The decline and fall of the Kingdom of Judah;

T. K. (Thomas Kelly) Cheyne

Sujets

• Jews

Informations

• Publié par: les_archives_du_savoir
• Nombre de lectures: 7
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 10 Mo

Extrait

S^
7
THE DECLINE AND FALL
OF THE KINGDOM OF JUDAHBY THE SAME AUTHOR
THE TRADITIONS AND BELIEFS
OF ANCIENT ISRAEL
A NEW STUDY OF GENESIS AND EXODUS
Demy Zvo. Cloth. Price net.15S«
CRITICA BIBLICA
Cloth. Price »et.Demy Zvo. 15Sa
IN FIVE SEPARATE PARTS, VIZ.OR
price net.Part I.—Isaiah and Jeremiah, 2s. 6d.
Part II.—Ezekiel and Minor Prophets, price 3s. net.
Part III.—The Books of Samuel, price 3s. net.
IV.—The Books of Kings, price netPart 3s.
price net.Part V. Joshua and Judges, 3s.—
A. & C. BLACK, SOHO SQUARE, LONDON, W.THE
DECLINE FALLAND
OF THE
KINGDOM OF JUDAH
BY
The Rev. T. K. CHEYNE, D.Litt., D.D.
FELLOW THEOF BRITISH ACADEMY
LATE ORIEL PROFESSOR OF INTERPRETATION IN OXFORD UNIVERSITY
AND CANON OF ROCHESTER
LONDON
ADAM AND CHARLES BLACK
1908Digitized tine Internet Archiveby
in 2007 with funding from
IVIicrosoft Corporation
http://www.archive.org/details/declinefallofkinOOcheyialaDS
117
PREFACE
I WOULD most gladly have offered the reader results of
study which involved somewhat less unpopular critical
presuppositions. The time for that does not seem to have
come, but I think that with will students havea good who
not gone as far as I have will be able to find many useful
facts and ideas in my book. The Introduction contains an
explanation of a theory which is assumed in the following
studies, and which ought to be called, not the Jerahmeelite,
but the North Arabian theory. It also contains answers to
critics, many of whom, as it seems to me, have continued
the bad tradition of controversial unfairness which has been
handed down to us from an earlier age. I hope that those
who misapprehend and misrepresent, or who not less unfortu-
nately ignore me, may be brought to a sense of their in-
justice, without having their feelings wounded, by what I
have written. should have sought answer them ifI not to
the injury done to the cause of free inquiry had not been so
great.
Part I. gives an account, as complete as the often
doubtful changefulevidence allows, of that interesting and
period which begins with the finding of the great law-book
destructionin the Temple under Josiah, and ends with the
of It has, of course, not been possible to treatJerusalem.
this portion of history without reference to an earlier period.
The contents Traditions and Beliefsof the work called of
Ancient Israel have therefore had to be frequently referred
to. As the higher criticism, it will be clear that myto'
vi DECLINE AND FALL OFKINGDOM OFJUDAH
conclusions on Genesis and Exodus throw considerable
doubt on the strict accuracy of its results. The time has
not come, however, to revise these I have, there-
fore, provisionally adopted the generally accepted statements.
Professor Eerdmans' relative conservatism in textual matters
makes it unwise to follow him implicitly, suggestive as his
recent work on the composition of Genesis may be. I am,
however, glad of his support in the view that the narrators
of Genesis, generally speaking, believed in more than one
god. If he has ignored my own work, that is no reason
why I should ignore or depreciate his.
Part II. contains a study of the Israelite law-books,
with the exception of the Priestly Code, which, though it
certainly contains a kernel of older date, is in its present
form naturally considered to be post-exilic. Both here and
elsewhere the point of view is that set forth in Traditions
and Beliefs and in the Introduction, which, while recognising
both direct and indirect Babylonian influence on Palestine,
in extant evidence a larger offinds the amount reference to
N. Arabian influence, both political and religious.
conclusion, I may draw attentionIn to a passage in the
Introduction relative to the one-sided character of the
monuments the pre-exilicliterary of period, which helps to
account for the large number of problems which are very
theplausibly solved by N. Arabian theory. I think that
this suggestion makes for peace. The present condition ol
the study of the Old Testament is far from satisfactory;
there is still a sad amount of partisanship, though the points
!
'at issue have changed. Give peace in our time, O Lord
Oxford, Sept. i8, 1908.