frustrated (iii.). His progress in history is,
morally considered, downward. Disobedience in the first generation
becomes murder in the next, and it is to the offspring of the violent
Cain that the arts and amenities of civilization are traced, iv. 1-22. Thus
the first song in the Old Testament is a song of revenge, iv. 23, 24,
though this dark background of cruelty is not unlit by a gleam of
religion, iv. 26. After the lapse of ten generations (v.) the world had
grown so corrupt that God determined to destroy it by a flood; but
because Noah was a good man, He saved him and his household and
resolved never again to interrupt the course of nature in judgment
(vi.-viii.). In establishing the covenant with Noah, emphasis is