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Messianic prophecies in historical succession
Messianic prophecies in historical succession Author:Franz Delitzsch 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 I. THE DIVINE WORD CONCERNING THE FUTURE SALVATION BEFORE THE TIME OF THE PROPHETS. § 1. Justification of the Beginning in Genesis iii. TF the h... more »istorical succession, in which we propose to -- treat the Messianic prophecies, were to be understood as a succession in literary history, we should only be justified in beginning with Gen. iii., if we considered the so-called Jehovistic book, from which the history of Paradise is drawn, the oldest Old Testament historical book. But this is not our opinion. We consider it a very old historical source, older than modern criticism concedes, but not the oldest. Nevertheless we are justified in beginning with Gen. iii. For the narrative concerning the primitive condition and fall of man was not invented by the narrator, but was an old " sage " found by him, which he communicates to us in a form in which, stripped of its heathen mythological accessories, it has sustained the criticism of the Spirit of revelation. We may therefore begin where the documentary sacred history begins, since it contributes not a little to its recommendation, that although recorded by an Israelitish pen, it begins, not with a nation, but with mankind. The Biblical primitive history is the history of mankind, and does not have the peculiar national and mythological colours of the primitive traditions outside of Israel. But does not the narrative in Gen. ii., iii. sound mythical ? If we understand by myth (mythus) the investiture, not only of universal thoughts, but also of definite realities in symbolical dress, we may nevertheless regard the history of Paradise as a myth, so far only as we hold fast the following as realities:—(1) that there was a demoniacal evil one, before evil had taken possession of man; (2) that this demoniacal evil one was th...« less