Scientific confirmations of Old Testament history

Front matter

S9

SCIENTIFIC CONFIRMATIONS

OF OLD TESTAMENT HISTORY

Preface

The conclusions recorded in the present volume are both a cause and a result. They were the cause of the establishment of the chair which I now occupy, and they are the result of the investigations made possible by the generousness of its provisions. Fourteen years ago these conclusions were dimly seen " as trees walking." At that time, the importance of enabling me to follow out to the full extent the investigations upon the relations of man to the post-Tertiary (or Glacial) epoch which I had been prosecuting for twenty years led the trustees of Oberlin College to establish the professorship of The Harmony of Science and Revelation, and to appoint me the first incumbent. The provisions of the chair allowed me the freedom of the first half of each year, in order to pursue at my own discretion the lines of investigation upon which I had entered ; while a year and a half was at one time granted me to make a complete circuit of the northern hemisphere to visit regions in the Old World which are ordinarily inaccessible. For these and other privileges so generously granted me by the trustees and faculty of Oberlin College, I here take occasion to express my profound appreciation.

x Preface.

Since my appointment, the subject has never for one moment been out of my mind, and I have availed myself of every opportunity to enlarge the horizon of my vision in the direction of the interpretation both of the Bible, and of the rapidly accumulating facts relating to recent geological events which have had a profound influence upon the early history of man. In 1 904 the results so far attained were made the theme of the Stone Lectures in Princeton. Their publication, however, has been delayed until the present time, in order that I might avail myself of the information gathered during a third extended visit to the localities on the eastern continent where the facts could be most profitably studied. It has also seemed best not to retain the lecture form, but to treat the subject in the more elaborate manner which is suitable for the reader. In a subsequent volume I shall treat of the broader question of The Origin and Antiquity of the Human Race, — a subject upon which recent geological investigations aie shedding new and increasing light.

The present work is committed to the public in the hope of doing something to reestablish confidence in the historical statements of the Old Testament, and, at the same time, of so unfolding the marvelous geological events of the post-Tertiary period as to incite the

Preface. xi

general reader to a closer study of its significant and overwhelming facts, which invite investigation on every hand. The discussion is believed to be also eminentlyworthy of the attention of geologists, many of whom are so engrossed in their special studies that they have little leisure or inclination to consider the action of geological forces in their more general application. All students both of the Bible and of the early history of mankind, as well as of geology, will, I am sure, find satisfaction in the light which science is here made to shed upon some of the early traditions of mankind.

The convictions formulated in the present volume have deepened as investigations have proceeded from year to year. It remains to attempt to get the facts so clearly and fully before the public that it shall have the same basis for judging the conclusions which the writer has attained for himself. As such an attempt, the volume is commended to the charitable consideration and the criticism of all students who have given attention to any of the phases of the broad subject which has here received general treatment.

G. Frederick Wright.

Oberlin, Ohio, November 3, 1906.

Chapter I

Christianity an historical religion — Written history indispensable to progress — A stimulus to the intellect — A high degree of certainty attainable by historical evidence — Historical evidences of Christianity — The Old Testament indorsed by the New.

Chapter II

Different ways of writing history — Connecting links of the argument — Historical setting of the book of Daniel — Destruction of Sennacherib's army — The times of Ahab and Jehu — The black obelisk of Shalmaneser II. — The Moabite stone — The expedition of Shishak — Brevity of the book of Judges — Joshua's command to the sun to stand still.

Chapter XII

Earlier views of the author — Dana's summary of the scientific facts — Remarkable parallelism of the Mosaic account.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS.

Page Interglacial Forest Uncovered by the Retreat of

the Muir Glacier, Alaska Frontispiece

General View of the Crow's Nest from the Pyramids 98

Near View of the Raised Beach on the Crow's Nest 99

Conglomerate Knob in Desert North of Suez 104

View of Jebel Attaka, from the Vicinity of Pi-hahiroth 109 Submerged Trees above the Cascades of the Columbia

River 133

Cut for the Canal South of the Cascades 139

Sedimentary Banks of the Jordan 142

Burning Oil Well at Baku 147 Cross-Section Showing the Depth of the Southern Part

of Lake Baikal 209

Raised Beach in Sweden 219 General View of the Rubble Drift at East Brighton,

England 242

Near View of the Raised Beach at East Brighton 244

Section of the West End of Sangatte Cliff, near Calais 247 Diagram Showing the Direction of the Currents on a

Hill Range during Uplift 253

The Mountain of Santenay 259

Transverse Section of the Rock of Gibraltar 263

Mouth of the Cave of San Ciro, near Palermo 266

Raised Beach on the Island of Guernsey 276

Diagram Section across the Island of Guernsey 278

Section from La Motte to Ube 279

Delta of Loess at Nankau, China 288

Rows of Houses in the Loess at Shiwantse, China 290

House in the Loess at Shiwantse 294

Another House at Shiwantse 296

Excavated Cliff of Loess at Tashkent 299

Raised Beach at Trebizond 316

ILLUSTRATIONS AND MAPS.

Bluff of Loess at Kief, Russia

Cross-Section of the Osage Trough at Tuscumbia, with a Canadian Boulder

Bluff of Loess facing the Missouri River at Lansing, Kan.

Stratified Loess at St. Joseph, Mo.

Mammoth from Siberia in the Museum at St. Petersburg

Page 319

345 346

MAPS.

Map of the Delta, or Lower Egypt 96 Map of Lower Egypt during a Depression of Three

Hundred Feet 102

Map of Lake Baikal 208

Map of Glaciated Areas in North America and Europe 222

Map of Bay of Palermo 269

Map of Supposed Post-Glacial Submergence in Asia 304 Map of Glaciation in Eastern and Central United

States 326 Map of the Glaciated Area in the Lower Missouri

Valley 340

Scientific Confirmations of Old Testament History.

Chapter I. The Witness Of The New Testament

Christianity is preeminently an historical religion. Its specific characteristics consist in the revelation of God made through the personal life of the incarnate Word. Because the Word became flesh and dwelt among us, we have been enabled to behold his glory, even the glory of the only-begotten Son of God. Our knowledge of the saving truths revealed in the life of Christ does not come to us through intuition or immediate revelation, except as these illumine lines of historical evidence. Christ was crucified once for all, and the knowledge of the fact was committed to the keeping of the historical forces radiating throughout the future from that point of time. This precious treasure of knowledge was committed to the care of the first disciples of Christ, and through them to the Christian church, thereby exalting her members to the responsible position of co-workers with God in the spread of his kingdom on earth. All this is briefly expressed in the familiar statement that the church of Christ is a missionary organization. The last command ot net divine Lord and Master was, " Go ye, therefore, and make disciples of all the nations, baptizing them into the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit: teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I commanded you."

This dependence of Christianity upon facts which can be proved only through historical processes is often urged as an objection to the system, it being alleged that it is unreasonable to suppose that in so important a matter as their religious life, God would make his creatures dependent upon such uncertain evidence as that by which historical facts are established. But closer consideration of the subject will show : ( i ) that man's dependence upon historical facts for his highest religious development is in close analogy with his dependence upon the past for civilization in general; (2) that that ordering of Divine Providence by which successive generations are made largely dependent upon their predecessors, and by which the favored portions of mankind to whom much has been given are made responsible for the transmission of these gifts to the less favored, is one of the richest boons which have been conferred upon the race; (3) that the certainty of conclusions reached through historical evidence may be, and in the case of Christianity is, of the very highest order, and such as universally commands the assent, and directs the activity, of men in their ordinary affairs.

WRITTEN HISTORY INDISPENSABLE TO PROGRESS.

I. With reference to the first point it is sufficient to remark, that, as an intellectual being, man is chiefly characterized by his ability to attain, through inductive reasoning, a knowledge of the past which lies beyond the reach of memory, and to make it the basis of advancing to that wider knowledge of the future which secures the progress of the race. Indeed, it is just this which makes the difference between civilization and savagery. The savage is limited in knowledge to his immediate intuitions and perceptions, eked out by still scantier information obtained through tradition and his imperfect means of obtaining testimony from his contemporaries. It is almost exclusively through books that the successive generations of the civilized world obtain the results of the past experience of mankind, and thus are able to lift themselves to a height from which the horizon of their intellectual vision can be greatly expanded. It is chiefly by reason of written documents that each generation of civilized men is enabled to stand upon the shoulders of the generation which has preceded. Destroy literature, rob the present of that definite knowledge of the past which it obtains through written documents, and progress would at once be checked, and mankind would revert to barbarism.

If one is inclined to challenge this proposition, his doubts will be dissipated by a little well-directed reflection. In astronomy the whole system rests upon disconnected measurements and observations made and reported by a great number of observers whose record is the basis for all mathematical calculations concerning the size and movement of the heavenly bodies. Our estimation of the size of the earth, for example, is dependent upon a few careful measurements which have been made upon an arc of its circumference. It is not within the power of the individual to repeat these measurements. He is compelled to trust the record of work done by others. In chemistry, likewise, it is out of the question for each individual investigator to go through all the processes by which the nature of the various elements has been determined. It would be a sorry condition of things, indeed, if all the violent explosives and deadly poisons had to be discovered anew by every experimenter. Geology, also, is a system of facts discovered by a wide range of investigators. It is entirely beyond the capacity of any one man to survey the whole field. The work of the United States Geological Survey is carried on by a whole army of investigators who bring in their results to await correlation at the central bureau by experts dependent for their facts upon the written reports.

It is, however, in the realm of those higher and more delicately balanced forces pertaining to the political and social life of man that he is most strikingly dependent upon the wisdom handed down from preceding generations. Imperfect as are political and sociological theories, how utterly useless would they be if we were shut off from the access to the world's experience which is furnished us through written documents pertaining both to the past and to the present! The statesmen who mark out the lines of national polity for the future, and the military commanders who control the armies that serve as the bulwark of national defense, would be poorly prepared indeed for their work if they had but the imperfect knowledge of the experience of others which is furnished by oral testimony. If it be true, as it certainly is, that the patriot and statesman has no lamp but the past to guide him into the future, he must set a very high value upon the definite historical records in which the light of the past is concentrated. Indeed, what would statesmen and judges do without precedent by which to guide their action amid the complicated casuistries arising anew with every step into the future? It should not therefore seem strange that in religion we are bound to the past by a similar law of dependence, nor that the written word should be highly exalted among the agencies by which the wisdom of the past is brought within our reach and made serviceable to us. In fact, it is in accordance with all analogy that the highest religion of the world should be perpetuated through historical forces, and embodied in a book.

A STIMULUS TO THE INTELLECT.

2. From an intellectual point of view, also, it is not a reproach, but a glory, to Christianity, that it is an historical religion ; since it brings into exercise, through historical research, the highest powers of our rational nature, and cultivates that capacity for inductive reasoning which is the pride of the present age of advancement. Indeed, history affords the most important of all fields for inductive reasoning, and in its study brings into requisition all branches of knowledge and every faculty of the intellect. Hence it is the best basis possible for the symmetrical development of the human mind. For it is worthy of notice in this connection that there is not that difference between direct and circumstantial evidence which is often insisted upon. All evidence is circumstantial. The direct testimony of a witness is but a circumstance. The truth or falsity of his testimony has to be determined by a wide range of considerations. The

The Witness of the New Testament. g

existence of a written document is likewise but a circumstance. The validity of its testimony has to be established by the circumstances under which it has come to our notice, by inspection of its contents, and by comparison of its statements with the known conditions surrounding its alleged facts. Thus every department of science may be brought in to contribute evidence, of more or less cogency, bearing upon the truth of a literary document. The question of its forgery may depend upon chemical analysis of its ink, or upon the water-lines in its paper, or upon the incapacity of a forger to produce the document within a given time, or upon the inability of later writers perfectly to simulate the character of the times to which the document purports to pertain.

It will prepare us for a readier acceptance of the divine plan of revelation if we consider more fully the incidental advantages arising from having this treasure committed to the earthen vessels of history, and made dependent upon our care for its preservation. The highest favor which God has conferred upon man is that of exalting him to the position of a co-worker in the plan of salvation. It is at once a recognition of his godlike qualities, a means of his highest development, and the gratification of his noblest aspirations. At first thought it would seem that Almighty Power could io The Witness of the New Testament.

best accomplish its objects directly, without ♦'he intervention of so imperfect' a secondary cause as is the human will. Indeed, from Celsus to Huxley it has been a standing objection to the Christian system that miracles are so few. " If," it is said, " the God of the Christians is able to perform miracles, and is at the same time compassionate, it is absurd that his miraculous acts should be so limited as they are represented to have been in the biblical record." The rational justification of this plan by which so much is left to human initiative is, that thereby man is exalted to a position of high privilege, in which a field of boundless development is open before him. By virtue of his moral freedom, man becomes the architect of his own fortune, and at the same time in a most important sense his brother's keeper. The obedience which he renders to law is not forced and mechanical, but partakes of the divine element of all-comprehensive love.

The dependence of children upon their parents is but a type of the dependence, in a broader sense, of the successive generations of mankind upon their ancestors, and of the less-favored races of the world upon the more-favored. Results of the highest and most beneficent order follow upon the divinely ordered arrangement that man is everywhere and always his brother's keeper. In no other way are we so stimulated to honor our ancestors as through the study of the heroic efforts which they have made to perpetuate for the use of their successors the truths of experience and revelation which have been committed to their keeping. Among the strongest of all earthly ties are those which bind a pupil to his teacher. It is impossible to overestimate the value of the bonds of affection which are being formed at the present time between heathen and Christian nations through the great missionary movements which are in operation. Through these efforts the unfathomable depths of compassion on the one side and gratitude on the other are opening up, and the whole life of the world is being enriched beyond measure for time and eternity. Only when Christian nations shall give to others as freely as they have received will the brotherhood of humanity reach its fullest expression and culmination.

A HIGH DEGREE OF CERTAINTY ATTAINABLE BY HISTORICAL EVIDENCE.

3. It is a common mistake of the present age to underestimate the certainty which is arrived at through historical evidence. In the recent remarkable development of mathematical and experimental sciences, many persons seem to have lost sight of the fact that probable evidence is still all we have to go upon when we venture a step beyond our intuitions and immediate perceptions. Wherever mathematical formulae are applied to realities, the conclusions partake of the uncertainty which besets our knowledge of the real things which we multiply or divide,— in other words, proof ceases to be demonstrative; — while in direct perceptions all that we are absolutely certain of is that which comes within the sphere of immediate sensation, only a portion of which is carried along in our experience by memory. The conclusions reached by inductive reasoning are, therefore, from a mathematical point of view, defective. Yet they are all we have with which to guide our conduct and direct our movements through illimitable space and unending time. As moral and practical beings, it is our business to form the best conclusions we can from the data which are given us, and act upon them according to the light we have. It is this which constitutes the moral trial of mankind.

In the literature of the present day we often meet with such statements as that " we cannot prove the immortality of the soul," " we cannot prove the benevolence of the Creator," " we cannot prove the genuineness of the Fourth Gospel or of the Second Epistle of Peter " ; and this by writers who would feel insulted if they were charged with disbelieving in immortality or in the benevolence of God, or of believing in the spuriousness of any of the books of the New Testament.

Nor would they be willing to be set down as pure agnostics respecting these questions. Many who. are given to such ill-considered statements both misrepresent themselves and confuse their readers by using the word " proof " in a sense which is proper only in the mathematical and purely demonstrative sciences. When they are questioned more carefully, it is usually found that they acknowledge such a preponderance of evidence upon many of these questions which they have said to be incapable of proof, that they firmly cherish their conclusions as practical beliefs, and use them as the guide of their lives. Thus do they illustrate the allimportant truth that in the practical affairs of life we are not at liberty to demand any clearer and higher evidence than the nature of the subject will admit, and that, so long as there is a preponderance of evidence upon one side, we are to follow that, and permit it to shed what light it can upon the pathway of the future. But the evidences of Christianity are far from being of a low order. The truthfulness of the historical statements made in the New Testament is capable of being established to a very high degree of certainty; so that the Christian system, so far as it rests upon those statements, takes high rank among the inductive sciences as they are regarded even in the twentieth century. Any one who should doubt the general historical statements current concerning the career of Alexander the Great, or of Julius Caesar, or of Charlemagne, or of Napoleon Bonaparte, either is grossly ignorant or has a very abnormally constituted mind. Without stopping to analyze the evidence through which we arrive at this impregnable belief concerning such historical careers, we can affirm with perfect assurance that these and innumerable similar beliefs are as firmly established, and approach as near to certainty, as any of the conclusions arrived at by inductive reasoning. History is an inductive science whose central facts are as certain as those of any other inductive science, and whose range of uncertainty is no greater when one gets away from their central conclusions. Indeed, we know less about the borderlands of chemistry, astronomy, and geology than we do about the borderland of human history. 1

HISTORICAL EVIDENCES OF CHRISTIANITY.

In order to get started upon our investigation of the foundations of Old Testament history, it will be profitable, and indeed necessary, to give a resume of the evidence upon which we receive the New Testament as a correct historical representation of the origin of Christianity; for Christianity is most clearly an outgrowth of Jewish history, and, to a degree which is now too often disregarded or denied, the New Testament is sponsor to the Old, and sets us upon an investigation of Old Testament history with presumptions regarding its truthfulness which are of the highest evidential value.

He who inherits Christianity as his birthright is so early made familiar with Christian civilization that it is difficult to realize that it is not a natural product of the world in which he lives. On every hand he sees churches dedicated to the worship of Jesus Christ, and, upon entering them, joins in services which from beginning to end center upon the personal history of the Founder to whom the building is dedicated. At the beginning of the services Christ's blessing is invoked. The anthems of the choir and the hymns of the congregation sound aloud the praises of Christ. Some portion of the Bible is read with solemn reverence. The sermon is an exposition of some text of this sacred scripture. The audience is dismissed with the benediction of the Father, and the Son, and the Holy Ghost.

Gathered about these churches are numerous other less formal agencies for impressing the reality of this history upon the minds of the young. The ordinances of baptism and the Lord's Supper give unique prominence to the central historical facts of Christ's life; while the daily use of the calendar, which reckons time from the birth of the Founder of Christianity, compels even the most reluctant to do homage to the Divine Master. In short, he who is born in a Christian land is, at the outset, launched upon a mighty stream of Christian influences which every one with the clearness of direct intuition sees must have an adequate fountainhead.

The normal human mind is so constituted that it cannot easily disengage itself from the presumption that so powerful and beneficent a stream of influence as Christianity is, must have originated through some such historical facts as are recorded in the sacred books which are now read in the churches. So strong is this presumption, that one is not at liberty to disregard it, except upon obtaining abundant evidence to the contrary. The very existence of Christianity as embodied in the ordinances and Christian activities of the church is its strongest evidence, and, in absence of proof to the contrary, is entitled to absolute sway. The burden of proof does not properly fall upon the defenders of Christianity, but upon those who attack it and endeavor to overthrow it. Its position is like that of a man or woman of good repute, whose character is not to be challenged except upon the presentation of adequate positive evidence. Even a criminal is not compelled to prove his innocence, but is allowed simply to defend himself against the definite charges of his accusers. The evidential value of such presumptions should not be overlooked. In a well-established system the general presumptions in its favor rightfully prevail until all objections are definitely supported by positive evidence. The acceptance of the theory of gravitation, for example, is not rendered untenable by the fact that there are many movements of the heavenly bodies that cannot yet be brought clearly in harmony with it through definite knowledge of the causes producing the movements.

For the majority of Christian believers, this general evidence is sufficient, and the confidence they repose in it is amply justified by the principles of inductive logic. The tree is known by its fruits. The fruits of Christianity abound on every hand in the noble characters and the beneficent institutions of Christian civilization ; while the adaptation of Christianity to the wants of the individual soul is so perfect that it cannot well be explained in any other way than on the theory of its truth. An insatiable hunger of the soul drives men to the acceptance of Christianity as starving men are led to welcome provisions for their bodily nourishment. In the case of Christianity the testimony of successive generations to its fitness for satisfying their spiritual hunger is evidence of the highest order.

In the practical presentation of Christian evidences, therefore, too much weight cannot be given to those facts which deepen in men their sense of sin and of dependence upon divine care. Under the influence of these facts the mind is stimulated to see and appreciate the wonderful adaptation of Christianity to human want, and to recognize the stamp of truth which lies in this fact of adaptation. It is therefore correct to say that the conviction of the truth of Christianity begins with the religious experience of the church. The conviction of its truth by those who have experienced its saving power is like that of a starving man whose hunger has been satisfied by appropriate food. Not only does he have a conviction, resting in his own experience, that this food was designed to meet his want, but he is able to transmit the evidence which he has obtained through experience to others who are feeling a similar want.

But, to those who wish to follow up these lines of evidence to their source, the means are readily at hand, and the process is as truly scientific as that which is pursued in any of the inductive sciences; while the conclusiveness of the evidence is such as cannot be denied by any one who gives it adequate and candid attention. For we find no break in the continuity of the historical evidences of Christianity until we reach the early part of the second century, or to a point of time which is separated from the crucifixion of Christ by less than one hundred years. Up to this point no one would now have the hardihood to deny that the New Testament, substantially as we have it to-day, has been universally regarded by Christian believers as genuine and authentic. It was made the basis of comment and instruction, in exactly, the same way, by Origen, Tertullian, and Clement of Alexandria at the beginning of the third century, and by Irenseus in the last quarter of the second century, that it is by Christian teachers at the present time. The four Gospels were the sole source from which Justin Martyr, in the middle of the second century, drew the facts with which he endeavored to convince the Roman emperor of the importance and truth of the Christian system ; while, by a remarkable series of recent discoveries, we have had brought to light the fact that the long-lost " Diatessaron " of Tatian, prepared by a pupil and companion of Justin Martyr about the middle of the second century, is nothing else than a harmony of the four Gospels, such as is prepared at the present time for the convenience of the Christian public. In the light of these discoveries there is now no one left to challenge the statement that the four Gospels substantially in their present form were, at the very beginning of the second century, recognized as the sole depository of the facts of Christ's life which have been the basis of his developing system of truth.