Biblical history was often treated by the older writers as a part of church history in general, as they considered the history given in the Bible as presenting different and successive phases of the church of God (Buddei, Hist. Eccles., 2 vols. 1726-29 ; Stolberg, Geschichte der Religion y'esu, t). Other writers have viewed this subject in a more practical light, presenting the characters found in the Bible for imitation or avoidance ; among whom may be enumerated Hess (Geschichte o'er Israeliten var den Zeiten Yesu). Hess also wrote a history of Jesus (Geschichte Yesze ; Zurich 1775) ; but the best work is a more recent, and a very valuable one, by Niemeyer (Characterista der Bibel, Halle I83o). Among the more strictly learned writers several have had it in view to supply the gaps left in the succession of events by the Bible, out of sources found in protane writers. Here the chief authors are of English birth, namely, Prideaux, Shuckford, Russell ; and for the N. T., the learned, cautious, and fair-dealing Lardner. There is a valuable work by G. Lan gen : Versuch eines Harmonie der heiligen tend pro tan scrib. in der Geschichte der Welt, Bayreuth 1775-80. Jahn, in his Bib. Archaologie, has, ac cording to Gesenius (art. Bib. Geschichte' in Ersch and Gruber's Allg. Enc.), made free use of Prideaux. Other writers have pursued a strictly chronological method, such as Ussher (Annales Vet. N. T., London 165o), and De,s Vigno/es (Chrono logie de 11 Hist. Sainte, Berlin z738). Heeren (Handb. der GeschUhte, p. so) recommends, as containing many valuable inquiries on the mon archical period, the following work : J. Bernhardi Commentatio causis grans selection sit ut reg 711IM YIllitV &Wins persisteret glum regnam Israel, Lovanni 1825. Heeren also declares that Bauer's Handbuch der Geschichte des Volkes, i800, is the best introduction both to the history and the anti quities of the Hebrew nation ; though Gesenius complains that he is too much given to the con struction of hypotheses. The English reader will find a useful but not sufficiently critical compen dium in The History of the Hebrew Commonwealth, translated from the German of John Jahn, D.D. A more valuable as well as more interesting, yet by no means faultless work, is Milman's History of the Yews, published originally in Murray's Family Libra?), [a new edition of which is said to be now (1863) in preparation]. A more recent and very valuable work, Kitto's Pictorial History of Palestine, 1841, combines, with the Bible history of the Jews, the results of travel and antiquarian research, and is preceded by an elaborate Introduction, which forms the only Natural History of Palestine in our language.
[An impulse has been given to the study of Biblical history of late years in Germany, which has led to important results. The great work of Geschichte des Volkes Israel, in 7 vols. 8vo, with a supplementary volume, Altherthiimer d. V. Israel, presents a thorough investigation of the whole subject, from the earliest times to the destruction of the Jewish state by the Romans ; a work of great learning, acuteness, and power of construction ; but displaying tendencies towards a treatment of the sacred books with which no one who receives them as divine can sympathise. A more orthodox but less able work is Kurz's Gesch. des Alten Blender, 2 vols., with supplement, Berlin r848-55 ; translated by Edersheim and Martin, 3 vols. 8vo, Edin. 1859-6h Of great value are the works of the learned Jews : Jost (Gesch. der Israel seit der Alaccabder, 9 vols. ; Gesch. des 7uden thums und Seiner &Nen, 3 vols., 1857-59); Herz feld (Gesch. (1. Volker Israel vom Vollendung des Zweiten Tempels bis zur Einsetzung des Afacha biiers Schimon, 2 vols. 8vo, 1854-57) ; Graetz (Gesch. der Yuden, 6 vols. 8vo). Dr. Stanley, in
his Lectures on the History of the "elvish Church, has presented the results of the most recent research in his usual vivid and graphic style.] The sources of Biblical history are chiefly the Biblical books themselves. Any attempt to fix the precise value of these sources in a critical point of view would require a volume instead of an article. Whatever hypothesis, however, may eventually be held touching the exact time when these books, or any of them, were put into their actual shape, as also touching the materials out of which they were formed, one thing appears very certain, that (to talce an instance) Genesis, the earliest book (pro bably), contains most indubitable as well as most interesting historical facts ; for though the age, the mode of life, and the state of culture differ so widely from our own, we cannot do otherwise than feel that it is among men and women, parents and children—beings of like passions with ourselves— and not with mere creations of fancy or fraud, that we converse when we peruse the narratives which this composition has so long preserved. The con viction is much strengthened in tbe minds of those who, by personal acquaintance with the early pro fane writers, are able to compare their productions with those of the Hebrews, which were long ante rior, and must, had they been of an equally earthly origin, have been at least equally deformed by fable. The sole comparison of the account given in Genesis of the creation of the world with the Cosmogonies of heathen writers, whether Hindoo, Greek, or Latin, is enough to assure the impartial reader that a purer, if not a higher influence, pre sided over the composition of Genesis, than that whence proceeded the legends or the philosophies of heathenism ; nor is the conclusion in the slight est degree weakened in the writer's mind by any discrepancy which modern science may seem te shew as between its own discoveries and the state ments in Genesis. The Biblical history, as found in its Biblical sources, has a decided peculiarity and a great recommendation in the fact that we can trace in the Bible more clearly and fully than in connection with any other history, the first crude elements and the early materials out of which all history must be constructed. How far the litera ture supplied in the Bible may be only a relic of a literary cyclus called into being by the felicitous circumstances and favourable constitution of the great Shemitic family, but which has perished in the lapse of ages, it is now impossible to deter mine ; but had the other portions of this imagined literature been of equal religious value with what the Bible offers, there is little risk in affirming that mankind would scarcely have allowed it to be lost. The Bible, however, bears traces that there were other 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 pecu liar local possessions, and as ordinary, well-known, and matter-of-course things. And it is certain that we do not possess all the works which were known in the early periods of Israelite history, 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, properly so called, can have no existence. Under the head Writing we shall trace the early rudiments and progress of that important art : here we merely remark that an acquaintance with it was possessed by the Hebrews at least as early as their Exodus from Egypt—a fact which shews at least the possi bility that the age of the Biblical records stands some thousand years or more prior to the earliest Greek historian, Herodotus.