THE CONTROVERSIALIST 1 87 



dependence upon, the civilisations by which they 

 were surrounded. . . . The civilisation which, 

 in spite of the long residence of the Israelites in 

 Egypt, left its mark, however, most distinctly upon 

 the culture and literature of the Hebrews was that of 

 Babylonia. It was in the East that the Hebrew tra- 

 ditions placed both the cradle of humanity and the 

 more immediate home of their own ancestors ; and it 

 was Babylonia which, as we now know, exerted dur- 

 ing many centuries an influence, once unsuspected, 

 over Palestine itself. . . . Thus the beliefs (of 

 the Hebrews) about the origin and early history of the 

 world, their social usages, their code of civil and 

 criminal law, their religious institutions, can no longer 

 be viewed, as was once possible, as differing in kind 

 from those of other nations, and determined in every 

 feature by a direct revelation from Heaven ; all, it is 

 now known, have substantial analogies among other 

 peoples, the distinctive character which they exhibit 

 among the Hebrews consisting in the spirit with 

 which they are infused, and the higher principles of 

 which they are made the exponent. Their literature, 

 moreover, it is now apparent, was not exempt from 

 the conditions to which the literature of other nations 

 was subject ; it embraces, for instance, narratives re- 

 lating to what we should term the prehistoric age, 

 similar in character and scope to those occurring in 

 the literature of other countries. There are many 

 representations and statements in the Old Testament 

 which only appear in their proper perspective when 

 viewed in the light thrown upon them by archaeology. 

 And in some cases it is not possible to resist the con- 

 clusion that they must be interpreted in a different 

 sense from that in which past generations have com- 

 monly understood them. 1 



1 Pp. 7» »• 



