The study of biblical antiquities, viewed as an aid! in the interpretation of the books of the Old Testa- ment, began probably on the return from the Baby- lonish exile, when a lengthened past already stretch- ed out to the Israelitish nation as they looked back toward their origin ■ and. from the new circumstances in which they were placed, and the new modes of thought and actiun to which they had become habitu-
ated, they must have found many things in their sa- cred books which were as difficult to be understood as they were interesting to their feelings. The ideas, views, and observations which thence resulted were held, taught, transmitted, and from age to age aug- mented by Jewish doctors, whose professed duty was the expounding of the law of the fathers ; and after having passed through many generations by oral com- munication, were at length, in the second and some subsequent centuries of the Christian era, committed to writing. See Talmud. This source of informa- tion, as being traditionary in its origin, and disfigured by ignorance, prejudice, and superstition, must, to be of any service, be used with the greatest care and dis- crimination. It seems, however, to have fallen into somewhat undue depreciation, but has been success- fully employed by recent writers in delineating a pic- ture of the age in which our Lord appeared (Das Jahr- hundert des Heils, by Gfrorer, Stuttgart, 1838). In the first century Josephus wrote two works of une- qual merit, on The Jewish War and The A ntiquities of the Jews, which, notwithstanding some credulit)- and bad faith on the part of the author, aiford valuable in- formation, particularly in relation to the manners, customs, and opinions of his own times. Had anoth- er work of which the writer speaks (preface to the An- tiquities) come down to these days, which appears to have been a sort of philosophical treatise on the Mo- saic laws and institutions, giving probably, after the manner of Michaelis in his Mosaisches Recht, the ra- tionale of the several observances enjoined, some con- siderable light might have been thrown on the an- tiquities of the nation, though the known propensity of Josephus to the allegorical method of interpreta- tion diminishes the regret experienced at its loss. The works of Philo, the celebrated Alexandrian teach- er, which were also produced in the first century, have their value too much abated by his love of the same allegorical method ; which he was led to pursue main- ly by his desire to bring the mind of the Hebrew na- tion into harmony with Oriental, and especially Gre- cian systems of philosophy, of which Philo was a dili- gent student and a great admirer. Little advantage is to be gained by the stud)' of writers among the modern Jews ; for, till a very recent period, no sound intellectual activitj' was found among this singular and most interesting race. Inspired, however, by the spirit of the eighteenth century, Mendelssohn opened to his fellow-believers a new era, and introduced a manner of thinking and writing which prepared the way for many valuable Jewish productions, and gave an impulse to the mind of "the nation," the best outward results of which are only beginning to be seen.
The study of classical antiquity, which commenced at the revival of letters, was not without an influence on biblical archreology ; but this branch of knowledge is chiefly indebted for its most valuable results to the systematic stud)- of the Bible, and the cultivation of the long-neglected Hebrew language, which the in- terests of the Reformation both needed and called forth. It was not. however, till within the last cen- tury that the intelligent spirit which had been applied to the examination of classical antiquit}* in Germany so directed the attention of Oriental scholars to the true way of prosecuting and developing a knowledge of Hebrew and Christian antiquities as to bring forth treatises on the subject which can be regarded as sat- isfactory in the present advanced state of general scholarship. In no one thing has the mental activity of recent times contributed more to the science of bib- lical antiquities than by leading well-informed trav- ellers to penetrate into eastern countries, especially Syria, since, by communicating to the world the fruits of their enterprise,' they have been enabled to present to no small extent a picture of what these lands and their inhabitants must have been of old, permanence
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being one of the chief characteristics of the Oriental mind. From Shaw (Travels in Barbary and the Le- vant) and Harmer (Observations on various Passages of Scripture) down to the valuable work by Prof. Robin- son (Biblical Researches in Palestine, 1841, 1856), a nu- merous series of publications have been put forth, which have contributed to throw very great light on Jewish and Christian antiquity.