THE HISTORICAL VALUE OF THE PATRIARCHAL 

 NARRATIVES. 



By GEORGE A. BARTON. 

 (Read April 17, 19 13.) 



Since the birth of the sciences in the nineteenth century, knowl- 

 edge has been revolutionized and enlarged in every department. 

 The effect of the creation of the historical and social sciences is as 

 marked in this respect as that of the natural sciences. The account 

 which the records and traditions of a country give of its history is 

 found to begin with mythical stories, which gradually give place to 

 legends and later emerge into sober history attested by documents, 

 which, if not contemporary, date from a time so near to the events, 

 that their testimony, when tested by general considerations, may be 

 accepted. The scientific method applied to ordinary history is gen- 

 erally accepted quietly by the public, which is usually grateful for 

 Ihe clearer vision of past events which it affords. 



It has been inevitable, that in the general progress of knowledge 

 the scientific method should be applied to all existing records, sacred 

 as well as to so-called profane. A part of the movement of modern 

 knowledge consists, accordingly, of the application of the scientific 

 method, generally known as the higher criticism, to the records in the 

 Bible. The application of this method has resulted in the division 

 of scholars into three camps: (i) there are the sincere, conscien- 

 tious, open-minded, reverent scholars, who believe in the scientific 

 method, who see that the Biblical records cannot be rightly exempted 

 from scientific treatment, and who go about the work with reverence 

 and sanity; (2) there are the reactionaries, who are unable to be- 

 lieve that any Biblical narrative can ever have had any other signifi- 

 cance than that which they have always attached to it, and who 

 spend their efforts endeavoring to prove, often by the flimsiest argu- 

 ments from supposed archaeology, that every Biblical narrative must 



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