VIII 



THE EVOLUTION OF THEOLOGY 351 



The account of the Exodus arid of the occur- 

 rences in the Siriaitic peninsula ; in fact, all the 

 history of Israel before the invasion of Canaan, is 

 full of wonderful stories, which may be true, in so 

 far as they are conceivable occurrences, but which 

 are certainly not probable, and which I, for one, 

 decline to accept until evidence, which deserves 

 that name, is offered of their historical truth. Up 

 to this time I know of none. 1 Furthermore, I see 

 no answer to the argument that one has no right to 

 pick out of an obviously unhistorical statement the 

 assertions which happen to be probable and to dis- 

 card the rest. But it is also certain that a primi- 

 tively veracious tradition may be smothered under 

 subsequent mythical additions, and that one has no 

 right to cast away the former along with the 

 latter. Thus, perhaps the fairest way of stating 

 the case may be as follows. 



There can be no a priori objection to the sup- 

 position that the Israelites were delivered from 

 their Egyptian bondage by a leader called Moses, 

 and that he exerted a great influence over their 

 subsequent organisation in the Desert. There is 

 no reason to doubt that, during their residence in 

 the land of Goshen, the Israelites knew nothing 

 of Jahveh ; but, as their own prophets declare (see 

 Ezek. xx.), were polytheistic idolaters, sharing in 



1 I refer those who wish to kiiow the reasons which lead me 

 to take up this position to the works of Reuss and Wellhausen, 

 [and especially to Stade's GeschidUe dcs Volkcs Israel.} 



