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The Fundamentals. 1. Who wrote the Psalms ? Here the higher critics have no answer. Of the period from 400 to 175 B. C. we are in almost total ignorance. Josephus knows almost nothing about it, nor has any other writer told us more. Yet, according to the theory, it was precisely in these centuries of silence, when the Jews had no great writers,, that they produced this mag nificent outburst of sacred song. 2. This is the more remarkable when we consider the well known men to whom the theory denies the authorship of any of the Psalms. The list includes such names as Moses, David, Samuel, Nathan, Solomon, Isaiah, Jeremiah, and the long list of preexilic prophets. We are asked to believe that these men composed no Psalms, and that the entire collection was con tributed by men so obscure that they have left no single name by which we can identify them with their work. 3. This will appear still more extraordinary if we con sider the times in which, it is said, no Psalms were produced, and contrast them with the times in which all of them were produced. The times in which none were produced were the great times, the times of growth, of mental ferment, of con quest, of imperial expansion, of disaster, and of recovery. The times in which none were produced were the times of the splendid temple of Solomon, with its splendid worship. The times in which none were produced were the heroic times of Elijah and Elisha, when the people of Jehovah struggled for their existence against the abominations of the pagan gods. On the other hand, the times which actually produced .them were the times of growing legalism, of obscurity, and of infer ior abilities. All this is incredible. We could believe it only if we first came to believe that the Psalms are works of slight literary and religious value. This is actually done by Well- hausen, who says,* “They certainly are to the smallest extent original, and are for the most part imitations which illustrate the saying about much writing.” The Psalms are not all of an ♦Quoted by Orr, “The Problem of the Old Testament,’’ page 435.
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