ISRAEL'S HISTORICAL AND BIOGRAPHICAL NARRATIVES FROM THE ESTABLISHMENT OF THE HEBREW KINGDOM BY CHARLES FOSTER KENT, PH.D. Woolsey Professor of Biblical Literature in Yale University WITH MAPS AND CHRONOLOGICAL CHARTS NEW YORK PREFACE It is a significant fact that nearly half of the entire Old Testament consists of historical and biographical narratives. These represent the oldest, the simplest, and the most concrete record of God's revelation of Himself "through life to life." That revelation is real and intelligible, and the faith that grew up about it possesses a permanent and universal value, because its foundations were the actual experiences of men who lived and struggled, amid trying circumstances, with the ever-recurring problems of human existence. In a very true sense Israel's unique faith was the substance of things seen and felt. Not in the garden of Eden but in the fiery furnace of adversity were the rude, primitive Hebrew tribes trained and given that divine message which made them Jehovah's chosen people-his witnesses, called to conquer the world, not by the sword but by unselfish service and the compelling power of truth. Their later historians were inclined to invest the earlier periods and characters with a halo and to ignore the evidence of their elemental barbarity; but embedded in Judges, Samuel, and Kings are found extracts from older narratives that faithfully reflect those conditions which are the true background, and which make clear by contrast the real nature and significance of that marvellous development and revelation, the consummation of which is recorded in the later chapters. Israel's faith and ethical standards gradually unfolded under the divine teaching in the school of national experience, as did its political and social institutions. It is because they were constantly developing that they are significant. Along the same paths each individual must proceed from the comparative ignorance and barbarism of childhood to the maturity and strength of manhood. The Old Testament histories are unique, not merely because they record important events, but because the causes, the meaning, and the consequences of these are constantly interpreted by Israel's inspired historians. Hence the narratives, which begin with Samuel and end with I Maccabees, are the natural gateway through which to enter the broad fields represented by the Bible. Because of their vividness and concreteness the stories of Samuel, of Saul, and of David at once attract and hold the attention of young and old alike. Studied in their logical order-which is the order of events-the historical narratives introduce the student in succession and in their true relations to the significant characters and factors in Israel's remarkable history. Thus a definite, systematic basis is established for all subsequent study. In the light of this knowledge, the noble work and messages of Israel's teachers at once become real and possessed of a vital, personal interest and value. The remarkable success that has attended the few initial experiments is convincing evidence that the time is not far distant when elementary, as well as advanced, Bible classes will abandon the unsystematic and largely fruitless methods still in vogue and enter upon a graded, unified course of study, which will in the end give a complete and thorough knowledge of the contents of both Testaments. In one year of systematic study it is possible to become acquainted with the essential outlines and facts of Israel's history; in another with the strong personality and noble messages of the prophets; then, intelligently and with greatest profit the fascinating narratives of the beginnings of Hebrew history, which come largely from the pens of the early prophets, can be studied, with the assurance that the intricate problems which they present will vanish when viewed from the vantage-points already gained. Similarly, as in succeeding years the great messages of the psalmists, priests, and sages are considered, they will each yield their wealth of inspiring truth, and in the end the entire Old Testament will be as familiar ground as the Gospel of Luke or the twenty-third psalm. This is not a distant ideal, but an easily attainable goal, provided our Bible teachers will set it definitely before their classes and inspire zeal and enthusiasm in steadily advancing toward it. They will soon find that various parts of the Old Testament are of very different values; but each stage in the study will reveal unsuspected beauties and vital truths which will kindle interest and arouse the sense of definite work and conquest and personal growth. Also, when they pass at times from the Scriptures which Jesus studied so deeply, and from which he and his apostles drew those truths and illustrations and expressions which they wove into all their teachings, to the New Testament, they will find that it has an entirely new meaning and significance. Modern scholarship furnishes most valuable aid in restoring the original text, in explaining the obscurities and contradictions, in interpreting events in the light of universal history, and in supplementing the often meagre biblical narrative by the testimony of contemporary monumental literature; but modern Old Testament histories, however excellent, should never be substituted for that vivid, clear, dramatic history, written by Israel's own historians. It has been said, with much truth, that the Bible was never more studied and less read than to-day. Knowledge of its history, structure, and contents is essential; but it cannot without great loss take the place of personal acquaintance with the exalted ideas and records of the original writers, expressed in their own unrivalled literary form. The supreme aim, therefore, in this volume, as in the series of which it is a part, has been to facilitate the intelligent reading and personal study of the Bible itself. Introductions and foot-notes are simply intended to indicate the chief reasons for the faith that is rapidly becoming the common possession of all Bible students. Fortunately, while the Hebrew text of Samuel, Kings, and Ezra-Nehemiah is in many places obscure or defective, the Greek and other early versions have preserved a large number of original readings and in some cases long passages, so that it is now possible to place at the disposal of English readers a much more lucid and complete text of these important books. In adding |