During the eighteenth, century constant additions were made to the enormous structure of orthodox scriptural interpretation, some of them gaining the applause of the Christian world then, though nearly all are utterly discredited now. But in 1753 appeared two contributions of permanent influence, though differing vastly in value. In the comparative estimate of these two works the world has seen a remarkable reversal of public opinion.
The first of these was Bishop Lowth's Prelections upon the Sacred Poetry of the Hebrews. In this was well brought out that characteristic of Hebrew poetry to which it owes so much of its peculiar charm—its parallelism.
The second of these books was Astruc's Conjectures on the Original Memoirs which Moses used in composing the Book of Genesis. In this was for the first time clearly revealed the fact that, amid various fragments of old writings, at least two main narratives enter into the composition of Genesis; that in the first of these is used as an appellation of the Almighty the word "Elohim," and in the second the word "Yahveh" (Jehovah); that each narrative has grammatical and literary characteristics of its own which distinguish it from the other; that, by separating these, two clear and distinct narratives may be obtained, each consistent with itself, and that thus, and thus alone, can be explained the repetitions, discrepancies, and contradictions in Genesis which so long baffled the ingenuity of commentators, especially the two accounts of the creation, so utterly inconsistent with each other.
Interesting as was Lowth's book, this work by Astruc was, as
For La Peyrère's view, see especially his Prse-Adamitæ, lib. iv, chap, ii, also lib. ii, passim; also, Lecky, Rationalism in Europe, vol. i, p. 294; also interesting points in Bayle's Dictionary. For Spinoza's view, see the Tractatus Theologico-Politicus, ch. ii and iii, and for the persecution see the various biographies. Details regarding the demonstration against the unveiling of his statue were given to the present writer at the time by Berthold Auerbach, who took part in the ceremony. For Morinus and Cappellus, see Farrar as above, p. 387 and note. For Richard Simon, see his Histoire Critique de l'Ancien Testament, liv. i chap, ii, iii, iv, v, and xiii. For his denial of the prevailing theory regarding Hebrew, see liv. i, chap. xiv. For Morinus (Morin) and his work, see the Biog. Univ. and Nouvelle Biog. Générale; also Curtiss. For Bossuet's opposition to Simon, see the Histoire de Bossuet in the Œuvres de Bossuet, Paris, 1846, tome xii, pp. 330, 331; also x, 738; also sundry attacks in various volumes. It is interesting to note that among the chief instigators of the persecution were the Port-Royalists, upon whose persecution afterward by the Jesuits so much sympathy has been lavished by the Protestant world. For Le Clerc, see especially his Pentateuchus, Prolegom., dissertat. i; also, Com. in Genes., vi-viii. For a translation of selected passages on the points noted, see Twelve Dissertations out of Monsieur Le Gere's Genesis, done out of Latin by Mr. Brown, London, 1 696; also, Le Clerc's Sentiments de Quelques Theologiens de Hollande, passim; also, his work on Inspiration, English translation, Boston, 1820, pp. 47-50, also 57-67. For Witsius and Carpzov, see Curtiss, as above. For some subordinate points in the earlier growth of the opinion at present dominant, see Briggs, The Higher Criticism of the Hexateuch, New York, 1893, chap. iv.
