332 THE YEN. ARCHDEACON POTTER, M.A., ON THE INFLUENCE- 



with Petrie's date, is made to prove that " there were Israelites in 

 Canaan before the Exodus " (p. 303). 



The numerous passages about the Flood ignore Mr. Maunder's 

 important view in his Astronomy of the Bible. A futile attempt to 

 make Deuteronomy inconsistent with Leviticus is fortified by the words 

 " vide Driver." Dr. Driver must be thankful that this formula was 

 not used to support the Archdeacon's astounding derivation of Sabbath 

 (p. 309, as Sar, a heart, and bat, to cease.") Personally, I decline 

 to be driven from the view (which 50 years' study has deepened) 

 that Bible history is composed by prophetic men from autobiograph- 

 ical and official documents. May I add (i) that we must always 

 allow for transliteration and annotation, (ii) that the later writers 

 used the earlier all the way through, (iii) that there is stratification 

 in the use of Hebrew words and names which will repay examination, 

 (iv) that the books contain a record of what God has said and done, 

 and that they were intended to prepare the way for the manifesta- 

 tion of the Son of God. 



Mr. M. L. KousE writes : — 



The favourite theory of Higher Critics that a monotheistic school 

 was first developed in Babylon and then passed on its tenets to the 

 Hebrews is contrary to the fact that the further back we go in the 

 history of pagan nations before they submitted to Christianity 

 the fewer are their gods, while in some cases it can be proved 

 that they had a belief in one supreme God before they became 

 polytheistic. 



The Eomans added to their few gods, among others, the Grecian 

 Apollo and Hercules, the Sabine Hercules (Semo Sancus, i.e., 

 Samson) also, and the Lydian Cybele. The Egyptians multiplied 

 their gods until they were as numerous as the beasts, birds, and 

 reptiles of the country whose figures they took ; and the Indians 

 from simple impersonations of sunshine and storm have now swollen 

 the number to untold thousands. 



But further, the earliest large edifice of the Egyptians— the Great 

 Pyramid — contains no idolatrous symbols whatever; yet strange 

 to say the name of one god who was afterwards worshipped has been 

 found combined with that of the builder written upon a stone in one 

 of the relieving garrets as Khnumkhufu ; and the blending of 

 Khnum with other words to form proper names has been found in the 

 Fourth and Sixth dynasties : and ages later, Plutarch tells us that 



