the matter. And of such an examination the Bible need have no fear, whose claims are injured only by dishonest and unfair, not by honest and fair criticism. Magna est veritas et praevalebit.

TESTIMONY OF THE HISTORICAL

BOOKS, SAVE CHRONICLES.

BY PROFESSOR WILLIS J. BEECHER.

INTRODUCTORY.

Description of the Books.

These books are,

first, the Book of Joshua, recording the events that directly followed the death of Moses; second, the Books of Judges, Ruth, and First and Second Samuel, continuing the history till the accession of Solomon; third, the Books of Kings, carrying it forward to the middle of the seventy years of exile; and fourth, the Books of Ezra and Nehemiah, with or without Daniel and Esther, treating of the times yet later. These books cover in some shape the whole time from the alleged writing of the Pentateuch in the times of Moses to the close of the events described in the Old Testament. They contain, however, properly speaking, not the history of Israel for this period, but rather the history of a certain line of providential dealings with Israel. For interpreting their silences, especially, this distinction is very important.

Most of them bear pretty distinct marks of haying been prepared in part by the process of transcribing selections from previously existing records. Whatever differences of opinion there may be as to their date and authorship, no one would dispute that they approach more nearly to the character of

records contemporaneous with the events recorded than do the Books of Chronicles-that other biblical work of history treating of the same times. It would also be admitted that in some instances they are farther from being contemporaneous records than are the dated prophetic books. If there is at any point a conflict of testimony between the books, these considerations have weight in deciding which witness is to be preferred; they also have weight as showing that what may at first seem to be a conflict of evidence should not be too hastily interpreted in that way; statements made from different points of view may differ without being contradictory.

Kinds of Evidence found in these Books. The evidence to be obtained from these books concerning the Pentateuch is of several different sorts. It consists partly in the books themselves, regarded as mere facts, and partly in the testimony given by the books. Whether one regard them as trustworthy, untrustworthy, or of doubtful trustworthiness, it is at least a fact that the books exist; that they have a certain linguistic character as compared with one another, with the Pentateuch, with other Hebrew writings; that they mention institutions and events capable of being compared, as matters of historical sequence, with those mentioned in the Pentateuch; that they contain statements, citations, silences, concerning the Pentateuch and its contents. These varied phenomena are existing facts, no matter what estimate one puts upon the books that contain them. They

constitute evidence of one sort, while the statements directly made in the books concerning the Pentateuch are evidence of another sort. Apart from the question of inspiration the evidence from the phenomena is of higher validity than the testimony, provided one were sure of correctly interpreting the phenomena; for we are more certain of what we see than of what some one tells us. But it is also true that there are often different ways of accounting for the same phenomena; that evidence of this kind often lacks in explicitness more than enough to balance its advantages in point of directness. It follows from this as a fixed logical rule, and one of great importance in the case in hand, that among equally consistent interpretations of the phenomena con tained in a writing, that interpretation is to be preferred which agrees with the declarations made in the writing.

By a cross-division the evidence from these books assumes at least three different forms: First, some portions of the phenomena they present and the testimony they give bear directly on Pentateuchal questions; secondly, they present a certain cast of Israelitish history, and an account of Israelitish institutions, culture and religious ideas, for some hundreds of years following the times when Moses is alleged to have written the Pentateuch, and what they say on these points must needs be either consistent or inconsistent with the alleged fact that Moses established the Pentateuchal institutions and described them in writing;