244 VERY RE7. THE DEAN OF CANTERBURY^ ON POSITION AND 



the Jewish characteristics, viz. : their stubbornness, or, as the Bible 

 puts it, their stifF-neckeclness. This may be a great blessing if the 

 cause is right, and certainly is so when applied to their respect for and 

 guardianship of the sacred writings. The Jews went all over the 

 great Koman empire carrying their Bible with them and showing 

 great strength of character and deep conviction as to the sacred 

 books. No doubt, they travelled primarily for commercial purposes, 

 but everywhere they went they took their religious traditions and 

 set up their synagogues. This was one of the great Providential 

 preparations for Christianity. The Bible was to Israel the Book of 

 Authority, not to be altered at will. It is too much regarded as 

 " literature " by the critics to-day ; they ignore the authoritative 

 character with which it is stamped all through. Think of Stephen's 

 speech, or St. Paul's at Antioch, and notice the Divine purpose run- 

 ning through. The full force of this we often miss because we are not 

 Jews. 



Let me add a word about the various characters in which the 

 Hebrew Scriptures were written. Since the discovery of the stone 

 containing Khammurabi's laws, we have a specimen of the 

 oldest character known in the time of Abraham ; this was 

 followed by the cuneiform in Moses' time, as illustrated by 

 the Tell el-Amarna tablets. See on this subject the late Colonel 

 Conder's First Bible. This was followed by the old Hebrew or 

 Phoenician, and subsequently by the later or square Hebrew. The 

 Sacred Writings, in the course of these long and changing periods, 

 would have to be transliterated, leaving much room for variations, 

 modern words being sometimes substituted for ancient, and so on. 

 You can test this by comparing the books of the Chronicles with the 

 earlier books of Samuel and Kings. Several newer words take the 

 place of older, and, of course, there are changes in spelling. 



Much has been made by the critics of the variations in the Divine 

 names. But they have been recently collated with more regard to 

 such changes of language and spelling as are here referred to, with 

 the result that the theories based on them are largely undermined. 



As you were " is the call of to-day. We must go back and begin 

 again. Exploration and fuller investigation have brought us to a 

 truer position than we occupied thirty or forty years ago. 



The Eev. A. Irving, D.Sc, B.A., remarked that the paper dealt 

 with the position and principles of the High Criticism, and was 



