THE ARREST OF INQUIRY. 53 



his life are spurious, they throw the whole contents 

 of the gospels into the melting-pot of criticism. 



Taking the narratives as we have them, docu- 

 ments stamped with the hall-mark of the centuries, 

 " declaring," as a body of clergymen proclaimed re- 

 cently, " incontrovertibly the actual historical truth 

 in all records, both of past events, and of the deliv- 

 ery of predictions to be thereafter fulfilled," we learn 

 that Jesus accepted the accuracy of the sacred writ- 

 ings of his people; that he spoke of Moses as the 

 author of the Pentateuch ; that he referred to its leg- 

 ends as dealing with historical persons, and as re- 

 porting actual events. All these beliefs are refuted 

 by the critical scholarship of to-day. We need not 

 go to Germany for the verdict; it is indorsed by 

 eminent Hebraists, officials of the Church of Eng- 

 land. Canon Driver, Professor of Hebrew at Ox- 

 ford, says that " like other people, the Jews formed 

 theories to account for the beginnings of the earth 

 and man "; that " they either did this for themselves, 

 or borrowed from their neighbours," and that " of 

 the theories current in Assyria and Phoenicia frag- 

 ments have been preserved which exhibit parts of 

 resemblance to the Bible narratives sufficient to war- 

 rant the inference that both are derived from the 

 same cycle of traditions." If, therefore, the cos- 

 mogonic and other legends are inspired, so must also 

 the common original of these and their correspond- 

 ing stories be inspired. The matter might be pur- 

 sued through the patriarchal age to the eve of the 



