The Fundamentals - 1910: Vol.7

74 The Fundamentals book may be divided into two groups which we may call moderates and radicals. Among the moderates may be in- cluded Drs. Driver, G. A. Smith, Skinner, Kirkpatrick, Koe- nig, A. B. Davidson and Whitehouse. These all practically agree that the following chapters and verses are not Isaiah’s : 11:10-16; 12:1-6; 13:1-14:23; 15:1-16:12; 21:1-10; 24-27; 34-66. That is to say, some forty-four chapters out of the whole number, sixty-six, were not written by Isaiah; or, ap- proximately 800 out of 1,292 verses are not genuine. Among the radicals are Drs. Cheyne, Duhm, Hackmann, Guthe, Marti and Kennett. These all reject approximately 1,030 verses out of the total 1,292, retaining the following only as the genuine product of Isaiah and his age: 1 :2-26, 29-31 ; 2:6-19; 3 :1, 5, 8, 9, 12-17, 24; 4:1; 5:1-14, 17-29 ; 6:1-13; 7:1-8:22; 9:8-10:9; 10:13, 14, 27-32; 14:24-32; 17:1-14; 18:1-6; 20:1-6; 22:1-22; 28:1-4, 7-22 ; 29:1-6, 9, 10, 13-15 ; 30:1-17 ; 31 :l-4. That is, only about 262 verses out of the total, 1,292, are allowed to be genuine. This is, we believe, a fair statement of the Isaiah question as it exists today. On the other hand, there are those who still defend the unity of Isaiah’s book, e. g., Strachey (1874), Naegelsbach (1877), Bredenkamp (1887), Douglas (1895), W. H. Cobb (1883-1908), W. H. Green (1892), Vos (1898-99), Thirtle (1907) and Margoliouth (1910)*. THE PRIME REASON FOR DISSECTING ISAIAH The fundamental axiom of criticism is the dictum that a prophet always spoke out of a definite historical situation to the present needs of the people among whom he lived, and that a definite historical situation shall be pointed out for each prophecy. This fundamental postulate underlies all modern criticism of Old Testament prophecy. *Compare also the writer’s “The Book of Isaiah,” Y. M. C. A. Press, N. Y., 1910.

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