§ 11. Theological conception of the Old Testament in the Older Protestant Theology.

The treatment of the Old Testament in the older Protestant Theology was determined by the principles just stated. The contents of the Scriptures were set forth with strict regard to the systematic doctrines of the Church, and without respect to the historical manifoldness of the Scriptures themselves. The Old Testament was used in all its parts, just like the New Testament, for proofs of doctrine. In opposition to the Romish theologians, especially Bellarmine, it was taught on the side of Protestants, that in respect to the fundamental doctrines, the Old Testament was in no way incomplete; and that these were only repeated more distincly in the New Testament.

§ 12. Theological treatment af the Old Testament from 1700 to 1800. In the Lutheran Church, Collegia Biblica, or topical lectures became common from the end of the seventeenth century onward. These lectures, which contained exegetico dogmatical discussions of the most important proof-texts of the doctrines of the Church, gave some impulse to the study of Biblical as distinguished from Doctrinal Theology, but cannot be regarded as of much consequence. In this connection must be mentioned the influence of Spener (1635-1705) and of Bengel (1687-1751). The latter insisted on an organic and historical conception of biblical revelation with strict regard to the difference of its stages.

§ 13. Rise of a Biblical Theology distinct from Dogmatic. Treatment of the Old Testament by Rationalism.

John Philip Gabler in his academic oration, De Justo discrimine theologia biblica et dogmatica, 1787, is regarded as the first who distinctly spoke of Biblical Theology as an historical science. George Lorenz Bauer (1755-1806) may be viewed as a leading representative of the rationalistic treatment of the Old Testament at this period. The hints respecting a treatment of the Old Testament as an organic history, which had been offered by Herder (1744-1803), were taken up by De Wette (1780-1849) with discriminating appreciation. Ewald (1803-75) in his History of the People of Israel (5

vols. London, 1871-76), and in his Antiquities of Israel (1 vol. Boston, 1876), has interwoven with his narrative a full account of the growth of the Old Testament religion, but his vague notion of revelation does not raise him essentially above the rationalistic method which he despises. Various attempts have also been made to throw light on the traditions of Genesis and the institutions of Moses from the comparative history of religion.

§ 14. Theological view of the Old Testament in the most recent literature. The first to exert a decisive influence on the theological treatment of the Old Testament was Hengstenberg (d. 1869), mainly by his Christology of the Old Testament (second edition, 1854-57; English translation in 4 vols. Edinburgh, 1854-58.). The position which Hengstenberg first took in treating the Old Testament, and which he never except partially relinquished is essentially that of the old Protestant theology; for while not accepting all the tenets of the latter, he yet very distinctly aimed at finding all the fundamental New Testament doctrines in the Old Testament, not in a process of growth, but ready made. Hengstenberg understands the unity of the two Testaments to mean, that the New Testament doctrine is found in the Old Testament as a complete finished prophecy, though perhaps less prominent, while Oehler on the other hand maintains that the true meaning is rather that the New Testament is growing in the Old, and therefore is in the Old only in the sense in which the higher developments of every organism are contained in germ and type in its lower stages. Oehler, although he accords to Hengstenberg the credit of having been the first to revive in Germany a strong religous and theological interest in the Old Testament, still accuses him of uniting a spiritualizing tendency in his explanation of the prophecies, which fails to do full justice to the historical facts. Valuable contributions to the theology of the Old Testament are found in Hofmann's Schriftbeweis (Second edition, 2 vols., 1857-60.), Kurtz's History of the Old Covenant (Translated into English. 3 vols., Edinburgh, 1860), Auberlen's Divine Revelation (Translated into English, I vol., Edinburgh,

1867), and Delitzsch's System of Biblical Psychology (English edition, Edinburgh, 1869). Especially important also is the work of Hermann Schultz (Alttestamentliche Theologie. Second edition, 1878).

§ 15, 16. Method of Biblical Theology.

§ 15. Characteristics of the Historico-Genetic method.

As a historical science, Biblical Theology rests on the results of grammatico-historical exegesis, the business of which is to reproduce the contents of the Biblical books according to the rules of language, with due regard to the historical circumstances under which the books originated, and the individual relations of sacred writers. Biblical Theology, however, must view the Old Testament in the light of the completed revelation of God in Christ for which it formed the preparation,must show how God's saving purpose, fulfilled in Christ, moved through the preliminary stages of this history of revelation. Theological exegesis, in the right sense of the word, is not affected by the fact that Stier and other writers have brought theological interpretation into bad repute, by their habit of finding a second, third, and fourth subordinate and secondary sense in the Old Testament besides the historico-grammatical

sense.

§ 16. Divisions of Old Testament Theologg.

The proper divisions are given by the following considerations: The basis of the Old Testament religion is the Covenant with the chosen people, into which God entered for the accomplishment of his saving purpose. This covenant, for which the way is prepared in the first two ages of the world, is carried out in two stages: 1) The patriarchal covenant of promise; and 2) The Mosaic covenant of the law, on the basis of which the theocracy is founded. This whole sphere may be summed up in the name Mosaism.

The second part of Old Testament Theology, which we will briefly call Prophetism, deals with those elements in the history of the people of Israel from their entrance into the Promised Land which are important for the development of God's King

dom, considering these as they appear in the light of prophecy, and also discusses the theology of prophecy itself.

The third division embraces Old Testament Wisdom, which equally with prophecy has its root in the law, but develops itself independently of prophecy.

The division of the Old Testament Canon into Law, Prophets and Hagiographa, though not entirely agreeing with this division, points at least toward it.

PART I. MOSAISM (§ 17—156).

§ 17-33. First section.

The History of Revelation from

the Creation to the Occupation of Canaan.

§ 17. Division of this History.

The Pentateuch plainly distinguishes four periods in the history of revelation:

I. The Primeval Age, with ten patriarchs, closing with the deluge.

2. The second age of the world, beginning with the worldcovenant in Noah's time, with ten generations.

3. The time of the three great patriarchs, beginning with the covenant of promise made with Abraham, and ending with the sojourn of the chosen people in Egypt.

4. The time of Moses and Joshua, including the giving of the covenant of the law, and the establishment of the theocracy, with its regulations.

I.

The Primeval Age (§ 18-20).

§ 18. The Account of the Creation.

On the threshold of the revelation of God to man, we have an account of creation free from mythological additions, and the Bible narrative, by its simplicity, its chaste, positive historical character, is in contrast with the fanciful, allegorical, intricate cosmogonies of all heathen religions.*

Since God by His Word calls all things into being, He is placed above the beginning of all time as the eternal and absolutely independent One; since He animates the universe by

* A comparison of the early history of the Bible with the cuneiform inscriptions is extremely interesting, both on account of their remarkable resemblance and their characteristic difference.

His Spirit, all dualistic separation of God and the world is excluded.*

The production of beings advances continually toward higher organisms, and we cannot fail to observe a parallel between the first three and the last three days' work. Still the divine creative power is not satisfied till it reaches its ultimate end in the creation of man.

The paragraph Gen. 2: 4 ff. forms the introduction to the history of man; which paragraph is by no means a second record of creation, but shows, in supplementing the first chapter, that the earth was prepared for a habitation for man—a sphere for his activity, and a place for the revelation of God to man. § 19. The Origin of Evil.

The world as a divine creation is good, (Gen. 1: 31); every development of life in it is a divine blessing, (Gen. 1: 22, 28); there is no room here for a principle which, in its original nature, is wicked and inimical to God. Man is called to be a free being; therefore a command is given to him for self-decision (Gen. 2: 16), in order that he may pass from the condition of innocence to that of free obedience. Man falls under the temptation addressed to him from without. Through sin the bond of child-like communion with God is broken; and now man is in a sense independent, like God (Gen. 3: 22); but fear resting in the feeling of guilt, dominates from this time forward his position toward God (Gen. 3: 8—10). The life in Paradise with its peace is forfeited, and man sinks henceforth under the service of perishable things and of death (Gen. 3: 17—24).

* The naturalist Cuvier says concerning the first words of Genesis: A sublimer passage than this from the first word to the last never can or will come from a human pen, "In the beginning God created the heaven and the earth". On this verse Murphy in his Commentary on Genesis says: This simple sentence denies atheism; for it assumes the being of God. It denies polytheism, and, among its various forms, the doctrines of two eternal principles the one good and the other evil,-for it confesses the one Eternal Creator. It denies materialism, for it asserts the creation of matter. It denies pantheism, for it assumes the existence of God before all things, and apart from them. It denies fatalism, for it involves the freedom of the Eternal Being.

+ Some maintain that the fall of the spirit-world took place before the beginning of the six days' creation, placing it between verses 1 and 2, of the first chapter of Genesis, and such a view cannot be confuted, nor, on the other hand, can it be proved.