26 REV. JOHN URQUHART, ON THE BEARING OF RECENT 



Assurbanipal tells what followed. " These kings," he snys, 

 " who had devised evil against the army of Assyria, alive to 

 Nineveh, into niy presence they brought. To Necho . . . 

 of them, favour I granted him, . . . costly garments I placed 

 upon him, ornaments of gold, his royal image I made for him, 

 bracelets of gold I fastened on his limbs, a steel sword, its 

 sheath of gold, in the glory of my name, more than I write, I 

 gave him. Chariots, horses and mules, for his royal riding I 

 appointed him. My generals as governors to assist with him I 

 sent," etc.* Manasseh's restoration was accordingly in keeping 

 with Assurbanipal's policy ; and no historical statement has 

 ever had a more triumphant vindication than that which the 

 monuments have thus brought to this assailed portion of 

 Scripture. In view also of this and of the preceding confirma- 

 tions it will be evident that the Book of Chronicles were 

 written, not in ignorance, but with full and accurate knowledge 

 of the times with which they deal. 



2. Daniel. — The Book of Daniel deals so largely with 

 contemporary history that we include it ^Jllong the historical 

 Books of the Old Testament, notwithstanding the prophetic 

 character which pervades even its historic parts. There is also 

 another reason why it should be touched upon in this connec- 

 tion. Eecent oriental research has confirmed so many of its 

 statements and references that silence on our part w^ould be 

 inexplicable. There has also been no Book in the Old Testa- 

 ment Canon which has been more unsparingly condemned by 

 criticism than this. The accepted account of it is that it is a 

 Jewish romance composed about 168 or 164 B.C., that is, nearly 

 four centuries after Daniel had passed away. 



The question as to the authenticity of the Book is supposed 

 to be finally disposed of by one circumstance. In the third 

 chapter an account is given of a great Babylonian state 

 ceremony ; and in this connection six musical instruments are 

 named. These names were claimed as Greek words, and were 

 said to form an absolute proof that the Book must have been 

 w^ritten subsecjuent to the time of Alexander the Great. It 

 was pointed out that a mistake had been nuide in regard to one 

 of the names (Samhuke). Two Greek authors, Atheuccus and 

 Strabo, state that this instrument had been brought I'rom Syria 

 into Greece. It is probable, however, that two, if not three, of 

 the six names are Greek ; and, speaking of this fact, a critical 

 authority says : " These words, it may be confidently allirmed, 



Geo. Siiiitli, As.vjrian Discoveries, pp. 325-327. 



