THE BIBLE’S FIRST VERSE: MOSES OR MOFFATT? by the Rev. W. L. Baxter, D.D., Minister of Cameron Cross. Author of “Sanctuary and Sacrifice.” Seventh Edition. Edinburgh: The Darein Press, 5 Bristo Place. Price 2d.
This is the 7th Edition of an excellent little pamphlet in which Dr. Baxter thoroughly exposes the boasted claims to superior scholarship made by the Higher Criticism. Dr. Moffatt’s translation is received by all who wish to be reckoned among the enlightened as a splendid piece of work. Prof. Allis, whose article was referred to in these pages at the time of its appearance, has very drastically exposed its inexcusable blunderings in the Old Testament. Dr. Baxter does not cover such a wide field, as he confines his attention to the first verse of Genesis only, but he has no difficulty in showing that the Hebrew Dr. Moffatt learned from his old teacher, Sir George Adam Smith, was of “a singularly misleading kind.” In these days when those who try to mix the faith, once delivered to the saints, with a strong dose of unbelief and then coolly label it “First Rate Scholarship,” it is refreshing to read such well informed criticism. Let our readers buy this excellent pamphlet and place it in the hands of the young and send copies of it to those benighted so-called scholarly people who are walking in the darkness of the Higher Criticism and who call this darkness light.