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'VNew EducationIn the Church Series

W. FlDDIAN !MoULTON, M.A.St. John's College, Cambridge

J895MEADVILLE PENNA

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FLOOD & VINCENTC\)t


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BY

W. FIDDIAN MOULTON, M.A.St. John's College, Cambridge

MEADVILLE. PENXA :FLOOD AND VINCENTCbt Cbautauqua--5Centutn press

1895


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Copyright, 1895By Flood & Vincent

The Chautauqua- Century Press, Meadville, Pa., U. S. A.Electrotyped, Printed, and Bound by Flood & Vincent,


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PREFACE.By Professor R. G. Moulton, of the University

of Chicago.I have been requested to say a few words

as preface to this little book, written by mynephew, on the Bible as literature. Thetitle is a wide one : but I think the writer iswell advised in confining himself to the sideof literary treatment most urgently requiredin the case of sacred literature, and explain-ing, with as much clearness as the brieflimits permit, the chief forms of literaturecontained in the Bible and Apocrypha.The question is often asked, What is ex-

actly meant by the term ' ' literary study ' ' inapplication to Scripture ? There can be nobetter way of answering this question than totake a specific portion of the Bible, andillustrate the literary treatment in compari-son with other and familiar modes of study.

Let the reader refresh his memory byreading the twenty-fourth psalm. He willfeel no difficulty in understanding how this


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iv Preface.portion of Scripture would be handled by thereligious or theological student. The psalmwould be read through as a devotional exer-cise, perhaps with responsive reading. Again,the early verses would make a text for asermon on purity as a condition for worship ;the later verses might be applied to the cele-bration of an article of the creedthe Ascentof Christ into Heaven.Another treatment of the psalm would be

the historic analysis, now usually associatedwith the "higher criticism." A critic ofthis order would, in the case of the twenty-fourth psalm, be especially struck with thebreak in the poem at the end of the sixthverse, by which the two halves of the psalmseem totally dissimilar in matter and style.With his special bias to find the solution ofall difficulties in historic considerations, the'

' higher critic ' ' would lay down that wehave here, not one psalm, but two : the laterverses having the dramatic form that sug-gests poetry of an early age, the first sixverses exhibiting the reflective style of laterliterature ; while the combination of the twoin one must be the mistake of some trans-criber or editor.The purely literary student would have a


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Preface. vpurpose different from either of the two de-scribed so far. He would approach thepsalm with the inquiry, Where are we toplace this in a classification of literary forms ?Is it epic, lyric, dramatic, or what ? A littlestudy would lead him to classify both por-tions of the psalm with " Occasional Odes,"or better, as "Anthems." Having got sofar, he would naturally ask whether thedifference between the two anthems mightnot be explained by their connection withvarying portions of some ceremonial occa-sion. This occasion is easily found in theInauguration of Jerusalem by David, whenthe ark was escorted in solemn processionfrom its resting place in the hill country tothe newly captured fortress (2 Samuel vi. ).The first six verses make an anthem to besung as the procession halts at the foot ofthe hill on which the city stands ; hence therelevancy of its inquiry, "Who shall ascendinto the hill of the Lord? " The latter partof the psalm is the crowning anthem of theceremony, performed in front of the ancientgates of the fortress. Hence its military anddramatic form : a summons of the city to re-ceive its King, answered by a challenge ofthe warders from within.


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vi Preface.

ArmyLift up your heads, O ye gates, . . .That the King of Glory may come in.WardersWho is the King of Glory ?

Thus the two anthems that make up thepsalm fit into the two parts of the day'sceremonial, as a key fits into the wards of alock.Why is it that this ' ' literary study of theBible" is only just now coming to be aprominent topic of discussion ? The answeris simple. The literary character of HolyScripture has always been familiar to thosewho read in the Hebrew and Greek, butthe English reader was excluded from ituntil the publication of the Revised Version.The Authorized Version is full of beauty,but its beauties are all of single verses. Itstranslators thought of little beyond givingreaders stores of ' ' good words ' ' ; its un-intelligent division into chapters and versesmakes a monotony of form under which allliterary structureof songs, sonnets, dra-matic dialogue, essay, discourselies buried;when the reader of this translation desires tounderstand the connectedness of thought, hemust go to the original languages to find outwhat his English version means. Accord-ingly, to the great majority of readers, the


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Preface. vii

Bible is no more than isolated verses, isolatedtexts : as if the Bible were a divine scrap-book. The Revised Version makes it possi-ble for a mere English reader to go throughthe book ofJob, and by himself follow all of itsdrift and turns of argument ; in the historicalbooks the Revised Version makes clear tohis eye when Moses or Balaam breaks outinto poetry ; even in Solomon' s Song he cansee that he is reading poetic dialogue.Whether it is wholesome even in religiousstudy to rest upon texts apart from contextis a serious question. But it is a certaintythat the reader who desires to appreciate theliterary beauty of the Bible must do hisreading in the Revised Version.

R. G. Moulton.


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INTRODUCTION.For this brief account of the literary aspect

of the Bible no better motto, perhaps, can beselected than Lord Macaulay's celebrated say-ing that the Bible is a " well of English, pureand undefiled " ; for in these words lies therecognition, by one who was himself one ofthe very greatest masters of the Englishtongue, that the Bible has a literary as wellas a religious raison d' itre. And this maywell be the case without impairing in theslightest degree its supreme position as thekeystone of the Christian religion. Not once,nor twice, but times without number havemen come to this well to draw, and have foundone sitting there who has spoken to them, asman never spake, concerning God, and life,and duty ; and they, who came only to drinkof this well of English undefiled, have goneaway with their thirst quenched with theWater of Life. There is involved, therefore,no conflict between the literary and the spirit-ual study of the Bible : for all genuine study,from either standpoint, must result in in-


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x Introduction.creased appreciation of its spiritual value;and the same method of study which is es-sential for a true appreciation of its literarybeautynamely, consecutive and compre-hensive study, as opposed to concentrationupon isolated textsis equally essential forthe full understanding of its spiritual teach-ing. When this is adopted, the Bible will berealized to be at the same time a storehouseof religious instruction and a library of liter-ary masterpieces. In it there are containedspecimens of all the fundamental types ofliterature which we are accustomed to recog-nize to-day, and moreover the types are tobe found in their highest expression. Thiswill become more clear if I sum up conciselythe subject matter of the Bible, and then pro-ceed to show how all the various literary typeswithin its limits serve to illustrate and en-force its central facts.The Bible is the record of the dealings ot

God with one small section of the humanrace, which He had selected as the mediumfor His revelation of Himself to the race.This purpose necessarily involves the record-ing of yet more- primitive times before thedifferentiation of this family had taken place ;but the whole record is shaped with this


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Introduction. xi

end in view, and whatever is said concern-ing other races is only introduced in sofar as it bears upon the fortunes of thechosen people. The development of thatpeople is traced through the successivestages of patriarchal, theocratic, and mon-archic government ; until after a long andcheckered period of probation they reachthe point at which the time is ripe for thefinal consummation of the revelation up towhich everything has tended in the long andvaried past, and with that revelation, in theperson of the Messiah and in the teaching ofhis immediate followers, the Bible closes.Such is, in very brief terms, the central

historical framework upon which the sacredwritings hang, and which in their turn theyelucidate and verify ; to use another figure ofspeech, if the above historical record of theBible be the stem of the tree, then the rest ofthe Scriptures are the branches and theleaves, in vital connection with the stem, andcontributing beauty and completeness to itsgrowth. Take, for instance, the book ofGenesis, where there are eleven chapters ofchronicle, containing just two or three epi-sodes told in detail, followed by thirty-ninechapters dealing with patriarchal authority


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xii Introduction.

and customs, and dealing with them, not inthe matter-of-fact style of a chronicler, butafter the manner of a poet who would fainimpress his message upon the imagination.From the standpoint of pure history thiswould show grievous want of proportion :the historical requirements for these patri-archal pictures would be little more thanhalf a dozen chapters ; why fill thirty-nine ?Because the grafting of this epic elementon to the chronicle is invaluable for the pur-pose of forcing home the lesson which liesbeneath the whole of the Bible record, andwhich the bare record would fail to drivehome.

Again, what bare chronicle, what elabo-rate history eventold from outsidecouldgive the insight into the inner relationsbetween God and His people that is affordedby the lyrics of the book of Psalms, or theoratory of the book of Deuteronomy f Eachone of these literary forms is particularlyadapted for the purpose to which it is putand, whether by image or song, episode ororation, the main purpose of the book isever being carried out, of revealing the willof God to man. The five main literarytypes may be differentiated as History,


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Introdtution. xiii

Lyrics, Philosophy, Prophecy, and Parable ;but it will easily be seen that the types areapt to approach each other very closely attimes, and that a work may well manifestsome of the characteristics of two types.The book of Job, for instance, affords ex-amples of most of the types, while the Songof Solomon does not fall easily within any ofthe classes. Nevertheless, for general pur-poses this classification will serve very well.


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t$i (gtBfeae tferasure*CHAPTER I.

HISTORY.The historical matter in the Bible is both

great in quantity and various in kind. Thereis, firstly, the historical frame-work referred to above, which "^g^f^runs through the whole volumeand must be distinguished from the epicincidents. The book of Genesis opens withthe barest chronicle of the beginnings of theworld and some few epic* incidents mergedin it, such as the Fall, the death of Abel,the Flood, and the building of the Tower ofBabel. With the entrance of Abraham(chapter xii. ) the whole character of thenarrative changes : cycles of Epic incidents.stones, centering in Abraham,Isaac, Jacob, and Joseph, take the place olthe chronicle, and from this point onwardthe epic element is predominant. A few

* The word " epic " must not be confused with " fiction " : itmerely implies that the events are told in a manner that appealsto imagination and sympathy, and not, like history, merely tothe sense of record.

15


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1 The Bible as Literature.instances will suffice to make this plain. Be-tween verses 6 and 7 of Exodus i., a periodelapses sufficient to permit of the Hebrewtribe reaching the proportions of a menacingfoe, and yet there is no chronicle extant otthe period. Likewise the bulk of the judge-ship of Samuel is pressed into three verses(1 Sam. vii. 15-17), and the long reigns ofJeroboam II. and Uzziah have each to be con-tent with seven verses (2 Kings xiv. 23-29;xv. 1-7). In face of this it can scarcelybe maintained that the historical books ofthe Bible are more than an historical frame-work with epic incidents merged in them.Of the vividness of many of thefg epic inci-dents it is hard to speak too stfongly; andthe effect is heightened when, as in the storyof Balaam, prose gives place to verse at eachsuccessive climax.The third element of the historical litera-

ture of the Bible is what may be styled eitherecclesiastical or constitutionalEcclesiastical . ,

orconstitu- history. Not that the termstional history. .... . , , ,are ordinarily interchangeable,but the peculiar character of the Hebrewstate renders them so. Israel had no lawsave its Mosaic code, no constitution savethat of its church, and hence its ecclesiastical


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History. 1history is constitutional, and its constitutionalecclesiastical. To this class belong a con-siderable portion of Exodus and Numbersand practically all of Leviticus, which dealwith the minute regulations laid down for theperformance of duties towards man and to-wards God. The books of Chronicles, if notso completely ecclesiastical in their subjectmatter, are thoroughly so in their treatmentand in like manner the books of Ezra andNehemiah deal with the history of the churchas restored after the Exile. The Gospels may,in a sense, be placed in this class also, forthey are historical, but at the same time theyare prophetic, because embodying, in thehighest degree, the divine message whichconstitutes the essence of prophecy.


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CHAPTER II.LYRIC LITERATURE.

In dealing with the lyric literature of theBible we are immediately faced by the diffi-culty which arises from the different criteriafor verse in Hebrew and in English. Weare accustomed to associate distinct and moreor less regular meter with verse, and in ordi-nary parlance we make no distinction betweenpoetry and verse. Now, for the apprecia-tion of the literary forms of the Bible boththese preconceived ideas must be abandoned.To take the smaller question first, poetry isnot dependent for its existence upon meteror rhythm or any characteristic of externalform, but signifies primarily a creation, asdistinguished from mere discussion of whatalready exists. Thus poetry may be purefiction or it may be based upon a foundationof fact, worked upon by the imagination; butin either case it is differentiated by its spiritand not by its form. The distinction betweenHebrew verse and English verse is more es-


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Lyric Literatiire. 19sential for our purpose, as we shall look invain in the Bible for verse after the Englishpattern, since Hebrew verse is distinguishedfrom prose not by syllabic meter but bystructural parallelism.

Thy word is a lamp unto my feet,And light unto my path.This often has the effect of much weaken-

ing the distinction between prose and verse,in that parallelism is a recognized feature inthe rhetorical prose of all languages, and thestudy of the particular passage as a wholemust be depended upon for making clearwhether it is to be regarded as prose orverse.The lyrics of the Bible fall under six main

heads, the Song of Solomon forming aseventh and standing by itself.

First maybe considered the elegies: thoughhere as elsewhere care must be takennot to associate with the idea thesame strictness which we associate with ele-giacs in Latin. The Hebrew elegy, at first adirge or lament, ultimately loses this exclu-sive character and comes to be the expressionof powerful emotion of any kind. Of elegiesin the stricter sense the most notable exam-ples are the lamentations of Jeremiah, David's


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20 The Bible as Literature.lament over Saul (2 Sam. i. ) and Psalmcxxxvii.Hymns of worship are, of course, largelyrepresented in the Bible, and present con-siderable variety both in form and matter.They may be classified under the heads ofgeneral thanksgiving, specific thanksgiving,and private meditations. The third class is

naturally the least elaborate inw yr"hf f form ; or, to speak more accurately,

the form has an elaborateness ofits own, acrostics e.g., Psalm cxix.takingthe place of the antiphonal singing which wasso prominent a feature of Jewish worshipfrom the days of Moses and Miriam, Deborahand Barak, onwards. Of perfectly generalthanksgivings the final section of the book ofPsalms (cxlv.-cl. ) may serve as a typical ex-ample ; to which may be added the twinpsalms, so to speak, both singing of ever-watchful providence in the sphere of hu-man life (ciii.) and external nature (civ.).The Songs of Ascents (cxx.-cxxxiv.) must beclassed among the specific thanksgivings, ashaving reference to pilgrimages or other spe-cific occasions, although there is no trace ofagreement among scholars as to the precisesignification of the title. Psalm cxviii. evi-


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Lyric Literature. 21dently has reference to some special visit tothe temple, and seems to take the form ofdialogue, as the subjoined arrangement willsuggest.

PSALM CXVIII.The Worshipper and His Escort approach the

Temple.Tutti. O give thanks unto the Lord ; for he

is good :For his mercy endureth forever.

Worshipper. Let Israel now sayEscort. That his mercy endureth forever.Worshipper. Let the house of Aaron now sayEscort. That his mercy endureth forever.Worshipper. Let them now that fear the Lord

sayEscort. That his mercy endureth forever.Worshipper. Out of my distress I called upon theLord :

The Lord answered me, and set mein a large place.

The Lord is on my side, I will notfear:

What can man do unto me ?The Lord is on my side with them

that help me :Therefore shall I see my desire uponthem that hate me.

Escort. It is better to trust in the LordThan to put confidence in man ;


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22 The Bible as Literature.It is better to trust in the LordThan to put confidence in princes.Worshipper. All nations compassed me about

Escort. In the name of the Lord I will cutthem off

!

Worshipper. They compassed me aboutYea, they compassed me about

:

Escort. In the name of the Lord I will cutthem offWorshipper. They compassed me about like bees ;They are quenched as the fire of

thornsEscort. In the name of the Lord I will cut

them off!Worshipper. Thou didst thrust sore at me that I

might fallBut the Lord helped me.The Lord is my strength and song ;And he is become my salvation.The voice of rejoicing and salvation

is in the tents of the righteous :The right hand of the Lord doeth

valiantly.Escort. The right hand of the Lord is exalted

The right hand of the Lord doethvaliantly.

Worshipper. I shall not die, but live,And declare the works of the Lord.The Lord hath chastened me sore :But he hath not given me over unto

death.Open to me the gates of righteous-

ness :


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Lyric Literature. 23I will enter into them,I will give thanks unto the Lord.

The Temple Gates open and disclose a Chorus ofPriests.

Priests. This is the Gate of the Lord :The righteous shall enter into it.

Worshipper. I will give thanks unto thee, for thouhast answered me,And art become my salvation.

The stone which the builders re-jected

Is become the head of the corner.Escort. This is the Lord's doing ;

It is marvelous in our eyes.This is the day which the Lord hathmadeWe will rejoice and be glad in it.

Save now, we beseech thee, O Lord :O Lord, we beseech thee, send nowprosperity.

The Worshipper enters the Temple : the Escortpre-pare to retire.

Priests (to the Worshipper).Blessed be he that entereth in thename of the Lord !

(to the Escort retiring).We have blessed you out of thehouse of the Lord !

Priests. The Lord is God, and he hath givenus light

Bind the sacrifice with cords, evenunto the horns of the altar.


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24 The Bible as Literature.Worshipper. Thou art my God, and I will give

thanks unto theeThou art my God, I will exalt thee.

Tutti. O give thanks unto the Lord ; forhe is good :

For his mercy endureth forever.One more example must be quoted because

of its perfect rhythmic structure, and thatis Psalm cvii. , the Song of the Redeemed.The psalm has an invocation (verses 1-3),an epilogue (verses 33-42), and four sec-tions, each closing with the refrain, "Oh,that men would praise the Lord for hisgoodness and for his wonderful works to thechildren of men," a further commentary be-ing added in each case to suit the experiencewhich has just been described. But on closerexamination it will be seen that the foursections, verses 4-9, 10-16, 17-22, 23-32,do not simply answer each other after themanner of strophe and anti-strophe, for thefirst and fourth go together and the secondand third. In other words, the thought-rhythm of the sectionsas is the case inthe meter of Tennyson's In Memoriamisabba, not a b a b. The first and fourthtell of misfortune and restoration, the secondand third of rebellion, discipline, and resto -


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Lyric Literature. 25ration when the discipline has done its work.The various odes* upon special occasions

which are found in the Bible do not differperhaps essentially from the

. Odes uponhymns Of worship noticed special oc-casions.above, except that they are notcomposed primarily from the standpointof worship. To take a modern paral-lel : the opening stanzas of In Memoriamare often included in hymn books of the pres-ent day, and very appropriately, too; but thisis not, of course, a hymn in the same senseas those among which it is found, being,rather, a special ode. Of these Biblical odesthose that naturally occur first to the mindare the various Songs of Deliverance, such asthe Song ofDeborah {Judges v. ), the Song ofMoses and Miriam {Exodus xv. ), David'sSong of Thanksgiving (2 Sam. xxii. ; Psalmxviii. ), and Psalms xlvi. and xlviii. , both olwhich may very possibly have reference tothe destruction of the host of Sennacherib.Other odes may be associated with specificceremonies ; for example, there is much tosuggest that Psalms xxiv., xxx., lxviii., andcxxxii. all formed part of the actualor a

* The " ode " is not a definite term ; but is used for song inits highest form.


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26 The Bible as Literature.commemorativeceremonial of bringing theark to Jerusalem. As occasional odes ofa private, not national, character may bementioned the Song of Hannah (i Sam. ii.),the Song of Habakkuk (Hab. iii. ), and theSongs of Mary, Zacharias, and Simeon{Luke i. and ii.).Of drama, in the strict sense of the word,

there is none in the Bible, but there arenumerous lyrics which are essentially dra-matic in character, in that they representchanges of situation, which, however, are notrelated from without in the form of a narra-tive, but unfold themselves. This will be il-

lustrated by an analysis of Psalmiyrics.

atlc cxxxix. In the opening versesthe psalmist is oppressed with the

sense of the omniscience and omnipresenceof God ; he would fain escape, but he knowsnot whither to go for he finds God every-where. And as the natural world is laid bareto the eye of God, so is man's inner nature,not one single element coming into existencewithout His knowledge, nor continuing toexist without His watchful care. This ' ' ob-verse side of omniscience, " so to speak, cre-ates a revulsion of feeling, so strong that thepsalmist, instead of regarding God as a


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Lyric Literahire. 27rigid taskmaster, proclaims himself His ally,and the psalm, which opened with half-petu-lant, "Lord, thou hast searched me," endswith an eager, "Search me, O God."Under the title "Historical Odes" are in-

cluded those lyrics e. g. , Psalms lxxviii. , cv.

,

and cvi. and Deuteronomy xxxii.which give, as it were, a bird's- "desricaleye view of the national history,and constitute an appeal to the nation to re-view the past in the interest of the presentand the future. This poetic presentation ofhistory naturally allows of great latitude inthe matter of detail. Psalms cv. and cvi.present an intelligible sequence of events to theend of the wanderings, or perhaps to the cap-tivity, and Psalm lxxviii. does the same, bring-ing the history down to the days of David.In Psalm lxxviii. the history is presented in arhythmic succession of manifestations of hu-man frailty followed by divine interposition. InDeuteronomy xxxii., on the other hand, theknowledge of the historical facts is assumed,and the ode is a philosophical reflection uponthem. To this a fine parallel is to be seen inMr. Matthew Arnold's Obermann OnceMore.

Separate from the above must be considered


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28 The Bible as Literature.odes like Genesis xxvii. 27-29, 39-40, Deuter-

onomy xxxiii., and the propheciesodes.

hetl f Balaam in Numbers xxii.-xxiv.They partake somewhat of the

nature of oracular responses, with the neces-sary difference which must arise from the cir-cumstances of their origin. They are oftenriddles, but the element of obscurity andambiguity is incidental rather than essential;and the blessing of Moses and the orationsof Balaam do not confine themselves to theforetelling of the future, but also give counselfor the present.Of the Song of Solomon it is extremely

difficult to speak with any confidence, eitheras to its meaning or its literary

SohmZg f form - It: nas a lare lvric element,and it presents the main charac-

teristic of dramatic poetry, namely, story un-folded in dialogue and action; and yet it isneither an ode nor a drama of the ordinarykind. There is not any opportunity here ofdiscussing the structure of the book in detail,and no more can be said than that thetheory which presents fewest difficulties isthat which regards it as a series of pictures,or idyls, all having their center in the wooingof a certain Shulammite; but whether she is


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Lyric Literature. 29wooed by a humble lover, who has KingSolomon for his rival, or by King Solomon,under the disguise of a humble lover, cannotbe argued here.*

* For this and for so many other knotty points in connectionwith this subject, reference should be made to Dr. R. G.Moulton's forthcoming Literary Study of the Bible (D. C.Heath & Co., Boston).


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CHAPTER III.PHILOSOPHY.

Although this branch of Bible literaturehas perfectly distinct characteristics of itsown, it is far from easy to find at all a satis-factory name for it. By "philosophy" isgenerally denoted the sum total of the lawswhich govern mental, moral, and physicalexistence, those laws being first arrived at byobservation and then reduced to system, theterm ' ' science ' ' being more commonly,though not exclusively, used when dealingwith the phenomena of physical existence.What biology is to physical life the wisdomliterature of the Bible is to moral life ; itstates and systematizes the dictates of moral-ity. It differs from prophecy in not pre-tending to the solemnity of a divine message,but only embodying the reflections of the wise.The germ from which the whole of this

species of literature is developedThe proverb. / . .is the proverb, or wise saying.Its form is usually that of a couplet, the

3


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Philosophy. 3second section of which reaffirms the first,either directly or by contrast, e. g.:a. The liberal soul shall be made fat,And he that watereth shall be watered also him-

self. (Prov. xi. 25.)b. He that is surety for a stranger shall smart for it,

But he that hateth suretiship is sure.(Prov. xi. 15.)

It is worthy of note that the vast majorityof the Biblical proverbs are in the form of acouplet, as above, whereas in English thetendency is just the other way. This mustbe put down to that Hebrew predilection forparallelism which has been referred to al-ready. Sometimes the couplet takes theform of a simile, thus presenting two ormore sets of ideas instead of only one, e. g.:

As snow in summer and as rain in harvest,So honour is not seemly for a fool.

(Prov. xxvi. i.)Between the simple proverb-couplet and

the essay must be noticed the proverb-clusterand the expanded proverb. Both Proverb_differ from the simple proverb in expandedtheir tendency towards system- Proverb -atized thought. In the proberb-cluster(unlike the essay) it is always possibleto conceive of a portion of the matter


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32 The Bible as Literature.being removed without a gap being nec-essarily discernible in the general senseof the passage. An example may be seenin Proverbs xxvi. 3-12, a cluster of sayingson Fools. Expanded proverbs of a veryrhythmic type are to be found among thewords of Agur (Prov. xxx. ) . And if ' 'three'be read for "them" in xxx. 7as is re-quired not only by the parallelism with theother clusters but also by the fact of threethings, not two, being specifiedthe balanceis most perfect :Two things have I asked of thee :Deny me not three before I die :Remove far from me vanity and lies :Give me neither poverty nor riches :Feed me with the food that is needful for me,Lest I be full and deny thee, and say, Who isthe Lord ?

Or lest I be poor and steal,And use profanely the name of my God.The species of wisdom literature which has

been styled " essay " must be compared, notwith the highly elaborated essays of LordMacaulay, but rather with the dissertationswhich form the chapters of Thomas a Kempis' sDe Imitatione Christi, or with the essays ofFrancis Bacon, concerning which the authorsays : " They of all my other workes, have


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Philosophy. 33beene most currant : For that, as it seemes,they come home, to Men's Busi-

., .. Essays.nesseand Bosomes. The Biblicalessay differs from the proverb-cluster inthe strong organic union which character-izes the former, every clause contributingits own essential portion to the argument.As an example take St. James ii. 1-13: OnRespect of Persons.But this section of Biblical literature is

peculiarly incapable of being studied apartfrom actual examples; and as the examplesare naturally too long for quotation, the vari-ous books in which the ' ' wisdom ' ' of theBible is embodied must receive some indi-vidual attention.* Unlike the other literarytypes the ' ' wisdom ' ' of the Bible is almostexclusively contained in a few books insteadof being distributed among many, thosebooks being Proverbs, Ecclesiastes, theEpistle of St. James, and apocryphal booksof Ecclesiasticus and Wisdom.Each of these books has its own characteris-

tics. In the book of Proverbs the maxims are,as the title suggests, mostly in the simple form,

* Macmillan & Co. announce a series of books of wisdom{Proverbs, Ecclesiasticus, Ecclesiastes, with Wisdom of Solo-mon and Job) : each of the four published in a separate volume,edited in modern literary form by Professor R. G. Moulton.


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34 The Bible as Literature.even proverb-clusters being few in number ; in-deed, the only passages showing any consid-erable degree of elaboration are the dramaticmonologues in which wisdom personifiedmakes her appeal to the sons of men (i. 20-33 ; viii. 4-36).

Ecclesiasticus resembles Proverbs in thatthe maxims contained in them bothare those which bear upon the ordinary,practical matters of daily life. But in theapocryphal book essays and proverb-clus-ters to a great extent supplant the simpleproverb; and it moreover presents a new ele-ment in the oration upon the works of theLord (xlii. 15-xliii. ), and the well-knownPanegyric upon Famous Men, from Enoch toSimon, son of Onias (xliv.-l. 24). Ecclesi-astes opens up a new phase of "wisdom," forthroughout it attempts to arrive at what isscarcely hinted at in the above-mentionedworksa philosophy of life as a whole ; andthe single maxims and the essays alike areonly introduced as contributions towards theformation of that philosophy.The book of Wisdom shares with Ecclesi-

astes the characteristic of being an effort to-wards a philosophy of life as a whole; thoughthe standpoint is different, and the maxims


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Philosophy

.

35find expression in sustained discourses insteadof a series of sorrowful or indignant outbursts.But with chapter x. comes a very markedchange, and for the remainder of the bookwisdom personified, very much in our senseof Providence, is pictured as watching overthe successive stages of the history of thechosen people, the narrative repeatedly goingoff into digressions, one of whichthe dis-course on the folly of idolatry (chapter xiii.-xv. )is particularly full of literary beauty.The wonderful imaginative power of thisbook will best be realized by comparisons ofits treatment of topics with the treatment ofthe same topics in other writings. Take, forexample, the favorite Jewish problem of therighteous in adversity as dealt with in Psalmlxxiii., and then turn to Wisdom v. wherethe inmost hearts of the arrogant are un-veiled. A similar comparison may with ad-vantage be instituted between the story ofthe plague of darkness as given in Exodusx. 21-23 and m Wisdom xvii.


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CHAPTER IV.PROPHECY.

It may be conceded at once that the pro-phetic literature of the Bible belongs to atype which has no direct analogy in modernliterature, and which is differentiated by itsmatterand by only one characteristic ofthatand not by its form. The great essen-tial feature which marks off Biblical prophecyfrom all other writings is that it is the directembodiment of the divine message, spoken'

' in divers portions and in divers mannersthrough the prophets." That the possiblevarieties of literary form in this branch arefew will easily be realized, but the body ofprophetic writings is second to none in im-portance and in force.At the very outset prophecy falls into twomain sections, following the two distinct

meanings of the Greek word fromof7roPphhaeScyS which it is derived. The Greekconception of a prophet was of aman who interpreted the will of the gods to

36


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Prophecy. 37men; and, as the message so often told con-cerning the future, the modern meaning of theword crept in beside the original, but theessence of the prophet's function was "forth-telling," rather than "foretelling." TheElizabethan use of "prophesying," as syn-onymous with "preaching," reflects thesame ambiguity. Thus Biblical prophecyfalls under the two heads of preaching andprediction, the two being at times so closeas to be incapable of separation, though atothers they are perfectly distinct. Thepreaching of righteousness, whichwas always so important an element Jg^eacfter.1in the prophet's mission, finds itsprototype in the magnificent orations ofMoses as given in Deuteronomy (i. 6 toiv. 40; v. 1. to xi. 32; xxviii; xxix. 2 toxxxi. 8.); but the same class of inspiredrhetoric is to be found in all the books asso-ciated with the names of the prophets. Butprophetic utterances are very far from beingall cast alike in this simple mould. Some takethe form of dialogues, others are containedin dreams, visions, or parablesthese last areso characteristic a mode of expressing thoughtin Hebrew literature as to call for sep-arate treatment. Others, as the message of


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38 The Bible as Literature.Joel, call into requisition several literaryforms, the better to enforce the word of theLord. The prophecy of Joel opens with adramatic lyric depicting the desolation of theland and the impending doom. A trumpet-blast announces that the day of the Lord hascome, and His vengeance is working throughthe agency of the nations, when, by a suddentransition (ii. 12), an opportunity for re-pentance is held forth : ' ' Who knowethwhether he will not turn and repent, andleave a blessing behind him. ' ' The oppor-tunity is seized, a solemn assembly is con-vened, and amid national humiliation theLord is besought to have mercy upon Hispeople. Then follows the restoration of thenation to favor, with assurances of renewedworldly prosperity. But the restoration isnot to stop at the point of giving back whathad been lost: Israel is told again of a loftyspiritual mission lying before it, and againthe "day of the Lord" is spoken of, nolonger, however, as a terror to Israel, but asthe season when it shall reap the harvest of,the gentiles. Such a production as themessage of Joel is far too irregular and abruptin its transitions to admit of its being classi-fied under any of the recognized literary


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Prophecy. 39forms ; it bears the same relation to them asLiszt's rhapsodies do to Beethoven's sonatas.The book of Joel partakes essentially of thetwo characteristics of prophecy: the prophethas his message for the present,and it does its work ; but he has Jshf Ser!also his message concerning thefuture, both of Israel and of the other nationsof the earth. A great proportion of this sec-tion of prophetic literature is occupied withmessages of judgment against the variousnations which had oppressed Israel, butIsrael itself does not all escape without itsown portion of denunciation. It must alsobe remembered that the books of the prophetscontain a large element of history, introducedmainly for the purpose of making logicallyintelligible the messages which are sent.


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CHAPTER V.PARABLE.

One of the most noticeable of the generalcharacteristics of Hebrew literature is thepredilection manifested for imparting and re-ceiving instruction by picture, image, andparable; and the amount and variety of litera-ture of this class is so great as to justifyits being treated by itself, although theremust of necessity be some overlapping be-tween this and the other classes that havebeen noticed. That this wealth of image-literature is due to a permanent mental char-acteristic is not only shown by its profusion,but also by its appearing when, most of all,direct speech was to be expected. To quotetwo well-known examples : when Nathan issent to reprove David for his sin he comeswith a parable upon his lips; and whenAhijah is sent to acquaint Jeroboam of thedignity in store for him he delivers hismessage in an acted parable, tearing hisnew cloak into twelve pieces and givingJeroboam ten of them.40


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Parable. 4This class of literature falls naturally into

three classes: the parable, the propheticvision, and the book of Job.

. Parable.About the ordinary parable littleneed be said, for the teaching of Jesus hasmade it one of the most familiar of all literaryforms. It is a mistake, however, to regardthe parable as at all an exclusively New Testa-ment method of instruction. The parable ofthe trees (Judges, ix.), of the ewe-lamb(2 Samuel, xii.), of the vineyard {Isaiah, v.),may be cited as examples of Old Testamentparables.

Far more complicated is the literaturewhich falls under the head of propheticvisions. A moment's thoughtwill bring to mind instances of visions6.*10prophetic messages given, not inthe form of direct address, but in dreams andvisions of the night, all taking parabolic shape.It was by such parabolic vision that Peterwas prepared for the great lesson he had tolearn concerning the gentiles (Acts x. 9-16),and it was by the interpretation of suchvisions that both Joseph and Daniel rose topositions of influence in their respectivecourts. Slightly different from these visionsand yet belonging to the same class is what


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42 The Bible as Literature.may be styled "emblem prophecy," theteaching of a lesson not by an imaginarypicture but by reference to a visible objectserving as text. Under the Old Testamentdispensation the ceremonial of the scapegoatwas a living parable, which will serve as anexample of this medium for prophetic in-struction ; other examples are to be found inthe girdle (Jer. xiii. ), the baskets of figs (Jer.xxiv. ), and Hosea's domestic grief (Hoseai.-iii. ).

The classification of the book of Job amongthe parables of the Bible involves no assump-tion as to the historic realityor otherwiseof

the facts narrated. Whicheverlob bk f pinin De adopted the book re-mains a dramatized parable, withjust enough of an epic element to serve as akind of frame. The great problem of suffer-ing innocence, treated reflectively in Psalmlxxiii., imaginatively in Wisdom v., is heretreated dramatically with all the various ele-ments of interestcharacter, action, back-groundwhich drama contributes. Here itwill only be possible to point out how thebook contains specimens of almost all theliterary types which have been describedabove. There is first the epic element, which


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Parable. 43tells of Job as a man who as much excels hisfellows in piety as he does in worldly pros-perity. Upon this man there falls the handof adversity, and almost at one blow he isbereft of family and goods and all that madelife bright to him. Then, after a dirge inwhich he bemoans his lot and curses the dayof his birth, his friends come to comfort him,and their advent inaugurates what may beentitled the philosophical element of the book.They come armed with the traditional theorythat misfortune and suffering were always thepunishment for sina theory which survivedin the gospel age {John ix. 2)and the keen,almost angry, discussion around this pointforms the major part of the book. Epic andlyric elements in the book have already beennoticed, and in this section there is loftyrhetoric as well as philosophy. Then, whenElihu had stated with vehemence the sametheory in a modified form, "the Lord an-swered Job out of the whirlwind." It isnot the least remarkable feature of this re-markable book that the final pronouncementon the great central question at issue is soutterly out of harmony with traditional Jew-ish opinion: for it is Job, and not his friends,who is declared to have said the thing that


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44 The Bible as Literature.was right. Finally, in a short epic section, fullof the peace that follows upon conflict, the nar-rative of the first two chapters is taken up ;the prosperity of Job returns, his "latterend" is blessed "more than his beginning,"until at last he dies, ' ' being old and full ofdays."


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QUESTIONS.i What are the three stages in the history which

makes the "framework" of Biblical litera-ture ?

2 What are the five main literary types recogniz-able in the books of Scripture ? Show howthe book of Job contains literature of morethan one type.

3 What is meant by the word " epic " ? Give anexample of an Epic incident, and an EpicCycle.

4 How do you explain the fact that certain partsof the Bible can be called either Constitu-tional or Ecclesiastical History? Do theGospels come under this head ?

5 Show the distinction between English and Bibli-cal verse. Illustrate by quotations.6 Give an example of each of the six kinds oflyrics in the Bible.

7 What is the leading interest in Psalm cxviii. asa piece of literature ?

8 Show any special literary feature in Psalm cvii.9 Why is Psalm cxxxix. called " dramatic " ?io How does "Wisdom literature" differ from

prophecy ?ii Give an example of a " Proverb-cluster " and

an " Essay," and show what is the main dif-ference between these two literary types.

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48 The Bible as Literature.12 What is the chief difference between Eccle-

siastes and previous books of wisdom ?13 Compare accounts of the Plagues of Egypt as

given in Exodus a.nd in Wisdom.14 Explain the meaning of the word "prophecy."15 Give the substance of the Oration of Moses in

Deuteronomy xxviii.16 Show the general drift of the book of Joel.17 Give examples of parables in the Old Testa-

ment.18 Give an example of a parabolic vision in theNew Testament.19 Explain and illustrate what is meant by "Em-blem Prophecy."20 Show that more than one view of the mystery

of affliction falling upon the righteous iscontained in the book of Job.


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BS535 .M928The Bible as literature.Princeton Theological Seminary-Speer Library

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bible as literat 00 m oul

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