GENESIS PRINTED IN COLORS SHOWING THE ORIGINAL SOURCES FROM WHICH IT IS SUPPOSED TO HAVE BEEN COMPILED WITH AN INTRODUCTION By EDWIN CONE BISSELL Professor in Mc Cormick Theological Seminary, Chicago "Prove all things; bold fast that which is good"-1 Thess. v. 21 HARTFORD, CONN. BELKNAP & WARFIELD 1892 INTRODUCTION. 66 THE Scheme of textual analysis presented in this book is that of Kautzsch and Socin.1 I have chosen it for this purpose, principally, for two reasons: It represents as well as any, perhaps, the general conclusions to which those favoring the analysis have come as it respects the Book of Genesis; and it places such conclusions before us in a definite and convenient form. The means taken to display the supposed original sources, by a variety of colors, is, I believe, quite new, and has a decided advantage in clearness over any other. Unless I am mistaken, the need of some such manual in the English language, showing, at a glance, the results of the later criticism in this particular has been widely felt. The present work is confined to Genesis for the reason that its purpose was simply to offer a fair illustration of critical conclusions and methods, and, at the same time, be fitted, in size and cost, for general use. The English text chosen as a basis is that of the latest Revision (July, 1884), for which I am indebted to the kindness of the Henry Bill Publishing Company of Norwich, Conn. For a proper understanding of the book one needs, first of all, to familiarize himself with the explanations given on the previous page. The blue color, leading off in the text, represents the supposed original source of the Hexateuch that is, the Pentateuch and Joshuagenerally entitled P. This letter stands for Priests' Code, the most essential part of it being those laws of Exodus, Leviticus, and Numbers, which relate to the priesthood and the Mosaic" institutions generally. It embraces about one-half of the matter of this part of the Bible. The next color (black), beginning at 2: 4 is used for a document known as J, the first letter of the word Jehovist, or Jahvist, for which it stands. It is held to be partial, throughout Genesis, to the title Jehovah for God, as the previous document is to the word Elohim. the character of its matter it is mostly historical, though with a tendency to prophecy. In The third color (green), first appearing in a single word, likewise in 2: 4o, is used for every sort of editorial addition and change, early or late, found in any of the alleged sources, including the transference of matter from one source to another. For the indication of glosses, that is, of matter which, after the final redaction, found its way into the text, a black line, as at 2: 19, has been drawn under the matter thus explained. The fourth color (lemon), beginning with 4: 16, does not, by itself, stand for a separate document, but simply for an earlier source of J (J). It is a part of the theory of our critics maintaining the analysis, that each of the three principal sources found in Genesis circulated, at first, as an independent work and so became more or less altered before they were combined together in their present form. For chapter 14, which Kautzsch and Socin felt unable to classify with any of the other documents, a special color (orange) is used. Most critics assign it to the editor who worked it over on the basis of the E document later described. In 15: 1-4, and occasionally afterwards, there is an example of an alleged combination of the two documents J and E in such a manner that they are no longer separable. For matter of this sort a brown color has been chosen. The document E is said to appear, independently, first in chapter 20, though subsequently requiring a good deal of space in Genesis, P largely retiring before it. For E a red color has been selected. Its matter is mostly historical like that of J, and in other respects, it is claimed to have a close affinity with it, though, like P, using the title Elohim for God. From this last circumstance it derives its name. As it respects the age of the several sources, there is pretty general, though by no means universal, agreement among those who accept the analysis that their chronological order is J, E, P, and that none of them took fixed form until long after the Mosaic period. The usual date for J and E being about B. C. 800-750; while P is regarded as post-exilian, the publication of it being assigned by Wellhausen to B. C. 444. Such is the analysis which has been fixed upon for the first book of the Bible. Here our introduction might properly have ended had it seemed likely that this manual would come only into the hands of persons fully acquainted with the discussions which have preceded, and are still going on over this partition of the text. Since this is most improbable, it appeared desirable to note also some of the chief grounds on which the scheme is advocated, together with such other facts as may guide the intelligent reader in his independent investigations and point the way to just results. A beginning may be made then, by inquiring whether on a priori 1 Die Genesis mit Aeusserer Unterscheidung der Quellenschriften, etc. : Zweite Auflage, Freiburg, 1891. |