Old testament theology. The religion of revelation in its pre-Christian stage of development

Front matter

BOUGHT WITH THE INCOME FROM THE

SAGE ENDOWMENT FUND

THE GIFT OF

Author's Preface To The English Translation

I TRUST that this book of mine, ia its new form, may, in some measure however small, contribute to the increase among English readers of a really historical knowledge of that religion from which our own faith has sprung. I cannot, indeed, refrain from expressing the hope that in a land which possesses so many distinguished Old Testament scholars, the faults and shortcomings of this work may be leniently dealt with. I console myself at any rate with the thought that, in a field of study so extensive and so obscure as that of Old Testament theology, it will be long before it becomes possible for investigators to avoid making mistakes.

As the proof-sheets of the translation were passing through the press, I compared them with the original as carefully as my knowledge of English permitted. In a very few passages, where an exact translation seemed to me somewhat obscure, I have suggested a wider departure from the German than a translator would have felt himself entitled to make. I have also thought it right, in a few instances, to insert one or two new sentences — as for example, my references to the important work on the religion of the Semites, which Dr. Eobertson viii author's preface to the ENGLISH TRANSLATION.

Smith has published since the last edition of my own book

appeared.

Professor Paterson has executed the translation with as

much skill as care; and while he has not followed the

German, at the expense of the English idiom, readers may

rely on his having given the meaning of the original with

the utmost accuracy.

HEEMANN SCHULTZ.

GoTTiNGEN, October 1882.

Table Of Contents

INTEODUCTIOIT.

CHAPTER

I. Meaning and Method of Biblical Theology : Name, Scope, Relation to other branches of Theology, Methods, Sources, ....