AN EXAMINATION OF MODERN CRITICISM 271
for whose assignment to so late a date there is no justifica tion in fact, and is only part of the newest destructive critical theories of the Pentateuch, to the baselessness of which (if the generally accepted older date be admitted) Joel s prophecy testifies. Then, after Malachi and Joel, as a section by itself, he places Zech. ix.-xiv. 1
But there is truth in the remark that " Criticism which reels to and fro in a period of nearly 500 years, from the earliest of the prophets to a period a century after Malachi, and this on historical and philological grounds, certainly has come to no definite basis, either as to history or philology. Rather, it has enslaved both to preconceived opinions ; and at last, as late a result as any has been, after this weary round, to go back to where it started from, and to suppose these chapters to have been written by the prophet whose name they bear." 2
1 In the large edition of Die Heilige Schrift des Alien Testaments (the New Critical German Translation of the Old Testament), by Kautzsch and others, in the notes and appendices to which are embodied all the "results "of German scholarship and criticism of the nineteenth century, I read the following note to Zech. ix.-xiv. :
"In Betreff dieser sechs Kapitel die wegen ihre Stellung hinter den Weissagungen Sacharyas schon frlihzeitig diesem Propheten zugeschrieben worden sind, ist noch immer streitig, ob wenigstens ein vorexilischer Kem (und zwar fur kap. ix.-xi. aus dem 8 Jahrhundert, fur xii.-xiv. aus dem Ende des ^ Jahrhundert). Auzunehmen, oder ob das Ganze erst aus der spatern nach exilischen Zeit (dem 4 oder gar 3 Jahrhundert) herzuleiten sei namely, In reference to these six chapters, which, on account of their position after the prophecies of Zechariah, were already in early times ascribed to this prophet, it is still a matter of dispute if we are to regard them as containing at least a pre- exilic kernel (or foundation namely, for chapters ix.-xi. from the eighth century, and for chapters xii.-xiv. from the end of the seventh century, B.C.), or if the whole is to be referred to the later post-exilic time (namely, the fourth or even the third century B.C.). "
2 Pusey. In the last sentences he has, no doubt, the case of De Wette in his mind, who, after advocating a pre-exilic origin of these chapters in the first three editions of his Einleitung ins Alte Testament, changed his mind in the 4th edition.
Stahelin, in his Einleitung in die Kanonischc Biicher des Alten Testaments, says: " De Wette often assured me orally, that since he felt himself compelled to admit that this portion evinces acquaintance with the latest prophets, he could not deny it to be Zechariah s." De Wette s characterisation of these chapters was that they are "prophecies of fanatic contents, which deny all historical explanation. "
