Joshua

Joshua

The Project Gutenberg EBook Joshua, by Georg Ebers, Complete #34
in our series by Georg Ebers
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Title: Joshua, Complete
Author: Georg Ebers
Release Date: April, 2004 [EBook #5472] [Yes, we are more than one
year ahead of schedule] [This file was first posted on May 15, 2002]
Edition: 10
Language: English

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*** START OF THE PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JOSHUA,
BY GEORG EBERS, COMPLETE ***

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JOSHUA, Complete
By Georg Ebers
Translated from the German by Mary J. Safford

PREFACE.
Last winter I resolved to complete this book, and while giving it the
form in which it now goes forth into the world, I was constantly
reminded of the dear friend to whom I intended to dedicate it. Now I
am permitted to offer it only to the manes of Gustav Baur; for a few
months ago death snatched him from us.
Every one who was allowed to be on terms of intimacy with this man
feels his departure from earth as an unspeakably heavy loss, not only
because his sunny, cheerful nature and brilliant intellect brightened the
souls of his friends; not only because he poured generously from the
overflowing cornucopia of his rich knowledge precious gifts to those
with whom he stood in intellectual relations, but above all because of
the loving heart which beamed through his clear eyes, and enabled him
to share the joys and sorrows of others, and enter into their thoughts
and feelings.
To my life's end I shall not forget that during the last few years, himself
physically disabled and overburdened by the duties imposed by the
office of professor and counsellor of the Consistory, he so often found
his way to me, a still greater invalid. The hours he then permitted me to
spend in animated conversation with him are among those which,

according to old Horace, whom he know so thoroughly and loved so
well, must be numbered among the 'good ones'. I have done so, and
whenever I gratefully recall them, in my ear rings my friend's question:
"What of the story of the Exodus?"
After I had told him that in the midst of the desert, while following the
traces of the departing Hebrews, the idea had occurred to me of treating
their wanderings in the form of a romance, he expressed his approval in
the eager, enthusiastic manner natural to him. When I finally entered
farther into the details of the sketch outlined on the back of a camel, he
never ceased to encourage me, though he thoroughly understood my
scruples and fully appreciated the difficulties which attended the
fulfilment of my task.
So in a certain degree this book is his, and the inability to offer it to the
living man and hear his acute judgment is one of the griefs which
render it hard to reconcile oneself to the advancing years which in other
respects bring many a joy.
Himself one of the most renowned, acute and learned students and
interpreters of the Bible, he was perfectly familiar with the critical
works the last five years have brought to light in the domain of Old
Testament criticism. He had taken a firm stand against the views of the
younger school, who seek to banish the Exodus of the Jews from the
province of history and represent it as a later production of the myth-
making popular mind; a theory we both believed untenable. One of his
remarks on this subject has lingered in my memory and ran nearly as
follows:
"If the events recorded in the Second Book of Moses--which I believe
are true--really never occurred, then nowhere and at no period has a