Chapter 20

FROM THE DIVINE ORACLES TO THE HIGHER CRITICISM.

I. THE OLDER INTERPRETATION. Character of the great sacred books of the world General laws governing the development and influence of sacred literature.--The law of its origin Legends concerning the Septuagint The law of wills and causes The law of inerrancy Hostility to the revision of King James's translation of the Bible The law of unity Working of these laws seen in the great rabbinical schools The law of allegorical interpretation Philo Judaeus Justin Martyr and Clement of Alexandria Occult significance of numbers Origen Hilary of Poitiers and Jerome Augustine Gregory the Great Vain attempts to check the flood of allegorical interpretations Bede.--Savonarola Methods of modern criticism for the first time employed by Lorenzo Valla Erasmus Influence of the Reformation on the belief in the infallibility of the sacred books.--Luther and Melanchthon Development of scholasticism in the Reformed Church Catholic belief in the inspiration of the Vulgate Opposition in Russia to the revision of the Slavonic Scriptures Sir Isaac Newton as a commentator Scriptural interpretation at the beginning of the eighteenth century

II. BEGINNINGS OF SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION. Theological beliefs regarding the Pentateuch The book of Genesis Doubt thrown on the sacred theory by Aben Ezra By Carlstadt and Maes Influence of the discovery that the Isidorian Decretals were forgeries That the writings ascribed to Dionysius the Areopagite were serious Hobbes and La Peyrere Spinoza Progress of biblical criticism in France.--Richard Simon LeClerc Bishop Lowth Astruc Eichhorn's application of the "higher criticism" to biblical research Isenbiehl Herder Alexander Geddes Opposition to the higher criticism in Germany Hupfeld Vatke and Reuss Kuenen Wellhausen

III. THE CONTINUED GROWTH OF SCIENTIFIC INTERPRETATION. Progress of the higher criticism in Germany and Holland Opposition to it in England At the University of Oxford Pusey Bentley Wolf Niebuhr and Arnold Milman Thirlwall and Grote The publication of Essays and Reviews, and the storm raised by book

IV. THE CLOSING STRUGGLE. Colenso's work on the Pentateuch The persecution of him Bishop Wilberforce's part in it Dean Stanley's Bishop Thirlwall's Results of Colenso's work Sanday's Bampton Lectures Keble College and Lux Mundi Progress of biblical criticism among the dissenters In France.--Renan In the Roman Catholic Church The encyclical letter of Pope Leo XIII In America.--Theodore Parker Apparent strength of the old theory of inspiration Real strength of the new movement

V. VICTORY OF THE SCIENTIFIC AND LITERARY METHODS. Confirmation of the conclusions of the higher criticism by Assyriology and Egyptology Light thrown upon Hebrew religion by the translation of the sacred books of the East The influence of Persian thought.--The work of the Rev. Dr. Mills The influence of Indian thought.--Light thrown by the study of Brahmanism and Buddhism The work of Fathers Huc and Gabet Discovery that Buddha himself had been canonized as a Christian saint Similarity between the ideas and legends of Buddhism and those of Christianity The application of the higher criticism to the New Testament The English "Revised Version" of Studies on the formation of the canon of Scripture Recognition of the laws governing its development Change in the spirit of the controversy over the higher criticism

VI. RECONSTRUCTIVE FORCE OF SCIENTIFIC CRITICISM. Development of a scientific atmosphere during the last three centuries Action of modern science in reconstruction of religious truth

Change wrought by it in the conception of a sacred literature

Of the Divine Power.--Of man.---Of the world at large Of our Bible