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By
JOHN EDGAR McFADYEN, M.A. (Glas.) B.A. (Oxon.)
Professor of Old Testament Literature and Exegesis, Knox College,Toronto
To My Pupils Past and Present
This Introduction does not pretend to offer anything tospecialists. It is written for theological students, ministers, andlaymen, who desire to understand the modern attitude to the OldTestament as a whole, but who either do not have the time or theinclination to follow the details on which all thorough study of itmust ultimately rest. These details are intricate, often perplexing,and all but innumerable, and the student is in danger of failing tosee the wood for the trees. This Introduction, therefore,concentrates attention only on the more salient features of thediscussion. No attempt has been made, for example, to relegate everyverse in the Pentateuch[1] to its documentary source; but the methodof attacking the Pentateuchal problem has been presented, and thelarger documentary divisions indicated.[Footnote 1: Pentateuch and Hexateuch are used in this volume toindicate the first five and the first six books of the Old Testamentrespectively, without reference to any critical theory. As the firstfive books form a natural division by themselves, and as theirliterary sources are continued not only into Joshua, but probablybeyond it, it is as legitimate to speak of the Pentateuch as of theHexateuch.]
It is obvious, therefore, that the discussions can in no case beexhaustive; such treatment can only be expected in commentaries tothe individual books. While carefully considering all the moreimportant alternatives, I have usually contented myself withpresenting the conclusion which seemed to me most probable; and Ihave thought it better to discuss each case on its merits, withoutreferring expressly and continually to the opinions of English andforeign scholars.
In order to bring the discussion within the range of those who haveno special linguistic equipment, I have hardly ever cited Greek orHebrew words, and never in the original alphabets. For a similarreason, the verses are numbered, not as in the Hebrew, but as in theEnglish Bible. I have sought to make the discussion read continuously,without distracting the attention—excepting very occasionally-byfoot-notes or other devices.
Above all things, I have tried to be interesting. Criticaldiscussions are too apt to divert those who pursue them from theabsorbing human interest of the Old Testament. Its writers were menof like hopes and fears and passions with ourselves, and not theleast important task of a sympathetic scholarship is to recover thathumanity which speaks to us in so many portions and so many waysfrom the pages of the Old Testament. While we must never allowourselves to forget that the Old Testament is a voice from theancient and the Semitic world, not a few parts of it—books, forexample, like Job and Ecclesiastes—are as modern as the book thatwas written yesterday.
But, first and last, the Old Testament is a religious book; and anIntroduction to it should, in my opinion, introduce us notonly to its literary problems, but to its religious content. I havetherefore usually attempted—briefly, and not in any homileticspirit—to indicate the religious value and significance of itsseveral books.