i8 7 ;] POETRY OF THE OLD TESTAMENT 403 



literary methods of approaching Scripture, which on both 

 sides has been so fruitful of false science, and which cannot 

 be healed until those who receive the Bible as the record 

 of Divine revelation gain a faith strong enough to enable 

 them to see that the right conception of God s Word 

 permits, nay, demands, the freest study of the sacred 

 record by all the methods of historical and literary 

 criticism. 



The nature and limits of the interest in the Old Testa 

 ment poetry which was felt by the last champions of the 

 period of Protestant orthodoxy, may be judged from the 

 treatment of the subject in the learned Introductio of 

 J. G. Carpzov, Of the chapter which discusses biblical 

 poetry in general, by far the largest part is occupied with 

 the purely formal question of the existence and nature of 

 Hebrew metres. And it is thoroughly characteristic that 

 the only other question that is raised is why the Divine 

 wisdom was pleased to insert in the sacred volume several 

 books composed in metre and tied down to rhythmic 

 numbers. From such a state of things a reaction was 

 inevitable ; and in the first instance, as we have said, 

 the problem of aesthetically appreciating the Old Testa 

 ment fell into the hands of men who had a keener interest 

 in the beauty of the Hebrew poetry than in the deep 

 religious life with which that poetry is instinct. By such 

 hands the problem could not be solved, for in a work of 

 art true appreciation of the form is inseparable from 

 sympathy with the thought which the form embodies. 

 But much was gained by the very statement of the 

 problem. It was no small merit to make men feel that, 

 as poetry, the writings of David and Isaiah are as worthy 

 of study as the poems of Homer or of Virgil. 



The idea of looking at the poetry of the Old Testament 

 in this light was one that could not fail to grow up in 

 many minds, almost contemporaneously, under the same 

 historical influences. But the work which first brought 

 the subject of Hebrew poetry, as such, distinctly before 



