SECTION B SEMITIC LANGUAGES 



(Hall 4, September 21, 3 p. m.) 



CHAIRMAN: PROFESSOR G. F. MOORE, Harvard University. 

 SPEAKERS: PROFESSOR JAMES A. CRAIG, University of Michigan. 

 PROFESSOR CRAWFORD H. TOY, Harvard University. 



THE RELATION OF SEMITICS TO RELIGION 



BY JAMES ALEXANDER CRAIG 



[James Alexander Craig, Professor of Semitic Languages and Literatures, and 

 Hellenistic Greek, University of Michigan, since 1893. b. Fitzroy Harbour, 

 Ontario, Canada. A.B. McGill University, 1880; A.M. ibid. 1880; B.D. Yale, 

 1883; Ph.D. Leipzig, 1886; Instructor and Adjunct Professor of Biblical 

 Languages, Lane Theological Seminary, 1886-91; Acting Professor of Old Test- 

 ament Languages and Literature, Oberlin Theological Seminary, 1891-92; 

 engaged in Semitic Studies in London and Berlin, 1892-93; Instructor in 

 Sanskrit, University of Michigan, 1893-94. Member of Vorderasiatische Gesell- 

 schaft, Berlin. Author of Hebrew Manual ; Assyrian Religious Texts; and other 

 works.] 



THIS is a subject so intricate in its nature and so extended in its 

 scope that much more time should have been given to its consider- 

 ation than the few hours which circumstances beyond my control 

 have permitted me to bestow upon it, and furthermore, it demands 

 even under the most favorable circumstances a more varied and 

 profound knowledge for an adequate discussion of it than it is my good 

 fortune to possess. I am reminded at the outset of the famous 

 saying of Euclid, one of the members of the early Ionic school of 

 Greek philosophers, the saying for which he was chiefly remembered 

 by posterity, and which contributed to his recognition by his con- 

 temporaries, namely, that it is necessary at the beginning of every 

 discussion to lay down some undeniable principle to start with. 



It is self-evident that my subject, The Relation of Semitics to 

 Religion, stands in need of definition. It is, at least, necessary to 

 have some general understanding as regards the sense in which we 

 here use the word "religion." Religion in its largest sense would 

 comprise all its manifestations in all ages and lands, but it is manifest 

 that it cannot be in this sense of the word that I am invited to discuss 

 the relation of Semitics to religion, for the very plain reason that in 

 many instances no relations exist or have existed. At least there 

 have been no historical periods of contact in which a reciprocal in- 

 fluence may have been exerted, or periods of transmission through an 



