WELLHAUSEN S Geschichte Israels, vol. i., from The Academy, 

 May 17, 1879. 



THOSE who have followed the course of Prof. Wellhausen 

 will be prepared to recognise this important work as the 

 fitting sequel of his earlier labours. Even when they 

 have taken the shape of studies in textual or higher 

 criticism all his writings have been contributions to the 

 study of the history of Israel, and the vigour and origin 

 ality of his critical analysis are mainly due to a keen 

 perception of historical reality. Hence his work is 

 marked by a largeness of view and firmness of grasp 

 unhappily not very common in recent German criticism. 

 In these qualities, as well as in the essentially constructive 

 habit of thought which appears even in his most ruthless 

 attacks or traditional views and current speculation, 

 Wellhausen may be called the truest living disciple of 

 Ewald (to whose memory the volume before us is appro 

 priately dedicated), in spite of the enormous divergence 

 between master and scholar in their conception of the 

 course of the Old Testament development. 



This divergence turns mainly on a question which 

 Wellhausen formulates in the first paragraph of his 

 work : &quot; 7s the Mosaic law the starting-point for the 

 history of ancient Israel, or for the history of Judaism 

 i.e. of the sect which survived the annihilation of the nation 

 by the Assyrians and Chaldeans ? &quot; 



The discussion of this fundamental problem, which is 



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