(2) Other Books Than. the Bible. The Bible, however, bears traces that its were not the only books current in the time and country to which it relates; for writing, writers, and books are mentioned without the emphasis and distinction which always accompany new discoveries or pe culiar local possessions and as ordinary,. well known and matter-of-course things. And it is cer tain that we do not possess all the works. which were known in the early periods of Israelite his tory, since in Num. xxi:14 we read of 'the book of the wars of the Lord,' and in Josh. x:13 of 'the book of Jasher.' Without writing, history, prop erly so called, can have no existence. Under the head WRITING may be traced the early rudiments and progress of that important art ; here we mere ly remark that an acquaintance with it was pos sessed by the Hebrews at least as early as their Exodus from Egypt—a fact which shows at least the possibility that the age of the Biblical record stands some thousand years or more (see CHRO NOLOGY) prior to the earliest Greek historian, Herodotus.
(3) The Bible a Commemorative Book. There is another fact which has an important hearing on the worth and credibility of the Bib lical narratives, namely, that the people of which they speak were a commemorative race, were, in other words, given to create and preserve memo rials of important events. Even in thc patriarchal times we find monuments sct up in order to com memorate events. Jacob (Gen. xxviii:r8) 'set up a pillar' to perpetuate the memory of the divine promise; and that these monuments had a religious import and sanction appears from the statement that 'he poured oil upon the top of the pillar' (see Gen. xxxi :45; Josh. iv:9; I Sam. vii: 12; Judg. ix:6). Long-lived trees, such as oak and terebinth, were made use of as remembran cers (Gen. xxxv :4; Josh. xxiv :26). Commem orative names also were given to persons, places, and things; and from the earliest peri ods it was usual to substitute a new and de scriptive for an old name, which may in its origin have been descriptive too (Exod. :to; Gen. ii :23; iv :I). Genealogical tables appear, moreover, to have had a very early existence among the people of whom the Bible speaks, being carefully preserved first memoriter, afterward by writing, among family treasures, and thus trans mitted from age to age. These, indeed, as might be expected, appear to have been the first begin nings of history—a fact which is illustrated and confirmed by the way in which what we should term a narrative or historical sketch is spoken of in the Bible, that is, as 'the book of the genera tion' Cof Adam,' Gen. v:1) : a mode of speaking which is applied even to the account of the Crea tion (Gen. ii :4), 'these are the generations of the heavens and the earth when they were created.' The genealogical tables in the Bible (speaking generally) are not only of a very early date, but are free from the mixtures of a theogonical and cosmogonical kind which are found in the early literature of other primitive nations, wearing the appearance of being, so far at least as they go, true and complete lists of individual and family descent (Gen. v:i).
(4) The Use of Poetry. But perhaps the most remarkable fact connected with this subject is the employment of poetry at a very early period to perpetuate a knowledge of historical events. Even in Gcn. iv :23, in the case of Lamech, we find poetry thus employed, that is, by the great-grand son of the primitive father. Other instances may be found in Exod. xv; Judge. v; Josh. x :13; 2 Sam. i:03. This early use of poetry, which must be regarded as a considerable step in civilization, implies a still earlier pre-existent culture; con futes the notion that human society began with a period of barbarism; looks favorably on the hypothesis that language had an immediately di vine origin; explodes the position that the He brews were at first an ignorant, untutored, and unlettered race, and creates a presumption on be half of their historical literature. Poctry is a good vehicle for the transmission of great leading facts; for, though it may throw over fact a color ing borrow,ed from the imagination, yet the form in which it appears gives warning that such hues arc upon its details, which hues, besides being themselves a species of history, are then easily re moved, while the form shuts up and holds in the facts intrusted to the custody of verse, and so transmits them to posterity without additions and without loss. By means of these several forms of commemoration much knowledge would be pre served from generation to generation, and to their existence from the first may be ascribed the brief, but still valuable, notices which the Bible presents of the primitive ages and condition of the world.
(5) Other Sources, Josephus, Ete. Other sourccs for at least the early Biblical history are comparatively of small value. Joscphus has gone over the same periods as the Bible treats of, but obviously had no sources of consequence relating to primitive times which are nat open to us, and regard to those times does little more than add here and there a patch of a legendary or tradi tional hue which could have been well spared. His Greek and Roman predilections and his apologeti cal aims detract from his value, while in relation to the early history of his country he can be re garded in no othcr light than a sort of philo sophical interpreter ; nor is it till lie comes to his own age that he has the value of an independent (not even then an impartial) eyewitness or well informed reporter. In historical criticism and linguistic knowledge he was very insufficiently furnished. The use of both Josephus and Philo is far more safe for the student of the New Tes tament than for the expounder of thc old.