CLARK'S FOREIGN THEOLOGICAL LIBRARY. FOURTH SERIES. VOL. XXIII. Beil's Introduction to the Old Testament. VOL. I. EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 88, GEORGE STREET. 1892. BY GEORGE C. M. DOUGLAS, B.A., D.D., PROFESSOR OF HEBREW AND OLD TESTAMENT EXEGESIS IN THE FREE CHURCH COLLEGE, GLASGOW. VOL. I. EDINBURGH: T. & T. CLARK, 38, GEORGE STREET. 1892. TRANSLATOR'S PREFACE. tion, the URING the last twenty-five years there has manifestly been an increasing interest expressed among us in all questions connected with the authority of Scripture, the extent of the Canon and the circumstances of its forma age of the books contained in it, and the condition of their text. Possibly it will be said that many of these questions have been raised or have been discussed thoughtlessly, superficially, or irreverently; and so far as this may have been the case, I deplore it. But I am not prepared to admit that this has been the prevailing spirit in such inquiries; and in a world of sin, I prefer to meet painful cases of honest doubt, rather than sleepy, indifferent acquiescence in a traditional profession of the truth. I cannot therefore take a gloomy view of the prospects of religion amongst us, merely because the religious atmosphere is full of excitement and controversy on these subjects. But, feeling an earnest desire to assist those who have been interested in these inquiries (at least so far as these concern the Old Testament, which is the larger and the more difficult portion of the volume of revelation), and especially to assist students of theology in a matter of such great and growing importance, I turned my eyes toward Germany. I did so, not only on account of the scholarly character of its divines in general; but also, and more particularly, because German students of theology have for a century been running a course of experience which may be unspeakably valuable to us. When these questions were first raised among them, the prevailing inclination or tendency was to give a sceptical reply; but gradually the weight of accurate learning and of sound judgment has come to be more and more upon the other side. At my spare moments |