The Old Testament interpreter, in the closing years of the nineteenth century, has entered into possession of the following most important helps for .interpretation, which are mainly the fruit of studies during the last hundred years: (1) With reference to the text. At least some progress has been made in seeking to determine the original text of the Old Testament. Many of the suggestions in the Hebrew text of the Old Testament edited by Haupt, from which the trans lation of the Polychrome Bible is being prepared. are doubtless arbitrary and subjective, but it is a step in the right direction which must be followed by others until scholars shall settle with reasona ble unanimity on a critical text of the Old Testa ment.
(2) The discovery of the meaning of words found in the Old Testament is of the utmost im portance. Most of these are clear, because they often occur ; many are very obscure, because they are found only once. To determine their signifi cation it is not only necessary to compare the different ancient versions, but also to trace them in cognate languages like Arabic, Aramaic, and Assyrian. In some of these respects, Gesenius introduced a new era through his lexicon, which has passed through many editions since his death, and is now being rcproduced in this country with all the appliances of modern scholarship.
(3) Not less important is a study of the struc ture and connection of sentences. In this regard, Gesenius did a conspicuous service, but it was Ewald who unlocked the treasuries of Hebrew syntax, and who has been the inspiration of all subsequent Hebrew grammarians and interpret ers through his insight and commanding genius.
(4) It is also of the utmost importance to know the manners and customs and the geography of the country where the Old Testament was pro duced. The present century has been character ized by the most interesting antiquarian and geo graphical researches, not only in Palestine itself, but in the seat of the great world powers with which Israel had to do, and in whose domain at different times they found a home, Egypt and Assyria. The value of these researches as aids to interpretation cannot be overestimated. (See EGYPT : ASSYRIA.) (5) But as exegesis is a historical science. as well as grammatical and critical. it is especially dependent on the researches of the higher critics, because these determine the relative.age and suc cession of documents, and no right interpretation of these documents can be given, as a whole, out of their proper historical setting. No truthful his tory of Israel's religion or development of it, as a state, can be given without using the results .of higher criticism. Its most important discoveries have been made in the Hexateuch (Pentateuch 2.nd Joshua), in Psalms, Isaiah, Zechariah, and Daniel. But none are comparable to those brought to light in the Hexatettch. It has been found that the laws of ancient Israel, both civil and relig tous, as therein detailed, resting on foundations laid by Moses, and all ultimately gathered in a law hook known by his name, were of slow growth, and did not attain their final form until the reorganization of the Jewish state under Ne hemiah and Ezra (B. C. 445-4-44)• Reading the
Old Testament in the light of this reconstruc tion of the Pentateuch, there is not A religious or legal institution which does not show traces of development. The critics discovered long ago that the Hexateuch was composed of three main documents. With reference to this there is now almost unanimous agreement among German Old Testament scholars, and the number of those who give their assent to this view in Great Britain and America is constantly increasing. These doc uments, known as the Jehovistic, B. C. 64o, made up of the Yahvistic, written in Judah B. C. 85o, and the Elohistic, written in Ephraim, B. C. 75o; the Deuteronomic, B. C. 621, including Deuter onomy and the Deuteronomic portions of Joshua ; and the Priests' Code were all welded together by some unknown editors, and were published by Ezra, B. C. 444. Even these documents contain others of still greater antiquity. The mode of composition employed is sometimes called "patch work." It preserves the component parts. It is characteristic of Orientals, and can be easily traced in many places in Chronicles by means of an English reference Bible. Let any one examine the component part of 1 Chron. xvi, cutting out the original passages from an English Bible, and pasting them on cardboard by the side of the corresponding passages of the Chronicles. There is much divergence among critics in details as to the age of the documents named and the editions through which they have passed, but very little as to their literary, legal, and theological charac teristics.
The present dominant school of criticism, which considers the Priests' Code the youngest part of the Pentateuch, was founded by Graf, who pub lished in 1866 his Historical Books of the Old Testament. But it was the further analysis of Wellhausen (born 1844) and his lucid statement of critical results which won the day in Germany. In Holland the most conspicuous critic of the same school was Ktienen (born 1828, died 1891) ; in Great Britain, the lamented W. Robertson Smith (born 1846, died 1894), a brilliant scholar and devout Christian, who made a gallant fight for liberty ; and in America, C. A. Briggs (born 1841), who has sought a like result. The best summary of the modern critical views of the Old Testament is found in Driver's Literature of the Old Testament.
While the Old Testament, in its general teach ing, is level with the comprehension of plain, unlettered people, a large proportion of its litera ture, especially that which is legal and prophetic, gains immeasurably in interest and instructive ness when interpreted in historic light, and with the instruments afforded by modern criticism. The Old Testament, which was primarily de signed to be a light to the feet and a lamp to the path of the Jewish congregation, loses nothing in real power or authority through the most searching investigation. S. I. C.