Journal: Bibliotheca Sacra
Volume: BSAC 53:209 (Jan 1896)
Article: Abraham At Bonn
Author: Owen H. Gates

BSac 53:209 (Jan 1896) p. 75

Abraham At Bonn

Prof. Owen H. Gates

FOR three years, vacation courses of lectures have been given by members of the Theological faculty at Bonn. The school was based on that at Mansfield College at Oxford, and was undertaken in accordance with the expressed wish of various pastors of that locality. In 1892 there were sixty in attendance, and in 1894 nearly twice that number. At this last session Professor Meinhold delivered a lecture which has attracted great attention, perhaps more than it deserves, at least more and more diverse than the lecturer anticipated. It might have been said of it that it precipitated a conflict between the Church and the universities, were it not for the fact that the marvel is that the conflict was so long delayed.

The subject was “Beginnings of the Religion and History of Israel.” He chose it, he says, in response to inquiries as to the effect of criticism upon the Old Testament. In the treatment of it he has not shrunk from a frank avowal of his attitude toward the most delicate questions of Old Testament criticism, and his critics, though complaining sometimes of lack of clearness, yet find him clear enough to furnish them a good target.

First he gives a sketch of the subject in accordance with the teachings in the German schools, it being substantially the same as is found in Sabbath-schools in our own country, though perhaps at points more liberal. In the various children’s text-books of religion he finds more emphasis upon historical matters than should be found in such books, and also

BSac 53:209 (Jan 1896) p. 76

too great use of the typical meaning of religious usages and institutions. This misconception of the function of the Old Testament continues into the literature prepared for scholars of maturer years. It is needless to say that he judges the whole scheme to be erroneous; the excuse for its existence is found in the old theory of inspiration, which vouched for the credibility of all Bible narratives indiscriminately.

He continues as follows. The compilation of the Pentateuch from various post-Mosaic documents is a received fact among Old Testament scholars, and this origin carries inevitable consequences with it, this among others, that the patriarchal narratives disappear entirely as sources to be relied upon or used directly by historians of that period. He who wishes to retain the patriarchs as historical personages must maintain the Mosaic origin of the Pentateuch, and the old view of inspiration .too. He condemns Delitzseh for beginning with Gen. 3 his “Messianic Prophecies in historical order”; he finds that while Kohler sets out to give simply the biblical view of the early history of Israel (i...