Positivism and the Bible

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Excerpt from Positivism and the Bible: Three Lectures Given in Newton HallHaving said so much of the Bibles, or primitive sacred books of the ancient world, it is time now to turn our special attention to the collection of books preserved for us by the Jewish nation, handed down by them to the Catholic Church, regarded still by the majority of English-speaking people throughout the world as standing altogether on a different level from other books, printed in every language and circulated in every tribe, and ordered to be read daily to children in our primary schools without note or comment.I begin with the Jewish Bible, leaving the Christian Bible for a future lecture. First, what does the Jewish Bible say for itself Secondly, what has modern criticism to say to it, after using the powerful apparatus of comparative scholarship, comparative study of language, and comparative study of legend and religion? The Jewish Bible falls into three divisions - the Law, the Prophets, and a collection of mis cellaneous writings, historical and poetical. These are pre sumed to have been put together into their present shape after the Captivity, about five hundred years no. The first and most characteristic of the divisions, the five books of the Pentateuch, are assumed to be written by the great deliverer and lawgiver of the Hebrew race, Moses. Of these five books, the first contains the early history of the world, the foundation of the Hebrew race, under Abraham, their settle ment in Canaan, and their subsequent colonization in Egypt. The other four books give the history of the deliverance of the Hebrews from Egypt, their wanderings in the desert, and their return as conquerors to Canaan. They also describe, in extreme and minute detail, the establishment of a pure mono theistic religion, surrounded and protected by a very com plicated ceremonial, and governed by a priestly caste. It is admitted that this religion was distasteful to large numbers of the people, that they were in constant revolt against it, and that lapses into the fetichism and star-worship of the sur rounding nations were constantly occurring. But the belief has hitherto been that the standard of Judaic religion, the moral and ceremonial law, the belief in one Almighty God.About the PublisherForgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.comThis book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully, any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.