Moses and the Monuments: Light from Archaeology in Pentateuchal Times.
By Melvin Grove Kyle, D.D., LL.D., Xenia Theological Seminary, Ohio. London: Robert Scott, Pater-noster Row. Price, 8/6 net.
This is an able book which the Higher Critics must face and answer if their conclusions are to hold the field. Prof. Kyle’s main thesis is this—if the Pentateuch was written by Moses then there will be many indications of its Egyptian environment, but if written after the Exile, as the Critics maintain, then Babylonian influences would be clearly manifest. Prof. Kyle has no difficulty in showing that the Pentateuch contains many, and some of them very striking, evidences that it was written by one who was familiar with Egypt, and that the Babylonian influence is altogether lacking. His minute knowledge of Egyptian archaeology is a most helpful weapon which he uses with the familiarity and ease of a master in overthrowing the theories of the Higher Critics. Egyptian and Babylonian archaeology are yielding valuable material which, in the hands of competent scholars of the conservative school, is gradually but surely undermining the Documentary Theory of the Critics. Prof. Kyle has been able to throw new light on Egyptian places mentioned in Books of Moses, and especially is this the case with the dual Hebrew name for Egypt—Mitzraim. The “coat of many colours,” which is always associated in our minds with Joseph, he points out from the evidence gathered from the monuments, indicated rank and authority.
Certain points brought forward and tentatively accepted by Prof. Kyle, such as a cuneiform original of the Books of Moses, and his treatment of the Plagues and some others might have been left out with no lessening of the force of the general argument: The same may be said about Lecture VI., which deals with “Light from Archaeology on the Mosaic System of Sacrifices,” and in which he combats the theory that these sacrifices had a Babylonian origin. In establishing this position he is in danger of making too much use of the Egyptian usage. This is a weapon which is only too apt to wound the hand of those who use it.
At the same time he is very careful to guard against the inference that these sacrifices had a naturalistic origin. “When we turn to critical questions,” he says, “concerning the sources of the Hebrew sacrificial system, the vast and essential element of revelation in that system shines out the moment we see Moses, the lawgiver, standing in the presence of the Egyptian sacrificial ceremonies. The materials of sacrifice were about the same, almost the only materials available; but not a single one of the great underlying ideas of the Hebrew system of sacrifice is found in the Egyptian system. The only apparent exception, the shedding of blood, is only apparently an exception; for, while the shedding of blood and the sprinkling of blood were so important and so conspicuous in the Hebrew system, in the Egyptian sacrifices the shedding of blood seems to have been only an incident in the preparation, and little or no account whatever was taken of the blood. In the presence of the great truths of the Mosaic sacrifices we are face to face with God” (p. 271).
The Guide of my Youth.
By the Rev. Ewan Macleod, Minister-Emeritus of the Free Church of Scotland. Edinburgh: W. F. Henderson, 19 George IV. Bridge. 5/ net.
Mr. Macleod, formerly Free Church minister of Dornoch, has presented in this volume the ripe fruit of his ministerial experience in regard to the training of the young. This is a subject of vast importance, and any sound advice given—and Mr. Macleod has given much sound advice—is specially valuable in our days. There are one or two statements and sentiments, however, with which we do not agree.
Chimes for the Times.
By Mrs. M. A. Chaplin. London: Farncombe & Son, 30 Imperial Buildings, Ludgate Circus, E.C.
This is the second edition of Mrs. Chaplin’s Chimes. She is a lover of sound, scriptural truth. She delights in singing of the free and sovereign grace of God and His wonderful providence. There is a fine, true Protestant ring about the poems dealing with the Church of Rome and ritualism. It is interesting to know that Mrs. Chaplin still sings sweetly on her earthly journey, though now for her the shadows are lengthening. A poem from her pen appears in this issue of the Magazine.