542 OLD TESTAMENT 



On the other hand, the more ethical portions of the Pentateuch, 

 including the Decalogue, being due to prophetic influence, are to be 

 regarded as illustrative of the practical effect produced by the great 

 spiritual revolution, which did not receive literary expression till the 

 eighth century before our era. 



(2) The more strictly juridical portions of the Law have also been 

 set in new relations. Though they have played no part directly in 

 moulding the modern legislation of Europe and America, outside of 

 ecclesiastical and civil laws relating to marriage and divorce, yet they 

 have always exercised a strong moral and sentimental influence by 

 reason, in large part, of the persuasion that they were of directly 

 divine origin. Recent inquiry into the customs of older Semitic 

 peoples has largely dispelled the belief that they were exclusively 

 framed within the bounds of Israel. The strongest testimony to the 

 indebtedness of the Pentateuchal codes to earlier outside legislation is 

 furnished by the code of Hammurabi. This document of course did 

 not contribute directly any of the biblical material. It simply affords 

 overwhelming proof that while Israel shared in the general consue- 

 tudinary law of the primitive western Semites, its special legislation 

 was indirectly influenced by legal digests published at various 

 times, long before the days of Moses, in Babylonia, the home of the 

 higher Semitic civilization. 



It is thus admitted that both the incidents of Israel's career and 

 its national institutions are of but secondary practical moment. But 

 it must be granted just as freely that this limitation is no gauge at all 

 of the significance of Old Testament history in the life and thought of 

 men. This apparent paradox suggests a parenthetical remark as to the 

 point of view from which Old Testament history may best be treated. 

 If the historian, deferring to the maxims of the school of Ranke, were 

 to attempt to give an account of Israel from the standpoint of object- 

 ive fact alone, and of every circumstance of its process and develop- 

 ment "nur zu sagen wie es eigentlich gewesen ist," his occupation 

 would be virtually gone. If we are to exclude the sentimental and the 

 subjective entirely in our constructions of Old Testament history, and 

 abjure the prerogative of moral judgment, we may as well give up our 

 essays altogether, and the fragmentary and partial yet humanly and 

 divinely priceless records of Hebrew history may be at once handed 

 over to the dogmatist and the exhorter. To be an interpreter is, in 

 this province at least, to be a censor. This is our way, often our only 

 way, of prophesying. Lord Acton has said, " Our historical judgments 

 have as much to do with hopes of heaven as public or private con- 

 duct." And yesterday we were reminded by Professor Mahaffy that 

 in historical science, if we seek first the kingdom of God and his 

 righteousness, all other things will be added unto us. 



