pest sense.

NOTES ON CHAPTER I

[1] Modern Criticism and the Preaching of the Old Testament, p. 19.

[2] Studies in Christianity, p. 73.

[3] Primitive Semitic Religions To-day, p. 14.

[4] Letters on the Inspiration of the Scriptures, Letter I.

[5] Quoted in the Old Testament Student, Vol. VIII, p. 84.

[6] The Law and the Prophets, p. 16.

[7] The Bible, Its Origin and Nature, pp. 160, 161.

[8] 1 Cor. 2. 15.

[9] The Use of the Scriptures in Theology, pp. 51, 52.

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CHAPTER II

THE OLD TESTAMENT AND MODERN SCIENCE

For many centuries during the Christian era science was almost
completely dominated by theology. Whenever, therefore, a scientific
investigator proposed views not in accord with the theological notions
of the age he was considered a heretic and condemned as such. During
these same centuries theology was dominated by a view of the Bible
which valued the latter as an infallible authority in every realm of
human thought. The view of the Bible held then was expressed as late
as 1861 in these words: "The Bible is none other than the voice of Him
that sitteth upon the throne. Every book of it, every chapter of it,
every verse of it, every word of it, every syllable of it (where are we
to stop?), every letter of it, is the direct utterance of the Most
High. The Bible is none other than the word of God; not some part of
it more, some part of it less, but all alike, the utterance of Him who
sitteth upon the throne, faultless, unerring, supreme."[1] A book
which came thus directly from the mind of God must be inerrant and
infallible; hence closely associated with this mechanical view of {39}
the divine origin of the Bible was the belief in its absolute inerrancy
and infallibility. This is clearly recognized in the words of two
eminent American theologians: "The historical faith of the Church has
always been that the affirmations of the scriptures of all kinds,
whether of spiritual doctrine or duty, or of physical or historical
fact, or of psychological or philosophical principle, are without any
error, when the _ipsissima verba_ of the autographs are ascertained and
interpreted in their natural and intended sense."[2]

With such an estimate of the Bible it is only natural that theology
should bitterly resent any and all scientific conclusions which seemed
to be contrary to the statements of the Bible. However, a study of the
history of Bible interpretation creates a serious p