Unravelling The Book Of Books - gebruikt boek

UNRAVELLING THE BOOK OF BOOKS CONTENTS PAGE FOREWORD xiii THE OLD TESTAMENT PART I THE STORY OF THE RISE OF SCIENTIFIC BIBLICAL THOUGHT OR, HOW MEN CAME TO LOOK AT THE BIBLE INTELLI GENTLY CHAP1LR I. SPINOZA, THE PHILOSOPHER, FEARLESSLY UN DERTAKES THE FIRST MODERN SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION OF THE HEBREW SCRIPTURES 5 II. THE STORY OF RICHARD SIMON, A CATHOLIC PRIEST WHO WAS A HEBREW SCHOLAR ... 1 8 III, How JEAN ASTRUC, A FRENCH PHYSICIAN, FOUND THE TRUE KEY TO UNLOCK THE DOCU MENTS OF GENESIS, AND HOW PROF. J. G. ElCHHORN, THE GERMAN ORIENTALIST, APPLIED THIS NEWLY DISCOVERED KNOWL EDGE 34 IV. HOW THE DISCOVERIES OF KARL DAVID ILGEN WERE LOST, AND AFTER FIFTY YEARS EMERGED THROUGH THE RESEARCHES OF HERMANN HUPFELD OF HALLE 47 V. THE EXCOMMUNICATION OF FATHER ALEXAN DER GEDDES AND HOW W. M. L. DE WETTE FOUND THE ORIGIN OF THE BOOK OF DEUTER ONOMY 61 vii vni CONTENTS PART II THE STORY OF BIBLES WITHIN THE BIBLE, OR HOW THE POUR MOST IMPORTANT DOCUMENTS OF THE OLD TESTA MENT WERE INDEPENDENTLY WRITTEN AND THEN COM BINED INTO ONE VOLUME CALLED THE PENTATEUCH THE FIVE BOOKS OF MOSES CHAPTER PAGE I. HOW THE MEN OF JERUSALEM WROTE THE YAHWISTIC DOCUMENT, OR THE BIBLE OF THE SOUTH KINGDOM .......... 77 II. HOW THE MEN OF EPHRAIM WROTE THE HISTIC DOCUMENT, OR THE BIBLE OF THE NORTH KINGDOM ............ 91 III. How THE BOOK OF DEUTERONOMY CAME INTO EXISTENCE, OR THE RADICAL REFORM OF JOSIAH ............... JO6 IV. How THE HEBREW PRIESTS WROTE A NEW VERSION OF THEIR PEOPLES LAW AND HIS TORY, THEREBY CREATING THE PRIESTLY BOOK OF RITUAL ............ 121 V. THE STORY OF HOW THESE FOUR INDEPENDENT DOCUMENTS WERE WOVEN TOGETHER AND THEN SKILFULLY COMBINED INTO ONE VOL UME CALLED THE PENTATEUCH WHICHWAS SUBSEQUENTLY DIVIDED INTO FIVE BOOKS, EACH ONE OF WHICH WAS ASCRIBED TO MOSES ................ 145 PART III THE BIBLE KEEPS ON GROWING AND THEN SUDDENLY STOPS I. THE ORIENTAL METHOD OF WRITING HISTORY AND HOW THE ANCIENT HEBREW HISTORIANS WROTE THEIR BOOKS .......... l6l IL THE LITERATURE OF RADICALISM IN WHICH is TOLD THE STORY OF THE GROWTH OF THE BOOKS OF THE HEBREW PROPHETS .... 173 CONTENTS k CHAPTER PAGE III THE ZIGZAG ORIGIN OF THOSE MISCELLANEOUS DOCUMENTS CALLED THE WRITINGS AND HOW THE PEOPLE CAME TO REGARD THEM AS INSPIRED 183 IV. BY LIMITING THE OLD TESTAMENT TO BUT THREE SECTIONS THE ANCIENT RABBIS STOPPED THE GROWTH OF THE HEBREW BIBLE 205 THE NEW TESTAMENT PART IV WHAT HAPPENED TO THE NEW TESTAMENT WHEN THE SEARCHLIGHT OF SCIENTIFIC INVESTIGATION WAS TURNED ON IT I. THE STAGE IS SET A SWIFT GLANCE AT THE SALIENT POINTS 217 II. A SAGA OF RARE ACCOMPLISHMENT WHAT HAP PENED WHEN SCHOLARS COMPARED THE NEW TESTAMENT WITH THE OLD MANUSCRIPTS . . 232 III, THE COLLAPSE OF SUPERNATURALISM THE STORY OF HOW THE HUMAN SIDE OF THE BIBLE BEGINS TO BE SEEN FOR THE FIRST TIME . - 252 THE NEW NEW TESTAMENT PART V L THE HIGHER CRITICISM OF THE GOSPELS, OR THE TRUE STORY OF HOW THESE DOCUMENTS WERE WRITTEN 279 II. How THE NEW TESTAMENT CAME TO BE LIM ITED TO TWENTY-SEVEN BOOKS 297 BIBLIOGRAPHY 3 3 INDEX 3 21 ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE Ancient Hebrew Book-Rolls 20 Hammurabis Column 100 Valley of Hinnom 108 Ancient Hebrew Alphabets 142 The Moabite Stone 166 Monastery of St, Catharine 248 Sinaitic Manuscript 250 Papyrus Sayings of Jesus 29 2 FOREWORD WHO wrote the Bible That is one of the most natural questions for any thinking person to ask. For many centuries it was an swered by both thesynagogue and the church in a very simple and naive way, not altogether free from super stitious awe. People willingly believed that the Scrip tures were a supernatural product dictated by God from His throne in Heaven to certain of his chosen saints here on Earth who merely acted as His penmen. Without attempting anything more in line with histor ical accuracy it was sufficient to tell the inquirer that Men spake from God, being moved by the Holy Ghost, and the result was the book which we call the Bible...