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PRINTED BY CARL B. LORCK IN LEIPZIG,

PREFACE.

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NINE years have elapsed since the publication of the second volume of this Commentary. But the author trusts that he has with some advantage adhered to the severe rule of the old master, "nonum prematur in annum". For though he devoted a considerable portion of the interval to the composition of his Hebrew Grammar, he never lost sight of the continuation of the work which he has made the task of his life, and which forms the centre of his studies and his reading. However, delay appeared to him, in one important respect, even more than desirable; it seemed to him almost imperative. For a survey of the intellectual history of England during the last decennium will render it manifest that a change has been wrought which it is not too much to describe as an intellectual revolution. The highest questions that concern mankind were discussed in works, which fell upon the public mind with the force of decisive battles, roused a spirit of regenerating enquiry, and tended perceptibly to alter the entire current of national thought. In general history, a new impulse was given by the labours of Buckle, who, ignoring the idea of a supernatural education of our race, attempted consistently, if too sweepingly, to deduce the stages of human progress from psychological principles no less unfailing in their operation than the laws

which govern the physical world. In the natural sciences, something like an overpowering shock was produced by the fearless and penetrating investigations of Darwin, Huxley, and Lyell, who, striving to exhibit man and the planet he inhabits, as organic parts of universal creation, courageously pierced into the mystery of the very genesis of men and things, and arrived at results startling by their boldness and incalculable in their scope and final bearing. And in the sphere of theology, an almost unprecedented commotion was caused by the "Essays and Reviews", moderate as they are in tendency and reserved in enunciation, by the acute and incisive demonstrations of Colenso, unsettling and in many cases uprooting long-cherished opinions or prejudices, and by the writings of Rénan and Strauss, which, thanks to the close literary intercommunion that has sprung up between the continent and England, found here a no less powerful echo than in the countries to which they owed their origin. Thus traditional views are questioned in every branch of science and learning; and habits of logical thought, trained and fostered by works like those of John Stuart Mill, prové an invaluable auxiliary to comprehensive and trustworthy inferences. Our own time, disdaining to receive opinions from the past as an unalterable heirloom and with unsuspecting reliance, is determined to assert the right of forming its own convictions with unfettered independence.

This general fermentation of minds, which the author could not but watch with intense interest, appeared to him peculiarly propitious for the reception of the conclusions to which he has been led by his Biblical researches. He would fain hope that he has furnished a few available stones for that new edifice which it is the labour of our age to erect; that he has aided, however humbly and modestly, in supporting by arguments derived

from his special department of study, the philosophical ideas which all genuine science at present seems eager to establish; and that he has in some slight degree succeeded in assigning to the Biblical documents their proper place in the future phases and struggles of our civilisation.

But he ventures to prefer a double request to those into whose hands this volume may fall. First, he begs them not to judge of the results unless they have patiently followed him through the chain of arguments by which the conclusions were obtained; for he has endeavoured so to arrange the facts and proofs that an attentive perusal will, he trusts, disclose their force and cogency, whereas desultory reading must lead to hasty and unjust opinions. The second request he cannot make better than in the words with which Spinoza concludes the Introduction to his Tractatus Theologico-politicus: "To those who are not accustomed to think rationally, I do not desire to recommend this book, since I have no reason to hope that they will in any way be gratified by it. For I know how stubbornly the mind clings to those prejudices which it has adopted under the appearance of religion. I know moreover, that it is as impossible to free the mass of men from superstition as it is to free them from fear... These therefore and all those who obstinately insist upon preconceived opinions, I do not invite to read this book, nay I would much rather wish them to leave it unnoticed, than to call forth strife by interpreting its contents perversely, and while gaining no advantage for themselves, to cause injury to others who would argue with greater freedom if they were not checked by the one fatal belief that reason must be the handmaid of theology."

It may be expedient to add a few explanations with regard to the economy of this volume.

The Biblical text may be considered from three distinct points of view:

(1.) It may be explained simply in a positive or objective manner: the expositor investigates how the last compiler or reviser understood the meaning of the parts and the connection of the whole, and he endeavours to point out both the one and the other with the utmost care and completeness; he owes this tribute of respect and reverence especially to the superior genius of the man who conceived so vast a plan as that of the Pentateuch, and who must be allowed to have possessed the ability of logical thought and style. This task has been chiefly attempted in the general notes of the Commentary.

(2.) Or the text may be explained critically and analytically: the expositor resolves the entire composition into its component parts; he examines and compares them, decides whether they contain differences in the conceptions or discrepancies in the statements, pursues the traces of older sources or original documents, which he distinguishes from later additions or modifications, and searches after the date and authorship of each portion; and then, on the basis of these enquiries, he draws conclusions with regard to the gradual development of religious culture among the Hebrews, and to the epoch when it attained the stage revealed in the section under consideration. This has mainly been undertaken in the philological remarks of the Commentary.

(3.) Or, lastly, the text may be explained philosophically and treated constructively: the expositor analyses the absolute truth and the absolute value of the records; he ascertains how far the facts are historically reliable, and how far the religious notions are philosophically true; he compares the Biblical documents with the historical traditions and religious systems of other nations; and he tests them especially by the most recent discoveries of science and the best results of speculative thought; thus he is enabled to determine to what extent

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