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The Life and Literature of the Ancient Hebrews (1901)
The Life and Literature of the Ancient Hebrews - 1901 Author:Lyman Abbott Purchase of this book includes free trial access to www.million-books.com where you can read more than a million books for free. This is an OCR edition with typos. Excerpt from book: CHAPTER III PREHISTORIC TRADITIONS REWRITTEN The principles respecting Hebrew history which were set forth and illustrated in the preceding chapter are two... more ». The first principle is that this history is a compilation from previously existing materials, and that by careful study it is possible to distinguish in some measure these different materials, to separate the strand and show the threads of which it is composed, and that this task is made easier for us because in the latter portion of the history two of these strands are separated for us into two books — the Book of Chronicles, which is priestly or ecclesiastical, and the Book of Kings, which is prophetic. The second principle is that this history is not factual nor philosophical, but epic; that it is not compiled by a scientific student whose aim it is to give accurate information as to details, nor by a philosophical thinker whose aim it is to enforce a theory of human life, but by a prophetic or poetic or dramatic writer, who uses the material which he finds ready to his hand for the purpose of illustrating a certain phase or aspect of human life, namely, that aspect which presents itself to one who believes that God is in his worldof men, and who in his observation of the course of human events looks for the indications of a divine presence guiding and directing them. The historical book of the Bible which affords, if not the most striking illustration of these two principles, at least the illustration most apparent to the English reader, is the Book of Genesis; and this for three reasons: first, because the narratives which that book contains appear on their face to be epic or dramatic rather than factual; second, because we are able easily to separate the narratives of which the book is composed, and to show that th...« less