THE NEW SCHAFF-HERZOG
But while this book is thus the epitome of a whole
millennium out of a nation's best inner life and
external history, and therefore a col-
3. The lection of writings, it is not a loose
Bond of aggregation with no inner bond. The Union. purpose of each part is one with that of all the rest, the exaltation of righteousness in man as the necessary complement of the holiness of a righteous God. From the Song of Deborah (Judges v.), believed to be the earliest lengthy single composition in the Old Testament to Daniel (perhaps the latest composition), the religion of Yahweh is the motif inspiring the writers. This involved two complementary conceptions: (1) Yahweh as the national God, whom alone Israel might worship; (2) Israel as Yahweh's chosen people, therefore the most highly favored and sovereign of all peoples, the mediator of Yahweh's blessings upon the nations. This was not indeed always conceived in the same manner — a fact implied in what precedes — but religion, a particular faith, developing in clearness, intensity, comprehensiveness, and sublimity, binds the whole into a unity so close that to eliminate a book or a part of a book is as impossible as undesirable. To excise any part would be to limit the book's variety and mar its perfection as the mirror of a nation's thought and feeling. This, of course, does not preclude the book's being the object of the profoundest study from the textual, linguistic, literary, and historical sides, as well as from a religious standpoint. And it is unfortunate that it is necessary to say that the results of textual, linguistic, literary, and historical investigations are no more destructive of the Bible or its components than are the pronouncements of an architectural expert upon the structure of a cathedral which in different periods has been restored and extended. The archeologist labels the parts Roman, Byzantine, Norman, Gothic, etc., and his statement neither destroys the cathedral, takes away any of its parts, nor affects the sincerity of the worship performed in the edifice. Similarly the Biblical expert names the period or style of a component of Scripture, but his dictum does not (or should not) affect the religious value, still less does it remove anything from the book. (On the religious bond which connects the books of the Old Testament there is no more illuminating volume than Matthew Arnold's Literature and Dogma, London, 1S73, and often.)
From some of the books, notably Proverbs and
Psalms, where the works of different persons and
periods are brought together, it is at
4. Methods once clear that certain modes of compi-
of Com- lation from sources available to the
position, author were in use among the Hebrews. In other books there is discernible the editing of earlier material with a view to the emphasis of certain phases of life, as when the Chronicler employs often the exact words found in Kings, though at other times he changes the expression to suit his purpose (el II Chron. xxxiv. 8-12 with II Kings xxii. 3-7). A fine example of this process of editing is found in the Book of Judges, where the stories concerning the saviors of the people are used to teach a religious truth, viz., the result of defection
from fidelity to Yahweh. The utilization of material already existing begins in Genesis, which takes in the primitive sword song of Lamech (Gen. iv. 23-24), the myth concerning the origin of giants (vi. 1-4) and much other matter derived from various sources, and continues through Ezra-Nehemiah, which quotes the decrees of the Persian monarchs. This process is evident even in the prophetical books (cf. Isa. ii. 2 sqq. with Mic. iv. 1 sqq.). The material thus employed may be that afforded by oral tradition, as in the case of the rude folk-songs taken up into the Hexateuch (cf. the song of the well Num. xxi. 17-18); or a cycle of stories nucleated about some noted personages, such as the prophetic cycle of Elijah and Elisha (I Kings xvii.-II Kings ii.) . Duplicate narratives were sometimes woven together, as in the case of the early life of David (see Samuel). Even more numerous sources were sometimes intertwined, producing an account more complete and variegated than any one alone provided. If critical conclusions are to be trusted, even material derived from non-Hebraic sources was employed, though in the using it was passed through the alembic of the national conscience and purified from its polytheistic taint (e.g., Gen. i.-iii.). The tracing of these sources is claimed as one of the achievements of modern Biblical Criticism (q.v.),
especially as applied to the Hexa-
5. Use of teuch (q.v.). Here it is believed that
" Strands " four main strands have been detected,
of and some of them traced into the later
Narrative, historical books of Judges, Samuel, and
Kings (qq.v.), the strands being combined by an editor (or editors) or "redactor." These constituents are known by the symbols J, E, D, P, R, and it is now considered that such symbols represent not so much single authors as the completed product of a series or school of writers. Thus the J (Jehovistic, Yahwistic, or Judean) narrative is believed to have been completed in the ninth century b.c. in the southern kingdom, and it is prophetic in genius, anthropomorphic (or primitive) in theology, concrete in ethics, picturesque and vivid in style, flowing in rhetoric, historic in aim, fond of introducing folk-songs into the history, and delighting in plays on words. The E (Elohistic, Ephraimitic) narrative, assigned to the eighth century B.C., and composed in the northern kingdom, is advanced in theology, avoiding anthropomorphism (the deify appears in dreams, not in person) , didactic in genius, theocratic rather than historical in aim, concise in rhetoric, in ethics relying upon explicit commands of the deity rather than upon custom. Some time in the seventh century b.c. these two narratives were fused in the JE narrative, since in the combined representations the historical basis of the narrative text in chronological order is found. This is D (Deuteronomist), a writer or (better) school whose labors extend far beyond the work from which the name is taken, the present form of the books Judges — Kings being a result of this activity. This school used the early narratives available as a medium by which to convey the pragmatic teachings concerning the theocracy which distinguished the school. Thus the framework into which are set in the Book of Judges the lives and exploits of
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