Hebrew Poetry which I have held and taught for the past twenty-five years with increasing confidence. Illustrations from the New Testament as well as from the Old Testament are given here as elsewhere throughout the book. Some of my readers may be surprised at the amount of poetry found in the New Testament. But I think that they will see from the illustrations given that if the views of Hebrew Poetry taken in the volume are correct, the specimens from the New Testament are as fine and sure specimens as those from the Old Testament. In the preface to Biblical Study, it was said: "The ground for Biblical Study has been covered, with the exception of Biblical History. This department has been included in the Reference Library because it seemed necessary for completeness. It has been omitted from the discussions because it is usual to classify Biblical History with Historical Theology. The author did not care to determine this disputed question in a work already sufficiently extensive." In this volume I have made up that defect; not only because it was a defect, but because in fact the Historical Criticism of Biblical History has become a burning question, and it is likely to burn with increasing flame and heat during the present generation. These chapters have cost me much labour. They open up the most difficult part of this work, and it is probable that in these I expose myself to the greatest criticism on the part of the socalled conservatives. I have composed these chapters with great painstaking and with a good conscience, and a deep sense of a call to public duty in this regard. I have prepared the way by a history of the study of Biblical History, then have opened up the principles and methods of Historical Criticism with ample illustrations, and finally I have endeavoured to organize and construct the discipline of Biblical History. Grave mistakes have been made in recent years in the discussions of the Higher Criticism. Is it too much to hope that they will not be repeated in the discussions of the Historical Criticism? ure. I have given two new chapters, one on the Credibility of Holy Scripture, the other on the Truthfulness of Holy ScriptThese chapters deal with burning questions also, which I have already considered at some length during my defence to the charges brought against me, touching the question of "the Inerrancy of Holy Scripture." I have, in these chapters, discussed the question from the point of view of the induction of facts from all the ranges of the Study of Holy Scripture; and have then carefully tested the so-called "a priori argument for the Inerrancy of Holy Scripture." I shall doubtless increase my offence in the eyes of those who condemned me before; but I have confidence that I have so stated the case as to give relief and help to the multitudes who have been disturbed and even crowded from Holy Church and Holy Scripture by the Pharisees of our times; and it is my comfort that I shall lead not a few, by these chapters, as I have by the grace of God through my other writings, back to Holy Scripture and Holy Church, with a firmer faith and a holy joy and love in their exhibition of the grace and glory of our God and Saviour. The Table of Contents gives a full analysis of the volume. There are two indices. The Index of Texts may be used for reference in the exposition of a large number of the most important and difficult passages of Holy Scripture. The largeface type shows at a glance the most important references. The large-face type of the Index of Authors and Writings gives the passage where citations are made, or opinions are discussed, or titles of works are first given. The Bibliography of each subject may be found in its appropriate place in the volume in connection with the history of the discipline. The index will easily guide to all the titles of the books. There is really a much fuller bibliography in this volume proportion ately than in the classified list of books given as an appendix to Biblical Study. No one can read this book, whatever his opinion as to its merits may be, without saying that it corresponds with its title, and that the Bible is to the author Holy Scripture. Biblical Study was dedicated to Roswell D. Hitchcock, D.D., LL.D., and Isaac A. Dorner, D.D., "survivors of two noble faculties to whom the author owes his theological training." These teachers have followed all my other teachers into the presence of our Lord. On this twenty-fifth anniversary of my professorate it seems appropriate, having become the senior professor in the Union Theological Seminary, that I should dedicate this volume to my pupils. This is especially gratifying because of the well-known loyalty with which they stood by me in those trying years when I was battling for truth and righteousness against an unreasoning panic about the Bible, and an anti-revision partisanship against those who had taken an active part in the movement for a revision of the Westminster Confession and the preparation of a new consensus creed; and also in those more trying years in which I suffered the penalties of unrighteous and illegal ecclesiastical discipline. In the class-room they have encouraged me by their studious attention, their confidence, and their enthusiasm; in the ministry they have been faithful and loyal. I feel bound to them not only as a teacher and a friend, but in the stronger bond of that Holy Love which Our Master taught, and which I have endeavoured also, in so far as I was able, to teach them. of these pupils is my daughter, Emilie Grace Briggs, B.D., without whose patient, laborious, and scholarly help I could not have finished this volume. To her my thanks are due, in public as well as in private. JANUARY, 1899. One C. A. BRIGGS. CONTENTS Biblical Study the most important of all studies, 1, the most extensive, 1; the most profound, 2; the most attractive, 3. Obstacles to the study of Holy Scripture, 4; Bibliolatry, 5; Sectarian partisan- General term of the department, 12; relation to other departments, 12. Biblical Literature, 18; Biblical Canonics, 21; Textual Criticism, 23; the Biblical Exegesis, 27; Biblical Hermeneutics, 27. Biblical History, 35; Historical Criticism, 37; Biblical Archæology, 37. Biblical Theology, 39; Biblical Religion, Faith, and Ethics, 40. The languages of the Bible prepared by Providence for the purpose, 42. The Shemitic family, 46; the Arabic group, 46; the Assyrian group, 47; the Hebrew group, 47; the Aramaic group, 49. The Hebrew language, 51; its origin, 51; simple and natural, 54; correspond- ence of language and thought, 55; majesty and sublimity, 56; life and The Aramaic language, 61; language of commerce in Persian period, 61; com- mon speech of Palestine in the time of Jesus, 62. The Greek language, 64; complex and artistic, 65; style of speech, 66; beauti- ful and finished, 66; strength and vigour, 67; Hebraistic colouring, 68; |