Excerpt from Narratives of the Beginnings of Hebrew History From the Creation to the Establishment of the Hebrew Kingdom While Protestant Christianity will probably never entirely reverse the decision of Luther and his associates in rejecting the apocryphal writings from the Old Testament canon, it is obvious to the impartial reader that certain of these books, because of their intrinsic merit and historical significance, as linking the Old Testament writings to those of the New, do not deserve the neglect with which they are treated. Already their great value is being appreciated by the historian and ethical teacher. The records of Israel's history are sadly incomplete without the First Book of Maccabees, supplemented as it is by the Sec ond Book. Because of the importance of the events which it records and the deeply religious spirit which pervades it, this dramatic account of one of the most significant epochs in the life of Judaism is surely worthy of a place in a student's Old Testament side by side with the earlier books of Samuel, Kings, and Chronicles. As a reflection of the life and thought of the Jews of the dispersion, the book of Tobit also belongs beside Esther. The later development of wisdom-thought is represented by the practical maxims of Ben Sira and the majestic Wis dom of Solomon. Our knowledge of later prophecy and psalmody is enriched by II. Esdras, Baruch, and the Prayer of Manasses. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

Excerpt from Narratives of the Beginnings of Hebrew History From the Creation to the Establishment of the Hebrew Kingdom The Old Testament is a library containing the most varied and valuable literary heritages of the Israelitish race. It is the product of ten centuries of intense political, social, and religious activity. It is the record of man's effort to know the character and realize the will of the Infinite, and of God's unceasing revelation of himself in the heart and life of man. In its present form it includes the contributions of scores of inspired prophets, priests, and sages, who lived at periods far removed from each other, and who wrote from widely different points of view. What is true of this unique library as a whole is equally true of many of its individual books. Proverbs, for example, is itself a library of gnomic literature, embodying the crystallized experiences of many generations of wise men. The Psalter contains the prayers and hymns of a race. Furthermore, these composite writings come to us from the ancient East, where men arrived at conclusions by intuition, not by the obvious, systematic processes of reasoning, that alone appeal to the modern Occidental. Logical classification is distinctly the gift of the Aryan rather than of the Semite. Without exception, the literary products of the East, and especially of the Semitic world, are conspicuously lacking in systematic arrangement. The Koran, for example, is a medley of commands, stories, prayers, and exhortations. To this general rule the Old Testament is no exception. Its later editors, and especially the translators of the Septuagint and Vulgate, to whom the present order of the books in our English Bible is chiefly due, have roughly classified them as historical, poetical, and prophetic; but no principle of arrangement is applied consistently throughout. Thus Ecclesiastes is found among the poetical books and Lamentations among the prophetic. In the first five books of the Old Testament prophetic and priestly traditions, ancient songs, ethnological tables, patriarchal stories, traditional derivations of proper names, genealogical lists, prophetic exhortations, laws, judicial precedents, and historical narratives, written by different classes of writers, are all mingled together. In such books as Proverbs and Psalms the lack of systematic arrangement is still more confusing to the modern English reader. Maxims, practical observations, prayers, and hymns, on the greatest variety of themes, and written from many different points of view, follow each other in close succession, so that one idea is no sooner fixed than it is displaced by another entirely different. The inevitable result is that no complete and definite conception is gained regarding the teachings either of the book or of the Old Testament concerning any one of the subjects treated. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.

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