Early Narratives of Genesis Is There Any External Confirmation of the Much Disputed First Eleven Chapters? By PROF. JAMES ORR, D. D. In “The Fundamental«”
not created by God^—th a t existed inde pendently of Him— how could we be sûre th a t th a t element m ight not thw art, defeat, destroy the fulfillment of God’s purposes? The Biblical doc trin e of creation forever excludes th a t supposition. Coming now to th e question, Is there any external corroboration or confirm ation of these early narratives in Gene sis? Here let me say a little of the relation of these n arrativ es to Baby lonia. Everyone has heard something of th e wonderful discoveries in Baby lonia, and it ;would he difficult to exag gerate th e brilliance and importance of these marvelous discoveries. The point which concerns us chiefly is the extraor dinary ligh t throw n on th e high culture of early Babylonia. Jlere, long before the tim e of Abraham , we find ourselves in th e m idst of cities, arts, letters, hooks, libraries, and Abraham ’s own age— th a t of Hammurabi— was the hloomtime of this civilization. Instead of Israel being a people ju st emerg ing from the dim dawn of barbarism , we find in th e ligh t of thesè discoveries th a t it was a people on whom from its own standpoint the ends of th e earth had come— heir to th e riches of a civili zation extending m illenniums into the past. If you say th is creates a difficulty in representing the chronology (I may touch on this la te r), I answer th a t it gives much g reater help by showing how the knowledge of very ancient things could be safely handed down. F o r us the chief in terest of these discoveries is
th e early n arrativ es of Gene ts are to be understood the irst eleven . chapters of th e iook— those which precede the
times of Abraham . These chapters present peculiarities of th e ir own, and I confine attention to them, although the critical treatm en t applied to them is not confined to these chapters, hu t extends throughout th e whole Book of Genesis, the Book of Exodus, and th e later his tory w ith much th e same resu lt in re ducing them to legend. We may begin by looking a t th e m at te r covered by these eleven chapters w ith which we have to deal. See what they contain. F irst, we have the sub lime proem to th e Book of Genesis, and to th e Bible as a whole, in the account of the Creation in Gen. 1. However it got there, th is chapter manifestly stands in its fit place as th e introduction to all th a t follows. Where is th ere anything like it in all literatu re ? There is noth ing anywhere, in Babylonian legend or anywhere else. You ask perhaps what in terest has religious faith in the doctrine of creation— in any theory or speculation on how th e world came to he? I answer, it has the Very deepest interest. The in terest of religion in the doctrine of creation is th a t th is doc trin e is our guarantee for the depend ence of all things on God— th e ground of our assurance th a t everything in n a tu re and Providence is a t His disposal. “My help cometh from the Lord which made heaven and e a rth .” Suppose there was anything in the universe th a t was
LESSONS (Page 74)
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