MODERN BIBLICAL SCHOLARSHIP. 



239 



could not have been known, because of the Law of the Central 

 Sanctuary which would not have been thus violated. To which 

 the question may be reasonably returned : Did the Jews in 

 Egypt understand the Law as modern criticism has interpreted 

 it ? Would it not be more reasonable to understand it as 

 applying only to the land of Canaan ? Are we to suppose that 

 a colony of Jews in a distant land were prohibited from 

 practising their religious rites ? Did Isaiah understand it so 

 when he wrote, " In that day there shall be an altar to Yaweh 

 in the midst of the land of Egypt " (xix, 19) ? In the next 

 place, even were the Law of the Central Sanctuary what 

 criticism affirms, the fact that the Jews in Egypt did not 

 observe it, would be no proof that it did not exist. The papyri 

 ^how that they did not observe the laws forbidding participation 

 in heathen idolatries, but their non-observance of these laws is 

 no proof that they had no existence. 



On all the questions touched upon in this paper, and on many 

 more, it is necessary that the voice of Archaeology should be 

 heard. Too little attention has been given to it by modern 

 Biblical scholarsliip. We gladly recognize all the good that 

 that scholarship has done in quickening the spirit of enquiry 

 and constraining the students of Scripture to make sure of the 

 correctness of their interpretations. But if its influence is to 

 be wholly good, it must be content to correct the follies of its 

 youth and make the attainment of truth its only aim. 



" We search the world and truth we cull — 

 The good, the pure, the beautiful — 

 From graven stone and written scroll, 

 From all old flower-fields of the soul ; 

 And, weary seekers of the best. 

 We come back laden from our quest, 

 To find that all the sages said 

 Is in The Book our mothers read." 



Discussion. 



The Chairman said : I feel no doubt whatever that I am giving 

 utterance to the general feeling of those present when I say that 

 we have listened with great interest and pleasure to Mr. Tuckwell's 

 paper. Most of us have listened to him and read his writings 

 before, and knew what to expect, and it is pleasant to find this 

 afternoon that our expectations have been fully reahzed. 



