n THE ARREST OF ENQUIRY 4 9 



cently, ' incontrovertibly the actual historical truth in 

 all records, both of past events, and of the delivery of 

 predictions to be thereafter fulfilled,' we learn that 

 Jesus accepted the accuracy of the sacred writings 

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

 of the Pentateuch ; that he referred to its legends as 

 dealing with historical persons, and as reporting 

 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 endorsed by eminent 

 Hebraists, officials of the Church of England. Canon 

 Driver, Professor of Hebrew at Oxford, 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 fragments have been pre- 

 served which exhibit parts of resemblance to the 

 Bible narratives sufficient to warrant the inference 

 that both are derived from the same cycle of 

 traditions.' If, therefore, the cosmogonic and other 

 legends are inspired, so must also the common 

 original of these and their corresponding stories be 

 inspired. The matter might be pursued through 

 the patriarchal age to the eve of the Exodus, show- 

 ing that, here also, the mythical element is dominant; 

 the existence of Abraham himself dissolving in 

 the solvent of the 'higher criticism.' As to the 

 Pentateuch, the larger number of scholars place its 

 composition, in the form in which we have it older 

 documents being blended therein not earlier than 

 the sixth and fifth centuries B.C. 



Jesus spoke of the earth as if it were flat; 

 E 



