PREFACE THIS book springs from a course of study which I have offered for several years at Harvard University in the Department of English. In this course my object has been to make students as familiar as possible with the English Bible, and to throw light on its literary forms by bringing together facts from the history of its sources and from the history of the translation into English. For the latter purpose I have drawn freely on the larger results of the great school of learning which is commonly known as the Higher Criticism. This is in itself, as has often been pointed out, merely a critical study of the various books of both Old and New Testaments from the historical point of view; it arrives at its results by a faithful comparison of the various parts with each other, and by bringing to bear on them all pertinent facts from the monuments and other external sources of history. I have confined myself almost wholly to the larger results of the school, on which there is substantial agreement among scholars and V CONTENTS PAGE The English Bible a single book-The historical background. . 1 The different types of narrative—Their primitive simplicity of thought-The simplicity of the Hebrew language-The The different types of poetry--The form of the poetry-The expression of the emotions through concreteness of phrase and the music of the style-The intensity and elevation of The character of the books and the problems they discuss- 888 The first three gospels analogous in form to the Old Testa- Its general character-Its development and breaking up-Its Its development from the prophecy-The visions of the apoc- alypse-Their borrowings from the prophecy-The visions impalpable-The message of the apocalypse dependent |